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:
- My fascination in Understanding the Changeling’s Transformation Abilities
- Is Daybreaker Real? Was Nightmare Moon meant to foreshadow Celestia's fall?
- Should the Show Address How to End a Friendship?
- How the Definition of “Friendship is Magic” Has Changed: The Elements of Harmony...
- How the EEA came to be
And get your soapboxes below!
My fascination in understanding the changeling’s Transformation Abilities
By: Mariofan123
My biggest question when it comes to the changelings in general is the exact limit of their mimicking abilities. For instance, they can become almost complete copies of ponies to the point where they look exactly like them. But then when it comes to other creatures like the spider Pharnyx changes into a spider or the bear that Thorax changes into, for some reason stuff like their eye color, pupils, sometimes body look like their regular forms (See picture for an instance of this). It’s just interesting how they can make exact copies for ponies and flamingos but can’t for bears and spiders. Also, when they change into other creature can they still use the various abilities of that creature. For instance, does a changeling that transforms into Twilight have the same power and spells as Twilight? Can the other changelings see through other changeling’s disguises, we know Chrysalis can but what about the other changelings? I like to hear your thoughts and theories in the comment
section.
Is Daybreaker Real? Was Nightmare Moon meant to foreshadow Celestia's fall?
By: Nightmare Muffin
Daybreaker, Celestia's evil counterpart, was from Starlight's imagination, in "A Royal Problem". Problem is- looking at Celestia's track record, we see her flaws in the series and comics- like her heart breaking when forced to come to terms with ripping her own and another world apart to be with her lover; having to say goodbye forever; shedding tears over banishing Luna, banning Sunset from the castle, cutting ties with her as her mentor; worry and panic over sending Twilight to Ponyvile for friendship.....
But If the moon is supposed to be a mirror, reflecting the sun's light, and the two sisters of night/day represent balance, then it'd stand to reason that Celestia's darker side is due to emerge, as NMM's did. A line in a manga (Olympos) states it perfectly: "A mirror cannot reflect that which is not before it"- and in FiM, that's Celestia, as she is "before" Luna/the moon in terms of age, publicity, and duty in Equestria.
It's hard to believe that in all her years, she has hardened her heart, purging it of any negative emotion whatsoever. It's unlikely that fear, hatred or jealousy, like Luna's, isn't evident in Celestia, to turn her evil.
Should the Show Address How to End a Friendship?
By: Wordplay
MLP: FiM has worked hard over the seasons to present some very important lessons about making and maintaining friendships. It is, after all, in the show’s title. But it may be time for the show to present one of the harder aspects of friendship: what should you do when a friendship needs to end? MLP has primarily focused on the positive aspects of relationships, for obvious and good reason. But sometimes, friendships can’t or don’t work. What about when one or both parties is being actively hurt by a relationship, in a way that is not fixable or worth saving? The truth is, not every friendship can or should be repaired, and that may not be your fault. Sometimes, people need to end ties and step away from each other, especially if someone is being abused. Children need to know that choosing to end a relationship, if that relationship was harmful and unredeemable, is not something to feel ashamed or guilty about. Abusive relationships are a very real thing, but learning to recognize and deal properly with one in a safe environment, like the show, could help save children, and some more mature viewers, from unnecessary future pain.
How the Definition of “Friendship is Magic” Has Changed: The Elements of Harmony VS Character Reformation
Author: Anonymous
So nowadays the idea that “Friendship is Magic” means that companionship is this all-mighty thing that everyone desires and can be used to solve any problem by offering it to your latest threat because they are broken and want it and we like living, but back in the day I remember it being more tangible than that.
It used to be less “friendship is powerful” and more “my friends are my power”, namely that having friends allowed you to be stronger and to grow as a person. The show was about the benefits of Teamwork, and that these elements can allow you to be bigger than yourself and overcome obstacles, i.e: traversing an infamously dangerous forest, defeating a dragon, overcoming your shyness, etc. The Elements of Harmony were the embodiment of this. Rules were simple: be in harmony, fire a laser blast that could beat a bad guy. Fix the internal friendship problem stopping you from using them, beat the external bad guy problem. Same situation with the Crystal Heart.
Course people thought these were Deus Ex Machinas, so they decided to shelve them and create new and innovative ways to beat villains with the power of friendship! …Oh wait, no they didn’t. They just made new D.E.M’s, stopped making new villains, and threw Friendship at every other Rando in hopes it would make them stop (until eventually deciding to bring the Elements back to stop a Nightmare Moon clone because A CONVERSATION DIDN’T SEND THE DARKNESS INTO THE VOID). Credit where due, The Crystalling and The Cutie Map did have metaphorical friendship save the day through tangible benefit, but the former didn’t have a bad guy and the latter had Starlight who didn’t measure up to past villains and would be beaten with the new standard trump card: reformation cause we’d be dead otherwise.
This is why I’m looking forward to Season 8 and why I appreciate EqG. The new student cast seems to be going back to this original concept with the different powers of their species and how their character traits can help each other grow and learn AS A TEAM. Similarly, EqG has never lost this mentality as nearly every conflict has been solved by the tangible power and benefits of friendship BEFORE offering a chance at redemption, the one exception being Mirror Magic and considering Starlight’s in it, yeah… it would be.
How the EEA came to be
by Hoploo
I think that it is a commonly agreed upon fact that the EEA is a bureaucratic plague. It is an organization that threatens and bullies Equestrian schools into following their inefficient and soul sucking measures. But one has to ask themselves, why is it that an organization, that the princesses themselves cannot override, like this would continue to exist? Or even come to be in the first place? There aren't many Equestria wide organizations like this out there, as most of them are either things like guilds or only exist on local levels. Even Twilight herself was surprised by its existence.
To answer this, we must acknowledge the rest of Equestria's aristocracy. Royal family extensions, nobility, etc. While they may be almost entirely consolidated to Canterlot, they still exist and they do hold atleast a little bit of political power. What I theorized as to happen is that the creator of the EEA was either an aristocrat, or had ties to another aristocrat. Using this tie, they managed to successfully have this program be funded and approved. As well as cemented that the princesses and the rest of the aristocracy must follow it and cannot abolish it without trouble.
The next question to ask is: "Why?", and to that there are two ideas. One is the profits that can be received from hosting a program like this, another is to control the education process of Equestria for external reasons. Either way, the EEA is very dubious and has unnerving implications for the rest of Equestria.
