*swats them with a newspaper* Bad alicorns.

@SteelBlade17  
Thatd be a yikes if the princesses do that

Now why do I feel that this story’s going to end with the six redeeming the villains but the princesses destroy their statues, unaware of their redemption?

@SSJGPiccles  
Not properly resolving those negative emotions is really bad due to it will just come back if history repeats itself.  
As for Luna, she wouldn’t be developing on her own at all but essentially brainwashed due to the whole purging thing rather than truly reforming out of her free will.  
The actual issues that led NMM to happen weren’t exactly resolved.

@nightshroud96  
Why would you assume the rainbow did that and not the fact that letting those negative emotions overtaker her led to her turning evil and spending a thousand years trapped on the moon?

@SSJGPiccles  
Still pretty much an issue that the actual problems that led NMM to happen weren’t exactly resolved.  
Even if NMM was purged, apparently Luna’s actual issues with being in Celestia’s shadow got purged too.  
As in hitting Luna with the rainbow apparently made her fine about being inferior to Celestia, which is a huge issue honestly.

LETS GOOOOOO!!! The princesses haven’t forgot their villains

@GrimChariot  
I wasn’t arguing about weather they were innocent.
 
I was just stating that it’s unlikley the elements do anything more than eradicate the corrupted magic that causes characters to act out in ways they normally wouldn’t.
 
Therfore Luna is still Luna, just clensed of the influence of Nightmare moon which was created through her own negative emotions corrupting her.
 
Nightmare Moon also probably didn’t just pop into existence right after Luna made that declaration. It was already inside of her and just waiting to spill out and take full control.

@SSJGPiccles  
Unfortunately that doesn’t make them innocent when they continually pick and choose when the rules apply.
 
And considering treason is treason and Luna made her demands before being ‘controlled’ her actions are well in line with what she stated.
 
Feeling bad after the fact isn’t innocence, not when everyone else is hung and buried for the same actions.

@GrimChariot  
Nightmare was her, but that doesn’t neccessarily mean she was in control.
 
You could probably consider it something of a theory, but I think it’s been pretty well established throughout the series that magic when corrupted by negative emotions turns you into something evil and out of control monstorous.
 
Nightmare Moon is stated to be a manifestation of her jelousy and bitterness. It’s shown in the season 3 premiere what happens to magic when hate and fear take hold of it or how Celestia could go through the same transformation as Luna with Daybreaker.
 
Then you get more direct examples in Equestria Girls where Sunset putting on the crown turned her into a she-demon that was willing to kill Twilight on the spot, despite claiming she wasn’t a monster earlier and not being willing to actually hurt Spike for leverage.
 
I think it’s pretty apparent how absorbing all the magic turned Sci-twi into Midnight Sparkle and drastically altered her personality.
 
I don’t think you could really consider it wrong to purge someone of something that’s messing with their head and warping their personality if the Elements would be wrong for doing just that.

@Warrior of Virtue  
Unfortunately it could very well be confusion at the physical changes rather then her realization.
 
That would also need the entity in question being named, but in everything save the comics she references the Nightmare as herself.
 
This one is mostly interpretation due to a lack of supporting information on either side-but it doesn’t, like much of the incidents-paint the Elements of Harmony or their makers in a good light when it comes to proportionate action.

@GrimChariot  
If you go back and watch the scene where we see Luna transform into Nightmare Moon, the look on her face when the transformation begins doesn’t look like one of triumph. It looks like fear and confusion. This suggests that there was an outside force at work and Luna was just a pawn. And if that’s the case, then the elements didn’t brainwash her into being good. She was already brainwashed. The elements freed her from the influence of whatever was controlling her. Now that doesn’t mean that Luna is blameless. It was her jealousy and anger that left her vulnerable to whoever or whatever was using her.

@GrimChariot  
I honestly wished they handled things differently for Luna..

@nightshroud96  
Without taking the comics into consideration-and even to a fair degree with them- Nightmare moon wasn’t fully a separate entity.
 
When the Nightmare was purged, theres two options for how it resolved, neither of which holds well for Luna truly being Luna at the end.
 
The first is the negative emotions being purged-but thats not how emotions, memories or minds work. Doesn’t matter if the hatreds gone, you still know exactly what has happened and just can’t feel anything you should. Effectively a magical lobotomy of a sorts, rewiring the mind to strip the symptom rather then the overall cause.
 
Since, really, with Luna’s track record after her return she’s still eternally overshadowed by a far margin and still seen as both the weaker and lesser of two.
 
While Luna’s in show reaction to not being worshiped is, in a levelheaded sense, egregiously narrow minded due to a god complex the size of Texas she should still feel wronged, annoyed or mildly insulted by those events still instead of purely shame which is all she’s shown since when recounting the past.
 
Not all the wrongs were accidental-and her mindset would realistically show a predisposition caused by that realization we only really see once in a much, much later season.
 
The second, and more in line with the comics actually, is that the Nightmare, as stated, was Luna, and upon being destroyed was broken down-ejecting the parts of Luna Harmony didn’t abide which became the sapient shades that inevitably fused with Rarity-not the only shades, but the ones specifically called and linked to the process of becoming a Nightmare rather then a shade. In show they most likely dissipated or were completely vaporized since they don’t show up anywhere.
 
This means that Luna’s appearance directly after indicates a literal loss of ones self to a degree, in the physical, mental, spiritual and magical sense.
 
Basically a portion of the whole returned, but not all of it and the whole we see later on isn’t the same as the one that was prior.
 
Which is slightly supported due to the animation choice of using the modern Luna model for the Tantibus flashback/cycle instead of the original smaller rig-admittedly this is a nitpick but the amount of screen time both warrants the modern model, why also arguing a small case for using the old model/look for a more consistent pattern.

@GrimChariot  
About that part of Luna being “dismantled and rebuilt”, curious on what makes it look like that?(I have some thoughts but the issues I had with it are still the same. The actual problems that led to NMM happening felt like they weren’t properly resolved. Its Luna got struck with a rainbow and apparently just accepts she’s doomed to be in Celestia’s shadow no matter what in the end)

Oh shit. I really hope Celestia and Luna aren’t thinking what I fear. That would go against all of their morals and principles!

If everyone could please dial back the vitriol it would be very appreciated. I know it’s been months and some of you are REALLY angry about the ending of the show, but if this image offends you that much, or makes you this upset, please filter it and go do something you enjoy.
 
And please don’t tangent to above-rating subjects or alternate universes - if you want to talk about off topic subjects like those, please go to the forums.
 
And, in particular, @GrimChariot - welcome back to the site. Here we still are, months later, and it is still not ok to try to drum up drama on images related to the end of the show, or to say those kinds of things to other users here. Please stop.

@Background Pony #8A28  
Still, Discord’s crimes are nowhere as bad as the ones of Tirek’s, Chrysalis’ and Cozy’s ones. Discord had fun in it’s own ways damaging others, while those three TRIED TO COMMIT A GENOCIDE OF MASS. Besides Discord was more mellow in mentality than those three. I honestly think that for what they’ve done, they had a fair punishment. I don’t really agree with people who wanted them reformed ESPECIALLY NOT CHRYSALIS. And I will tell you more, at least for Chrysalis, I think this punishment wasn’t even enough. If it was for me I would have taken a giant hammer and SLAMMED HER PETRIFIED BODY UNTIL ONLY DUST REMAINED. I fucking hate that moronic bitch almost as much I hate Cinder Fall from RWBY.