Season 5, Episode 10 Thoughts and Review · 4:20am Jun 21st, 2015
Spoilersssssssssssssssss....
Wow. A Spike episode that was disappointing. What a shocker. I was excited to see some Crystal Ponies and Cadence, though.
The episode begins at Canterlot Castle, where ponies from all over Equestria have come together for the Grand Equestria Pony Summit. As part of the event, a large statue made of gemstones from each delegate's respective city will be honored. Somewhere off in the distance, Maud is freaking out. Twilight Sparkle, who organized the summit, briefly addresses the delegates and receives their applause. Despite Spike's willingness to help the delegates during their stay, they cheer for Princess Twilight only. Poor Spike.
"There. Are you happy now?"
Having been awake for three straight days organizing the summit, Twilight is too exhausted to see to her summit duties. While Twilight gets some rest, Princess Cadance charges Spike with making sure she isn't disturbed. Spike accepts the responsibility and keeps watch. During his watch, Spike stops everyone and everything in Canterlot from making noise and possibly waking Twilight, including a chirping bird, a group of ponies' polo game, a landscaper from cutting down dragon sneeze trees, and a maintenance worker from repairing a water main.
Later, two arguing delegates appear at Twilight's doorstep over a speech scheduling conflict, and they seek Twilight's advice. With Twilight too tired to handle the matter properly, Spike steps in to resolve the issue.
Can I take minute to point out how the blond pony is like Donna from Supernatural? Seriously, I bet she's a monster hunter.
The delegates are satisfied, but soon, more and more ponies show with various summit problems. Spike convinces the delegates that he is acting on Princess Twilight's behalf and addresses their problems one by one. After the line of delegates has dispersed, Spike decides to take care of more of Twilight's summit tasks so she won't have to worry about them when she wakes up.
As self-designated "Princess Spike," Spike completes more tasks on Twilight's behalf, but Cadance warns him not to let the power go to his head. Points for awesome characterization and screentime for my princess of love. Spike assures that he's acting solely for Twilight's benefit, but he soon takes advantage of the perks that come with using her name, like getting massages at the spa, having portraits of himself made, and extorting treats.
When Cadance confronts Spike about his abuse of authority in the main summit hall, Spike tells her that he's solved multiple delegation issues and everything is fine. Just then, a ball from the relocated polo game knocks over a row of dragon sneeze trees and bursts the cracked water main, flooding the summit hall with water. Cadance manages to shut off the water main, but Spike has an allergic reaction to the dragon sneeze petals, and his sneeze destroys the gemstone statue.
Garnet does not approve of Spike's abuse towards gems.
An angry mob of ponies enters, and Fancy Pants wonders about all the terrible decisions that Princess Twilight supposedly approved of. Before Spike has a chance to explain, they storm up the tower that Twilight's resting in. Spike barely manages to beat them there and locks himself inside Twilight's room. At that moment, a well-rested Twilight finally awakens, and Fancy Pants' angry mob enters to complain.
In the summit hall, Twilight sees the result of Spike's decisions, and he admits to having enjoyed being a princess and other ponies caring about his opinions. At Twilight and Cadance's encouragement, Spike apologizes to the summit delegates for taking what should have been a celebration of ponies coming together and making it all about himself. As repentance for his actions, he tries to reassemble the gemstone statue. The delegates are moved by Spike's words, and they pitch in to fix the statue and restore the summit hall.
Cadance dedicates the rebuilt statue to every city it represents, and one of the delegates gives Spike a bouquet of dragon sneeze flowers. He has another allergic reaction, and the episode cuts to black before he destroys the statue a second time.
OK, this review is very point blank because A) I don't feel like making any jokes. This episode doesn't deserve any. B) I'm tired, and I've had a hard day. C) Spike is a good character, but he's not treated like he should be, and that makes me mad, so I'm just not gonna dwell on my anger right now.
My thoughts on today's episode.
Yeah...todays episode was pretty lametastic.
I approve your use of Garnet.
Dear god, we need a FriendshipBomb crossover now. I bet the gems would be absolutely horrified by Spike. It'd be worse than Uncle Grandpa!
At least Fluffy Clouds came back.
I noticed in the episode that Fancy Pants called Spike old sport. Someone needs to write a Great Gatsby crossover!
The episode was meh, yeah.
So much meh.
There are writers who can make a very good story for Spike and none of them are hired by DHX Studios.
Also I wanna point out a trend here that's going on with Spike episodes.
First we have Spike being greedy in 'Secret of my Excess'.
Being prideful of the importance of his role as 'Princess Spike' in this latest episode.
Envious of the the Mane 6 in that Power Ponies episode because he still ended up being a sidekick.
His gluttony causing trouble because he wanted more gems for his cake but couldn't help eating them (Just for Sidekicks).
Noticed how these are all a part of the 7 Deadly Sins? I don't know what you'd think of this, but this has been a subtle part of Spike's design over the course of these 5 years. I think sooner or later, Spike is gonna snap and become an antagonist because he had enough of being treated negatively in his prime episodes.
The next episode synopsis?
Haven't seen the episode yet, but that one pony with the funny looking hat (who you said was a reference to Supernatural) was actually a reference to the film "Fargo". She has the same outfit as the main character, who was a female officer, and accent. It's kinda neat to see them referencing another film by the Coen Brothers, in the last episode they made a "Big Lebowski" reference with the bowling ponies. Gotta say, the writers may be awful at writing Spike but they have great taste in films.
She's actually from Fargo.
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As soon as I saw that it was going to be a Spike episode and what the plot was, I knew exactly how it was going to go. The pipe and the trees was going to mess everything up, and Spike was going to take the blame for it and have to apologize for it, because even though he was doing it for Twilight's benefit and made all of the suggestions with good intentions, they shoehorned in Spike being greedy and taking advantage just so they could put him in the wrong.
Writers, would it be too much to ask for a Spike episode where A) He isn't made the butt of the jokes, and B) The plot doesn't happen because Spike gets greedy or becomes a complete idiot all of a sudden? More episodes like Inspiration Manifestation, less episodes like Just For Sidekicks and this one.
On a side note, was really happen to see some more characterization for Princess Cadance, Marge Gunderson pony was awesome ("Not sure that I agree with ya 100% on your police work there, Lou"), and really happy to see the return of Fancy Pants.
Also, Fancy Pants' face here is wonderful:
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