I'm early.

I want to make sure this is up before everyone else starts grabbing their pitchforks and twirling them around. If you can twirl them though, I give you props. I can't even do that.

But, anywhozers, this will be where you post your discussions and such. Spoilers will be here, so beware.

-Soaring.

P.S. Princess Spike. Oh my...

4481163 I foresee trouble, but hopefully I'll be wrong this time.

4481177
Always expect the unexpected.

4481183

4481183
4481184

It sounds like a Spike episode, and those can be a little problematic sometimes. And the title really makes me wonder...

--Sweetie Belle

4481189 i just really hope Hasbro knows what their doing this time. I get really annoyed seeing the little guy get the worst episodes at times.
Yeah he's had some good ones such as Dragon Quest but not very many.

4481197

Also, I did a little searching, and it's written by Neal Dusedau, who I've never heard of, and it's his first episode of My Little Pony. He could be good, but we don't have anything to go on...

--Sweetie Belle

4481163

I have yet to grab some decent beer and sit down with the fifth season . . . I like Spike and all, but is there any extra-special reason that a pleb such as myself would be unaware of, that would explain why one of the main characters warrants their own pinned thread? Did Spike become the seventh bearer of the Elements of Harmony or something?

Because that would be pretty big.

4481218 here's the dirt I got
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2146307/

4481225
This is tomorrow's episode thread, and that's the episode name.

4481226
Yeah, but I've never watched any of that...

--Sweetie Belle

4481218
Huh...

That's something.

4481225

Nope, that's the name of the episode. I'm being 100% serious here.

I also am wondering the same thing, though. This could be a big canon changer for Spike.

4481231 just watched one of the JT episodes. Not that thrilled with it.

4481231
4481232

I really need to find a time when no one is around, get drunk, and watch some MLP again. XD.

4481249

That's not a good sign, but it could've just been a bad episode. I did find a summary.

"When Spike is tasked in making sure nothing disturbs Princess Twilight, the power goes to his head and he begins making important decisions in her name, with disastrous results."

I was hoping for something like "Talking after Cranky and Matilda's wedding, Princess Luna and Spike decide to trade places for a day, aided by a magic spell to swap bodies.".

Maybe it'll be good, tho'.

4481258
Well, last episode was, um, very much aimed at bronies. It might've gotten a "Random" tag if it was on fimfiction.

--Sweetie Belle

4481258

get drunk

One of the best ways to watch the show right there.

4481163
From a picture* of a preview of the episode, it seems like Minuette (a.k.a. Colgate) gives Twilight a hug.

I'm just hoping at an irrational level that she will actually be called Minuette in the episode. That's really all I want.

*Link to picture.

EDIT: I just found something that hints to the picture I linked being involved with episode 12, instead...
EDIT 2: Looks like I got my wish!

4481336

Yay, hugs!

That kinda reminds me of this...

--Sweetie Belle

4481177
4481183
Nevermind jinxing. Murphy's Law is in perpetual, universal effect.

So... yeah. That was a thing.

Spike was actually pretty in character in this. He's young, inexperienced, and can be greedy at times.

The politicians, on the other hand... actually, they were also pretty much in character, as well, now that I think about it.

The thing is, as good as Spike learning his lesson was, I think it was overshadowed by how dumb the politicians were. Twilight was run ragged by so many ponies needing her to do things for her, that she crashed. Spike wouldn't have been in charge in the first place if ponies could do things for their darn selves instead of relying on the Princesses.

And presenting him with a bouquet of Dragonsneeze flowers at the end? Seriously? How stupid are these ponies? They're called DRAGONSNEEZE flowers, for crying out loud.

[youtube=U7XVcqZodAM]

Pretty meh episode, but it was nice seeing Twilight's role as a princess really being used for an episode's plot.

4482125

The thing is, as good as Spike learning his lesson was, I think it was overshadowed by how dumb the politicians were. Twilight was run ragged by so many ponies needing her to do things for her, that she crashed. Spike wouldn't have been in charge in the first place if ponies could do things for their darn selves instead of relying on the Princesses.

That's assuming Twilight didn't go out of her way to personally take on every little responsibility rather than delegate it to others.

Oh hells yeah. Spike episode!

4482125

Spike wouldn't have been in charge in the first place if ponies could do things for their darn selves instead of relying on the Princesses.

This actually seems to be a legit problem in pony society. Probably an unfortunate side-effect of being ruled by a near-perfect immortal super-horse for millennia.

It's a long-standing theory of mine that the reason Celestia delegates so much and avoids getting directly involved in anything unless it's absolutely necessary is because she wants to encourage her subjects to figure stuff out on their own, and that she knows from experience that just nudging them in the right direction is usually enough.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

Canonically speaking, there were actually some interesting tidbits.

Cadance is getting more... crystally. Her mane has a crystal sheen now and she's tossing around crystal based magic.

Equestrian technology continues to look more and more indistinguishable from modern technology, adding power tools and contemporary civic water systems to the schizo tech buffet.

Canadian Stereotypes Canadians are canon. Yay me. Bonus points for disposable coffee cup cutie marks.

Speaking of subgroups in Equestria, griffon citizens get a bit more love. The idea that there is a griffon-heavy city in Equestria looks more and more likely.

Casual princess worship moves a few notches closer to seeming canon. They're apparently infallible. As a corollary, ponies being able to notice the obvious gets a few points deducted in probability.

4482140

Pretty meh episode

I found it to be the most palatable 'Spike is dumb but good-natured' episode yet!

Mostly because I think it's pretty much the fault of the ponies that thought putting a child in as the secretary to the ruler of a nation during a major national event was a great idea. Seriously, they couldn't have just put a freaking guard there directing all comers to Cadance?

Or was she too busy flitting around and criticizing the motives of children to actually solve issues?

4481163 Well, I think it's safe to say that Spike episodes should be best left to the experts of the DHX staff. I'm all for letting new writers cut their teeth, but they should be given episodes with characters that aren't as easy to mess up on. Spike and Pinkie Pie are the ones that can most easily be written poorly. Both by thinking that they are dumb comedic relief characters.

4482203

Rainbow can get easily messed up too. She was never meant to be overly rude or dickish and her superhero obsession kinda came out of nowhere.

4482225 True that. I think Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack are the characters that are the hardest to mess up on, not that they haven't had some bad writing in the past.

4482282
Nah. It's easy to mess up Fluttershy by making her too much of an indecisive, terrified doormat.
It's easy to mess up Applejack by making her too dull, dumb or downright boring.
It's easy to mess up Twilight by making her into a robot OCD simulator, as many fanfics illustrate.

It's easy to mess up every single character in the show.

4482289 But Spike and Pinkie Pie are a lot easier to mess up on, since they often get overly comedic roles that they weren't meant to have.

4482299
Pinkie was pretty clearly always meant to be a pretty zany and amusing character. The problem just comes when people aren't funny.

Spike isn't really that hard to play right at all. Spike could be a very inspiring, cool character, using just his current personality and traits. They just don't use him like that. And it isn't screwing up, as in making a mistake. They're clearly very deliberately choosing to play him out like a good-natured idjit.

That's pretty much what they do with nearly every nonvillain male character in FiM. They're all clumsy and oblivious.

4482312 Yeah, and I really wish they wouldn't do that. I mean, that is essentially going from one bad sterotype (making the women dumb and oblivious) to another.

It was...alright. OK it was predictable for the most part and didn't really have a focus when it came to Spikes character, but it definetly wasn't bad. So far infact I don't think there have been any horrible episodes in the season thus far, just meh episodes like this one and Appleloosa's most wated. Good start so far.

4482176

Mostly because I think it's pretty much the fault of the ponies that thought putting a child in as the secretary to the ruler of a nation during a major national event was a great idea. Seriously, they couldn't have just put a freaking guard there directing all comers to Cadance?

It's the child thing. He's a child character.

Watch any other cartoon and see how the child characters is treated. Most writers never know what to do with them, as they're just there to be a sidekick or reinforce certain aspects of the show, but never really grow themselves. They're pretty static all things considered.

4482299

But Spike and Pinkie Pie are a lot easier to mess up on, since they often get overly comedic roles that they weren't meant to have.

Uh hehe, No? Spike and Pinkie are comedic characters... almost to a T. Spike is the sidekick character, part of being that deals with comedic roles. They even somewhat lampshade this by his humdrum role in Power Ponies. Pinkie makes people smile and happy, and one of the tools she uses is comedy.

4482343 I don't have a problem with them being comedic, I have a problem with them being relegated to the role of "Comedic relief" where they're just used to crack jokes and do stupid things to lighten up the mood.

4482338

That's the way it seems to be for most of the fandom. Most of this season has been utterly fantastic, with the most 'meh' episodes being Appeloosa and this one. Heck, I think it says a lot about this season for me when I think even a Spike episode is actually pretty good and funny.

4482350 But why? They can't be in the spotlight all the time. I don't get this attitude.

I get it can be excessive sometimes, I get that. But that's part of their character. Would you rather them not be there at all instead?

Also, do you facepalm when other characters do things?

When Rarity makes a comment about fashion?
When Rainbow snarks about something or brags?
When AJ interjects about something with a "countryism?"
When Fluttershy acts shy or doesn't have a strong opinion?
When Twilight tries to be a leader and plan something?

4482366 When it's done in excess, as often happens with Pinkie Pie and Spike, yes. For Spike it's usually in his lead roles, and for Pinkie Pie it's usually in her supporting roles.

Overall I thought the episode was.. Ok. It wasn't the worst episode involving Spike IE: Owl's Well or Dragon Quest. But it was FAR from his best. The characters were written in character, and it was nice seeing a bit more development thrown in the way of Fancy Pant's besides his ironic name. But there was just so much mess! The guy wrote for Johnny Test, a show which I liked, but it did rely on contrived situations way to often. I mean really, Polo, trees, construction, ALL IN THE SAME LOCATION AT THE SAME TIME!? Seems a little unlikely, just saying. Another thing I'd like to note, why didn't any of the other princess' get involved? What were they doing this entire time? Cadence didn't seem to be doing anything, and I'm not sure where Celestia and Luna were.. Probably at the same place where Luna went during Canterlot Wedding.

4482366 I can feel slightly irritated about all of them to some degree, but unless its done blatently obviously and frequently I don't let it ruin the episode or the show for me.

4482385 Guess I just don't see it in excess with them when compared to the other characters. Spike maybe... but not Pinkie.

4481163 Sleepy Twilight is adorable. Two episodes this season prove that. First she sleeps in a stack of pancakes now she sleeps on a pile of books. And she's so silly when she's tired.

Dang it Twilight! Why must you be so adorable?

4482176
That kid regularly does secretary type stuff for Twilight though, and has been shown to be able to more or less take care of himself in most situations. Hell, all he had to do was tell people to bug one of the other princesses instead of Twilight. Spike was more than capable of that.

4482647
There's rather a large difference between doing clerical work and acting as the majordomo of a head of state.

Did Spike do dumb things? Absolutely.
That's practically the trademark of a Spike episode.

But should a kid, no matter how capable, have ever have been put in a position where he should have been faced with the issues he was faced with? No.

4482647

And I think that was the point. Part of SPike didn't WANT To hand this off to somepony else. He was greedy and let his desire to be listened to influence his decision. He made the calls as he saw them and didn't take it as seriously as he should have. Leading to anarchy.

It was alright. The pacing seemed off in places but I liked seeing all the different styles of ponies, and the Katie Cook and Andy Price ponies were a nice addition, as well as a pony version of the detective from Fargo. They seem to have a real Coen Bros. thing going on—Countdown til we get a throwaway gag with a pony Anton Chigurh.

There were some good visual gags, but I thought the switch from Spike trying to help to Spike abusing his position was a little abrupt and overly deliberate.

4482176

Or was she too busy flitting around and criticizing the motives of children to actually solve issues?

I'm sure she had plenty to do. She just couldn't stay away from Spike, though...

--arcum42

Maybe they could've put a musical number in this episode?

Princess Twilight needs our help
Her energy will not last forever
I think we can make Spike do it
And then go off and do something fun together...

I don't see why most of this was Spike's fault. Shouldn't they have taken care of the water main and trees well before the conference? Why were all these ponies trying to bother Twilight with stuff they could easily have fixed themselves? And either they wanted Spike to do Twilight's job while she was sleeping, in which case, he did what he was supposed to, or they didn't, in which case they needed to have somepony doing her job while she slept.

Is planting plants that make dragons sneeze uncontrollably something they normally do someplace that's gonna have delegates from all over the place visit? Are they really trying to get any dragon ambassadors angry with them?

Spike really should have gotten an apology somewhere in there...

--Sweetie Belle

Personally, I think some of the least entertaining MLP episodes are Spike episodes, mostly because I don't think people have a very good idea what Spike's character is. Is he a kid who messes up? A missed opportunity hero? Some people (4482312 ) think he could be damn awesome, and I don't disagree. But I think the point is missed by many people.

I think he's a helper. He's like Robin for Batman. Could Robin be cool? Yeah. But as long as he's Robin, he's always trying to help the real heroes do their thing. He's the Samwise Gamgee of MLP.

And I felt this episode portrayed that very well. Almost everything he did was done to help Twilight. It's how his problems started, and at the end of the day, he was still trying to do his job (still whispering even with all of Canterlot after Twilight). The only thing that I think was plain unnecessary in the episode was him stopping halfway to abuse his power. It didn't do anything. The problems were still there, it didn't make them worse (since all the decisions were already made) and it felt a bit distracting. It was the one thing I think the episode did wrong.

All in all, though, I think it was a nice episode of a guy who wants to help someone he respects and loves try and fail, and deal with that, and one of the best Spike episodes I've seen. It's just not my favourite of season five so far.

4481163
I'll be honest, this is only the second episode I hate. Well, actually it was more cringe worthy than actual hate; that honor is held for The Equestria games. It just felt too similar to another episode somehow, though I can't really put my finger on it. It was like adding the clumsiness of Spike throughout of season 4, plus adding his greedy, and self-centeredness all into one episode.

Though, I give it points for the Minnesota pony.

4483261

Whinneapolis pony is new best pony don't cha know.

4483363
O yah!

4482904 Yeah, that's the big problem with this episode. The setup takes way too long, and then the actual conflict is rushed through in the blink of an eye. And that cliffhanger ending was not funny at all.