Present Perfect vs. IDW Round 6 · 7:35pm Jul 30th, 2014
Tons of blog posts today because there's lots of housecleaning to do before Bronycon.
Issues 17-20
Otherwise known as "the mirror arc". This set of comics has been getting a lot of attention in the fandom, and I didn't have a chance to finish them until now because the dude who uploads comics was on vacation all month. :B (Support your local comics dealer!)
Anyway, it's easy to see why this has gotten such a response. The "evil mirror-verse" trope is a classic for a good reason, and the comics team has run MLP through it to phenomenal results. Good Sombra falling in love with Celestia? Evil Celestia and Luna trying to take over the world? Star Swirl trying to deal with a young and impulsive Celestia? There is nothing in here that doesn't work. Well, the ending sort of doesn't make any sense, but the fact is the emotional plotline is so well-made (I legit got choked up in the finale) that it overshadows the action plotline and makes up for any flaws therein.
Also, I totally mentioned Celestia's name three times in as many sentences up there. She's the main character this time around, her actions in the past having set everything in motion. She's what the emotional story revolves around, and I think that's what makes this work so well. I'm not kidding when I say the comics team have outdone themselves. This is every bit as amazing as the Luna micro-comic (also Kibitz makes another appearance!), but with the added benefit of being four parts and having infinitely more amazing things to do with itself. If you needed a reason to start reading the comics, this is it.
6/5
Friends Forever
Twilight/Shining Armor
I have a lot of these to catch up on. :B This one focuses on Twilight paying her brother a visit in the Crystal Empire, as Cadence is "out of town". She finds him inundated with kingdom-running and very much not in the mood for reliving their foalhoods. But that's okay, because a crystal ghost is loose in the castle and Princess Twilight Sparkle is on the job to hunt it down!
This has a lot going for it: flashbacks to young Twylie (canon spelling!) and Shining, Mario and Luigi ponies, exploration of the Crystal Palace's history and a fun foil in the near-blind librarian Lexicon. There's even some brother/sister bonding. That said, I was fairly underwhelmed by this. Likely it's because the problem of the "ghost" is resolved pretty easily. There's a lot of buildup for not much payoff, and unless you're really into the comics, you won't miss a lot skipping this one over.
3/5
Fluttershy/Zecora
Fluttershy wakes up in a world where animals can talk. Like, not talk to her like they usually do, but speak pony language aloud. She goes to Zecora, fearing that she might be crazy. Unfortunately, I'd put this on the far-odd side of "strange characters to pair up". They don't really have any dynamics, and the "what's going on in this comic?" is pretty easy to figure out, despite, once again, a whole bunch of buildup. At least this has some good Zecora dialogue (fic writers take note!) Granted, Fluttershy utterly failing to have nuanced responses to Zecora's battery of tests is amusing, but honestly this comes off a lot like the previous issue, save without the bonding to give it any depth. (Actually, the very end has a little bit of character interaction that is far more interesting.) Definitely don't worry about this one.
2.5/5
Rainbow Dash/Trixie
I kind of don't want to spoil what goes on in this. The setup is just not something you would expect -- hell, RD and Trixie isn't something you would expect unless you're shipping them like me -- and where Rainbow goes and why she ends up meeting Trixie are just too good to leave as anything but surprises. Suffice to say there's some unexpected world-building in this, lots of humor, and Rainbow Dash in a Firefly-colored Wonderbolts-style flight suit, not to mention it's great seeing Trixie getting herself into trouble again. :)
4/5
Pinkie/Luna
Have I mentioned that they are pairing up some weird characters? This has a patently ridiculous premise: Luna wanting to learn to be funny so she can participate in an annual... thing Celestia started after she was sent to the moon. It's called "Chuckle-lot". I don't.
I kind of wish this had been Twilight and Luna, because their interaction at the start of the issue is way fun. Pinkie thankfully has a rather amazing panel shortly after she's introduced that helped me forget about the fact that they were doing the same scene over again for the third time. With that said, Luna learns a pretty valuable lesson in the middle of this, and I was rather impressed with that. Still, all I could think about was Tonight I Shall Be Laughter (or wait, was it a different fic that had Luna and Pinkie? I forget now) and how much I would have rather read that. I do at least have to give them credit for Luna pulling a Kanye West at the end. That's just the kind of thing you don't expect from the comics and really should.
3/5
Always nice to meet someone else who doesn't think that the Reflections arc is made of sin.
* Not that I encounter a lot that do, but whenever they show up I swear they are louder than their 13 closest acquaintances put together.
2329853
What
How could anyone not like this
Are they dead
Do they hate fun
I have lost all my question marks help me thompy
2329992 You even posted in the comments of the blog post yesterday where another user wouldn't shut up about it!
2329992
Well, me and mine have long called IDW badly written fanfiction.
We didn't think they'd go this far, though.
I stopped reading back at the Nightmarity arc, and looked at this arc and made fun of it, briefly. I haven't actually read it, just snarked about it.
2330090
Nightmarity was patently bad. Everything else has been middling (pirates) to fantastic.
2330330
I didn't enjoy the first arc much, either.
2329992
In the comments thread to images related to this arc on derpibooru, people always have to bitch, bitch, bitch about how the arc makes Celestia look like an irresponsible idiot who put her kingdom and responsibilities at risk for a stupid crush, and how the comic failed to deliver on a promise of including the mirror mane six in the actual story, along with most of the characters on that huge double-cover. There's probably other grievances that I'm forgetting because I don't fucking care.
2330090
Things like this are why I don't follow you anymore.Edit: After reading the interview you just did, I feel like I should apologize for the rudeness of this comment, even though it is technically true. Sorry.
2330533
Ah, its fine. I'd rather know why people don't follow me than not. Gives me feedback and lets me know what the cause is. Some things can be fixed, after all; others cannot.
Anyway, as far as it goes, that really is quite literally the reason why I stopped reading the comics - they felt like fanfiction to me, which they more or less are. Official fanfiction, mind, but fanfiction nonetheless, seeing as the show (the primary source of canon) can and does contradict them and cannot rely on them for canon.
The reason I say it feels like bad fanfiction is because... well, it does. It reminds me of a lot of fanfiction, in that everything is a little bit off: things are made more actiony, things are pushed further, the character personalities are all a bit off, the jokes often felt a bit too referential or forced. I think this is in part because slipping jokes into comics is much harder than slipping them into the show; if you have the Lutesce twins walk by in the background in an episode, that's amusing, but it isn't distracting. More or less, it is a rewatch bonus for the keen-eyed among us. On the other hand, when you make a Quantum Leap reference in the comic, not only is it there to be seen (and to distract while we're reading it) but it is just more obvious. They also go further with them a great deal of the time.
I also don't actually like the art very much, which doesn't help.
I didn't find the storylines engaging and I found the whole thing to be an inferior use of my time to reading fanfiction on FIMFiction or looking at fancomics on Deviant Art; given both are time devoted to ponies, it is only logical that I spent my time on something I felt was more enjoyable.
And I feel like a lot of other fanfiction captures the show a lot better than IDW does. I don't WANT the show to be shonen; I like what it is, and I feel like IDW does not do a very good job of capturing the real essence of what the show is and what it stands for.
So, yeah. Other people are free to enjoy them or not, but I'm not overfond of them for that reason, and after browsing through the latest arc, that opinion did not change.
2329992
Some people have Bad Fanfic PTSD.
Also, Equestria Girls-related PTSD involving mirror universes.
2330397
The first arc was far better than I had been expecting, going into the comic. Of course, everything was all shiny and new, and experiencing Andy Price's ability to throw dozens of visual references into a single panel was amazing. The plot maybe wasn't the best, and while I enjoyed it at the time, they've certainly done better. Still, I love the comics because they can get away with so much more than the show, and that's never changed.
Also, if anything, the "bad fanfic" appellate applies to Rainbow Dash's micro-comic (it was awful), and at least one other since. So you're not wrong.
2330533
They need to get over it and focus on what we did get, and the fact that an official show-related thing was even willing to entertain these ideas in the first place.
2330893
And I'd much rather you go into detail about negative opinions and prove that you've put thought into why something does or doesn't work, so I appreciate that you took the time to do that.
I initially followed you because you gave the impression of someone who explains himself all the time, since it tends to annoy me when people don't explain their opinions and instead toss glib, cynical remarks and acting like the reasoning is common knowledge that everyone should have already learned by now. It was only after I got through much of your season 4 recaps that I realized that I wasn't inclined to learn from your blog posts or see eye to eye with you on what you chose to wrote about, the final straw coming with that conversation on Bad Horse's blog about rape. I respect your eloquence so long as it doesn't keep showing up in my feed.
2331567
I think the main reason why we like the comic and Titanium Dragon doesn't might have to do with what we all see in the show. He seems to focus on a specific groove the show used to get into, but (IIRC) he claims it got out of in season 4, and the comics were never in to begin with. Meanwhile, I am continually fascinated by and eager to see the characters and setting details transposed into different contexts, and compared to the embarrassing amount of Fallout Equestria material I've read, I might not have the perspective necessary to gauge the shift in tone and execution from the show to the slice of life stories in the comic. Obviously the four-part adventure stuff is different, but I can't explain why the Pinkie Pie & Luna issue wouldn't fit in with the show stories.