S08:E24 - Father Knows Beast

[Will Guide 21,360]

With permission, I was allowed to open the discussion topic for this episode early.

Note: Please keep all content and discussion not officially published by Hasbro under the "spoiler" tag (USE THE EYEBALL), and don't link to or paste leaked assets.

 

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Title: Father Knows Beast

Airtime: Sat., September 1, 6:25pm Eastern (Sun, 9/2, 8:25am Australia time)

Writer(s): Josh Haber

Synopsis:  When a strange dragon crash lands in Ponyville claiming to be Spike's father, Spike is ready to do anything his "dad" says in order to learn how to be a "real" dragon.

Thank @Dark Qiviut for finding the official synopsis 

As for my initial thoughts from what I heard:

Spoiler

The Fan fiction writer in me is going to be disappointed if and when the events in this episode will joss the backstory I've had in mind for one of the characters since Season 5 Finale. Still I supposed my story can be Alternative Universe. When it does come out, I'm going to judge it on its own merits.

 

Episode Link in English:

https://sendvid.com/18trcex1

BONUS CHALLENGE: Can you guess which movie's title and father each quote in the poll is based on? (One of them is from a loved cartoon tv show instead of a film.) 

Answers to the poll references:

Spoiler

Hate it: Fire Lord Ozai to Prince Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender cartoon 

Dislike it: Mr. George Banks disapproving of the out of tune piano in Mary Poppins

Meh: A line referencing Will Turner's father as a pirate and a good man in Pirates of the Caribbean 1: Curse of the Black Pearl

Like it: Stars Wars Darth Vader

Love it: Pixar's film Coco

 

Edited September 2, 2018 by Will Guide
Added Episode Link

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

Pls be Scootaloo's parents!

[Will Guide 21,360]

16 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Pls be Scootaloo's parents!

Spoiler

Sorry. It's Spike's father. There was an officially shown trailer back in SDCC edited so that with the way it looks:

Spike's Father (neutral expression): Spike, I'm your father.

The Mane 6 (except maybe Twilight not present) all Gasp Loudly with Pinkie lasting longer.

Of course, you shouldn't trust a trailer to be 100% truthful. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[Kevin Tang 2,426]

5 hours ago, Will Guide said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Sorry. It's Spike's father. There was an officially shown trailer back in SDCC edited so that with the way it looks:

Spike's Father (neutral expression): Spike, I'm your father.

The Mane 6 (except maybe Twilight not present) all Gasp Loudly with Pinkie lasting longer.

Of course, you shouldn't trust a trailer to be 100% truthful. We'll see how it turns out.

 

Holy holy holy holy crap! 

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Alright, this episode here.... THIS EPISODE... this is both my most hyped one and my most nervousing one! Nervousited! I mean this episode could be the BEST episode in the season! OR... they could make it underwelming like Newbie Dash, which I really hope not!

 

I don't want it to be just another Dragon Quest! Spike KNOWS who his family is - the Mane 6 (especially Twilight), Starlight, CMCs, Big Mac, Discord, and many others, which I hope most of them appear in! 'Specially Starlight for some reason!

:3 Now people in the fandom are 50/50 in terms of who this dragon is. Some say he's real, some say he's fake. Now the resemblance is uncanny, I doubt he's fake, but he's not gonna be the "father-figure" Spike wanted, henceforth the quotes on "dad"! But hopefully we won't just see him, we'll also see more of Spike's family, like his mom and siblings (if we haven't met them already)! And either way, this could be the start of something new for Spike! The dad might tell Spike stuff that might change his part in the show forever!

So writers? Please, oh please, I'm begging you! Don't waste this episode! This is supposed to be something BIG! And since it's episode 24, it COULD lead to the finale in some respect, but maybe I wouldn't go that far! So I'm nervousited for this one!

 

Also the final song of the season is confirmed to be in here! It's called "You Just Can't Be A Dragon Here", which sounds like a duet between the dad and Spike! Yay, another Spike song! Sounds like it could be a jazz or swing one! Spike's really hip when it comes to big-band music!

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by MegaSean45

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

I'm just gonna post this about the episode in the spoiler tag below

Spoiler

To those who state that "You can't just be a dragon here" will be the final song of the season, I beg to differ.  The Leaked Synopsis pointed to Episode 2 of the Season(School Daze Part 2) not having any songs.  But it wound up having one song to celebrate the victory: "Friendship Always Wins."  So there's a slight chance that they have a song in the final episode of the Season, which hasn't been done since Season 5,

 

[ggg-2 3,553]

What i wanna know is how the hell this guy knows Spike's name. He comes into the picture years after Spike's hatching, and it was either Twilight or Celestia who gave him the name, not him.

[FlareGun45 2,221]

7 minutes ago, ggg-2 said:

What i wanna know is how the hell this guy knows Spike's name. He comes into the picture years after Spike's hatching, and it was either Twilight or Celestia who gave him the name, not him.

I got the feeling SOMEONE sent him! Me money's on Ember! But it could also be Smolder or one of the princesses or even Scorpan! Or... it could be a... villain? To get him outta the way? I'm gonna say Ember cause it's a way of saying "Thank you for making me Dragon Lord, here's a token of my appreciation!" :3

Edited August 15, 2018 by MegaSean45

[Will Guide 21,360]

@MegaSean45

Spoilers about my personal head fanon

Spoiler

Okay, so since the S5 finale, I mentally wrote a fan fiction involving me ensuring the survival of Spike's egg via time travel and I discovered that I'm the reincarnation of Spike's dragon father who "died" with his mother. 

In the end, Regardless of what happens or is discovered in this episode, I could as Will Guide learn to let Spike go, since he's growing up, and I put what's best for Spike first not me. Whether I truly am Spike's father or not doesn't matter in the long run. All I would want is to.see him happy.

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

12 hours ago, Will Guide said:

  Hide contents

Sorry. It's Spike's father. There was an officially shown trailer back in SDCC edited so that with the way it looks:

Spike's Father (neutral expression): Spike, I'm your father.

The Mane 6 (except maybe Twilight not present) all Gasp Loudly with Pinkie lasting longer.

Of course, you shouldn't trust a trailer to be 100% truthful. We'll see how it turns out.

 

RIP My dreams 500 B.C. - 1000 A.D.

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

Let's see if this will really awake the fandom.

[FlareGun45 2,221]

@Will Guide I should letcha know that this episode is called "Father Knows BEST" not "Father Knows BEAST". Beast was a typo made by... someone and people just followed along thinking that's the real title!

[Will Guide 21,360]

58 minutes ago, MegaSean45 said:

@Will Guide I should letcha know that this episode is called "Father Knows BEST" not "Father Knows BEAST". Beast was a typo made by... someone and people just followed along thinking that's the real title!

Do you have official source disproving this?

[Will Guide 21,360]

@MegaSean45

Besides, Father Know Beast would be Play on Words, which they love to do with episodes. I'll bet you it will stay "Father Knows Beast" when it officially airs in English.

[eventyraren 180]

Spoiler

I don't think this dragon is going to be Spikes Father, that feels too GOTG2, "he was your father but not your daddy". This is an American Children's show, and making him spikes real father and forcing him to choose between his real family and the ponies is something too adult an an American Children's show. We are probably gong to find out how Celestia got his egg, but not what happen to his family, we still don't know what happen to the apple parents and this is probably the same thing.

 

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Bad news: This episode made my nightmares come true. That dragon was NOT Spike's dad! We still don't have an origin story!

Good news: Spike and Smolder had an awesome amount of interactions, and them being related could still happen!

Overall: OK episode. I'm not mad. I thought I would be, but I wasn't! I know there's hope for an origin story for Spike to come true on the show! I've been waiting so long for it to happen! But... I can wait a little longer. I just hope my patience will be worth it.

[Dark Qiviut 22,396]

Watched the episode. I don't know Swedish, but…

Spoiler

This episode feels a lot like what Dragon Quest tried and failed to do and succeeded. To give it context, the new character in this episode is a pudgy yellowish-green dragon named Sludge. Despite what much of us built upon, he revealed to NOT be Spike's father. He's actually a really greedy freeloader and liar. As such, his reveal's a massive disappointment. But its disappointment is partly what leads to its probable brilliance.

Sludge continues the trend of really masterful manipulators as episodic antagonists. The Flim Flam Brothers, Cozy Glow, Neighsay, and Lightning Dust. Sludge is now part of that group. Taking advantage of the RM7's generosity, moreso Spike's, he takes advantage of their naivety and makes Spike buy into him, even when his actions bring serious question. Even when question his judgment and actions, Spike doesn't, and after not knowing his origins, who can blame him?

Even more impressive is Sludge's apparent level of competence. Garble and his dragon friends in Dragon Quest were just quarter-dimensional stereotypes disguised as characters. Sludge doesn't sound like that character. While Garble's all brawn within his slender physique, Sludge exchanges his pudge for brains, and he was really smart in his manipulation. His greed only adds to his aura of intelligence.

In hindsight, several clues gave his scheme away.

1. Sludge underwent a really aggressive rehab to heal following his crash-landing accident. When did he "admit" to fathering Spike? Just before he was about to fly away.
2. Spike gave him all sorts of gifts. Sludge gave him none nor food, dismaying Spike.
3. After signing his song, he grinned sinisterly.
4. "Dad" in quotation marks in the synopsis. I'm of the opinion of judging an episode by its own merits and disconnect from peripherals, but its conspicuous, suspicious quotes hint his true identity revealed in the end.
5. The name alone. "Sludge" has negative connotations as a result of what they're synonymous with (usually disgusting muck). His name comes from his mucky, vile, contemptible personality, one who you'd love to hate.

Whether it's a better version of DQ or not and what I wrote above remains to be seen. Must wait for subs and/or the English before reaching that conclusion with utmost certainty.

 

Edited August 27, 2018 by Dark Qiviut

[Truffles 2,033]

I'm holding firm so far and am avoiding looking at the spoilers until Saturday when the English release is out in Australia. Did see a few impressions that ranged from great to disappointed, which pretty much is par for the course. 

This is going to be one tough week, though....

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

From what I've read, this isn't really a BAD episode, just kind of disappointing.

[Megas 27,624]

Spoiler

With everything we've been wanting to see about Spike's origins amounting to one big "HA! Gatcha!" cocktease makes this one of the biggest letdowns since Newbie Dash. It'd be one thing if the guy just said that he was his dad and the episode went on would have been fine but the fact that they went out of their way to include a back story about his egg and include an image of a fake mom is pretty insulting. Only things that save this episode from being worse is that at least Spike's dignity still seems to be in tact, on top of some genuinely good moments with Twilight and Smolder. I'd also say that since this was all faked that there's still a chance Spike's origins could still be addressed but considering S9 is supposed to be the last one I'm not holding my breath

Also I refuse to call him Sludge, there is only one Sludge in my heart

Spoiler

 

 

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

Spike's never had any development.

[FlareGun45 2,221]

52 minutes ago, VG_Addict said:

Spike's never had any development.

I'm just not gonna bother listing all the development he has had, but I will show you this!

 

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

1 hour ago, MegaSean45 said:

I'm just not gonna bother listing all the development he has had, but I will show you this!

 

Alright, rewatching earlier episodes.

Might just be me, but Spike is braver in later episodes.

[ggg-2 3,553]

Spoiler

Sludge is a faker and in other news, water is wet the sky is blue and the Pope is Catholic.

 

[Will Guide 21,360]

13 hours ago, MegaSean45 said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Bad news: This episode made my nightmares come true. That dragon was NOT Spike's dad! We still don't have an origin story!

Good news: Spike and Smolder had an awesome amount of interactions, and them being related could still happen!

Overall: OK episode. I'm not mad. I thought I would be, but I wasn't! I know there's hope for an origin story for Spike to come true on the show! I've been waiting so long for it to happen! But... I can wait a little longer. I just hope my patience will be worth it.

 

Without looking at the spoiler box, how did you even see the episode?