Ahuizotl: “Go figure that the Sphinx can go around demanding tributes and abducting princes while on duty and all SHE gets is a slap on the wrist! I tell you, being an important guardian creature is not all it’s cracked up to be…”

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FOOLS! You’ve fallen right into my trap! Now you shall bear witness to my Season 9 Retirement Party until you leave the page! …I guess that’s not really much of a trap. Anyway, today’s comic is based on Daring Doubt, aka: “Ahuizotl was Secretly a Good Guy the Whole Time lol: the Episode”. This was a fun episode, as Daring Do episodes tend to be, and a pretty good conclusion for the character’s show career! Between Fluttershy doing what Fluttershy does best and receiving TWO new members for the Reformed Villains Club (a club I sometimes feel like I’m the only one who actually looks FORWARD to seeing increase in number), I had a pretty fun time with this one!

The title of this comic is a reference to the finale of the Powerpuff Girls, in which Mojo Jojo, the Girls’ eternal rival and most persistent antagonist of the entire series, finally gains the means to take over the world he had sought for so long, and now with the power of the whole planet at his command… he proceeds to bring about world peace and solve pollution and stuff like that, revealing that that was his intention the entire time. It was a completely ludicrous plot twist that made absolutely no sense when going back to analyze previous episodes… but I couldn’t help but appreciate it for just how bold and out-of-nowhere it was.

In the case of Ahuizotl… I think it’s fine. He has the benefit of only having made two appearances in the past, one of which was through one of A.K. Yearling’s books (who this episode establishes may not have been the most accurate in her retellings). Looking back, I don’t think there’s anything that absolutely contradicts the idea that Ahuizotl is supposed to be an artifact guardian and is just trying to protect his stuff from Daring’s attempts to protect his stuff. …This doesn’t entirely forgive all his past actions, he’s still a bully and a brute with an unhealthy obsession with over-the-top death traps, but his motivations for doing so I think are solid.

So… yeah. This comic is late. And a mini. Here’s the thing: this week I officially started working a full-time job for the first time in my life, and WOW does that seriously eat into your free time. I made this comic a mini in an attempt to get it done on time… and even THAT didn’t work. I’ll get more adjusted to my new schedule as I go, but since I don’t just wanna make a bunch of minis to close out this series… I think the rest of the Retirement Party comics are just gonna have to happen when they happen. I feel bad about slowing down like this heading into the last few episodes, but I still plan on celebrating this finale strong. And I don’t intend to stop making pony comics anytime soon, either. They may be slower now, but I’m gonna keep this pony train rolling for as long as I can, so look forward to it!

Hope you all remember to keep your valuables secure, lest they be taken by thieves! …Who then write books portraying YOU as the bad guy somehow! On to the next episode!