Episode Re-Review: Dragon Dropped · 5:04pm Jul 15th, 2021
So it is that we come to what was both the final Spike episode and the final Rarity episode. After nine seasons of inconsistent on and off teasing, you'd think that their last episode together would want to clarify once and for all the possibility of their relationship. Well, that's what was originally planned here. Originally, Spike would get over his crush on Rarity and that would be the focus of this episode. But for some reason, Josh Haber (who wrote this episode) decided against that in favor of keeping things vague. Not sure why he would do that if he wasn't going to ever address Spike's crush on Rarity, you really can't leave something like that hanging after teasing it so much. Still, this episode singlehandedly launched a new ship in the form of SpikexGabby, though that seems to be all it's remembered for. Has this episode's big writing decision worked against it? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Rarity hoping to invite Spike to go gem hunting with her again as her basket holder/bodyguard. But Spike is too busy writing a letter to someone to take any notice, even going so far as to brush Rarity off completely and not acknowledge her. From there, we see Rarity using Applejack as a substitute for Spike, and this isn't the last time we'll see a mane six member show up just because. Anyway, gem hunting turns out to be a bust and so Rarity goes to the post office to hopefully win back Spike's affections for whatever she did wrong. It's here that she bumps into Gabby, and the episode weirdly claims that the two have never met before even though we saw Gabby scrubbing the floors of Carousel Boutique back in "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks".
Gabby says that she's in Ponyville to deliver Grandpa Gruff's letters to Gallus, and then it turns out that Spike was planning to meet her here all along. He and Gabby have apparently been penpals ever since Twilight wanted to know everything about Gabby being the first griffon to alledgedly earn a cutie mark. The episode will try to treat this platonically, making it seem like it's just a friendship problem. But the underlying subtext makes it quite clear that this is supposed to be romantic, especially when we have stuff like Gabby and Spike sharing ice cream. Meanwhile, we see Rarity using both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy as helpers, and somehow she's completely unable to function without Spike around. Except in flashbacks we only see it whenever Spike was helping Rarity, we never see any signs of her rewarding him for helping which makes her look really selfish and shallow. This isn't like Rarity missing Sweetie Belle and wanting to spend time with her.
Fluttershy seems to plant an idea in Rarity's head to butter Spike up with gifts. To that end, she somehow manages to get into his room in the castle while he's sleeping and surprise him in bed.
She offers to take him on a trip to same rare mountains, and Spike eventually agrees. Then the next day, Rarity offers to take Spike to a Power Ponies convention, and Spike accepts. And the day after that, Rarity stops by asking if she can play Ogres & Oubliettes. Unfortunately, this role playing session is spied upon by Gabby when she stops by to deliver some turtle soup to Spike. And she reacts with shock that Spike isn't spending time with her. The episode again treats this like it's a friendship problem, nevermind the fact that Gabby's entire reaction is like someone in a romantic relationship who caught their significant other cheating on them.
Spike is so upset by this that he can't focus on anything else, not even being with Rarity. Twilight shows up later on, mentioning that she's never seen Spike "this upset before" even though I'm sure she most definitely has given how long he's been with her.
Once again, the episode insists this is just a friendship problem with Rarity needing to learn to share Spike with others even though she was already doing that as it was with her other friends. I really don't see why this episode wants to pretend this isn't a romantic thing when all the subtext clearly points to it and Rarity is acting not unlike a jealous lover or ex-girlfriend. Anyway, this little pep talk from Twilight is enough for Rarity to see Gabby and confess to her crimes of trying to steal Spike away. Spike shows up and receives a similar confession, but an apology is all that's needed to make everything right. Then the episode ends with Rarity using Pinkie Pie for gem hunting, before Spike shows up and insists that while Gabby is great he'll "Always want my Rarity time".
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, I just can't wrap my head around the mind boggling decision to make this the last Spike and Rarity episode, and then not address their possible relationship after so much on and off teasing over the course of the seasons. I mean heck, if you weren't going to address it at all why bother having Spike's crush be a thing in "The Best Gift Ever" that's supposed to be taking place in Season 9? You can't just pretend it never existed. Apparently, this episode was coming out around a time when it was coming to light that an apparent pedophile attended a Brony convention. But I'm sure that wasn't known when this episode was being written. So it's not like Sparity itself suddenly became taboo. Plus, why exactly did they bring Gabby back when she already showed up in a cameo for "The Last Crusade"? I can't think of anyone who really clamored for Gabby's return, not that she didn't have fans. I mean, Gabby seems far more tolerable and less Mary Suish here, which is nice. But aside from serving as Spike's not girlfriend what exactly did she accomplish in this episode? In terms of a final Rarity episode, we really don't get to see Rarity at her best because she's now somehow unable to function at all without Spike around to do labors for her (which doesn't paint her friendship with him or a possible relationship in a good light). And for a final Spike episode, he's absent from a good chunk of it and doesn't really learn much of anything. It's like they had two different episode ideas and decided to merge them together to save a slot, but if anything why not scrap the slot that "Growing Up is Hard To Do" occupied when it was clearly outdated? And the rest of the mane six really didn't need to be here aside from Twilight, there was no reason at all to include them aside from jokes about them being "Not Spike". I know Sparity is a controversial ship, but if they were going to keep teasing us about it I think we deserved to see a proper resolution instead of leaving it hanging and pretending it never existed. So ultimately, this episode gets a borderline D+/C-. What was so wrong about the original draft of Spike getting over his crush when this episode was clearly romantic in subtext?
I've nothing new to say on "A Horse Shoe-In" which is yet another example of Season 9 not knowing when to leave well enough alone, and I've also nothing new to say on "Daring Doubt" which provided two unwanted redemptions that make no sense. There's really no point talking about "Growing Up is Hard To Do" again since even if it's a long shelved script it's still too out of place for when it's set. So instead, we're going to jump to the last truly standalone episode before the finale in "The Big Mac Question", which some might say was the last truly good episode of the show.
I would dislike this episode and there are somethings that need fixing, but for some reason. Gabby made me enjoy it even if the episode may not be a good one. So I say this episode is good but need fixing
I don’t have much to say, besides giving you an applause for all of these detailed reviews !
And congrats again on passing 200 stories.
For me, this episode, while not the best, is still pretty fun to watch.
The gag with Rarity's drama couches always makes me laugh a bit.
One thing I give this episode credit for is that unlike Ahuizotl in Daring Doubt, it didn't end up retconning Gabby into being like most other griffons just so the narrative could put Rarity in the right for keeping Spike away from her.
Also, I get the feeling this episode shoehorned in the entire Mane Six because the show staff wanted to give us at least one more episode with all of them before the finale as the next four episodes exclude at least one of them.
* A Horse Shoe-in: Applejack
* Daring Doubt: Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.
* Growing Up is Hard to Do: Pinkie Pie
* The Big Mac Question: Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.