Anonymous made villains of latest IDW comic, and it doesn't even make sense


At the outset, few were expecting much from the least-liked writer on the IDW My Little Pony team Ted Anderson, with his latest release of the Equestria Girls Holiday Special. But, after months of an ongoing feud with fans over his inflammatory actions, readers were in for a surprise. The comic made even less sense than we could have expected, and Ted decided to make "Anonymous" the villians.

Let's start with the "do you even watch the show" issues. First and foremost is this scene, where Sunset Shimmer is completely unaware what happens at slumber parties, despite the fact that she was present at the one seen in Rainbow Rocks.


Next is this bolded typo, There is no "e" in "Maud".


Many people took issue with the artwork (which was actually Tony Fleecs doing).


But the issues with the writing continued to compile throughout the story, overshadowing the artstyle. Issues like "why would videos of the girls dancing, singing, and wearing silly clothing be embarrassing, when that is literally the plot of the entire franchise?"

All of that is small potatoes when it becomes clear that not only is this comic riddled with holes, it's also lifted directly from an already existing episode of the show - Ponyville Confidential - where the cutie mark crusaders ruin people's lives by publishing their secrets. This comic is the exact same story, except instead of a dead-medium like a newspaper, it's a blog.

Also, unlike Ponyville Confidential, where the issues of anonymity are nuanced and only hinted at indirectly, Ted goes at like a caveman, outright calling the big meanie publishers "Anon-A-Miss".


The CMC frame Sunset Shimmer as being Anonymous because they can, and then the Mane 6 shun her and bring her to tears YET AGAIN because apparently they learned nothing in the movie about not doing that.



Anonymous keeps posting people's secrets and tears the entire community apart, because apparently ignorance is preferable to truth (in one frame we see Diamond Tiara discover that Silver Spoon stole jewelry from her, and yet it's supposed to be a bad thing that Anonymous alerted her to a serious crime). 



The prolonged, ill-conceived monologue against Anonymous bloggers continues for the duration of the comic, until the very end where it is revealed that it was, of course the CMC who were the ones posting everyone's secrets. The fact that Pony Twilight didn't see the parallels and inform Sunset of them, again begs numerous questions about the logic involved.


Then, the biggest middle finger to the readers of all comes, when after a nonstop barrage of the awfulness that Anonymous was supposedly causing, they are forgiven literally instantly for it. As-in, the very next frame.


So, what are the morals here? That it's okay to persecute the innocent until proven guilty? That you should forgive family member's crimes no matter how severe, instantly? That even if Anonymous bloggers do something good, it's actually bad because they're anonymous? This book was an absolute mess all the way around. 


Sunset Shimmer never even received an apology from the Mane 6 for their shitty actions, The only apology she receives is from the CMC, not from Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie. But the biggest WTF of all comes in this frame:


Sunset Shimmer LIVES IN THE LIBRARY. The same way that Twilight Sparkle did in the first movie and almost did in the second. 
SHE'S HOMELESS. Her "friends" either don't know or don't care, and we know that Sunset has been in the human world for years at this point. It doesn't make any sense, and we are glad it's over.


Attempts to get a comment from Ted Anderson about the connection between "Anon-a-Miss" and Anonymous bloggers were unsuccessful.

Comments (77)

  1. God. Oh God. There's... There's an EQG comic? I can't believe this shit has slipped by me. How is that a thing? Who allowed it? Why?

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    1. really? THATS what you took out of this?

      Delete
    2. There was one last year too, and while it wasn't very good, it didn't suck nearly as hard as this one does.

      Delete
  2. Wow, it's even worse than I thought. I already knew that it lifted the plot from Ponyville Confidential and also copied stuff from Rainbow Rocks, but I didn't know how badly everyone forgets everything they learned in RR. It's like Anderson took a look at the show and though that one of it's flaws (the tendency to forget previous lessons) is one of it's strongest points.

    And of course, the "bullies" aren't bullies but kids, who didn't know better, which would be fine and dandy, if the story wasn't supposed to be about bullying. And of course, they are quickly forgive, as if they barely did anything wrong. I'm sure that this sends a great message.

    It takes a special kind of incompetence to make a story about bullying that sugarcoats the issue. And while I didn't expect much and it's popular right now to hate on him, I didn't expect Ted Anderson to be that incompetent. But here, he really shows that it doesn't need any SJW-bullshit for him to show that he is a unskilled hack.

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    1. The thing about the CMC is that they aren't kids, they're high school freshman, or at the very least, junior highers. They don't have the "didn't know any better" excuse, they knew EXACTLY what they were doing.

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  3. IDW condoning online bullying if it's done with "good intentions"? This is such a surprise...

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    1. His logic there and supporting DragonDicks really do go hand and hand.

      Delete
    2. I've never seen Ted's work before, but if this is the shit he puts out, now I can see why his work is so polarising (why there are people on the other side of the fence over his work quality, I have no fucking clue).

      Delete
    3. It's weird because at least in Ponyville Confidential the CMC were being blackmailed and when they were found out the other ponies were really pissed off (and in the show they can't be older than 10). Bit here they're 14 year olds who don't really have much reason to do this and don't even face repercussions. I don't even like the episode Ponyville Confidential!!

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    4. Stop playing like you channers dont condone online bullying yourselves.You guys are such hypocrites about it that yo ucall it freedom of speech

      Delete
  4. Has anyone ever read the Star Trek comic series IDW publishes based on the new movies? It's basically the same thing as this. Take something written by a better writer and make it shit. Maybe that's just IDW's policy now?

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    Replies
    1. This is not a fair comparison, as it is objectively impossible to write something worse than the last Star Trek movie.

      Delete
    2. No, I just meant, almost every issue in that series is an episode of TOS with the new cast drawn into it. Occasionally there's slight differences.

      Delete
  5. I don't give two shits about a dumb sjw cameo, but name misspellings (you'd think someone would've proofread that), ripping a plot from an episode, and anon shaming? That's some pretty shitty authorship to me. Seems like Ted's expressing his complaints through his work, and doing it pretty poorly. I think I'd vote him off the island now.

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    Replies
    1. Ripping off shit and anon shaming? Chris-chan should pick up Teddy to write for his comics.

      Delete
  6. I honestly think that even if the feud with him never happened that there would still be an article like this criticizing how bad the writing in this was, because it really, honestly is that bad.

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  7. http://tardlyanderson.tumblr.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...the actual Ted Anderson started following TardlyAnderson...

      Delete
    2. I like the bullet points on the first post:

      > The CMC sure are quick to frame Sunset despite forgiving her by the end of Rainbow Rocks
      > Did Sunset hit her head? She seemed to understand Slumber Parties pretty well in the movie.
      > Despite that whole ‘Magic of Friendship’ thing, everyone seems pretty quick to turn on Sunset.
      > How could Sunset live in the library? Aside from the fact that the others seemed appalled at the idea of Twilight spending ONE night there in the movie, in the first movie, if they were both there in a quiet library, Sunset would have certainly heard Twilight.
      > It’s spelled Maud. It’s in the fucking episode title.
      > Does Silver Spoon ever get any actual punishment for robbing her friend?
      > And, of course, the biggest flaw of all. A cyberbully trying to write a story about cyberbullies being bad. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, dude.

      Delete
  8. Forgiveness is a magic spell that restores your sense of trust and esteem toward your offender, and totally doesn't put the needs of others over your own long-term happiness. It's not like i have to actually -feel- forgiveness for it to have any positive effect.

    Such a coincidence that this moral comes from someone who has demonstrated—time and again—that he doesn't deserve forgiveness.

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  9. I was considering buying some comics but now I'm definitely keeping my money.
    Clearly the quality isn't there with this author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This might legitimately be the worst-written MLP comic IDW has ever put out. Oh, I know, there are some strong fucking contenders, but even still, I think this one's a clear winner.

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  11. I forget the name, but there was a Lifetime made for tv movie with this exact plot. /tv/ freaked out about it once, it's the one where the girl tries to kill herself with pills and screams "I CAN'T GET THE CAP OFF!"

    ReplyDelete
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    1. You're talking about "Cyberbully".

      Delete
    2. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fStdkvn4tnw here you go. The weirdest part is that she doesn't dive after the pills that were knocked onto the floor but instead shouts "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

      Delete
  12. When did Chris Chan become a writer at IDW?

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  13. I hope the next EG comic -- written by anyone else, even a new writer -- retcon's Mr. Anderson's mistreatment of Sunset as her having gone through a nightmare, and nothing more.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, honestly that'd be the best thing to do.

      Delete
    2. Or better yet, have there be something in the next movie that makes it clear this one couldn't have happened.
      Granted, the movies we already have have enough in them to contradict this one's canonicity.

      Delete
  14. The art is so bad, I legitimately thought this was a fan comic before reading the article.

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  15. But Liki, that's retarded. The holiday special's ART was released back in AUGUST, which means the script was locked in at that point. Changes can be made to little things in the back and forth that occurs between the artist, writer and editor, but they are always a bit of a hassle and would require ALWAYS approval from the Ed and the execs at Hasbro.

    The first controversy of his, DragonDicks, occured in the Annual, released a month LATER in SEPTEMBER. So he wrote this crap before ANY Of the criticism people gave him, for ANY reason, so it can't be a response to that.

    ---------
    But then, what about Katie's little cartoon jabbing at people expecting a 'complex' plot in the last issue of Reflections with evil twins? How would she know ahead of time to do that, if not in response to criticisms that came out after the release of the first or second issue? Surely that would mean time would be more than enough for Ted to change or add shit too?

    Or what if it was Ted's response to criticism Katie and Andy had received from /mlp/ in the distant past?

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    1. Point is Liki, are you sure you aren't reading too far into this about us? Or that maybe you're thinking we're mor e significant than we actually are? I mean most of the criticism is from users on the actual IDW boards, not /mlp/.

      Delete
    2. Nice damage control, Ted.

      Delete
    3. In the end, it doesn't change it from being a shit job from everyone involved.

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    4. Listen, it doesn't matter if this comic has anything to do with the controversy surrounding Ted himself. You could take that out of the picture and this would still look like a jab at anonymity in general. Anderson's SJW leanings are coming through loud and clear.

      Delete
    5. SJWs have nothing to do with this. Anderson is just a childish prick using a product as a soapbox to get revenge on people who are mean to him, just like Anthony Burch or Christian Weston Chandler.

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    6. 3:02, you are right. But this being a jab at us after the things we've told him recently is not true. That's still the case. So that shouldn't be in the article. That's the point here.

      Delete
    7. Lookit this. Heather Breckel confirms, done before DD was even a thing.

      Granted that's from inside the company, not an entirely independent confirmation, but one only needs to look through EqD or the other blogs to see that the art preview for this dungheap was released 6 August, way before any criticism of Ted, which started with DragonDicks Annual 2014, released on the 24 September. So the script was written by Ted before that.

      Even the possibility that there were changes to make the name Anon-a-Miss later on wouldn't be plausible as it would require too and fro from the executives, and Bobby the Editor at IDW, which makes it too much of a hassle to be worth, especially as they want explanations for each change and ESPECIALLY considering Bobby told him to keep his head down after Dragondicks, any sort of obvious dig made after the controversy like that wouldn't have been approved by him.

      So Ted must've written it before Dragondicks, and changes after the dragondcks scandal can't be very likely because they'd be hassle, especially with a wary editor.

      So it is definitely not in response to criticisms from /mlp/ Bronies over Dragondicks, which is his first slip up, or any others afterwards.

      You only have to look and see the release dates of the previews, etc. etc.
      Basic factchecking.
      Either Liki forgot to do that or she's a clickbaiter.

      http://www.roundstable.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6734&start=40

      Delete
    8. Except he's been friends with Dragondicks for a while now. People got a little pissed when he posted pictures of himself in her shirt. It's entirely possible this was done because of people 'harassing' Dragondicks. He probably made the villain 'Anon-y-Miss' in defense of her.

      Delete
  16. Wow, to think I was considering buying the comic. I hope not even people at Round Stable are defending this train wreck.

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    1. leddit is normally positive on the comics too, and they're really hating on this one

      Delete
    2. Nope, not even the freaks from Round Stable couldn't praise this repulsive waste of time as usual: http://www.roundstable.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6734&start=40

      And as usual, Curnow hasn't said a thing about the feedback, but Sprite already has deleted comments that criticrized the comic a bit too much: http://boards.idwpublishing.com/3/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=20127&sid=425dadb21a2022d9f375fbc7b21dbcae&start=15

      Delete
    3. To be fair the comment he deleted was from otakuX and that guy is a crazy sperg.

      Delete
    4. To be even more fair, his comment was 100% accurate but Sprite used the "Tone argument" bullshit excuse to delete it and get rid of an opinion that was making them feel unconfortable.

      Delete
    5. OtakuX is STILL sperging over ponies? Is he also still threatening to kill himself and wiping his blog every time someone doesn't take the canon of a little girls cartoon dead serious?

      (captcha: ponei)

      Delete
    6. "This wasn't about headcanon. I have nothing against that. What I hate is people just ignoring canon entirely. Ignoring something for your headcanon is one thing, but acting like the show isn't canon with itself is just ridiculous. And I honestly have NOTHING else in my life anymore besides MLP. And he just showed me that nobody else cares about that, so it must not be worth it. And without that, I have nothing else. So it's either lay in my bed for the next 50 years, or take a shortcut. "

      So the answer is yes.

      Delete
    7. Is there a way we can get the comments again? Wayback?

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    8. Except that's not the whole thing. That was one person harassing another person who was already close to suicide from depression and egging them on. You're taking one minor aspect of a larger problem and acting like it's the entire issue.

      Delete
  17. Well that was shit. So are we all agreed that this is the worst comic yet? And not just because of this Ted Anderson crap.

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    1. Tony Fleecs' shit art also played a big role on it.

      Delete
  18. Well, even Heather "Dry Cunt" Breckel thought that Ted's Anon-y-miss joke was a bad move.
    http://www.roundstable.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6734&start=40

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    1. Holy shit, look at this:

      http://media.tumblr.com/37a48b5a29a292c101871acaec56cd19/tumblr_inline_ngpimtSHSo1r2tufi.jpg

      Laugh at how old the browse looks and MySpace references are, then look at that avatar. The art looks considerably different, doesn't it? As if the artist just copied and pasted something from the movies instead of actually drawing it themselves.

      But of course, this issue is completely free of ripping stuff off, so that's obviously not the case.

      Delete
    2. And not only that, she agrees with what I've been saying FURTHER UP, that it's NOT IN RESPONSE TO THE THINGS WE'VE BEEN LEVELLING AT TED, BECAUSE THE SCRIPT WAS COMPLETE BEFORE ANY OF OUR CRITICISMS WERE EVER LEVELLED AT HIM.(and changing tiny things, like the posters name, to Anon-a-Miss would involve more hassle, more back/forth between Hasbro, the editor, and so on, so it wouldn't be worth it, so it can't have been done in post).

      Thank you.

      Delete
    3. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure seems like somepony is reaching pretty haaaard to defend a shit comic!
      If you even ARE a pony ........... *grabs his face and pulls it off revealing* IRON SHILL!

      Delete
  19. This story makes a hekuva lot more sense as taking place between the movies. Assuming they're high school seniors in both EqG (fall formal) and EqG2:RR (spring fling), they'd have GRADUATED if this was the winter after. The school still being grumpy at Sunset in RR would also make sense if this incident added fuel to those flames. However, the interuniversal communication makes it impossible to time it thusly. Let's just declare it ultra-noncanon and move on.

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    1. Or let's continue to mock Anderson for being an incompetent, plagerizing hack who copy/pastes stories to stick it to people who are mean to him on the internet.

      Yeah, let's do that instead.

      Delete
    2. Can't we do both?

      Delete
  20. Just gonna say that the "get in, we're going shopping" thing may have been a mean girls reference originally, but I do recall dragondickhead making some art with that line as well, and we all know how ted lurves that spergtastic twat.

    So whatever. Comic still sucks regardless.

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    1. So he's being a nice guy to try to bang an ugly-as-fuck drag queen who's dating another ugly-as-fuck drag queen. Wow.

      Hey, someone tell Teddy his totally-not-gay fantasy isn't going to work out because dickosphere is already dating someone and probably isn't even into other dudes. Watch how quick Dick's OC gets turned into a villain.

      Delete
    2. Bit transphobic, that.

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    3. I like how you kids pretend you're not obsessed with DD and Ted, but here you are writing elaborate fanfic where you ship them together.

      Delete
    4. Actually, it's far worse than that. Dradgondick's comic uses the same terminology as Mean Girls, thus making a completely normal and funny reference. The original line being "Get in, loser! We're going shopping!" In order to make the comic joke work, it should have been Sunset doing it, especially since calling her supposed friends 'loser' ironically would be a pretty Sunsetty thing to do and make the texts seem all the more suspicious. Just plainly saying "Get in, we're going shopping' in the same tone as a harried mom falls flat. That's right. DD has a better handle on comedy and properly referencing than Ted fucking Anderson. Cuteosphere would legitimately have written a better comic. No really, sit down one day and read through all the pony art posts on both tumblrs, then come back to this. She understands half of the cast better than he does (namely her waifus buttershy and pronk) http://dragondicks.tumblr.com/post/87817473240/goth-ponies-are-a-borderline-illegal-amount-of-fun

      Delete
    5. @Randi Harper
      Just more reasons to not support the hacks at IDW if you ask me.

      @17:48
      He's the one that bought her merch and put her OC in. Teddy's setting it all up for us. Go blame him if you must.

      Delete
  21. I was just waiting for this comic to hit the stands so I could come over here and see an article full of sobbing and crying over the fact that Ted still has a job.

    You manbabies did not disappoint. Have fun getting angry at a children's comic book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If the entire fandom killed themselves in despair tomorrow and Ted was crowned King of the Universe, this comic would STILL suck and Ted would STILL be an unskilled hack. The fact that he's also an SJW cunt and doesn't deserve to have a job is irrelevant to that fact.

      Now go back to the Round Stable.

      Delete
    2. Actually even the fags from The Round Stable disliked this comic.

      Delete
    3. "And doesnt deserve a job" Who are you to decide who is worhty of a job or not,certainly not a bunch a millenials who see themselves as the Internet police

      Delete
    4. Not a millenial, faggot.

      And he doesn't deserve a job because he's A) terrible at it, as this comic demonstrates, B) unsuited to write for its audience, because he actively shows contempt for a significant number of them, and C) is bringing IDW bad PR by his mere continued association with them, costing them even MORE sales at a time when they're already losing them in droves anyway. And if we're allowed to consider moral reasons, I'd add an optional D) he's an awful human being.

      If I were his boss, this comic would've made me fire him even if I AGREED with his SJW fuckery.

      Now again, fuck off back to the Round Stable.

      Delete
    5. And as an afterthought, I also resent the implication that you discount people's opinions based on age, because I've met twelve-year-olds who are smarter than most of people defending Anderson.

      Delete
  22. There's no way this was written in response to the DD controversy, because comic books are written 6-8 months before they are published. That way the company has time to advertise it and include a plot summary in its solicitations. Yeah, last minute changes can happen, but they cost the publisher extra money, so it's not done unless it's absolutely needed.

    Not to say that it's a GOOD comic, mind you, but anyone in these comments saying that this book is about the Tumblr fiasco is an idiot.


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    Replies
    1. Because we haven't known about who that stupid twat is for like 3 years already amirite?

      Delete
  23. That's funny, because Anonymoose today is nothing but "we r leejun" SJW white knights.

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  24. In actual fact, the joke is on us - we identify with Anonymous as being a representative of the anti-establishment, and thus give him a personage,when in fact he's supposed to represent no one.

    Weird.

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  25. I went through the same problem, someone was gossiping secrets and everyone accused me for it

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  26. I find it perplexing that the latest IDW comic portrayed anonymous characters as villains without a coherent rationale. It seems like a missed opportunity for meaningful storytelling. Perhaps a more nuanced approach could have been taken, resonating better with readers and avoiding stereotypes. Such narrative choices reflect the importance of thoughtful storytelling, even in the realm of NYC publishers.

    ReplyDelete