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7/20/2025, 5:20:23 AM
>>42377019
After the intro we get a few seconds of watching Spike in his natural element, taking good care of the heavy bags, despite clearly struggling with some of them. I think it's intentional that it's the CMC who are questioning him about the locations of their items; even these tiny kids have a far more important role to play today, and Spike is just there to help. Still, we see Spike take pride in his work and offer some sympathetic advice to Apple Bloom on how to stay calm. Suddenly, he is quite literally picked up, placed on a throne, and carried far away from his life of simple servitude.
Cadence and Twilight explain his status as a hero, accompanied with some excellent visual gags. We have the pony feeding him gems suddenly and silently panic as he requests more green ones, we contrast the title of Great and Honourable Spike the Brave and Glorious with a shot of Spike foalishly sucking on a gem, and of course, the absolutely perfect statue. Cathy Weseluck's delivery of "Hello Gorgeous" is also flawless. So within a couple minutes we've firmly established the two main sides of Spike: supportive and hardworking, but also vain and gluttonous. Most episodes struggle to connect these differing personality traits into a cohesive character, resulting in Spike being noticeably poorly-written for such a major character. Here, the show makes a strong effort to show the contrast between Spike's everyday life, and his status in the Crystal Empire, providing a strong justification for his negative qualities to appear without making him unlikable. After all, who wouldn't have attention like that go to their head?
And so now we get to the games themselves, and there's an excellent scene as Twilight enters the 'royal' viewing box. She stops and looks around, wide-eyed, taking in the size of the arena as well as her elevated position in it. She sees Celestia, and immediately bows with a warm smile. Celestia gestures to Twilight's empty throne, and Twilight's face falls. She shuffles to her seat with an extremely uncomfortable expression, and gives Celestia a strained smile, which immediately brightens into a more genuine grin. The camera pans to the right to reveal Cadence enthusiastically waving at Twilight, a strong contrast to the refined demeanor of Celestia and Luna. Twilight waves back, but then looks uncomfortable again, gazing at something below. The camera pulls back rapidly to show her friends sitting in the crowd, the angle and speed of the moment emphasizing the great distance between them. This whole scene lasts about 20 seconds total, has no dialogue, and does an incredible job at communicating all of Twilight's thoughts and feelings on her ascension. It's scenes like this that make MLP stand out among children's shows.
2/10ish
After the intro we get a few seconds of watching Spike in his natural element, taking good care of the heavy bags, despite clearly struggling with some of them. I think it's intentional that it's the CMC who are questioning him about the locations of their items; even these tiny kids have a far more important role to play today, and Spike is just there to help. Still, we see Spike take pride in his work and offer some sympathetic advice to Apple Bloom on how to stay calm. Suddenly, he is quite literally picked up, placed on a throne, and carried far away from his life of simple servitude.
Cadence and Twilight explain his status as a hero, accompanied with some excellent visual gags. We have the pony feeding him gems suddenly and silently panic as he requests more green ones, we contrast the title of Great and Honourable Spike the Brave and Glorious with a shot of Spike foalishly sucking on a gem, and of course, the absolutely perfect statue. Cathy Weseluck's delivery of "Hello Gorgeous" is also flawless. So within a couple minutes we've firmly established the two main sides of Spike: supportive and hardworking, but also vain and gluttonous. Most episodes struggle to connect these differing personality traits into a cohesive character, resulting in Spike being noticeably poorly-written for such a major character. Here, the show makes a strong effort to show the contrast between Spike's everyday life, and his status in the Crystal Empire, providing a strong justification for his negative qualities to appear without making him unlikable. After all, who wouldn't have attention like that go to their head?
And so now we get to the games themselves, and there's an excellent scene as Twilight enters the 'royal' viewing box. She stops and looks around, wide-eyed, taking in the size of the arena as well as her elevated position in it. She sees Celestia, and immediately bows with a warm smile. Celestia gestures to Twilight's empty throne, and Twilight's face falls. She shuffles to her seat with an extremely uncomfortable expression, and gives Celestia a strained smile, which immediately brightens into a more genuine grin. The camera pans to the right to reveal Cadence enthusiastically waving at Twilight, a strong contrast to the refined demeanor of Celestia and Luna. Twilight waves back, but then looks uncomfortable again, gazing at something below. The camera pulls back rapidly to show her friends sitting in the crowd, the angle and speed of the moment emphasizing the great distance between them. This whole scene lasts about 20 seconds total, has no dialogue, and does an incredible job at communicating all of Twilight's thoughts and feelings on her ascension. It's scenes like this that make MLP stand out among children's shows.
2/10ish
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