Episode Review: "Dragon Dropped" - Season 9 Episode 19

Rarity, do you remember that little talk we had about breaking and entering?

[I'm not the only one who, upon seeing the above picture and quote together, is reminded of Squidward saying "Spongebob, remember that little talk we had about personal space?" upon realising Spongebob's standing right next to him in the cashier booth, in the episode where Plankton switches with Mr. Krabs - right?]

Today’s episode writer is Josh Haber, who is obviously mostly known for being the main story editor during Seasons 6 & 7, and thus often credited with the somewhat less nuanced direction the show went during those years. That being the case, his actual written episodes, while certainly not adverse to this flaw, have produced good results at times, and I find that, as long as you mentally prepare yourself, excepting Premieres and Finales, for a silly hijinks episode, you’ll probably have a good time, as long as there’s no bad character writing abounding. Of course, given this season…

It’s our first Rarity episode this season, so we can now say every member of the Mane 6 has had an episode this season. And Mane 7 too, given this episode features Spike just as much. Yes, it has been a long while since a Spike-and-Rarity episode, though this is one far more from Rarity’s perspective. Despite Spike being my second-favourite character after Applejack, and Rarity probably being the most consistently fun to watch (when written well, of course), I’ve never had much stake in Spike’s crush on her. Or, well, not enough for it to colour my opinion on episodes like this, anyway.

So, the episode starts off with Rarity dropping by on Spike to announce they’re going to the gem cave, but she is most surprised that Spike keeps writing a letter and paying her little heed. More so, even after she repeats herself, he seems distracted until the time is noted, at which points he hurries off. But not with her – he’s taking a rain check on that and heading to the post office instead. Needless to say Rarity is flabbergasted.

In case you’re wondering, yes, this is an episode about Rarity basically learning to not be possessive of Spike when she’s always taken his presence for granted in the past. Yes, it could be easily argued this is not a lesson she should learn to need now. Yes, in many ways this character choice made to fuel the story and jokes could be said to cheapen the generosity befitting our favourite fashionista equine. And yes, your enjoyment of the episode is likely to be directly inversely proportional to how much this is a deal-breaker for you. Par the course for a lot of Season 9, to be honest.

After the opening titles, Rarity is bemoaning Spike’s absence while gem hunting alone, only for it to be visually revealed she’s roped Applejack along instead (in a well-timed buildup that’s one of several solid recurring gags in an episode with quite a few of them). After none-too-stellar bat-related results, advice from Twilight leads her to conclude she’s done something to Spike, and she prepares a grand hammy apology (as expected, Tabitha St. Germain nails this and every other moment that relies on her delivery throughout) for him, complete with a box of gifts, which we get to hear twice in two variations – first the rehearsal, then the actual.
Of course, turns out he wasn’t mad with her at all, he just had other plans. With Gabby, of all ponies, well, creatures. Yup, it’s another one-time character back for a repeat performance, though unlike Quibble Pants or Cheese Sandwich, not one voiced by a celebrity guest star. They became pen pals after events following “The Fault in Our Cutie Marks”, with an explanation that works, though the hand waving that she’s now staying in Ponyville to keep Grandpa Gruff posted on updates Gallus at the school is decidedly more sketchy.

What follows is a few days of Rarity missing him dearly as communicated both via montage and by her describing as such to whichever pony she’s roped into taking his place, first being Rainbow and then Fluttershy. Once again, she takes a suggestion, this time from Fluttershy to show how grateful she is, and hams it up by surprising him in the night with a tour to a once-a-year gem mountain far away. When Spike remarks he had plans with Gabby, she remarks, in a manner then suggests she knows what she’s doing, that there’s always next year. You guessed it, Spike decides Gabby will understand.

Gabby is thankfully more understanding then most viewers probably are, and she keeps this up even after Rarity takes him away next day to Power Ponies Comic Con, though she’s clearly somewhat upset. The final straw for both her and the viewers comes when Spike remarks the convention was so tiring he might need to rest the next day, Rarity encourages him to do so, she then shows up to get her intro session to Ponified D&D, Ogres and Oubliettes, and Gabby, bringing him soup, happens upon them playing together. And Rarity doesn’t even realise, initially, what she’s done.

Rarity’s ignorance of this being her fault continues through the next minute of Spike helping her out while being glum, and just when the viewer might have lost all patience, Twilight sets Rarity on the straight path to realising her mistake and performing damage control. Cue her doing just that in a similar manner to the hammy apology from before, but then being more genuinely sincere to both Gabby and Spike. It all wraps up with a 4th instance of Rarity having roped another pony into being at her back and call, this time Pinkie, though not before Spike arrives after having hung out with Gabby.

So, yes, despite the script certainly trying in some aspects to make Rarity seem innocently oblivious to what she’s doing, there’s no denying it makes her out to be truly selfish in quite a lot of places, as well as downright possessive of Spike. Yet again, it’s another Season 9 episode that not only reflects very poorly on the growth and maturity of a long-time character, but also writes them unappealingly in some aspects (though to a much less damaging degree then “2, 4, 6, Greaaat”, thankfully, as Rarity’s overblown approach to everything is never not delightful). Even if this episode isn’t completely invalidated by this, it’s certainly robbed of a lot of its intended warmth. It's also disorienting to see Spike so ignorant of Rarity - even if his crush is far more subdued these days, he still gravitates to her to a degree. Another case of characters' personality traits or attitudes flipping a switch between episodes, much like Twilight freakouts between "A Trivial Pursuit" and "The Summer Sun Setback".

Ironically, this episode is in some ways a thematic reskin of "Forever Filly", a Season 7 episode that, while a bit bland, wrote the characters perfectly. That, and it's far easier to accept Rarity not realising her many-years-younger-then-herself sibling is growing up into the tween years. At least, it is a thematic reskin if considered from the angle of Rarity wanting to spent time with someone close to her, not realising that circumstances have changed so they can't/shouldn't do it exactly as they used to, and the resulting shenanigans. So despite (unintentionally?) pilfering from a Season 7 episode, rather then the show's golden era, it still comes up short. Not as much, but the quality difference between "decently fine" and "the low end of mixed" can't be ignored.

A mild pity, because as mentioned before, this one really seemed to want to go to town with recurring gags. The 4-time “Rarity’s roped another pony into being at her beck and call, and it’s hilariously revealed whom that someone is” I already mentioned, as did I her hammy apologies, but there’s an absolutely beautiful one where both times she muses with Twilight, she drags on-set a fainting couch, and leaves it upon running off, upon which Twilight notices it and sighs – the second time just as Twilight had gotten the first couch to the front door! For your sake, dear viewer, I hope you didn’t read this review that was very obviously not spoiler free.

There’s other touches too – seeing Spike return in Hum Drum cosplay and especially Rarity as the Mane-iac was a golden sight to see – but that’s about all the episode does really well, because even omitting how well, or not well, the script reflects on Rarity, it’s still a rather plain episode with not much elegance to the plot structure. Could have been a really good episode, but in the end, it’s a decently funny one with some neat recurring gags, undermined, like some previous episodes, by recursive character writing then makes them rather selfish. How much this weakens the episode is in the eye of the beholder, though in this beholder’s case, it makes it another mixed episode. Miles better then “2, 4, 6, Greaaat” or "A Trivial Pursuit" and entertaining much of the way, but after the last two weeks seemed to be turning Season 9 around again, this one largely brings us back to mixed reality, folks.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- The episode does walk the fine line of not invalidating Spike's old crush on Rarity but never having it be a part of the proceedings in any direct manner, such that the episode reads as just being about a strained friendship just fine instead. I'm sure many people will use the fact of Spike being far less easily swayed over by Rarity here as proof his crush is fading - I might agree, given how less prevalent it's been in recent seasons, except the current staff resurrected it in Season 8. So, don't really know what to think, except they didn't plan it out all that well. Like many other aspects.
- Another bit of hand waving is that there was a Power Ponies convention and Spike DIDN’T have tickets. Knowing him, he’d have jumped on that as soon as word of it reached his ears.
- When Rarity was pushing in her crate of apology gifts to Spike, Derpy/Muffins closed the help desk in alarm. Love it! Yeah, I’d probably do that too if I saw a parcel of that size.