@CronoM
Even then, they could have expanded on that moment instead of pretending it didn’t happen.

@CronoM
And that’s where Sparky comes in.

@nightshroud96
I partially agree with you. Here’s my take:

Spike is not a new element, the one Stygian was supposed to be, and the one Sunset succeeded in being. However,
I would not of been averse of them making it that way instead of constantly making him ‘the team water boy’.

More over, I wish they established that Spike was always the other half of the element of magic, that Twilight would never have awoken as the element of magic without Spike in her life, and as the magic of friendship grew, the more Twilight realized she couldn’t do it unless Spike was wielding it with her.

While to a lesser extent, I feel like this is a natural occurrence for Twilight Sparkle as even though Sci-Twi dealt with more internal backlash from her powers, one of the first ‘accidents’ of her power was making dog Spike completely sentient and able to talk.

Putting Spike in with the last harmony blast was one of those ‘too little, too late’ win moments. Like, its a win for the character, but without it being set up, it just becomes ‘well that’s a thing that happened’. With Sunset, by the 3rd and 4th movie, we KNOW a 7th colored element just for her exists in the human world’s Tree of Harmony, that her power in Rainbow Rocks wasn’t a fluke, even though its unexplored territory cause she’s the first user.

The showrunners plowed through past any character arcs that would of made Twilight grow and/or make obvious she may or may not be not the right person to rule Equestria with her current mindset on her own, and to do that, they under played Spike’s significance in Twilight’s life and the life of the main characters in general.

….

As for G5…..that’s just a big can of worms isn’t it? We find out all of Equestria fell apart after Twilight became princess. And it might have happened during most of their lifetimes (maybe, maybe not, we don’t know yet how similar the comics and show are yet)

Like, is anyone surprised? Everything about making Twilight the princess with very little character development (no fights with Celestia, no big introspection on what she wants, not what Celestia wants), would we be surprised she fell short in keeping the kingdom together or let things fall apart after her friends died of old age, if that was the scenario?

No. Its horrible, but its not surprising. (But what’s the message here if the showrunners had that much confidence in the ending scenario of G4 that Equestria fell apart some time later in G5? Was G4 one big punchline?)

Spike and other reliable characters were marginalized to speedrun Twilight into being the ruler of ALL equestria which almost NO ONE thought she was ready for. In a show called ‘Friendship is Magic’, a single person was put on a pedestal while her friends, especially Spike, were marginalized in comparison.

Everything in G4 is gone in G5. And yeah, if Spike and the others weren’t marginalized so much, I bet it could of been avoided.

At this point, I’d be willing to accept a complete time travel arc in G5 to save G4’s era and set things straight, even if it means their future is different. Time travel is a drastic story move but with what G5 did, it might be necessary.

@CronoM
No, since he is synced now means he is part of their bond now.
It makes no sense for him to be back to be excluded. He IS needed now(especially when Twilight used ALL the groups).

The fact the Season 10 comics outright ignored the fact Spike is part of the Element now instead of touching on it just.. felt like they undid things for Spike and that really.. left me feel so crappy.
They undid one of the things the season 9 finale did right. And Gen 5 is worsening that major disrespect they did to Spike.

I know its been a couple of months but I need to reply anyway.

@nightshroud96
Just because he CAN sync up with the element of magic with Twilight, symbolically being Twilight’s better half (since that girl has never gotten her head on straight if we’re going to be honest), doesn’t mean its required.

I mean, even Spike the Dog is actively using Harmony Magic to speak thanks to Twilight, even if it was by accident.

If we take both events for both Spikes into consideration, Spike shares a symbiotic relationship with Twilight and her element…but he is unfairly not required with Twilight’s presence completely dominant.

Worst case scenario, the element of magic merely sees both Spikes as Twilight’s familiar. Ugh. I hate to even think about that.

If we want to cite unbalanced uses of the elements of harmony, we can go to the tree of harmony growing with 6 elements after Stygian was rejected by the group despite being the obvious 7th member, (while 7 elements secretly grew in the human world version of Everfree, which Everfeee was established to work more on human world rules besides its own wild magic, but that’s speculation for another day), Luna and Celestia controlling all 6 on their own for Discord and other things, and Celestia using all 6 on Luna.

…

I’m not saying the main Spike shouldn’t qualify for the element of Empathy, its just that he was never given the chance. Being empathetic isn’t the only qualification for getting the rarest element.

Stygian and Sunset were similar in that they both tiptoed the line of seeing the benefits of being good and using dark methods, even if they ultimately thought they could use it to be just. Stygian fell into darkness, got trapped in limbo, then once he was finally dragged out of that pit, he swore off the warrior of harmony life for good, LONG after his other six friends became the Pillars. Sunset did not swear off the Element life with the Humane 5 and 6.

Spike is a growing dragon with incredible greed, fire and inner power for his age. Him being a glorified servant for most of his life along with the greed factor could of been an easy path to him growing up to around Smolder’s age between seasons and having his own struggles with repressed anger. Heck, one time he burned a leaf or feather in his hand just by getting furious, no breath needed.

He could easily have been given way more character development and a greater role. But the writers decided, NAAAAH.

Not the outcome I wanted either, trust me.

DA CAT CREW IS HERE!

@CronoM
Then he should have been included in the comics’ final laser.
If he can sync up with the Elements, he IS part of the Bearers now. Like wouldn’t invoking that huge laser again would trigger him to “sync” up again?

Didn’t Spike shown Empathy anyway due to how he empathized with other beings like Thorax?
In fact he went through alot of crap, he might have been bottling it up for so long.

@nightshroud96
No one is doubting that Spike has been with her forever.

At the very most, you could argue that Spike is to a minor extent the ‘better’ half of Twilight as the Element of Magic (cause lets be totally honest, that girl ain’t right. -in Hank Hill’s voice.) She’s an incurable brown-noser to Celestia who lives to meet her expectations, and she almost never got any positive development on that front. Twilight wouldn’t survive without Spike’s grounded common sense.

The most likely answer, however, is that he merely synced with the other 6’s elements and simply boosted it with his own spirit after being with them for so long.

Speaking of which, Celestia and Luna are not here either, despite wielding the elements.

It’s not impossible to synchronize with the elements without being true bearers that represent a single defined element.

And we never learn the significance of their marks on the tree of harmony because the show was too afraid to give them a real backstory.

There is no 7th element in Equestria presently…as far as we can tell, the prior champions of the elements failed the most obvious potential bearer of it, Stygian, and not wanting to be outdone by her master, Celestia let her relationship with Luna go to hell until she had to banish her for a thousand years.

There is a certain lack of balance, empathy and understanding of dark or twisted emotions in Equestia, its in ways TOO happy. Spike was never allowed to grow and walk Stygian’s path but without falling to darkness for nigh eternity. Spike never gets the element of empathy.

While we never learn the ‘secret’ bully Sunset alluded to about the link between Celestia, the elements, and the mirror, the secret she mocked Twilight that Celestia never told her about it despite becoming an alicorn….

….the fact remains that Sunset walked the path of darkness, came back a wiser and better person in spades, and earned the elusive 7th element, which combined at max power summons something so close to a god it could clearly defeat every threat in Equestria in every season with ease.

Plays “Knight of the Wind” by Crush 40 on boombox XD

@Phoenixflambe
The thing is Spike was literally by her side.
Like when Twilight moved out and lived in Celestia’s area(and then Ponyville), Spike was with her.
While Shining Armor and others no longer lived with her.

Hell, Spike was by her side since he was born.

Danu looks exactly like grogar because of the blue color

@nightshroud96
You can put Velvet, Night Light Shining, Cadence and Flurry in and they’ll glow too.

@Phoenixflambe
The fact he was included in the rainbow laser in the show’s finale meant something.

Like he wasn’t included in the previous times(despite being close to Twilight all of his life).
So he has to be a Bearer now.

So Student Six are indeed the newest carriers of harmony.

EVERYONE IS HERE!

@nightshroud96
He’s just close to Twilight, other than that, he’s irrelevant. He’s not the 7th element. If anything Sunny probably is

@Phoenixflambe
There wasn’t really controversy when Spike ended up being included in the show’s final rainbow laser.
And I am pretty sure there was many Spike fans that liked that he was finally included. So its a problem the comics essentially backpedaled on that.

@Background Pony #0058
He asks about the same guys too. They won’t pander to one person for what’s considered a controversial idea by many.

I don’t count S10 as cannon, because it goes directly against the message of season 9: “You don’t need demigods, omnipotent creatures from another universe, or mystical mcguffins, the true power of friendship comes from within.”

@Background Pony #062F
Here’s the thing.
If a creature was included in firing the rainbow laser, then that magic/connection to the Elements exists in them.
It doesn’t work if someone is included but isn’t linked at all.
Its like saying a earth pony firing a magical beam but apparently has no magic or item to do so. It makes no freaking sense.
So Spike being included means he is a Bearer now. They should have touched on this instead of pretending it didn’t happen(by excluding him like that). It leaves a gaping hole that can’t be overlooked.
Like a gear in a machine now missing.

The S10 is now part of the G4 lore. Which is thus embedded in the background of the G5 world. If it was a memory-spelling spell that had hit the whole world, I hope the whole case around Cunabula will be gone forever. The movie has shown us technology that is only possible with a global society, and this which the element bearers have brought together, may have formed the basis for it. An empire based on friendship and mutual respect such as cooperation, “Friendship Empire”, will thus not be unnatural. Actually, this is necessary for the G5 to be possible. We know from the last episode in S9 that Abyssinia and Caninia had ongoing negotiations which indicate that they are brought very close to each other even though they are located on separate continents.

…is how you are choosing to interpret that scene, but it’s not something that actually happens. Nowhere in the actual show is any of what you’re claiming stated or even acknowledged.

It’s fine to interpret a scene a certain way, but when you do so you need to also accept that sometimes a way you interpret something in a text might be later superseded or contradicted by other developments in the text. And if that happens, it’s you that was wrong, not the text.

@Background Pony #062F
No, its not because of physically being close enough.
Spike was included in there for a reason. The magic that is in the girls and other groups is also in Spike as well.
Physically being close to beings that can fire the rainbow laser doe equate that.

Its not freaking silly in being aggravated that they screwed things up by contradicting what was shown.
Its not a headcanon, Spike IS a Bearer now. The magic that manifests the rainbow laser is now in him too.
The main problem is they didn’t explain why now and now they made it worse by excluding him from this one.
Basically instead of touching on why Spike is now included, they added even more confusion by not having him included in this one.
He IS a bearer now, but the question is why is it happening now in that show’s finale.

I’m doubtful that Season 10 will have any relevancy on G5.