Comic Review - Friends Forever #29 · 1:37pm Jun 9th, 2016
Rarity and Maud? On the same day I review the main series Rarity and Pinkie comic? Weird.
Written by Ted Anderson, haven't seen his name in a while, what's he done? Hm, previously did Twi and Big Mac, Spike and Zecora, and Applejack and Fluttershy. Well he's proven he can do Friends Forever quite well. Artist Brenda Hickey, fine. Colorist Heather Breckel. No, I'm still not letting her live down the rainbow jokes. When she colors another Rainbow Dash comic and gets the colors right, then she'll have redeemed herself.
We open when Rarity writing in her diary, which makes me eyes hurt because handwriting is hard to read for me sometimes and the text is small anyway. Also a cute continuity cameo, in the crowd we can see the bespectacled-desk clerk from Applejack and Mayor Mare's issue. Rarity is attending a geological event to see what type of new gemstones they may have for her designs. Maud is here too, of course, and the two say hello and decide to view a speaker together. The speaker says she's discovered a large system of caves beneath the Crystal Mountains, but she lacks the time to explore them. Rarity suggests that Maud could do it, since it would look great for her with her studying for her rocktorate, and Maud agrees it's a fascinating idea with her usual level of excitement and energy.
Rarity pushes her on-stage and tells the professor they'd like to see the caves. Maud drones "Spelunking is my burning passion." Another student with a trio of aides arrives, and Maud identifies her as Buried Treasure, another rock student that has taken credit for every one of Maud's discoveries. "Also I think her pet rock is bigger." I'm not even gonna touch that one. "She's basically my eternal nemesis." Rarity gets in Treasure's face and she insults Maud a bit by cluing us in that her name is a pun on "mud pie." Treasure claims she has something Maud doesn't - passion! Rarity is furious and declares to Maud that they will explore these caves first, write an amazing paper on them, and Maud will crush Treasure beneath her hoof. "Kay."
The adventure begins, and fortunately Rarity remembered to bring one of her adventuring outfits with her. They catch a taxi to the airport since the only way to the mountains is by airship, but the airship there has left. The ticket taker says someone bought all the tickets, claiming it was "an archeological emergency" and we get an amusingly deformed Rarity mouth as she grunts in anger. Maud sees a pilot and walks over to talk to him. "Are you a pilot?" "Yup." "Are you flying to the Crystal Mountains?" "Yup." "Can we come?" "Nope." Maud returns to Rarity. "Well, I did my best." Rarity goes over and lays on some sweet talk, and he agrees to take them part of the way. On the trip Rarity tells Maud how hard it can be to read her emotions sometimes, to the point it can seem like she doesn't have emotions. Maud says she does, she gets happy or angry or sad like anyone. Rarity agrees, but it isn't always clear to others.
A time-out here to talk about Maud, and this isn't about the comic, but the show. Rewatching Maud's debut episode, she did emote, quite a bit, actually. She was visibly worried about Pinkie when she was trapped in the rock slide, looked fierce and determined when she ran in to save her, smiled at the end of the episode, looked excited when talking about playing with Boulder, and throughout it she had a fair bit of inflection to her voice. Maud wasn't completely stoic and emotionless, she was just very subdued, especially compared to Pinkie. But the showrunners seemed to have missed the difference because they've subsequently played her off as almost totally emotionally dead with very rare hints of actual emotion. It bugs me. Anyway, back to our show.
At the village of Cantertine, Rarity spies storms over the mountains and is happy to see Treasure is probably delayed, and she and Maud talk about finding a guide to take them to the mountains. "I did most of the talking." Through the magic of three montage panels, the two end up at the caves. They rush down to find Buried Treasure and her team, and she burns the bridge over the cavern while making an Indiana Jones reference. We then find out that this diary entry Rarity has been writing has been while stuck in the cave, unable to progress. Rarity says it's time to give up and go home, and in a bit of a contrivance, puts down her diary and then picks it up again, so she can actually grab Maud's diary instead and reads about how nervous she was about the convention, but is grateful she ran into Rarity to keep her company. Rarity apologizes for prying, but Maud smiles and tells her to go ahead, maybe she'll understand then.
We get a page-long montage of the events of the comic from Maud's perspective and narration, seeing her act as emotional on the outside as she is inside. She narrates how she's never been able to stand up to Buried Treasure, but Rarity did and it got Maud fired up too, and Rarity has been encouraging and supporting her all the way. Maud wishes she could be more open with her feelings like Rarity, but that's just not the kind of pony she is. A teary-eyed Rarity apologizes, but Maud says it's fine. Like she said, she just doesn't express herself the way others do. But she does have her diary. Maud also points out the game isn't over yet. There's lots of old lava tunnels down here they could explore, and she smashes down a wall to reveal a new path.
The two slide into a massive cavern full of glittering gems and crystals, beating Buried Treasure. Rarity says they have something she doesn't, and Maud pokes her and says "passion." Rarity says she never could have guessed such a beautiful cave was hidden down in this dreary place, and Maud says that amazing things are buried all over. The comic ends as Rarity bids Maud goodbye and leaves her to start talking to the rocks with a smile on her face.
I loved this comic. Ted is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers, for this issue and the Zecora and Spike one. This guy gets the characters so well. This comic encapsulates Maud perfectly - she does feel emotion, she just doesn't express it well. And in that, Rarity is a good foil for Maud here, being so hammy and emotional herself. The framing device of the diary didn't click for me at first, but the reveal of Maud's diary made it work and helped move along the characters well. The story is also well paced with nothing really dragging. The only downside is the humor is a bit weak, but then without Ingrid Nelson's Maud to voice her dialogue, Maud's schtick is just a bit weaker is all.
Overall a good story that knows how to use both of its characters. Mr. Anderson, we need more of your work now, please.
Kewl, got another one to add to my digital collection.
I think you need to stop heckling over her that mistake when she turns out good artwork like this.
4011051 She's the colorist, not the artist.
4011179 My point still stands. Perhaps she just didn't feel compelled to put forth any effort with Fosgitt's art style.
4011248 Perhaps, but it was also miscolored in the holiday special, and in the same issue as the Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy one, she properly colored the rainbow mix they dump on Fluttershy.
If it was just a stylistic choice on her part to not use all six colors, like how Andy tends to draw Twilight with much darker hair than in the show, that'd be fine. But IMHO it just shows laziness on her part when she's inconsistent from every individual panel to the next.