Posts

@soundtea
 
Ah, I think maybe I am confusing two different meanings of “origin story”.
 
In the traditional superhero/super-villain sense, only Sombra’s comic really qualifies as an “origin story” in comic book terminology, since we learn how he gained his powers and the circumstances under which he became a supervillain. You could argue that Tirek’s shows what led him down his destructive path and what would eventually be his powers (since he can’t quite use unicorn magic yet) and that Nightmare Moon gaining the power to manipulate dreams is the beginning of the villain the ponies besides Celestia have come to fear (since they would not know about her otherwise).
 
Chrysalis’ birth scene fits more with the mythological sense of origin story, that is to say how certain beings came into existence.
 
The other stuff from each character’s past would still be backstory, but not really “origins”.

@dynamicv  
I mean in the actual origin part, not a list of stuff she took over.
 
A key part in any origin story is how X got to where they were after the initial incident, like Spiderman with the wrestling match, and failing to stop that robber who killed Uncle Ben. Chrysalis and her changelings seem to have completely skipped step 2 and went straight to leeching and pillaging as far as we know.
 
It makes them feel flat.

@soundtea
 
What are you talking about? There was plenty of origin story in there!
 
Before FIENDship we knew literally nothing about the Changelings’ past before the events of a Canterlot Wedding. But now we know that they have attacked ponies before, have had a run-in with Celestia, and spent some time imprisoned before disappearing for hundreds of years. We know why they have the holes, we know that they are part horse-fly and part pony, and we know that Starswirl would probably test positive on a Chrysalis paternity test (referring to his blood).

@dynamicv  
Given that there wasn’t really an origin at all, we have no idea and likely never will.
 
It just seems they forced Starswirl in there because reasons. Like they realized they had to slap together an origin story in the last few pages.

@soundtea  
Full grown bodies, yes (actually Crysalis was in shadows, so we are just assuming she was fully grown) but what about their minds?

@dynamicv  
Given that they popped out full grown and with Queenie with fully developed eyes, they kinda feel like knockoff Uruk-Kai.

@Jades  
Were they really born “sapient”? I don’t think that is something we can really tell from the images we are shown. All we see is their birth, and the only behavior we see is two new changelings fighting.
 
There is a whole lot of missing info, like what happens next. Do they go out stumbling into the world, motivated by hunger, learning as they go? Did they pop out of that tree fully able to talk with a detailed plan to take over the world? The later seems less likely than the former, but we can only guess and make assumptions.

@PonyPon  
The chrysalis origin issue was rather disappointing.

@Jades  
I would have also liked a more gradual learning to interact with the world, like, how did they learn what love is as a food source? How did they figure out they needed it? Where did seeing it in action make them think they had to be warrish dicks about it? Do they reproduce like insects or at all?
 
Things I expect out of an origin, not a selection of Chrysie’s favorite conquerings.

I see the changelings as more of a servant race. Not evil. They just do what their told like ants. If we go with ep 100, it can assumed not all follow the queen.
 
The queen though. Evil. Rotten to the core and like that from the start. She could easily have just asked the princesses for help, but clearly had no such intent to. She even implied they attacked others before. Her subsequent appearances in the comics have had her continue to be just evil.

@PonyPon
 
To tell the truth I wouldn’t have a problem with that backstory if they were born without sapience but instead gained sapience somewhere down the line. I’d rather they be born like animals you know just follow their instincts but then later begin to develop individuality but them being born sapient kinda ruins it for me.

@PonyPon
 
See, here’s my opinion on that: the Changelings as a race are not Always Chaotic Evil, and I’m going to ignore that backstory given in Fiendship #5, and indeed most of the stuff Chrysalis said in that book.
 
Chrysalis herself, on the other hand, is irredeemably evil. I mean, we saw how she acted in her initial appearance in A Canterlot Wedding; she’s got a serious sadistic streak and clearly loved tormenting Cadance and Twilight.

@Red-Supernova  
Cadance will play a big part in Siege of the Crystal Empire, and Celestia appears in Friends Forever in past and future issues. No need to put words in the writer’s mouths.

@Red-Supernova  
It would, her having potentially the most excusable reason to be nasty, but it seems they’re more addicted to a retardedly evil persona for shits and giggles, and sweep everything separating her from the average orc army under the rug.
 
Which, while paraphrased, is exactly what I was afraid they were gonna do.

Is it wrong that I really, really want to see Chrysalis get viewed in a sympathetic light finally happen? I find her much more interesting like that over being “evil just for the hell of it.”
 
@Jarkes  
Shows how much the comic writers “care” for any of the royals that aren’t Twilight or Luna. (Even though I love them.)

So, the next Friends Forever sounds interesting… Pinkie x Celestia.
 
And it just occurred to me that Cadance has never appeared as one of the two characters of a Friends Forever issue, and Shining Armor hasn’t been featured as one since #4.

@kleptomage  
Yeah, going with the old thing of 1k years kinda makes her look even dumber.
 
Going senile maybe?

@Villain Pony
 
Well, how much have we actually seen of her being smart vs an idiot?
 
She won her first invasion with strategic use of shape-shifting and successfully wiped out Timbucktoo.
 
After that we don’t know everything she was up to, but she eventually invaded Trot with a trojan horse after shape-shifting didn’t work.  
She lost because of Celestia who was not only stronger than her, but also unknown to her.  
With no time to prepare a plan, this fight was lost due to the element of surprise, not her stupidity.
 
She managed to trick the dragon that was going to eat them and escape into the wild for hundreds of years. Smooth talking + a bit of mind control.
 
Then she managed to sneak into Canterlot and kidnap Cadance undetected. Her act fooled everyone but Twilight, including Celestia. That doesn’t sound dumb.
 
She did dismiss Cadance’s efforts to restore Shining Armor with love as an “absolutely ridiculous sentiment”, which is odd considering her own species does this on a regular basis. You could chalk it up to stupidity, but I prefer to think it’s ignorance of how unicorn magic works. Especially considering that she asks Twilight to join her and give her magic lessons in issue 4.
 
Her plan in the comics worked smoothly until Twilight proved to be better at channeling the magic surge than her. Again, she either was too stupid to see this coming or was just unaware of how it would affect Twilight since she didn’t study magic.
 
And in FIENDship, she tricks Twilight (the one pony who wasn’t fooled by her Candance act) into letting her go. Her drone put on a better act than she did as Fake Cadance, but that is to be expected since she only had a short time to learn about Cadance, while the drone probably knows the Queen super well. Gotta give her props for her ruse.

@Villain Pony  
As A Canterlot Wedding showed, just because Chrysalis is the leader of a race whose hat is deception doesn’t mean she is good at it.
 
I think making Chrysalis over a thousand years old was detrimental to her character. Her mistakes could be more easily written away if she was a new queen.

@Villain Pony  
Maybe she doesn’t, out of a perception of her prey never getting smarter.

@Jades  
Yeah, you think after a 1000+ years she’d be a little smarter.

It’s gonna feel WEIRD seeing an issue with Andy Price’s art with a story NOT written by Katie Cook. They’re practically inseparable.

@PonyPon  
I just don’t like the fact that after 1000 year’s chrysalis still hasn’t gotten any smarter whatsoever.

@PonyPon  
Didn’t they lose track of the Changelings for hundreds of years? I’d say that qualifies as enough time for their sudden re-appearance to be a new threat.

@ice1517  
I meant changelings getting revenge.
 
And I liked them better when I could consider them an entire new threat, not another victim of Celestia’s Under The Rug Syndrome.