The soapboxes cvontinue! As always, these are the opinions of fandom members, not us here at EQD. If you'd like to submit your own soapbox, hit up this post for infos.
Have some headlines:
- How To Fix the Storm King
- Can the Friendship Map run Doom?
- Magic in Equestria, Part 3: Is Magic Divine?
- The Mane 6's Ancestors
And get articles below.
The Mane 6's Ancestors
By: Alexrioponylover95
Hello everycreature!
So after rewatching Hearth’s Warming Eve, I realized that the Mane 6 might actually been playing their real ancestors and the Mane 6 might have even more connections than they know… And I know… It’s a bit of a stretch, but hear me out! Also since Hearth’s Warming/Christmas is coming up, (At least at the time of me writing this!) this is a fitting topic to discuss!
So in the episode, Hearth’s Warming Eve, the Mane 6 have the honor of being the main actresses in a play in Canterlot about the story of the first Hearth’s Warming Eve. In the play, Twilight plays Clover the Clever, Applejack as Smart Cookie, Pinkie as Chancellor Puddinghead, Rarity as Princess Platinum, Rainbow as Commander Hurricane, and Fluttershy as Private Pansy. And it could be just their personalities being acted and not the real life figures, so there could be no connection at least… At least if we only look at this episode…
There have been several times where we get some more clues on who the Mane 6 play in Hearth’s Warming Eve. For example, lets take a look at Pinkie and Chancellor Puddinghead. During the episode Marks for Effort, we get our first real image of Puddinghead and he really looks like an older male version of Pinkie, doesn’t he? Also during the Equestria Girls Forgotten Friendship special, while Sunset and Twilight are trying to find out what happened to Sunset’s friends, Sunset read that “Puddinghead tried to pass a law mandating Earth ponies drink carrot juice at every meal”. Now who else would be crazy enough to do something like that than Pinkie?
Speaking of Twilight and Forgotten Friendship… we learn that Clover the Clever was once a powerful unicorn and went through seven trials, one of them being how he chased a sorceress who was using the Memory Stone for evil purposes. And well Twilight is also a powerful unicorn, well was… And went through her own trials with the rest of the Mane 6… Hmmm…
And there’s also other lesser examples like how Commander Hurricane seems to be more tough and short-tempered like Rainbow is, while Private Pansy is more soft-spoken like Fluttershy. Meanwhile Platinum is more snobbish, like how Rarity can be sometimes and both of them don’t like getting down and dirty, with Rarity refusing to get her hooves muddy and Platinum afraid to cross a meek stream. And finally Smart Cookie being more rational, like how Applejack is often portrayed as.
Of course there is the counter that they’re not related at all, for example during IDW’s Feats of Friendship, when we learn about the history of King Thrace and his people, we get a glimpse at what appears to be Clover, Smart Cookie and and maybe Pansy around a large bonfire and while the detail isn’t that much, they don’t look too similar to their potential future offspring. However, the comics’ canon state is questionable to show canon so take that as you will.
Either way, it would be interesting if the Mane 6 were related to I guess, the Founder 6 (Not so sure what would be a good name for this particular group…) that the Mane 6 had that connection even before they were all born, with their great-great-great… ancestors being all friends with each other and making a friendship that transcends lifetimes. (And yeah… That’s an Avatar: The Last Airbender reference I made!)
But what do you think about the Founder 6 being the Mane 6’s ancestors!?
Magic in Equestria, Part 3: Is Magic Divine?
By: A Shy Brony.
In the last part of this series, I proposed some possible scientific explanations for magic in Equestria. For this part, let us take a more fantastical approach, and ask the question; Is Equestrian magic divine in origin?
A divine origin would make more sense in a fantasy setting like MLP. And there are certainly some very powerful magical beings in Equestria. Alicorns raise the sun and moon, and are potentially immortal, or at the very least live long lifespans. There is a centaur that can steal magic from other creatures. And then of course there’s Discord. How can science explain him? There is only one Chaos lord, only one on Discord’s species. Perhaps a divine force created Discord? Perhaps he is a physical manifestation of Chaos magic itself?
But perhaps one of the best pieces of evidence isn’t Equestrian at all, but Griffonian. The Idol of Boreas. This holy relic of the Griffons is said to be made of “the dust of sunsets”. And, since the idol isn’t called the Idol of Grover, we can assume that there is some form of religious association to the Idol. Grover may have found the Idol, but Boreas created it. Whether Boreas is a Griffon god, or just a talented Griffon smith, is impossible to determine. But given how treasured the Idol is, I think it’s reasonable to assume that Boreas is an important religious figure of some kind in Griffon society. (This begs the question that if a Griffon god or gods exist, how do they fit into the world of MLP? But that’s a question for another time.)
Is the Idol magical? The Griffons certainly believe so. After all, The Idol bestowed great prosperity upon the kingdom of Griffonstone. Whether this was truly the Idol’s doing, or just astute stewardship under Grover’s dynasty, is open to interpretation. But consider this; Even after Gilda reforms and starts to spread friendship in Griffonstone, the place is still very poor. I’m not saying Griffonstone can’t recover without the Idol, but perhaps the Idol really does provide prosperity?
There are other magical Equestria artifacts that seem divine in origin as well. Chief of which is the Elements and Tree of Harmony. A tree made out of crystal? That doesn’t sound like any normal tree in nature. And it even has magical properties of its own as well. I mention in the last part that it’s certainly possible that species in Equestria evolved alongside magic. But I can’t think of any reason why a tree would evolve to be made out of solid crystal. How does it even photosynthesize, for example?
As you probably noticed, this part was a lot more speculative than the last part. That’s simply because when dealing with questions about the divine, there’s little concrete evidence to use. Instead, it’s up to viewer interpretation to decide what they believe.
So, what do you think? Is the origin of magic in MLP scientific or divine? Or perhaps a little bit of both?
Can the Friendship Map run Doom?
By: FlareGun45
Yunno the game Doom, right? And I'm talking about the classic Doom from 1993. Didja know that people have been hacking different types of machinery, and using them to play Doom on? ATMs, printers, medical equipment, pianos with screens on them, digital cameras, even calculators! So the question I have right now is: can Doom run on the Friendship Map?
As we might know, the map is runned by magic and not technology, so how it could be done wouldn't be the same as how someone could do it on a computer or a computer-like system. Even if the map would be able to run the game using technology, and smoothly the game requires a 486 processor operating system with a minimum of 66MHz, 8 megabytes of RAM, a Windows 95 system or higher, 40 megabytes of available disk space, and a 16-bit sound card and drivers. However, how Doom is ported to all these different kinds of technology is because the game is open-sourced with its coding, and the coding is not tightly dependent on any software so it can be open to try out new technologies! So depending on the experience on the coder, they could try to get it to work on the map.
Now, since the map is made of magic and not technology, things would have to work a little differently. If Twilight or one of her friends really wanna play the proud papa of all FPS's on the map, then there'd have to be a correct spell to do it, but probably with an addition of knowing the codes, since magic is probably very specific and complicated, much like technology is, so finding the right spell to get the thing to work would probably need some tinkering. Would the map accept the game though? What's so friendshipy about Doom? Doom's got co-op, at least some versions of Doom do! Make new friendship memories while playing the game!
Now let's sayTwilight is able to get the game to run on the map, then how could the game be played? The map has no buttons. Unicorns could probably play the game easily on there with their magics, but what if a non-unicorn wants to play? Is there such a thing as 'Magic Engineering'? I'm sure if they were able to make the game run on the map, then getting buttons on there would be a cake-walk! The only question is - would they be able to play the game from a vertical view? Unless they could make the game 3D on there.
All in all, time to go on a Friendship Mission..... through Mars, Hell, and Earth! Teach the magic of friendship to a Cyberdemon..... with a BFG! >:)
How To Fix the Storm King
By IronYoshi
Several months ago, I wrote a story on FIMFiction where Celestia and Queen Novo were kidnapped by the Storm King and forced to fight in his arena. I thought it would be a fun thing to do, but above all, I wanted to do something to the Storm King that hasn't been done much; make him a better character .
Truth be told, the Storm King was a lot of wasted potential. Outside of a really cool design, his character and his appearance in the movie felt like an afterthought. But where official media faulters, the fans come in and try to salvage what they can. And the Storm King could have been one of the all-time great villains, but for whatever reason, he just ended up being very underwhelming. So how do we fix that? How do we make the Storm King better?
First, establish him more, give him backstory. Who was he before? Where did he come from? What is he suppose to be, a yeti, a saytr? These are the questions to help flesh him out. Like, let's say he was a part of a tribe of yetis that live in the mountains far from Equestria, but he was arrogant, unhinged, and craving power. After trying to stage a coup and overthrow the tribe's Elders, he was banished from the tribe and struck out on his own, gaining enough of a following to gain a position of power and conquer the lands beyond Equestria. Bam, backstory. It may not be the best one out there, but its better than nothing.
Next, establish his character. The movie was fairly inconsistent with this, often showing the full brunt of his might but also making him look like a complete bumbling goof. It didn't help that he was barely in the movie too. If they wanted to establish him as both a threatening and comedic villain, then fine. There's been plenty of villains who are both intimidating and goofy (Aku and Bowser come to mind), and I think in the right hands, the Storm King can be written as a major threat while also being a tad silly. Also, he should have been in the movie more rather than just popping up near the end.
Finally, I would personally have none other than Queen Novo be his rival. Now, I talked about in the past my personal headcanon that the Storm King was the one responsible for killing Novo's husband during the invasion of Mount Aris, and that it changed the Queen. I think having Novo face off against the Storm King would be really cool to see. It would allow her to settle the score.
The Storm King was such a lousy villain, and it's a shame he was just tossed aside. Personally I feel like he has the potential to be great. Hopefully G5 will give him his due. If not, well that's what fanfics are for, right?
