Anon 05/23/2020 (Sat) 05:54:38 No.6073 del
Dragon Quest, similar to last episode, I think has some interesting dynamics even if I have some questions of its execution (though this ep has a lower potential). Storywise I consider it to be okay on paper but the dragons are rather uncompelling as antagonists. They are extremely generic, just archetypes over personality. I still enjoyed the ponies in this and still enjoyed how the dragons were presented as a mysterious and scary in the first part but there wasn't much to follow up. The main controversy around this episode though is obviously its moral. I actually remember seeing people back in the day connecting this to race more than masculinity, but it is clearly the second one they were going for here. The teenage dragons are supposed to represent stereotypical negative male behavior. The point of the moral is that Spike's more pony, more feminine, behavior is not a side of himself that he should reject but embrace and that such masculine traits maybe negative. How bad is that moral? Well, while I dislike the constant portrayal of all masculine traits now days in some circles as being bad I'm not sure this was written with that type of feminist intent even if it was written with a critical eye to masculinity. I actually think it was written still under a mindset of being a girls show toward the young boys watching it and maybe feeling insecure. It makes a lot more sense to me looking it as "It's okay to be girlish! A lot of the boys are mean anyway!". Extreme stereotypical behavior and simplistic morality are used in children stories all the time and I think fandom (along with many adults with other childrens media) often forgot this. It why I have such a hard time judging such childlike sudden shifts in morality as bad as it is in service of the lesson and to make it easy to understand.* I still find the lesson questionable and I would probably have preferred a bit more nuance but that is what I bet their mindset was.

Overall I consider this episode below average. 5/10 I think it was somewhat lackluster with a questionable moral but it should be judged under a childhood storytelling lens and not under as a racist attack or coordinated feminist attack against masculinity unless somepony can find me evidence otherwise.


*though there is a very strong counterpoint that as the series progressed it did often show greater nuance and that it makes some things puzzling and stupid when they would lean back into that level of writing.

Other notes:

I think it is a shame that Peewee wasn't included in the rest of the series as it could have been used as a arc of Spike learning of adulthood and responsibility. Wouldn't that have been a cooler Spike and Apple Jack episode in Season 3?

I still enjoyed the dragon costume and found those brief moments funny.

Does this contradict me saying that lands felt distant and that now everything just feels a train ride away? I don't think it does completely as it never was established how long Spike traveled and that it was still treated as dangerous and far away.