Review of Newbie Dash · 5:12pm May 7th, 2016
Wow, right after my favorite episode is my least favorite episode of the season so far. Heck, I think it's been a long time since there's been an episode I really didn't like.
It wasn't all bad. There was some good in this episode. I liked how supportive Rainbow's friends were. And I liked Rainbow doing impressions of her friends. Mad props to Ashleigh Ball for managing to make Rainbow Dash doing an impression of Applejack without making it sound like a raspier Applejack. Her impression of Fluttershy was great too. Kinda disappointing that she didn't try to due Rarity's Mid-Atlantic accent, but that's not a major problem.
What is a major problem is the main conflict of this episode, Rainbow Dash desperately trying to get her idols to stop calling her a nickname that was used in the past to hurt her. I had a hard time watching this episode; I felt so sorry for Rainbow Dash, and felt like the Wonderbolts were completely unlikable. Normally I can at least count on Soarin to still be a decent pony when the other Wonderbolts act like jerks, but here he's just as unlikable as the rest of them. But I told myself, well at least the Wonderbolts will learn their lesson and junk and will stop calling her Crash right?
Wrong! But it's ok, it turns out the all the Wonderbolts got their nicknames from embarrassing incidents, and they highly respect Rainbow. They just didn't act like it most the episode. It feels like lazy writing. Like the writer (whose name I forgot, but this is his first time writing for the show; Dave Polsky helped with the story, but I wish he got to do the actual script as well, he has a lot more experience with writing for this show) realized during the last ten minutes of his writing session that he made the Wonderbolts act like massive chowder-heads and lazily tacked on this ending to make it OK. All I'm wondering though is why Spitfire didn't tell Rainbow about other embarrassing names when she gave Dash her jacket. It was clearly bothering her. But even if Spitfire did tell her that, Rainbow should've said "Well, Rainbow Crash isn't just an embarrassing nickname here. When I was a filly, bullies used to mock me by calling me Rainbow Crash." And then Spitfire could've been "Oh. Sorry about that. How's Rainbow Trash?"
That's really the main problem with the episode, we already know that Rainbow Crash has emotional baggage for Rainbow, and it's made worse by seeing a flashback to when she first got that nickname. After that, I never want to see Rainbow called Crash again, and thus I can't help but loathe the Wonderbolts. They should've given her a different nickname. Rainbow Trash? Newbie Trash?
Or even better, don't make the conflict about the Wonderbolts calling her that name. Instead, have Rainbow Dash mess up in the beginning, have everyone laugh at her, and then the rest of the episode could be about Rainbow Dash trying way to hard to earn the Wonderbolt's respect, to the point where she does that dangerous stunt. Then the Wonderbolts could tell her that she didn't need to earn their respect after that mistake, because she already did in the past. That would've made the Wonderbolts be a lot less unlikable, and it would've been a great use of Rainbow's stubborness.
Overall, while I did enjoy some of the slapstick and other jokes, the core story here feels mean-spirited and very poorly written. I'll give it a 4.9/10 for now. Upon more rewatches, I might bump up the score slightly higher. But not much
