IDW Main Series #92 (Season 10, Episode 4) · 2:41am Sep 8th, 2021
I got my hands on the last two comics in the main series I intend to collect. And it is with this issue that the first big "arc" of "Season 10" was coming to an end. The comics didn't have much else going on, though attention was being drawn to the fact that Rarity's story with the Diamond Dogs was being bumped to an annual and that we were getting another Christmas comic for 2020 despite the pandemic. But by now this "arc" had taken a bit of a turn that not everyone was thrilled with. Was this comic at least able to give the only four part story in all of "Season 10" a decent send-off though? Well, let's find out.
We begin with a brief focus on Rockhoof and Tempest fighting the grootsnarl, which of course Tempest is thrilled with. But of course their efforts are doing very little to affect it. Meanwhile, Applejack and Zecora recognize that what they're seeing is the Tree of Harmony, or at least it appears to be. However, there are no Elements of Harmony to be found on it anywhere and the surrounding temple appears to be deserted. That's a problem since Rockhoof and Tempest are clearly fighting a losing battle. Zecora, however, seems to hear the tree calling out to her even though no one else can. And while Applejack rushes off to help Rockhoof and Tempest, Zecora tries to reach out to the tree only for Marini to stop her. But Zecora gets knocked into the tree due to the grootsnarl attacking the temple.
This allows Zecora to speak with the tree, or rather a personification of it in the form of Prince Abraxas (so I guess that makes him more like Twilight since the Tree of Harmony only took on Twilight's form?). He basically explains the obvious, that Zecora's bond with her friends is special and that it was bent but not broken. All the while we have a recap of Zecora's past up to her reunion with her old friends in the past three issues. Prince Abraxas also states that magic and friendship are not confined to one pony and the Elements of Harmony are not confined to just one group of friends. However, by giving Zecora and her friends the Elements of Harmony it seems to be implying that as long as one has a special bond with their friends that's all that matters. And that just cheapens the appeal of the Elements of Harmony if anyone can wield them under that broad category.
Zecora comes to just as Applejack comes back and Desert Rose happens to step onto a panel that lights up. Applejack then deduces who is who with Zecora's help: Desert Rose is generosity because she borrowed water from the plants in return for helping them, Marini is honesty, Medley is laughter, Dust Devil is kindness (and is referred to as they instead of he or she) and Crystal is loyalty. So that makes Zecora magic because what else would she be? And there in lies my biggest problem and what I imagine is the big problem for many others. They can't even be bothered to give the Elements of Harmony different attributes or names, on top of having the Tree of Harmony look exactly the same no matter where it is. It's just lazy carbon copying that does nothing except cheapen the appeal of both. If anything, it's patronizing and insulting to suggest the other nations can't have their own tree or elements and have to copy the pony's. Plus, the light in the temple suggests that the Tree of Harmony in Equestria was part of a set and therefore the pillars inherited the seed from someone despite no prior indication that they'd done so.
It is interesting that the grootsnarl is not redeemed or reformed and is straight up destroyed, so at least they didn't get even lazier and copy Nightmare Moon. But it is kind of rehashing the Elements of Harmony destroying King Sombra (the only time they ever did so). From there we mostly just have Applejack sending Twilight a letter explaining everything. The defeat of the grootsnarl somehow brought back water to the temple and to all of Farasia (despite there being no mention of a drought before). Prince Abraxas hopes to someday visit Equestria, but in the meantime he's sending gifts that will supposedly be helpful and useful to Equestria. And as for Zecora, she's staying behind because she claims there is still much that needs to be done and much that needs to be understood. We do also have a brief scene of Rockhoof telling his stories to the villagers, but it doesn't accomplish much of anything. Then the issue concludes when a light goes off somewhere, indicating that the temple in Farasia has been reactivated. And an unknown creature says they need to "Notify the commander" which is the set up for the revelation of the endgame threat in these never before mentioned Knights of Harmony.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the issue? Quite honestly, it's just going through the motions and not really doing much besides that. It can't even be bothered to make the Tree of Harmony look different or gives the elements different names and attributes, they're all the same. Anything that might have previously seemed interesting about Farasia is now sadly reduced to nothing as it has to be viewed through the lenses provided by the Tree of Harmony, the Elements of Harmony and the temple. And all of it just makes it look like a lesser Equestria, which is really sad considering how fans clamored for years and years for Zecora to get more focus and to find out about where she came from. The arc as a whole suffers from sloppy execution, questionable writing choices and too many characters that accomplish nothing of substance (even Applejack really doesn't do much here). It's a shame because they most definitely didn't start out that way, had they cut all the filler and clunky set-up stuff we could've gotten to the interesting premise of Zecora reconnecting with her old friends much sooner. I feel like this is another case of "The Good, The Bad and The Ponies" where the idea was to give the spotlight to a character that hadn't gotten much love or attention in the show. And just like that rather notorious arc, I'd say they succeeded. Zecora was the one thing that made the issues worth reading even when it was clear they were just copy pasting from the show. But even then the most we got was that her rhyming is something she taught herself to do and that she was a voluntary outcast from her own society. Zecora's friends could've been interesting if they had been fleshed out more instead of confined to a predictable story that just made them be seen as another alternative mane six. If you want to see Zecora's arc through to the end, pick this comic up but don't go outside the five to ten dollar range.
And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll close out my comics reviews (baring the incredible fortune of me getting stuff like King Sombra's Fiendship is Magic comic or the micro series comics I still want to own and review) with a look at the last stand alone story of the entire comics with Main Series #99.
While this arc definitely has its issues, Tempest pretty much carries it for me, to the point where, while it's not my absolute favorite arc in the comics, I still like it a fair amount
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I respect the fact that you enjoyed Tempest’s role and incorporation in the story. I just wish that the feeling was mutual.
For me, personally, the inclusions of Tempest and Rockhoof carried little to no meaningful purpose other than just being there. It also felt like the only reason Jeremy Whitley incorporated the two characters was to provide unusual forms of comic relief, which is a shame really.