Should Gilda have Retained a Small Portion of her Hostile Persona?

[BrawnyCharger 513]

We've seen a lot of reformed villains/antagonists in this series. Some I agree with more than others. But the one that I am not the most supportive of is that of Gilda the Griffon.

 

Now from what I have been led to believe, a number of fans wanted Gilda to be reformed, and got their wish in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone". However I on the other hand feel as though Gilda was better off as an antagonist/bully/whatever. So you can probably guess that I don't exactly support this reformation. But I am willing to compromise. Maybe they could have gone through with having Gilda rescue Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, but instead of doing the 180 and being all nice with them. I would have had Gilda come to some form of reconciliation with Rainbow Dash yet still retaining a fraction her cold, gruff persona. Like if Pinkie Pie tried to hug her, Gilda would shove her off and tell her: "GET YOUR HOOVES OFF OF ME!!" or something along those lines. Yet Gilda would still shake wing/hoof with Rainbow Dash relatively slowly before making friends with one of the other griffons. Thus Pinkie and Rainbow Dash's mission would still be complete. 

 

What I'm saying is that Gilda would still be reformed, but she would still manage to keep a small percentage of her antagonistic traits. That way she'd still be somewhat more believable. MLP has done it this way before. Case in point: Discord. Discord may have been reformed, but he still commits various acts of mischief and chaos against the ponies, even after being reformed. 

 

What do you think? Should Gilda have kept just a portion of her mean personality traits, even after being reformed?

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

It's basically impossible to tell if she has or not since we've only seen like a minute of reformed Gilda so I really can't answer this question.

[El Duderino 879]

I actually think the reformed personality is really appropriate for the character. Let me tell you why.

They show that she really is caring, but she feels that showing any sign of that is weak and lame. The way I see it is she doesn't actually have that ruff/"too cool for you" personality at all, but she only acts that way because she feels showing her true soft personality is lame and she fears that she will be made fun of or outcast. They back this up even more in the show when they show that Griffin culture doesn't seem very accepting of personalities they deem too soft. She clearly grew up in a culture where showing kindness resulting in being outcast was a very real fear. Once she learned that her kind personality isn't something to be ashamed of and actually does good for others, she learned to accept that. 

 

She is one of my favorite non-pony characters because she represents a very real life struggle where people have trouble being themselves because of the fear of what society would think of them. The chains of society hold you back and ultimately lead to depression and doubt. She probably was miserable deep down because she knows that she is denying her real feelings, but she is fearful of the backlash if she accepts them. It leads to an infinite struggle of self doubt and fear, and when you finally break free you feel like you've reached enlightenment. I can relate to that from my own life.

 

It would make sense that she would sometimes still revert back to her old habits, especially because she is really stubborn, but I think if she truly accepted herself, she wouldn't very often.

[cmarston1 5,959]

Not really.

I am perfectly fine with how Gila's redemption was handled.

It is one of the very few ones to have been handled competently.