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| One of the very few times FiM directly addressed the fact that some animals eat other animals |
Written by Cindy Morrow
22 Apr 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 6.4
The one with jewelled bow ties.
Thoughts: This episode has the lowest IMDb ranking of S1, and among the lowest of the whole show. I find it hard to disagree. It's not terrible, and it certainly has its moments. The meteor shower segment is lovely, even if Scootaloo randomly saying "once" (around 5:06) is a bit weird. I like Twilight's candlelit educational bit about comets. Quills and Sofas makes its debut. The big dragon has real menace. Twilight's anger with Spike for lying is convincing, and (although this one is YMMV territory) I find Spike's "silent movie villain" segment the funniest in the episode by far. But a big problem is Owlowiscious. He's just not very interesting, and the "Hoo?" joke being run so far into the ground it comes out in... well, wherever's opposite Equestria is infuriating by the end. Not only Spike, but even eventually Twilight, get Idiot Balled. Spike is especially bad, as he repeatedly interprets things quite absurdly, not least when "...not the Spike I know and love" becomes "Twilight doesn't love me" in his head. This episode was written by Cindy Morrow, a writer usually strong on characterisation – but I suppose everyone's allowed a bad day once in a while. This was hers.
Choice quote: Pinkie Pie: "And now the punch has been... Spiked!"
New rating: ★★
Next up is "Party of One", and this I'm particularly interested in rewatching. It's dated quite badly in a number of fans' opinions, but in mine? Well, let's see.
Not that I consider this a bad episode, but rather this is not one of the strongest Spike episodes I've seen (Especially since this writer is well known for her characterization). I get the fact that Spike works hard to provide and care for Twilight and the threat of a potentially new assistant can make anyone feel uncomfortable. But the methods he uses trying to prove he's Twilight's #1 assistant tends to make Woody look tame when Buzz Lightyear stepped into the line-up (And originally, Woody was WAY worse than the final draft). And I don't blame Twilight for being initially disappointed in Spike because the first time Spike burnt one of her books without telling her what happened (Though to be fair that was an accident), so it's no wonder that when she sees Spike trying to frame the owl for a crime it didn't do of course she'd be mad. I will agree that the Owl jokes get WAY too old, very fast perhaps not so much with the owl itself but rather when Spike keeps interpreting the 'Hoos' the wrong way (Yet this would not be the last time this happens).
ReplyDeleteBut there are some decent takeaways with this episode: The meteor shower is essentially a beautiful moment to watch and the battle with the dragon is rather epic. I just felt this episode was weak on some levels, compared to stories that have done this theme before. To think this episode may partly be the reason fans weren't crazy about 'Spike' episodes, at least for the most part.
I mean, it makes sense for the words to get tangled up in his head. That's a very natural thing for a kid, it's a good character moment. It's just what he does afterward that's ridiculous, over-the-top and out of character.
ReplyDeleteI remember the outrage when this episode aired. The fandom was big on classifying the episodes based on who the main character was, and we'd had Applejack episodes, Rainbow Dash episodes, at least one for each of the mane six. And now here we are: a Spike episode! Only he got... this episode.
I just wish more (male) fans had internalized that outrage and realized this is what it felt like to be a female fan of literally most other shows, when the one or two token female characters are treated poorly. Y'know, could have made them stand up for equality or some shit instead of taking a ten-year dive head-first into the alt right. :| Boy, that rant took a turn.
Quills and Sofas, though!
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that this is at least the third time in these rewatches that I've said, "They stretched the joke out way too long," while this is the first time you have. By this point, I'm surprised that's something that would bug you.
ReplyDeleteI really don't have any deep analysis of this one. I just plain found it boring. I wouldn't rate it that low, as there are other episodes I definitely dislike, but this is down in the mire of meh.
The reason this one bugs me is that I didn't find the joke very funny to begin with. I could easily have tolerated it for a couple of repeats, but that's all. Contrast that with, say, the Benny Hill chase scene in "A Bird in the Hoof". That still makes me laugh all the way through.
DeleteI do like "down in the mire of meh". That's about right for my opinion of this one, too!
Commenting on this one slipped my mine, mate. Whoops!
ReplyDeleteThe odd thing I found about this episode was that it's not all down there. In fact, I can detect the exact point where the episode drops in quality: when Spike wakes up and is introduced to Owlowiscious. What's even weirder is that the third act, starting from the cut to Spike wandering through the woods, is better too. The opening and closing six minutes of the episode are basically at average Season 1 quality - still weaker then the excellent episodes surrounding this one, true, but perfectly grand in their own right, not pushing any characters too far and containing plenty bits of goodness in their own right. It's just the 2nd Act, that middle nine minutes, that really drags this episode down; even if Spike getting jealous this way isn't inexplicable, it's just pushed way too far, and other then some gags and the stretch of Spike searching for a quill, I tend to just sit through that chunk in stony silence. And Spike isn't the only one - Twilight's tone and specific reaction why she catches Spike in the act, this time around, gave me weird flashbacks, or flashforwards, to how she was when banning the CMC in 'Marks for Effort'. And if it isn't known around these parts how much I get rubbed the wrong way by that kind of Twilight, well, now it is, and for good reason.
Thankfully the 3rd act picks it back up again, with characters, well, in-character again and some fun mini-adventure shenanigans. The ending makeup speech between Spike and Twilight is legit touching, and I am so, so happy and pleased to hear Twilight acknowledge that Spike is her best friend and always will be. The series doesn't often pay tribute to their history like that in ways that actually work, but by god they're such lovely moments when they happen (I direct you once again to M.A. Larson's belief that Twilight had just reached the point of her first friendship, with Spike, shortly before the series' start, a belief I, and many others, have come to on our own terms).
It still doesn't give me much pleasure to call Spike's debut episode a decent effort as a result of half usual Season 1 quality and half bordering on cringefest, even if It was a nice surprise to rediscover half of the episode is grand. But certainly even apart from that, it doesn't make a good case for future Spike episodes - I can't argue too much against Pascoite finding this dull. As much as I love the 2nd Best Pony (sort of) character, his starring episodes have a lot working against them, with him tending to not interact with the Mane 6 outside of Twilight and Rarity (the latter usually raising her manipulative nature of him into the limelight, rarely pleasant) and having to carry the episodes on his own (unlike the CMC, who have each other to work off of (the one time he DOES pair with a Mane 6 member other then those two gave us "Spike At Your Service" and... yeah). So it tends to come down to how well an episode acquits Spike both being a buttmonkey and a bit of a butt himself at times. Tricky things to manage. I do think some Spike episodes get a bit of a hard time - to this day I still don't really understand the reception "Dragon Quest" received at the time and today, or at least as recently as when people still discussed episodes that old).
Still, it's a fine episode, just a weak, forgettable one by Season 1 standards. As as much of a cliche as it might seem to say, it would seem better the more recent a season you moved this into.
And on Owlowiscious, while he isn't used especially well in this episode, I find he's actually quite an effective pet character in his own right in most of his future appearances. At least, until the Season 5-on writers threw him under the bus, anyway.
As it happens, at the last Worcester meet one person (not me) mentioned that "Dragon Quest" was an episode they really liked. So you're not alone! Still, it'll be interesting to see how that does when I get there, as I haven't rewatched it for ages. As I recall, though, it's the Garble Crew who drag that episode down for me, not Spike himself.
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