Gauntlet of Fire review

Enter the Dragon

These reviews do contain spoilers

If anybody saw my review for season five of FiM, then you should know there was one character who I found to be disappointing; Spike. It wasn't because he was badly written or horribly out of character. He was written well in the last season, but the problem was that he was just not used well. He was only given one episode last season where it resulted in our favorite dragon being put right in the middle of a huge idiot plot. Needless to say, I was very disappointed with what they did with Spike last season.

However, this Spike episode we got not only gives another chance for Spike to be awesome, but it also goes back to looking at dragons. Now if you remember in season two of the show, there was an episode called Dragon's Quest.  A lot of people despise that episode for various reasons; awful plot points, bad characterization of the Mane 6 and how they treated Spike, and the dragons themselves felt generic and stereotypical with no real characterization. I myself am in the category where this episode is kind of a guilty pleasure to me. I can understand the problems with this episode and I do think that they didn't do enough to build the world of dragons. However, I am not in the boat where I find this episode to be one of the worst episodes ever. Anyone who has read my Top 15 Worst Episodes of FiM would know there are worse Spike episodes out there.

But even with this episode, people have already drawn similarities to this one and Dragon's Quest. So can this episode give us a better insight look into dragons? Will Garble return again and cause trouble for Spike? Will Spike have a bad ass moment again? Let us all find those answers as we dive into the Gauntlet of Fire.

Spike is called by the Dragon Lord, Torch, to come to the Dragon Lands and has to compete to become the new Dragon Lord. The Dragon Lord commands and basically acts like the ruler of all dragons everywhere. At first, Spike doesn't want to after receiving the summons, but decides to compete after he learns that a lot of dragons are going to duel horrible things to Equestria. So it's up to Spike to save the day and his friends from danger.

One of the problems with Dragon Quest was that there was no real world building for dragons in general. Gauntelt of Fire manages to start exploring more on the world of dragons. There's the glow Spike gets, which is actually explained by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna that it's the Dragon Lord summoning it. There's some nice lay out about how being Dragon Lord works as well. It's a rather interesting choice as to how the ruler of dragons is chosen. I was expecting something along the lines of dragons being like a monarchy or something.  It's nice to see something unique and interesting with how dragons work.

The overall land of dragons is just what you would expect from dragons themselves; a rather gloomy wasteland. I really like the overall design of the Dragon Lands. It's a wasteland, yes, but it also has some nice designs and makes it stand out on its own. The overall place and feel of the Dragon Lands gives it this nice atmosphere of dragons in general. It's dark, firey, and foreboding.

Even the dragons themselves are a lot better designed. In Dragon Quest, we saw a couple, but this episode gives us some better looking ones. They all look unique and have their own looks that make them stand out on their own merits. We even get female dragons for the first time, and I am happy about that. The last couple of times we've seen dragons, they've been prominently male. This time, we get to see a few females in the group and I'm happy to see that.

One of these females is Dragon Lord Torch's daughter, Ember, who's name you shall remember, and wishes to become Dragon Lord herself. Torch doesn't want her to since it requires strength and power. She tries to follow that, but Spike is able to show her there's more to it than that. There's teamwork, helping others, and being supportive. All of this, she learns from Spike and slowly her character changes and grows. It should also be noted she acts a bit like a tsundere around Spike. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Speaking of Spike, this was some of his best characterization I have seen in quite a while. One of the general complaints about Spike episodes is that people say that he constantly feels he isn't worth much and wants to be respected more. While that's true to an extent, I don't really think Spike is like that all the time in his episodes. This episode though certainly will break that trend a lot of people see. Spike is intelligent, selfless, heroic, and isn't doing this for respect, but to protect all of Equestria and his friends. Spike shows how much he's grown in the show and he's actually pretty strategic in what he does.

He's not doing this for personal glory or fame; this is him being a hero and smart in winning the competition. He not only manages to get Ember to open up to being friends and show her there are better methods that dragons should follow, but also is strategic in what he does. He manages to come up with ways to avoid the obstacles. He doesn't give up on what he does and is determined to do everything he can to save his friends. Even when he is so close to getting the scepter to become Dragon Lord, he selflessly helps Ember to save his new friend. I think we can all agree this is some of the best Spike portrayal in the show yet.

Returning from Dragon Quest is Spike's foil, Garble. Like last time, Garble is still as much of a jerk as you remember. Though, oddly enough, he doesn't have any cronies to help him out this time around. I guess they decided to abandon him. Garble is still upset about what happened the last time he met Spike, and constantly mocks Spike the whole way through. It's nice to see this guy back again. Like before, Garble is pretty much the opposite of how Spike is with him being cruel, selfish, and hateful towards everything. Granted though he doesn't do a whole lot in this episode since the primary focus is on Spike and Ember, along with Twilight and Rarity, but it's nice to see him return and still cause trouble.

Now unlike Gilda's return in The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone, this episode doesn't reform Garble. Yes, Garble remains a villain and I am very happy about that. One of the things this show needs is a recurring villain and shouldn't be reforming all the villains. Garble is one of them and I think it leaves the door open for him to cause more trouble for Spike and all of Equestria. There's nothing wrong with reforming some villains to be good like Trixie, Diamond Tiara, and Discord, but we need some more common villains for the heroes to face. One thing that did surprise me though was that after Spike became Dragon Lord, he actually did bow to his new ruler. Goes to show that even if he is evil, Garble still respects the chain of command and who the leaders are. Though, I do admit, seeing him hug dragons was rather amusing to say the least.

Even at the end, Spike manages to give it all up for his friends. Thanks to his actions, he not only makes a new friend with Princess Ember, but also gets told by Twilight he has created an alliance with dragons and Equestria. So Spike not only manages to make friends with a new ruler of the Dragon Lands, he saves Equestria from a big disaster, uses strategic thinking in winning the competition, and shows he's a bad ass by taking on Garble and facing all the dangers of the competition. If this isn't some of Spike's best portrayal yet, I don't know what is then.

If we are to look at this episode as a sequel to Dragon Quest, this is a huge step up from that episode. This is a case where the sequel proves to be better than the original. It does Spike a lot of justice with this episode. I'd probably rank this episode up there with Equestria Games as the best Spike episode yet. It builds up the world of dragons and gives us a better look at them. The characters are written well and the new ones we see are memorable and fantastic. Spike has some of his best portrayal and characterization yet in this episode. Seeing Garble return was a nice touch. My only big complaint with this episode was that there was a lack of growth physically for Spike. I was hoping that somehow Spike would grow a bit more physically in terms of height or at least wings, but it seems that didn't happen again. I am kind of disappointed that didn't happen.

We aren't done with Spike yet either. Two more Spike episodes have already been confirmed, so there may be more awesomeness on the way. Hopefully, this episode can be built up and the next Spike episode can be just as awesome as this one is. Regardless of what you think of other Spike episodes, there is no denying that this is a good Spike episode. Even if you think episodes like Equestria Games, Power Ponies, and Inspiration Manifestation aren't that good, this is a solid Spike episode and brilliantly well done in pretty much every way.

FINAL SCORE: 9 out of 10 (A-)