Am I the only one who's disturbed by what's going on with Spike?

[Empress Pinkamena 41]

I am hating rarity more every time I think about spike. His crush shouldn't be encouraged, but it shouldn't be used for personal gain either. And before you rarity fans stab me with a needle, look carefully at rarity takes manhattan. The only reason she had spike come was to carry her bags. I know there is a method to "comic relief," but this is going farther than it should, and even after the moral, he just keeps getting trashed, by both rarity, his crush, and twilight, his guardian! I think this is going to be leading up to something more climactic than power ponies.

Oh please, Rarity was being more nice to him than ponies usually are, actually letting him come to the show, and getting him food.  And he likely offered to help her, considering how he is.  Unless we get a scene where Rarity says "Oh Spike, come so you can carry my bags!" which we didn't, we don't know if that was the intention.  Besides, the fact she invited him at all, even letting him come to the show and buying food for him, which is much better treatment than he usually gets (Like not being invited to Twilight's own birthday.

In some respects, I actually kind of agree. On top of all that, Twilight is probably one of the worst parent/guardians I've ever seen. Of the top of my head:

-She lets him eat cupcakes out of a bin which poisoned the entire town

-She lets him walk around eating icecream out of a tub (even though she knows what will happen - namely, a belly ache)

-She doesn't counsel him over his crush on Rarity even though Rarity is far older than Spike (making it both impractical and potentially socially inappropriate)

There's probably more, but I can't think of them now.

-Considering he was enjoying them just fine, and his diet consist of gems that ponies can't eat, she probably figured it wouldn't be a problem for him.  After all, he's a dragon, he has higher tolerance for a lot of things.

-She was panicking, and also sleep deprived, so she wasn't even thinking straight.  Remember this was when she thought it was a good idea to stop time, or go back in time when she should have known what would happen.  

-It's really not that unusual for boys to have crushes on girls older than them.  

[Vorax 43]

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/687250-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic I think this would be an awesome Spike episode. I could picture this maybe happening after Simple Ways if it ends with Rarity being taken (sorry for the spoiler, if you're on EQD you already know probably) by Trenderhoof or Twilight angrily bursts out at him and starts a fight which ends with Spike running away and coming back, well, like that. Or both events happen together. Either way it'd be great character development.

[Silverwisp the Bard 2,354]

 

 

Think about it. Is there really a reason that he would come?

He went along side seeing with everyone else, so I assume he wanted to see Manehattan, same as the rest of the Mane Six.

[Spikey-Wikey 378]

It is annoying me alot also, the reason for all this is because Hasbro is too lazy to put parts in where characters say sorry.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Sweetie Drops

[~Silver Essence~ 2,625]

I do feel bad for the little guy everytime he gets hurt.

 

Most of the times, he seems like the punching bag of the group for comedic or rude purposes.

 

I guess since he's a dragon, which can support more pain than ponies, it doesn't bother him too much I guess, but even then, I hope he gets some slack for season 4.

[Horrorem 0]

Rarity is basically gr//ming Spike. She confirms she knew about his crush on her since basically day one, and even though she's too old for him, she shows she's not above the spike abuse the narrative paints under and will force him to be her errand boy and basically slave. In his birthday episode she even manipulated him into giving up his birthday gift to himself.

The fact she even freaks out when he gets a gf his age and moved on from his crush on her is just 💀

Even if it's not NSFW gr//ming it will weirds me out and I do NOT like. Ive seen people try to counter this claim by sayings it's not NSFW, but like... It's still gr//ming. 

[Splashee 28,589]

22 minutes ago, Horrorem said:

The fact she even freaks out when he gets a gf his age and

I believe that the individual writers didn't communicate about what Spike was all about. Spike was growing up in Season 8, from being a baby, but all of a sudden, he went back into being in love with Rarity in the Special Best Gift Ever, to getting a new relationship and a new story later on, to fall back on the old behavior of falling for Rarity again

Or something in that order

 

The problem here is that Spike was used by not just Rarity, but even by Twilight (in the first seasons) as being her "help". Spike didn't have any value and was used as a joke character. And of course, the new writers who entered the series late, just read or watched the first episodes and assumed he was still that joke character. Most likely anyways.

[Evil Pink One 13,523]

7 minutes ago, Splashee said:

I believe that the individual writers didn't communicate about what Spike was all about. Spike was growing up in Season 8, from being a baby, but all of a sudden, he went back into being in love with Rarity in the Special Best Gift Ever, to getting a new relationship and a new story later on, to fall back on the old behavior of falling for Rarity again

Or something in that order

 

The problem here is that Spike was used by not just Rarity, but even by Twilight (in the first seasons) as being her "help". Spike didn't have any value and was used as a joke character. And of course, the new writers who entered the series late, just read or watched the first episodes and assumed he was still that joke character. Most likely anyways.

Honestly... Spike does have value... And kids these days just don't have it. But that doesn't mean I like spike.

And I don't think he's a joke character... More of a clumsy one.. like kids are. clumsy. 

[abronymouse 6,135]

On 2014-01-29 at 3:40 AM, A Talking Dragon said:

. That this photo was hung is an acknowledgement by the characters themselves that Spike didn't attend the party.

ouch  yeah, the writers kept forgetting about Spike so it can come off like that. I think they got better in the later seasons and there were also plenty of Spike centric eps that made it clear that he's valued

interesting thread - thanks for raising it from the dead @Horrorem  

[nightshroud96 124]

Two thing

1.Honestly just because they are older females doesn't make it ok for them to leave Spike out of their fun. So its bad he missed out on stuff in season 1 and 2(especially when its like the Element are blocking Spike from being part of the Mane 6's bond)
2.  Many times Spike suffered is really undeserves.  That lake bit in Winter Wrapup was so freaking wrong, he may been grumpy(and apparently Twilight knew he be grumpy due to she had it on her list) but he really did not deserve nearly drowning and getting a cold. 

On 2014-01-28 at 10:59 PM, PurplePony said:

Could the writers be doing this on purpose though? Like perhaps he will get another episode this season that will go into a little detail and explain things. I dunno I have hope that he will have a greater purpose and that this is going on for a reason

Sadly nope.
The consequences are all ignored/brushed off.

Really what happened to Spike in the season 9 premire should have been the LAST STRAW HARD.
But nope, its ignored.  
He SERIOUSLY should not brush that off but the writers flip a switch and ignore the festering wound.

On 2014-01-28 at 11:09 PM, WhiteGuardian said:

I can honestly see where your concerns are coming from. I will be honest and say I didn't really pick up on it right away. I can see why you would be upset especially since he is one of your favorites. But I don't think the show is trying to write him off. They did an entire episode showing that spike is amazing and useful the way he is regardless of not having any powers or anything. I don't think they would do that if they weren't planning on keeping him around. It could be that maybe they are just trying to bring in some comedy and are going to far. They could be building up to an episode where spike has enough and leaves and they have to get him back. It could just be an oversight. But I trust the writers and I don't think they would be trying to get rid of spike or trying to put him down without good reason. Despite everything he is an essential character in his own way.

That episode where he's useful is really botched up hard.
Where it rubs it in that he's not allowed to be equals with the Mane 6.
And it didn't solve the problem.  He wanted to be helpful MORE OFTEN, but instead of came off as he is only helpful in super situational mascot/sidekick stuff, where most of the time he's sidelined/useless.
Power Poines was an awful episode for his character and worsened the issue on he's not allowed to be equals with the gals.

On 2014-01-29 at 1:40 AM, dekutree64 said:

Yes! Thank you for posting this, because it pretty much covers how I've been feeling. Especially Power Ponies sort of acknowledging that he's been getting poor treatment by the writers, and then going right back to mistreating him in RTM. Honestly his character role seems closer to a slave than a full fledged family member. Definitely the most off-putting aspect of the show.

 

I really hope things get better for him before the end of the season.

Power Ponies didn't even fix it but made it worse by saying he will never be equals with the Mane 6, he's stuck as the "powerless sidekick" and only allowed to help in super situational stuff and most of the time can't help.
He clearly WANTS to help MORE OFTEN, this episode did not fix that but instead saying he can only help in super rare mascot moments.

[The Nth Doctor 664]

During my rewatch, I actually kept a Spike Owned counter to see how much unnecessary abuse he was given (if he agreed to the abuse beforehand, the counter doesn't go up, like helping Applejack in Fall Weather Friends, but when Rainbow hits him a few seconds later with no warning, the counter dings)

By the end of season three, the counter was at about 50, many of them from Twilight, whether it's slamming him with a door, pulling him around with magic, or throwing him/things at him when she gets excited - most common example is trampled, or crushed by various characters/things

Thankfully from S4 on, it dropped pretty sharply, and the final count was 75, with Applejack clobbering him with her luggage at the start of Rainbow Roadtrip

Poor guy deserved better, but that's often the fate of being a boy in a girl's cartoon