It has been a long time since we have had a soapbox post! I blame lack of stuff to give opinions on.
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:
- Magic in G5 and Why it Makes No Sense
- What would the Villain Trio's release be like?
- Why You Should Make a Open Pony
- Discord is Dumb
Magic in G5 and Why it Makes No Sense
By: Visharo
Heyo, this is my first time writing one of these. Just wanted to give it a try.
So magic has been given to the Earth Ponies in the latest special: Make Your Mark. Every Earth Ponies seemed to have been granted the ability to make plants grow, but for some reason Hitch and Sunny are the only two who can't make things grow.
It does make sense for Hitch to understand animals, as he is the Element of Kindness and is following in the hoofsteps of Fluttershy. Plus, he know has to take care of a baby dragon, that looks very weird. Sunny is slowly becoming an Alicorn, so no need for new abilities. I totally get those decisions, no problem there.
MY problem is that Earth Pony's 'magic' is to make things grow, true to their nature of being in tune with nature and the land. In my opinion, that is a completely lame magic ability. To say that every Earth Pony has the ability to make things grow doesn't suit the franchise's variety with Pinkie, although an Earth Pony, cares more about parties then the land. This could change in the future, but the special could've done a better job at adding variety to their new abilities.
Suggestions for better land magic, could be making streams to irrigate crops or moulding the earth itself. Maybe locating certain things, for example if a pony wants to fine a coconut tree, he would just activate his magic and follow the trail. Hitch's last name is Trailblazer, there's gotta be a reason for that. Precious gems are part of the earth, so they could possibly have the same thing Rarity does with hers. Anyway, you get the gist.
What would the Villain Trio's release be like?
By: FlareGun45
So I was talking to some friends on MD about the Villain Trio's imprisonment, and I'm kinda thinkin' how the three of them would act after they're freed. Of course it depends on WHO freed them, and how much time passed since their imprisonment, but I'm pretty sure they're not gonna remain in that state forever n ever, whether it's the G4 ponies or the G5 ponies, or ponies in between.
Now thinking of how they'd act, let's look at the characters' history. Now Tirek, he's been imprisoned for much of his life, so I doubt he'd change that much when he becomes free - probably act similar to Discord, and stretch out while making snarky remarks. Chrysalis on the other hand, she got crazy after becoming alone, I wouldn't doubt that she'd become even crazier when she's freed - either automatically attacking, or running away laughing. And Cozy Glow, if she's a filly, this could cause permanent damage to her brain, potentially possibly having a fear of rocks or anyting made of stone, maybe participating with a reformation outta fear - unless of course she fakes being scared, yunno how Cozy is! She might have a manipulation tactic in place already!
Remember Keep Calm and Flutter On, Discord said, "Being turned to stone does not make me not hear everything Celestia says"? The same could be said with these three, their imprisonment is happening in real-time. Imagine how boring that would be! Imagine how itchy their noses are and they can't scratch it!
And the question still remains on WHO would free them? If it's G4, then most likely it would be Fluttershy that decides to free them, wanting to use her reform tactics from Keep Calm and Flutter On on them, and we know how the rest of her friends might react to that! But Fluttershy is the reformation expert, so she has her ways of persuasion!
If it's G5, then odds are the ponies will have no idea who these three are. Maybe Sunny Starscout will be the only one after a closer look, unless her dad left out some details of the past. If it's between generations, after some time at the School of Friendship, Luster Dawn might wanna try some of the tactics of her predecessor's to try to reform them herself (along with her own friends of course).
What do y'think? Who do you think would be brave enough to give the Villain Trio another chance (intentionally or unintentionally), and how would the Villain Trio react after being freed?
Why You Should Make a Open Pony
By: Vintage
A few months ago Equestria Daily posted about Open Pony which is a second life thing if you missed the article on it. I like many others scoffed at the idea of it at first since SL seems like such a silly way to spend time in 2022. The last time I had anything to do with the game I was 12 years old and just wanted to troll people like I saw people do over on youtube and I never tried the early pony things that happened their either since there were just better communities to be apart of in games like team fortress and garys mod. The model looked really cute though so I decided to try it out anyway and see why Sethisto was so excited about it.
The character creation is really a mess, but after getting some help from people nearby I finally managed to create a cute pony OC and figured out the controls enough to play, or just talk is more like it. There isn't a whole lot of playing since it's not much of a game. The first day was confusing of course but once I started talking to people it felt like I was getting hooked. There was a lot of FOMO for not wanting to miss what everyone got up to every day and the 4chan server is always really active since the article went viral over there. There are some weird and gross things, plus a lot of mic spam, but if you mute them it's really cute to see your little pony running around with a bunch of other ponies exploring strange locations every day. Second life is like a weird internet graveyard where you will find entire places filled with stuff from over 15 years ago while also run into brand new places with top of the line graphics. It's very weird.
I've done a few of these social online worlds like VRchat and Pony Town, but this is the first one I've really gotten into mainly because the models are so good. I really recommend making a Popen. Even if you aren't very social it's amazing how many accessories and things you can do and just take screenshots of. My desktop wallpaper is my pony now because I'm so attatched to her and people like to take spur of the moment 4k screenshots of you and then spam you with them.
Thanks for reading. If you need help I usually play in the middle of the US day and my acct name is vintagio2223.
Discord is Dumb
By: Lafalletei
Can we talk about how stupid Discord is in the comics? I'm very disappointed that this is the major overarching story we got from the comics. I was expecting something much more interesting to be the cause of Equestria losing its magic, but instead we just got an idea that completely retconned g4 and made Twilight out to be some failure that couldn't get ponies to get along and just decided to shut it all down. The concept just seems likee it limits the future of the show so much. If ponies argue their magic disappears and Discord wants to get rid of it entirely? I just don't understand how any of this fits in with the story we were left off with from G$. It's very out of character for Discord and even more out of character for Twilight to pull a cozy glow and just lock away magic unless ponies don't argue. And how unrealistic is that anyway? Ponies need to argue. Arguing is good. This seems almost worse than what Starlight did in a way, and I'm not surprised the world failed because of it.
What do you all think? Is this a satisfying way to get a new pony cartoon? I'm just so disappointed.
