When interviewing writers and artists about upcoming projects, sometimes something gets mentioned that shouldn't really be talked about until after the issue comes out.
Like for instance a deleted scene relating to the plot framing structure in FIENDship is Magic #1.
So, unfortunately those items have to be [REDACTED] until the issues are out. Fortunately though, I was always planning on releasing the redacted material.
So for your viewing pleasure, or if you just happen to be curious, you can find the unredacted sections to the interviews for FIENDship is Magic #1 and FIENDship is Magic #3 (#2 didn't have anything redacted) below the break!
From FIENDships is Magic #1 Interview
Yeah, what I found pretty interesting about Sombra is that he actually did have a little bit of characterization in the Crystal Empire, but to see it you had to sit down and really look at his episodes. Sombra didn't burn down the Crystal Empire library like any good tyrant should do. He has an unhealthy obsession with stairs. And for some reason, he likes torturing ponies within their own minds.
Jeremy Whitely: Yeah… The one
thing that I had to cut from this story—which killed me—is… This issue is done
with a little bit of a book end. When Cadance and Twilight find out about
the story that's in this issue, I wrote a sequence— [it's] where they go down into the
hidden part of Sombra's castle—where Cadence has the same experience that
Twilight does in the show. Where the gem over the door shows this other reality
to her—and I ended up having to cut it for length because it wasn't a story
about Cadence, it was a story about Sombra!
I wrote a whole two pages
where Cadence and Shining Armor are ruthless overlords of the Crystal Empire
and ... I had this idea of Cadence and Shining Armor in actual
armor and are the bad guys. I hate that that ended up getting cut. That would
have been my [way of showing] that that's what Sombra does to people. He has these
powers and he uses them to get into people's heads and screw with them.
Brenda Hickey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Agnes Garbowska: We gave the reason to why everything happened, which wasn't explained thoroughly in the show.
Ted Anderson: I didn't stick too much with the Greek or Roman mythology in the sense of them being water creatures that sung passing sailors to their death. Obviously, the music is the huge part of their story in this issue and that provides a lot of the conflict, but it’s handled in a slightly different way.
I kind of gravitated towards the conflict with Starswirl just because ... Starswirl is such a weird character. He first appears in just a random throwaway line in the Halloween episode and then suddenly—two seasons later—he's this grand mythologized figure that keeps showing up. And everywhere else we've seen him—as little as we have seen of him—he's kind of this wizened mentor and great legendary wizard character.
But in this issue, not to spoil too much, I got to put him in a situation where his magic isn't really as helpful. So, we get to see him coming up against a different sort of challenge and it made for a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun writing him doing what he does in this issue. Just because he's out of his depth, he's a little bit out of his element here.
Yeah, I don't know. The grecko-roman stuff does show up in the background, in the way the story is handled. The story takes place in ancient Equestria, and—because Equestria's timeline is just so fluid and ridiculous—we got to make it, basically, a parody of ancient Rome. So, there's the Coltosseum, and there's statues everywhere, and there's direct columns holding everything up. Agnus, you told me you kind of went crazy into the research on this.
Ted Anderson: Oh man. Don't get me wrong it’s always fun to write the ditz characters. I mean Sonata was ... She got to be kind of the one who ... I mean, calling her a ditz is doing her a disservice. She's easily distracted, she likes to have things explained to her, but she always thinking of new ways to approach things, and she's always looking for new bizarre stuff to get obsessed with. I loved having her be able to comment on the weird things that come along, and just be the odd ball of the group.
The group as a whole ... I like the idea that they were a lot less nasty to each other before they went to the Equestria Girls' world. They’re still villains, and they’re still sucking the life energy out of ponies with their diabolical song. They don't snipe at each other as much, and they’re not as mean to each other. They kind of like to get along. There just around to do what they do and that involves horrible, evil stuff.
Once they get to the Equestria Girls' universe, they don't have anyone else they can relate too because they're completely out of their element. So, they end up just re-hashing the old arguments and getting sick of each other. So by the time we see them in the movie, they’re just really awful to each other. It was fun to write the whole dynamic differently and have them be a little bit less acerbic to each other. Sonata, in particular, was fun just ‘cause she was she was the wacky, odd ball one. But the whole group was also a blast. And I know, Agnus, you said you relate a lot with Sonata.
From FIENDships is Magic #3 Interview
Ted Anderson: Yeah, they’re straight evil wacky, absolutely! It’s not their origin story ‘cause I didn't want to dive down that rabbit hole. It’s not how they were born, or created, or whatever because I don't think that's been decided by anyone yet. It’s more about how they became a threat and then get sent to the Equestria Girls' world. So little has been decided apart from, “Oh they were a threat, and Starswirl banished them.”Agnes Garbowska: We gave the reason to why everything happened, which wasn't explained thoroughly in the show.
* * *
Ted Anderson: I didn't stick too much with the Greek or Roman mythology in the sense of them being water creatures that sung passing sailors to their death. Obviously, the music is the huge part of their story in this issue and that provides a lot of the conflict, but it’s handled in a slightly different way.
I kind of gravitated towards the conflict with Starswirl just because ... Starswirl is such a weird character. He first appears in just a random throwaway line in the Halloween episode and then suddenly—two seasons later—he's this grand mythologized figure that keeps showing up. And everywhere else we've seen him—as little as we have seen of him—he's kind of this wizened mentor and great legendary wizard character.
But in this issue, not to spoil too much, I got to put him in a situation where his magic isn't really as helpful. So, we get to see him coming up against a different sort of challenge and it made for a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun writing him doing what he does in this issue. Just because he's out of his depth, he's a little bit out of his element here.
Yeah, I don't know. The grecko-roman stuff does show up in the background, in the way the story is handled. The story takes place in ancient Equestria, and—because Equestria's timeline is just so fluid and ridiculous—we got to make it, basically, a parody of ancient Rome. So, there's the Coltosseum, and there's statues everywhere, and there's direct columns holding everything up. Agnus, you told me you kind of went crazy into the research on this.
* * *
Ted Anderson: Oh man. Don't get me wrong it’s always fun to write the ditz characters. I mean Sonata was ... She got to be kind of the one who ... I mean, calling her a ditz is doing her a disservice. She's easily distracted, she likes to have things explained to her, but she always thinking of new ways to approach things, and she's always looking for new bizarre stuff to get obsessed with. I loved having her be able to comment on the weird things that come along, and just be the odd ball of the group.
The group as a whole ... I like the idea that they were a lot less nasty to each other before they went to the Equestria Girls' world. They’re still villains, and they’re still sucking the life energy out of ponies with their diabolical song. They don't snipe at each other as much, and they’re not as mean to each other. They kind of like to get along. There just around to do what they do and that involves horrible, evil stuff.
Once they get to the Equestria Girls' universe, they don't have anyone else they can relate too because they're completely out of their element. So, they end up just re-hashing the old arguments and getting sick of each other. So by the time we see them in the movie, they’re just really awful to each other. It was fun to write the whole dynamic differently and have them be a little bit less acerbic to each other. Sonata, in particular, was fun just ‘cause she was she was the wacky, odd ball one. But the whole group was also a blast. And I know, Agnus, you said you relate a lot with Sonata.
Twitter: The Illustrious Q
