Babs was pretty irritating all the time. I agree she was extremely sensitive about the lack of her cutie mark and the CMC's efforts were a little too enthusiastic... but why she chose to be mean to them for that, I really don't know. Then again, my MO is more or less the complete opposite.

Barn-raising obsession from last week + Applebloom's need of a cutie mark = Barn-raising cutie mark.

@Patty: Uh, I don't think that's at all what the episode was trying to say. The entire point of the episode was "If you become a bully as the result of her bullying, you're just making the problem worse". It wasn't an excuse, just an explanation for her behavior, which she ended up admitting was bad. If anything, the moral was "don't get caught up in a cycle of abuse because in the end it's worse for everyone". I do agree that it would have been stronger if she had been punished somehow, but given that her only victims (the CMC) seemed to have forgiven her, it's not that tremendous of an issue as it might have been otherwise. The episode never treated her actions as justified.

edited 24th Nov '12 12:55:24 PM by JapaneseTeeth

That is not fast. Fast is an image board anon using the /kaki/ board to hammer out instant r34 before the episode even finishes airing.

@Sinclair: Cycle of Abuse, definitely Truth in Television.

edited 24th Nov '12 12:55:54 PM by AceOfScarabs

• You man DT
• Welcome Brother sharkbait
• umm I can't place the reference

edited 24th Nov '12 12:56:15 PM by HeroShepherd

@Blue: Technically we had that kind of art before this all started (and a crossover to boot).

I thought the show made it quite clear that she thought about what she was doing, both at the beginning when she decided to join the other bullies, and again at the clubhouse when they did their little secret handshake thing. Given her backstory, it's pretty reasonable to think that she simply told herself that she would never let herself be bullied like she had been back home again, and took the easiest step to assuring that.

The whole "become a bully/abusing because you've been bullied/abused" thing is quite common in reality.

It stems from simple psychology. When you're being bullied, you feel powerless, and those who are doing the bullying seem powerful and in control. So you do the same thing as a method of seeking power so that you no longer feel out of control. Then people tend to get a bit addicted to it. I've seen it happen plenty of times.

How soon do you think we'll get CMC A-Team parodies?

Now that there's 4 Crusaders, they fit quite nicely as the A-Team.

edited 24th Nov '12 12:58:09 PM by PurpleDalek

This, basically. Babs acted the way she did because she was sick of being a victim (which must have been pretty bad, given that she actually left town to get away from it), and jumped at the first opportunity to escape it. It doesn't justify her actions, of course, but if you try to get inside her head a little you can see why she might have acted that way, even if she knew it was mean.

edited 24th Nov '12 12:59:01 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Fluttershy can just go to Hell. XP

Fluttershy would just stare him down and make him explode right there. Problem solved.

She'd tell him to stop being a big dumb meanie.

edited 24th Nov '12 1:01:03 PM by PurpleDalek

When someone gets in you're way make them pay.

Mother Fluttershy will be like "Calm down!" and Sombra would be like "Buck you!" and kick her in the face with his SHADOW LEG!

Yeah, it's kinda hard to feel shame when you're unrepentantly evil.

I always feel bad for characters who are clearly shown to make a bad decision in an instant, with no time to really think about it, based on their emotional trauma. Babs did that little thing where she was clearly torn between sticking with the CMC and getting bullied or joining DT/SS, and she was clearly torn over the choice... for a moment. She had no time to think about.

These kind of characters tend to get an enormous amount of hate, with people rarely giving thought to the fact that, if not for pretty much the flip of a coin, their actions would have played out completely differently.

I'm not saying that a bad decision is excused just because it was a split second choice, but I do think that characters whose villainy stems from such a choice should always be given a second chance. Only those who consistently choose premeditated malice ought to be considered true villains.

No of course I'm not actually talking about a certain Knight of the Kingsguard instead of Babs, that's a ridiculous idea.

Critic

@D Roy: I really liked that scene, how Shiny took the time to grab Spike (the most vulnerable person there) for protection. Shows he takes his duties seriously.

Welp, updated my liveblog on chapters 29-31 of Fallout Equestria, and now to finish ''An Earth Pony's Guide to Magic!"

@Bluespade, Teeth and Lurker

...It's not what the episode was trying to say but what it ended up saying anyway. The use of a Freudian Excuse was too heavily handled to be taken seriously, and the delivery of the message was such that it's actually insulting. I understand that it's just a kid's show, but for something like bullying the writing has to be absolutely spot-on to tackle the problem in a suitable way.

Her background, which is not an excuse, was portrayed as such in the show. When the CM Cs find out she was bullied: "oh no, even though she's been a complete bitch to us, let's stop our revenge plan!" which on its own is fine, but it's the fact that they go out of their way to try and resolve the situation. If the CM Cs had realised sooner that she was a victim of bullying and thus have disabled the booby traps before Babs went on board, would she have shown remorse? I doubt it.

I just think Babs was a complete karma houdini.

I also know exactly what kind of background Babs was coming from, but again I cannot fathom the idea that somehow this means you'll use all the hate that has been directed at you to people who have never shown nothing but kindness to you. With no comeuppance. On a kid's show.

edited 24th Nov '12 1:09:21 PM by Patty

Sweetie seems to have forgiven Babs for making her cry too :3

Cutie Mark crusaders bully reformers yay.

Called it!

Am I the only one who found the hacking amusing?