Opinions. On the Internet! (Spike at your Service Edition) · 3:54am Jan 4th, 2013
Hello to all my loyal readers and anyone else bored enough to click this.
I've found myself with a few things I'd like to say about recent events, and on the subject of writing and whatnot, a desire impeded only by the fact that almost nobody knows who I am. Nonetheless, I shall spew words into the void and see what bounces back out.
Oh, and I'm working on Good Cop, Ghost Cop. Hopefully I'll update soon? I'll try anyway.
Anyway there seems to have been kind of a shitstorm about the most recent pony episode. A few people I know actually disowned it from canon, and I'm really not sure how to take that, because I thought it was a totally decent episode. I mean, experience has lead me to assume that I have an eternal role as the Holder of Unpopular Opinions. I think upper level mathematics is relatively interesting for one (while being an English major). For instance, did you know that there are no parallel lines on the surface of a sphere, because the "lines" on a sphere are all pieces of a diameter of the sphere (ergo lines of latitude would be considered lines, but not lines of longitude)?
I may have lost my point somewhere. Okay. Lemme try again. Much of the argument about Spike At Your Service revolves around the handling of Spike's character. Ninestempest for instance put much of the problem on the sudden existence of Spike's "dragon code" and his willingness to leave Twilight in order to follow it. And I can't really disagree with that--where possible, it's best not to introduce plot elements that have no history and then act as though they had a history (see: Twilight has a brother?!?!?).
But, while it is perhaps a weak device to get Spike to go along with the episode premise, I would argue it's not really out of character for him. His fixation on being a "noble" dragon--and his making up for himself what that means--seems very in line to me with his arc in Dragonquest, where he wants to figure out what it means to be a dragon. I suppose it's contradicted by the ending of that episode where he accepts that he's sort of an honorary pony rather than a dragon, but I'd find it more farfetched if he gave up on being a dragon entirely to be perfectly honest. Plus his overinflated language, while not a very good gag (I spent the whole ep waiting for a Princess Bride homage with the "as you wish", that was a disappointment I admit), fits in fine with how he acts around Rarity, and his fantasy of turning into her knight, so I don't have a problem with the fundamental idea.
Maybe it is a hard pill to swallow that Spike would leave Twilight willingly when losing Twilight was recently shown to be his worst nightmare. But he does sort of grapple with that--I could see people reading that grappling as insufficient, but again, the episode is nodding to the fact that he doesn't want to leave her. It also takes pains to point out that he will still see her, which is separate from his nightmare in which Twi sends him away for good.
Neither of which are great arguments for suddenly giving Spike a moral code by which he lives his life, but I'm not here to argue that Spike, at your Service is a perfect or even an -especially- good episode. I just don't think it deserves this level of hate. And, honestly, I think the only thing that I would have needed to fix the situation would be if Twilight -didn't- act as if the dragon code was an established thing. Then it's something Spike has made up for himself, relatively recently (like, in response to Dragonquest), and has decided to dedicate himself to--like a little kid might.
Moving on I am in complete agreement that it seems a bit OoC for Spike to be such a complete klutz, when he's obviously the main force keeping the library in one piece. That's a bit jarring. But his eagerness to please exceeding his ability is established, so, again, that doesn't strike me as a sin against his character and all of fandom.
But let's talk about why it bugs me when people go on about how episodes are terrible: it's usually not done from an analytical standpoint, but from the standpoint of complaining about how the writers have in some way failed to adhere to what we as an audience feel entitled to in terms of character consistency or what have you. I personally just believe that there's more to be gained by looking at what an episode does well--and more importantly, what it is -trying- to do, even if it fails.
For instance, I am really not a fan of Secret of My Excess. But when I rewatched it a few months ago, I was surprised at how much I liked it... until the last act. On further analysis, it's really quite simple: the episode is pretty darn funny, and when it focuses on Spike's gratitude at suddenly having so many people celebrating his birthday, and how that turns into greed, it's actually a pretty nice arc. But for the last arc, Spike turns into a monster who has no particular personality beyond greed. At that point who are we following? Who are we rooting for? We're hoping that Spike is going to be cured somehow, but while previously we've been allied with Twilight's efforts to contain Spike, at this point the rest of the main six come into things, and there's no real emotional attachment to any one character's efforts. I also felt like the attempted closure on Spike's crush on Rarity was a little weird. So while the end isn't entirely not-fun, it diverts sharply from the character arc(s) that we've been following because we're no longer asked to sympathize with Twilight, and we're no longer really capable of sympathizing with Spike. Things continue to happen, and they're interesting in their own way, but they no longer feel like they contribute to a character's personal growth (in anything but a literal sense). Which is too bad, because I do love Spike and Twi's relationship. I just wish we could get episodes about it that weren't seriously flawed (don't get me started on Owl's Well That Ends Well).
So let's apply that to this episode: accept that the premise of the ep is that Spike ends up helping AJ against her wishes. Because AJ isn't selfish or stupid, and our premise insists that she -not- want his help, she's initially going to refuse. So we need a reason why Spike would insist on helping her. She saved his life and he's grateful. That's solid for so far as it goes, but suppose we also want to raise the issue of Spike feeling like he can't be AJ's servant and Twi's assistant at the same time. So this has to be really important to him for him to consider leaving Twi. So--the dragon code allows the writer to make this idea of repaying his debt central to Spike's sense of self-worth. Is it inelegant? Oh yeah. But if we feel it doesn't work, it's not because the idea is inherently flawed, it's because the execution fell apart somewhere. And that, I think, is where we should look if we want to learn from the episode's failure. (Now, if you just don't like the episode's premise there's not much to be said about that I guess--though I'd think it's still worth giving a closer look)
But let's look at what the episode does -well-. It's quite well-paced. I didn't care for the CG Timberwolves or AJ casually smashing them to pits since both didn't seem to fit with how the show usually does things, but those were pretty minor annoyances (especially since Timberwolves can apparently fuse to form THE TIMBERWOLFZORD). But Spike not knowing what to do with himself without cleaning up after Twi was a great moment. Furthermore, the episode incorporated the rest of the main six in a really nice way, I thought, with each of them giving AJ a new way to attack the problem, but keeping it clearly AJ's story. It was really nice to see the friendship between the characters driving the plot of an episode again, because seriously, this season has barely been about friendship at all and that's been kind of bugging me.
This episode was also pretty funny at points. Obviously RD's novel line was great, as was her attempt to get Spike to quit, followed by Fluttershy's way more reasonable suggestion. The fake Timberwolf was cute, and Spike was smart enough to see through it, which I always appreciate. I guess the whole "fake danger" idea is pretty typical of this kind of plot, but I felt it was a well-executed variation thereof, in that every step along the way made sense, building logically to the point where AJ would fake a Timberwolf attack, and how this would cause a real pack of Timberwolves to show up.
Anyway that's my two cents. I think the episode was completely legit and was a little shocked that it garnered so much hate. If anyone wants to argue with me I am very easy to goad into such a fight, but I really don't see the argument for it being -so awful- that we ought to pretend it doesn't exist.
Oh, and in general, I don't get some of the hate that episodes get. Like all of you, I have my favorite and least favorite episodes, but I don't -hate- my least favorite episodes, even though many things about them bug me. I get that people have a lot of passion for the show, and that's great--and I'm not going to say that we're expecting too much from a children's show, because that's lazy. But people may be insisting upon values that the show is uninterested in--like the argument that disposing of the cloned Pinkies was murder or what-have-you. I dunno, just something I think about sometimes when I read whatever the latest upset is.
Oh, and Nines, dude, calling for two writers to be fired over a so-so episode? Not cool dude.
I know this sounds a bit too simplistic to say after a blog post of this magnitude, but I agree completely.
Honestly, I think the whole of S3 is a lame duck so far. The writing has been tragic throughout, and Sike At Your Service was no different. The premise was fine; the execution was dire. The consistent issue seems to be changing any given character's personality to fit each episode, with only AJ and Flutters being untouched because the writers have repeatedly proven they they can't think of anything new to do with them anyway. It's pretty much killing my interest in ponies completely.
I kind of have mixed feelings about this episode. On the one
handhoof, I absolutely loved the character interactions. The ponies were in top form here, both in comedy and characterization. On the other hoof, they made Spike out to be a huge klutz, unable to even wash a plate without completely destroying the kitchen. Plus there's the dragon code: Like you said, it would have been fine if it was something Spike made up after Dragon Quest, but then Twilight goes and confirms that this is an actual thing, which doesn't sit well with me for two reasons. First, the dragons we've seen don't really seem like the honorable type, though I suppose it could be passed off as an "honor among thieves" deal. Second, they already established in Dragon Quest that ponies know absolutely nothing about dragon culture, which is where it really falls apart. Where exactly did this knowledge of the dragon code come from?Overall, I don't really mind this episode. I think there's enough about it that's enjoyable that I can ignore the parts I don't like. While I can see why someone wouldn't like it, calling for non-canonization seems like going a bit far. Honestly, though, I can find something I like in just about every episode. I even enjoyed Over a Barrel, for ponies sake! There's only one episode that I can't stand, and that's Mysterious Mare Do Well, but I'd rather not talk about it.