Episode Review: "Sweet and Smoky" - Season 9 Episode 9

This episode features a return to the dragon lands; though its popped up occasionally in episodes like Shadow Play, this is the first time its truly been a vital backdrop since Gauntlet of Fire, 3 seasons prior. Neither that episode nor Dragon Quest are well-regarded by fans, but I actually quite like them both (in particular, I've never really understood the hate Dragon Quest sometimes receives; it's no Spike at Your Service, let alone a Princess Spike). So this episode has that to make me intrigued.
To counterbalance that, its writer is Kim Beyer-Johnson, who wrote some of the weightless Best Gift Ever shorts late last year, but whose sole episode credit is Non-Compete Clause, one of the show's top consensus picks for its worst episode, even for those who've fully embraced the style of the later seasons. This is due solely to excessive character assassination of Applejack and Rainbow Dash within, regressing them to a thinly-written reprise of their early selves that plays like a poor man's version of Fall Weather Friends. So, once Beyer-Johnson was revealed as the writer, like many, I was worried. Would we have another stinker on our hands? Would it make a mess of its characters?

Thankfully, no. Sweet and Smoky is considerably better then those lightweight shorts (admittedly, you can only do so much with that runtime, but even by that standard they were disposable), and it is vastly superior to Non-Compete Clause across every matrix by which television episodes can be compared. However, it's far from great, even though it would seem to possess many strengths to get it most of the way to greatness.

After a brief opening that only reinforces how useless the School of Friendship concept is by requiring yet again some hand-waving to get our characters to waive their responsibilities, Smolder and Spike set off to the dragon lands to help Smolder's brother, who's going through a tough period and is a bit like Spike, sensitive in his own way. Along for the ride is Fluttershy, permitted by Twilight to accompany them on a 'Kindness Field Trip' and interested herself in the mass dragon egg hatching that's about to happen. From there, the episode splits into two main threads; Fluttershy finds Dragon Lord Ember minding the horde of eggs that aren't hatching and helps her out, while Spike and Smolder find her brother, who turns out to be...

Garble.

I'd suspected as such from the synopsis and the pre-release screenshot, but yeah, I'd forgive you if "Sensitive and a bit like Spike" sounded like the furthest thing from Garble. For a refresher, he's an obnoxious teenage dragon that gave Spike no end of a hard time in both previous dragon-centric episodes mentioned earlier (and in his brief appearance in Shadow Play). Actually, I'm probably one of five people that doesn't detest or at least dislike Garble; whatever he's a shallow, unlikeable character, he fulfilled his role more then fine in his previous occasions.

Alas, this episode's attempt to craft a "redemption story" around him doesn't deliver. It transpires that he apparently acts all rough so the other teenage dragons he hangs around with won't mock him. Smolder orders him to be fair to Spike, who came all this way to help him. Yet as they do activities, he continues to be a brash jerk to Spike whenever he can.
That's not the part where the redemption story fails; so far, it's merely unimaginative. Later, Spike and Fluttershy decide to swap roles, figuring they may have more luck with the other problem. This turns out to be undeniably the case - Spike pinpoints that the eggs are trembling because the ground is cold, which turns out to be because of drained lava basins from the activities of the other teenage dragons. Meanwhile, Fluttershy finds Garble showing Smolder his beat poetry (yeah...), which is what she meant by his sensitive side, though from the viewpoint of the dragon who took ages around ponies to admit she liked tea parties, I guess that does count. Midway through her lecture/moments of adorableness to him, Ember summons all dragons to manually heat the eggs. When this proves insufficient, Garble happens upon the idea to play beat poetry and let the others laugh at him enough that their flames heat up and the eggs hatch (this was setup, sort of, during Garble's debut earlier in the episode). And after a few closing words... the episode's done.

Okay, so the problem with Garble's redemption is thus: it wasn't earned. The episode shifts track from Spike trying to get along with him to just his (supposed?) insecurity about his hobby, and then that's the focus. So while the episode ends with him not hiding his odd-for-a-dragon hobby, his jerk attitude didn't fade at all, outside of one look fo approval he and Spike shared. Heck, the episode's moral isn't even delivered by him, but by Smolder, while he just sits there all gormless. In essence, the episode's main thrust completely fumbles the landing.

While is a shame, because otherwise, this one had a lot going for it. The characterisation of the 4 other main characters is quite unusually good, the only notable disappointment being how Spike's subplot just shrivels up once he and Fluttershy swap. Speaking of, Fluttershy especially had a good showing; her attitude and approach to matters throughout felt just about right for her character growth to this point, and other then one or two odd sayings or words, every moment where she was in focus worked. It's a good showing of how to handle her modern earned assertiveness right for sure. Ember was perhaps even stronger; despite not a lot of screen-time, her feelings and approach to the current dilemma were always clear, not just from her dialogue, but her mannerisms and body language too.
Smolder also had a strong showing, which surprised even me given, you know, how much the Student 6 are consistently fumbled up. Not only is her rapport with Spike solidly characterised by now, she hits the balance between her dragon and pony aspects by now. Oh, its still a clichéd option to take with the token dragon, but at least they've taken it through.

There are other aspects, like some interesting world-building with the eggs and the dragon flames, that when coupled with strong showing for four of the episode's five central characters, would really make it seems great. With Ember questioning her ability, Spike getting a story that, while cut short, show his maturity smarts and patience all in one, Smolder striking a balance between Garble and Spike and Fluttershy just running away with every moment she has (even if some are a little overdone), this episode sounds like a true winner. It's just... Garble. Taking a token character who was never meant to be fleshed out and making him the episode's main pillar was always going to be dicey, and it just amounts to nothing. This episode could have been truly great, but instead it has to settle for being passable, but wholeheartedly enjoyable for any moment not revolving around Garble or the other teenage dragons. It's probably his last showing (and I'd also guess Ember's, baring a minor Finale role), and it does partly cross off another Student 6 episode off the quota while not really being a Student 6 episode at all, so there's that.

And what do you know, next week looks like the show's final "Applejack-and-Apple-Bloom-centric" episode. Colour me mildly intrigued.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- The moment where Ember tried Fluttershy's method on the eggs was awesome. Funny and a great way of showing her trepidation on this task, nervously trying a Pony method, as well as her still-rocky embracing of Pony ways where appropriate.
- It's kind of startling how strong the characterisation outside of the Garble elements was, given Non-Compete Clause. This is why trying to identify a writer's voice and strengths and weakness is often a fruitless task without a decent sample size; we've no way of knowing what happened behind the scenes with NCC. Could have been anything, or maybe just a result of a questionable idea being handed to a newbie writer. Certainly, there's enough evidence to suggest the episode's writer is rarely the one who comes up with the episode's scenario.
- I am going to have to rewatch this again just for Fluttershy's moments. Or maybe some kind soul will make a clip of all her moments from this episode. Either or.