Episode Re-Review: Fall Weather Friends · 6:12pm Feb 1st, 2021
So we're closing out the first half of Season 1 with what by all accounts is a classic, even by the show's standards given how much they seemed to love trying to call back to this in later seasons. It's also an episode that I think almost singlehandedly launched the ship of AppleDash, which alongside FlutterMac used to be all over the place in the fandom's early days. Amy Keating Rogers wrote this episode, so we should be in for a good time, right? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Applejack and Rainbow Dash having a horseshoe tossing game which Applejack ends up winning. Rainbow is rather unhappy about losing and decides to challenge Applejack to an iron pony competition where the winner gets bragging rights as the best athlete in Ponyville. Twilight and Spike are there mostly just be spectators (though Spike wants to pretend to be an announcer). Rainbow Dash wins the first event involving running around barrels since Applejack hits one during her run and gets a penalty. Applejack makes up for it though by winning the next event, a variation of the carnival strength testing game by knocking the bell off its perch. There is one event that feels kind of mean spirited though, a rodeo contest where Spike has to serve as the cattle that has to be roped in and then thrown off. Applejack wins this one (kind of think she has an unfair advantage given her natural experience with rodeo skills) while Rainbow Dash gets all tied up.
However, as times goes by Rainbow starts to use her wings to gain an unfair advantage in many contests. It's not like she makes an effort to hide it either, yet somehow no one notices even during the last event when she's clearly hovering above the ground. It's not like it matters though, since Rainbow wins in a landslide anyway. But Applejack calls her out for cheating. Rainbow argues that there was no rule against using her wings, to which Applejack argues back that she didn't think she had to specify that rule. What makes this work compared to the ridiculous requirement that unicorns not use their magic if they participate in winter wrap up is that Applejack isn't asking for her friend to not use her natural abilities at all. She's simply asking that for the duration of the competition Rainbow not exploit her wings to gain advantages exclusive to her. Anyway, Rainbow just thinks Applejack is being a sore loser (probably projecting), but still agrees to a rematch at the running of the leaves the next day. While this does help to explain why they're both participating in that contest, it's easy now to see that this whole Iron Pony Competition was probably an entirely different episode and that they blended it in with another eleven minute episode to make one twenty two minute episode.
The next day, Applejack and Rainbow gather at the starting line as Spike learns that Pinkie Pie is already serving as the announcer (but she feels more like color commentary). Still, she lets him join her in the balloon as a co-announcer, which is a really sweet gesture. Then Applejack insists on tying Rainbow's wings so that she won't feel tempted to use them to cheat again, and then Twilight shows up to participate in the race. Applejack and Rainbow Dash naturally tease her for this, Rainbow even calling Twilight egghead for the first time.
There is also a reference in Twilight's racing number: 42 (I believe it's a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with 42 being the answer to everything). But her role definitely feels shoehorned in, arguably one of her most noticeably shoehorned in roles. I'm not saying it's OOC for her to want to participate in a race, but the fact that she just happens to be participating in the same one as her friends for what I can only assume is a race she just learned about feels like a stretch. Pinkie Pie then exposits that the purpose of the race is actually to shake down all the leaves in and around Ponyville since they can't fall by themselves. This probably means the episode is taking place before "Winter Wrap Up" but it is still odd that they had an episode about autumn two episodes after one about cleaning up winter. Then the race begins as Applejack and Rainbow Dash pull out to an early lead.
We get some pretty funny back and forth between Pinkie and Spike as Spike reacts to Pinkie's random remarks, though weirdly Pinkie mentions a hot dog eating contest (I feel like that slipped by the story editors). Then, as the race enters Whitetail Woods, Rainbow Dash takes the lead as Applejack stumbles and falls. She thinks Rainbow tripped her on purpose, but then Twilight happens to come by and reveals that Applejack just tripped over a branch because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Applejack realizes this and after a brief bout of shame she gets back in the running, catching up to and overtaking Rainbow for the lead. Then Rainbow stumbles and falls and she thinks Applejack tripped her on purpose. Twilight points out that it was actually a rock that did it, but Rainbow refuses to believe this even though she has no reason to think Applejack would trip her. Because she can't accept that she fell of her own accord (which can happen to even the best of athletes), she decides it's time to start cheating ala Dick Dasterdly style.
Because of the sabotage, Applejack starts playing dirty as well. She and Rainbow start trading blows as they do things like knock down buckets of sap or sic a hive of angry bees onto their opponent. Rainbow eventually ends up switching a sign to make Applejack run right up the side of a cliff, and Applejack makes use of the balloon to get back in the game (pointing out that she only mentioned Rainbow using her wings, she didn't say anything about flying). As they reach the finish line as the two start bumping each other and we get the "Oh no she didn't" line from Spike. As a result of the scuffle, Applejack ends up unintentionally removing the ropes binding Rainbow's wings and Rainbow decides that all bets are off. Applejack refuses to let Rainbow get away though and tackles her to the ground.
The two end up tumbling and scuffling all the way across the finish line and learn that they tied, not for first but for last.
So who won first place? Well at first we see Twilight with a medal and you think she won. But in fact she got fifth place, specifically by saving her strength until the end and then rushing past most of the competition while they were exhausted. Twilight naturally can't resist ribbing her friends over how their "horsing around" made her fifth place position possible. And then Princess Celestia shows up, having come to witness the event for herself. Applejack and Rainbow Dash realize what a fool they've made of themselves and apologize, delivering the moral about being good sports and how it's not whether you win or lose it's how you play the game (so Twilight's role is pointless since she's not writing the friendship report). Then Applejack and Rainbow Dash vow to go back and shake down the leaves they missed as a result of their efforts to sabotage each other, with the final shot being them running off together into the woods.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? It's pretty good, though by no means flawless. There are some not so minor problems that hold it back a bit, whether it's Twilight's pointless shoehorned in role or no one noticing when Rainbow Dash cheats during the Iron Pony Competition. And while they did manage to connect the Iron Pony Competition with the running of the leaves it is easy to tell now that they were likely two different episodes originally and then combined into one. At times I would argue Rainbow can be hard to root for considering there's nothing at stake and not much of an audience, so why does she feel so pressured to start cheating in the Iron Pony Competition or refuse to accept that she tripped over a rock during the running of the leaves? Still, what makes this episode's conflict work is that Applejack and Rainbow Dash are only ever hurting themselves with their overcompetitiveness and there's an actual reason why they would want to compete. So I give this episode a borderline B+/A-, a very strong close out to Season 1's first half.
Tomorrow, it's on to what many consider the show's take off point, the episode that saw Rarity become the break out character of the show in the form of "Suited For Success".
This might just be my bias towards her, but I'm actually on Dash's side during the Iron Pony competition. I mean, wings are a natural part of a pegasus' body, so not getting to use them feels like giving her an unnecessary handicap.
But yeah, this is definitely a really good episode.
5445836
Just like how horns are a natural part of a unicorn's body.
5445845
Exactly
5445849 True, but I don't think it's unfair to ask Rainbow not to use them during a competition against an earth pony, at least to the extent where she has an obvious advantage. The first time she used her wings it was subtle enough not to count (she used them to give herself just a little bit of extra momentum to do one more push-up) but in other things (such as using her wings spread out to carry chickens or using them to stop herself in mid air to get extra distance) were just giving her an unfair edge.
Ah, the true birth of AppleDash.