My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Page 518

It's interesting, because I'm now on the other end of the attempt at rationalization with this writer's episodes and the holes in her story (I defended Mare-Do-Well). She really doesn't seem to think things through.

He didn't want to take the eggs to begin with, then he has this attachment to an egg for no reason, other than he was an egg once. And it's not like they couldn't just go back to the place and find the family. If they didn't even try, that's pretty messed up, regardless of any logical reasoning you can develop to keep the egg.

My main issue is the lack of concern over it, and the fact that I would FULLY expect any of the 6 to suggest attempting to bring it back. Any one of them would probably think it best to at least try.

Granted there are later episodes.

Well the nest was destroyed and the parents had flown off with the chicks. Could very easily be that they had just flown off and they were all pretty confident that they couldn't find the parents, or that they wouldn't accept the egg anymore as I think real birds do.

Ms. Williams' biggest weakness in my opinion is that she focuses on some scenes too much and it leads to other, more integral parts being rushed. Dash/MMD's heroics, the backstage portions of Hearth's Warming, New Fluttershy's rampage, and the teenage dragon portions could've all been cut down significantly, which would've allowed time for the character development and backstory(in the case of Hearth's Warming), but I blame that more on the format/her apparent inexperience more than her as a writer.

Besides the Mysterious Mare do Well crap, all of the sequences you mentioned were really funny and still added to the episodes. I'm not so sure it would have been better if they were toned down in length.

Judging from the way Amy Keaton Rogers described the writing process during that derpy mess, writers just write scenes and then someone else decides if it needs to be cut for time, so it's probably not entirely her doing.

I'm not entirely against it, the phoenix a great addition to the family and so adorable. And I can see how it could be rationalized I'm just surprised that wasn't even mentioned in the episode's closing, because it seems kind of key considering Spike's distaste of the idea originally. Yeah, it makes sense for them to give up because the family flew off, especially considering Spike is an enemy to the parents.

Actually they have a really good potential episode in their hands now when I think about it...

Guess it's not too bad in the end. I just think that one thing was executed poorly and didn't come off as well-thought out at all, mainly because I would expect something like that to actually be considered by the characters, not just blown off. I could also be speaking too soon.

The teenage dragon portion of the episode bothered me a little bit; I mean, they did some mean and stupid things, but there was a point in the episode where I seriously thought they would end up being "rough around the edges but decent folks once you get to know them" kind of characters. The leader of the teenagers (not sure of his name) actually gave off a little of a big brother vibe, kinda like other big brother characters I've seen who are mean to the protagonist but actually decent guys when put to the test.

Then they decided to try to kill a defenseless, unhatched phoenix for kicks. It's not even like phoenix eggs were set up as some sort of delicacy, they just wanted to kill it for the sake of killing it. I was actually really disappointed by that; it seemed like a good opportunity to introduce a new dragon background character, and maybe buck the trend of having dragons being inherently evil and violent creatures.

And as for the phoenix chick, I have to wonder if there's going to be any significance to Spike having the same type of pet as Princess Celestia. I mean, all of the other pets seem to have at least some meaning; Rarity has a fussy, fastidious animal as a pet, Applejack has a loyal and dependable animal for a pet, Twilight's is a symbol of wisdom, etc. Except Pinkie, but then she's Pinkie and doesn't have to make sense ever.

I mean, teenagers are dicks, and if they tried to develop one-shot characters as well as spike then this would be a 2 part episode. I would've preferred less time spent on the teenagers because development can kinda be ignored if you have multiple groups (e.g. child, teenager, adult) switching out. Cutting out two of the manly tests and replacing them with more dragon info probably would have solved that. As long as the teenager scenes are last the ending doesn't even need to change.

I just wish they hadn't gone all the way to what amounts to baby murder with the whole "teenagers are dicks" thing. And they wouldn't have necessarily had to develop his character, just not make him a total asshole. As is, I'm glad there's little to no chance we'll ever see those particular dragons again, though sad that Spike's entire race is nothing more than aggressive jerks. Especially since Spike's still a baby; what's going to happen when he does hit the dragon equivalent of puberty? I can't assume he'd just stay the same nice dragon he is (most of the time); that particular change turns the nicest kids into the biggest cockbags in the world.

Honestly, I've seen people smash eggs before, it depends on your view of which lives are important. If you value the life of a bird almost as much as a human of course it is abhorrent, but there is a threshold somewhere where smashing an egg is simply a dick move. The teenagers didn't want to smash it for the pure blood lust of being murderers, they saw it as something rebellious and mischievous. Most be would say that smashing a birds egg is immoral, but not vile.

I seriously doubt that spike will be a dick. Dragons society is directly connected to greed and envy in this series, so if you live around dragons the amount of pressure to be an asshole is probably immense. Due to his environment I doubt spike will ever permanently change.

I was incredibly curious about the premise of the episode. It started off well, but once we get introduced to the teenagers it dragged.
No really I did want to learn more about spike, the lifestyle of a dragon, maybe even learn about spike's parents. I guess I was somewhat disappoint at not getting what i expected and instead getting a story which didn't really interest me.