Visiden Whines It: Gauntlet of Fire · 12:52am Apr 17th, 2016
This was a decent episode for me. For a Spike episode, that's the equivalent of praising it to the high heavens. I like it when the show tries to build lore, even if it's not very good, I appreciate the context of a greater world beyond ponies existing.
It's interesting (or lazy) that the dragons apparently function as a kingdom and are ruled by a single leader through some kind of artifact.
I like how the show managed to sneak in some implied brutality here. We have the dragons suggesting that they pillage Equestria, then burn everything they can't take.
Spike wasn't completely useless or a butt of jokes for the most part. I think he was able to do as much as a puny pony-raised dragon could accomplish. I suspect that the new dragon lord will summon him in the future.
The episode begins with Rarity calling Spike a basket carrier to which he responds that he thought she brought him along as a bodyguard so she corrects herself.
What a patronizing bitch move. I don't understand why she treats everyone else with generosity, respect, and tolerance, then fucks it up with Spike. I've always thought that Spike is the test of character that Rarity keeps failing, and here it shows again. Look, if you want him to be your basket carrier, then tell him to be your basket carrier. He's so desperate for pony pussy that he'd probably agree to be your foot stool. Don't patronize him by pretending he's going to be your bodyguard to "spare his feelings". And tell him he doesn't have a chance with you already, stop leading him on.
Then, Princess Celestia talks about how she's so busy helping ponies that she barely has time for her little tea parties, and she says this with a snooty raise of her snout. You're a fucking liar, Princess Celestia. You just sit on your ass all day, and let everyone else do the work for you. Oh, that's not true? Prove it then. Get on an episode and show us your incredibly busy day of helping your subjects in a way only a princess can do.
I thought about exactly this as well. Some element of generosity to play with Spikes feelings like that. At this point she is just abusing his crush for her to get things that she wants. I doubt she has any intentions what so ever to do anything about his feelings and yet here we are with her milking every drop of his affections.
// Sphex
Or pin-cushion.
She gets everyone else to do the work. Important difference. Marechiavellian manipulation is work, too!
But tell us how you really feel.
The problem with twilight becoming an princess is that we could pretend that Celestia was handling important shit that only occasionally affected Twilight, usually when Celestia wanted to test or train her. Now that she's an equal with them, we can't kid ourselves. Celestia and Luna aren't fighting eldritch horrors or keeping Tartarus under control, they do the same Y7 rated stuff Twilight does.
I would love a Celestia episode because I think it's long over due and she my favorite princess. I just hope the writers don't screw it up and make it about politics(that will be boring) or make another Do Princess Dream of Magic Sheep.
It was sort of refreshing to see some new environments that were not Equestrian cities or villages. I'm still not sure why Twilight didn't just blast Garble after they were discovered. Also yeah I guess the person in charge of reminding the writers to not make Rarity a tool was sick that week.
Overall for a Spike episode, it could have been way worse. It's a shame he was almost completely overshadowed by the introduction of that dragon princess character.
love your comments after the break, just spot on.
Through it all, the one and only thing that I kept thinking of through the entire episode was... why only the adolescent dragons?
If it's a law that forces the Dragon Lord to step down after a certain period, then I guess the objective is to shake things up every now and again with some new blood, in which case it kinda makes sense that the competitors would all be younger dragons. But this young? Really? None of the candidates in this episode could've defended their position if they were challenged by, say, that green dragon from season one. Is dragon society really so lawful that hundreds, possibly thousands of massive, full-sized dragons would obey the will of stupid kid like Garble if he told them to invade Equestria, just because he won the gauntlet?
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My guess is that the dragon lord is the ruler of the dragon kids, sort of like the Little Lamplight of dragons. The old dragon lord was some kind of manbaby and had finally admitted that he had become a mungo given that he already had a kid.
You're hoping for too much. The writers of this show always reduce every character to a running gag, unless it happens to be an episode focused on that character. Outside of that, Rarity will be a bitch, Twi will always nerdgasm and/or go psycho, Pinkie will be annoying, RD will be a dick, and AJ will fade into the background (or say some country-ism).
That said, I think there is a way to justify how Rarity and Celestia behaved. The former obviously sees Spike's love for her, but she's keeping the kid at an arm's length (or whatever the expression is). Were she to let him get said pony pussy for every little thing he does, that would make Rarity a whore and Spike would probably end up going "SPIKE WANT" on all the mares in town by the end of the day.
Or, at least, that's how I prefer to think about it.
As for Celestia, yes, we really should get an episode focused on her. It's way overdue. But beyond that, her "not doing anything" is pretty obviously her not wanting to just solve every problem for her subjects when they are perfectly capable of doing it on their own. It's the same kind of complaint as "how come the eagles in LOTR didn't help out until the very end?" That was kinda the whole point: they only helped out once everyone else proved that they were giving their all. If they helped out at the very beginning, everyone in Middle Earth would just do whatever the hell they wanted. "Meh, the eagles will fix it anyway."
The same applies to Celestia. She only intervenes when it's clear someone has no chance of fixing something, or they just need that final boost to win after they gave their all.
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This explanation is hilarious in its plausibility.
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I thought the eagles didn't help because they were susceptible to the corruption of the One Ring and Gandalf didn't trust them with the knowledge that the Fellowship had it?
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What I meant is the general reason why they don't show up every five minutes. LOTR is just one example, they show up several times throughout the lore of Middle Earth.
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Ah. Okay.
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Certainly, I'm not expecting that Spike should score. What bothers me is that she refuses to be straight with him probably to avoid hurting his feelings. I say hurt his feelings. Tell him she appreciates the sentiment but it's not going to happen and they should just be friends. Sure, he'll cry and probably be sad for a few days, but I think he's a strong kid and he has his friends for support. I am starting to think that she keeps him at arm's length precisely to keep him in that limbo where they're not romantically linked but he thinks he has a chance. Perhaps her vanity makes it difficult for her to accept the notion of being gotten over. Or she just likes the free labor. The reason she doesn't address his feelings is probably down to the writers refusing to touch the subject beyond a gag or two. I just like to think that this whole matter is an interesting chink in her character.
As for Celestia, well she's said nothing about staying aloof so ponies help themselves, has she? What she did say in this episode was that she deals with a lot of crises and that there is always somepony who needs her help. I'd like to see those crises.