DANNYJ REVIEWS: FIENDSHIP IS MAGIC · 11:55pm May 10th, 2015
So anyone who knows me at least reasonably well will know that I'm an avid reader of the MLP comics by IDW. I've followed them basically since they started, and in that time I've seen all their dizzying heights and their darkest depths. By which I mean that the overall comics massively vary in quality.
On the one hand, there are some that I love. Katie Cook's early arcs like Return of Chrysalis and Jeremy Whitley's Discord issues are some of my favourite stories not just in the comics, but in all of MLP, on par with many of my favourite show episodes and fan-produced works. On the other hand, IDW's comics have also been the source of many absolutely wretched stories that I'd put below even Mare-Do-Well. Katie Cook's recent arcs like Revenge of the Everfree, Whitley's Spike and Luna entry on the Friends Forever series, and most of the garbage that Ted Anderson produces would be examples of this.
I mention this because IDW just recently finished up with the April run of Fiendship is Magic, a five-issue miniseries spotlighting FiM's major villains in their own oneshot stories. Fiendship is a good example of what the comics look like right now, capturing both the good and the bad, and I want to review the series for you all today so that you can get an idea of that. So if that sounds interesting to you, then read on.
Minor spoilers follow.
Issue 1: King Sombra
Sombra's issue was a strong start to the series, IDW putting their best foot forward, as it were. It makes a nice change from what they did with Friends Forever and the micro-series, where the first issues of both were their worst by a significant degree. It's an origin story for Sombra, taking place in the ancient Crystal Empire and showing his childhood and how he grew up to be the tyrannical dictator we knew from the show. But it ALSO has segments set in the present. The framing device for the story is that Twilight and Cadance search through Sombra's belongings and find his journal, in which he wrote an abridged version of his life story up until shortly before the sisters came to defeat him. Not all of the Fiendship issues had a framing device like this, and it's a shame, because it adds some nice context for why we're hearing this story, and it allows the characters of FiM's world to learn these things along with us.
This story did a lot of things right, but one of the biggest things I'll praise is that it had character development. The young Sombra was a very different person than his older self. He wasn't dark and brooding, he wasn't bitter or hateful, and he wasn't even without true friendship. This Sombra could've very easily turned into a fine upstanding citizen had circumstances been different, but unfortuately, he was instead driven to darkness by the actions of others and the terrible things that befell him. He endured pain, he felt betrayal, and he thought he found solace in darker pursuits. Once a blank cypher with no character whatsoever, this story turned Sombra into a tragic, pitiable figure, while keeping his villainous side intact.
Another thing I liked was the tone that this story set. Fitting for a villain whose entire motif was darkness, this was a very dark story at points that always took itself seriously when it mattered. While the young Sombra's antics were carefree and cheerful, things start getting grim fairly quickly, and there are more than a few shocking and emotional moments. This story felt like it had real gravitas, which is important when you're writing a tragedy.
As for Sombra's backstory itself, I was pretty satisfied by it. I find the idea of him being the last of an entire species of ponies who had powers just like his to be an interesting if unconventional explanation for his powers. It makes more sense now why he was such a big threat, at least. Some people might not like it, but hey, headcanons are broken all the time, and I wouldn't score this origin any lower just because it overturned my preconceived notions.
Issue 2: Lord Tirek
Tirek's issue is different. While it's not exactly a bad story, it does lack many of the strengths that I praised Sombra's comic for, and it has a few unique problems of its own.
Most glaring of its flaws are that it does not tell a complete story. Unlike Sombra's issue, which showed how he began as an innocent youth and grew into a monster throughout his life, we join Tirek and Scorpan here for only a very brief look into one single period of their childhoods. This is not an origin story as much as it's just a day in the life of Tirek, set during his angsty teenager phase. A few important things do happen, and we do see the seeds of what is to come being sown, but by the end of the issue, we haven't really learned much. We don't know why Tirek grew up to be such a prick or why he seems to hate his dad so much, we don't know why he's apparently immortal, we don't know anything about his actual attempted conquest of Equestria, and we still don't even know if he and his brother are actually related by blood or not.
By the end, it doesn't feel like the story is over. This feels like the first issue of a hypothetical Tirek miniseries rather than a self-contained oneshot like most of the other stories. And as a oneshot, I would rate it much lower than I would've had it been a first issue. Because if it were a first issue, I would've called it an excellent story. It hooked me in but left me wanting more.
For what we did get, though, I greatly enjoyed it. The homeland of the centaurs and gargoyles was an interesting setting, even if we didn't learn much about it. And all of the characters had a clear personality that came through strongly. Tirek was an angsty, rebellious asshole who hated his dad. Scorpan was a scared kid who seemed worried for his brother and afraid of him at the same time. Tirek's father was a stern authority figure with a level head but an unaffectionate air about him. And so on. I would've greatly enjoyed seeing more of all of them had that Tirek series ever been a thing.
Issue 3: The Dazzlings
THIS ISSUE IS BAD. I thought I'd capslock that for you to make my feelings on it as unambiguous as possible. Sure, it's preferable to being forced to eat my own skin, but that's the nicest thing I'll say about it. This is another Ted Anderson story, as if we needed another after the trainwreck that was the Holiday Special, and it seems that he set out to make this story even more terrible than that one. He did not succeed, as nothing can be worse than the Holiday Special, but goddamn, A for effort, Ted.
Okay, so this story focuses on the Dazzlings and explains how they were banished by Star Swirl the Bearded. Now, if you've watched Rainbow Rocks and saw Twilight's brief explanation of how that went down, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Dazzlings were a serious threat at the time and that Star Swirl's victory over them was some feat of magical badassery. As it turns out, this is not the case. In fact, very little of what was established about them in the movie holds true here.
Firstly, they weren't a threat to Equestria. They were more like traveling bards than overlords, their magic was pathetically ineffective (easily resisted even by normal ponies who weren't aware that there was any magic to resist), and their magic didn't even have any obvious result when it did work except to make ponies like their music. They claim that they're spreading disharmony with their magic, but we never see any actual conflict like we did in Canterlot High. If the Dazzlings in this story hadn't had any magic at all and were literally just doing all of this with music, the plot would not have changed at all.
Secondly, the Sirens are essentially just ponies. You might've thought that they were really big compared to ponies, but they're not. They're the same size. You might've also thought that they were primarily sea creatures, but no. They look aquatic, but no mention is ever made of this fact, and it never affects their ability to get around on land, as they just seem to hover above the ground unassisted. You might've even thought that they were outsiders in pony society, as you'd expect giant, mind-controlling hippocampi to be, but aside from a few second glances, they're never treated any differently whatsoever. The lack of imagination on display is astounding.
Thirdly, whatever you think happened with Star Swirl, you are wrong. He didn't fight them with magic. He fought them with music, because Anderson is incredibly unoriginal and can only copy the show and the movies. In the course of this, he and the Dazzlings invented entire new genres of music while trying to outdo one another. Star Swirl himself personally invented rap music. Yes, I'm serious. It's exactly as dumb as it sounds. And this is all framed as a music competition in Canterlot rather than an actual battle, right down to there being no real stakes, which makes Star Swirl's eventual decision to banish them when he can't beat them with music come off less as a heroic deed and more as petty jealousy and revenge because they were better musicians than him.
As well as ruining Star Swirl and ruining the Dazzlings, this comic also ruined plenty of other things. For a start, it shows Greek (pegasus) architecture to be the prevailing design in the (unicorn) city of Canterlot, which even as recently as a hundred years ago was full of tents and dirt roads (see Family Appreciation Day). Ancient Canterlot also had space for a Roman-style collieseum somewhere that we've never seen before. And also, Anderson's inability to write new things means he could not stray from the familiar for long enough to actually make the Equestria of a thousand years ago any different from how he'd write modern Equestria. Ponies talk the same, modern music genres like pop and rap exist here, and the whole music contest thing comes off exactly like a reality TV show.
But I think the biggest plot hole has to be how when the Dazzlings are sent through the mirror, they're already in modern times in the human world, wearing the same clothes that they did in the movie and everything. I tried to work out a way that the time difference between the worlds could possibly make sense, thinking about Sunset's timeline and everything, but it just can't. The only explanation that is even slightly compatible with canon is that the crystal mirror can and will just sometimes randomly send people a thousand years into the future.
As you can see, the writing in this one is intensely sloppy, incredibly unimaginative, and full of missed opportunities. I praised Sombra's comic for having gravitas, and that's exactly what this lacked. The writer clearly did not give a shit, not about the characters, not about the world, and certainly not about the story. And the result is a boring mess that does nothing with what it was given. Instead of a Dazzlings origin story, we got a shitty retelling of a part of their story that was much better in everyone's heads than it was when finally realised here.
I also think it had the worst art of the miniseries. That's just my subjective opinion, of course, but I've really never been fond of this artist's style. I'm not a very good art critic, so I have trouble pinning down exactly why, but it really does bug me. Something about looking at pony faces head-on in this style is just... ugh...
Issue 4: Nightmare Moon
This issue was written by Heather Nuhfer, who also did the Nightmare Rarity arc back in the early run of the comics. I liked that arc a fair amount, and since this is the same writer revisiting some of the same characters from that arc, I expected this to turn out pretty good. Not so much, it seems. While the art is much better this time, the Nightmare Moon issue suffers just as much as the Dazzlings one in terms of poor writing, and the only reason I don't rate it just as badly is that the damage it does to better stories is not as crippling.
Like I said, though, it is subject to a lot of sloppy writing. For one, this story takes place during Luna's stay on the moon during her banishment, and yes, it is explicitly on the moon rather than in it here, which is already something I don't like, especially since it leaves that whole issue of Luna's image appearing on the moon's surface unexplained. Then there's the fact that Nightmare Moon can still terrorise ponies in their dreams despite being banished, making the Elements of Harmony seem ineffective. There's a lot of weird timeline issues, such as Celestia smiling in her sleep on what is implied by the comic's presentation to be the same day that she banished her sister, as well as the Wonderbolts already existing. And several other things are also left unexplained, such as the origins of the Nightmare Forces themselves, and Nightmare Moon's ignorance of how dreams work when it's implied that Celestia does know these things.
I can't say much better with regards to characters, either. Nightmare Moon herself is decently sinister and manipulative, but Celestia is very uninteresting, and the only other characters are the dream-crafting nyx (first introduced back in Nightmare Rarity), who were all head-achingly stupid for trusting someone as transparently evil as Nightmare Moon.
So no, I was not fond of this one either, but it does at least have a few minor positives. I liked the artwork, and Moonie herself came across well. And though the story is terrible, it's at least original, unlike Anderson's. I don't like what it did to the lore of the Nightmare Moon, but at least it only affects Nightmare Moon, and at least the majority of the problems can be reconciled with some creative headcanon work, whereas the previous issue managed to fuck up Canterlot, the Dazzlings, the mirrors, and Star Swirl all in one go. So like I said, the damage this one does is not as crippling. I shouldn't need to award points for that, but it seems I must.
Issue 5: Queen Chrysalis
Another sequel to an early main series arc, this is Katie Cook's follow-up to her original four-part Return of Chrysalis story, which for those of you who don't know, was the original story which kicked off the IDW series. Unlike the previous follow-up, I'm happy to say that I enjoyed this, and it's better than most of Cook's recent fare, coming closer to the quality of her earlier works, in my opinion.
This issue, much like Sombra's, tells Chrysalis's backstory through use of a framing device plot, that being that Twilight and her friends have gone to visit the Queen in prison and check up on her, as Twilight was apparently placed in charge of planning her confinement. I liked this framing device, overall. It allowed us to see the exact fate of the changelings following that comic arc, which I have been wondering about ever since Chrysalis's cameo in Reflections, and I was also really happy to see that castle again. There were plenty of good moments from these parts of the story, too, showcasing both character and humour.
But it wasn't without problems. Like many episodes of season four, it felt unnecessary to bring along all of the main six. They make token contributions, of course. They'll tell a story, they'll react to a story, they'll make an unrelated joke, they'll insult or taunt Chrysalis, but really, there's no in-story reason why they're all there, and everything that they do in the story could've just as easily been done with just Chrysalis, Twilight and Spike. There's no reason we needed to interrupt the plot to spend a page on Rarity talking about accidentally boring her date.
As well, one of Cook's major weaknesses as a writer is also that she too often relies on making characters into idiots to push the story forward, and without spoiling anything, there is a moment of that here. Plenty of readers were unhappy with this, as they usually are. I was too, but I think this is slightly more forgivable for the character and circumstances. That's just my opinion, though, and I don't think any reader would be wrong to be annoyed by this, even if it is in service to important story events.
But enough about the framing device, because the real meat of this story is the flashbacks, and these were my favourite parts by far. There are four of them in total, each from a different period of Chrysalis's past.
The first two were about her most infamous and successful sieges on the cities of Timbucktu and Trot, the latter being an obvious reference to the Trojan War. These were most interesting for the worldbuilding they did, explaining things about how the changelings operate, how well-known they are, and why they have those leg-holes. These stories also showed the respective cities to be ruled by a pegasus king and a unicorn emperor, which fits well with the backstory given in Journal of the Two Sisters about Equestria starting as a union of already existing nations rather than a nation of its own. And there are a few other tidbits there, such as a mythical origin for the constellation of Orion. The third one is different, revolving most centrally around a confrontation between Chrysalis and a dragon, which smacks more than a little of Bilbo and Smaug. This was lighter on the worldbuilding, but I liked the interaction here, and it had just as many good moments.
The fourth and final story, however, is the most important one, as it tells Chrysalis's actual origin story. I don't want to say much about this one except that it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. Whether you like it or not I think is really up to personal taste. Everybody has their own headcanon about the changelings, and this is probably incompatible with the vast majority of them. Some people can't deal with that, and those people may not like the backstory Chrysalis gets because it's not their own, and it may affect their vision of her. Me? I don't care. Unless canon material is flawed on its own, I don't begrudge it displacing fanon, and for my view, aside from one superfluous cameo, there's nothing really wrong with this backstory. It wasn't mind-blowing or anything, but it was perfectly serviceable.
Overall, a pretty strong issue with some minor faults.
Final Scoring:
From best to worst, my personal ranking goes:
1. Sombra
2. Tirek
3. Chrysalis
4. Nightmare Moon
5. Seeing blood in my urine
6. The Dazzlings
I'd recommend getting the top three. Skip the others unless you feel you really need to know exactly what happens in them.
I gotta say, I was saddened by the Sirens issue. They're some of my favorite villains, and they just got shat on with that comic.
Chrysalis and Sombra were actually turned into interesting characters?! It's possible?!
I'd personally swap Chrysalis and Tirek, but that's just may be bias leaking in. I just really enjoyed how they didn't try to give her any redeeming qualities or a tragic back story.
Also, you placed the Dazzlings issue too high. You should have put it under:
Dying in a fire
Falling into a vat of chemicals
Having your body evaporated on a quantum level
Finding out your parents died and the cops have you as the number one suspect
The Dazzlings issue.
Yeah. It seems the fandom-at-large overwhelmingly nods that the siren one should not even be considered B-canon. And I'm on board with this. Fanfic authors have it covered in this case.
3062252
I did honestly debate the placement with myself, but ultimately, I decided that if my biggest complaint about the Tirek issue was that I wanted more of it, then it's the less flawed story compared to the Chrysalis issue. At least, that's my view.
What would you do if you were locked in a room with Ted Anderson for a day, Danny?
puu.sh/hJV14/12b8e6d91a.PNG
3062860
Probably spend most of it in awkward silence.
3063747
Wow, I set you up for the perfect psychotic response, and you give a reasonable answer. I am disappointed.
3064388
Psychotic threats with me are for humorous purposes, and I don't feel in the mood to laugh when talking about Ted Anderson. His works themselves are frequently rage-worthy for their utter ineptitude, but when it comes to the man himself, my hatred is of a colder, more dispassionate sort. Ted doesn't make angry. He just kills my good mood.
I would actually rank the Nightmare Moon story above Chrysalis' story, because at least the Nightmare Moon story seemed fairly promising, whereas the Chrysalis one just screamed that Katie Cook has lost her touch and isn't who she use to be. It had some good moments, but the bad outweighed the good considerably, especially at the end.
3071255
To each his own, I guess, but I strongly disagree, and I find the idea of placing ANY Fiendship issue but the Dazzlings one below Nightmare Moon's to be baffling.
3071267 I would've liked it so much better if they hadn't reduced practically every mane six member to a joke, and Twilight to an idiot. After everything Chrysalis did in both the show and the comics, Twilight would in no way be willing to just believe "Oh, I can change Chrysalis in time. And if she's asking for a book it's a sign she's seeing the error of her ways." Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie might be that blindly trusting, but not Twilight, especially not considering everything she endured as a result of Chrysalis (being cast out by everyone who ever loved her, being trapped in mines beneath a castle, captured and almost drained of her love after an exhausting fight sequence, attempted brainwashing by Chrysalis in the hopes she'll turn on her friends and kill them). Forgiveness is important, but there are times when someone truly doesn't deserve it, or hasn't yet learned the error of their ways. And considering Twilight's treatment of Discord in Season 4, it makes zero sense that she would show symapthy for Chrysalis and not Discord, when Discord hadn't done half as many bad things to her as Chrysalis did.
3071275
That's still just an issue of characterisation, though. Nightmare Moon's issue had bad characterisation out the ass too, but that issue also managed to destroy the mythos of its subject while it was at it, as well as being full of plot holes. No matter how bad you think the Chrysalis issue is, the Nightmare Moon issue is worse by every measure.
3060568 Ditto.
This and the Christmas special are basically why I refuse to accept any IDW comics aside from The Fall Of Sunset Shimmer as canon. There are others I haven't read that may be good, but all of the ones I've heard about or seen for myself are cringeworthy at best. I may have to look at the Sombra Fiendship, though...
3120694 With the comics, I basically pick and choose what I want to count as canon. Most of it I'm fine with; it takes a really shitty story for me to disregard it. The Siren Fiendship was one of those stories.
3120731 That seems like a good approach. Unfortunately, the only ones among the comics I have heard about have apparently been the bad ones, and the two I read first-hoof were the Return of Chrysalis and the Fall Of Sunset Shimmer; I love the latter, but the former just rubbed me the wrong way in Chrysalis's characterization. (I mean, I'm not one of those people who puts her in leather pants or tries to justify her actions in ACW, but the outright card-carrying villain portrayal here was bothersome IMO) So I kind of want to read the comics to find more of the good ones, but at the same time my experience with them has overall made me wary.
Actually, do you have any specific suggestions? That might help narrow things down.
3121662 In my opinion, the comics are generally good, and fun to read if you don't take them way too seriously like some people do. It may just be like that for me, though; it lessens my own enjoyment of the experience if I do. I think they're meant to compliment the show, not overshadow it.
My favorite issues are probably the ones that aren't in arcs. For example, the issue where Discord takes Fluttershy and the CMC on a field trip (issue 24) is probably my favorite,
possibly because I'm partial to shit with Discord in it, but whaaatevs. And I liked Neigh Anything (issues 11-12), although I'm not sure I count it as canon or not; it's not that I didn't love it, it's just I'm not buying the fact that Cadance and Shining Armor met in high school, you know? If that makes sense. I sorta just count that one as an AU in my head, but I still recommend it.I also enjoy the Friends Forever series, and while a few of them fall flat, they're overall enjoyable. Maybe start with those? But skip the first one for now, and go straight to issue 2 of that series, which is coincidentally one of my all-time favorites.
Skip the micro series if you're just starting out, and save them for last. A few of those are good, but IMO, more often then not, they're mediocre and may turn you off from reading the rest of the comics.
If you wanna start off with an arc in the main series, read the Nightmare Moon arc. It's probably my favorite of the arcs that have happened so far. The Chrysalis one was meh, and the Reflections one was good, but you might wanna ease into the comics before you read that one. Or go ahead; whichever you want.