MLP Episode Reviews, Pt. 1

“Secret of My Excess”

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Episode 210

December 10, 2011

Below Average

Pros: Some funny moments

Cons: Terrible story, Unfortunate racial implications

    I like Spike, but I’ve noticed that episodes focusing on him tend to suck.  “Secret of My Excess” certainly is the worst of those, and I’d say probably the worst episode of the series.  In fact, I think it may actually be worse than Equestria Girls.

     In the episode’s cold open, we see Twilight preparing to reorganize her library by dumping all the books on the floor and putting them back in order.  You’d think someone as organized as her would have kept the books in order anyway, but maybe she just likes to mess things up sometimes just so she could reorganize them for fun.  It wouldn’t be too out of character.  It’s people like Twilight that are the reason Mario Sunshine was a successful game.  Meanwhile, Spike comes downstairs with a gemstone called a fire ruby.  He has been patiently cultivating it to the point where he can eat it, and he has really been looking forward to it.  Some slapstick and a punchline ensue before the intro is played.

      After the opening credits, Rarity walks in and notices the fire ruby.  She is so enamored by it that she charms Spike into giving it to her, even though she knows he was saving it for his birthday.  Element of Generosity, people.  Rarity claims this is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for her, although I think the events of “Suited for Success” are at least a good competitor.  She gives Spike a kiss on the cheek which he refuses to wash for some time until Twilight forcibly wipes it for him.  Also, people keep calling Spike “Spikey Wikey” throughout this episode, which is pretty annoying.

     The Mane Six then come over to celebrate Spike’s birthday.  Although it’s clear that Rarity has a gift for Spike, we never see what it is (and yet we see what Applejack and Rainbow Dash gave him even though that’s not important).  This is odd because Rarity plays an important role in this episode, and it would be relevant to show us how she repaid him.  Rarity does, however, announce that Spike’s generosity has inspired her to make free dresses for the Mane Six.  This idea that generosity inspires more of the same is the closest thing to a good theme in this episode.  I will note that Spike is extremely gracious about the gifts he’s receiving.  I want you to remember that in relation to the episode’s lesson.  Pinkie informs Spike during the party that the Cakes have a special delicacy for him at their store, and he excitedly leaves to retrieve it. 

         On the way back from Sugar Cube Corner, he bumps into Cheerilee (Nicole Oliver), spilling her groceries on the ground.  He helps her pick them up, and when Cheerilee finds out that it’s Spike’s birthday she gives him a nice pimp hat.  I don’t know why she has carrying new clothes in a bag with perishable food items, but oh well.  While Spike is gracious, he suddenly grows a sense of entitlement, thinking that everyone should give him a gift on his birthday.  Twilight does scold him momentarily, and he admits his wrong and says he plans to give the hat back to Cheerilee, which doesn't make sense because she gave him that hat willingly.  He soon reverts, however.  He begins to grow bigger as a he takes more stuff from people and hoards it.  Concerned, Twilight takes him to the doctor (who doesn’t know how to treat dragons), a vet (like in that one episode of The Simpsons only not so funny) and eventually to Zecora (Brenda Crichlow).  She exposits that Spike is maturing and as his greed is entertained he will grow larger and more savage.  This advice comes too late because Spike transforms into a giant, monstrous dragon and begins to destroy the town.

      Here is my main problem with this episode.  I’m sure many people cried racism when they saw the underrated “Dragon Quest,” but this is much worse.  While that episode depicted dragons as generally being savage, it still made it clear that it was a result of nurture rather than nature.  Spike consciously chose to do the right thing in that episode as result of his own upbringing and personal integrity.  “Secret of My Excess” maintains that simply being a dragon makes Spike a biological time bomb.  Savagery is in his DNA, and his metamorphosis clearly wasn’t a choice.  It also suggests that growing up is an inherently bad thing if you’re a dragon.  Zecora even says that Spike must be prevented from maturing at all costs, that he must be kept in some permanent state of arrested development.  At best this is akin to neutering Spike like a pet.  It’s funny that this is coming from Zecora, who was practically introduced into the show as a victim of racism herself.  Now I’m not saying that this is going to brainwash children into being bigots.  I’m pointing out to what extent M.A. Larsen of My Gym Partner is a Monkey fame clearly was not thinking when he wrote this episode.  This isn’t the first episode that was so inept that it had a completely accidental, but very obvious, theme (“Feeling Pinkie Keen”).

      This isn’t just offensive, it’s bad world building.  It’s not developing the universe or making smart facts about its people and their culture that add to the continuity of the show.  It’s pulling crap out of one’s ass just two fill up a twenty-minute episode and then forgetting all about it afterwards.  Imagine if Spike was growing into adulthood and the characters had to adapt to that.  You could have had some instincts getting stronger, but he was still Spike.  The change would be permanent, and there would be negative and positive outcomes from the event.  For example, Spike can’t hang around so much due to his size, but he can protect Ponyville from threats.  That would be interesting.  Unfortunately, the show’s writers seem to be afraid to make substantial changes in this show, a trend which I will complain about frequently in this blog feature.

        

     A more subjective criticism of this episode is my dislike of Spike’s grown design.  While it looks frightening and monstrous, it isn’t terribly attractive to me, and I don't like looking at it.  I know that may be the point and I can write it off as a corrupted form, but I prefer to simply play the “this whole episode didn’t happen” card.  It’s probably my disappointment because, like most bronies, I assumed that the adult Spike would look like this, which is very majestic, yet intimidating.  Because Spike is a character we like, we preferred that he look good as an adult.  Aside from baby Spike’s magically enlarged form in “Cutie Mark Chronicles” (which doesn’t count because it was never meant to be a canon representation of his adult form), it was the show’s only established design for dragons.  Perhaps this would have been less jarring had this episode come out after “Dragon Quest,” which did show dragons coming in all shapes and sizes.  I guess it doesn’t matter, because this episode didn’t happen.

      While Spike rampages the town, the Wonderbolts try to stop him, but Spike holds a water tower tank in front of himself, and they fly right into it.  Considering how royally these clowns screw up every time they try to save the day, it’s a real wonder why the hell Rainbow Dash thinks being in this group is something to aspire to.  That’s like Superman trying to join the Navy SEALs if the Navy SEALs were a bunch of f---ups.  Spike has kidnapped Rarity (who doesn’t know it’s Spike) and is climbing the nearby mountain because we need this to be a hackneyed reference to King Kong.  When he sees the fire ruby on her, she responds by yelling at him about how it was a gift from Spike who is very generous.  This wakes something up in Spike, and he transforms back into his old self.  At this point, Spike decides to finally confess his infatuation to Rarity, but she puts her hoof on his mouth while smiling, suggesting that she knew all along.  This is supposed to be heartwarming, but in reality it just just makes her manipulation of him at the beginning of the episode even worse.  After the loose ends are tied up, Spike writes his letter to Celestia, telling her that he has learned that it’s better to give than to receive.  Right.  So the whole point of this episode was to have a diabolus ex machina rob a character of his free will, having him act counter to his personality, so he can “learn” a lesson that he clearly understood at be beginning of the episode! Yeah, that’s great writing right there!  You know, this episode could have partially redeemed itself by making the lesson about overcoming primal urges and choosing to be a good person despite temptation (which would still not quite work since Spike’s change was hardly intentional), but they went with a clichéd “generosity is good” lesson.  This show was known for giving children insightful lessons that are often overlooked in their upbringing, so this was a disappointment.
      Another problem with this show is that Spike and Twilight face no long term consequences from this massacre.  People should be demanding that they leave town after this happened.  You'd think they'd already be annoyed enough that they're living in what used to be the public library.  This is actually a consistent flaw in this show.  The main characters almost never face consequences for their actions.  You'd think people would at least mention that one time Spike turned into a monster and trashed half the town possibly resulting in multiple deaths.  This episode seems to be a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: it's never mentioned again (although I admit I haven't seen every 4th Season episode yet).  And if the show will not acknowledge this episode, neither should I.

       Well, that’s “Secret of My Excess.”  The writing is offensively bad, the action is derivative and anticlimactic, and the episodes implications are horrible.  Even without the offensive element, the episode is still not terribly interesting.  The one redeeming feature is that it has a few funny moments (particularly Pinkie’s cake line), but even the episode’s humor is relatively weak by the series’ standards. 

         

QUOTES

SPIKE: Hey, you took my advice!  Just use the whole floor as one big shelf!

APPLEJACK: Now who in Ponyville would steal my apples?  For that matter, who would steal my leaves?

TWILIGHT: Applejack, help!  Spike’s running wild, and I need you to lasso him!

APPLEJACK: Oh, that’s a good one, Twilight!  Sweet little Spike running wild!  What a laugh.  [Spike runs past in a flurry of leaves leaving Applejack with a leaf mustache]  Twilight, get my rope.

TWILIGHT: Pinkie Pie, stop giving him cake!

PINKIE PIE: I’m not giving him cake.  I’m assaulting him with cake!