• Member Since 21st Sep, 2013
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DrakeyC


Writer, reviewer, creator of Filly Fantasy VI, occasional PMV maker, and uploader of mildly amusing image macros to Derpibooru. https://www.patreon.com/drakeyc

More Blog Posts1514

  • Today
    Friends with Ponies

    Twilight and Sunset:

    Twilight: "Hey Rarity, can I borrow your hair curler, I can't find mine."
    Rainbow: *eyes widen*

    Pinkie: "Oh my god, I just thought you guys were doing it, I didn't know you were in love!"

    Shining Armor: "What? No, no no no...what are you doing? GET OFF MY SISTEEEEEEEEER!"

    Read More

    0 comments · 58 views
  • 2 weeks
    1000 Followers

    My thanks to Malcharion for pushing me to the milestone :D

    8 comments · 70 views
  • 2 weeks
    Revised Harmony Spirits

    I wanted a full set of these with proper art, so with permissions from mauroz, here they are. A couple effects have been tweaked to be consistent with modern vernacular in the card game and for my own better understanding of card design and balancing, and I also added a new "Tier 1.5" form for Twilight so she can have her own Fusion outside the ace monster, and finally added Sunset as a

    Read More

    5 comments · 133 views
  • 13 weeks
    Go spread the holiday cheer

    My Jinglemas gift was The Hearth's Warming Truce by TheLegendaryBillCipher, go give it a read and leave a comment.

    0 comments · 75 views
  • 16 weeks
    2024 will (hopefully) be the end

    The outline is done, the roadmap is drawn, all that remains is to follow it. There may be some bumps along the way, but we'll be on our way.

    My friends, let us step together beyond the horizon.

    6 comments · 332 views
Oct
1st
2016

Comic Review - Main Series #46 · 6:24am Oct 1st, 2016

We preface this review with a political rant.

I am Canadian, I live in Ontario. I am not so ignorant as to presume the election will not affect me, of course it will, it will affect the world. But I also know I have no influence over the election. I can't vote in it and nothing I say or do is likely to influence those who can. But given the subject matter for today's comic there is no avoiding it, so I want to give my opinion on the candidates. If you do not wish to read this, join me after the spoiler tag.

Hillary Clinton has done some very questionable things, both ethically and legally, and she is not a perfect candidate. But she is very qualified to hold the office of the presidency and would probably do a perfectly decent job. Americans need to get over her emails, get over blaming her for Benghazi, and stop this silly witch hunt looking for anything they can use to try and "get her." Hillary hasn't done anything that many politicians on both sides of the row have done before, stop pretending she's some sort of real-life Frank Underwood.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is emblematic of everything that is wrong with humankind. He is arrogant, self-righteous, hypocritical, bigoted, ignorant, knows no remorse, shame, or empathy, is a pathological liar, and cares only about himself. He has hundreds of lawsuits against him over his career, has numerous failed business ventures, has declared bankruptcy several times, relied on his father's money to build his empire, engages in shady business practices, and has never held any sort of political office.

It boggles my mind that somehow enough people think he should run the country that he won the Republican nomination, and that he did so by preaching a message of hatred, intolerance, and jingoism. This is a man who clearly does not understand how government and law work and has next to no allies in Washington. If he is elected he will quickly be informed he cannot do half the things he has promised to do, and will be too ineffectual to do the other half. In that is my one consolation - he's simply too incompetent to be a bad president and we'll only have to put up with him for four years before his own party gets rid of him and his supporters realize they've been conned. Presuming he makes it the four years without being impeached or assassinated, and either one is very likely.

That all aside, comic time. Written by Ted Anderson and art by Agnes Garbowska, no complaints for either of them that I can recall.

We open on a note - Starlight Glimmer is in the comics now. We'll see if she's as tacked-on here as she is on the show. The Mayor is opening a new playground, built on land the Apples have donated to the city. Hang on, since when were the Apples landowners that owned property beyond their own farm? Twilight says she's a great mayor and has handled all sorts of conflicts and crises. Um, when was that? Every major threat to the town has been handled by you guys. I decided to go browse the MLP page for the mayor and yeah, she's never done much of anything.

Suddenly the ground shakes and the playground collapses. At a town meeting the mayor says she's obviously concerned about what's happened, but there were no earthquakes at the time and the ground foundation is solid. She's asked geologists to find a new location for a playground, and "hopefully we'll do better next time." Granny Smith snorts "is that it?" Well, what else is she supposed to do? The playground was destroyed by unknown circumstances, she's having people investigate and in the meantime is going to build the playground in a more stable location. Granny blames the mayor for the loss of the land the Apples used to own, which... makes no sense at all.

The mayor points out that you can't stop bad things from happening at all, the best you can do is try and fix it. The crowd rejects this silly "logic" nonsense. Filthy Rich is here suddenly and suggests its time for a business pony to run things, someone with vision and new ideas. He declares he is running for mayor of Ponyville.

At Twi's castle the next day the Mane Six plus Starlight (there is only one pony deserving of being grouped with them as the Mane Seven) discuss the election. There hasn't actually be one in years, since the mayor is the only pony who ever runs and she does such a good job no one is really interested in running against her. Starlight is surprised by the idea of there being no election. Spike quip "kinda like your city, huh?" Want some ointment for that burn, Starlight? Applejack is supporting Filthy Rich, for no real reason. She just seems happy with the idea of someone challenging the mayor and is otherwise upset about the destruction of the Apples' land, which wasn't the mayor's fault. Rarity at least has the somewhat understandable opinion that Filthy Rich might have some ideas to improve business around Ponyville, which means a lot for Rarity. Rainbow Dash is in just because she wants a new hoofball stadium that Rich has said he'll build.

Twilight heads to town hall and finds everyone in a tizzy. The mayor greets her and explains they're so chaotic because, well, they haven't really had to campaign for her in a long time. Twilight is here to volunteer and the mayor is happy to let her. At Filthy Rich's campaign HQ, Rarity is volunteering, where we see Filthy chat with her a bit before running to give a speech to pegasi voters. He promises to double the benefits for weather staff and wins over the crowd, save for Fluttershy who is more concerned with the animal migration routes the Mayor wanted to pass.

Now we go to the debate, where more ponies have entered the election - Time Turner, Cheerilee, and Lyra. The first question the moderator asks is how they would improve Ponyville. Cheerile wants to invest in schools and admits she'd have to raise taxes to do it. Time Turner waxes philosophical on what the question actually means. Lyra just declares "more benches!" The Mayor says she has a lot of things she'd like to do for Ponyville, like a university or a stadium, but thinks those ideas a bit high and perhaps it's better to focus on what can be done rather than what can't be. Filthy snaps that's small-minded thinking and promises more things that get the crowd roaring. At her office the Mayor admits the campaign is tiring her out and she's upset she has to waste time campaigning rather than actually running Ponyville, but the race will be over either way soon.

The election is held, the voted tallied, and Filthy Rich wins. Filthy gives his victory speech promising a whole new Ponyville where earthquakes will be a thing of the past. As an earthquake destroys a house in the distance.

Soooo yeah, comic sucks. It actually isn't a satire of the presidential debate at all. Filthy Rich's similarities to Donald Trump are superficial, like the pandering promises and the fact he's a businesspony. But, thing is, Filthy is promising things that are realistic voter expectations and are also perfectly within his power as mayor, so it doesn't work. My real criticism is that he doesn't need to be the mayor to fund a new stadium or other public works projects, so running for mayor to do those things seems pointless. The Mayor in turn is nothing much like Hillary Clinton, she's content to lose because if that's what Ponyville's citizens want, so be it.

Beyond that, everyone is stupid except for Twilight and Rarity, the plot is thin, the jokes are sparse and weak, and nothing much happens of interest. The comic doesn't seem to know if it's about the mysterious building collapses (calling it now, it's Filthy's real estate company doing shoddy work) or the election, when the former is far more interesting and the latter is just stupid.

And to top it off - it's a two parter.

Oh boy.

Report DrakeyC · 464 views · #comic #comic review #idw #review
Comments ( 3 )

Perhaps the worst part is that you can see a Mayor Mare campaign poster in the very first comic. Either she puts those up out of force of habit, or this entire storyline's premise is a continuity error.

Americans need to get over her emails

You misspelled "Republicans". Most of us honestly don't give a fuck and wish the Republicans and the media would shut up about it.

Everything else you said is spot-on, though, especially your assessment of Donald Trump. Believe me, none of us know how the hell things have gotten where they are. The only possible explanation for it is, unfortunately, K's speech to J in MiB:

"A person is smart. People are dumb."

Trump appeals to people who are normally too apathetic and too ignorant to bother voting, but who suddenly decided they needed to vote because "BUILD A WALL! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! SO MUCH WINNING!"

It's actually kind of similar to how we got Obama, only it's a distorted, warped, ugly version of that.

At Twi's castle the next day the Mane Six plus Starlight (there is only one pony deserving of being grouped with them as the Mane Seven)

*brohoof*

4234858 The thing is, the Republicans are onto something with her e-mails, but she's not the only Secretary of State who's done so and Republicans forget one of their own has a very bad rep from his tenure as Secretary of State (Henry Kissinger, the man who advocated extending the Vietnam War into netural Laos and Camboida and rushed to conceal this from the American public, before the Pentagon Papers exposed him. Why he continued to serve after boggles the mind.). However, there is proof Hillary didn't win her party's nomination fair and square (the use of superdelegates and leaked DNC emails prove this). It's just that the Republicans have cried wolf too many times before over things that weren't issues (Benghazi for example, they've combed over it eight different times and you can be darn sure they'd have Hillary thrown in jail if they found anything even remotely incriminating). The problem with Republicans now is, that Tea Party union that helped them win back the House in 2010 has since produced candidates that are a complete joke and have been so wrapped up in their hatred of Obama that they've forgotten they can't check the president on everything (Obama doesn't deserve to get his way all the time, but Congress isn't supposed to always say no to anything just because it will make the president look good). Trump came about because of the Republican party's failed leadership after taking back the Senate two years ago, they've really only themselves to blame.

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