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:
- Rarity's Unexpectedly Brilliant Guitar Skills: A Brief Exposé
- Griffinstone's Fate and the Arimaspi
- Alternate Universe Spinoff Possibilities
- Why you hate Mud Briar
- Celestia is Useless in a Crisis, and She Knows It
And get your soapboxes below!
Rarity's Unexpectedly Brilliant Guitar Skills: A Brief Exposé
It's no secret that the show has thrown plenty of curveballs at us in the 7+ years of it being on the air. However, there's one such curveball that I feel that hasn't been talked about in depth. What may have been something just randomly out of the blue is actually not only very creative, but also genius on the show staff's part. That curveball in particular is how Rarity was able to use Pinkie's guitar like a rock star in Honest Apple's second act.
Following the first day of the fashion contest, despite Applejack feeling optimistic and thought that she was doing her part, Rarity was obviously stressed and in less spirits knowing how well the competitors took AJ's advice. Upon crossing paths with Pinkie and following her suggestion of playing the guitar to help her relax, the fashionista managed to achieve this unexpected feat by channeling all of her stress into the guitar, taking Pinkie, and all of us when we initially watched it, by surprise at how well she did it. It was both cathartic for Rarity and mind-blowing for us. Kudos to Kevin Lappin and DHX!
Griffinstone's Fate and the Arimaspi
By: MegaSean45
Iunno why I haven't talked about this sooner, but I'm curious about Griffinstone right now. Like, who's the monarchy of it, and how's the environmental and economical state of it right now? Was Gilda successful in spreading friendship around the kingdom? How did Gabby do with what the CMCs taught her? Are griffins still greedy? All we know is that Grandpa Gruff is still a grouch, and he sent Gallus to be in the School of Friendship, but ever since season 5, the whole fate on Griffinstone is still a blur.
Another thing that concerns me is the Arimaspi that attacked Griffinstone to steal the Idol of Boreas. Why did the creature so eagerly attack Griffinstone to get the Idol of Boreas (and died in the process)? Then it got me wondering: where did King Grover FIND the Idol in the first place? My theory: the Idol was stolen by the Arimaspi, and they sent an agent to get it back! If you look on the Equestria map, the area with the giant skull on top, that's the Arimaspi Territory! That place looks interesting, and it should be used for a future episode!
What do you think about the fate of Griffinstone, and the Arimaspi's motivation?
Alternate Universe Spinoff Possibilities
By: Nightmare Muffin
Throughout FiM, we’ve seen hints of AU’s coming into contact and effecting the canon we’re accustomed to- in Too Many PinkiePies, when Pinks came across the Mirror Pool, she had to pull those other Pinkies from somewhere- most likely their own alternate universes, since we saw a Pinks who was able to change her face into that of the g3 universe, and one who was able to blow into her hoof and grow fingers, who was probably from the EquestriaGirls universe. Discord lives in a pocket dimension of chaos, and the Crystal Empire was likely put into and pulled out of a pocket dimension by Sombra for the 1000 years that he made it vanish and reappear. Celestia and Starswirl, too has interacted with AU’s in the Reflections arc if the IDW comics. Alternate timelines has been done in season5, so what could be done with more direct interaction with AU’s in FiM? Scootaloo as junior assistant adventurer to Daring Do, after leaving the CMC behind? FiM ponies interacting with g1, 2, or 3 ponies in their original art style? Twilight having to help AU ponies defeat evil Starswirl, and accidentally sending him to her world to wreak havoc?
Why you hate Mud Briar
By Hoploo
A good wealth of people found Mud Briar to be annoying, and you know what? They're right. He is annoying. A plague. The definition of a smartalec and an overall unpleasantry to be around. How'ver, one must ask themselves, why is it that you find Mud to be annoying, but Maud Pie, of whom has an identical personality, to be a fan favorite? They're both monotone, they have specific interests, and they're very happy to correct you with scientific trivia. Really, they're both just a sex change, a character design and a catchphrase away from eachother.
The answer to this question is that the episode put you in Pinkie Pie's perspective. Pinkie's hostile tone towards Mud made him look a lot more malicious than he really was, making you feel like she's more a reason for hostility, as you are more bonded to Pinkie of whom has been here for seven seasons than this one guy who's been here for just an episode. It also helps that the screentime Briar got was suited for showing off the lesser qualities of Maud's character.
These things together fool you into thinking that Briar is unpleasant, while making you forget about how close he really is to Maud.
Celestia is Useless in a Crisis, and She Knows It.
By: C.T. Vulpin
We’ve all given Celestia a hard time for making Twilight handle so many big disasters, and probably been disappointed when she doesn’t make a good showing whenever she does take direct action. We wonder, what happened to the mighty alicorn who once defeated Discord, Sombra, Tirek, and her own sister a thousand years ago?
My answer to that is: Celestia hasn’t gotten weaker or complacent over the last millennium. We’re just seeing the truth about her: while Celestia is a wise, kind, and fair ruler who can keep a whole kingdom running and manage the motions of the sun, she is absolutely terrible at handling a major crisis, especially if one arises unexpectedly. She comes off as a skilled chessmaster in regard to the return of Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Crystal Empire only because she was expecting those events and had roughly a thousand years to creates plans and tailor them to her chosen champion: Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia chose Twilight not just for her magical talent, but Twilight’s ability to solve problems quickly and more permanently than Celestia ever could. Wise Celestia nurtured a new Princess that can serve and protect Equestria in ways Celestia cannot.
