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 No Rainbow Roadtrip and Best Gift Ever Continuity?
- The 'Leader' of a Friendship Group
- Remaining Optimistic Through Pony Life
- My Opinion on Rarity and Ragamuffin
Get the articles below!
Why No Rainbow Roadtrip and Best Gift Ever Continuity?
By Alexrioponylover95
Hello everycreature!
So having rewatched Rainbow Roadtrip and Best Gift Ever, I noticed something… Friendship is Magic had no continuity from these two specials and yet the movie had plenty compared to the two specials… (Sorry Silver Quill, your meme can’t be used much here!)
First off, lets in fact talk about the movie continuity in FiM. The movie, which takes place between Seasons 7 and 8 is referenced right away in the Season 8 premiere, even Tempest is named right at the start. Fast froward to Father Knows Beast and Klugetown (The place the Mane 6 and Spike met Capper) is mentioned. And again fast froward to Between Dark and Dawn and Capper is in the background and once more during The Ending of the End and The Last Problem, the fact that both Tempest, Capper, Queen Novo, and Princess Skystar are present and more visible. Tempest being up front and center during the final battle against the remaining villains and Tempest and Capper being present during Twilight’s coronation.
There are probably more examples, but my point remains… The movie had a ton of continuity behind it in FiM.
And well why didn’t Rainbow Roadtrip and Best Gift Ever receive the same amount of treatment as the movie did? As far as I could see, there were no mentions of either special in the show after they aired, which is rather confusing because the specials certainly did have continuity from the show.
In Rainbow Roadtrip, the School of Friendship does in fact exist as Twilight does bring along some papers and tests to finish grading and leaves Spike in charge of filing class assignments while she’s gone. Now yes, the School of Friendship isn’t directly referenced here and we don’t see the actual school during the first few minutes that we see of Ponyville, but I think the hints are clear enough in this regard.
In Best Gift Ever, the school is once more brought up, this time we see the Young 6 head on home for the holidays, (And Gallus has learned his lesson this time around!) Twilight once more talking about grading midterms, and seeing Yona and Ocellus at home celebrating their holidays.
Now these specials could have been easily referenced in the show in my opinion, just showing some of the characters that appeared in the specials in the background would have been enough. Like for example, have Pistachio appeared in Rarity’s spread of supporting characters during the montage in The Magic of Friendship Grows or the three reindeers in Pinkie’s spread.
And well I would have liked to imagine that the ponies living in Hope Hollow would have also come rushing to the rescue of the Mane 6 and Spike in The Ending of the End. After all, the Mane 6 brought back the color to their town and made it a better place, why wouldn’t they return the favor?
Now yes, I guess you can argue that of course Rainbow Roadtrip was done in different animation style, but so was the movie and we saw Tempest and other characters redone in show style. And well I guess you can say that they were too far away, the Mane 6 had in fact spent at least half a day getting there by hot air balloon, but again the other lands were much further away, the Mane 6 spent much more time getting to Mt. Aris and well the hippogriffs of course joined in the final fight. And well another argument could be that they were not affected by the same tension as all the other ponies were, but Hope Hollow would still have seen the gathering storm clouds and possibly the Windigos and would figure out that something was wrong.
But yeah, this is getting long now… So what do you think, do you agree about the same continuity issues I have or not?
The 'Leader' of a Friendship Group
By: FlareGun45
They say Twilight's the leader of the Mane 6, and Apple Bloom is leader of the CMCs, and Sunset is leader of the Rainbooms - that actually feels kinda weird, cause I wouldn't call them "leaders". In real life friendship groups, they don't have leaders, they're not an army squad, they're not gettin' paid, they're just a group of friends most of the time, so why must there be a leader?
When there's a leader in a friendship group, there tends to be tension or mislead followings, something similar to the relationship between Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, with Diamond thinkin' she's higher up than her friend. Would a real life friendship group have a leader? Not really, cause what's the reason for a friendship group to have a leader? Each friend has their own suggestions they put on the table and they mutually decide which would work best - not one person should have the final say, yunno?
I mean, who elected Twilight leader of the Mane 6? I don't think anyone really - I don't think there was any confirmation of any of the friendship groups callin' some of their friends a 'leader'. The Mane 6 are equal basically, and each should have a say in any given situation, nopony has the final say. Why is Twilight the one that makes the decisions all the time? I have no idea. Maybe the Mane 5 can't think of anyting else, or maybe Twilight did assume the leadership role. I'm not sure, they never said. Neither did Apple Bloom of the CMCs.
Remaining Optimistic Through Pony Life
By: Ephrom Josine
Well, Pony Life is not for me. Is it awful? Far from it. Is it even bad? No, not really. It's just not particularly good. Especially compared to where Friendship Is Magic left off, or even where it began truth be told.
Of course, Pony Life is just a small project to keep us held over until Generation Five airs, and take some of our money along the way. So why does this being far from perfect make me optimistic towards Generation Five? Because, too put it simply, Pony Life is still one of the best things to come out of the My Little Pony franchise.
We all know, with the exception of maybe the first show from generation one, basically anything MLP related media before Friendship Is Magic was garbage. Basically anything from the franchise, especially generation three, was a cheap cash in with as little effort put into it as possible.One of the movies, Over Two Rainbows, had almost no animation and only one voice actress. Their mouths do not even move throughout the entire eleven minute short. The credits were recycled from a previous generation three episode, basically making it so all of the names are incorrect. To quote Mr. Enter, "this must be the only animation that lasts longer than it took to make."
Compare that to Pony Life, which is, at worst, kind of mediocre at its worst. This is the stuff Hasbro pumps out cheaply without much effort? This is a million times better than basically anything from the franchise that isn't Friendship Is Magic, and that's an amazing thing.
As of writing this article, a good chunk of what will happen in Generation Five is still up in the air. We have a large number of maybes, and almost nothing concrete over what the future is going to hold. However, the ultimate evidence of generation five's greatness is in the mediocrity of what we're currently seeing.
Basically, if this is a cash-in, if this is the effort of Studio B, if this is the stuff pumped out for cash, I have a large amount of faith that Generation Five is going to blow us away.
My Opinion on Rarity and Ragamuffin
By Double C
When Equestria Girls: Spring Breakdown aired, it had many interesting things including another portal to Equestria and seeing Twi-Sci as a pony. But the one thing that got fans surprised is seeing a new character that Rarity has a crush on is name Ragamuffin. What I read is that he was added at the last minute in the final draft for something funny. Though the relationship was short but it does have some potential like if Rarity will meet the pony version of Ragamuffin in Equestria.
The striking feature Ragamuffin has is that he looks like a male version of Applejack which includes hair and eye color and freckles on both cheeks. Some on the team must have drawn influence by looking at lots of Rule 63 characters of the Mane Six made by fans. Also because Rarijack is really popular among fans, it made sense that Rarity would fall for a guy who looks just like her best friend Applejack. It was pretty funny on everyone’s reaction when he and Applejack looked very much alike especially Twi-Sci. If there was any other character that would freak out the most it is Ember since she never can tell ponies apart and would asked Spike to point her to a therapist.
While there is no other info but I did research on at least his name of what it means and what makes him attracted to Rarity. There is a breed of domestic cat called Ragamuffin cat which would indicate that he likes cats even has one of his own no doubt a Ragamuffin cat. He would be the second pony to tame and get along with Opal without any difficulties since she is just mean towards just about everyone. It also is associated with music including songs, groups, and a piano piece which explains his dream of being a dancer.
There are two problems that I can think of when and or if Rarity will meet his pony counterpart. The most obvious one is what pony type is he going to be since we never saw him ponified like the others. Out of the three, an earth pony and unicorn are the most popular theories of which one he could be. The other is that fans believe the symbol on the right side of his uniform which would be his cutie mark. But if you all notice that all the other staff members have the same one on their uniforms so it may not be his but it’s up to both Hasbro and IDW to decided.
So in all, Rarity and Ragamuffin also called Rarimuffin would be an interesting ship if IDW would introduce it in season 10. He would be very helpful assisting Rarity since Spike won’t be their since he’s busy with his responsibilities and with his girlfriend. Hopefully they’ll give him, human and pony versions, a better background and personality that Rarity can understand him better than being lied to.
