"Princess Spike" (S5 E10 spoilers, obvs.) · 7:57pm Jun 21st, 2015
I'm going to gloss over the reasons this episode sticks in my craw, not because I feel they're invalid per se, but because unless mine is the first blog or reaction post you've read since Saturday I guarantee I'll have nothing new to say on that front. "Princess Spike" was visually satisfying but narratively lacking, and unlike most episodes based around the "I got so caught up with (x) I failed to pay attention to (y)" premise, catastrophe (y) was so tenuously linked to protagonist action (x) that the moral collapses under its own weight. 'Nuff said.
Let's talk about Candybutt instead.
"What a shock, Sky," you say.
So anyway, we have our first real Cadance content of Season 5 (excepting "Slice of Life"'s one-scene gag), which came at me completely out of left field based on the summary. As I noted a few minutes ago to The Descendant, up until the moment the episode fell apart I was absolutely digging on the Cadance / Spike interactions with this one. Since the end of Season 4, the threat of marginalization of my favorite princess has been a real one. From practically the moment she's been introduced, Cadance has been an inescapable pit of Desirable Princess Traits. She's married to a handsome prince, has a shiny castle and a kingdom full of subjects that adore her, and is undeniably and unquestionably one of the pinkest creatures you will meet outside of Pinkie Pie (who actually has the word "Pink" in her name, so it's not really a fair comparison). Cadance took the pinkness bullet for both Princess Celestia and toy-collecting fans everywhere, and it was my hope that she would take the princess bullet for Twilight, leaving her free to keep her unique, lovable, Nontraditional Princess life.
Yyyeah. How did that work out for you, Skywriter of 2013? Twilight has a crystal castle of her own, a romantic interest of her own (if you accept Equestria Girls as canon) and is well on her way to making Cady obsolete. The one thing that Cadance has on Twilight is an actual husband (which is not likely to happen until very late in the series if at all) and the attendant possibility of a child (which will never happen ever, unless someone at Hasbro goes totally insane). Cady's not a formal mentor to anyone, she doesn't have a clearly-defined role in the world, and the qualities she brings to the universe are slowly being eclipsed by Twilight's ascendancy. What role does Cadance play?
The answer: she's Spike's princess. And I totally did not expect that, nor see it coming, even as the trend began in "Equestria Games." What Celestia is to Twilight and the Mane 6, what Luna is to the CMC's, Cadance is to Spike. It is unexpectedly perfect that the ever-narratively-downtrodden #1 Assistant and the increasingly-irrelevant Princess Cadance have ended up together. Candybutt is fumbling at trying to become a Wise Mentor Just Like Her Aunty using a tiny test Faithful Student of her very own. She's not sure how to go about it, she doesn't assert herself calmly, and while she's got the moral on her side she has no idea how to enact it, but the dynamic is becoming clear: out of nowhere, Cadance is Spike's Celestia. And I really like that.
Now all we need is an actual quality episode to hammer that dynamic home.
To close, I offer the Best Face from this episode:
Look at that smile, half-hidden by network watermarking. Look at it. She's just so frickin' happy to have been given a role in the dedication ceremony she has bolted past "serene" all the way to "gleeful." That's my girl. That's my Best Princess.
Also she can make crystals out of either (a) thin air or (b) the minerals in water. If (b), headcanon totally confirmed. I just wish I could have written the story it happens in before this episode aired so I would look totally smart rather than just derivative.
That is all.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot to add: chainsaws. Frickin' chainsaws. I am not exceptionally perturbed by this; we have a telekinetic charm in Tank's shell-beanie, so we may as well posit there's a telekinetic charm in the chainsaw housing that just happens to be very loud. My only regret is that Eakin's "Hard Reset" was finished before chainsaws were canonized, because oh my bucking alicorn.
c) light, d) pure magic, on account that Sombra and Celestia use dark magic to make black crystals out of magic, darkness or bad feelings.
I accept this fanon and accept it as my own. I've had to accept that Twilight's apotheosis has left Spike's character arc in a lurch, and I can't help but think that having him move into his own bedroom shows how far from her narrative he's been removed. If having Cady become the Twilight that Twilight should have been to Spike ends up beneficial for them both—and this will shock my readers—then I'll accept this relationship with open arms.
Now go write the story, okay?
3168578
This is true. She may have managed the reverse of Celestia and Sombra's Evilness Crystals, no mean feat in my book. This makes her Good Sombra[1], which is also cool.
[1]Yes, I know, IDW's "Reflections" arc and all.
3168587
aaah no not another story on the docket
nooooo
Napkins!
3168597
I have a pile of index cards full of story ideas I've had since Season 1, and which has been added to exponentially since 2011. It never decreases. Never.
I couldn't help but think of Sombra's magic when she stopped up the water main. Of course, Lovebutt's magic is entirely different, because the crystals are colorful. Totally unrelated. Nothing to see here. Move along, citizen.
Also, the idea of Cadance being Spike's alicorn mentor is fantastic and wonderful. I dearly hope they stick with that.
You know, I'm constantly surprised by how much I like Cadance. I hated the idea of her when she was first announced, and I thought her design was creepy. It just felt off. But every time she's on screen, I just get this feeling, this feeling that I'm looking at a true bro.
I've actually had a Spike + Cadance story in the works for a very long time now, and this episode made me so happy because of how it reinforces their relationship. I never really considered the mentorship angle you brought up here, though. I really like it! The episode itself may have been lacking, but it skyrocketed to the top of my headcanon resource list.
God, I love Cadance.
3168590 She's negative-Sombra, all good and colorful and female.
Which by extension means he had an evil female dragon as a mentor. Maybe she'll come to cause trouble in the future.
3168615
Cadance's parentage is, as yet, utterly murky in the canon. Per ...Crystal Heart Spell, which by hearsay is A-level Canon that has yet to make its way into the show, Cadance was a foundling adopted by a village of earth ponies. It is not stated how long ago this was, and even if it were only a few years back, King
SombreroSombra was clearly mucking about with Rip All Reality Asunder-level magic when he Brigadooned the Empire. Since all bets are off temporally-speaking based on the level of causality-wrangling going on, there's a part of me that is intensely suspicious--even in my own core Cadance headcanon--that Sombrero is actually secretly Cadance's dad, and they've got the most fscked-up father-daughter relationship in the entire series.Let's just say that Cadance outright performing Sombra's signature spell on camera has not put my suspicions to rest.
3168622
I've always angsted about how the idea of Cadance marked the end of the Faustian Period of the show (another topic that I've dealt with previously in this blog) but unlike you, I have to say I enjoyed her design aesthetic from moment one. I dunno what it is. She's like the essential second Day Princess, Rosy Dawn to Twilight's Violet Dusk, complementing Celestia and Luna's absolute day and absolute night.
3168640
I know, right? To be fair, I love my own ideas about Cadance, but inasmuch as the show keeps propping them up instead of knocking them down, I'm totally on board.
3168645
Yeah, when you can fling your entire ill-gotten empire about a millennium into the future as you're being sealed in the Arctic ice, finding the opportunity to be a certain filly's father seems quite feasible.
This thread and comments are really helping my view on Saturday's episode. At least it had some good developments.
3168667
There is good to be found in everything. Our job as fans is to pluck out what we love from the mix and make it shine, each in our own way.
Of course I accept Equestria Girls. SunLight OTP.
3168672
And, oh, were there some lovely little moments in this episode!
Sure, I could nitpick away (dragon-sneeze trees, what?), but I prefer focusing on the positive. My personal favorite moment? "Whinnyapolis".
I've said it elsewhere, but I'll repeat it here (where it might get noticed); the whole debacle of events in that episode can be laid right at Candybutt's hooves. If she had really stepped up to her role as a Princess, then none of it would have happened.
As far as we can tell, she was the one that made the call to pull Twilight. She did so without arranging a suitable replacement. Spike is not a suitable replacement; you don't give the junior assistant executive-level authority, never mind the power-hungry reptile power. Dragons are inherently greedy, usually in regards to material things, and Spike is certainly not immune to such behavior nor mature enough to reliably control it, at least not without Twilight backing him up. He's shown as far back as season 2's Secret of My Excess that he has a proclivity for abusing ponies' blind trust in matters to his own egotistical ends. Now that has been a little while and he might have changed, but we've not seen any real evidence of that and Cadance certainly hasn't. I mean, the last time she saw him was during the Equestria games, where he was busy reveling in the adoration of her subjects.
Really, the whole scenario could have been resolved with her telling Spike to simply send any traffic her way. If anyone asks, Twi is busy on urgent summit related matters, take all your problems to Cadance. She'd be swamped for a couple hours, but it was still her call to take Twilight out of the picture and she should deal with it as such. She's been running her own empire for a little while now and should have more experience ruling, power balancing, and delegating than to let this kind of amateur mistake go through.
Now, Sky, you want to take your idea and combine it, then we'd have a very interesting episode. Let Spike see what might be in store for Twilight by seeing how Cadance deals with things; does she have respectability issues, what's her leadership style, could she benefit from some of Twi's own habits (ie, have Spike suggest something based on how Twi might do it as a solution to a particular problem), does she rely more or less on her aunts than Twilight does? Lots of possibles by having Cadi co-opt Spike for her own for the day and show how his routine is shaken up by having a new boss.
I probably like Cadance as a character more than Celestia or Luna now.
Celestia started out as a kind of Dumbledore character, she was just a collection of ideals that Twilight admired, and nothing else was really required for her to work as a character. But since she's started as a collection of ideals that pretty much means that every appearance she makes where she has to take action will only add faults to her character, she's doomed to always fall short of what's expected of her.
Luna is kind of boring, she doesn't really have much of a role in the world yet. If Celestia is Dumbledore to Twilight then Luna is McGonagall to the CMC, and that's a pretty minor and boring thing to be in the grand scheme of things.
Cadance actually had her own defined personality from the start. Even if she was a stereotypical princess and i didn't really like her when she first appeared she wasn't a vague ideal or a cipher, and her subsequent appearances have only served to build on her character rather than to deconstruct it.
It's also impossible not to like her even when she's scolding you.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/6/21/920935__safe_animated_screencap_princess+cadance_angry_spoiler-colon-s05e10_princess+spike+%28episode%29.gif
3168791
I immediately had this thought, which made me chuckle:
"Your call is very important to us. All of our princesses are busy at this time. Please remain on the line, and the next available princess will be with you shortly."
I still want to know who planted those Dragonsneeze trees. There weren't any dragon delegates, but maybe that's why? They didn't return after an encounter with those trees? Who would want to plant trees that are mostly noticeable for being likely to fall on things and for dragons being highly allergic to them, especially in someplace that important visitors from other places are gonna be?
It is good seeing Cadence take on a bit of a mentoring role. The bad part is that she's pretty much the one who stuck Spike in a bad position here. Somepony obviously needed to be doing Twilight's job while she was asleep, and nopony was. She really should have handled things herself, or told him who was going to be handling it.
When things went south, he was actually owed an apology he never got, or at least some acknowledgement that the other princesses mishandled things...
--Sweetie Belle
3168834
I bet they are not even called "Dragonsneeze", that's just Spike that calls them that because he's allergic or something.
Ponies keep them cause they are pretty and tasty and there's like, one dragon that even lives (lived) in Canterlot.
I was wondering if that episode would rouse you! I was like, "Cadence? Talking? Hesitantly doing a little Spike mentoring? Skywriter must be having heart palpitations!"
...before the episode went off track and I furiously went and did nothing
3168816 haha now I want to write a comedy about the pony princess phone tree.
3168759
This bugged me too, but I actually thought of a decent-ish explanation. Notice that Spike is the only one who ever refers to them as dragon-sneeze trees. My theory is that Spike first encountered the trees while growing up in Canterlot and just happens to be allergic to the trees. Since he's the only one he knows that sneezes at them (and he's a dragon), he assumes that they're trees that make all dragons sneeze and he's adopted the nickname "dragon-sneeze trees" accordingly.
It ain't great, but it works.
Playing second fiddle to Twilight's second fiddle? No wonder she's Worst Princess. :V fite me
3168672
And to bury what we don't like so deeply that it won't see the light of day again until the heat death of the universe—at which point there's no light, anyway.
3168999
That's... plausible enough for me to accept, thank you. It's certainly much better than purposely planting a bunch of trees in the capital city of Equestria that causes allergic reactions in an entire species for no apparently good reason. Unless it's to stop dragon invasions, or something of that nature.
3168604
If you're anything like me in that regard, your discarded half-written drafts vastly outnumber your completed drafts. (Not even published vs. unpublished. I'm talking never-finished work vs. both published and "Yeah, this draft isn't up to snuff. Can't publish this, even though it's done.")
Regarding the episode, I'd have to say that it didn't disappoint me, but only because I looked at the writer's previous credits and the main character of the episode. Considering the writer (I forgot his name already) wrote for Fish Hooks and Johnny Test, two terrible shows, this was probably the best thing he's ever written.
That probably sounds like I hated the episode, but I actually found it to be so boring that I had no strong opinion of it. 6ish out of 10, I guess?
I don't know... Even with Twilight getting her own Crystal Castle, I haven't feared that Cadance was being edged out. Actually, it has felt to me like they are really cementing the "New Royal Pony Sisters" dynamic with her and Twilight, especially following "Three's a Crowd". I don't necessarily see her as Spike's mentor as much as just the real big sister of the Royal set... Celestia has always been the perfect motherly figure. Cadance, however, is more relatable, more fallible, more dare-I-say human. Old enough to be respected for her mentoring yet young enough to be a peer. Spike and Twilight both seem to get taken under her wing as younger siblings.
Honestly, with Cadance taking the older sibling role so well, it's Shining Armor who seems to have been created for the wedding episode and then largely discarded. He was there to be rescued, make Cadance into Twilight's sister, and since has been marginalized and often forgotten. (Come to think of it, he even jokingly says during the wedding that getting Twilight as a sister was the incentive that got Cadance to marry him...). I'm curious if the rumored upcoming "Brotherhood Social" episode gives him a feature, and perhaps something to actually do.
3169042
You and me. Outside. Right now. I just need to find someone to hold my jacket.
3168960
Well, at my most beautiful, I regard a bad episode as an excuse to do hellza fixficcing like any other properly compulsive fanboy. So while I am also tempted to do nothing, I think maybe it might be holistically better for everyone concerned if I were to--and I know this sounds a little out there--do a thing instead. So now I'm going to do a thing. Wish me luck.
3168690
This is of course exactly what I meant by "romantic interest" and you know that.
The problem with the episode is that it was written to be a Spike episode. That goes without saying, but unfortunately some people need it said for the rest of what I'm about to talk about to make sense.
It started back in Crystal Empire part II. The end of a rather poor two-part episode has a fairly unbelievable ending. Somehow, the fact that Spike (directed to by Twilight) was the one who physically carried the Crystal Heart from where Sombra stashed it to where Cadance could get it is given much more importance to the overall mission success than Twilight's part. He picked the heart up off the ground, carried it a few feet to the window, then climbed out, down some black crystals, and eventually dropped it so Cadance had to snatch it out of the air. This part he played in the overall event may have been important, but it certainly shouldn't outshine all the work that Twilight and her friends put into the mission as well. Twilight was the one who did the research, figured out how to even power the Crystal Heart, and found it.
Equestria Games advanced the Spike/Cadance-Crystal Empire thing. It built off of a terrible foundation, and resulted in yet another awful episode.
In the first part of this trilogy, Spike was kept in his established role of assistant, but was granted far more credit and fame for his actions than he deserved. No one thought ahead of time, "it would be a good idea to get Spike to fight this villain and save the Empire." He simply managed to bumble his way through a crisis and not fuck it up too badly. The second part of the trilogy demonstrated that unearned fame, and gave us a bunch of cringe-worthy scenes of a child in the spotlight. At least his responsibilities were reasonable for a dragon child. Light a fire, sing a song. Again, in the end he only managed to do well under pressure during a crisis by not managing to not fuck up.
So we get to part three, and hopefully the end of this arc. Responsibility was given to Spike. To be fair, officially he was just asked to keep her from being disturbed, but as others pointed out, Cadance did drop the ball in not instructing him to send petitioners her way. In defense of the petitioners, Spike did lie to them and tell them he was simply forwarding Twilight's words to them and acting on her behalf. Cadance further dropped the ball when she learned that Spike was speaking on Twilight's behalf and should have immediatly and decisively put her hoof down. "Spike, direct petitioners to me. Don't attempt to handle it yourself. Now tell me what decisions you've made so I can do damage control," should have been what she said to him. Simply questioning his intentions was idiotball plot convenience.
It's fine to like Spike. It's fine to like Cadance. It's fine for Cadance to like Spike. It's fine to like Cadance liking Spike. But come on, this was not an example of a great dynamic between the two, and this episode was frankly insulting and damaging to Cadance's image. It was all done simply to try to force a Spike episode. If you're a fan of either character or the combination, this episode should be seen as depressingly bad for you.
For someone like me who isn't a big fan of either, this episode was merely boring, with some cute Twilight scenes, some neat pony designs, and a bunch of stuff involving the fax machine that I had to tune out for my own sanity.
I'd like to see more Cadance, but I'd prefer she be depicted as an interesting character in her own right, not as an accessory.
3168791
Totally agreed that Cady is at fault here, and I think she knows it. Fixficcing in progress.
3169149
I wouldn't blame Cadance at all, this was all Twilight's fault for being a huge control freak and not knowing how to delegate.
Why is a Princess even handling every single aspect of logistics? This episode is basically Applebuck Season with Twilight instead of Applejack. Perhaps she was feeling bored in her castle and just desperately wanted to do something.
Cadance probably arrived to Canterlot that very day in the morning, at which point Twilight had already been up for 3 days, micro managing everything, no chain of delegation in place (which I want to think the other Princesses thought existed, as I doubt Cadance just leaves the Crystal Empire to fall to anarchy every time she travels) and Cadance was basically the one who took it upon herself to mop up after the whole thing blew up, being the good big sister she is.
It had to be her because the only one who can overrule direct orders from a Princess is another Princess and Celestia and Luna are apparently above meddling in mortal affairs.
3169173
I should have said "at least partially at fault." I put it a little less at her hooves than 3168791 does, but to talk more would rob me of my impetus to actually write something for once.
3169082
They have died a thousand horrible deaths. I've even finished one or two and said, "Yup, this is crap." and moved them to the trash post-haste.
3169173 3169184
It would have been nice if there'd been a gentle jibe at Twilight for this from Celestia at the end, cementing the idea that Celestia was trying to reinforce that very lesson by deliberately standing back and letting the dominos fall.
3169143
Well, I think we need to define "great." In the narrative itself, it's actually kind of a terrible dynamic. They clearly are not working together well, and one of the episode's primary weaknesses is that a number of systemic flaws and other ponies' errors are laid at Spike's feet simply because he violates a completely irrelevant rule of classical morality, and then the narrative calls it all wrapped up. I'm digging on Cadance / Spike not because of how it's depicted in the episode, but because as a concept it opens up a number of ideas I'd never thought of before, ideas on which (I hope) good things can be built; this is different from saying that the writer did a great job depicting it. Does that make any sense?
3169184
Oh, I'm not saying her handling of the situation was flawless, but I don't think it was her fault either, if anything she probably trusted Twilight a little too much, just like everyone else. But there's still a lot to tell there, though, if that's the idea. No one has actually thought Twilight how to be a Princess beyond pointing her horn and shooting, and Cadance herself is surely still learning how to do it.
3169194
In the spirit of this thread, I would prefer if it was Cadance who did the talking while Celestia just sits back and smiles.
3169227
Works for me, especially if Celestia were to wink at Cadance in response.
3169096
Shiny has always needed more characterization.
Lies. Best face is Cadance in act three when Spike's house of cards is collapsing all around him, and she just raises one eyebrow to indicate she's completely done with his bullshit.
3168814
The reason for this is that, with the exception of Luna Eclipsed, the writers have apparently decided to make Luna a mentor figure. On a show that already had Celestia, who is basically Galadriel and Gandalf and Dumbledore but also a Princess who loves cake, occupying that space, and even if it hadn't already had Celestia, you have Zecora, the Magical Zebra, waiting in the batter's box.
Of course Luna comes off as dull in comparison. The comics got around that by maker her a mare of action rather than one of deep thought and serene considerations; would that the show had emulated that.
3168690
God, you have no idea how conflicted I am over this. On the one hand, SunLight for lyfe. On the other hand, Sunset is Twilight's first friendship student. There's an implied power imbalance there that makes me real real hesitant to ship them.
It doesn't help that nobody has written the definitive, epic SunLight fic yet. Or if they have I haven't found it. I keep hearing good things about Long Road to Friendship but every time I go to read it I read the description, which is basically "Sunset Shimmer is enslaved to the whims of those around her until she lets go of hatred in her heart" which is a sentiment I find so repellant I can't bring myself to click on the first chapter even though it is written by the same person who did Sunset of Time, which is pretty damn good.
3168791
I'm gonna quibble with you on this one, mate. Cadance didn't arrange for a suitable replacement for Twilight when she had her pulled because as far as she knew, one wasn't needed; Twilight's schedule was clear, the summit was proceeding as planned, there are three other Princesses flank-deep in it. Spike's only job was to shoo people away from her room; he took on Twilight's mantle of authority of himself.
No, the part where Cadance fell over is when Spike told her he had been appropriating Twilight's power. That's... that's what we call a red flag right there.
3169213
Also worth noting; the decisions he made that bit Spike on the ass were, in fact, the ones related to the actual job he was supposed to be doing.
I mean, a lot of his decisions turned out badly, but the ones that actually caused disasters are the ones that would have happened anyway if he'd stuck scrupulously to his defined task: the polo ponies, the water mane, and the dragonsneeze trees. Those are what caused the debacle (everything else he jacked up was comparatively minor) and they had... nothing to do at all with what he did wrong.
That's weak writing, and what's worse is I can think of a million and one ways to get a disastrous riot out of all the things he did actually screw up. The writing staff has in the pest proven themselves adept at tying disparate plot threads together that way (hell, last week is evidence enough of that) but this time they just utterly fell down on the job.
3169408
The frustrating thing is that, like most tie-up problems, you could have fixed it all with a single-scene substitution. All the episode would have needed to do was have the public works pony come in five minutes later while Spike was having his portrait painted (or his massage or whatever), and at that point have him delay the water main fix because he was on Important Princess Business (being primped and pampered) at the time. It still wouldn't have stopped the script making Fancy Pants into a bit of an asshole, but that's just the writer going in a different direction than my headcanon, which is (of course) fine. The former is an actual structural problem which should have been fixed at the script level.
3169213
I can't knock that part. If the show inspired you to try out something, and you want to write a good story based on it, cool beans. I don't believe that such an idea is specifically what was presented in the episode though. It would not be hard to come up with a better dynamic. I feel that the idea of Cadance being a mentor to Spike being inspired by this episode is akin to being inspired to write something because you saw a crushed Coke can that sparked an idea.
What I saw in the episode was just a whole bunch of miscommunication, no actual lesson learned by anyone despite efforts to make it look like one was learned. What conflict did exist happened only because they decided to focus on Spike's day. In order to make it work, lots of other characters had to not show on screen making whatever mistakes they made that let the situation happen and build.
I think if we wanted a great episode that showed a great dynamic between Cadance and Spike, we'd be better served by a "flashback" episode when Twilight was a filly, Cadance was her foalsitter, and Spike... was still a baby. Maybe an infant or toddler instead of the pre-adolescent he currently seems to be. Whatever.
Maybe Cadance and Shiny's first meeting. Some cute filly Twilight being awkward and adorable. Maybe Spike escapes and needs to be found or something. Imagine he winds up lost in the crystal caverns below Canterlot, and Cadance is the one to find him. It would also serve as an interesting reference callback(callforward?) to ACW. Maybe such a bonding event is why Cadance is interested in Spike's well-being and development. That would be a much more compelling idea, and could easily springboard a "Spike's mentor" sort of relationship.
There is plenty one could do with these two characters that would have been better than what we saw in Princess Spike. I don't think anyone needs to have even seen the episode to come up with better ideas that show much more interesting, believable, and compelling dynamic between them.
About the only value the episode had was in motivating others to do better with fanfiction, because of how not great the stuff on screen was.
3169559
Those are indeed some good ideas.
3169408
It's actually kind of amazing what a particularly good story can do, especially for a ship. I probably would not have had too much to do with Twilestia, for instance, had it not been for "Eternal" and especially "Composure." And that ship has a very similar issue to what you mentioned for SunLight, only the other way around for Twilight.
I really more than half expected them to kiss during the refrigerator scene, even though I know perfectly well it's not going to happen on screen.
The thing is, I am surprised myself how quickly I hopped aboard the S.S. SunLight. They just clicked in a way that got to me. The fact that nearly all their interaction in "Rainbow Rocks" were warm smiles and deep understanding prooooobably did not help any.
There really just need to be more good Equestria Girls fics in general. I can only think of a small handful off the top of my head, and that makes me sad.
3169149
Excelleeeeeeent.
The episode is not especially well written, and not particularly one of my favorites either... Aside from the various fun, minor new ponies introduced and some cute Twilight and more Cadance, there wasn't much in it for me. But to be fair, it's worth noting that while the disaster is caused by the decisions that Spike made before abusing his position, that disaster isn't really what Spike did "wrong". Spike's big sin was ruining Princess Twilight's reputation and sending an angry mob after her.
It wasn't just that he was abusing power, it was that he had the hubris to assume that he could handle the princess's role without the knowledge base required and without taking long and careful consideration of the issues. As a result he casually risked leaving the consequences to fall on Twilight's head, and so the ponies go from loving her to storming her tower.