Talk:Spike at Your Service/@comment-14570754-20130905024538/@comment-5216016-20140401145041

@ImperfectXIII (late reply, lol) It's kind of interesting that after he returns to Twilight he helps her without any complications. I know it was just a short scene at the end but still. So he really wasn't out of character because his role as TS's helper was the same as before.

So we should ask WHY helping AJ was any different. Maybe the writers didn't care about that and thought it was a small price to pay in exchange for a nice comical setup. Or maybe something WAS different. I think it was either the "obligation factor" you mentioned OR he just wasn't experienced in performing any of the new tasks. Working in a library and on a farm is pretty different after all. So let's see...when it comes to helping TS he can:

find books pretty fast (even the super-hidden ones), send letters with magical fire, write down midly-complex documents, be a lab rat for new spells... you know? This makes me realize we really haven't seen too much of his role as an assistant untill Owl's Well came around. There he was pretty competent in gathering stuff for the comet observation. But he did burn the book. So he did mess up, at least partially. And then he couldn't find a quill either. Also he was okay in baking pre-made cake but only with his breath.

He was pretty bad in taking care of the animals (twice - Dragonshy and Sidekicks)

Ok, season 2 - mopping the floor (?) (dunno, he was asleep. I guess it's safe to assume he was doing an okay job), finding books (again), taking care of checklists, writing down stuff (again), being a noteboard (Baby Cakes), serving sweets (dragon quest), ANOTHER mess up with the projector in Hurricane F.

Season 3 - pre-SAYS (Spike at your Service has a pretty cool acronym. :P) I haven't noticed to much help from him.

Ok, time for the recap of SAYS. He FAILED in: baking cake, cleaning up the kitchen and washing the plate. However, he WAS pretty successful in: washing the pig (ok, so he spilled the water on AB but the end result was satisfying), stacking the rocks for RD and counting the blades of grass. So... it was kind of 50-50! Three mess-ups and three successes.

So what we know is that he is fairly competent when it comes to helping a librarian (documents, books, gathering equipment, etc), doing stuff with his breath (sending letters, baking cake, being a lighter) and keeping the LIBRARY clean (Return of Harmony, Castle Mane-ia, Twilight Time.). When it comes to baking cake (Just for Sidekicks) we can't draw any conclusions since he never actually got around to making the dang cake. Who knows, it could've been pretty bad (For pony standards, at least). There's also taking care of the luggage during travels (Crystal Empire, Manehattan). We was okay with it in RTM but he DID mess up in the Crystal Empire. (when they came out of the train).

Oh, and opening the doors in Feeling Pinkie Keen was pretty clumsy too. (2 instances)

So! Outside SAYS I counted... 8 mess-ups.

I don't think we've seen him work in a kitchen enviroment outside SAYS, have we? (Bird in a hoof, doesn't really count).

He's somewhat prone to mess ups from time to time, he didn't have too much experience in a kitchen and being an excited kid who's playing his little "Dragon Code" make believe certainly didn't help the matters.

But yeah, if you think about it the 3 big mess-ups of SAYS did happen in a kitchen enviroment. Outside of it he was pretty okay in doing other tasks.

In conclusion, here are the 3 major reasons for his clumsiness in SAYS (besides being slightly prone to accidents normaly) - New kitchen/farm envitoment, being too excited to help for saving his life and playing his little Dragon Code make-believe.