• Community Soapbox #31 - A Little Girls Perspective on Brony, Maud's Autism, Fan Content, and More!


    Another week, another round of the fandom speaking! What crazy topics will you all grace us with today? We have one extra this time due to a bit of a backlog.

    Expect these posts normally every Tuesday at 2:00 PM PST. To submit your own, see this post.

    Note: These soapboxes do not at all reflect the ideas of EQD. They are an open forum for anyone to post whatever crazy theory they want.

    Your headlines this week: 

    • Being a little girl in a much older fandom
    • Can Our Fan Content Get Us Into Big Trouble?
    • Luna, Dreams, and Hierarchy
    • Why Scootaloo Shouldn't Fly
    • Rainbow Dash’s Home
    • Why I see Maud Pie as Autistic

    And get your soapboxes below!


    Why I see Maud Pie as Autistic
    By: Anonymous


    Ever since I started watching MLP, I wanted an autistic character on the show. So imagine my surprise when Maud Pie appeared in her debut episode. I could instantly tell that she was just like my autistic self! It's refreshing to see that, unlike other shows, her character is handled in a non-stereotypical way; she’s well written, well rounded, and not simply comic relief. True, she doesn't appear to have every symptom (i.e. she's not hypersensitive), but because she doesn't exactly fit the textbook definition of autism, it actually makes her more true-to-life of real autistics! Once you notice the symptoms she does have, however, it becomes clear; Honesty to the point of bluntness, literal-mindedness, noticing little things but missing the bigger picture, preferring to be alone, struggles with emotional expression, a strong interest in a single topic, and most of all, unending loyalty towards her sister. That's our Maud!


    Luna, Dreams, and Hierarchy
    By: Nightmare Muffin


    Luna’s best princess, but few want (or even know the origin of) her dream abilities explored. In FIENDship is Magic #4, Nyx were introduced as creatures living on the moon and being victims of Nightmare Moon’s trickery to learn their techniques. Did they teach her ALL of their techniques? After all, ancient decree of theirs says that only Nyx can craft the dreams of ponies...but we clearly see Luna- not necessarily crafting dreams, but dream walking, being able to link the dreams of an entire town of ponies, and giving sentience and will to living nightmares to enter the waking world. (which seems like something NMM would do)

    Even more interesting is dialogue from the Nyx. One named Gaiman explains that they’ve had a connection with ponies since the time that history began, and that they were ENTRUSTED to create the dreams of ponies.

    Why dreams of ponies, specifically? And WHO or WHAT were they entrusted by? Gaiman implies that whoever or whatever the Nyx answer to in their line of work is probably older than the royal sisters, if their relationship with ponies goes back to the annals of history.


    Why Scootaloo Shouldn’t Fly
    By: James Games


    Many Bronies want Scootaloo to fly someday but this a terrible idea for the simple reason that Scootaloo represents people with disabilities and most people with disabilities will never overcome them and are stuck with these conditions for life and for Scootaloo to fly would be an incredible insult or disconnect to them. Scootaloo sends the message that disabilities don’t have to hold you back and can be redirected into new strengths since scootaloo uses her wings like propeller fans to boost her scooter instead of flying, something that’s completely unique to her.


    Can Our Fan Content Get Us Into Big Trouble?
    By: thepiedragon

    "Fan games will RUIN YOUR LIFE?". Sounds like clickbait, right? The Youtube channel, The Know (video on this topic here: https://youtu.be/g7R9_LtIuLc), usually use these tactics in their titles. But this one is different.

    For those that didn't watch this video (you should), it talks about the subject of fan games and brings up a particular lawyer known as "The Video Game Attorney". He spoke up about the issue of fan games recently, and long story short: they're illegal. Straight up. They can ruin a person's life, as companies don't always send a C&D first to fan-game developers. And in many cases, those who's lives are being ruined can't talk about it afterwards due to non-disclosure agreements, according to The Video Game Attorney.

    But as I was watching this, something occurred to me: this applies to ANY fan-made content, including MLP animations and art. This is a bit scary, especially considering that Hasbro COULD be putting fans in major legal hot water, and we don't even know about it...

    That being said, WOULD Hasbro skip the C&D? Probably not. But it's something that I think we should be aware of when creating fan content.





    Rainbow Dash’s Home
    By: James Games


    In the season 1 episodes Griffon the Brush Off, Dragonshy and Swarm of the Century we saw Rainbow Dash’s Cloud House, a house made of clouds and in Party of One onwards we see Dash live in The Cloudominium, a much larger building whose name implies it’s condo, I’m not sure what Dash living in a condo means for her financial status but what I do know is that the Equestrivia game confirms that Rainbow Dash moved out of her Cloud House and that the two are separate buildings, so even Season 1 had it’s share of nuances with a bacground story of Dash changing homes. What’s even more interesting than Dash changing homes is the AGE that she changed homes since Pinkie Pride is her tenth birth-aversary that means she left her parent’s house 10 years ago, so who knows what issues Dash has with them that caused her to leave them as a child, needless to say Dash’s unseen homelife is very interesting and she’s apparently even more the opposite of Zephyr Breeze than previously thought.




    Being a Little Girl in a Much Older Fandom
    By: MlpFanX9000

    I started watching mlp when I was 9. When I found out the fans weren't just girls my age I was glad older people could find joy in such an innocent show (The fandom ruined that for sure). Over the years I've joined in with fans and talked with much older people. The best part was, they didn't know how young I was. I could fit in and feel like my opinions mattered just as much.
    I've seen people say things like,
    "YA KNOW, FOR KIDS!"
    "This show is defiantly more for the adults now."
    Outside the community I've also seen anti-bronies say
    "This show is horrible and should of never existed"
    "Stupid little girls, this show and bronies wouldn't exist if it wasn't for them."
    Me and other kids have had to pay for the hate bronies get and i've even been called stupid for liking some episodes of the show by other fans just cause they were IN THEIR OPINION badly written, lazy and that anyone else who likes it must be an idiot.
    I can't enjoy something that was originally made for my age group without being insulted. I love the show for what it is...sure it's not perfect but sometimes I feel like I'm one of the most mature and reasonable people on here.



    a