My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 424 - Equestria Games

Rating:

After a run of filler to meet an apparently too large episode requirement, season four regains its focus with the previously hyped Equestria Games.  Dave Polsky takes something of a risk by not showing the events but Spike’s adventures around them instead.  The dragon has ironically become something of a hero in the Crystal Empire after Twilight crapped out on saving them, but he finds it hard to capitalize on his celebrity.  Stage fright hits Spike hard after being asked to light the Olympic torch, and attempts to atone for this just get worse.  Like in Power Ponies, he gets a contrived moment of redemption which prevents his future suicide, and this absurd scene really undermines the episode.  Thankfully the surrounding material works better, including Spike’s hilarious attempt at singing Cloudsdale’s anthem.  Polsky remembers to pay off Rainbow Falls’ buildup with the relay race, although it still remains something of a secondary afterthought.  Considering how sports were shown in Fall Weather Friends, and that we really only care about one of the competitors, this is almost certainly a wise choice.  Even if another episode devoted to poor Spike discovering fake self-worth isn’t really necessary, Equestria Games at least feels like it has a point and is part of the fourth season’s storyline.  That focus and tone help the parts which aren’t quite so strong.

Rainbow Dash opens by giving a pep talk that largely won’t factor into the episode.  She preaches enjoying yourself and doing your best, but admits there isn’t much of a chance at gold versus the Wonderbolts.  Spike offers a similar speech to the non-competing Cutie Mark Crusaders regarding overcoming your insecurities when he is suddenly kidnapped.  Instead of just summoning him, the various princesses decided this is a much better way of requesting Spike’s presence.  Twilight and Cadance explain that he is now a minor local celebrity thanks to his previous sort-of heroism, and they offer him the honor of lighting the torch.  Spike accepts, but he doesn’t count on having difficulty performing a simple task in front of thousands of watching ponies.

Fear seizes Spike immediately upon entering the stadium, and he isn’t able to recover.  Harshwinny must ask a guard to forcibly push him up to the torch, but Spike’s silly counting trick isn’t helpful.  Amidst much restlessness (and facing huge embarrassment), Twilight decides to save Spike by lighting the torch herself.  Unfortunately, Spike now thinks he has acquired telekinesis, which Twilight soon refutes before it becomes the episode’s sole focus.  But now a dejected Spike decides redemption is necessary.

Bulk Biceps’ slow start puts the Ponyville relay team in dead last, but Fluttershy’s incredible and unheralded next leg moves them mere seconds out of first.  Despite theoretically being the star, Rainbow Dash loses a footrace with Spitfire and Ponyville must settle for silver.  In what is clearly commentary on a common Olympic theme though, no one involved feels that way.  The spectating mane six and Dash herself are still happy to medal, which is actually understandable given how they barely qualified for the games at all.  At the subsequent ceremony, Spike decides to sing the anthem for everyone, but he has forgotten that of course only the winning team receives that honor.  Without knowing the words or tune, Spike improvises a hysterically bad version of the Cloudsdale anthem, which he apparently thinks is titled “We Are The Wonderbolts”.  This travesty is received with much face-palming and stunned silence.

Now completely miserable, Spike retreats from society to perform endless packing.  Twilight angrily ends his hermitage by insisting he join her for the last event.  Perhaps the ice archery finals are meant to invoke a similarly late ice hockey gold medal game, but the sport doesn’t exactly resemble its theoretical real life counterpart.  Instead of waiting between breaths, the archers quickly loose their arrows in an attempt to completely cover their targets in ice.  Small wonder that something goes wrong.  One competitor knocks over his quiver and shoots an arrow into the sky, where it hits a surprisingly low-hanging cloud.  This turns the cloud into a spiked iceberg of death, which quickly starts to descend on the stadium.  Every Pegasi takes off and futilely attempts to hold it up, while the unicorns are unable to help since their spells were disabled to prevent cheating.  If only someone were around who could breathe fire and melt this behemoth.  Oh wait, guess who just entered the stadium?  Spike now believes he’s Mario and bounces off of various Pegasi to reach the ice cloud.  Temporarily ignoring gravity, Spike stays suspended long enough to obliterate the cloud before harmlessly falling back to earth.  After a short rainstorm, any threat is now over.  Having again redeemed himself in the final act, Spike closes out the games by lighting fireworks while delivering some sort of lesson.

Choosing to focus Equestria Games on Spike actually helps sustain interest, even if we don’t see anything that wasn’t depicted in earlier episodes about him, including the recent Power Ponies.  However, his struggles this time are a bit more humanizing, and seeing him fail with the Cloudsdale anthem is actually more fun than painful.  His expected redemption is even more contrived than usual though, and doesn’t necessarily have the desired effect.  If those ice arrows are really that dangerous, shouldn’t some precautions have been in place?  One arrow turning a cloud into a killing machine isn’t likely even given My Little Pony’s physics, otherwise the competition would be over in one shot.  Spike might indeed be able to find self-worth from his effort, but the situation feels uniquely designed for him rather than something he might have normally encountered.  This hurts the intended message of embracing what you’re good at since Spike wouldn’t have had an opportunity to show it without Polsky giving him a chance.

Every other character is relegated to the background, which isn’t necessarily terrible given that many of them are watching a sporting event.  Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and the Crusaders are literally in the stands, while Twilight must hobnob with her fellow princesses.  She’d prefer it was her friends, but points must be given since this is only shown and never comes out of Twilight’s mouth.  That’s more development than the other royal ponies are given though, who are mostly just there and don’t do anything.  Outside of needlessly kissing Spike’s feet for an event most people had probably forgotten by now that is, which gets a little wearing as it continues.  However, having Harshwinny return is worthwhile, since she isn’t mesmerized by Spike and gets off some decent lines (“…celebrities.”).

Despite these problems, Equestria Games works well enough since it pays off one of the fourth season’s story arcs.  Missing most of the games to focus on Spike is far from the disaster that sounds like on paper, since we still see the one important race and are spared from contrivances which previously hurt Fall Weather Friends.  This gives off a feeling of actually being there and trying to catch events around everything else going on.  Any attempts at characterization don’t really go anywhere and the lesson isn’t exactly shown, but Polsky still probably did all he could with the premise.  Spike still needs a show that doesn’t revolve around his idiocy, but at least he finds some pride here.  Polsky is strong enough to make Equestria Games watchable, but the episode doesn’t solve nearly as much as it purports.