S04:E24 - Equestria Games

[Ninja(Pinkie)Midget 180]

This was a good strong episode to me.  It's always fun seeing how Pinkie will freak out, and it was interesting to have another episode that has Spike in the main storyline.  I'm looking forward to the finale this weekend, but a little bummed that me and my daughter will have to wait for fall for new episodes.  So it goes.

[Tetrakemy 221]

Spike is one of my lease favorite characters so I don't really like this episode that much. 

 

It was ok though, just was expecting it to be a RD episode with more BB and FS. 

[Shift 4,272]

OOOH

 

TIREK FOR S4 VILLAIN?

 

AS A UNICORN?

 

I CALLED IT YOU GUYS

 

I TOTALLY CALLED IT

[nami438 90]

Anyone else noticed that in that special spot on the stadium where Twilight, Cadence, the Royal Pony Sisters and all those other, apparently leaders of some part of Equestria, there wasn't a single Griffon?

 

But Griffons did take part of the Equestria Games... are they not part of Equestria? The Griffons that participated lived somewhere in Equestria and that's why they were there? Do the Griffons have their own nation but did not send any representative of their government to watch the Equestria Games?

 

Seriously, why weren't there any Griffons in that balcony with all those important looking ponies and the four Princesses of Equestria?

I noticed that too. Very strange.

 

If this was intentional and not just an oversight by the staff, then I would guess that griffons were just invited to these games as test run guests. Maybe one of their leaders will be invited if the griffons put on good shows in these games.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Overall, this episode was unsatisfying and a little painful and boring to sit through. The episode has painfully awkward situations that drag on for too long, both in-world and from the viewpoint of the audience, as well as many events that seem to demonstrate poor planning and control of the Equestria Games. And as all these awkward and overly-long scenes are included, other potentially interesting aspects of the games get glossed over, leaving many unanswered questions and inadequately explained happenings in the episode.

 

The first big awkward event is the lighting of the torch. To start, why does Cadence ask Spike to light it on such short notice? Isn't that the kind of thing that's planned well in advance? Watching Spike fail to produce fire just makes me wonder what the mechanism is by which he breathes fire in the first place. Spike says that he just doesn't have the stuff today; what is that supposed to mean? Moreover, what exactly is Spike trying to do when he's straining just before Twilight lights the torch? This whole situation is also one of several that seem to illustrate a lack of planning and ability to quickly take control of the situation on the part of Miss Harshwhinny and the organizers of the Equestria Games. Do they not have any other backup means of lighting the torch? If they do, why don't they use it? Instead, everyone just waits around for over a minute, doing almost nothing to fix the situation, until Twilight uses some magic to save the day.

 

The next awkward situation is Spike's believing he can light fires with his mind. First, I can't imagine how Spike came to this idiotic conclusion. He knows he didn't light the torch by breathing fire, and yet the torch was lit anyway, so he concludes, despite the apparent lack of explanation and lack of previous occurrences of mind powers, that he can cause fires by willing them into existence. Did any more plausible alternatives to this explanation, such as an unseen lighting mechanism or someone lighting it by magic, occur to him? Apparently not, since he's very sure of his conclusion, as seen by his skeptical demand for an alternate explanation to Twilight. But of course, Spike finds out the true story only after his friends and a couple of crystal ponies stand around awkwardly for 20 seconds watching him strain to light a picture with his believed mind powers, stopped only when Twilight finally decides to pull Spike aside.

 

After that, we have Spike's failed singing of the Cloudsdale anthem. First, watching Shining Armor and Spike talking, I have to wonder how their voices are being amplified when they speak to the whole stadium. We've seen microphones used in previous episodes, but not here. Is there some kind of magical voice amplification going on? If so, how is it that both Shining Armor and Spike are able to alternate between speaking softly to each other and projecting their voices to the stadium? Second, what is Spike expecting to sing - the Ponyville anthem? Has he not seen the way things have gone in previous events to know that the anthem of the gold medalists' hometown is played?

 

Also, this scene is another illustration of poor control and ability to take charge on the part of the ponies running the Equestria Games. When Spike announces his intention to sing the anthem unplanned and unrehearsed, Shining Armor just goes with it, rather than stopping the idea right there. Then, as Spike bumbles on and clearly has no idea what he's doing, no one does anything to stop the ongoing train wreck; no one cuts Spike's voice amplification, or stops the music, or physically prevents Spike from singing any more, or removes Spike from the field. Instead, Spike's painfully awkward performance drags on for over a minute, while we (the TV audience) just look at one shot after another of ponies being shocked, angry, and embarrassed, even as the point has seemingly already been made.

 

Finally, we have the whole incident with the ice cloud, which is yet another display of incompetence. First, why are there seemingly no safety measures in place, other than a relatively low backing wall behind the targets? Are there any ways to stop the arrows from flying into the audience or, as seen in the episode, up into the sky? Also, can no one in the entire stadium use magic, princesses and security included? Couldn't the princesses and/or security be trusted not to cheat and be allowed to have use of magic in case of an emergency like this one? Further, why does the disabling spell take so long to disable? So, once again, we see Shining Armor, security, and all the princesses just looking on in horror rather than taking charge and trying to stop the impending disaster or minimize the damage.

 

Finally, we have the aftermath of Spike's melting the ice cloud. The basic idea of the moral is good, relevant to many people yet not overly simple or dumbed down. I can't help feeling that the moral, and the dialogue around it, are forced and don't necessarily follow from the events in the episode. Spike goes through a lot of actions and wild mood swings, and it's a little hard to see how the lesson learned from all of that is that you sometimes have to let go of the past to feel good about yourself, or that sometimes you should take others' praise of you to heart and not always put yourself down.

 

While all of these things are happening, Ponyville and the rest of the teams are competing, and the short times we hear about or see the competition bring to mind a lot of questions and observations. First, I'm amazed that Ponyville's aerial relay team gets silver, and that Rainbow Dash is that close to Spitfire as they reach the finish. After all, their team only barely qualified back in Rainbow Falls, and Bulk Biceps and Fluttershy are pretty far behind at the ends of their legs of the race. Then, on top of that, Ponyville gets 37 medals to Cloudsdale's 36 by the end of the Games? I know Rainbow Dash said at the beginning of the episode that this delegation is the best in Ponyville history, but is it really that good? Are there that many well-trained, ultra-competitive, and well-funded athletes from Ponyville, which seems to be a relatively small, rural, and unsophisticated town?

 

Of course, given that two of the four competitors in ice archery are from Cloudsdale, Cloudsdale should have been guaranteed to tie Ponyville in medal count, with some chance of beating Ponyville's count, also. Yet, after the ice cloud fiasco, Pinkie says Ponyville won the medal count by one medal. What happened to the ice archery competition? Why didn't they have a rematch, perhaps with the one who dangerously misfired an arrow disqualified? It doesn't seem fair or appropriate that the other three athletes don't get a chance to compete and win medals just because one of the competitors misfired and caused an incident.

 

Now I have the usual miscellaneous observations and comments:

 

Rainbow Dash's saying that she expects the aerial relay team not to get gold seems awkward and out of place. Perhaps she could have said that to lower expectations and preempt any jeering or criticism, but I would think that the other members of Ponyville's delegation would already know that the aerial relay team isn't very good, given the other members and how the team only barely qualified.

 

What happened to Rarity's uniforms from Rainbow Falls which she said she was designing for the Equestria Games? Wasn't showing off those uniforms one of the lame reasons Twilight gave for why Rainbow Dash shouldn't join the Cloudsdale team back in Rainbow Falls? Not that I'm really complaining, since Rarity's uniforms were (purposefully) not very good-looking.

 

The whole "Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious" thing just seems gimmicky and annoying, and I'm surprised that Cadence and Twilight seriously go along with it. We've never heard anything about this prior to this episode. Plus, we know the whole story - that Spike was just tagging along with Twilight, and because of Twilight's entrapment, just happened to be the only one available to deliver the Crystal Heart. Even then, he didn't do that much to help; Cadence (thrown by Shining Armor) had to grab both Spike and the Crystal Heart from falling out of the sky. Ponies like Twilight and Cadence know this real story, yet they choose to go along with the elevation of Spike to hero status for some reason. 

 

Isn't Twilight's loudly and openly cheering for Ponyville a little unprofessional at an event bringing together ponies from all over Equestria, and at which Twilight is apparently acting officially as a princess? Isn't Twilight supposed to be a princess over all the ponies in Equestria? We don't see Celestia or Luna openly cheering for Canterlot, or Cadence openly cheering for the Crystal Empire.

 

Twilight's statement of "Equestria, we have a problem" is an inaccurate analogy to "Houston, we have a problem" (which itself apparently isn't quite accurate to the original event). The phrase "Houston, we have a problem" is directed to the city in which the communications base is located. Equestria is much larger and non-specific than a city in which a base is located, so it doesn't really make much sense for Twilight to report a problem to Equestria.

 

Of course, Pinkie is an obnoxious audience member throughout the episode, throwing food on other ponies, jumping on their heads, and shouting and screaming multiple times.

 

Spike says that he let everypony down twice, but that seems like a bit of a strange statement to make. It's not hard to understand that he let the others down when they asked him to light the torch and he agreed to it, yet wasn't able to do so when the time came. It's hard to see how Spike's volunteered singing can be classified the same way. Spike volunteered (or rather imposed) himself to do that; no one was expecting or counting on him to do it until he announced it, so any letting down in that scenario would be because he created the expectation himself. If he simply didn't try to sing, then he wouldn't have let anyone down.

 

When Spike is preparing to flame the ice cloud, he only calls out for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to move, although a bunch of pegasi move after he says that. Why did he call out only at those two? Was he trying to make sure that someone heard him, and they were they the only ones he saw and/or recognized in the heat of the moment?

 

Spike procures an umbrella seemingly out of nowhere after he melts the ice cloud, then seemingly sets it on the ground a few seconds later, only for it to apparently disappear, since it's not seen in the very next wider shot.

 

Cadence tells Spike that he saved those ponies and the Games, and Twilight says that Spike saved the Crystal Empire twice. Those statements seem a little hyperbolic; saying that Spike "saved the Games" seems like a stretch, and Spike's deed here doesn't seem to really be on the same level as helping to defeat Sombra.

 

Finally, the fireworks Spike lights at the end of the episode look identical, look to have same length of fuses, and are lit very nearly simultaneously, yet take off at staggered times.

[Luffyiscool 397]

Spike procures an umbrella seemingly out of nowhere after he melts the ice cloud, then seemingly sets it on the ground a few seconds later, only for it to apparently disappear, since it's not seen in the very next wider shot.

 

It's cartoon hammerspace. Not something to be overthinking about.

There are certain things you're SUPPOSED to let slide in the name of physical gags, like Bugs Bunny pulling out a giant mallet and whacking the bad guy across the noggin, or Pinkie pulling out her party canon. Have you not watched many cartoons? Things like the umbrella happen all the time.

 

Several other things you mentioned are also just a case of you thinking too hard.

Why do people over analyze MLP and treat it so differently to other cartoons that they suck the fun out of it

Edited May 8, 2014 by Luffyiscool

[FallenShadow000 18]

Alright, my problem with this, is that we got a half-baked Spike episode when all of the hype had been over the Equestria Games. I wanted to see the GAMES, not Spike making a bloody fool of himself. 

It's cartoon hammerspace. Not something to be overthinking about.
There are certain things you're SUPPOSED to let slide in the name of physical gags, like Bugs Bunny pulling out a giant mallet and whacking the bad guy across the noggin, or Pinkie pulling out her party canon. Have you not watched many cartoons? Things like the umbrella happen all the time.

Several other things you mentioned are also just a case of you thinking too hard.
Why do people over analyze MLP and treat it so differently to other cartoons that they suck the fun out of it

It's because we want the charm, fun and interest that sucked us into the show at the start. Instead we are getting half-baked slice of life episodes because as opposed to looking at the fans that actually support them, Hasbro is greedily trying to push toys.

Anyone know the names of the horse-looking couple at the left of the royalty box?

The brown and purple ones at the bottom left:Equestria_royalty_S4E24.png

Don't know names, but if I had to guess they represent Saddle Arabia.

[nami438 90]

Alright, my problem with this, is that we got a half-baked Spike episode when all of the hype had been over the Equestria Games. I wanted to see the GAMES, not Spike making a bloody fool of himself. 

It's because we want the charm, fun and interest that sucked us into the show at the start. Instead we are getting half-baked slice of life episodes because as opposed to looking at the fans that actually support them, Hasbro is greedily trying to push toys.

Don't know names, but if I had to guess they represent Saddle Arabia.

Eh, it's hard being a periphery demographic. It's still the young children and their parents who give Hasbro the most MLP-related money. I'm surprised Hasbro hasn't put more effort into giving us older fans more high-dollar goodies to choose from, like those gorgeous plushies some fans make.

 

Thank you! It looks like they are from Saddle Arabia. ^-^

[MistyGem 17]

Is it just me or this episode will result in Spike lighters

[nami438 90]

Is it just me or this episode will result in Spike lighters

Would def buy a Spike Zippo

[Quill 10]

I personally thought this episode was pretty decent. We got to see the out come off both episodes that led up to the games. Even though some people would want to see more (besides the ice archery) it was still a good episode in my opinion. The jokes were als overy hilarious in my opinion.

[Allen 1,387]

Are they're going out for Rainbow Falls, we think this is a perfect one as Spike realizes that he has a strong breath.

[rainbowdashbrony1 130]

The Wonderbolts Anthem that Spike tried to sing was hilarious even Derpy Hooves thought the lyrics were horrible !

[Life Giver 1,063]

I loved this episode for one reason... the part where Spike got to sing. Good times.

[GoldenCal 52]

 

Review is up Collabing with Animewolfgamer

[Quill 10]

While the build up kinda left me with a slight empty feeling after seeing this episode, I can at least say I like Spike's dilemma here. Would I want to see more of the games? Of course, but for what it's worth I thought this episode was okay.

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

I loved this episode for one reason... the part where Spike got to sing. Good times.

 

Oh my goodness! Spike got a song in this episode??!

I don't remem- Oh... That's right it was... absolutely dreadful... 

[Life Giver 1,063]

Oh my goodness! Spike got a song in this episode??!

I don't remem- Oh... That's right it was... absolutely dreadful...

That's what made the song so good. It was awful.

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

That's what made the song so good. It was awful.

 

I couldn't agree more. It would be interesting to see a remix of this though! 

[LeafFerret 3,382]

I didn't like this episode. Ponyville should never have won. Most of them were not from Ponyville anyway and therefore not fair to the other teams.

[Luffyiscool 397]

Most of them were not from Ponyville anyway and therefore not fair to the other teams.

You mean the fact that Dash and Fluttershy used to live in Cloudsdale?

 

It's not really unfair that they chose to represent Ponyville.

Are you saying they HAVE to represent Cloudsdale just because it's their birthplace?

 

Also, who's to say whether or not any of the other teams had non-native contestants as well?

Assumptions are dangerous.

[Flutter-Power 8]

Ooooo... Ouch... I feel really bad for Spike...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n5LuBo7Ru8&sns=sms

 

Ummm... Pinkie Pie? He was a TEENSY bit off... A little... Okay, a LOT off...

Edited May 27, 2014 by Flutter-Power

[LeafFerret 3,382]

You mean the fact that Dash and Fluttershy used to live in Cloudsdale?

 

It's not really unfair that they chose to represent Ponyville.

Are you saying they HAVE to represent Cloudsdale just because it's their birthplace?

 

Also, who's to say whether or not any of the other teams had non-native contestants as well?

Assumptions are dangerous.

Still, I don't think that she should have represented Ponyville, other than the fact she lives there, she has no other links to it. I That's not going to change my opinion on that. I think that RD will feel bad about not representing her hometown.

Edited May 28, 2014 by Seaswirl10

[Luffyiscool 397]

other than the fact she lives there, she has no other links to it.

That IS her link. A totally valid one.

She lives in Ponyville. She's a citizen.

Citizens have the right to represent.

 

Obviously, Equestria doesn't care if a pony is specifically born there or not.

So neither should we. It's a non-issue.

Just like non-natives can participate in the real life olympics.

As long as you're a citizen, you have the freedom of choice.

 

 

Only two of the mane six seem to be Ponyville natives anyway. (Applejack and Rarity)

Flutters and Dash come from Cloudsdale, Twilight comes from Canterlot, and Pinkie comes from a rock farm (in her words --->) "outside of Ponyville".

Edited May 28, 2014 by Luffyiscool

[FlutterDash4072 189]

I'm glad the Equestria Games crap is over. There really weren't any good episodes dedicated to it, and this one was no exception. Instead of focusing on the actual games like a lot of people wanted, they decide to drag Spike through the dirt some more. Sure, he did save the day at the end, but it didn't redeem the episode for me. I'm sick of seeing Spike characterized so poorly in the show when he gets characterized so well in most of the comics.