@Darth Sonic  
Good point.
 
Hm. Actually Babs and Discord share the same problem - they never become better people, not in the episodes. Babs was, apparently, always a good person and was just bullying the CMC because… ??? … and then all was forgiven. That’s that. No change in character. No journey from A to B.
 
Discord was handled a smidge better because we eventually find out he’s still a dick with little understanding of what being a good friend or a good person is really like, though he ends up feeling a smidgen of regret in the very end. I really liked the idea of his attachment to Fluttershy, I wish they’d spend more time on the idea of bad people ending up on the side of good because they have people they care about.

@Draco_2k  
Cruel people aren’t allowed to become better people?

@Darth Sonic  
Babs is cool. Though her being cruel in her episode rather spoils it for me, personally.
 
Besides that, it’s perfectly fine to appreciate characters even when they’re not good people, Discord being the prime example. That guy’s awesome, even if he’s kind of sort of implied to be Pony Hitler.

@Draco_2k  
Fair enough.
 
Still like Babs.

@Background Pony #736F  
I bet the writers will continue to ignore it. Then again, I also had that bet running for CMC’s cutie marks, and I lost like two sugarcubes on that bet.
 
@Darth Sonic  
I think it just seems that way because it takes a lot of skill to do correctly, which most children’s shows… who am I kidding - writers in general just don’t have.
 
At the very least you can avoid doing horrible things like equating fighting back to being no better than the bully, or pretending that offering some sort of justification for your behavior somehow makes you not a bully. That’s not a matter of nitpicking, that’s inexcusable.

@angrybrony
 
True, Korra was a bitch, but thanksfully, she had tons of development and became a mature young woman.
 
…three seconds of sucking face…  
Dude, Korra and Asami didn’t even kiss, they just held hands while gazing into each other’s eyes.
 
Also, Korra and Mako were hormonal teenagers that rushed into a relationship before they even knew whether they were right for each other.
 
Korra and Asami, on the other hand, had a more subtle development in their relationship. In Book 1, they were rivals pining over Mako, but they became friends after Korra got over her jealousy. Even when they barely interacted in Book 2, they were able to remain friends, despite Mako dumping Asami for Korra. It wasn’t until Book 3 rolled around, that both ladies realized how much they enjoyed each other’s company, thus they became best friends. Book 4 was when both of them started to understand that they were becoming more than just friends, and the ending was a representation of them taking things to the next level.

@Background Pony #736F  
well as deep as three seconds of sucking face can conva.

@ChuymaruZ  
True that because he put himself over korra and asami and that what ending his relantionship with them but in irony korra/asami bonding from that and they deeply fell in love in the end.

@ChuymaruZ  
korra was an asshole too a lot of the time.

@Background Pony #736F  
because mako was an asshole and he deserved to be alone

@RektPony  
Im a sparity fan but the way you said it, it like legend of korra everyone got a lover in the end korra/asami, bolin/opal and jinora/kai. Mako is the only person who didn’t get a lover in the end.

If they would want to develop a friendship into romance, then they would sooner pick Discord/Fluttershy. But for now it is more likely they will settle with Starlight/Sunburst shipping.  
Sparity is too problematic and none of the writers is invested that much into Spike to care about fulfilling his love story.

@Draco_2k  
I think I should have been more clear: there are no good answers. They could have done anything and a lot of people would have called it a horrible lesson regardless. Even the question of whether or not the bully is redeemable or not would have garnered criticism regardless of what route they took, and the bully has to be on or the other.
 
What I’m saying is that Bullying episodes, as a whole, don’t work. So yes, saying it had a horrible lesson is a misnomer, because it implies a Bullying Episode is capable of presenting a lesson that couldn’t be interpreted by a large number of people as a bad lesson.

@Draco_2k  
So what your thoughts about the future of spike and rarity relantionship a uncertain future or better one?

@Background Pony #736F  
That’s true. Probably not much for bonding material in their case though. Sounds like something that would drive them apart more than anything.
 
@Darth Sonic  
Sort of. Maybe. Not really. A bad lesson is a bad lesson.
 
It’s, you know, you see a guy trying to jungle four running chainsaws at once and he ends up cutting himself into a jigsaw puzzle of the United States, what do you do? Say “Well, it was a hard task, he deserves some credit?” No. You need to have risk assessment: if you can’t do it, don’t do it.
 
Not to mention the entire thing was downright insulting to anyone who’s ever had a brush with bullying. I suppose that’s what happens when you try to present a complex issue and can’t quite pull it off.

@Draco_2k  
Saying that “One Bad Apple” conveyed a horrible lesson is a bit of a misnomer, as it implies that there are any inherently better answers. Bullying is an issue that nobody has good answers to.

@Draco_2k  
Well the two have alot of things in common including being hopeless suitor.

@Background Pony #935E  
Err, I think I misunderstood what you were saying. You’re right that as long as staff think of him as a little kid he won’t be seeing any shred of romance in the show. Probably.

@Background Pony #935E  
Writing staff’s opinions don’t matter, they didn’t create the character in the first place (did they actually state their opinions?). Hell, they treat him like a toddler barely out of the stroller and then give him a falling-to-your-death almost-love-confession. It’s embarrassing.
 
I said earlier they could handle the entire affair as Spike realizing his apparent crush wasn’t quite the same as being in love with someone, but that’d require competence, a lot of effort, and a delicate approach to pull off. Handling being banished to the friendzone without chance for re-trial would be even harder, I think.
 
We’ve seen that FiM’s attempts to approach delicate subjects end in either terrible lessons for the kids (One Bad Apple, Feeling Pinkie Keen) or spectacular failure (Owl’s Well That Ends Well, Mare-do-Well). So… maybe it’s for the best they don’t touch the subject after all.

Y’all can talk about “ambiguous age” all you want, but to the writing staff, Spike is still a kid. Unless there’s some sort of time-skip (or the show lasts another 10 seasons), they won’t think of Spike as being old enough to be in a serious romance anyway, so any “development” along those lines will either be negative (Spike outgrowing his crush, Rarity turning down Spike, etc.) or just vague hints as to what might happen in the future.

@Background Pony #736F  
The show just won’t adress sparity nor make any timeskip significant enough for Spike to outlive Mane6. The last season will just end G4 with maybe giving Spike a kiss on a cheek from Rarity and not really confirming anything.

@Background Pony #736F  

 
 
@Draco_2k  
The writers do sparity moments thought the show but i think they have a tough time how to handle it one it they build they relantionship that would make some fans mad calling wrong and if they ended the sparity plot on a shipsink note still someone fans would be mad about that.To me the staff are kind stuck on the sparity plot but it been talk about a girl dragon in S6 if spike have any shiptease moments that would end sparity by show he over his crush and liking someone else but she a dragon and someone he won’t outlive but we still don’t know if that will playout in “Gauntlet of fire” because he busy trying to win to save his friends,we know garble going to be in it and the girl dragon they talk about must be another dragon in the gauntlet.Sadly if sparity does come to a close will fans be raging upset and what will be the next chapter for spike then being a hopless suitor and find love with someone else?

@Draco_2k  
Not only sparity it dragons do live a long time it be sad for spike outliving his friends even he still have discord,the princess’s and even flutterheart but it still won’t be the same because the mane 6 was his mane family.

@Background Pony #736F  
Probably to placate the fans and to give the writers some wiggle room, as was said earlier.
 
@angrybrony  
Not my area of expertise. I don’t even know what people mean by “age group”. Seems like an arbitrary thing to base any decisions on, to me.
 
@Background Pony #736F  
Yeah, something like that.
 
All of these coupled with highly ambiguous age give a ton of opportunities for interesting situations and plotlines, lots of possible drama and conflict, always a boon for both the writer and the viewer (if handled in a competent manner). That the writers chose to ignore it entirely is rather baffling. My working guess is that they don’t care much for telling the story of the world of Equestria and just want to do their own thing and tell their own stories given the opportunity to do so.

@Draco_2k  
I kindof get what difficults spike and rarity would face that are age,outliving your partner,intercouse and child birth.
 
age spike and rarity would worry about what others would think that it would look like a adult  
to a kid and that would be a bad rep on them.
 
2 they would also worry about outliving rarity would worry about spike how he would be when she gone  
and he would worry how to move on when he lose someone he deeply love.
 
3 intercourse would be a big difficult for them to because spike would worry about accidently killing  
her while doing it.
 
4 childbirth both of them would worry about that too if they child have spike dragon powers they  
would fear about it that she may die from childbirth.
 
So know what bigjim is saying about the difficults they would face together Heck it was the same for superman and lois when they got together too.