@hironakamura 
Spike is a dragon born through pony magic. Saying he’s not like the others is perfectly true.
 
As for the other ponies, they were talking about the dragons who beat them up and tried to burn them to death. Yet they’re oh-sho horrible for being upset—at the ones who attacked them?

So you’re saying its a contrived plot? No way, how can this plot where characters refuse to do things that would easily fix the problem if they did them but don’t to keep the conflict going be contrived?

I think this is relevant.
 
https://youtu.be/uKnTfl5C2bM?t=1m25s

@Evowizard25 
The story isn’t deliberately trying to be racist. Lol. They’re just using bad plot devices and it comes off as racist.
 
Spike needs to be painted as a hero but how do you motivate him? Easy. You dumb down his pony friends, make them insensitive so he gets pissed and decides to do something about it. Instant hero.
 
Its not a bad idea. Its just jarring because not even one single pony is sensitive to Spike’s perspective. I hope Pinkie is going to be the pony that fixes the execution of the plot device because showing just 1 pony sensitive to Spike’s plight immediately makes the ponies not racist towards dragons.
 
That line that Twi says about dragons while Spike is right in front of her is the most racist thing she can do. Its because she forgot Spike IS a dragon who is raised by ponies.
 
Twi: But Spike, you’re not like them. 
Spike: Oh there’s a “them” now?
 
Lol. Zootopia reference.

I hope Pinkie helps fix all this with Spike and it isn’t too bad.

@hironakamura 
But Spike… and? All I’m refuting is this comes from a narrow minded view of the ponies or that what Twilight pondering instincts of another species is inherently wrong. Yes, they are both sapient. Yes, they are both equal in that sense and no, all those things do play a part in what makes us who we are. “But Spike” doesn’t mean anything when he has been raised by another culture and has had his dragon biology come into effect {Secret of My Excess}. He doesn’t act like dragons because he was not raised by dragons. That doesn’t mean they aren’t equal on the species level. They are just different.

@Evowizard25  
Lol.
 
>Dragons aren’t ponies. They are a seperate species with millions of years of divergence. Not even in the same bloody family tree. Not even with the same dietary or behavioral habits. Comparing the two does not work
 
But Spike.
 
>That aside, she has every right to ponder the behavioral makeup of another SPECIES
 
But Spike.
 
>Ponies and dragons are not the same.
 
But Spike.
 
EDIT: In case you didn’t get it, Spike is biologically a dragon but he was raised by ponies. The bottom line is, both dragons and ponies are intelligent. If they can reason, they’re equals. Genetics, biology, culture, doesn’t matter. If they can reason with each other, they’re equals.

@hironakamura 
That……. That isn’t even comparable. Dragons aren’t ponies. They are a seperate species with millions of years of divergence. Not even in the same bloody family tree. Not even with the same dietary or behavioral habits. Comparing the two does not work because dragons of western mythology were naturally aggressive. There were exceptions to this, as some dragons of western mythology weren’t assholes, but generally that was the case so this does play into how they are portrayed in mythology.
 
That aside, she has every right to ponder the behavioral makeup of another SPECIES as that could help her. Even if said species can actively not partake in their instincts, that doesn’t mean that all will and the dragons under Ember’s command are wild dragons. They are aggressive and on a few occasions, shown tendency to attack and kill their own kind.
 
That said, comparing a pony pondering a dragons make up to a HUMAN pondering another HUMAN’s make up is stupid because the second is idiotic since both are of the same bloody species. They have the same instincts. They have the same general genetic code. Ponies and dragons are not the same.

@Dustcan 
Lol. And at the same time she does this.
 
Twi: She is a dragon. They’re naturally aggressive. Perhaps warring is in their make up.
 
Lol. You’re black. You’re naturally a violent person. Perhaps committing crimes is in your make up. Lol. That’s how it literally sounded to me and I’m not even black.

@hironakamura 

 
That’s literally what Twilight’s been doing for 4 pages straight.
 
And I quote: “What sacred bond?”

@Evowizard25 
Of course they’re narrow minded. Its due to plot contrivance. Twilight is obviously smart enough to know that Ember must have a reason to attack the yaks but she’s not focusing on that. Why? Because the writer wants Spike to be the hero and be the one to focus on that. Lol. Ember isn’t just a dragon. She is a dragon that they knew and talked to once and even considered as a friend. She’s not attacking out of “instinct.” There is a “reason” that she’s not stating for story telling purposes.
 
The only reason why this looks racist is not because the dragons are being lumped together as savages but because all the ponies are being insensitive. It could easily be fixed if the ponies were arguing among themselves. Some saying the dragons are savage monsters while some are saying “there’s a reason why they’re attacking.” But no. 100% of the ponies are all on the same side while Spike is the only one thinking straight. Well, at least until Pinkie comes into play. I read she may play a part in this story.

@hironakamura
 
Second verse same as the first. A bunch of dragons who shunned what little culture dragons supposedly had in favor of trying to be something other than dragons.
 
Speaking of, I’ve really been hoping that this issue brings up Dragontown if at least in passing. Would be nice to know if Ember’s authority is recognized there or what kind of relationship they have to the rest of the race.

@hironakamura 
Narrow mindedness? They call the dragons attacking an ally jerks at worst. They are at war, basically. I think they are at least present to call an opponent ‘mean’. If we don’t take into account the dragon colony, then Dustcan has a point. If we do, well, those dragons of the colony didn’t seem to like other dragons or at least didn’t want to be like them. So then that puts dragons Ember is ruling as, well, jerks at the least.

@Dustcan 
What about that entire dragon colony living among ponies? I thought this comic continuity had that in existance.

@hironakamura
 
Not exactly. Spike’s an example of Token Heroic Orc; a common trope that shows that there can be exceptions to a race’s stereotype without necessarily proving said stereotype wrong.

@cheezedoodle 
I think this can only apply if said fictional species was universally depicted as so in fiction. The problem with this idea is in MLP, dragons are not all represented like this as a whole because Spike exists. What’s even worse is they have a dragon colony living among ponies. If Spike and that colony doesn’t exist, then yeah, the ponies can fear dragons as nothing suggests that they shouldn’t.
 
The fact that the story is depicting Spike to be offended by the pony’s narrow mindedness suggests he’s proud of being a dragon and doesn’t appreciate his species being bad mouthed as monsters by his pony friends. If you take Spike out of existence from this story, then no one is gonna look at the ponies being racist.

@Itsthinking 
Dwarves and elves. Racism, classism, cultural prejudice, isolationism, et cetera. X3

@cheezedoodle 
It doesn’t have to be an allegory for real-world races to be racist. You can make a whole world with unique lore and stuff and still have one group within it that dislikes/distrusts another.

My point is these are fantasy species inspired by real-world or mythological creatures. I would expect them to have certain tendencies. Giving them instinctual tendencies and having them be prominent governors of their behavior is not racist.
 
Mythological griffons eat horses. They were also said to be guardians of treasure. Thus if I were creating a fantasy species based on them, I’d expect it to be perfectly natural for ponies to find it awfully hard to make friends with them, and that they would tend to be greedy or suspicious of outsiders. Being aware of these characteristics in-universe is not racist or “treating them like animals.”
 
Mythological dragons hoard treasure, terrorize human settlements, and live in the mountains. Thus if I were creating a fantasy species based on them, I’d expect them to be instinctually aggressive, xenophobic, and untrusting. Being aware of these characteristics in-universe is not racist or “treating them like animals.”
 
The three diamond dogs in the show are just stereotypical bullies with dog traits. They’re good at digging, and they seem to have claimed the gem mines simply as a source of wealth rather than as any particular instinctual trait. We don’t get an actual picture of their civilization in the show, so you can’t really judge what they’re like.
 
As evowizard mentioned, horses are skittish (cue flower trio). They are also herd creatures who seek safety in numbers. Making friends is a great way to increase your numbers, so it’s only natural that such herd creatures would tend to be more gregarious and outgoing, once they get to know you. This isn’t “save the savages from themselves” so much as it’s a way for the ponies to have a safer, more stable world for everyone.

@Itsthinking 
… In this comic? Where Twilight just idly ponders if Instincts played a part in their active choice of declaring war? A person is free to ponder another’s choices, whether based on instinct or based on intelligence and I don’t think Twilight is in the wrong to actively do so since it is her right because honestly, both play a part in how a species will conduct themselves in peace and in war. {Said moment also had Twilight remark that she forgot Spike was a dragon… something she has never done in the show, so even then this doesn’t actively show the best representation of Twilight.} Doing so does not commit to Twilight thinking they are non-sapient animals.
 
I should be noted that all biological creatures are animals, including humans. We are just sapient animals, the same with the ponies and dragons here and instincts are still a factor. They are not the main driving force, but they still have influence.

@Evowizard25 
That they think it is instinct despite it not being.

Lol. All this makes me remember that old G1 Transformers episode where they had to go to a middle eastern country called Carbombya. Lol.

@Itsthinking 
Also, the allegorical undertones the show often uses. Not always racism, but Dogs are allegorically college men, minotaurs are big chain gym trainers, griffons are, eh, synonymous with yaks somewhat thinking of it, don’t got an allegory for them except Isreal, but anyway, dragons are well, teens, which is obviously due to the limited information on dragon lore. <w<

@Itsthinking 
He was talking about the Real World(TM).

@Itsthinking 
Animals? Where are you getting this from?