Unpopular opinion time

@Ring Team
 
Terrible episode. Except for Starlight getting chucked out a window.

I’m trying to reorganize my thoughts about little details from this episode. There are little things I like and little things that I don’t understand.
 
I like the idea that we could get to know Spike a little bit more. That “past” that we were being told has lots of interesting narrative details, such as a mother and a father, the world-building… And I like how Spike is being conflicted because he was a dragon raised by ponies.
 
However, that ending was weird. I guess the only thing that could justify all that flashback was because we imagined it, kinda like that backstory from the griffon town in season 5. It was great in that episode. Here… I don’t know. I think this is an episode I’d like to see being made from a different angle. It’s like Dragon Quest, but with a dragon that says he’s Spike’s father.
 
I’m assuming that, if the episode was actually about a father meeting his son, his visual design would have been more interesting. The fact that his color palette was desaturated and boring kinda reflects some shady layers of this dragon.
 
If I have to be positive, I think the point of that episode was to show how people can easily manipulate other innocent people with a huge heart. I can imagine people taking advantage of a situation to be selfish and getting away with it.
 
It’s not the worst episode I’ve watched in this season, but it’s very unnecessary. If someone tells me this is his least favourite episode ever, I can perfectly see why. It goes from one direction to another one with no progression, it has a build-up with an ending that could have been different with another approach, the song wasn’t very good…
 
I think the only reason why I didn’t skip scenes like other episodes was because I was absolutely intrigued. Because of that, I didn’t feel angry or disappointed or something like that. I was like “wait, what?”.
 
But yeah. One more episode and I’ll officially finish the season 8.

@Ring Team  
Would your opnion be different if Sludge was Spike’s father after all? And if so, how?

It would have actually been risky and ballsy if they actually made Sludge his real father

@Kiryu-Chan  
Especially if that backstory he gave was true.

@Brass Beau  
Does it really fit his chrachter?

@Latecomer  
Yes.
 
If he didn’t say at the end that he’s not his father, I would actually like how it would conclude. Who would Spike admire more? A unicorn who basically raised him and taught him important lessons or a lazy father who wants to get away with it? I think this type of conflict would be interesting.
 
But I admit I wouldn’t know who to write a conclusion of that episode. Maybe Sludge would leave and try to find his place in the world. Maybe he would come back in a future episode where he tries to be a good dad.
 
I think I’m with most people: I don’t like the ending because it invalidates that interesting potential about Spike’s past.
 
Like I said. I don’t think it’s the worst episode ever, but I can see why people don’t like it.
 
If you want to see an episode about Spike being conflicted because he’s a dragon raised by ponies, watch Dragon Quest from season 2. That is an excellent episode.

@Ring Team  
I’ve also thought that Sludge actually being his father would improve the episode. There are others who think it would make it even worse, though.
 
I think this episode is pretty different to Dragon Quest (which is solidly written, but has a terrible ending moral IMO).

I don’t know, I like the moral of Dragon Quest, where Spike can just accept himself the way he is and not being conflicted about being a dragon raised by ponies. It’s a cool take on stories that are about characters conflicted with their identities.

Princess Spike is overhated. It is one of if perhaps the weakest episode, but I still maintain that people are conflating “worst” with “bad”.

@Ring Team  
Rather, doesn’t he reject dragonhood entirely and start self-identifying as a pony? That seems pretty unhealthy, though plausible.
 
 
@Dustcan  
It only really has one problem IMO - it just happens to be a pretty massive one. The moral is misaligned with evemts.

@Dustcan  

 
right

@Latecomer  
I don’t think so. I think the point was accepting himself the way he was, because he understood that the actions of the dragons weren’t the right thing so do, which was stealing some birds that are the children of other birds.
 
I think these were the phoenix, I need to rewatch it.

@Ring Team  
Yes, but he decided that dragons were like that, and so he might as well be a pony. Or at least, that’s how it came off.

@Background Pony #3B85  
At this point Tirek was likely the best thing/character about the show to me other than Twilight and Sunset. I was actually a little excited that he was written very well during most of his appearances post-Twilight’s Kingdom.
 
Mostly the fact that he was not written as just a brute, and that he preferred being a brute because it was fun and easier to him, but definitely had some intellect regardless.

@Josh103  
Yeah - a surprising amount of implied depth.

I never liked Dragon Quest from the beginning. The moral of him accepting who he is and where he’s raised at would’ve been a solid moral if it wasn’t for the fact that it was undermined when encounters some stereotypical bully teenage dragons who at the time colored his perception of the species. That and how the girls at the beginning made him feel insecure about his identity in a tactless way.

@Myoozik  
It makes perfect sense… just as a backstory for a prejudice against dragons on Spike’s part, rather than a solid episode-ending moral.

@Latecomer  
It would’ve been better if they didn’t take the prejudice route and have him explore both the positive and negative side of dragon culture.

@Myoozik  
Yeah - might have been tricky in one episode, but there was probably time to do it with some tighter writing.

@Latecomer  
I mean, if the writers of the First Generation of My Little Pony managed to pull it off well, then there was no doubt that the G4 writers would’ve done the same.

At the time, most accused it to of having feminine vs masculine themes, and I could see that.
 
But I don’t know if female dragons being more or less the same weakens or strengthens that observation.

@Myoozik  
Hmm, when did G1 show a positive side to dragon culture?
 
 
@WyrmSpawN  
It can be read as a gender analogy or a race one, neither pleasant.

@Myoozik  

 
Are you talking about these three cretins?

Well, I finished watching School Raze. And, man, what a boring episode. Double episode I must add. The only detail I truly enjoyed was that instant where Twilight told Starlight that maybe she did a spell wrong. I repeated that scene five or ten times because I love everything about these 3 seconds.
 
Cozy Glow reminds me of Goro Akechi in the sense that she’s as boring as a Persona 5 antagonist (I love that game, but the story and the villains are incredibly simplistic). Even if I didn’t know she would be a villain later, her true face isn’t that surprising. It’s not like A Canterlot Wedding and Chrysalis’ reveal because we literally didn’t see that coming. Here… Cool? I mean, who’s gonna say “Oh, Cozy Glow, she’s definitively my favourite villain”?
 
And I love the fact that here Starlight is used as a “magical scepter” to channel a huge amout of magic. Kinda says a lot about what her character actually is.
 
Oh, and Tirek. Remember Tirek?
 
And remember that unicorn who looks like a villain and doesn’t trust Twilight three times in his actual three times he appeared in the show?
 
And remember Pinkamena Diane Pie? She’s in season 8 now. As well as the Flim Flam brothers, Starlight’s parents and Sunburst parents, Maud Pie, Rarity’s Manehattan Boutique, queen Chrysalis, the Tree of Harmony, Trixie… everyone and everything is back… in episodes that didn’t have a lot of personality, novelty, interesting narrative or uniqueness.
 
It’s a pity that the season 8 was boring, because I think it has very good episodes and very good ideas. The problem is that the good ideas for the most part are not executed well, which kinda eclipses the actual good episodes. Most episodes were a bit misleading and confusing, such as Non-Compete cause, The mean 6 and Road of Friendship.
 
And there’s another thing: Most of the conceptual stories in season 8 came too late. Twilight’s school should haven been an idea from season 3 or 4, not 8. The new characters that are learning friendship are practically derivative from the Mane 6 learning friendship in the early seasons. The Parent Map should have been an episode from season 5, not 8. The Mean 6 should have been from season 3 or 4, not from 8. If you have a really interesting idea (like Twilight being a teacher), why would you wait until people are starting to lose interest in the show and then proceed to make an episode about it? Most of the episodes in season 8 were like that, using these concepts as a bait, in case you wanna be interested in the TV show.
 
All that said, I don’t think season 8 it’s the worst season. To me, that was the season 6 for many reasons:
 
-The filler episodes in season 8 have concept ideas that are more interesting than the filler episodes in season 6.  
-By he time season 6 came out, I was expecting something great. When you make a MLP trailer that looks like Game of Thrones, you wouldn’t expect something like… Applejack’s day off. Or Top Bolt. Or Buckball Season.  
-Not only Starlight appeared less in season 8 than in 6, but her redemption arc back in season 6 was completely invalidated after Every little thing she does.  
-We don’t see too much about the redesign of the changelings.  
-I can’t be negative about a season that has The washouts, The sound of silence and Surf and/or turf.
 
Because of that, I didn’t feel like it was the worst season. I think I’ve watched 4 or 5 episodes in season 8 where I was feeling I was wasting my time, but nothing else. Besides, by the time I started watching season 8, I wasn’t hyped. I only watched it because I wanna finish MLP.
 
That said, I wonder how the season 9 is gonna progress. I’m still interested and mostly intrigued. But say if people tell me that Starlight will appear more in season 9 than 8. In that case, it’s gonna be a lot more difficult for me to want to watch it. I can’t watch it right now because I’m very busy and I’m liking less and less the website where I can watch all the seasons of My Little Pony, to the point where it gets uncomfortable. Maybe I’ll start season 9 next week, unless I get really curious.
 
I think that’s everything I have to say about season 8. I’m not as concerned as I was while I finished season 7, probably because the show has gone to a point of no return or no fix. It’s not like I should be that invested in Friendship is Magic.
 
But yeah. Cozy Glow is a villain. Congrats I guess, Josh Haber.