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:
- Was Seaquestria Destroyed?
- In Defense of Spitfire
- Opinions of Both Raripierce and Combow
- From The Perspective of a Journalist
Was Seaquestria Destroyed?
By: Andrew Laubacher (Otaku-sempai)
We've seen a Seapony in Tell Your Tale (and even more in IDW's G5 comics), but there's been no sign of Sequestria. Might Opaline have stolen the magic of the Seaponies, effectively destroying Seaquestria? That could have been a horrific tragedy, Seaponies suddenly transforming back into Hippogriffs while still deep under the sea and drowning before they could reach the surface! The surviving Hippogriffs of Mount Aris must have been severely traumatized, retreating into their city and cutting off all ties with the outside world. This would have made Opaline a truly despicable villain on a sale that we've seldom seen in My Little Pony.
Yes, there are still Seaponies in the world, but I would suggest that they are natural Seaponies with no connection to the Hippogriffs or Seaquestria. Thoughts?
In Defense of Spitfire
By: Fiona Li
At first, I didn't like Spitfire's sudden change in personality when I watched the "Wonderbolt Academy" episode for the first time but as time went on in the recent past, I've gotten used to her current personality. Looking back in retrospect, with a name like Spitfire, of course she'll need a new personality that matches her name.
Speaking of her name, it's named after the iconic Supermarine Spitfire. Spitfire is also a term denoting a person with a fierce temper. The Supermarine Spitfire is critical in defeating the Luftwaffe air attacks during the Battle of Britain in 1940. More Spitfires were built than any other British combat aircraft before or since World War Two - 20,341 in total. There are six Spitfires on the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Well, there's your brief history on the Supermarine Spitfire.
Back to Spitfire herself, all drill sergeants/drill instructors tend to act like she does except that she doesn't fling insults at her recruits and spew derogatory words in their faces just like stereotypical drill sergeants/drill instructors. That's my criticism with her. It's similar with Ratchet from the Ratchet & Clank series. He's been appointed as the Galactic Rangers' sergeant in Ratchet & Clank 3 and just like Spitfire, he doesn't insult the Galactic Ranger robot soldiers, let alone fire derogatory words and slurs in their direction and yell in the Galactic Rangers' robotic faces. I may not know all about military life but research can go a long way.
The reason Spitfire pushes her recruits and the Wonderbolts so hard (minus the swearing, slurs, insults, derogatory words etc) and to their limits because she wants them to be the best they can be and excel at what they do. If Spitfire didn't push them to their limits, her recruits wouldn't be prepared for what lies ahead in terms of challenges and whatever life throws at them. Not to mention, they wouldn't ace boot camp and become Wonderbolts. Despite how stern, strict, mean and tough the drill sergeants/drill instructors can be, they are there to guide their soldiers in the right direction, tell them what needs to be done, inform them if they are doing anything wrong and so forth. However, just like all drill sergeants/drill instructors, Spitfire have a tendency to shout at her recruits and bark orders at them.
Drill sergeants sometimes sound different when in drill sergeant mode over their normal speaking voice, even when they are talking at a normal level. Spitfire was quite friendly in prior appearances, especially to Rainbow Dash. So why is Spitfire giving Rainbow Dash as well as the other recruits a hard time? Well first off, to test their resolve. Notice Spitfire's satisfied smile at Rainbow Dash's response to her insult, an indication of approval. Plus, Spitfire is a drill sergeant on duty. You can make friends in your own time, but when Spitfire's job includes weeding out the weak from the Wonderbolts, friends and the like get no special privileges. This is boot camp, you earn your wings.
Opinions of Both Raripierce and Combow
by Double C
As a lot of you all know I’m very much interested in analyzing and give opinions on romance with the main and supportive characters of both Friendship is Magic and A New Generation (Make Your Make and Tell Your Tales). Most of it is either from the show, comics, novels, or fan opinions and to see if the ship would be good or not. For this one, I would like to talk about two ships that caught my attention which are Rarity and Royal Pin and Izzy and Comet.
If you’ve all been around in the early fandom, Royal Pin was shipped with Pinkie which was popular before Cheese Sandwich came along. I came across Rarity and Royal when watching Fuels of Love by Christina Keating on YouTube. At first I was speculated but she mentions that on Royals blind bag card that stated he makes cloths for his friend. I can see these two being a powerful fashion couple which could help expand Rarity’s fashion carrier. There would be ups and downs with fashion being a main focus with both helping each other while also disagree on how each other’s fashion should be. Royal defiantly deserves to be among the top potential husbands for Rarity and the fashion designer member of the Stallion 6.
When Comet appeared, he is a good addition to Tell Your Tales while Make Your Mark was limited. When he and Izzy interacted, it is similar to how Pinkie and Cheese interacted with happy, energetic, and laughing moments. When Comet wanted to come to Maretime Bay, Izzy was so happy that they danced that they are friends with some fans thinks it be more. Izzy’s optimistic would help Comet overcome his nerves when trying new things out. Hopefully in future Tell Your Tales we’ll get some time between Izzy and Comet in many adventures that would lead to being a couple.
From The Perspective of a Journalist
By: Fiona Li
I'm already aware the "Ponyville Confidential" is a controversial episode. I just assumed people might be interested in what I have to say as a journalist. Countless years before I became a journalist, I didn’t like the episode at first because it’s meanspirited, especially when the Ponyville citizens were being extremely harsh and unforgiving towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Not to mention, this is verbal abuse. They were little fillies for Pete’s sake! Sweet Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo didn’t know any better, their brains are still developing, and they are still learning. Years later when I became a journalist, I went back to watching the episode with a new lens or a new pair of eyes. It turns out the episode isn’t as painful and unbearable to watch as I initially thought. However, it still undermines the integrity of journalism as a whole and paints it in a negative light, despite the episode points out the positive and negative sides of journalism. Despite the Cutie Mark Crusaders didn’t have a degree in journalism, they were somehow talented enough to keep the students at the Ponyville Schoolhouse and Ponyville engaged with the school newspaper.
On the other hand, I liked how the episode touches upon the ins and outs of the journalism industry and what goes on behind the scenes such as the Editor-In-Chief, strict/tight deadlines, slow news, writer’s block, what journalists must go through to get a story, the fact there are so-called journalists out there that goes against everything journalism stands for, lying by omission or not reporting on the truth etc. A lot goes into journalism and producing an article. My pet peeve is when certain video game journalists constantly write “articles” or hitpieces that are irrelevant to video games with the intention to push a “message”, propaganda and shove their political ideals down their audience’s throats. These are a bunch of baloney I don’t want to read or listen to. This is what I call, “fake diversity”. Their definition of “diversity” is unnatural. It’s just “diversity” just for the sake of it just to tick a checkbox/checklist. All me and the gamers want is video game journalists setting out what they supposed to do: report on games and nothing else and get to the point.
I'm not going to lie; I’m still kicking myself for not choosing a journalism university course years ago and look where that got me, I’m not even a mainstream/professional journalist. Heck, I have yet to write for a newspaper or be a television news reporter. I’m just a freelance journalist. So far, I’ve been freelancing as a journalist for 9 years. Instead, I decided to study a 3D Modelling and Animation For Games and Media course. The reason why I picked this course is because I loved Craig McCracken’s animation works since the 90’s. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust.
But my point still stands. If anyone wants to watch a wholesome episode about journalism that paints it in a positive light, go and watch the "The Rainbow High Crest Quest!" which is episode 4, Season 2 of Rainbow High instead. To be honest, I found myself watching "The Rainbow High Crest Quest!" episode more times than I watched the "Ponyville Confidential" episode and that’s saying something.
