Disappointment at the End of Friends Forever

[bigbertha 414]

Is anyone else disappointed that the Friends Forever series ended? It was such a great idea that produced some of the best MLP comics. It gave development to characters that needed it and still had so much potential. Issues like Luna and Discord, Applejack and Mayor Mare, Rainbow and Soarin, and Twilight and Big Mac are classics in my eyes.

I don't think the Legends of Magic series was worth cancelling Friends Forever for. What do you think?

[weesh 690]

dang, i really loved discord/CMC and spike/celestia.

but as much as i loved the series, variety is good too.  

i don't want forever friends forever if it means we wouldn't have got "FIENDship is magic" or "legends of magic" or "nightmare knights" or "feats of friendship"....

and even the transforms crossovers, which are just brilliant, are part of this side slot.

sure, if we can have our cake and eat it to... maintaining FF as a standalone series and still get all the cool side content... then i'm in.

or even, let's do a new side series, FF part 2...?  afterall, there are LOTS of new characters to explore since it ended

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i think legends of magic is very different than FF.  the first is only one-shots, and the later is a 12-part monster, the longest series in the entire run of comics.  it's very good, but in a different way.  i'd rather have both than a FF that is 12 issues longer.

and even if i didn't think "legends" was worth it, the sum total of all the other cool things we got, was worth it in my opinion.

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i think my biggest regret is that they were absolutely the best thing to get a VA to sign.  you had issues that were dedicated to just two characters, so they were my go-to when i knew i was going to see someone at a convention.

Edited June 2, 2021 by weesh

[Megas 27,564]

Still remains one of my favorite comic lines and I feel really shows where FIM excels in, fun and interesting character dynamics, some of the off the wall pair ups were really fun(Rarity and Gilda/Babs Seed, AJ and Mayor Mare, Shining Armor and Prince Blueblood come to mind), some pairings were expected but fun(Rainbow and Soarin though I straight up needed)

when they get creative it’s where it shines

[weesh 690]

3 hours ago, Megas said:

when they get creative it’s where it shines

yeah, there were some absolutely inspired matchups. 

but i'd argue that it shows more creativity to create more hooks than to use the same hook every time for years at a time. in theory at least.

and a hook that is "two characters together" is one that fits within other hooks.  for instance, the big mac/zecora arc in the main-line series.  

i do think it's important to get small, and not always be a big epic, and it is a bit disappointing that most of the side arcs have been epic recently, at the same time that the main-line is trending toward epic to match the hook of season 10.  but i don't think this is an issue that came about because of the end of FF.  they could have worked to keep a steady diet of small cast comics within the framework they create.  for instance, the scootaloo plus aunts issue in the middle of season 10 that had a FF feel. we need more of that inserted inbetween the longer stories they want to tell.

[Ganondorf8 11,281]

Stopping at 38 issues was an odd choice as 40 or even 50 would've been a much better number. But, IDW wanted to change things up by making the comics closer to the show's official canon rather than going off on their own. I also suspect Hasbro's executive hand at work here.

[weesh 690]

15 hours ago, Ganondorf8 said:

Stopping at 38 issues was an odd choice

they are all one-shots, so they could stop anywhere.
i don't find it to be particularly odd.

when season 9 was announced as the last season, Tony Fleecs and other artists started pushing for an extension of the comic to 100 issues, which at the time was about an entire year past the end of the show.  that would be a satisfying number to end on...

but we know it's going to go until at least #101.  having a weird number might feel odd, but isn't it better that the number of issues be odd than stories feel rushed or half-assed?  

and it isn't "Free" to go up to 50 in a series.  there's opportunity cost.  and the opportunity cost for 12 more issues is AN ENTIRE YEAR that all other side-series comics are pushed back.  and some of those side projects would then come out at weird times.  like, knightmare nights is better if it's closer to the MLP movie since it ahs tempest... do you remember that they actually designed the release of "legends of equestria" comics such that it was coming out concurrently with episodes related to these characters?  that must have been a feat to pull off, but delay two months and they miss the optimal window. 

if they can do cute things with the numbering, great!  but it should be the first thing to sacrifice if there are more pressing needs