We need more soapboxes! Submit them ye foals.
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 PST. To submit your own, see this post.
Headlines this week:
- Why the Discord being Grogar twist works?
- On the ending of my Little Pony FiM
- How did Spike end up at the School of Magic
- Resolve Marble’s Heartbreak in a Future Hearth’s Warming Special? (Idea)
- My Problem with Celestia
And get your soapboxes below!
Why the Discord being Grogar twist works?
By ShadowWriter45
When I first saw that moment when it was revealed that Discord was pretending to be Grogar, I was genuinely surprised by it and I was glad it was this why. While I've heard some complain about this twist as being a betrayal of Discord's character and it ruins what we could have gotten with Grogar, I was really glad about this twist and I think it is better than us getting the actual Grogar this time around.
The reason being the plot holes I noticed with Grogar as the season went on: "Why did he wait this long?", "How come he couldn't sense his own bell in the room", and it didn't undermine what Chyrsalis, Cozy Glow, and Tirek were planning in the slightest.
He said he was bidding his time and gathering power but the problem is he would have had enough power over a 1000 years. Plus, he would have started recruiting more villains into his group as time went on; even having multiple opportunities to recruit somepony like Starlight before her reformation.
If the bell had his magic in it you would think that he would know it was in the room. Discord wouldn't sense it since it's not his magic and that's why he believed them when they said they couldn't get it. Discord knew the "security" of the place to the point where he would have believed they couldn't get it.
Lastly, we've always been following the Evil Trio through season 9 that I would have preferred to see their plans come together rather than them getting overshadowed by "Grogar's" plan that we never really knew. While I would have wanted to see Grogar as the finale villain, the Evil Trio just did more than him to the point where I didn't care for him.
Lastly, as for Discord's character, him staging things to test Twilight is in this character since he's been doing that since season 4. This was just on a grander scheme that went out of control and he failed to take into account a lot of things. I'm sure he's going to get an earful from Fluttershy anyway about this.
On the ending of my Little Pony FiM
By Fluttershypegasus
The day has come. The one few of us really wanted to happen, but has occurred nonetheless. FiM has joined the likes of Middle Earth and Redwall; stories who’s final chapter has closed.
But in a way, these stories haven’t ended, not really. Do these stories not all have the same underlying ideas? For example, both LOTR and MLP handle the idea of growing up in a very similar way; Merry and Pippin become taller via the magical Ent Draught and the CMC become older via a magical plant. Is it a mere coincidence we see the same ideas in these works or is it something more? That perhaps we see the souls of these characters, of kindness, loyalty, honesty, generosity, laughter and of course friendship play over and over again throughout every truly great story?
These are phrased as questions because I do not intend to state this as fact, merely to make you think about how these characters have affected you and if they will ever truly leave you, or whether they shall be born and reborn again for as long as stories are written. I shall end this, fittingly, with some quotes about endings.
“There are no happy endings, because nothing ends.”
-The Last Unicorn
“This Song is ending, but the story never ends.”
-Doctor Who
How did Spike end up at the School of Magic
By: FlareGun45
There's only one thing about Spike's origins I wanna know about. His parents and wherever Spike's from, it don't matter, but personally, I just wanna know how Spike got to the School of Magic in the first place. He coulda just been left there, or maybe he was found by someone. The question is: WHO?
I can tell you DIDN'T find him - nopony Spike knows, that includes the princesses. I know there are people who think the princesses found him, or maybe they knew a dragon that died and gave them their egg, but if that were the case, why doesn't Celestia and Luna have a huge bond with Spike then? Sure they're friends, but I haven't seen a huge emotional connection between them. Plus if they knew how Spike ended up at the school, wouldn't they have TOLD him by now? If Spike doesn't know, then they don't either. It's very likely that Spike was just left on their doorstep, or someone in the school staff took him in and Celestia had nothing to do with the egg in the first place.
If yunno me well, you already know that I believe Scorpan was the one who found his egg, but I got no way of proving it, other than they were close in G1 and Scorpan let Spike go with the ponies after the events of Rescue at Midnight Castle. So what if a similar scenario happened? I'll get more into this in the next soapbox!
Either way, if someone found Spike's egg, Spike and that person could very well have a bond that rivals his bond with Twilight! Twilight raised him, but whoever found him, well... found him, and gave him the life he deserved. That's why I wanna know who found his egg - so this story opportunity can happen! If this happens, hopefully they're not another Sludge and actually cares about Spike's well-being! Maybe they'd give Spike more attention than Twilight ever did, which like I said, would rival his relationship with her! I'd prefer this over Sludge anyday!
So how do you think Spike ended up at the school? Would you like an answer, and see this story happen?
Resolve Marble’s Heartbreak in a Future Hearth’s Warming Special? (Idea)
By Buzzy McBuzzle
So I was one of those people who felt bad for Marble in Best Gift Ever, and was hoping there’d be an episode focusing on her this final season to tie up this loose end, along with giving her some character development. Unfortunately no such episode ever happened, and I feel a golden opportunity has been missed. There have been suggestions to deal with this in one of the future S10 comics, and given the circumstances is probably the best option.
But another idea could be to have it be the subject of a future Hearth’s Warming special, because the nice thing about TV specials is that they’re generally standalones set at a particular point chronologically in the main series, so in theory there’s no reason why such an episode can’t happen just because the finale already aired. And when you think about it, all MarbleMac moments in the series only ever happened in Hearth's Warming episodes, so it'd be fitting to have it resolved in a Hearth's Warming episode too. (And it’s not because I’d like to hear her fully speak for once, no sir....)
Also being a Hearth’s Warming episode means that the Apples and Pies would be meeting up with each other once again, providing a convenient plot setup for Marble facing her feelings and having to work through them. As to how the story should flesh out however I’m not sure, and feel this is something best left open for discussion. Maybe the families decide to go to somewhere like Appleloosa for Hearth’s Warming and Marble, after learning to move on, ends up hooking up with one of the locals she meets? Maybe also have a subplot focusing on Limestone to develop her character as well? I dunno, I’m not a writer…
(For the record I see very little chance of this idea actually happening, but it’s interesting food for thought nonetheless IMO)
My Problem with Celestia
by LoneWolf
First of all I want to see Celestia an excellent teacher that shown to be true. However, her leadership skills are horrid. In most season finales, we’ve seen her be dismal in distress of need saving from Twilight; heck in season 6 she needed to be saved by Twi’ student.
She was defeated by Queen Chrysalis TWICE. The problem then spreads to the rest of the princess as well. With Luna being the only princess to actual be smart about matters. She was the only one to warn Starlight about the changelings and if it wasn't for her, Equestria would have easily taken over. What strikes me odd is that in the time between season 2's finale and season 6's is that Celestia didn't improve Equerstria's defenses. Instead, she still had on Twi fix everything while sitting on her throne. Heck, its shown in the movie how bad of a leader she is with being her stuck in stuck in stone within the first fifteen minutes of the film.
My problem with Celestia (and the rest of the princess by extension) is that they are dismals in distress and it wasn't fixed until the final season.
