askmerriauthor:

Agreed.  I come across that particular logical fallacy quite a lot, actually.  It’s one thing when a person acknowledges they’re doing something bad and owns up to indeed being in the wrong because of it, but many are under the impression that acknowledging it suddenly gives them a blank cheque to keep doing it without consequence.  As if admitting they’re doing something bad somehow makes it okay and suddenly anyone who calls them out on it is actually in the wrong.

Case in point, my depiction of The Witch in those last two One Word Stories with her.  I wrote them in a manner that, on first glance, makes it look like Starswirl betrayed The Witch’s trust and she had a wiser vantage point she was acting on.  But that’s only at first glance.  Actually consider the implications of everything that happened and it becomes pretty glaring just how selfish and heartless she was really being.  But in her case, she doesn’t make excuses for her behavior.  She’s the villain in those stories full stop and makes absolutely no effort whatsoever to justify her actions in order to make them easier to swallow.