YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (IDW) Issue 75 to 78

• Base-Breaking Character: Cosmos. Her existence caused a Broken Base over the Retcon that she was the cause of all the evildoing attributed to Discord in "The Return of Harmony". Some disparage how her removing Discord's villainy undoes what made him so well received and clashes with what we've seen of him; others accept this as consistent with the different direction the series took Discord since or assume Discord's whitewashing his role. As for her own merits, some like Cosmos for being an entertaining, truly malicious and evil monster with interesting backstory potential, while others criticize her as a one-dimensional ripoff of Discord who never shows her potentially unique and interesting traits. A third group acknowledges the interesting backstory potential, but feels it was relegated to passing comments and that Cosmos could've been a far better character had her backstory been allowed to be fully explored.
• Complete Monster: Cosmos is an alien invader and the Spirit of Malice. Upon her arrival, she was the true entity that threw Equestria into chaos and disharmony rather than Discord. This included turning an orphanage full of children into a literal towering inferno and nearly killing them all among other horrible things. When her boyfriend, Discord, objected to this, she would begin abusing him out of spite and ultimately goes on a rampage that threatens to destroy the fabric of reality and the planet along with it. In the present, she possesses several innocent ponies to use as her hosts and as weapons against their loved ones before finally merging them into her new body. All the while, she set about turning Equestria into a nightmarish hellscape and its inhabitants into things all sorts of random creatures, some of which could be fatal, all the while they are completely aware. When finally confronted by Discord, Cosmos reveals she never loved him at all, seeing him more as a possession she's entitled to than a person.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation:
  • The comic reveals that Discord was a Noble Demon with all serious evildoing was actually caused by Cosmos. This has been lambasted for not fitting Discord's actions afterward (still causing enough problems he had to be sealed away, mentally breaking the Elements as a threat to him with sadistic glee, selling everyone out to Lord Tirek), diminishing what made him appealing as a villain, and diminishing the significance of his redemption by having him have been (somewhat) Good All Along, and pandering to the Draco in Leather Pants mindset of fans. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the exchange between him and Cosmos at the end of the arc, where Discord admits he's changed while Cosmos replies she hasn't: the exchange is seen as wasted because Discord's character being whitewashed robs it of any potency, since him having been more-or-less heroic to begin with would mean he would have had to change very little if at all.
  • It's mentioned that Cosmos was the one who created Everfree out of a herb garden in a quick line with little fanfare. Many fans find this explanation lackluster given the significance the place has and something that has been in the show as a key setting since episode 1, and feel it's only an attempt to make Cosmos feel more important to the lore than she was already made.
• Fan Wank: Several have written off Discord being Good All Along as him being an Unreliable Narrator.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Many fans feel this way about Discord's backstory being retconed so that Cosmos was the real big bad who plunged Equestria into complete chaos for her own amusement while he was pretty much her lackey, as they feel it completely undermines his character.
• Franchise Original Sin: One of the biggest complaints to Cosmos aside from being revealed to be The Man Behind the Man for Discord, was that practically all of her villain tropes have already been done before by previous show and comic villains with less contrivances. Chaotic goddess related to Discord? Eris. Bigger bad turning out to be the man behind the man to a canon villain? Rabia. Assimilate others into a hive mind? Accord. Take out the Princesses easily? Sadly common. Throw the world into chaos? Show canon Discord. Sealed in a celestial body? Nightmare Moon. Betrayed and sealed away by her second in command? Tirek. Meanwhile the things that did make her unique (her crush on Discord, being an alien and the Fusion Dance) weren't given enough fleshing out to make her stand out, resulting in her being poorly received in general.
• Moral Event Horizon: Cosmos crosses it when she sets an orphanage on fire.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The first issues fall into the slog of increasingly redundant flashback and exposition with the heroes failing to stop Cosmos or playing to her hands. It's only the last issue the heroes get their act together and Cosmos, who came off as a one-dimensional rehash of Discord, shows her unique traits.
• Tainted by the Preview: Many fans were turned off by Word of God claiming that Cosmos "makes Discord look like Harley Quinn compared to the Joker," as such a statement is common in bad fanfiction when referring to overpowered OC villains. The implications of the previews that this would, once again, try to paint pre-redemption Discord as more sympathetic was also a turn off to many fans, who feel how unsympathetic he was before his redemption made that redemption more impactful.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Cosmos being an alien. Lots of fans view this as a very interesting idea that could potentially lead to fantastic Worldbuilding...but is barely even acknowledged except that she launched herself across the universe to get to Equestria in the first place. Though the story does reveal later she's more a representative of Malice then anything alien related. Though that still begged the question where she came from.
  • Cosmos' status as Spirit of Malice is seen as this by some. For most of the story, she simply acts as a more ruthless rehash of Discord, with that fact only showing up moments before her defeat. Many fans felt that part of her being played up more than her chaos would've made her more unique and interesting.
• Unexpected Character: Capper appearing having a role in the story came out of left field, in part since he already had a starring role in the Nightmare Knights series that just concluded at the time.

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