Smolder: Scales or Sludge?

(The vast, vast majority of this journal is lifted from a discussion I had with saturdaymorningproj, separated by an entire year, over on their DA journal for Father Knows Beast. Reading and exchanging thoughts has been an inspiration for me, so I need to credit them.
---Season 8--Episode 24---
We've gone on little off-course. Before I'd been keeping a general descending order of Season 9, skipping over ones that didn't inspire much conversation, or that I couldn't sound out my thoughts for soon enough. "Soon," relative for my output. But before writing a post for She Talks to Angel I WANTED to state my feelings on Sweet and Smokey, for a comparison. But then after I had that section yearning for Smolder to develop, I started thinking how a lot of people in this fandom don't think there's much at all to the Student 6. Given how it's very rare any of them really get an episode where they get to act on there own, instead of sharing with the rest of the cast, I kind of to understand. So I should give an example of an episode that actually does a lot with only a single member of the Student 6: Father Knows Beast.

I'm sure everyone's given their piece about the wonderful confirmed parental relation between Spike and Twilight. This episode was on point with fine details. There were cosmetic things like the sunbeam coming in when RD was making it snow. There were also the cracks and pops from Sludge's legitimately injured body (or at least, it had ME convinced he was injured). But they're also used to prop up the characters, and what would otherwise would go unsaid. During his recovery montage, Sludge was genuinely surprised that there are people like the ponies who exist that would help him out with no payback expected. But at the end, as Sludge is flying away, did anyone else notice what Spike said? "I can't believe I thought somePONY like that... could show me how to be anything." The pony vernacular is just THAT ingrained in him, even though this season the main characters have been purposefully using the more inclusive "creature."

This episode really poses the question of what does it even means to be a dragon. When Smolder was first introduced, she was the most civil dragon in the entire setting besides Ember. We're at the point now where she probably interacts with ponies (and others) even more than Ember does, thanks to an extended civilian lifestyle with them. What Smolder seems to be mentally associating with dragon culture is a strength-based warrior society, where violence and callousness can still represent the virtue that she might yearn for. Smolder has a sense of ethics, and it's debatable how much of that comes from before and after the School of Friendship. But she wouldn't want to admit that; the Dragon world view has been that Right and Wrong are irrelevant in the face of what can actually be accomplished or gained.

But Sludge was pretty on point when he says dragons would take advantage of the naive and gullible, or spend all day laying around on wealth they didn't really earn. The only difference between Sludge and classical dragons like Smaug is his small size, meaning he has to rely on beguilement by necessity. This is where he diverges from what Smolder's self-made justification. Most of the specimens we've encountered would probably count as "real" dragons, but most of them really aren't good people. Comparing the dueling morale codes of these two is like comparing the Orcs of Warcraft, and the Orcs of Tolkien. One is a noble savage made harsh by circumstance, and one is a sniveling spiteful dog whose species is a personified virus upon the world. Remember the story Smolder told the rest of the Young Six during the Hearths Warming Club episode, where a dragon takes advantage of another dragon that welcomed her into his home?

(It was hilarious) Smolder saw for herself what that looked like in person. Although Smoulder's last defense would that least in "A Dream Come True", at least Scales went BIG and took over all of dragon kind.

So this did a lot to say about who Smolder is, and what she may be becoming. Certainly didn't feel like she was she was shoehorned, or that she had any super-special-awesome talent or knowledge. The conceit of the episode is, besides the question of Sludge's family relation, the basics of being a dragon. So just having a character who IS a dragon would be able to act as an appropriate counterweight to move things along.

By the episode's end, the concept of a dragon is still up in the air. Dragonhood isn't rejected like back in Dragon Quest. The dueling heritage also isn't treated like two separate rooms with a revolving door in Surf and/or Turf. Terramar gets to be a hippogiff or seapony whenever he feels like it. But no character can definitively say if Spike acts like a pony or a dragon. The issue becomes so up in the air, the audience gets to have an interesting internal debate, but also conclude that both of those terms are too shallow to describe a person.

Father Knows Beast didn't do a lot to change Smolder, she's mainly included to be the cavalry that resolves things for the third act. But this wasn't a Smolder episode. It was about Spike and Twilight, and her coming in at the end acting as a 3rd party of source of information is a logical resolution. But everything I listed above? That's something I enjoy so much because it's something that can be said- or rather, not spoken aloud- about a character with such a small role. That's something that always fascinated me so damn much about this fandom. So you're right, the Student 6 rarely ever got an episode to themselves, like the Mane 6 did early in their cycles. But it seems odd when people don't think stuff can be read into them. We invented personalities and stories just for mute recolors of ponies.

Come Sweet and Smokey, Smolder is always hanging around, yet not affecting most anyone's attitude, changing the course of events (outside the intro), or having any change within herself. That last aspect isn't the death knell for protagonists as some people think. In a lot of cartoons and anime, you can read a lot into a character just in what they inspire in those around them. The emotions that blossom into a scene from their passing. Unfortunately, 'dragons' and 'passion' are hard to come buy in this show, when they aren't Ember and Spike. Look at Smolder's most significant moment from FKB: she chases off Sludge by crossing her arms and repeating "No."

I'm very disconcerted with how you exploit orphans.

I suppose the writers just want us to fill in her argument based on all we've seen with dragons in this series. I also understand the time constraint of the conversation, and that Smolder doesn't respect Sludge to waste the time of actually changing his mind. But by that stance, there needed to be way more done with either the animation, scene composition, and direction. Like having Smolder really getting up in his face, or at least closeups of both their faces instead of just standing still apart from each other, to illustrate conflict.

Her voice actor is Shannon Chan-Kent, Pinkie's singing voice, so we KNOW she can emote energetically. But however she was directed had her coming off as annoyed at a child, rather than offended at a criminal. She sounded angrier at Twilight earlier for bad flying lessons than when she has to defend her species's honor. The most generous assumption I could make is that her control is suppose to contrast with Sludge being a squirming weasel, setting a good example for Spike. But face it, this show has always been limited in either its ability or willingness to express true anger or strictness. Villains are translated as hammy, and bullies just come off as laughably childish. And while the protagonists are great at expressing love, hurt or encouragement...

...they aren't great at just laying down the law. The highpoints for intensity have been Twilight versus Tirek, Cutie Remark, and pretty much anything with Tempest Shadow. Looking back at this problem at FKB helps see why Smolder and the other dragons in Sweet and Smokey are so trite to watch. Without the edge of smashing an unborn bird, or the threat of invading Equestria, they just deliver such hackneyed "tough guy" dialogue. The dragons of Pokemon were more intimidating and cool! Charizard fulfilled basically the same role as Garble, with no dialogue, in a show aimed at basically the same demographic!