Does Spike get bad episodes because he's a bad character, or is he a bad character because he gets bad episodes?
Mostly bad episodes, and shit fans
>>27459571
Yes
>>27459667
No.
>>27459683
Maybe
>>27459687
I don't know.
>>27459717
TWINKIE HOUSE!
>>27459571
His episodes aren't that bad. Most of them are just different, and people either expected the wrong kind of thing for him or just don't care about him because they don't like him. They really aren't that objectively shitty, though.
>>27459571
He's a good character. Only 2 of his episodes have been honestly bad, most meh, and the rest honestly good.
>>27459660
Ironically, the hatedom that's been built about spike over the years are even more obnoxious and autistic shitheads than spikefags are.
>>27459571
A little from Column A, a little from Column B.
>>27459571
He's a bad character IMO.
And there is also the problem that the writers don't quite know what they want to do with him, which can ruin even bona fide good characters like Discord.
>>27459838
How is he a bad character? He is fine in episodes where he is a supporting character.
>>27459838
Spikes a great character, he's his best when he's a supporting character.
>>27459720
>>27459791
This.
>>27459571
He's a good character with bad episodes.
>>27459823
This. Antispikefags are like our own antibronies.
>>27460334
Only SAYS and princess spike are objectively bad. Secret of my excess and gauntlet of fire are regarded as objectively good with the rest are love it-hate it.
>>27459571
The writers already said they don't like him because he's "difficult"
Translation: they are lazy fucks who would favor "easy" characters rather than him because Spike isn't a character they can just put on a premade, cliched setting like the rest.
>>27461294
Big Jim said DHX loves him, Larson does a fine job with him even though he claims he struggles.
>>27461294
His problem is that he loves to help others, meaning it is his nature to be a supporting character. I think the best thing to give him is a goal to work towards, he has wanted to be some kind of knight or superhero, so give him that.
Why do people like Spike? Legitimate question.
>>27461738
He is incredibly self-less, he is usually the snarker or the voice of reason, and he is a dragon.
>>27461778
>He is incredibly self-less
Seriously?
>>27461782
Yes
>>27461294
To be fair, he's never in any real danger. He can breathe fire to get out of any situation, and his scales are tough enough to protect him from a lot of things.
>>27461294
This
>>27460334
This, too.
After the last couple of spike episodes I saw, I just gave up hope of there being a good one.
His character varies wildly from episode to episode, and many of them seem to be the same "spike learns to not be a greedy jerk" episode, when his prior characterization in the show didn't hint at that nearly enough to make it a character trait.
The episode where spike tries to visit the dragons to learn more about himself stands out in my head as one of the biggest squandered opportunities in the show. it's like an adopted black kid visiting an area filled with black people, meeting two assholes, and then deciding that he doesn't want to learn anything more about them. It's an anti-plot. Nothing is learned, but so much could have been learned.
>>27462064
Did you see Gauntlet of Fire?
>>27459571
Does Power Ponies count as a Spike episode? He was good in that.
>>27462080
Not yet. I'm still missing a good chunk of last season, and I only watched the opening episode of the current season.
I guess I kind of thought that that was about the comic where there was a dragon population near manehatten (I think) that contradicted most of what was said about dragons.
I know that one of the female dragons got kind of popular for a while. How's the episode?
Hasbro, or someone who has control and influence on MLP, at least, seems to want to pretend he's a non-factor.
>>27462103
Yes it does.
>>27462109
Currently the 3rd highest ranked episode this season judging by the fandom.
>>27462080
GoF: Spike sucks, then he's literally carried by strong and independent females through the episode and he's given the Dragon Lord scepter on a silver platter.
Then he gives it away so he's back to wash dishes and clean stuff at Twilight's castle. WOW, SO MUCH CHARACTER GROWTH.
>>27462148
He chose to do that. He likes helping others more than leading.
>>27462148
That is an amazing misinterpretation of the episode and the effect it had on him.
>>27462148
He was spreading friendship to the dragons, it was a "map" episode.
>>27462159
He didn't chose shit. The writers decide what he does and what he doesn't.
Fucking assholes thinking the characters are alive and do shit as if they were real people.
>>27462162
> misinterpretation
Ok, then tell me what exactly changed from his character after the episode, and how much of a permenent impact it had on him for the rest of the series.
>>27462189
He was never competing to stay as dragon lord.
>>27462198
> backpedaling
OK.
>>27462209
I am not backpedaling, that episode makes perfect sense for him.
>>27462213
> It's perfect because I said so and I'm ignoring cold facts because I'm a braindead Spikefag
Fixed.
>>27462245
What facts am I ignoring?
>>27462253
> Before the episode: Spike is Twilight's kid servant and Rarity's pet.
> During the episode: Spike has to be carried around and only grabs the scepter because Ember literally gave up on it before grabbing it before him.
> Spike is DRAGON LORD and oh wait, he renounced to the only good thing he got on FiM.
> Spike is back to be the same kid servant from the beginning, nothing changed for him.
> On the next episode he's being stuffed inside of RD's luggage, his "friends" think it's funny.
>>27462253
The fact that he's greedy and fame hungry? Or that the whole thing was forced to begin with?
>>27462277
Ember and Spike needed each other...
>>27462298
> using elipses to pretend he's being dramatic
Kill yourself, asshole.
>>27462277
He makes it through pretty fine for the most part, he just needed Ember's help keeping Garble and friends away, and keeping the scepter meant that he would have to stay in the dragon lands which he never wanted to do.
He learned that dragons aren't all evil, what else am I missing?
>The fact that he's greedy and fame hungry? Or that the whole thing was forced to begin with?
It is a map episode. He doesn't actively seek out fame, but he is incredibly prideful.
When were his friends laughing in Newbie Dash, also Pinkie was pretty mean to RD in that episode, making a harmful joke and basically abandoning her big day to get cotton candy.
>>27459571
A little of both.
Spike worked best when he was the deadpan straight-man to Twilight's magicnobabble and neuroticism. As a result he didn't really have much characterization of his own - it was mostly characterization of comparison against others. And, it's hard to build an episode on that alone.
On the other hand, when they have tried to build an episode on him they seem to take running leaps into new territory either completely unrelated to or in direct contradiction of his existing characterization. That's just plain shitty writing.
>>27462308
>Think's people seeing character motivations in a story is bullshit because a writer wrote the story, not the fictional character themselves
>Thinks that all character development must mean a significant, permanent change in their daily routine
>Doesn't understand the tonal change that adding an ellipse at the end of a sentence makes to a sentence
>Unreasonable aggression to a mundane comment
Are you actually autistic?
This is a serious question here.
>>27462298
I don't think so, no. Ember was written to have a need in Spike, and even then it felt forced when she agreed to carry the guy around just to pass some flying boulders.
Of course the plot armor also hindered other dragons from getting the scepter first.
>>27462338
Without Ember his journey would've ended right after he freed Garble from the rock.
>>27462373
Even the CMC received more and better character developement than Spike.
> He dislikes what I like, therefore he's autistic!
I wouldn't expect less from a hasdrone.
>>27462397
>> He dislikes what I like, therefore he's autistic!
>I wouldn't expect less from a hasdrone.
Literally nothing I said was about disliking vs liking something. It was about a demonstrated lack of understanding nuance and emotional cues. That's the link I'm seeing to actual, literal autism.
That comment with the pinky image was my first entry into your little argument.
I'm far from liking hasbro. Ever since their attacks on the fanworks (especially Fighting is Magic) a few years ago, I've been staunchly against them.
So I'm going to keep stoking this fire. Yes I liked GoF, but It didn't nothing to Spike as a character. All the episode showed us is Spike still hates dragons because of Dragon Quest, and doesn't want anything to do with them unless he forced to. Not only that, the episode rises more question than answer. What do the title Dragon Lord even mean to the dragons themselves? We see the younger generation follow the Dragon Lords demands to a fault, but the older ones seem to do whatever the hell they want, even leaving the Dragon Land boarders to make roosts somewhere else. Why is Spike the only dragon to not have wings? Is he different, if so how? We still don't have an idea on Spike's parents, or where Celestia even got his egg from to begin with. All in all while GoF was an entertaining episode to watch, it added nothing to Spike's character. Which is funny because SAYS even manage to do that by creating his code of honor.
>>27462738
It reinforced that he could spread friendship on his own and taught him to not judge a whole race from a few bad examples.
>>27459571
I wouldn't necessarily say that Spike's had bad episodes, more like "unique" or "different"
Like with Discord episodes. I think it's because those type of episodes have a male character in the leading role when it's usually a female character
>>27463020
I really don't think it's a gender thing. It's more of a story structure and character dymanics thing, combined with wildly inconsistent characterization of Spike.
>>27463367
He was in character in Princess Spike, the episode sucks because it was just the world working against him.
Spike is bad because he isn't a pony.
RD - Racial Discrimination
