Stupid stuff that comes to mind that we want to post (pony version)

Background Pony #7C80
Thinking back on the episode Dragon Quest.
 
Yeah, MLP’s portrayal of non-pony races has always been, shall we say, less than flattering.
Background Pony #7C80
Someone on the TV Tropes forum said the show doesn’t really have much character development.
Background Pony #7C80
I’ve noticed that quite a few fans are either neutral on Spike, or don’t like him, saying the show wasted his potential.
 
How would you have fixed it so Spike would be more popular? Maybe reveal his parents? Or is Spike fine the way he is?
Lord WyrmSpawN
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Lingering Wyvern
That Invincible pic of Chrysalis and Thorax seems very appropriate now that i know certain events come to pass in the original material.
 
Thorax is absolutely the kind of guy to get raped.
Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
@Background Pony #7C80  
Settle on a characterization and relationship to the other characters instead of changing it as the plot demands. Is Spike Twilight’s friend or brother? Is he competent, helping Twilight with daily tasks or a clumsy child? Hell! Is he even a primary character? All of the above which means none of the above.
Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
@Latecomer  
But they’re not people. They’re characters. It’s certainly possible to have complex characters that are forced into situations in which they’ll behave in unexpected ways but that’s not how I’d describe any character in FiM. There’s nothing wrong with evolving a character or having a simple character. An inconsistent character could be a detriment to a series, though. When a four year old can pick up on that, there’s a problem. Spike isn’t a character like the Manes, the CMC or even Trixie. He’s a plot device.
DerpyFast
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I feel like you can retroactively make Spike’s arc about learning to value his own time. If they took that idea and ran with it, there was potential for Rainbow Dash and Spike episodes.
 
Real talk about Sparity, though:  
For Rarity, Spike is a helper she can compensate while keeping her romantic options open.
 
For Spike, Rarity is just an attractive blank slate he projects things onto. You can see this in his fantasy in A Dog and Pony Show, with Shmarity, and with his Rarity doll.
 
They never spent time together for the sake of spending time together; it was always transactional.
 
I think Dragon Dropped was their way of highlighting all of this without officially killing the ship.
Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
@DerpyFast  
If you take Dragon Quest, Molt Down and Dragon Dropped together I suppose an argument could be made that Spike’s arc is about growing up but the CMC already covered that and the fact he still had a crush on Rarity after the time skip would be an argument against it.
Latecomer

@Brass Beau  
But one of the things people like about the Manes, I think, is that they’re not simple characters. Although on the other hand, I have had some difficulty grasping Starlight due to a lack of straghtforward traits… so I suppose it can go either way. Here, let me try a less off-hand answer.
 
Spike is certainly Twilight’s friend, but also sort of her servant/employee, and while not exactly her brother or her son definitely family. He’s pretty mature and competent for his age, but not always as much as he thinks he is. And while he’s quite close to most of the Manes (very close to those of them born as unicorns) he is in the end of different age, gender, species and not an Element Bearer, which means there will be times the group has no place for him.
 
Now, did the writers always get the balance right? Probably not. But then, you could say the same about several characters.
 
 
@Brass Beau  
Where is this stated? The comics?
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