The soapboxes continue! 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:
- What is Being a Brony? (My Take)
- My Helluva Horse. Crossovers possible?
- Other Zephyr Breeze Ships
- Chrysalis and Ocellus
And go read them below!
What is Being a Brony? (My Take)
By: Hononoken the Samurai
In simple terms, "brony" is used to describe any male adult (aged 18-35, mainly) who follows "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". Female counterparts are called "pegasisters". Thanks to its status as an all-ages cartoon, MLP is now a show anyone of any age/race/ethnicity/etc. can watch and enjoy. But, of course, it's one thing to watch a show regularly. It's another thing entirely to take the morals of FiM to heart and use those to better yourself as a person. Now, this topic was clearly covered in a previous soapbox to... mixed(?) results to put it lightly. I don't know if I'll be able to word this in a way that will be more positively received, but here goes nothing.
In the six and a half years I've been part of the brony fandom, I've seen many fans come and go from the community. Some of them uphold the morals that FiM tries to teach, not just gush over and review/analyze the music and character development. Other fans, on the other hand, to put it lightly, aren't good people at all. I've seen people attack others for one reason or another, even sick their fans on them, or just stoke the drama that tends to crop up in the fandom. Those people follow the show and are technically still considered bronies, but they aren't living up to the messages FiM teaches.
Then, there's people like the FedEx shooter and those who sent death threats to Jim Miller and Amy Keating Rogers, as well as disgraced former fans who committed... for the sake of keeping this PG, less than savory acts against other people. Those people I don't consider bronies because the acts they have committed aren't just despicable or misguided - they are disturbed and vile individuals who not only hurt other people, but some even tried to get away with their disgusting behavior. They aren't the type of people that people should think of when they hear the word "brony". Even though many recognize that this isn't the norm for the brony community, some of these people I'm talking about have damaged the brony community's reputation.
I admit that perhaps I'm reading too much into things, but a brony shouldn't just be its bare minimum definition - it should be the people that take it one step further and try to take FiM's messages to heart and use it to better themselves. Those who are unable to put in even an effort to do so aren't taking the show as seriously as it should be, and those who are who are like what I've said in my previous paragraph are barely human, as bold as that sounds. No matter what fandom you are part of, you should be using that environment to do good with others, not bad.
My Helluva Horse. Crossovers possible?
Now I know that Hasbro most very doesn’t NEED crossovers with its MY Little Pony brand- it has been running as a toyline for 40 years. That’s pretty stinkin’ impressive. But on the other hand, the company of Hasbro hasn’t turned away crossovers over the years. It found success in Collabing with Disney in MLP g3 to release a pony Princess line, with Stranger Things to release a g1 ST Applejack, and collabed just recently with Vocaloid to release a g4 Hatsune Miku pony through Kotobukiya. Heck- even back in gen1 originally, Hasbro collabed with Takara (now known as Takara Tomy) to allow them to license the severely under-appreciated Japanese exclusive G1 Takara My Little Ponies, while Hasbro themselves got to use the licensing for Transformers (and we all know how that went with the brand). So Hasbro, again, is no stranger to crossovers and collabs with outside companies and franchises.
That said, they’re also no stranger to getting a little dark and gritty in their licensed products. For instance, G1’s Rescue at Midnight Castle’s pilot episode was pretty gritty- and even had its primary villain, Tirek, threaten to decapitate Spike, the baby dragon. There were hints sprinkled through the rest of g1’s episodes that showed that it wasn’t afraid to get a little dark, such as Reeka nearly being decapitated by a guillotine, and some baby ponies wishing death threats and horribly outcomes for their siblings, the newborn twin ponies. Also, the g4 My Little Pony comics hosted by IDW have shown a lot of themes and outcomes geared toward a more mature audience, such as Queen Chrysalis scarring the children Cutie Mark Crusaders by killing a kitten in front of their eyes. More mature themes and references have also been thrown into its g4 animated series, Friendship is Magic- from adult humor such as “spiking the punch”, to mature themes such as being willing to invest interest in a child that isn’t your own, once you remarry, and making them feel like part of the family.
Where am I going with all this, you might be wondering. Well, as Hasbro is no stranger to collabs and a dash of grit and maturity throughout its history, as shown, maybe perhaps there can be room in their future for a partnership with SpindleHorse- that being, Vivienne Medrano’s (Vivziepop’s) own independent brand, along with A4, to Collab and release My Little Pony and Helluva Boss merchandise.
We already have quite the perfect setup for it being made possible- that being a certain imp character named Blitz who seems to be obsessed with horses, and an actual sentient horse named Spindle- existing within that universe (who- can I say- needs some backstory, (and fan things) FYI. Spindle fan club where ya at?) and here, we have a perfectly multigenerational existing horse franchise that has confirmed to have canonical multidimensional access to portals, other realms, time travel, etc.?
My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic’s spin-off comic series - Fiendship is Magic, wasn’t afraid to explore the backstories of its primary villains, but also get pretty dark and mature on top of it. Why couldn’t a spin-off comic series featuring MLP and HB (perhaps with Blitz and the MLP ponies, or just a series with Spindle and the MLP ponies) be made possible? Even toylines (likely online exclusive sets, to cater exclusively to the adult audience) could be made under this crossover.
By Double C
Ever since Zephyr Breeze made his first he was quit the funny guy especially how he loves to flirt with Rainbow Dash. Obviously Rainbow has no interest in him despite rejecting him countless times and Mrs. Shy hinted that she had a crush on him once. While there is a number of fans who like to ship these two since they’ve known each other since childhood and their opposed personalities. The other is that fans can finally ship Soarin with either Spitfire or Applejack since they are 2nd and 3rd. Hopefully he will one day realize that she isn’t in to him and find someone else who is into him. There are some mares that Zephyr would be with that make some sense but there is one that could workout for him.
Zephyrcut is a ship between Zephyr and Pixie Cut. When Pixie made her first appearance in Issue 74, she was great both in her personality and looks. Both have many things in common like their love of manestyling and experience of doubting their skills. But what makes Pixie a good character and a new love interest is that she learns to face her fear otherwise she will never accomplish her dreams. This gave Zephyr confidence to overcome his fear of stage fright and do what he loves to do. I hope Pixie will appear in season 10 and maybe the two of them can open up their own beauty salon in Ponyville.
While Pixie Cut is an automatic chose but there are others who have their favorites like Tree Hugger and Lime Stone. Who do you guys think Zephyr should be paired with?
Yes, she was originally like every other changeling - hungry, no remorse, and obedient - but remember that one episode "What Lies Below"? Ocellus' biggest fear was becoming just like Chrysalis. That's actually pretty interesting - cause she coulda always just looked like her old changeling self and just feared that - but no, she took the form of Chrysalis. Why her specifically?
Makes me wonder, did Chrysalis and Ocellus have a prior relationship before Starlight interfered? What's more mysterious is that we NEVER seen the two of them interact on the show EVER, so how Chrysalis feels about Ocellus is a complete mystery - but we know Ocellus fears of becoming Chrysalis.
So what could this mean? Did Chrysalis have some sorta plan for Ocellus? Was she destined to become the next Queen of the Changelings? Did Chrysalis see something in her, which caused her to have alot of interest in Ocellus, and their former bond is something Ocellus eventually regrets? Something like a student/teacher bond.
Some of the Student 6 have reasons why they were chosen to be the candidates for their respectable nations to represent within the School of Friendship: Ember probably picked Smolder for Gable-ish reasons, Gallus was chosen by Grandpa Gruff maybe to give him a real life instead of being an orphan on the streets, I have no clue for Silverstream or Yona, but there has to be a reason why Thorax thought of Ocellus specifically to represent the changelings at the school.
It sucks that the show had to end before the Student 6 could be properly developed - makes me wonder if they had a plan for Ocellus' relationship with Chrysalis. An individual's fear of becoming someone is always because they have some kinda special relationship, like a child not wanting to become their parent, their brother, their uncle, or a close friend, or any kinda mentor. Why else would Ocellus fear that? If they weren't close, then Ocellus would just fear of being her old self again.
