It makes sense its just wacky

the hell do wild cherry poptarts have to do with anything?

This took me for a loop, all I could see was How Starlight Got Off Easier Than Cozy Glow, figured it was a legit opinion, only to read about sex slaves and foalcon references.
 
It hit me like a freight train.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, I just tried to slaughter everybody!”
 
Sorry Cozy, we’d love to reform you, but we’re out of freakin episodes, so, um, sucks to be you!
 
“Oh… shit…”

@kinkytoffee  
I’m not sure that counts as the reformation process…I think Cozy doesn’t have a friendship problem (in a general sense).  
She has anger issues, power issues, and a control problem interestingly she doesn’t need what the show is about  
She needs friends or acquaintances who aren’t going to just put up with her act or fall for it (like Chrysalis and Tirek) but also people who aren’t…you know evil

Cozy /did/ have friendship lessons though. She went to the School of friendship and excelled so much she became a student assistant to /Twilight/
 
She had direct access to the perfect friendship lessons, and was around it for quite a while…and then she still turned evil. That’s why what happened had to happened. She Went through what would most likely be the reformation process, and came out evil. There’s no saving that.

@Background Pony #ACE0
 
Not every villain needs a backstory. But I think it usually helps, and likely would in this case.
 
Let’s look at some villains in the show. Nightmare Moon. A malevolent form of Princess Luna born out of jealousy for her sister. Discord. Lord of Chaos and Disorder. Sealed in stone for over 1000 years by Celestia and Luna for trying to plunge the world into chaos. Chrysalis. Queen of the Changelings. Beings who feed off the love of others like vampires. They changed and she didn’t. Sombra. Former King of the Crystal Empire. Ruled as a tyrant but sealed away by the Crystal Heart. Still feared for many years. Returns. Is defeated, released, and defeated for good. Lord Tirek. Centaur capable of absorbing magic power from others to make himself stronger. His brother, Scorpan, refused to join him in his pursuit for power. Tirek is then imprisoned in Tartarus, released, and imprisoned again after another failed attempt. Starlight Glimmer. A unicorn who felt abandoned by her friend as a child. Started a town where everyone was equal (except her) so no one would feel superior to each other and thus not feel that same pain. Shown the error of her ways by Twilight Sparkle and company. The Pony of Shadows. Once the strategist of a group of heroes that included Starswirl the Bearded, among others, he became jealous when their feats were recognized and he was ignored. He was sealed away by the pillars, who did not know his identity. He was then revived accidentally and redeemed upon discovering his true identity of their friend Stygian and explaining things. Cozy Glow. Pegasus filly. Attends Twilight’s school and attempts to use friendship magic to take over Equestria. Defeated and thrown in Tartarus prison. Meets Tirek there. Is freed by Grogar/Discord, along with Sombra/Chrysalis/Tirek. Comes back, joins forces with the latter two, and is defeated and turned to stone with them.
 
See how the backstories are integral to their being villains? But in Cozy Glow’s case, we don’t know who she is or where she came from. Some will see her as a refreshing change of pace from the other villains, who were royalty, powerful beings, corrupted heroes, or almost demigods. Other minor villains are either bullies, opportunistic adults, mythical beasts (Windigoes), etc. I don’t have a problem with Cozy Glow being an ordinary pegasus (see: Starlight). But the lack of any info about her life hurts her. Who are her parents? Where are they? What were her prior experiences? We just don’t know.

They hated Jesus because he told them the truth.

@Background Pony #ACE0  
Is she a psychopath? Again, unless they address it in the comic or the other upcoming MLP stuff, we’ll only have our own personal conjecture. I don’t just presume she was a completely incurable psychopath. And even if she was a clinical psychopath, some of those can still be at least somewhat functioning members of society.
 
I think tossing her into Tartarus was BS. I think what Discord did was even bigger BS. What I want to see in future canon stuff is her given a real, actual chance at redemption. Even if that means spending maybe years locked in an asylum with meds and therapy.

@jpony  
Not all villains need a backstory. Psychopathy is something you’re born with…  
@StubobNumbers  
…and it’s incurable.

@CaptainGrumpy  
I don’t see anyone saying Cozy Glow shouldn’t be punished. I think she should be sent to an MLP equivalent of a home for damaged foals, or maybe MLP juvenile hall. I don’t believe a child should be sealed in stone for possibly forever.
 
Ok, let’s use an example from a different work. In both John Carpenter’s original “Halloween” (and Rob Zombie’s shitty remake) Michael Myers does kill at least one person as a child. What do the authorities do? They send him to an asylum and he gets a doctor to (at least presumably) try and treat him. Something similar should have been done with Cozy Glow. Could she have been redeemed? We may never know, unless it’s in the comics, the next movie OR G5. What we do know is the Princesses didn’t even try. Nor did Discord.

@Moonblaze  
Thanks for your response. This is an interesting interpretation. Everything felt so sudden in that moment that Cozy was imprisoned (originally). I guess that it makes sense based on that reasoning. A sense of deja vu happened again wih this finale. Obviously they had to do something fairly quickly. I’m just surprised this show had a darker ending for its villains than Steven Universe, a darker and more mature show overall, going by rating or otherwise.
 
@greaterlimits  
Some fair points, but the last line wasn’t necessary. I know Cozy’s got issues. But I do kind of wish we knew more about her backstory so we could find out more about her. As you mentioned, she is, ostensibly, fairly young. I do tend to wonder what drives this kind of character to such lengths at such a young age. So I suppose you are also right; I feel a bit of sympathy. But again, there is something clearly… not right with Cozy Glow. She cannot be totally exonerated for her words and actions. Maybe the comics will provide some closure.
 
I don’t want to appear fanatical about this, so I will try to not to make any further arguments on this topic. Of course, I will do my best to respond to any further replies to me in particular.
 
||For the record, I enjoyed the last episode for the most part. I didn’t have a problem with any of the decisions made about the mane 6’s relationships, or the theme of the episode. But I thought Twilight’s student conceded too easily. But Friendship is Magic. Literally, in Equestria. So, I get it. ||

@CottonTales  
Well said.

@greaterlimits  
The best alternative is imprisonment with reformation included, what the justice system IRL fails to do a lot of the time.  
Turning someone to stone does not help them its just a pause button because you can’t be bothered to try
 
Lets be honest with Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy all of them…imprisonment isn’t that hard Tirek is the most difficult and Chrysalis introduced a way to contain him in the finale itself…the stones that could completely depower them

@jpony  
What alternative would you suggest? Cozy Glow actually did exactly the thing you suggest in the show, she faked being remorseful in the CMC episode. She obviously wasn’t. Did Starlight ever do that?
 
Giving people no chances because you’re paranoid they will all turn evil again isn’t any good, and while in the real world a huge portion of prisoners commit crimes again when they’re released should we just lock people away forever?
 
You can’t know what is in someones head, its entirely possible that Twilight Sparkle is the most evil pony in Equestria and her endgame was to rule it all by faking being the friendliest pony ever. Its extremely unlikely but without a way to directly scan her thoughts how could you know?
 
Your argument is like, if we can’t know they’ll be reformed why even bother? Well if they had done that Discord and Starlight would still be evil.
 
As much as people want to paint the picture otherwise Cozy Glow is a sociopath. Much much worse than Starlight ever was and if you don’t see it you really haven’t been paying attention to her.
 
Maybe you’re all like d’awww shes so cute and innocent, and a child… you’re all fooled by her.

I clicked this image to argue it. Then I saw the actual comments and I feel a lot better already. Thanks to @LaszlVFX in particular.
 
@jpony You make some good points. In the real world. But in the realm of fiction we can know exactly what a character is feeling because the author tells us directly. How many chances does Starlight get? One, because she was on the verge of winning (she only need to pull a little bit harder and that’s it) but she accepted she was wrong and repented. How many chances does Cozy Glow get? Also one, because when she was asked why she did what she did, she showed no remorse at all. She was punished not because she deserved it for what she did, but because others needed to be protected from her. Which is why she gets the punishment she gets at the end of the finale as well.
 
Equestrian justice isn’t retributive like our justice in the real world is. It’s not, you did this act you get this punishment. Equestrian justice is about A) are you a threat to others and B) can we help you somehow? For Starlight the answers were no and yes, in that order. For Cozy, it was yes and maybe. So they got the justice handed down to them appropriate to that. And while in the real world we can’t be so simple, there’s nothing wrong with a piece of fiction being clear about it’s message.

@Ebalosus
 
I just love that old image, now that ||it became apparent that Chrysalis quite possibly qualifies as a Complete Monster. ||

Psychopathic children are in fact tried as adults in the real world. And psychopathy is incurable. The best you could do is try to get her to be psychopathic in a way that helps rather than harms those around her, and she made it abundantly clear she’s not into that.

lol

@LaszlVFX  
Mistakes were made, but complaining changes nothing.

I guess the real questions are: how many chances does one get, and how many chances does one give. You can give someone zero chances, or a billion. If the severity doesn’t matter, what’s the difference? I don’t dislike Starlight nor do I particularly like Cozy either, it’s just that I see some kind of double standard here. Some people show remorse but are faking to get out of punishment. Some people don’t show remorse because they can’t express it in that moment or they just don’t feel like it. Life is random, mainly luck. Justice is basically convoluted bullshit. Some people believe more strongly that punishment on its own solves something. Some people “lean” this way, while others believe punishment on its own solves nothing. Personal biases influence decisions subtly all the time. No ones’ minds are going to be changed. The mind is a complicated thing. That about sums it up. I blame myself for knowing (vaguely) what happens, though it is hard for me to avoid spoilers these days. On that note, I will get out of here for now and try to enjoy the finale.

@Background Pony #587D
 
That’s just it:
 
>show redeems villains
 
“OMG why do they have to ruin all the villains! Not everyone needs to be redeemed!”
 
>show lets villains stand
 
“OMG why are they so harsh towards villains?! Whatever happened to the Magic of Friendship? Redeem Chrissy! Redeem Cozy Glow!”
 
This isn’t exactly new, mind you:
 

yeah fuck your shit, she deserved hell.  
9 seasons of magical friendship and one lesson about sending someone to hell.  
one time they didn’t saved the bad guy and show is ruined right…

Sigh Do I really have to re-post my comment from: