SPOILERS! Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Tanks for the Memories" · 4:31am Apr 26th, 2015
WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for today’s episode of MLP “Tanks for the Memories.”
Now, without further ado, here is my review of “Tanks for the Memories”.
Rainbow Dash is excited that winter is… on its way! This is her first winter with Tank, and she’s looking forward to all the fun winter things they can do together. (Wait, how is this Rainbow’s first winter with Tank?... Shut up!) However, she begins to notice that Tank is acting a bit more sluggish and moving more slowly than usual. Turns out, Tank’s got to hibernate during the winter. Rainbow Dash does not take this very well and goes into denial, deciding that her best course of action is to stop winter from even happening.
So, what’s the verdict.
I very much enjoyed this episode. However, my Marius sense is telling me this is an episode many will not enjoy for it has much in common with episodes like “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well” and “Rainbow Falls”, two Rainbow episodes fans very much did not enjoy. Here as in those episodes, Rainbow Dash appears to be acting selfishly or egotistically against her element. Yeah, it’s not like how much Dash loves this tortoise hasn’t been established before.
But what other people think is not important right now. What is important now is that I liked it, and I’m going to tell you why.
We start off with Rainbow Dash marking that Cloudsdale has rolled in, meaning that winter is making its way to Ponyville. So, apparently Cloudsdale moves around; that’s something we didn’t really know before. Anyway, Rainbow is excited for all the winter activities she’ll get to share with Tank, like extreme sledding and horse hockey. It’s funny how ponies are apparently into hockey given that many of the show’s staff are inhabitants of the mysterious, far away land known as Canada. See the map they're hovering right over us. Tell you the truth it makes me kinda nervous. But enough of that. After noticing Tank acting rather oddly, Rainbow takes him to her resident pet expert Fluttershy. Fluttershy determines that Tank is perfectly healthy; he’s just preparing to hibernate. She then delivers a little educational exposition for the younglings about how some animals, including tortoises, hibernate during the winter. Although Fluttershy is quite wrong about bears though. (True story. Back in high school, I had an AP Biology professor who docked me points on a term paper for writing that grizzly bears hibernate. Technically, bears undergo “winter sleep”. It’s different.) Fluttershy should know better. Rainbow does not take this news well and so seeks a second opinion from an actual reptile.
The reptile in question is Spike. Spike tries his best to explain to a rather hard-headed Rainbow that tortoises and dragons are very different. He insists that if Fluttershy says Tank has to hibernate, then that is so. Rainbow refuses to accept this, insisting that she just has to get Tank more active. No matter what though, Tank still tries to hibernate, and Rainbow snaps at anypony who points out the truth. Rainbow decides that there is only one course of action she can take if she wants to avoid having Tank hibernate for the winter. She has to stop winter from arriving completely!
Now, recall that Rainbow was looking forward to doing winter stuff. She accepts though that she’d rather have Tank by her side instead of it being without him during the winter. It’s almost a selfless act. She has unilaterally decided that there won’t be winter in Ponyville. Oh well. She should have known better that no matter what she did, winter is… inevitable.
So, Rainbow Dash sets off to stop the winter, singing a cute little ditty called “I’ll Fly” all about how she’ll stop the winter and spend time with Tank. It kind of reminded me of "In Summer" from Frozen for some reason. Honestly, the song is nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done. However, Rainbow’s efforts are in vain as for every hoof step she is able to push things back, they still move three hoof steps forward. Rainbow determines that her best course of action is to stop everything at its source: Cloudsdale.
Rainbow and Tank go to Cloudsdale where they infiltrate the Weather Factory and sneak into the Winter Lab. She drains all the water so they can’t make snowflakes or snow clouds. However, Tank gets almost sucked into some kind of wind vent that ends up blowing Rainbow into a room where they literally store lightning in a bottle. Tank ends up pushing a button that starts the cloud-making process with all the water the room is inundated with. Thunderstorms form, but not quite thundersnow. Down below in Ponyville, everypony below witnesses the quickly gone out of control proceedings in the Weather Factory. Twilight declares to her friends not quite to brace themselves, but…
And there you have it! The first ever Game of Thrones reference on MLP proper.
That explains M.A. Larson’s tweet yesterday as well as why he changed his name to Game of Thrones parody.
I confess though, I’m not at all familiar with Game of Thrones. Haven’t read the books; haven’t seen the show. But I go on the internet on a regular basis, so I’ve come across some things.
Anywho, Rainbow and Tank get sucked into the Winter Lab’s machinery like Charlie Chaplin and get caught up in a giant snow cloud. The cloud gets shot out of the factory and proceeds to instantly inundate Ponyville in winter. Rainbow Dash has failed in her quest, inadvertently bringing on the very thing she was trying to avoid.
Later on, Rainbow is moping in bed at home with Tank when her friends come to visit. Interesting side note, apparently Rainbow’s house has solid floors while the rest her house is made of cloud (Pinkie walks through a wall rather than use a door) or perhaps Twilight did a quick cloud-walking spell on them before they stopped by. Either one is a likely possibility. Anyway, Rainbow’s friends try to cheer her up, but it’s to no avail. Rainbow still insists she’s fine. Fluttershy then straight up tells Rainbow that will be pet-less this winter, causing her to burst into tears. When asked why she would do that, Fluttershy merely answers that Rainbow will only feel better after she cries it out. Fluttershy for the win! Rainbow cries for like a really long time, which causes Fluttershy to start crying and then Rarity starts because she can’t stand seeing Fluttershy cry and then Pinkie starts crying too…
You hear that? That’s Steel Resolve having a fangasm.
Apparently, Applejack cries on the inside, and Twilight has no soul. Eventually, Rainbow settles down and thanks everypony as well as Tank for being there for her. Later while her friends are playing in the snow, Rainbow Dash arrives to deposit Tank for his hibernation. She has finally accepted it. Rainbow hangs back by Tank’s burrow to read him a Daring Do story to help him get to sleep.
This episode’s lesson is a subtle one about learning to accept the things you cannot change. That’s a lesson I can most definitely stand behind. Come to think of it, all lessons for each episode of this season have been pretty subtle. The writing staff seems to have eschewed the letter and journal-writing format of previous seasons and instead have put their faith in the sophistication of their target audience as they age. We Bronies, of course, have always been sophisticated. I applaud the writers for doing that.
One of the great things about this episode is the funny things that occur throughout. One of the funniest though is a brief snippet with some weather ponies arguing that is simultaneously a parody of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on first?” routine as well as a send up of pony naming conventions. It was genius! It was like something out of Animaniacs.
The only thing that I find wrong with this episode is actually just like half wrong. This episode says straight up that Rainbow Dash has never experienced a Winter with Tank. This basically ruins the idea that I and possibly many others had that MLP takes place approximately over the time that it aired. This episode suggests that Seasons 3, 4, and possibly a good chunk of Season 2 take place over the course of a single spring and summer. I always figured Season 5 was the third going on fourth year of Twilight’s time in Ponyville. That is no longer the case. It’s going to bother me until I work out a chronology of events for MLP. I probably will have a blog about that later this week.
The good thing about this though is that it says to me that writing staff are paying close attention to time passing by on the show. I still don’t know why they chose to interpret things like since they haven’t done a winter episode since “Hearth’s Warming Eve” then winter hasn’t happened again yet. To a certain extent, they’ve already eschewed Status Quo is God with Twilicorn and Twilight’s new castle. Anyway, I look forward to see the writers continue to do that.
Overall, “Tanks for the Memories” was a silly and funny little episode. I happen to like it when Rainbow Dash acts a little silly. I’ve always liked it, and I always will.
What do you all think about “Tanks for the Memories”?
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
I couldn't resist either. 
As you already know from my review, I too really liked this episode. And the chronology bit is still bugging me. I too thought this was taking place within Twilight's third to fourth year of moving to Ponyville. I'm still having a hard time believing that a good chunk of Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, and the first few episodes of Season 5 all took less than a year to transpire. That's just insane to me.
3017568 Do not fear my friend! I will fix it!
Season 4 started exactly 1 year after the start of season 1, with the Summer Sun Celebration. We then had apple bucking season, and now the Running of the Leaves and winter.
It makes a lot of sense, given that the CMC haven't gotten much older in that time span.
3020555 Perhaps. I've been working on my own chronology of events in MLP and will be blogging about it later this week.
3020555 If you're at all interested, my chronology that I promised here is now up.
Hey. Maybe Hasbro isn't uploading the episodes in chronological order. The episode time points could be malleable, as in changeable. They could be in any order, and we just don't know it. The only stiff points we have are the defeat of Nightmare Moon, The Gala, Discord's defeat, and other points. So the episodes could happen in any order. So it could take over several years. So the whole Pet Day episode could happen right before the Grand Galloping Gala.But, it still has some trouble. Even if my theory is correct, this couldn't have been Rainbow's first winter with Tank.
3081689 I actually came up with my own chronology a few weeks ago based on an idea similar to yours.
3081695
I did not know that. But if my theory is possible, then the episodes could be in any order, with only the premieres and finales remaining in place.