Should Spike have gotten wings earlier?

[Latecomer 439]

1 minute ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

Season 6 and later is too late. There's no such thing as too early on this subject.

I disagree - just like it was arguablu too earlu for Twilightt to become an alicorn, and how Rainbow shouldn't have become a Wonderbolt in Season 3. Winged Spike feels more like an upgrade after seeing wingless Spike for several seasons.

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

26 minutes ago, Latecomer said:

I disagree - just like it was arguablu too earlu for Twilightt to become an alicorn, and how Rainbow shouldn't have become a Wonderbolt in Season 3. Winged Spike feels more like an upgrade after seeing wingless Spike for several seasons.

Molting is just about his physical growth, not his mental growth. It could have happened even before season 1 episode 1, it could have happened shortly after Twilight moved into Ponyville, it could have happened anytime (like Secret of My Excess) but not when a long time after everything is settled down and Spike seems to grown up mentally already.

What I mean is, if they had to make an episode about physical growth, which they did in Molt Down, it had to happen prior to his memtal growth, otherwise it wouldn't work. And it didn't work indeed. Because if Physical growth happens after memtal growth. There would be no drama. It would be nothing more but like "oh, I've grown up.". And indeed it was.

Twilight being princess means she was worthy of being one, which means she had a mental growth (and had many things changed) to another level. She had to earn her status unlike physically gowing up. And the problem was the episode was rushed and the timing was rushed, not that the concept or the idea was wrong. It eventually had to happen, and it had to happen in a same way somehow.

Twilight's accession story requires her maturity, Rainbow Dash's Wonderbolt story requires her maturity, Spike's physical growth story requires his immaturity. That's why his one could be early. (like Secret of My Excess) Spike's wings were totally redundant.

And after few years of zero expectancies of his growth, suddenly he grows up and attaches wings like the writers forgot to draw his wings for seven years. It was too long after a stale situation.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Sepul-Coloratura

[Latecomer 439]

44 minutes ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

Molting is just about his physical growth, not his mental growth. It could have happened even before season 1 episode 1, it could have happened shortly after Twilight moved into Ponyville, it could have happened anytime (like Secret of My Excess) but not when a long time after everything is settled down and Spike seems to grown up mentally already.

What I mean is, if they had to make an episode about physical growth, which they did in Molt Down, it had to happen prior to his memtal growth, otherwise it wouldn't work. And it didn't work indeed. Because if Physical growth happens after memtal growth. There would be no drama. It would be nothing more but like "oh, I've grown up.". And indeed it was.

And after few years of zero expectancies of his growth, suddenly he grows up and attaches wings like the writers forgot to draw his wings for seven years. It was too long after a stale situation.

I agree that it was delaued a bit far, but not that it shouldn't have come after he matured. He was quite mature to begin with, after all, and most o his issues related to his draconic nature. Once he had established a better relationship with dragonkind seems like a good time for him to reach a new stage. But theu couldn't change his design with the movie coming. Still, given how long dragon's live it won't hurt him to wait a bit - and show-wise he still got a season and a half out of them.

[Splashee 28,566]

The thing is, I didn't even expect Spike to have wings. I thought he was just another kind of dragon.

[Latecomer 439]

22 hours ago, Splashee said:

The thing is, I didn't even expect Spike to have wings. I thought he was just another kind of dragon.

Did we see any other wingless dragons in the whole show?

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

1 hour ago, Latecomer said:

Did we see any other wingless dragons in the whole show?

That's kind of the same trap people fell into when assuming Scootaloo was an orphan.

We see some dragons, spike is the only one we see without wings, but we don't know why yet. Even if we assume it's just because he's a baby dragon, we don't see enough other baby dragons without wings and adult dragons with wings to draw a conclusion that all dragons are born wingless and eventually get wings when they grow up. The point is, we don't know.

We get introduced to a very specific (and convenient and a little bit far fetched because it was an afterthought) idea called 'molting' in seadon 8. Until then, nobody has a clue why Spike has no wings or even if it's unusual to have no wings as a dragon.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Sepul-Coloratura

[Latecomer 439]

1 minute ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

That's kind of the same trap people fell into when assuming Scootaloo was an orphan.

We see some dragons, spike is the only one without wings, but we don't know why yet. Even if we assume it's just because he's a baby dragon, we don't see enough other baby dragons without wings and adult dragons with wings to draw a conclusion that all dragons are born wingless and eventually get wings when they grow up. The point is, we don't know.

We get introduced to a very specific (and convenient and a little bit far fetched because it was an afterthought) idea called 'molting' in seadon 8. Until then, nobody has a clue why Spike has no wings or even if it's unusual to have no wings as a dragon.

We may not know, but we can weigh up the evidence. If all other dragons have wings, and we don't see any other dragons as young as him, then it seems rather obvious that he'll grow into them, like a pony and their cutie mark. The only thing that confuses that is that we see him artificially grown a couple of times without them.

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

1 minute ago, Latecomer said:

We may not know, but we can weigh up the evidence. If all other dragons have wings, and we don't see any other dragons as young as him, then it seems rather obvious that he'll grow into them, like a pony and their cutie mark. The only thing that confuses that is that we see him artificially grown a couple of times without them.

Or he just happens to be a wingless dragon that is young.

If there were more wingless baby dragons in the show, I would consider it.

[Latecomer 439]

2 minutes ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

Or he just happens to be a wingless dragon that is young.

If there were more wingless baby dragons in the show, I would consider it.

And if there were adult wingless dragons in the show, it would seem more likely.

[MasterofChaos 120]

I personally am very glad spoke got wings in the series! However, I somewhat don’t agree on how late they have him the luxury of having them though. I do agree with the posts saying that anything Earlier than the gauntlet of fire episode would just be asinine. But season 8 for me is just too late especially if they end the series at season 9.

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

13 minutes ago, Latecomer said:

And if there were adult wingless dragons in the show, it would seem more likely.

That would be exactly the counterevidence to the theory.

[MasterofChaos 120]

On 6/11/2020 at 6:24 PM, Latecomer said:

I disagree - just like it was arguablu too earlu for Twilightt to become an alicorn, and how Rainbow shouldn't have become a Wonderbolt in Season 3. Winged Spike feels more like an upgrade after seeing wingless Spike for several seasons.

I’ll give you some credit on twilight becoming an alicorn too early.. maybe season 4 or 5 may have been a better fit.

As for Dash I totally agree with everything about her development. If you remember correctly season three she became a part of the wonderbolt reserves. It wasn’t until season 6 (newbie dash) where she became a “full fledged wonderbolt.

[Latecomer 439]

7 minutes ago, MasterofChaos said:

I’ll give you some credit on twilight becoming an alicorn too early.. maybe season 4 or 5 may have been a better fit.

As for Dash I totally agree with everything about her development. If you remember correctly season three she became a part of the wonderbolt reserves. It wasn’t until season 6 (newbie dash) where she became a “full fledged wonderbolt.

She became a reserve late in Season 4, actually.

[MasterofChaos 120]

11 minutes ago, Latecomer said:

She became a reserve late in Season 4, actually.

That's right... she was in the academy in season 3. thanks for the correction!

[ZiggWheelsManning 11,007]

We were denied Wile E. Coyote moments when he got his wings that late

[Stardust Live 44]

No, I liked wingless Spike. I wasn't a fan of his wings as I didn't think they were integrated too well on his body design-wise, plus him being carried around on Twilight's back was cute and funny. It's not a bad change; like the person above said, it's a physical change rather than a mental one, and I liked how it was worked into a difference of pony vs. dragon wings and teaching methods.

[CameoShadowness 251]

On 6/13/2020 at 5:34 AM, Sepul-Coloratura said:

That's kind of the same trap people fell into when assuming Scootaloo was an orphan.

We see some dragons, spike is the only one we see without wings, but we don't know why yet. Even if we assume it's just because he's a baby dragon, we don't see enough other baby dragons without wings and adult dragons with wings to draw a conclusion that all dragons are born wingless and eventually get wings when they grow up. The point is, we don't know.

We get introduced to a very specific (and convenient and a little bit far fetched because it was an afterthought) idea called 'molting' in seadon 8. Until then, nobody has a clue why Spike has no wings or even if it's unusual to have no wings as a dragon.

Yet we see how every other dragon treated him- like he was nothing special, like it wasn't an anomaly. Yes he was one of them but they didn't see his lack of wings as out of place, this infers it to be a normal thing. This goes as far back as Season 2 when he interacts with the teen dragons. Also they do show wingless baby dragons MUCH later on in Season 9 when they dragons have their hatching season and all babies are born without them.

[Fritzy 1,692]

Maybe a bit earlier. But not really early. Like a season at best. But I suppose it happening so late into the series is ok. 

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

1 hour ago, CameoShadowness said:

Yet we see how every other dragon treated him- like he was nothing special, like it wasn't an anomaly. Yes he was one of them but they didn't see his lack of wings as out of place, this infers it to be a normal thing. This goes as far back as Season 2 when he interacts with the teen dragons. Also they do show wingless baby dragons MUCH later on in Season 9 when they dragons have their hatching season and all babies are born without them.

Or maybe it’s because they have seen other wingless dragons. Not that you are wrong, we just don’t know.

[CameoShadowness 251]

4 hours ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

Or maybe it’s because they have seen other wingless dragons. Not that you are wrong, we just don’t know.

Literally watch Season 9 episode Sweet and Smokey. They give you the answer directly. Even ignoring Sweet and Smokey, The Molt Down also proves this as right. It is nothing special.

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

22 minutes ago, CameoShadowness said:

Literally watch Season 9 episode Sweet and Smokey. They give you the answer directly. Even ignoring Sweet and Smokey, The Molt Down also proves this as right. It is nothing special.

I’m talking about pre-molt down MLP. Nobody knew for sure because we all didn’t had a time machine or clairvoyance to predict the future back then. Molt Down explains this because the episode was specifically made for explaining this.

[They call me Loyalty 1,948]

I haven't seen the episode, yet. But given how little the addition of wings add to character development when it comes to represent teachable moments that people can identify with. I'd say no. I'd rather have a character deal with human problems in a relatable manner over having them gain additional limbs and transformations. No point in superficial change, if there is no inner growth.

Same with twilight. I thought this show was about changing antiquated stereotypes and unrealistic expectations about women, not reinforcing them. But I was wrong.

[CameoShadowness 251]

13 hours ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

I’m talking about pre-molt down MLP. Nobody knew for sure because we all didn’t had a time machine or clairvoyance to predict the future back then. Molt Down explains this because the episode was specifically made for explaining this.

oh yeah, True.