My Review of MLP: FIM season 7 episode 15 Triple Threat

Grading Scale:

A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)

---

Greetings, folks. This is Mr. J back with another MLP episode review for today. This morning, I will be reviewing the fifteenth episode of season 7 called “Triple Threat”…written by Joshua Hamilton. Yeah, this episode is already gonna be a failure, and this is no laughing matter. The third threat is definitely the writer himself, so he did a nice job calling himself out. Let’s get this piece of crap out of the way so that I can spend the rest of my day in peace.

Spike is having everypony prepare for the arrival of Dragon Lord Ember as he previously invited her for an official festival with her. However, Spike somehow completely forgot he also invited Thorax on the same day, and he fears that their possible animosity could provoke a war between dragons and changelings.

Hey, look! Twilight’s spirit possessed Spike and made him make all these amateurish mistakes! Isn’t that great?!

Sarcasm aside, I feel like this is so out of character for Spike to be deathly petrified of an undesirable outcome that may or may not happen. He has always been a voice for reason and is very intelligent, so I find it so hard to believe that he wouldn’t know how to solve a would-be conflict between two of his best friends.

He knows them too well, yet he doesn’t trust them enough to become friends on their own? This entire conflict makes no sense in hindsight when you think about it. Now I get it, Spike is not perfect; nobody is perfect. But remember, this conflict is stemmed from Spike’s utter distrust of his two close comrades that they would get to know each other and possibly become friends.

To me, it feels out of character which is a disrespect to the character himself. I’m not just saying this because I hate episodes where Spike is the source of the conflict (as he’s my favorite MLP character; I’m that biased). I’m also saying this because I can tell Josh Hamilton had no idea who Spike is and made him act so OOC as a result.

So yeah, it was very hard for me to watch this episode and see my beloved Spike act so stupid, so forgetful, and so inconsiderate. On the bright side, the only scenes that save the episode were the moments where Ember confuses Starlight with Twilight and act so colorblind.

Those moments were actually funny, to be honest. Seems like Ember has it in her to be unintentionally racist—or speciesist.

Anyway, I felt kinda bad for Thorax. Spike kept leaving him hanging with bullshit excuses so he wouldn’t find out what’s really going on. Thorax had a lot of burdens on his shoulders, and he wanted to tell Spike what’s up with him. It’s such a shame the latter couldn’t do the same. Are they not friends?

Now, some people may say “Hey, isn’t that the whole point of the episode? That’s the lesson Spike learned at the end!” I would’ve been okay with that if Spike wasn’t character assassinated just for the sake of teaching him a lesson he should already know…because he ISN’T Twilight! I could see hermaking such a mistake but not Spike.

I wish the episode focused solely on Thorax and Ember where they learn about each other’s different methods of communication and leadership. What if they swapped roles with each other where Thorax learns how to deal with dragons and Ember learns how to deal with changelings? So they know what it feels like to be in each others’ shoes and learn how to balance out the necessary qualities of a good leader.

That’s what the episode should’ve been about. I’m somewhat convinced that some of these writers either don’t like Spike or just have no idea what to do with him sometimes.

So overall, this was a really bad episode albeit with a couple good moments. This gets a D.

Now if you excuse me, I’ll be on my way to see “Inside Out 2”. Peace out.

Comments

[A Man Undercover]

On the bright side, the only scenes that save the episode were the moments where Ember confuses Starlight with Twilight and act so colorblind.

Those moments were actually funny, to be honest. Seems like Ember has it in her to be unintentionally racist—or speciesist.

I agree. That part is hilarious to watch, and the funniest thing about it is that Twilight and Starlight were giving the same looks and reactions without even realizing it! 😂🤣😂🤣