Would a Resentful Spike Turn Evil? · 8:54am May 25th, 2019
I've seen fanfics which are based on the premise that Spike is in some way being exploited by Twilight Sparkle, Rarity or Equestria in general, and that he will eventually turn on them out of resentment, becoming a villain. Is this plausible?
Spike is one of the darker good-guy characters on the show -- a point that is often missed because he's normally so darned nice -- and this is because Friendship Is Magic Dragons are essentially what Tolkien's Dragons might have become had they been removed for many generations from the influence of Morgoth and Sauron. Such Dragons have a lot of evil tendencies, most notably toward Greed, Pride and Wrath, which manifest as an enthusiasm for raiding what they consider lesser sapients and taking their food and treasure, and wreaking terrible death and destruction upon any who resist, or simply fail to run away fast enough.
Another point that a lot of fans miss is that Spike is actually a very powerful Dragon, especially for his age and size. He's already done several great Deeds, of which the greatest was his role in saving the Crystal Empire from Sombra. He can compete one-on-one with late adolescent Dragons (he's just entering adolescence himself). He has far more self-control and thus effective intelligence and cunning than most Dragons (partly innate, partly an effect of being raised by the highly-honorable and intelligent Twilight Sparkle).
There have been a few episodes so far in which Spike has actually done evil, though he's always come out of it before doing irreparable damage. He famously suffered from Greed-induced madness and uncontrollable growth in "Secret of My Excess," attacking Ponyville and abducting Rarity (who snapped him out of it). In "Owl's Well That End's Well," he basically-betrayed Owlicious (and thus Twilight Sparkle) out of Jealousy. Finally, in "Inspiration Manifestation," he was so eager to please Rarity that he stole a powerful and dangerous artifact from under the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.
Despite this, I don't think that Spike will turn evil.
Here's why.
The usual scenario for Spike becoming a villain involves at least one of three things:
(1) Spike decides that Twilight Sparkle is exploiting him and turns against her.
(2) Spike realizes that Rarity is never going to love him and is instead exploiting him, so he turns against her.
(3) Spike chooses Draconic over Pony ways because he can never be a Pony, and turns against Equestria.
First of all, Spike loves to aid Twilight Sparkle. He both admires her honor and intelligence and knows that his assistance helps keep her from madness (in my Shadow Wars universe, from Nightmare), and considers it a high honor to be her Number One Assistant. He would only ever leave her for some great love or higher duty, and even then he would not turn against her.
Twilight isn't really cruel to Spike. The show has established that they love each other as siblings, and while Spike does face danger and knocking about and hard work in this service, he is essentially acting as her squire or chief knight. Also, he's a Dragon. He's far stronger than most Ponies, and armored in Dragon scales. I've always find stories that portray him as weak and vulnerable annoying for this reason -- Spike is physically very tough; a match for Dragons his elder.
As for rejection by Rarity, the second scenario, this would certainly make him sad. Hiis love for Rarity runs deep, and thus so would her rejection hurt him deeply. Partly this is because he and Rarity are in many ways Kindred Spirits, and aware of it: both of them are growing into a world to which they were not born (Equestrian culture for Spike; high society for Rarity), and both of them must fight against darker impulses (Spike's Greed, and Rarity's fear of rejection and desire to lash out at those who reject her, as seen in the Nightmare Rarity comic arc).
However, part of the reason Rarity trusts Spike is that Spike has established that he is her true friend, and that he does not consider himself entitled to her. (Indeed, these two things are why Spike, a younger male of a different species than her, has any real chance with her at all. Though her rejection would force him to avoid her for a while, in the long run Spike and Rarity would almost certainly resume their friendship.
It's been argued that Rarity is "friendzoning" Spike, which is to say rejecting him because he's "too nice," and claiming to be his friend while simply exploiting his love for her to gain services from him. However, numerous episodes have shown that Rarity does love Spike at least as a friend. They confide in and help each other, and we frequently see them enjoying each other's company, whether working or simply relaxing. They certainly treat each other like real friends.
Fanfics frequently assume that Spike, rejected by Rarity, would have lost his last hope of love among Ponies, and consequently would turn against all Ponykind. However, this is inconsistent with what is seen on the show. For one thing, he would still have his loyalty to Twilight Sparkle and her family, which is after all his own adoptive family as well; and his wider loyalty to Princess Celestia.
What is more, Spike is actually well-liked among Ponykind. In the very first episode we see that Spike is better at getting along with Twilight's friends than is Twilight herself: what is more, he wins Fluttershy's trust on their very first encounter. In other episodes we frequently see him befriending Ponies very easily. He is a celebrated hero in the Crystal Empire, to the point that he attracts admirers simply by walking down a street in the capital. As early as around mid Season One, he has befriended all of the Mane Six, and by Season Four or so, befriended their families and friends.
This includes fillies and mares who act as if they are attracted to him. For instance, it's fairly obvious that Sweetie Belle has at least a passing crush on him, and he's at least friends with the Cutie Mark Crusaders in general (I mention them because they are young adolescents like himself). He could probably have found lovers or at least groupies among his Crystal-Imperial admirers, or even among Equestrians. In the comics an adolescent dragoness in Equestria admires him, and in the Show itself, both Ember and Scorch have treated him affectionately. Thus, an argument could be made that he could even find love among his own species.
He doesn't for two good reasons. He's highly honorable (which includes strong sexual morality), and he's in love with Rarity.
If Rarity rejected him, he would be free to fall in love with someone else, though of course he would probably need some time to recover from his hopes being so dashed.
Would he do something terrible in the meantime? Probably not. He would still care about the good opinion of Twilight and other Ponies; moreover, he would be restrained by his upper-class Equestrian code of honor. He's matured a lot since Season One; he would almost certainly decide that he must simply accept the reality of the rejection and carry on. He'd eventually come to love somepony, or somedragon, else.
Getting into the question of whether he'd reject Equestrian culture as a whole ...
... Probably not. He has, after all, spent almost all of his life growing up in that culture; he's wholly internalized its assumptions and adopted its code of honor and systems of mores and morals. Equestria has rewarded him with friendship, respect and wealth.
If you were a second generation immigrant to America, would you turn against the whole country because an American girl rejected you? No? Well, neither would Spike, and he'd have the same sorts of reasons as would you.
Indeed, most of his friends are Equestrians; most of the rest are Crystal Ponies; some are from the Dragonlands which are at peace with Equestria.
Suppose Spike decided that rejection by Rarity made it impossible for him to remain in association with the Mane Six, at least for a while. Would he become a villain?
No. He'd go off to some other city or country to be alone and think for a while (since he grew his wings, this has become an even easier option, but as we saw in "Dragonquest," even a wingless Spike had the ability to walk long distances through terrain dangerous for mere Ponies, and do it alone -- it's good to be a Dragon). Essentially, he'd exile himself for a term. This is sulking, not evil.
Spike is a good guy, despite his dark tendencies, and he will probably always choose to be one.
An excellent essay which begs the question: can this premise ever be done well? Most of the examples I've come across seem to be macho Nietzschean power fantasy nonsense in which freeing himsf from the chains of pony morality and affection turns Spike into an awesome badass...somehow.
Rarity also has to contend with greed, vanity, and jealousy that can themselves border on the draconic (to the point of trying to steal from dragons,) so there's another common bond between the two.
Well-reasoned, well argued. Always a delight to hear from you.
Well, not physically. One of the main aspects of almost every interaction with another dragon showed they could easily stomp him into the ground. Brute strength is decidedly not one of Spike's fortes, but in contrast, he tends to show that he is smarter than the average dragon.
That "Evil Rarity exploits Spike" point always bugged me. This is one of those situations where it takes two to tango. She's "exploiting" him because he likes doing it. We have never seen Spike truly uncomfortable with it except one time where he'd just sprouted wings and thought he could do more than hover in place for her. If he didn't want to help Rarity, he could just say no. In fact, what, do people think so little of Spike that they believe he has no agency? That he can't say no?
Spike likes feeling useful. One of his greatest fears has always been being rejected and ejected from his safe, secure, well-known position. Sometimes he gets annoyed, but like you said, Spike is filled with pride at what his sister/mother/boss is doing on a regular basis; all the girls are awesome, he feels down at times because he'd like to be awesome with them. And that has decreased too as his own list of accomplishments has grown.
For that matter, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity are both exceptionally hard workers. They can be demanding but never more of him than of themselves. And I think Spike is aware of that too.
I still think Ember is the best choice for romance. She's someone he can talk to on an equal level. He can learn from her, but she can also learn from him and both can grow from the experience. Thing is, his crush on Rarity is more of a courtly love (even if Rarity isn't married). Small wonders Spike imagines himself as a knight. If he wanted to go a step further he had more than ample time to do it. She doesn't owe him her love or her body, even if some viewers believe she does. At this point, he might have had more potential dates with Smolder—apparently they have firebreathing contests "all the time".
No, Spike won't turn evil. Equestria hasn't given him a reason to. He might if given additional push, like dark magic. That goes for pretty much everyone though.
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Indeed.
It's worst with stories that have Spike turn evil but refuse to acknowledge it. Rise Of Spike is such a tale. It starts out with Twilight being an unfair b*tch to Spike, who in turn loses his temper and maims her face and threatens to kill her if she ever talks to him again. This is treated as morally right.
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About that: The opposite of generosity isn't necessarily wanting more, it's depriving others. I only remember Discorded Rarity being anything like an avaricious miser. Then again, perhaps Rarity is one of those cases where her Pillar forebear explains her core better than the modern interpretation, because if Rarity is about one thing, it's Beauty in all forms.
I’ve been hoping to hear from you again!
A pleasure as always.
Evil... no I don’t think so. Resentful and or apathetic I can see though.
Perhaps evil by inaction, all good need do is nothing, as a possibility.
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Yes, Rise of Spike was the fic I was thinking of more than any other.
I'm glad to hear from you. Always thoughtful essays.
It's always a joy to read one of your essays and to see you here again.
I have to agree on the unlikelihood of a un-magically corrupted Spike turning evil. Though the show has done some oddball things with its dragons. For instance, Garble threatened to destroy Equestria, and has always loathed Spike, but after we learn he does poetry suddenly all is forgiven and he's actually a wonderful
human beingdragon? The comic has done even odder things but that one just feels so off to me.Regarding the essay, I can only agree - especially on the third point, consider that his influence is spreading to dragonkind too and if he want running to the Dragonlands to reject pony ways Ember would likely slap some sense into him.
I would also just like to express my pleasure that you have not in fact ceased your production of blogs and stories, as it appeared for a while - I have followed your works for quite some time and was quite disappointed that they seemed to dry up around the time I joined Fimfiction.
Spike going evil...
Really?
It sounds like the premise for some ass hat to write some atrocious forced brood mare clown fuckery of a fanfic then anything that has any basis in actual canon or fan canon, our equivelant of Death Eater Ron Weasley.
He has a crush. He's a kid. He'd get over it. Good Lord people.... NEWS FLASH FOLKS, YOU'RE PARENTS, SCHOOL, AND THE WHOLE OF SOCIETY LIED: YOUR ADOLESCENCE AND CHILDHOOD ARE NOT THE BEST TIMES OF YOUR FUCKING LIVES, THEY'RE THE WORST! STOP ROMANTICIZING THAT CRAP DAMN IT
But in the same episode showed he actually cares for her by telling her the truth.
Yes, but here's the thing, he's still a dragon. Not saying he's going full Smaug, but they should at least try to understand that...
Uhp, nope! Better he reject those icky dragon decidedly male things and wear frills and lace and not have any identity of his own or even question that.
That part is what got me in that episode. Heaven forfend such a thing happen or they actually have an idea about what being a dragon means, like, for example, going ham if someone gives you too much bling, or getting a case of clap every time the Grand High F
ck All over the whole of dragondom gets a wild hair up his scaly butt and calls a Battle Royale.