Rank the Fiendship is Magic comics

[FlutterDash4072 189]

Back when the Micro Series ended, I made a thread to find out how people here would rank them, so why not do the same for the Fiendship is Magic series?

 

1. King Sombra - I was pretty surprised that the blandest villain of the show wound up with the best comic. Sombra desperately needed a backstory to make him interesting, and Whitley delivered a well-written story with great characterization for Sombra and the new characters introduced in it.

 

2. Queen Chrysalis - Fiendship ended on a great note. The mythological references in Chrysalis' past were great, and the origin of the changelings was explained perfectly imo. The only thing that kept it from being better than Sombra's was how OOC Rarity was.

 

3. Tirek - A good start to Tirek's backstory, but that's also the problem with the comic: it feels too much like the first half of a two-parter. I did love the details we got though, especially the part about Tirek's mentor Sendak.

 

4. Nightmare Moon - The basic premise had potential, but it ended up being a gigantic mess of plotholes  and story points that don't make much sense. Also, I found Doran incredibly annoying.

 

5. The Sirens - Easily the worst. The Sirens had none of the chemistry that made them great in Rainbow Rocks. They felt like they were completely different characters. Starswirl suffered from the same characterization problem, and his actions were justified horribly.

Edited May 4, 2015 by FlutterDash4072

[Castle Bleck 19,374]

I agree about the Sombra and Chrysalis ones, but I'm still undecided on the others.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

1. Sombra - EASILY the best of the bunch. My biggest fear was that he would be given a rather typical backstory of being one of those laughing monologuers, but what we got was a deeply captivating story with a sympathetic, yet still pure evil villain. In addition we get some fantastic bits of wording building with the mention of the umbrum/shadow ponies; as well as given reasons why the crystal ponies were enslaves. Along with that Sombra is still played as the intelligent and non-boastfull villain that I have come to love from the show. 10/10

 

2. Chrysalis - I was concerned, but Katie Cook redeemed herself with a wonderful story and excellent bits of world-building. Chrysalis was given some excellent back story in regards to the changelings invading various places, draining them of their love & power, and pretty much being a bad-ass. That bit of deception at the end was GLORIOUS! Now some of the characterization seemed off, but it didn't bother me too heck. Aside from maybe one or two instances I thought Rarity was fine. But the main point was Chrysalis, and she was awesome. 9/10

 

3. Tirek - I'll get this out of the way first; the ending holds this one back, but for me, it's the ONLY thing holding back what was otherwise an excellent addition to the series. While not the most original of stories, we're given great backstory for Tirek and Scorpan, and given some EXCELLENT world-building with the homeland of the centaurs & gargoyles, and the artwork...was...MAGNIFICENT! Getting to see Tirek's parents was a nice-touch, and his portrayal fit perfectly with the episode Twilight's Kingdom, IMO. It definitely should've been longer, but I prefer to appreciate what were given. 7.5/10

 

4. Sirens - I liked it, though definitely not on the level of the other comics; nor on the level of Rainbow Rocks. That said, I thought the interaction between the three was pretty solid, Star Swirl's portrayal was fun as hell, and Roman Canterlot was pretty awesome. I also appreciated that Aria got a bit more characterization. That said, it definitely felt weak largely due to the Sirens not really having the chemistry that they had in the movie. It was bad; just could've been better. 6/10

 

5. Nightmare Moon - This one was the worse for me...and honestly I can't find much to really say good about this one. Granted I liked how we were given a sort-of origin story for the moon creatures in the Nightmare Rarity arc, but beyond that...it was a missed opportunity. The bad thing is that it tried to do too much, and it felt like a mess. I mean Nightmare Moon instigates a rebellion, and Celestia quells it without so much as a fuss. It's similar to the issues that I have with the AJ/Mayor Mare FF comic. It just didn't feel coherent, and that's a shame. NMM was a missed opportunity. 4/10

 

Overall I feel that the series was a major success. Granted not all issues we got were great, but the ones that were good were REALLY good. I'm hoping we got some sort of extension to the Sombra, Chrysalis, and Tirek arcs in the futures as these stories are begging to be told.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Overall, can't say I'm satisfied. I want RELIABLY good comics, not just praising them when 1 or 2 out of a handful are good, yeah? that's not what got me into the show I demand quality in ALL (Or most, i'll accept most) of them, not just a couple decent jewels, yeah?

I liked sombra and chryssys, but Tirek felt half done and wasn't a satisfying read. Its got REALLY slick art, so that's nice, but past that, it just ends without any real story being told. it just kind of is.
Then we move on to NMM which I want to like, and had some potential (The idea of NMM inflicting nightmares on equestria is a good one, plus the dream fight idea), but was very, very poorly executed and just had too many issues for me to like (Chief amongst them treating NMM as this 100% seperarte entity from luna with no overlap :/). And then the sirens comic was just horrible, like they didn't even care or watch RR first. I expect it to EASILY win the "worst comic" poll here.

 

Sombra: 9.5/10

Chrysalis: 8.8/10

Tirek: 5.5/10

NMM: 4/10

Sirens: 2/10

Note that I do this on an actual "average" scale where 5 is average, not your video game magazine grading where anything below a 7 is bad. So Tirek is slightly above average.

 

 

 

Sombra: INCREDIBLE. Sombra has always been my most hated villain. Like, I despised everything about him. I'd mock him endlessly, laugh at the comics making fun of him, everything. He was a generic cloud/force of darkness that existed only to be menacing. He had no personality, he functioned just as an object antagonist. You could replace him with virtually anything, a giant snowball, a storm, whatever, and the plot is virtually the same. Plus, his "unicorn" backstory makes him seem horribly low tier compared to other villains who are alicorns or gods of chaos.

THEN the comic goes and makes him one of my favorite characters! XD I loved him here. He suddenly shot to the top of my popularity charts. They gave him a believable backstory, made him human, and added in a TRUE big bad in the mother crystal. Additionally they scrubbed away all the plotholes: What was he planning on doing with the crystal heart that was so terrible? Nothing, his true plan is to release the umbra, the heart is just an obstacle. Why did he Enslave the populace? to relase the umbra. Isn't he low tier compared to other villains? Yes, because he's NOT the true big bad, he's the dragon.

 

I want to see him return, alongside hope somehow. Dangit, I know I might be buying into him too much, but I kind of hope for a "happy" ending, even if its a "death equals redemption" thing with him and hope sacrificing themselves together or something.

 

 

 

 

 

2: Chrysalis. I'm sorry cook, but I honestly think Chrysalis is the only thing you can write well. I don't care for you very much as a writer, but this was good. Chrysalis was incredibly sinister, and the art was AMAZING. The changelings come off very creepily and threatening, and their actions here are dark and unsettling. Plus, I like how this set it up for more changeling villainy with their escape.
I know some people probably didn't like it, but I like the minimalist origin for them too. There IS no greater evil or purpose behind them: They're just like locusts or plague bearing insects: And accident of nature that kills and eats others because that's what they DO. They remind me of Aku somewhat in their origin too.

 

 

3. Tirek. Slick art, but really nothing of note but "Tirek was a punk kid". Like, I feel they were trying to convey that Tirek's father is a jerk who never properly recognized his son's true callings to magic: but they never really show this, probably due to lack of page time (whch could have been solved with it being a two parter). All we see is him being angry at Tirek... just after Tirek's been engaged in evil. Which is a 100% understandable and just thing to be angry at Tirek about. You can't fault him for being suspicious when Tirek's doing things that DESERVE suspicion!

Eh, either way, if we got a follow up it might make this one better in retrospect, not unlike unicron in the transformers movie being better now that his origin is well known.

 

 

 

4. NMM. Ah man. I WANTED to love this one. Luna is just dying for more focus here. But I just couldn't get into this. The premise is alright; NMM corrupting these beings into being her army and attempting to gain revenge. But the way they do it is just cocked up.
Like when she turns on Dorian and is like "Hahaha! everyone is evil now!" is just poorly done and comes off as out of left field. You should have had some build up showing her corrupting the others 1 by one when they were alone as a contrast to Dorian teaching her. Establish with her cornering and corrupting a nyx about why she can do this, and explain a bit about the nightmare force allowing her to do this rather than just go "Roll with it!".

 

Next up: Drop this "NMM is an entity holding Luna hostage in her own body" crap. NMM is compelling BECAUSE its luna. Because she has a legitimate feeling of being unnappreciated and shunned and is Luna deep down. Making them two 100% distinct entities just ruins the entire point of her character. Its like Having magneto not care about mutants or something.

 

 

 

5. Sirens. Oh god, is this bad. It feels like a parody comic except it DOESN'T parody enough. Like have gag dialogue if you're going to do that, it just comes off as half hearted this way. Plus, we're supposed to find out about the BACKSTORIES of the villains here. This tells me NOTHING. all we get is "The dazzles are idiots and Starswirl pushed them into a mirror. The end".
Heck, the characterization is terrible too. In RR Adagio was a very no nonsense, tough leader. Here she's this head in the clouds dreamer like she's honestly wanting to make it big in music or some crap. Sonata isn't a ditzy comedy relief and kind of just IS here, not fulfilling any role--- the fact that Adagio is much less intelligent and more ditzy herself oversteps into what sonat's supposed to do. And then Aria... like what? did you even WATCH the movie? Aria here is this horribly scaredy cat individual who has no spine, rather than being a brutish bully in personality from the movie.


The only good to come out of this are the memes and art making fun of starswirl apparently being HORRIBLY irresponsible.

[FlutterDash4072 189]

 and the artwork...was...MAGNIFICENT!

 

Ah, I knew I forgot to mention something about Tirek's comic! Tony Fleecs has come a long way since the RD Micro, and I'm sure he'll do nothing but improve even more from here.

 

[Castle Bleck 19,374]

I want to see him return, alongside hope somehow. Dangit, I know I might be buying into him too much, but I kind of hope for a "happy" ending, even if its a "death equals redemption" thing with him and hope sacrificing themselves together or something.

 

Redemption Equals Death would be the only way to give him a happy ending without ruining all his edginess with butterfly-gumdrop bulls***.

Edited May 1, 2015 by A.V.

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

Well I think most people have roughly the same list, switching out the bottom two books

 

For me:

1) Sombra: Most tragic of the 5 and fleshed out one of the most underdeveloped characters in the show

 

2) Chrysalis: Love the anthology feel to it and gave us a far more complete history on the character as well as showing the Changeling Queen at her best.  

 

3) Tirek: This needed to be longer.  I really enjoyed this one, but it was like set up to a plot we never got to see.  Would love to see another issue or two focusing on the politics and rise to power of Tirek.

 

4) The Sirens: The most comedic of the bunch.  Not particularly bad in my mind, but nothing really stands out.  Also it's rather hard to try to do music on an inherently silent medium

 

5) Nightmare Moon: My question is what was the point? This story really doesn't change anything about the characters and has no real stakes in it, since we're covering a time when Nightmare Moon fell into myth and so you can't really do to much without being constrained by the show canon. 

[Megas 27,685]

1) Sombra -  for giving him some much needed character

2) Chrysalis - Surprisingly fun, despite some issues

3) Tirek - Alright, but was expecting more,

4) Nightmare Moon - Disappointing but still had some great ideas. According to an interview with the writer, they had to cut a lot of stuff from it, which explains why it felt hollow

5) Sirens - ಠ_ಠ

[yayayayayala 1,668]

1. Sombra! One page into the thing and HNNNG *collapses* SO MUCH CUTE! And then it got deep! Finally, backstory on the most underrated villain! Woo! (But I really want to know just what happened to Radiant Hope.)
2. Tirek. I really liked seeing that side of the universe Equestria is in! And that Discord was part of Vorak's ensemble. Also that unicorn was a really nice OC. But, WHAT HAPPENED NEXT??
Like this person said:

3) Tirek: This needed to be longer. I really enjoyed this one, but it was like set up to a plot we never got to see. Would love to see another issue or two focusing on the politics and rise to power of Tirek.

3. Nightmare Moon. I loved the idea that Nightmare was able to get into ponies' heads all throughout her banishment, it means it wasn't a thing like "Oh, she's in the moon now, we never have to worry about her again for a thousand years."
4. Chrysalis. "Why is it always 1000 years ago? That must have been one heck of a year." Exactly my thought, Spike.
5. Sirens. I thought it was amusing that the sirens and Starswirl invented every kind of modern music, but that one was not really remarkable overall.

 

All in all though, it was worth fifteen bucks, and it'll definitely take pride of place on my pony shelf to be reread for many months to come! :3