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TRS Round Table 022: IDW Comics Annual: Equestria Girls

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Welcome back to another rousing edition of TRS Round Table! In this edition, we take a close look at IDW’s Equestria Girls comic, a double-length annual title for 2013. TRS Round Table is our group analysis and chat about the book, and maybe you’ll learn something new or look at it in a different light. Joining the Round Table today are Wayoshi, The Doctor, SoundMonkey44, Captain Kirk, InsertAuthorHere, Citric, and Rarietty. Find out our thoughts beyond the cut.

Do be warned that this review will take a detailed look at the events and details in the book. Spoilers will be kept to a minimum, but if you want to read the book blind, turn away now. You can find the comic book at your favorite local comic book store, online retailers like Things From Another World, or digital distributors like Comixology and iTunes.

Have you already procured the comic? Discuss it with other readers on our forum!

Wayoshi: First off, Price & Cook give us the backstory of Sunset Shimmer that was missing in the movie, originally in SDCC exclusive versions of #9. There’s quite a bit of  insight into Princess Celestia as well.

Captain Kirk: Hm. I’m not really certain how much new insight into Celestia we really get. I mean, much of her behavior is what I would have expected from how we’ve already seen her portrayed in the show and earlier comics. This, of course, is good since it means that she’s well written and in character here. Sunset Shimmer is also a believable character, and while she is a bit of a trope character, her motivations are understandable and, in my opinion, realistic. I believe a certain pointy-eared friend once said “Madness has no purpose or reason, but it may have a goal.” Sunset Shimmer has tasted power here, and wants more. Cliche? Yes, but not without precedent.

SoundMonkey44: I find overall Sunset Shimmer has better writing here then she did in the movie, however she is still a fairly generic villain, considering she is supposed to be Twilight’s antithesis, I expected more from her. I will say this though, Cook & Price did the best with what they were given and the story overall is an enjoyable read. I personally really enjoyed the Evil Dead reference Price snuck in the library scene.

InsertAuthorHere: Sunset Shimmer remains a fairly generic character throughout, but there are glimpses of a greater character there, if only in her interactions with Celestia. While the story is ultimately very short, we get to see bits and pieces of how what might have once been a very close student-teacher relationship turned sour. Celestia is initially overjoyed at how Sunset Shimmer passed her mid-term (I guess she really hates that tower) and tries to rein in her student’s ego, but Sunset’s obsession with the mirror wears on her until she finally snaps.

Sunset Shimmer Doesn't Want Friends A bizarro Mane Six? It was likelier than you think!

It’s also interesting how Sunset somewhat parallels Twilight Sparkle. During the pilot, Twilight also had a prideful side and was obsessed with proving herself right in the face of her mentor’s seeming objections. Both ponies also did not look fondly on friendship, considering it a waste of time. But at the same time, Twilight is also reasonably polite when refusing invitations and tries to wiggle her way out of social obligations, while Sunset just loudly declares herself to be superior to everyone. It’s a hallmark convention for rival characters, which is what the former student of Princess Celestia should have been to Twilight.

As for insight into Celestia, most of it is things that have already been covered by either the show, the comics, or even the movie itself. She’s feeling guilty about what happened to Sunset Shimmer (and to be fair, she could have handled things a bit better), but in the end she still wants her former student to return safely and wishes to avoid mistakes like this in the future.

citric: Sunset is fairly well set up as a parallel to Twilight, but the origin story picked unfortunately wastes a good bit of potential character development for Sunset Shimmer. In the movie it’s implied that Sunset wasn’t always a jerk via a pan-over of Sunset’s winning Fall Formal portraits.

Sunset Shimmer Portraits The star that burns twice as bright burns out twice as fast.

In the first picture she looks pleasantly surprised and happy about having won a crown and being called a princess. This could have been the basis of a story about Celestia being legitimately in the wrong via her handling of Sunset, or of Sunset being a ‘what could have been’ had Twilight(a good pony, but prone to slipups) done something differently in the past. Instead, Celestia proclaims “I thought I saw compassion and sincerity in you, but it was nothing but ambition.” branding her character a lost cause from the start.

For what it is though (read: Equestria Girls), the story is well done, and the relationship between Sunset Shimmer and Celestia is believable. Though the fact that Sunset basically traded potential godhood for magicless high school makes the comic a little… depressing, when you think about it. Rather you than me, Sunset.

Rarietty: In my opinion, the main thing that made Sunset disappointing as a character in the movie was that she was brought up like a very promising character. She’s a student of Celestia AND a perfect evil counterpart to Twilight. Even in a high school setting, she had so much potential to be so much more, even if only her jealousy of Twilight was highlighted a bit more. Although I would have loved the movie to have dug deeper into this, I’ll settle with the comic’s backstory, which I think did an excellent job of showcasing Sunset’s motives at the very least and showing where she went wrong compared to Twilight. Was it 100% satisfying? Not at all, I’m seriously praying that this isn’t the last we see of Sunset because she still has so much potential, but at least the comic’s backstory is an excellent start. So, in other words, I want more Equestria Girls just for Sunset.

Captain Kirk: I agree wholeheartedly. Sunset Shimmer isn’t so much disappointing as a character, but disappointing in her utilization. I would be happy with future comics delving a bit more into her.

Wayoshi: But then, Fleecs and Ted Anderson follow up with… a very dry and by-the-letters plot that just doesn’t feel right to me.

Captain Kirk: I’m not too up on comic authors, but I remember hearing good things about Ted Anderson. Reading the EqG section, however, feels very much paint-by-numbers as you say. It really doesn’t do anything horribly wrong, per se, but it feels like he wrote it as just another paying gig. It lacks any real central conflict, any observable villain or obstacle, and as a result the resolution is unfulfilling. The story centered around how the human versions of the Mane 6 met and became friends, and was (cleverly, in my opinion) framed by Sunset interviewing them in preparation to destroy their friendship, but this was an unnecessary story. Because we already know how it must end, it really didn’t have the ability to stand on its own, not in this form. I really feel that this should have been a chapter or act in a longer book, one more focused on Sunset Shimmer and how she learned of the magics that she used to ascend to…. Demonhood(?) in the movie, and how she developed her plan. So, I’m not certain what happened here. Was it that Ted didn’t really care, or were they under a huge time crunch, or what? I feel this should have been a full-fledged graphic novel, a la Adventure Time’s “Playing With Fire”, as a longer page count would have allowed for a more epic story.

SoundMonkey44: I’d have to disagree on this one. While Anderson’s back-up may not have been quite as good as his work on the Crusaders or Pinkie Pie micros, I still think it was a solid piece overall. Personally I enjoyed it because well, as weird as it may sound, it had kind of an Archie comics meets slice of life manga vibe, and I’ll be honest, that works for me, sure it may have been by the letters, but I don’t think Anderson put any less effort into this then he did past stories. I do agree though it does kind of feel the team may have been rushed on this when compared to Anderon’s past work.

The Girls Meet in Home Room Girls, girls, girls!

Captain Kirk: Eh, I see where you’re coming from, but even as a slice-of-life story it is lacking. It seemed like the conflict was supposed to be about Applejack fitting in, or maybe it was Rarity realizing Babs was not nice, or… Yeah, I’m not really sure what was supposed to be happening. That’s what I mean by there wasn’t really a central conflict or obstacle. Maybe it was supposed to be “Will they become friends?”, but since we know they do, all the drama is robbed from the story. Maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t seen the EqG movie beforehand, so that I wouldn’t know how it had to end.

SoundMonkey44: I agree it feels a bit…. unfocused, none the less despite the flaws and predictability, I still found myself enjoying the story. I Think its nice to see, human or pony, Anderson seems to really understand these characters he’s writing. Although I hope the pony version of Sunflower is nicer then her human counterpart if she really is going to be a season 4 character. Not sure I could stand an entire episode with a pony who is basically an older version of Diamond Tiara!

InsertAuthorHere: Yeah, this story was bland and weak as all get-out. It not only covers much of the same ground as the pilot (showing how the characters became friends), but also recasts events in the dullest, most generic light imaginable. There’s very little to the story other than recasting the ponies as high school girls, and while there might be some potential in the idea, it’s wasted in what amounts to a boring look at a group of characters who are only tangentially related to the world of Equestria.

citric: This story is clearly trying to be Cutie Mark Chronicles mixed with an origin story for the girls’ friendship, but it’s missing some of the key elements that make it work. In the show, Twilight Sparkle is the glue that holds the five together, what takes them from acquaintances to best friends. Having the other characters be best friends in her absence is possible, but feels rather contrived, though this may be more a problem of the movie than of the comic.

If Sunflower dropped the ‘cousins with Applejack’ aspect, she would be completely indistinguishable from Sunset Shimmer, who wasn’t exactly an original, distinct character to start with. Their names are even half-identical. If Sunflower Seed does appear in the show, I sincerely hope she gets a personality overhaul.

The inclusion of Babs Seed was frankly bizarre. The character presented as Babs Seed was so far away from the show’s insecure but spunky little filly in both age and personality it’s somewhat confusing why she was even added at all instead of writing a new book-only character.

Fluttershy’s lesson learnt, as stated in the end of the book, is that ‘everybody deserves kindness’. The example given by the book is asking Sunflower to help her sick dog. If it was Sunflower herself who was seriously sick and only Fluttershy realised it, this plotline would have made sense and perhaps been rather karmic. However, Fluttershy disliking or being afraid of Sunflower and thus leaving her dog to suffer is completely out character for a devoted animal lover such as her. In the show, Fluttershy stole a valuable bird from a god-queen because she thought she could heal it herself. It is something of a mystery why she doesn’t just do the same here.

Applejack’s attempt at mimicking the popular elite and thus being dishonest to herself is clearly meant to mimic the story of how she got her cutie mark after her stay in Manehattan. However, the sum total of Applejack’s attempts to fit in are wearing her regular Equestria Girls outfit minus the hat. She doesn’t try to change her accent, her hair is the same and her clothes are still blatantly country, even wearing the same skirt and boots. Compare this to Manehattan!AJ, who completely lost the accent and did her hair up nicely. Presumably someone on the book realised it’d be a bit rich to do a plotline about attempting to squash yourself into a polished, conventionally-attractive mould when writing about characters from the Equestria Girls franchise, but this plotline was definitely half-assed.

Pinkie Pie is…Pinkie Pie. Anderson can definitely write her well(her jokes are amongst the best parts of the book), but for a retelling of Cutie Mark Chronicles she’s exactly the same throughout the book, with no character development to speak of. More or less the same thing applies to Rarity, whose act of ignoring her friends isn’t made entirely clear or dramatized by the narrative. Rainbow Dash being roused from defeat by her friends’ loyalty was well done, though, and would have made a great climax to a better built up story.

Applejack and her Friends

Rarietty: I think my main problem (besides the generic mean girl conflict) stemmed off the fact that they aren’t really doing anything interesting or fun with the setting or plot. It’s a paint-by-numbers Disney Channel-esque story…starring our favorite humanized ponies. The humane 5 are the only things that don’t make this like any other high school drama on the market. Compare this to the Cook/Price main arc about Cadance and Shining Armor in high school that was released on the same day, with it’s parodying of 80s high school movie cliches. Heck, even EqG the movie seemed to have more fun with the high school setting than the Annual. It’s kind of astounding how they weren’t more creative with this. It’s almost as if they took the story too seriously.

Captain Kirk: I wouldn’t even say it is Disney-esque, since at least it doesn’t make EVERY character into a horrible person like those Disney shows do! Still, I get what you’re driving at, and I agree. It is why I kinda wonder if this was completely rushed or something. It feels very half-baked, glaringly so when compared to the other Pony comics. I wonder if Hasbro mandated a release window for this thing or something, or if the release date ended up being dictated by the printer’s schedule? I’d be very interested in learning the details.

Wayoshi: In most ways the Mane 5 are in-character, but again, like the movie the whole thing seems detached, and… limited – this arc made me want to see how they first met proper in Equestria and forget this whole high school mess.

Captain Kirk: Hm, well the problem is that such a story could easily suffer from the same problem. We know they MUST meet, and the fact that they weren’t even really friends before Twilight came to town means that such an episode or comic would really be just like “Oh yeah, hi. Welcome to Ponyville. Buy some apples?” So, in a sense, we’ve already seen such an episode.

SoundMonkey44: I think being detached is part of the point, this is a spin-off I.P. after all, while it’s important to pay tribute to the big sister series that led to its creation, I also think, that if Equestria Girls is going to stick around its important for it to form an identity of its own. Thus the reason humanized versions of characters aren’t all in the same age groups as their pony counterparts. Like Babs Seed being Aj’s older cousin instead of her younger one, or Photo Finish being a teenager instead of an adult, sure those are just minor characters, but it still helps drive home the point this world is one all it’s own, even if it uses pre-existing characters.

Captain Kirk: I agree, EqG needs to be its own thing. The sooner it does, the better it will be for all involved.

Mane Five Spread Perhaps the most visually stunning art is this spread.

InsertAuthorHere: This is what hurts the annual the most. It’s about how the girls first met…and nothing else. There was a lot of ground to cover between when Sunset was supposed to first arrive at Canterlot High and when the events of the movie started, but their attention was locked on how these species-lifted interpretations of the Mane 5 became friends. We don’t even see the payoff of Sunset’s investigation, or why she cares at all about these five girls. (Word of God is that Rarity was running against her for one of those titles and she broke the five up out of spite, which would have worked great if they had bothered to include that explanation in one line of dialogue.)

As for the high school setting, I think it would be more interesting to explore what happened after Twilight recovered the Element of Magic and left. Sunset’s still stuck there, and now everybody knows she’s actually a pony from an alternate universe who turned into a demon and tried to brainwash them. Were there any residual effects of the Elements being introduced into a world they didn’t belong in? THAT would have been a story worth reading, and would have opened the High School AU setup to more possibilities.

citric: Considering the m5 were mere acquaintances before Twilight showed up and made them into friends, we already have seen their friendship origin in Equestria- the pilot of the show. This… wasn’t as good as that.

Overall, this comic would have been better served by plugging up the numerous plotholes of the movie and/or exploring some of the more interesting areas EqG presented us with that weren’t touched upon, like the existence of other parallel worlds, how Sunset discovered the new princess, and how exactly the crown turned Sunset into a Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt reject.
The question ‘how did these human five become friends’ is, relating to the main show (which the EqG spinoff simply cannot stand without), kind of a pointless question and one with not a lot of stakes or interest in it.

Rarietty: The utterly bizarre thing with choosing to focus the story on the teenage m5 forming a friendship was that it was completely pointless. In the first few pages after Sunset’s backstory they’re already buddies. “They became friends at the freshman fair” was enough of an explanation, they didn’t need to tack on the stereotypical mean girl angsty hijinks to drive that point in. I completely agree with citric on this one. There are so many routes they could have taken this. It feels like such a waste to use up valuable comic pages on something that could be summed up so quickly and, in the end, really went no where aside from a moral lesson.

Wayoshi: Fleecs’ art is OK, but with the mediocre EqGirls style it all added up to a poor showing for me. When eyes were closed (Pinkie a couple times), I thought it actually looked good, but those simple eyes just made a lot of designs creepy most of the time.

Wondercolts Victory Parade I like winning!

Captain Kirk: Oh, yes. Fleecs’ artwork is very true to the EqG style, so any of its sins cannot be laid at his feet. In fact, I give him props for sticking so closely to it. While I’m not the biggest fan of the art style, I’m even less of a fan of artists radically changing the art style of a series just to fit their personal style. I mean, imagine the Mane 6 rendered as realistic watercolor horses. It would look nice, but the feel would be very wrong. So yeah, props to sticking to the style. However, the eyes…. Often, the pupils were too small, making them look dazed or something. Sometimes it really worked, like in the photograph taken early on. Fluttershy is CLEARLY not comfortable with all the attention and meeting new people, and Applejack is showing a very strained smile, because she doesn’t really have any idea what’s going on. So sometimes the tiny pupils work, but other times it is very out of place. Must be something in the water.

SoundMonkey44: Fleecs may not be the most popular artist in pony books, but he has improved over time, personally I enjoyed his work more here then I did in the RD or Fluttershy Micros *minus the cover that is*. But ahh yeah, again I enjoyed his work here, and the whole arguably somewhat anime-esque meets doll designs of the Equestria Girls, while not the best humanizations we’ve seen of the characters, is fairly easy to draw, and I feel Fleecs art helped give the story that satisfying feel, it’s simple, but it works. There are some odd facial expressions here and there, but it’s solid overall. I wouldn’t mind seeing Fleecs be put on another EQG story again in the future.

InsertAuthorHere: Fleecs’ art is definitely improving. I thought both the Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy micros looked meh or awful, depending on what panel you were on. Here, we see a lot of improvement and some definite dedication to following the original designs. The problem is that the human designs for Equestria Girls look awful to begin with, and the sketchy art doesn’t improve things. The other problem is that the characters are all dressed like they were in the movie…despite this supposedly taking place when they were only freshmen. The movie showed that they all looked different back then, so it’s a bit of a continuity hiccup. I don’t know if this was bad scripting or a communication breakdown, but either way it’s what made it to print.

citric: Considering how many fan-artists have managed to make the Equestria Girls look much better than they did in the movie, this effort by Fleecs is serviceable but nothing to write home about. I’d have quite liked to see Amy Mebberson do the art for this issue, considering how well she can draw this type of stylized girl character.

Wayoshi: Ultimately, it seems EqGirls isn’t going anyway anytime soon, but this Annual did nothing to improve my view of the spin-off, if not worsen it a bit. How about you guys?

Captain Kirk: It neither helped nor harmed my view. It was inoffensive, except for the wasted potential I see in it. It stayed true to the characters, and didn’t commit any truly egregious storytelling sins, but it also didn’t really try to do anything at all. There is nothing innately WRONG with the high school setting, and I feel that if a talented writer actually sat down and really applied themselves they could make something amazing and perhaps even genre-redefining. So far, though, it seems like every writer to take up the pen on EqG has already condemned the project, and so just looks at it as a paycheck job they have to do to get back to working on the more-beloved Pony series.

SoundMonkey44: I actually enjoy Equestria Girls, I agree that it was made for the wrong reasons, and high school is a ridiculously over used, and over romanticized local in media, but I don’t think that means this spin-off is automatically bad because of it. Sure it was just made for Hasbro to sell dolls *fairly inferior dolls I might add* to compete with things like Bratz & Monster High. But, well, that’s why My Little Pony, heck, why any Hasbro property exists in the first place! I think Equestria Girls has potential, and I did enjoy the annual more then the movie, I think, if given time, and further opportunities to tell some more well thought out and developed slice of life oriented stories, Equestria Girls could find a good audience if more comics or animations are ever made for it. Given that’s a long shot, but hey you never know. I can say though, that if IDW ever decided to start a third pony ongoing I would be totally fine with a monthly EQG comic helmed by Anderson & Fleecs. Or more likely the once in a blue-moon EQG filler story in the upcoming secondary title “Friends Forever”. *Also it would be nice to see the spin-off focus less on the high school aspect and more on just developing the human versions of these characters we all know & love*

Diamond Tiara Scowl Diamond Tiara still has the ‘tude even if it is only on two legs.

InsertAuthorHere: I feel the same about Equestria Girls going out of the annual as I did going in. It’s…okay. I don’t hate it like some do; I actually liked parts of the movie and thought there was potential there that simply wasn’t utilized. I also think the comic did a couple things better. The pacing was much stronger, Fluttershy’s mini-subplot about the jerk girl’s dog being sick stuck with me for some reason, and Sunset Shimmer remains the most poorly-utilized villain in the series to date. But at the same time, there’s nothing special or unique to this spinoff other than that the characters are ponies on the original show and humans here. If this is really going to survive, it needs a stronger direction than just being a High School AU, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

citric: Right from the first piece of concept art, the byline for Equestria Girls has been ‘wasted potential’. This doesn’t change here, and doesn’t look like it’s going to in future. The premise ‘magical horse world has alternate dimension where everyone’s from high school’ may sound completely unsalvageable, but once upon a time we would have said that about ‘magical purple horse learns how to friendship’. It’s a pity they failed to defy expectations this time around.

Rarietty: Yeah, although I enjoyed the movie for what it is (a fun, mindless high school movie that doesn’t seem to take itself seriously), once I get into thinking about how much better it could have been it kind of clouds my enjoyment. The Annual really didn’t bring anything new to the table besides Sunset’s backstory, and really, it was just so bland. It didn’t affect my view on the spin-off however, and do think that EqG could have the potential to be less mediocre. Actually, I would be perfectly happy with more EqG stuff under two conditions a) they don’t take the whole thing so darn seriously, have fun with the setting and treat it as a lighthearted comedy (think of an approach similar to the Littlest Pet Shop cartoon) rather than a hard-hitting high school drama/romance…starring ponies and b) They actually tried to build off of the wasted potential, mostly regarding Sunset. I also hate to admit it, but I’m also curious about Flash Sentry’s character too, not so much as a love interest, but that poor guy needs to be developed past “the only guy Twilight’s ever been attracted to”. Sunset had a past with him, so why not that instead?

citric: Until I read that post, I legitimately had forgotten Flash Sentry existed. That character desperately needs salvaging.

Captain Kirk: Heh, I too had forgotten him! Heck, I actually forgot about several of the characters, thinking about it! EqG really needs a unified vision to drive it if it is going to become anything memorable. Right now, it feels like Marketing and focus groups are helming it, which never makes for a terribly coherent or thoughtful result. Essentially, they need someone like Faust, who has a vision and is willing to throw themselves into the project. Someone who isn’t afraid to break genre rules and go out on a limb. It’s still early enough in this game that EqG can pull it out, really make something special.

InsertAuthorHere: I haven’t forgotten him, but that’s only because my hate for the “Brad” meme is so colossal that it will never leave me. I’m just glad that part of the fandom is now over, buried, and never to be mentioned again by any soul, living or deceased. Unfortunately, I can’t say there was much worth saving when it came to Flash Sentry; he was so miniscule a character in the grand scheme of things that they could have cut him out entirely, rewrote a couple scenes, and lost absolutely nothing of value. Here’s hoping they can find a way to salvage the rest of this spinoff soon, however. There’s potential, but it needs someone to show it the way.

Rarietty: Yeah, I was really surprised that Flash didn’t even show up in the comic, not even in the background (from what I remember). Considering that the comic seemed to reference most other things in that darn movie, it seemed like a no-brainer to have him somewhere in there. Then again, it could be possible that Hasbro saw people’s reactions to him and instantly aborted any chance of him showing up again, which is really a shame to be honest. Even the most bland love interests can still have potential to be develop into more. Sure, he’s a rather blank slate, but that the fun of character development. I was honestly hoping for some insight on why exactly he and Sunset dated and why it mattered at all aside from a throwaway line, but I doubt that will happen at this point. Even if my hopes are really far-fetched, it’s also surprising that Hasbro hasn’t even marketed a Flash Sentry doll yet. Really, that seems like the only reason Flash would be a character to begin with if Hasbro was always just going to retcon him into oblivion.

KefkaFloyd: That’s all, folks! Thanks for reading, and join us next time for another rousing edition of TRS Round Table!


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