My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Equestria Girls Holiday Special 2014

Tags

Anon-a-miss, Apple Bloom, Applejack, CMCs, Equestria Girls, Fluttershy, Holiday Special, IDW, IDW comic, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Ron the Death Eater, Scootaloo, Sunset Shimmer, Sweetie Belle

Synopsis:

The holidays have come to Canterlot High School, but it’s a melancholy time for Sunset Shimmer as she’s been alone ever since coming into the human world. To try and treat her to a nice holiday as well as to show how she’s been accepted as more than a friend but part of their “family”, the Humane Five decide to treat her to a series of slumber parties at each of their houses along with the other girls, culminating in a big holiday party at Sweet Apple Acres at the end. The first night is at Pinkie Pie’s, and during the night, after a call from Apple Bloom, Applejack finds herself forced to relate an embarrassing story of how she got the nickname “Piggly Wiggly” before they turn in. The next day at school, the girls find out that someone has created an online profile called “Anon-a-miss”, using Sunset Shimmer’s silhouette and color scheme, and has leaked the name to everyone, causing everyone to start making fun of Applejack. The next night is at Rarity’s house, where Sunset take some outrageous pictures of the girls playing dress up in Rarity’s failed wardrobe design. Yet the next day, Sunset comes to school and finds the girls enraged at her when they see Anon-a-miss posted the pictures taken from Sunset’s phone. They now believe her to be Anon-a-miss and that she just pretended to be nice to start backstabbing them again, and they break off their friendship from her.

Things get worse as days pass as Anon-a-miss continues to post everyone’s secrets, and the school starts turning on itself as it did before the events of “Equestria Girls”. Sunset is hated more every day as everyone blames her, and finally in despair she writes to Twilight Sparkle asking her if she thinks any Windegos might have gotten into the human world. Twilight answers that the human world doesn’t need Windegos to spread about distrust and discord, as demonstrated by the abuse of social media, and encourages her to stay strong and “find your family”. After the entire school joins in on taunting Sunset and reducing her to tears, she thinks on what Twilight says and meets the girls at the coffee shop, where she shows them what Twilight has been writing in the journal to get them to reluctantly give her a berth. Soon after, she manages to deduce who the real culprits are just as they finally have a crisis of conscience and walk in to confess of their own volition: the humanized Cutie Mark Crusaders. Jealous of the Humane Five spending time with Sunset Shimmer instead of them, they created Anon-a-miss to get the girls to break off their friendship with her, but ended up posting negative content about everyone as well when things got out of hand. Sunset and the girls end up forgiving the CMCs, who publicly confess to everything, take down the account, and receive six months suspension. The Humane Six decide to invite the CMCs along with them to the holiday party at Sweet Apple Acres so they don’t feel left out, noting that with family “there’s always room for more”.

Review:

If you’re a fan of “One Piece”, you may like the series…but you know the Skypeia arc was pretty bad. If you’re a fan of “Star Trek”, you may like most of the movies…but you know the fifth movie was trash. If you’re a fan of “Sonic the Hedgehog”, you may like the games in general…but you know the 2006 game was terrible.

And if you’re a fan of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, you may like most of it and the IDW comic…but you have…this.

Before I begin, I’ll start by acknowledging some people actually like this story. Some people even like it a lot. And that’s fine because all art is subjective and you might see things in it that I don’t. But if that’s you, you should probably leave right now. As for me and my personal opinion? (Starts the pilot light on a flamethrower)

Buckle yourselves in.

As with the Annual #1, this special is solidly grounded in “reality”. It could very easily be a perfectly realistic story if not for the few panels that show the pony Twilight Sparkle receiving Sunset Shimmer’s journal entries. No magic in this one, villains or otherwise. Similar to Annual #1, that kind of puts it in an odd camp to begin with. Because there’s only so many Equestria Girls movies, almost all of them have to be the more “drama-based” type of episode rather than the “friendship problem” ones in at least some way. It’s a bit interesting that the comic decided to go with that when the comic has more of a reputation for drama-based episodes. I personally thought they might have gone with a human-transformed Windego, especially as it was hinted at mid-story. Instead, well…we’ll get to that in a second.

What they went with was still ok, though, because they don’t have a chance to do many episodes like that in the series. And early on, it looked like it was going to be pretty heartwarming and cute. Sunset Shimmer had become the show’s newest ensemble darkhorse (pardon the pun) following “Rainbow Rocks”, and the chance for her to get to have a nice holiday with her friends looked like it would make a nice little tale.

Then, of course, things start going wrong…and they just keep going downhill from there.

Initially, I don’t mind the conflict that much. I realized someone was trying to frame Sunset pretty early, obviously. And I thought it would cause a bit of contention. Now if it had stayed mild, if it had caused the Humane Five to doubt Sunset, maybe even start mistrusting her a little or express some anger, that would have been one thing. Yet it quickly becomes worse than that. After only the second incident, the Humane Five outright reject Sunset completely and kick her out of their lives.

One can make the argument that the girls still have “a lot to forgive” Sunset for, although by the beginning of “Rainbow Rocks” it seemed as if the girls had already forgiven her and the one person who still needed to forgive someone was Sunset…needing to forgive herself. And unlike the situation with Starlight Glimmer, a lot of “Rainbow Rocks” was devoted to how much effort Sunset made to try the monumental task of remaking her image in the face of the very individuals she tormented…something that few people in this world would be willing to try.  And aside from that, the girls had gone the extra step in this story. They called Sunset more than their friend. They called her family. The very fact she was being welcomed into their homes in this series of slumber parties was to make her feel like she had a family in the human world. So…there is some validity to the complaint that the girls were too quick to outright shut Sunset out, and even that it was almost OOC of them to do so. That if they were serious about everything they said, they owed her the benefit of the doubt or a chance to prove herself. Instead…

“Maybe…even family can make mistakes.” “Maybe. I don’t know if you can forgive them though.”

Remember this in a second.

I didn’t think it was too bad at this point, though. Everything would be made right in the end, I knew, and the girls would apologize for having doubted Sunset, Sunset would say she understood based on her past, and the holidays would still be great. Yet things kept getting worse.

Not only do the Humane Five fail to think maybe they mistreated Sunset as time goes on, but the situation becomes worse than ever as everyone gets turned against each other by the gossip and newsmongering of “Anon-a-miss”. Now, everyone turns against Sunset. This is dark. In fact, it’s possibly the darkest the series has ever been because it’s something completely real. It’s cyberbullying at its worst, and yet Sunset Shimmer is ironically the worst victim of it all as everything is being pinned on her. The worst part about cyberbullying is it’s an infectious cancer of poison impossible to remove. Once a secret is out on the Internet, it is out there forever. It can’t be reined in. And it spreads like a plague. Yet Sunset gets the worst of it. Someone has stolen her identity to make all of these posts, so she can’t get away by staying offline. She has no family (or home, really) to run to in the world. Her friends were the first to be poisoned against her, so she has no one to go to or talk to except Twilight Sparkle.

It’s terrible because it’s a nightmare from real life. Now, of course, Sunset Shimmer was guilty of three years of cyberbullying. I suppose some individuals would make the argument that this was “karma” for her.  But most of us, myself included, had seen the other side of Sunset Shimmer and saw this as simply cruel.

By this point in the story, I was beginning to think like Sunset. I figured this had to be a humanized Windego. There was no other explanation, after all. Who else would have had access to her phone? Who would have known their secrets? No one…at least no one who I knew would be cruel enough for that. Even if they wanted to hurt Sunset Shimmer, there was NO character around who would want to see the whole school tearing itself up to do it. So the only logical conclusion was there was a monster somewhere the girls would have to fight, and I waited for that.

And then, at long last, came the big moment. I noticed in the exchange with the Humane Five at the coffee shop, all of them are still giving Sunset the cold shoulder. Even with Twilight’s comments vouching for her innocence, they seem to only be willing to listen to her because of Twilight…not because they’ve softened to her in the least. Applejack outright states she doesn’t trust Sunset anymore when they’re trying to figure out the culprit. And who does it end up being?

The moment the villains (note no quotation marks…because they were the worst villains in possibly the entire series at that point) are revealed, this entire story becomes bad fanfiction: the type with “Ron the Death Eater”. I don’t know what the writers were thinking or how they could be so naive to make light of everything that happened in this story. The fact that the humanized Cutie Mark Crusaders would do such a thing makes them the most despicable characters in the comic franchise. It was bad enough that they were trying to drive a wedge between her and the girls. It’s worse when they wanted her destroyed.

The CMCs were turning everyone against Sunset Shimmer. They tried to make her the most hated individual in the school. And even when they saw the school starting to eat itself alive, they kept going. Why? Pure sadistic glee. No, I’m serious. That’s the only explanation. This wasn’t like “Ponyville Confidential” where they were attracted by fame and later coerced by their unscrupulous editor. They felt making the lives of their own sisters and friends hell and making the school eat itself alive like in the days before Twilight Sparkle was all acceptable so long as they could make Sunset suffer and drive her away. All motivated by pure jealousy. That’s…despicable. Monstrous.

And, of course, it gets worse from there. Everyone immediately forgives the CMCs completely. Right. Why?

“‘Course I forgive you, Apple Bloom. You’re family.”

Yeah, remember this earlier?

“Maybe…even family can make mistakes.” “Maybe. I don’t know if you can forgive them though.”

Sunset had the biggest right to carry a grudge. About the one virtue of this story is that it shows her Element probably really is Forgiveness/Empathy because she does immediately forgive the CMCs. But the Humane Five…what a bunch of two-faced creeps. They treated Sunset like she was a leper no matter how much she pleaded and begged them to believe her because they felt so backstabbed and betrayed. Yet they instantly just smile, shake their heads, and say “what are we going to do with you?” to the CMCs?

I already said it. Cyberbullying is a cancer. So is gossip. Everything they put out there isn’t going to “go away” because they said sorry. And it won’t go away from taking down the account, publicly confessing, or getting suspensions either. That’s why cyberbullying is so hideously evil–it can’t be fully undone. Part of it will linger forever. Can you forgive a cyberbully if they’ve done absolutely everything they could to try and undo it, like the CMCs did? Yes…it might take some strength of character that’s not common, but yes. Will you trust them as easily from now on? Probably not for some time.

The school literally formed a mob to bully Sunset Shimmer because they thought she was the culprit. Do you think that sort of anger is going to subside just like that for the CMCs now that they admitted to the truth?

The message the story was giving there was that cyberbullying is evil but can be undone, which is not only inaccurate it’s irresponsible. The real message should have been cyberbullying is horrible…so never do it. Period. Kids have refused to go to school, had plastic surgery, and even committed suicide over cyberbullying. There’s nothing “light” about it.

And it gets worse. A story that centered so much on the torment Sunset had to go through and emphasizing the evils of cyberbullying and the need to be responsible with social media…suddenly shifts it all to a lesson about Sunset and the Humane Five being in the wrong for not including the CMCs all along.

The one problem the writers of the IDW Comic seem to share along with those of the show is that there is such thing as a Moral Event Horizon. It is possible to do something so despicable and depraved that extenuating circumstances can no longer be used not only as an excuse but even as a reason for pity. Bit of a background story…when Marvel published the end of the infamous “Dark Phoenix Saga” of the X-Men, there was considerable debate among the writers as to whether or not Jean Grey should live at the end; enough to where two separate cover arts of the next issue were done, one with a happy ending and one with a sad one. Ultimately, they decided on death. Why? Because it didn’t matter if Jean fully regained control and maintained it for the rest of her life, never hurting another living thing again. She had murdered five billion people just for fun. That sort of thing couldn’t be overlooked.

It was bad the girls weren’t included, yes, but it was even worse how they responded. They created a hundred fold worse bad blood for it and they tried to drive the school to run Sunset out of town. And even when things were getting out of hand they wouldn’t stop. It almost looks as if they threw in the CMCs apologizing at the last minute as an aside rather than a confrontation, as it happens at the exact same time Sunset deduces it was them. And they had to do that, because otherwise the CMCs would have been totally irredeemable…as opposed to about 95% irredeemable.

And still it gets worse than that. The CMCs end up apologizing to the girls for the most part…not to Sunset. They seem to be more upset about what happened to their sisters and the school rather than her. Granted, there is a panel where Sweetie Belle explicitly apologizes to Sunset directly, but that gets negated a moment later by her saying: “We had no idea what would happen to you!”

No, writers. No. They knew exactly what would happen.

That was the whole point. Apple Bloom said this was all about jealousy. They wanted revenge not for anything Sunset did but for the mere fact that their sisters liked her. They were trying to drive her away by making her friends hate her so that they’d kick her out. Heck, on reread, you see Apple Bloom not only drew attention to Anon-a-miss to begin with and planted the idea in Applejack’s mind that Sunset had betrayed her, but she went even more Shakespearian by planting the idea of exposing Applejack’s bad nickname at the start. She purposely said that over the phone so that the girls would overhear, Applejack would be forced to explain, and that night she could write the story. And if they really hated it, again, like I said earlier, why not stop? They were under no compulsion to do so. They simply kept posting bad content and secrets people sent them…why? Because they were sadistic monsters, I guess.

Everything happened exactly the way the CMCs wanted it to. The only excuse you can plausibly make is they finally had a crisis of conscience on seeing Sunset in tears and realized they weren’t driving away some unfeeling creature but they were hurting someone extremely badly. That…might have been passable as a lesson. But that’s not what happened. Not only is that not emphasized, but, again, the Humane Six are made to look like the ones in the wrong for not including them.

Finally, the icing on the cake. After the way Sunset was treated so unjustly, after her friends disowned her for something that wasn’t even her fault, after she was left in tears because they wouldn’t give her even the benefit of the doubt, after they treated her like a outcast and yelled at her to get out of the coffee shop, not one…not ONE…member of the Humane Six says so much as “sorry” to Sunset. They owed her an apology for doubting her. A BIG one. The fact they didn’t give it, well…let’s just say it’s a good thing the CMCs are the hate sink in this one.

The only explanation I can think for this is that the concept started going into play before “Rainbow Rocks” came out, and it seems supported by the ending message being given by Rarity and Sunset only appearing in the background after focusing the rest of the entire story on her…which is yet another problem. It probably was originally supposed to center on the CMCs and the Humane Five. But when the writers saw that Sunset Shimmer would have to be worked in, it turned into this abomination.

I can’t even articulate how much I dislike this. I spent days thinking of the best way to sum it up. To paraphrase another reviewer’s thoughts, this is a holiday special that has little to do with the holidays and almost nothing to do with “good will toward men and women”. On my part, this is like “Ponyville Confidential”, which was already a heavily disliked episode, only taking everything bad in that one and making it worse. Everything is off on it. The characters are OOC. The motivations are weak. The actions are unjustified. The theme is portrayed too mature while it’s handled too lightly. It’s unfocused at the end. The villains are made too heavy and get off too light. The conflict isn’t properly resolved. The message is muddled and misleading. Rather than leaving this story feeling encouraged or happy about the holidays, I left feeling sore, uncertain, and disliking the Humane Five. The sad part is this is probably the only real comic treatment Sunset Shimmer will ever get as, along with Fiendship is Magic #3 and Annual #1, this is the only time anything from the Equestria Girls movies ever appeared in the comic.

I’m sure if you like this comic you’re not even reading this anymore, but if you are I can see that there are some parts in this that can be fixated on to like, but to me only if I blot a lot of things from my conscious memory. I was able to overlook quite a bit in “The Cutie Re-Mark” by the time Season Seven rolled around but I still had to “overlook” it. This storyline has too much going bad for that. And, for me personally, it only deserves one rating.

Congratulations, Holiday Special 2014. When it comes to “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, you are, at least to me, the worst of the worst.

Fun Facts:

Tony Fleecs did art for both Annual #1 as well as this issue, and for this issue he basically took the same art for Annual #1, replaced Twilight Sparkle with Sunset Shimmer, and made the rest winter-themed.

Although the Equestria Girls franchise is set in a world of humans…MySpace is still MyStable…

At the time that this issue came out, Season Six’s “Flutter Brutter” was still almost a year and a half away. Fluttershy’s family gets incidentally omitted from any description or inclusion.

Although this comic came out almost four months after “Rainbow Rocks”, it’s likely production on it had to begin before the film came out. That’s the only excuse I can find for some of it…and one of the indicators is that Sunset doesn’t know what slumber parties are like although she attended the one in “Rainbow Rocks”.

Fluttershy, when playing the game, says for her character to use its “limit break”. “Limit breaks” are moves specific to the Final Fantasy series of video games.

The humanized gremlins appear…again…

It wouldn’t be all the way until Season Seven’s Equestria Girls short “Monday Blues” that we would finally see that Sunset Shimmer does indeed have a place to live in the human world. In this story, interestingly enough, Sunset Shimmer is depicted as sleeping in the library like Twilight Sparkle had to.

Although they aren’t real, this issue features a depiction of humanized Windegos.

One of the text boxes reads “this sucks”…a slip-up on the part of censors.

Rating:

0 Stars out of 5

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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Annual #1

Tags

Annual #1, Applejack, Babs Seed, Equestria Girls, Fluttershy, Humane Five, IDW, IDW comic, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Sunflower, Sunset Shimmer

Synopsis:

An unseen reporter for the school newspaper is interviewing the Humane Five about how they got to be such good friends, and pieces the story together from interviewing them all separately:

Freshman year of Canterlot High School, all five members of the Humane Five come to school. They initially meet with one another at the Freshman Fair but are soon swept up in their own concerns. Applejack wants to just fit in with the more urban student body although she comes from a rural background. Pinkie Pie is wanting to find the perfect extracurricular activity that’s fun. Rarity is wanting to make her mark on the school. Rainbow Dash is wanting to make the soccer team and become the school star. Fluttershy is just looking for where she wants to be in life right now but is afraid of everyone. Applejack ends up trying to pair with her two cousins, Sunflower and Babs Seed, but they tell her that her rural mannerisms won’t fit in and she needs to change. Meanwhile, they gravitate toward Rarity who’s self-confident, attractive, and catches the eyes of everyone; introducing her to the “elite” members of the school. Rainbow Dash focuses almost all of her attention on the soccer team and being the best, and Fluttershy, while able to hit it off with Rarity and being friends already with Rainbow Dash, is trying to support the latter but still feels “something is missing”. As the weeks go on, circumstances drive the group apart from each other. Applejack continuously tries to make herself more of a high class urban girl but is only shunned more by Sunflower and Babs Seed. As for Rarity, Sunflower, Babs Seed, and the rest of the school elites demand all of her time and discourage her from interacting with anyone else not at the top of the pecking order. Rainbow Dash makes the soccer team but soon gets a swollen ego and devotes herself only to being the star, getting the ire of the rest of her teammates. Pinkie Pie finds lots of activities that are fun for her, but she dislikes them all because they don’t let her make fun for anyone else. Finally, Fluttershy is continuously “lost in the crowd” and not able to find any place she fits in.

Finally, Canterlot High plays its first game against the “Shadowbolts”. Rainbow Dash’s grandstanding ends up costing the team the ball numerous times. There, Pinkie Pie finally gets an idea to help everyone else have fun by distributing Wondercolts horse ears and tails to whip up people for a pep rally, and “drafts” Fluttershy to help. While passing them out, Fluttershy notices that Sunflower has a sick dog and tries to offer her help, but when Sunflower responds by mocking and teasing her, Applejack and Rarity both erupt at her; the former for ever wanting to “be like a bully” and the latter for being stunned at their lack of gratitude. They end up helping her and Pinkie Pie distribute the favors and whip up the crowd, which in turn motivates Rainbow Dash to think more like a team player and pass the ball to Spitfire for the winning goal. Following the event, the girls realize both their respective virtues and become friends from the same event (paralleling how the Mane Six gained the Cutie Marks that led to their destined friendship by the same event).

The interview over, each of the girls thanks the reporter–revealing it to be Sunset Shimmer, who says she’s learned everything she needs to know about them.

Review:

At the time that the first annual for the IDW Comic series came out, the only entry in the “Equestria Girls” franchise was the original movie, and that wasn’t a good leg to start out on. The original movie is not the most beloved of the franchise. In fact, according to IDW, it’s the least liked of the franchise…and, if you’ve seen my review, for pretty good reason. It was viewed as unnecessary, bizarre, and simplistic. It wouldn’t be until “Rainbow Rocks” and the subfranchise finding a new deteuroagonist in who was regarded as a bland and uninspired villain that the series took off.

On one hand, that put a pretty tall burden on the writers for this issue. On the other hand, with a universe that only had so much canon, it left a lot of possibilities.

The fact of the matter is the Equestria Girls movies are mostly all the domain of Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and Sci-Twi. Any other character is there almost obligatory just for funny scenes and to round out the set. Most of the character development and individuality we’ve gotten from the Human Five came from the shorts, and none of those were meant to be poignant. The comic gave an opportunity to flesh that out, especially since, in this prequel, neither Twilight Sparkle or (technically) Sunset Shimmer are around to steal any spotlights.

How did it do? Well, at first I didn’t think much of this arc because I focused on the wrong things. Now? I appreciate it more.

The story works pretty hard to both maintain the identity of the Humane Five as well as make them more relateable to the real world as they’re human high school students. For the most part, it works out in that way. Each one features a realistic problem that would apply to high school students. Applejack comes from a different background and is pressured to change herself to fit in. Rarity immediately gets absorbed into the upper cliques because of her high manners and attractiveness. Rainbow Dash is out to forge her identity through athletic excellence, not only for school notoriety but for herself. And Fluttershy has the problem a lot of students face…they don’t know what to try for in forging their own identity and they end up just kind of wandering around aimlessly.

Pinkie Pie is the only one who really doesn’t fit in to a section of reality, and it causes the story to suffer a bit for it. This particular arc was going for fairly solid realism. No magic or monsters or anything like that. Therefore, when the occasional antic of Pinkie comes out such as narrating her own story, having tea with a ferret, or random confetti happens, it’s a bit out of place. Yet what’s most off about her is that she already knows what she wants to do with her life, which makes her actually more “mature” than the rest of the girls. She just doesn’t know how best to do it, and she ends up being the lynch pin for the group instead of Rainbow Dash (with a Sonic Rainboom) at the end.

The other thing that’s jarring is Sunflower and Babs Seed. Sunflower not so much as we don’t know anything about her character prior to this, but not only is moving Babs Seed to an older age than Applejack kind of odd, but it seems odd after trying to make her a sympathetic character (though still a bully) on the show they decided to make the human version of her just a pure rotten bully more or less. It was rather distracting to me on the first readthrough.

Yet those two points aside, on the second readthrough everything clicked a lot better. What we ended up with was something that was a logical “re-telling” of “The Cutie Mark Chronicles” for the human version, and what they gave was something that was a bit unique but also had the feel of that same episode. It might not have been quite as fanciful or poignant, but I’d saw the IDW writers still managed to put something together that expanded logically on the show in a new and intriguing way. Even the last page seems to be hinting at a way to draw Twilight Sparkle into it, indicating she too is part of their destiny.

At this point it’s been almost three years since IDW handled an Equestria Girls storyline (I can’t honestly blame them after the Christmas Special…but all in good time…), so it’s doubtful they’ll ever do one again. Yet for this storyline, I think it was definitely a winner.

Fun Facts:

This comic serves as the prequel to “My Little Pony: Equestria Girls”. When it was originally released, it contained an 8-page short originally published as an exclusive in the San Diego Comic Con version of Issue #9: “The Fall of Sunset Shimmer”, which also, naturally, served as a prequel.

The entire story is presented in the form of a single narrative being gleaned from interviews with the Humane Five. A similar motif would be used in Season Six’s “The Saddle Row Review”.

Human Rainbow Dash and Human Fluttershy are already friends from “Cloudsdale Junior High”, which serves as a parallel for how Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy became friends originally in Cloudsdale long before both relocated to Ponyville and met the others.

Although Babs Seed’s older sister was never named on the show, she was named Sunflower in the comic. Interestingly enough, she is the only character whose humanized appearance came before her pony appearance, as she would go on to appear in Friends Forever #9 and the main series Issue #32. In an even more bizarre twist, Babs Seed is older than Applejack in the human world.

The humanized gremlins are at Canterlot High School. I guess the gremlins are the IDW signature or something…

The team that Canterlot High plays against is the “Shadowbolts”. This was two full years before “Legend of Everfree” would create the Crystal Prep Shadowcolts, but one can overlook one letter and assume they’re the same team, making the Shadowcolts the first thing from the IDW Comic that became show canon.

Foreshadowing is made to “Equestria Girls” on the very last page, when the girls mentioned they felt they were destined to be friends before they even met: “And all it took was…a spark.”

Rating:

3.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Comic Arc #21 (IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #41): “A Pinkie Pie Story That Pinkie Pie Kinda Sorta Remembers”

Tags

A Pinkie Pie Story That Pinkie Pie Kinda Sorta Remembers, IDW, IDW comic, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, review

Synopsis:

Rarity is enjoying a normal day at work when Pinkie Pie bursts in, saying she is stuck with no idea of what gift to give a friend of hers. She has the idea for a storybook called “The Princess’ New Dress” but she doesn’t remember it. Rarity remembers the story as one of her favorites, but Sweetie Belle accidentally destroyed her copy years ago so she can’t give it to her. Instead, she suggests that Pinkie Pie make one herself to make it more special. Soon after seeing how crazy Pinkie Pie is being in her concepts and ideas, Rarity decides to help, and is soon being driven nearly crazy by Pinkie’s wildness, sense of humor, lack of focus, and practical insanity as she insists on doing the story in nonsensical and nearly meaningless ways. Yet in spite of all of that, she keeps her cool as she admires Pinkie’s nature and the story is completed as a unique creation. As soon as it’s done, however, Pinkie automatically presents it to Rarity; saying it was meant as a gift for the anniversary of when they met. Rarity is touched not only by the unique gift but the experience of making it, and the two head out to celebrate with “BFF smoothies”.

Review:

All in all, this story has much of the same feel as the previous arc, in which the storytelling format itself is a medium shift. This one is more similar to a real comic but, similar to how the plotline of the story goes, it’s more like how the comic would be run if Pinkie Pie was in charge of it.

Similar to the “Friends Forever” issue that featured Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie, this issue features Pinkie at some of her craziest and, very slightly, I think takes her just a little too far. Although on the show she is usually wacky and cartoony, she can and does focus. Here she seems almost like an uncontrollable child at points and incapable of concentrating on her task at hand or, at minimum, concentrating enough to focus on it enough to actually get it done halfway decently. It seems as if she never would have been able to stay working on it long enough to finish making the book if Rarity wasn’t there to constantly rein her in. That might have been the point, but…it’s a tad OOC. That or one of those times like in the series where Pinkie’s energy and wildness started to cross over into being thoughtless. Nevertheless, it’s not as bad as that “Friends Forever” issue, so it’s a bit easier to overlook.

Aside from that, however, it is a cute and very creatively told storyline. I do think the photoshopped bits could have been confined to being done just one time as they lost their novelty on the second and third appearances, but all in all I like the variety of art styles and depictions throughout the comic, and I like that this plot was a nice excuse to do them all. While there may not have been a big moral at the end of this one, the story is very cute none the less with Rarity finding out she was helping make her own gift the whole time. It wasn’t quite as enjoyable as the previous arc, but it was still a nice story, so I still rate it pretty high.

Fun Facts:

This has actually been going on for several issues, but every time the art style in the story imitates another artist’s art style, there’s a caption that reads “After ______”, where the blank is the artist’s name. I only really noticed it here.

Although the title “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows” from Season Five was itself a knockoff of the titles of episodes of “Friends”, the title to this story seems to be a knockoff of that in turn.

One of the exclusive covers for this issue features a parody of the Fonz from “Happy Days” and his famous jumping the shark moment, the instance that gave the world the meme “Jumping the Shark”, which refers to when a show is out of ideas and resorts to something cheap and extreme to try and get more episodes out of it.

This story has a full “title panel” in movie format with numerous credits to Pinkie Pie. Everyone else, like Rarity, is listed as a “minor cameo appearance”. 😛

“The Princess’ New Dress” is a knockoff of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”.

In the flashback when Sweetie Belle is practicing chemistry in Rarity’s old room, the book she’s reading is “How I Did It” by V. Frankenstein, an allusion to Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein”. Considering the decor of the room, it seems as if it took quite a while for Rarity to develop her taste in fashion. 🙂

Rarity’s depiction of the princess is her as an alicorn. It’s rather lovely.

When Rarity tells Pinkie “let’s get started”, she makes a fourth wall joke. “I thought we were already five pages in?” This is, naturally, the fifth page of the comic.

“A long, long time ago in a city far away” is a parody of the infamous starting line to the Star Wars films.

One of the books Pinkie Pie tries is “Crochet for the Thumb Deprived”…and leads to real life crocheted Pinkie and Rarity photoshopped into the story. O_O She ends up taping a real life paper horn and wings to make a princess. After that, she grabs boxes of clay-dough and ends up molding real life photoshopped clay Pinkie and Rarity. Finally, she glues real googly eyes onto real fruit.

I’m sure there’s some joke that artists would get about the giant portrait of Rarity, but…I don’t know much about art.

Pinkie Pie eats horn chips, not corn chips.

In one panel, Pinkie Pie is reading the comics “Tales from the Loft”, a parody of “Tales from the Crypt”, and “Heckcolt”, a parody of “Hellboy”. The next panel is done in the style of the latter.

Two pages of the comic are turned into a cut-out paper play for the reader to act out the last part of the story within the story. 🙂 The fake paper theater is called “Kazumi Theater”. (Kazumi Evans provides the singing voice for Rarity on MLP:FIM.) The mysterious fedora pony cameos here.

On page includes a parody of Chuck Jones’ art style for Looney Tunes, another “Peanuts” parody by Charles Schulz, and a generic anime “kawaii” style (no artist is listed for this one).

Rarity finally breaks the fourth wall and asks the audience for help, holding up a sign that reads “What color is the sky in her(Pinkie Pie’s) world?”

One page of the comic is devoted to one of the classic MAD Magazine fold-ins. It’s pretty clear what it makes even if you don’t fold it…but I’ll tell you the pumpkin and the ice cream cone become her tongue. 😛

Rating:

3.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Comic Arc #20 (IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #41): “Rainbow Dash and the Very Bad Day”

Tags

IDW, IDW comic, Little Golden Book, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash and the Very Bad Day, review, Tank, Zecora

Synopsis:

This story is told in the format of a children’s story, with Zecora as the narrator. It tells of how Rainbow Dash got up early with her pet Tank to head out to the bookstore and grab part two of “Daring Do and the Treasure of Saddle Mare”, yet on the way out she flies right into a wall made of “brick clouds” and hurts herself, causing her to fly into a bad mood and vent her anger on the construction worker Plumb Bob. This, in turn, causes Plumb Bob to go into a bad mood and vent on somepony else, who does the same to another, and another after that, and so on…behavior that Zecora personifies as passing along the “Drearies”. On going into Ponyville Dash sees there’s already a huge line for the new book, causing her to unload more of her bad mood on her friends for not getting there sooner and getting them into bad moods as well, which in turn “pass the Drearies” onto everypony. Soon everyone is in a horrible mood, causing Zecora to break the fourth wall and intervene by shoving Tank out to Dash to try and get her to cheer up. Yet on running into her, she vents her fury on the tortoise, causing him to break down and cry. Realizing at last what she’s been doing, Dash apologizes to Tank and breaks out of her bad mood. She soon apologizes to the rest of the Mane Six, setting off a new chain reaction that causes everypony to apologize everypony else and end the bad moods. At the end of the story, Zecora cautions her audience to always be nice to others even if you don’t feel like it, as it’s not their fault you’re upset and it will only “pass along the Drearies”. Unfortunately, at the end, Plumb Bob is still angry.

Review:

Now this is a cute little arc, and with a nice little story.

This is one lesson that I feel fits in perfectly with the show, but it can only be “presented” well on paper, which makes the IDW Comic a perfect fit for it. Being able to tell the story in a child’s storybook motif is the best way to sell this kind of plot, which would be a bit awkward to do on the show proper, and it got nailed perfectly with the amazing and inventive artwork in this issue. Lots of allusions to other famous children’s books makes this issue both heartwarming and cute to the reader.

The lesson here is simplistic but applies to adults as well as children. Moods are infectious; whether they be good moods or bad moods. You can only go around taking out your bad attitude on other people so long before they get the same bad attitude you have, whereas if you’re nice and considerate to others 99 times out of 100 they’ll be nice and considerate right back to you–more so than they would have been normally. Besides that, it’s not fair to others to take out your feelings on them. They could have done it on the show, but…like I said, they would have had to go for something completely different in presentation. This interesting little way of telling it as a story within a story only could only be accomplished here, and that gives it some points in my favor for finding a unique way to have the IDW Comic enhance the MLP mythos besides just giving it a higher rating.

The one point that I can imagine people would hold against it was how Rainbow Dash was the main instigator and perpetrator of everything that happened. Some might think it makes her a jerk. As for me, well…I’ve unfortunately been in Rainbow Dash’s position before and I’m terribly proud of myself for it. It doesn’t excuse her behavior at all, and I’m not trying to do that. I’m just saying I sort of understand where she’s coming from. And the lesson rings true for me as well as her.

So all in all, as far as the one issue stories go, I think this is easily one of the best.

Fun Facts:

This entire comic is framed like a children’s story. The first page is a signature page, such as in the old “Little Golden Book” series. Being told in rhyme is an allusion to old Dr. Seuss stories. The title itself is a reference to “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”

As the story is told in rhyme, Zecora is the narrator. 😛 However the characters in the story speak normally.

Every page of the comic is drawn in a different style, but Andy Price is the sole artist.

The panel with the bubble with “Patient Zero” includes Zecora and Tank emulating Charlie Brown and Linus from “Peanuts”, by Charles Schulz. As a result, he gets a credit on the panel.

When Rainbow Dash blows up at the sight of the line, Tank holds up an index card with the definition for “Enrage”, saying the definition is Rainbow Dash herself. 🙂

The bookstore is named “The Noble Barn”…a parody of “Barnes & Noble” bookstores.

Among new “horse named towns”, San Franciscolt, Chicoltgo, New Horseleans, and Horsolulu.

Shining Armor still RPs “Ogres & Oubliettes”.

Pinkie Pie wipes Tank’s tears with Rarity’s mane.

Maud Pie cameos in a panel. She named a rock: “Unless”. This is an allusion to “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss.

In the big panel near the end, the Blues Brothers ponies from the very first issue make a return appearance, as does “Tom” from the Season Two premiere (XD), Flax Seed and Wheat Grass, Luna’s opposum, and the mysterious “Fedora Pony”. At the very bottom of the page, in the background, are the Marx Bros. ponies.

Zecora trips on the rhymes from time to time, at which point Spike interjects. To accent the problem, her own unique Daring Do book at the end is “Daring Do and the Lost Word that Rhymes with Orange”. 😛

The last text box in the story is an allusion to the cliffhangers of the old Batman TV series, complete with the infamous: “What’s this?!”

Rating:

4 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Comic Arc #19 (IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #40): (Untitled)

Tags

IDW, IDW comic, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Princess Celestia, Professor Inkwell, review, Spike, Twilight Sparkle

Synopsis:

While Rainbow Dash is over at the Castle of Friendship looking to borrow the latest Daring Do book, she notices Twilight Sparkle is looking through a photo album she recently got sent by her parents. It includes pictures of her as a filly and baby Spike, and she ends up telling Rainbow, as well as the rest of the Mane Six who wander in during the course of the tale, the story of how they “met”:

Following the events of the first Sonic Rainboom, filly Twilight Sparkle is starting off at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but is met by Celestia on the very first day and given a surprising task: she asks her to help her take care of the the baby dragon she hatched for her entrance exam. Twilight’s first semester at the school is soon turned into a disaster, as Twilight’s natural worrying and obsessive-compulsive nature not only makes her schoolwork unbearably stressful, but she’s also taxed physically and mentally with taking care of the baby dragon. Her only outlet becomes talking to her Miss Smarty Pants doll as her “therapist”, but things come to a head at the Annual Royal Tea when Twilight is not only too afraid to sit with the students (being friendless) but also flips out when talking about her classwork to her parents, all before the dragon gets free and causes a mess. Unable to take anymore, Twilight screams at him as to why he can’t be more like Miss Smarty Pants. On hearing that. however, he tries to be helpful and say he can be like her doll by saying: “‘ike Suh Pah!’. On realizing the dragon is trying to make her feel better, Twilight realizes the real reason Celestia gave him to her was so that she’d have a friend and apologizes. Deciding to give him a name, she mentally rearranges his babbling to be “Suh Pah Ike”, and names him “Spike” before introducing her new friend to her parents.

Back in the Castle of Friendship, all of the clamor of the Mane Six woke Spike up, and Twilight offers to make him some cocoa with extra marshmallows (just the way he likes it) to get him back to sleep.

Review:

As I’ve said before, the backgrounds of the Mane Six represent largely virgin territory for the show to use for story material…or the comics, for that matter. About the only ones who have really been dug into are Applejack and (indirectly) Pinkie Pie. Twilight Sparkle has had a bit more done for her in “Amending Fences”, but to a large degree her background is still unknown…especially how Spike went from being the end result of an entrance exam to being her baby dragonservant and, until the show began, only friend.

The artists responsible for this arc are some of my favorite in the IDW series, as they manage to make things colorful and interesting to look at without going so far as to lose the feel of the original artwork of the characters. As for the story itself goes, though, it was an odd one. It almost seemed to be an allusion to the problems high school students or college students who end up having teen pregnancies experience when they try to finish school along with their children. That, or the old exercise they had us do back in school with the 5 lb sack of flour being carried around for a week to simulate caring for a child.

The main problem I had with this arc was that it seemed to be misplaced. I haven’t had any children of my own yet although my sisters have, and from what little experience I had tending to them I can imagine just how bad it would be to care for a baby 24/7, and how that could quite easily cause the rest of the problems filly Twilight encountered, including slipping in class and not having the opportunity to make friends. The problem is that there wasn’t a whole lot of emphasis on the fact what filly Twilight needed was a real friend, other than the fact she was trying to substitute an unfeeling toy for one. It seemed like Spike himself was the source of her trouble. As such, this whole arc feels more like an allegory about a teenage pregnancy learning to appreciate their new child rather than a story of forming a friendship between Twilight and Spike.

That said, I think it was a bit clever how they managed to not only work Miss Smarty Pants into this, but also got Spike’s name from it. I have to give the arc a bit more credit for that. And it’s really not a bad storyline. It’s just, like so many others, kind of average. It does have some good stuff with the art and the callbacks, and I can tell it’s trying to go for more heart like Princess Celestia’s Pony Tales arc was, but it just doesn’t seem to hit for me.

Fun Facts:

This arc is a continuation of Twilight Sparkle’s segment of “The Cutie Mark Chronicles”, all the way back in Season One.

On the two-page panel when filly Twilight Sparkle is arriving at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, filly Trixie Lulamoon is also out there, and one filly with her face away from the audience has Moondancer’s mane coloration. Both appear in later panels. The mothers of the arriving fillies are G1 My Little Pony characters.

Professor Inkwell, from Princess Celestia’s Pony Tales issue, is a minor character in this arc. The Annual Royal Tea, which was featured in that arc, is also featured here.

Rating:

2.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Comic Arc #18 (IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #38-39): “Don’t You Forget About Us”

Tags

Apple Bloom, CMCs, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Diamond Tiara, IDW, IDW comic, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, review, Scootaloo, Silver Spoon, Snails, Snips, Sweetie Belle

Synopsis:

Ms. Cheerilee is taking her class on a bird-watching field trip to the Foal Mountains with Applejack and Rarity acting as chaperones. While nearing the end of their checklist, she mentions that any student who manages to spot an extremely rare bird called a Turul will get no homework for a week as a reward; getting everyone to eagerly look for one. When the CMCs think they spot one, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon immediately try to close in on it, hoping to get the reward first, and Snips and Snails follow after out of sheer curiosity. As a result, the entire group ends up getting lost. Diamond initially tries leading the way back herself, but doesn’t know the way and gets the group more off track. Apple Bloom suggests they stay in one place until the others find them, but their yelling attracts a bear, and by the time they manage to evade it they’re more lost than before. Sweetie Belle, Snips, and Snails try using their combination of weak magic to send a signal flare, but it fails, and Scootaloo (obviously) proves unable to fly to higher ground for a vantage point. The group begins arguing with each other, with Apple Bloom pointing out Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have done nothing to help the situation and are still concerned with mocking the “blank flanks”, and end up climbing up higher to try to get to a higher vantage point. Everyone but Diamond ends up following, yet in the end, out of fear of being abandoned, Diamond runs after them only to trip and nearly fall off the mountain. Apple Bloom goes to help only to fall as well, leaving them both dangling over the side.

By reluctantly working together, the others manage to get a tree branch lowered to rescue Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom, and continue to hike up the hill. They get caught in a downpour heading up and nearly get in an argument again, until both Diamond and Apple Bloom admit to one another they don’t know what to do now. They finally reach the top but don’t see anyone, and after shouting for help only nearly gets them buried in an avalanche, they end up taking refuge in a cave Diamond Tiara checks out for them. Snips and Snails end up having enough magic talent to build a fire, but when they talk about rationing food they start arguing again; resulting in everyone talking about their respective pressures. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon admit they’ve always been told by their families that they’re better than everyone else and feel pressure to live up to that; the CMCs admit they feel inadequate trying to live up to the example set by their “older sister” figures; and Snips and Snails admit they hate always being thought of being the “village idiots”. Although they argue again soon enough, the group shares a few moments of mutual understanding. The next day, both Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara go out to look for signs of anyone, and end up spotting the Turul, who cries out and then flies away. The others wake up and ask them what they saw but decide, so that neither one will get the credit, to claim they saw nothing. Soon after, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and the Wonderbolts arrive to affect a rescue. The CMCs believe they all learned to appreciate each other better and think this is a chance to turn over their relationship…only to find Snips and Snails are nonchalant about the whole thing and Diamond Tiara tries to take credit for seeing the Turul as soon as she’s back to Ms. Cheerilee. They end up wondering if they’ll get their Cutie Marks for patience.

Review:

The worst part of this entire arc is the timing, and illustrates the danger that IDW has inherited in trying to run comics on series that are currently in circulation. Comic books take considerable time and effort to bring from conception to publication, and the length of time between the plotline idea and actual release can be considerable. Even worse in that IDW’s deal with Hasbro/DHX Media only allowed them to get general feedback on whether or not storylines they envisioned were something the writers were currently considering for a plotline. Although Hasbro/DHX Media and IDW have tightened their relationship in recent years, working closely hand-in-hand on the “Legends of Magic” to have concurrent releases both on the comic stand as well as on the show itself, for now the lag really killed this plotline. “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” had aired almost four months prior to this arc being released, and while a lot of the events of this two-issue arc are somewhat canon with events on the show, the truth is it still portrays Diamond Tiara in a slightly more negative light than she deserved: having some of her character traits be out of genuine flaws rather than being cowed and impressed on by her mother.

On the second reading, it’s not really as bad as I thought, although the mere fact “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” had already come out makes it hard to see Diamond Tiara in a negative light considering how much she changed. And it does allow Snips and Snails a chance to expand on them a bit more, as they had gone so largely untouched in the series that occasionally the writers seem to forget they’re foals (such as in bits with Trixie or when Snails joined the Hoofball team in Season Six). And it was honestly a nice bit where the CMCs ended up having to work with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and they learned they both feel pressure to live up to standards imposed on them.

What ruins it to me is that the story is forced to obey the “Elastic Principle”, which I pointed out in my trope suggestions. At the end, the CMCs and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have to be the roles of victims and bullies again, with no real ground having been gained. That was an inherit difficulty of this entire arc as the IDW Comic is forced to obey that principle to not violate show canon, but it was made much worse by the fact they could have let it slide if they had foreknowledge of “Crusaders of the Lost Mark”. Aside from that, while there is a bit of good drama in this, there’s a bit too much. While there’s a few jokes here and there, it fails to have a lot of the entertainment value in terms of wackiness or zaniness. It’s very dialogue intensive and survival drama. Most of the humorous interest comes from panels with unique art style, which is nice but not really entertaining.

In conclusion, if you take “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” into account, this arc really falls flat. If you ignore it and take it in and of itself, it’s…alright, but still hampered by needing to be back where they started at the end and not really leading to any growth of anyone. As such, I can only rate it as average.

Fun Facts:

While most of the IDW Comic manages to keep up with the show pretty well, this issue was, by far, the worst timed of the entire series. The first issue was published in January 2016, while “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” had aired in October of 2015.

The title of this arc is a knockoff of “Don’t You Forget About Me” which gained notoriety for being the ending song to “The Breakfast Club”. Like this arc, its plotline involves classmates from different backgrounds and “cliques” coming to understand each other.

The scene where the group is hiding from the bear while it’s trying to sniff them out might possibly be an allusion to a similar scene in “The Fellowship of the Ring” where the hobbits are hiding from the Nazgul.

After the snow falls on the group, Apple Bloom has a “snow hat and beard” similar to Gandalf the Grey in another Lord of the Rings allusion.

Rating:

2.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Comic Arc #17 (IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #34-37): “Siege of the Crystal Empire”

Tags

changelings, Chrysalis, Crystal Empire, Crystal Heart, Fiendship is Magic, Flim-Flam Brothers, IDW, IDW comic, Iron Will, King Sombra, Lightning Dust, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Princess Amore, Princess Cadance, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Queen Chrysalis, Radiant Hope, Siege of the Crystal Empire, Sombra, Twilight Sparkle, Umbra, Umbrum, unicorn

Synopsis:

A mysterious hooded pony appears in the middle of the Arctic and walks south into Equestria. Once there, the individual recruits the Flim-Flam Brothers, Iron Will, and Lightning Dust; offering them the chance to get their pride back and/or revenge against the Mane Six if they agree to work with the unseen figure. Cut to soon after, where the Mane Six are helping Shining Armor and Princess Cadance set up the first Crystal Faire since the one that was held when the Crystal Empire reappeared. However, suspicions are stirred when the Flim-Flam Brothers show up with a new “lemonade squeezer” along with Iron Will supposedly acting as a tourist and Lightning Dust being there just to harass guests. Things explode soon after when the lemonade squeezer turns out to have been used to smuggle in a fourth ally that the hooded pony recruited, Queen Chrysalis, and a swarm of Changelings. They, along with Lightning Dust, cause a diversion that allows Iron Will to seize the Crystal Heart and try and run off with it. The Mane Six and Shining Armor leap into action and manage to catch everyone, imprisoning them in crystal cages until Princess Celestia and Princess Luna arrive; but Chrysalis taunts them, saying that the whole point of everything was to leave the castle unguarded. Sure enough, the girls and Shining Armor discover that the Crystal Heart was swapped out of Iron Will’s possession. The hooded pony has it now and takes it into the palace, entering in Sombra’s old secret passages (unknowingly followed by Princess Cadance). On arriving in his old study, the figure reveals herself to be Radiant Hope, somehow still alive after 1,000 years in spite of still being a unicorn. A shadow with a disembodied horn, what King Sombra has managed to rebuild himself into, appears and accuses her of betraying him 1,000 years earlier and having come to finish the job. However, she insists that she came to “make things right”, and uses her power on him…causing Sombra to once again regain his physical form.

The backstory from “Fiendship is Magic #1” is briefly recapped, and shows what happened afterward. After the Crystal Empire vanished, Hope studied briefly with Celestia and Luna, but couldn’t stop thinking about the loss of her home and, moreover, felt that she had betrayed Sombra. She ended up following where he went into the Arctic and encountered the same crystal he did, and ended up speaking with the Umbra. Although they couldn’t escape, the Umbra brought her into their prison, where she saw them as delicate, friendly pixie creatures. Hope became convinced that the Umbra were innocent and merely wanted to be free from an unjust imprisonment, and now seeks to help Sombra, as their “champion”, to free them. Sombra is doubtful, having already seen himself as a monster reflected in the Crystal Heart, but on seeing that Hope has the Crystal Heart and it can’t be used against him doesn’t care; he bursts forth to conquer the Crystal Empire a second time. After emerging, he frees Chrysalis and her minions, Iron Will, Lightning Dust, and the Flim-Flam Brothers, and joins in with them. The new alliance is too powerful for the Mane Six and all are captured, with Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle having their magic sealed as well. However, at that moment, Celestia and Luna arrive. Sombra cuts Luna off before she can reveal the existence of Cadance to him, and he engages Celestia while Chrysalis engages Luna. For a moment it looks as if Celestia will get the upper hand, until Hope intercedes and shoots her while she’s distracted, and Sombra uses the moment to turn both Celestia and Luna to stone.

Sombra turns his attention to Twilight Sparkle next, who defiantly refuses to submit. Fortunately, due to only recently regenerating, Sombra lacks the power to finish her and decides to leave her be and focus on the other Umbra. Yet when Chrysalis overhears that, she grows upset. She reveals she was alive before the Umbra were locked away and claims they were horrendous, destructive monsters that only brought despair, and as they plan to bring all of Equestria the same despair they’ll leave nothing for her and the Changelings to feed on. Once Sombra and Hope retreat to the palace, Chrysalis and her swarm move to leave Equestria all together in search of more food, leaving her “allies” behind but also pulling Twilight Sparkle out of the cage so she can suffer being unable to stop Equestria from being destroyed. Back in the palace, Sombra gives Hope the cold shoulder and retreats to his study, brooding over something. Once Hope is alone, Cadance reveals herself to her. After some arguing, Cadance learns from Hope about her encounters with the other Umbra and how they kept her alive and young for 1,000 years so that she could assist Sombra now. After hearing her side, Cadance asks to be shown the Umbra. If they are truly as innocent and peace-loving as Hope says, she agrees to help free them; but if they are truly monsters then Hope must help her stop Sombra. Hope agrees and teleports her to the crystal, and both enter. Although the prison area is ghastly, rotten, and foul smelling, Cadance meets with an Umbrum named Rabia and finds her as happy, cute, and innocent as Hope described. Nevertheless, Rabia says they don’t fully trust a princess and Cadance must agree not to use even the smallest amount of magic while in their realm. Cadance agrees and is led with Hope to see the other Umbra. She’s nearly convinced they’re truly innocent until one Umbrum plays a hide-and-seek game, and Cadance, forgetting her promise, uses a small spell to help find her. As it turns out, the power of her love-based magic, the same as Princess Amore’s, causes the Umbra to revert into their true forms: hideous, ghastly, rotten monstrosities with matching twisted and horrendous natures. They reveal they had been tricking Hope all this time by telling her what she wanted to hear: that Sombra was really an innocent pony on the inside. To her horror, they reveal that Sombra is truly as horrible and grotesque as the rest of them. They used their power to hide his true nature behind a veil of pony flesh so that he could escape the prison and prepare the way from the rest of them, going so far as to hide his true nature from himself. They also reveal their hate for Hope as her attempts to help him in the past kept keeping him from manifesting his true nature. Using her magic (which the Umbra can’t stand), Cadance brings herself and Hope out of the prison, and Hope then teleports them to Sombra to get him to stop. As it turns out, Sombra long ago discovered the door locking the Umbra away in their prison; but he never opened it because, in spite of his wickedness, deep down inside he feared that the Umbra were good and pure and that he was the only “monster” among them. During this time, however, the Mane Six have united their power to enable Twilight Sparkle’s magic, allowing her to free them, and they have rushed to confront him. Twilight charges her magic to blast Sombra down in revenge, but Hope jumps in front of him and takes the shot. While the blast doesn’t kill her, the injury alone is enough to push Sombra over the edge; causing him to free the Umbra.

Cut to some time after. The Umbra have conquered the Crystal Empire and instated King Sombra now as “Emperor Sombra”, with Hope, while still recovering, as Empress. However, Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadance covered the escape of the others and destroyed the train tracks behind them so they couldn’t be chased down. In retribution, the Umbra turn Shining Armor to stone and move to do the same to the two princesses, but Twilight manages to trick them into doing it in the same place the Crystal Heart once stood so that everyone can see them defeated. The Umbra begin to bring out everyone to watch, and Sombra goes to get Hope; still looking unhappy and unsatisfied in spite of his position of victory. On seeing how Sombra is going to continue to conquer until there are no enemies left and the Umbra have destroyed everything, Hope finally turns hostile toward him and begun to call him a true monster; something that causes him genuine discomfort and hurt. When Sombra says this was always his destiny, Hope bitterly points out that the Crystal Heart also said she would become an alicorn princess, but she chose not to accept that destiny so she could instead help him; hoping that by now he would have realized he could choose his own destiny. At the dias for the Crystal Heart, before Sombra can act, the rest of the Mane Six with reinforcements attack; now seeing the princesses out in the open and attempt to rescue them. Unfortunately, the Umbra are more than a match for them and they tell Sombra to turn Twilight and Cadance to stone now to destroy their final hope. However, Hope interjects and brings out the Crystal Heart instead; saying that if he destroys that the Umbra can never be sealed away again. Sombra takes the heart and looks at it, mentioning aloud he sees nothing now other than himself exactly as he is. He then says “thank you” to Hope before restoring the Crystal Heart to its previous position, sealing away the Umbra even though it means sealing himself away too. As Sombra begins to fade, he expresses happiness that he finally saw the Crystal Faire. He tells Hope not to hide herself away again but to share her talent and bring good to Equestria. However, Hope refuses to let Sombra be sealed away and tries to use her power on him again. Alone she can’t do it, but the four alicorn princesses, forgiving Sombra and to thank him for saving the Crystal Empire, unite their power with hers and are able to turn Sombra into a normal unicorn. Now having a “second chance”, Sombra announces his intention to find the pieces of Princess Amore and restore her to life. Hope goes with him, and the two friends run off together out of the Crystal Empire; the lesson being that true friends can see goodness inside you even if you can’t see it in yourself.

Review:

I should dislike this arc a lot more than I do.

The fact of the matter is it’s rather clunky. All of the normal main characters are there for gimmicks or are effectively side characters. This might be the least contribution we’ve ever seen from the Mane Six, and the humor and intrigue they add is minimal. This might be the least important Twilight Sparkle has ever been to an arc. This arc is all about Sombra and Radiant Hope, pure and simple. It’s nothing more than an extension of Fiendship is Magic #1. When you boil it down to just their part of the story, there isn’t much going on in this one. Hence why there had to be a complicated “villain team-up” in the first part of this arc.

That, to me, is the biggest dud portion of this arc. That part is just…odd, and it seems as if the writers couldn’t really get it to work out. Similar to “Magic Duel”, which elevated the Great and Powerful Trixie into dangerous villain levels after simply being a minor antagonist in her other appearance, now we have that happening three-fold, and it’s far more unbelievable. The Flim-Flam Brothers want to make profits by conning ponies. There’s a rather wide gulf between that and wanting to unleash an army of monsters under the promise of getting wealth. Iron Will has already shown off his “softer side” in the “Friends Forever” issues, which this comic alluded to with Fluttershy. While he may be rough and mean at points, I don’t see him honestly trying to assist in the conquering of Equestria after that arc. Lightning Dust was never supposed to be a “nice” character, but this arc pushes her into OOC range. Based on the timing of this issue, I think I know what happened. The writers planning this arc originally wanted it to be Gilda Griffon, but about the time they had to be writing up the panels “The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone” would have come out. Obviously, there’s no way Gilda would have gone alone with the villain team-up after that episode, so they had to swap her out with Lightning Dust. (Honestly, you can imagine the pre-Season Five Gilda substituted in for Lightning Dust, especially with her taunting and insults.)

The worst, however, is Chrysalis. While the other villains seem to have been pushed “too heavy” in this arc, Chrysalis has been pushed “too light”. She seems to be almost more of an annoyance than a threat in this one. I remember as this arc came up I was rather stunned at the thought of a team-up between Chrysalis and King Sombra against the Mane Six. I expected something rather dramatic and dynamic from that. Instead, Chrysalis is treated almost like a comic supervillain regular; one who just pops in to harass the superheroes for an issue or two before popping out to fight another day. The comic has devoted considerable time and energy to making Chrysalis genuinely malevolent, cunning, and diabolical. And yet it treated her the same as the throwaway antagonists like the Flim-Flam Brothers.

I actually like the scene where she briefly “butts heads” with King Sombra. It’s a rare opportunity to get more in the heads of two villains at a time. And yet, after that, Chrysalis has no more relevance to the plot and simply flies away. Really? She’s just going to leave it at that? She’s not even going to try and feed on Twilight or the Mane Six? It has the feel of both wasted potential and a plot hole. Worse than that is what happens to the others. They literally just…disappear. Did they evacuate the Crystal Empire? Did they run and hide? Did they stay together and decided to do a smaller team-up? Did they end up having no more relevance to anything so the writers dumped them off panel?

When it’s awkward to bring villains together, the only thing more awkward is making them suddenly disappear. It makes you wonder why they bothered having them there at all.

This arc does something anyone who reads my reviews knows I dislike: a Have-It-All ending. Now granted, if you read this regularly, you’ve seen my review of the “Reflections” arc. In retrospect I may have been a tad too hard on that arc, but I mostly stand by my rating, so you’re probably thinking that I’m just never happy…slamming that arc for ending too badly and this arc for ending too well. Well, let it be known that the main reason I penalized “Reflections” for the ending was because it manufactured a plot device to have a bad end; suddenly making good and evil physical quantities that could easily be removed and transferred rather than a reflection of one’s identity, desires, and choices. In this case, similarly, a plot device was kind of manufactured to allow Sombra to both make his sacrifice as well as exist after it was done.

There’s a character who, on the second reading, I’m kind of starting to get a sour feeling about: Radiant Hope. The fact that as soon as Radiant Hope reveals herself she’s normally drawn with an innocent-seeming expression and a big “doe-eyed” look serves to cover up the fact she wasn’t a terribly nice or innocent character for the bulk of this arc. Even her “good intentions” are mostly blotted out when you think about the fact she genuinely planned to let the other villains have their way…including by letting Chrysalis and the Changelings devour/conquer their fill of Equestria. Or the fact that she was willing to let Sombra not only petrify her former teachers, but was likely willing to let them do the same thing he did to Princess Amore. Based on her actions in this arc, it’s likely she has little love for the other Crystal Ponies as well as she ignores how Sombra enslaved and tortured them, which was clear in the Season Three premiere. (That sort of makes sense given her background, but it’s also another point against her.) So in the end, when you think about it, the only reason Hope got angry at all and confronted Sombra really had nothing to do with his plans of conquest but rather was because “the Umbra weren’t cute anymore”. They literally could have done almost everything else, and so long as they “looked sweet and innocent” Hope would have been fine with it. Possibly her only complaint would have been them conquering more than the Crystal Empire, although she was perfectly fine with Chrysalis doing that instead. That’s…pretty damn shallow. It’s starting to make her look like another certain character who is canon who was willing to destroy Equestria to accomplish one selfish and petty end…

Last but not least, it’s the Nightmare Rarity arc again in many respects. A character gets manipulated by evil, non-corpeal entities that want to take over Equestria. Many of the Umbra, as horrific as they look, remind me a lot of the nightmares both in terms of manner and speech.

So with all of that said, one might think I should loathe this storyline. Yet as it turns out, I find myself biased toward the good aspects.

One is Cadance. You’ve heard me complain for a while that she has no real character or purpose for being there, other than she’s a “fairy princess”. While this arc may have not fully knocked that view of her aside, I think it made some giant steps. This is probably the first arc in which Cadance not only feels as important as Twilight Sparkle but not in a “forced” way; that there’s reason for her to be there other than as a plot device. Season Five made a lot of attempts to make Cadance more “regular” on the show, but the fact of the matter was she still wasn’t doing much of anything in her appearances. The comic has handled that better.

I honestly like the interaction with Hope in Issue #36. She’s at first opposed to Hope’s idea, and understandably so. If the Umbra really are what all the legends say they are, then she really can’t afford to let them out to “check”. She’s the ruler of the Crystal Empire now. She has responsibilities and ponies to protect. But when she hears that there’s a way to meet with them while they’re still imprisoned, she’s actually understanding. She says: “Alright, give me a chance to meet them for myself. If you’re right, then alright, I’ll side with you.” And this is after she saw her brother and sister-in-law imprisoned and Celestia and Luna, one of which is her adopted mother, turned to stone. That…might actually be a virtue above “being nice” to start giving Cadance her own character. Willing to hear the side of her enemies and give them a berth. Willing to see the side of her tormenters in that situation. And if you notice, even when Cadance accidentally reveals the true nature of the Umbra, she doesn’t immediately “think they’re bad”. While she’s put off by the appearance, she doesn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that they’re evil.

And the other nice part, a bit to my own surprise, was the character of Sombra.

For a while I thought the comic writers were starting to rely on him too much as a gimmick. Too much to use him for a character for a given situation. But then, I made a realization. It was the actual show that was using him for a gimmick. Just for a generic evil antagonist for the Season Three premiere. By comparison, that makes him perfect for the comic. Literally the less that was known about him in the series, the more the comic writers are free to do what they like. In the series, he barely had any lines and reformed himself just to get whacked. That basically allows the comic writers to go nuts with backstory, sequels, and character. A character like him is an untapped gold mine; someone who was important to the series and yet largely a MacGuffin.

Fanfiction writers are free to take any character and do whatever they want with them. By comparison, the IDW writers need to keep all the established ones not only in character, but be mindful of future development. Since Sombra has neither problem…yeah, I actually agree that all of this material they did with him both in “Reflections” and “Siege of the Crystal Empire” is actually good.

The writers have actually managed to turn a show character into a (potentially) regular male character for the comic series, which is something as male characters are still lacking in the actual series. And I thought it wasn’t too bad of a turn.

Lastly, “Reflections” still left a sour taste in my mouth, and I don’t think I was alone. While this ending was Have-It-All, it wasn’t quite as bad as some Have-It-All endings. The writers clearly wanted to give some, pardon the pun, hope for the future after the conclusion of that arc by having a happy ending to this one. And with a character that the comic has “claimed for its own” being free to do with as they like, there’s nothing wrong with that.

The arc honestly does have a ton of flaws, but…I don’t know. They’re a bit easier to “overlook” on this one. Does it necessarily make it good? It makes it more dramatic. The character interactions are probably slightly too mature for the show, but here they work out fairly well. Still, if you’re a Sombra hater or only see him as “Pony Sauron” after the Season Five finale, it’s unlikely you’ll like this arc. Conversely, if you’re ambivalent toward him…that’s enough to rate this arc just slightly above average overall.

Fun Facts:

“My Little Pony: Fiendship is Magic #1” was essentially the prelude to this entire arc.

This comic indicates, at least in the “comic universe”, that the Crystal Empire existed long before Equestria.

I couldn’t help but notice the word “everybody” is frequently used in this arc…instead of “everypony”. :3

Iron Will’s seminar features a schedule showing that an investment seminar by Well-To-Do has been canceled. Mr. Well-To-Do was another minotaur from the earlier arc “The Root of the Problem”. Presumably it was canceled because he was devoured. 😛

In the flashback, Hope appears to be talking to a Breezie and a Parasprite. As a result, it’s never really clear if the Umbra were tricking her even as a foal or if she was just not “quite right in the head”.

In a bit of a plot hole, King Sombra remembers Twilight Sparkle, but has no knowledge of Princess Cadance in spite of her being the one who shattered him as well as the one who’s been living in his former palace and going through his things.

Another reference to the Attica Prison Riot, when Pinkie Pie shouts “Attica!” after being locked in the cage.

Cadance is able to finally pull off the spell that opens the way to Sombra’s private chambers, with Hope pointing out that you can only do it if you feel genuine rage. This is something of an allusion to the true power of the Crucius Curse in “Harry Potter”, which can only reach its full potential if the user genuinely wants the victim to suffer. At any rate, it’s hinted that Cadance’s own rage is uncontrollable. Whether this will lead to a future arc or not is ambiguous.

The Umbra are genuinely very disturbing looking…probably too much for a Y-rated show. At any rate, in one panel they say “we’ve waited thounsands of years”.

The whole bit with trying to coerce the truth out of Cadance and the “Canterine” mention she makes is a rip-off of the scene in “Star Wars: A New Hope” in which the Empire threatens to destroy Alderaan unless Princess Leia reveals the location of the rebel base, and she gives them the fake location of Dantooine. Many of the lines in that scene are ripped directly from the film. While I think it’s kind of a clumsy ripoff, it’s actually a rather good allusion. The entire arc has pretty much the same theme as the original Star Wars Trilogy: a character still seeing good in an individual who has given himself over to evil, and, ultimately, redemption at the price of their own life.

Maud Pie makes (her first?) comic appearance, although she has no lines.

Rarity’s parents make a cameo appearance.

Discord helps in the final battle…a little. 😛 At any rate, he’s reading a comic. What comic? IDW’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, of course. 😀 The back of the comic has an ad for all the little gimmicks and doodads that were popularly sold via comic in the Silver Age. One of the products is Powdered Toast: an allusion to “Ren & Stimpy”.

Derpy and Thunderlane flank Rainbow Dash. Rainbow crashes right next to Hope. 🙂

In one panel, the Mane Six are stunned at the resolution…except Pinkie Pie, who simply offers cake.

When Hope says “you…killed her”, I think that’s the first time in the entire franchise the word “kill” has been used.

After Sombra becomes a unicorn, there is a tent behind him in one panel that advertises “Reflections – Custom Mirrors”. My guess is the writers were alluding back to the “Reflections” arc with that one. At the end of that arc, the “Mirror Universe” was supposed to now reflect Equestria rather than be its opposite. Does this mean Celestia’s old flame Mirror Sombra has also been restored? Time will tell.

Rating:

3 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Comic Arc #16 (IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #32-33): “Night of the Living Apples”

Tags

Applejack, apples, Bad Apple, Flutterbat, Fluttershy, Good Apple, IDW, IDW comic, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Night of the Living Apples, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, vampire, vampire fruit bat

Synopsis:

A mysterious meteor, a fragment leftover from the battle between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon, crash lands in Sweet Apple Acres. When Applejack goes to investigate, she is suddenly ambushed by apples that have spontaneously emerged from the trees around the impact site. The next day, while having a discussion over whether Cutie Marks represent a talent one just discovered or developing of a talent the individual loves, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Mane Six head out to Sweet Apple Acres to meet Applejack and find the farm has been taken over by sentient, evil apples. The apples absorb magic and use catapults to ground the pegasi, and soon the girls are captured before the apples move on to take over the town. After forcing Mayor Mare to sign a treaty of surrender, the entire town is enslaved by the apple leader, Bad Apple, into making catapults so they can conquer the rest of Equestria. Establishing a secret base in Fluttershy’s cellar, Twilight Sparkle temporarily turns Pinkie Pie into an apple to try and free Spike from Sweet Apple Acres to get a message to Princess Celestia. Although Pinkie fails to free him, she discovers another prisoner: Good Apple, who reveals they all came to life as a result of the meteor and claims the other apples are being manipulated by Bad Apple’s influence. On returning to the others, Twilight Sparkle gets an idea to fight back. First, she uses regressive hypnosis on Fluttershy to cause her to revert to her “Flutterbat” vampire fruit bat persona, then uses the same copy form spell she used on the Breezies to turn herself and the rest of the girls into vampire fruit bat ponies as well, only sentient.

The transformed Mane Six minus one begin to prey on the apples in town, but Flutterbat herself, who is considered too out of control, is confined in the basement. She eventually escapes to seemingly go on a wild rampage, and the girls, after freeing Spike and Bad Apple, find themselves overwhelmed by superior apple numbers. However, before they can get captured, it’s revealed Flutterbat gained control over her animal side and regained her own sentience, and she leads a flock of vampire fruit bat reinforcements to start decimating the apples. To combat this, the apples combine together to form one colossal apple construct with Bad Apple as the core (that looks suspiciously like Spike for some reason…). “Twilight Sparkling”, meanwhile, discovers the meteor and realizes it has trace magic from both Celestia and Nightmare Moon in it. She absorbs as much as she can, then puts it into Spike, who uses it via his dragon breath to launch the meteor back into space. As for the apple construct, “Rainbow Bite” shoots through it and replaces Bad Apple with Good Apple, who talks the other apples into relenting. In the conclusion, Princess Celestia gives the apples a new valley to build their society in, under the direction of Good Apple, and remarks how even if one has more negative tendencies inside them, they can choose to direct them to do something good (as Fluttershy did), and the CMCs learn the lesson that Cutie Marks are both a result of what you’re good at but also doing it in the most effective way from the experience.

Review:

I’m not really sure what’s the best way to characterize this arc. It has the zaniness of a standard episode, but also a touch of drama like some of the heavier episodes. I suppose the best category to lump it in with is the same as the Everfree Forest arc, although this one is a bit sillier than that with “killer apples”. Then again, unlike that arc, this one actually does try to have a Season-One-esque friendship lesson about it, or at least a lesson about Cutie Marks. Considering it came out in Season Five, it was good timing.

Alright, to get the elephant out of the room, it’s clear why this arc exists. It was a chance for the comics to highlight the favored one-shot character of Flutterbat. I’ll give it a bit more credit than that, however. While the plot was rather silly and somewhat contrived to be able to create a reason for Flutterbat to return and, more than that, to turn the rest of the girls into vampire fruit bat ponies as well, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. There’s lots of silly one liners in this, Pinkie Pie as an apple is surprisingly entertaining, and the premise ends up being able to be not only silly but enjoyable and even a bit dramatic at points too. The girls as vampires is also entertaining, as all of them don’t fully “lose themselves” but they definitely get a darker quality to their persona. Something more savage and hungry.

I also thought the authors did an interesting take on Flutterbat. Rather than make her something that was just the result of a spell accident, they reveal that she’s actually something “permanent” inside Fluttershy’s personality. That she has the potential to come out at will from Fluttershy’s dark side and actually induce a physical change in the process. In that sense, Flutterbat is more like a Jekyll and Hyde type deal, which is an interesting development. There’s even a few panels in which Fluttershy and Flutterbat are talking to one another. So in a take on irony, while this arc balks the trend in the comics and ends up saying Nightmare Moon was always Princess Luna, it makes Flutterbat her own individual.

Is it anything earth-shaking like the Nightmare Rarity arc or even some of the other arcs? No, but it’s got a lot more fun and action than your standard fare, and it does a bit more with Flutterbat than just a basic callback. While it’s just a bit too silly to ever see this happening in an actual episode, it’s not too silly and the characters are believable for the given situation. So, all in all, I’d say this one is pretty good.

Fun Facts:

This entire arc is a homage not only to B-movies, but what is considered possibly the biggest B-movie of all time: “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”.

Both the “Nightmare Rarity” arc and Nightmare Moon’s arc in Fiendship is Magic pushed the idea that Nightmare Moon is actually a separate and distinct entity from Princess Luna. Oddly enough, this arc does the opposite, with Nightmare Moon, on crashing on the moon, looking hurt and saying: “How could you, sister?”

Nat Tally’s rapid calculation of how many apples are attacking is reminiscent of a similar line Mr. Spock had in the infamous TOS episode: “The Trouble with Tribbles”.

Pinkie Pie’s outfit at Fluttershy’s is reminiscent of French underground resistance during World War II.

Flutterbat originally appeared in Season Four’s “Bats” and was one of the favorite one-shot characters from that season. While she was more bat-like and an animal in that one as opposed to a true vampire, in this arc the angle that she’s a true vampire is definitely played up more.

As an interesting touch, this arc reveals that Flutterbat was never fully “cured”, but rather remains as an aspect of Fluttershy’s persona. Even more interesting is that it shows the two personalities are capable of interacting with one another.

The names of the vampire ponies are jokes in and of themselves. Twilight Sparkle becomes “Twilight Sparkling”, which is a knockoff of the infamous tendency for the vampires in the “Twilight” series to sparkle. (Later there’s a joke where she says to an apple her name is “Twilight. Sparkling. Vampire.”, and the apple says those sound like they would go good together.) Rainbow Dash becomes “Rainbow Bite”, a play on words of Rainbow Brite. Rarity becomes Nosfu-Rarity, a play on word of “nosferatu”, which literally translates to immortal but is used to refer to vampires. Finally, Pinkie Pie becomes “Drinkie Pie” and Applejack becomes “Appledrac”. In addition to the physical changes, many of the girls also put on collars. For Cutie Marks, Twilight Sparkle gets an apple in the middle of her sparkle, Pinkie Pie’s balloons turn into drops, Rarity gets red hourglass shapes instead of gems(?), Applejack’s Cutie Mark has bites taken out of her apples, and Rainbow Dash’s cloud on her Cutie Mark turns gray. In spite of Twilight’s insistence their personalities will stay the same, the girls are clearly more ravenous-acting and slightly more sadistic as vampires.

When Princess Celestia lists that everyone has bad aspects to their personality, she says “ego,  vanity, stubbornness”. In the same panel, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack are lined up; essentially pointing out their own “bad sides”.

In another Star Trek TOS reference, Twilight Sparkle, on remarking on the apple valley, says: “It would be interesting to return to this valley in the future and see what crop has sprung from the seed we planted.” This is a takeoff of Mr. Spock’s line from the end of the TOS episode “Space Seed”. (And hopefully that’s the only thing it has in common, because that episode served as the prelude to “The Wrath of Khan”. :P)

I’d say this arc uses more one-liners than any arc thus far.

One of the full-page bonus artworks features the girls as famous movie vampires, including from “The Lost Boys”.

Rating:

3.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Comic Arc #15 (IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #30-31): “Ponyville Days”

Tags

Applejack, IDW, IDW comic, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Ponyville Days, review, Twilight Sparkle

Synopsis:

Princess Twilight Sparkle is this year’s PC for the annual Ponyville Days, and has decided the theme should be “Moving Forward, Looking Back Together”. Although she has to leave town for Canterlot for a few days, she leaves behind her theme and instructions before leaving. After she does, Mayor Mare announces that the first structure in Ponyville is to get a commemorative plaque honoring it and the youngest member of the associated family is to be the Ponyville Days princess. Unfortunately, a dispute soon arises as to whether Sweet Apple Acres should have been the first building or if Filthy Rich’s grandfather’s original store (where Canterlot Boutique is currently located) should have been the one. The dispute turns into an argument and splits the town in two, with Applejack heading one side and Rarity heading the other, and soon the two are feuding in a combination pie/ugly-dress fight and threatening to secede into two separate towns. When Twilight Sparkle returns, she puts a stop to the fight and appeals to the town, saying how she had been bragging about how the citizens were like family to one another and worked through any problem together; encouraging them to get along. Yet to her surprise, both sides of town refuse to reconcile and, although the fighting stops, everypony refuses to associate with anypony else. To make matters worse, Twilight’s report of the hospitality of the town was so great that record crowds of tourists are coming to Ponyville on Princess Celestia’s suggestion.

With nopony in town willing to work together to make Ponyville Days happen, Twilight gets desperate and, on a suggestion by Fluttershy, goes about town convincing individuals one at a time to contribute. In the end, she gets the entire town to do something out of friendship with her, although everypony refuses to help anypony else with their own parts. The tourists soon arrive, and on doing so the town is completely overrun and everypony is overwhelmed. All of them run to Twilight for guidance, but she’s screams that she’s just one pony and can’t fix this, urging the town again to work together to make things a success. The town agrees, and as a result everything ends up working out and everypony starts talking to one another again. Princess Celestia congratulates Twilight, and she comes up with a solution for the original problem and presents two plaques: one for the first residential building and one for the first commercial building.

Review:

To be honest, there’s one untapped idea that I thought bore some potential merit to it for the series. What would happen if one of Twilight Sparkle’s friendship speeches failed to accomplish it’s end? What if, at the point of an episode where she was supposed to say something to fix everything, it didn’t work out? This arc answers that question…assuming the answer was supposed to be: “I don’t know”.

This entire arc has the feel of a one-issue arc that ended up running a bit long. To it’s credit, it doesn’t seem very padded, but it also doesn’t seem to be anything of critical importance that merited having two full issues devoted to it. The plotline itself is nothing new. There was a similar episode on “The Simpsons” although the feud there was over phone number area codes rather than a plaque, and the idea of a feud where neither side would refuse to admit they were guilty of any wrongdoing on contribution to the problem would later be explored in Season Five’s “The Hooffields and McColts”. But like I said, it has the virtue of doing something no episode has done before. When Twilight breaks in, stops the fighting, and then gives her speech to everypony, that’s normally where everyone is supposed to admit they were wrong, make up, and go on to a happy ending. But no, it doesn’t happen that way this time. Everypony still hates each other. They only stop fighting because they think the fight itself was a waste of time, but they still think they’re all justified in their hate of each other. And so, the story isn’t over. Twilight doesn’t get to just say something and fix everything. That’s actually new and original, yet perfectly consistent with the show. So, what happens next?

Well, therein is the problem. The thing is while the plot itself was plausible, I think the comic writers went a bit overboard on the other characters. Applejack may be stubborn, and in Season Five’s “Hearthbreakers”, Pinkie Pie canonically outright called her “mean”. But this is too much for me. I can see her holding onto a grudge, but not only does this seem to go too far, I don’t think she’d be so mean as to spit back what Twilight tried for a reconciliation back in her face. And to imply that Rarity is just as stubborn is borderline OOC. About the only time I’ve ever seen Rarity be stubborn to a nasty degree was when she was being mind-trolled by Discord. Still, these are both things that could be overlooked.

What I personally can’t overlook is how this gets wrapped up. The plotline establishes that there isn’t going to be a quick fix. There isn’t going to be a friendship speech that reminds everypony about how close they are to one another or how they work together to solve everything. So, what will get them back together then? An even weaker friendship speech about working together to make Ponyville Days a success. Seriously, it doesn’t make much sense. Everypony agrees to help each other out simply because nopony can get anything done on their own, but does that mean they’d get back together because of that? Twilight says they all have to work together to fix this, but the problem is nopony wanted to do this anymore. They’re all just doing it for Twilight to begin with, not because they care about it being a success or even in helping the town. So why is it suddenly so important that they make it a success? And was something so simple supposed to make them stop the feud? Everypony was shallow enough to hate everypony else over a plaque and cling stubbornly to that, and this was supposed to fix it? Something so petty causing this much long-lasting trouble indicates it was never about the plaque to begin with but rather more deep-seated hatred that rallied around this. And all of that should still be there when this is done. Not to mention the solution only involved some residents working with others, not everypony working together? It just doesn’t really make sense.

So while the first half of this arc has some merit, the fact that it gets a totally pat resolution that seems to be forced in the first place points out that this arc was a bit too long for one issue so they created a sub-conflict where they were still mad at each other after Twilight’s speech to stretch it farther. As a result, we get something that had potential but never really capitalized on it. The interesting plot device ended up being just a gimmick to stretch things out. And all for a plot that wasn’t terrible original or interesting to begin with.

And because of that, this is one of my least favorite arcs.

Fun Facts:

Considering the sheer number of background ponies who get “screen time” in this arc, one would think it came after Season Five’s “Slice of Life”. (Right down to highlighting Gummy at one point.) However, the last issue was published three days before that episode premiered.

The idea of Ponyville Days was first visited in Season Four’s “Simple Ways”, although the background for this arc comes from Season Two’s “Family Appreciation Day”.

In one panel, Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara are glaring at each other with electricity going between them, which is a frequent convention used in anime and manga.

Minuette is drawing faces on Granny Smith posters, but doesn’t really seem to know why…

It seems to take a very long time for the crowd flying to Ponyville to get there…

As the show has hinted, Lebowski Pony does indeed appear to be a pony version of the Dude from “The Big Lebowski”, including using his sayings such as “tied the (blank) together” and “this pony abides”. So, technically, IDW beat the show to making it canon by three days. 🙂

At one point, Twilight mentions how the Ponyville Clock Tower didn’t work for a long time after being struck by lightning in an intense storm. This is likely an allusion to “Back to the Future”.

We never do find out what Twilight Sparkle was doing in Canterlot. 😛

Rating:

1 Star out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Comic Arc #14 (IDW My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #29): (Untitled)

Tags

Cherry Blossom, IDW, IDW comic, Lucha Libre, Ms. Cheerilee, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, pro-wrestling, Rarity, review

Synopsis:

The Mane Six are attending a pro-wrestling match in Madisoat Square Garden, courtesy of Rainbow Dash scoring tickets. Rarity, turned off to the whole thing, walks out of a match where crowd favorite, the Masked Mare, is fighting and ends up running into a nervous Ms. Cheerilee. She confesses that the Masked Mare is actually Cherry Blossom, her twin sister who she’s been estranged from for years, and she was invited to the wrestling tournament to hopefully reconcile with her. However, when Rarity invites them both out to tea to help get them back together, the sisters get in an argument instead which ends up with Cherry spraining her ankle. Now unable to perform in the championship match against Iron Hock in three days, Cherry instead asks Cheerilee to fill in for her. Cheerilee reluctantly agrees and starts practicing to go through the match. Over the course of practice, in spite of being as good at her sister at wrestling, she confides in Rarity she hates the violence and aggressiveness of the act and didn’t get along with her twin because she was always the more “rough and tumble” type growing up, and that she’s too nervous to go out. Rarity responds by having Cheerilee (in the Masked Mare’s outfit and character) meet a group of her young fans, and in doing so she realizes even if Cherry is more “physical”, she still shares Cheerilee’s passion for making foals happy. Cheerilee ends up going through the match and, in spite of a last-minute tag-team addition (in which Rarity, herself in costume, jumps in to assist), everything goes well. The two sisters reconcile, and, when asked by Twilight how she had a mask for the wrestling match ready-to-go, Rarity answers it never hurts to be prepared.

Review:

I think the “Friends Forever” series is missing an issue…

It’s pretty clear after this issue is done that this was meant to be a “Friends Forever” story between Rarity and Ms. Cheerilee. I’m not sure why it was relocated here as “Friends Forever” hasn’t ended its run. Perhaps they had accidentally commissioned two issues at once, or they were trying to play for time to delay the premiere of the upcoming King Sombra arc so that it wouldn’t be penned until it was clear Season Five wouldn’t have any “new surprises”. For whatever reason, here it is.

Again, it’s not one of those arcs that really grabs you, which only figures as it has the feel of a “Friends Forever” story. It does show off the talent of the team behind the comic as they were able to expand on Ms. Cheerilee quite a bit, who has largely remained untouched in the actual series since “Hearts and Hooves Day”. The idea of one of the show-established characters having a twin was actually kind of interesting, although shortly into the story one can kind of guess how it was going to play into things.

But although it made a few attempts to for something more with “heart”, it’s really kind of overshadowed by the plot device to get all of this moving, which is the pro-wrestling. And…that part isn’t too good. You only have so many panels to work with and most was the build-up to the fight, and once it got there it wasn’t really wacky or dramatic. There’ve been other issues that featured a lot more sight gags at least.

Not so much here except for the interesting style. And this is where the earlier “unique” style first presented in “Friends Forever” comes out. Pro-wrestling has the virtue of being a topic that will probably never be hit on in the main series, but here the ponies are practically bipedal to make it work out. Between the masks, the style, and how they move…yeah, this is one where if you just showed certain panels or pages, I don’t think one would realize it was an MLP:FIM comic.

As for as the more dramatic parts, they’re kind of weak. The only thing we ever really get for why Cheerilee and Cherry Blossom hate each other is “one liked to roughhouse”, which isn’t really that great. I mean, I can see it. When you have twins, parents tend to always stick them together, and if one was shy and delicate and the other was aggressive and physical, that can cause some tension. But for them to greet each other with such venom and loathing when they meet at the tea shop? There has to be something else. Something that set them off or was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. The fact we don’t get into it kind of makes the story a bit contrived.

So it’s cute, interestingly drawn, and entertaining enough to hold your interest, but the payoffs it gives are somewhat weak. As a result, I’ll again mark this as solidly “meh”.

Fun Facts:

Amy Mebberson, the same individual who did the art for the “Friends Forever” with Rainbow Dash & Spitfire, did the artwork for this issue…so once again there is the “unique” look to the characters that was presented there.

The arena is called Madisoat Square Garden, a takeoff of Madison Square Garden.

Most of the wrestling that takes place in this issue is heavily “Lucha Libre” inspired, which is the Mexican variant on pro-wrestling. This is especially prevalent in the heavy use of masks. In actual Lucha Libre, the mask is more important and is never to be removed in public, but here it seems to simply be a costume choice. As another takeoff of Lucha Libre, Rarity’s “ring name” is Diamande Elegante. The biggest takeoff, of course, is that it ends up everything was staged, including all of the Masked Mare’s opponents.

I think the main reason Cheerilee’s sister is named Cherry Blossom is so there’s a faux-running gag of the two talking to each other through the issue, using “Cherry” and “Cheery”. The problem is it’s rather confusing at times.

One of the posters at the doctor’s office is a takeoff of the old “hang in there” poster, only it features a pony instead and says “hoof in there”…which is kind of odd. Later, a TV program called “Dr. Philly” is running. I don’t know whether to be more surprised at a takeoff of “Dr. Phil”…or stunned that there is television in Equestria.

As possibly a “meta humor” joke, right after Rarity enters the ring, the next panel cuts to the end of the match, and Ms. Cheerilee seems confused on how they won in the first place. 😛

Since the Mane Six are all there but seemingly have little to do, in the back of one of the panels, Pinkie Pie is trying out a wrestling leg-lock on Applejack. She seems to have the hang of it. Later she does a body slam. O_O

Rating:

2.5 Stars out of 5