When in Doubt, Turn Into a Bear [episode spoilers!] · 4:31pm Aug 19th, 2017
I was just talking to the friend I usually watch episodes with, and he described Fame and Misfortune as "That one where Twilight learns fandoms suck, good job, welcome to twenty years ago!" :V
This week, we got another Spike episode. How much did it suck? Find out below! :V Also, an EQG summer short review cuz I have nowhere else to put the damn things.
Epic Fails
...Is it my imagination, or was this one shown already? I at least remember that clip of Countess Coloratura, that was ages ago. Well, whatever. The setup is amusing, as is the overall effect. The frowny-face stamp at the end of each scene was, dumb, and like… who has a smoke detector that also functions as a sprinkler? O.o Do those exist in houses? And Fluttershy's hair didn't look that bad. :B This gets less 'epic' as it goes along -- it's very "mom just learned the phrase 'epic fail' but not how to use it" -- but it's inoffensive fare overall; dumb, but works as a 'short'.
Episode. :B
I think, if I come out of Triple Threat unimpressed, it's because once again, Spike solves a problem he himself made, and on top of that, this was about the most transparent episode ever. I mean, you could tell from the synopsis exactly how it was going to go, and that is how it went. Every narrative turn was completely predictable, and though I don't mind being proven right when it comes to this show, when everything can be easily predicted, it's hit a low of simple storytelling.
So what did we learn?
- Thorax is a giant idiot.
- Twilight's fantasies of Brolight Glimmer and Brocess Ember were canon screwed. (Though Starlight might still tap that.)
- Changelings come in packs. Like cigarettes. :B
- The cutie map only calls crappy characters singly. :V
- Changelings can still change! Also into animals.
- A dragon/changeling war would be really awesome, and all the changelings would die. :D
- Dragon Lord Ember is hilariously racist. Seriously, her not being able to figure out the difference between Twilight and Starlight was the best joke in the whole episode.
- Rogue changelings who still feed on love. :D Now that sounds like it could lay the groundwork for an interesting episode!
- Thorax has a brother? :B I think all of our changeling headcanons are wrong. OR JUST WAY BETTER THAN CANON
- Embrax OTP
Seriously, the scene with Ember and Thorax was the best. Just, genuinely good, entertaining television, I was smiling the whole time. Then Spike or one of the ponies would come back on screen, and the smile vanished instantly.
It's likely a product of a show that was set up to offer a lesson of the week without any intention of lasting this long. You've always got to ask the question "who will be incompetent this week?" Rarely is this subverted, rarely is it fun, and seven seasons in, I'm just tired of it. This wasn't a terrible episode by any stretch, but it was filled with a lot of dead air and plain unfunny setpieces. It's a wonder the guy who wrote it also wrote Parental Glideance; the future will prove which is the fluke.
The Perfect Pear
A Royal Problem
Parental Glideance
Fame and Misfortune
Honest Apple
All Bottled Up
Rock Solid Friendship
Forever Filly
A Flurry of Emotion
Triple Threat
Discordant Harmony
Hard to Say Anything
Celestial Advice
Not Asking for Trouble
Fluttershy Leans In
You're in My Head Like a Catchy Song
Best Friends Until the End of Time
We're Not Flawless
Battle for Sugar Belle
This is the only part of the review I read.
At least Josh Hamilton is not one of those bad writers who write one disasterpiece then clear off before the hate comments flood his episode—Hint, hint, F.M. DeMarco...
But yeah, this episode is just boring as hell. Cynder and Thorax shipping is nice, though Spyro the Dragon might disagree with that...
I did like the "both of you look alike" joke a lot, and the bits with Ember and Thorax were the best. But yeah, I've never liked Spike episodes. I think the best one was the one with Rarity and that book that lets her create whatever she wants, but even the best parts of that one were Rarity-centric. He's just not that interesting of a character. Which has nothing to do with how Cathy voices him. Mel Blanc couldn't make him good.
I still for the life of me can't figure out why people seem to love Parental Glidance. It was one of the worst episodes of the series. Maybe it's because I hate cringe comedy, but seriously... it was awful. I agree with your ranking, though. Middle of the pack episode here.
brb in a month, re-watching this episode a brazillion times and then writing a 100K epic shipfic about bromeo and jeweliette
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Everyone said that after Perfect Pear came out...
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Parental Glideance is the best cringe humor you could ask for, and I say that as someone who generally can't tolerate it.
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I was never a fan of cringe humor to begin with, but the Scott's Tots episode of The Office traumatized me, and I can't do it anymore. Besides that, I hate how RD was portrayed as unreasonable for setting some boundaries with her parents. Sure, she shouldn't have yelled at them, I suppose, but they barely focus on that. They more focus on "oh, you should love your parents who are just trying to support you."
They shot fireworks at her. Their "support" is unhealthy, even as an example of humorous hyperbole. The two best bits are Cheerilee at the end, and Scootaloo asking RD's dad if he always wears an RD shirt, and him just saying "no, it's just laundry day." That was funny. Other than that...
One of the worst episodes of the series.
This came out pretty bad for me. From early on, recycling the "I'm pretty sure X doesn't/don't like..." to the this basically being the plotline from the end of "Sweet and Elite" only infinitely dumber in concept and executed worse, the fact that Thorax is awful in a bunch of ways (that design remains atrocious to the degree I can't believe it was ever greenlit, his voice and personality remind me of Woody Allen in the ways he can be kind of grating or annoying but without the smart or funny parts, the thing about making him the leader of the changelings was dumb and actually kind of troubling...), but that's at least partially balanced by 1) the bear and 2) Ember is fucking great.
Otherwise, like... the can't tell them apart joke was great, and the period from Ember arriving at the restaurant to them going to the pond to them coming back was really solid. But the rest was solid cringe, with everything in the plot telegraphed a goddamn mile away, and this being Spike's friendship problem episode was a gigantic fucking letdown where not only was it a problem he created, he had nothing to do with solving it. D:
I'm like... I love Spike as a character, he's generally one of the best supporting characters, and people who don't make the show can put out excellent work that doesn't make him this, but almost every episode centering on him exists to dump on him in a way that doesn't happen, certainly not anything like this consistently, with anyone else. :(
But yeah, serious question: has there ever been a dumber episode conflict/non-conflict? Rainbow Falls? Maybe the Noble Dragon Code thing? Bats!? Like, those had actual problems where the answer wasn't just telling someone "Hey, I forgot about a scheduling conflict, can this wait until my work thing that came up is over?"!
Anything?
Loved Embers casual racism!
The 'lights reactions really sold the comedy!
Also love that there are some old-school changelings still around!
And yes, this can be a realistic problem (sans the simultaneous timing for comedy effect), but once again Spike plays the
butt-monkeyold-school Twilight stand-in, and the problem was actually solved by Thorax and Ember.Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would from the description.
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Spike at Your Service will always be the benchmark for "contrived conflict that doesn't mean anything in the long run".
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I figure the rebel changelings are still moose clowns, they're just having buyer's remorse. :B
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Having worked for many years in various creative industries, I can. There's a trick that artists try to use on managers when the higher-ups demand a bunch of designs to pick from. The artists present the design they want to use along with a few others that are so horrible that nobody in their right mind would pick them. Unfortunately, this often backfires and the boss picks one of the butt-ugly decoys.
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Carp. I was hoping for those loveable vicious little bugs.
Well, if I ended up looking like that, I would!
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In many ways I think that's true, especially the fact there was no potential for a real long-run impact. At the same time, I think that S@YS at least had some outgrowth from the characters involved, like Spike working to form a racial identity based on positive traits he already had in comparison to the teenage dragons of "Dragon Quest" (loyalty, responsibility, gratefulness) , or Twilight's habit of work get in the way of her relationships with people she cares about, Applejack's willingness to humor dumb things from kids. Here I see some justification for Spike's reaction--he's grown since then, but he's still just a boy, and this is one of the bigger responsibilities he's ever been given outside the adventure episodes--but not late-season Twilight or now Starlight. In any case, it's bad when I start making comparisons to the second half of Season 3. :V
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You're right, and I know you're right; I've even seen that be done from time to time. It's just one of those things where the normative feeling that it shouldn't be possible for something to happen bleeds over into positive disbelief.
But yeah, I wish that it was the cute-threatening bugponies too, but the impression I got from the exchange was that they'd be the neon mistakes of nature. Granted, I guess if they wanted they could just do a changeling transformation back to the old design. Here's hoping!
Times the cringe was so strong I paused the episode: 3
Minutes of cringe willfully skipped: 5
I long for good episodes that develop secondary characters, and this ain't it.
Can get behind Thorember, though.
The episode was extraordinarily predictable, but I felt the motivations (except maybe Spike's), the interactions of the characters, and the overall method of how it all the pieces worked together was extremely well done.
Also, fucking Glimglam being an absolute boss in the funny department.
I also felt the ep was a touch hard on Spike. For pretty much being Mini-Twilight, his two friends rebuffed his apology and shat on him, left and bonded, came back to rebuff his apology again, and then finally make up. It wasn't Princess Spike levels of needless douchery heaped on the poor guy, but it was up there.
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Yeah, not Princess Spike levels of rough on him, but certainly of the same paradigm.
A rewatch did not help the episode.
"Spike, you *caused* the friendship problem!"
"I know, right? If only some responsible adults had been around to steer me in the right direction."
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No such thing in Equestria. :B
(Because they won't let Celestia do anything anymore.)
Of course the rogue changelings are colormooses. They just use their shapeshifting to look like old-school black changelings.
Also I had the terrible thought that I think Starlight Glimmer is the closest thing to a responsible adult in all of Equestria. I mean, she's the one that the map sent to deal with the royal sisters when they were having a petty argument and she did run an entire isolated town for several years. The ponies there were miserable, but they managed to be self-sufficient enough to survive. She's also been shown to have long-term planning abilities to both scout, prepare, and execute complicated and near-perfect schemes.
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That is frightening. D:
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I know! But I can't think of any evidence to the contrary.
"Where are these changelings?"
"Drunk on love in a ditch somewhere, would be my guess. They'll roll in just before the finale."
Why can't they write a good episode for my favorite character? I know they have it in them but they just keep failing.