Do you believe IDW's main series will improve?

[Dark Qiviut 22,388]

Friends Forever's overall quality has been decent at least. Sure, you will get a bad issue here and there, but it's been more consistent.

 

Unfortunately, I can't say the same with the main comics. Since Reflections, the main series has been a major mess outside of Manehattan Mysteries and maybe one other comic. Some comics have problems of their own, but many of them share the very same issues (no pun intended ). Some of them are:

1. The pacing is all over the place. The chapters themselves can be too fast, too slow, putting so much in that nothing flows naturally, or putting in too little so they have to pad it with filler. Siege is the worst arc with this.
2. Long-established characters becoming out of character, flanderized, or both for the sake of the plot. They include:
   
   a. Pinkie Pie acting like a random idiot, either to spout jokes or some other reason. Two of the worst examples include her being the vessel to mock people criticizing their work and being dumb enough to fall for a blatant trap that got her trapped in a makeshift jail.
   
   b. Rarity being flirtatious "just because."
   
   c. All of Ponyville nearly going into civil war over a stupid PLAQUE.
   
   d. Celestia for either being useless (including Luna) or completely disregarding warnings by Star Swirl just to enter the mirror and be with Sombra there.
   
   e. Twilight acting like a complete idiot who elects to let the ponies suffering suffer more and follow a law that defends the aggressors.
   
   d. Flim and Flam, Iron Will, and Lightning Dust choosing to join Chrysalis and be side-villains in Siege. They would never do this; they're antagonists, not villains, especially IW. Then, halfway through, they disappear and don't appear again, degrading the whole side-plot into filler.
3. Introducing new characters that we're supposed to care about, but the arc and characters are written so poorly, the reader can't get invested.
   
   a. Great-granduncle Chili Pepper's absence from Rancho Bronco was a focal plot point, but how can I, the reader, care when his absence is unresolved and is backed by Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six being trapped by the idiot ball?
   
   b. King Aspen is supposed to be someone we should root for against Well-to-Do, except WtD is a strawman (written to make Aspen look better) and Aspen and WtD are equally detestable.
   
   c. Radiant Hope is written to be a flawed character who stuck by King Sombra through all of his trials. But how can I like her when she watched him kill so many ponies, lead the siege of TCE in the first place, and shows no guilt for her actions? To make it worse, she's a complete idiot who supposed to be looked at as naive. I hate using "Mary Sue," but she is one.
4. Nearly every single arc features the entire Mane Six cast. Juggling with six/seven is troublesome enough, but they're repeating a dangerous habit in every single arc. I don't know why, but to thrust the whole cast when you could've used maybe two or three at the most and write a story way better.
5. The destinations and journeys are extremely predictable in these action and adventure arcs. You know they'll face some kind of evil, and it's up to them to solve it and beat them. Nearly every single A/A arc since Reflections feels exactly the same with only window dressing to make it appear different. Therefore, the stories feel less like stories and more like virtual checklists.
6. It feels like every single time IDW writes an A/A arc, it puts its eggs in one basket. As if in order to engage to the audience and differentiate from the show and Friends Forever, they must write grander and grander stories. Quality writing doesn't work that way. You don't need to write ultra-"exciting" action and adventure to wet bronies' whistles. By collecting so many eggs and hoping it'll succeed, the eggs crack, and the yolks bleed through the bark. Just write good stories!

Because there are so many consistent flaws in the main comics, and the comics become apparently worse and worse each time with little effort to improve, my faith for the main series sharply fell. I stopped reading the comics entirely after the 2014 Holiday Special because I haven't had time to read it, but I took the chance to read Siege of The Crystal Empire after how much it was panned.

 

As I read it, my heart sank. Its first four-parter arc since Reflections, and it managed to be worse than that. Cliché, but apropos: Siege was the nail in the coffin for me. Until it got consistently better, I gave up on the main series.

 

I took a little peak in FIM #40 (which came out earlier this week). Reading the reactions and skimming the pictures made me realize that the main series wasn't going to improve. I have less faith in it than EQG; if you follow my post and status history, that says something.

 

This edit I found in EQD's discussion blog for #40 sums up its big flaw in a nutshell:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does anyone else here feel a similar loss of faith in the main series, too? If so, do you think it'll improve?

Edited March 18, 2016 by Dark Qiviut

[Roughshod 719]

It appears to me to be a clear case of creative stagnation and entropy. I've seen it occur in other franchises like Star Wars where familiar patterns become ingrained in the production and new turns and developments become increasingly rare. Spin-offs and secondary media outlets for a franchise are especially prone to this effect as their focus is predominantly determined by primary source that they must then adapt to, usually in such a way that does not undermine the original for the sake of brand consistency.

 

The creators of IDW comics are conscious of their limitations as well as the possibilities open to them, yet lately have only focused on repeating forms of plot development and world building that have already been exhausted. Perhaps Hasbro and DHX have them on a tight leash, or maybe they're simply sticking with what works until it doesn't. I don't know personally.

 

But what I do know is that as more and more time progresses the likelihood of the stories and characters of this series becoming flanderized and various pacing mistakes occurring increases. Habits are hard to break. And when a habit is established as an easy and (apparently) successful method it can be very difficult to overcome that creative rut.

 

The criticisms of the mane characters could also be made towards the show, in some cases such as with Pinkie Pie and Rarity. It's my opinion that both have have developed predictable patterns with no sign of growth when it comes to pointless use of humor and being overly provocative. Not as much as in the comics though. It's actually ironic in a way that this would be the case for the comics since the comics potentially give more freedom with enormous reference to build upon and yet the result is a simplification.

The other characters you've mentioned are just the result of rushed writing and plot convenience. Almost none of these characters are recurring and serve as vessels for exposition more than drivers of the story. But there are exceptions. One such being Queen Chrysalis. This villain has benefited enormously from the flexibility of the series and has really developed into the most sinister and dangerous creature to ever face off against Twilight and Co. She's portrayed in such a manner that it actually leaves the show at a loss to follow up.

 

The last IDW issues I read were from the Siege Arc and I'm familiar with the criticisms you've put forth. More and more it seems the focus is on spectacle rather than genuinely original stories or the character building this series was founded upon. I don't know if it will get better. I'm not betting on it.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Roughshod

[Megas 27,594]

It's hard to go any lower after the comics like Seige(hehe) of the Crystal Empire, The Good, The Bad and the Ponies, and the Deer. Even with their flaws I thought the last 3 comics were colossal improvements.

 

Next month's gonna be interesting, as it's Katie Cook doing a Slice-of-Life story which she's been great at, but it's a comic about Rainbow Dash whom she treats like complete garbage even in her best comics, so I can't help but be worried

[Castle Bleck 19,337]

c. Radiant Hope is written to be a flawed character who stuck by King Sombra through all of his trials. But how can I like her when she watched him kill so many ponies, lead the siege of TCE in the first place, and shows no guilt for her actions? To make it worse, she's a complete idiot who supposed to be looked at as naive. I hate using "Mary Sue," but she is one.

 

1. To my knowledge, he never killed anyone -- even Amore has been revealed to be in revivable state.

 

2. Being manipulated for over a millennium in some pocket dimension would affect anyone's decision-making.

 

3. She's clearly guilty after the end of #36.

 

If anything, Chrysalis is starting to become the real "(Villain) Sue" -- she keeps escaping punishment and coming back worse than ever, we're honestly supposed to expect Hope to just agree with her right then and there despite both their drastically different experiences with the Umbrum and Chrysalis's reputation for deceit, etc.?

Edited March 18, 2016 by A.V.

[Nuke87654 1,849]

My belief with how the mlp comics, especially the main ones can improve is:

1. Stop writing action adventure arcs until they get capable writers that can write such stories well. As far as I'm concerned, none of the folks at IDW's mlp team can write a good action adventure arc to save their life. Thus they should stop writing such stories until they have a reputable writer that can write such tales.

2. Get new people on their staff. Probably the biggest issue with IDW is that alot of the folks, especially the writers and Bobby Curnow seem to not give a crap about making quality stories and just want to churn out whatever for that pay check. Getting some new passaionate writers and an editor can go a long way to improvement.

3. Don't be afraid to write a simple slice of life story. As DQ mentioned, IDW seems to want to seperate itself from the rest of Fim series by being essentially that edgy sibling that wants to be cool so bad that they'll try rediculous things just to get attention but look terrible for it. It's a big reason why the Friends forever issues are of higher quality compared to the main issues as they typically are one shot slice of life tales. Sometimes, a customer just prefers a well made pb&j sandwich and not some rich lemon cake that turns out terrible in the end.

4. Don't involve characters that have no good reason to be there narrative wise. One big issue with alot of the main comics is they'll throw in characters like Twilight in the good, the bad, and the pony and the not villainous team in the seige of the crystal empire that only serve as one large anchor that weigh the story down as the writer tries to come up with some contrived point for their forced involvement in the story. Can you especially imagine how much better the good, the bad, and the pony could've been if Twilight had gone with Spike to that convention instead of with the remaining five?

5. Don't use the comics for a mouthpiece. While the show itself also isn't without it's share of it (I'm looking at you Dragon Quest and Bats!), the comics seem to have more zealous writers in this regard such as the Spike and Luna Friends Forever issue one or Ted's second equestria girls story where they seem more focused on a certain political topic than writing a good story. Series like FIM were meant as a form of escapism for it's audience so we can enjoy some cute colorful ponies. Bringing in allegories to real world issues only breaks that immersion and it can detract folks from being attached to the show's verse and find itself growing irate from this real world problem appearing in the series.

6. Be more consistent with characterization and especially be careful at what choices are made for narrative reason. In general, a big issue I have with IDW comics is that they have many good and interesting ideas involved, but are often executed poorly by horrendous choices being made as well as the estahblished characters like the mane 6 and the Alicorn princesses being struck with ooc behavior that is so rampant in the comics that they might as well be flanderized. Really, Idw would get much better reception in the fandom as they once had if they were more conscious of the choices they made in the writing.

7.Explore and expand FIM's lore that the show isn't doing. One thing I'd love to see the comics do more is trying to do some worldbuilding in Equestria the show isn't going to touch or expand upon the stuff the show estahblished. I want to see more background on the deer kingdom in Equestria or even Zecora's homeland if the show permits. Done right I feel IDW would get more love for it.

8. Treat fan responses with much greater respect and pay fan feedback with improvement to your work. A big stark contrast difference between DHX and IDW is that while neither likes especially harsh and over the top criticism, DHX will at least allow folks to voice and let their criticism be heard and even talk to fans about it for improvement. IDW meanwhile will usually block you like Jeremy Whitley had done, write some half assed apology for incorperating two huge anti bronies and their oc's in his comic like Ted did, throw in a line that attacked critiques of the comics as taking it too seriously or possibly remove the involvement of a group of characters as a 'take that, audience' moment as Katie Cook and Andy Price had done, or remove the forums on IDW's website just because they din't want to listen to feedback like Bobby Curnow did.

They don't have to like the criticism being thrown at them, but they exist for a reason and they must find out why and if it valid and must be taken into consideration in their next work Otherwise, they'll continue to be derided by this passionate fandom for blocking out helpful critques that can help imprive the comics just so they can be in their own personal comfort instead.

I would like to see IDW go back to the heights they once had in 2013, the year where many folks had actually considered to be the future the brony fandom should latch onto after season 3 receiving mixed opinions and eqg being derided. It says something when folks prefer the bratz ripoff over the comics now.

Edited March 19, 2016 by Nuke87654

[PoisonClaw 8,164]

Maybe I'm just being optimistic or something, but I wouldn't say the main series have been completely bad.

 

Now, granted, they've been in a serious rut ever since Reflections wasted a perfectly good plot and outright insulted anyone who wanted an epic Mane 6 VS Alternate 6 battle. Issue 23 had the Karma Houdini of the Keplie getting nothing more than a slap on the fin after brainwashing and attempting to flood/murder an entire town when there was no reason why she couldn't have simply asked for help, The Good, The Bad and the Ponies glued Idiot Balls to everyone, especially Twilight to make her useless and could have easily fit into a single issue.

 

The Root of the Problem with the deer... is honestly the worst pair of comics I have ever read in my life and everything wrong with the series can inevitably traced back to this piece of garbage. The following arcs didn't help at all, since Ponyville Days featured OOC in droves, with Twilight suddenly being the The Only Sane Mare in a town of idiots and Night of The Living Apples was so bad there is literally a panel where they give a reason why no one will ever mention this again because it was so bad. This isn't even getting into that huge controversy involving the Power Ponies Annual featuring ocs of a Brony-hater and misandrist, since I stayed as far away from that mess as possible.

 

However, despite all that, Siege of the Crystal Empire was at the least enjoyable, partially helped by working off the much liked Sombra Fiendship issue. Again, they wasted a few potentially interesting plot points and Radiant Hope definitely falls under Your Milage May Very under whether to hate her or not (though as someone who doesn't completely hate her, she was still an idiot more than once and seemed to flip-flop between issue on whether or not she regretted her actions), but to me personally it was passible, especially compared to all the crap I just mentioned.

 

I have yet to get to the CMC arc, but I'm hopeful and, based on the previews, Issue #40 with filly Twilight and baby Spike will be made of adorable. Yes, IDW has dug itself a deep hole it needs to dig itself out of, but to me they do appear to be improving, if slowly. First thing they can do to show me they're improving?

 

Getting Rarity's character consistent between issues. Lately, Root of the Problems, Chrysalis issue, Ponyville Days and even a few moments in Siege of The Crystal Empire depicted her as a massively shallow and self-centered ass who only cared for herself. You know, as in the exact opposite of her actual character and everything Lauren faust made sure she wasn't? She's okay in most of the single issues, but far as I'm concerned, main issue Rarity has currently been replaced by Changeling who is a terrible actor. 

Edited March 18, 2016 by PoisonClaw

[AlbaTross 1,586]

I for one have been mostly satisfied with the comics. I have yet to read Siege of the Crystal Empire, but there have only been a few comics I actively hated. The RD Micro Issue, FF #1, and my least favourite comic of all, The Good, the Bad and the Ponies.

 

On the other hand, I just read Night of the Living Apples and think that's my new favourite arc, because it's just so stupid that it's awesome. Plus Nosfer Rarity FTW! Actually, there are quite a few standout moments in that arc. I couldn't stop laughing throughout, and the awesome moments like the return of Flutterbat helped too. Manehattan Mystery was my previous favourite arc. I kind of like the reformed Trixie, and the mane six finally understanding what an entertainer is.

 

I guess there are a few arcs that I'm indifferent towards. Ponyville Days isn't great, and though Root of the Problem isn't the worst example of a forced environmental message ever (see 90s movies and tv shows), it's not particularly good either. Still, they both had their entertaining moments, so whatever.