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 1:00 PM PST. To submit your own, see this post.
Headlines this week:
- Similarities Between Equestria And The Holy Roman Empire
- The Fandom is NOT Clop Focused Now!
- A Reason For Discord's Actions in the Finale
- FiM References to Stephen King’s Dark Tower
- Why is Trixie so full of herself?
And get your soapboxes below!
A Reason For Discord's Actions in the Finale
By: Sugar Loop
(Includes spoilers!)
So Discord being Grogar and being the one to team up the villains has been a very controversial move for many fans. They see it as being selfish and stupid and not making sense, and that he never learned anything about friendship and that he doesn’t care about anyone but Fluttershy. However, I think it can be argued that he did this in the name of friendship. Or at least, what he sees as friendship. He’s like a child acting out for attention. He only has one true friend in Fluttershy. He hangs out with Big Mac and Spike, but as shown in The Big Mac Question, they get easily frustrated with his antics and deem him untrustworthy. When he comes to town sick in Three’s a Crowd, most of the girls run away in order to not spend time with him. The only time he’s ever appreciated is when he uses his powers to help the ponies out in dire situations. In Celestial Advice he’s praised and given a medal for helping to save the day from Chrysalis! From there, though, he fades into the background and goes back to the status quo. I believe he set up a deliberately dangerous situation (King Sombra, then the team-up) in order to become close with the Mane Six again, even if he didn’t realize he was doing it. After all, as Discord said, “Remember the cheering? The hoof-bumps?” These situations seem to be the only positive interactions he has with them. While it doesn’t excuse his actions, I definitely think it makes sense if this is the only way he can see having a friendship with them.
The Fandom is NOT Clop Focused Now!
Author: Bees
I am so tired of this mindset that everyone has turned into cloppers! There are still lots of people out there that are NOT into it. No matter where I go someone brings up that they are into that stuff like it's totally normal then everyone chimes in saying they agree! They always bring up upvotes and views on fanfictions and art, but that isn't a good metric since cloppers use upvotes to save things online instead of saving it on their computer.... I've known a few people that do this! Please stop perpetuating this idea that the fandom mainly likes clop. It's just wrong.
FiM References to Stephen King’s Dark Tower
By: EnergeticRider
A couple of weeks ago there was an entry about similarities between the Tree of Harmony and some magical trees in Tolkien’s Silmarillion. But in my opinion, FiM has far more connections with another book series… Stephen King’s Dark Tower.
Let’s start with The Rose. After all, it’s at the center of the Dark Tower universe. In fact, The Rose IS the Dark Tower, or rather a manifestation of the Dark Tower on Keystone Earth. The Rose spreads around itself an aura of harmony and peace. It guides the main characters and plays a crucial part in keeping dark creatures and discord at bay. Sounds familiar?
Unlike the Tree of Harmony, The Rose/Dark Tower is never destroyed. Though one can argue that Tree also wasn’t actually destroyed, since its roots were spread across the land, reaching School of Friendship and eventually, Student Six made the Tree to be reborn as Tree-House (yet another parallel with The Rose which is also Dark Tower).
Other references aren’t as prominent, but they still are a few. For example, bad guys who want to destroy the rose have a front company on Keystone Earth which is called Sombra Corporation.
There is also an interesting term in Dark Tower lore. “Todash” –it’s sort of an astral projection, except when you “go todash” you are projected to another world. And interestingly enough, when the Gunslinger and his followers come to the town of Calla, they are sent toDASH by an artifact called Merlin’s RAINBOW.
Maybe it’s all just a freakin coincidence. But there is also a big chance that someone in the FiM production team was inspired by Dark Tower ideas.
Why is Trixie so full of herself?
By: FlareGun45
So there's something that's always puzzled me about Trixie. WHY is he so egoistical? There are multiple different ways that could answer the question!
1. Due to not having to ever met her dad, she only had her mom around, and I'm guessing that Trixie's mom once thought he was a very special pony (or still does, who knows), and is constantly calling Trixie a "Great and Powerful" pony. Basically, her mom might be feeding her ego.
2. Trixie knows that Jack Pot is her dad, and therefore considers herself "Great and Powerful" of being the offspring to him. Does she have the confidence to actually meet him though? I mean, if she knew the entire time, there's something holding her back then. The devs did hint by saying, "Does Jack Pot KNOW she's his daughter?" Implying he does not.
3. Maybe Trixie always had some confidence issues and no one ever called her "special", and knowing she never had any friends before Starlight, she might be using the ego as a confidence boost to help her feel better about herself. She's in denial. But then why does she keep it now, now that she has friends? I guess it's a permanent part of her now.
So why do you think Trixie has a huge ego?
Similarities Between Equestria And The Holy Roman Empire
The closest human, real world counterpart to the fictional pony nation of Equestria is probably the Holy Roman Empire, a predecessor of modern Germany lasting from 962 to 1806 AD or CE.
First of all, both have royal rulers (one or more Alicorn Princesses and the Holy Roman Emperor).
Second, both have local, subnational entities with a large degree of autonomy (the Equestrian cities and towns and the Holy Roman estates and Free Imperial Cities).
Third, both had national assemblies with delegates appointed by local authorities (the Grand Equestria Pony Summit and the Imperial Diet).
Finally, the Holy Roman Empire had religious divisions between Catholics and Protestants and Equestria likely had racial divisions between ponies and non-ponies.
