S05:E10 - Princess Spike

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

Discord, definitely. The background ponies haven't had much of an opportunity to grow, since their personalities have really just been established.

The girly stuff is a good point as well.

 

It should be noted that other than the Mane 6 and the CMCs, the other characters don't have much growth, or at least not as much as the Mane 6.

 

But again, you're saying there's a difference between development and growth.

Edited June 25, 2015 by VG_Addict

[Abia 258]

It should be noted that other than the Mane 6 and the CMCs, the other characters don't have much growth, or at least not as much as the Mane 6.

 

But again, you're saying there's a difference between development and growth.

 

Yes, but we see other characters far less often. In fact, Spike appears more often than the CMC, yet they have grown more than he has.

 

I don't know if "development" is the right word, more like "establishment". You establish traits about a character, then develop them.

If the first point is establishment, the second would be growth (or lack thereof).

• Twilight: hated friendship → liked friendship
• Pinkie Pie: irresponsible → more understanding of actual contributions that need to be made in order to be a worthwhile citizen
• Applejack: stubborn and hard-headed → more open to others' ideas
• Rarity: snooty → more accepting of other lifestyles
• Rainbow Dash: harsh and careless → more thoughtful
• Fluttershy: completely lacking self-confidence → confident enough to help others and give advice
• Discord: hates friendship → open to friendship and understanding of sacrifices
• CMCs: want  butt tattoos → realizes there are things more important in life
• Spike: easily corrupted → just as easily corrupted

Note that many of these changes have occurred in single episodes, whereas we've had Spike for five seasons and he still hasn't made any major improvements.

 

So yes, I guess I agree with you.

Spike has a decently scoped out personality, but his personality has stayed the same throughout all these seasons.

[Grepper 3,192]

I wonder if some people dislike Spike as a character because he hasn't had much character development.

 

That doesn't make me dislike him, but it makes me wish they developed him as a character more.

[Honsou 399]

Spike has his qualities as well though. He is steadfastly loyal to his friends, and fears failure. You can't look at the black white spike, as being corrupt and greedy are a part of him, much like Discord likes chaos, because discord is chaos.

 

Spike will do anything for his friends, he has proven it multiple times. In this episode it wasn't about Spike being corrupt, it was that he felt unimportant, and when he started using Twilight's name, he did it for a good reason, but then he noticed that ponies were paying attention to him, he started to fall into the cracks of damnation.

 

Spike's only real major flaw is that he lies. For instance when he became so Jealous of Owlolishus (h/e it's spelled) that he fabricated a childish attempt to frame him for killing Rarity's cat's mouse. Spike also has changed since S1, where he was pretty much the backburner character. He is fully aware of his job and position as assistant, but he is fine with it. However, unlike some of the other ponies, Spike can be the voice of reason, or their check fire.

 

All in all though, terrible episode, I felt it was rushed, extremely, with it's extreme predictability from the get go.

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

Yes, but we see other characters far less often. In fact, Spike appears more often than the CMC, yet they have grown more than he has.

 

I don't know if "development" is the right word, more like "establishment". You establish traits about a character, then develop them.

If the first point is establishment, the second would be growth (or lack thereof).

• Twilight: hated friendship → liked friendship
• Pinkie Pie: irresponsible → more understanding of actual contributions that need to be made in order to be a worthwhile citizen
• Applejack: stubborn and hard-headed → more open to others' ideas
• Rarity: snooty → more accepting of other lifestyles
• Rainbow Dash: harsh and careless → more thoughtful
• Fluttershy: completely lacking self-confidence → confident enough to help others and give advice
• Discord: hates friendship → open to friendship and understanding of sacrifices
• CMCs: want  butt tattoos → realizes there are things more important in life
• Spike: easily corrupted → just as easily corrupted

Note that many of these changes have occurred in single episodes, whereas we've had Spike for five seasons and he still hasn't made any major improvements.

 

So yes, I guess I agree with you.

Spike has a decently scoped out personality, but his personality has stayed the same throughout all these seasons.

 

You're saying Spike has great potential to be well-developed, based on his traits.

[Dolphanatic 298]

True but I was more making note that some fans are using the excuse that because it was an episode dedicated to bronies and is a gift to the fans, that it somehow negates any criticism one has for the episode. I, for instant, have run into that when I expresses dissatisfaction with the episode and personally don't care for the 100th episode at all. 

 

No, I'm not kidding. However, I understand that different people have different opinions on the episodes. Personally, I hate when shows do fanservice.

 

Yes, I'm okay with it because it's the 100th episode special. It's a longtime tradition for TV shows to do things like that if they reach a major milestone (such as 100 episodes). Should they start making the average episode like that, I'd totally agree with people like you. Special things like that wouldn't be special if they did them all the time and/or for no reason. Case in point: shoehorning in alicorns where they don't belong, such as Cadance being one and recklessly turning Twilight into one.

Edited June 26, 2015 by Dolphanatic

[Melon Blitz 423]

I was indifferent to Spike as a character before this episode, but now I can't stand him. The amount of facepalm reached critical mass.

[Poetic Stone 1,040]

I liked the episode I thought it was well done, the spike episode usally are not my favorites, but I enjoyed this one.

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who likes Spike.

[Foliha 395]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who likes Spike.

You're not.  I want to know more about him.  Especially his history before ponies.

[Hocus Pocus 636]

This episode was just plain bad...

 

I mean, for goodness sake, the only things that backfired for Spike were the things that he actually did do to try and help Twilight. Everything he did out of selfishness went perfectly fine. It just seemed to be poorly made all around.

[Guest]

Don't get me wrong, I like Spike as a character but this episode is painful to watch... I have struggled to pay attention thus far :okiedokielokie:

 

EDIT: I liked the rebuilding of the statue at the end, that's about it though! :/

[Grumpy Enchantress 586]

This episode is proof that the show needs way more Spike abuse, in my opinion.

[Abia 258]

You're saying Spike has great potential to be well-developed, based on his traits.

 

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

 

Please tell me I'm not the only one who likes Spike.

 

Spike is one of my favorite characters. I just think he deserves better recognition than what was found in this episode.

[Persona22 205]

In "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" we learn that the country of the girffons is basically in the verge of collapse: No governemnt, infrastructure gone, no sense of nation at all.

 

But in the episode "Rainbow Falls" and then later in "Equestria Games" we saw Griffons competing.

 

 

Where we see them even having a flag.

However, the name of the event is "EQUESTRIA Games". It is clearly only memmbers of Equestria that can compete.

 

Now, here's my theory: What if after the Griffon King fell from power from losing the Golden Idol, and the nation of Griffinstone began to collapse, one of the cities that formed it, a city populated by Griffons, but close to the Equestrian border, decided to leave Griffinstone and join Equestria as one of their city/states or whatever one would call how different cities of Equestria work.

 

Because then in "Princess Spike" we see one Griffon among the different representatives of the different cities that make up Equestria.

 

 

 

The statue they made was built with the jewels that each representative gave to make it. And the ones that gave those jewels were explicity described in the episode as cities that were part of Equestria.

 

What do you think? Are the griffons that competed in the Equestria Games, and the City that gave that jewel for the statue, a Griffon city near the border of Equestria that left Griffonstone when the government there collapse and joined Equestria?

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

Here are another fan of Spike.

[Sh Pie 65]

There hasn't been a Spike focus episode since Season 4 so it's cool to have another! That Spike portrait would look great in Rarity's house. I didn't know so many bronies disliked Spike focus episodes. I only dislike Spike At Your Service.

[frecklesareblooming 225]

This episode was proof of just how lacking Spike is in any kind of character development. In "Just for Sidekicks", wasn't he supposed to somehow learn from his selfishness and, in turn, grow as a character and try not to make that mistake again? Nope, obviously he didn't learn, because he was twice as terrible in this episode. If only the writers would bother to put in some effort in making him at least a bit likeable.

[Flight 175 7]

Good to know that spike is still the dumping ground when it comes to the collective writing talents of the show staff. And the moral didn't even make sense, because in the end it was all the things spike did in his job that caused it all to come tumblring down, and not the acts he did in selfish greed. Way to fail on your own moral.

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

I think this episode sealed the deal with respect to how the writing staff views Spike: he's the perpetual butt monkey who utterly fails when placed beyond his typical station. Rather than a well-intentioned and precocious, if awkward, kid, Spike's character, when in the limelight, accentuates how much he cannot be trusted with anything of importance. Cue "Spike at Your Service", "Power Ponies", "The Equestria Games" (the worst offender), and "Princess Spike."

 

I've enjoyed Spike's 1st and 2nd season iterations because he served as an audience surrogate who helped further personalize a land populated by magic, friendship, and colorful ponies. Now he's a walking punchline, like Daffy Duck without a comedic foil. It's truly disappointing.

[Singe 2,111]

Princess Cadance mentions only ponies living in Equestria which completely glosses over the griffins, the sea serpent, the donkey, and the joke dragon. 

[Derpy-Chan 12]

Scoots quits to be a flightless pegasus and tries to be a unicorn....

[Brainstorm 4,108]

Spike is one of my favorite characters.

I'm not a fan of this particular episode, but, I say Spike has great potential and can be a good Dragon. He's just going through a tuff time, cause he doesn't know all of his dragon powers.

[Ashie 29]

I liked Spike during this episode even if he did mess up in the end. I do hate the Spike abuse though, he's a good character overall.

 

Some characters just simply don't get enough love 

[LightningCharm 40]

You're not.  I want to know more about him.  Especially his history before ponies.

 

Same here.  Spike is a decent character.  I don't know why, but I really enjoyed this episode for some reason.  Spike did learn his lesson at the end and tried to fix his mistakes, so gotta give him props for that!