Cloud5001

I feel this episode is very underrated, it's one of those premise's that's hurt the most by this show needing to follow the self contained episode approach and thus only being limited to 22 minutes to work with. But with that I do think this is a pretty fun episode, this is the first episode to really focus on his lack of self worth issues. We saw a glimpse of that in the Crystal empire where he learned his greatest fear was being sent away because Twilight found him useless, that brief moment opened up SO much potential for charachter development and it's why Spike at your service is so infurating. Thankfully season 4 came and addressed this issue, and in more than one episode which I loved. this episode definetly could've used a bit more show don't tell with Spike's feelings, but I do think there's just enough there that I can get invested in it. To keep with the superhero theme Robin is my favorite Dc hero because in a universe with heroes with crazy powers he proves you can still be special even if your a normal human. So it's only fitting that Spike ends up looking like him the most when in the superhero outfit. And the parrallels are more than you'd think at first. Both have a love him or hate him type of relationship with fans, in the hands of poor writers they often get the shaft or treated as incompetent even though their not. Infact as I think of all the ways their similar I kinda want Robin from Teen titans to meet Spike now, but anyways my point is that like Robin Spike has prooven time and again that even though your not a big muscluar adult, you can still do badass heroic things. Such as in this episode when he comes up with a pretty clever way to take out most of the Maneiacs minions.

Season 4 was Spike's best year with the orignal writers for sure, at least in terms of his focus episodes. The other two drew on his insecurites that we learned about in Crystal empire part 2 while this one further developed his friendship with Rarity, aka he actually had things to work with in this season. I don't like the idea of them being a couple, for me it would just be too creepy if Rarity started returning those feelings. She's a grown adult while he's still just a kid. That's why I'm happy it stayed as a one sided crush. But I do really like their close bond anyway and this episode was a great showing of that, Spike needing to have the guts to criticize Rarity even with his fears of losing her as a friend was a legtitametly good delima and he got to solve the problem all on his own.

Here's the thing about that scene it's very in charachter for Twilight to react that way, things were incredibly bad and she was letting the stress fester inside of her. But Pinkie is absolutely right when she said Twilight lost faith in her friends. Yes they could've taken things a bit more seriously but in the end their efforts turned out to be validated. Everyone they met got inspired by them and encouraged them to fight back against the Storm King. This is what Twilight was forgetting about as her anxiety built up inside of her, it's shown on the pirate ship when she shrugs off Rainbow trying to motivate the pirates but also later when Tempset shows up. The pirates were'nt going to sell them out but she did'nt trust Rainbow on it and got impaitent. In seaquestria Queen novo was going to say yes until twilight wrecked that. I also really like that it was just Pinkie pie doing the arguing for the most part, because as the element of laughter and seeing it's her personal mission to make people happy and feel better she would feel the most hurt by Twilight's actions. Not only for the distraction but the fact that Twilight began to saw them as a liability pushing away the good quailites that's helped them save equestria time and again. The argument also felt very real too, when things start getting heated you have alot harder time controling yourself and you may wind up saying things you don't actually mean.

Spike's plan was simply amazing and it makes sense he'd come up with it he plays a game that requires that kind of scenario planing and he's the Dungeon master too. But I also really, REALLY love that this episode FINALLY gave us some genuine one on one interaction between Spike and Futtershy. This would be followed up more in Sweet and Smokey but words can't express how happy I was when we got to that scene with them this episode. The reaction she had when they first met made it seem like that friendship was practically gift wrapped for the writers and yet it took 8 SEASONS to finally have more stuff together.

Exactly and i do think Spike and Maud be able to get along with each other too. I'd try to do it myself in my fanfic except I'm not sure I can nail Maud's type of humor. Honestly she seems way more trickier to write than Pinkie or even Discord for that matter.

I've always loved Spike right from the start. i thought he was cute and his snark was usuallty hiliarous. It's why it's so frustrating how inconsistent the orignal writers were with Spike, before Josh took over as story editor his best season was 4 and that's because they actually drew on stuff that was set up for him in Crystal empire that being his severe lack of self worth and insecurites. Power Ponies and Equestria Games focused on that while Inspiration manifestation had him having to actually criticize his crush even if it meant losing her as a friend which was a pretty good way to move that part of his charachter forward too. Secret of my excess in my opinon is also pretty good but the rest range from decent to god awful, Spike at your service is easily the worst episode of the show at least for me. Almost all of the main charachters act out of charachter and i just despie how even the writing itself was making Spike look horrible. Like why in gods name would Applejack put eggs on a needlessly high self? Oh right it's so they can go "hey see Spike is bad he can't reach it." Ahem rant aside my point is I've been of the opinion that though the orignal writers were great their attitudes kinda held the show back especially in regards to Spike. So once season 6 came around and I saw how much better he was being treated I felt happy about new writers coming in. They certainly seemed to understand him alot better, I know Josh did'nt write all of his episodes but it's kinda hard not to see that Spike was one of his favorite charachters next to Starlight. Since whenever Josh wrote a two parter Spike always had some kind of role to play in it, To where and back again was an exception and even though i do kinda wish he was included in the group I also underdstand the theme he was going for and everyone else was captured too so that's the exception. Plus Josh is also responsible for giving Spike his wings too. I have always seen him as a main charachter just like Starlight and I am very happy that he did not leave the series on a sour note, (his future design aside uggh.)

You know that's the whole point of the episode right? Like Pinkie undersestmated Maud's ability to make friends and so that's why she acts the way she does. From her perspective she does have reason to believe that Maud would struggle with that when she's already seen it happen with her friends the first time she introcuded each other. Infact Maud still needed a little nudge just to try, so her learning that she needs to trust Maud enough to be able to make friends without her is a believable lesson she needed to learn and it actually isn't out of charachter at all. Cranky was a random stranger, but this is her sister so it's going to be much harder for her to see where those boundaries, especially because this issue has never come up before between them. The episode never once treats her forced attempts for them to bond as a good thing but also that they know she's only concerned for her big sister and Maud moving to Ponyville obviously means alot to her. People are focusing on the forced attempts and not the actual reason why she went so overboard which comes from a good place and that's why even though she was meant to be annoying I found it enderaing and funny because she's not doing it to be mean. Her going overboard ALSO does'nt make her a bad charachter, it shows she has a flaw but that's OK for her to have. To make the out of charachter claim you need to look over all of the facts about the charachter not just the positive ones and THEN see if it does'nt match. For example I know Spike is out of charachter in Spike at your Service because it contridicts everything we know about him even down to the smallest details. By contrast I never once got the impression this episode contridacted Pinkie or how we've seen her relationship with Maud up to that point. The lesson she needed to learn felt completely natural and as someone with a disability I can tell you that your loved ones will often have the hardest time believing you'll be ok on your own if you don't show them and Maud has NEVER shown Pinkie that she'd be able to make a friend on her own. Phew sorry this has been bugging me for awhile cause I really love this episode. Alright all that aside one more thing I want to touch on, Spike and Maud like I can't believe this is the only time they ever interacted and it's not even with him speaking with her. I do get that Cathy might not have been able for this episode and that's fine we still got to see this. It's just I really feel like the scene should've had follow up to it, I'd love to see if Spike can gel with Maud.

Neither Rainbow or Spike have a bad ego, infact Spike had severe self worth issues for quite awhile so I'd say it's pretty balanced all things considered. Even when he boasts a bit it's more goofy and cute than anything and he has certainly earned his reputation. But I've seen charachters with MUCH worse ego's become fan favorites hello Vegeta and Kaiba or hell even Discord from this show counts. They are'nt bad charachters but the point is Rainbow and Spike show their positives much more that the brief head swealing can be forgiven and even enderaring. I mean they certainly would'nt let it get so far that they actually end up helping a villian in causing serious damage and possibly get people put into coma's or killed because of their over inflated ego like the three i mentioned.

Spike had to go up to an entire group of adults that he loves and respects, then say to their FACES that they are wrong for thinking the way they did about Thorax. That is not an easy thing to do and the fact that he's still just a kid and having this kinda situation forced on him made it very easy to see why he had trouble doing it at first. But even then he instantly regretted it and felt horrible about not standing up for Thorax. Thorax also still trusting him shows even more how much of a good person he was. He had every reason to let Spike fall the second time but he did'nt, because he knows he's a stranger asking a little kid to do something insanely hard. And that's rewarded by Spike using that as motivation to chuck those fears at the door in order to do the right thing. I love his episodes from season 6 onward but this one is definetly the best with Mold down being very close. I felt so proud of Spike for managing to stick up for Thorax in the end and that song is just awesome sorry. Was the ending quick sure, but this show not being a seriliazed one had always been it's biggest flaw but not one that the writers could really do anything about without pissing off the stuffy execs. So it's unfair to hold that against the episode.