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. To submit your own, see this post.
Headlines this week:
- Why is Cozy Glow evil?
- Hasbro, please DO NOT sell to Disney!
- Season 8's Racism Misconception
- Shadow Play got Friendship Gamed
- Was this Season Finale's Enemy more guilty than a previous one?
And get your soapboxes below!
Why is Cozy Glow evil?
By: FlareGun45
Another season gone by, and it turns out that Cozy Glow was the main villain! Such a twist! Could anyone have predicted that? :O Heh, anyhoo, how could a little filly turn out to be so evil? What made her so immune to friendship to make her use it as a weapon? How about the most important question? Why is a filly in Tartarus, and how do HER PARENTS feel about this? Are they even around? Or did they.... abandon her? Has she ever met them? How was her life in trying to make friends before she attended the school? Well enough questions, it's time for statements and theories!
It does look like that Cozy has alot of trouble making friends and trusting others, it leads me to believe that she used to have friends that she considered family from an orphanage or something, but they just used her, which led to Cozy not believing in friendship ever again, and just use others so she can get what she wants! Cozy could be like this because she was never loved. It makes me feel so sorry for her. I really think she had a troubled past of being an orphan who has trouble fitting in, which led her to be like this! And since the Mane Six don't really understand how Cozy could be feeling, which could be why they were never able to reform her.
Hmm... who else is an orphan that had trouble fitting in? No I'm not talking about Gallus, and Scoots ain't an orphan! You know who I'm talking about! ;) He could be the one who'll reform Cozy if all this is true!
Hasbro, please DO NOT sell to Disney!
By: FlareGun45
I love Disney! I've been going to the parks ever since I was a baby, and I've always enjoyed being there! But yunno something? I just don't trust the Disney media that much in terms of touching products they didn't make. If it's stories they made, or fairytales like Mulan or Moana, or even their Pixar stuff, but look at Star Wars! Now I'm not saying Star Wars is bad, I actually enjoyed TLJ; however, it doesn't have the same feeling as it used to when Lucas was in charge. How about Club Penguin? It was a beloved online game before Disney took over, and constantly added more and more membership stuff until only the really fun stuff you can only pay monthly for. Then it shut down, and then came Club Penguin Island which had much less freedom and was less fun than the original game.
Now after seeing Hasbro hasn't been doing well lately because of them laying off employees, it makes me afraid that Hasbro might have to sell, and if they do, please, oh please... NOT DISNEY! Disney's already a powerful company buying out a ton of media, recently FOX! There are a ton of other companies that Hasbro could buy off to that's NOT Disney! They're not gonna take good care of our beloved horse friends - I assure you!
Season 8's Racism Misconception
By: MugetsuASK
Despite Season 8 showing Neighsay was largely right about the staff and safety concerns of Twilight’s school, one of the bigger contentions people have is his racism/xenophobia. Thing is, he isn’t either of these. These concepts, by definition, are irrational, and I don’t see how it’s irrational for Neighsay to be wary of these creatures that, up until a few months ago, have been antagonistic, if not predatory, to ponies for most of his life, recorded history, and six seasons of FiM. Sure, the Gryphon and Hippogriff grief was mostly unfounded, but Changelings? Dragons? Yaks? Retcons to the former two aside to make them more characterized as opposed to their former mindless variants, Prince Rutherford almost went to war over a party being delayed. Yona’s kind of the exception, and so was Spike and Thorax until they changed it.
In contrast, we have Bridle Gossip: The ponies of Ponyville are afraid of Zecora for no reason except she looks different, has different customs, and lives in a foreign place. Simpler and more effective racism allegory that even highlights how such attitudes (through Apple Bloom) are cultivated, not inherent, and the Mane 6 suffer because of their bigotry and inability to listen. And all of it is covered in ONE EPISODE back in season 1.
Was this Season Finale's Enemy more guilty than a previous one?
By: BramtheBrony
(I used vague descriptions in the title for those who still have not seen the Season 8 finale. If you haven’t stop reading NOW.)
So, this question popped into my head after watching the Season 8 finale; was it fair that Starlight Glimmer was forgiven, while Cozy Glow got Tartarus? After thinking it over, I concluded there are a couple reasons why it could be said that Cozy did indeed deserve Tartarus more than Starlight did.
First of all, Starlight wasn’t necessarily trying to destroy all of Equestria, nor did she seem to be aware that she was doing so; Cozy however knew she was destroying Equestria, and was deliberately doing so.
Second of all, Starlight ending up realizing she blew it big time, and feeling dreadful. Cozy, on the other hoof, goes into Tartarus still as bad as ever, with the finale ending with her wicked grin. I imagine that if Starlight had been sent (which I myself wonder if perhaps she should have; even if only temporarily), she would have already felt repentant as she went in.
So, that’s my attempt in explaining it. The only matter I can’t explain is age; was sending a filly necessary?
Shadow Play got Friendship Gamed
By: MugetsuxASK
It’s pretty common knowledge that “Friendship Games” was radically changed from Josh Haber’s original script at the behest of Hasbro to push Sci-Twi and to keep EqG and Fim as separate as possible. Higher meddling made the story and a song worse by cutting Sunset’s arc out, and I think this happened with S7 of FiM.
I’ve always said Shadow Play would have been better if instead of Starlight, we had Celestia and, importantly, LUNA as key players. Luna hits all the beats Starlight did (magically adept, Twilight reformed villain, can believably read Starswirl’s handwriting) while also having a personal attachment to Starswirl and the villain (originally). Remove the pillars making the Elements and Stygian retcons, and you could have this big, deep retrospective story that has the Mane 6 and the princesses question their successes and mistakes when faced with these heroes, ending with them showing that it’s Friendship that makes them stronger than them, what saved Luna, what made Twilight ascend. Follows up on Legends of Magic #1 and calls back to not only Josh Haber’s first episode, but the first episode period.
Like it works so well I’d put money on this being the original vision of a series finale. Heck, I’d even say “A Royal Problem” suffered from this too. Probably was an episode meant to re-establish Twilight and Luna’s bond for the finale, offering a unique dynamic of having Twilight side with either her friend or her mentor, resulting in her fearing the return of Nightmare Moon or the birth of Daybreaker, but that got scrapped because Starlight. Heck, don’t even need to change the plot, just have them swap without the cutie marks like in the comics.
Tl;Dr: Haber got Larsoned. Again.
