So are we going to discuss what just happened or what?

I'll start. It was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. Given that Whitley has never done this kind of story before, and that the concept involves teaming up all these minor antagonists like the Flim Flam Brothers with the likes of Chrysalis and Sombra, I was skeptical going in. But now, I'm cautiously optimistic for the rest of this arc. Some of the character motivations aren't quite clear yet, but with three issues left, there's plenty of time left to explore those, so I'm not as worried anymore.

I also liked how it tied together continuity from so many previous stories. And Sombra's design here is metal as fuck.

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I'm very eager to see where this goes. There's lots of questions, but the main one I have here is, what's the end game? Whose really the antagonist in this story? There's hints that it might not be who we think.

Honestly, I love that this is happening. Sombra's back story was one of the best out of that whole villain month. Chrysalis had a great one too, but Sombra's starts off really heart breaking. And I like the idea that he starts off good and later shows he was destined to be evil - like lucifer, in a way.

Only down side was the last panel, and the dialogue. That felt super rushed, like the writer just didn't know what to say to end that chapter of the story.

4717694 I'm definitely intrigued by where this will go, but I feel like they didn't go about starting it off in the best way. Did Radiant Hope really need to resort to domestic terrorism, just to prove a point? That just makes it look like she's more in the wrong, because she's endangering who knows how many lives for the sake of something she believes in, but lacks evidence to prove reasonably.

It's very much a case of "He fights monsters".

I enjoyed this start as well. The comics, the show and the fiendship series ties in together beautifully. We have a nice start, a good set-up, where we are heading, but we are also left with many, many questions, that can get explored in the next issues. I guess, my highlight of this issue was the reveal of Radiant Hope. A sweet, nice pony in Fiendship # 1 becomes a villain! OMG! I would never expect this. I even did not expected her to come up again. Moreover it seems the Crystal Empire has some really dark secrets. All in all the comics have made such an addition to the show. They are just amazingly dark and I love them for that!

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Not a group member, but out of curiosity, what are your thoughts now that the arc has finished?

5852086 Wow, the first issue was promising and looked like it could be a turning point back to the light. But everything after that was some of the worst writing I think I've ever seen for the comics! Radiant Hope is a really, really, REALLY bad Mary Sue and she CANNOT put down that massive idiot ball she's holding! The motivations for the villains besides Chrysalis don't make any sense, with the possible exception of Lightning Dust, and then they don't even stick around to fight the Umbrum or free the mane seven and Shining Armor, meaning their inclusion was pointless except to make it possible for Hope to sneak in and resurrect Sombra. And to top it all off, we have quite possibly one of the worst resolutions of all time, and a badly written redemption that only further makes Hope annoying and unbearable to watch. And the sad thing is, it has since been topped for the title of "Absolute Worst Arc" in the comics, as the recent Accord arc can painfully attest.

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I agree with 5852121. I did like the first issue, but what potential it had after that was squandered almost immediately.

Sombra's redemption was a bad, bad move. I can see how his issue of FIENDship set him up for a redemption here, but I don't think it ever should've happened. Sombra is too edgy to ever take seriously as a heroic character (in the prime universe, anyway), but made a pretty badass villain, so redeeming him inherently weakens his effectiveness as a character. Not to mention, MLP already has a severe shortage of unredeemed, high-threat villains. Sombra was among the very last, alongside Tirek and Chrysalis, so removing him from the rogues gallery also limits future storytelling opportunities. Plus, I think actually going ahead and redeeming him massively detracts from the tragedy of Whitley's version of Sombra, and retroactively weakens Sombra's FIENDship, a much better story than this one.

The minor villains were possibly an even worse move. I said in the OP that I didn't mind at first how they were working with the likes of Sombra and Chrysalis. But that was because, at the time, I held the entirely reasonable expectation that Whitley was going to give some sort of justification for why they were all so seemingly out of character. He did not. And after bending their characters in such a nonsensical way, he didn't even do anything with them to make it all worthwhile. What even? I don't understand the point. It contributes nothing to the story. I have no idea why Hope couldn't just undertake a solo stealth mission to reach Sombra, because as far as I can tell, everyone else was just there as a pointless distraction. Even Chrysalis felt like an utterly worthless addition in the grand scheme.

As for Hope, she may possibly be the worst character in the comics. She works with Chrysalis, as well as the main six's other personal enemies, so that she can most effectively attack the heroes who've saved the world multiple times, all so that she can help Sombra to take back control of the kingdom that he enslaved and terrorised. Sombra, who killed a princess in front of her. Sombra, who willingly proclaimed himself the King of Monsters without irony. Sombra, who given the opportunity in an alternate timeline, used mind control to turn his slaves into unwilling soldiers, with whom he plunged Equestria into perpetual war. Tricked by umbrums or not, Hope's actions in this arc were reprehensible, but like King Aspen, she's never even treated as a villain for this, and she gets away with not even a scolding.

In fact, to the contrary, she's treated as pure, Sombra's chain to morality, his redeemer, a potential princess in her own right who just decided not to take her wings. Not to mention, her magic is so great that she's able to completely heal Sombra twice, and she outsmarts all the heroes with her genius master plan, despite being so stupid that she was fooled for a thousand years by creatures that Cadance saw through in a matter of minutes. Mary Sue does not begin to describe Hope. I dislike her more than Starlight Glimmer, and that's saying something.

And shit, all that's just what's wrong with the characters. Almost every other facet of the comic except for the art had something just as worthy of complaint. Sombra defeating the Royal Sisters instantly was weak. Sombra being forgiven instantly at the end was dumb. His self-sacrifice was needlessly maudlin considering it was immediately negated, and that in itself was a cop-out deus ex machina. The entire climatic battle was dumb, and all the minor villains were pointless. The idiot ball was firmly in play, the dialogue was sometimes off, the editing was sloppy, and I could go on, but to put it succinctly, Siege of the Crystal Empire just sucked.

I don't think it's the worst main series comic arc. It wasn't even the worst at time of release for me. I dislike Revenge of Everfree, The Good, the Bad, and the Ponies, and even Night of the Living Apples much more than this, though I do disagree with 5852121 about the Accord arc being worse (not that Accord didn't suck too). Generally, I just regard Siege as a disappointing waste of potential, but I still like the first issue and the core concept, and Sombra and the umbrums were pretty cool until the ending. I give it a 4/10.

EDIT: For context, I'd give the Equestria Girls Holiday Special a 1, Reflections a 6, and Return of Chrysalis a 9.

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You can take what SuperPinkBrony12 and DannyJ said to heart - this arc did a disservice to an otherwise decent villain.

There is some real lost potential with Hope's character. It's been a while since I read this arc and I'm not interested in re-reading it right away, but I get the feeling that Hope's love for Sombra was pure, even though her actions were not. This is a complicated character to write, because you have to walk a fine line where the character's actions are justified by virtue of their goal, even if that goal is selfish and shortsighted (kind of like how love can sometimes be).

I have no doubt that the inclusion of other minor villains were only added to the story for the sake of a hooker element to get people to buy the comics. The only problem here is that Lightning Dust and Iron Will are not really villains. They're not good characters, but the fandom is so hungry for villains that we'll go to lengths to make characters worse than they really are. It had to be obvious that they were just going to be thrown away later, if for any reason, because it would be too many characters to focus on in one arc.

Sombra himself needed some real attention, and I don't know why it's so hard to write him as a good villain. I have to imagine it's just too much trouble to bother with, so the lazy way out is to redeem him and forget about him. The only possible set up for this to work is to write a new arc later where a good King Sombra is brought into the story and forced to become evil again in some grand sacrifice... which has been done before and therefore most likely will never happen.

I like the idea that Sombra can have some peace now with the mare he loves. Even if Hope is a failed character, the idea that they can have some kind of happily ever after is still a nice thought. But ultimately, this was a wasted opportunity to tell a strong story with a good bit of tragedy. Would I recommend reading this? Honestly, I still would. The art is certainly good, the umbral ponies look scary as heck.

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That comic was one of my least favorites out of the entire line. It completely ruined Sombra by reducing him to nothing but a cliche, and if not for his return in “The Beginning of the End”...well, let’s just say the character would’ve been completely destroyed if not for the episode retconning it.

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To be honest, as much as I agree that Siege was a major misstep in almost every respect, especially Sombra's redemption, I do not regard Beginning of the End as much of an improvement, if any. In fact, it was probably my least favourite portrayal of him in canon to date. Season three Sombra may have been a flat character, but at least he was badass and menacing. Comics Sombra got an unnecessary clichéd redemption, but at least he had a good backstory and a sense of characterisation that was missing before. Season nine Sombra somehow lacked both of those things. Despite being ludicrously overpowered to the point of completely breaking the story and world, he was not intimidating or interesting in the slightest, because they gave him a goofy voice and generally characterised him as a buffoon. They gave us the worst of both worlds. And all this in a story that was, itself, pretty much just a rehash of Siege, right down to Discord taking a shower to avoid the fight.

Not to say you're wrong to feel that way, of course. Everyone has their personal preferences, and if you liked Beginning of the End that much more than Siege, then good for you. I just can't agree is all.

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I realize you don’t like “The Beginning of the End”, but out of curiosity...which would you prefer? An unredeemed King Sombra with no Radiant Hope? Or a redeemed King Sombra with a Radiant Hope?

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That's a difficult question, depending on how exactly you mean it. If you're asking me straight whether I prefer comics Sombra or show Sombra, I'd say comics all the way, without hesitation. I liked early show Sombra, even if he was relatively shallow, but if I consider late show Sombra to be the same character, then it completely ruins him for me. On the other hand, if you're asking whether I'd prefer comics Sombra or a hypothetical pure season three/five Sombra who stays a villain, only without the additional baggage of season nine, that's a much tougher choice. But I think I'd still ultimately go with the comics version.

To reiterate, I do not like Radiant Hope in Siege of the Crystal Empire, and I don't like the idea of a redeemed Sombra either, but Radiant Hope was a very strong part of Sombra's backstory in his FIENDship is Magic issue, and did a lot to elevate him from the relatively one-dimensional villain he is in the show. I strongly believe that Sombra works better as a villain, but to me, FIENDship remains the best portrayal of Sombra to date, and it's a strong enough story on its own that even Siege can't entirely ruin it for me, because at least Sombra's character is mostly consistent between FIENDship and Siege.

I mean, ideally, my preference would be for Sombra to remain a villain and for Radiant Hope to remain (though purely as a backstory element), but if it's an all or nothing choice, I gotta call it for redeemed.

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All the same, I still believe that Sombra’s appearance and characterization in “The Beginning of the End” was his saving grace from the tragedy known as “Siege of the Crystal Empire”. As I think about it more, I hated that the comics depicted him as a tragic and misunderstood figure serving as a pawn for another being, because that only wishwashed him further. It hardly helps that there were things about them that didn’t make any sense, Radiant Hope being one of them.

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That's fair, and I agree that making him subservient to the umbrums undermined his character and was a bad story decision. I wouldn't say he was misunderstood, though. Tragic, yes, but his terrible reputation was entirely of his own making. Rabia didn't make him kill Princess Amore and call himself the King of Monsters; that was all him.

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The plot was okay, Radiant Hope... I still have many things against her. Overall the issue was entertaining.