Enough people came out of the woodwork for a soapbox already! As promised, these will be releasing as we get enough rather than weekly, so feel free to submit your soapbox ideas whenever!
The new cap on wordcount is 500 going forward, so try to keep it under that. For info on submitting, hit this post up!
And in other news, while we are still allowing wild fan theories and crazy opinions that may or may not make any sense whatsoever, we are going to avoid the political side for a bit. I know everyone is fired up about some of the recent soapbox pieces, but they kinda distract from everything else.
Now to get this rounds soapboxes below:
- More Pillars and Young 6 Interaction was Needed!
- The Superior Generations
- Pastoral Idealism & Equestria: How Friendship is Magic Romanticizes Rural Living"
- Hasbro Really Dropped the Ball On Milking Friendship is Magic at It's Peak
- Did Lyra Create The Portal To Equestria Girls?
More Pillars and Young 6 Interaction was Needed!
By Alexrioponylover95
Hello everycreature!
So I think MLP: FiM in the end has done a very good job in different characters interacting with each other and facing problems together, however there is one thing I wished the show would have tackled at least a little more and that is the interaction between the Pillars of Equestria and the Young 6. (Or Student 6 if you prefer that term)
The only really big interaction we got between two members of the two groups was A Rockhoof and a Hard Place, in which Rockhoof had trouble fitting into the changed society of Equestria. Both the Mane 6 and Pillars couldn’t help the big guy and he pretty much gave up until Yona was the one who managed to help him in the end. Why couldn’t there be more episodes like this one?
The Pillars are the original founders of the Elements of Harmony, but they wouldn’t last forever and as Twilight told the trio of villains during the Season 9 finale, there will be “Others who will continue our mission after we are gone!” while lifting up the Young 6, they will be the elements once the Pillars and the Mane 6 are gone and can’t continue on anymore. Wouldn’t it make sense for the Young 6 to than learn from the Pillars by sharing problems or going off on adventures together?
In fact I very much imagined a season finale where the Pillars and the Young 6 have to team up because the Mane 6 are trapped by a villain and it’s up to the old and new elements of harmony to save Equestria together. And of course new bonds are forged and we could than have a season where maybe even the Pillars and Young 6 are sent on map adventures together and they learn from each other, while solving the problem they were sent to find a solution to.
Now of course the question does remind that who would be paired with who… I once heard from one of Silver Quill’s videos that limiting the Young 6 to their Mane 6 counterparts doesn’t really add to their potential as characters, but why not? If the Young 6 are truly meant to represent the future elements of harmony, they do need to have their elements picked for them.
So here is how I imagine the pairing of the Pillars and the Young 6:
Yona with Rockhoof (For obvious reasons)
Ocellus with Mage Meadowbrook,
Silverstream with Somnambula
Smolder with Flash Magnus
Sandbar with Mistmane
Gallus with Starswirl
Feel free to disagree with me on these pairings, someone might be better with someone else between these two groups! And I really do hope that maybe we will get to see some more Pillars and Young 6 interaction in the Season 10 comics!
The Superior Generations
By: EverEverOn
Generations 1 through 3 are the best in my opinion. Yeah, the cartoons are simple and aimed at kids, but that's the point. My Little Pony is for targeted towards kids. And cartoons don't need to be complex to be enjoyable.
But it's the toys that make the old generations better than G4. While G4 releases the same six ponies over and over again with little variety, the old gens created tons upon tons of unique characters. The quality of the toys and the packaging artwork are much nicer than most G4 products. G4 is known for terrible hair and packaging that's lackluster. I miss the good old days when all ponies had stories on their cards and soft, silky hair that wasn't matted right after being opened. The days when the toys were fun to collect because they were all different.
And it's worth noting how today's ponies look nothing like, well, ponies. Flat faces and slim bodies barely resemble any equine I know. Gens 1-3 are actually recognizable as horses. G4? Deer/cat hybrids in my eyes. Short and stubby ponies are far superior.
The hate the old generations get makes me so sad. They're just as important to people as G4. For many, they were their childhood. I grew up obsessed with G3, and I wouldn't change that for the world.
Did Lyra Create The Portal To Equestria Girls?
By: S-Class Destroyer
I'd thought this would never happen until now, The Destroyer is back for another write-up and this week as promised I'll be introducing Lyra! Specifically a thesis on whether she created the portal to the human Equestria universe before Sunset did, or did she work with Sunset for this to work? Let's see...
1. Lyra preconcepted Anthropology. It may be hard to acknowledge that Lrya (in the show) may be an anthropologist in the show as besides; the fandom made that for her. But let's take a moment to recollect on previous occurrences within FiM itself. Firstly: do you remember her sitting oddly, do you notice that her wife (yes it's canon feature now) Bon Bon is always speaking differently with every line said, Bon Bon (Agent Sweetiedrops) may not just have a job of her own, but one of her missions was to secretly infiltrate the import centre where Lyra would ask about those 'oats.' Well joking aside, Bon Bon could've been supplying Lyra long before that with certain gear that she's need for her anthropology assets. Think of it this way, Bon Bon is always seen in the foreground more, meaning that everypony is making the assumption that she is just doing her job. Or is she?
2. Her prominent background status. Lyra is always in the background (almost like Bon Bon) to remain a low profile so that the royal guards don't find her or that Twilight does not know she was partly (or inadvertently) involved in Sunset's burglary of the crown and therefore facing possible arrest by the role guard. In EG, the pair seem content (yet friendly competitive) with one another and seem to not be bothered about the universe that they are living in as Bon Bon already knows about Lyra's motivations and therefore (in secrecy) able to live the alibi full frontally without having anything to do with Sunset Shimmer anymore, even when in FiM they were once conjoined to one another.
Pastoral Idealism & Equestria: How Friendship is Magic Romanticizes Rural Living"
by: Christopher
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic possesses a large and diverse world that is extensively explored throughout the series. However, in spite of this, one must remain cognizant of the fact that the show largely takes place in Ponyville, a rural setting. Within this essay, I intend on exploring how the show largely idealizes rural Equestria, particularly vis-a-vie urban Equestria and how this portrayal reflects real world perceptions of rural America.
In modern America, particularly in television, rural folk are often portrayed as being mentally slow, inbred, and bigoted. While such stereotypes aren’t completely baseless (after all there are rural folk who live up to these stereotypes), as an Oklahoman I can attest that most of us aren’t like that. Most of us are normal, decent folk who love our communities and want to make them better. This is why the characterization of rural ponies (especially Applejack) is a refreshing change of pace. Her and the rest of the Apple Family generally are intelligent, kind-hearted and loving towards both their family and total strangers, (apple)bucking the trend.
However, the show goes above and beyond simply having positive rural role models. While this is likely not the intent of the show’s writers, urbanites were frequently portrayed as being snobbish, aloof, and arrogant, while rural ponies were portrayed as virtuous, generally being more productive, hospitable, and (relatively) less close minded. “Sweet and Elite” is likely the most glaring example of the rural vs. urban divide in the show, with the ponies of Canterlot being portrayed as wishy-washy elites who look down upon those who aren’t from the city (Fancy Pants being the exception). On the other hoof, when Twilight visits Ponyville in the pilot, she is treated kindly by everypony that she interacts with. This hospitality towards strangers is manifested again and again throughout the series as Ponyville and Appaloosa are generally portrayed as welcoming communities.
The show goes so far out of its way to avoid a negative portrayal of rural life, that it beings to glamorize rural existence, largely glossing over the struggles and hardship that actual rural farmers have to endure. Sure, “Rainbow Roadtrip” deals with the decay of rural communities, but this is an exception to the rule. The fetishization of agrarian “simplicity and work-ethic” is personified by Trenderhoof in “Simple Ways,” where as an outsider is woefully ignorant of the difficulties of a relatively isolated existence which in turn is characterized by manual labour as opposed to intellectual labour.
This tendency of the show to idealize pastoral life is reflective of a broader trend within Western society for the past 200 years to regard rural life as more pure, fulfilling, and pleasurable. In the urban hell of the Industrial Revolution, writers, artists, intellectuals, and common urbanites nostalgically pined for the supposedly better past. Amidst this cultural zeitgeist, paintings, novels, and popular discourse yearned for a return to a bygone era, where individuals lived in tight-knit communities and directly enjoyed the (literal) fruit of their labour.
While contemporary popular culture tends to vilify the people of rural America, it doesn’t mind utilizing rural society and its “simplicity: as a backdrop for its stories. Hallmark movies almost always feature an urban woman finding a personal rebirth during a visit to rural America. The “Girl and Horse” genre of movies is another manifestation of such a trend.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is at its heart a syncretic fusion of these various trends in media. While it might adopt a (very welcome) change in tone in its portrayal of rural folk, it continues to propagate the notion that rural communities are stuck in time oasis that exist not for the betterment of the individuals who populate them, but rather for the moral betterment of urbanite transplants. Urban ponies like Twilight continue to be in the foreground, while rural natives are pushed to the background, their homes and community serving as props for an idyllic fantasy.
Hasbro Really Dropped the Ball On Milking Friendship is Magic at It's Peak
By: Rizzax
Remember the days when FiM was the biggest thing on the internet? I don't know if it is typical corporate slowness, or if they just didn't have the right people on board, but this cartoon had so much more potential than what they used it for. This fandom was everywhere back in 2012-2014, yet Hasbro was largely silent on anything major tying into it. Instead of side shows in Equestria, we got Equestria Girls. Instead of really fleshing out the incredible world, they forced Twilacorn and just turned it into royal stuff. I still loved the show, but why was the focus so far off what made it great in the first place?
They hired only a single really good licensee in 4de who seems to have just disappeared halfway through releasing their line. Instead all we had was terrible stuff like the weird looking ones with the streamers for a mane and tail, along with Aurora who always looked a little goofy. Even Build a Bear really isn't great. If Hasbro couldn't find anyone else willing to create high quality merch back then, why not bring it in-house? They've dealt with collectors for years. Do they really only have the capability of a single mass produced, recolored to death mold per generation as one of the biggest toy companies in the world? Then Guardians Of Harmony released and we finally got some pretty cool looking stuff, but it was just so late in the game. The fandom was long into it's decline at that point. I know people like to pretend we've always been huge, but after 2013 people were definitely getting bored. By 2015 most people outside of the few "collect it all" people that were still actively buying merch were buying fan-made stuff that was even higher quality that Guardians. Can you imagine if Hasbro created plushies like NK plushies who eventually dealt with a chinese factory to mass produced them during the peak? High quality stuff everyone would actually want. It just seems to sad.
