IDW Comics - Story Discussion (Spoilers)

@Jades  
Antagonist doesn’t mean necessarily mean evil, it means they are an obstacle in the protagonist’s path.

@dynamicv
 
I was being sarcastic.

So she’s gathering even the “debatable if they were even actual villains” as well.
 
This is either going to turn out really well, or be pure wut.

An…intriguing line up of “villains”. I’m most curious at how Radiant Hope is apparently the bad guy in this.

I’m guessing based on the sports stuff and the dart being thrown at RD’s picture off panel that Lightning Dust is coming up too. So we’ve got:
 
AJ- Flim Flam Bros  
Fluttershy- Iron Will  
Rainbow Dash- Lightning Dust  
Pinkie Pie- Gilda? A yak?  
Rarity- Suri Polomare? Trenderhoof?  
Twilight- Almost assuredly Trixie

@Itsthinking  
C’mon, even IDW wouldn’t do that to Trixie.

@Itsthinking  
Gilda would make absolutely no sense due to Griffonstone having her get along with Pinkie at the end. And Trixie would be a total wat due to both the end of Magic Duel, and her two comics.

@soundtea  
Iron Will doesn’t make any sense either. He left his episode with no ill-will towards the ponies and even had a Friends Forever issue leaving him on good terms, IIRC.

I suppose Hope is gonna leave out some key details on what she’s recruiting everyone for. Chances are Iron Will, the Flim Flam brothers, and Lightning Dust are gonna end up doing some bad but not evil things, find out they in way over their heads, then switch sides.
 
Chrysalis is confirmed for this arc right?

@Background Pony #76F3
 
Iron Will joining had nothing to do with Fluttershy or the others. He just wants his charisma back.

@Background Pony #76F3
 
He is having trouble with his self help business in the comic, and Hope is using that as leverage.
 
Flim and Flam are also having trouble scamming folks, but in their case it is a combination of promised riches and revenge against the Apple Family that Hope offers them.
 
Assuming Lightning Dust is next, the revenge angle seems most likely for her.

@dynamicv  
She only seems to be selecting people that are associated with an antagonistic angle to the mane 6 for each pony.

@Background Pony #76F3
 
Yup, she did her homework it seems. I wonder what she could possibly have in store for them.
 
 
@Dustcan  
Yes, solicits say it’s a follow up to FIENDship #1 and #5.

Speaking of Fiendship #1, it had a theme of dark destiny for why Sombra is evil. And evidently Hope’s love for Sombra is why she’s evil now. So maybe this arc will have a theme of dark love?
 
I am excite.

I suspect this “Gathering of villains” will backfire hard on Radiant since alot of the candidates aren’t that villanous.

@Dustcan
 
Let’s just hope that there’s Cadance interaction or better yet she better be relevant.

@Jades
 
Cadance was mentioned by name in the summary for part three, so you can be sure she will play a part in this arc.

@Princess♠Molestia
 
And one of them is supposed to be Chrysalis. Nothing problematic there!
 
@Jades
 
Considering the Crystal Empire is involved Cadence being involved should be a certainty.
 
But now that I think of it, the Princess of Love laying it straight why the one with a misguided love is deluding herself? I am very excited.

Yeeeeeah, those “Villains” aren’t gonna last long against even a single princess, if their morals don’t already stop them. There better be some good argument to it, like “Radiant Hope has mind control voice” or whatnot…. hey, it worked in MGSPO…. wait… no, it didn’t.

@Background Pony #6D89
 
Seems more like their cannon fodder than anything else.

I actually don’t mind her recruiting the likes of the FlimFlam brothers, Iron Will or Lightning Dust…they’re definitely not villainous, but obviously their lives still got unintentionally screwed over by the Mane Six (Flim and Flam went from shady but still clean entrepreneurs to con-men; Iron Will toned down his aggressive approach so much that he’s now no longer able to draw audiences in; and Lightning Dust was straight-up kicked out of the academy); so they have a justifiable reason to oppose them. Kinda like the point brought up in the BTAS episode “The Trial”..hell, that’s exactly what happened with Trixie.
 
Good god, for a show promoting friendship, they seem to make more enemies than they do friends. :/

@MrXemnas1992  
They aren’t so much spreading friendship as superficially re-gifting it between each other.
 
As a personal note I was always disappointed in the FlimFlam’s descent into blatant con-artistry. Even disregarding my opinion that their first episode should have ended up being about compromise, they had much more story potential as greedy inventors than typical con artists. It also creates the question of why they’ve gone to such low tech means now and whatever happened to the perfectly functional machine they had.

@Trickquestion  
Agreed. (thank god they started actually spreading friendship this season)
 
Now I’m just wondering how she intends to recruit Chrysalis and Tirek (who clearly aren’t going to take orders from anyone, let alone a pony)

@Dustcan  
Yeah. Put a real evil villain with a bunch of just down on their luck guys. Can’t see that blowing up in Radiants face.

@Trickquestion
 
Agreed the FlimFlam brothers second portrayal was weird for sure.
 
As for the current arc I’m going to go and hope that this arc has better writing than the poorly written season 3 premiere