Soapbox time, where the fandom expresses its opinions! As always, we are open for submissions on these. If you'd like to submit your own soapbox, hit up this post for infos.
As always, these are the opinions of fandom members, not us here at EQD.
Have some headlines:
- Were Twilight and Opaline close friends?
- It’s Time for G1–G3 Hate to Die…
- Zipp and Pipp’s Reactions to “Alphie”
- Opaline’s Childhood
- What If Sprout Cloverleaf Teams Up with the Mane 6 to Help Them Track Down Opaline?
Were Twilight and Opaline close friends?
By: FlareGun45
So after talking to some friends on Discord about why Opaline took Misty in the first place (I haven't the foggiest), we were talking about the Together Trees that were brought up in Chapter 5 that are in each pony city, as well as Opaline's castle, that can be used to teleport to each place instantly. Opaline mentioned SHE planted them, but how could she plant them without any real friends?
Did she actually have friends in the past?
Well, my theory is that Opaline and Twilight Sparkle used to be close friends, maybe like a student/teacher relationship too? I'm not exactly sure what their relationship was, but my point is, I think they used to be close. Opaline thinks about Twilight ALOT. She has a bitter resentment over her. You can hear it in Chapter 5 when she says, "I'm coming for you, Twilight Sparkle! Oh wait, I mean, I'm coming for you, Sunny Starscout!" How can anyone truly hate somepony, if they didn't already have some kinda relationship in the past?
We all know most of Twilight's friends are gone, and in the comic Discord got crazy, and Spike's more than likely with the Dragons, so to fill that void, Twilight was probably very lonely, and needed to find a friend that was immortal like her, so she went to find another alicorn, and she found Opaline.
Twilight was probably so desperate for another friend, she probably gave Opaline the benefit of the doubt, and was not sus of her at all whatsoever, and didn't consider the fact that she was evil. Even though Opaline was evil, I got the feeling her friendship with Twilight was in fact real. Evil people know friendship - look at Thanos and Gamora in Avengers Infinity War! They just probably fell out after having conflicting ideas on how to rule Equestria.
I have another Twilight theory coming in another soapbox! So what do you think? Were Twilight and Opaline close friends at one point, which caused the Together Trees to exist?
It’s Time for G1–G3 Hate to Die…
By: Peace Petal
Now, don’t get me wrong. You can hate what you want to hate, on a personal opinion level. But it’s time for MLP fandom spaces to let go of community-scale exclusion of the older gens. Decisions like fimfiction’s refusal to add G1 and G3 tags or Equestria Daily’s refusal to publish Ethan Toavs’ very professional G3 fan music belong in 2013, not 2023. At the very latest, these policies should have collapsed in 2021, when brony online communities quietly updated their descriptions from “focused on G4” to “focused on G4 onwards.” G5 is far more childish than G1, but it gets a free pass for its (very controversial) decision to connect its canon to G4? Hypocrisy much?
The first reaction I get when speaking about this is “make your own fandom spaces, this place isn’t for G1–G3!” A silly attitude when you consider how much G4 is littered with G3 references, or how much G5 is littered with G1 references. It’s all one franchise! It’s not like we’re going to flood your fandom art scene with spam-levels of old-gen content, as it’s a relatively small group of fans. Making G1–G3-exclusive communities rarely works out because most of us like G4, too! I’m not going to hop between two fanfics websites or Discord servers to have two separate discussions about the same damn thing.
Cringe culture is cringe. Those old memes where the Mane 6 react with disgust to G3 are dated and not funny. It’s past time for the fandom to grow up and stop reacting with fear to its own franchise. There’s a difference between respectfully disagreeing and being hateful. I’m not asking you all to become #1 fans of Wind Whistler or Star Catcher. I am asking you to stop being to us what the anti-bronies were to you back in the early 2010s.
Fortunately, old-gen hate is less common than it used to be. But there are a few old-guard bronies that won’t back down. The civil war is over. Let’s be friends.
By: Grace
In Tell Your Tale and Make Your Mark, the pegasi sisters found out about their mom’s new relationship in different ways, but their reactions were pretty much the same either way. At first, the sisters were shocked when they saw their mom with Alphabittle, which seemed like a reasonable response. Of course, they were super shocked as well. If their Portrait Day paintings you don’t see a king, which probably means they aren’t used to having Queen Haven have a partner. Pipp and Zipp also were a bit jealous to not be having as much of their mom’s attention anymore, but I’m sure Zipp would be glad to not have to be answering her mom’s calls all day long anymore. The girls’ jealousy also led to a bit of rudeness towards Alphabittle, but it shows he’s patient because he seemed to understand their feelings and took their reactions somewhat well. In Tell Your Tale he was a bit more taken aback, but still! A round of applause for Alphabittle! In Make Your Mark, Pipp had a bit of a longer lasting negative reaction to her mom dating, especially when they were eating cheese. Not to mention the princesses spying on their mom’s plans, which was very entertaining. I feel like any situation like this would take adjusting to, which is why I’m glad Hasbro decided to cover the topic of your parents dating other people and letting new people into their lives.
By: Grace
In the episode “Sunny Side Up” of chapter four we got a small look into Opaline’s past and her reasoning for trying to steal all of the ponies’ magic. Apparently, she grew up in a place called Skyros with a bunch of alicorns. The alicorns’ powers seem to be based on elements, which is actually quite interesting. Now not talking about the Periodic Table, but the elements. There is fire and water, metal and electricity, air and earth, and light and dark. Some consider life and death as another set of elements, however it's too early to tell if Make Your Mark is going to be including that pair or not. Opaline explained to Misty that while growing up in Skyros, she tried to befriend them, but they seemed to think that they were above her because they had the power to control the sun and the moon. The sun and moon aren’t elements, so we could just put them under light and dark. Luna and Celestia could have been born with powers that no alicorn had been born with before, earning them immediate fame. Opaline must have a lot of passion put into her plan if she’s waited this long, and apparently will still be waiting. I feel like this gives us not as much to deal with, but it's certainly something. Before chapter four, I thought Opaline had become an alicorn in a similar way to Cozy Glow, however it makes sense. I had some doubts about that. Opaline acts as if the magic is her birth right, which I guess I could see why that is. As of June 2023 though, I still have so many questions just from this little scene. “If Opaline is alive, are Celestia and Luna alive, too?” “What about Cadence, Twilight, and Flurry Heart?” “Where is this Skyros place and are the other alicorns still there?” It's all very strange, but later on in chapter four we saw that Misty and Zipp had found a book on the history of alicorns, which intrigued me. I really wish that we had gotten to see into that book a little bit because we didn’t get to see inside the book Grandma Figgy gave to Zipp, but maybe we’ll learn something really cool about alicorns in chapter five? Only time can tell, but trust me, I’ll be waiting until it releases! For now though, I'm just glad that six month wait is finally over!
What If Sprout Cloverleaf Teams Up with the Mane 6 to Help Them Track Down Opaline?
By: Javier Velez
So for some time now, I’ve been thinking this out for quite some time now, what if Sprout Cloverleaf teams up with the Mane 6 to help them track down Opaline?
This is in fact an amazing concept, as it not only gives Sprout a little bit of focus in Chapter 6, but it’ll also possibly set the stage for the Make Your Mark finale.
Personally, I like this concept because of Sprout needing to get a little bit of recognition from A New Generation, although I would have the Mane 6 except Misty be a bit skeptical about it at first because of the events of the aforementioned movie.
As for Misty, I would have her and Sprout finally establish a friendship together, just like the friendship between Starlight and Trixie established back in No Second Prances in G4.
