@Ihhh  
Hitchcock. Never mind. Not everypony’s level of culture knowledge is as advanced as, er, 90% of all DB users. lol
 
What happened in the former two references is reminiscent of what Bugs Bunny does on a regular basis: Dress in disguise which almost always fools the antagonist du jour. Obviously, the latter third is not as cartoony as the former first and second. However, all three fit under subcategories of the one category: Mistaken Identity.
 
Oh, completely forgot: Clark Kent and Superman. Cartoons sure are stupid. XD

@thps48  
The fuck?

@Ihhh  
I see, then North by Northwest. :)

@thps48  
I do not know what you’re talking about. Don’t assume everyone has played the same games.

@Ihhh  
It’d have been easily passed off as cartoon logic were that the case, lol. Kind of like Shadow the Hedgehog and Shadow Mario framing their respective rivals. XD

@Scpx  
You must be a very nitpicky individual. It would not be worth it to get upset had this detail not been there.

This isn’t the kind of thing that makes me go “oh, so nice they added that detail” but rather; had they not put it, would make me upset. It really got you three times? it isn’t that hard to notice, really.

@Pagan  
yep, also the only help he got was with another dragon who he in return helped as well by them covering each others weaknesses, eg. spike can’t fly and ember doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head.

@Daneasaur  
This^
 
I agree this was the first time Spike actually did something deserved of his title.

@Ihhh  
All right, fine, you want an explanation, here it is, since you obviously won’t shut up about it, and hey, as you said, it’s not breaking any site rules.
 
Spike doesn’t do anything to warrant being the “champion of the crystal empire” any more than the rest of the others there, and in fact, did the least of the 4 who were working on the problem directly. The 4 being Spike, twilight, Shining armor, and cadance.
 
Shining Armor fought off Sombra when the gang arrived and had his magic locked up, rendering him unable to fight for the rest of the situation, but he saved all 7 of the ponies and went on to comfort his wife.
 
Cadance held the WHOLE city under a bubble of peace and love, and for even a moment’s break, she would make the whole city crumble to sombra. She’s in perpetual action since before the episodes start.
 
twilight gets into the castle, remembers the dark magic to open the secret passage, finds the secret staircase to the crystal heart and even finds a way to get there faster than normally possible to give sombra less time for his takeover bid.
 
Spike pushed twilight away from the boobytrap of the dark door twilight accidentally opened before falling into it himself. Then he fell to certain death along with the crystal heart when twilight threw it to him.
 
The only reason spike wasn’t impaled on crystals or left as a smear on the ground was because shining armor tossed cadance, who grabbed the heart AND spike and returned the heart safely.
 
The only thing spike did of merit was the booby trap, and even that is simply a natural reaction to your friend spouting off nonsense while looking at something weird.
 
Spike did nothing that cadance or the townsfolk could have seen that would have warranted their appraisal, much less declare him the “hero of the crystal empire”, who is to be lavished and respected with giant crystal sculptures or immortalized in stained glass.
 
He did more in equestria games, but that was a stupid setup in the first place as it was like stocking a kitchen with tons of flammable items, cooking bacon without any pot lids, and no fire extinguishers in sight. So what did he do? What someone with magic would have done, but the writers couldn’t think of spike doing anything that someone else couldn’t do better, forcing EVEN THE PRINCESSES TO BE HOLDING THE IDIOT BALL.
 
What if it was an invading army? A rogue electrical storm instead of just an ice chunk? Anything OTHER than something that could be melted into a harmless substance? It’s a stupid situation and a stupid episode because it’s playing off of “the arrogance spike gained from his fame of being the hero of the crystal empire”, except that he’s NOT. Cadance was, in front of EVERYONE, and technically Shining Armor as well. Twilight wasn’t seen by them AND NEITHER WAS SPIKE’S ONLY ACT THAT MATTERED.
 
It didn’t matter that he AND the heart fell off the castle. He could have dropped the heart and the events would have played out the same. He could have not caught it and it bounced off the side and again, cadance would have caught it. He played no part in that.
 
THIS episode is far different. Spike doesn’t try to do something stupid, he goes there, gets his glow turned off, and has every ability to leave. Instead, because he knew that whoever got the title would most likely lead an attack, he participates. First thing he does is stop to save a dragon who was knocked out and fell into the ocean with a full suit of armor on. Turns out to be Ember. He convinces her to work together with him and she agrees. In the end, she and he fight off Garble and prevent him from getting the staff. This was all stuff that he chose to do on his own and was not forced upon him by someone hiding in the bushes.
 
The only question comes in at the fact that Garble was pinned under a rock, but there comes a question. Spike moved the rock effortlessly. Garble didn’t seem to be able to move it, yet spike can’t do anything physically to Garble during the fight, other than pull his ear/fin.
 
Is Spike naturally much stronger than the other dragons? Would make sense if he was an earthdragon, though his lack of reach and small body mass mean he’s unable to get to Garble before he is picked up and tossed aside.
 
Then again, his strength seems to fluctuate and he can be weak or strong, depending on the context.

@Daneasaur  
I broke no site rules.

@Ihhh  
I SAID, take it to the PMs, or are you incapable of following simple rules?

@Daneasaur  
That’s not what you accused me of.

@Ihhh  

 
@Ihhh
 
This qualifies as bringing a previous argument that was dropped into a new image.
 
I suggest you drop it now.
 
If you REALLY want to continue, PM me, don’t clutter images.

@Daneasaur  
I never “chased” you here. Don’t claim I did things you have no proof that I did. You simply happened to make a comment that I disagreed with on an image that I was subscribed to.

@TehMaster  
Garble, aka Mister Third Place. I’m hoping for a contested Dragon Convention come summer.

@Daneasaur  
spike for dragon lord 2016
 
ember for dragon lord 2016
 
who will you vote for?

@Background Pony #57D0  
I’m not arguing this topic, ihhh chased me onto this topic to try and start it all up again.
 
ANYWAY
 
Yeah, Spike chose to stay, Spike chose to save Ember and to push for friendship with her, and helped her deal with Garble. That wasn’t pushing from his incognito pals, those were things he did on his own.

@Daneasaur  
@Ihhh  
If y’all want to continue this, please do so via private messages, or in >>1132303 where there’s already a pages-long discussion, or somewhere in the forums, or under some pointless/drama-bait image.

@Ihhh  
“Barely”
 
Hehe sure he did.

@Daneasaur  
And in this episode, he did only Barely save equestrian himself. You’re being a massive hypocrite.

@Daneasaur  
It’s ok, we all have something in the past we want to leave behind.

@Ihhh  
Because he DID only barely help the crystal empire.
 
Also, I left that drama on that other submission. You’re the one choosing to bring it to this one.

@Daneasaur  
So you complain about spike supposedly only barely helping same the crystal empire, but in this case, it’s ok? DOn’t be a hypocrite.

Now that I think on it, this is a time where Spike actually DID save Equestria.
 
Had he not been there, Ember would have drowned and Garble would have gotten to the Scepter, which would lead to him forming the dragons to lead an attack on equestria.
 
Spike saved Ember, who he worked together with to reach the chamber, and who he helped fight off Garble with.