S03 E09 - "Spike At Your Service"

[brianblackberry]

This is the official thread for information and chatting about the ninth episode of season 3 - "Spike At Your Service"! Another Spike episode, but it also looks to be a major Applejack episode as well; so two in a row for her. The episode airs at (9:30am Central/10:30am Eastern on December 29nd).

This thread will not be locked and thus commenting is open as soon as you see this; remember though, there are spoilers in the comments section so read at your own risk if you haven't seen the episode!

License to burn!

Happy New Year!

[FrankT]

This one put a smile on my face.

• The Timberwolves, for one thing: they actually came from MLaaTR - I'm not sure which episode, they might've just been mentioned, but still...
  
• Strangely, they look more 3D than anything else.
  
• Spike truly has a heart of gold! And there's the classic case of trying to help, but being overly clumsy doing so.
  
• He plays bongos on his belly - awesome X3
  
• Pinkie's 'tache! Awesome! X3
  

[Whitehawke]

Seems iTunes is deliberately releasing episodes early now. :!:

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Personal, moral, ethical, Dragon code!

Wait, Timberwolves were going to eat Spike? I thought they were just territorial, being as they are made of wood and don't appear like they can actually eat... O_o

Lol, why does forever always have terrible implications in this show? XD

Ahahaha, Rainbow dash is basically writing a self insert fanfic novel.

Alright, why are there places in this episode where the animation looks a bunch more smooth than usual?

"I'm going to have Spike save me from a Timberwolf!" NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!

You've defeated the minions! Now time for the boss battle!

[Whitehawke]

Weak episode. It had some good moments but there were too many Idiot Balls being passed around.

Then again, story was by Dave Polsky and it was written by Merriwether, so I wasn't expecting much anyway.

I'm fine with people liking this episode though. I could argue why I think it's lackluster, but I don't like it mostly because of my own tastes.

Hopefully the next episode won't be as weak, despite the fact it's also written by Polsky.

[BaconofChaos]

Fun episode! I'm still wondering how Spike went from Twilight's #1 assistant to an accident waiting to happen that happened over and over.

Timberwolves are pretty awesome monsters. Self repairing, living wooden constructs. Glad to see them return.

Rarity has fantasies about owning a slave. I'd say I'm surprised, but...

And Dash writes self-insert fiction. Again, not surprised.

[Thoth]

EXTREMELY weak episode.

Nothing of any credibility happens. We get a whole bunch of moments of Spike trying to help Applejack/Mane 6, with random humor thrown-in in an attempt to make up for the fact that NOTHING HAPPENS.

If there was humor, I could've AT LEAST excused it for that. Episodes like "Too Many Pinkie Pies" uses humor over plot to its advantage...but this? Nothing of any importance occurs. No characters are built-upon, no ground is broken...it just feels....

EMPTY

*Admittingly, Pinkie served as a decent comic relief throughout the second-half of the episode.*

[GreenshotApple]

2.7 apples out of 5

Spike indeed has a heart of gold. S3 must be called Applejack Season

Didn't like the timberwolves ._. I preferred the original look back in Granny Smith's story in the CMC episode, Good try though?

[RarityDash]

Very fun episode, I thought. Another all around solid season 3 winner.

Dash's epic unfinished novel sounds amazing. I love how she's gradually turning into Pathfinder...

Really, while I thought Cathy Weseluck really put her all into her performance as Spike here and it was great to see another strong episode with a good focus on AJ, it was Dash, Pinkie and Rarity who helped make this episode so much fun. They were pretty spot on. The entire scene at the boutique was one of the most amusing I can recall in a long time. Great stuff.

This was a good Spike episode too. Merriwether Williams seems mostly intent to write for Dash and Spike, and I'd say after this and Dragon Quest, I have a lot of faith in her approach to Spike. There is a real warmth and earnestness to his character in these episodes that I think really shines. I think having Polsky's plot benefited Williams too, as often her episodes are sorely lacking in humor for me; having a plot which leaves openings for such things let the episode just feel more complete to me. For that reason it's probably one of my favorite episodes from her.

Also, timberwolves are kinda awesome. Unsettling, monstrous wood spirit beasts that will reform again and again when destroyed and can even fuse together into bigger, more terrifying forms? Awesome! It's great to see a piece of lore barely touched on in an earlier episode returned to and further explored in a way that makes it much cooler. That's the kinda thing I love to see.

Oh, and who wants to bet that this dragon code was something Spike made up entirely not long before just because it seemed like a cool thing to do.

[Rosewind]

I thought the opening was weak, and after the Rarity scene the episode just exploded with awesome. Dash's fic writing and tower of rocks...priceless. Also, more focus on best background pony!

It was nice to see the Mane Six dip in and give their resonance to the episode. It was fun and definitely entertaining after the slow start. I'd give it a 4.5/5.

I noticed the timberwolves/balloon were 3d CGI animated and the animation in general looked kind of choppy, which kind of surprises me. Usually it flows very smoothly to me. Did anypony else notice this?

[Bellosh]

Eh, I'll only give one a provisional 2.5 out of 5. Granted, I chuckled at AJ's fake-damsel routine and I thought the timberwolves were cool, but that's about it. I really can't buy the notion that Spike becomes utterly incompetent when assisting outside the library. Plus, that bit about Twilight running away from timberwolves really threw me off. If she could blow away changelings with that laser beam spell of hers before, you'd think the timberwolves would be a piece of cake for her to handle..... right? <_<

[ping111]

A really very disappointing episode. A bad plot with random humour, totally OOC actions (Spike doesn't care about being a real dragon, and can locate books with ease and grace). Thank DWEIQ for fancy moustaches. 2.3/10.

[Hippo]

Wow, I'm pretty amazed at the low scores in here. I absolutely loved this episode. And not because of my bias towards AJ. I would easily put this ahead of her episode and song last week. I thought the humor was great, I thought the development was good enough for ponies, and I enjoyed the moments that all of the ponies had, because ALL of them had moments. I can't remember the last time thats happened in one 22 minute episode.

I give it a 5/5 with no hesitation.

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

I'm afraid my impression of this episode was: "What the hay did I just watch?"

There were some funny moments, especially in the middle when Rarity and Rainbow Dash got involved, but I found myself enjoying those moments particularly because they pulled the spotlight away from Applejack and Spike's totally awkward and incomprehensible dilemma. I guess the whole concept of Spike's "Dragon Code," broke my suspension of disbelief and it never recovered. And he was still doing it with Twilight at the end, which left me with a really skeezy feeling to wrap things up with. I mean, who actually does that? People with dependency issues need to learn how to function on their own, not just bounce from one giver to the next. I was surprised that Applejack didn't grow a backbone, because even Fluttershy figured out how to say "No," in Putting Your Hoof Down.

I dunno, I guess there wasn't anything that I found particularly bad about this episode, but there wasn't anything that I particularly liked either.

(Also: The 3D models felt weird and out of place, but not terribly so.)

[kunio18]

mighty morphin timber wolves !

aj i love you,. she kicked serious flank this episode !

♫The dragon is the finest creature ever, There's more to him than just guarding treasure!♫

i think this is my 2nd fave episode so far into the new season

edit: is it true that there is no new episode for 3 weeks ?!!??!?

WHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[SteelEagle]

Loved it. The humor was nice and I liked the dialogue between the cast was good. Good animation.10/10.

EXTREMELY weak episode.

Nothing of any credibility happens. We get a whole bunch of moments of Spike trying to help Applejack/Mane 6, with random humor thrown-in in an attempt to make up for the fact that NOTHING HAPPENS.

If there was humor, I could've AT LEAST excused it for that. Episodes like "Too Many Pinkie Pies" uses humor over plot to its advantage...but this? Nothing of any importance occurs. No characters are built-upon, no ground is broken...it just feels....

EMPTY

*Admittingly, Pinkie served as a decent comic relief throughout the second-half of the episode.*

Strange. I feel as though TMPP's humor is growing weaker as time goes on. I was in the 7/10, 8/10 range when it released but it's around a 5/10 right now. The humor is a wide miss. It is starting to fight Mare-Do Well as my least favorite episode of the series. (I also think that episode is a better example of nothing happens)

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

On second watching, it would seem my impression has not improved. I think I'm going to have to rate this episode as "At least its not as bad as Mysterious Mare Do Well," on account of the good humor between Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack. After watching them try and fail to get Spike to give up, I was feeling pretty optimistic that we'd see a real solution before the resolution.

However, a real solution never really showed up, and it doesn't seem like anything in the second act of the story had any bearing on the resolution. Applejack had made a number of reasonable arguments for why Spike should stop giving her unwanted favors, arguments that were just as good as her final argument about respecting her own code, but if I didn't know any better, I'd almost be compelled to think they're suggesting you should actually allow someone to complete their unwanted favors as a way of getting them to stop. (Which, if true, would be extremely uncool.)

After the second watch through, I was able to pinpoint the moment where the episode was lost beyond hope for me. When Applejack goes to seek Twilight Sparkle's help in talking some sense into Spike, I simply couldn't believe Twilight's response. I was thinking: "This is your friend Applejack you're talking to Twilight, are you seriously going to tell her that creepy stalker behavior is more important than her own wishes on the matter? What is wrong with you? Applejack is not the one who's at fault here."

There are very few things worse than when the people you trust don't take you seriously. (I'll never forget when a friend of mine had to flee her home town and not tell anyone where she was going because her parents didn't believe her when an ex-boyfriend started stalking her.) Maybe if Twilight had apologized, but at the end, she just digs herself in deeper with a lame, "I thought you were right behind us," line. (A far cry from the caring Twilight Sparkle in Feeling Pinkie Keen, when she turns back and risks herself to save both Spike and Pinkie Pie from the Hydra.)

I really hate to be such a downer. I would much rather write about how awesome I thought the episode was, so I'll try to end on a positive note.

Do you suppose Applejack is really writing a novel of her own? She sure seemed to respond when Rainbow Dash brought it up. (And if so, what do you suppose its about?)

[Th3WiseAssassin]

I thought the episode was ok.

Edited December 30, 2012 by Th3WiseAssassin

[Luminescence]

A mixed bag of apples. I'm not a massive fan of spike...actually he makes me cringe and I hate that feeling. Definitely some good bits when the Mane6 actually got involved. RD and Rarity certainly added some good moments and the Pinkie-tache was great. Apart from that though, not too much in this ep that enthralled me...was hoping for a bit more after the last episode left me feeling a little wanting.

But anyway, good heartwarming stuff I guess but nothing too special.

[rjrgmc28]

Whew! After missing the first three minutes of the new episode (slept in, blame my iPad alarm for not going off on time) early this morning, the new episode was a bit of a 50/50 one in my opinion.

I mean, it's nice for Spike to get some airtime and a episode of his own and all, but I felt the episode was a bit rushed and incomplete and moved way too fast story wise, not being harsh on the writers of the episode and all.

Although the one positive thing that came out of the episode was the little impromptu musical number that Spike sang. Overall, I wouldn't call this a bad episode, nor a good one. For me, it's a split between not being a bad episode, but also it's not a good one in my books and I consider this episode rating wise as a "in-between".

[Whitehawke]

Madmax explains everything.

[TotalEcplise]

Madmax explains everything.

PFFT!!!

[WillowWisp]

Over all the episode was kind of boring to me, and very cliche. A typical you saved me I owe story. But what bothered me the most was the 3D Timberwolves. We already saw them during Granny Smith's flashback, so why try to one up it with animation? Especially when it was choppy and doesn't fit the rest of the show. It was jarring to watch.

[frostfauna]

It wasn't stellar. There were some good moments, like the timberwolves, finding out about dash's fanfic and AJ's novel she's been workin on. (I sensed a little family guy reference there, personally) Also, Rarity was better than usual in my opinion. Overall, though, the episode felt less important than any of the others. Like it was just a filler, or something...

[TotalEcplise]

I don't mind little ridiculous episodes like this.

The only problem I really had was how clumsy spike was. Other than that Rainbow Dash was hilarious, so was Rarity, and AJ.

It's nice to see them try something new even if it didn't work.

Would have been stronger without the ham fisted spike humor actually, Spike is funny an witty on his own, he didn't need to be a clutz for this episode. I feel that If spike had kept his regular competence and Applejack had started to become complacent having spike do to much for her then trying to rectify the situation etc... it could have been a lo better.