Anybody else feeling that Celestia did remember how long ago the last summit was, but preferred not to think about it? xD

@Background Pony #7DD6  
My gosh, you mean someone besides me knows that movie even exists??

@Anon-a-Miss  
A pony version of The Baron of Arizona? If that’s the case, and the ringleader is a male, I’ll be imagining his voice sounding like Vincent Price.

@Darth Sonic  

 
Maybe one griffon rediscovered/faked an old law/contract that grants the owner/members of a certain bloodline/ all of griffonkind ownership of Canterlot. Equestria is a wealthy nation, so the chance of obtaining their capitol is tempting. It wouldn’t be that hard for said griffon to convince at least a few of his fellow griffons to join him.

That awkward meeting between Twilight and Queen Novo.
 
“You tried to steal my pearl.”
 
“You nearly drowned my son.”
 
“After you tried to steal my pearl.”
 
“After you decided not to help us in saving Equestria.”

@soundtea  
… You do realize you’re complaining about a fairly common High Fantasy trope, yes? The whole “Ancient Magic Treaty Alliance that is somehow still binding even centuries later” thing?
 
Honestly, my actual, non-stretching-to-find-something-wrong reason for being leery of this arc is the fact that the Griffons actually HAVE enough of an organized government and military to pull this off.

@Philweasel
 
Absolutely. The idea that information travels at a snail’s pace and people have barely he foggiest idea of what’s going on outside their country – or even in relatively distant areas of their own country, for that matter – has been canon for a long time now. Hardly anything to do with the comics.

Besides, the total lack of diplomatic ties between Equestria and anything that’s not a pony is a Show issue, and not IDW’s fault.

A question occurs to me right now: do we actually know that a 753-year gap is the usual gap between these meetings? The impression I’ve been getting – from the, I feel I should point out, four pages we’ve seen – was that this is something that used to be held more regularly, hasn’t been held in seven centuries and change for whatever reason, and this is just it being revived.
 
If we want to use real-world equivalents, it would be like the Olympics in that case. Discontinued in 393 during Theodosius the quote unquote Great during his frenzy of smashing anything and everything that looked vaguely pagan, reestablished in 1896. Hardly means there’s a gap of 1503 years between every Olympic – they were held every four years, discontinued, then revived to be held every four years again.
 
I’ll agree that IDW doesn’t have a terribly good track record in these situations, but it’s way too early to be crying wolf.

Are you people stupid? It’s not a summit that is held every 753 years, that’s just how long one hasn’t been summoned.
 
The page says nothing about how regular such an event was before the kingdoms became isolationist.

@soundtea  
Whereas having the ruler(s) of one nation move the sun and the moon is perfectly logical.

@cheezedoodle  
Well it might be a drum worth drumming since it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s true.

@soundtea  

 
Lol, you’ve been beating that dead horse drum for like 3 years now.

@soundtea  
Wait, the Griffons end up owning Canterlot? I hope we get to see how Gilda reacts to all this. Especially if she ends up owning Blueblood’s estate or whatever he has.

@cheezedoodle  
Hopefully that bring that up. This whole thing feels like it came out of nowhere.
 
Of course since this is IDW Main Series even post soft reboot I don’t have much hope. Let’s not forget Ember ordering a firebombing of a Yak village with civvies without any warning whatsoever. I just get the feeling that these days the IDW pony writers don’t really care much unless it’s a more special miniseries or specific tie in. Plus why didn’t the other species ever meet up? There was no indiciation of some Cold War between them. It feels like weak writing for literally every nation on the planet to just suddenly cut off contact.

@soundtea  
Every bit of context I’ve gleaned from three measley preview images so far is telling me this is an event that had been discontinued because of a ‘cold war’ type sentiment among the nations. Ponies and griffons were at odds at some point, ponies and yaks weren’t on speaking terms until recently, ponies seem to have lost contact with the hippogriffs, to the point that the hippogriffs didn’t even request aid from them if you include movie events.
 
This seems to be a re-establishment of an ancient, more regular tradition rather than a once-a-millennium event.

@soundtea
 
It said the first in 753, not that it happens every 753. Why hasn’t one happened since then? Who knows; we can only hope the issue itself brings it up later on. Shot in the dark, but this long gap will probably be the excuse for why the griffons are just now bringing up supposed rights to Canterlot.
 
The rest of the post is just “muh canon” whinging that has nothing to do with this setup itself.

@Dustcan  
But what’s the goddamn point of a summit every Seven hundred and fifty goddamn years? Please answer that. Any mortal races will have passed countless generations between them. There’d be no point in ever sharing info ever because by the time the next summit comes around it’s hopelessly out of date between the nations and any problems that could be solved by that info would have already come and gone countless times.
 
And I mean that this whole thing feels like a pure comic creation given that the next issue features Griffons owning Canterlot. LoM seems to be under much more oversight since it ties directly into the show backstory and gives much character expansion to the Pillars given the short bits they got. Meanwhile Main Series is never referenced unless it’s created to be a tie in (end of Shadowlock arc being an obvious one) and has the most oddest waste of time ideas given that they seem to do whatever with quite some stories being utter wastes (why is one of the upcoming ones a boycott against Sugarcube Corner of all things?).
 
I can easily bet that you will never see this ever alluded to or brought up in the show ever. Summit or Griffon occupation.

Yes but what is that in moons is the crux of the issue here.

Why bother having a meeting if it’s only every 753 years? Who would remember that? It makes no sense.

@soundtea  

 

 
I, I don’t get it. Is this supposed to be some slam against IDW? Or just some truism?
 
‘sides you’re basing grievance using real world tech progression. 1000 years ago (give or take a century or 2) we first invented things like the wheelbarrow, windmill, gunpowder and centralized heating. If Equestria followed human progress then they’d be at the point where they’d to be arguing on the internet about their own fictional species’ progression.
 
If nothing else this explains why Celestia nor Klugetown didn’t know the hippogriffs weren’t technically a thing during the movie, especially the latter being a trade town within eyeshot of the hippogriff mountain.
 
Also I’m pretty sure any other race would agree to a summit because isolationism hurts everyone, particularly the isolationist.

@Dustcan  
You’re still stretching belief even then. Flashbacks have shown the world has indeed developed and changed quite a bit in long periods of time. Even more can be said for races that don’t have ultra wise immortal leaders with amazing powers.
 
Really, why would any normal race even agree to this? I just chalk it up to IDW making up their own stuff just to sell a story.

Good thing this is a Medieval Stasis fantasy setting huh?

@soundtea  
I know. Also the Mongol invasion, the wars they fought with Tibet in the 8th and 9th centuries, several other ‘Warring States’ periods… China has been through a lot in her history.

@Ardashir  
Hell China has its endless dynasties, and the transitions can be quite violent. Just look at all the betrayal and warring splinter nations in the Three Kingdoms period.