Was talking about the episode, and something hit me. Something that makes me think I may have been overly harsh on some of the writers for how they've treated Spike in the past.
Spike in this episode was extremely mature and competent. Scarily so for his age. Gets challenged to become the Dragon Lord? He immediately points out that he doesn't want to become the Dragon Lord, and decides to go back home. Ponies in danger? Spike decides to ignore the risk to himself and the possibility he'll have to leave his friends in order to protect them. Swims to the island when he can't fly, saves a drowning dragon, then when Garble gets crushed by a rock, Spike saves him (demonstrating a lot of strength in the process). Pretty much single handedly sells Princess Ember on the concept of friendship.
Which was great, don't get me wrong, and it's not out of character for Spike either; he's often the cool and straightheaded one in episodes that aren't about him, like when he notified Celestia in lesson zero, or the one that always keeps Twilight on track/remembers her old friends when she doesn't. But if it becomes a constant thing, then I think it makes the mane 6 look pretty bad beside him. Well, except maybe AJ, who shares Spike's role as the rational thinker and straight-pony.
Eh, maybe I'm overthinking this, but I can't help but think if the writers always treat Spike this way, it'll be kind of unpleasant having the much younger male character be so much more mature than most of the show's supposedly adult female characters. At the very least, it does make me appreciate all those past Spike episodes a little more; yeah, it seems like he gets demoted to inept comic relief with every one, but part of that is just because he was written so competently/as an adult instead of a kid in many episodes that weren't about him.
PaulloDEC wrote:As far as we know, Equestria is a nation, but we also know that at least *some* dragons live in "mainland" Equestria.
I guess the bit we really don't know is where Equestria's borders lie. Is Yakyakistan a region within Equestria? Would the Yaks recognise is as being so? How about the Griffons? Their land is connected via rails, which we can only assume were laid by ponies.
The Dragon homeland is the only area on the map not connected by either rails or a land bridge (as far as we've been shown on a map), so are they a special case?
Many mysteries yet to be solved.
Actually, five year comment coming back, in Dragonshy Applejack asks "What is a full grown dragon doing in Equestria?"
Which maps perfectly to this episode, where the Dragon Lord calls them the dragons of Equestria but they're all kids.