Everyone has a different take on justice. · 3:02am Mar 27th, 2018
Again, I'm happy to say that Scars of the Quill is getting so much positive attention. Seriously, the most recent chapter got more views within a few days than the one previous to it had the entire week beforehand. Methinks that many people were very happy to see Spoiled Rich get a little bit of comeuppance.
That being said, I've had a reader elsewhere who's been making a case for a lot more comeuppance for other characters. Specifically, Filthy Rich for turning a blind eye to his wife's activities (particularly her emotional abuse of Diamond Tiara), Cheerilee for similar reasons, and Mayor Mare for allowing her to be on the Ponyville School Board to begin with. I think that's a little extreme, but given I'm feeling curious, what are your thoughts on the matter dear readers? Just how many guilty parties are there in all of this?
Spoiled
bitchrich for sure holds most of the blame.DT holds a little bit. Cause she never told anyone what her mother was like.
Filthy rich also holds some of the blame due to being unobservant.
Randolph my man! get a job somewhere else.
Oof. This is a weighty topic to consider. Let me try to share thoughts on the issue of who bears the most guilt in this incident, and who deserves to face justice.
Spoiled Rich holds the majority of the blame in this scenario. She had the most access to Diamond, worked at inculcating her values in the child, and worked at manipulating the child if she failed in her expectations. In addition to that, she was the one who had the idea of bribing her way into a position of authority; you can find certain fault in Mayor Mare for taking the donation, but I hold that the intent of the donation is the more important matter from an ethical perspective. Spoiled donated the money for a self-centered reason, after all.
Filthy's culpability is a bit of a gray area. He should have seen warning signs, but he didn't. The biggest thing to consider in his case, is whether this ignorance of his wife's abuse was out of truly not recognizing the damage being inflicted (in which case I'd argue that he deserves less comeuppance) or if he was willfully ignoring it for one reason or another (in which case, I would argue for some degree of justice, as that would make him an accessory).
Cheerilee? My own view is kind of this: if she had tried to expose Spoiled or come forward, I'm sure that Spoiled would have her hired and replaced with someone of her own choosing. And considering how vindictive the mare has proven in the story, I'm sure she probably would have made it damn near impossible for Cheerilee to find work again... Honestly, I think that she was in the worst kind of situation: one where you're aware of the wrongness of it all, but essentially powerless to do anything meaningful about it. (And to anyone who says she could have gone to an authority figure, well, the mayor had taken a donation from Spoiled and may have been more sympathetic to her contributor; Ponyville doesn't really seem to have a town guard; and Twilight only very recently became royalty.)
Mayor Mare has made no appearance in the story that I can recall, so I feel reluctant to judge her in any capacity. You may say that she enabled Spoiled by taking her money, but honestly? I still hold that the majority of the blame falls on Spoiled. Intent is a very important consideration in these cases, and Spoiled's intent was to seek power and favor, regardless of what she had to do to get it. That's pretty damning in my opinion.
Okay, here's my take.
I think we can all agree that Spoiled should be assigned the vast majority of the blame, as she's the actual offender. Nothing more needs to be said here.
As far as Filthy goes, I'd give him a pass, actually. With him working so hard for so long, it's easy to imagine him coming home each day exhausted enough to have his attention to the details that would have served as warning signs severely impaired. Factor in that the ponies that could have told him about it either weren't talking (Cheerilee, his staff) or lying to him (Spoiled, Diamond), and I could see him being legitimately unaware of what was going on. However, this applies only if he was truly in the dark. If he did notice some of the warning signs and still did nothing, that's another story, as that would make him an accessory, as Scholarly-Cimmerian said.
For Cheerilee, it comes down to one question - did she ever have the opportunity to speak with Filthy directly? If not, then there's nothing she could have done, even if she did realize what was going on between Diamond and Spoiled. As Cimmerian said, there wasn't anyone else she could have turned to. If she did, then she definitely should have said something.
As for Mayor Mare - why is she being accused at all? What, just because Spoiled's on the school board means Mare knows everything that goes on in the Rich household? This accusation is a joke*. The mayor is innocent.
Now, however, I'm going to have to point the finger in some uncomfortable directions. First is towards Diamond Tiara. Now, I'm not into victim blaming, and as I said above, the blame for Spoiled abusing her is ultimately on Spoiled's shoulders, but the fact remains that she did bully the Crusaders, she did lie to her father about what was going on, and she did keep silent to her father about what her mother was doing to her. Of course, she is just a child, and she did just have her Heel Realization in regards to the bullying, so the worst she should get is a "why didn't you tell me?" talk from Filthy.
There's one other party that needs to be spoken of (one that probably wouldn't have thought about had this blog not been opened). For the majority of the Rich household's staff, I'm not going to blame them for being silent. They deal with Spoiled, not Filthy, most of the time, so they have good reason to fear, and even if they did speak up, who would Filthy believe, a hired servant or his own wife? For Randolph, however, it's a different story. Filthy outright refers to him as "old friend". If they really were friends, then he should have trusted Filthy to at least take his claims seriously enough to take a closer look at what was going on, and to at least try to shield him from Spoiled's wrath. Personally, were I in Filthy's shoes, I'd feel betrayed that someone I considered a friend knew my only child was being abused and didn't tell me.
*And yes, I know you aren't the one that's making it. I'm not trying to shoot the messenger here.
4826592
Well said!
I actually did think about Diamond herself in my own comment, but I chose not to say anything, as I decided that, for her own actions, she still was a child, and really deserved more of a talking-to than anything else.
Well, I'm glad that everyone agrees that Spoiled Rich is definitely a guilty party here. As for everyone else...
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My intent was to always portray Filthy Rich as being a genuinely loving father, albeit one who was ignorant of his wife's less than savory actions and motives. Whatever warning signs were there were missed due to a combination of Spoiled being very good at hiding them and no one else speaking out for fear of reprisal. Now, however, he's fully aware of them, and he's going to have to deal with the consequences from here out.
And my intent with Cheerilee was always that she was afraid to speak out, due to being under Spoiled Rich's proverbial thumb. She knew there was a problem (or at least strongly suspected it), but actually doing something about it without direct evidence was the issue. If she expressed any concerns to Mayor Mare, or to another authority figure, then Spoiled would simply deny them, and then later find an excuse to get Cheerilee fired (as she was already hinting at being able to do in-story). And while she's had a few occasions to speak with Filthy Rich, doing so regarding Spoiled's actions or Diamond's bullying would have been fifty-fifty at best. Filthy Rich, in my mind at least, isn't the sort to take action without proof, and would have the sense to get his facts straight before he did anything.
And yeah, I thought that Mayor Mare was most blameless in all of this as well. She had no knowledge of what was going on, and no conceivable means of knowing that was within her power - after all, the closest thing Equestria has to wire-tapping (itself a very slippery slope) as we know it would be Princess Luna's dream-walking abilities. Even ignoring all of the unfortunate implications related to them, I don't know if Luna would be obligated to inform the Mayor of anything of that nature.
As for Diamond, yeah, all of her actions over the course of bullying the Crusaders are squarely on her shoulders, and I never doubted that for a second. But she's had to confront that, and she's admitted that what she did was wrong. A stern talk from her father is definitely on the horizon, and now that it's been discussed, Randolph can probably expect a few words with Filthy Rich as well. Hopefully, that'll be seen in-story soon, barring delays due to real life.