Welcome to a new edition of Pony Media and we check out the second comic to Melowy. I know it has been a long time that we did anything related to ponies as November 2018 was the last time. With my recent job and other issues are really keeping away from posting my latest content. The second edition of Melowy originally released last October and continued the tale of the Main Five. A fashion club is being held at the Neon Forest as try outs begin. Electra gets excited and wants to enter but is unsure she is fit for the Fashion Club. After receiving some encouragement from her friends to go to the try outs with Selena, Electra enters. However, Eris has other plans as she found a new magical artifact capable of taking color from anything and anywhere. With this new artifact, Eris plans to use it to sabotage Electra and Selena in the competition. However, Circe is involved in this and seems to have bigger plans beyond Eris' own as the Ruler watches from afar. Instead of the plot revolving around Cleo discovering her magic, as mentioned, it's about exploring Electra and Selena. As you can tell this is going to act as a filler issue since Eris gets involved. The story focuses mainly on Electra and Selena as they enter the fashion club. Electra has some doubt about herself and her talent as a fashionista. Of course, her friends gave their usual encouragement which does play a role later in the plot. Before Eris caused any damages I did enjoy the usual girl fight scuffle as they fought over the object. Of course they have to drop it at the same time in their typical drama which got a chuckle out of me. Once the Neon Forest including almost everyone became black and white, that's when she remembers her friend's words. One of the interesting takes from this is how Electra used her power of light by herself to destroy the forbidden object. It shows that Electra's special light magic is getting stronger without needing Cleo's unique abilities. The fashionista's character grew from the lesson she learned from her friendship with the Main Five. Even though this focused more on Electra however, the other girls still received their own moments. Cleo still continues questioning her origins on whether she is a true Melowy as the thought lingers. The girl reads a book about a young dragon being lost in his world and feels like he doesn't belong. Cleo tries to find a sense of belonging and forms some relation to the character she reads about through this chapter. Her doubt is very relatable to me in most cases, and it's often true for some people to feel like they don't belong anywhere. It's obvious Cleo is trying to cope with the mystery as this continues eluding her. Cora however has seemed to developed a new way to use her ice powers. In the Main Five's private lounge, she implemented mediation to cause her sitting area to snow. That actually plays a key part later when Cleo uses that special power to connect to Maya so the girls could use mediation to make the sky rain. The girls did this to restore the Neon Forest's river bank to its natural blue color. I just love how the Main Five are still learning many ways to develop their magic. The next one comes from Maya and she still is having a hard time studying on the school's many subjects. It's a minor gag (the panel art exaggerated the book's size when she held it) and this plays to Maya's personality. Eris is a personality I have enjoyed since the last issue even though the girl was in a few scenes. She is basically the Trixie of this series but in her own arrogant way. Similar to Trixie, Eris also plans to cause trouble with the Main Five when she discovered a magic paint brush. However, this paint brush filled with dark magic has enough power to take any color way from the world. She gets the idea to sabotage using the artifact's dark powers of stripping colors away. The one thing about her sabotaging is the way the rivaled Melowy first denies her wrong doing until seeing the damages on the Neon Forest. It was hard to deny she screwed up badly and before the Main Five could fix this Eris already blamed herself. As I said in the last review, Eris isn't bad but misguided and mischievous to the point that its more of an annoyance to the main characters. In the end she admitted in shame of her wrong doing and we see Eris get redeemed for this action. Her redemption isn't the best I have seen from a character like this but it's as decent as Juniper Montage's own from EQG. Now, the most entertaining aspect of this Melowy is that same scrunched grimace she makes when around any of the Main Five. There was even a panel with a close up shot of Eris holding the brush and would highlight her mischievous expression perfectly thanks to the dark glow. It's these expressions that define her character as self-centered and arrogant but instead of being annoying this felt entertaining. As for the side characters, remember when Ariadne mentioned the gardener from the last issue. Well, he plays the teacher part this time and his character came off better than I imagined. He plays the act of being a humble pony who works hard, but I enjoyed the way they showed his competence at the end when speaking with Gia. Ben felt as important as Ariadne in his own way and Courtney knows how to write the background ponies. I honestly got that FIM quality from the new characters they showed here. On another note, it's interesting for Ben to refer another Melowy as a person instead of a pony. I mean this is a different verse of ponies from those of Equestria in FIM. The thing about his comment is it was a down to earth statement and not something like "every pony" or rather "every creature" as stated in MLP. I never understood why they couldn't say any or everybody in MLP when the ponies and the other species are people still just like humans. I'm glad Courtney didn't try to follow the same trend we see so often in FIM. I rather she keeps it simple by saying people or person instead of forcing a term on to the characters. That leads us to Flora the Melowy that put this contest together and hosts the event. Unlike Ben, she didn't play much of a role just like Leda one of Eris's two friends or Xeni (that single mare who passed the test in the forest from the last story). However, just like any background pony none of them have to contribute to the plot. All they have to do is the little things like a side job or a hobby within the scenes without it being mentioned. At times, these tiny moments can help explain their personalities without any dialogue being said from them. As for Flora think of her as an excited Tree Hugger mixed in with Fluttershy's calm attitude. The art from Ryan Jampole is once again used and as always looks amazing from every panel. I can't find one bad panel in this entire comic as everything fantasy themed just comes to life. The Neon Forest looked beautifully drawn with sparkle leaves on the tree tops and bright neon colored bark. That really brought that FIM fantasy element to the environment's art. One of the few things I always loved about Ryan's work is the attention to detail in the other environments. In one panel there was a great shot of the front side of Destiny and its statues. Its small details like these that help give an example of the culture in some form. I find that a little similar to how DHX created the pony statues in the Canterlot Castle's maze gardens. One of the key highlights is darkening the eyes around Ben when he speaks to either Cleo or Gia seriously in two scenes. I can't get enough of how well Ryan showed Ben's seriousness of the situation by putting a shade effect around his eyes. The reason this effect worked so well is because it highlights his competence about the severity Aura might be in against these hidden villains. The only thing that annoyed me is the plot as it felt like your typical filler episode we see so often within a season. The story was pretty good for what the author had in mind as the characters had good writing. It's the fact I have to wait five to six months for the next issue only to get a filler story. With that said I hated the way Eris got redeemed early. It's true Eris became humbled and felt guilty for the actions committed by her when seeing the damages on the Neon Forest. However, Courtney should’ve built the arc a little better by waiting for the next time when she causes trouble. In FIM this took Trixie's second encounter with the Mane Six to finally understand the damage she would've done after Twilight helped take the Alicorn Amulet off her. My point is this came off rushed and I doubt Eris would suddenly get it the first time of making a mistake in using forbidden magic. Another reason for such a thought is she's going to act self-centered in some form come the next issue (based on the cover). The next chapter involves a Megas (male Melowy) named Toby from the Night Realm and his crush on Cleo. Now, she goes back to her old ways despite supposedly getting redeemed in this issue all because of a boy. My biggest issue comes from no world building of Aura and its four different realms. The writer needed to take the time to explore this world further beyond Destiny. Courtney should've written the competition in the Spring Realm considering it's a fashion theme event. All the author had to do is slowly explain the area's history and current events as the characters go through their scenes. Unfortunately, we get none of this when it takes place solely at the school. Yes, Circe is the Ruler's spy according to the last volume and plotted the newest scheme for her master. However, with no hints dropped to whom he or she is and what the true motive this villain has in store needed a further explanation. Another small point I should make comes from the book titles as they have the most generic stock names. It might come off too much of a problem for me but the tiny details can explain a world's pop culture. In one scene, Cleo is reading a story about a young dragon called "The Lost Dragon" trying to find its place. However, its title sounded generic as if no thought went into it. The same thing happened with the book titled "Objects of Dark Magic" when Cleo and Cora go to the library to find out more about the paint brush. In FIM and EQG, not only do fictional books like Darling Do have unique names but so do the magical and historical books. Like I said, it's the tiny details that can add to the background of a story's world in many ways. It worked so much in FIM and EQG that Darling Do and Power Ponies could work as a single sub series. Courtney needs to work on these background elements so Aura could have some defined features to its world. The second chapter might have felt like the usual filler but this still progress the story. The Main Five's ability with magic continues growing by developing different ways to perform spells. Electra showcased this prominently without needing assistance from Cleo's special magic. All it took was the words of her friends' encouragement to provide enough strength to destroy a powerful dark artifact. Even Cleo and Maya with the advice of Cora helped learn a new way to perform their powers. Eris' personality continues as a favorite of mine due to how comical she's comes off in her drama. She did play the antagonist (with Circe being the true villain here) by using a dark paintbrush however, once things got out of control is when the realization hit Eris. The redemption got written too early but her character still learned something about using forbidden artifacts. The only problems arise from Eris' early redemption as this should've been saved for the next chapter. Even though Trixie in the first season of FIM didn't do anything wrong aside boasting lies, it took using the Alicorn Amulet to get redeemed for her actions. That's why I compare Eris to Trixie because their personalities are almost similar. Then we have the tiny details, and Courtney needs to apply more creativity in this area regarding the book titles within the backgrounds. As mentioned, FIM had such elements in its writing even in the first season. I don't understand what stopped the author from being creative towards the little things in the background. For a filler chapter, the story was very good and enjoyable as the characters progressed from their experiences. Rating: 8.1/10 Very Good
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RETRO GAMER
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