• Community Soapbox - Major Villains Winning #3, FiM's Maturity, and G5 Setting

    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:

    • What if The Major Villains (FiM) Won? Part 3
    • What Elements do the Stallion 6 represent?
    • A  Chance where FiM was Given the Opportunity to be Mature and Failed
    • The Problem With the Setting of G5

    And go read them below!


    What if The Major Villains (FiM) Won? Part 3
    By Alexrioponylover95

    Hello everycreature!

    So continuing from where we last left off, we’re going to cover Tirek and Starlight next on if the villains won!

    So with Tirek, during the Season 4 finale, lets says he had succeeded in fully defeating Twilight in their dragonballz fight and Twilight, to put it lightly, perished and could not gain the last key in order to unlock the chest from the Tree of Harmony which led to Tirek’s defeat. With Twilight gone and well everypony, even Discord, having all their power and magic in Tirek’s possession, Equestria is essentially now doomed to fail.

    As Celestia said, Earth ponies can no longer tend to the land and agriculture, added to the fact that the Pegasus ponies no longer can control the weather, which means no rain and also the unicorns can’t fix it all with their magic. So in all likelihood, not only will Equestria be free to be destroyed by Tirek, like in the Season 5 finale, Equestria is, well dead basically, like that barren landscape shown later on in the Season 5 finale. With no pony able to do anything, if they’re lucky to be able to survive Tirek’s rampage, will starve and Equestria’s population will die out…

    So lets move on from this grim alternate scenario to Equestria turning into the Soviet Union with Starlight!

    So lets say that during The Cutie Map, Starlight was able to convert the Mane 6 into her philosophy, which lets face it, it’s communism no matter how you spin it, and now Starlight has the elements of harmony on her side and working for her. Having a major part of Equestria’s defenses on her side now, Starlight can then work to overthrow Celestia and Luna and either convert or well deal with them in another way. Having dealt with the two sisters, Starlight could potentially finish up with Cadance in the Crystal Empire and once that’s done and after making a much bigger cutie mark vault, can then replace everyone’s cutie mark.

    What follows, well in a similar fashion to what happened during the Soviet Union’s time, Starlight declaring everypony equal, with maybe some exceptions that can’t be taken out, rooting out any potential dissidents that seek to change the rules, etc. And Starlight’s rule of Equestria would continue until there’s enough problems to cause Starlight to loosen some rules, which just like with the Soviet Union, leads to the ponies voicing their opinions on the current leadership.

    And unlike with Tirek, this actually may lead to a positive change for Equestria, sure the princesses and elements of harmony, just like with Czar Nicholas, have most likely been dealt with by Starlight and are no longer around, but Equestria can still adapt to this. Maybe it might even lead up to Equestria becoming a democracy rather than a return to a monarchy and ponies now have a much bigger voice themselves in whatever kind of government structure that follows.

    And that’s it for these two villains and next time this little series will finish up with the Pony of Shadows and Cozy Glow!


    What Elements do the Stallion 6 represents?
    By Double C

    I like how the Young 6 was given their own elements of what they represented in a soapbox a year ago. So it inspired me to find out what elements do the Stallion 6 represent. I’ve been researching and found what each one can be that was inspired from the Viking code. That’s right the Vikings did have a code that kept them civilized despite being depicted as savages. So these are, if IDW is interested, what they represent:

    Flash Sentry would represent courage. I would like to thank Banshee531 for this idea and keep up the good work. I believed that no matter how hard and bad things get, Flash would find ways to overcome any challenge while keeping a smile.

    Soarin would represent Honor. While being the opposite of Spitfire, he does take his position seriously and will help maintain it politely.

    Cheese Sandwich would represent Hospitality. Do I really have to explain why, he knows how to entertain everyone through his party planning.

    Applejack’s love interest would represent Industriousness. He would be someone who is energetically hard-working much like Applejack.

    Fluttershy’s love interest would represent Discipline. He would show others how to behave well with a firm yet gentle hoof.

    Rarity’s love interest would represent Truth. He would not only tell the truth but also help explain it to others.

    I’m keeping Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity anonymous because it’s anyone’s guess who they will be shipped with even though we have our own ideas. What do you all think? Who do you think should represent Industriousness, Discipline, and Truth?


    A  Chance where FiM was Given the Opportunity to be Mature and Failed
    by Lone Wolf

    Cartoons are an excellent vehicle to teach kids and a general audience about some serious topics. It has happened in cartoons in recent times, and some good examples come to mind. "Hey Arnold!" with Paternal Favoritism and School Bullies in the ep "Helga on the Couch";  Arthur dealt with one of their characters having cancer at one point in the shows long run; Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers dealt with the topic of death and kept this in mind. The episode "Tanks for Memories" failed at being mature because it was supposed to be death and grief, and it failed so hard and one reason it substituted it, which should never do. Instead of death, it's hibernation that doesn't work because one is permeant and the other is a temporary annual occurrence of nature. Thanks to that, the episode lessons are fighting with others throughout the episode. The vehicle of that was Rainbow Dash herself, who acts ultimately like a moron thought the episode and never including destroying private property that never chastised for, even after the episode. The episodes end with RD burying Tank, so it is not subtle with its lesson death. "Tanks for the Memories instead of trying to teach about hibernation or death, the writers decided to do both, and that is where the episode failed, teaching kids about this topic hard. When both Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street (which has the same targeted audience as FiM BTW and heck even younger) teach kids about death better, you know FiM failed here. I will end this with a hopeful note, and I hope G5 handles mature topics better than its processor because this MLP chance for a second and fresh new start to teach mature lessons and well act like an adult when it comes to said lessons.  


    The Problem With the Setting of G5


    Ever since the plotline of the g5 setting came out, I have seen people in a tizzy over the fact that the future events in Equestria seem to undermine all the efforts that Twilight and her friends brought to the world of Equestria. Magic is gone, the tribes are once again divided, and everything looks just as grim, in fact moreso now, than back before the Two Sisters even founded Equestria, and while I can understand the frustration from fans who got emotionally invested in the g4 tv series to be asking such a thing, I really have to wonder and post this question to the fandom- that in what fictional or real content are changes made that stay in place indefinitely? Time has proven to erode all good intentions and efforts, whether in the real world or fictional. Things are never forever sunshine and rainbows- and I think that It’s a serous error in thinking if you even apply such a situation to a fictional world- as what stories are there left to provide in a world that has no conflict, once the good guys win, but time and circumstance has taken those good guys out of the picture? I urge g4 fans to try to be more open minded toward the concept of this newly divided world that g5 will bring, and realize that Twilight Sparkle’s and her friend’s efforts haven’t been in vain- as they continue to at least live on in Sunny. And that there is no problem with this setting that has been provided as a sneak peek of the setting and conflicts within this new generation.