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I didn't think Saturday's episode,
Dragon Quest, was all that bad on the whole. Some of it was contrived and overly ridiculous of course, but there were plenty of redeeming moments. But I was really bothered by the way the moral was presented at the end. If it had been something like "you don't need to pretend to be something you aren't just to fit in," I'd have been fine with it. But the lesson Spike learned seemed to be more along the lines of "being a dragon is a bad thing, and you should be happy to be an honorary pony." I know I'm over-analyzing to a ridiculous degree, but that sounds to me way too much like the exhortations once foisted upon African-Americans to "act less black" on the grounds that all aspects of white American culture were superior and that speaking, walking, or praying "like a black" was less than acceptable. The fact that there were (and are) plenty of examples of violence and inhumanity in African-American culture doesn't excuse this line of thinking, which paints an entire race and racial identity with the same sweeping brushstroke, and to me the fact that Spike hooked up with a half-dozen jerks doesn't excuse him or the ponies for deciding that "acting like a dragon" invariably means being a violent, abusive monster.
Or maybe it just says something about me that that's the first place my mind went. In any case, my review of
Celestia's Teeth by Abalidoth, after the break.
