Episode Re-Review: Triple Threat · 4:22pm March 23rd
Now it's back to FiM, and back to Season 7. Season 7 finally seemed to find its footing at the very end of its first half, with the back to back successes of "Discordant Harmony" and "The Perfect Pear". The same could not be said for Equestria Girls, which debuted three specials meant to be combined into a full length movie, but only one of which ("Movie Magic") was any good. Still, Hasbro bit the bullet and finally greenlighted a spin-off series in the looset sense of the word, a five minute YouTube shorts series. Meanwhile, as the 2017 movie had its release date bumped up to October to avoid competing with the Thanksgiving box office, Season 7's return for its second half got off to a rocky start. "Fame and Misfortune", which Hasbro at the very least pressured M. A. Larson into writing, was tweaked without Larson's permission and aired despite his wishes that the episode be pulled. It even premiered during Bronycon, which only made the ensuing backlash against this ill-advised critics call out all the worse. Still, the controversy eventually died down by the time this episode made it to the airwaves. Spike episodes had had their standards raised considerably in Season 6 with "Gauntlet of Fire" and "Dungeons and Discords" being something other than your typical bad Spike episode. Many still consider "Gauntlet of Fire" to be Spike's best episode of all time. So now people were actually not dreading a Spike episode for once. Who was on tap to write it this time? Josh Hamilton, whose debut in "Parental Glideance" seemed to land with a shrug: He wasn't necessarily bad, but at the same time his writing couldn't be said to be spectacular. Much like "Parental Glideance", this episode tends to mostly be met with a shrug from fans, and I've said in the past it's not as bad as some of Spike's other episodes. In light of what was to come for him in Seasons 8 and 9, though (Particularly "Sparkle's Seven"), has this episode gotten better, worse, or stayed the same? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Spike overseeing some last minute preparations in Ponyville. Ember's coming over for a visit, and he wants everything to be perfect since it's her first official visit to Equestria after becoming dragon lord (or I guess dragon lady?). However, Thorax shows up out of the blue, revealing that Spike invited him to Ponyville on the same day. Twilight and Starlight naturally press Spike on how he could've made such a mistake, and Spike admits he doesn't know. Kind of makes you wonder why Twilight at least didn't cooperate with Spike given her love of organizing and the fact that she was pen pals with Ember.
Spike quickly begins to panic, fearing that if Thorax and Ember meet, the two will get into an argument and changelings and dragons will end up going to war. Twilight and Starlight think that's a bit of a stretch, but they nevertheless agree to help him keep Thorax and Ember away from each other. Twilight decides to take Thorax to the castle, leaving Spike to greet Ember. And neither Thorax or Ember suspect anything. However, no one is coordinating anything despite the fact that Spike's mistake clearly came about because he wasn't organizing or planning ahead, so Starlight ends up inviting Ember to the castle to meet with Twilight, not realizing that's where Thorax is.
Interestingly, since Twilight's castle is made up of crystals, Ember thinks that everything is meant for her to consume. And neither Spike or Starlight bother to correct her. Spike then slips away, leaving Starlight to keep Ember distracted. As for Twilight, she's been more or less entertaining Thorax by showing off different chairs for different reads. Spike then shows up, and Thorax expresses his concern about the fact that "Twilight really loves chairs". Of course, we know what she really loves is books.
As it turns out, Spike also promised Thorax ice cream to get him to comply, but now he claims that "they ran out" even though I'm sure he could easily pop over to Sugarcube Corner or even just ask Pinkie Pie to make a delivery.
Spike then hastily "borrows" Twilight to more or less tell her that Ember's also in the castle, and that he needs to get Thorax away before Ember can see him. Then, suddenly, Spike's spines start glowing (despite the episode mistakingly labeling them his scales). It turns out he's been called by the map, which displays a symbol of him right over Ponyville. And at that same moment, Starlight happens to come in and sees everything. At this point, I think even the target audience can guess what the problem is. Yet apparently, despite no one watching either Thorax or Ember, the two never meet even just by accident.
So Spike wanders around Ponyville, trying to find what the friendship problem is that he's supposed to solve. This all amounts to filler antics. Meanwhile, Twilight and Starlight continue their un-coordinated efforts to keep Thorax and Ember from meeting, to the point where they both accidentally take them both out into Ponyville. Interestingly, Ember scares a few ponies with her dramatic entrance.
Ember also believes because of seeing Twilight's castle that friends decorate their walls with edible food, and steals one of Derpy's muffins to demonstrate this "fact".
Ember also keeps getting Twilight and Starlight mixed up, saying that they're the same, apparently not noticing Twilight's wings. It's possible she might be color blind, though. Anyway, Spike eventually approaches her while looking for the friendship problem. And Ember acts not unlike Spike invited her to Ponyville for a date, then stood her up all day. She even says that he can't say she's bad at friendship because he's been avoiding her all day.
This little "confrontation" ends up being what gets Thorax to spot Ember. Thinking that Spike is in danger, he transforms into a bear and lunges at Ember. But Spike stops them and finally comes clean about accidentally inviting them to Ponyville on the same day. They both scold him for thinking that they'd fight if they met by accident, though at least with Ember you can't exactly blame Spike given how tempermental she's been acting. She seems like the kind of girl who looks for any excuse to have a battle.
Still, the two decide to have a talk alone, even though they're both mad at Spike for lying to them. It's been mentioned by now that Thorax is still dealing with some changelings who question his leadership, whether it's because of Chrysalis' overthrow or because he was more or less made the new leader by an outsider is unclear. This is definitely the best part of the episode, as Thorax and Ember give each other advice, showing that it's important to rule with compassion but that a leader must also ultimately have the authority to settle disputes and ensure that their decisions are not endlessly questioned. Meanwhile, Spike worries that neither Thorax or Ember will ever want to talk to him again. But they show up, telling Spike that while they're still mad at him for what he did, they at least appreciate getting to meet each other and talk it out, so all is forgiven.
And of course, this is the friendship problem Spike was tasked with solving. Much like when Starlight got called by the map back in "A Royal Problem", this kind of cheapens the map's appeal: It stretches the definition of what counts as a friendship problem, to the point where apparently you can unintentionally create one and then be called to solve it. However, much like with Starlight, this is the only time Spike ever gets called by the map. It won't be used for "Shadow Play" when the map summons the mane six to Hollow Shade, which probably means this episode was worked on after "Shadow Play". And the episode ends with Spike basically being forgiven since everything all worked out okay, whereas "Where The Apple Lies" suggested that telling lies for any reason was wrong.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, this might just be the most forgettable Spike episode of them all. It doesn't have any infamously bad moments such as Twilight not giving Spike a chance to explain himself in "Owl's Well that Ends Well" or the noble dragon code pulled literally out of thin air in "Spike at Your Service", but it's also a big step down from "Gauntlet of Fire" where Spike was useful and his usual moments of comedic stupidity were kept to a minimum. There is also one glaring problem that the episode never addresses: Twilight was in the same circumstances as Spike once: Not being able to let two individuals meet and talk, even when it was clear that doing so would help them. You'd think at some point she would bring this up and warn Spike about trying to keep Thorax and Ember apart all day. At the very least, she should've offered to just send Thorax home since if that would solve the issue, there's no evidence Thorax would be offended. She didn't even make a promise to help Spike like when she Pinkie Promised to keep Rarity and Fluttershy's secrets.
The real problem though is that this episode's plot couldn't sustain itself for twenty two minutes. Once the map calls Spike, and Twilight and Starlight are both present to witness it, that's it, there's zero reason for Thorax and Ember to not meet even just by accident. Even the target audience can tell at that point what the problem is and what Spike's going to have to do. They do treat Spike's concerns seriously, instead of him just being shrugged off and laughed at for worrying about nothing, and for Ember at least his concerns are valid. But once Spike gets called by the map, he just looks like an idiot for not suspecting the obvious. And the episode treats us to several filler moments, which just makes the intended climax when Thorax and Ember do meet feel rushed and thus robs it of tension. Thorax and Ember talking to each other and learning from each other is nice, though when next we see them both there'll be little evidence that they changed their ways at all. And the aforementioned issue with changelings questioning Thorax's leadership will have been magically resolved off-screen. All in all, this episode seems to have tried to go for the typical Spike episode plot where the universe just turns against him, but tried to make his screw-ups and concerns seem more valid. The result is that we're in this weird middle ground where it's hard to know if we're supposed to laugh at Spike's efforts to keep Thorax and Ember apart, or just groan at how dense he's being for no good reason. At the very least, seeing Starlight go along with Spike's plans is nice, which makes me really wish we could've gotten a full episode of the two hanging out and having to solve a problem together.
Ultimately, this episode gets a borderline C-/C. It's not an infamously bad episode, but it's a major step down for Spike in character after Season 6 showed it was possible to make him competent in his focus episodes without making everyone else useless. The fact that this is his only focus episode for all of Season 7 just makes it all the more jarring. And considering Seasons 8 and 9 would give him wings and finally address his family situation with Twilight, there's practically nothing that justifies coming back to this episode. It almost feels like it was made to be forgotten.
But remember Thorax mentioning in this episode about changelings still questioning his rule? Well, that was probably intended to be a nod to the next episode in this re-review session, given that I already re-reviewed the next three episodes in a row before it. So come back next week for "To Change a Changeling", a StarlightxTrixie episode in which FiM attempted to tackle the idea of a solider in peace time.
Yeah, I ultimately have to agree.
It's a fun episode, but doesn't really do much outside of that
In terms of solo map episodes, this is definitely weaker than A Royal Problem.
5773485 Eh, not sure if "Fun" is what I'd use to describe this episode. A "Fun" episode to me would be something like "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" or "Rarity Investigates", a lower stakes episode that has a premise which doesn't hinge completely on comedic misunderstandings or characters just doing stupid things for the sake of the plot, like they do here.