*UPDATE* Weekend soapbox begins!
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 MST And now Saturday at 2:00 PM MST. 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:
- MLP Movie sequel and the visuals that it deserves
- Twilight Sparkle beating Discord in a chaos magic battle
- Princess Fluttershy
- Why there should NOT be a male main character
- What is a 'crappy opinion'?
And get your soapboxes below!
What is a 'crappy opinion'?
By: Marik
Plain and simple; someone disagreeing with you on a character, episode, season, or any other aspect of MLP is not a crappy opinion. It’s simply a disagreement. Nothing more.
What constitutes a crappy opinion is not the opinion itself, but how it is delivered. It your opinion is given with proper diction, a mature demeanor, a sense of humor, and a lack of assumption that everyone else will share and/or disagree with that opinion, people might be more willing to listen to you, because you’re speaking calmly and earnestly.
Before Jerry Peet lost his marbles, I was willing to listen to his starkly unique opinions on the show because he compared what he liked and disliked to other works of fiction and talked about what it meant to him. That’s the key to having a good opinion. Phrases like “I feel,” “I think,” “As far as I know,” or simply “To me.” That way you don’t come across as stating opinion as fact. It’s more like you’re sharing your thoughts rather than telling people what to think or feel.
If you litter your opinion with expletives, insults, and a clear and present distaste for what others might have to say, that’s a crappy opinion. It doesn’t matter how many people agree or disagree with you. Hell, you might disagree with me on this whole soapbox. And that’s fine. Just don’t throw a fit about it.
Why there should NOT be a male main character
By: Fluttershypegasus
In a reason AMA, Meghan McCarthy commented that, although it was a possibility, she would not agree with adding a male character to the mane six just for the sake of it. I will explain why I absolutely agree with this.
The fact that the main characters are female in MLP is not a coincidence. Lauren Faust herself stated that the series was meant to show there are many different ways to be a girl. So there are positive aspects of femininity shown by characters such as Rarity, but less feminine characters such as Rainbow Dash are portrayed as equally relatable. Youtuber Digibrony put it like this: the series shows all the wonderful things about being a girl. The fact that the main characters are female is what adds to the charm of the series and gives it its own unique feel to all viewers, and I think it would be a bizzare and counterproductive idea to suddenly backtrack on that.
I apply this equally in the opposite direction too, and I think it was equally wrong to suddenly shift the focus of something like Star Wars or Doctor Who from male protagonists to female ones for exactly the same reason.
Whilst exploring a couple of episodes using opposite gender characters (such as in "Dungeons and Discords") can make for an interesting idea every now and then, completely switching the gender of the main character(s) I think misses the point of the series-both boys and girls need characters and series to look up to, and messing around with this is likely to be disastrous in the long run.
Princess Fluttershy
by TrotterPrime
I’ve always found rather interesting that Fluttershy has a name that is very reminiscent of the Gen1 Flutterpony race, and now upon discovering the Queen of the Flutterpones, it suddenly makes me excited for the potential of MLP Generation-5. Imagine if you will that G5 Fluttershy one day encounters a dying Flutterpony named Rose Dust who turns out to be her mother, revealing that Shy is a long-lost Princess of a race of pony-like fairies [possibly she’s only half-flutterpone]. I’ve heard they want to take the show in a more mature direction, like for teenagers, and what would be better for such a series tone than one of a group of friends discovering that she is the heir to an entire species of magical creatures and now has to bear the weight of being their Queen as well as contend with a life that could take her away from her friends and family? What if, even, she always had butterfly wings and was often teased for them; and what if she was in fact adopted by Rainbow Dash’s family and they’re technically sisters?
We may not like the abrupt transition from G4 to G5, but to deny the potential of the new series I think is foolish. Here’s hoping the G5 staff also recognize this fantastic potential
Twilight Sparkle beating Discord in a chaos magic battle
By: Booksmart
You know I gotta admit, The character Discord makes me... What's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah... peeved!
So Now I hope for season 8 or 9 does a awesome Twilight Sparkle beating Discord to exact sweet revenge! So here's my dream episode idea A Sparkle of Imagination or Chaos Royal and here's the gist:Princess Twilight Sparkle was enjoying her reading when obnoxious Discord interrupts her reading . Being a total evil tease he is, he teases that Twily has no imagination and wit. Offended, Twily rebuttals that she too has imagination .Intrigued by this, Discord challenges Twilight Sparkle to a chaos battle. Panicking, She calls her friends Rainbow Dash , Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike on how to be chaotic. When she struggles with their methods and gives up. she confides a secret: When she was a filly, She did beautiful and unique art along with her studies. but was ridiculed for her creativity and being spontaneous . But her friends motivate by how she motivate them. As She enter Discord's dimension , she unleashes the inner silliness , vengeance imagination , and chaos she was holding back for years. on Discord ( Getting attacked by killer quesadillas , shape shifting him , taking him on a Doctor Strange-ques magical comics voyage. Oh the endless possibilities!!! ) Discord becomes literally fat with excessive chaos magic becoming traumatized and humbled, while Twily becomes relieved with ecstasy, confidence and bliss and thanks her friends for inspiring her. The episode ends with Twilight Sparkle turning The Chaos Dimension into a island for her and friends to relax while Discord goes to a cosmic porta potty to relieve him of his excess chaos magic. Hmm. Maybe The Northerner is right... maybe chaos is the best stress reliever! Mwah ha ha ha!
MLP Movie sequel and the visuals that it deserves
By: Nightmare Muffin
If there’s one thing that the 2017 MLP movie brought to the table, it was its stunning visuals and detailed backgrounds. True, the CGI felt out of place at times, but all in all, there’s no denying that the visuals of the film were pretty impressive. Now, with a sequel movie being in its discussion phase, the option is on the table to “go big or go home”, and for the second to completely blow the first movie out of the water, unlike the record of many Disney sequels. One way this could be done is by looking abroad- hiring and collabing with an Art Director who has an impressive track record of making astounding visuals in their works. Two words: Makoto Shinkai. Many award-winning works, “5 Centimeters Per Second”, “The Garden of Words”, and “Your Name” all carry breathtaking art, lighting, and scenery that My Little Pony can incorporate under Makoto’s direction, and truly stun future moviegoers with its visual quality. There’s no denying that MLP has made leaps and bounds from its first season, regarding visuals, but there’s a well of untapped potential that I believe this person could bring to make cinematic MLP a masterpiece.
