Friendship is Card Games: Classics Reimagined: Little Fillies, #1 & #2 · 1:27pm Dec 27th, 2022
I’ve been looking forward to this one. The premise is as fascinating as it is surreal: A classic novel presented in comic form, with the G4 cast filling the roles. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, no less.
This may be a challenge in terms of card design—19th century coming-of-age stories about domesticity, work, and true love aren’t exactly known for their climactic wizard battles—but we’ll see what happens.
Issue #1
From page 1, we have some unusual friction between source and adaptation, from Twilight-as-Meg reading what appears to one of her own treatises on magic to Rainbow Dash-as-Jo asking “Why would I take levitation magic seriously when I can fly?” to Jenna Ayoub’s style being unlike that of any IDW artist before her.
Since I can, I’ll just share Dash-Jo’s manuscript in full, because this is art. Also, interesting to see a twist on “Daring Don’t” that cuts out Ahuizotl. I suppose he’d really clash with the source material.
Ah. Ring of Destiny exists in universe, as does A. K. Yearling… which raises questions about her exploits.
I do love the mice. Even in a different story, Fluttershy has that Disney princess aura about her.
I also love Rarity-as-Amy’s running gag of botched French, whether saying it or interpreting it.
Ah. Twi-Meg’s dissertation was part of the same newsletter as the latest installment of Rainbow Dash’s adventures. That makes sense. (Also, this scene is set during Hearth’s Warming Eve, making this seasonally appropriate entirely by accident. I do love a good bit of serendipity.)
“I’ve gotta start having adventures instead of just reading about ‘em! Hang gliding, ziplining, skydiving, river rafting, monster meeting—”
I do wonder what kind of monsters there are to meet in this world. Ponies still have magic, so I can’t rule out that sort of thing.
“All stories are just other stories being told in new ways when you think about it—”
“Kind of like what we’re doing right now!”
“It’s a bit early to break the fourth wall, don’t you think? We’re only four pages in.”
Perfect. No notes.
As is how the US Civil War has been converted to a war between Abyssinia and Canina that Mr. March is trying to help prevent, to saw nothing of how he’s played by Cheese Sandwich. The comic recognizes the absurdity of its own premise and embraces it. Bonus points for that one Diamond Dog with a laser pointer, and Equestria breaking out charcuterie boards as a last-ditch effort.
I would like to read that Yearling novel, though knowing how many double-triple-crosses there will be ahead of time feels like it’s spoiling things.
Discord playing the March girls’ great-aunt is almost as good as Pinkie playing their mother… though if Cheese is their father, I suppose I should’ve seen the latter coming.
Also, I can only assume that this is either being performed live or they’re doing the dress rehearsal. The character breaks are wonderful fun, but Harshwhinny frowns upon such unprofessionalism.
“Leave me alone to dieee.”
An accurate portrayal of writer’s block.
“Professors Celestia and Luna” put them in an interesting middle ground between the usual pony and human incarnations.
Star Swirl being present at Starlight/Sallie Gardner’s raises some questions, but this is clearly not meant to be taken seriously.
Discord cannot be confined to a single role in the narrative. Also, nice five-second (five-panel?) foreshadowing with the apple ponies, given that Laurie, friend to the girls and unrequited lover of Jo, is played by Applejack. (Well, she didn’t reciprocate his affections in the source material. We’ll see how this goes.)
Rainjo’s tail wagging as she wants to hear about Lauriejack’s adventures is delightful. Though I do have to wonder what Fillydelphian cuisine the latter sampled; I can’t imagine it was a cheesesteak.
The Dragonlands probably do have outstanding soil given all the volcanoes, but they’re not the best farmland given all the volcanoes.
Also, yes, let Spike wear a nice suit. He pulls it off well.
Star Swirl’s “What is even happening right now?” expression as Twi-Meg runs through her 52.5 talking points is exquisite.
Yeah, a newspaper written by you snd your three sisters would certainly qualify as “niche.”
I do love Lauriejack pushing Rainjo to greater creative heights. Especially using an ancient artifact as a jet engine. Likewise Twi-Meg getting in a spell-off with Trixie. Who is apparently just Trixie. Trixie scoffs at your pitiful attempts to cast her as feeble, non-Trixie characters! Scoffs, she says! (Also, so much for the lack of climactic wizard battles, even if that one happened off-screen.)
Not sure if we’ve ever gotten confirmation that Hearth’s Warming is at the end of the Equestrian calendar year before now.
Issue #2
A “Days Since Last Incident” sign hardly ever bodes well.
Heh. Yeah, Applejack might be hiding under that sheet a bit more subtly if her hat weren’t on top of it.
I do love the helpful hints. Very strong passive-aggressive sibling energy there.
Flutterbeth’s concern over being called “practically perfect in every way” is understandable. Mary Poppins doesn’t take that sort of thing lightly.
I do have to wonder what manner of incident reset the counter, but the two cannons out in the yard where there were none before probably have something to do with that.
It does feel a bit odd for the mailbox’s design to include Twilight’s crown.
Having finished the Violet Pokédex earlier this week with my sister’s help, I do appreciate this panel.
Curious that magic is seen as something that shouldn’t be used lightly… though Discord has decided we have more important things to worry about than find out why. Also, while Ayoub’s style with ponies is something of an acquired taste, she does do a nicely sinister Discord.
… Oh my. The panel I linked is part of a Watchmen homage of all things. Prevalent smiley-face button, 3x3 panel structure on the page, and even “she keeps looking down at me from the top of the staircase and whispering… ’No.’” It’s gloriously shameless.
I also love how the emeralds Rari-Amy hands out are diamond-cut, like she found a cache of Chaos Emeralds.
… and, unsurprisingly, that did not go well, to the point that Rarity proclaims “This commitment to the source material simply cannot continue,” at least until she finds out that the others going to the play without her. The play being a live performance of Daring Do and the Seven Castles of Diamond Lake, complete with a “Throw me the idol and I’ll throw you the whip” scene.
Lauriejack and Rainjo have a lovely heart-to-heart on the terrors of branching out beyond your initial inspiration… until an entire peanut gallery of Discords tell them to stop talking in the middle of the play.
Oh dear. After the others spurned Rari-Amy, she’s burned Rainjo’s manuscript. Even Cheese can sense “a great disturbance in the vibes.”
… and this prompts a Street Fighter homage. Incredible. Nonsensical, but incredible.
As if as an apology to the portion of the audience who’s actually read the book, Pinkie resolves the situation by quoting one of Marmee’s original lines. Which apparently wasn’t in the script, but hey, it’s Pinkie. She’s not going to let that stop her from smoothing ruffled feathers.
Still, that doesn’t stop Rainjo from refusing to talk to Rari-Amy. Not until the latter follows the former and Lauriejack out while ice skating and slips through thin ice. Then they’re able get along, with Rainjo supplying soup, a sympathetic ear, and reassurance that while nopony really takes Rari-Amy seriously, she’s certainly more creative and original in her fashion designs than a certain sister of hers with fiction.
Rari-Amy offers a new journal as an apology (and noting that she only burned the manuscript as per the original text) and all is… relatively well as the issue ends.
I’m not sure what I expected, but this is proving delightfully weird. And rich in card fodder besides. Let’s see what I can do with a truly surreal case of Universes Beyond:
Approaching Deadline WW
Enchantment
Vanishing 3 (This enchantment enters the battlefield with three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.)
When Approaching Deadline leaves the battlefield, if it had no time counters on it, destroy all creatures.
Abyssinian Paratrooper 2W
Creature — Cat Soldier
Flash
Abyssinian Paratrooper has flying and indestructible as long as it entered the battlefield this turn.
Most of their training focuses on what to do if they manage to land in trees.
3/1
Diamond Lake Sentinel 3W
Artifact Creature — Equipment Spirit
Vigilance
Equipped creature gets +1/+4 and has vigilance.
Reconfigure 4 (4: Attach to target creature you control; or unattach from a creature. Reconfigure only as a sorcery. While attached, this isn’t a creature.)
1/4
Thrashing Gorge Eel 1U
Creature — Fish
(ur): Thrashing Gorge Eel gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
Young quarray eels may be too weak to burrow into the rock, but that only makes them more aggressive towards potential threats.
0/4
Wink at the Camera 2U
Instant
Draw a card. You get a number of TK (ticket counters) equal to the number of cards in your hand, then you may put a sticker on a nonland permanent you own.
“If the performance doesn’t make the crowd feel something, why bother?”
—Myra the Magnificent
Daring Adventurer 3U
Creature — Pegasus Scout
Flying
Whenever Daring Adventurer deals combat damage to a player, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)
“On to the next ruin.”
3/1
Club Infiltrator 5U
Creature — Pony Rogue
This spell costs X less to cast, where X is the greatest number of creatures an opponent controls.
Club Infiltrator can’t be blocked.
“The thing about huge, never-ending parties is that no one’s looking too closely at the guest list.”
4/2
Grim Necessity 1B
Sorcery
Escalate — Pay 3 life. (Pay this cost for each mode chosen beyond the first.)
Choose one or more —
• Each opponent who has more life than you loses 4 life.
• Each opponent who controls more creatures than you sacrifices a creature.
• Each opponent who has more cards in hand than you discards a card.
Madmare’s Memoir 2B
Artifact
Madmare’s Memoir enters the battlefield with a page counter on it.
Whenever you discard a card, put a page counter on Madmare’s Memoir.
B, T: Draw a card. Remove a page counter from Madmare’s Memoir. If you can’t, you lose 2 life.
Eternal Adversary 3B
Creature — Pony Rogue
Menace
Protection from commanders (This creature can’t be blocked, targeted, or dealt damage by anything that’s a commander.)
Whenever an opponent casts a commander spell, you may return Eternal Adversary from your graveyard to your hand.
3/3
Ring of Eternal Heat 2R
Artifact
T: Add R. If that mana is spent on a noncreature spell, that spell can’t be countered and damage that would be dealt by it can’t be prevented.
Failed attempts to rediscover the lost art of forging gold and starlight can still produce formidable results.
Triplicate Insistence 2R
Instant
Kicker 2R (You may pay an additional 2R as you cast this spell.)
If this spell was kicked, if a red source you control would deal damage to a player or permanent this turn, it instead deals that much damage plus 1 instead.
Triplicate Insistence deals 1 damage to any target three times.
Rugged Distractor 2RR
Creature — Dog Soldier
Protection from Cats
Whenever Rugged Distractor attacks, up to two target creatures defending player controls become Cats until end of turn.
The beam can get anything’s attention.
4/3
Cross Horns 3RR
Sorcery
This spell costs 3 less to cast if its targets share a creature type.
Target creature fights another target creature.
Meg wasn’t sure why she wanted to show up Trixie so badly. Something about the mare just rubbed her the wrong way.
Capricious Audience 4RR
Creature — Chimera Citizen
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. Copies become tokens.)
Haste
At the beginning of the end step, if Capricious Audience is a token, exile it.
Great love of drama. Brief attention spans.
3/2
Combat Charcuterie 1G
Instant
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. Create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
Equestrian de-escalators were willing to go to any lengths to end the war.
Emerald Hunter 2G
Creature — Unicorn Scout
When Emerald Hunter enters the battlefield, create a tapped Powerstone token. (It’s an artifact with “T: Add C. This mana can’t be spent to cast a nonartifact spell.”)
Powerstones you control have “T: Add G.”
“Such a shame to leave something so lovely buried where nopony can see it.”
2/2
Monster Ambassador 5G
Creature — Pony Druid Advisor
Whenever Monster Ambassador or another creature with power 4 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card.
Monsters respect aggressive negotiation tactics.
4/5
Invoke the Zoomies RG
Sorcery
Create two 1/1 green Cat creature tokens. Creatures you control gain haste until end of turn.
“Explain it? The whole point is you can’t. You just need to run around like a madtom until it’s out of your system.”
—Mittens, Abyssinian skirmisher
Understudy’s Duty 1UB
Sorcery
Target creature you control becomes a copy of target creature card in your graveyard.
“Okay, everypony, Fluttershy called in sick. I hope you have Beth’s lines memorized, Bulk.”
—Spike, director
Fertilizing Eruption 1RG
Sorcery
Destroy target land. Each player may search their library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
The Dragonlands might be a verdant paradise if the dragons didn’t prefer a barren one.
Engorge 1UBR
Instant
Target creature gets +3/+0.
Target creature gets +0/+3.
Target creature gets -3/-0.
Target creature gets -0/-3.
“No spell is a toy, but especially not one that reshapes the body.”
—Star Swirl the Bearded
Discord, the Ubiquitous 1BGU
Legendary Planeswalker — Discord
Whenever Discord, the Ubiquitous is dealt damage, you may put three loyalty counters on target nonland, nonplaneswalker permanent you control. If you do, that permanent becomes a copy of Discord.
+1: Draw a card, then mill two cards.
-1: Put target card in your graveyard on top of your library.
-6: Choose up to seven target permanent cards in your graveyard. Return those cards to the battlefield, then sacrifice that many permanents.
3
Great Disturbance 5WU
Instant
This spell costs X less to cast, where X is the greatest mana value among spells its target controls.
Tap all artifacts and creatures target player controls. Put a stun counter on each of them. This turn, each nonland permanent that player controls enters the battlefield tapped with an additional stun counter on it. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: By the time Grim Necessity bothers to check its requirements, it has left your hand and you have paid the Escalate cost. If you started with the same amount of life and cards in hand, you can get two effects off.
Inside Baseball Alert: Ring of Eternal Heat's flavor text is referencing that of a Commander staple. Y'know, once templating had solidified enough that it had room for that.
Protection From Editors Alert: Understudy's Duty, as written, doesn't end until the target leaves the battlefield. This is very much an "are you sure, FoME?" because while it's technically allowed the precedent is believed to have been an uncaught editing error itself.
This sounds like a completely ridiculous premise for a MLP comic, but it seems to work, somehow, and work well!
I actually like Ms. Ayoub's pony style! Also, the levels of Appledash in this are off the charts.
It's almost 2023 and they're still making official G4 content, sorta. I will take it.
I enjoyed these. I like the art, different though it is. I have only the vaguest second-hand understanding of the source material (I should really read it sometime...) but I like this treatment of the characters.
It's good to know that the classics will live on.
Triplicate Insistence deals 1 damage to any target three times. Does that mean "three instances of '1 damage to any target'", or "three instances of 1 damage to any single target"?
5706785
The end result is that, barring any other effects, the spell deals 3 damage to a target if it wasn't kicked and 6 damage to that target if it was.