Spike. What else is there to say? Ever since the beginning of the show, he's always been one of my favorites, due to his tendency to serve as a sarcastic voice of reason towards the rest of the cast. So, now it looks like he has his own episode once more. That's a good thing, right? Well... while there have been good episodes starring him, there are times where he works better in a supporting role. This was one of those times.
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| Of course, in this case, "supporting" is a bit of a strong word for it. |
Before I go into what I personally think was wrong with this episode, I'm gonna go ahead and get it out of the way: yes, the CGI was bad. That's all I have to say about it. But while this episode wasn't absolutely awful, it still ranks as my least favorite for the season, and one of my least favorite overall. So what happened? One of the things that really bothered me was that Spike felt a bit...off. His clumsiness was certainly exaggerated, even before he overcompensated with his attempts to help Applejack. And while the "Dragon Code" felt a bit odd, the thing that bothered me the most was his reaction to Twilight's dismissal of his departure. For someone who has demonstrated his worst fear as being Twilight no longer needing him, Spike seemed to handle it pretty well. While there was a brief, teary close-up, it seemed bizarre to me that Spike was not only so willing to leave his closest friend, but seemed relatively unaffected after she blew him off. And yes, there were a decent amount of gags that didn't work, a predictable plot line, and a very anticlimactic finish for the timberwolves.
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| "Yeah, yeah, I know, I accidentally triggered your deepest fears of abandonment. Just let go of my leg." |
Still, there were a decent amount of things that this episode did right. There were still some gags that worked for me, namely the scenes with Pinkie Pie or Rarity, and how Applejack got Twilight's attention. Applejack herself still managed to be likable. Despite what issues they may have had, the Timberwolves were still creative, and had cool designs. So the team still had a lot of strong things going that they manage to bring to every episode, this episode was just especially bogged down in flaws.
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| But seriously, how cool would it have been if they actually did this? |
So, where does this episode sit? While it may be one of my least favorites, it's not incredibly bad. Nor is it really that bad at all. It just left me feeling... well, nothing at all. It ends up getting a "meh" from me. Disagree? Make sure to tell me in the comments!
