Well, we're about a third of the way into the final season, and this just happened.
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This episode felt like it just happened with little rhyme or reason to its events that do not fall back on the excuse Equestria is on a planet-sized idiot ball.
First: When did Fluttershy just get over her crippling dracophobia. I mean, this she was terrified of just watching dragons suddenly she is not only okay with going into the heart of their territory but thrilled about it. I know she has a thing for baby dragons, but she would have to contend with the mama dragons. I know she's developed as a character (the result of that development being questionable), but you don't just get over that level of phobia.
Though, I noticed a distinct lack of full-grown (a.k.a make Drogon from GOT look like a shrimp) dragons. Are we forgetting dragons grow to the size of a city block in this world?
Second: This is where the stupidity comes in. I know they needed Ember to not know the problem, but her father should have explained how the thing that is vital to the continuation of their species. She knows the nests should be kept warm, so she should have been checking the temperature regularly.
Third: I really didn't care about the Garble plot. I've never cared about this character, and this little wrinkle is literally too little too late.
My final verdict for this episode is this. This is an episode that is filled with careless decisions and contrivances to pick apart and is not entertaining or engaging enough to distract from that. As much as a I hate shameless pop culture references, I would have welcomed Ember screaming "dracarys" for the laugh.
We really needed an actual pony civilization. How else could we make them the master race?
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And did we really need everyone to want to be beatniks at the end? That's just such a forced and unneeded FiM ending.
I don't know, I liked it more than other episodes.
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The Beatnik thing is so stupid it's funny. And I don't think this is random or out of the blue. In "Molt Down" Smolder mentions having a brother. So they could have been planning this a while.
Maybe G5 should just ignore dragons after this debacle.
If Hasbro sticks by one of the e-mails we saw in the leaks,
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the dragons will become almost as important as the ponies and Spike will be their prince.
I hope that won't happen for a bunch of reasons. Obviously, they will bring in new writers but I don't want MLP to become "MLP but also dragons because we need another dragon franchise".
Make a Spike spin-off if you must but I am a little fed up with this theme of "dragons and ponies are opposites".
And we also have to remember Faust gave her blessing to breaking the dragons back with Dragon Quest because all she cared about was her message about boys liking feminine things and never thinking of how she was allowing the show's worst writer FUBAR the culture of a race that has been a significant part of MLP's lore since the beginning. Thanks, Lauren, thanks a lot.
Maybe G5 should just ignore dragons after this debacle.
I honestly never had a problem with "Dragon Quest". I'll have to rewatch it, but I remember enjoying it, and I never got the impression that it made all dragons who weren't Spike look bad (I remember you saying that "all dragons are brutes" being the message in this episode - I never got that), it always looked to me, like we were dealing with some bad dragons, but I never got the impression that they were all like that.
That being said, I was geeking out over the fact that part of it reminded me of Final Fantasy, so I could have missed it.
Unpopular opinion: I also liked Merriweather's episodes back then - she's made mistakes in my mind, like all writers have in all our minds, but she did what I consider to be likable episodes like "Hearths Warming Eve", "Wonderbolts Academy" and "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" (yes, I meant to include "Mare Do Well".)
As for Spoiler
Smolder and Garble being related
it could have been planned, but it really wasn't needed. I don't think it really affects anything about either character...
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I didn't like Garble before but now it's just so out-of-the-blue it's unclear which version I dislike more. Teddy from MLP Tales was much more believable. What exactly did Spike hope to gain from all this when he was made fun of every time he was with the other dragons?
I meant to write on this a couple weeks ago when the episode came out, but I got busy. I'm going strictly off memory here because frankly this episode isn't worth any sort of re-watch. Forgive me if I have some details wrong. :P
I don't even know where to begin with this episode. I might just do a bullet point list of things that really bugged me.
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* Why did we have to decide Garble was Smolders brother? The two don't really resemble each other at all and Garble's character is way to shallow and mean to try and do a redemption for at this point in the show. I would have much preferred getting to know a new dragon.
* Smolder really should have done a better job on watching out for Spike. I love her but how on earth did she not notice her brother was being rude to Spike or that Spike was clearly uncomfortable around Garble the entire time?
* Why did we spend so much of this episode focusing on the other dragons making fun of Spike for his blanket to not have that be important to warming the eggs somehow? I mean seriously, am I the only one who thought that's where this episode was surely going?
* The laugh fire or whatever is the stupidest concept I've seen on this show for a while. The fact that this is what resolved the main issue really bothers me. Ultimately the other dragons didn't really accept Garbles poetry, they were laughing at him? But its cool because that's what saved the day?
* The ending where all the dragons are suddenly super interested in Garbles poetry thing is so forced and fake. They were JUST laughing at him! Suddenly they're fans and want to learn more? Yeah right!
* How on earth did Ember not realize the eggs weren't hot enough. Even if she was overall uneducated about this whole process, she at least knew the eggs have to be at a certain warm temperature. Did she really not touch the ground once?
* ALSO why wouldn't the past dragon lord tell the new dragon lord how to take care of the eggs!? I mean, its not like the continuance of the dragon species relies on it or anything.
All in all, this was a really bad episode. Definitely a sign that we're wrapping up this generation at the right time.