Season 3 Episode Reviews: Wonderbolt Academy · 4:55pm Dec 15th, 2012
And welcome back to another fine episode review. Today, we'll be looking at “Wonderbolt Academy.” Will Rainbow Dash soar like an eagle and win the day, or sink like a rock and fail hard? Let's find out...
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TECHNICAL SPECS:
Season: 3
Episode: 7
Written By: Merriweather Williams
First Aired: December 15, 2012
SUMMARY:
After a whole day of waiting for the mailpony (who was obviously filling in for Derpy due to her sudden and chronic flu that keeps her from appearing), Rainbow Dash has finally been accepted into the Wonderbolt Academy, the training ground from which all Wonderbolts are born. Overly excited and filled with glee at the prospect of joining her heroes, Dash arrives with a heart full of confidence and an ego to match.
Unfortunately, she almost immediately falls afoul of drill sergeant Spitfire, who orders all of the trainees to fly five hundred laps. Nearly all of them collapse soon after, leaving only Rainbow Dash and another talented flyer, Lightning Dust, standing at the end. The two become fast friends, with both sharing a love of flying and the skills to match. But when the ponies are broken up into teams, Dash learns that she's going to be Lightning's wingpony. She protests to Spitfire, but is told that Lightning obviously pushes herself a bit more and is more deserving of the position.
At first, Dash is bummed, but still willing to accept this new lot in life. However, Lightning Dust soon proves to be a far different pony than she had originally let on. During a flag hunt, she flies into a narrow gap so fast that Dash can't correct herself, leading to her wing getting clipped. Later, during an obstacle course run, she persuades Dash to burst ahead of the team in front of them, sending the ponies tumbling backwards into the other groups and leaving everypony else in a big ponypile. Spitfire praises the two for breaking the record, but when Dash tries to tell Lightning to lighten up on the others, she just tells her that the whole goal is to be the best.
Meanwhile, Pinkie has driven herself into hysterics waiting for a letter from Dash. Finally, the others persuade her to try a care package, but Pinkie is so paranoid about it being delivered to the wrong pony that they all decide to ride up together on the balloon. At the same time, the teams are competing to clear the most clouds, with Dash and Lightning taking a clear lead. That's not enough for Dust, though; she wants to crush the competition by creating a tornado to suck up the remaining clouds. Dash is hesitant, but upon remembering Spitfire's words about how Lightning is better than her agrees.
Unfortunately, both ponies lose control almost immediately, sending the funnel blowing about wildly. Even worse, the balloon arrives at that moment, getting sucked into the tornado before breaking apart and sending the others falling to their doom. Fortunately, Dash saves the day by super-compressing a cloud into a spring and using it to propel the others into the waiting hooves of the other cadets...except for Lightning, who just wants to gloat over how awesome they were.
Rainbow Dash, however, has had enough. She angrily tells Lightning Dust off on her antics and how reckless she is. When Lightning counters with her position as lead pony, Dash realizes what she has to do. She marches into Spitfire's office, tells her what happens, and when she proceeds to praise Lightning for her quick work, resigns in disgust. While briefly hesitant, she nonetheless agrees to stick to her decision and leave, her dreams of being a Wonderbolt crushed...
Until Spitfire comes back. After hearing Dash's story, she wanted to tell her that being a Wonderbolt was about more than pushing yourself; it's about pushing yourself in the right direction. Lightning is unceremoniously stripped of her rank and seemingly thrown out of the Academy, while Dash is promoted to lead pony in her place. The entire camp salutes her before flying off for more drills...while Pinkie is distraught that she never opened her care package.
REVIEW:
Well, this is the moment we've all been dreading. Merriweather Williams has returned to grace us with another Rainbow Dash episode. Before we dive in, though, let's review her track record. Her first episode was “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well,” which turned Rainbow Dash into a self-obsessed jerk and her friends into a bunch of manipulative flankholes who gleefully torture her until she's forced to learn a lesson. After that we have “Hearth's Warming Eve,” which briefly made her a flat jock showoff once again before getting a free pass thanks to the episode's framing device. And then we have “Dragon Quest,” which gave Rainbow Dash a rest so it could pick on Rarity. (And there was “Putting Your Hoof Down,” but that one didn't have Dash in it.) So yeah, she really hasn't had the best track record when it comes to Rainbow Dash, and the fans all know it. Just seeing her name was enough to send bronies from all over the world back to the Internet so they could say this episode was horrible. But let's be fair and judge it on its own merits.
The opening is actually pretty weak all things considered, serving mostly to provide exposition. We also run into what I consider to be the episode's weakest point: Pinkie. After a full season of being written better than the second season, we get her being utterly flanderized into a paranoid wreck who thinks her friends will forget her face if they're not around for more than a few hours. Either she's judging all their memories based on her own photographic one, or she's just being stupid for the sake of a not-that-funny joke. About the one thing I do like is Rainbow Dash's mailbox, just sitting out in the open field under her house.
Also, the mailpony isn't Derpy. I can already hear the fanon dying.
When we get to the Wonderbolt Academy, the episode starts to pick up tremendously. I like the design of the place, from the landing strip built into the top of a mountain (which seems to be only accessible via wings or balloon) to all the structures and walkways built out of clouds. The landing strip might be the only thing that makes me raise an eyebrow, but since this episode is going to be full of plane jokes (from engine noises to terminology), I guess it works all right. Also, Rainbow Dash apparently wasn't the only one from Ponyville to make it in, as we also see Raindrops, Thunderlane, Cloudchaser, and Snowflake among the new recruits.
But then we run into one of the things fans jumped this episode for the most: Spitfire. First, she apparently has a different voice actor (although I've heard conflicting reports on the matter), and the new voice is...just meh. And second, her behavior is completely at odds with her previous appearances in “Sonic Rainboom,” “The Best Night Ever,” and “Hurricane Fluttershy.” There, she was nice and generally respectful. Here, she's a mare version of R. Lee Emery. So what happened?
Simple: she's the drill instructor. For those who aren't quite familiar with how that job works, the whole idea is to be the hardest bastard who ever lived in order to break the newcomers and mold their minds into the playdoh that can be reformed into soldiers. The Wonderbolts are mostly performers, but as we've seen in “Secret of My Excess,” they also seem to be part of a military branch (much like their real-life counterparts, the Blue Angels). Furthermore, every time we've seen her on the show before she's either been talking to Rainbow Dash as a civilian, not a new recruit. Off the clock, she's probably one of the nicest ponies you know, but she also does her job to the best of her ability.
The other new addition here is Lightning Dust, who is to Rainbow Dash as Trixie is to Twilight. Unlike those two, however, the rivalry is initially presented as being much more friendly, with the two simply trying to keep up with each other and impress Spitfire. The one weakness of Lightning Dust's character, however, is that she's a bit too close to being like Dash at times, to the point where she's basically a palette swap instead of a fully original creation. Still, I do like the conflict she presents, but that's for a bit later. For now, the two get along great, breaking Academy records left and right and even triumphing over the Dizz-a-tron.
But then we run into the first major stumbling block in Rainbow Dash's dream: she gets stuck as a wingpony to Lightning Dash, and not the kind that helps you pick up mares at the bar. The obvious narrative reason for this is to create tension with Rainbow Dash and push her through some character development. Spitfire's reasons are a bit weak, especially since we know almost nothing about Lightning Dust, but when we get to the rest of the episode, it'll make a bit more sense.
The next few sequences involve Lightning Dust and Dash continuing their training together, with Dust being revealed as even more competitive and jerkish than Dash could dream of. And while this probably wasn't Williams' intent, this actually answers one of the lingering questions the series has posed: if Rainbow Dash is capable of pulling off Sonic Rainbooms, then why isn't she a member of the Wonderbolts already? Let's look at Lightning Dust's characteristics for a moment here. She's brash, arrogant, doesn't care about the welfare of others, and is out only to prove how awesome she is and join the Wonderbolts. In other words, this is Rainbow Dash before she got three seasons of development and without any sense of loyalty. She doesn't care about the team or anypony else but herself, much like how Dash planned to crash a Wonderbolts performance in “Ticket Master.”
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash's reaction to all this highlights how much she has grown. She actually tries to convince Dust to play it safe during the flag hunt, since both of them couldn't make it through the narrow crevasse at that speed. During the obstacle course, she advocates pulling off tricks while they're solving Lex Luthor's maze to impress Spitfire, and is not happy that they slammed through the other teams to get in front. And yet, she doesn't question her position because hey, Spitfire's a Wonderbolt, she's her hero, and there's no way she'd be wrong.
While all this is going on, however, the much weaker subplot with Pinkie is still going on. While some of her insane logic can be funny, the scenes honestly feel like they're just getting in the way. It's nice that they're trying to work the whole cast in even when Dash is far away from them, but it just seems a bit disconnected from the rest of the episode. Also, I swear Pinkie says, “It may take a while to get her mammary back.” That sounds painful...
And so we have everything set up for our epic climax. The cloud clearing contest is actually rather funny at points, especially with Snowflake literally biting them in half. I also loved Dash's and Dust's own solutions to the problem, especially the pinball bouncing on the latter. But then Dust suggests using a tornado, and despite Dash knowing it's a bad idea, she goes along with it because, once again, Spitfire made the call. Of course, this leads into an interesting callback to “Hurricane Fluttershy.” There, it took an entire town's Pegasus population to control a massive tornado, and even then they got thrown out after a short while. Here, the two barely make it a few seconds before getting tossed aside like rag dolls, but the tornado keeps going a while longer after that. And like always, it comes barreling at the recently-arriving balloon, sending the rest of our heroines falling to their dooms. And I...have no idea what Dash does here to save them. I guess she's super-compressing the cloud until it becomes solid enough for non-Pegasi to touch before turning it into a spring and flinging them upwards to the others, but the point is she saves the day, Rarity gets shipped with Thunderlane, and Cloudchaser gets frustrated when Fluttershy suddenly remembers she can fly. (Or she's mad that her dream mare just flew out of her hooves; make of it what you will.)
This is when Dash finally breaks. Lightning Dust shows absolutely no care for nearly killing her friends, prompting a major lecture on her many screw-ups throughout the whole time they've been together. Dust retorts that she was placed in a position of authority by Spitfire...which leads to what I think solidifies Dash's character arc as it were. She marches up to Spitfire and tells her what's been going on, but that's not enough. She realizes that if the Wonderbolts really reward ponies like Lightning Dust for endangering lives and won't step in to stop them, then she doesn't want to be one anymore. Cue the dramatic badge removal and disposal. I do love the brief moment after she leaves where she realizes what she just did and is contemplating going back, but in the end sticks to her principles and walks off.
Which brings us to the episode's biggest failing: the ending. After Rainbow Dash quits, she seems bound and determined to return with the others to Ponyville...somehow. But then Spitfire rushes out and tells her she embodies everything the Wonderbolts are looking for, including a drive to push herself in the right direction and not at the expense of others. While this is pretty darn sudden, it's okay for the most part. What doesn't work is when Lightning Dust is hauled up, stripped of her rank, and seemingly thrown out of the Academy.
Now, there is no confirmation either way over whether or not she was expelled or simply demoted, but the implication seems to lean towards the former. In which case, it seems the analogy to Trixie is even more appropriate. Dust was a huge jerk, sure, but she was really more misguided in her efforts to impress the Wonderbolts than anything else. She really did deserve some kind of punishment after nearly killing the Mane 6 with that tornado stunt, but just look at her eyes and face as this is going on. She had the same dream as Rainbow Dash, the same level of talent, and was even friends with her for a short time. And when she's stripped of her rank, she doesn't look angry, but instead hurt and sad over watching her dreams go up in flames. When Trixie's wagon was crushed, she met her humiliation with lots of ham and plenty of ego. But Dust just walks away whimpering.
Point is, they just got through redeeming Trixie and closing off that loose end...and now they're more or less doing the same thing with another character? Even worse, I doubt we'll ever see Lightning Dust again; Trixie only happened because the writers were already planning to include her, but the episode got pushed back until the third season.
After that, the epiosde...stops. It doesn't end so much as come to a screeching halt. We don't know if Dash joins the Wonderbolts or not, what happens at the Academy afterwords, or even how the others get back down. Just...that's the end, everyone go home, nothing else to see here. The final salute to Dash is a nice touch, but it just feels rather empty. We never even get to see what was in the care package (although it was probably destroyed when they fell out of the balloon).
CONCLUSION:
“Wonderbolt Academy” is Merriweather Williams' best episode, but I would still rate it as just generally good. What works here really works, especially Dash's character development and the way Lightning Dust shadows her worse characteristics. The visuals are great and the flying scenes are pretty creative. But then you get to the parts that simply don't work. Pinkie is incredibly annoying throughout the episode, edging on Season Two levels, and the ending is just weak. Dust more or less becomes another Trixie or Gilda, promoting sympathy simply by the way she was unceremoniously dealt with, and nothing is really resolved regarding the Wonderbolts. Overall, I would say I enjoyed watching it, but it's probably my least favorite Season 3 episode so far outside of “The Crystal Empire.”
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And that's another episode down. Tune in next week for episode eight- I mean, nine.
Couldn't agree more with the last bits of your review. It seemed to be a cliffhanger episode and I'm like "Dude, come on!". But I thought the good parts were that they included the fans' favorite background ponies from Hurricane Fluttershy. I thought that one of the few flaws was that the episode didn't include Soarin'. I mean, it just doesn't feel complete.
614496
Maybe the reason we didn't see Soarin was because he was in the store room eating all the pies...
614509
That, got me laughing.
I noticed that if Lighting Dust were human, there would be doctors who would try to diagnose her as psychopathic. Not that that is a bad thing. It just means she would function with most of society on normal levels. Of course, with that ending it really just says that she was a huge jerk rather than a psychopath.
614509
614513>>614518
Thx for the thumbs up!
I was just re-watching the Gala episode and..... yeah....
Anyways, I wonder what type of fanart will show up this time around?
Rainbow Dash has a way of attracting friends that turn out to be douches, doesn't she? Lightning Dust isn't anywhere near as bitchy as Gilda, but the point remains.
I liked Rainbow Dash in this episode. Finally. For somepony that the audience is suppose to like, I've been very mellow on her character. She has her awesome highs but then crashes into the pits of lows lately. I'm thinking that her job as the Ponyville weather team boss helped instill some of that comradery and leadership she showed in this episode.
I'm curious to see if this plays into the rest of the season. Will we see Rainbow Dash continue to train for the Wonderbolts, showing up less often in Ponyville? Are we seeing the beginning of a Mane five? Who knows and that's something to look forward too!
614516
Is it just me just thinking that RD got bad luck in making friends in any schooling facility?
I mean like Gilda and now Lighting Dust..... and the way they break up was because of the Other Mane?......
or am I over thinking it?
614549
Funny we were thinking the same thing! or close to it....
You know, now that the episode is out, I have to ask...Do you think that this season is a way or a commentary on certain aspects of Flanderization and how certain people see characters?
Too many Pinkies- We see a bunch of clones acting like what people think Pinkie is, vs what Pinkie really is.
This episode- What people see Rainbow Dash vs. What Rainbow is actually like
I think it is interesting to see this play out so far and personally I really enjoyed this ep (and I think that there is nothing stopping Lightning Dust from trying again, it is just a week long course after all)
I'm wondering if we've just met the second Element of Chaos. "Magic Duel" strongly auditions Trixie for the Element of Anti-Friendship/Magic (Element of Egotism?) and now you have Lightning Dust being presented as the anti-type of the Element of Loyalty (The Element of Betrayal?).
I've got a profound feeling that they're slowly setting up the enemy Miniboss Squad for Season Four before our very eyes. The previews of the Apple Family Reunion strongly implies we're going to meet the Element of Honesty's opposite number (The Element of Deception?). I have to say that this entire season seems to have had this running theme in some episodes. Something big is brewing. Something toxic.
CELESTIA: "Things are changing. I can smell it in the air... I can see it in the fire... I can feel it in the earth... I can taste it in the water... Much that once was is no more... And none remain alive who remember it."
LUNA: "It began with the forging of the Elements... Six there were... Two were given to the Generals of the Pegasi - mighty warriors and weather-smiths. Two were given to the Chancellors of the Earth Ponies - great artisans and harvesters of the treasures of the Earth. And two were given to the King and Queen of the Unicorns - master mages and guardians of the secrets of magic. For bound up in them was the power and wisdom for them to rule over their peoples. But they were all of them deceived."
CELESTIA: "For in the barren realm of the Wastelands, in the fires of the Bloody Mountain, the Dark God Discord did forge a seventh Element of Chaos, with which to control all the others. And into this crown, he poured all his power, his malice and his determination to dominate all life!"
LUNA: "One Element to Rule them All...!"
This episode was overall pretty good, and it put rainbow dash back on my top 5 best pone list.
But if in the next episode nothing of this episode happened i will be pissed. Just sayin
Speaking of Lex Luthor...?
It's also the whole Loyalty thing that Discord played to in S2E1. Dust and Dash became friends pretty quickly, and Dash doesn't betray her friends easily. She'll call Dust out in private, and indeed when it's just the two of them they seem to get along great. I think at one point or another we've all had friends who were complete jerks but whom we were willing to forgive becuase they were our friends: Dust is this to Dash.
I imagine that the tornado summoned up to drag water from the earth and hurl it a couple dozen/score/hundred miles to get it to Cloudsdale requires a bit more power than a tornado make to break up clouds. In either case it's still bad news for a helpless balloon, though. Plus don't forget that Dash was able to whirl up a tornado to take care of the initial parasprite invasion.
Rainbow Dash is fundamentally a silver-age super hero. Physics is her bitch. Even the made-up physics of a ridiculous world of ponies and magic.
I take the scene to be the rough equivalent of, during a live-fire exercise at boot camp wherein you're supposed to shoot some inanimate targets, sneaking into the armory to get a couple of RPGs to instead blow them up. You...don't get to stay in boot camp after that. Especially if one of your rocket-propelled grenades misses the target and nearly blows up a civilian.
Granted, technically neither should Dash, though, since she grabbed a couple of RPGs of her own in this analogy. The point is that the punishment here definitely seems to fit the crime, unlike with Trixie. Dust recklessly endangered herself, her wingmate, and a quintet of civilians, and she has nopony to blame but herself.
I guess the scene was in some ways unnecessary, it could have just been implied...but I prefer the closure than to leave open the possibility that Dust still managed to get into the Wonderbolts after that.
614571 mind blown
still loved this episode. I guess I'm just a bit simpler minded when it comes to the show. To be honest, I'm turning to be more a fan of the fanfiction than the show. Don't get me wrong, the show is the best thing in the world, but I spend pretty much all my free time reading fanfiction.
614571
Nice idea; that is certainly a valid view of this season and its' abundance of anti-types of the mane characters (Babs Seed being pretty much an anti-Crusader at first).
614695
Lets not forget Trixie who is an anti-Twilight in general. I wonder if we are going to see a few more in the next few episodes or what episode 8 is
614602
Perhaps, but the way things end endears me a lot more to Dust than Trixie. With Trixie, it was the circumstances around her defeat that was sad; she unwittingly lead to lives being endangered with her bragging, but still met her defeat with no small sense of boasting, bragging and ham. And judging from the beginning of "Magic Duel," it took her even longer to realize that her career was dead because of the incident. I don't get any feeling like that from Dust. Her actions may have brought this on herself, but she met her end with silence and looked on the verge of tears at losing her dream. Trixie went out with a bang; Dust went out with a whimper.
And if you want to further the similarities between the two, remember that Dust was given her rank because she kept pushing herself to be the best, even more than Dash could hope to do. She goes about it in the wrong way, ends up causing a lot of damage, and definitely deserves her comeuppance to some degree, but she was only doing what she was promoted to do. Trixie, meanwhile, used a magic show to humiliate hecklers and boost her own ego, but that was still partly her job; she just chose a poor way of doing it.
Then again, it might be my ever-growing hatred for Trixie that's making me say this, so make of it what you will.
Yeah, that review pretty much sums it up. It was alright, but Pinkie was kinda irritating and they didn't really resolve anything. Not terrible, but so far the worst of the season.
614701
Please see my first comment o nthis thread for my view on where this (might) be going. Please see my blog post to see me turn it up to eleven and forgive a Tolkein-fan for seeing parallels where there might not be any.
Middle of the road episode in my opinion. Dash's character development was great, but the rest was just meh.
Spitfire's official cutie mark is pretty sweet, however. Somewhat stylized, but it looks like a phoenix to me.
Spitfire's VA for seasons 1& 2: Maryke Hendrikse
Spitfire's VA for this episode: Kelly Metzger
Now after reading this, the episode leaves more questions the nit started with...
In my head I see that Lightning is on the academy, but that is only what I hope.
You really do it good, you take up what one is missing on the episode.
I and my friends liked the episode, we said it was awesome. But now, I only feel sad.
I will go now before this comment makes me look more like a fool.
614702
Valid point, probably...
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...well, that just gives us fanfiction fuel to turn her into the new Trixie!
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/349/2/4/lightning_dust_by_gamibribolinho-d5o1x6n.png
I actually feel the need to disagree with you on the point of what they did with Dust at the end. I mean sure he's going for the same thing as Dash, but she didn't even say sorry when her idea nearly killed Dash's friends. Trixie was different- she never meant any ill-harm to anyone (the Ursa being Snips and Snails fault) she simply just wanted to look better than Twilight. She even felt...sorry...about it (Twilight fan here, so Trixie bugs me regardless). Dust didn't show anything like that. Yeah it's sad for her to be kicked out, but what good is a trainee or Wonderbolt that doesn't care about the well-being of her teammates. Therefore I believe the results of Dust being stripped of rank and kicked out seems all too fitting.
But that's just my two bits worth.
I liked it well enough when I was watching it, and it is Williams' best episode to date... but then when it stops you realize that the ending was rather inconclusive and you think to yourself 'This stuff isn't gonna matter for squat next week will it?'. Plus you still get the feeling that Williams doesn't give a crap about what other writers write and is only working with the barest minimum information to do her work. Everything Williams writes feels like its floating in its own microcontinuity, independant of the rest and leaving only a fleeting feeling of amusement once its done. It doesn't take anything into account and never has any impact beyond itself.
Also... WHY THE HELL do they keep giving the world building episode to Williams?!
She SUCKS at it! She ruined dragons in Dragon Quest and now we learn nothing about the Wonderbolts! Just give her the funny episodes.
Huh, I think it was the best episode since "Sweet and elite".
Well it seems that the trend that when one of us loves an episode, the other is less than impressed continues. Not only do agree that this is Merriweather's best performance but this is for me probably the second best episode of S3 so far (One Bad Apple still holding top ranking). Not that I'm blind to all the faults you pointed out, but compared to the faults I was expecting, they are all forgivable. This episode could easily have turned out wrong in so many ways, but it constantly hits a pretty good balance, at least early on.
Lightning Dust makes a nice strong first impression, and I really enjoyed the friendly rivalry thing they had going at the start, even more so she wasn't randomly better than Dash (which was one of the things I feared most early on); instead she edges out Rainbow not in raw skill and ability, but with copious amounts of drive and ambition. Which feeds into her being selected as lead-pony and Dash as wing-pony, and at the time I very much supported Spitfire's choice; being forced to play second fiddle is precisely the kind of whipping Dash's ego needed to make her the kind of team player the Wonderbolts need. Too bad Dust goes on to ruin that, as the facade of steadfast determination that I admired her for quickly peels away to reveal the callous selfish recklessness that will increasingly define her for the second half of the episode. She may not be as openly self-promoting as Rainbow, but she's far more arrogantly dismissive of others and it's clear that Lightning has little respect for anypony else, not even her fellow Wonder bolt cadets, who all presumably must be pretty talented fliers to have even made it this far in the first place. So in the end I just can't feel sorry if she gets kicked out. I'm a forgiving soul, and would prefer her to be given a second chance, but I can't blame the Wonderbolts if they don't want anything more to do with her. When you group represents the best of the best, the elite and most respected in all the land, there's not always room for those who can't make the cut the first time around.
As for the Pinkie Pie sub-plot, I'll agree that was overdone, but I can't help but commend the attempt at finding a way to keep the rest of the cast relevant to the episode, at least right up until the end. Having them all show up just in time to get caught in the tornado reeks of cheap dramatic contrivance, as though it's not enough to have Rainbow finally stand up to Dust's recklessness because it was endangering their fellow recruits; no, instead the episode has to make it personal by randomly getting Rainbows friends from home caught up in events.
Don't even get me started on Spitfire, yeah I get the whole this is her in some kind of drill sergeant mode, but it is all just so out of sync with her previous appearance that I think they'd have just been better off using some new character to play the part (like that assistant she had following her about at several points). I could have probably forgiven it if we'd been given some glimpse beneath the mask at the Spitfire we've seen from previous episodes, but even at the end when she takes off the glasses to say that Rainbow is the kind of dependable pony the Wonderbolts need, her character still feels to hardnosed.
I know that with all of the above complaining it might seem odd that I'd rate this as my second favorite of the season, and yet it remains so, precisely because despite all those flaws it still managed to deliver something so much better than what I was expecting, and so for all it's rough edges and tacked on subplots that distract form building the central dynamic development I can't help but be so very, very please with the package as a whole
614602
Something of a fair point, though I don't think the analogy entirely holds, seeing as Spitfire seemed initially quite impressed with the bravado involved in the act.
614702
Ever-growing hatred? When did this happen?
I'm not exactly surprised I suppose; I just hope this has nothing to do with any whining you've had to endure form others in the aftermath of Magic Duel. I'd not blame you if that was somehow turning you off the character, but it would disappoint me if you were letting such opinions influence you in that way.
614935
Really? Sorry, but I just can't see it that way. Then again I've actually rather enjoyed all of her episodes, even the Mysterious Mare Do Well, and have never really been able to understand all the bile that get's thrown at it. So maybe I'm just a really poor judge of these things.
614551Yeah, she has a way of making friends with the 'cool' people.
Lightning Dust DID almost kill five civilians, and it was her fault, since she was being needlessly reckless. She also didn't display any remorse from almost killing her friend's friends. It seems to me that expelling her from the academy was a good decision, although we don't know if that's what really happened. She could have been held back or just suspended for all we know.
For Lightning Dust, it seems to me that even with just a stripping of rank, she would take this pretty darn hard. She prides herself on being the best, like Dash, but unlike Dash, she doesn't care who or what gets in the way. Of course, when something does get in the way, she still doesn't care.
It's quite possible Spitfire didn't know exactly what Lightning what doing. She needed a telescope for the obstacle course, so it was possible she wasn't watching Lightning at the time. And she wasn't even there during the cloud exercise. It's possible Lightning would have gotten the same punishment, whether Dash did what she did or not.
Yay for overanylizing a kids show!
I didn't even know this was a one of "those Merriweather episodes". Good thing too, I might have been even more judgmental when I watched it. And yeah, I threw a big hissy-fit about the ending, which destroyed the other 19 minutes of good buildup and character development. It felt like taking a ladyfriend out to the pictures and them some fine dining... and her just leaving in the middle of the second course and saying "to be continued."
Unless, of course, I once again try to trust the writers and others who work on the series. They've shown they know their stuff. Maybe the next episode we hear that RD is not around because she's training with the 'Bolts. Or maybe she comes to AJ's party in a WB suit. Dunno. But if Spitfire says she's the epitome of all that is Wonderbolt, why the hays shouldn't she be?
Here's a thought: The next episode in production order (3x08) seems to have been moved to next year. I agree that the ending seemed inconclusive and I'm half-convinced that they are holding back "Wonderbolt Academy, Part 2" for the first episode after the Xmas/New Year break. If so, we might see Lightning Dust's fate in more detail, Rainbow's performance as a squad leader and the Aesop may be more clearly defined.
If I'm right, there is going to be effectively a 'Season 3, part 2" that might have a continuing plot associated with the themes that have been touched on so far this season.
I imagine the reason Lightning Dust was tossed was because she created a major weather pattern without making it clear everyone was away from it. And I think Dash might have been assigned as her wingpony to help her get her head on straight. Why not use the Element of Loyalty to try to instill in someone that it's not always just about you.
This was outright my least favorite of Season 3 so far, but it's still an average-ish episode, I'd say. So far no below-average episodes in Season 3, which is excellent. Merriweather WILLIAAAMMSS. Honestly I think Putting Your Hoof Down was actually a pretty good episode; that is her one major accomplishment, and better than this episode, IMO. I don't see much wrong with Hearth's Warming Eve, either, but I'd still place that one as "average-ish." Overall, the story in this episode just seems not concluded.
*Dust
Anyways, I completely agree with what you pointed out. I felt that Spitfire's voice was just... annoying (to say the least). It sounded rather... childish. You would think that Spitfire would be at least a few years older then RD, especially with hints that Rainbow has been looking up to her for a long time.
In addition, the Pinkie scenes were just flustering. It felt like they just threw them in there to stretch out the episode a bit longer. Instead, they should've added more scenes to the ending, to make it seem complete about what happens.
Which brings me to my next point - the ending. It's just a cliffhanger that will most likely never be answered. I doubt that they'll go back in a later episode and conclude what happens to Rainbow, although they may drop hints in future episodes. But still... it would've been nice to know what happens next.
Ah well, no show will ever be perfect. All shows have recurring episodes with similar morals at the end, or the same episode structure. This episode wasn't too bad, however. I've been waiting for this episode for quite some time!
Cheers!
~hannahs98
614577 You, sir, made my day.
Is it just me, or have many of the Episodes since season two problems fitting themselves into the 20min limit? somehow the more complex characters and stories would seem to encourage either more multi-parters or longer (30min?) runtime for episodes... both unlikely, but who thinks it would help?
That's only part of it. One of the things about the Wing Leader/ Wingman dynamic is you have to trust your wing leader's call. Sure, she can ask Dust if it's a good idea, try to talk her out of it, and ultimately, report a bad call to her CO afterward, but in the end, the wing leader is the boss. Or at least, that's how I understand things. (Everything I know about the military is entirely from fiction.
)
I am not really sure Dust really washed out, but, think of things this way. If Dust had pulled a stunt that reckless in a crowded stadium, it would have been utterly disastrous. Really, RD's friends were just a means of providing an immediate consequence to an extremely reckless action to the audience. Also, while it's possible she washed out, we don't know for sure if that's it forever. I do like how Dust seemed to basically embody all the flaws everyone expected Rainbow to have that would hurt her chances at being a Wonderbolt, mainly not being a team player, while Rainbow was all like "character development BITCHES!"
Also, this gif was on Vargras' blog about the episode. It made me laugh, I wish to share it with you guys.
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mf355c5wx11qll9d0.gif
Putting Your Hoof Down was definitely better than this episode.
As far as the progression of the writers' skills go, it seems that while Williams came a long way from MMDW, it was a slow progression.
Dave Polskey went from being a shitty writer to a great writer in a season, where as Williams is still in the middle of the road.
Best episode of S3 so far would have to be Sleepless in Ponyville. No doubt about it.
I was underwhelmed by the Magic Duel (though I still can't figure out why I was unimpressed with that episode.)
I loved Too Many Pinkie Pies, and the Babs Seed episode was much better than it could've been.
Onto episode
89!Its not as bad as I first thought but it was a dissapointment for me. So far I've either really loved or really likrd each episode till no, I think it kind of ruined the streak it had.
Its okay, not better than that.
614935 Indeed
Very astute review. I agree with most of it.
The "and without any sense of loyalty" is a very important point. Even before her character development, this established Rainbow Dash as being better than her shadow archetype, Lightning Dust. Dash was already willing to sacrifice her ambitions in favor of principles (and her friends). This was her defining character moment in the pilot, and why she was chosen to be the bearer of the Element of Loyalty. Additionally, even before character development, Dash was not the kind of pony to put other lives at risk and then feel no remorse over it.
I personally liked this episode highly. It did a great job of showing just what kind of pony rainbow dash is by pairing her up with Lightning Dust, someone who was just like her except she lacked Rainbow's loyalty and took her negative traits to the extreme. The Pinkie scenes were funny with her Insane troll logic that somehow led her ridiculous conclusions like Rainbow Dash forgetting all about them and it did (if nothing else) setup the climax of the episode. The scene with RD saying she'd laying the verbal smackdown on LD for her recklessness and the next where she says she'd leave if they reward ponies like LD for hurting others just to win shows RD's true colors. In The ending scene it was nice to see Spitfire show up to tell RD that she had a point and then take the leader badge from LD and give it to RD. The final scene with Rainbow Dash flying off with the rest of the class (It is abrupt to end like that but there isn't much point to continue afterward considering the conflict was resolved.).
I have to disagree with you about LD not deserving her punishment. While like Trixie, she probably didn't mean some of the harm she caused, the big difference is that Trixie never really did anything to deserve the level of punishment she got in her debut episode and in her more recent episode, she apologized for what she did. Lightning Dust simply didn't care that she was hurting others and would have done it several more times with no remorse if Rainbow Dash hadn't stopped her. The circumstances simply don't make her worthy of sympathy.
(This is my opinion, feel free to disagree.)
614935 That might have to do with her experience writing for Spongebob Squarepants. It's also worth mentioning that she was the writer of the well liked Spongebob episode, Band Geeks.
I mostly agree with this review.
Spitefires voice didn't bug me, I still prefer her old voice but she's always had a sort of rough crackly voice it's just now she needs to use it to make a point as opposed to socializing at the gala.
I personally feel Dust deserved to get thrown out, as she knowing caused reckless endangerment and despite being told specifically what she did still didn't care. Trixie mostly did it by accident, in regards to the Ursa anyway and tried to fight it when it showed up despite being able to run away, both are jerks but one isn't as more or less evil as the other.
I very much agreed with your view on Dust essentially being Dash sans the last threes seasons of character development and lacking afew of her morales.
I felt the ending was to sudden I didn't mind Dash getting her Wonderbolts membership back as she kind of deserved it. Overall my greatest concern is for continuity more than anything else. Will Dash be a Wonderbolt next episode is this episode taking place far in the future form the other episodes and technically part of the theoretical "last season" or will everything that happened be forgotten? But I'll wait and see how they work the next few episodes before passing judgment on this point. But yeah overall I liked much of the episode.
Plus I felt it did a good job with Dash's character more or less.
The Pinkie sub plot annoyed the frak out of me though.
614516
SOCIOPATH! NOT Pshycopath!
A Sociopath does things because she doesn't carre about others. A Pshycopath does it because the demon in her toast told her to.
Anyway, I think that the opening and the ending were very weak. The ending just came crashing out of nowhere.
615601
That gif...it is glorious.
614964
I thought we broke that last week with "Sleepless in Ponyville." At least, I remember us both really liking that one.
It's been building up for a good while. Initially, it was just a dislike for some fans who go too far to justify her jerkish behavior, but then it just kept growing and growing every time I saw her in a fanfic, or saw fanart. "Magic Duel" actually calmed it a little, but when I started writing up the review and realized how many parallels there were between Trixie/Twilight and Dust/Dash, it all came barreling right back. And then there's the whole mess with the Lunaverse and the Gala story and...
Okay, it's just a big mess. Point is, I've gone from being a casual fan to not liking her at all in the space of about two months. Sorry.
614935
I think that's one of Williams' biggest flaws. She is a very good writer in the right environment, but not for a show like this. She's at her best when the story in question doesn't involve continuity or character consistency, but instead is just a means to string together several jokes while presenting a fairly light tale. Still, she's shown considerable improvement, although I'll still rate her as my least favorite writer on the series so far. It's really hard to claw yourself back up after the likes of "Mysterious Mare-Do-Well."
I never realized how much World Building she did until just now. While she screwed up big time with "Dragon Quest," I still think she did a good enough job with "Hearth's Warming Eve" and this one.
617264 Yeah Hearth Warming Eve was nice, mostly because the framing device let her mess with the characters as much as she wanted... but it still didn't work perfectly, considering we have no idea how Celestia and Luna fit in all that.
Like I said this was enjoyable enough (if you forget the ending crashing down) but I bet you could remove it from continuity without problem. I hope to be proven wrong.
617264
Maybe, but it was funnier to experess things my way.
617329
True, though open ended stuff like that just gives us more fic fodder. I know that personally I have a fic I really want to right about my own opinions there, but don't know when I'll ever get around to it.
I like this one for the most part. I agree that it ends suddenly. It's begging for a follow up episode. I would actually find it really interesting if Dash was absent for a few episodes while she keeps training at the Academy and then a later episode goes back to her to resolve this episode. It would be an incredible jump in continuity for the show though. As far as Spitfire goes, I agree with you. The new voice was not great, but I agree that she was just in drill sergeant mode. Despite any history they have she can not show Dash any favoritism and treats her like any other recruit, at least at the beginning. I do think she made some questionable calls though. The biggest being making Lightening Dust a lead pony. I say this because any captain worthy of their position would never have given Lightening Dust a leadership after the Dizz-a-tron test. A fresh faced recruit asking to take any challenge at the hardest level is a bad sign. It shows recklessness as well as them being more interested in showing off then learning. It doesn't matter if she could handle it or not. I could tell what was going to eventually happen from how she conducted herself there, but apparently Spitfire couldn't. I find that kind of odd.