My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 8 Episode 24: "Father Knows Beast" (SPOILERS) · 4:00pm Oct 6th, 2018
In which a fat dragon spreads a thick layer of cow manure all over Ponyville.
Spike is learning to fly, and having just as much trouble as Twilight did at first. Smolder comes along to show Spike how dragons fly as opposed to ponies.
Later on, a fat sack of dragon crap named Sludge makes a huge crater in the middle of Ponyville. Spike takes him in out of pity because he's groaning in pain.
I can smell "big faking freeloader" all over this asshole.
Anyway, Sludge is lazy, greedy, and basically walks all over the ponies who are trying to help him out of kindness. When he finally heals up and it's time to leave, he learns that Spike was orphaned as an egg, and "confesses" that he's Spike's father.
Yyyyyyyyeah bullshit.
Spike and the ponies swallow Sludge's BS hook, line, and sinker, and Spike asks Sludge to do all the father-and-son stuff on his list, which they do in a huge montage which includes some neat callbacks.
Then we get a song montage where Sludge teaches Spike how to be a dragon. In the jerkiest way possible, by trashing the castle. Oh, and the entire number is full of massive hypocrisy, as Sludge hoards everything he denies Spike as part of his "dragon training". After the montage, we get the big reveal of Sludge's plan: he's trying to take over the Castle of Friendship as his own personal den and hoard.
When the ponies start to realize what a jerk Sludge is, Twilight questions the sincerity of his intentions toward Spike. Spike makes a rude remark which breaks Twilight's heart. After that, Spike talks with Smolder, who sets him straight. With Smolder's help, they set up a plan to kick Sludge out of the castle and expose him for the fraud he is. Sludge, his scheme exposed, flies off in a huff, leaving Spike miserable. He goes to the library to make up with Twilight.
5/10, I neither liked this episode nor disliked it. Season finale next week!
Do they show Spike making up with Twilight? Because if not, hoo boy... fanfic writers are gonna have a field day.
I'd like to think that a letter to Ember beat Sludge to the Dragonlands by a country mile. By the time he got back, justice was waiting.
It was an okay episode. I think I would have preferred one of Spike's real parents.
The best moment was Starlight's bath.
Sludge is unquestionably the worst new character of Season 8, maybe even the worst character in the show. There is NOTHING to like about him, he's a cheap freeloader full of fake stories and sympathy, and he's just a fat, lazy, slob who even Smolder admits would be an outcast among dragons.
And I know she was seen thrown out a window in a bath-tub, but where the heck was Starlight throughout this episode? She's lived in the castle with Spike, she's interacted with him several times.
4949123
Starlight was the only good thing about this episode
For me it was more a 7.
Now it seems they are leaning towards a more parent/child relationship for Twilight and Spike
Also more Dragons with Dinobot names incoming in fics
Genma Saotome's worst aspects, but a dragon?
4949122
You know, they never did explain why he crashed into town in a ball of fire. I figured Ember already kicked him out for being a useless bag of shit.
I kept thinking, This would all be solved if somepony sent Celestia a scroll. It's at least implied she's the one who found Spike's egg, and she would be able to call Sludge out on his BS in a heartbeat.
I felt it when Twilight's heart broke. It's a shame they delayed Twily's and Spike's reconciliation to the last 30 seconds of the episode. It deserved a little more attention.
"Dragon Quest" took care of this way back in Season 1. I get that adopted kids will always wonder about their biological parents, but Spike made peace with it. His life amongst ponies is pretty good.
4949178
Headcanon accepted... though that does mean that Ember left a flaming bag of crap on Twilight's doorstep.
I personally loved this episode, but it was not because of Sludge. It was because it more or less confirmed Spike’s true relationship with Twilight. I have always been one of the fans who sees their relationship as a mother and son instead of brother and sister. I don’t have anything against fans thinking of them as siblings or depicting them as such in stories, but I always felt they were more of a mother and a son myself.
This episode shows that Twilight truly thinks of herself as Spike’s parent, as shown when he accuses her of being upset he finally has a “real parent” and by the end of the episode he knows she is his real family and the one who made him what he is.
As an added bonus, I liked how Smolder acted as something like a big sister to Spike, helping him fly and deal with Sludge when she realize he was taking advantage of Spike. She seems to have bonded with Spike a lot and this isn’t the first episode where they have been shown hanging out together or where she helps him. I kinda like how they have a strong friendship that is similar to something siblings share, both since Spike already has such a great family and because it doesn’t interfere with my headcanon where I ship Spike with Ember. So overall a great episode for me.
4949224
Which means she's learned the most important lesson of being a ruler...dump all your problems on someone else, namely, Twilight Sparkle.
Ugh I hated this episode.
4949224
I wonder if Sludge is Garble's Dad?
4949321
I think the only "children" Sludge has are spread out across Equestria making patches of grass, trees, and flowers grow wild and lush. And keeping certain species of insect happy.
4949143
That's actually pretty apt. I'd even go as far as to say "fandom Genma Saotome". He's actually that bad.
I've noticed. Most dragons we've seen are in at least decent shape, even Torch who's goddamn massive isn't really fat. But Sludge is. He's also the third dragon we've met who is named who doesn't have a name that is Fire related in any way. First Spike, then Garble, then Sludge.
4949120
They did, but that's never stopped this community. Pinkie Pie isn't murder crazy and yet Cupcakes is a thing.
4949224
Ember isn't exactly known for being kind, caring and considerate. Maybe she just kicked him out in a random direction and that direction happened to be Ponyville. Sometimes, you're just unlucky.
what a lot of people aren't considering that I think is true is that sludge planned this con and isn't a general con dragon. ie he heard about spike and the luxury he lives and enginered a situation to get into his good graces. honestly I was thinking sludge was his father but an asshole of a father was sorta shocked to find he wasn't.
4950623
Um. Sludge isn't anywhere close to that smart, nor did he know about Spike ahead of time. It's obvious he just seized on an opportunity and generally isn't that clever. Think Fred Flintstone.
4950651
I still disagree. the whole story he made seems too well rehearsed the giveaway for me was that he was suprised to hear about them being to kudgetown. but the biggest indicator is the geographical context. there's almost no pony that would be so nice to him (remember that the mane 6 aren't mainstream equestria and I doubt any pony would be as tolerant as they are) ponies have always had a fear of dragons why would that magically not apply to him. and the lands outside equestria are constantly depicted as a fairly savage place and I doubt even if they were vulnerable to his influence would never give him such a cushy lifestyle. we're also assuming that spike isn't known about in the dragonlands which I think is borderline impossible since he played a huge role in their internal politics.
4951023
You don't have a lot of experience with bullshit artists, do you? One of the pitfalls of a bullshit artist is their tendency to OVERexplain things. To make up a giant pile of BS as they go along.
4951040
I'm involved in the internet's political world I have lots of experience with bullshit. I'm focusing more on the context more than his story a dragon scam artist in equestria doesn't make a lot of sense to me in the context of equestria's culture. his story might have been on the fly cooked up but I still think he deliberately crashed into ponyville knowing that spike was there and he had access to a castle.