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:
- ART STYLE is 90% of Why Friendship is Magic was Successful andd You Are All Lying To Yourselves
- Hasbro is now making the worst choices ever in Pony history
- Ponies Should Have Dedicated Theme Songs!
- Are Background Ponies Secretly the Real Stars?
And go read them below!
By: Crux
I went on a deep dive into Youtube brony interviews from the early days of the fandom and can't help but see a trend in responses. Everyone always cites the #1 reason for liking this show being the writing and Pixar jokes. It's brought up over and over, almost as a defensive measure against the audacity of an adult liking a show for 12 year old girls.
Honestly though, I don't think that's at all the case. People got obsessed with this show because of the STYLE. That's the reason it was so successful and why everything following it has flopped. Pony Life was the same characters. G5 was honestly par for the course in pony writing quality in both MYM and TYT. So why did they flop?? STYLE!
Friendship is Magic came in with adorable anime eye ponies with cute catlike snouts and curves. They had big expressive eyes and their models didn't have any awkward angles at all. Even their ugly moments were cute, because Lauren Faust hit the jackpot when it came to triggering dopamine in the human nerd brain and FiM was the result.
I genuinely wonder what you all watched when you praise the writing. The dialogue was great, but so are most cartoons. Outside of tht though, half the episodes were rushed and any major plot mysteries or other things ended up being silly. This show had good characters, but so many others do to and fail because their style sucks.
We've seen it countless times over the years in other media too. Great concept, awful art. Game after game releasing ugly characters and flopping while cookie cutter anime gacha game #50 makes billions of dollars. Why? STYLE! That's it. Our basic-ass monkey brains crave beautiful, cute, fun, happy, sexy, and appealing styles. Anime does this in spades. Ponies were basically anime equines with FiM.
Pony life made them goofy and stupid looking. No one wanted that. G5 removed their curves, shrunk the eyes, and gave them all snouts that look like they were ripped right from Barny the Dinosaur. The flop was inevitable.
I hope Hasbro has figured this out by now, or G6 is next on the chopping block. Make the ponies appealing. That is the #1 thing. You can have chatGPT write a better episode than half of what we got over the years, but nothing will save you if the ponies are ugly from half the angles you show them at.
Hasbro is now making the worst choices ever in Pony history
By: FirePuppy (Tadashi Satoru)
I gotta admit, Hasbro has made the worst possible choices ever for the My Little Pony brand as of now. Not only did they put the whole franchise on hiatus after all those unexpected, yet unfortunate layoffs at Little Critter Workshop last year, they've left a majority of all the international My Little Pony channels on YouTube completely inactive (even with just Seasons 1-4 of Friendship is Magic at maximum), they're still wasting their money on investments on Discovery Family, AND this past April, they've forced the show back on Netflix after the service tried to get rid of it!
The only good thing Hasbro did this year was put the entire show and the Equestria Girls films and specials, along with Best Gift Ever, Rainbow Roadtrip and Pony Life, all on Tubi and/or The Roku Channel.
Seriously, Hasbro needs to make some changes for once. It's not worth it to just keep the show on a channel that hardly anyone even watches anymore anyways, nor is it wise to put just one episode of each season on Netflix when there's 26 times that much per season.
I also must remind you that no TV show -- I'm not kidding -- not ONE (at least for what I know) -- has ever been in a total situation like this before. Not Littlest Pet Shop, not Pound Puppies, not any of the Transformers shows. Just My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And one more thing: This is the first time in almost 30 years the whole franchise has ever been in a worldwide hiatus, Europe included!
Ponies Should Have Dedicated Theme Songs!
By: Itrear
Every hero needs a theme song, so why not our favorite ponies? Sure, Pinkie Pie bursts into spontaneous musicals and Rainbow Dash rocks her awesome anthem in “The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000,” but have you ever wondered if every pony has a personal soundtrack we just haven’t heard yet?
Imagine Fluttershy’s gentle melody playing as she tends to animals, or a dramatic orchestral swell whenever Rarity finishes a dress. Maybe Applejack has a twangy fiddle tune that follows her through Sweet Apple Acres. If Vinyl Scratch ever got her own episode (she should), you just know it’d be a bass-heavy banger.
Music is such a core part of Equestria, what if the ponies actually hear it too, like a built-in magical soundtrack? Is that why they all break into song so naturally
Ironically, Trixie did have a theme song at some point though I can't seem to find it...
Are Background Ponies Secretly the Real Stars?
By: Butters
We all love Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and the rest of the Mane 6—but what about those ponies in the background who keep popping up, episode after episode, with mysterious consistency?
From Derpy’s wall-eyed antics to Lyra and Bon Bon’s ever-evolving “will-they-won’t-they” subplot, background ponies have become low-key fan favorites. Some even have full fandom-built personalities despite saying zero words in the show!
It makes you wonder, are these characters intentionally placed for fans to find, or were they just fun coincidences the animators rolled with? Either way, Equestria feels more alive because of them. Their little quirks, blink-and-you-miss-it expressions, and crowd scene cameos build a world that feels bigger than just the main story.
Wouldn’t it be fun if G5 or a future series gave us a full episode from a background pony’s perspective? Maybe Berry Punch has a secret life as a jazz singer. Maybe Doctor Hooves really is a time traveler.
So what do you think? Which background pony do you think deserves their own episode—or even a spinoff?
