Unpopular opinion time

@Background Pony
 
considering how both the staff and the fandom give more craps about a carrot than spike, it its kind of easy to ignore him.
 
seriously, it seems like they want to make people dislike spike more and more so that the fandom distants from him and dont care about those kind of things.

@twistedmetalero  
But McCarthy has said Spike is one of her favorite characters, I think.

 

@Itsthinking  
Trust me, “favorite” is no shield against the kind of writing that will screw a chracter in some way.
 
@SeraphimDawn  
Yes, we see them already.

@SeraphimDawn  
…I get it now.
 
All this building up of Fluttershy is to promote the Breezies toyline associated with her.

@twistedmetalero  
They’ve written themselves into a corner with Spike, I think. They included him from the get go because all the previous pony cartoon has a Spike the Dragon, and then all the writers just kept adding more and more implications to the character (which I would think is the fault of the show’s bloated writer pool then any one writer in particular) and know they’re to the point where I think they realize using him for more slapstick is tasteless, but they can’t seriously examine his issues within the show’s limits. The only option they see is to try to get us all to forget.

@PonyPon  
How many goddamn Fluttershy episodes are we getting? Rarity is supposed to be the staff favorite.

@Itsthinking  
McCarthy treats Spike pretty well so far (TCE, Power Ponies).
 
Anyone here knows what the Breezies were like in G3? Are they just like normal ponies but smaller and has fairy wings? Same level of intelligence?

@Trickquestion  
Either that or they’re saving him for something eventually. I’m not going to forget one of my favorite characters, sorry.
 
 
@K_A  
Ugh. Fluttershy isn’t even that good.
 
@Grieffon  
It’s why I want her to write more of his episodes.

@Grieffon  
OK, I have to disagree with TCE treating Spike well. Twilight treated the worst she has ever had in that episode, and the closest she ever came to an apology was that sappy try hard bullshit hug after the scary door. And after he gets his window, everyone breaks out into song about how Twilight “passed” her precious, moronic test. The only love I saw in that episode was the emotionally disturbed love between a battered trailer park wife and her mentally impaired husband.

@Trickquestion  
He was their savior. Not Twilight.

@Itsthinking  
Not enough to invite him back.
 
That stupid crystal tourist trap poisons everything that gets involved with it.

@Trickquestion  
Hopefully he’ll be involved with the Games themselves. Not any boring preparation.

@Trickquestion  
Would you kindly post that rant in this topic?

@Itsthinking
 
@Trickquestion
 
it seems the staff is in a constant good spike and bad spike, first they put him in tasteless slapstick, and make him repeat the same errors over and over again, and then they make him do something to make him conquer the fans again.
 
or sometimes they make a little balanced joke, like how he lost his carrot dog to that bird, and then chased the bastard until he got it back.

@twistedmetalero  
They just need to decide where he comes in in the grand scheme. What role does he play in all this? Clearly, no one is important to him other than Twilight and Rarity, and he’s only truly important to Twilight, but they need to show it. So far, they only emphasize on how much Spike needs Twilight, not the other way around.
 
Basically, right now, Spike has no role in the story.

I’m hoping we see more of him this season.

I don’t think Spike’s role is any less important than it’s ever been, it’s just that he’s been in more episodes for less reasons. Conservation of detail isn’t being used and it’s making him seem like a useless bystander most of the time. They should only bring him out when he’s needed and show us that he has a life and pursuits of his own and isn’t just a tag-along.

@Bolan  
To be fair, that’s something that’s been in all of S4 for everyone. I mean, the intro has a whole bunch of secondary characters that are just…there.

@Itsthinking
 
Slowly but surely, those are being justified. I think yesterday’s episode alone earned Big Mac his spot in the photo. The mane characters being everywhere together at once was a problem, but I think things are starting to balance out. The mandatory lines of the mane six haven’t felt as forced as they did in earlier eps.
 
It’s just that Spike needs his own thing that’s truly his.

@Bolan  
He needs another episode where he has a major role, is what he needs.
 
Unpopular Opinion:  
I’m glad the writers have realized AJ can’t carry an episode on her own. Now we don’t get as many snoozefests when you’ve got characters who aren’t boring as all hell on screen.

@Itsthinking  
I feel like what AJ had in Simple Ways is better than what she normally plays in her own episode.

@Grieffon  
The whole point of AJ is that she’s the down to earth, sensible one. She’s boring and unwatchable on her own because of this, but create great material when paired with a more unhinged pony. Like in Simple Ways.
 
This is a double edged sword, of course, which I personally felt was a problem in Bats! AJ was being completely sensible about the problem, while Fluttershy was being a bubbly airhead about the situation, and the straight man was portrayed as wrong.

@Grieffon  
Well, she can’t carry an episode on her own. I think that’s well known.
 
Just this season, she’s been paired with every pony except for Rainbow Dash in some way, all more memorable than any episode alone.

@Background Pony  

 
There is plenty of fan fiction regarding Spike’s origins. And, I think that, like nearly all of the characters in FiM, there are various levels of respect and disrespect that he gets. It’s just the popular thing to do to deem him worthless. Honestly, I sometimes think that people don’t realize how important his dynamic is to the show. Some episodes and elements, in FiM, that the fandom gushes over would certainly seem to be missing something if he or any of the other characters weren’t there. People don’t give the varied cast of characters enough credit.