• Community Soapbox: The Final Pony Generation, G5 Vs. G4, and Nightmare Moon Legacy

    Soapbox time! We've got some interesting opinions this week, so hopefully you all can find something fun to discuss with these. 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:

    • Generation 5 could be the final generation ever
    • G5 isn't as fun to soapbox than G4
    • The Legacy of Nightmare Moon and Pony of Shadow

     And go read them below!  

     


    Generation 5 could be the final generation ever
    By: FirePuppy


    This is getting much worse than I thought. By the looks of the most recent financial results, Hasbro's net revenues, profits and earnings have all been declining, probably due to a record-breaking decline of toy demand. Not only that, the company is currently pending a possible sale of their television and film division, Entertainment One, which possibly might include My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Equestria Girls, Pony Life, and all Generation 5 media. Hasbro has also laid off about 1,000 employees in order to try to prevent the declines from continuing, but I don't think that will be very effective. Because of these results, there's a dangerously high chance that Generation 5 could be the final generation of the My Little Pony franchise, and there will never be a Generation 6.

    Of course, there's still two specials and 15 episodes of Make Your Mark remaining yet to be released on Netflix, and they could be the last pieces of animated content to ever be made, since absolutely nothing new at all was announced this year. Even so, not everything can stay on Netflix forever, so unless any action is taken, Generation 5 will end up in the "Keep Circulating the Tapes" graveyard, and Generation 4 may join as well.

     


    G5 isn't as fun to soapbox than G4
    by: FlareGun45


    Hey brahs! It's been a really long time since I made a soapbox, isn't it? Well, I don't have anything to theorize this time. Instead, I wanna talk about why I haven't been making alota soapboxes.

    The simple thing is.... G5 just isn't as fun to theorize as G4. With G4 we got alot to work with, with the lore, theorizing all the many characters we meet, the different story arcs.... G5 just doesn't have enough of it. I'm not saying that's a bad thing and that it's a must for them to have it, but because of it, there's really not much to talk about.

    Another big reason to why, and probably because there isn't much lore, is because there aren't as many episodes as G4 had. After all the time that went by, we didn't even get a season's worth of content yet. Quality over quantity, of course. But seeing as the G5 show is a bit more mature than G4 was when the show first started, feels so odd to get so little. After all the time that went by, the last thing we got was the Holiday special.

    What stinks even more is that, with Netflix, they release the entire season of shows at once, and it takes away the thrill of the wait. The show being 26 episodes, and coming once a week (till a mid-season hiatus), that brought the thrill into my brain, and kept wanting me to make more and more theories. I just don't got that kick no more.

    And the worst part is: none of these characters are as interesting as Spike to me. Nope, Sparky is just not the same. He lacks the reliability and interest I have with Spike. I couldn't care less about Sparky.

    But yeah, I do apologize for not making as many soapboxes. G5 just doesn't give me the same feeling G4 did.

     


    The Legacy of Nightmare Moon and Pony of Shadow
    By Double C


    Villains are what make shows and movies good for the hero(s) to stop and can leave a legacy of which one left the most impact. Besides those that are pure evil, the other worst villains the heroes face were once heroes before they fell.  There are 2 quotes that we all heard in other franchises “You either die the hero or live long to become the villain” and “Evil is not born, it is made”. That is exactly what happened to Princess Luna and Stygian that left a huge impact on pony society and to those close to them. But besides stories to frighten young foals at bed time, there are other things these 2 characters also left that get over looked even by Twilight, Celestia, and Starswirl.

    We know that Nightmare Moon and the Pony of Shadow were the result of Luna and Stygian’s envy and hatred. But that’s only half of their creation, in my opinion they were also created from Celestia and the Pillars arrogant and neglect. Celestia and Luna were supposed to rule Equestria together as sisters but Celestia hogged the spot light while Luna was left in her sister’s shadow. Stygian help founded the Pillars of Equestria but each member never gave him the created for battle strategy. I don’t want to explain what they did next that lead to the dark side since we saw it happen in the show.

    So yes Celestia and the Pillars should also bear the blame for not only creating shadow monsters but also leading the ones that they say they care about down a dark path. This would have been a lesson for the Mane 6 to teach the students including the Young 6 at the School of Friendship about not neglecting and shunted their friends and family members. However Twilight and her friends would have also made the same mistake towards Spike if the writers had done it.
    So this would have been a good lesson for both in the characters in the show and to the audience of not hog all the credit from those who also helped. This would allow someone with evil intentions to manipulate them and turn to the dark side. It would also follow a quote that Winston Churchill said that I tell people “Those who failed to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.