spike pov：我||****************||

@Daneasaur  

But from I remember, wasn’t a big point of that scene that his saving the ponies didn’t fix his depression, and was still feeling like crap because he hadn’t forgiven himself? And I believe the moral was something like whenever you screw up don’t stay stuck on it, and move on with your life. I guess it was something like that. Not perfect maybe, but imo far from the worst we’ve seen.
 
Also, I believe there’s a difference between acting before thinking to stand out and be praised, and acting before thinking to save someone’s life. Even if he screwed up there, his intention was noble. I think he also heard the unicorns couldn’t use magic.

Can someone slow this down?

Spike the Pufferfish with Spikes. I see what you did there Hasbro.

@darknessRising24 
Yes, those were written very well, times are a changeling being perhaps the best and it’s a crying shame that the plot was condensed into a single episode as it was easily worth two to explain it properly. Granted, the animators did well with the timeframe they had.
 
Gauntlet of fire showcased the second heroic event that spike lead (the first being Dog and pony show), but GoF allowed him to not only choose to do something heroic, but have his decision make a true impact on the situation, making friends with Ember and ensuring the dragons were ruled by someone who had kindness, though the main argument is that “spike is too perfect” as he seems to have zero flaws.
 
Times are a Changeling was much closer; he’s played up as a hero, he’s expected to know things because of his hero status, but because he feels pressured to impress, he bluffs his way out of the situations because he doesn’t really know what to do. He meats Thorax and thinks he can use his status to get what Thorax needs, but it falls through, yet Thorax still trusts him as an honest friend. Come crunch time, Spike makes the mistake of saying he “didn’t know who thorax was”, and he regretted it, because he realized that Thorax liked Spike for who he was, not his status or the stories he told of him, and Spike would rather have Thorax as a friend than the blind admiration of the common crystal ponies. So he went to put it right and it nearly got him killed, had Thorax not saved him either time, he would have simply “vanished” and never been seen again as no one knew of the cave. Spike then knew he had to put his entire reputation on the line; he most likely wouldn’t be seen as a hero anymore and he risked exile, imprisonment, or worse for siding with the changeling, especially in front of cadance and armor, but he did it anyway, because thorax was worth it to him.

@Daneasaur 
She’s already the hero of Equestria.
 
And the fact is that Spike can be written very well, such as in Gauntlet of Fire and The Times They Are a Changeling.

@darknessRising24 
I hate wrongfully given kudos and poorly written plots.
 
Why isn’t twilight fawned over? Answer me that? Why isn’t she treated as a hero and savior of the crystal empire?
 
Spikes green flames are not dependent of intensity; several types of burning metals (such as copper) will burn green. This can, in some cases, have a napalm like effect in that it’s not just fire being emitted, but liquid metal. You also generally need a blue flame to mix said metal compounds with, meaning spires green fire is hotter than any normal orange flame by a GREAT margin.
 
The fact is that they botched it because the writers of the episode didn’t care about spike to remain consistent with his character traits.

@Daneasaur  
And who’s to say the color varies depending on the intensity of the heat? That was a pretty huge icecloud.
 
And while Twi wouldn’t have needed to lie about anything considering she could have just told them about the parts he played, no matter how minor they were.
 
Plus Cadence and Shining Armor got the throne. Why would they need a statue?
 
For a Spike fan, you sure do hate any appreciation he’s being given.

@darknessRising24 
>two different fires 
he never had that, and even if he did, the fire he burns things with is still green.
 

 
>spike is not a hero 
He is not a hero anymore than twilight, shining armor, and cadance during the events of the two part season opener. He nudged twilight out of a trap and then promptly fell into the same trap (the ponies never saw this). Twilight handed the crystal heart to him when she got trapped (the ponies never saw this). Spike wobbled on the side of the castle and promptly fell off of it towards sombra (the ponies did see this). Cadance got tossed by her hubby and caught spike before he reached sombra, delivered the crystal heart to the podium, and declared herself the crystal princess (the ponies saw this).
 
Spike did NOTHING in the eyes of the crystal ponies to be the hero they keep saying he is, and even compared to the other three, did far less. Armor fought sombra directly, Twilight did all the puzzles and such inside the castle, spike got her out of a trap, and cadance kept a love bubble around the whole empire AND caught spike+heart.
 
If he is being praised for falling off the castle with the heart, why isn’t cadance getting the praise as well for having caught him?
 
If they are praising him for the deeds he did inside the castle, why isn’t twilight fawned over by them considering she did a LOT more?
 
What’s more, why is Cadance playing up the ‘honorable hero spike” when she knows he didn’t do anything?
 
The only logical explanation is that twilight lied about the events inside of the castle to cadance, armor, and the entire crystal empire and spike is going along with the lie.
 
This would still mean spike hasn’t really done a heroic deed for the ponies until equestria games, which seemed like a massive shoehorning setup to make spike do “something useful” and “save the empire” from it’s own stupidity.

@Daneasaur 

 
Dude, you you do know he has two types of fire right? The kind that can actually burn/melt things, and the kind that sends letters.
 
Three guesses which one was used in that image.

@Daneasaur 
Are you STILL going on about this? The whole “Spike isn’t really a hero’ debate is really getting old.

@Swashbucklist 
I’m not gonna argue that the crystal ponies are exceedingly stupid.
 
Spike’s second encounter with armor and cadance, thorax showed up without any disguise while the guards were “tearing the city apart” and was not found, most likely told that “a changeling wouldn’t show up like a changeling” by spike and thorax.

@Daneasaur 
Ponies are stupid. They saw him charging out of a high tower clutching an artifact that promises their safety and happiness. It made an impact.

@Hebbocake 
It’s okay, I know it’s not to everyone’s taste.
 
 
@Dragonmage 
The magic restraining wasn’t my main problem, it was the lack of ANY sort of safety protocols at all, the use of super highly dangerous ice arrows (the equivalent of a pocket nuke) with NO countermeasures. The EG’s have been around for ages, and with how accident prone the ponies are, I’m supposed to believe that “cheating via unicorn magic” is the more crucial of the two to focus on? It boils down to deliberately weakening everyone else.
 
As for Spike’s hero status, yes, he helped twilight, but you’re forgetting something, there was only one act he performed that was actually in front of the crystal ponies:
 
He fell off the roof and nearly handed the crystal heart to Sombra himself.
 
Cadance held up the barrier of love, AND was the one who caught spike when he fell, right before announcing herself the princess of the crystal empire.
 
By this logic, why doesn’t Twilight, Cadance, or Shining Armor have a statue of them in the empire? Spike did nothing in the eyes of the ponies there, and if you count the acts that were inside the castles (where the crystal ponies couldn’t seen them), then it goes back to wondering why the other three aren’t as lavished and hounded.
 
The only explanation for it, is that Twilight lied that Spike did everything to Cadance and Armor. Spike then ate up the lie AND the glory that came with it and NO ONE has corrected this lie.
 
This might have also been part of the heavily crushed episode The Times are a Changeling, where Spike is STILL riding off the high of a heroic act that he never performed, but Thorax’s safety and friendship was more valuable than the fake fame, more valuable than the admiration of the crystal empire, and more valuable than the ponies who talk him down frequently. He faced exile or worse for harboring a changeling, especially in front of Armor and Cadance, this would have been the time the lies are put to rest and he has a more sensible reason to be a hero, albeit to Thorax and the changelings as a whole.

Suddenly I find myself really craving some fugu…

@Daneasaur 
You seem to believe that “acting without thinking” was a theme here. It wasn’t. Whether he acted thoughtlessly or thoughtfully, whether the was punished or praised for it, is of zero consequence. Spike acts thoughtfully and thoughtlessly throughout the entire series, and it has never been a basis of judgement.

“Spike is hero for beating sombra (for some reason)” 
^ Twilight wouldn’t have made it as far as she did without Spike and still be stuck at the door. Face it, Twilight was making too many mistakes that episode, starting from not involving the other mane 6. The Crystal heart won’t have gotten to Cadance without Spike, and he still took the larger risk since he couldn’t fly or magic out of a fall, Spike is the viable hero of the empire along with Cadance. But since Cadance is already worshiped and a ruler there, Spike got some attention. I don’t see a problem.
 
>”Everyone else being handicapped” 
What magic? It makes perfect sense for the games of that scale. As early as Dash’s key episode we were shown that competitors would walk upon their injured comrades for every advantage. No magic makes sense and it’s not like this is the first time magic was banned from a public event. My issue is the way the magic was taken away. I felt they could have gotten more creative than breaking setting lore for an airport security joke.
 
As for the “act without thinking”, if this was Owl’s Well That Ends Well or SAYS I would agree. But Spike was invited to participate in the lighting of the touch, aside from the singing he didn’t push himself into anything that episode, you might as well tell me Twilight acted without thinking when she became an alicorn. Positive frame was new to him and Spike at least tried to live up to that title when he felt something was wrong. I think the problem is more that crowd fear was Dash and Fluttershy’s thing. Spike has preformed for a crowd before.

@Daneasaur 
I don’t agree but I don’t want to start a discussion either soo, k

@Ihhh 
Except that’s how the episode played out; spike is humiliated and tormented at every turn, and he only has an “opportunity to do something good” by;
 
1: Everyone else being handicapped (lol, what are safety measures? Why were they using arrows of magic death? Why aren’t there any unicorns around in case of emergencies? You telling me these games have gone on like this for ages without accidents?)
 
2: Spike’s motive for destroying it was the same thing that got him humiliated through the entire episode; “act without thinking beforehand”. Only NOW he’s being praised for it
 
3: it HAPPENED to be something that, when melted, wouldn’t be dangerous, meaning basically ice was the only choice.
 
He’s first punished/humiliated by “acting without thinking” through the episode and it’s seen as a bad thing, he should avoid it. But then he does it again and THEN it’s a good thing.
 
And as I said, icing on the cake is that they didn’t even color his flame right. It’s like they had no clue who spike was or what to do with him or how to write an episode around him without making literally EVERYONE ELSE USELESS.
 
 
There is just nothing redeeming about the episode. It’s as bad as spike at your service in just butchering his character or using him as punching bag, making him seem like an utterly incompetent doorknob.

@Daneasaur 
You’re really stretching here.

@Dragonmage 
I’m not saying focusing on spike was a bad thing, it was fine, but the antics go like this:
 
>Spike is hero for beating sombra (for some reason) 
>Even Cadance is worshipping his feet 
>He has the honor of lighting the torch 
>”All right, I’ll run up and light the torch!” 
>runs off without thinking 
>realizes he’s in front of a massive crowd 
>gets cold feet 
>Shame on you, Spike, for Acting before THINKING. 
>twilight covers for him 
>has 5 seconds thinking of some stupid mental flame skill 
>gets set straight and is humbled for “acting without thinking” 
>spike feels like a dork 
>wants to make it up and do something positive 
>hey, the flying relay race is finished 
>RD and the gang had to have won 
>”Hey, I’ll be glad to sing the anthem of the winning team.” 
>knows the ponyville theme by heart 
>oops 
>cloudsdale team won 
>gotta sing the cloudsdale theme 
>segment that feel like 5 minutes of unfunny cringe inducing “just kill me now” drones on 
>**“Shame on you, Spike, for ACTING before THINKING.”** 
>goes into his room 
>games continue without him 
>doesn’t want to be seen 
>doesn’t want to risk making a fool of himself again 
>CMC show up 
>pester the daylight out of him 
>MAKE him go back to the games for the closing ceremonies 
>is there 
>moron pony shoots nuclear arrow that makes a stormcloud a stadium sized glacier 
>lol all the unicorns and even the princesses have their magic sealed 
>no such thing as safety measure or emergency guards  
>Spike runs out and blows fire of the wrong color to melt the ice because, lets face it, no one is bothering to watch the episode now anyway so who cares 
>cheering 
>**“Oh Spike, good on you for ACTING without THINKING.”**
 
And the moral of the story is…
 
The writers of that episode really don’t give a flying feather about Spike to pay attention to continuity or even to use him in a way that doesn’t require a literal handicap on EVERYONE ELSE to make him useful outside of a buttmonkey prop for abuse.

@Daneasaur 
Eh I agree that they shouldn’t have built up the games but what was there to show? If you didn’t have Spike it would just be another Dash being loyal to her team or Fluttershy gaining confidence episode. Only two of the mane 6 were competing and they only did an event a piece. The only other way to revolve the games around an episode is to introduce new BGs that episode and have a plot revolve around them involving the games. Watch new, random BGs compete against other random BGs for some stake crammed in last minute isn’t partially interesting. Myself, I only cared about Dash vs Spitfire but that would have only lasted a game.
 
And what do you mean that Spike got in trouble for “reacting before thinking” in Equestria Games? He more got into his own head than anything else.

@Philweasel 
Those two were the only good parts of those two episodes.
 
Everyone and everything else just was so poorly done and handled. Don’t get me started on dissecting the actual equestria games episode. I don’t even mention that the games are not even shown, just how everything around them just is completely idiotic and that Spike is punished for “reacting before thinking” through the whole episode, but he saves the day by… reacting before thinking.
 
What the flying ginseng was even the purpose or moral?

@Hebbocake 
These two. These two are awesome. Even if Ms.Peachbottom’s episode was awful, she was the best thing in it. 

 
Seriously though, I did like a few of the episodes in that arc, and let’s not forget ‘Flight to the Finish’ was one of them. On the whole though… it was full of plot holes and logical failings (Fluttershy? Really?) and the writers never really felt invested in it. Though I thought the final part was ok, it was rather… anticlimatic after everything else.

@Philweasel  
I liked it :3