Shots fired!

@InvaderSplooge  
People tend to overanalyze a cartoon about pastel equines.

Cannot unsee Wind Sprint.

@InvaderSplooge  
I am not stressed out. I am a writer and a creative person, and felt like addressing issues I have seen nobody else bring forth.

@Smudge_Proof  
I’m sorry. We clearly just don’t see eye-to-eye.
 
If criticizing and arguing about a cartoon in many pages of detail is how you want to spend your free time, by all means, be my guest. I just don’t see the purpose it serves and would rather not get this stressed out over a tv show.
 
Also, I suppose I’m just getting very tired of seeing arguments like these all over comment sections of images when they belong in forum discussions, instead.

@InvaderSplooge  
“Business”?  
I should be sorry I am critical of a product that I feel does not live up to established standards by a long shot, and explain in detail why?

That’s where we disagree. It sets up and establishes stakes for the issues to come. If the the changelings took longer to attack, it would’ve felt choked and cluttered and made a relatively simple story overly complicated. At no point in the first issue was there anything that I would consider ’filler’.
 
You miss my point. I wasn’t saying you had problem with because they’re fans, I’m saying their doing this because it’s how they see canon. And to an extent it is how the canon in the show works too, the major and the obvious difference being they’re entirely different mediums, and thus both are handled differently. To say nothing on how Hasbro has a far looser leash on the IDW team than the show staff.
 
Of course it takes things established from the show and makes it it’s own, that’s how adaptations work. I don’t see how there’s that much filler in either the changeling or nightmare arcs, I will admit there is some but it’s not in the issue you’re talking about, feel free to disagree with me, but all the examples of filler I don’t see as such. And the references, I again say you can take away EVERY reference the books have, and they wouldn’t impact the core story in the slightest.
 
Venting and sharing your opinion is fine, but I really have a hard time seeing it. But that is more my problem than yours.

Nice to see everyone having so much damned fun in the comments.
 
I swear, I’ll never understand the thought process of humans and their need to turn something fun into business.

@Smudge_Proof  
That’s where we disagree. It sets up and establishes stakes for the issues to come. If the the changelings took longer to attack, it would’ve felt choked and cluttered and made a relatively simple story overly complicated. At no point in the first issue was there anything that I would consider ‘filler’.
 
You miss my point. I wasn’t saying you had problem with because they’re fans, I’m saying their doing this because it’s how they see canon. And to an extent it is how the canon in the show works too, the major and the obvious difference being they’re entirely different mediums, and thus both are handled differently. To say nothing on how Hasbro has a far looser leash on the IDW team than the show staff.
 
Of course it takes things established from the show and makes it it’s own, that’s how adaptations work. I don’t see how there’s that much filler in either the changeling or nightmare arcs, I will admit there is some but it’s not in the issue you’re talking about, feel free to disagree with me, but all the examples of filler I don’t see as such. And the references, I again say you can take away EVERY reference the books have, and they wouldn’t impact the core story in the slightest.
 
Venting and sharing your opinion is fine, but I really have a hard time seeing it. But that is more my problem than yours.

@Background Pony  
That’s the point about the references. Filler material, like the colossal fight scene and the whole invasion. Does not advance the story in any way. I admit I don’t think that it would bug me if I liked the rest, but I don’t.  
No, I did not want the fight and invasion to drag out the entire arc, seeing as how I was saying that it was filler material. It has no real reason to exist in the first place; that is what I was arguing the whole time. There are few pages of actual story in the first issue. Sure, a lot of things happen of no consequence to the rest of the story, or anything else for that matter. It is there because the writers wanted a big dumb fight issue.  
And my problem wasn’t that the writers of these are fans; my problem that is is written as fan-fiction; strictly derivative of existing material in the universe, relying on filler from other places (references), and no value added. It’s either lazy writing or just incompetence in my judgment.  
If you enjoy it, fine (I wish I shared your joy of it), but I wanted to make it clear that I do have my established grievance with the core if the story itself. We probably part on that.

@Smudge_Proof  
The zombie walk scene is hardly filler, they needed to escape Twilight’s library without drawing attention to themselves. And they’re not that obvious, if you somehow managed to take out all the references the story can exist without them.
 
So want the fight and invasion to drag out basically the entire arc? That’s bad pacing right there. And they weren’t told it was going to be easy, Twilight’s exact words were ‘Okay girls! We’ve fought then before! We can handle this!…I think?’, she was trying to comfort her friends obviously scared of the possibility that maybe they aren’t strong enough to beat them this time. And it was implied the batch of Changelings who left for Ponyville weren’t the smartest bunch to begin with.
 
Yeah? And Chrysalis played with their emotions, manipulated them, and made sure they played exactly into her hooves. The only real flaw was her overconfidence like in the show.
 
I don’t see it as filler, I’m sorry that you do but I don’t.
 
I wouldn’t say they have ‘little merit on their own’, I’m sorry you feel that way, but the feeling is anything but mutual. If you don’t like it fine, but the same can’t be said for everyone. And it’s funny you say ‘official fan fiction’ since most if not all of the IDW team were fans of the show even before working on the comic, they know how the universe is supposed to work and operate just as much as any of us do.
 
You know what? There’s nothing I can say here that will change your mind, and that’s okay, if you don’t like the comics that’s your choice and I won’t hold it against you. Criticism is healthy for a work to grow, or to help someone understand the work better. If anything I ask you don’t devalue it by saying they have no merit to the source material.

@Background Pony  
I probably wouldn’t be so jumpy on references if they weren’t so blatant and numerous, and didn’t feel they were often used as filler (like the zombie walk scene).  
I did not expect them to win, but beating them already in issue one, when they do a full scale assault just lowers any threat they might pose. You start the comic by being told they are easy peasy to beat now. As well as a dumbass plan.
 
Regarding Chrysalis as a menace, see my previous post here.
 
Yes, little really happens in the issue. Did it have to go this route, and jam-pack it with filler material between the beginning and end of it? No.
 
The way these things are written feel like a colossal re-hash to me. A fan-fic given official treatment, with little merit on it’s own. No new material, no new threads, everything is a re-heated and repetition trying to please the crowds of fans without any real attempt at trying to do something good on it’s own right. There is no real reason for me to recommend it to anybody to read it.

@Smudge_Proof  
Firstly the references aren’t nearly as bad as you’re making them out to be, they aren’t “Hey do you remember this? Do you remember this!? DO YOU FUCKING REMEMBER THIS!?” at worst they’re just little easter eggs for the older fans to get with maybe a minor exchange by the characters. The stories themselves don’t rely on the references to carry them.
 
At no point did I say “How are these clowns even a threat anymore?”. Yeah, they lost but what show have we been watching for the past three years? Of course they’re going to lose and be made for a little comedy, but they were still a threat. At no point were they something not to take seriously, and may I remind you they came close to killing the mane six come issue 4.
 
They have managed to beat the mane six before, and now they can’t even do that, or fool anyone with their deceit. Except when the plot demands it in a later issue
 
You make it sound like ‘The Canterlot Wedding’ didn’t do that either, they lost because they were outnumbered despite the fact there were probably just as many changeling outside. They were all fooled by Chrysalis because they needed to fooled for the sake of the plot, at the very least Celestia should have noticed something wrong with Cadence.
 
What has happened in the first issue that had any bearing on the rest of the comic? CMC got kidnapped, and mane 6 started rescue. That. Is. All. That. Happened!
 
That’s all they needed to establish to happen. This isn’t Game of Thrones this is My Little Pony. Canon has always been rather loose, this is nothing new.
 
And just because something walks on common ground doesn’t make it a rehash.

@Trickquestion  
Let’s see how I see it.  
Makes a threat on Canterlot: Defenses raised, including the only real barrier that can stop the invasion, SA’s magic barrier. Prolonged magic use causes him headaches. Chrysalis can take her place and begin her covert control of SA without anypony able to notice.  
Mane 6: knows that the elements of harmony are potent counters to her forces. She lets the mane 6 come to Canterlot, and plays her cards so that the only pony who suspects that not everything is kosher is Twilight. Disarms the others’ suspicions. On purpose, lets Twilight see that she brainwashes SA. Twi confronts her without any solid proof. Everyone turns against Twi. Now she is free to dispose of Twilight, and nobody will miss her until it’s too late. The elements of harmony are rendered useless.

@Smudge_Proof  
Chrysalis? A master strategist? This is the same villain whose disguise was completely see through, and expressed outright shock that her plan lasted past being found out by Celestia, and apparently made a threat, despite her entire plan counting on secrecy?

@Background Pony  
No, there wasn’t much to the changelings, but they were a competent threat, and Chrysalis came off as a master strategist and manipulator to me. They have not only managed to throw all that out of the window the first issue, but they have made them into a bumbling joke, with incapable changelings and a plan that made zero sense, and the only reason it could exist was to fill out an issue. The very first one at that. So, in-universe, Chrysalis weakened her already beaten forces with a plan she apparently gave no shits about, or else she would have started with the element bearers, instead of letting them to be the last ones take. Out of universe, the readers just can’t take these fools seriously anymore. They have managed to beat the mane six before, and now they can’t even do that, or fool anyone with their deceit. Except when the plot demands it in a later issue. How didn’t these evolutionary cul-de-sacs starve to death already?
 
What has happened in the first issue that had any bearing on the rest of the comic? CMC got kidnapped, and mane 6 started rescue. That. Is. All. That. Happened!
 
And I have read the first 6 or 7 issue into the Nightmare Rarity re-hash. Stopped reading because I could find no good reason to keep reading.
 
Regarding pop-culture references: I don’t mind them when there is actual content besides it, and it’s done clever. The Star Wars scene was at the very end of the story. It did not rely on that reference when trying to be a good story. These comics do not have that. It’s just used as filler and a cheap and lazy way to be hip and please readers.

@Smudge_Proof I’m sorry I don’t see it like that (and the actual show has done things like that before too, notably the end of Return of Harmony with it’s blatant Star Wars end), besides it really isn’t that distracting, I’m sorry if it was for you. So the comic staff hasn’t gone out of line and destroyed what canon has established already.
 
And it really didn’t ruin the changelings for me either, considering there really wasn’t much too them other than ‘we’re evil and going to take over your city’.
 
@paluzna  
And the Rarity and Pinkie Pie Micros too.
 
@Smudge_Proof  
Look, I’m not going to tell you ‘your opinion is shit and you should go die slowly in a ditch. But at least give a few more issues a chance before writing it off completely. If you still don’t like it, oh well, at least you tried.  
Also this is for saying the magic word.  

@paluzna  
Thanks, I just might. I have kind of gave up on it after what I have read.

@Smudge_Proof  
you should check the crusader’s and celestia’s micro.
 
they are both pretty sweet and cute.

@paluzna  
I talk pretty much about all my issues here:  
http://comments.deviantart.com/14/3812163/3140130787

@paluzna  
I read the first 6 or 7 of the “main” ones, and 3 of the single character ones.

@Smudge_Proof  
and by the by, have you read the micro series?  
some of them dont have that much canon-medling.

@Smudge_Proof  
-pandering is intended as well.  
-filler material? my memory is fogy on that one…  
-about that ripoff… i never saw the original. so i cant opine there. (although i dont mind the ocasional reference that i do get)  
~~“the ignorance of things established in the cartoon” eh… that NMM/luna arc did anoy me a bit, but i just though of that as an AU thing.  
~~“the complete ruination of the changelings” whats the problem whit that???  
~~“The comics feel like the sad fanboy copycat re-hash” i can somwhat agree whit that, but whit less harhs words :V  
~~“Nemesis” “The Wrath of Khan” beyond the fact that khan is from star trek, i dont know WTH you are talking about.
 
maybe the fact that, either i dont know or care enough about any of those things, is what allows me to enjoyy them so much.  
you know the saying, “ignorance is bliss”
 
or maybe is just the fact that i read the pirated versions.

@paluzna  
What also bothers me is the pandering, the filler material that ultimately goes nowhere, that seems to make up most of the first issue, the big stupid rehash fight, the Shaun of the Dead ripoff (no, I don’t consider straight out copying without any added value an homage) the ignorance of things established in the cartoon, and the complete ruination of the changelings and their queen, both regarding in and out of universe. No, I am not butthurt about contradicting my precious headcanon, if you want to ask. If they have a good story and a good reason to do their thing, it’s more than all right with me, and they are absolutely not obliged.  
The comics feel like the sad fanboy copycat re-hash “Nemesis”, if the the cartoon was “The Wrath of Khan”, without any real understanding of what made the original good, if you get my reference. No ideas, no value added, nothing, just copy and paste what they think has worked in the past.
 
I swear I feel like I could do a raging Linkara style video review of these, if I had the time and energy. And screen presence.

@Background Pony  
I think you are missing my point, let me reiterate it: “Blame my sister”.  
They just turned her 1000 year old exile and madness into a stupid, out of character joke.