Talk:Star Swirl the Bearded/@comment-31491129-20171009213423/@comment-53539-20171028151535

Well, we were told he didn't understand friendship like Twilight... HE mocked the idea of talking to the Pony of Shadows, which is one of Twilight's best traits. If you must ask me, its like this; n his day and age everything was more primitive and actions spoke louder then words. IF a conquerer wanted to tak over a country, like Sombra, they did so. After this era ends with more or less the imprisonment of Luna as Nightmare Moon, we get 1000 years more or less of peace.

Why there was so much peace we cannot for sure, maybe because of what happened in the pre-1000 years was settled and most threats were taken out to the point any remaining threats were so minor that Celestia alone was able to handle them. With so much peace and little conflict, the idea of every threat being met with immediate action was off the table and talking was now on. This gave way for Twilight and her friends approach at the end of that 1000 years to rise up and present a very different approach to the era Starswirl is from.

Ergo, the leaders of the Friendship council and the Pillars of Magic are not going to react the same way as each as they came from very different situations.

To quote another series, One Piece, "child who only know war and children who only know peace do not have the same values". Twilight knows sometimes a villain only has power so long as it is justified in its actions, breaking. Remove the reason for it justifying its existence, then it breaks down, as what happened with Queen Chrysalis she lost the faith of her subjects with Throax's revelations that her way wasn't the only path they could take.

For Starswirl, his era the way of dealing with a villain was to remove their power by neutralising it, and when that failed we get the situation wherein he ended up sacrificing his and the other pillars lives to ensure his kingdom was protected. This was an era wherein Dragons were at conflict with Ponies, and they did not have Ember to talk to, but instead the previous Dragonlord, be it her father or otherwise, who would have flashed the old ideals around. The sirens were dealt with by banishment to a realm wherein they had no power.

So this is why Starswirl likely was the way he was. Think about it, Clever Clover was his pupil, CC witnessed the Wendigoes and 3 trives starving themselves to death over their ignorance. This happened within that same era. Sad to say, this was a very cruel era to live in compared to the current timeline.