Rainbow Falls and Rises: my review of Rainbow Falls! · 4:53pm Jan 18th, 2014
I had another FlutterDash artwork I could have used for this header image but I had that stored away for use later. So I decided to give you a taste of some artwork from Japanese FlutterDash fans. The FlutterDash armada is spreading.
Fanfiction Progress
Celestia and coffee just goes so well together when making jokes. Anyway, progress was slowed down a bit for some understandable reasons (I had work) and some embarrassing ones (I spent a whole day depressed and lethargic because a character I wanted playable in Super Smash Bros was just revealed as an Assist Trophy) but when I got around to writing, magic happened. I aim to get you this chapter within January and I mean it. The writing is going well, a few problems with how to have Cadance and Celestia address each other but otherwise, going great. I'm also enjoying it and I should be able to progress much quicker given my free time following today. So worry not about this. Furthermore, once I have uploaded chapter 4 of The Shy Knight and the Rainbow Princess I'll be sure to deliver to you a little something to make up for the wait. I'm sure you'll enjoy this little extra.
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Episode Review of Rainbow Falls
Sometimes a great episode can be tarnished by a poor ending. Sometimes a poor episode can be made up for by a great ending. Other times, the poor half and the great half balance each other out. This episode is one of these cases, with poorness and greatness within and through this review I shall conclude what the mix of these things results in.
So the plot of the episode is that the Equestrian Games try-outs have begun and their competing to see what teams will qualify for the various events. Rainbow Dash has chosen to go on the relay team, comprised of the weaker fliers Bulk Biceps and Fluttershy (more on both of these characters later), as each competing pony can only be a part of one team each. During the try-outs they encounter the Cloudsdale team comprised of Wonderbolts Spitfire, Soarin and Fleetfoot. Soarin ends up injuring himself and with a pony down, Spitfire and Fleetfoot go about trying to convince Rainbow Dash to join their team at the cost of Ponyville’s team. So that’s basics of the episode, moving onto the positive elements to it.
Let’s get one positive that you know I loved about this episode. It is FlutterDash goodness. You get breakfast, lunch and dinner’s worth of FlutterDash within the episode. Sure, there is a moment or two that hint at both SoarinDash and TwiDash, but nothing compares to the mountain load of FlutterDash we get. Fluttershy has several lines where her resolve, where the very reason she is competing and trying so hard is focused on doing so for Rainbow Dash as well as moments of care for her. It’s not Hurricane Fluttershy levels but the amount of FlutterDash is very much enjoyable and has certainly been the most we’ve been given this season so far.
Other positive things include… actually, most of the other positive things fret to fall into spoiler territory. I guess this one isn’t so bad as it is mentioned early on but basically the rest of the Mane 6 all do their part to help. Applejack is serving up treats (to which she is obsessed with, eerily so), Rarity is designing their flight suits (apparently throwing out that knowledge of making aerodynamic yet fashionable outfits, Pinkie Pie is a cheerleader and Twilight just kind of stands around and makes comments for a lot of it until she is dragged into being a cheerleader alongside Pinkie Pie. The end of this episode even has a TwiPie moment.
Moving onto the negatives already though and I do feel there to be quite a few of them. There is a lot of dull moments to this episode; with humour at times feeling rather forced, particularly this one joke concerning Pinkie Pie. The episode doesn’t start too well and doesn’t flow very naturally at other points. Along with this forced humour the tension and drama between Dash’s decisions feels rather weak. You see Rainbow Dash having her doubts but it is like Ponyville’s team do nothing to try and convincer her to side with them, even in the Applejack and Rarity’s assistance departments which are areas they are actually good at.
The other problems concern why Fluttershy is on the relay team and Bulk Biceps. Ponyville has a ton of Pegasus, Hurricane Fluttershy shows this and yet they are having to rely on Fluttershy to compete. Fluttershy isn’t an athlete and certainly not a professional one. The Equestria Games is based on the Olympics so I have to ask; is anyone just allowed to compete in the Olympics? Then there is the problem of Bulk Biceps, a character who acts nothing like he does before. Sure, before he didn’t talk but he still displayed character through actions and most importantly; skill. Bulk Biceps was able to get into the Wonderbolts Academy and showed skills in both Wonderbolts Academy and Hurricane Fluttershy; why is he so inept in this episode?
So there you have it. If you’re not a FlutterDash fan then Rainbow Falls offers little. It’s mostly dull with random yet unenjoyable humour… for the most part. 3rd act starts and ‘BAM’ this episode goes into overdrive and tries to make up for misdemeanours. Things I totally did not expect happen, we get some heart-warming moments, more FlutterDash, hilariously awkward jokes involving Rainbow Dash faking injuries and surprising character development. The Wonderbolts become rather deep characters in this episode, certainly flawed yet with some positive qualities and learning of their own to do. I’ve never been interested in the Wonderbolts but in the 3rd act, seeing them interact and grow as characters was very interesting.
So how would I rate Rainbow Falls then? It is a mixture of qualities. It contains tons of FlutterDash to which I love, but it never went far enough to make up for the flaws of the episode. Unless they were going to kiss and/or propose, no amount of FlutterDash was going to make up for this boring episode which just seemed to drag on. Then however came the ending which does all it’s might to redeem this episodes wrongs, diversify characters to a great extent and make everything interesting and exciting.
Sadly though, I do feel it is a little too late. The end 3rd certainly avoids this episode from being bad, it offers better views on later actions and allows the episode to end with you smiling but to get to that ending involves so much boredom. I only was able to be as upbeat about earlier moments because I’m a luckily a FlutterDash fan, I’m not sure how non-FlutterDash fans will cope just to get to the glory at the end. If this ending glory started sooner I feel it could have clawed its way into the good section. It at least avoids being considered poor in my eyes but I have to give it a score of only 4.5 and rate Rainbow Falls as an Average episode.
All you have to do to make it into the Olympics is qualify at a sanctioned event! Kind of like how qualifying for a state track meet in high school simply requires you to reach a certain benchmark or place in a particular meet.
They explained why the other pegasi were unavailable at the beginning of the episode when Thunderlane straight up apologized that they couldn't participate in more than one event. I'm sure Bulk wanted to compete and Shy wanted to make Dash happy, but that doesn't mean anyone else in Ponyville wanted to participate at all. Obviously Derpy showed up in the end as a replacement, but I doubt she has the coordination for a relay event thanks to having to hand off a baton.
Bulk hasn't exactly been shown to be skilled in either of those two episodes, just an enthusiastic participant. We never really saw enough of him to determine if he had any real talent, the opposite if anything.
But anyway, I think the episode did suffer a bit from pacing and a couple of the early bits... but soooo much FlutterDash happiness! I'd probably grade it at a 6 or 7 out of 10 because the one big issue is obvious, but I found everything else to be relatively enjoyable or fantastic FlutterDash (I don't even care about the Derpy appearance). I'll chalk our grade difference to me enjoying a lot of the random humor and maybe me being a track athlete that dealt with something exactly like this at one point in time.
The pegasi problem was addressed, kinda.
Interesting enough I actually really like the 1st part and the 3rd part. The part with Rainbow's overacting? I hated. Everything until the moment she stopped was annoying (except for Twilight cause she seemed to share my feelings there).
I really loved the Wonderbolts in this episode.
1731319 Ah, interesting to learn about the means for qualification. I didn't know of that, thank you.
As for my criticism about why Fluttershy was participating, I was aware of the matter of how the Pegasi could only compete in one event each. That said, there were tons of Pegasus in Ponyville so I question at just how many events there would be to even have to rely on Fluttershy participating. Furthermore, on the matter of Bulk, he has at least been shown as competent, being accepted into the Wonderbolt Academy (I'm assuming there was an initial acceptance of application as Rainbow Dash was worried she wouldn't even get in) and he showed enough skills towards the end of the Wonderbolt Academy episode.
The FlutterDash was a very nice element to the episode but it would way too biased of me to look past the faults of weak random humour (which did nothing for me but I'm glad you enjoyed) and a general dull feel throughout most of it, to rate it high on FlutterDash and it's great 3rd act alone. I too did not care for the Derpy appearance and frankly far prefer her in the role of a Where's Wally character. Glad you enjoyed it more than I did though and thanks for commenting, Drankito.
1732099 As mentioned in my above comment, I saw the explanation within the episode but it still doesn't make much sense considering the sheer amount of Pegasi in Ponyville and Fluttershy's general aversion to athletics.
Ironically, the part where Rainbow Dash was over-reacting was the start of things getting good for me, outside of copious amounts of FlutterDash. Rainbow's over-reacting was rather awkward but finally something funny in the episode and it leads onto some great moments.
My liking of the Wonderbolts here is more the diversification of them. They learn a lesson, supposedly, but Spitfire and Fleetfoot are presented as rather unlikeable here. We know from past episodes that Spitfire can be nice so it is interesting to see the character has a bit of depth and flaws to them. It was also nice to see more of Soarin's personality showed off, even if the majority it was able interpreted through his previous scene in Best Night Ever. Thanks for commenting, Forum Explorer.