• Community Soapbox - A Love Interest for Luna, G5 Future, Complicated Stories, and More!

    The soapboxes cvontinue! 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 didn’t they give Luna a Love Interest?
    • Discord- Hero At Heart, Or Disaster In The Making?
    • Complicated storylines make the best stories!
    • G5-How far into the future is it (assuming it is in the G4 universe)

    And go read them below!


    Why didn’t they give Luna a Love Interest?
    By Double C

    Cadence is married to Shining Armor, Celestia was in a relationship with Mirror Sombra, and Twilight will soon be with pony Flash Sentry. However Luna was completely left without a love interest in both the show and comics. I know that she has her sister but there would have been a time that Luna couldn’t tell Celestia about her issues since they still have the typical sibling issues. At one point I thought their could have been something between her and Big Mac since their interaction especially she kissed him in Issue 9 but IDW as most of the time was teasing use. If the either or both the show wanted o Luna to have a love interest, they could have drew influence from fans OCs or brought back one Gen 2 character from its toy lines.

    Like Cadence and Twilight, I would have thought she would have fallen for a one of her royal guards that stood out from all the rest. A good example is Supernova by Kianamai and his counterpart Nova Slumber by Snoopy7c7. I’ve always wanted to see bat ponies appear in the show at least being shipping with someone. If a character like him existed, he would show what the bat pony guards do since both their duties and species are still left unknown.

    For Hasbro, the character from the Gen 2 toy line series would have been Prince Firefly. For those who don’t know him it’s because he never made any appearance in the show and only as a toy like so many. While nothing is known about him but his story states that he is intrepid and loves discovering new things and has two firefly friends that accompany him all day.

    So yeah, both the show and comics before Twilight’s second coronation could have done this. It would have been fun to see a different side of Luna that showed how finding someone can also help settle with her troubled past. We can also agree that Luna would have made a good mother especially a bat pony alicorn which would have been fun to see.
     

    Discord- Hero At Heart, Or Disaster In The Making?
    By Oddball Tails

    Ah, Discord. A character that many have a wide range of feelings about. Some people love him, some people hate him. However my feelings are rather...mixed to say the least. When we first encounter him, is all the way back in Season 2, as an intimidating foe for our mane 6, who ultimately defeat him in arguably two of the best episodes in the show.

    The following season, he is "reformed" by Fluttershy- whom he later falls in love with. Through the show, we see this bond between them grow- mostly on his part, which makes for fun character growth, as he realizes that despite being all powerful, he can't live without this kind hearted, mortal Pegasus pony. And to his credit, he does usually try to do better for her. He still behaves like a jerk many times, despite this though. And then, Season 4 finale happens, he has another dance with the darkness within. As the seasons go on, he forms bonds with other characters- some of my favorite episodes involve his interactions with Spike and Big Mac. We even learn he would die if he was not chaotic. But then the series finale came, and this is where much of my, and I believe many other's, issue comes from.
    We learn he was the one who aided the villainous trio in escaping and getting back on their feet. Ultimately, the day is saved, the heroes win out- but what is very frustrating to me is that Discord has once again nearly doomed Equestria... at that point, I'd have a LOT of doubts about his character, especially given the knowledge he would die if he were not chaotic- certainly, that gives him REASON to do this, but does that make him the safest being to have around? I think not.
    On the other hand...Fluttershy would almost certainly disagree with locking him up again, and probably intervene should any of the alicorns or other mane 6 really try and lock Discord away, so perhaps there was not really a choice but to trust him. That said...I truly do think the other believe that in his heart he is doing his best to change, or at least have faith Fluttershy is teaching him how to change for the better.  And even though I have spoken a bit harshly of him in the last part of this article, I truly like Discord a lot. He's fun, and unpredicatble, adding a much needed element of chaotic fun to the show, and to the lives of those he encounters. I think also he is a good character at heart- he just has much to learn still in the ways of friendship.

    I'm Oddball Tails- thanks for reading! 


    Complicated storylines make the best stories!
    By: FlareGun45

    It's fun making theories for our favorite media content - it gets us to think outside the boundaries of them and creating some very interesting stories! FIM has certainly gotten more unexpected in the later seasons than in the earlier ones, creating some storylines not many expected would come, and some great character chemistry not many expected either.

    It's really fun to complicate the storyline, even though not many people tend to agree to it. Sometimes when I make my theories of the show, not everyone agrees to it, and while that's cool and all, one of the reasons of it is because they believe "it is what it is", instead of "what it could be". For example: where exactly does the magic of Equestria come from? How exactly does it work? Some things might not need explanation, but it would still be an interesting course - even if it's a "show, don't tell" scenario, which is even better! Like, the LyraBon storyline, it was NEVER talked about, it was just in the background, and that's really what helped make their story arc great! Want a bad example? Star Wars 9's "I AM THE SPY!" quote.

    Not every kid's animated series is like that anymore, or even Hollywood itself. Things are being dumbed down. Kids are NOT stupid - complicating the storyline is what makes story great! Not have stuff always be what they seem. Pinkie Pie being happy and making people smile? Is she only like that cause she's depressed deep down? Yunno what they said, the biggest smiles come from the most depressed people. It doesn't take away the magic of FIM, it enhances it! It helps us understand the magic more, now that we know how it works, and how people would be able to read other people better, and be able to empathize better.

    So my point is, complicating the story makes a story more interesting. Sometimes it's nice to get an important message through in a fantasy-setting. It's alot better and alot more fun than getting a message through to an audience with such a serious story - and kids don't need their content "dumbed down" with nothing but fart jokes, slapstick, and a storyline everyone's seen a million times, and a moral about "brushing your teeth", I mean really, who needs a story about that? How about this one: a SCHOOL OF FRIENDSHIP! Friendship is learned from experience, NOT a school. That's pretty much why season 8 was considered the least favorite season amongst the fandom.

    Yunno what taught me politics more than anything else? Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Fictional politics helped me understand real-life politics alot more. And it was a kid's show takin' place in a galaxy far far away, so it wasn't filled with depressing real life stories. I'm definitely considering all these for Harmony Brahs.
     

    G5-How far into the future is it (assuming it is in the G4 universe)
    By ShadowWriter45

    When learned about G5, I didn't really care about it. If anything, I knew my feelings on G4 wouldn't impact if I watched it or not. Plus, I knew that no matter how it turns out the fandom would more than likely say that it's terrible and would never surpass the legacy of G4 in their minds. That being said, I've been hearing that G5 might be set in the world of G4; do not swear me to this since any knowledge I learned is sometimes second hand. However, I read the premise that was officiated and I've heard people question how this happened to Equestria; meaning, how it became so divided after everything Twilight and her friends.

    Let's start with Twilight. Most people have stated that she might outlive her friends despite writers claiming in the past that she won't outlive. If we go by the idea that Twilight does eventually die like normal ponies, if not live a little longer, then all Twilight could do is pass on her knowledge and stories in hopes things would be the way she and the rest of the Mane 6 made it. Even after she's gone, she can't predict everything that would happen after she's gone; we've seen what that looks like.

    Next, the successors of not only the Mane 6 but the other races probably did their best to keep the peace among one another but as each of them passed on or went to different things that peace probably wasn't going to last. New leaders would do their own things for what's best for Equestria or their homelands based on how things improved or got worse for their kind. We can't expect everything to go well just because they all get along now

    Lastly, it's pretty easy to trick pony kind and divide. It doesn't take much; we've seen it happen almost all the time. Assuming that this all happened by some villain or it's just a societal thing with no one to blame but each other, it really doesn't take much. Even if we go so far as to say that this is more than 1000 years into the future, I don't think tendencies that ponies have, like gullibility and fearing something without knowing it, faded away over time. The only upside so far is that it hasn't gotten to the point Windigos, assuming they're still a thing. The other races, like Yaks, Dragons, etc., just feel back on their base personality too without pony kind being a balancing factor that opened the door for most of them to cooperate and accept friendship and differences.

    In conclusion, this is why I think G5's setting may be the way it is. Assuming I decide to watch it, I want to go in with this idea but at the same time see what they do with it without expecting it to nod to everything from G4 and for it to tell its own story.

    PS: I don't think Discord had anything to do with this.