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
- The G5 Maps
- Gen 5 is Gen 3
- Will MLP G5 Have its Own Side Thing?
- Why You Won't Remember the MLP/Transformers Crossover Comics
The G5 Maps
by Otaku-sempai
We have had a couple of maps of Equestria now for G5 and they are very different from one another. First there was a promotional image where locations for A New Generation were imposed upon the old map of Equestria:
map of My Little Pony A new Adventure G5
From this we can see the Pegasus city of Zephyr Heights located where Canterlot used to stand. To the West, the Unicorns of Bridlewood live a bit south of what used to be Vanhoover and west of the Smokey Mountains. Maretime Bay seems to be disconnected from the rest of the map, but it looks like it's at the northern end of Horseshoe Bay.
Pretty straightforward, right? But now, from the G5 movie trailer, we have the map in Sunny's book.
And this map looks very different from the first one. First, this one looks like it's hoof-drawn, maybe by either Sunny herself or her father. But also, the locations don't seem to match up with the first one very well. Zephyr Heights might still be built upon the mountain where Canterlot once stood (apparently constructed on the summit in an image that I don't have immediate access to). However, Maretime Bay appears to be a ways to the west on the shore of a sea that didn't exist in the time of G4. And Bridlewood is someplace between the two other cities, a little further north. There's also what looks like a star chart stuck onto the lower left corner of the map, but I'm not dealing with that right now.
But, what if Sunny's map is not orientated the way we might assume it is? What if the top of the map is the West and the bottom is East? We can also guess that the map is not drawn to scale and that it might not be particularly accurate. The Pegasi might still have taken over Canterlot Mountain and built their own city there. But that places Maretime Bay to the south and maybe the east and it could be at Horseshoe Bay on the shore of the Celestial Sea. And Bridlewood might be located in what's left of the Everfree Forest.
At some point I might want to discuss what might have happened to change things so radically, but I think that's enough for now. Thank you for your time!
Gen 5 is Gen 3
By: Mana Minori
While most, if not all of g4 fans would take one look at the title at this topic and have a knee jerk reaction to deny this with such fervent disdain and disgust until Tartarus freezes over, I am a g4 (and all gens) fan who would like to look at the facts and present them to other fans who are more inclined to be open minded. So let’s take a look into these facts and dive into these claims, shall we?
I say that g5 is g3, and many would immediately claim “MaMi, you’re insane in the membrane! How is that possible?!” Well, my friends- one only need to look at the content that MLP g3 delivers. At the start, much like G5’s premise, the three tribes of ponies- earth, unicorn, and pegasi, lived separately. Earth ponies lived in Ponyville, Pegasi lived with their own kind, on Butterfly Island. And unicorns lived in Unicornia. Now look at g5- the pony tribes are separate- Earth ponies in Maretime Bay, Pegasi in Zephyr Heights, Unicorns in Bridlewood.
Furthermore, in g3, magic did not exist in the beginning. It wasn’t even shown until “Come Back, Lily Lightly”, through the character, Lily, who herself had no clue what it is, even when she uses it by accident. Similarly, g5 follows this same pattern. While the characters do seem to know what magic is and how it “poofed” into disappearing one day they live without it and have adapted their lives to the lack of its presence.
Of course the similarities do not end there. As g3 progresses- just as was hinted at in the premise of g5- the tribes of ponies eventually learn the existence of other pony tribes and live in unison with them, and more magic is utilized. Just like we have Sunny Starscout aiming to reunite the pony tribes and restore magic with the new friends she makes. We’ve covered this ground before G4’s friendship is Magic even existed.
And THAT, is why I say g5 is g3. Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.
Will MLP G5 Have its Own Side Thing?
By Alexrioponylover95
Hello everycreature!
So I been thinking recently about if G5 will have its own side thing, like how G4 had Equestria Girls and Pony Life. And well what would it be and how it would connect to the main G5 show, whatever that may be.
Of course MLP: FiM had its own very successful side thing in the form of Equestria Girls, which did have a rough start, but well ended up being just as good as FiM, with various specials and shorts. And it also made many connections with FiM, which helped both develop more world building and such.
And the same could happen for G5 too, if enough interest is there for G5!
One idea I have is that Equestria Girls could be revived and continue on where it last left off. The Equestria Girls revival could have a similar idea to another show that has been recently revived, iCarly, where in that show, it was about some of the characters from the original show having grown up and now in their adult lives. The Equestria Girls revival could be about Sunset and I guess you could say the Human 6, in their adult lives now, with such ideas like Sunset being the principal of Canterlot High, Rarity being a full time fashion designer, etc.
The main characters from G5, like Sunny and Izzy could find one of the special mirrors used to go between the pony and human world on one of their journeys and accidentally stumble into it and end up in the human world. Of course they could have a similar situation that pony Twilight went through, meeting Principal Sunset and well meeting a new antagonist and having to save the human world again.
Another idea I had is what if the characters from G5 find another special mirror, a similar one from the Reflections comic arc, where it takes them to the alternate versions of their world. Maybe see situations like what if the three different kinds of ponies did in fact stay together after Twilight’s reign. Or maybe even a world where they are the villains and they’re in fact the ones who caused Equestria’s division.
Of course this is all just suggestions and guesses as to what may happen, G5 might not even have a side thing, which may be perfectly fine if there is no need to have anything on the side. FiM didn’t have Equestria Girls until season four started and FiM was already popular as it was and Pony Life started at the near end of FiM. Meanwhile, (At least at the time of writing this) we have yet to even get a full trailer for the starting G5 movie, might less any news about the show which will follow, so anything cane happen still!
Either way… What do you think about G5 having its own side thing and what would you like it to be about!?
Why You Won't Remember the MLP/Transformers Crossover Comics
By: SiriusFace
The worst thing a story can be is forgettable. Regardless if a story is good or bad, both invoke emotions and get the reader to reflect about what they’ve read. A forgettable story is neither good nor bad because it does not accomplish any thought or emotion after it’s completed. A forgettable story is by definition, never thought of again.
The second MLP x Transformers crossover comic series, The Magic of Cybertron, is sadly forgettable. It is as forgettable as Friendship in Disguise.
I do not write this to needlessly bash the collaboration between James Asmus, Ian Flynn, and Sam Maggs. I want to explain why I feel this comic series is forgettable storytelling, and not worth buying or reading.
Episodic storytelling is the main writing format for MLP as a property. That format works for a TV series with many seasons, but it’s the wrong kind of format for a short four issue comic book event. On paper, it’s exciting to consider what would happen if King Sombra took control of half the mane six, including Twilight Sparkle, and a large number of transformers, including a famous villain like Megatron. It’s exciting to consider the ponies needing to get the few remaining autobots and decepticons to put aside their war and work together to stop Sombra. It’s utterly disappointing that readers don’t see that happen.
What readers get instead are distractions, one-off conflicts that are nonsensical and contribute nothing to the overarching plot, making them forgettable. No actions taken between the last half of issue one and the first half of issue four help resolve the conflict of the story’s main plot - stopping Sombra.
Too many characters doing too many different things contribute to this problem of poor, forgettable storytelling. The events that lead to the resolution of the finale happen off screen, explained through dialogue exchange - a literal info dump. This could be attributed to having too many writers. James has setup both main conflicts for Magic of Cybertron and Friendship in Disguise, but Ian and Sam do not lend their writing talents to build on what James starts. Imagine if we saw Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack struggle to teach the magic of friendship to Optimus Prime and Shockwave so they can work together to save their mind controlled comrades, rather than see Scootaloo’s aunts look for their niece, leaving the reader to wonder how Scootaloo, or her aunts, ended up in Cybertron in the first place. They show up once and are never seen again, so what was the point of their story?
I cannot say for certain who this crossover event was written for or why these writers continue to write episodic comic stories, rather than stick to the main plot. I can say these crossover events are wasted opportunities. While it’s easy to say these comic stories are simply just for the fun of doing them, wouldn’t a well written, tightly focused, character driven story be more fun and rewarding to read instead?
