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7/20/2025, 5:25:29 AM
>>42377026
The CMC go to greet their proud big sisters, providing a sweet moment as well as a good contrast to Spike's failure. Twilight confesses what she did, and there's some hesitation over how Spike will take the news. It's refreshing to see that AJ immediately tells Twilight that she has to tell him the truth, and Twilight agrees. After another great gag of Rainbow 'acting casual', Spike appears. Twilight starts to tell the truth, but Spike interrupts, revealing that he believes he can light fire with his mind. Immediately after this, two random crystal ponies appear and ask for an autograph. I think what makes this gag work is how confident Spike is in his supposed powers. He isn't trying to fool anypony, and that adds to the confusion these two poor citizens must feel after watching the hero who saved them from eternal slavery glare at a photo, push it against his head while grunting in effort, and then declaring it will burst into flame at an unspecified time. Many Spike episodes attempt to milk humour from him trying to deceive others, here he is honest to a fault and it's quite endearing.
Twilight quickly pulls him aside and tells him the truth. That's right, this isn't Spike At Your Service, we're not going to spend the whole episode dancing around his feelings when we could wrap up a huge misunderstanding in a couple moments. I remember being quite relieved at this point when first watching the episode. Already we've managed to dodge most of the common pitfalls that have made previous Spike-focused episodes really weak. And as she tells him, we get a really smooth transition of his feelings. He starts off argumentative, noting the "thousands and thousands" who saw him light the fire, then when Twilight reveals what happened he echoes "thousands and thousands" as his face becomes shocked, then mortified, and finally crestfallen.
The episode has strongly emphasized Spike's work ethic, pride, and vanity, as well as the effect that the crowd had on him, all of which work really well to set up this emotional moment and justify why it cuts deep for him. He takes pride in a job well done and his ability to remain calm in stressful situations, these are fundamental aspects of his character across the show, and targeting those character traits is far more meaningful than making Spike beholden to a code of honour we never see again, or having him carry a crystal for a little bit, or having him doubt himself based on a minor inconvenience. This episode not only understands Spike's character well, but it knows just how to push his character to create drama.
4/10ish
The CMC go to greet their proud big sisters, providing a sweet moment as well as a good contrast to Spike's failure. Twilight confesses what she did, and there's some hesitation over how Spike will take the news. It's refreshing to see that AJ immediately tells Twilight that she has to tell him the truth, and Twilight agrees. After another great gag of Rainbow 'acting casual', Spike appears. Twilight starts to tell the truth, but Spike interrupts, revealing that he believes he can light fire with his mind. Immediately after this, two random crystal ponies appear and ask for an autograph. I think what makes this gag work is how confident Spike is in his supposed powers. He isn't trying to fool anypony, and that adds to the confusion these two poor citizens must feel after watching the hero who saved them from eternal slavery glare at a photo, push it against his head while grunting in effort, and then declaring it will burst into flame at an unspecified time. Many Spike episodes attempt to milk humour from him trying to deceive others, here he is honest to a fault and it's quite endearing.
Twilight quickly pulls him aside and tells him the truth. That's right, this isn't Spike At Your Service, we're not going to spend the whole episode dancing around his feelings when we could wrap up a huge misunderstanding in a couple moments. I remember being quite relieved at this point when first watching the episode. Already we've managed to dodge most of the common pitfalls that have made previous Spike-focused episodes really weak. And as she tells him, we get a really smooth transition of his feelings. He starts off argumentative, noting the "thousands and thousands" who saw him light the fire, then when Twilight reveals what happened he echoes "thousands and thousands" as his face becomes shocked, then mortified, and finally crestfallen.
The episode has strongly emphasized Spike's work ethic, pride, and vanity, as well as the effect that the crowd had on him, all of which work really well to set up this emotional moment and justify why it cuts deep for him. He takes pride in a job well done and his ability to remain calm in stressful situations, these are fundamental aspects of his character across the show, and targeting those character traits is far more meaningful than making Spike beholden to a code of honour we never see again, or having him carry a crystal for a little bit, or having him doubt himself based on a minor inconvenience. This episode not only understands Spike's character well, but it knows just how to push his character to create drama.
4/10ish
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