IDW G5 #9

[ZakuConvoy]

Previously, on My Little Pony...

Izzy...fashion icon!

And now, for the return of the good artist!

Hey! Lookit that! The plot's finally returned! I missed you so! It's been so long since we've seen you, how've you been?

Things actually HAPPEN this issue, so that's a step up from some of the others. I'll admit, though, this issue is kind of buying time until the last issue. A lot of it feels like filler and it re-treads a lot of the same ground we've already covered...but it's higher quality filler than some of the other issues we've gotten. And this is still the best artist.

I feel like NEXT issue is going to be one of the only important ones. But, this is still solid enough.

Spoiler

Seeing Fluttershy's cottage like this is still pretty bittersweet. The years might have been kind, but they were still plentiful.

Zipp has been exhausting herself trying to find ANY clue in the cottage about where Discord could have gone. Poor thing.

Pipp's right, when Zipp starts worrying about being able to do royal duties, she MUST be pretty worn out.

OOF. Okay, it's kind of adding insult to injury to have Sunny be the one to discover the missing Daring Do book after Zipp worked herself ragged for days looking for SOMETHING!

Also, it's a *little* odd that Fluttershy/Discord had a near-complete set of Daring Do books. Neither one really seemed THAT into those books, and would be more likely to borrow them from Twilight. Of course, maybe Discord took them from everyone's houses after they died, but it's still a little weird.

And Pipp can just find the book online in seconds. Modern conveniences are convenient. Odd that the book is still around after 100 years and a worldwide cataclysm. But, I guess you can still find old John Carter of Mars books around places.

UNCLE Fizzy...okay. Also, I'm not sure if I should take his story of throwing a falling star back into space with his bare hooves literally or not. Tall Tale or Tall Fact? This world can be weird. It does seem out of character for a "emo unicorn", but Izzy's whole family might be weird, so who knows. One way or another, I want to meet this guy.

"HELLLOOO! I require your divided attention to be completely UNDIVIDED!" Pipp has consistently been the most reasonable one this entire arc. I appreciate that.

Okay, these Pippsqueaks are definitely references to something. Either real people, or Snow White and Rapunzel from Disney. I'm not sure if they're Discord creations or not. It's...just weird that there are random ponies within walking distance from old-Ponyville.

Ah, the cliche precarious bridge of inconvenience...many a adventurer has lost important item over it's edge. Y'know, I'm sure you'd find some neat stuff down in the ravine if you looked....

The pressure's really getting to Sunny. So many faces. I'll admit...the writer might be writing her more like Twilight here than as Sunny proper.

And the big challenge is...a giant locker combination? Okay, weird choice, ancient dungeon-builders. But, I guess it beats moving giant columns around or shooting creepy eyes around a room with a crossbow.

...Actually, it'd probably be more fun if this WAS more like a Zelda-dungeon rather than the generic mountain trail we get for most of the issue.

And...Discord traps them in a cage over boiling lava with a snap of his fingers. They really should have planned for that. I don't know HOW you plan for that, but still.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

The plot has been gone so long that I don't remember when it last mattered.

If IDW releases a trade that just collects the main story, it might be the best way to read this series.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I'm honestly wondering if someone could just read issues #2 and #10 and get enough of the story that way to understand everything that matters.

They stretched this out WAY too thin.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

In a way it's on brand for how G5 in general handles pacing. The problem is that IDW is not compensating for how much longer it takes to deliver their content. MYM dropped 8 episodes at once, so we had the option to binge the whole chapter if we wanted to. And even if it had been weekly or bi-weekly instead of dropping 8 episodes at once, we still would have gotten through that chunk of episodes before IDW got through this opening story. IDW needed to tell this story in fewer bigger chunks. Or compress the main issues a bit, cut the filler issues entirely, and turn those filler stories into highly compressed backup strips so each issue has chunks of both.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I honestly don't know what the solution was, here. IDW was in a weird place with this. Most of these writers were probably writing these issues back when all that was out was the movie. They really just needed to play for time.

I think, ideally, I would have liked this entire "Discord tries to destroy magic" arc to have boiled down into the first 3 issues...and then we'd let Discord play around with the G5 cast a little in the "filler" issues. Have Izzy take him to a poetry slam at the Unicorn Cafe. Have Discord do a kareoke night at Mane Melody. Have Discord annoy Zipp, telling her all her assumptions about some ancient writing is all wrong. I mean, how much fun would it be to have Discord mess with Posey for a issue, just because she looks so much like Fluttershy? ("I don't supposed you'd like to have tea?" *Posey screaming intensifies*...and then he brings her flowers to life to "apologize" which just freaks her out even more.) But, this was probably planned out before Posey was even a thing, so...*sigh*

Then you'd take another 3-issues at the end to get rid of Discord, somehow. Maybe fighting off another villain, or maybe his chaos magic doesn't mix well with the crystals. Or maybe he tries to introduce a Chaos Crystal and gives EVERYONE chaos magic for that arc. Or maybe have him just decide to travel the new world, since he might have been cooped up in Fluttershy's cottage for the last 100 years.

I just feel like you could do a lot more with this concept than they did. But, I can't really blame them, because IDW's trying not to step on the other 2 shows toes. It'd just be hard to synchronize everything when it's all coming out at different times. The way this "saga" turned out LAST year would probably play out a lot different if these same 10 issues were starting to come out NOW, when a lot more characters and ideas have been introduced.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

If the movie was truly all they had and they needed to stall for time, but also needed to launch the comic with something big (absolutely understandable, and probably completely unavoidable) they did have a way out.

Start with the movie.

Actually, start before the movie. Start with filly Sunny's world. Show the history Argyle teaches her, and show the history her school teaches her. Spend most of the page count on the flashback/fantasy stuff. IDW could use those to cram the opening story with the sorts of "BIG EVENTS HAPPENING(tm)" scenes they needed for their comic launch, and also establish the theme that Sunny realizes something is wrong with her world. That could be a hook for an an ongoing comic. A world has gone completely wrong and someone is about to start a lifelong quest to fix it.

Then adapt and expand the movie. Make the ending less abrupt. If they still need to stall for time, pad it out with filler issues devoted to the unseen side stories. Izzy realizing she doesn't fit in Bridlewood, and journeying to Maretime Bay. Zipp discovering that she's living a lie, and going all detective on it. Hitch going on his probably silly adventure infiltrating Zephyr Heights. Sheriff Sprout attempting to go on a power trip all night but it's all laughably harmless until Phyllis shows up the next morning.

Do the whole thing before having to touch the post-movie status quo.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Y'know...that could've actually worked. A "expanded" version of the movie where you show some of the plot-lines that the movie kind of had to gloss over.

More filly Sunny would always be welcome. And, I'm not sure how much of Argyle they actually have PLANNED, but a story with a younger Argyle on a Indiana Jones-style adventure would have been neat.

You could show Izzy finding the lantern for a issue. And maybe a issue of Pipp and Zipp's childhoods. Maybe a issue of Sprout going with his mom to work at CanterLogic.

You could show how Hitch and Sprout started working towards becoming the Sheriff and Deputy. Maybe a issue about Pipp's first video that went viral. Maybe a issue of Hitch getting his "team" of critters together for the first time.

A issue of Izzy making her journey to Maretime Bay. A issue of Pipp escaping the castle with the Pegasus Crystal. Maybe a issue of the Queen on the run from her own guards. Maybe a issue expanding on Alphabittle, maybe giving backstory of where he found the Unicorn Crystal in the first place. Maybe a issue of Sprout trying out different mechs before settling on the one we saw in the movie.

....Yeah, that actually would have worked pretty well. Maybe that would've been the better way to go.

I do like the idea of Discord showing up in G5. But, maybe something like this would have bought us enough time to see the world build up to do the idea better justice in Year 2 of the comic.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

That's 100% how I would do things. I have a thing for extended editions, even if they're in the form of a comic adaptation. I collect them, even for movies I didn't love in the first place. I hate that so few companies seem to share my passion.