MLP Reviews #4: Secret of my Excess

MLP Review 4 Secret of My Excess

Intro
Today is a special day for Twilight Sparkle, a very special day indeed. Too important, no distractions.
It is reshelving day! She takes all of her books and organizes them the way she sees most fit.
However, Twilight is distracted by the one and only Spike. This causes Twilight to lose her concentration and all the books fall to the floor. His birthday is coming up and he is excited about this gem he has kept for months – waiting for it to ripe. Of course, Spike is blissfully unaware that he caused the mess. This is going to be a Spike episode. Wonder what we are going to get out of it? Right now, the episode starts with what I imagine to be a typical day at Twilight’s library. Twilight is nerding out over something and Spike messes with the nerd vibes somehow. From the intro alone, it is hard to really pass judgment on this episode yet. In “Putting Your Hoof Down” (MLP Review #1), we had Angel slap Fluttershy, which was bad. In Return of Harmony (MLP Review #2), we saw that Discord was breaking out of his stone prison, which was awesome.

Act I
Twilight just wants to get back to reshelving her books but Rarity makes a surprise. She wants to pick up a book from Twilight but she spots Spike’s gem. Rarity and Spike both share a bond over the gem. However, Spike wants to eat it and Rarity wants to keep it. Rarity goes on and on about how much she wants the gem. Rarity even flirts with Spike. Spike, being turned on by Rarity, gives the gem to her. Rarity is so happy that she kisses Spike on the cheek. After Rarity leaves, Spike promises to never wash that cheek again.

A week later and it is Spike’s birthday. Spike refuses to wash his cheek. However, Twilight won’t let that happen. We see a scene where Spike tries to run away but Twilight keeps teleporting him back to the same spot. However, Pinkie Pie magically appears and breaks the cycle. She is best pony. Pinkie Pie’s sudden appearance also leads Twilight to catch Spike and wipe his cheek. However, Spike is cheered up by the rest of the Mane Six being at Spike’s party with presents. Spike is surprised since he doesn’t typically receive so many presents on his birthday. He only gets a book from Twilight, which is what Twilight was going to give him this year. Spike is having the time of his life at the party but then Pinkie Pie mentions that there is a present for him at Sugarcube Corner. Spike rushes out to go to Sugarcube. The Cakes have a sapphire cupcake all ready for him for his birthday. Spike bumps into Cheerilee after this and she gives him a “pimp hat” once she learns it’s Spike’s birthday.

Some awesome background ponies make an appearance in this episode right after Cheerilee gives him the hat. I didn’t notice this the first time but when Spike is walking through Ponyville, you can see Lyra and Bon-Bon in the background chatting and then all of a sudden, Derpy pops out of the well, leaving both Lyra and Bon-Bon shocked.
Spike gets greedy, very greedy. He manages to get a bouncy ball from Lickety Split. He tries to get some flowers from Junebug since it is his birthday, however, Twilight stops him. Spike tells Twilight he will return the hat to Cheerilee. Twilight believes Spike and leaves him alone. Spike thinks he can get more presents, many more.

We go straight to the next day – which usually means something big happened. Twilight wakes up and sees a bunch of items on the floor and under them is a much bigger Spike. Somehow, those gifts must have made Spike grow in size. That’s an interesting concept regarding dragons in MLP:FiM which hasn’t been analyzed before. This episode is looking pretty good so far.

Act II
Spike has grown larger and greedier. The latter seems to concern Twilight more. Twilight takes Spike to a pony doctor and then to a veterinarian. Neither one knows anything about dragons – except that he is one. Twilight then takes Spike to Zecora who tells her that Spike is growing due to his greed – the greater his greed grows, the bigger he will grow. Spike keeps on wanting to grab things. He has become cruel and dumbed down significantly. Spike will take anything at this point – even the books which he didn’t care for initially. We even see Spike trying to take Scootaloo’s scooter away. Twilight does what she can to prevent Spike from growing bigger. However, Spike’s greed is too strong and he has grown too large for Twilight to contain with her magic. Spike escapes.
This Spike seems to just want to take anything – the baby Spike was more selective in what he wanted.
Like what we see often in this series, Twilight encounters each of her friends: one by one.
Applejack: She’s wondering where all her apples gone. Twilight asks Applejack for help in lassoing Spike. Applejack is initially amused by when she sees the giant Spike, she knows it’s serious business. They try to do so but fail miserably. They get tied together on a tree and are stuck.

Rainbow Dash: Rainbow Dash flies down and sees Twilight and Applejack tied up on a tree. She thinks it’s funny that they did that and acts like Rainbow Douche but she frees them.

Fluttershy: They hear Fluttershy’s scream. She must be in trouble. They see Fluttershy all the way in a tree and completely terrified of the dragon who stole the chicken coop. Flutters is surprised when Twilight tell her that the dragon was Spike.

Pinkie Pie: They rush to Sugarcube Corner after hearing Pinkie Pie scream. Pinkie is “assaulting Spike with cakes” but Spike is pleased with the cakes. Twilight essentially calls Pinkie a dumbass and then Spike grabs all the cakes. How would Pinkie know that the cakes would make him grow even bigger though? Do you think he even can grow bigger? Oh yes, he can. Spike grows so big that he breaks the roof of Sugarcube Corner. Wow, lost cakes and a broken roof? This is looking like a bad day for Sugarcube Corner.

Rarity: Rarity is busy doing something fancy-shmancy and then Spike grabs her. King Kong reference!
Things are getting scary. I like the whole concept of how a dragon can be dangerous, even one like Spike. It is similar to keeping a baby tiger as a pet – one day that tiger is going to grow up to a ferocious beast and will likely kill you, not a good idea. Of course, Spike is more than a pet but you get what I’m saying. The pacing also feels spot on here. I guess you can suspect by now that somehow Spike will go back to his normal size, but how it’s going to happen? I don’t have a clue – unless somepony somehow gets him to stop being greedy.. oh my.. that is a typical MLP ending, isn’t it? It’s not going to be that Spike falls of the Pony equivalent of the Empire State Building and dies.

Act III
The final act! Ponyville is in panic. Spike is out of control and has Rarity trapped with his tail. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy fly up to Spike trying to stop him. It’s humorous to see the contrast between the two: Rainbow Dash [brash and aggressive] and Fluttershy [kind and polite]. Neither of these methods work though and Spike swats them away like flies. Spike begins to climb up a mountain – which is like the Empire State Buildings.

However, here come the Wonderbolts. Can they.. oh no… they just get trapped inside a water tower by Spike. Rarity is mostly upset by her dress getting destroyed than anything else, well, given the passion she puts into those dresses, I guess they are like her babies somehow – I dunno. Rarity’s characterization is overall very good here – especially her relationship with Spike.

Spike tears up the dress.. your conclusion on what he wants to do. But it’s a kid’s show with a TV-Y rating, so instead, we see that Rarity still has the gem Spike gave her. Spike is touched by this. You can see that giant monster Spike is accessing his memories as little Spike when he gave the gem to Rarity. We see that Rarity has NO IDEA that giant dragon is Spike when she starts talking about her “Spikey-Wikey” and how the giant brute cannot have the gem Spikey-Wikey gave her.

Spike turns small again. Rarity and Spike take a plummet downwards while holding hands. Spike wants to tell Rarity that he has a crush on her but Rarity gently covers his mouth.

They fall to the ground. Spike dies on impact and Rarity breaks all four of her legs. This episode ends tragically as we all remember why it is bad to keep dragons around ponies. The Mane Six are saddened by Spike’s death. However, everypony forgets about Spike in the next episode and Rarity’s legs are healed after three episodes. These things allow the series to go on without Spike the baby dragon. They occasionally have an episode where Twilight sighs, “Oh, I miss Spike”, and visits his grave with Owlicious and Rarity, but it is usually only in the first three minutes and then something happens which makes everypony forget Spike again.

Nah, that doesn’t happen. Spike and Rarity are saved by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy who use the fabric from the torn dress to catch them. We also see that the Wonderbolts are a-ok. Spike feels bad for what he has done. However, Rarity consoles Spike telling him that she thinks that the fact Spike was able to turn back to his normal self is proof of how generous and kind he is. Rarity gives Spike another kiss on the cheek, which makes Spike incredibly happy.

Spike writes a letter to Princess Celestia and gets the kiss from Rarity framed on his cheek. Oh yes, it is true love!
It’s funny. For people and ponies, you celebrate when they grow up. For Spike, you fear when he grows up.

Rating: 9/10 [“Secret of My Excess” was a really good episode. I think the development given to Spike was interesting – not in the sense that we get a deeper understanding of his character but rather we get a deeper understanding of the development of a dragon. Spike could someday grow up to be a big scary dragon with no sense of kindness or rationality. However, this episode seems to suggest that rather than age – a dragon needs to develop a sense of greed in order to grow. That isn’t Spike’s fate but something which is easily preventable. However, I wouldn’t say there was anything particularly fantastic about this episode. This wasn’t “Return of Harmony”, “Lesson Zero”, or “Too Many Pinkie Pies – episodes I would, without a doubt, give ten out of ten stars. However, “Secret of My Excess” did everything it set out to do quite well and it was one of the most thrilling episodes of MLP:FiM. These factors give it a 9 out of 10.]

Ranking
The Return of Harmony: 10/10
Secret of My Excess: 9/10
Winter Wrap Up: 8/10 9/10
Putting Your Hoof Down: 5/10 7/10

Despite my revised rating for Winter Wrap Up, Secret of My Excess is still ranked higher.

Next Review: One Bad Apple [coming 1/11/2014]
Review After That: Baby Cakes [coming 1/12/2014]