Sweet and Smoky Review · 4:37pm May 25th, 2019
So we have a FluttershyxSpikexSmolder episode, and it involves going back to the dragon lands. Should be a recipe for success, right? Well sadly, the writer for this episode is none other than Kim Beyer Johnson. You may remember her from last season when she penned the absolute disaster that was "Non-Compete Clause" which basically rehashed "Fall Weather Friends" except without any of the fun (there's nothing fun about seeing the students get put through the wringer and one of them almost drowning). Since then she has written a couple of the encore shorts from "The Best Gift Ever", including one that basically tried to again rehash "Fall Weather Friends" even though the characters are supposed to be beyond that. So that's not a very good sign, even if this episode is new territory for her. But hey, Brian Hohlfeld wrote a medicore episode after having two really good episodes last season. So maybe there's hope for her yet, right? Well, let's find out.
We begin with Smolder coming into the teacher's lounge and asking if she can be excused from class for a few days because she's worried about her brother. Twilight points out it's the middle of the semester, but when Spike convinces her it's a kindness field trip she caves and lets Fluttershy go with them. Except why does Smolder need to see her brother so badly? And couldn't she just ask Ember to check on him for her? Especially since Smolder previously made it sound like she didn't care at all what happened to her brother.
So the trio go to the dragon lands right as the new batch of dragon eggs are supposed to hatch. Smolder goes off to find her brother and Fluttershy leaves to go see the dragon eggs, leaving Spike alone. Then Garble shows up, and hey you know what this episode needs? How about some Spike abuse? It's not like that hasn't been run into the ground almost from day one of the show, right? All this really amounts to is rehashing "Dragon Quest", you know one of the absolute worst Spike episodes? I thought the point of rehashing was to do only what people like to revisit, not what people want to forget. At least I can understand why you'd want to rehash say "Fall Weather Friends" or "Amending Fences", those were great episodes. "Dragon Quest" though, who in their right mind wants to revisit that?
This goes on and on until Smolder steps in to save Spike, revealing the twist most of us probably saw coming, Garble is her brother (who she affectionatively calls "Gar Gar").
She and Spike hang out with him, but Garble just uses every opportunity to further bully Spike and Smolder does nothing. Meanwhile, Fluttershy finds that the eggs haven't hatched yet, and Ember can't figure out why. She reveals that the job of dragon lord is one that you're expected to learn as you go. Fluttershy tries to care for the eggs by singing songs and telling stories to them, then she notices the eggs are shaking. For no reason other than because the plot says so, she and Ember assume that means the eggs are scared to hatch. So Fluttershy goes to find Spike who has basically given up on trying to befriend Garble (and I for one don't blame him). Spike investigates the egg hatching grounds and finds that they're cold because all the lava's been drained away by Garble's friends. So why exactly would something as important as the dragon egg hatching conditions be kept a secret from the one overseeing their whole species?
As for Fluttershy, she finds out that Garble is a beatnik poet, albeit in secret for fear he'll be judged and ridiculed by his friends. Fluttershy rightfully calls him out for picking on Spike, claiming that Spike's strong just the way he is (show, don't tell). Since the eggs can't be moved somewhere else because they're so fragile, and since the lava can't be flowed back upstream to the nursing grounds, all the dragons are commissioned to heat up the eggs themselves. But they all just wanna keep bullying Spike, and even Ember doesn't seem to care. They only stop when Garble busts out his secret poet persona and makes all the dragons laugh so hard their flames heat up the eggs and make them hatch. It's not bad, but he deserves far worse considering how he's been treating Spike (by the way, he never apologizes to anyone for doing so). Fortunately, Ember finally does something sensible and gets the other dragons to accept Garble for who he is, and Garble starts having dragons line up to take poetry lessons from him. Meanwhile, Fluttershy claims she'll take all the baby dragons. She really is a Pokemon trainer, maybe she should meet Detective Pikachu.
*Sigh* and that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? While it is better than Kim's first episode, that's not saying much (I'd be more surprised if she somehow did worse). Spike had been on a role so far this season, did we really need to throw it all away just to make him the butt monkey yet again? And news flash, having no one stick up for him until the end doesn't make it funny, it just makes them look worse because they don't stand up for him after all he's done for them. They do sort of try to explain Garble's character, except for the fact that all we ever saw of him before was as a bully with no hints that he was anything else. Yeah, they did the same with Diamond Tiara, but the existence of Spoiled Rich offered enough details to explain why she was such a bully. This is the same mistake as Babs Seed, suggesting that it's okay to pick on others so you won't be picked on, though at least they thankfully don't say that retaliating against a bully at all makes you worse than the bully. Aside from the plot there is no reason at all why the dragon lords don't tell each other about how the eggs hatch, or that the lava needs to be maintained in the hot springs so the eggs will hatch on time. Fluttershy was in surprisingly top form this episode, pretty much the only one who ever bothered to stick up for Spike. Plus, this is yet another episode where the moral is about being yourself, repeating morals is not a good sign! In the end, I give this episode an E, putting it below even "Uprooted" which at least had an interesting premise and it was surprising to see Yona be the voice of reason, plus I can kind of understand why they'd rehash "Castle, Sweet Castle", there are people who liked that episode (whereas I can't think of anyone who objectively likes "Dragon Quest"). Kim never should've been brought back.
Now, all the episodes up to the mid season finale have been released in Italian with an official English translation also made available (at least for now). I'm gonna try to see at least the next three episodes early (the rumors about episode 12 are true, but that's all I will say for now). If so, expect reviews starting on Monday or Tuesday. If not (Hasbro might pull them down, or they might be download only) join me back here next week for "Going to Seed" in which Apple Bloom becomes obsessed with catching a mythical creature called the Great Seedling, which threatens to disrupt Applejack's plans for a perfect harvest. Is the Great Seedling like the Great Pumpkin?
OH come on an another E rank. Come on man
I actually thought it was pretty good.
For me, while the first half was a bit of a drag, the second half more than made up for it.
I'd easily give it an A.
As for how it compares to the rest of the season, it's in fifth place of the US episodes, putting it between Point of No Return and Common Ground
Erm ain’t anyone going to comment on flutters asking a somewhat racy question about the eggs being embers? Cause you know for kids?
Why you rated the episode an E?
For me, there were good and bad moments in the episode, so I put it in a "meh" category.
Was kind of a let down to not get a hint of Spike's own Dragon family. Perhaps somewhere after the Mid season milestone we'll get something for Spike'sDragon parents. I've already seen everything up to Episode 13, but I will not spoil what lies ahead for upcoming episodes.
I agree with your ranking of E for this episode. Spike deserved better than what Garble did to him! It would have been good for Spike to inform Smolder that he and Garble had some bad history. Also, this episode reminds me of The Maud Couple where two characters have some kind of bond and another character doesn’t like that. The only good thing about this episode is Fluttershy. Back in season 1, she used to be scared of dragons. Now she thought hatching dragons were adorable and that was my favorite part. I also loved how Fluttershy stood up for Spike in most of the episode! Shows how far she has gotten! That’s all I have to say.
While I give Kim Beyer-Johnson credit for not regressing Fluttershy's character like she did with Applejack and Rainbow Dash last season, there's no denying she turned out another dud of an episode.
Ugh reading this review make me hate the episode. Didn’t we just have a be yourself plot with yona! Garble being a poor yeah still doesn’t forgive him for being a jackass. Plus I hate spike abuse
Garble being a 'beat' poet and helping save the eggs must be the most random redemption ever. I wasn't buying it for a second. Plus, why did all the other dragons want to learn it by the end?! His 'poetry' was f*cking terrible.
Okay here's my honest opinion about this episode. The episode is alright it has some good things in it, but I won't be coming back to watch it again anytime soon.
I think revealing Garble to be Smolder's brother is kinda dumb, I would prefer having a new character to be Smolder's brother instead of Garble, this plot twist just came out of nowhere.
I just saw this episode today.
Personally, I do agree that this isn’t the best episode, but I also find it to be an improvement over Johnson’s previous work in “Non-Compete Clause”. It has a larger and much-better-executed moral compass than the latter, which is nice.
It was really out of the blue with Garble being reformed and being a poet. Flutters really stole the show here. And you gotta give Spike some props.