IDW Thread (Spoilers)

@DanielTepesKraus  
you don’t even need that many examples, you can just look at the Joker and you’ll understand how you do it right.
 
and that’s not all, one of the most imposing villain can be made just by motivation as simple as “all your world are belong to us” can be amazing and if you don’t believe me, I’ll let my friend Yuri do the convincing part. I hear he’s pretty good at that too.
 
C&C: RA 2 Yuri’s Revenge
 
there are many layers to a villain, the only problem fans don’t understand when addressing FIM villains is the following, the fact that when you start comparing the show/comic’s villains to other villains from all across the media, you are met with things such as higher expectation, those deriving from factors of an antagonist character such as, presentation, presence, actions, rich personality, adversity, experiences, motivation and goals, etc. FIM can do that all well and good, but only in part.
 
the point of everything is that, most of the time, the show is just restricted by its own set of restrictions, whether age related, or genre related, they apply to villains, because the show isn’t primarily built to have its strongest points in the villains department.  
so I don’t care how good of a villain you may get, the show has always had a pretty lack luster villain department, that’s all there is to say and I know people won’t care even a little bit about that fact, but then again I don’t care about them either, so we have a great mutual agreement between one another.

The idiot plot is inexcusable. Even if Chrysalis had not explicitly told them several times that she is a deceitful monster, deception is in the changelings’ very nature. This goes beyond mere naivety or stupidity. This is willfully sticking your hand in a viper’s mouth.
 
Chrysalis’ armor looks pretty cool, I have to say.
 
I’m not sure about the changelings getting their holes from Celestia blasting them but I guess it’s a feasible explanation.
 
Cook’s portrayal of Rarity continues to irk me. The page and more of space given to “jokes” at her expense could have been better used.
 
What does making Chrysalis over 1,000 years old add to the story?
 
The changelings’ origin is not bad. The insects from an evil tree concept is good and Price provides some neat darker art. I questioned Star Swirl’s appearance (that guy really gets around) until I saw that the fly that bit him was dragged toward the tree and made part of it. At least I think that’s what happened. It’s a tiny detail.
 
Why didn’t they follow the escaping changelings? Why didn’t Twilight follow Starlight Glimmer? So they can appear again. I remember when the prospect of another Chrysalis arc helmed by Price and Cook would have made me happy but after their recent adventure arcs I’m not so enthusiastic.

What i really liked about Chrysalis comic is that Cook didn’t try to fit a huge complicated backstory in 22 pages. Her entire premise was simple “Chrysalis escape from prison in this comic” and she just build up this plotpoint with small stories about Chrysalis and her hive.
 
What Anderson did was similar but he took the main premise “Sirens got banished by Starswirl” and he turn it into childish story for the dumbest part of the fandom.
 
Rice tried to write epic story but she run out of pages and she failed with Tirek.
 
Nuhfer wanted to make a more interesting story involving nightmare forces taking over Luna but Hasbro declined and she had to do a story entirly about her life on the Moon. Her weak story is both her fault and Hasbro.
 
Whitley did the best with both the timing and the premise. He wrote entire past of Sombra since his birth until his departure in tv show. He also wrote a good enough motivation for all the characters, didn’t turn them into morons and also tied the comics with Amy Keating Rogers book.

@kleptomage  
>Why didn’t Twilight follow Starlight Glimmer?
 
Because she caused a blinding explosion and by the time Twilight realized what happened she was already deep within the cave complex, and chasing her would be a waste of time.
 
Why Twilight didn’t chase Chrysalis I don’t know, she’s not really powerful without love to feast on, and she hasn’t feasted on love for quite a while, Twilight should be able to floor her no problem.
 
And why didn’t the guard protest opening the fucking prison door? Just… dear god. I fucking hate it when the plot only works because everybody was a fucking moron.

@441TheSecond  
There are probably spells for tracking. Twilight could have tried to capture Starlight. It’s a moot point now.
 
I was going to say something about there being a regiment of pegasus guards at the castle to help chase the changelings but then I remembered the guards are useless.
 
If Chrysalis had escaped in a clever way that did not require the characters to be gullible morons I would have liked the issue a lot more. I can tell there was actual effort put into it but not enough.
 
@RektPony  
My Fiendship is Magic rankings
 

@kleptomage
 
It would’ve been really clever if Chrysalis had done something like, say, trick them into thinking that she had ALREADY escaped by hiding herself somehow, and then escape for real when they open the door to try and figure out where she went.

@Jarkes  
That would be a more forgivable ruse to fall for.
 
Not by alot, but by enough.

Twilight didn’t follow them because Chrysalis beat the crap out of her. Did y’all not see the onomatopoeia coming from the door before they got out? There was a fight going on in there for sure.

@Background Pony #B5EE  
Then why didnt the guards that were specifically there to prevent an escape do anything? This really isnt helping the sterotype of the guard being a bunch of useless Red Shirts.

@Background Pony #B5EE  
Then why didn’t Twilight do anything? She’s one of the most powerful mages in Equestria.

@441TheSecond  
She’s not a fast thinker.
 
But really, who is, short of the combat-trained?

@441TheSecond  

 
I think you have enough examples to pick from the comics.
 

@441TheSecond  
Well to be fair the guard did seem hesitant to do it and he was ordered by twilight who outranks him.  
But then again I would hope that the royal guard would have a “no suicide orders” clause and I think releasing a major threat qualifies as a suicide order.
 
But the real reason Twilight fell for it was because Cook and Price wanted their favorite villain to appear yet again. If we never see chrysalis again it will be too soon.

@apegacine  
Honestly, if I were that guard, I’d just immediately write to Celestia requesting a demotion for Twilight.
 
She’s just… god. Comic Twilight is dumber than a bag of rocks.

@Background Pony #D76D  
*Shrugs* Sorry.
 
@Background Pony #B5EE  
This is why you have your princess sign a no hostage clause if she’s going to be so stupid as to march alone into a cell full of aggressive violent monsters. Because damn.
 
@apegacine  
Well, there’s the concept of “lawful orders” in the real life military. Basically if you’re ordered to do something illegal or that violates code of conduct or r.o.e.s you don’t do it, and can (read: will) be punished for doing it (“I was told to by a higher rank” is not a valid excuse).
 
Now whether or not, as I said to BP, opening the cell and allowing your princess to march alone into a cell full of aggressive violent monsters is an unlawful order or not in Equestria is open to interpretation.

Incidentally, what’s this I hear about one of Chrysalis’s minions being involved in her “plan” to escape?

@Jarkes
 
You are discussing a comic you haven’t fully read? That must make it hard to follow.
 
At some point (most likely before the comic even starts) Chrysalis hid above her cell door and one of her minions shape-shifted into a starving Chrysalis. This was to make them think she was in the middle of the room and too weak to attack.

@Background Pony #B5EE  
Yeah, he already admitted that he doesn’t read the comics. Which makes his points harder to take into account.

@Villain Pony
 
I generally read reviews from people I actually trust and find isolated scans when I’m randomly browsing sites like Derpibooru to decide whether or not I WANT to read certain issues, hence the skip-list I’ve mentioned before. I can generally get a good idea of most of the details as to what happens in different issues using these methods, though sooner or later I really do need to get a chance to binge through them all on Yayponies or something so that I can have a more informed opinion.
 
And I don’t have to read the comics to know that those mouthpiece edits of comic pages or panels that /mlp/ likes to churn out are incredibly immature.

I posted this on the montage of Rarity’s cook-ery with stallions.
 
Repostin here-uh!
 
“Btw, for those arguing that she is not acting differently: she is.
 
In both instances in the show where she is romantically attracted she spends her time trying hard to manage her impression.  
Especially in Simple Ways but it was also present in Best Night Ever where she was trying not to be too forward for fear it would out him off and be unladylike.  
And even with trenderhoof she was trying to get him to notice her and initiate contact. A typical comedic twist on the “ladies don’t pursue” joke wherein the woman tries to be enticing, only for it to never work
 
Clearly no such forbearance is here. She goes gaga and invades their space, makes obvious plays at affection, and blabs a guy’s ear off.”

@Whatevs  
it happens once in a while, but I am very impressed by that assessment of how Rarity’s portrayal is indeed different, so much so that I just can’t find a single fault in it.

@toxicitzi  
I think most who don’t like her characterization in the comics don’t like it because of how glaringly out-of-character it is, and how it comes off as so forced to score a cheap laugh. Same for how all of them are out-of-character (looking at you, Twilight), but Rarity is especially bad. Also, let’s be honest here, the whole “Rarity being lovestruck” just isn’t funny. At all.
 
Like, when Derpy Hooves does something dumb like destroys city hall with a thunder cloud, people laugh or at the very least accept it because that’s her character: she’s a clumsy and (debatably) stupid pony. When like Twilight goes “Imma blunder right into the cell herp-de-derp oh noes Equestria’s most dangerous threat escaped I just don’t know what went wrong!” people get pissed because, in canon, she’s a smart character. Yeah, she has her moments, but she’s never that retardedly dumb.
 
And ask yourself this: whether you liked her date scenes in the Chrysalis comic or not is irrelevant, why were they there? Why did they pad an already rushed-feeling story with completely irrelevant dating scenes when the entire audience was there to see Chrysalis’s origin? Most likely the author just wanted to force them in for a cheap laugh.

@DanielTepesKraus
 
Well, Rarity is kind of a flirt in the show, and her usual targets in the comics gel with who she pined for in the show (either somepony who was in some kind of position of power or somepony who was just famous), but it just gets ridiculous after a while when Cook does it all the freaking time, especially since there are other times where Cook has written her where she DOESN’T do that.

@Jarkes  
More like Cook forgot that Rarity is more then just a flat flirt.
 
Also, I’m starting to worry that IDW has begun a trend of making Celestia do something awesome then immediately have unfortunately implications piled on.

@DanielTepesKraus  
Pretty much this. Along with the “origin” feeling like it was just made up on the spot when they realized they only had a few pages left.
 
@Villain Pony  
Like the whole untrue notions being wiped thing?