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:
- A Look at Wallflower Blush
- Elements throughout history?
- Rebooting Should Not Be a Question of World Development
- Should Snips and Snails be called by the cutie map?
- The end of Applejack?
And get your soapboxes below!
A Look at Wallflower Blush
By Tale Weaver
While watching “Forgotten Friendship” a thought occurred to me. Wallflower used the memory stone to erase the humane six’s memories of Sunset Shimmer. She then erased all of Sunset’s memories of being in the human world. But after the stone was destroyed, she confessed she started by using it to erase little things like awkward “hello”s, then she let herself get out of control.
But just how out of control did she go? If she erased all her awkward “hello”s, did she erase all those students’ memories of her?
From what we saw, the stone erases memories from a chosen point in the past, forward. From the time each of the humane six met Sunset, to the present. From the point Sunset and Trixie confronted Wallflower in the yearbook office to the present. So my point is, did Wallflower cause her own problems by making everyone forget they ever met her? Maybe she had a forgettable personality before, but did she cause her own “invisibility” by erasing all those awkward moments.
Trixie made a good point when she said that maybe it wasn’t enough to not be mean, you also had to be nice. But perhaps the real moral of the story is that you have to recognize when you are causing your own problems and stop blaming others for them.
Elements throughout history?
by ShadowWriter45
A while back I did a Soapbox about there being other tree of harmonies out there in Equestria and beyond; I say it got mixed responses. However, I do stand by the idea that there were or are other (for lack of a better word) elements that protected Equestria and kept it filling with light over the years. Even if Celestia was around during the 1000 year period, even she couldn't have kept all of Equestria protected herself.
As to why we haven't hear about these other "elements" could be chalked up to us not needing to know about them or their actions were unknown to the general public like the Pillars fight with the Pony of Shadows.
This isn't mean to undermine what the Pillars did in facing the Pony of Shadows, but at the same time I feel that their sacrifice wasn't the only reason Equestria has been filled with light all this time; it couldn't just be their accomplishment(s). There had to be other reason Equestria has been so peaceful and there had to have been more incidents with evil being of darkness or something.
Rebooting Should Not Be a Question of World Development
By: Fluffbrain
I’ve noticed the question of “what more can be developed” is often brought up about MLP:FiM. In my opinion this is a flawed point of view to take on the show in that it doesn’t address its real strengths. Growth and development were the necessary byproducts of telling silly stories - something you might expect a cartoon about aggressively adorable talking ponies to excel at. They were ancillary structural tools used to frame the main course of absurd situations and characters, not the primary features of the show itself; in fact I feel you could often be forgiven for forgetting episodes had lessons about developing moral character since most of the script and screen time was simply about comedic narrative (think A Bird in the Hoof or Trade Ya!).
In my opinion, the show still has a lot of potential in that the animations are still adorable and effective at comedic exaggeration, and that there are still plenty of absurd situations to find the characters in. To me the successful original vision of the show was the comedy of silly ponies rather than the depths of a fantasy universe, and as such I think there’s plenty of gas in the tank.
Should Snips and Snails be called by the cutie map?
By: Nightmare Muffin
Always used for comic relief, these two have really never gotten proper character development beyond that. The only episode that didn’t (for Snails, specifically) was in “Buckball Season”, where he was made to look like a savant with stellar coordination skills and an ability of achieved mental tranquility. Even Spike and Pinkie, who were also comic relief characters in the beginning of FiM, have grown exponentially, wheras Snips and Snails….haven’t, let alone any characterization outside their stereotype. Having a map episode could change that for the better, allowing them more depth and development as characters, especially now that the series has been shifting more of its focus to secondary and background characters.
The end of Applejack?
By: Will
With the reboot supposedly coming in two years, it remains to be seen if one of the mane six actually ends up in it. I am, of course, talking about Apple-Jack. She is by far probably the least popular among them (her toys are always sale and is the only mane six member not available for purchase at Build-a-bear). Part of the issue is that her cow-girl/farm-girl persona lacks real personality as the other members all have strengths and weaknesses that can be easily seen. Even the writers have a hard time with her. This was shown in a season seven episode where ponies critique the faults of other mane six characters like Rarity and Fluttershy (much to their chagrin) but instead is stuck dealing with ponies taking advantage of her family's hospitality. And depending on Fluttershy's brief encounter with a henchman, Apple-jack also was the only mane six character not to have a movie buddy in their recent film. So, who knows? Perhaps she will be demoted out of the mane six in favor of another character and into a secondary character role or she could be deleted all together. Only will time will tell.
