S5-10 Princess Spike - Reactions · 10:51pm Jun 28th, 2015
I’m a whole week late this one. I was really busy all last week. And then I was lazy and didn’t care. And then everyone told me it was a sucky episode, and I didn’t feel like watching it. And then I watched it and wrote this. Yay.
This isn’t a review or analysis, just some things I wrote down as I watched/rewatched the episode.
- The opening.
- I like this little festival. Getting to learn more about Equestria is always cool.
- But then we end up not learning anything about Equestria at all other than that Minnesota is now canon. Lame.
- Another ‘Spike feels underappreciated’ episode. Yippity doo dah day. In other news, cats are still vomiting on porches, dogs are still licking it up, and birds are still shitting on your windshield.
This is a screen cap of a tired trope.
- Twilight sleeping on books.
- I’m pretty sure this is like the fifth ‘silly sleep Twilight’ gag we’ve had this season. It’s still adorable and funny.
- ‘Huh. I can’t believe that worked.’
- Me either. Weird that this bird never shows up again when everything else from these opening scenes does. Or maybe I missed something.
- It is cute how seriously Spike is taking his job of protecting Twilight from mildly loud noises, at least at first.
- ‘Oh no! Are those dragon sneeze trees?!’
- What?
- On second thought, what a brilliant defense mechanism for keeping away pesky forest-burning dragons. Life always finds a away.
- I love this chainsaw pony’s weird pseudo-Minnesota accent.
This is a screenshot of the awesome adaptability of life.
And also a pony chainsaw.
- So I assume this is all a set up for some terrible fiasco that Spike is causing by stopping these ponies from doing their jobs, and that the friendship lesson at the end will be something about closing the windows and buying ear plugs.
- Huh, another Minnesota accent. Minnesota’s wouldn’t exactly be my go-to for trying to show off a character’s foreign-ness, but whatever.
- Oh, is this Minnesota pony supposed to look like that police officer in Fargo? Or maybe I just can’t think of anything Minnesota-related besides Fargo. Not much happens in Minnesota.
This is a screen cap of Minnesota pony and some other guy.
- ‘Okay, no problem. Just put the hay in the apple and eat the candle.’
- I like sleepy Twilight. Sleepy Twilight is fun.
- I feel like these various gags involving Spike heading off disruptions are supposed to be funny, but I’m just bored. The only fun here is seeing the different pony’s designs (which are all really good. This is one of the most diverse background casts we’ve had in a while). But otherwise, it’s not funny and it feels pointless. I guess it’s all set up for some big disaster later, but did the setup have to be so dull?
- But the disaster ends up being pretty mild, too. So what was the point?
- And then Spike became evil?
- There’s an interesting story in Spike overdoing things when he finally gets a chance to wield some authority because he’s been passed over for so long (if he even really has been passed over). But Spike turning into an evil megalomaniac isn’t it. Can’t Spike be something other than a stooge or a jerk?
- I love this jazzy song that plays during Spike’s ‘by order of the princess’ montage.
- And then the big disaster happened.
- And it was tame and unsatisfying, and mostly resulted in ‘Rabble rabble rabble rabble.’
- Cadance’s crystal magic is cool, though.
This is a screen cap of a chandelier.
- ‘One the most important things a princess can do is realize when she’s made a mistake and fix it!’
- I do like this feel-goody resolution.
- Conclusion
- This episode isn’t nearly as terrible as a lot of people led me to believe. It’s pretty dull for the most part, and stupidly predictable, but sleepy Twilight was fun and the ending was fine. A very average, no frills episode. What was people’s problem with this one?
This is a screen cap of a wacky ending.
Other stuff:
I’ll probably do another one of these reaction blogs for the newest episode either tonight or tomorrow. I also have a short slice-of-life Rarity fic I wrote for the most recent write off that’s about ready to go, which’ll be up in the next day or so.
Peace out.
PS:
Should I be tagging these posts? I haven't bothered, because when is anyone actually going to search blog posts and who cares anyway? What would it be, 'episode review' or something?
I think it's just a case of people getting tired of Flanderized!Spike. He used to be an intelligent snarker, Twilight's voice of sanity, and a capable organizer and deputy. Now he's kept off-screen whenever possible, relegated to "rather dull menial and go-fer" when in the background, and written as "everyone's dumb little brother" when he's a focal character. He could have grown and matured like all the other characters, but he's become something much less than he was in the series premiere at this point. I'm actually at the point where my head-canon is "dragons get less intelligent as they age, becoming little more than animals (on the level of Fluttershy's bear) by adulthood".
It's
We've been down this road before (in a slightly different way) with Secret of My Excess. This episode really didn't bring anything new to the table and would have been a much better episode in S1/S2 (minus wings, of course). It wasn't a bad episode; just a boring one (most of the reasons why you've already pointed out in your blog) with nothing new to save it.
Pretty much this.
circleofconfusion.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/fargo-policewoman-frances-mcdormand-1604892949.jpg
You tell me :P
I didn't like the big structural hole in the flow of events. Spike does his job and slowly lets a sense of authority go to his head, but it's the commands he gave while he was doing what Cadance told him to do rather than his own selfish stuff that causes the disaster. It makes Spike doing frivolous stuff in Twilight's name unconnected to the plot, and also makes it seem like yet again Spike can't catch a break because he's being blamed for causing something he had no possible way of predicting. If he had ruined the conference by, I don't know, tying up the caterers with demands for a 20-foot ruby sub or something... like, all the pieces are right there, and nobody noticed that some of them were plugged in upside-down?
I always look forward to these "reviews"! I think you'll like the new episode a whole lot better.
3190475
It's been a long time since I've watched any of the first or second season, but I remember people being upset about him being little more than a punching bag back then. I don't know if Spike's ever been done justice. I do definitely miss his snark, though, and he played so well off of Twilight's occasionally-manic personality. But I guess now that Twilight has calmed down a lot as a character, and his crush on Rarity isn't going anywhere, writers just don't know what to do with him.
3190637
But don't all Minnesota policewomen probably look like that?
3191260
Yeah, I guess there was a disconnect between the first and last part of the episode. Spike getting Chainsaw Pony and Jackhammer Pony to be quiet was doing exactly what Cadence told him, and even when he tried to wake up Twilight to ask her for help, she wasn't lucid enough to do anything but stammer some gibberish. What was he supposed to do? It wasn't his selfishness that caused problems, but his doing what he was told. And it did seem weird that even when Cadence clearly suspected he was doing something wrong, she just sort of let him keep making mistakes.
3191360
I'm glad to hear it!