If you are bored and have pony opinions, send a soapbox in! We are low on them again for the first time in a while. 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:
- Why King Sombra Is A Great Villain
- Friendship is Magic Miniseries Other Character
- G5 Comic Issues #5 And 6 Will Be Huge
Why King Sombra Is A Great Villain
By: Lili
Okay, so I’m writing this in the hospital right now so the drugs they’ve given me are probably the inspiration for writing this stupid essay. But, what the heck? Have a Sombra soapbox.
You may know me as that girl who constantly posts about King Sombra in discussions. So, I figured I could explain to you why I think he is a great villain and why I think he is vastly overhated by the fandom.
Many people complained that Sombra’s Season 3 appearance was a weak one, as he did not get enough screen time to develop his character. However, I think that’s one of his strong points. Like Sauron in LOTR, Sombra himself is seldom seen, but we do get to see his influence and dark power. This makes him even scarier than other villains because we see him as more of an embodiment of fear than a literal character, ultimately making him even more of a threat.
Now, when Sombra returned in Season 9, lots of fans were disappointed by the way he was portrayed. They thought he was too wacky and over the top compared to his original appearance. But if you think about it, his Season 9 appearance makes perfect sense and actually doesn’t completely contradict his character. In Season 3, Sombra was shown to have been locked away for one thousand years after being turned to shadow. It’s implied that this is why he acted so animalistic in the first place. Since we don’t see Sombra’s “mortal” form until he is about to be defeated, there’s nothing to say that his Season 9 personality was not how he originally was, and that his Season 3 personality was just a result of him losing his mind after his banishment. For this reason, I don’t think Season 9 Sombra is all that out of character, even if he’s somewhat cliched.
Finally I would like to address Sombra’s portrayal in the IDW comic. To me, this portrayal is what makes Sombra a really good villain. Sure, he becomes evil, but the comic shows he believed his actions were justified and that it was his destiny to become evil. He also started off “good” and even had a best friend, Radiant Hope. I think the comic portrayal made Sombra into a very complex character and one of the most interesting villains in the series because of his motivations. To me, characters such as Tirek and Discord are less interesting because their only motive is to be evil for evil’s sake, whereas more nuanced villains such as Nightmare Moon, Starlight Glimmer, and Sombra are more interesting to me because they all had motivations and underlying reasons for doing what they did.
In the end, I think Sombra was a far better villain than what people give him credit for, and that he was definitely one of the most intriguing antagonists in the show for me.
I’m Lili and thanks for reading!
Friendship is Magic Miniseries Other Character
By Double C
For this miniseries we will talk about Other Character.
There were many characters in the show that had many potential to grow but the creators chose not to develop them further. Flash Sentry is a good example who many like me have wanted to see him be more than just the love interest of Twilight like talking about the Royal Guards and brother figure to ones like Spike and Gallus. These are the one I like to see more character.
Sludge: He is without a doubt the most hated villain for tricking Spike into thinking he was his real dad. I only want to see him come back just to see Night Light and Twilight Velvet beat the living tar out of him. This way we will get to see Spike get justice and show that Night Light and Twilight Velvet truly care about their adopted son by not letting anyone hurt him.
Double Diamond, Party Favor, and Night Glider: While Sugar Belle got more development due to being in a relationship with Big Mac but her three friends got very little. Double would not only ski on mountains but is most likely the new leader of Our Town. It was hinted that Party and Night ae a couple in Hard to Say Anything and if they are then it would be fun to see it develop more.
Autumn Blaze: With a good nature and energy, she is among the best character season 8 had to offer then though she made only one main and few cameo appearances. What I’ve learned is that Kirin is among 5 unicorn inspired creatures from Asian cultures like Kirin is from Japan. The others that could appear are Qilin from China, Girin from Korea, Kỳ Lân from Vietnam, and Gilen from Thailand. Autumn would be the ambassador for the 5 tribes with the help of Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike.
Pharynx: Perhaps among fan favorites but has little development than Thorax and Ocellus. Since he is somewhat a royal guard, it be fun to see him team up with Shining Armor, Flash Sentry, and Flash Magnus to go on a mission together to save Equestria just like with Luna and the Nightmare knights.
Little Strongheart: It was sad she never made any appearance since season 1 since she had determination. She would represent the Buffalos to the other creatures besides ponies and show more about their culture which is inspired from Native America. I believed that she along with Thorax, Ember and Gabby helped Spike become the ambassador to all the creatures.
Trenderhoof: The writers really messed up of how he was used as a love triangle between Rarity and Applejack. I was somewhat hopping he would appear in either season 8 or 9 where he would interview about the School of Friendship. He would write columns about friendship and see if he still has some feels for either Rarity or Applejack or juts still see them as friends.
Scorpan: Probably the biggest disappointment in the entire Gen 4 is not fully seeing him except in the comics. Many were expecting him to appear since he was mention in the season 4 finales and another Gen 1 character revision in Gen 4. Like his Gen 1 counterpart, he would care for Spike like a father figure and teach him more about culture and magic.
What other characters do you think should have had more screen time to develop than just being a onetime deal?
Issue 5 And 6 Will Be Huge Part 1
By:Ryfy
As mentioned in the title, I predict the latest editions of the G5 comics to be huge and clear up the most important question in everyone’s minds. However, these details in the covers alone admittedly may not be enough to assume something so major like what I will suggest in this theory, but these observations made me a tad curious about what is possibly going to go down here. Just a disclaimer, these are MY own opinions only.
As a background to bronies who do not follow the G5 comic updates, it was revealed in the first issue of the comic, released in May, that one of the Unity crystals was stolen and that the ruins of Canterlot were discovered. It is also revealed in future synopses that Discord stole the crystal.
So why are these issues’ covers so important to me?
To start off, let’s begin with the strange blue pony holding a book. To some bronies, this is evil Argyle, some pony form of Accord or even Stephen King, one of the most famous horror novelists of all time. Yet, as preposterous as it will sound, the latter is true. Protruding teeth when smiling, check! White hair with centre parting, well in some photos, check! His glasses, check! And the most damning of all, the title of the book, Salem’s Herd or the reference, Salem’s Lot.
Now, I’m not a literature person so I had to research the story. It was a story about vampires which wasn’t important to me, until one part of the synopsis caught my eye. Quote:’The novel's prologue, which is set shortly after the end of the story proper, describes Ben and Mark's flight across the country to a seaside town in Mexico, where they attempt to recover from their ordeal’
A seaside town? What a coincidence! The cover shows a lighthouse, meaning we a re most likely back in Maretime Bay which is a seaside town. Now, I know many of you will brush this aside as a mere coincidence and I agree with you to an extent, until I saw the cover of Issue #6. Now the cover was strange to me for one reason, it doesn’t have a title, this means that whatever chaos (pun intended) is going on in Issue 5 could continue on to the next issue and what do we see on the cover? Twilight Sparkle with bags underneath her eyes and shedding feathers and the crystals. With this, I was convinced that these 2 issues were connected. Now what? Sure, it was a bunch of good observations, nothing out of the ordinary. But what if I told you, that there is possibly more than meets the eye in Issue #5 than some horror stories, and something that the fandom has wanted answers for for months will finally be revealed in these 2 issues. Well, this will be revealed in the next part.
Issue 5 And 6 Will Be Huge Part 2
By:Ryfy
This part will be much shorter because most of my theory is centred around my observations. If you’ve read Part 1, welcome back! At this point in time, we have covered what my observations are around these covers, but what’s the big deal about them?
Well, to simply answer, these 2 issues will finally put to rest how the end of the end happened.
We know at this point in the series that the Mane 5 would have discovered the ruins of Canterlot, so who better to tell this tale and make a mark on them (puns intended) than Discord.
But why? Why would he do all this? For what purpose? To this question, I would like to refer to the extract of the synopsis of Salem’s Lot. Quote:’The novel's prologue, which is set shortly after the end of the story proper, describes Ben and Mark's flight across the country to a seaside town in Mexico, where they attempt to recover from their ordeal’. I think we need to translate this more to Discord’s context if we want to find a clearer answer. My translation: “G5’s prologue, which is set shortly after the fall of Equestria, describes Discord’s flight across the country to a seaside town named Maretime Bay, where he attempts to recover from his ordeal.”. To me, and this doesn’t seem too far of a stretch to me, if what happens in my interpretation is true, Discord would have been hiding secretly somewhere in Marertime Bay and when magic comes back, he decides to steal one of the crystals as his own chaotic little way to lead our new heroes to what happened in the end.
But why would he run across Equestria to Maretime Bay? Simply put, I think he’s broken. He’s lost his home after the loss of magic got him stuck in Equestria, he’s lost his friends, including Fluttershy and so he ran somewhere else which could be Maretime Bay to recover from that trauma.
So why horror themed then? Well, to me simply put, these series of events that came about the end of Equestria was horrifying to him that it translated to him telling the Mane 5 by scaring them with these tales of how Equestria came to an end.
So, these are my predictions and theory for Issue #5 and #6 of the comic series. Again, my theory could be right..or Andy Price is a genius.
