(SPOILER FOR S9EP4) Regarding Twilight, Shining, and Spike.

[EvilMarioDragon123 9]

I’m currently watching S9 ep4 and omg the opening scene made me realize how cute the dynamic of Spike being the baby sibling in Twilight’s family. It made me question why I never thought about Spike and Shining Armor practically being brothers and it made me realize how much I love Spike. Seeing a character that was meant to be some “assistant” being cared for like family even as an infant is so precious. I always just had a sad sort of headcanon that they treated him lesser, and not like a third sibling. It just warms my heart to see a little baby brother Spike. What was y’alls thoughts on this?

[Latecomer 438]

It was cute, but mostly i enjoyed confirming that Twilight still lived at home with her parents after hatching him rather than moving to the palace.

[FlareGun45 2,221]

I'm still wondering why it took THIS LONG for Spike to finally bond with the Sparkle family! What happened to this during Canterlot Wedding - wasn't Spike really happy for Shining? What about the news of Flurry Heart, why wasn't he super excited to meet her - meet his niece or cousin, whichever? And here's the worst part: he coulda been on the cruise in Once Upon a Zeppelin; even if he did offer to stay behind, that's wasted potential character development right there that Spike coulda had with the Sparkles! Seeing how close he is to them woulda made Father Knows Beast and Spike accepting who his family is make WAAAAAAY more sense!

The show spent too much time focusing on Spike's assistant role and not enough of his familial relationship with Twilight and the Sparkles!

[CypherHoof 26,479]

I think that's just an indication of how much of a retcon this really is - there was no reason to assume spike ever lived with the Sparkles given his hatching was immediately prior to Twi joining 'tia's school, Shiny (and cadance) were retconned in at the end of S2 themselves, and spike as "kid brother" isn't consistant with how Twi has treated him in earlier episodes, and his occasional fears (when faced with Owlysius or the fear doorway, to give examples) that he is to be replaced and sent away.

I like this new portrayal and that Spike is getting recognition as being an adoptive Sparkle - but it IS new, and not consistant.

[Latecomer 438]

His relationship with Twilight has always been inconsistent complex and multifaceted.

[BastementSparkle 20,310]

I've always seen their relationship less as one thing and more like a weird combination of all sorts of things. Big Sister/Little Brother is...maybe the closest word I could think of to describe it but I'm not sure it's really entirely accurate? Their relationship definitely has some degree of Mother/Son vibes at times too, but Spike is a little too snarky with Twilight and is her voice of reason so often, not to mention Twilight was way too young to really be a "Mother" to him, even though she's the one who hatched him so she sort of is in a way. His job as her assistant also adds some degree of employment there...I don't know if there's really a specific word to describe what relationship they have, I'd just say they're "Best friends". Rainbow might be the actual Element of Loyalty, but I've always felt Spike was the most loyal to Twilight specifically.

 Like, maybe the reason he's only being acknowledged as a "Little brother" now is because for the most part nopony was ever really entirely sure what to call him. The circumstances around his relationship with Twilight and the other Sparkles is odd enough that I wouldn't be surprised if they considered him family but never fully understood what kind of family exactly until now.

[Latecomer 438]

26 minutes ago, BastementSparkle said:

 

Copying something I posted elsewhere... the ending of a description of how Spike was raised.

 

Quote

So for Spike, family is a bit of a tricky thing, which can include Celestia, Cadance, Twilight Velvet and Night Light in various parent/teacher capacities. (Shining Armor gets a clear older brother title because the only thing he taught him was how to play O&O ... and that you should never do so around his sister.) Spike holds all these ponies at least as dear as he does his darling Rarity, but there is one pony in the whole world he holds as dear as all of them combined. If they make a word for that, Spike doesn't know - so he just calls her Twilight.