@Background Pony #951D
but in order to be reformed, the villain has to be willing to reform at least on some level. discord didnt know friendship, and when he experienced it via fluttershy, he was willing to give it a try. he was also not part of pony society, and wasnt raised in their cultural norms. dragons and changelings were also not taught the same values, which is why they can not be held to the same standards as ponies, smolder once said, that she used to burn down villages or something, and shes one of the GOOD dragons.
but in order to be reformed, the villain has to be willing to reform at least on some level. discord didnt know friendship, and when he experienced it via fluttershy, he was willing to give it a try. he was also not part of pony society, and wasnt raised in their cultural norms. dragons and changelings were also not taught the same values, which is why they can not be held to the same standards as ponies, smolder once said, that she used to burn down villages or something, and shes one of the GOOD dragons.
starlight thought she was doing the right thing, by helping ponies avoid the same type of pain she felt, and was willing to turn herself in and accept responsibility for her actions, once she realized that there was a better way.
Tirek had the same chance of redemption as scorpan, but was too stubborn and doubled down on their plan, instead of following his brother. scorpan basically only exists to show, that there was a different ending possible for tirek.
chrysalis had a viable excuse, of changelings needing to feed on other creatures to not die, which is why she could have been pardoned along the rest of her race. but she was too butthurt to accept the good ending. she was the ONLY changeling to not get redeemed, simply because she picked the bad ending out of spite.
cozy spent an entire semester learning about friendship, so she should have known better, but chose to use the knowledge for manipulation instead. twilight even tried to explain to her, what she did wrong, like she did with starlight but cozy went just “friendship? blah, blah, i might have failed this time, but i will just try again” followed by her trying to run away. No remorse, no willingness to change, despite having a headstart in of friendship, by being a pony, and having had the opportunity to learn about all the other villains mistakes
in most legal systems crimes have ranges to their punishment. different factors affect on which end of the range the final verdict falls. crimes commited impulsively are seen as less severe than premeditated ones. showing remorse also typically leads to a lesser sentence. being a child typically leads to a lesser sentence, but only becaus children are usually not as aware of the consequences of their actions, so unless there is definite proof to the contrary, its assumed that they acted simply out of impulse. but cozy premetitated everything. if starlight had surprised her in her lair, and cozy in a panic pushed her into the circle, that might have been seen as on impulse, and unplanned, but cozy lured her down there, to get rid of her, just to get a slightly higher position in the school, which makes this basically the cartoon version of a premeditated murder attempt. IRL children get sentenced as adults for stuff like this as well.
the legion of doom all chose the bad ending option, while all of them have at least one counterpart with nearly the exact same background to show that a good ending was possible for them. Tirek/Scorpan, Chrysalis/all other changelings, Cozy/Starlight
