@Background Pony #0401
How is it inconsistent?

@Daneasaur
Wrong. This is not inconsistent with Smodler’s character. And considering the fact that Haber worked on this show since season 4, I find it next to impossible that he wouldn’t be able to keep characters consistent.

@Daneasaur
Care to show some actual proof of this? I certainly haven’t seen any evidence of this. No one is going to believe you just because you claim it’s true.

@LightningLazer
No, it really isn’t, especially since he didn’t provide any evidence to back up his claim

@Daneasaur
Did you somehow manage to forget that since Ember had taken over as Dragon Lord, dragons stopped doing shit like that? Smolder is living proof of that.

Probably for the dragons is not a good thing to be lazy. Scales will be an usurper, but even the usurpers have to work hard to keep what they steal.

@Prometheus labs CEO  
Indeed it is. If someone else is taking orders from you, you often times have higher standing than them.

@Background Pony #E2D8  
Manipulating people into being your servants is a form of conquering… I think

@Daneasaur  
As I said, being a NEET basement moocher isn’t exactly a dragon dream. Scales conquered those dragons, instead of continuing to contently lay, mooch and acting weak.

@GeralDiamond  
If Smolder was pushing a “that’s the wrong thing to do” angle, it would have been okay, but she’s instead saying how “dragons don’t do that”, when according to EVERYTHING we have ever seen from dragons… that’s exactly what they do.
 
It’s a bummer since the episode had great potential.

Maybe it’s because Smolder has been for a while in the school and knows that it’s wrong to take advantage of others?

I like you!

@Daneasaur  
It’s true.

@mjangelvortex  
Just telling it like it is, really. Josh writes an episode where [events] happen, then the next episode he writes, he either pretends they didn’t happen or they happened completely differently.
 
If he was writing for a show that hit a big reset button at the end of every episode, this would be fine, but MLP isn’t one of those.

@Daneasaur  
I swear you have a massive hateboner for the man.

@Psyga315  
It’s pointing out how josh haber can’t keep consistency in the characters.

@Ardashir  
That’s certainly also a valid interpretation.

@Jonny Manz  
Or dragons see a difference between shafting some stranger who just happens to be a dragon, and doing the same to someone you claim as family (even falsely).

@Prometheus labs CEO  
I haven’t actually seen much of the Hobbit movies. I thought Smaug looked kind of cool though.

@pelcogo  
What about smaug

Well if anything I think Sludge set the bar for the lowest a dragon can be.

@Softy  
Yeah. Scales was many things, but she wasn’t lazy moocher. Sludge lacks ambition.
 
 
I guess Smolder and Sludge both heard that story, and they both come to different conclusions.

Scales seized power. She attacked, won, and gained.
 
Sludge just lied and lazed about, trying to milk a temporary situation for as long as he could with minimal effort.
 
That is the difference.

cant say much regarding the story but smolder’s issue with greeny there is likely that he was lieing, dragons have a very strong sense of honer from what i’ve gathered, by in large if a dragon tells you there going to do something, that’s exactly what they intend to do at the time, they may change there mind later but they will come to you and ‘tell you’ they did, they wont go behind your back about it cause that would be weak and underhanded a dragon must be strong, powerfull honerable and bold, [you can see why most dragons perceive spike as being less then dragonish there eh…however they neglect to realize spike is alot more powerfull then he looks…little guy can lift about several times his weight and breath gouts of fire large enough to scorch former dragon lord torch from head to toe when he wants to…spike is most asuredly ‘not’ weak]

@Spiked Punch
 

 
Smolder is not the sort character who would feel comfortable openly discussing her feelings. Like, that’s her entire deal, she’s not comfortable being honest about how much she actually cares about anyone else. She’s more-or-less established herself as a surrogate big sister to Spike, but isn’t a chance she’d actually admit that.
 
So while she cares deeply about Spike and doesn’t want to see him hurt, she hasn’t matured enough to just waltz up to another dragon and say “I think it’s wrong for you to hurt Spike.” So instead, she reframes it as an issue of dragonhood, because that’s something she’s always been comfortable spouting off about.
 
That’s all there is to it. It’s not “inconsistent,” it’s Smolder hiding her true feelings behind dragonlike bravado, which is what her entire character is.

Sociopathic opportunitism does seem to be the logic that many dragons in the dragon lands are raised on

If Smolder had said something like “Well, it’s wrong.”, it would have implied that she is learning about friendship.  
As it is now, when she says that “this isn’t what dragons do”, it just comes off as inconsistent.

@BlackPuma  

 
That’s the thing though, Smolder’s story wasn’t about Scales being the weak one and toppling someone more powerful. The point was always that the dragonlord was the weak one for showing mercy and letting her guard down, while Scales was always the strong one for seeing an opportunity and taking it in spite of someone else’s sake.
 
Someone strong winning against someone weak, which is exactly what she said dragons like to see.
 
So in the end, I have no clue whether Smolder’s actions here were because there’s more complex morals with dragons that what we’re given, or if it was a poorly-thought excuse to show Smolder on a comparatively better light once again, or if was just a mistake due to the lack of comunication between writers.
 
@randomguy9  

 
That much is clear. The point is that if that was really the only reason she took his side, that means all the reasoning she gave for it, and what she told Sludge was BS.

This was uploaded already.
 
I see it as Smolder having character development and defending spike from sludge.