NOTE: As I have said in the past, the soapbox post is for anyone to say anything pony as long as it is SFW and readable. This includes controversial opinions like that piece in this one.
Obviously none on staff agree with said opinion, but that was the original idea for the weekly soapbox post. I'll be getting a followup post about soapboxes' future up soon. For now, yes, the anon below is controversial. That has always been allowed in soapbox.
We took a break on these for the holidays. Lets get back in the swing of things! Send some soapboxes!
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:
- The Main Flaws of Trixie Lulamoon Throughout Her Character Development
- Fanfiction Does it Better
- FiM is NOT for Left-Wing Politics but AGAINST It!
- Leaving the Fandom
And get your soapboxes below!
The Main Flaws of Trixie Lulamoon Throughout Her Character Development
Trixie was always a villainous character at the start of FiM, but over the course of her character development, especially her reformation throughout (befriending Starlight), there are more genuine flaws that she still has, even in recent seasons. I know this site explodes over Trixie, so let's get this started.
1. She's Oblivious: In the Season 7 episode all bottled up. She often ignores Starlight's bottled up anger and rather focuses on her day-to-day outgoings despite the fact that she is obviously with her. Often not considering that red cloud emitting out of her horn, let alone her bag makes Trixie often undermine the consequences. Luckily she learnt that lesson in the end.
2. She's too proud of herself: Pride being one of the seven deadly sins due to her referring herself as: 'The Great and Powerful' makes one assume that she puts herself above other ponies as she's the one that other must look up to the most.
3. She's stubborn: The Season 9 episode A Horse Shoe-In often depicts her as one to be less accepting of change towards Starlight such as Trixie not getting Vice Head-Mare, including it distorting their 'Social Schedule.'
FiM is NOT for Left-Wing Politics but AGAINST It!
By: Anonymous
I’ve decided to write this entry after seeing (yet again) someone saying that FiM is promoting western left, liberal ideals. Which isn’t true.
First of all, the western left is no longer liberal. It advocates censorship, demands equality of outcome (as opposed to equality of opportunity), and in general modern left-wing activists do everything in their power to deny people their liberties.
Second, while MLP: FiM indeed promotes liberal values, in many episodes it also upholds traditional values, like family, patriotism, and respect for history. And as for modern leftist, intersectional, “social justice” politics – here are just a few episodes that go directly against those:
Hearth's Warming Eve – this episode plays against the narrative that “there is only one group that oppresses others” and the general notion of oppression hierarchy. Yes, unicorn “master race” has the upper hoof in magical abilities, but that doesn’t mean other “tribes” aren’t just as bad in their prejudices.
It Ain't Easy Being Breezies – just replace “breezies” with any type of minority or “disadvantaged group” and you’ll see that the episode basically tells that you shouldn’t pander to people you supposed to care for or to indulge in their whims. But instead, actually, tackle the problem they face, sometimes even pushing them against their desires.
The Cutie Map – so many people saw communist ideas in Starlight’s town that sometimes they call her Marxhorse. However, in reality, her cult has very little to do with Marx or Lenin and a lot more with modern “social justice” agenda. Starlight doesn’t really care about “means of production”, her main goal is equity, also known as equality of outcome – a society where no one can rise above the others in any capacity. In other words, everyone should be just like the rest.
To Change a Changeling – the whole Changelings history is kinda at odds with “let’s open our borders so everyone can come in” narrative. But after Changelings changed and embraced friendship they show an example of “enlightened” and “inclusive” community, right?
If anything the story of Pharynx shows is that even an “inclusive” community actually not that inclusive. As warrior Changelings like him are not welcome in the society that promotes different values. But that’s not all. In the end, it’s actually “conservative” Pharynx who is shown to be in the right, as even “new and improved” Changelings are shown to be in need of defending themselves.
Marks and Recreation – I bet the whole idea for the episode came up after someone compared Cutie Marks to enforcing conformity to specific roles (like gender roles, etc) in society. But even if it wasn’t, the way how Rumble argues with CMC about them “trying to put him in a box” with using all the fallacies imaginable, resembles Social Justice Warriors quite clearly. Plus, we see exactly how his “rebellion against oppressive norms” has actually quite different, hidden motives.
Sounds of Silence – while I personally don’t see this episode as advocating for free speech, many people do. After all, solve all possible conflicts by not speaking offensive things – it’s what modern left suggests to do.
School Raze – The main story arc Season 8 looks like pro-left, right? Fight against prejudice, racism/speciesism – those are supposed to be main topics. However, who was the main villain in the end? It was Cozy, who actually used everypony’s desire to fight prejudice (represented by Neighsay) to grab herself power over the School of Friendship. Kinda makes you think if real people who claim to champion the rights of minorities can be the same.
Fanfiction Does it Better
By: V-bax
I love the show, but really don't think the writing was as amazing as everyone says it is. Not because the writers on Friendship is Magic were bad, but due to the limits of having to stick to a very specific style to not anger parents.
The world Lauren Faust left us after season 2 has so much potential to explore a host of interesting topics, and not being able to delve into some of the weirder ideas about a magical pseudo-tech utopia is where things kinda left a lot of us wanting. Luckily Fanfiction is here to pick up the slack. You can find just about any genre you want with any rating. Maybe some day we will see a more openly themed pony cartoon, but for now it's nice to have a place to find stories that aren't afraid to take some risks.
Leaving the Fandom
By: FlareGun45
Don't let the title fool you - I'm not leaving..... yet! ;) But there was actually a time I was close to leaving cause I couldn't take much more of a nonsensical thing about the show, and when I said I was gonna go, people stopped me from leaving. Hmm, well, it just shows how much everyone really is my friend here! :3 But that's besides the point. Even though my mind has been changed, others might not feel the same way.
People consider MLP as a safe-zone from real-life, a place of comfort, to get away from their troubles. Then there are times when the safe-zone doesn't feel so safe anymore, and some content on the show makes them uncomfortable, and in some cases, they wanna just quit the show and by extension the fandom, and what happens is, they get shamed for it.
I know we all care for one-another and don't want any of us to leave, but not everyone thinks the same way - and if they wanna leave, we don't really have the right to stop them, and we shouldn't shame them for it either - it might just make the problem worse. So we just gotta accept that there are people that wanna leave the fandom. Another reason includes: they just wanna quit before Pony Life or G5 ruins it for them (their words, not mine)! Or they just feel harrassed by certain people of the fandom - gotta think about their point of view too, not just ours!
Sorry, it has to be this way, but hey, those who left at least got something outta this, so let's look at it like that! ;)
