Wow (A Good "Wow" This Time) · 1:04pm Apr 9th, 2014
Finally saw the new episode. After getting over Pinkie's Rap, (I like it but holy crap is it weird to type this) I found the episode as a whole to be really quite good. The play with the pets was the only part I really disliked, while the ending was pretty much perfect.
But the actual plot and it's resolution were particularly interesting. I may have some form of low-level ADHD, so I could relate to Rainbow's frustrations (although with me it's just as often a problem with creating as with consuming) in that regard, and I found the moral Twilight learned to be one I wished more teachers knew.
Also, I hope that this means RD is officially part of the WB reserves now. Either that, or the History test was just one of many hoops she'll have to jump through to get in, which I suppose makes sense. Still, a somewhat more visible/tangible progression would be nice.
More details once I eventually get around to the full review.
I was actually not entirely sold on the episode the first time through but on my second time through it started to grow on me and then the third time I was really enjoying it and laughing my ass off. So yeah episode is pretty good and I enjoy watching it (even if I didnt at first). Anyways I just watched another EQG2 short and it had TRIXIE IN IT! I was hyperventilating for a bit. Now if she shows up before the season ends I'm going to be even more happy
(IDK maybe in Twilight's key episode).
also what do you think about the whole fimfic writes ponies thing? I think its a great idea even if nothing good comes from it I still think it would just be fun to watch.
1995602 yeah, at first I was having a hard time getting into it.
To be honest, I stopped watching the short the moment Trixie showed up. I don't hate her or anything, mind you, but I just had a feeling this was going to bore me.
1995637 What thing? I have no clue what you're talking about.
I had rather mixed feelings about this episode.
Firstly, I thought it got off to a very strong start, with Twilight reaching new depths of hilarious test anxiety to the point where she beings projecting the issue onto others around her, namely Rainbow Dash. I loved the way Twilight tried breaking everything down to the bare bones facts while Rainbow just gets increasingly bored and restless, looking for any excuse to break the monotony. The problem for me though was when mid way through it was revealed that Rainbow didn't already know all about the history of the Wonderbolt. I mean, supposedly they are the central focus of her life's obsession, so for her to not know even the most basic details seems a huge stretch -- and worse still, all of her friends (bar AJ) seemed to know more than Rainbow.
Moreover though, while I really do appreciate the moral of this episodes (having had my own educational struggles in the past) I just felt this episode handled it poorly. Notably, this concept that Rainbow's ideal learning method is incidental osmosis while doing something else (multitasking) just doesn't bare out against past examples. By contrast we've seen her obsessively focus on things like the Daring Do novels, which she seemingly digests rapidly all while retaining an encyclopedic knowledge that rivals a long time fan like Twilight (a fact this episode even references). As such, even if I did by into the idea that Rainbow need an alternative learning method, that method would be something more akin to relating the knowledge through narrative adventure, like the movie Rainbow mentions earlier in the episode. This could have maybe even had the double advantage of tying back into her friends various attempts to educate her -- a stage play choreographed by Fluttershy, with costumes designed by Rarity, set to musical accompaniment by Pinkie Pie, and with expositional narration by Twilight.
That said, I still think the episode would have been better if the subject of the upcoming test was something that she wasn't already supposedly passionate about. A good alterantive would be to tie back to the season-1 episode Sonic Rainboom where we learned that Rainbow never finished flight-school, which is the kind of technicality that might make her ineligible to join the Wonderbolts. This could then necessitate her needing to take some kind of GED equivalent, something which would much more believably bore Rainbow.
...
Still, like I said, I enjoyed the moral this episode was trying to teach, I just think it went about it in a way that just didn't relate very well to the primary character being focused on. Everypony else was in top form, but this just wasn't the Rainbow Dash I've come to expect from the show.
1996927
I guess for me it was the other way around; the beginning of the episode put me off for some reason, and it took a few false starts before I actually watched the whole thing through.
Though Dash's antics were pretty funny.
Well, while it stretched my WSoD a bit, I could still sort of see Rainbow not knowing about the far history of the Wonderbolts; someone who lives so much for the present and the future might not necessarily be too interested in the past beyond how the present-day Wonderbolts got involved. But I definitely agree that Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie somehow knowing more about it than Rainbow is decidedly nonsensical. (Twilight gets a pass for being an 'egghead.') (Actually, I do suppose Twilight could have explained it to Fluttershy during the time between her intervention and the actual play, but that still doesn't explain Rarity or Pinkie.
)
Mmm, good point. I will admit, I think the flight osmosis thing is a neat concept, but I suppose when you put it that way, it does have issues.
Actually, while this sounds like a neat idea as well, I can't really agree with you. Giving it further thought, one issue I had with the actual way the episode played out is that it seems to almost undermine itself. The conflict was that everypony else was trying to help Rainbow by using their own methods, and had to instead consider what was best for her. In recycling what they'd done before for the final round, it seemed to me like they were sort of pushing their own methods anyway.
Now this, I can definitely see.
Fair enough.
1997565
True, but I'd still think she'd know enough general details to at least pass, even if perhaps only barely. I guess maybe I can try contenting myself with the notion that such would still have been the case, and that Dash only ends up panicking because Twilight's lessons are all focused on the one big whole in her knowledge. After all it would certainly help to further explain how she can otherwise seemingly go from complete ignorance all the way to PERFECT score.
Good point about Fluttershy. Rarity could also almost get a pass for focusing exclusively on the fashion aspect of the history, except for the fact that it's still rather overly convenient for her to seemingly have already had all those costumes just lying around. As for Pinkie though, she really the one that bothers me the least since not only is she perfectly capable of knowing all kinds of obscure trivia for no good reason, her very character archetype belies anything even resembling coherent consistency. That is to say she tends to very much operate on rule of funny and so if it's funny for her to know something then she will, regardless of whether or not it makes sense (the lack of sense arguably being what makes it even funnier).
Oh, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea that Rainbow Dash has a skill for taking in and extrapolating from so many various details of the world around her, and I think it's a great character trait. I just don't see it as a meaningful learning technique. Especially since the instance where it was used at such portrayed it as something entirely subconscious, wherein she otherwise remained completely oblivious to all the oddball antics going on down below until having it pointed out to her afterwards. Whereas the previous two instances shown this episode both seemed to be a far more actively involved process that she was able to easily break down and explain.
To be clear, I meant that the other should first figure out that just like with Daring Do, that if they could frame the history like an exciting adventure story then Dash would be better able to absorb retain the info . It wouldn't be them still pushing their own technics ignoring the uniqueness of Rainbow's own needs, but rather adapting those techniques.
1996479
This is the thing I was talking about. Obselescence was the one who came up with the idea.
1997601
Wow Emeral. I think you should have wrote this episode. I like everything you said there.
1997988 No, seriously I hadn't heard anything about this.
1997988 And I failed to notice the link. Sorry; thank you!