@TheRocketMan
I’d like to emphasize again that one of them was a literal child and one actually showed some slight sign that he could be turned around with enough effort. They also could’ve simply been thrown back into Tartarus, which they wouldn’t have escaped from if not for Discord actively freeing them.
@Latecomer
We saw in the epilogue that they never are released. They’re either for all intents and purposes dead, or aware of their surroundings and driven insane while their corpses are put up for display for all to see.
Also, for those of you saying that the villains were beyond redemption: No one seemed to bat an eyelash at the Student 6 reenacting 9/11 on the school of friendship and endangering ponies with the falling remnants of the tower that they obliterated.
No, the take-away of that situation, at least on this website, was that the Chancellor was a big mean racist for being upset.
@AC97
Discord never said why he doesn’t turn ponies into stone. He just said he doesn’t. Therefor, the most reasonable assumption is that he finds it reprehensible. You’re stretching things super thin to suit your narrative.
OP’s post is nothing but headcanon, and actually openly misreads the show at several points (such as Discord being okay with being turned to stone, as was just discussed.) WHile petrification has been called “stone sleep” once, we also have a thousand nicknames for death that have to do with equating it to sleep. “The big sleep” comes to mind. “Dirt nap” is another.
Either way, you have to make a choice: Are they conscious, or are they just experiencing (or, rather, not experiencing) oblivion? If this is the case, keeping them in that state indefinitely (which they show in the final episode) is the closest thing to death you can get. If they are conscious of the world around them, they will lose themselves to their own minds as the last thing placed in front of them is burned into their psyche by unmoving pupils.
Both are shitty, as is any attempt to try and say that the princesses aren’t shitty people for doing what they did: Allowing the guy responsible for all of this to dictate their punishment, and allowing him to take part in their public execution in front of a cheering crowd while getting off scot-free.
Discord only doesn’t turn ponies into stone because a statue is less fun than them not being so. It was never about morals on his part, especially because he personally was the atypical case of being conscious.
Where’s your evidence for petrification equaling death? Twilight is alive, Mudbriar is alive, Tempest is alive (same for the princesses).
“Stone sleep” is something that is reversible, and the burden of proof is actually on you to explain why it’s irrevocably equivalent to death.
1: You are incorrect. All three of the characters taking part in the firing squad were smiling while performing the act. Celestia was the only one who wasn’t, after she already committed it.
2: The only one on a high horse here is you.
3: Saying that petrification isn’t death is your headcanon. They have always treated it as such in the show, with even Discord expressing his distaste at the immorality of it.
The only one who had a grin while firing that spell is Discord, and said child was Cozy Glow, who’d attempted and threatened murder in cold blood multiple times by that point and was completely unrepentant.
Get off of that high horse, because it seems to be coming in short.
There was nothing sympathetic about any of them. They outright refused any chance of turning good, held no quarrels in backstabbing people, and committed mountains of severe crimes with no sign of remorse.
@daniboyi95
Public executions are largely seen as barbaric and unpalatable in the first world and have been for a long time. This is more than capital punishment - this is capital entertainment for the sick and twisted. Especially seeing as how all these threats were contained, and Discord not only released them, but gave them every tool they required and encouraged this behavior.
