Friendship is Card Games: Classics Reimagined: The Unicorn of Odd #3 & #4 · 1:07pm January 14th
Next on the docket is the back half of The Unicorn of Odd. Let’s see how much of the original story makes it out unscathed from under the G4 cast’s critical eyes.
Issue #3
Yeah, there was really only one option for who would play Oz the Great and Powerful. Heck, this isn’t even the first time Trixie’s been the mare behind the curtain on a comic cover. (Meanwhile, Andy Price’s contribution has the same incredible quality I’ve come to expect from him. Very glad I got to personally thank him for all he’s done one time at EFNW.)
We return to our heroes mid-kalidah attack, with Flutterlion trying her best to avoid a fight by intimidating them with a roar. This works for all of two panels. Then Tin Rarity tries her hoof at it: Turn back now and she won’t chop the fallen log serving as a bridge while they’re still on it, sending them tumbling to the rocks below.
Credit where it’s due, this is actually merciful compared to the source material: The Tin Woodsman didn’t take the time to negotiate. (It also explains why Diamond Dogs are playing the role of the kalidah; the Unpleasable Demon-Mare of Ten Thousand Demands has a history, after all.)
A river cuts straight across the yellow brick road, and I have to agree with Dorothyjack; this is just bad civic planning. The group tries to raft across, but there’s an issue when one of the mares pushing aganst the river bottom with a pole is made of straw. The Scarepie nearly gets left behind, but a helpful pelican swooped in so as not to split the party… though that did leave them at the mercy of current and some ways from the road. That’s where the field of poppies comes in.
Of course, half of the group doesn’t breathe… but unfortunately, the Lion is too heavy for either of them to move (and poor Fluttershy thinks it’s Zephyr Breeze trying to get her to make him breakfast.) Just as they give up, Opalescence scampers into view, pursuing a mouse in an elegant cape reminiscent of Princess Platinum.
I get the feeling that L. Frank Baum would have been a very generous Dungeon Master.
The Woodsmare intervenes, driving her axe between predator and fabulous prey—as opposed to the original decapitating the cat—incidentally rescuing the queen of field mice, whose subjects prove pivotal in extracting the Lion from the poppy field. (And the original text does note that the extraction is done with great haste to keep those tiny bodies from succumbing to the poppies.)
Further down the road, the group enters the Emerald Suburbs, or at least the Emerald Outlying Rural Settlements; every farmhouse they pass is painted bright green. Unfortunately, the locals are terrified of them given the Lion… which is awfully ironic, given that said locals are griffins. After reassuring one family that they come in peace, they’re able to get in for supper… which appears to be an enormous bowl of birdseed. Or some other grain. I can only make so much of an ambiguous tan lump.
The farmers are skeptical when hearing that the group seeks the Wizard, warning them that nobody ever actually sees him. It’s not clear whether he’s even a unicorn.
“A rich recluse who can change his wardrobe at the drop of a hat? Sounds like my type.”
Why is it that whenever the comic writers don’t know how to write Rarity, they default to this kind of gag?
The usual events transpire at the gates of the Emerald City, with a griffin warning them away and offering green glasses when they insist on seeing the wizard. On the other side, the bejeweled city shines so bright in the sun that they’d have been blinded without them.
After a long wait, the Wizard lets the group in to see him one at a time, and only because Dorothy still had the Princess of the East’s silver shoes. Rather than an immense head, he appears to Dorothy as… well, a lavender unicorn, albeit a stallion with a flowing, deep purple mane and Time Turner’s bowtie. He agrees to send “Dorothy the Small and… well, Kinda Ornery” back home if she takes out the Princess of the West.
Each of the others sees the Wizard in a different form, from a giant cactus to a canoe full of waffles to a glimpse of the future. And in each case, the same quid pro quo offer is given: Their desire in exchange for eliminating the Princess of the West.
Slight problem: Since no one usually wants to go west, there’s no road there. Just a slog through a trackless desert, and the Witch saw them coming. Fortunately, sending timberwolves against an experienced woodsmare did not end well for the wolves. Nor did sending birds at a scarecrow who is very bad at her job. (In this case, it means befriending them rather than wringing all their necks. It’s a very violent book, and casually so.) And sending changelings comes with its own problems when they imitate a coward who’s very good at scaring things off.
Thus the Witch resorts to the final charge of her Golden Cap, which allows her to command the Winged Monkeys… here represented by the Wonderbolts. Rainbow Dash is less than pleased and wants to know when IDW will start adapting action movies—“I’d make a great Buck Norris!”—at least until the narrator reminds her that she gets to pick up Applejack and fly her around.
Spitfire derives a… concerning amount of joy in scattering the Scarecrow’s straw. Soarin’ manages to follow the story by accident, with the Woodsmare slipping out of his group and down onto the jagged rocks below. And the Lion… yeah, ”I have a mind to harness him like a horse” has some issues in this adaptation.
Dorothy, meanwhile, still has the protection of capital-G Good on her. (Dash calls Celestia the “Good Fairy of the North,” which is either an editorial flub or Dash never showing up for rehearsals.) Thus, Chrysalis, Wicked Princess of the West, plans to take care of her herself… until she sees the silver shoes and the power they represent. She pivots to making Dorothy a servant, but the girl is willing to bargain to go home again. Getting the shoes off will be tricky, and she accidentally kicks a bucket full of mop water.
And, well, she’s not the only one who kicks the bucket. 
I do appreciate Chrysalis’s final words vowing that “someday they’ll make a musical where I’m the hero.” Also interesting to note that in the original text, Dorothy deliberately dumped a bucket of water on the Witch after she made the girl trip on an invisible bar of iron, making one of the shoes fly off and claiming it for her own. It says something when Chryssy is less self-defeatingly evil than the source material.
I just realized that this is a tale of how the West was won. 
Much to Applejack’s surprise, that’s the end of the penultimate issue. Now for that Great and Powerful Resolution.
Issue #4
No surprises on this cover. Though there is something very funny about Applejack in Thorax’s shoes (on top of Luna’s. 
) To say nothing of the comic adamantly refusing to use “kill” or “death.” Yes, melting the witch certainly counts as defeating her. (Going by the page devoted to Celestia lifting the house off of Luna, Chrysalis presumably shapeshifted back from the pile of sludge between issues.)
I do appreciate Fluttershy having no hard feelings about captivity given how compressed the comic has to be. “I was only really locked up for a couple pages.” Rarity, meanwhile, just wants to talk to Soarin’. She just wants to talk. (Dash insisting that it was an accident because she’s so heavy isn’t helping.)
Ah. I was wondering why the golden cap was a cowboy hat; Dorothy got it as part of the gifts bestowed upon the party. (And yes, the Tin Woodsman got an offer to take the Witch’s place as ruler of the West in the original text.) This immediately comes in handy since, again, trackless desert. (And Rarity nearly chokes the life out of Soarin’ en route to the Emerald City. Don’t want to fall again, after all.)
After learning the Witch has been vanquished, Odd’s guards assure the group that the Wizard will want to see them immediately. He does not. Indeed, it takes so long that Dorothy has to threaten to sic the winged monkeys on the Wizard. They’d already booted him out of the West, so this gets a much more immediate response… though Odd insists that he’s busy at the moment. Everyone yells, and the Lion roars so loudly that Toto knocks over a partition, revealing Trixie.
“Pardon, who exactly are you?”
The juxtaposition of this line with Rarity holding her axe is a lovely touch.
“I’m not even from Odd. I’m from Appleoosa, Nebraska.”
Poor Trixie. Though at least she has a good ventriloquism routine with a Twilight puppet… up until the puppet starts blabbing about how much Trixie’s gotten out of the same assumption the Breezies made about Dorothy.
More casual decapitation comes up as Trixie hoofs out the promised rewards. The Scarecrow tears off her head to get it filled with bran new brains. That is not a typo. It’s bran and tacks (for extra sharpness.) Mind you, this is after trying to assure her that the organ doesn’t matter; experience does. Trixie has similar laments after trying to assure the Woodsmare that she’s already very loving. Among other thoughts. (“You know, I should really be the star of the next one of these adaptations we do. What do you think of The Great and Powerful Sherlock Holmes and her trusty assistant Doctor Starlight Glimmer?”)
Her answer, for the record, is a scene change.
After the heart-shaped sandbag, Trixie is thoroughly disgusted with ponies failing to realize that you can’t just surgically implant virtues and makes the Lion chug a gallon of orange juice courage. She’s even more disgusted when Dorothy asks for something she can actually do, since that means effort rather than the magic feather routine. Namely, flying her back to the States via the same hot air balloon that got Trixie to Odd in the first place. But Toto spotting a cat in the crowd and jumping out of the basket means that only Trixie gets de-isekai’d.
Fortunately, Dorothy has three friends to try to find other alternatives (and the Wise Scarecrow now has a crown and lovely robe to symbolize her taking Odd’s place as ruler of the Emerald City.) While the Queen of the Field Mice can’t help and the most the head winged monkey can do to help Dorothy cross the desert is make her twenty percent cooler (booo,) Dorothy realizes that Trixie called the puppet a princess. She is Glinda, Good Princess of the South, and I am only now learning the Witch of the North took her name in the movie.
This is the last issue, so a good chunk of the journey south gets summarized. I do appreciate the group “[finding] themselves in a world populated entirely by tiny figurines” that, rather than a land of porcelain, can best be described as the Elemental Plane of MLP Merchandise. Possibly the funniest metareference I’ve seen in Classics Reimagined.
Huh. I hadn’t expected there to actually be three young girls serving as Glinda’s guards, but that is the case. Practically tailor-made for the Crusaders. Scootaloo keeping an eye on Dorothy in case she has any more houses to drop is an especially nice touch.
Glinda’s home is, naturally, Namepending Castle, and there she agrees to help in exchange for the golden cap, which she’ll use to usher Dorothy’s friends to their newly won kingdoms (the Lion having become King of Beasts after thwarting a monstrous spider on the way here.) She also tells Dorothy how to use the “click your heels” charm of the silver shoes (and gets in a subtle dig at Celestia’s communication issues.)
Sure and soon enough, Dorothy finds herself back in Kansas, divested of the shoes in transit (much to her joy; she’d been trying to get the things off the whole time.)
And that’s all he wrote. A much more faithful adaptation, but then, there was more to actually do than in Little Women. No offense to Louisa May Alcott, but a fantasy adventure does fit this cast better than a coming-of-age story. Jenna Ayoub’s “thumb ponies” style may take some getting used to, but this is still a delightful read and got me to track down and appreciate the original text besides. I can see why Oz garnered such a sizable fandom back in its heyday.
Now to go even further Universes Beyond than usual…
Royal Protection 1W
Enchantment — Aura
Flash
Enchant creature
As Royal Protection enters the battlefield, choose a color.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has hexproof from the chosen color.
Few dare cross the princesses’ will.
Timely Contrivance 1W
Instant
Target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. Venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)
Things have a way of working out for some adventurers.
Quadling Guards 2WW
Creature — Pony Soldier
Hexproof from red
Legendary creature you control have ward 1 and hexproof from red.
The ponies of the South are fiercely proud of their princess, and eagerly keep her safe.
3/4
The Queen of Field Mice 3WW
Legendary Creature — Mouse Noble
Other Mice you control get +1/+1.
When The Queen of Field Mice enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 white Mouse creature token for each Plains you control.
Whenever a noncreature Plains enters the battlefield under your control, create a 1/1 white Mouse creature token.
2/3
Glinda’s Guidance U
Sorcery
This turn, activated abilities of permanents you control that aren’t mana abiltiies cost 2 less to activate. This effect can’t reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.
Draw a card.
“It’s a very simple charm. You just have to know how to use it.”
Melt Away U
Instant
Kicker 2B (You may pay an additional 2U as you cast this spell.)
Target creature gets -4/-0 until end of turn. If this spell was kicked, that creature’s controller sacrifices a creature with the least power among creatures they control.
“What a world! What a world!”
—The Princess of the West
Odd’s Projection 2U
Creature — Illusion
You may have Odd’s Projection enter the battlefield as a copy of any nonland permanent on the battlefield, except it has “When this permanent becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.”
Each of the companions beheld a different wonder, and none dared to question them.
0/0
Appleoosa Balloonist 3U
Creature — Unicorn Citizen
Flying
Whenever Appleoosa Balloonist attacks, another target attacking creature gains flying until end of turn. At end of combat, if both creatures dealt combat damage to players this combat, transform Appleoosa Balloonist.
2/4
Skyborne Charlatan
(U) Creature — Unicorn Wizard Rogue
Flying
Each other creature you control has flying as long as it hasn’t become the target of a spell or ability this turn.
Some newcomers to Odd stagger in wonder. Others make the locals do the wondering.
3/4
Starlight, Veteran Medic 2B
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Soldier
Partner with Trixie, Meddling Sleuth (When this creature enters the battlefield, target player may put Trixie into their hand from their library, then shuffle.)
T, Sacrifice an artifact: Another target creature gains lifelink and indestructible until end of turn.
2/3
Take Them Out 2BB
Sorcery
Casualty 3 (As you cast this spell, you may sacrifice a creature with power 3 or greater. When you do, copy this spell and you may choose a new target for the copy.)
Target opponent sacrifices a creature with the greatest mana value among creatures they control.
Waves of Opposition 3BB
Enchantment
At the beginning of your end step, if you control no Minions, put a muster counter on Waves of Opposition, then create three X/X black Minion creature tokens, where X is the number of muster counters on Waves of Opposition.
The group faced every threat the West had.
Horned Demilich 4BB
Creature — Unicorn Skeleton Wizard
Flying, menace
Whenever Horned Demilich attacks, exile up to one target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard. Copy it. You may cast the copy. If you do, pay life equal to that spell’s mana value rather than paying its mana cost.
4/3
Monkeyshines 1R
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1 and has trample and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, destroy target artifact that player controls.”
Straw and tin were no match for the troop’s cruel mischief.
Unfair Matchup 1R
Instant
Choose one —
• Target creature you control gets +3/+1 until end of turn.
• Target creature you control fights target creature you don’t control.
Entwine 1R (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)
Have a Heart 1RR
Sorcery
Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. Attach up to one target Equipment to it.
A gift of silk and sand gave the Tin Woodsmare what she already had.
Flying Monkeys 2R
Creature — Monkey Warrior
Flying
Flying Monkeys can’t block.
Skirmish 1R (Whenever this creature attacks, you may pay 1R. If you do, create a token copy of it that’s tapped and attacking. Exile the token at end of combat.)
2/2
Through the Poppy Fields 1G
Instant
Kicker 2U
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. If this spell was kicked, put a stun counter on each attacking creature. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)
Typecast the Terrible 2G
Instant
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Create a Monster Role token attached to that creature. (If you control another Role on it, put that one into the graveyard. Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has trample.)
Some people are born to be the bad guy.
Scourge of the South 3GG
Creature — Spider
Reach, deathtouch
Scourge of the South can’t be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Terrorizing all it did not devour, the great spider ruled the southern forests with impunity… until Dorothy and the Lion arrived.
3/5
Liquid Courage XGG
Instant
Target creature gets +X/+X and gains trample until end of turn.
The mystical potion ensured that the Lion would never again know fear. Or scurvy.
Emerald Goggles 3
Artifact
You may spend mana of any type as though it were green mana.
“One of my better cons. If you look through green glasses, how do you think everything will look?”
—Trixie, the Unicorn of Odd
The Silver Hipposandals 3
Legendary Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has vigilance, hexproof, and haste.
Whenever equipped creature attacks, you may pay 3. If you do, equipped creature can’t be blocked this turn.
Equip 1
Three clicks and you’re anywhere.
The Golden Cap 4
Legendary Artifact
The Golden Cap enters the battlefield with three charge counters on it.
XX, T, Remove a charge counter from The Golden Cap: Create X 2/2 red Monkey creature tokens with flying and haste. Exile those tokens at the beginning of the next end step.
Valley of the Dolls RWU
Enchantment
At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a token that’s a copy of target creature you control, except it has base power and toughness 1/1. That token gains haste until end of turn.
Dorothy wondered if she’d still get royalties after saying she wasn’t a princess.
Bran New Brains 1UB
Sorcery
Target player reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal a land card, then puts those cards into their graveyard. That player loses 1 life for each land card in their graveyard.
“The tacks make me extra-sharp!”
—The Scarecrow
Trixie, Meddling Sleuth 2UR
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Detective
Partner with Starlight, Veteran Medic
Haste
Legendary creatures you control have hexproof as long as you sacrificed an artifact this turn.
Whenever Trixie attacks, investigate. (Create a Clue token. It’s an artifact with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.)
3/2
Timber Terrors 4(rg)(rg)
Creature — Treefolk Warrior
Reach, trample
Riot (This creature enters the battlefield with your choice of a +1/+1 counter or haste.)
The wood at the borders of the South does not welcome visitors often or gladly.
4/5
Western Desert
Land — Desert
T: Add C.
2, T: Western Desert deals 1 damage to each player.
One look at the lands of the West says volumes about how well their princess looks after them.
Being actually familiar with the source text probably played a part in me enjoying this a lot more than the first Classics Reimagined, but MLP adapting better to an adventure story is probably the main contributor.
Honestly, this is probably the best multi-parter the comics have had since… Nightmare Knights? Geez, that was almost five years ago. But virtually every one since has either dropped the ball hard with an unsatisfying resolution, spend far too much time faffing about to little effect, or was a hot mess from the get go.
There is still a ceiling with this: the art style for the ponies is one I never quite got used to, and being a reimagining of a public domain book, the plot is just a means to an end, with the fun coming largely from seeing how parts are adapted, where they use 4th wall breaks, the works. With the literary bonus for those who know the original text as well as the film, of course. All of which has a threshold on how amusing it can be.
But it doesn't leave a thick sense of disappointment at the end, and while "yeah, that was an alright way to pass the time, I guess" is hardly an endorsement for the ages, it counts with the state of the comics ever since FiM ended.
A part of me sometimes wonders how these are still profitable – when physical sales stopped being tracked, they largely only managed 8,000 issues in their month of release. And while digital sales make up a hefty chunk now, the total can't be higher than then, and it's probably lower. I keep waiting to see when IDW will discontinue the comics due to low sales. They've done it with plenty of cartoon licenses before (both times they tried The Powerpuff Girls in the 2010, it was cancelled between 10 and 20 issues in), and with G5's declining revenue and focus away from adult fans, surely it can't be worth it any more, unless costs have been massively slashed or they're making money via another way with these. I doubt Hasbro is okay with the loss on the ground of brand boosting, given they aren't going after Bronies anymore.
Given that the cat is played by the actresses' own cat, this was perhaps inevitable.
For what it's worth, this was alcoholic in the original story because haha liquid courage. Should've gone with cider to lean into that whole kerfuffle.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Of course there is a convoluted way to make the 1/1 Mouse token also be a Plains. That's why the "noncreature" is there despite almost never coming up except when preventing this infinite (which is important because it wouldn't by itself win the game and thus ends in a draw unless you have some way of turning the literally endless parade of mice into damage at instant speed, which exist but given the number of cards you had to assemble already is somewhat of an ask).
Hurray for fanfic!
5763654
Yes, as much as I enjoyed this very unserious retelling, I can't help but think of how incredible this would have been with Andy Price's art. I hope they lure him back for a full comic sometime in the future. D'you think there's any chance they'll do a Classics Reimagined of Master and Commander? *sigh*
*cough*aaaaaaaart*cough* Maybe we could start a Go Fund Me to pay for an Andy Price issue of Classics Reimagined: Firefly? (Or a The Lord of the Rings limited 27 issue run?)
Ugh, at this point I'm just torturing myself—
5763843
It's especially frustrating when Andy did alternative covers for the whole line. Ah, what could have been...
5763850
ikr? Those are magnificent!