Fifth Times The Charm · 9:46pm Apr 26th, 2015

S05 EP05 - TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

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Food for thought: why does the Cloudsdale weather factory has a spare lab coat and a cap that fits Tank? Who else is working there besides pegasi?

Prane: We’ve seen them wrap up winter a long time ago, so it’s about time we saw how the ponies of Ponyville unwrap it as well! I have to admit that I didn’t really care about Rainbow Dash or Tank in the episode, I was not moved by how attached she has become to her little green friend, and frankly I was tired that she couldn’t understand the simple fact that he needed his beauty sleep throughout the winter. Fortunately, the world remained as colorful and vivid as ever (Running of the Leaves redux, Cloudsdale as a flying fortress, the winterification of the land as a whole), and the ongoing trend of giving background ponies some life continued. That little talk between Sunshower, Open Skies, and Clear Skies was an absolute gold!

A simple question to begin with: what did you like about the episode?

Gulheru: It might sound extremely grim, but I think this episode was the closest we can have when it comes to the subject of “passing” and death. And that is an important lesson to share, which is exactly why I have enjoyed myself. Although I was screaming: “It’s not like he is dying, you crybaby.” Then again, RD is not known as the most reasonable of the group and her antics were frustrating for me.

Yet I still believe this to be a worthy episode to watch because of its hidden message. Not to mention the comical moments to equalize the serious undertone of the storyline. And, of course, Fluttershy being the one to put things plainly - amazing.

ChaoticLightning: I enjoy the episode for the tone it was going for, besides the things wrong with the episode it did at least help Dash move on from what she thought would be the end and now Tank and herself will still be together. Cartoons for kids in the past have tackled the topic of death, teaching a lesson that the world we live in is not all rainbows and unicorns. This episode had some moments where you could shake your head in shame at how they execute the moral, RD wasn’t selfish in this case but we know she won’t listen to reason unless she’s the one in the right. Now we know that Dash has grown as a character since Seasons 2 and 3, also that Applejack cries on the inside.

Csquared08: Sleepless in Ponyville was perhaps the first episode to really show off Dash without all of her outward bravado. I really liked that this episode followed up on that portrayal of Dash and showed us more Dash without the bravado. It adds a lot of depth to the character and really makes her more relatable. We also saw Fluttershy showing off the lessons she’s learned in previous episodes, being much more “assertively kind” when dealing with Dash at the end. Character growth for everyone! It was great.

That moment when you have the chemistry lab all for yourself but you realize you're too dumb to do anything cool.

Gulheru: So, let me get things straight… Rainbow Dash decides that she is not going to let winter come to Ponyville. She begins by sabotaging the efforts of the Weather Teams and ends up causing the Weather Factory of Cloudsdale to nearly blow up into tiny, cirrus-like smithereens. She damages equipment, causes an explosion of stored lightning supplies, drains the water and only by chance the result brings winter to the region, although I can imagine that the ball of condensed atmospherical conditions hitting another place in Equestria could have been fatal.

… and nothing?! I mean, this is a serious offence. And, yes, I do understand that heroes of a story can get away with a lot of stuff, but this is taking it, frankly, too far. Are you willing to agree that characters avoiding responsibility for their actions goes overboard this time?

ChaoticLightning: I’d have to agree, trying to stop winter from coming is one thing but sabotaging a factory to prevent your pet from hibernating for their health can be a little overboard.

Csquared08: I feel like you’re going a bit too far with that one, Gulheru. It’s not the best comparison, but Wile E. Coyote did all sorts of crazy things and purchased a ton of product from ACME. How did he purchase it? Who paid for all the destruction he caused? Who even cares? It just feels like that’s the wrong question to be asking about the episode. It’s like watching Avengers and asking why Hulk didn’t get in trouble for destroying a lot of buildings in New York. What about his character responsibility? It just doesn’t seem relevant to what the episode was doing.

That’s not to say character responsibility isn’t important. It is. It just didn’t have a place in this episode. Something probably happened off-screen and then life moved on. That’s what fanfic is for, eh?

Prane: That’s the whole charm of animated series like this one. There is no strong master plot connecting the episodes, and since the changes to the world are almost never carried over to the next episode(s) (unless it’s a character defining feature), the creators of the show can get creative and come up with really fun stuff without caring about the consequences of what follows. I vaguely remember a Futurama episode making fun of just that which ends with New New York pretty much in ruin. I couldn’t find the exact quote, but I believe Professor Farnsworth said something along the lines of “by the end of the day, everything returns to it’s usual state”. Thanks to that we can pretty much watch episodes of a given season at random and not get confused by why the state of things is so different every time.

Seeing Rainbow Dash on trial for her wrongdoing belongs to fanfiction. However, if there’s an episode in the future which will feature her visit to Cloudsdale (from here on now known as a-floatin'-ass-fortress-of-airborne-awesomeness), I would expect the citizens to politely remind her that they’re still repairing their factories. To which, of course, she would make a stupid face and just shrug, ‘cause she’s Rainbow Dash.

"Make sure the names of your OCs won't be confusing as hell." ~an excerpt from the official OC Factory Reference Guide

ChaoticLightning: With the references thrown in this episode, which one was the highlight of the episode? M.A. Larson did say he would take full responsibility for the Game of Thrones reference, that one was one of those little hints that sneak into the show to see who gets the reference, I should really watch the show when I get a chance.

Csquared08:

Prane: I guess that hardcore fans squeed in delight hearing that line! Luckily, I have spent enough time on the Internet to recognize it to be a GoT thing despite never watching or reading the series. I did my homework, though: the motto supposedly has a metaphorical layer to it, and means that darker times in general are coming and we must be ready for it. Will that be the case in Equestria? Cue ominous music!

I read on forums that the weather ponies talking is a reference to Abbott & Costello’s Who's On First. I did not know that particular comedy bit, which makes it the perfect example that we can even learn something new from watching ponies and participating in the fandom. I’m happy that writers keep throwing those little references to the popular culture into the pony world. Still waiting for another Zecora=Yoda and Twilight=Luke training session! I so want to see Twilight using her magic to raise something drowning in the swamp.

Gulheru: Open Skies, Clear Skies. “Airplane”-like comedy right there, most enjoyable. But I cannot really overlook other references. I adore the fact that they are so wonderfully weaved in and we can enjoy our little moment of joy over finding them.

Should we establish that House Twilight is the equivalent of House Stark? There was even a wedding involved in their history, although I would call it a “Green Wedding” perhaps...

Oh, so you're fine with the unicorns using magic to bring the winter but not to clean it up? Talk about double standards!

Csquared08: How do timelines even work? This is the first winter Dash and Tank have spent together? Have the writers thrown all sense of continuity out the window?

I’m more inclined to think that perhaps their seasons and such might not operate by our rules. There are plenty of works out there that create their own day/month/year equivalents, so perhaps FiM has done the same. Other thoughts are also interesting. Perhaps Dash and Tank were separated for whatever reason the past couple winters. Or perhaps they do operate by the same day/month/year patterns we do, and this is truly the first winter since May the Best Pet Win!. No matter the answer, the implications seem quite interesting.

Prane: The timeline logic was irrelevant from the very first episode where CMC cowered in fear before Nightmare Moon despite not meeting until S01E12. I have seen some valiant attempts to put the episodes in order so that there was a logical continuity to the series, but it always ended with some paradox regarding the characters which made it impossible. The best thing we can do is to go with the flow, I think. Use important events and characters as reference points for our stories (e.g. before Nightmare Moon’s return, during Chrysalis’ invasion, after Tirek’s defeat) and just write whatever the heck we want.

As for the Equestrian calendar, I’m sticking to seven days per week and twelve months a year as we know it. Changing the names of the months is an interesting touch in pony fiction, but whenever I see those Neighvembers or other punny creations, something inside me dies.

Gulheru:

ChaoticLightning: I believe that the show ties the timelines in the same way we do, the difference here is time can advance and we wouldn’t even notice when the episode takes place inside the canon timeline. Now it can work both ways, seasons are more inclined to go at a faster pace than normal days or vice versa where the days feel longer than shorter.

Have a good weekend everybody!