SPOILERS! Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Princess Spike" · 6:37am Jun 21st, 2015
WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for today’s episode of MLP “Princess Spike”.
Now, without further ado, here is my review of “Princess Spike”. 
In today’s episode of MLP, Spike grows wings and a horn and becomes an alicorn princess!
Actually, no he doesn’t. Spike is accompanying Princess Twilight Sparkle to Canterlot for the Grand Equestria Pony Summit, which appears to be some kind of convention given the booths and the badges. In the opening ceremony, all four princesses unveil a sculpture dedicated to the Citizens of Equestria. It’s made with gems from each city in Equestria. Anyway, since it was Twilight’s job to organize the summit, she is clearly exhausted, and Princess Cadance suggests she get some sleep. She assigns Spike the task of making sure nothing disturbs Twilight’s rest. However, when ponies seek out Twilight asking for decisions on things, Spike takes it upon himself to make decisions on Twilight’s behalf. He relishes this newfound power! But then suddenly a number of his decisions backfire on him, and disaster strikes! Will Spike learn what it truly means to be a princess?
So, what’s the verdict?
Spike episodes are usually a bit of a mixed bag. He’s had some weaker episodes like Season 3’s “Spike At Your Service” and “Just For Sidekicks”. But Spike had some really great episodes in Season 4 with “Power Ponies”, “Inspiration Manifestation”, and “Equestria Games”. Even his role in this season’s “Castle Sweet Castle” was pretty good. Now, I understand following up the awesomeness that was last week’s “Slice of Life” would be difficult for any episode. Still, last season, the sheer awesomeness of “Pinkie Pride” was followed by “Simple Ways”, and that was a very decent episode.
I admit, this feels like a weaker episode, but I still found myself amused by it.
So yeah, it was okay.
As said in the beginning, Cadance sends Twilight to get some rest and assigns Spike the task of making sure she’s not disturbed. There’s a funny moment in the beginning where Twilight passes out on a pile of books and starts cuddling up with them. So, Spike has once again been feeling a bit inadequate as he seems to have found himself in Twilight’s shadow. Ponies seem more interested in what Twilight has to say and does and pay him no mind. Spike takes on this duty with a fervor, intending to prove his usefulness. At first, it’s just little things. He chases a bird around, insisting that it not sing while Twilight is sleeping. Then, he finds a somewhat raucous game of polo going on below Twilight’s window that he tries to stop unsuccessfully. (You know in the MLP comics Neigh Anything arc, a polo game actually plays an important role. So we now have the show canonizing that ponies play polo in Equestria.) Then, he finds a pony cutting down branches from these dragon-sneeze trees with a chainsaw. (Really. Dragon-sneeze trees. Couldn’t come up with anything more creative.) Spike tells the pony that Twilight needs him to stop cutting down these branches while she sleeps, and he gladly does so. It’s at this moment that Spike realizes that if he mentions that it’s something Twilight wants, ponies are willing to do it. Spike pulls the same thing with a public works pony jackhammering a water main, and he does so, but much more reluctantly given the state of the water main.
Once Spike returns to guarding Twilight’s room, he runs into another problem. The delegates from Manehattan and Whinnyapolis arrive at Twilight’s door and demand that she solve a dispute between them.
And yes, the Whinnyapolis delegate is a ponified version of Marge Gunderson, Frances McDormand’s character from the Coen Brothers film Fargo.
First the Big Lebowski ponies last week and now a Fargo pony. At this rate, the season finale will have a Llewyn Davis pony in it.
Fargo. That’s another movie I’m going to have to see now.
Anyway, both the Manehattan delegate and the Whinnyapolis delegate are scheduled to make speeches on their local economies in five minutes but in the same hall. So, this is basically the Las Pegasus Unicon. Spike tries to ask Twilight what to do about this, but in her sleep-addled state, she is unhelpful. Spike decides his only recourse is to make the decision himself in Twilight’s name. He suggests the delegates share the hall. The delegates accept this decision since they believe it is Twilight’s will and leave amicably. Spike thinks he’s done a good job at this until afterwards when the delegates who attended the conjoined talks complain about how the hall was crowded and speakers just talked over each other. Fluffy Clouds from “Tanks For the Memories” is also there complaining about how a pony he thought was his friend took his seat at an event. He doesn’t seem interested in Spike’s advice on the matter until he says it’s what Twilight said. Spike realizes that he can tell the delegates anything he wants as long as they think Twilight is saying it.
So Spike solves the issues of all the delegates that come to the door. One of them is actually Mathilda so soon after “Slice of Life” last week. Fancy Pants is the last to come to the door. We haven’t really seen him much since “Sweet and Elite” way back in Season 2. As the Canterlot delegate, he asks Princess Twilight for passes for the Canterlot delegation to attend every event and party since Canterlot is the host city. Spike… I mean Princess Twilight doesn’t think this is fair, and Fancy Pants accepts “Princess Twilight’s” decision. With the delegates out of the way, Spike decides he’ll attend all Twilight’s meetings in her place so she won’t anything to worry about once she wakes up.
Basically, Spike has taken upon himself the role of the Princess’s Hand. 
What the princess dreams, the Hand builds. Literally. Twilight is like asleep the whole episode. He’s the most qualified since he’s the only protagonist with hands.
So Spike attends Twilight’s meeting, briefing her on all the gems in the Citizens of Equestria sculpture. He even calls himself “Princess Spike” and bats his eyes with suddenly long eyelashes at this nerdy delegate. He then meets again with the public works pony from earlier about repairing the water main. Spike even says “I speak for the princess” when the pony questions why Twilight isn’t here. He insists despite the public works pony’s misgivings that Twilight still needs things to be quiet so the repair will have to continue to wait. I don’t know why this pony’s worried. He’s probably still getting paid even though he’s not doing anything. At least, that’s how we roll in New Jersey.
That’s when Cadance shows up to see what Spike has been up to. Spike proudly tells her about how not only was he able to keep things quiet for Twilight to sleep, but he’s been going to her afternoon meetings so she won’t have anything to worry about when she awakes. Cadance is a bit wary about this, wondering if this is something Twilight would even want. She also warns Spike to be careful that he is really doing this for Twilight’s sake and not because he enjoys speaking on her behalf. Spike assures her this isn’t the case. But right after that, Spike gets himself a massage and sits for a portrait parodying Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam with him all big and buff like in “A Dog And Pony Show” done by a Leonardo da Vinci pony. 
Spike is happily munching on a bowl of gemstones that he presumably got from someone in the main summit hall when Cadance shows up again. This time, she is certain that Spike is abusing his relationship with Twilight. Spike tries to defend himself, but he admits that perhaps he did get carried away making decisions on Twilight’s behalf. It’s not like anything bad happened. That’s when something bad happens. The polo game Spike was able to get moved sends a ball into the dragon-sneeze trees that causes them to collapse onto the damaged water main, which then breaks and spurts water into the main summit hall, filling it with water. All the early decisions Spike made all backfired so that it ended in a domino-effect of disaster! That was funny. Cadance pops off to fix the water main and leaves Spike to bail the water out of the hall. 
Is crystalbending a thing? If it’s not, it should be.
Fancy Pants comes by to see what all the commotion is all about. He opens the door to the hall and releases all the water. Spike is glad that at least the Citizens of Equestria sculpture is still intact. However, some of dragon-sneeze tree branches were swept into the hall by the flood and cause the titular dragon to sneeze, blowing the sculpture to pieces. Fancy Pants demands answers! He quickly discovers that the water main wasn’t repaired and that dragon-sneeze trees weren’t cut on orders from Princess Twilight. Spike tries to tell them the truth, but the delegates have already formed an angry mob out to get Twilight. Spike rushes back to Twilight’s room, where she just happens to wake up, feeling all refreshed, only to open her door to Fancy Pants’ angry mob. Twilight, in turn, demands answers from Spike while Spike is actually tries to hightail it. Spike confesses that in order to let Twilight rest, he made a few decisions on her behalf. He started off with good intentions, but he admits that he did let it go to his head. He liked having others care about what his opinions were for once. Twilight advises him that any good princess recognizes when they’ve made a made a mistake and works to correct it. Spike then apologizes to the delegates, admitting that even though this was an event that was supposed to bring together ponies from across Equestria, all he could think about was himself. Spike starts making amends by trying to put the sculpture back together. The delegates, all moved by his heart-felt apology, join in to help him. 
The delegates forgive Spike and note how the whole idea of the sculpture is when each and everyone no matter how small play their part, it adds up to something great. That’s a lesson I can stand behind, but it’s not enough to save this episode. Spike is accidentally presented with a bouquet of dragon-sneeze flowers, which causes Spike to start to sneeze again. The episode cuts to black before we can know if he blows the sculpture away again.
At least here Spike’s incompetence in understandable. Spike, unlike Twilight, has very little experience in the craft of princess-ing. Still, he manages to help all these delegates and go to all of Twilight’s meetings and only had three decisions backfire on him.
Now on to the things I didn’t quite like about this episode. Basically, this episode is a retread of the whole “Spike feels useless” thing. This is something we’ve seen before already. We’ve seen it in “Owls Well That Ends Well” in Season 1. We saw it in “Power Ponies” last season, but “Power Ponies” was unique by placing it in the context of the comic book superhero. We didn’t need to see that again with just a different coat of paint on it. It can be said that MLP may have an issue with doing the same kinds of things with certain characters without a unique enough spin on it. That’s basically the problem here. Perhaps the weakness of this episode could be explained by how it was written by a first-time writer on the show.
Then, there’s also Fancy Pants. I couldn’t help feeling that his characterization here was a bit different than what we saw in “Sweet and Elite”. I never thought of him as the type to lead an angry mob against a princess. It might be understandable given that he seems to be in charge of keeping things in Canterlot running smoothly for the summit, and then all this happened.
And then there’s Spike calling himself a princess. My sister, a borderline anti-Brony, caught the back end of this episode while waiting for the TV to be free so she could do zumba. She says to me, “Why is he calling himself a princess? Isn’t he a boy?” I answered, “Because M.A. Larson is weird.” I read a review of M.A. Larson’s novel Pennyroyal Academy on Equestria Daily once. From what I understand in the world of that novel, the term “princess” is used to describe a particular role and does not refer to the person’s sex. I don’t know if M.A. Larson was at all responsible for how Spike uses the term princess for himself here, but I suspect it was so.
Overall, “Princess Spike” was an okay episode. It make me laugh a few times. It’s got that going for it. Not much else though.
What do you all think of “Princess Spike”?
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
We definitely share the same opinions about various aspects of this episode. I agree that it's an okay episode but, like with Rainbow Falls, it's an okay episode I can see myself revisiting and enjoying every now and then.
I definitely like the concept of the trees more than their actual name. Though, I'm willing to let their name get a pass given that this is a world filled with ponies whose names correlate to their professions.
That's a reference I definitely missed. I haven't seen Fargo yet but I did watch a video by Doug "The Nostalgia Critic" Walker where he listed Marge and Atticus Finch (from To Kill A Mockingbird) as his all-time favorite characters.
Agreed.
That's unfortunate.
Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason why your sister is borderline anti-Brony? I hope that isn't too personal of a question and I hope I'm not sounding offensive or anything like that. I'm just a curious person. 
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I've recently gotten into the Nostalgia Critic. He seems to have a few official Youtube channels now. I haven't come across that video yet though.
Pretty much she just finds it odd that grown men would enjoy cartoons for children. She's kind of the same way about some of the other cartoons I watch too like Gravity Falls and Avatar: Legend of Korra. Perhaps describing her as "anti-Brony" even borderline is a tad unfair.
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Here's the video in question I was referencing:
I see. I hope she becomes more accepting of this in the future. I've personally grown to get annoyed by the mentality that cartoons can only appeal to children. Hence why this quote from Walt Disney is one of my all-time favorite quotes.
As someone who, as you know, also watches Gravity Falls and Avatar: The Legend of Korra, I can safely say that those are two of the smartest, interesting, and most complex shows out there. I mean, did you see the haunted mansion episode of Gravity Falls?! That was horrifying! And Korra is filled with loads of mature themes. Of course, you already know this. Hopefully, your sister will get past that mentality in the future.
I felt this episode was okay as well. Honestly, if it weren't for adorably sleepy Twilight, this would go down for me as the worst episode this season so far.
Seriously, she's just too cute! 
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To me, Princess Spike was another example of the writers knowing nothing about Spike. For example, with the bird... why didn't he think to just close the open window that was right there instead of chasing down the bird? Same goes with the noise from the polo game and the maintenance worker. I can understand him not making the best decisions, as he is still a child, but that was a bit too Idiot Ball for me.
I think the episode would have also improved if Spike's excessive greedy moments were tempered or cut entirely. If he made all those decisions out of concern for Twilight (as well as to obey Cadence) and everything still fell to pieces, I think it would both be more in character for him and provide a better lesson. The end moral—"We all do our part, no matter how small"—doesn't make sense to me the larger context. A more fitting moral would be something along the lines, "Good intentions can often fall short when you don't have all the necessary information," or something similar.
Also, did you notice the Manehatten delegate canonically used youze? I'm unashamed to admit that a part of me squeed over that.
I totally ship him and the Whinnyapolis pony now. Funny accents unite!
But when all fails, just put the hay in the apple and eat the candle!
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You are rather generous with this episode. It's already my top contender for "least good" episode of this season. 
Many of your points are much more clearer than what I was trying to say.
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My worst episode of the season (so far) is my next review actually...
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After "Bloom and Gloom" was "Tanks For the Memories"... Oh!
That's understandable.
But I guess you know by now that I still enjoy myself watching Rainbow Dash be silly. 
I also just started reading the Game of Thrones books so Winter is Coming and all that. I also came up with a chronology explaining how that could possibly be Rainbow's first winter with Tank.