Why punishing someone whos already learned their lesson is pointless

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

You don't think maybe realizing that she treated them so badly they wanted to get revenge on them and she went too far was what she learned? and nothing to do with bullying? that scene showed how a bully can go to far, and end up in trouble for doing so

What the fuck? Her lesson was she went too far when she was bullying them in this one instance but nothing about bullying as a whole? What a great lesson, "you went too far with bullying but it's still fine in general"? Seriously, what the fuck?!

[Adorkable 2,737]

i've seen people complaining about how Babs and Rarity weren't punished in One Bad Apple and Sweet and Elite respectively. 

 

Well...wasn't Rarity's actions in Sweet and Elite just revenge from Suited for Success? ^^"

[Whatevs 377]

As for S&E.

As argued by the OP. Rarity did not need to be punished as she saw things had gone to far on her own.

 

But it goes deeper than that.

Why did Rarity do what she did? Well she explicitly states she did what she did to avoid ruining her chances at joining high society.

And she lied to her friends so as to avoid disappointing them (also explicitly stated but much earlier in the episode).

 

So basically what happened was Rarity handled a delicate situation poorly and things got out of hand. There was no intentional wrongdoing in any of it. When Rarity saw things were getting out of hand and that she risked hurting her friends she decided to make things right by doing the moral thing: siding with her friends.

 

The fact that she did not get punished is a crucial part about this. Think about it, the point of the ending is that it is never too late to right a wrong. But to have Rarity punished would have ruined that.

 

Also I would argue demanding that a character be punished for screwing up is a bit immature, especially when we complain that the show should be more mature.

[JayStorm 40]

What the fuck? Her lesson was she went too far when she was bullying them in this one instance but nothing about bullying as a whole? What a great lesson, "you went too far with bullying but it's still fine in general"? Seriously, what the fuck?!

 

I said that when? However, I will concede I worded that awfully, what I meant to say was that the scene showed how extreme bullying can get and how taking revenge doesn't help much

[Whatevs 377]

Well...wasn't Rarity's actions in Sweet and Elite just revenge from Suited for Success? ^^"

no.

Her actions were poor decisions based on fear and good intentions gone awry.

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

I said that when? However, I will concede I worded that awfully, what I meant to say was that the scene showed how extreme bullying can get and how taking revenge doesn't help much

Okay, that's an alright lesson for the CMC; what did Babs learn?

[Adorkable 2,737]

no.

Her actions were poor decisions based on fear and good intentions gone awry.

 

I'll be honest with you here, I totally messed up my episodes. I was actually trying to quickly edit the post I made. ^^"

[Whatevs 377]

I'll be honest with you here, I totally messed up my episodes. I was actually trying to quickly edit the post I made. ^^"

Ah. Not a problem.

But scroll up all the same to see my post on S&E, as there is a lot of misinformation on said episode.

[JayStorm 40]

Okay, that's an alright lesson for the CMC; what did Babs learn?

 

I think Nine explained it best

 

Babs492.png

 

Her lesson was not to hurt others or betray your true self for a misguided sense of personal gain.

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

I think Nine explained it best

Except she didn't learn that. At all. I get that was the point that she was supposed to but the writers failed miserably and gave a shitty-ass lesson to kids.

[JayStorm 40]

Except she didn't learn that. At all. I get that was the point that she was supposed to but the writers failed miserably and gave a shitty-ass lesson to kids.

 

I don't see anything pointing against her learning that lesson, however the writers definitely screwed up with that, they showed the wrong lesson, even worse they only showed the beginning of the lesson

Edited March 18, 2014 by JayStorm

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

I don't see anything pointing against that, however the writers definitely screwed up with that, they showed the wrong lesson, even worse they only showed the beginning of the lesson

Yeah, they screwed up so bad that the main message of the episode is to let people bully you and it never once presents Babs's lesson at all.

[JayStorm 40]

Yeah, they screwed up so bad that the main message of the episode is to let people bully you and it never once presents Babs's lesson at all.

 

Um, no it wasn't, the lesson was to get help when you're being bullied, which wasn't presented very well

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

Um, no it wasn't, the lesson was to get help when you're being bullied, which wasn't presented very well

Except it never showed that working and it did show their revenge working so no.

[JayStorm 40]

Except it never showed that working and it did show their revenge working so no.

 

i.e. the part of it not being represented very well

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

i.e. the part of it not being represented very well

Oh, I read that post wrong. Sorry. I thought you said it was presented well.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Grumpy Enchantress

[JayStorm 40]

Oh, I read that post wrong. Sorry. I thought you said it was presented well.

 Ah, don't worry, simple mistake, back on topic, Yeah the lesson was not portrayed very well but it still pretty much was what she learned, it just wasn't what the writers made her say at the train station, oh and I think we can add standing up to bullies instead of joining them to save yourself which was clearly shown at the end(yes, SUFFER DT SUFFER!!!)

Edited March 18, 2014 by JayStorm

[Nine 707]

 

 

No, it really wasn't, though. She never even realized she did anything wrong.

 

So when she apologized it was for .. nothing .. ?

 

ehnn .. the show's not really about satisfying anybody's want for revenge, either on screen or in the audience. The CMC speak for Babs when they explain that Babs' rationale was to avoid being picked on. Babs doesn't explicitly repeat what they just said immediately afterward, but you know .. TV show? That's the kind of thing you can do in telling a story. Babs doesn't object to that explanation, then apologizes and asks to start over, so that means she "gets it". And the CMC's original goal, and only real wish was to make a new friend and a new CMC, and they got that. But they also learned something about actually trying to solve a conflict, not just escalating it. Then what Babs learned is reinforced and demonstrated at the train station, so I don't really follow your objections. 

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

So when she apologized it was for .. nothing .. ?

 

ehnn .. the show's not really about satisfying anybody's want for revenge, either on screen or in the audience. The CMC speak for Babs when they explain that Babs' rationale was to avoid being picked on. Babs doesn't explicitly repeat what they just said immediately afterward, but you know .. TV show? That's the kind of thing you can do in telling a story. Babs doesn't object to that explanation, then apologizes and asks to start over, so that means she "gets it". And the CMC's original goal, and only real wish was to make a new friend and a new CMC, and they got that. But they also learned something about actually trying to solve a conflict, not just escalating it. Then what Babs learned is reinforced and demonstrated at the train station, so I don't really follow your objections.

No, you're making way too much stuff up. Babs learned nothing and was rewarded for bullying others.

[Nine 707]

No, you're making way too much stuff up. Babs learned nothing and was rewarded for bullying others.

 

We're talking about the same show right?

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

We're talking about the same show right?

Eeeyup. The episode proved what an awful writer Meghan McCarthy is and how she doesn't know how to do morals at all.

[Nine 707]

Eeeyup. The episode proved what an awful writer Meghan McCarthy is and how she doesn't know how to do morals at all.

 

I disagree with you but I'm pretty sure you're not Chrysalis.

[Scootalove 10,689]

The thing is, just because you learned the lesson does not mean that you are not going to do the exact same thing again. Punishing them when they learned the lesson isn't pointless, it prevents them from making the same mistake again.

[SBaby 660]

The fact of the matter is, this is MLP, not Justice League.  They don't need to be hated by the rest of the cast for half a season because they made a mistake.  If that happened every time a character learned a lesson, the show would never go anywhere, because nobody would trust one another.

[Grumpy Enchantress 587]

I disagree with you but I'm pretty sure you're not Chrysalis.

No, I'm not Chrysalis, I'm Discord.