YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S8 E24 "Father Knows Beast"

• Accidental Aesop: As demonstrated with the argument between Sludge and Smolder, just because one kind of person you meet is a jerk doesn't mean they're all jerks. Just because someone lazy and manipulative like Sludge came along doesn't mean he represents the dragon population as a whole.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did everyone buy into Sludge's Blatant Lies? Or were they just humoring Spike until it was clear how toxic their relationship was?
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Between Sludge's bad lying and his transparent ruse to mooch off Spike's castle life, it's no surprise that Sludge is not Spike's father. Even Twilight had to admit that she wasn't surprised.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Spike's alleged mother in Sludge's fake flashback. Given her lovely design and seeming Nice Girl status (especially by Dragon standards), quite a few fans hope that that's how she really was/is.
• Squick: The scene where Twilight accidentally intrudes on Sludge wearing nothing but a bathrobe in bed grossed out many viewers on account of the mature implications combined with Sludge being generally unattractive.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Some people who hate Starlight Glimmer laughed when Sludge threw her out the window while she was still taking a bath.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Unreveal regarding Spike's parentage. Even if he is secure in being a pony in a dragon's body, Spike never pursued out of curiosity and closure to find out where his egg came from and who his biological parents are, and how his egg ended up in Canterlot.
  • If Sludge wasn't lying, it could have given a compelling Morality conflict, Worldbuilding and answers to questions fans have waited the whole series for. He was, meaning the episode amounts to nothing that it hasn't already covered. Following up on that, the Mane Six and Smolder could have confronted him to make him spill the beans about how he knew the finer details of Spike's life and possibly any clues to his real parents.
    • Even better, it could've lead in to a spiel from Spike to Sludge about what a dead-beat the latter is, missing out on so many milestones in Spike's life (from hatching to sprouting wings) for someone who is the young dragon's "father".
  • Spike could've overheard Sludge slip up about his true nature, then come crying to Twilight about what he found out. Twilight could've confronted Sludge and, threatening him with all the powers of an alicorn vested in her, given him a Sadistic Choice similar to the "Scale Collectors": Either Sludge can be imprisoned for fraud (but still have visitation rights for his "son"), or he can be forbidden from seeing Spike again (therefore banishing him from the castle). In an ironic twist, Sludge chooses his freedom/banishment as opposed to his Heroic Sacrifice in his story.
  • Although it was heart-warming enough Spike acknowledged Twilight as his family, it would've been further heart-warming for Spike to call Twilight his "Mom". It could have been used as an interesting call-back to Sludge's story, given that Sludge said Spike's mom was sweet and scholarly^note spending a long time mapping a migration route sounds like some of Twilight's past geeking out about things like being present for a dragon migration or ritual... like Twilight.

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