Community soapbox time, where opinions from around the fandom are dropped down below for you all to discuss and debate!
Expect these posts normally when not late 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:
- Is Starlight really getting off scot-free for her actions?
- Chrysalis redemption prequel
- Impressions of a newcomer
- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic carries on Star Trek legacy
- Derpy MIA in Once Upon a Zeppelin and why it makes no sense
- Princess Sci-Twi
- Was Scootaloo's Dad Hiding in Plain Sight?
And get your soapboxes below!
Is Starlight really getting off scot-free for her actions?
By: KH7672
Mane 6 in "Every Little Thing She Does": They raise their voices, have Starlight apologize, and clean up her own mess. She is surprised to learn she was completing friendship lessons in the end because to her she was just cleaning up the mess she made and making it up to them by actually indulging in their interests. They offered the help because they understand her non-malicious intentions. What would shunning or ignoring her really have accomplished in the long run?
Princesses in "A Royal Problem": They yell at her, but a dungeon sentence? She switched their jobs for ONE day. It warrented a stern disapproval but after looking at the situation, one day is nothing but a break from the monotony, why wouldn't they take it? Starlight receives Twilight's scolding where the punishment is on a psychological level in her dream as an Equestria destroying situation.
Thorax in "To Change a Changeling:" she actually makes a possibly dangerous decision. Is she let off scot-free because good intentions? No, she's called out, and demands she helps. What more would Thorax have done? How much is she really getting away with with no consequences whatsoever?
Chrysalis redemption prequel
By: Dan
At this point we can be pretty sure that Chrysalis is going to come back in season 8 for her revenge. But what about redemption? I am not sure if she is going to be redeemed or not but i tend towards an yes. I think she will get redeemed but the whys and hows are very important in her case since she has been the longest running villain that could get a redemption. There are many ways in witch it could go wrong but there are also plenty of ways in witch it could be done well. If i were in charge of her redemption i would say that she was actually a good bug like Thorax and his gang are right now but at some point in her life she got betrayed by a lover that meant the whole world to her. After that betrayal she started hating love but at the same time feeding on it in all the wrong ways until she turned into the evil one that we saw since season 2. Her redemption might come with the forgiving of that past lover and finally being able to let it go.
But that's just my silly idea. What would you do instead?
Impressions of a newcomer
By: Triangulo
I joined the brony fandom about a year ago. Here are impressions of a newcomer that should have joined sooner.
Around one year ago YouTube recommended me a ponified video. I knew of 'strange' people liking my little pony, but never cared about it. I liked that video, and decided it was time to give it a try. Few months later I had seen all 6 seasons and decided to learn more about the history of the fandom, mainly YouTube videos. The early PMV, ponified series and games, original music and animations, debates (Derpy and Twilight wings mainly), analysis, the 'Hasbro is taking down everything' years, remixes, etc.
Something I wasn't sure were the current state, this was between seasons and few YouTubers were publishing videos regularly. Then season 7 started and it was a revival. I then also discovered equestriadaily and started to search outside YouTube.
You, fandom, have suffered the 'popularity attracts trolls' problem, specially difficult due to this type of fandom. It is also understandable that people have become less active over time, but you are still active and with the movie even more, great years to come.
Thank you, thank you very much for being awesome
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic carries on Star Trek legacy
As many FiM fans know, many of show's writers like Star Trek. Of course, that has great impact. And I'm not just talking about parasprites, Discord (Q) and other "easter eggs" in the show or comics. (Equestria itself is very similar to planet Megas-Tu from TAS episode "The Magicks of Megas-Tu",)
The theme of exploration - that's main connection between FiM and ST. In Trek, it's straightforward - crew explores new planets, lifeforms, unknown phenomena. But in FiM Main Six also explore. Explore different facets of friendship, relationships, and even various cultures. In fact, those two fields of exploration are not mutually exclusive. After all, often newly discovered aliens have their own unique culture and Enterprise needs to negotiate and understand it, so they will become friends, not enemies. And some episodes are about relationships between characters themselves, their "friendship problems". Especially in DS9, that has quite a few "slice of life" stories. LIke one where Jake and Nog make a succession of trades to get needed item. Sounds familiar?
Being show for kids, FiM simplifies things, but Trek spirit, notion that differences are not problems, but opportunities to learn something new, it's there.
Derpy MIA in Once Upon a Zeppelin and why it makes no sense
By: Nightmaremuffin
One thing few people (or rather, no one) seem to notice, strangely, about this episode is the fact that a certain grey and ditzy background pony who may or may not love chocolate fondue fountains more than she does muffins was not present in this episode. But why would she be, I can already hear fans of hers saying. Well, quite simply, the derped one has shown to have quite the affinity for Twilight. Back in “Scare Master”, the derped one was in AJ’s maze, dressed up as Twilight! And while not directly being involved with Twilight, the derped one does dream that she’s being of use to Spike- Twilight’s loyal assistant, back in “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?”, so by extension, she’s also being useful to Twilight. Though they haven’t had much interaction, I think the derped one sincerely desires to be close to Twilight, just from these two examples, so for her not to be a pony who was on the zeppelin cruise seemed unusual.
Princess Sci-Twi
By: Marik
Seems a little odd that the Equestria Girls version of Twilight Sparkle would have wings while Sunset Shimmer doesn’t, huh? I never really thought of it that much, but a lot of people seem bothered by this. So, I did some thinking.
Well, in the first Equestria Girls movie, it’s implied that the human counterparts channel the power of their pony counterparts whenever they ‘pony up’. That’s why Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash get wings while the other girls don’t, and horns would just look weird on a human. Human Twilight channels Princess Twilight’s power. Princess Twilight has wings, ergo, Human Twilight gets wings. Frankly, I think it would be more confusing if she DIDN’T get wings.
While you can make a case for Sunset Shimmer deserving those wings, they wouldn’t carry the same symbolic weight as they do in Equestria. In the human world, there is no triad of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, and there are no alicorns. There are only those with magic and those without. Human Twilight having wings doesn’t mean anything beyond her being linked to her pony counterpart.
Was Scootaloo's Dad Hidden in Plain Sight?
By: chad
For the past seven seasons, we've gotten to know the families for most of our beloved main cast of characters. However, up until recently, we haven't gotten any word about Scootaloo's family in any canon source. We do know that she lives with her lesbian aunts while her parents are doing unknown things very frequently thanks to the "Ponyville Mysteries" series of books, but what if we actually saw her dad and didn't realize it?
Going back to near the end of "Tanks for the Memories" in Season 5, we see a bunch of unnamed stallions competing on the ice in a friendly game of hockey. But, one of the stallions, as shown in the picture above, is donning some design features similar to Scootaloo. Seeing that both ponies have an orange coat along with a purple/magenta mane and tail, it's possible that this stallion might actually be Scootaloo's dad and that he's a professional hockey player. Taking what we know from "Riddle of the Rusty Horseshoe" into consideration, this theory of mine seems plausible, doesn't it?
