Thoughts on the Fiendship is Magic comics · 5:37am Jul 4th, 2015
Hey everyone,
So I'm back from vacation, meaning I can finally start being productive and social again.
Wait...me being social? Ha, what a joke.
Anyway, over the course of my trip, I found some time in the car between daydreaming, listening to music, zoning out completely, and sleeping to read some more MLP comics, specifically the Fiendship is Magic ones. IDW is so punny. For those who haven't heard of them, they're a comic series that provides some insight into the histories of a few of the show's villains. There are 5 issues in the series, and I read four of them. And, because I bothered to give my thoughts on the first few comics I read, I figure I may as well continue the trend and share my thoughts on these ones as well.
Be warned: spoilers are ahead. If you haven't read these comics, don't read any further; I will be assuming that you're familiar with the contents of these comics as I discuss them, so you'll probably be kind of lost if you ignore this warning. You can find the comics on YouTube if you want to read them for free.
...
Still here? That must mean you've read the comics, then, and have an idea of what happens in them. Let's start with issue 1, the one about King Sombra.
~King Sombra is easily the weakest antagonist narratively of any antagonists featured in the show thus far, and certainly the least developed. To a degree, leaving the antagonist undeveloped can be okay as it allows for speculation about their character and in a way makes them more interesting (for example, Queen Chrysalis). But in Sombra's case, I found him so unmemorable that I pretty much never bothered to speculate about him, except for when he's relevant in my speculating about other characters (I have this whole headcanon regarding Sunset Shimmer that indirectly creates some headcanon for Sombra as well, but I've otherwise not cared about him). For that reason, I really didn't have any idea of what I wanted to see happen in this comic, which in the end benefitted the comic greatly.
It was an enjoyable read. I probably should have started with that, but whatever. With no prior expectations about the possible events of the comic, I couldn't be too disappointed by anything that actually did happen in it, resulting from what I mentioned in the previous paragraph. The comic did a well enough job of giving Sombra a personality, the thing he was severely lacking in the show. He's given an origin, too. It's...sloppy, but it's there. Overall, however, the pacing felt off. The first few pages were well paced, and found the narrative to be reasonable; in fact, I quite liked the whole Sombra/Radiant Hope friendship/eventual romance? (it wasn't made explicit, but it was heavily implied) that was building. Villains are allowed to have love interests, too!
Come about the halfway point, though, and things began to get a bit messy. Apparently, Sombra is the offspring of sentient evil crystals? Or something? It makes little sense and isn't explained. Points off for creating the need for an origin story about an origin story. Sombra's becoming evil was also stupidly rushed. He's given immense power and is told to be evil with it by his mommy crystal, and without question he complies. I'd like to think that things didn't happen that quickly, and that he spent some time morally conflicted before losing to his inner demons. Perhaps we can chalk these pacing issues up to the fact that the narrative is itself a entry in Sombra's diary, but the story feels slightly incomplete still, and that's somewhat sad. More points off for pretty much demanding another origin story within an origin story.
To summarize: enjoyable at first and provides Sombra with much needed characterization, but suffers from pacing issues that make the comic feel incomplete. Would I be okay with this origin story being canon? After some further fleshing out, I'd have no qualms about it.
~On to issue 2, Tirek's story. Like with the previous comic, I really didn't have much in the way of what to expect coming into it, nor any real idea of what I wanted to see out of it. I'm going to go ahead and say right now, though, that this one is the most well constructed comic of the four I read (I didn't read NightMare Moon's comic). Everything in it is pretty believable and the story is overall very well paced. The only thing I felt was missing was some explanation for why Scorpion continued to put up with Tirek's s**t despite Tirek's continual dismissal of him. Whether or not it's centaur custom for the younger brother to be hyper-supportive of their older brother like Scorpion was or if just felt it his duty as a brother for him to always be there for Tirek would have been a nice distinction to have been made, but really, that's just a minor nitpick.
The comic's biggest issue was that it felt pretty...safe. It's pretty much a story about a rebellious teen with daddy issues. It works as an explanation for Tirek being Tirek, but it's not very original and it sticks to its formula very closely. So while this comic was more well written, better paced, and had a more solid narrative than Sombra's, I would say I liked Sombra's better for being a little more creative (it just now came to mind the Sombra's comic takes the typical 'chosen one' kind of story and makes it such that the protagonist is destined to be evil, a twist not often seen, especially about little girls' colorful cartoon ponies). Tirek is also kind of a jerk throughout the entire story, so it's kind of difficult to care for him at all. Perhaps that's another reason why I liked the previous comic a little more, despite its flaws.
So to summarize: a not bad but safe feeling story that accomplishes everything it set out to do. If it's not already (I'm still not sure if the comics are canon or not), it may as well be canon.
~Issue 3: the sirens. The sirens as a trio fall as my second favorite villain of the show right behind Chryssy (Aria is best siren). Unlike Sombra and Tirek, I've developed some personal headcanon for them, which definitely biased my reception of the comic. As its own story, this comic is alright. There's an inherent disadvantage when writing main characters' whose primary function singing in a comic book format, and the comic never really manages to overcome that. And due to that or other reasons, the writing feels very telly, at least to me. The plot as a whole seems kind of contrived, and...ugh, I really don't have much of anything positive to say.
Trust me, it's not as bad as I'm making it sound. For what it's worth, it's paced decently and the interactions between the sirens, particularly Aria and Sonata, are fun. I would have liked if the sirens were a bit more distinct from each other aside from color changes and bore some more resemblance to their human forms, but that's pretty minor.
Speaking of minor... -dangit, if I had found a way to make a music pun out of that word somewhere, that would have been so topical and clever! Too bad I'm not clever...- right, so as I've gotten more experienced with writing, I'm begun to pay more attention to word choices, especially when it comes to dialogue. How a character speaks can be very indicative of their character: a character that says "Yeah," is much more chill than a character than says "Yes." From Rainbow Rocks, I had gotten the impression that Aria is more of a "Yeah," kind of character, so it struck me as odd when in the comic, she asked Adagio if going to Canterlot was 'wise'. Her asking if it was 'a good idea' I feel would have been much more fitting. Sadly, this little nitpick is the thing that stuck out to me most about the comic.
To those of you who are writers, particularly less experienced ones, consider that a demonstration on how impressionable well-thought word choice can be.
So on its own, the comic is alright, but I'm going to stick to me headcanon regarding the sirens. It's not going to hurt to read, but it's not very memorable either. I'd rather it not be canon.
~Issue 4: NightMare Moon. Ha! Didn't read it. Moving on...
~Thanks to my infatuation with Chryssy, it's no surprise that this comic, issue 5, was the most anticipated one for me. But, after seeing how the comics had previously treated her, I anticipated apprehensively. The title of this comic, The Many Tales of Queen Chrysalis -or something like that- raised some red flags from the start, as I feared there might still be some more explaining needed at the end, like was the case with Sombra's comic. I desperately wanted this comic to be amazing, and the wiki gave me hope that it would be when I read that the writers had extreme personal interest in writing her origins.
I was disappointed.
The comic depicts a few of Chryssy's exploits before her attempt on Canterlot, showing how she and her changelings managed to survive and lead countries to ruin (which likely allowed for Equestria to become the globe's superpower; Twilight should be grateful!), which were actually nice to see. Nothing wrong with those...well, except for the Trojan horse one. That cliché is really cheesy and unoriginal. I further liked the fact that the story actually picked up where the other comics had left off, with the changelings captured and stuff. Well...I liked the display of continuity, I should say. And it allowed for some exchanges between the Mane 6 and Chryssy that were pretty entertaining. Good stuff all around, really. I'll say that I was surprised with how okay with things at the start of the comic despite how badly Twilight done f**ked up at the end of the pervious story arc. I still haven't forgiven Twilight for what she said.
So things were all fine until I found the video was nearly done, yet no real origin story had been presented. At that point, I thought that either the origin was explainable in only a short number of pages, so was probably really rushed and stuff, or that the comic was just going to tease her origins and end on a rather okay note. Turns out neither was the case! In fact, the comic rather stretched out the actual origin bit of the story.
A random squirrel drops a f**ked up acorn into a conveniently placed pool of magical sludge, which makes it grow into a tree from which the changelings spawn.
Well that's bulls**t.
Need I say more on why I was disappointed?
So, to summarize: this one will be entertaining if you liked the previous Chryssy comics, slightly less so if you didn't, but either way, the origin bit is total garbage and a waste of potential. I'd rather Chryssy didn't escape at the end of the comic so that IDW can't f**k her up any further than they already have. I guess I can find peace in the fact that I adamantly refuse to treat any her comics as canon, so I suppose I shouldn't take IDW's abuse too personally.
Well, those have been some of my thoughts on the Fiendship is Magic comics that I've read. Hopefully you guys have not totally hated my ranting and rambling. I'd like to hear your thoughts on these comics as well as your thoughts on the criticisms I've presented. Do you agree with anything I've said?
Well, I really need to pee, so I'm going to end things here.
Keep being awesome,
Lego
Welcome back.
I really need to get around to reading those comics. Any ones I should make particular effort to read/avoid?
Write on,
Legion
3205428 I've only read the first 4 comic as well as the four described here, so I'm not to one to ask. Of the ones I have read, though, I wouldn't say any of them should be avoided, but not all of them should be taken to heart.
Then again...if Twilight is your favorite pony, then I would totally recommend reading the Chryssy related comics so you can see just how badly she f**ks up (or rather how badly the writers f**k up Twilight's character).
3205926
Hmm I read allmost all them comic things....
btw I agree with you on the Chryssy ones....
The Sombra one was... well, shit. why the fuck is it every time that "you are born evil, we made you evil" bla and every time the one obeys that?
3209671 Villains are made evil like that in an attempt to absolve them of blame and make them tragic characters. As for why they comply? Because the plot demands it, duh
.
Doing villains this way often makes them pretty weak characters, though.
Personally, I would have had Sombra be inherently aggressive, responding to his bullying and misfortunes with anger and hostility, with Radiant Hope sort of reigning him in. That way it'd be more believable for Sombra to go full evil on a dime like he did. There'd be a few other small changes I would have made, but overall, the one I described would be the most significant one.
3210022
Ugh I playe way too long Pen&Paper RPGs and made "Villains" to accept that! Ah well, then again only one single group ever even bothered finding out the background about their enemy.... the other groups.. well... they simply tried to kill him and his Group/ Company / Army... and failed.
Well I just don't get all that "oh it was bullyied now it is completely clear that it turned evil/ has no selfesteem etc..."
Then again I am really against all that "chosen one" stuff... well ok Sombra was made from/ born our of or whatever from those "Crystals" but if Sombra had even a tiny bit of working brain, he should've figured out that he isn't supposed to be the bad one... hell there were so many ways to "fix" all that or get "revenge"-.-
same as with allmost every villain...
Oik Tirek... ah well, so generic in every way.
Heh it is as if you had a bad day and just thought of that and wrote it down to annoy us!
(admit it, you are behind the Chryssy comics and made them because you hate me!)
*spreads steaks, coockies, cake, pie and hides his Rarysteak*
Have a nice daything... agh.. too warm-.-
3210169 "Chosen one" and "there's a prophecy" plot devices are generally pretty weak; you won't see me using them.
You're right about Sombra, though; it was like his brain turned off as soon as he got his powers and he acted completely mindlessly. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure that 'complete enslavement of a country's population > a little childhood bullying'.
Speaking of generic things like Tirek, my brother and I have this inside joke where we call Gears of War (at least the first game; we haven't played the others) "Generic of War". 'Cause really, it is such a blatantly generic and mundane shooter.
Me? Behind the Chryssy comics?...darn, you figured me out! My whole infatuation with Chryssy was all a ruse to get others interested in the character, after which I would promote the comics to them in an attempt to get you all to feed money to the great Hasbro and IDW overlords! But you know now; I'm not safe here; I have to start a new life somewhere under a new name...I'll go to fanfiction.net! No one will find me there!
...
I'm joking, of course.
Or am I
?
3211829
Ha I kne it. now you have to move to germany, change your name to Schmidt, Meyer or something and eat kraut all day!(and don't forget to drink beer)
Hmm ok I have to admit, had I powers like Sombra, Luna, Celestia or such cute being, I most likely would make a wonderfull villain!
I think I just should stop thinking about all that and enjoy my old anime even more! I mean in a good part of them you see how it is done right!
Legend of the Galactic Heroes shows how to tell a tale the correct way!( If you want a real understandable "villain" that is and want to give him character and all that, for me, important stuff.) Uhhm, I already mentioned that a lot right?
if you excuse me, I'll tgo back to watch M.D. Geist and Sora no Woto again. dl.dropbox.com/u/21167245/FiMFiction/Emoticons/misc_Viny_glare.png
Ey don't give me that look! just because I've seen it over 173 times... pff as if it would get boring like Star Trek or Star Wars! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/discord.png
....ok... I'll take that back.... *runs away*