S09:E09 - Sweet and Smoky

[leimagnus 15]

I just re-watched this episode and surprised I didn't notice before, but when Fluttershy turns up after Spike had been trying to cheer Garble up, Spike tells Fluttershy that Smoulder's brother is 'Garble' and Fluttershy reacts to the name.

That got me to thinking... has Fluttershy even met Garble before?

Would Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash describe to Fluttershy the mean dragons by name?

I don't see it happening. Literally unwatchable. Zero stars.

[Here No Longer 5,276]

Yeah, this episode was... pretty bad, and as of now easily the worst episode in Season 9 in my opinion, and also surely one of the worse episodes of the show. The only thing I thought was good was what they did with Fluttershy, and even then she got a little cringy at times. Also, the message, even if it was poorly executed, is a good one. But aside from that, I have a list of gripes:

 

• Literally half of this episode is Spike getting bullied by the dragons apparently because that's what dragons do...? At some points it even gets to the realm of torture porn... I'm pretty much sold now on hating the dragons because they're written just to be mean.
• Parts of the aforementioned reasonlessly cruel, numerous and prolonged bullying sections, and also parts of the B plot were totally unwatchable for me. Like I'm glad I watched this on Dailymotion, because if I couldn't skip some of these parts, I think this episode's review from me will be worse than it will already be.
• I don't buy Garble's reformation, at all. Even considering it's a tough sell that he could be reformed, this episode's way of doing so was a lot harder to sell.
• Twilight's lack of resistance to the proposal of them going made me facepalm in real life.
• The ending in general is not only a hard sell and just totally made no sense. If those dragons would be so callous enough to rob the eggs of the lava they needed to hatch in the first place, how am I supposed to believe they'd be willing to listen to Ember's reason? Also, it was absurdly convenient.
• Spike was only a little annoying. Only a little...
• Wasn't this episode supposed to be mainly about Smolder looking after her brother? That got lost pretty quickly...

 

I give this episode a 4/10. Pretty much on par with the likes of Yakity-Sax and Father Knows Beast from last season. Season 9 at this point for me is on a streak of misses.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Angus Delaney

[Chadbacca 375]

It's definitely better than Kim Beyer-Johnson's previous episode, Non-Compete Clause, that's for sure, and we finally got to see some character development for Garble after being nothing but a one-note bully character the entire time.

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

This Episode was just sweet and a great Fluttershy/Spike/Smolder Episode. Also i never thought a story about that one bad red dragon would actually be interesting to me, i was surprised.

[GloryForShame 26]

This episode was really interesting, i did liked to see how they are trying to make Garble a more enjoyable character, and in a pretty good way some people can relate to!

[Antiyonder 1,125]

YouTube upload of the episode: