Friends Forever #21 (Spike and Zecora) was pretty decent. It was interesting to see their shared immunity to the disease cause them to bond over not being ponies, and there weren't any particularly painful rhymes from Zecora. Zecora having a bird bodyguard is pretty weird, in an amusing way. It was rather silly that they took so long to figure out the source of the disease, especially since the source being a wheat fungus means that it shouldn't have spread in a way that resembled a communicable disease in the first place. Did that wheat farmer replace every single wheat product at the start of the day? Still, it was a fun issue with cute art.
Various notes:
- Ms. Harshwhinny and Cheese Sandwich are back in Ponyville for some reason.
-Muffins/Derpy seems to be quite a Determinator, carrying on with her deliveries even while sick.
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That did strike me as a bit odd. Especially since, with so many cases, surely someone in town would have picked up on the pattern that should have pointed it back to a particular food source. The interactions were fun, although I felt like Zecora's rhymes were forced at times.
edited 7th Oct '15 11:49:12 PM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi
FE: New Mystery Only Feet 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Umamusume Haru Arima 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshiWell, I've been incredibly slow when catching up with the comics, and one of the reasons is that I prefer reading TPB to single issues.
And I've caught up to the controversial Reflections story. I don't think there's much more I can add to its position (i.e. good ideas, lousy execution). But people have said that Celestia was OOC, which is true, but hasn't she already been OOC in the show too? She was hardly smart or competent in "The Crystal Empire" and "Twilight's Kingdom." I guess it's too bad that the comics added to that problem as well.
And supposedly, plenty of the comics after this one are sub-par. Have they gotten better at some point?
edited 16th Oct '15 12:00:50 PM by TheBiggestLoser
CE, the only issue was the "You must do it alone" bit, which at the time she said that, there is exactly 0 proof at all, to even hint that she knew Sombra was back, and she wasn't simply sending Twi to find a way to make sure the Empire doesn't poof out of reality again.
TK, Her plan worked didn't it? When you have a character with possible precognition of some form, it's really hard to tell what is just getting lucky a dumb idea happened to work, and what is what seems like a dumb idea, really all being part of the plan.
The Luna/Discord and Spike/Zecora Friends Forevers are both quite good.
FE: New Mystery Only Feet 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Umamusume Haru Arima 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshiLooking at the preview for the next part of the Crystal Empire arc,
I'm seriously hoping for either a deconstruction or a gigantic middle finger to the concept of Destiny that has been brought up over and over and over again since Season 3
The flashback portion of this issue was really interesting, and it was even nice to see the recap portions with new art. I suspect we'll get a reveal that the Umbrum don't really look like how they presented themselves to Hope.
In the present, the part where Sombra runs out of the basement cackling was rather comical. It would have been better if he had transformed into shadows as he rushed out or something. The renewed fighting was fun, especially when the Flim Flam Brothers tricked Pinkie, but I still don't get why most of these guys are doing this.
It was disappointing that Celestia and Luna showed up just to be turned to stone.
So, overall, the flashback portion was better, and the villains getting revenge portion is still rather undercooked. This story arc still looks like it will be good overall, though.
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Ditto. At his very worst Iron Will was a douchey self help guru. Try as they might the writers just cannot sell him to me as a guy helping destroy Equestria. Even the others really, I can't help but think, 'Okay I know you're bad ponies but even you should be balking at the idea of being on a team with an ancient bug pony abomination.'
Anyway do you think we'll find out that the shadow ponies are actually good or were they scamming Radiant Hope?
Interesting factoids over on Whitley's twitter. One I'd link if only tablets weren't douches when it comes to URL and if I knew how to navigate twitter. But basically according to him Hasbro wanted a villain team up arc, but also limited who they could use.
That explains a lot about this "villainous" line up.
#IceBearForPresidentI like how Cadance casually strolls around the corner to hide while talking to herself. It was just the right amount of narm to be amusing instead of groan-worthy.
Also, Luna wrecking Chrysalis while Celly, Sombra and Hope do their little story bit had me grinning wide.
Not too keen on the ending and I'm still a bit upset that Iron Will is helping Team Evil. Overall, I'd call it above average, I guess.
FE: New Mystery Only Feet 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Umamusume Haru Arima 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi@Spirit: Yeah, that really sucks. Honestly, the best way to have written this was to make the team-up just Chrysalis and Sombra/Hope. The other "villains" really were unnecessary. Or if they really wanted them in there, make the entire story about them coming to grips with whether or not what they're doing is right. That entire second half felt insulting between the Character Derailment of the villains and all the good guys Worfed. The ambiguity of the Umbrum Forces and Hope is really what's keeping going at this point.
This was an eh issue. There were cute moments, but the story was largely uninteresting, and the art got weird at times. Besides the human sitting, Celestia looked weird at times, especially when she started talking to Pinkie about putting too much pressure on her. The way she maintained her somber expression as she moved her head around Pinkie felt oddly sinister. And I didn't notice this until it was pointed out, but the cutie marks all look terrible. You can most easily see this with the jagged edges on Pinkie's, indicating that it was badly shrunk down from a larger version, and the fact that Chase's whisk cutie mark is very obviously clip art. By the way, it was odd that Pinkie and Chase were already buddy-buddy, but I suppose they must have met during Cadance's wedding. I did like Pinkie becoming concerned about meeting Celestia's expectations, a side you usually don't see from her, and Celestia realizing her mistake. I wasn't sure what was going on at the end. What about that slice of cake made Luna tear up when she didn't do so for the cake itself?
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Friends Forever is at 22, so it's probably just out-dated.
Speaking of which, cute issue, although Pinkie was being oddly Twilight-like in all that fretting, which was a bit off-putting. My complaint with this one overall is inverse compared to my usual. Most of the comics with issues run into the problem where they're resolved too fast because they spent too many pages before reaching the end. Here, I was quite fond of the ending, but the lead-in didn't do much for me.
I'm not entirely sure about the whole cake thing either. I guess maybe it's a delayed reaction? Or perhaps it's Pinkie declaring the cake to be marble being symbolic?
FE: New Mystery Only Feet 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Umamusume Haru Arima 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

I wonder if this is going to be a redemprion arc for Sombra or an ultimate villain thing.