• Community Soapbox - Lack of Stream Options for G4, Opaline Theories, G5's Restored Timeline, and More!

    It has been a long time since we have had a soapbox post! I blame lack of stuff to give opinions on. 

    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:


    • Opaline Isn't Twilight, And Here's Why
    • G5's Restored Timeline or How Twilight Sparkle Didn't Steal Magic From Ponies and Kept Magic Alive Instead
    • Streaming of My Little Pony G4 has suffered pervasive censorship!
    And go read them below!
    Opaline Isn't Twilight, And Here's Why
    By IronYoshi

    Recently there's been a lot of speculation revolving around Opaline, the new alicorn villain for G5. One of these ideas (and by that I mean its only believed by one guy) is that she is supposedly Twilight all corrupted. Frankly, not only does this not make sense, but it's also a ridiculous and downright stupid idea.

    First off, Opaline and Twilight look nothing alike. Granted, neither Daybreaker or Nightmare Moon looked like their original counterparts, but even so, Opaline and Twilight have very little in common as far as designs go. They're different heights (Opaline seems to be about the size of Cadence whereas Twilight was literally Celestia-esque by the end of FIM) and they have different eye colors too. Of course you could throw in the "b-but she's corrupted!" claim, but how did she get corrupted then? And did she get size-reduction surgery to compensate? Plus wasn't Opaline shown in the G5 comics in some flashbacks to Old Equestria? How exactly could she be Twilight when Twilight was still around? I know the comics are dubious with canon, but even so, the point still stands.

    Next, could you imagine the reactions and backlash if Opaline was Twilight? I know bronies love to overreact and have an extremely short fuse (especially when it comes to anything G5, I mean, have you seen most of the reactions towards it?), but the reactions to this if it was true (and that's a very, very big IF), then the fandom would probably go nuclear. Probably would make the reactions to the Grogar twist look tame in comparison. Personally, I think Opaline is her own character with absolutely no connection to Twilight at all. We are less than a month away from Make Your Mark's full premiere, so it's still too early to determine what Opaline might be like.

    Potion Nova wasn't evil, despite all those baseless and ridiculous accusations that were made against her, and Opaline certainly isn't a corrupted Twilight. Its just s terrible, cheap, and dumb idea. So can we PLEASE reserve judgement until we know more about her?

    G5's Restored Timeline or How Twilight Sparkle Didn't Steal Magic From Ponies and Kept Magic Alive Instead
    By: Somepony
     
    When rewatching Make Your Mark Chapter 2 Episode 6, I noticed something in the scene with Sunny recounting the origins of the crystals during slumber party. "Magic" in those stories is depicted as a heart. When three pony types started fighting, heart started breaking, i.e. magic started dying, possibly violently dying with storms and stuff. Only then TS created three crystals. It seems to be a stopgap solution to let ponies KEEP their magic, she did not take it away from ponies. Likely she hoped ponies with time will make peace with each other and embrace unity once again before her solution stops working.
    Here's restored timeline:
    - Three tribes were in harmony with the help of Twilight Sparkle
    - Three tribes started fighting
    - Magic started dying
    - To preserve magic, Twilight Sparkle put all the magic in crystals.
    - Magic kept working for a while even when ponies tribes each took respective crystals and separated themselves
    - Tensions between three cities gradually lessened, trading and tourism between cities becomes a thing.
    - Three tribes started fighting again, magic is still working during the fight, cities closed borders to each other
    - With no unity, magic in separated crystals eventually runs out, suddenly shutting off completely at some point. Unicorns blame Pegasi, Earth Ponies don't even notice that they lost their subtle magic, Pegasi royalty started their gig.
    - Events of MLP: A New Generation start
    This line from Misty's version:
    "All while the other ponies created towns built with her stolen magic!"
    Seems to confirm that separated ponies with separated crystals still had magic. So, remember those G5 concept-arts with weather machine, rainbow factory, museum? It seems ponies in the past used crystals like that.
    Then why magic didn't behave like that during Hearth's Warming's events, or in Season 9? As Twilight says, "magic is alive" and "always changing".
    So, with this theory, Unity Crystals work like this: when united, they radiate magic and accumulate any excess with the help of pony unity. When ponies are in discord, it drains magic from crystals instead, and when it runs out completely, they start to violently break with void storms. When separated, they're immune from void storms and still radiate accumulated magic, but can't be recharged.
     

    Streaming of My Little Pony G4 has suffered pervasive censorship!
    By Tadashi Satoru/FirePuppy

    Twelve years into the show's premiere and three years into the finale, it seems as though our streaming options of My Little Pony have gone from no censorship all the way to suffering pervasive censorship this year. For no reason, we've lost everything seen on Netflix, The Roku Channel, and even the Discovery Family Go app, and Hasbro is still refusing to re-release these shows and movies today. Specials like Equestria Girls, Best Gift Ever and Rainbow Roadtrip all have almost no streaming options whatsoever, either.

    The reason? Discovery Family. I mean, sure, the contract with Hasbro was supposed to expire in 2021 once, but even after the formation of Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022, the shows are still airing on Discovery Family today, meaning that we'll never know when their contract will expire, and as long as they have the rights, G4 isn't going anywhere.

    Seriously, what kind of censorship is this? I seriously do not like the way Hasbro is doing this to us. I mean, sure, we may have Generation 5 right now, but let's make things clear here: I am not a fan of G5, and never will be, because after all, I am getting older and I have to move on with my life anyways.