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@Background Pony #9742
 
Thank you. I’m glad my ideas have been embraced n.n

@TheAbridgenator  
Oh she’s very much a part of it ;)

@Background Pony #9742  
Justice isn’t always going to be pretty, clean, or neat.

@TheAbridgenator  
Getting nowhere indeed, as you seem to have an extremely skewed sense of justice. o_o

@Background Pony #9742  
See, that’s where the canon gets interesting. Ignoring the fact that retribution has been Team FIM’s modus operandi in dealing with major threats (no Chrysalis redemption for you!), canon!Sunset was actually trying to redeem herself in the scenario you described. What she wanted, what she dreamed of, was lost to her because of her own actions. She wasn’t going to be tortured because this is a family friendly show (though fanfics run with that theme), but she WANTED friendship. She WANTED to be loved. She had an emptiness that had grown in her and suddenly opened up all at once with Twilight’s magic, and she could not fill it. And indeed, even after Rainbow Rocks she still had to deal with who she was (IDW comics rolled with this in horrific fashion).
 
You don’t need to break someone’s bones to hurt them. Sunset paid the price for what she did. And now the Sirens have to pay theirs. In comparison to what she was, how she conducted herself, and given what happened here was a tragic accident that does not gel with how magic is shown to work in this show, even when misapplied, she’s letting them off light.
 
In either case, we seem to be going nowhere, so let’s tip our hats and let Danny Phantom proceed with the comic. XD

@TheAbridgenator  

 
That isn’t any better, I agree, but I didn’t say anything about stupidity being praiseworthy either.
 

 
And here I think you’re making excuses. “It feels good” does not validate the behavior, and yes, there is something wrong with indulging that malicious animal instinct; that if you can justify it (if only to yourself) once, you can most likely do it again when not actually justified. Using a ‘morally acceptable’ situation as a cover for selfish, destructive behavior is bad, and I kind of thought team Friendship is Magic was supposed to be above that kind of vice.
 
It might feel good to break every bone in someone’s body because they’ve wronged you or someone you cared about, but does that make it the right thing to do? No. Nothing makes it the right thing to do, and “they had it coming” is just how people validate doing the wrong thing for their own enjoyment.
 
Example: Let’s say someone spent a few years tormenting everyone around her pretty much for giggles and her own rampant ego. When this person is stopped and rendered powerless, it’d be awfully satisfying for all their former victims to gang up on them and beat them into a stain, wouldn’t it? I’m sure it would be cathartic; chaining them up and inflicting the years of pain they caused everyone else, and there’s no doubt that they absolutely had it coming.
 
And yet, Sunset didn’t get that, did she? She got some community service and people giving her unwelcoming looks for a while on top of five faithful friends.
 
And yes, her emotions almost certainly would have made things differnt, because the friendship-based magic is run by emotion (not working at all when they were at odds with each other) and hers were much darker than in canon (Sunset apparently corrupting what the others had started up), leading to Sonata and Adagio being vaporized. Even if they didn’t, does that validate her carrying those malicious feelings into what she does? Does that undo the fact that she’s going about it just like she would have pre-Fall Formal?

@Background Pony #9742  
My main issue is kind of a mirror of your interest earlier. As much as you said you saw people praising heroes for doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, I’ve seen just as many examples of heroes doing stupid shit because it’s the good guy thing to do. Batman, Goku, Ned Stark, all of them did the sparing your enemies nonsense and were never called on it.
 
And trust me when I say this, there is a lot to be said for catharsis. There’s nothing innately wrong with getting even someone who gives you the obvious, morally acceptable opportunity, and the Sirens, to be clear, were utterly AWFUL to Sunset. No matter what else, they had a beatdown coming, and the power clashing like it did here was going to happen regardless of how Sunset approached it. Her emotions would not have made this different.

@TheAbridgenator  
At no point did I say she shouldn’t try to stop them, just that practically getting off on how much she’s enjoying hurting them back is inherently evil, and acting as if there’s nothing wrong with it encourages that kind of thinking. Also? Sunset didn’t say she was going for personal revenge in canon, like she did here. Maybe she was thinking it, and maybe arrogant smirks are just her default when winning (old habits and all that), but there’s no reason she couldn’t have put her selfish reasons aside and focused on helping her friends as opposed to acting in anger and hatred. It doesn’t take that long to calm down and get a grip on oneself for a stable human being, and Sunset had the entire time they were trapped and however long it took before she actually started singing. It looked to me like she wasn’t a slave to her emotions here, she looked back on what they did to her and chose to get even for her own gratification.
 
The Jedi had their problems, but again, I didn’t suggest she take a complete hands-off approach or dismiss the problem altogether, just not act like a vengeful psychopath the way she does, the way a lot of fan interpretations have heroes behave and are rarely called out for. You seem to be arguing that there was nothing whatsoever wrong with her behavior here even when she’s already starting to pay for it.

@Background Pony #9742  
Sparing a demonstrably evil being and letting them do what they please just to be the bigger man is no better. There are people who will not be reached by words of friendship, and wringing your hands to wait to be in the right frame of mind will only cause ruin. Right reasons or not, Sunset took the right action in the canon.
 
Also, it’s worth noting that the Jedi Way of handwringing and dawdling led to the utter destruction of their entire order because they waited so long to take action and were so dismissive of obvious problems. Just saying.
 
@Malcontent  
I’m just curious how Sunset plays into the story. Her role in all this disaster is too juicy to just write her off in an explosion.

@TheAbridgenator  
You’re completely missing the point. Stopping someone from doing something evil does not give free reign to do so in an evil, vengeful fashion. It’s the old Jedi thing of not striking them down with all of your hatred and going over to the Dark Side in doing so, something I’ve seen practically praised when the heroes do it.
 
Sunset was not standing up for the town or even her friends, she said in no uncertain terms that she was getting payback. It’s doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
 
@Malcontent  
Even if it doesn’t end as happily as a canon production, I look forward to this new take on things! ^^

@Background Pony #9742
 
When I wrote this draft I had similar points in my head. What if…something went terribly wrong?
 
What if she didn’t entirely learn her lesson?
 
What would occur? ;) as you can see..it’s quite interesting indeed!

@Background Pony #9742  
Oh yes, because there’s nothing as morally upright as standing by and letting three magical sea monsters destroy your town out of fear that you might not be doing the right thing.

I would like to take a moment to appreciate that this is fan art in which one of the heroes tries to get ‘payback’ for themselves (normally considered ‘awesome’ and not the least bit morally questionable, going by fan reactions) and actually seems to be getting some kind of comeuppance for it.
 
It’s a little thing, but one I very rarely see in fan content. :)