Episode Re-Review: Sweet and Smoky · 4:22pm August 24th
Well, I'm back from vacation. It wasn't completely horrible, I got to ride almost everything I wanted, but there were a lot of little things that added up to it being an overall disappointment and one of the worst vacations I've ever had. Definitely won't be going back to Orlando anytime soon, no matter what time of year it is. Anyway, it's time to get back to the re-reviews on their usual schedule. Season 9 continued bobbing up and down in quality at this point, one episode would be really good and the next would usually be forgettable or really bad. After eight episodes, consistent quality was impossible. Coming on the heels of "Frenemies", the villain team up episode fans had been waiting for, we have this episode that was penned by none other than Kim Beyer-Johnson. The very same Beyer-Johnson who wrote the disastorus butchering of Applejack and Rainbow Dash's character in "Non-Compete Clause". Since then, she had written three encore shorts following "The Best Gift Ever", including one that had Applejack and Rainbow Dash asking Fluttershy how she became teacher of the month all the time. But even those shorts landed mostly without impact. And you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who likes this episode. Given that Kim went on to write "Rainbow Roadtrip", the salvaged sequel to the 2017 movie (many regarding said sequel as Kim's best work), is it possible she could overcome her poor debut and write something at least decent? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Smolder coming to see Twilight in the headmare's office, asking for permission to go back to the dragon lands because she's worried about her "kind" and "sensitive" brother. Spike quickly insists that he go too, eager to meet this brother of Smolder's. And he convinces Twilight by suggesting it could be a "kindness field trip".
Smolder then mentions they'll be going back during the season when dragon eggs hatch, and Fluttershy quickly asks to be allowed to go too, because she wants to see the newborn dragons. They make no mention of her previous fear of dragons, which could suggest she's at least somewhat gotten over it. Between this and her having gotten past stage fright in "Horse Play", it's great to see episodes that remember her character growth instead of just resetting it all the time.
Upon arriving in the dragon lands, Spike looks forward to meeting Smolder's brother, and Smolder goes off to knit a blanket for said brother. Meanwhile, Fluttershy finds Ember at the hatching grounds. She initially assumes Ember laid all the eggs herself, but Ember denies this and says that dragons just leave their eggs at the hatching grounds and come back to pick up their children once the eggs have hatched. But for some reason, the eggs aren't hatching. Fluttershy quickly offers to help, eager to see the newborn dragons once the eggs do hatch. We then cut back to Spike, who reunites with Smolder after she finishes knitting the blanket. And then Garble and his friends show up, and it quickly turns out that he is in fact Smolder's brother.
There is also a mention of laughter fire, which you might think is just a throwaway line, but it'll actually turn out to be important to the plot later on. For now, however, Smolder claims that Garble's been mopey ever since she left for the School of Friendship, but that on the inside he's really sweet. So reluctantly, Spike tries to put up with Garble and befriend him. But at every turn, no matter what activities they do together, Garble refuses to befriend Spike and keeps on bullying him in plain sight of Smolder. And does Smolder do anything about it? Well, aside from one warning to Garble not to push Spike around, the answer is no. She acts as if she has no clue about what her brother is doing, and continues to insist it's all just an act from him. That's as bad as Twilight not noticing her friends fighting directly in front of her in "Look Before You Sleep". and I have no clue why we're going back to that. It's not funny at all, it just makes your character look stupid for not noticing the obvious.
As for Fluttershy, she notices the eggs shaking. But she just thinks they're afraid, even though Ember mentions they've been shaking days with apparently no explanation. We then cut back to Garble hanging out with the other teenage dragons, who redirect lava flow to create a pool for them to bathe in. Spike, however, stays behind because he's become depressed from Garble's constant bullying. Fluttershy then shows up, explaining her problems with the egg hatching grounds, and Spike reveals to her about Garble being Smolder's brother. When Fluttershy witnesses Garble bullying Spike again, she quickly tells off Garble, embarassing him in front of his friends. Despite this, he goes off with Smolder to go lava surfing, and Spike opts to switch tasks with Fluttershy and let her try to cheer Garble up. It's too bad Pinkie Pie isn't here, because that sort of task would be right up her ally.
Spike shows up to the egg hatching grounds where he witnesses Ember trying to get the eggs to come out through pony kindness. Then he discovers that the grounds are too cold, hence why the eggs are shaking. And why are the grounds so cold? Because Garble and his friends have been unknowingly diverting the lava flow that was supposed to go to the egg hatching grounds. And apparently, no one ever told Ember this or told any other dragon, even this is literally dealing with the future.
Spike proposes moving the eggs somewhere warmer, but Ember says they're too fragile to be moved and instead degrees that all dragons need to come to the egg hatching grounds to warm them up. Meanwhile, Fluttershy discovers that Garble is secretly a beat poet. But when he mocks Spike for being weak, she puts him in his place and says that Spike is not weak because he has the courage to be himself. As nice as this is, it reeks of show, don't tell. Spike isn't allowed to stand up for himself, he needs someone else to do it for him. And while it's great that Fluttershy is the one doing it, it still undercuts the message since it's someone else telling Garble after we've watched Spike be unable to do anything to even defend himself, and be put through the wringer because of it.
Garble then learns about the problem with the egg hatching grounds, just in time to see his friends picking on Spike and making fun of him again. Their laughter fire (which has a different color from normal fire, it's blue) as it turns out is hotter and stronger than normal fire (blue fire actually does burn hotter than red or orange fire). That gives Garble an idea, he wips out his beat poet costume and starts reciting his poetry. This makes all the dragons laugh even harder, enough to warm up the egg hatching grounds and make all the eggs hatch.
Afterward, Ember declares Garble a hero, shutting down the efforts of the other dragons to mock and tease him for his beat poetry. Smolder then speaks up, saying that her time at the School of Friendship has taught her to respect differences, not mock them. And Ember agrees. Then while she and the other dragons are all asking Garble for poetry writing tips, Fluttershy is busy smothering the newborn dragons with love, and I believe there's a line where she expresses her desire to take them back home with her. Hey, it can't be worse than her first attempt at babysitting the CMC.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Quite honestly, I have a hard time wrapping my head around its main concept: Garble isn't really a bad dragon, he's just too afraid to be himself and takes it out on others because of that. Maybe if we'd only seen Garble once or twice before this could've worked, but we've seen Garble be openly hostile towards the ponies on multiple occasions, and have no qualms about going after Spike for associating with them. To suddenly try to rewrite all of that and claim he's just misunderstood doesn't work, because it expects the audience to disregard everything we knew about him before. He was fine as he was, a joke villain they could bring back to abuse and make fun of. No one really wanted to see anything else from him, let alone care about if he might have a different side to him. Who in their right mind wanted Garble to reform? Wasn't the whole point of Cozy Glow specifically that they were going to stop using reformation and redemption on villains all the time? This honestly feels like a joke that someone thought would be funny, and it isn't.
Putting that aside, this episode feels insulting to Spike. Just when Season 9 finally started treating him with respect and stopped making jokes at his expense, along comes this episode where he's utterly useless and just exists to be pushed around. He can't even defend himself, he needs someone else to do it for him. The only thing he contributes is deducing what should've been obvious: That the egg hatching grounds are too cold and that's why the eggs are shivering. And the revelation about why that is just raises questions about why no one ever told any dragon about the necessity of keeping the egg hatching grounds warm, or making sure that the lava flows to said grounds couldn't be redirected or blocked off. And the whole thing about laughing fire feels pulled out of thin air, along with Garble being a secret beat poet. It's like they had no idea beyond just going back to the dragon lands and redeeming Garble. And who wanted to see that? No one. Even as the final time we see Ember in a speaking role, it's not very good. "Triple Threat" of all things felt like a better showcase for her, showing her strengths and weaknesses. Here, much like Thorax, it seems like she isn't a very good leader if she doesn't know how to handle problems without others coming to help her out. About the only good thing in this episode is that Fluttershy is handled really well, overcoming her fear of dragons (albeit off-screen) and standing up for Spike. But even she loses a few points when she stupidly thinks the eggs are shaking because they're afraid, despite the fact that she's cared for lots of animals and should probably understand how egg laying and egg hatching is supposed to work. That's as bad as "She Talks to Angel" forgetting that Fluttershy fed fish to otters in Season 1, and having her instead insist that predators not eat meat while staying at her sanctuary. In the end, this episode gets a D-. What few good moments there might be are overshadowed by an overall stupid, wasteful plot. In the grand scheme of things, what did it even accomplish? There's nothing in future episodes to directly suggest this episode took place. It's an episode you could skip over and not miss anything of substance.
So next up we have "Going to Seed", an episode about Applejack trying to stop Apple Bloom from believing in something called The Great Seedling. It's been quite a while since we had an episode focused on the two, but then again maybe that's for the best considering how a lot of their recent interactions went.
For me, this is a mostly okay episode, elevated to good by the Fluttershy plot
This is one of my biggest gripes with the show. There were hardly any times that Spike was given the opportunity to no longer be made into the comedic relief at his expense. And each time it did happen, he is knocked right back down to square one: being a treated doormat and not being allowed to handle himself without anyone else to hold his hand - or his case - claw. Like, I'm fine with having a character being the butt of jokes, but if it's dragged out after a certain extent and becomes detrimental to that character's growth, it becomes real old, REAL fast.
I'm as proud of Fluttershy getting over her fear of dragon's and being there for Spike as much as the next person, but I have to agree with these points. Thinking the eggs are shaking because they're afraid? Like, Fluttershy, one of the many animals you take care of are birds. One would think she knows the basics when it comes to baby birds eggs moving around - which is an indication that they are either ready to hatch, or some outside force - like a tremor or earthquake - causing them to shake around. Though I'd say the whole "insisting that predators not eat meat while staying at her sanctuary" is much worse because uh, predators need to eat other animals to survive
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When I first heard that Kim Beyer-Johnson was writing this episode, I was honestly worried that she was gonna regress Fluttershy's character like she did with Applejack and Rainbow Dash in Non-Compete Clause. And by that, I mean having Fluttershy act like a scaredy cat who had to be coerced into accompanying Spike and Smolder to the Dragon Lands, and then spend most of the episode getting nervous about being around so many dragons until she has her obligatory "Beware the Nice/Quiet Ones" moment. But instead, she ended up being the MVP for this episode. She willingly offered to join Spike and Smolder on their trip, and never once showed any fear towards the other dragons. I guess Beyer-Johnson learned a little something from her last episode.
Unfortunately, that's about all the praise I can give this episode. Without a doubt, it's biggest problem is our "reformed" antagonist; Garble. Like I said back in your re-review of Daring Don't, this is a case of the old phrase "too little, too late". After watching this character be nothing more than a one-dimensional bully who gets kicks out of smashing unborn baby phoenix eggs and threatened to invade Equestria if he became Dragon Lord, you seriously expect us to believe that he's just a misunderstood good guy?!
Also, since this is both Garble and Ember's final speaking appearances, that means it's time for me to share their first and last lines spoken in the series.
Ember
Garble
This is valid info i'll have to take into consideration when I write "Sweet and Smokey" for my series. :)