Some fuss has been made about the show's habit of reforming villains and antagonists. What do you think of it? Personally, I think they do it too much. I think it'd be more realistic if they tried to reform a villain or antagonist, only to fail, with the lesson that some people will never change.
I thought about that when Glimmer was reformed so quickly. Sunset was a movie okay I get using the quick turn around once, but to do it again in an episode?
I wouldn't say they do it too often, especially when you consider the main theme of the show is friendship. Nightmare Moon - Corrupted by jealousy - REFORMED Gilda - Poor upbringing - REFORMED Trixie - Vanity/Corrupted by magic - REFORMED Diamond Tiara - Poor upbringing - REFORMED Diamond Dogs - Greed/Ponynapping - NOT REFORMED Discord - Lord of Chaos - REFORMED Flim and Flam - Con artists - NOT REFORMED Ahuizotl - Just sorta evil - NOT REFORMED Queen Chrysalis - Evil Queen - NOT REFORMED King Sombra - Evil King - NOT REFORMED Lightning Dust - Reckless showboat - NOT REFORMED Sunset Shimmer - Alpha B*tch - REFORMED Mane-iac - Psychopath - NOT REFORMED* Suri Polomare - Lying b*tch - NOT REFORMED Lord Tirek - Dark Lord - NOT REFORMED The Dazzlings - Evil Sirens - NOT REFORMED Starlight Glimmer - Manipulator - REFORMED Principal Abacus Cinch - Manipulator - NOT REFORMED *Not sure if the Mane-iac counts, as she was technically just part of an enchantment.
I think it pretty much focuses on most of the main villains when they're reformed. Starlight Glimmer's reformation was a bit rushed, I was expecting her to continue on being evil.
I'm with Rid on this. Giving up on someone or just flat out punishing them without trying to reach out and help the seems like taking the easy way out. That goes against the entire ethos of a show centered around the magic of friendship.
And I can totally see why that's frustrating. However, kids are supposed to be able to learn simple but, nonetheless, powerful lessons from MLP. Sometimes punishment isn't the answer. Sometimes the offender is already punishing themselves mentally for their mistake. And sometimes a little compassion lets them know that even though what they did was wrong, they CAN use the knowledge from the experience to become a better person... or pony.
Oh! No! I totally get that. I just think there's a lot of near misses with some of these characters. Like, Sunset Shimmer struggling with being the bad girl of the school was a really strong idea. It's just that Rainbow Rocks had so many elements up in the air at one time, I always got the feeling some extra development or bigger aspect of temptation to go back to using power for her own gains was either forgotten about or left on the cutting room floor. Discord trying to mend his ways is not a bad idea either, especially as a spiritual successor to Q from Star Trek. Just, why not follow through on that? A lot of the time, Q would do what he did to prove a point about humanity that Picard or whoever would have to counteract by being the super-duper future people they were. Discord could try something more along the same lines, under the guise of acting like a teacher for Twilight. Telling her that she's training her up in the world of friendship but is mainly just pratting around with her head for laughs and giggles. It's something he can claim is helpful, and arguably would be for matters of research and such, but is ultimately Discord blowing off evil steam. That way we get a little bit of menace and duplicity back into his character in a way that allows for a bigger story. I guess the issue is that the change is so completely 180 sometimes. Like, do they not have any of the anti-social quirks that made them want to do evil at all?!
I've noticed and the creators have even said that they don't put anything into the show if it doesn't serve the story. They can only write something they've figured out so I'm thinking that for someone like Discord, who is such a popular character, any back story on him would have to be done a certain way and would have to serve the main plot in some way. I don't think it's something they've completely ruled out but stuff like that is pretty touchy subject matter. And I hate having to come back to this but the fact is the show has to keep the merchandise moving. Bronies aren't really the writers' top priority so it stands to reason why there is considerably less merch of characters who are more popular with us than with the true target audience. I think that's also why the development of these characters kinda gets pushed aside. It sucks but what can you do, you know?
The fact that this has happened TWICE now for practically NO REASON AT ALL/nonsense reasons... Is quite... disconcerting. I've already talked about Discord so I won't do that again. As for Glimmer... I've kind of already talked about that too that apparently everyone disagrees with. But I feel as if they have a tendency to do this way too quickly making those of us who like them as villains (me) feel shafted and then they just expect us to like them now and just pretend like they did nothing wrong. Um... NO. Sorry but that's just how I feel about it and that's probably not going to change. Ever.
Going to post this here instead of the S5 Finale Episode thread. Oh Goodie. I get to post here again. Some of it has spoilers though (mostly MLP Comic Spoilers) so I'll treat them as all other spoilers Spoiler Okay... so... 'Siege of the Crystal Empire' MLP Comic arc. For those that read the comic, READ THIS. For those that don't read the comic, READ THIS. You won't regret it. Probably the BEST arc in the comics so far. Opinions on the comic aside... onto substance... How it ended... THAT'S how you do a reformation/redemption. NOT how it was done for dictatorship jerk Glimmer. The End. LostSanity
