S05:E10 - Princess Spike

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

Secret of My Excess is my favorite Spike episode, and the episode aired on my Birthday.

[Nuke87654 1,849]

I was on the same train as you. But here is the thing, the train is gone. The writers have no guts going back to this, because of the massive backlash from Dragon Quest and now they are pretty much stuck with what we have seen today. So, that's why i see no hope for him as some kind of a main character.

 

I know, sounds cynical as hell, but that's just what i think.

 

I don't as the reason why Dragon Quest failed so much was because they decided to make Dragons into negative masculine stereotypes just to contrast with the positive feminine pony portrayals. None of the episodes problems were caused by Spike and if it wasn't for him, I would've considered it the worst episode in the series.

 

They need to go back to those dragons and actually develop them properly rather than cow away from this much needed development for Spike I believe.

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

The episode wasn't bad, just mediocre and predictable.

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

This was my reaction to the episode:

 

 

 

(I wanted to use this for so long)

[Jeremiah 1,586]

doen a review for it, very lack luster episode: https://mlpforums.com/blog/2438/entry-17121-princess-spike-review-shipping-will-be-involved/

[BlackWater627 700]

I just don't like how they constantly abuse Spike...at first it was alittle bit of innocent slapstick humour but now its going over the top...

 

I would totally agree with you but then I'm a biased Spike lover. 

 

Judging by the polls for this episode and the last one I can see how it'd be easy to assume the episode reaction was a simple result of crashing after a sugar high. But I would disagree with that. If this episode had swapped places with Tanks for the Memories, I don't think the feedback would have shifted much. It would indeed have shifted but only by a little. The lower reception for this episode, as I understand it, is the repetitive nature of the story and lack of a strong lead character. It's not that Spike isn't a strong lead. It's that he wasn't written that way for this episode. 

 

Imagine how awesome it'd be if they made an episode where Spike's body actually permanently grew a little larger. Or if he learned to always control whether his fire burned or teleported what it touched. Or if he grew his wings...or found out that his subspecies would never get wings. There's tons of potential for development and lessons in any ONE of those things. 

[Allen 1,387]

Spike would lead everything that nothing distracts Twilight, while at the last part after smelling that flowers she sneeze. Good episode. 

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

Should they just write him out?

[CaptainDoubloon 856]

I just finished watching it, I got distracted by playing Skyrim and lost track of time. I thought the episode was ok, I gave it a 3 out of 5. The episode was too predictable for me.

Edited June 20, 2015 by Seeker Dragonheart

[Sazama Ichida 2,367]

Spike had it really rough in this episode. I seriously felt sorry for him.

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

Spike will be with Twilight to Canterlot in the episode after next.

At least he'll be coming along with the adventures.

[The Second Opinion 270]

No, that is still reserved for Appleloosas most wanted. Atleast in this episode, we got adorkable sleepy Twilight, turning from pancakes into books.

Appleoosa's Most Wanted didn't give me all that much, but it gave me more than that.

[colt .45 259]

Spike will be with Twilight to Canterlot in the episode after next.

At least he'll be coming along with the adventures.

Where he will do just fine, as he usually does in episodes not focused on him.

[Antismurf9001 1,271]

I think the best way to sum up my opinions on the episode is that I don't think it was the worst Spike episode.  It wasn't fantastic and it wasn't terrible, it was just... a Spike episode.  I'm glad that Spike was at least remotely competent; as he points out, he did manage to let Twilight have a fantastic nap, even if did eventually result in a coup.

 

Also, this is the second new episode that I've actually watched on a television and not streamed, so this episode has that going for it too.

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

This episode is, without question, the worst of Season 5 so far to me, feeling every bit like a Season 4 reject and a retread of the exact same moral and plot structure as "Just for Sidekicks".

 

Spike as a character has been developmentally stagnant for many seasons, and it's very disheartening for the writing to give us the impression that the only thing he can possibly do as the focus of an episode is to center a paint-by-numbers plot with a cliché setup, structure, and moral by screwing things up and acting immature.

 

It's even worse to see the progress this show has made in quality this season over last, namely dispensing of the Spike abuse in other episodes, while he as a character continues to be left behind in his feature episodes. This breeds all manner of unfortunate implications regarding how different he is from the rest of the cast yet is continually treated more like an accessory than a full character.

 

This show should better than running around in circles with morals and characters, and it definitely should be above leaving the same character behind every time as an unnecessary and unfair expense to deliver positive and mature messages.

[Foliha 395]

I just wish Spike's character arc was more apparent - (existent?)  I liked Dragon Quest, (especially Crackles!) and hoped Spike might start to mature.  I think we need a Spike episode where we find out why his egg ended up in pony hooves - maybe tie it in with the stealing of the Phoenix egg -  and let Spike grow up a little.

 

Loved the "Put the hay in the apple and eat the candle."

 

The Fargo reference was fun, and the bird sequence was amusing.

 

Didn't think much of the statue.  Partly because the episode was at pains to be sure you were aware of the Griffon contingency, so wouldn't the statue need to reflect that?

[Kellie 122]

Should they just write him out?

 

Would be a dream come true to me, I just feel like all Spike episodes end up as a complete waste where they could have had a good pony episode with Spike as a side character at best. This episode sucked, as AMW did, I tried watching that twice and lost attention both times lol

 

Spike literally never learning his lesson and being greedy Spike episode after Spike episode makes me yawn. 

Edited June 20, 2015 by Kellie

[Dolphanatic 298]

This episode is a perfect example of one of the reasons I still hate the whole Twilicorn idea. Think about it. If they had just let Twilight be her good ol' unicorn self, we wouldn't have episodes like this. Remember when the writers straight up lied to our faces about how Twilight won't change, despite her becoming an alicorn princess? Well, this episode is yet another instance of that exact problem. This is one of the many things I have dreaded about Twilicorn: completely changing her character to fit into boring cliché, and pointless storylines about a princess doing princessy things simply because she's an alicorn now. This is not the Twilight I know and love. "Princess Twilight Sparkle" is a completely different character. For crying out loud, she doesn't even sleep the same anymore!

 

I know what you're thinking right now. "But Dolphanatic, how is Twilight being an alicorn princess ruining the show?" My answer to that would be the reasons I just stated above as well as the fact that it's causing a chain reaction that's sabotaging the show. We wouldn't be having half of the unnecessary Spike abuse in episodes like this if they didn't keep shoving "Twilight is an alicorn princess now" in our faces, and they wouldn't be doing that if they had only been content with Twilight being perfectly fine the way she was: an antisocial unicorn who reads lots of books. So yes, in a lot of ways, the show is "ruined forever" because of Twilicorn.

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

This episode is a perfect example of one of the reasons I still hate the whole Twilicorn idea. Think about it. If they had just let Twilight be her good ol' unicorn self, we wouldn't have episodes like this. Remember when the writers straight up lied to our faces about how Twilight won't change, despite her becoming an alicorn princess? Well, this episode is yet another instance of that exact problem. This is one of the many things I have dreaded about Twilicorn: completely changing her character to fit into boring cliché, and pointless storylines about a princess doing princessy things simply because she's an alicorn now. This is not the Twilight I know and love. "Princess Twilight Sparkle" is a completely different character. For crying out loud, she doesn't even sleep the same anymore!

 

I know what you're thinking right now. "But Dolphanatic, how is Twilight being an alicorn princess ruining the show?" My answer to that would be the reasons I just stated above as well as the fact that it's causing a chain reaction that's sabotaging the show. We wouldn't be having half of the unnecessary Spike abuse in episodes like this if they didn't keep shoving "Twilight is an alicorn princess now" in our faces, and they wouldn't be doing that if they had only been content with Twilight being perfectly fine the way she was: an antisocial unicorn who reads lots of books. So yes, in a lot of ways, the show is "ruined forever" because of Twilicorn.

 

 

Do i really need to say more?

 

Look, nobody is forcing you to watch the show, if its "ruined" for you.

[StitchandMLPlover 930]

So I saw "Princess Spike". The things I liked in this episode were seeing the submit and some of Princess Twilight's Princess duties that probably should have been brought up in season 4 a bit more but I'm glad they are doing it here. The different ponies from the different cities were interesting. I also really like Cadence's Crystal Spell she used on the pipe which makes her title of "Crystal Princess" make more sense. I also felt that Spike wasn't completely unlikeable here because you can still sympathize with Spike feeling overlooked and wanting to be special. I liked his loyalty to helping Twilight at first It reminded me of the way he wanted to help Applejack in "Spike at Your Service". Twilight's nonsense lines from lack of sleep were funny. The things that I didn't like were how Spike's greedy scenes seemed very forced in halfway through the episode. It's like I was watching 2 episodes with different plots forced into one episode. This episode could have been much more effective if Spike's intentions of helping were the ONLY things that caused the problem. It seemed like the new writer was heading this way and I would have loved it, but then it's like the writer changed his mind halfway. Spike was trying to help the entire time until CADENCE put the idea of getting whatever he wanted into his mind in the first place. Cadence obviously didn't mean to but she gave Spike very,very mixed signals of what to do. I wish Cadence had apologized in some fashion. I also don't get why Celestia,Luna, or Cadence did not try to settle some of the minor issues of the ponies themselves especially since in theory they have dealt with these ponies more than Twilight. Unless the submit was all Twilight's idea. If that is the case I can understand it. The lesson was good but it didn't totally match up with the episode. Plus the "princesses own up to mistakes" line was a tad cheesy. Maybe my opinion will change a bit if I watch the episode again. 

Edited June 20, 2015 by StitchandMLPlover

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,436]

This episode is a perfect example of one of the reasons I still hate the whole Twilicorn idea. Think about it. If they had just let Twilight be her good ol' unicorn self, we wouldn't have episodes like this. Remember when the writers straight up lied to our faces about how Twilight won't change, despite her becoming an alicorn princess? Well, this episode is yet another instance of that exact problem. This is one of the many things I have dreaded about Twilicorn: completely changing her character to fit into boring cliché, and pointless storylines about a princess doing princessy things simply because she's an alicorn now. This is not the Twilight I know and love. "Princess Twilight Sparkle" is a completely different character. For crying out loud, she doesn't even sleep the same anymore!

 

I know what you're thinking right now. "But Dolphanatic, how is Twilight being an alicorn princess ruining the show?" My answer to that would be the reasons I just stated above as well as the fact that it's causing a chain reaction that's sabotaging the show. We wouldn't be having half of the unnecessary Spike abuse in episodes like this if they didn't keep shoving "Twilight is an alicorn princess now" in our faces, and they wouldn't be doing that if they had only been content with Twilight being perfectly fine the way she was: an antisocial unicorn who reads lots of books. So yes, in a lot of ways, the show is "ruined forever" because of Twilicorn.

Being someone who is enjoying season 5 immensely, I would say the show is far from ruined. Then again I have always been in support of the Princess Twilight thing for many reasons, one of those reasons is because it takes the show in new directions, which it already has done so. Whether or not you like those directions is all opinion and I can plainly see that you don't like it, but that doesn't mean the show has been ruined. I could go into more depth on my option on it but I do not want to derail this thread, it is about the episode.

 

Anywho, on to the actual subject, the episode itself. I enjoyed it. This episode in particular was one I was a bit weary to after hearing about it because the concept seemed kinda 'meh' to me, but it turned out better than I was expecting. Was it perfect? Definitely not, I think it was one of the lower episodes of the season so far but that is only because of odd pacing. The chain of events that ruined the summit seemed way too fast paced and did Cadence seriously tell Spike to 'take care of the water'? How the buck was he supposed to do that exactly? 

 

So really, my only two problems with the episode was the pacing at times (which does bog it down at parts) and Spike's unrealistic 'power madness'. That was the only other thing that seemed a bit out of place and it happened too briefly. It did lead up to a very nice ending though.

 

I will acknowledge that this episode had its fair share of problems, but I don't see it as a bad episode at all, I still enjoyed it. In fact I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting so that is something I think.

 

If I had to give the episode some sort of rating it would be...Something like a 6/10 maybe.

[Dolphanatic 298]

 

Do i really need to say more?

 

Look, nobody is forcing you to watch the show, if its "ruined" for you.

 

"Look! She's still the same adorkable pony because books!" I'm getting really tired of that stupid excuse. Yes, Twilight reads lots of books. No she doesn't sleep on piles of them.

 

...And she most certainly wouldn't sleep on the job and force Spike to handle her duties!

 

Uggh! This episode was so contrived it hurts.

Edited June 20, 2015 by Dolphanatic

[Cleverclover 1,526]

 

 

We wouldn't be having half of the unnecessary Spike abuse in episodes like this if they didn't keep shoving "Twilight is an alicorn princess now" in our faces, and they wouldn't be doing that if they had only been content with Twilight being perfectly fine the way she was: an antisocial unicorn who reads lots of books.

 

While normally I'd agree, it's not as though Twilight being in charge of an event like this is something that wouldn't have happened while she was still a unicorn. 

 

Make no mistake, she's definitely not the same character she used to be, but this episode isn't really a good example of that.  

[Dolphanatic 298]

While normally I'd agree, it's not as though Twilight being in charge of an event like this is something that wouldn't have happened while she was still a unicorn. 

 

Make no mistake, she's definitely not the same character she used to be, but this episode isn't really a good example of that.  

 

What I meant is that it's a good example of how it derails the show and forces characters like Spike into borderline character assassination territory.

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

What I meant is that it's a good example of how it derails the show and forces characters like Spike into borderline character assassination territory.

 

For me, this sounds more like to look for excuses to hate on her transformation.

 

Spike was a klutz in his episodes, before Twilight ascended, so i don't really see what one has to do with the other.