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:
- Is Twilight regressing as a princess or friendship?
- Is Villain Reformation hurting the series?
- All you need is love
- The Average Unicorns' Potential
- G5 is needed, but not in it's current form.
And get your soapboxes below!
Is Twilight regressing as a princess or friendship?
By: Nightmare Muffin
Episodes/ scenes like “Hoofields and McColts” and “What About Discord?” have her prioritizing books over listening to or spending time with her friends and missing out or suffering because of it. Episodes like “No Second Prances” have her backtracking on forgiveness or ponies that was established in seasons prior, and retreading the old ground of being reluctant to trust Discord, like she’s doing with Trixie, and judging them by their past mistakes. Episodes like "Shadow Play" that have her siding with a pony like Starswirl- who she was straight up told didn't understand friendship, and abandoning her methods of villain reformation and friendship with the Pony of Shadows, and scenes like the using of her friends, not to gain the trust of the seap- ahem- Hippogriffs, but as a distraction for her to STEAL what was theirs...all of these put the “Princess of Friendship” in a really bad light, damaging her reputation, and making it seem like she’s backtracking rather than progressing as a character in her role. She would be losing those wings and turning back into a unicorn, if this keeps up.
Is Villain Reformation hurting the series?
By: Nightmare Muffin
Body: A story needs conflict to make it work, and with the ponies befriending everyone, there’s little room to create new and interesting villains, let alone reoccurring ones. Chrysalis is the exception. This really harms the main characters because the less outside villains there are to bring the ponies real conflict, the more the ponies themselves will be thrown under the bus and given undesirable traits in spite of all the character development they have received, to look like the antagonists or villains themselves, as Applejack received in “Where the Apple Lies.”.
All you need is love
By: Indiana
Let's face it. Shining Cadence looks like the perfect family doesn't it? And Equestria in general by extent. It is an idealized version of what many couples/marriages/societies would like to achieve but many of them fail. Why is that? Well many factors for sure but one that i can single out particularly in this fandom is the construction of an invisible wall between our reality and the pony reality. I have seen plenty of people say that they enjoy the show and admire it's content but when it comes to our world we can't live like the ponies do because that one is just a fantasy. I think that way of thinking is defeatist. There are certainly magic and impossible things that happen in the show but when it comes to relationships and morals almost all of it is done with arguments and actions that don't have anything to do with magic. If you take magic out of the equation you still see amazing morals, lessons and interactions that are valid and that we should use. Magic is just a bonus for entertainment purposes. So going back to our lovely couple. Is their bond too fantastic and impossible to achieve? No. If you put effort into it like they did then all of you can be a Shining Cadence. This also applies to happiness in general.
The Average Unicorns' Potential
By: Daniela
MLP certainly has focused a lot more in magic these past seasons. There are many powerful magic casters to date: Twilight, the princesses, Starlight, Starswirl, and some that are better than the average unicorn. But what exactly could the average unicorn do?
In Boast Busters it's revealed unicorns have magic related to their talents. And in Twilight's case it means she's good at anything magic (as well as Starlight's and Starswirl's). Thing is, the show has drifted away from the average unicorns' magic concept in favor of the more talented. I'm going to take Rarity as an example: Rarity could in S1 turn branches into beautiful figures in a second, insta-attach clothing on other ponies (Twilight's all-team organizer vest), cast a light display in Suited For Success, find gems (though she did this in Gauntlet of Fire) and change clothes/manestyle in an instant (when confronting Trixie). These cool talent-related spells have faded over time but imo need a comeback. How cool would it be to see talent-related magic from Sweetie Belle? Cutie Mark magic? And with Snips? Can he cut things magically? I'm happy with the show so far so if they decide to focus on this or not is not important. Still, it'd be cool to see.
G5 is Needed, but Not in It's Current Form
By: Rakith
With the announcement of the 5th generation of My Little Pony revealing the idea of a complete revamp of the world actually had me excited... until I read more. Instead of a new world with new characters, we are getting the same characters with new personalities in a new world. Why? For what reason does Hasbro have in re-using the mane 6 with new personalities instead of introducing a new cast? All it will do is throw dirt on the characters we've loved for years. Blacklejack and unicorn fluttershy just doesn't make any sense.
Even from a merchandising perspective, why sell the same 6 ponies again? It doesn't make any sense. Bring on some new characters for us to cherish and let us love the original mane 6 in the way we remember them. They are getting old, but giving them new personalities isn't a fix. Replacing them is.
