IDW Comics Review: Friendship is Magic #46 and Friends Forever #32! · 9:18pm Sep 29th, 2016
Couple new comics to review today! And they're both by Ted Anderson! And one of them is REALLY TIMELY AND RELEVANT because why shouldn't we drag our BELOVED PONIES INTO THE WORLD'S BIGGEST FREAKSHOW CIRCUS...
*puff pant wheeze*
Ahem. Let's just get this over with.
Friendship is Magic #46
Starlight Glimmer is in the comics now. God help us all.
This issue opens with Mayor Mare opening a new playground. (So hey, you know that "Are we Poor?" fic in the feature box that postulates how the Apples are barely hanging on? In this comic, the Apples donated land to the town for a new playground. So yeah.)
Starlight comments on what an excellent job the Mayor does, and Twilight gushes about how during the entire time she's been there, there's never been a catastrophe or crisis that Mayor Mare couldn't handle.
Uhh...Twilight? Mayor Mare's never handled a catastrophe. Ever. Not once. That's what you and your friends are there for.
Anyway, right as Twilight finishes saying that, the ground shakes, and a sinkhole swallows the brand new playground before a single foal can play on it.
The Mayor calls an emergency town meeting to assuage the ponies' concerns about this latest catastrophe. She explains that they frankly don't know what happened, but she has a team working on finding out what caused it, and in the meantime, they'll survey for new land to rebuild the playground. Granny Smith isn't satisfied with this answer, because she finds it strange that land which the Apples have owned for generations just suddenly caves in the second the town puts a playground on it. Mayor Mare doesn't have an explanation that'll satisfy anypony, and the possibility of the same thing happening anywhere else in Ponyville causes some degree of panic.
Ponies begin expressing their lack of faith in Mayor Mare's leadership, and Filthy Rich seizes the opportunity to make a grab for power, suggesting it's time for a businesspony to lead where a politician has failed.
Yeah. That's right. The ongoing nonsense that is the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election has now invaded our My Little Pony comics. 
So anyway, Filthy Rump announces his intent to run against Mayor Fillary for mayor of Ponyville.
The next day, the Mane Six and Starlight are discussing the town meeting. Applejack is all for some good, honest politickin' going on in Ponyville. Starlight asks what elections are usually like, and the girls tell her that there hasn't been a mayoral election in Ponyville in years, because Mayor Mare is the only pony who wants the job, and since she does such a good job of it (*SNORT*), nopony runs against her. Twilight is excited for a chance to take part in Ponyville's first election in ages, and expresses her eagerness to help Mayor Mare get re-elected...
Only for Applejack to say that she doesn't necessary think she's voting for Mayor Mare. She's in the "undecided, leaning Filthy Rump" camp because she's orange because of what happened to the Apple land the playground was built on.
The one good, valuable lesson that comes from this issue is a comment Rarity makes when Twilight puts her on the spot:
"One should never discuss politics with friends."
You said it, sister. OR family.
Of course, this doesn't stop her from saying she'll probably vote for Filthy Rump because he's a fellow businesspony. Rainbow Dash is also supporting Filthy Rump because of his promise to build a new hoofball stadium, while Fluttershy is supporting Mayor Mare. Pinkie, predictably, is the nonsense vote hanging loose in the breeze.
At City Hall, the Mayor's campaign staff is in an absolute panic, and Mayor Mare herself is projecting calm and poise, but is happy to have Twilight volunteering for her campaign staff. Meanwhile, Filthy Rump has a well-organized campaign operation and isn't interested in taking volunteers. Rarity tries to volunteer, and quickly learns that:
- Filthy Rump's only campaign platform and message is "Vote for me!"
- Filthy Rump can't even be bothered to get her name right.
Rarity leaves the Rump headquarters rather disgruntled.
Filthy Rump delivers a speech to the pegasus voters of Ponyville which mirrors some of Donald Trump's more racially ignorant campaign speeches, only toned way down to be kid-friendly.
Debate night arrives, and Filthy Rump's unexpected candidacy has lead to massive bandwagoning, as multiple ponies have joined the mayoral race, including Time Turner, Cheerilee, and Lyra Heartstrings, all of whom seem to have completely inane reasons for joining the race.
- Cheerilee is presented as an expy of Bernie Sanders, satirizing his education platform and the massive tax increases that go along with it.
- Time Turner's platform is so much nonsense I can't tell if he's supposed to be Ben Carson or Ted Cruz.
- Lyra's platform is simply "More benches!"
Then we get down to Mayor Mare and Filthy Rump, which is scarily reminiscent of Monday night's debate.
Election day rolls around, and Filthy Rump wins. He promises that Ponyville will be built up into a bigger, better, progressive community, with no more disasters like the earthquake that destroyed the new playground...
Just as he says this, a house on a hill, visible from the Friendship Castle, collapses just like the playground did, the hill underneath it caving in immediately.
Sadly, this storyline will continue into the next issue.
Just...why? Was this necessary? Are our lives not dominated enough by this RIDICULOUS Presidential campaign that our ponies need to be violated by it too? I mean any more than we've already done in the snarky depths of Derpibooru and Twitter?
I honestly want to track down the writer of this issue and give him a stern talking to. With a baseball bat.
Friends Forever #32
Given I just read ONE horrendous suckpile of a Ted Anderson-written comic, I'm apprehensive as hell to read another one. It doesn't help that the artist for this issue is Jay Fosgitt. I've made my opinion of his art style quite plain in the past, but for those of you just joining us who've never read one of my comic reviews before:
Jay Fosgitt would be a great artist for a DuckTales comic. For My Little Pony? Not so much. His character designs are absolutely horrid.
So anyway, this issue is about Fluttershy and Daring Do. It opens with Fluttershy enthusiastically celebrating the fact that she's looking forward to a week with absolutely no adventures, capers, or hijinks of any kind.
Then Daring Do invades her cottage to drag her off on an adventure.
Daring Do is so wildly out of character in this issue it makes me cringe.
TL;DR: Daring Do is treasure-hunting (WRONG!) and needs Fluttershy's help to catch a rare "map spider" that may lead her to this ancient hidden mysterious legendary castle that has a huge treasure (WRONG!). The reason she needs Fluttershy's help is that she's "allergic to spiders".
I will admit that this issue has a legitimately funny moment: Fluttershy flies down to the bottom of a dark, scary pit, where she finds the map spiders and squees over how adorable they are. Then, when she brings one back to the top, she finds Daring Do engaged in a knock-down drag-out with several henchponies, and her reaction is:
"Oh, you're having a brawl."
I can actually completely and totally hear Fluttershy say that and it's absolutely hysterical.
Anyway, Caballeron gets all the Map Spiders but one, which Daring and Fluttershy use to find the castle. They fight their way past all the castle's traps, only to fall into the clutches of Ahuizotl.
Fosgitt needs to be flogged for what he did to Ahuizotl. 
After Ahuizotl ties them to a boulder and drops them into a pit, Daring confesses her fear of spiders to Fluttershy, and tells Fluttershy she admires her courage, because Fluttershy is afraid of everything but braves through her fears and comes through anyway, where Daring couldn't bring herself to face one itty-bitty spider.
They get free, they beat the bad guys, they get the treasure, the end.
Yawn. Could've been a much better issue with a better writer and less Jay Fosgitt. Like, about 330% less Jay Fosgitt.
And there you go. Two lousy comics that I read so you don't have to.
Thank you, Nostalgia Crit- Ah, I mean Moth.
But in seriousness, polotical bullshit should stay away from MLP... the kids of today are already being fed bullshit as it is...
I don't get the political complaints, the comparisons are minimal and there is actually very little in terms of politics, it's more about the mayor herself than the actual election as well as the mystery behind the sinkholes. The most we see in terms of the election is that Filthy's campaign is more organized but that it's only because he doesn't have to worry about running the town at the same time.
100% agree for the FF art. I hate that particular style and wish they would stop using that artist especially since alot of characters looked really off and the art in general was awful.
Honestly, if you can look past the predictiably and the terrible Fosgitt art style, Friends Forever #32 is good. Compared to Fluttershy's previous Friends Forever issues, she doesn't feel like a secondary character or background character and it feels like she has something worth contributing.
Oh, so now we're just going to bash Starlight whenever she appears even if she doesn't even do anything or has any relevance to the plot? Sorry, it's one thing to dislike a character when they're put in the spotlight or made a part of an episode or story, it's another thing entirely to dislike a character everytime they appear on screen no matter what. Especially given how much this fandom goes nuts for background ponies that don't do anything plot wise. If people are going to praise Derpy for just being in the background, they can't complain about Starlight just being a side character that's not relevant to the plot. Can't have it both ways I'm afraid.
I think he's supposed to just be a parody of those "boring" candidates of the past like Adli Stevenson (Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956, ran unsuccessfully in 1960. Beaten by Dwight David "Ike" Eisnehower), Hubert Humphrey (Lyndon Johnson's vice president and democratic nominee for president in 1968. Beaten by Nixon, though any Democrat would've had a hard time after the Chicago riots), and possibly Al Gore (no introduction needed for him, he's made sure everyone remembers him).
Lyra is a parody of those canddiates the GOP keeps shoving down the throats of primary voters that have no chance in a general election (such as Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Scott Walker).
You should read these, if you haven't already: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2016/09/lets-review-fosgitts-style.html
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2016/09/lets-review-friends-forever-32.html
Silver Quill gives some interesting points about Jay Fosgitt's art style in the first, and the comic itself in the second.
That's really all I came here to do, since I haven't read either issue myself.
4232787 OK, clearly you turned off your snark sensor before you went off on that little tirade, so let me be clear: I was just being snarky about the fact that Starlight's in the comics now. I honestly don't care as long as she doesn't get an issue where she does something mindrapey and gets away with it.
Why can't I stop laughing?
Doesn't that just about describe anyone who's ever joined the race?
(A few exceptions, of course, but still...)
Daring Do needs Flutterhy's help.
Right...
This is a stale photostat of the last time the moron started throwing his weight around. Too bad that someone isn't going to come along and put him and his idiot shrew of a wife out of our misery.....Things would work so much better if they were to meet THIS jovial soul: