Episode Re-Review: The Times They Are a Changeling · 4:54pm May 28th, 2021
So after two pretty weak episodes and no sense of direction for Season 6 aside from the return of the map missions, what was on tap for it next? Apparently, an episode trying to tackle the sensitive topic of racism. And instead of letting veterans handle such a tricky subject, two brand new writers in the form of Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt were tapped for writing duties here, though Michael Vogel was helping them out on the story. This episode would end up being pretty significant for Season 6 and the show going forward, introducing us to an important character. But it doesn't seem to really be remembered well either way. Is that a good thing considering what it was dealing with, or a bad thing considering it is a Spike episode coming on the heels of "Gauntlet of Fire"? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Twilight excitedly looking forward to a trip to the Crystal Empire to see Flurry Heart, and Starlight is coming along for the ride. Oddly enough, Twilight glares at her when Starlight corrects Twilight on not recognizing Flurry even though she didn't say anything wrong. As for Spike, he's opting to go in disguise because now he's tired of being mobbed in the streets every time he shows up. However, the three arrive at the station in the Crystal Empire to find it completely abandoned, even complete with a tumbleweed blowing past. Yet as soon as Spike takes off his disguise, crystal ponies come out and start fawning over him, thinking he's come to save them.
Twilight and Starlight naturally ask what's up, and the crystal ponies are suddenly afraid of them and convinced that they might not be who they say they are. This extends to the guards around the castle, and even Shining Armor and Cadence aren't sure Twilight is the real deal. That is, until Twilight does her little dance with Cadence (but they don't ask for proof for Starlight or Spike). So what's with all the heightened security? Apparently, someone saw a changeling and the entire empire's in a state of panic as a result.
What could possibly compel a changeling to come all the way to the Crystal Empire? Well, Sunburst (who is more or less Flurry's babysitter) explains that since Flurry Heart's crystalling there's been a lot of love lying around due to the new baby, so the empire is a love magnet. Of course, no one's actually seen a changeling, yet. But the extra security is there anyway even though it sure as heck didn't stop the last changeling invasion.
And then Shining Armor decides to let Spike tag along on the next patrol even though he's a kid, and apparently no one bats an eye at this. It wouldn't be so bad if the episode doesn't immediately waste time on Spike just goofing around and clearly not taking the changeling scare seriously. He stupidly orders the guards to split up, and then as soon as he's left alone he suspects a rock is a changeling before he ends up tumbling down a hole.
Fortunately, he's unharmed and finds himself in a small cave. Soon afterward he meets a changeling and freaks out, but the changeling speaks to him and says he's not going to harm Spike. In fact, he doesn't want to feast on love at all. The changeling identifies himself as Thorax, mentioning that even when he was hatched he felt different from other changelings. He was apparently part of the invasion force during "A Canterlot Wedding" but he never wanted to feed on love by force. So he left his hive, and he's come all the way to the Crystal Empire because he's starving. And Spike on a whim stupidly believes that he can convince the ponies to trust Thorax even when for all he knows Thorax could be lying. We then don't really see how Spike managed to get back to the guards without them noticing, but when he suggests to them that maybe the changeling could be nice they laugh off the suggestion.
Shining Armor, however, tells his guards off for laughing about it. And then he states "There's no such thing as a nice changeling.", a textbook example of racism.
So Spike goes back to Thorax later (somehow) and mentions how hard it is to convince ponies to trust that a changeling could be nice. However, Thorax happens to have a pony disguise and Spike opts to pass him off as a penpal named Crystal Hoof. And in a case of "Plot induced stupidity", Twilight doesn't suspect anything about this at all and neither does anypony else. They all assume that this never before mentioned penpal is legit despite the fact that they're all aware of a changeling scare and know that changelings can take the form of anyone or anything. Heck, we spend an entire montage of Thorax disguised as Crystal Hoof while Spike shows him around. And ponies are completely trusting of a stranger now even though they've not been given the all clear. And at no point is any of this revealed to be intentional.
When the montage is over, Thorax whispers to Spike while in disguise about how he can't keep up the act for much longer. And this is right before he's brought before Cadence in the throne room, where she completely trusts him because he's a friend of Spike's. And keep in mind, Princess Cadence was abducted by Queen Chrysalis and was held prisoner so that the queen could feed off of Cadence's love for Shining Armor. So Princess Cadence should be even more wary than either Twilight or Shining Armor (though we don't know how exactly Chrysalis was able to capture her). Again, none of this is intentional. It's only because Thorax is in such close proximity to the source of love in the empire that he can't maintain his disguise and begins growling and hissing (earlier he said that "niceness" brought it out).
Immediately, Spike is pulled away as Sunburst assumes there was a Crystal Hoof and Thorax replaced him since apparently according to Sunburst "what other explanation could there be?" (you know, besides the obvious one that there was no Crystal Hoof since they've never heard of him before). When Spike doesn't stand up for Thorax, Thorax feels hurt and betrayed and runs away, causing Spike to feel guilty. He's somehow able to slip away again and find Thorax, who despite being angry saves Spike from falling off a cliff even while he contemplates dropping him (Spike).
Spike apologizes to Thorax for not defending him in the heat of the moment, and then we cut back to the royal guards searching in places where a changeling couldn't possibly hide. Starlight, in the only scene she's at all relevant for, asks if maybe this is going a little overboard and Twilight shockingly agrees (mentioning that it's getting "out of hand" when I think she meant to say "out of hoof"). But Cadence believes that if one changeling has been sighted an entire army might not be far behind, not an unreasonable suggestion. At that moment, however, Spike shows up with Thorax. Shining orders him to "get away from that thing" and Spike protests and says Thorax is his friend.
So how does Spike sway everyone into believing that Thorax is nice and can be trusted? Why, with a song of course, more specifically the song "A Changeling Can Change". As nice it is that Spike finally gets a proper song (his "rendetion" of the Cloudsdale anthem doesn't count either in-universe or out of universe), this song is coming at the worst possible narrative moment. I mean, it starts out decently with Spike mentioning his heroic status in the Crystal Empire, but aside from that it's just generic lines about change. His whole "argument" is about how ponies are different, so a changeling should be accepted because of that and just like no two snowflakes are alike no two changelings are alike. None of that is at all compelling when Shining Armor and Cadence could rightfully argue that the security of their empire and the safety of their daughter is more important than a "belief" based on no concrete evidence. Heck, Starlight doesn't bother to speak up at any point either during or after this argument, she never parallels Thorax's problem to her own (maybe because of how easily forgiven she was, but you'd think she would at least try to extend it to someone else). It's Twilight who basically says that Spike taught her a lesson, and this is enough to make everyone accept Thorax. Even Shining Armor drops his earlier hostility on a whim. So the song is used to just cheapen the entire process of persuading others because the episode wasted too much time on other stuff.
It's all's well that ends well as a result, Thorax can be around others no problem and no one bothers to ask what his earlier behavior was about. Spike gets praised for ultimately having done the right thing, and Starlight just mentions to Twilight about "friendship lessons can happen anywhere." So Starlight's inclusion in this episode was pointless, she didn't contribute anything of substance at any point and was just there for the sake of being there. And this is after she's been inexplicably absent from episodes where she has no lead role. It really made it seem like the writers didn't know what to do with Starlight if she wasn't the character of focus, kind of like how in Season 1 the writers struggled to think of how to shoe horn Twilight into every episode just to deliver the moral. And we all know how well that turned out.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, I will at least give it credit for tackling the issue of racism with a bit more seriousness than "Bridle Gossip" where it was just tacked on because Zecora was a zebra (zebras are native to Africa, you can figure out the rest). But even so it just spends a lot of time on Spike goofing around and doing nothing, as if they were afraid to be too serious. Except as a result it makes it look like a typical bad Spike episode where he's stupid and his stupidity infects everyone around him because of it. It doesn't quite fall into that trap but it sure comes close. And when it isn't doing that we have a lot of time wasted on a montage of Thorax in disguise, and when Thorax meets Flurry Heart and sheds his disguise it delves into the typical "Liar Revealed" antics. Spike does redeem himself a little by going off to try to apologize to Thorax and put his hero status on the line to defend him, but for all he knows Thorax could be lying (yes, ultimately we know he's not but this is a possibility that should be raised). Twilight and Starlight feel like they're just there because the plot says so, even Sunburst is just there to spout exposition. It's never even revealed that what happened was intentional, that Cadence or anyone else suspected that Crystal Hoof was a ruse. And Shining Armor's racism never gets addressed, he says it once and then it's never brought up again despite his history with changelings. The song is pretty weak, largely because it's being used at the worst narrative moment, and in terms of production order it is the last song of Season 6 which makes it even worse. It feels like this episode was based on those dime a dozen or so changeling redemption fics written in the fandom, taking various good and bad aspects from them and just throwing them together. There are good moments, this episode isn't as bad as it could've been. But I can't really give it a grade above a borderline C-/C because it just wastes too much time on stuff that's not important, and thus it has to rush through its climax very sloppily.
Well, things should get back on track with the next episode which holds the distinction of being the first entirely guys centered one in the form of "Dungeons & Discords".
I actually thought this episode was going pretty good until the song. But then, it became a real mess.
I feel like this is a pretty good episode.
This episode is good but it could need some fixing to be better
Oh, that's just great. The one time Starlight gets to have a speaking role in an episode not focused on her this season, and she doesn't even get to do anything. It's kinda like how Three's a Crowd included Discord just to give him at least one starring role in a Season 4 episode that isn't a two-parter.
This is my favourite Spike episode, and one of my favs from the season as a whole.
Unfortunately, this episode has Spike's one and only song in the whole show.