#KindsThoughts

[kindheart525]

unpopular opinions on the fim show?

I’m not entirely sure how many of these opinions are unpopular in the fandom as a whole, but they seem kind of uncommon compared to what shows up in my feed so here goes

Pinkie’s family is not abusive or toxic. I know they are portrayed as extremely old-fashioned and strict in their lifestyle, based on what is probably a surface-level understanding of Amish communities. This makes it easy to compare them to similar communities irl who engage in practices like shunning. But the Pies’ behavior in the show and especially Pinkie’s attitude towards them seems to make clear that they have not shunned or abused her despite her “leaving the community.” In other words, I think there are key differences between the Pies and some of the real-life people they were meant to emulate, so it’s inaccurate to say that abusive Pie headcanons have any real basis in the show. I wrote more on this opinion here.

Zephyr Breeze is not nearly as likely to be a deadbeat dad as some might think. He was shown to be on the road to being more responsible by the end of his own debut episode, so I highly doubt he’d be the same pony he was at the beginning of the episode by the time he would become a father. Not that I don’t think he could be at least a little bit irresponsible as a dad; I just don’t think he’d leave his child or not love them. I wrote more on this opinion here.

Amending Fences was a missed opportunity for a very important friendship lesson, one that the show never dared to touch. Which is that sometimes people are incompatible and sometimes your old friends won’t forgive you. Instead, Moondancer was written in an extremely exaggerated way (her whole life was ruined by one rejection??) yet this wasn’t regarded as an overreaction at all. It was weirdly handled at best. I wrote more on this opinion here.

Rarity gets a bad rap from the fandom. I don’t know if it’s her mediocre taste in stallions or if there’s something about her ultra-feminine nature that some people don’t care for, but I think her maturity and intelligence are severely underrated. Of course she can be a drama queen, but so can Twilight and Pinkie and pretty much every other member of the main cast. Rarity had a breakdown over getting a fashion piece critiqued, but Twilight blew up at her friends over having a late paper; the two scenarios really aren’t that different.

Just because Rarity has multiple crushes on mediocre stallions (Blueblood, Trenderhoof) doesn’t mean that she would sleep around or have a tumultuous love life. Haven’t most people had celebrity crushes? Multiple celebrity crushes, in fact, and also multiple crushes and relationships involving people they actually know before finding “the one”? I’m sure a lot of people have also been disappointed to find out the celebrity they fancied is actually a terrible person, like Rarity has. It’s part of the human experience for many, and Rarity’s TWO moments of poor judgment are not a reflection of her whole character or even her full palate of romantic taste.

Along with being a drama queen, Rarity can have moments where she’s materialistic and selfish, like the time she convinced Spike to give her his fire ruby. That was not a good moment for her. But on a bigger picture, materialistic and selfish is not her usual state. She is literally the element of generosity!!! She made Gala dresses for all of her friends FOR FREE! She has also shown herself to be a leader among her friends, at times taking charge and coming up with plans in Twilight’s absence much like Applejack does sometimes. One example is Castle Sweet Castle; the whole premise of the episode was Rarity’s idea! To help Twilight feel more at home! It’s clear that her generous spirit informs her actions through most of the show, unlike Rainbow Dash who’s only truly loyal when the plot needs her to be.

Yes Rarity is flawed, but all her friends are too. Her flaws are not objectively worse than the others. In fact, Rarity was literally under mind control once and still regarded Spike as a genuine friend, while Rainbow Dash sold one of her best friends into indentured servitude completely sober (among a long list of other things). Twilight yelled at her friends that she didn’t need them, also with an unaltered mind. Rarity has had her own hurtful blowups ofc but hers aren’t any worse than the others. Give her more credit y’all.

Speaking of Rainbow Dash, I’ve seen a number of opinion posts about how she and Applejack should switch their elements (so RD is honesty and AJ is loyalty), but as I started rewatching the show myself I’ve come to disagree. Rainbow Dash may be honest, but her brand of honesty is extremely rude. There’s no integrity behind it, not like AJ’s honesty. Rainbow Dash in general is extremely rude. There are a lot of points where I’ve wondered if she even likes her friends. There was also that Secrets and Pies episode which establishes that Rainbow Dash has lied prolifically to Pinkie over something that meant a lot to the latter, so RD really isn’t that honest either. I do agree that AJ would deserve the element of loyalty if she didn’t already have honesty. But you know who else is loyal? Spike. The elements of harmony would honestly make more sense if RD were just removed from the group entirely and Spike replaced her as loyalty /hj

I promise I don’t actually want to remove Rainbow Dash from the show, I just really wish she was written better. That’s what fan fiction is for I guess 😂

I have mixed feelings about AppleDash as a ship. I really like the fandom portrayals of it which is why I reblog quite a bit of AppleDash art, but canon alone doesn’t seem to show the good side of their dynamic very much. All they do is argue. Applejack is normally mature and levelheaded, but around Rainbow Dash she’s much less so. Dash really brings out the worst in her sometimes. It’s much different from the loving bickering that people write for them in fan works, which I think is a better spin on the dynamic. If I went off their canon interactions alone, I could see them being exes or on-and-off lovers at most, not a stable, long-term married couple.

This would only be unpopular in very specific circles, but I think it’s pretty stereotypical to insist that Rainbow Dash and Applejack are lesbians primarily based on their tomboy interests and the former’s rainbow mane. It’s one thing to headcanon them as such just because you want to, and that’s perfectly fine! I write Applejack as a lesbian too. It’s another to insist that it’s canon based on xyz evidence from the show or think it’s wrong for anyone to ship them with stallions. Even if you consider AppleDash canon, one or both of them could be bi or pan for all we know. Canon tells us very little about their sexualities so there’s a lot of room for different headcanons. I wrote more on this opinion here.

(More specific to the next gen community) Just because Fluttershy is good with animals does not automatically mean she would be a good mother. There was a whole episode (Stare Master) about how she couldn’t handle babysitting even though she thought her animal caretaking skills made her qualified. Obviously she was shown to be much better with kids later in the show (becoming very popular among the School of Friendship students), but again that’s teaching, not parenting. This isn’t to say that I think Fluttershy would definitely be a bad mom, just that her being good with animals is not a solid reason for her being a good mom.

I definitely have more opinions about the show, characters, and fandom of mlp, but I don’t think many of them are so unpopular. Like for example:

I don’t think the Apples would be queerphobic just because they value tradition and are coded as Southern US Americans. The word “tradition” doesn’t automatically equate to conservative politics, and even if it did, these ponies have been shown to learn new things all the time. But all the trans Big Mac positivity I’ve been seeing tells me that a lot of people agree with that sentiment.

I don’t think most of the popular/generic ships of the fandom (like FlutterCord, FlashLight, and SoarinDash) are necessarily bad or devoid of positive chemistry, they’re just way too often written in extremely boring and generic ways. But I’ve also seen such ships written in unique and interesting ways so I think there a lot of people who also understand that sometimes all they need is a more creative approach.

Episodes like Over A Barrel, Bridle Gossip, and She’s All Yak (among others) were horribly handled and should not have been written. I don’t even consider them canon. I don’t know about the larger fandom, but most of the next gen community that I interact with feels the same way.

I think Starlight’s backstory was stupid and contrived, but it seems like the whole fandom thinks so too. We’re all rewriting it lmao

[kindheart525]

I think it would be really interesting to see more MLP infection AUs that are mass disabling events rather than mass death events. Instead of everything being super gory with drastic personality changes and ponies trying to eat each other, the infection instead causes physical disfigurements and changes in bodily function that are completely survivable once a treatment is found. No hate to the gory and tragic infection AUs as I can see why so many enjoy them, I just like exploring possibilities for disability representation and think this would be a really cool concept!

[kindheart525]

Cheese Sandwich being commonly headcanoned as having an unhappy, abusive childhood is so ironic because the real Weird Al had very loving and supportive parents

[kindheart525]

I know apocalypse AUs and gory fanfics have always been a thing in fandom, but the increasing popularity of infection AUs in the mlp fandom is particularly interesting with the added context of coming out of a real-life pandemic

[kindheart525]

Do you have any really silly mane six headcanons

Twilight Sparkle once smoked weed during her equivalent of college and to this day is terrified that Celestia will find out (Celestia already knows)

Twilight has very little knowledge of memes and her friends frequently have to explain new slang to her before she causes political scandals (“no Twilight ‘kys’ does not mean ‘keep yourself safe’”)

Much like a real horse, Twilight often falls asleep standing up during her late-night stress & study sessions. Spike has had to wake her up and tell her to go to bed numerous times

Twilight was that kid who reminded her teachers there was homework when they forgot. Her classmates didn’t really like her for that

Her love life is very…active lol, including when she’s in a stable and committed relationship (like active within that relationship not as a serial cheater). She loves learning new techniques if you catch my drift

Fluttershy is surprisingly confident when she’s attracted to someone, and when she’s in a committed relationship she has a lot of fun facts about animal mating patterns to share with them for…no particular reason

Unlike Twilight, Flutters is surprisingly well-versed in memes because she’s learned a lot from Discord (and also Treehugger). She doesn’t really understand the humor in all of them but she’s aware of them

(In a universe where FlutterCord is canon) She had to absolutely fight for her life in the Mane 6 meetups when she told her friends she was dating/crushing on him

Daring Do eventually loses popularity, partly because so many of her books involve actual artifact theft and social attitudes have changed, and partly because ponies just moved on to newer book series. Rainbow Dash still remains her biggest die-hard fan even when she looks pathetic doing so

Rainbow Dash acts like a big baby every time Tank hibernates for the rest of her life (he outlives her) but after the first few years it’s kind of silly

This isn’t an idea I came up with but I really like all the jokes about RD writing really bad fanfiction, and it’s a headcanon I subscribe to

(Mostly a joke because I do ship her with mares outside of my next gens) Rainbow Dash is straight but has a lot of mares asking her out because of her mane, and it’s hard to get stallions because they also think she’s gay. She also has a hard time relating to her friends who all like mares

RD doesn’t take good care of her hooves because she flies all the time and forgets to trim them due to not walking very much. Because of this, they look funky and overgrown and her friends kind of clown on her for it

When she’s older, Rainbow Dash wrecks some of her joints trying to do stunts that she did when she was younger (like carrying her “little” sister). She has the worst midlife crisis out of all her friends

When Rarity was a filly, she used to create the most elaborate and dramatic plotlines with her dolls that easily measured up to any soap opera, with betrayals, love triangles, custody battles, the whole works

She enjoys listening to soul-crushingly sad music (like Marina’s discography) during her ice cream-crying sessions, in the process roleplaying a life much more dysfunctional than she has because it helps her cope with her actual problems. Also listens to that music in a good mood if she needs to be inspired for a certain fashion piece

She overstocks her supplies to a sometimes comical extent, like she has 400 refills for her bedazzler machine. How does she have room for all that stuff? A lady never reveals her secrets, darling✨

Applejack loves singing country songs like “Thank God I’m A Country Colt” and “International Harvester” at the top of her lungs, they literally never fail to get her hyped up

(In a human context, ignoring Equestria Girls) it took her awhile to learn that Apple Bloom had TikTok and other social media accounts because she only uses Facebook on her clunky home computer

AJ is incapable of enjoying any kind of sitcom because she’s always poking holes in the plot. Her least favorite storylines are the “caught in a lie” and general miscommunication tropes

She also can’t watch well-written, dramatic tv shows either if any of the characters behave dishonestly (such as Breaking Bad)

Pinkie and Cheese once performed “Amish Paradise” for her parents and sisters (even in universes where they aren’t a couple). Reactions were VERY mixed

Also some of my “how they explain the birds and the bees to their kids” headcanons for my next gens are pretty funny

Fluttershy is really good at explaining the whole life cycle (including reproduction and death) because taking care of so many animals means she’s seen it all. Nothing squicks her out anymore. She explains things matter-of-factly but gently as she guides her little ones through various examples involving her animals.

Twilight would do a good job and be comfortable with it but she would also go overboard, giving a college-level lecture about the full reproductive process when her 10 year old daughter only wanted to know what going into heat meant. Twi’s partner calls Fluttershy in to help for the kid’s sake.

Rarity buys her daughter the pony equivalent of those Care & Keeping of You books (and her son gets the male equivalent of those books). She uses those books to bond with her kids over “becoming a mare/stallion.”

Applejack is very overprotective of Apple Bloom and probably procrastinated on giving her “the talk” only to find out that AB already learned from the other CMC (especially Scoot “left completely unsupervised 24/7” aloo /hj). A similar deal would probably happen with her own kids as well unless her partner is better about it. Even though, years before, Granny Smith was very straight with AJ like “ya wanna know how our new batch of chicks was made?”

Pinkie isn’t uncomfortable with the talk at all, except her explanation gets so convoluted and off topic that her kids go off to ask someone else.

Rainbow Dash says “go ask your father”

[kindheart525]

Headcanon: MLP's version of Easter is actually a hippogriff holiday created to celebrate fertility (because of the eggs and chicks and all)

[kindheart525]

Somewhat on the topic of this post, I don’t dislike FlutterCord, but I’m not always a fan of how it’s portrayed in the fandom. I’ve seen a number of pieces where Discord is this strong, masculine protective figure, while Fluttershy is either a damsel in distress or the soft and pretty “I can fix him” type of girl.

Which imo is not how they are! Discord IS protective of Fluttershy but he’s also incredibly immature and petty. He’s gotten jealous of her making other friends which is a side to his “protectiveness” that shouldn’t be attractive. Fluttershy IS soft and shy (hence her name) but she also has more outgoing qualities which include setting actual boundaries. She’s not weak, she helped save the world a number of times without Discord, including saving the world FROM him. Some of the most pivotal points in their friendship involved her being firm and setting boundaries with him.

And during those times, she’s not staring into his eyes going “come on baby this isn’t you, look at me, think of the life we planned” or whatnot. She practically loses her shit because she knows she can’t beat around the bush with him, and she just has her limits too.

Fluttershy doesn’t need Discord to come to her rescue all the time and Discord doesn’t need Fluttershy to “tame” him. He still messes with ponies long after becoming her friend showing that he was hardly tamed at all.

In fact, iirc, there was an episode that showed that Fluttershy even likes a little chaos herself! And Discord practically ceases to be when he’s not chaotic! Let them be themselves!

I really like when the more chaotic side of Fluttershy and Discord’s relationship is explored, whether in a shipping context or not. Chaos is Discord’s whole thing, after all, let them have fun! You can keep all their strengths and flaws without flattening them into a “Beauty and the Beast” archetype. They can have tea parties AND do wild shit together, it’s not a one-or-the-other deal.

I’ve seen plenty of artists who do this really well so this isn’t a complaint about the whole FlutterCord fandom. Just an observation about a few pieces I’ve seen here and there.

[kindheart525]

Rudolph and Hermey are peak disabled/lgbt solidarity

[kindheart525]

One trend in the fandom I’ve never understood is when people write Pinkie’s parents (or at least her dad) as abusive. Not just emotionally neglectful or harsh, but physically abusive too. It honestly leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t only say this because I personally like the Pie family—let me explain.

I do understand that the fandom had very little to go off of before “Hearthbreakers,” but in my opinion nothing about the flashback from Season 1 suggests an abusive home. The worst that rock farm was is…boring? And Pinkie’s family clearly approved of her first party. If they were really abusive, they probably would have punished Pinkie for it. And I know that Pinkie is an unreliable narrator who tends to exaggerate things (for example, her parents probably didn’t immediately start dancing wildly lol), but I don’t think she would outright lie, nor would she so openly tell a group of local kids about her upbringing if it carried such bad memories. You also have the photo in “Pinkie Pride” proving that her first party actually happened and her family was happy and smiling.

Once “Hearthbreakers” did air, I think it even further weakened any claims that Pinkie’s family is abusive. Pinkie not only cheerfully went home to spend Hearth’s Warming with her family, but she also invited Applejack, one of her closest friends, and her family members to join them. I don’t think most people from abusive/toxic upbringings would be so exuberant about spending the holidays with said family, or willingly subject a close friend to their toxic family members, but that’s only my perspective. Throughout the episode Pinkie was super affectionate with her parents and her sisters (except Limestone) and they seemed to enjoy her presence too! They seemed to genuinely love each other, even Limestone smiled at the end!

Some interpretations more specifically portray Igneous and Cloudy in a loveless marriage, which I don’t think is accurate either. An arranged marriage between two adults does not always end up unhealthy, plenty do make it work. In all of their appearances, Igneous and Cloudy seemed to enjoy each other’s company from my perspective, at least as much as their limited expressions would show. In the episode where Maud gets her rocktorate, you can even see Igneous patting Cloudy’s back as she’s crying! I think he just has a resting scowl, he seems to care about his wife and family otherwise.

Even with Limestone, although her first speaking role did not paint her very favorably, I wouldn’t write her off as abusive either. I won’t try to excuse her trying to intimidate a child, nor will I ignore that she and Pinkie didn’t seem to get along so well during that episode. She was incredibly territorial over her home and her family’s boulder, but I don’t think that necessarily means she would end up becoming a spouse- or child-beater. Remember that in this episode her family also had guests over, which would heighten her instinct to protect the family and home that she’s clearly loyal to, if very rudely. Even by the end of that episode, she came around and was seen sharing food with the guests, showing she does have a warmer side in there somewhere. “The Maud Couple” proved this further by showing her offering genuine advice to mediate a conflict between her sisters! Someone with abusive tendencies, I believe, would be more likely to shut such an issue down with no discussion. In that episode we got to see what she is like solely in the company of her own family members, when she’s not grandstanding for guests—under abusive circumstances, her behavior would be worse behind closed doors, not better.

And, again, Pinkie clearly trusts her family enough to willingly travel back to her childhood home during what she saw as a stressful time. If it were unhealthy she wouldn’t have done that.

I think some people misinterpret the Pies being dull and gruff as signs of something worse under the surface. Or they see parts of something familiar to them in Pinkie so they rewrite her backstory to reflect that. That’s fine and valid, but I think it’s unfair to insist that any evidence of family abuse comes from the show itself. Yes, they do not act openly affectionate like other families, but Maud is that way too. And isn’t that the point of her character? That someone who expresses themselves differently is no less capable of love and friendship? I think that extends to the rest of the Pies as well. I think they are better than some give them credit for.

TL;DR: Pinkie Pie’s family isn’t abusive. I know it’s long but I’m passionate about these characters lmao

[kindheart525]

The hate-boners that some people have for fictional characters genuinely do a disservice to fandom imo, I can't tell you how many times I've seen the most bad-faith interpretations of characters as horrible abusers when their worst crime in the source material was being a little bit annoying or grumpy. Y'all are allowed to dislike a character without twisting them into something they're not I promise

[kindheart525]

I have a headcanon

[kindheart525]

Iron Will would totally start an Andrew Tate-style scheme as another one of his many scams if we're being honest here

[kindheart525]

Pinkie Pie has the best taste in stallions out of all her friends, she hit the jackpot with Weird Al’s ponysona while the rest of her friends’ guy crushes include

Flash Sentry

Prince Blueblood

Trenderhoof

Wind Rider

Discord

[kindheart525]

I hate Principal Celestia in the Equestria Girls movies so much. She has ZERO of the warmth, wisdom, or lightheartedness that makes our favorite sun princess so likable. Instead she’s just another underpaid school official who doesn’t seem to like her job. Luna is like this too but at least she was already gloomy as a pony. Most people in this universe are more or less copies of their pony selves, except Celestia who got absolutely butchered

[kindheart525]

Rainbow Dash is such an interesting character because she would SUCK to know in real life but god is she fun to write angsty fanfic for

[kindheart525]

Worst episode of mlp?

I already answered this question! To summarize, the episodes that try to deal with racism are objectively the worst, and “Newbie Dash” was always my least favorite of the episodes that aren’t about racism.

Since writing that post, I started rewatching MLP, but I’ve kind of inadvertently fallen out of it and need to get back into it. I was early in Season 5 last time I watched an episode. Along with “Over A Barrel,” other episodes that were shittily executed include (but are not limited to) “Bridle Gossip” and “She’s All Yak.” Especially the latter. Yona was so severely let down by the adults in her life and I hate that it was treated as just another friendship lesson. Honestly I like to headcanon that these three episodes just Did Not Happen, and that the Mane 6 met Zecora / Yona and Sandbar fell in love in different, better circumstances.