S02:E10 - Secret of My Excess

[Luna_tic 120]

Spike disappointed me in this episode. I had a lot more respect for him prior to it. I know he was all protected from seeming too much like a jerk due to the dragon biology plot device, but I just didn't like it. I have a low tolerance for brat-like behavior though. Spike is better when paired with Twilight in a Twilight episode, he's so helpful in those!

Edited July 8, 2016 by Luna_tic

[slumberparty101 21]

Both Spike and Rarity do potentially have a lot in common, except Spike is smitten and a child in Rarity's eyes. No idea how Spike's life cycle works, but if he's forever a kid without his own treasure horde, looks like he's out of luck on the Rarity front - since the advice to Spike would probably be to age a few years and then blow away the competition with dragon smoke.

Edited September 10, 2015 by slumberparty101

[Cedar Citrus 29]

I literally JUST finished watching the episode. Dang! Spike's greed is really interesting to see. Are there any more episodes that bring this up? The only ones that come to mind are Dragonshy and Dragonquest and the former doesn't talk about the growing thing, just that dragons can sleep for a hundred years.

[Roughshod 719]

The episode has a bad stigma attached to it simply for being a Spike episode but it isn't that bad. I'd say it's one of the deeper and more genuine of his episodes. The exploration of dealing with one's lower instincts and the affects greed can have on one's personality were illustrated creatively in a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort of fashion. It was neat to see what Spike is capable of becoming.

[powerpuff-tsubasa 448]

spike's such a brat there. never gonna rewatch that episode again

[twiia 1,843]

As with most Spike episodes, I didn't like it

[cmarston1 5,959]

I really like this episode a lot.

It is one of my favorites to come out of season 2.

[blackstarraven 142]

5outof5.

This episode was really interesting to be for a very special reason.

____
You see at a very early point It occurred to me what Spikes role in the show is.

He's the little brother.

To be specific he's the brother that is only a year or so younger then 'you' the you in this case being Twilight.

The interesting point is that I was that brother as a kid.

___
Grew up with a bunch of sisters, and a bunch of sisters friends. Spent way more time with girls then with guys (Thank goodness)

And fit pretty much every point of this trope.

___
Spike is basically a cool little brother.

 

And at some point in that brothers life... they hit puberty.. and ya...

That's what this is about....

 

[Kazuki 12]

This was the episode that got me into the show. I've only seen the first three seasons so far, so I'm not sure if it's ever brought up later, but this was the episode where it seems that Rarity acknowledges that she knows Spike is in love with her, and I hope to see that come up again in later seasons.

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

It was a good Episode and it ended on a pretty good note. Not much else to mention for me.

[Thrond 3,263]

This is a pretty entertaining monster movie riff, and there's a lot of nice little jokes to boot. The usual Spike issues are a bit more justified here, but there's implications to his dragon transformation which the show has never really addressed. If growing makes Spike greedier, and if he only grows by collecting things, will he stay a baby forever? Can dragons grow normally, like ponies do? Spike seemed to start collecting entirely by accident, so how is Twilight going to prevent this from happening again? Plus, the way this treats the Rarity/Spike relationship is icky. He's too young for her! Those things bug me, but this episode is funny and relatively action-packed. My favourite scene is Pinkie Pie assaulting Spike with cakes, but most of the fun just comes from Spike nabbing random things, which never quite goes fully over the top but is nonetheless just absurd enough. A somewhat lesser season 2 episode, but that's a high standard to live up to, and this one's entertaining nonetheless. 

Score:

Entertainment: 8/10

Characters: 8/10

Themes: 9/10

Story: 6/10

Overall: 78/100

[Meushell 52]

@AlexanderThrond

I think you said just about everything I wanted to say about this episode. 

The dragon aging thing is very strange. Spike is a “baby,” but he clearly isn’t one mentally. The Rarity/Spike thing still doesn’t work for  me though because she is grown, and he looks like a child.

In addition to that, I hope we see the Wonderbolts in action (outside of shows) without completely failing at it. Spike trapped them way too easily.

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

Iiiiii.... <<checks old blog post>> love this episode!

[Thrond 3,263]

3 hours ago, Meushell said:

The dragon aging thing is very strange. Spike is a “baby,” but he clearly isn’t one mentally.

Funnily enough, this has actually been dealt with in the show recently, but parts of the greed-growth thing are still confusing. 

[Meushell 52]

On 6/5/2018 at 10:29 AM, AlexanderThrond said:

Funnily enough, this has actually been dealt with in the show recently, but parts of the greed-growth thing are still confusing. 

That’s interesting. I am not current, but I’ll get there.

[bigbertha 414]

This episode is pretty good up until the ending. There was a huge missed opportunity here to end Spike's crush. Rarity could've finally told Spike that she just doesn't care about him like that. The visits with the vet and doctor could've been cut to make more time for this. But no. Instead they drag this crush on longer than it needed to be and make Rarity look like she's taking advantage of him. That problem isn't as bad here because she does look really thankful, but it's still a problem that this episode refused to end.

Aside from that I enjoyed this episode enough. It had some fun action and comedy, although it also felt a bit dull at times.

Score: 6/10

[bigbertha 414]

This one's such a missed opportunity. Rarity seducing Spike out of his gem in the beginning is just wrong. I thought it was going to be a flaw for Rarity to overcome. When Spike turns into a monster and grabs Rarity, she'll realize that it only happened because she kept leading him on. But that didn't happen. Instead, the episode doesn't acknowledge that what Rarity does is wrong and instead fans the flames of a dumb crush that should've ended here. 

Everything else is just okay. A lot of it is pretty boring and the visits to the doctor and vet feel like filler, but I guess there are a couple good jokes throughout. Just not enough.

Score: 5/10

[bigbertha 414]

The stuff with Rarity really just confuses me. It's set up in a way that Rarity will recognize she's been leading Spike on, but that doesn't happen. She continues to indulge Spike's crush. It doesn't make any sense.

Aside from that, I really like this episode. There is a ton of fun to be had with a rampaging Spike and the jokes are really great. 

Score: 7/10

 

[Lucky Bolt 35,062]

Another meh episode for me. Spike's episodes are kinda boring tbh. 5/10 

[Justin_Case001 4,881]

It was kind of a meh episode for me to be honest, except for the heartwarming "big moment" when Spike reveals his feelings for Rarity, which he then promptly seemed to forget that he did for the rest of the series.

[Astralshy 26,441]

It's a good episode which I like, but I don't think it belongs to the best episodes. I think Spike is a cool and underrated charachter but there are other episodes where he shines brighter than this one.

 

 

[Cash In 22,229]

I liked the explanation of dragons aging faster because of greed. I think it's a pretty interesting idea. Spike having constant growth spurts and going haywire was actually my favourite part of the episode. I think the pacing could've been better though.

Overall, it's actually a decent episode. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.

(Also once again, the Wonderbolts are completely useless )

Edited February 27 by Cash In
Updated thoughts

[Hadrien 950]

Spike is my little bro, and I love seeing grow into the great and powerful dragon he was always meant to be.

WAIT, WAIT, TOO BIG ! HE'S GOTTEN TOO BIG.

So dragon powerup by being greedy, but also grow naturally (which we'll see in a later episode), that's some weird magical process there. Too bad Spike grew up to be a scrap/random item dragon, those aren't really powerful.

Spike being transformed back into his small self by the power of love is a mysterious thing. But hey, now we know that Rarity knows that Spike has a crush on her. Phew that was a sentence.

Overall, it's a pretty entertaining episode. Pinkie Pie trying to fend off Big Spike with cake is pretty funny.

7.5+0.5/10, I like Spike, he's my O&O buddy !

[Antiyonder 1,108]

YouTube upload of the episode: