Spike At Your Service - Initial Thoughts

Just finished watching the new Spike episode. I wanted to get the other reviews done before, but oh well.

This... I hate to have jinxed it, but this was the worst episode of the season. Not Mare Do Well worst, but, not solid. As a standalone episode, it's not bad. Lot's of slapstick, some drama, a funny resolution, good animation. But, this completely wrecks continuity. As in, it doesn't feel like it should be a part of the canon. It's... like the Mare Do Well for Spike. Let's see who wrote this...

I'm Spike, the new Derpy

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!? Merriwether, you just redeemed yourself in Wonderbolts Academy. What the hell? You take the two worst MLP writers and you end up with... not as bad of a shitshow as it could have been. I mean, there were worse episodes.

Actually, all the Mane 6 were in character, now that I think about it. Pinkie had a crazy plan (finally got to see the mustache scene from the promos in context), which is very in-character for her to have convoluted Rube Goldenberg-like ideas. Fluttershy's response to what she would do if she had Spike as her slave was to ignore it an hope it went away on its own. Very Fluttershy. Twilight engrossed in a book so much she tuned out Spike was in-character. Rarity saying she would fully take advantage of slave!Spike was something she actually has dome before. And RD's mention of her novel was actually a logical build on her new book hobby. She would totally write a self-insert too. And AJ was in-character too. Her main gripe was not that Spike was messing things up, although I'm glad she said that out loud, but it was having her friend in debt. Well, maybe if Spike wasn't such a terrible assistant, would she still mind? I'd say she would, although, she might have been more reluctant to get rid of him. There she would have felt guilty. Instead, we're given Spike fucking around all the time.

Where did Spike being terrible at this job come from? It's never even hinted at in previous episodes that he's clumsy. I mean, it's not like he was doing only farm chores, which I could see him mess up. He knows how to cook, that's canon, so why does he mess up the kitchen like that? Or burn the pie? He's mopped the library before without knocking over the bucket, so what the hell? I could understand knocking over the apple baskets due to sheer excitement, which was funny (kinda like Twi knocking over Zecora's cup in Magic Duel), but the rest? Come on, the rest of Spike was actually in character. Trying to live up to being a dragon was explored in Dragon Quest (another Merriwether ep), so the idea of a Noble Dragon Code was kosher. Him needing to be needed was also canon. He loves being Twilight's assistant, so his eagerness was spot-on. Hell, even his keen mind with figuring out the ruse and rainman-like counting of the grass wouldn't be OOC. It seems like the only thing that was weird and out of character was the retarded amount of slapstick. Who the f-

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE!

Dave Polsky, you are hereby demoted to worst writer. Merriwether, I'm so sorry for doubting you. You done did good.

Honestly, if you cut out only the slapstick, you actually would have had a stronger episode. As I mentioned above, AJ would have felt guilty about abusing her friend's goodwill and then it would have been more about that instead of Spike being worst assistant. Seriously, looking at the ep by itself, it's hard to tell if AJ wanted to get rid of Spike due to his clumsiness or guilt about the life-debt. Unfortunately, the slapstick wasn't a one-off gag in the beginning, but a recurring and focused part of the episode.

I thought the Timberwolves were cool, especially now that we finally got a good look at them. I mean, when AJ hit one with a rock and it went down like a punk, I was all "AJ, you just merked that dude! You so gangsta." I mean seriously, they showed an onscreen death. Then, looking at the remains, I guessed they were constructs, so not technically death, maybe? Then they regenerated. And at the end they reformed (pretty quickly!) into a mega wolf. Holy shit, think about that. We were told in the first episode that the Everfree was dangerous and that everypony is scared to go in. They then proceeded to show that it was dangerous for the rest of the series, this just adding to that. Think about it, these ponies are living next to immortal constructs that hunger for pony flesh. Well, maybe they are territorial, so that's why they don't just wipe out Ponyville. Equestria is a dangerous land. And yet, they still keep their heads up. Rock on, Ponyville, rock on.

Anyway, AJ was pretty cool through the episode, I even declared her best poni.

So, overall grade... I really want to like this, and without the bullshit non-canon clumsiness it could have been a 9/10, but as it stands it's a 3/4.