MLP Episode Review: Secret of My Excess · 11:28pm Apr 7th, 2015
It's a Spike-centric episode! That means bad things happening to the guy and me going off on rants while being pissed off about said bad things! You have been warned!
Secret of My Excess
Paging Mister Fox, paging Mister Fox. No? Okay, then! We open with Twilight lighting a candle and closing her drapes. It's too important! It's... re-shelving day! Oh, this is gonna be a long one as she TKs all the books out and rearranges them. She wants to read 'The Art of the To-Do List' again. Of course she does. *Headdesk* Did I mention how much I dislike her checklist obsession?! Anyway, Spike laughs and all the books fall. Twilight, that's on YOU, not him. He's got a Fire ruby and has been aging it for months, even has a tuning fork. It's his birthday gift to himself. he slips, but catches it with his tail. He cracks a joke and Twilight is mad at him, because of course it's his fault a little chuckling messed you up.
Back from commercial and Rarity enters and is agog at the Fire Ruby. She wanted books on historical fashion, but suddenly realizes Spike is gonna eat the Fire Ruby. Because he's a dragon, don'cha know. Rarity fights with herself for about a half-minute before she turns on the charm and cons him out of it. I do not like her doing this. She knows her effect on Spike, knows this is a birthday present for himself and she goes through with it. Self-control, Rarity. Do you cogitate it?! Anyway, at least she kisses him and we get the standard 'I won't wash this cheek again' bit. Except Spike doesn't wash his cheek, at least for a week. Dear god I think that lip imprint is gaining sapience! Kill it with fire or at least a chainsword! Oh, and Golden Oaks is decked out for Spike's birthday. Aww. :) It's quite heartwarming to see Twilight going all-out like this.
He runs off but she 'ports him back in a funny gag. Pinkie... pops into the teleport. Okay, folks? I'll let you fill in the blank. What would Striker say? "Pinkie got into the teleport because____" Spike's amazed he's got birthday presents! Dash's is a weight with a ribbon tied around it. Before, all he got was one birthday present. From twilight. A book. And on cue she backs up, book behind her and looking sheepish. Okay, to be massively fair to Twilight 1. she remembered his birthday and 2. she was pretty clueless about this kind of stuff beforehand. It would've been entirely within limits for them to have her to not even have remembered his birthday. Anyway, Rarity shows off her new cloak for a new line. She was inspired by Spike's generosity. She even nuzzles him. Okay... that was good. We cut to later on and Spike incredibly grateful for his presents. He wishes the party could last forever! Pinkie says the party can't last forever, though. I knew it! Season-two Pinkie is a changeling infiltrator! A really bad one, too. No, the Cakes' have a surprise for him at Sugarcube Corner! They have a sapphire-flavored cupcake for him. Outside, he bumps into Cheerilee, but he manages to save the cupcake. Then he eats it in one gulp. He then helps with the groceries. He lets spill it's his birthday, so Cheerilee gives him a pimpin' hat. Why she has a pimpin' hat with her groceries, I have no clue. Michael Jackson impersonation auditions? Is she a Smooth Criminal? Equestria may never know...
We fade to Spike walking along, with his Pimpin' Hat of Coolness +20. He ponders about his birthday and presents. So he sees Lickety-Split, tells him it's his birthday and he now has a ball. His eyes narrows and we get 'Bad Feeling' time. He goes to Junebug and freaks her out a bit, asking for flowers. Twilight intervenes. For a moment, he seems to snap out of it, and his eyes go wonky and his tongue gets long. O-kay. The next morning, Twilight wakes up... and finds Spike's Hoard, Beta Version at the foot of her bed. Spike's also grown and is pimptastic with his hat.
After commercial, Spike is freaked out. He's also got sparkly-vision. All over. He wants the Precious, and everything's the Precious! Good lord Gollum would be going, "Tone it down a notch!" His voice also goes deeper. That weirds him out a bit and we cut to Equestria's Suckiest Doctor. The doctor treats Spike like a friggin' child, then says he doesn't know anything about dragons, then suggests a vet. Asshole. The vet has never seen a dragon before. This has got to be out of Ponyville, then. The vet treats Spike like a dog and I'm getting pissed. Twilight's getting worried. At Zecora's, she tries a watch, then some breakdancing. Unfortunately Spike doesn't have his hat, so it's only 50% as cool as it could be. He's maturing, and a dragon's prone to greed. They get bigger with the growth of their hoard, but that means they want more. It's a damned vicious cycle, and one I really hate. Spike breaks free, and Twilight chases him down and finds him trying to take Scootaloo's scooter! He's also devolved into Hulk-Speak, another thing I really don't like.
Twilight tempts him with a broom and he grows. Nice job breaking Ponyville, Twilight! She leads him back to Golden Oaks and locks him in the library. Turns out books can be boarded, too. "Spike, I just re-shelved this room!" PRIORITIES, MOTHERBUCKER! And it turns out dragon beats wood. We cut to Applejack and her bare trees. Someone stole their apples and leaves. Three guesses as to who and the first two don't count. Twilight asks for her help, but Applejack laughs it off. On cue, Spike runs by. "Twilight, get my rope." And of course, epic leaf mustache. They run, but Spike ducks and they tie themselves up. Twilight'' forgets about her TK. Ugh. Dash flies down and laughs at their predicament, because Dash. Suddenly, there's an indistinct scream! Dash knows it's Fluttershy, though. Insert innuendo. She's up in a tree. She was helping some squirrels with a dance step, then a d-d-d-dragon stormed through and stole her chicken coop! He then... no, I won't do it and you can't make me. :p Anyway, learning it's Spike must be a rather big 'worst fear' for Fluttershy, there.
We then get another scream, this one Pinkie Pie. She's assaulting him with cake! He took the cake, all right, and grows and demolishes Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie is in utter shock. We then finally go to Carousel Boutique, where Spike as Godzilla pulls a King Kong. A loudspeaker we've never seen before set up in the middle of the street sounds out, and Spike rips it out of the ground. Spike's lost it and pulls the water tower top off as a hoard container, with a rather amusing bit of the water holding shape for a moment before rushing down and out. Rarity scolds him and her manedo is turned into a ski ramp. Fluttershy and Dash try-emphasis on 'try'- to talk him out of this, but no-go. Good cop, bad cop doesn't work as he uses his tail and catches the pair in Rarity's cape. Then the Wonderbolts fly in and... slice his spinal scales off. Okay, hardcore there. But he uses the water tower top to cage them. They fly right into it, by the way. Spike didn't even move it much. Lame.
Rarity tries to 'Dog and Pony Show' her way out of it, with the ripped cape the worst thing, natch. Spike spies the Fire Ruby, and Rarity partially-redeems herself by trying to protect it. And Spike... remembers giving it to her. And it snaps him out of it as all his extra mass goes into subspace. It's a Transformers thing. Look it up. :p He turns to normal and both plummet to the ground. Dash and Fluttershy grab the cape and fly up to them! While in the freefall, Spike tries to confess, but Rarity puts a hoof over his mouth. She knows already and it's actually a pretty nice moment. Fortunately, the pegasi come to the rescue! Fluttershy is ecstatic! Also, thew tower top falls off and we find the Wonderbolts, huddling together in apparent fright. They puff out before flying out.
Spike sees the carnage he caused, comparing his current hand with the Kaiju-class imprint left by his greedified self. Ouch, poor guy. :( Rarity says she's proud of him, because he managed to reel himself in and stop him from destroying Ponyville. Well, destroying it more. This time, Spike writes the letter, about learning it's better to give than receive, which is a good lesson. We also see Rarity handing out cloaks to the others, and they learned from 'Suited for Success' and just accept the darned things. And we iris in on Spike's cheek with the kiss in a picture frame. hah, hah?
Thoughts
Eh, this one doesn't sit well with me. Now before anyone says anything about RPG dragons or from D&D and whatnot, keep this in mind. I don't know anything about them. At all. I own some Star Wars and Star Trek RPG guides for fanfic material! So, anyway, there's one big thing about this episode I hate...
Greed Growth.
So, a dragon gets stuff, gets greedy, grows and gets greedier, apparently losing IQ points. I do NOT like this, nor do I like the implications for Spike. I know some people will say, "Striker, it may not be that way for other dragons! Spike might've been affected by Twilight's magic burst!" there's two things wrong with this. One, it's fanon and unconfirmed. And second, it deosn't matter if it doesn't affect other dragons...
Because it affects Spike.
Spike gets screwed over in this show. A lot. And it pisses me off. Some bad stuff, okay, rule of funny and all that. but he gets dumped on and dumped on and dumped on so much it'd take an army of Junkions to dig him out. This is one instance of that. How far does it go? Can he get anything beyond a book? Is he stuck a child forever? Are parties out of the question? There are a lot of unspoken and unfortunate implications, here.
And before anyone brings up one of the latest comics, please keep in mind this episode was a few years before it and the comics and show are separate canon. Besides, fitting Fillydelphia and Dragon Quest together would be an exercise in frustration!
Rarity... I don't 'ship her and Spike, even if I wasn't a Rarijack 'shipper. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't feel right to me. We also see she knows how he feels, which puts how she treats him into an even skeevier light than before.
So to sum up... lemme put it to you this way. I formulated some stuff for dragons for the Hasbroverse before season two even started, and there's almost nothing I've used from the show for it.
Tomorrow, something a little more pleasant as we see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon actually show tiny nuggets of goodness between being assholes! 'family Appreciation Day' tomorrow, folks! Zap apple jam for all!
Twilight was kind enough to leave the fourth-dimension wide open. Really, if she didn't want visiting party ponies taking the ana-kata shortcut, she shouldn't have been teleport spamming.
I know we never saw the air raid siren before, but I figured the mayor had it installed a few disasters after Twilight moved to Ponyville. If nothing else, Mayor Mare can notice a pattern.
As for greed growth, as far as I know, that's unique to Friendship is Magic. D&D dragons become more intelligent as they grow, and that growth is only a function of time, not avarice. For Spike, it's hard to say. He's clearly grown a bit from when he was first hatched, so time is probably also a factor in his aging process. I think the keyword can be seen in the episode's title: excess. Spike, used to a book-a-year drip feed, got inundated with a starter horde. A more gradual approach may result in a more stable, intelligent, and mature older dragon.
2958201
Almost certainly. The adult dragons we've seen in the show aren't rampaging Spikezillas. (Also, we've seen Spike zapped into "adulthood" twice in the show; once here and once back in Cutie Mark Chronicles. And each time, he looked and acted different. I don't think we can predict how he'll look if allowed to mature in peace.)
What if... Transformers exist in Equestria, but crossing the dimensional threshold turned them into dragons?
And that's a bad thing? Don't get me wrong, I don't like all the stuff that happens to Spike and he doesn't deserve most of it. However, this wasn't something I saw as a bad move. It honestly fits the motif of dragons. They are incredibly vicious with their greed and this 'growth' does feel rather natural.
As for this happening to Spike, I honestly am more angered they didn't continue this aspect. This is something that will effect him his whole life. If he gets too greedy, he'll go 'drake' on everyone. Well, doesn't that remind me of someone? A being of hatred and the person who struggles to keep that being in line. It was incredibly powerful and built him up to be a great character, The same could have been for Spike, as he grew and adapted to this and became a better person.
However, the writers never bring this up again....Not once, not even when he gets greedy or when the main six are giving him things. None. They missed out on something that could have been a defining feature of Spike.
I honestly love this episode and I can't really agree with some points of yours. However, I will respect your opinion.