IDW Friends Forever #38 Review · 4:57pm Oct 12th, 2017
In something of a hiccup due to shipping and scheduling conflicts, the Friends Forever series actually didn't end before its successor, Legends of Magic came out in April of 2017, just as the show was coming back for its seventh season even as attention was focused on the upcoming movie. With Friends Forever #37 being an insanely mean spirited issue with Rarity and Trixie (made only worse by the fact that had it been a few months later and incorporated events from Season 7, it might have actually made sense for Rarity to act so cold and distant to Trixie), the series decided to end after about three years of running with an issue focused on the royal sisters, months before "A Royal Problem" would do the same for the show. Many have since said this is the inferior version of "A Royal Problem", but is that actually true or was this issue a strong send off for a series, whose successor I still feel should've just been part of the main series (the first six issues would've replaced two terrible main series arcs and achieved the same results)? Well, let's find out.
We begin with narration from Kibitz, the royal schedule keeper. If memory serves, he was present during Princess Luna's micro series issue, which wrapped up the shortly lived micro series at the end of 2013. Celestia and Luna are arguing about something, so Kibitz offers to throw in a bit of backstory to catch the audience up to speed. As it turns out, Celestia and Luna were looking forward to competing in a big event, but they had their own royal schedules to keep up and thus they made the decision to take few breaks in order to be able to complete them all and be ready for the big event. We get something of a contradiction to "A Royal Problem" in which it was established Celestia's magic had no power in the dream realm, but here it's implied she took over Luna's responsibility of watching over dreams during the 1,000 years she was gone. The best handwave I can come up with is, Celestia could only access the dream realm while taking over Luna's duties and once Luna came back she gladly relinquished them. To be fair, the issue does show a possible reason why she may not have maintained those powers, since she lacks all the subtlety of Luna's methods.
With time running short and tensions running high (Luna and Celestia are both out of their element in each other's line of work), they send Kibitz to pick up potions to both nullify their powers for the big event, and then give them back when the event is over. To that end, he takes the potion ingredients to a fortune teller named Crystal Ball, but she ignores his warning that spicy stuff like jabanero peppers, chili powder, and paparikia. The deminshing potion is cast on some blueberries, and the amplifying potion is cast on some strawberries. As you can imagine, the effects of the spicy blueberries increases the sisters' competitive spirits, and they start arguing over everything and anything, including pets (both Philomena and Tiberus appear prominently here and for good reason), taste in music, and even what to feature in an upcoming exhibit (it's worth mentioning that Twilight and most of her friends are gone for most of the issue tending to something in San Palomino, likely the pony equivalent of San Bernadino). Both are aware that something's not right, but they're so driven to compete with each other that they can't focus on anything else as the story snaps back to reality.
The big event turns out to be the Sisterhooves Social, an idea that at least a few fanfic writers explored at some point. Rarity and Sweetie Belle happen to be on hoof for the event, and Celestia and Luna try to mask their sibling rivalry as they participate in a few events. First, Celestia flings a bunch of cherry pies at Luna, then Luna has Crystal Ball hypnotize Celestia. Whenever she hears the word "Go" she starts acting like a chicken. This causes them to lose every event, so they pick different partners for the six legged race, Celestia pairs up with Sweetie Belle and Luna pairs up with Rarity (probably a bit of a clever joke about how both are voiced by Tabitha St. Germain). However, the race is interrupted when a giant Philomena and Tiberus start attacking. Turns out Kibitz fed them the power amplifying strawberries, which were so overloaded with power it made them grew huge.
Celestia and Luna fly off to try and reign in their overgrown pets, to little avail (with Sweetie Belle and Rarity along for the ride and getting quite airsick as a result). It is until they snatch up Crystal Ball and have her hypnotize the pets, that they're able to bring things under control. Both apologize for their behavior, even drawing on Rarity and Sweetie Belle's letter from "Sisterhooves Social", and we get some rather sweet sibling bonding moments over Celestia calling Luna a little sister. The comic ends with both breaking the fourth wall to thank the readers for supporting Friends Forever and to join them over in the new series.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the issue? Well, to put it simply, this is what "A Royal Problem" wishes it could be. It cuts the middle man and lets the royal sisters shine on their own, the highlight being simply to see the two banter back and forth to each other, with everyone else caught in the crossfire. Seeing them compete in the SIsterhooves Social and put aside their differences to reign in their pets is quite sweet, it plays to their strengths but also injects a bit of normalcy, showing that they're like any siblings, they're gonna argue and try to sabotage each other. Even Rarity and Sweetie Belle's inclusion plays into the narrative and moral, as does Kibitz. If I had one complaint, it would be that Kibitz is blamed for following orders and taking the potions to Crystal Ball, when it was Crystal Ball who ignored his warnings and spiced up the potions. Yes, he accidentally fed Philomena and Tiberus the strawberries, but I don't think Celestia and Luna ever told him to his face what they'd cast the nullifying and amplifying potions on. There is also the questionable contradiction to the show, but I think my handwave above clears up the plot hole pretty well. Don't get me wrong, "A Royal Problem" was wonderful, but that required you having to stomach a lot of stuff with Starlight that wasn't necessary (Twilight, Cadence, or even just the royal guards would've served just as well or even better) and Celestia and Luna basically arguing like teenagers and not talking things out (though I think they might have believed after their big fight 1,000 years ago that they were beyond such disagreements and had to put on an air of perfection). I wish more than anything that Friends Forever had been allowed to continue, even as the main series seems to potentially be finding its footing again (with the exception of the most recent issue which sucked, though I suppose that was inevitable when it chose "Secrets and Pies" of all episodes to tie into instead of ANY other episode of Season 7 that might be better suited to expansion). The first six issues of Legends of Magic could've been put into the main series as a mini-arc and nothing of value would've been lost (in fact it would've erased issues #52-#56, with #57 being the same as it was. Perhaps if that was so, Bow and Windy's story about what it means to brave, could've been put into "Parental Glideance" to give them some sorely needed sympathy points). Definitely pick this one up if you can, even though it's a bit more wordy than most, it's probably worth going up to $10 but not $15.
Hey there. Yeah, I have to say, you make some EXCELLENT points. Particularly about wishing "Friends Forever" was allowed to continue. I mean, there was still a lot of untapped potential there. So many potential team-ups we will never see (unless somebody chooses to write fan fictions using the ideas):
I mean -
Rarity and Princess Cadance - I mean, come on. Rarity gets so desperate to find her special somepony that she goes to the Alicorn of Love for help. The thing practically writes itself.
Princess Trixie and Mirror Muffins (over in the Mirror Universe, obviously) - teaming up against their universe's Zecora (who, in this universe, REALLY IS the evil enchantress that canon Ponyville ONLY THOUGHT theirs was at first). Okay, this plays out closer to a traditional super-hero team-up story, but it still has potential.
The author's choices of characters from the Equestria Girls universe
The author's choices of characters from the Power Ponies universe
Heck, they could have done a few "Friends Forever" issues using the Pillars of Old Equestria either in their first meetings with each other, a modern pony trying to help one of them adjust to how much the world has changed in a thousand plus years following the end of "Shadow Play" or what have you. You know, assuming the "Friends Forever" series lasted long enough.
And, yeah, the "Legends of Magic" series could have started up in the main comic series, with very few real changes. Of course, they would have had to wait until after the issue 51-issue 53 arc was completed before starting the "Legends of Magic" arc was started (meaning they would still not have the "Legends of Magic" arc completed yet if they did it that way), but it's still a good point.
4696549 Yeah, did the math and realized they'd be an issue short, but that could've easily been fixed by dropping the "Secrets and Pies" tie in for October, so instead "Chaos Theory" would've been in September, and the tie in for "A Health of Information" could've been in October.
4696726
Point well taken. Of course, they SHOULD have dropped the "Secrets and Pies" episode ENTIRELY (or, at least, kept it down to a three-minute Equestria Girls short), bumped the "Uncommon Bonds" episode up on the schedule and then made the season 7 finale a THREE-parter instead of the usual two.
4697711 Or, scrap "Secrets and Pies" and make Chaos Theory into an episode in its place, thus freeing up a main series slot for Legends of Magic #6.
4697754
Yeah. They could have done THAT too.
Honestly, even before Season 7, with this acknowledging the events from Season 6, I say Rarity was justified in not trusting Trixie. And she wasn't horrid to her, she just said she wanted to work alone in a polite and not malicious way.