As revealed a while ago, soapboxes will now happen once we get enough submissions for it. Send them whenever, but also expect them whenever!
If you'd like to submit one, hit this post up.
This time around, your headlines include:
- Why Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry are meant to be together
- Thorax's Time Gap
- Does Thorax deserve his title?
- Why I Dislike For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils
- Don’t bring politics into shows like Friendship is Magic
Get the articles below!
Don’t bring politics into shows like Friendship is Magic
By: S-Class Destroyer
Yes, I know what you are all thinking: it has been a while. The Destroyer returns to give you a different type of soapbox that you may or may not be expecting, for this is no theory: it is a message to voice my state of mind.
With all the crazy happenings that are currently going on with the world, often you need to be interested (or appear interested even) in politics in order to grasp what happens next. A show like Friendship is Magic has no clear political undertones lying throughout since its target demographic are too young to fully understand such knowledge about how governments are run and the reasoning behind the laws and decision makings, hence why voting is restricted to adults. We may have Mayor Mare but that is only to oversee the citizens of Ponyville. You could also argue that the monarchy have the what you may refer to as the government of Equestria; but that has got nothing to do with left or right wing politics or any politics across the globe. In what way are you able to prove that the show either as a segment or as a whole has the ability to prove such message? Well the answer is simply: no. If such circumstances of leadership involving politics is not shown, then I clearly do not see the point of vehemently proving it with episodes from the show as if it had something to do with real life politics. Because it doesn't, it is so obvious yet some people just squeeze the exhaust manifold dry to the point where the points do not cohort to a justified conclusion.
You may know me on here simply as 'The Destroyer'. That post from January had been stuck in my mind for a while, and as a result I returned to deliver. No controversial or trolled opinion should belong on such a site like this. So in conclusion...
If you cannot successfully prove that a show has anything to do with real life politics, then don't bring it up for all of us here to see and be shocked by. Go write some clickbait assessment that takes six hours to read or something.
Why I Dislike For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils
By: A Shy Brony
Ready to destroy my reputation on Equestria Daily?
Once on a Nightly Discussion, I told everyone that For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils is one of my least favorite episodes. That statement earned some, we’ll call it disdain, from some users, one even told me not to write a soapbox on this topic. Silly, now you’ve just confirmed that I’m going to write and submit this soapbox! But in all seriousness, I do dislike this episode quite a bit, and I know I’m in the minority for thinking that. This soapbox is meant to be a way for me to explain why I feel the way I do about this episode.
First of all, the primary reason for me disliking this episode is that I feel it makes Sisterhooves Social useless as an episode. Isn’t the whole point of Sisterhooves Social that Rarity and Sweetie Belle form a closer bond as sisters? So why is Sweetie Belle such a jerk to Rarity in For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils? The beauty of Sisterhooves Social is that Sweetie Belle and Rarity fix their bond mostly on their own, only getting a little assistance from Applejack and Apple Bloom. Yet in For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils, it takes the direct intervention of Princess Luna herself to get Sweetie Belle to see the error in her ways. To summarize what I’m saying, it seems to me that Sweetie Belle ultimately learned nothing from the Sisterhoof Social, nullifying the lesson of that episode.
The other big problem I have with For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils is how Sweetie Belle acts. As an older sibling with a younger sibling myself, I understand that older siblings can be kind of a jerk sometimes, I’m not faulting Sweetie Belle for being upset. But if she had just talked it out with Rarity, instead of doing the cilice “You don’t understand at all!”stonewalling, the episode could have ended in a sensible manner. Instead, Sweetie Belle somehow comes to the conclusion Rarity hates her, and to get back, she’ll sabotage her big sister’s career. Now I don’t think Rarity’s entire business would have collapsed from one bad deal, but it was still ridiculous of Sweetie Belle to even consider doing something so dastardly to her older sister. Sweetie Belle is often shown to be the most mature of the CMC, like how she wanted to tell Applejack about Babs Seed bullying them the whole time, so sabotaging Rarity seems out of character for Sweetie Belle.
I know I’m going to probably get a lot of hate for this soapbox, and that’s fine. We all have opinions that most would find unpopular. I always read the comments of the soapbox posts, and I would love to hear why you agree or disagree with my points, as long as you act in civil manner and not post something like “You and your Soapbox Suck! DOWNVOTE!!”
Does Thorax deserve his title?
By: Toad256
Thorax, king of the changelings. He definitely didn’t earn his title, but I’m gonna go through his episodes to see if he earned some accomplishments to make his title more deserving.
His first appearance in The Times they are a Changeling. He didn’t show any leadership or courage in the episode. The only realms of importance he did was making friends with the dominant power and maybe got some foreign recognition even though he probably didn’t think of that.
In To Where and Back Again, Thorax did show himself being courageous in following the plans while moving throughout the hive and he and the group probably didn’t think they were going to overthrow Chrysalis in the end, but Thorax didn’t show leadership during the episode. The plans were Starlight’s ideas not his, and when Celestia declared him as the Changelings new leader, I saw Thorax more as a puppet then an actual King. Doesn’t help that in Celestial Advice Thorax says that ruling a kingdom is overwhelming.
Next appearance is in Triple Threat where he goes to Spike for help. He's having problems consolidating his power and dealing with renegade changelings. Spike didn't help but Ember helped him learn how to be more assertive with his subjects. Having relations with others besides Equestria is always good.
Next in To Change a Changeling we actually see Thorax being a king. He is providing to his subjects of different activities of crafting and dancing, and adding a feelings forum. But he was also too passive about the maulworth situation of diverting it from the Hive when he could just fight it. And his brother, if Starlight and Trixie weren't there I expect Thorax would make the smart decision of banishment. But Pharynx was redeemed and hopefully his second in command. Thorax got some people with loyalty in his court.
Now in School Daze, good for Thorax to bring Ocellus to improve relations and I do like his sass at the end of the first part. But at the meeting. Yes I know it's important to focus on finding the students but please Thorax stand up for yourself and your kingdom. Don't have to instigate but when some creature insults you don't just take it. And actually at the end of School Daze with Neighsay's comments we actually see Thorax showing some anger good for him.
The Heartwarming Club, Thorax didn't appear but from Ocellus told that Twilight spread the pony holiday of Heartwarming to the Changelings. Like my heart likes it, but part of my brain is thinking of changelings assimilating to pony culture. Like Thorax is there no changeling holiday when it snows?
Uprooted we see Thorax going out of his way to know where Ocellus which I see is very good. And the Ending of the End. Thorax probably helped because he thought he had to not because of benefits.
King Thorax didn't earn his title but I think he did enough to make his title more meaningful for Equestria.
Thorax's Time Gap
By Alexrioponylover95
Hello everycreature!
So one of my most favorite non-pony characters in FiM is Thorax, the one changeling who wanted to be different from the rest of his kind and well became the changeling leader in the end. Such examples like him being the only non-pony leader who kept a cool head in School Daze is why he’s a favorite of mine. (Although he did lose his cool at the end of the premiere, which I don’t blame him for, Neighsay was being a real jerk back than and I guess even Thorax had his limits on what he could take…)
Anyway… That’s not the point of this soapbox…
The point of this one is that Thorax had a very great time gap in between The Times They Are A Changeling and To Where and Back Again Part 1, with many questions left unanswered since than. I know it’s a very short amount of time to have another episode about him in between the two, but it would have been nice if we could have checked in on Thorax.
For starters, in To Where and Back Again Part 1, as Thorax finds Starlight and Trixie after having left the Crystal Empire to seek help from Twilight, Thorax’s wings have changed to a more crystal style, hinting that something very important happened to the changeling. Maybe something like the Crystal Empire finally accepted him and well pouring their love in the Crystal Heart, which in turn transformed Thorax’s wings.
And this moves on to another point… It would have been nice to see how Thorax adjusted to his whole new life, being in a place far different from the hive and the hostile tone of it. And not only that, but well at first the Crystal ponies I’m sure wouldn’t know how to deal with this new guest in the Empire and some probably didn’t trust Thorax at first. It would have been interesting to see how Thorax overcame this and earned the Crystal ponies’ trust and reassure them he was friendly.
FiM has done a very good job in showing Thorax’s character after To Where and Back Again and developing him enough, but well the writers could have done a little bit more with Thorax’s time living in the Crystal Empire, it would have completed his character and given a very nice insight to how ponies in general react to other races, especially those that are not quite friendly…
But again those are just my thoughts! As always what are your’s? And what else would you have wanted to see of Thorax?
Why Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry are meant to be together
By Double C
As the new ruler of Equestria, Twilight should have more than just Spike around her and that she should have her own personal guard. Proposed and planned for a long time by Cadence, Flash Sentry was picked as her very own royal guard that will maintain security details and help Twilight with royal business. I know that he was station at the Crystal Empire when he made his first appearance in the first Equestria Girls movie, but if you all saw Forgotten Friendship Flash was seen guarding the Canterlot library entrance when Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and Sunset entered. His presents in Canterlot is either he was reassigned or to become an officer like a lieutenant or caption. But whatever the reason Flash is in Canterlot and not at the Crystal Empire is proof that he can be assigned as Twilight’s personal guard. Twilight at first would feel nervous of having Flash as her personal guard but accepted him as another extra help around.
Twilight would learn more things about Flash that even though he is different than his human counterpart that she had a crush on he still has some similarities and even more. Like she learns that he cares about everyone’s safety like an older brother and feel bad when things go wrong, something she would do. He also has his ways of teaching and inspiring others that is off book but works like with Gallus. Many of you guys believe that Flash played a role in Gallus becoming a royal guard and maybe it is true since it will build more character for Flash. It is unknown how or why Gallus join but likely he got into trouble, sent to Canterlot for discipline lessons, and Twilight assign Flash to mentor him. Flash would teach Gallus of how the royal guards train to not only to protect their princess and country but also to protect each other like a family. So throughout his lessons, Gallus saw Flash not only as a teacher but as a brother which inspired him to join the royal guards. When they have time to relax, Flash would show Twilight how to have fun and this will help get them closer to each other especially when he plays the guitar.
Eventually they will admit their feeling to each other and become a couple that everyone knew would happen with Shining being jaw dropping surprised. The embarrassing moment is when they both invite their parents for dinner with each one talking about their children’s embarrassing moment, how cute they were, and grandchildren. Twilight and Flash would go on a double date with Shining and Cadence with them enjoying each company. They will have many problems like who should be planning and how things are done right until finally they both huffed and stomped away from each other. But they both will start to feel bad for yelling at each other and they both ran back to each other hugging and apologizing.
