Soapbox time, where the fandom expresses its opinions! 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:
- Are Alicorns Really Immortal?
- Is Hasbro Deviating From Brony Culture Really A Bad Thing?
- Make Your Mark ending is NOT confirmed!
- MLP What If. . . Starlight Glimmer Sold All the Cutie Marks in Equestria
Is Hasbro Deviating From Brony Culture Really A Bad Thing?
By: IDK
I think everyone is aware of Hasbro's departure from the Brony community as a whole. Maybe it started with the whole 'Bring back G4' movement, but I believe that Hasbro now knows the problems with being associated with the Brony phenomenon. Sure, it made them money. But only at first. The recent panels and interviews are obvious. Little girls and their parent's wallet is where it's at. In leaving the Brony hype behind, Hasbro can start over and try something new to finally cater to what they originally wanted. People always seem to forget that Lauren Faust was hired to make a soft reboot of MLP that would hopefully capture the new generation. When G4 arrived it wasn't meant to attract teenagers, young adults, and even 40 year old men; it was supposed to be cutesy. It only became the 'emotional cartoon for all ages' once the Brony voice was heard and was profitable. I believe that this new change to being cute and silly and very short is okay. The same panels also say that Hasbro is losing money. That's why MYM was cancelled. Just not profitable enough. With Hasbro now putting their foot down and going back to their original vision, we can still get more MLP content. Even if it isn't what you want, I don't know, just watch G4 for the twenty sixth time you basement dweller. Or just watch other mature cartoons. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.
Make Your Mark ending is NOT confirmed!
By: FlareGun45
Ok, lemme make this abundantly clear. Alota people seem to think that we're not gonna get any more 3D pony after Chapter 6. Now, while I'm not gonna rule out that it's possible, people seem to think its CERTAINTLY happening, when there was absolutely no proof of it.
Looking at the scheduling for G5, it shows that there is no Make Your Mark chapters planned at this time, which leads people to believe that the show is ending, just like that, which is just a rumor. Sure, nothing is confirmed for the future, so will we see more MYM? I have no idea. But that doesn't make it confirmed to be cancelled, cause nobody on the cast and crew said it was the last one. Nobody was thanking eachother or the audience for watching the show, or anything like that. I doubt these devs would just be silent if they knew the show was ending.
Now could you be correct of no more Make Your Mark? It's possible, as the current story arc has ended, and Secrets of Starlight started a new one. Does that mean new 3D show to take the place of Make Your Mark? Well, the movie was called 'A New Generation', then this show is 'Make Your Mark', and the YouTube series is 'Tell Your Tale', so will we get a new name for the show for the new set of chapters, or will we STAY in Make Your Mark?
Like I said, the show is starting a new story arc - not to spoil anything in case you didn't see Chapter 6 - but all I'll say is that Secrets of Starlight started up something new, so it wouldn't make ANY sense for Hasbro to not order any more of the 3D stuff. Tell Your Tale alone won't keep Generation 5 afloat. That would kill the generation pretty fast.
So, brahs, everything will be fine. These things take time, and since MYM's story has been so creative, and the animation tough and expensive, it's gonna take a while for the next thing to come. But it is very likely to continue. The show isn't going anywhere, unless it's changing its name, that's what I believe! ;)
MLP What If. . . Starlight Glimmer Sold All the Cutie Marks in Equestria
By Double C
Starlight Glimmer started as the main antagonist in the season 5 premiere and finally. Her goal was to take all the ponies of village cutie marks and give them equal signs so they be the same instead of different. Then she tried to rewrite history by preventing young Rainbow from starting her first sonic rainboom. But Twilight made Starlight her student to help reform her and succeeded in the season 6 finally. In the series finally, she became the new head master of the School of Friendship after Twilight became the new ruler of Equestria. While today fans enjoyed her redemption act but in a 2015 poll showed fans wanted to keep her a villain because of the magic skills, deception, and planning.
Instead of time travel, what if she found a spell that would have amplified her ability to steal cutie marks at a large scale. This would take both preparation and immense power to pull something like this off. Perhaps throughout season 5 she had placed markers at a specific part in Equestria with Canterlot being the place to activate it since it’s in the center. To pull off this spell would require strong magic from an alicorn. Starlight would steal the cutie marks of Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance and merge them to herself. I think she would do something like this because it would prove that the cutie pokes were perhaps a unicorn or alicorn was experimenting of a pony having more than one cutie mark. That individual didn’t just wanted a specific talent but also how much power that individual will get. So she would absorb the princess cutie marks, become a powerful demonic alicorn, use her and their magic to steal all the cutie marks, and store them in the mountain since it could hold all of them. She might even proclaim herself the new ruler of Equestria.
With all that power, she would be incredibly hard to defeat. But if recall the season 5 finale happen around the same time as Friendship Games that Twilight mention at the end. So Sunset Shimmer would be the only one to face her while also dealing with Midnight Sparkle since she didn’t get her powers taken by either one. Besides reforming Sci-Twi, Sunset would defeat Starlight and return all the cutie marks to all the ponies including the princesses. Doing this would have made Sunset into an alicorn princess something she wanted but did it in a good way.
Starlight’s fate can go either go good or bad but her actions will be judged. We know her motive was because of her friend Sunburst when she told Twilight but unknown if this version would tell Sunset or not. If did Starlight would have been put as Twilight’s student for reforming and Sunset would also help since she is an alicorn now. If not Starlight would have been imprisoned in Tartarus along with Tirek before Cozy comes and then joined the Legion of Doom.
Hasbro Did King Sombra Dirty
By: Grace
King Sombra in season nine was…fine. His take over and defeat was fine, it was certainly entertaining. But what the hay?! Sombra didn’t even get to come back, leaving only three villains. Sombra being gone basically by the second episode kind of made me sad, as he finally had a voice actor and we got to see a lot of his cocky personality! Not a great personality, but it was still something. Plus, I found him to be rather humorous.
While the comics and the show are not too closely related, I was hoping they would’ve used his personality and backstory in the FiM show, but they didn’t do that. Personally, I just think that King Sombra was overused. In the comics, he’s actually one of my favorite characters. He has a very strong love for his friends and has a sense of humor. I kind of like to imagine what Sombra could’ve been, if he had teamed up with the rest of the villains in season nine.
There was nothing necessarily wrong with how King Sombra was handled so quickly in season nine, but if I were to go back and rewrite some of it, I’d have him have a mount of weakness. A moment where he cared about something, someone, or maybe even his cause. It was a very dramatic and quick ending for the tyrant when he kind of um…melted. Yes, he deserves better I think, so if G5 ever has to bring back an old villain, he’s the guy for the job.
Are Alicorns Really Immortal?
By: Grace
Ever since alicorns were introduced, they have been overanalyzed to the core, and everyone has their own opinions on alicorns. However, there is not just one answer right now, even continuing into G5. So far, our best bet would be to take a look at Opaline. She is supposed to be as old as Celestia and Luna, or at least around their age. She referred to alicorns as immortal, but is this a true statement or just an exaggeration? And if alicorns really do live forever, then where are all of the other alicorns, especially the past princesses of Equestria? If their power is what keeps them alive, then maybe why alicorns are rare is because only the ones with the highest power levels are able to survive the longest. This doesn’t seem as likely though, because Opaline had been stripped of so much of her power for long, and it is clear to see that her castle is not keeping her alive since in chapter four she was so willing, even eager to leave her castle.
To be honest, I think our best bet would be to look at Zipp's research. I am hoping that one day, a part of an episode will be Zipp actually using words and not a montage to explain her alicorn theories. Maybe there’s something in her alicorn book about how long their average lifespan is. If alicorns are actually immortal, then that’s really big!
