Hello & welcome back to the Nightmare Night celebration as we conclude our look at Tempest. Now, the previous comic and the chapter book that we looked starring Tempest were set before the events of the movie. Now, there was a bit of confusion as this is titled he Return of Tempest Shadow but it's also been listed as Tempest's Tale. I'll be going with the former title for this review. As we conclude our look at Tempest, we look at a story set after the events of the movie and how Tempest has to face the thing that she has been running away from. Her past. We've talked about this quite a bit throughout this event, Tempest as a character is someone that has both run from her past and also let it consume her. Letting her past consuming her comes from the Ursa incident and the running is part of trying to run away from her imperfection/disability. Tempest is a bit similar to Starlight in that regard, however, Tempest had matured whereas Starlight's mental growth was stuck at that of a child and that was seen, when she regressed her and Sunburst to the age of children in the tv show.
(Seriously, I could do a whole blog on what that one scene says about Starlight) However, that is a key difference between these two former foes, Starlight is broken and wears her emotions oh her proverbial sleeves so to speak whereas Tempest has suppressed her emotions because she believes that emotions are weak and this idea is even explored and somewhat refuted in this story.
Covers
Got two covers to look at here. With that outta the way, let's get started.
Issue # 67
Okay... this cover makes no sense for the comic. First off, this is set post-movie yet this cover is showing Tempest as a villain and someone that Cadance as someone to be fearful of Tempest. Which okay yeah, her and aunts were turned to statues by Tempest.
This issue shows Cadie being friendly towards Tempest and not afraid of her. So, this issue's cover doesn't really invoke anything that happens in the comic and instead seems to be selling on the popularity of MLP's newest villain. To further this point, you can look at the body language of Cadance and Tempest on the sixth page to see how cordial the Princess of Love is being with Tempest.
Maybe, the next cover will be better.
Issue # 68
Heh... well... it's mixed. It's funny and it does capture Tempest's annoyances at friendship and everything that the franchise is about but at the same time, it's not completely true to the story. As none of the Mane Six show up in the story as major characters.
Let's get onto the plot.
The Plot
We open at the Castle of Friendship as it appears that the IDW comics have contradicted the opening of season 8 as Tempest has been spending some time in Ponyville And Tempest is ready to leave and discover who she is and find her place in life. And we get a fun montage of her travels that lead her to The Crystal Empire.
I'm not sure how many of these locations shown during Tempest's travels have been seen before, I know Everfree, Appleloosa, and Chicoltgo have been featured in either the comic or the show. I can't speak to the rest. Tempest finds her way to The Crystal Empire after her two travelers tell her that if she is looking for adventure, that is where she should go and indeed she does. And you've already seen some of her interaction with Cadance and brings us to an interesting point as Cadance is rather direct as she observes Tempest's actions and comes to the realization that Tempest does not like her. And we get the answer, she doesn't hate Cadance but whether what she views Equestria to represent. Which is pretty funny and it shows that Tempest that there is power in love and friendship.
Which this leads to a really good moment from Cadie as she explains that what it is that she actually stands for.
Cadance: I understand your misgivings. Trust me, I'd be the last to argue that I'm somehow "more worthy" than another pony to be a princess. As for love, I don't think you understand it.
Tempest: Oh, boy, here comes the lecture.
Cadance: No, no lectures and no classes--I'm not Twilight. Simply put, love is not restricted to romantic between two ponies. It takes a number of forms: love of family, love of friends, love of country, love of self. It's not that my love is better, but that I have an extraordinary capacity for love that can be channeled into my magic. It makes me stronger, but beyond that, it makes those that I love stronger.
Tempest: Well, it didn't stop you from being turned to stone.
Cadance: I suppose you're right. That are things that love can't accomplish...
I cut off the rest of Cadie's line here because while it does help to set up the main story that Cadance wants Tempest to investigate an incident that has been happening outside on the edges of town but I want to focus on two facets of love that Cadie brought up.
love of friends,....love of self
The former here is perhaps the obvious one to look at with Tempest as she viewed friendship as a weakness and thought it would be the downfall of Equestria.
I saw the truth. My "friends" abandoned me when times got tough. Looks like I'm not the only one. Face it, Princess. Friendship has failed you
After the Ursa incident, Tempest turned away from friendship because she saw it as something that had hurt her as her friends had left her. We will get into that but a bit more but if you'll recall the Stormy Road review, that book suggested that Tempest had kept herself in her home because she was so ashamed of what had happened to her. As we will see, there is a bit more to this as Tempest's friends were indeed accepted into Celestia's School.
Love of self is perhaps the more interesting to look at with Tempest and quite a few reformed MLP villains save perhaps Discord as most of them after their reformation struggle with identifying who they are and part of that comes from loving oneself. To not reuse, I'll show that Sunset struggled with something akin to this in Rainbow Rocks and you can see that she is unsure of herself and that fears that people still think of her as a villain. This isn't as explored as deeply with Tempest but the general idea is there.
Now, I know that I am doing quite a bit of comparing to two of the most popular MLP villains/characters here and even stated in my Villains Profile for Tempest, that while there are similarities, all of these characters are different enough to stand on their own. That is still true but MLP does tend to have a couple of running themes with their reformed characters and I think those are crucial to bring up.
Getting back to the comic, this is when we see get to see Tempest meet the Patrol Officer and this is where the past comes back to her and not in a way is how Tempest would have wanted.
If you haven't seen the movie in a while, that's Glitter Drops. One of Fizzlepop's (Tempest's) friends from childhood that up until this point had only been seen in the flashback during Open Up Your Eyes. And while that may seem like a minor thing, this is huge to bring up as this is what starts the past of Tempest having to confront her past.
Looking at the cold setting in which this comic takes place is interesting, when one looks at the relationship or rather the lack of relationship that is going on between Tempest and Glitter as Glitter wants nothing more than to reunite with her childhood friend whereas as Tempest is being distant and cold towards the idea of reuniting with Glitter. Yes, part of it is that it's in Tempest's nature to keep her guard up. I had not brought up the weather until this moment but I think that this is a key thing to look at here in the exploration of Tempest's character at this point in her life.
Now yes, using weather to reflect how a character is feeling is a trope that as is as old as writing for fictional characters itself but it's an idea that works and if something works, stick with it. And it truly works here with Tempest to get into the mindset of what she is feeling at this particular moment and where she is. We also get something interesting here where Glitter says that it doesn't seem like that big of a case and confused as to why Cadance sent Tempest. Tempest is doing some internal narration and wondering the same and she realized that Twily was setting up some sneaky friendship lessons. And Tempest can't figure how Cadance would have figured this out. And this is where we get to a moment where Tempest's demeanor starts to rub with another pony the wrong way. And this old cowfolk makes a comment about Tempest's horn being broken and yeah...
Glitter's face there in the background there is priceless. However, as the comic continues on, we see that there is a bit more going on with Glitter as this is someone that Glitter knows and is on friendly terms with and we get an interesting line when this Mr. Icy Shanks fellow asks Glitter if Tempest is with her.
Honestly, I'm not sure
This line is small but speaks volumes to where the relationship between Glitter and her old friend is as it seems clear from where Glitter is, that she wants to be friends with the pony that she once knew as Fizzy but Tempest is a completely different pony than the one from childhood and isn't sure where the relationship stands. Tempest has had enough of the back and forth between Glitter and Icy Shanks as they are catching up and decides to head out to take care of this mission and we get more narration about how Fizzlepop, Glitter Drops and Spring Rain (the other friend) were always close until the ball they were playing with had gotten away that fateful day and led to Tempest losing her horn because of the Ursa. And we see it in flashback and there is one panel on page 17 that sums everything up from that moment and the perfect line from Tempest's narration.
I lost everything
That one shot is so somber and eerie but it helps to establish where Fizzlepop, as she was still known, was at this point and that one line puts it perfectly. Glitter catches up to her old friend and the inevitable happens as the two have a blowout.
Glitter Drops: I'm not sure if maybe you misunderstood, but we're here to help and protect these ponies.
Tempest: Don't talk to me like I don't know what I'm doing.
Glitter Drops: If I'm being honest, it didn't seem like it. You have to be a bit kinder with these ponies.
Tempest: What do you know about kindness "Dropsy"?
Glitter Drops: Nobody's called me that in years
Tempest: What--did you turn your back on Spring Rain too? Or did he leave you behind?
Glitter Drops: Spring Rain? What does he have to do with this?
Tempest: Don't pretend like you don't know
Glitter Drops: I'm not pretending. I don't see you for years, and then you show up, and you won't even talk to me. What did I do?
Tempest: What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?
The comic had slowly been building to this moment and it's a moment that in many regards, Tempest needed as Glitter is a reminder of her past. Something that Tempest thought she would never have to face again but as much as she tries to run from it, it was going to catch up with her sooner or later. In some ways, it never left her because as we've discussed she both ran from and let it consume her. The former friends have put their arguing aside as they find a trail of eaten fish that lead them to the thing that had broken the fence that started this whole mess. And oh boy, is Tempest going to get another reminder of her past. Tempest sprints ahead, even as Glitter tells her that she's getting too far ahead. And this is when we see something that we haven't seen very often with Tempest, her being scared. And here's why.
The pony pictured in this image is no longer the tough Tempest Shadow but rather the scared and frightened filly once known as Fizzlepop Berrytwist. Tempest even states that she hasn't felt a fear like this since the last time and this image as drawn by Andy Price really brings Tempest's fear to light. One of the biggest things that works greatly here in that detail is the idea of scope and proportion as for the first time in this entire issue, we see Tempest feel small and the big thing that works here there is how big the Ursa is drawn. The color choices also work to invoke the fear that Tempest is feeling as they are very dark and foreboding. And as I stated up top, at this moment, Tempest is once again Fizzlepop Berrytwist. As seeing the Ursa takes her back to the fear and pain of the day that she lost her horn. Well, that brings us to the end of this issue but not the end of this review as we still have the second part of this story to look at. Now, let's on to the second issue in this story.
Issue # 68 opens on narration from Tempest narrating that once there was a young unicorn that had lost her horn and had everything taken from her and man, the opening panel is heartbreaking.
This image and Tempest's narration about being a unicorn that had lost everything takes us back to something we discussed at the start of this event in that Tempest's horn isn't the only thing that is broken as Tempest is also broken on the inside because of losing her horn. The comic shows a flashback to when Tempest met The Storm King as seen in the 4th issue of the MLP Movie Prequel. And discusses how she learned every dirty trick there is. And that takes back to where we left Tempest in the previous issue. Before getting to that image, I want to look at Tempest's narration here
I twisted myself I did terrible things in the name of becoming strong. And when the moment came, I froze. I was still that helpless little filly in the cave. In the end, it was all for nothing.
The biggest part here is that fact that Tempest acknowledges that she at that moment is still the filly that she tried to put behind her all those years ago. This is a moment that'll never leave her but she never thought that she had to deal with this moment again. And that is the big theme of this arc, Tempest having to confront parts of her past that she thought she had left behind.
The expression on Tempest's face is perhaps the last thing that one would expect to see after seeing her in the movie. Consider how Tempest is seen in the movie as a brave and stoic soldier in The Storm King's army.
However, when we look at where Tempest is here at this moment, we are starting to see the shield that she has put up around her emotions because, in moments like this, it's hard to be brave. And this whole page helps to invoke Tempest's fear. Just as our main character is fearing for her life, Glitter comes and finds her friend and send the Ursa back from her friend.
This moment here is great as it shows these two coming back together And it's really great and heartwarming as you see Glitter caring for her friend after seeing her with the Ursa. And we get the moment that yeah, I saw coming. Tempest felt weak for being saved and causes Glitter to cry and saying that she's the one that should have gone in to get the ball.
Yeah, Tempest still doesn't get that strength can come in many shapes. And this is where things get interesting with the conservation between these two former friends.
Tempest: What?
Glitter Drops: It should have been me. We were throwing the ball. I threw it to you and you tried to catch it, it went right past you. We looked at each other for a minute. I knew I should go get it... but you went without even asking me. You were always the brave one. But it should have been me. I should have lost my horn... or worse.
Yeah, that got me crying. This moment shows something important that Tempest has failed to take in how her friend felt that day and I want to look at her narration from the eighth page of the comic.
How can I describe exactly what I felt in that moment? It's like all this time, I've been looking at a painting of a house. And then I looked at it from the side and it turned out it had another dimension. It was a house the whole time. I always looked at the cave as something terrible that did happen to me. But if I had the option of turning the tables...of sending one of my friends in there.. of Glitter Drops losing her horn instead of me... I would always choose to be one who went there.
Yeah, this arc is getting deep. The two friends makeup (yay) and head to find the bear/Ursa and we get a sweet moment of Tempest talking about the events that happened in the movie and Glitter going on about Cadance is the best (finally, someone gets it) And then we get a really cool panel that features mostly comic exclusive villains save for Sombra and Chrissy.
There, you've got Accord from the 50th issue, Mirror Celestia and Luna and one of the earliest comic exclusive villains, Nightmare Rarity. This brings us to a moment that had been needed between these two when Tempest asks her old friend why Glitter abandon her. Part of it came from guilt because they tried to include Tempest but it seemed like everything they tried to do made the young unicorn sad. The conversation has to stop for right now as they come across the Ursa and learn that the Ursa is lost and looking for its mother. And in this lost Ursa, Tempest saw herself.
And there it was. I wasn't looking at a villain or a hunter. I was looking at a kid. Lost. Alone. Abandoned by its friends.
A small line that speaks volumes from our main character here and we get to see Glitter use her skills to help this baby and we get to see Glitter be strong and conjure up a giant Mama bear. And it was this moment, that Tempest finally realized that Glitter was strong in her own way. And that led the little guy back to his Mama. And we finally find out why Glitter and Spring Rain stopped having contact with Fizzy/Tempest. They were good students back home but when they got to Celestia's school, they couldn't keep up and Glitter dropped out. Also, hi Sunset.
The comic ends with the two friends back together and Tempest reporting back to Cadance, the pony that set this all up. And at first, it seems like Tempest is angry but we get something so precious and needed with a character such as Tempest, her willing to be emotional and cry.
Okay, I'm a Cadie fan and the show hasn't been exactly been great in showing why the Princess of Love is such a wonderful character but this comic here showing her understanding of love and using it in a roundabout way to help Tempest patch up something from her past and more importantly to show her that love is not a weakness is one of the best uses of Cadie that I've seen in a while.
Characters
I'm only going to look at Tempest and Glitter here.
Tempest Shadow
This comic arc is perhaps one of the most important things for the characterization of Tempest so far after the events of the movie as it helps her to learn about the strength of love and yes, friendship. It all goes back to what Cadance said at the beginning of this arc about the importance of love of friendship and love of self. Those were two of the biggest lessons that Tempest had to learn.
Glitter Drops
Glitter Drops is an interesting character in that, this is the most characterization that we've seen of her in medium because when we first saw her, it was just in a flashback. But she is an important character to show Tempest a lesson that many people seem to not understand, you can both love and be strong. And love does make you strong.
My Final Thoughts
I'll be honest and say that Tempest was not my first choice for this year's Nightmare Night as I had originally planned on looking at Sombra but the more I thought about it, Tempest was the more interesting character. And if I'm to be honest out of all the characters that I have done an event whether it be a Nightmare Night or a character retrospective, Tempest has been the hardest one to write about. Not because she isn't an interesting character but because of how real a character she is. I'm glad I chose to write about her but oof, it wasn't always easy to find the right words. Peace!
