YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (IDW) Issue 55 to 56

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Was Spitfire objecting to Rainbow Dash cowardice, or frustration with Dash undercutting her seniority as leader?
  • Did Ember really invade Yakyakistan over the Sacred Bond, or did she do it to silence dissent over her new leadership by launching an invasion to distract from these criticisms? The latter interpretation has some credence, as she briefly mentions having trouble keeping her people in line due to their long history of burning and pillaging, and a later episode of the show demonstrated that she was having problems ruling them.
• Broken Base: The second issue is either a case of Both Sides Have a Point that manages a satisfying, Take a Third Option ending... or just a mess of everyone being unlikeable (excluding Spike) and unnecessary Happy Ending Override of "Gauntlet of Fire" and "Not Asking for Trouble".
• Padding: The story Rainbow Dash's parents tell about Dash getting over her Stage Fright comes off as this. The only plot relevant thing it does is convince Spitfire to follow Dash's lead in counterattacking the Dragons, which turns out to be ineffective anyway.
• Strawman Has a Point: Spitfire is called out as a coward for her initial refusal to fight against the dragons and insisting the Wonderbolts are not warriors. But given their abysmal success rate as warriors (including against dragons) or anything other than athletes, and that even with the Mane Six and Starlight Glimmer backing them up they were outmatched and forced to retreat, she's not entirely wrong.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The idea of the Ponies trying to broker a peace between two races they've already befriended could be a pretty interesting idea. However, as mentioned in Never Trust a Trailer, the ponies all file to the side of the Yaks and leave Spike alone to resolve the hostilities.
  • Ember offhandedly mentions that one of the reasons she's attacking the Yaks is because many Dragons are having a hard time being friendly with other races. However, this element isn't expanded upon through either Ember or any other dragon characters.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: During the finale, Spike accuses Prince Rutherford and the Yaks of being equally at fault for the war, due to their misunderstanding of their ancient texts. However, not only is this misunderstanding of an extremely ancient text a perfectly honest and relatively minor mistake, but the violation came out of the Yaks showing their appreciation to Pinkie Pie out of thanks, not ill intent towards the Dragons. Plus, while Ember claims that the "sacred bond" between yaks and dragons is "one that never would be replicated", no point does Ember point out anything in their treaty where the yaks agreed not to grant the title of "honorary yak" to any other creature. It's also hard to hold the Yaks to the same degree of responsibility, given how it was their home that was destroyed, and the resulting war was them simply defending themselves from an attack the Dragons started.