Expect these posts normally every Tuesday at 2:00 PM PST. To submit your own, see this post.
Note: These soapboxes do not at all reflect the ideas of EQD. They are an open forum for anyone to post whatever crazy theory they want.
Headlines for the week:
- It’s Time To Retire The Mane 6
- Never ending ponies
- Meadowbrook's 9 Enchanted Items
- Animals vs. Anthros
- Movie Soundtrack Hopes and Concerns
- The Revenge Seekers
And get your soapboxes below!
It’s Time To Retire The Mane 6
By Amnesty
One of the biggest complaints about Starlight is that she’s taking time away from the Mane 6 but honestly the old girls don’t really need it anymore since all of their development and dreams are over and it’s time to move on to a new Mane cast, Twilight graduated and became a princess, Rainbow Dash is a cringey Wonderbolt, Rarity has her store, Fluttershy is assertive and The Earth ponies never had dreams or arcs to begin with. The current Mane 6 are fully developed characters that are just taking up space and they just aren’t important or unique anymore, The Elements of Harmony are long gone, the map calls ponies besides them, even their individual talents don’t matter anymore as Twilight didn’t get any more powerful as an alicorn, Maud Pie is both stronger and wiser than Applejack and Rainbow Dash never had anything other than flying fast which is why they were all kidnapped by fodder foot soldiers. It’s also clear that their remaining character flaws like Applejack’s stubbornness and Rainbow Dash’s Narcissism are hard coded and here to stay, so what’s the point? I’m glad the show is moving on to fresh characters like Starlight and Trixie but it needs to commit to them and use season 7 or the movie as the last adventure for the old Mane 6 before finally sidelining them for a new generation of fresh characters.
Meadowbrook's 9 Enchanted Items
By Games
The Cutie Map introduced the Staff of Sameness and the idea of a wizard named Meadowbrook who had 9 enchanted items and while Starlight’s staff turned out to be just a hunk of wood the idea of Meadowbrook and their enchanted items being was never debunked so it’s possible these things could still affect our pony friends, maybe in season 8 or Guardians Harmony. If all of these items involve fundamentally changing ponies then we could finally see things like an evil mane 6, ponified pets or even a gender swap episode in the show. There’s huge story potential here and the individual items could produce many new plotlines, like Starlight’s baggage if she meets the real Staff of Sameness or keeping them away from a power hungry villain. If they do appear though, then chances are that like any set of macguffins they’ll do something special when gathered together.
Animals vs. Anthros
By: Daniela
Equestria's "humans" are the ponies. That makes similar species like cows be able to talk and think like ponies do. That's fine, because that means ponies are the "leaders" and not just another animal.
They still have the right to own pets, since these can be seen as "less developed", like cats, dogs, bunnies, etc.
However, it always triggers me in some way when the same species encounters themselves with a more anthropological version of themselves. E.g Having Winona meet the Diamond Dogs. Or Pluto and Goofy. All of them are dogs, but some stand on two legs and are human-like. That makes the fictional world weird, unless there's an explanation. I liked how they managed this topic in Zootopia: the anthro bunny protagonist saw birds, mice and giraffes with anthro characteristics as well. There weren't common rabbits jumping around disturbing the logic.
MLP doesn't do this much, but I fear it could. It would make dogs seem like slaves rather than pets. I'd like the show to skip using anthro models for logic's sake.
The Revenge Seekers
By Pastor Nick
The Mane 6 have made many enemies of the show’s course and with only 4 or 5 actually being reformed(More if you include EG and Comics), it’s likely we’ll see some get reformed, some come back for revenge or even team up for the classic Sinister Six trope of villains coming together to get at the good guys and there are two revenge plots I could see in MLP:FIM.
1:Queen Chrysalis(who is definitely returning for revenge) gathering either the forces of Tartarus or a new threat to try and destroy Starlight and her former hive.
2: Wind Rider and Gladmane( and maybe Svengallop) joining forces for less traditional and more personal and less violent sabotage based revenge that would involve pulling strings to get at RD, Rarity, AJ and Fluttershy’s social lives and livelihoods in a way that would require the help of featured friends like Quibble Pants and Coloratura, this plays more to the show’s strengths than villains teaming up to physically attack the heroes.
It’s also interesting to note that the more powerful villains form Anti-Elements of Harmony (Nightmare Moon/Daybreaker=Betrayal/anti-Loyalty, Chrysalis=Deceit/anti-Honesty, Tirek=Greed/anti-Generosity, Dazzlings=Division/anti-Laughter, Sombra=Cruelty/Tyranny/anti-Kindness, which leaves only Anti-Magic.)
Never ending ponies
By: Dia
I have heard quite a few times now that some ppl think that this show should end before it gets bad. Do i agree with them? Well no and kind of yes(the swap is intentional). Long running shows don't always go bad. MLP actually got better in my opinion. While i agree that the show can't go on for ever and it won't, i still think that MLP as a whole gained so much love from ppl around the world that it actually started to be the next Sponge Bob, Simpsons, South Park etc(I am not talking about quality but length only). My personal prediction is that the G4 show will end with 10 seasons 2 movies and a promise. The promise for either a G4.5 where at least 10 years have past from last events of G4 or a G5 where the art is different and the main characters and voice actors are different but there will still be plenty of characters that migrated there from G4. Even after 7 seasons there are still so many things that fans want to see even from background characters and there are so many that it's kind of hard to run out of writing material any time soon. So if either G4 goes on for like 13 more seasons or there will be new generations i am happy either way. But if there is one thing that i am pretty sure and hopeful of is that the MLP franchise is now simply too big to just stop. I really really reaaaaaaaly hope i am not wrong on this one.
Movie Soundtrack Hopes and Concerns
By: SleepySteve
PLOT: Just recently, a search through IMDB for the MLP movie coming out caught my eye when the "company credits" section of the page had Sony Music-owned RCA Records listed as the producer of the film's soundtrack. I sent the info to EQD a while back but they held off on it since it wasn't official (because IMDB), so I decided to speculate what this would mean. We know that movie co-star Sia is signed to RCA outside Australia/New Zealand, and we know the band Lukas Graham is contributing in some way to the movie's music.
Which makes me wonder, will this soundtrack be superior to what we've previously been accustomed to?
I can imagine Daniel Ingram being pressured to deliver the best music he can for this movie's soundtrack. After all, it's going to be released by the people who signed acts like Elvis Presley and David Bowie. I wish him the best and hope his work pays off. Hopefully, the soundtrack will appear on the Billboard 200 and beat out all of the previous MLP soundtracks. It should be cause for excitement, and concern. I certainly hope creative burnout doesn't kick in.
