Episode Analysis - Season 4, Episode 10 - Rainbow Falls · 6:10am Jan 20th, 2014
WARNING: The following blog post contains spoilers. If you have not yet watched this episode, you might want to do so before you read this post.
Rainbow Falls is the third episode Corey Powell has written, and up to this point she has a fairly reasonable record as a writer, doing very decent episodes overall. Unfortunately, it seems she, too, caught season 4itis, and while the episode is far from terrible, it is a weaker performance, though one particular thing, the actual line delivery, cannot really be laid at her feet. I did enjoy the episode, but still feel as though it could have been much more than it was.
So what went wrong?
I think the real problem with this episode lies with the casting and lack of characterization. Using Fluttershy on the relay team is potential comedy gold, but the other pony they chose - Bulk Biceps, in his first real role - was not a very good choice for it. There are a variety of problems with the choice, but the largest issue is that the episode, as a whole, was very one-note. Fluttershy already suffers from being a fairly one-note character oftentimes, and Bulk Biceps is even more of a one-note character. His dialogue is too ridiculous, and while him shouting randomly is funny, a whole episode full of him wears the gag down. There isn't anything to him beyond the obvious, the episode doesn't reveal any additional depth of character for him, and thus he just is kind of there, only marginally interacting with the other ponies.
The rest of the mane six also tag along for no good reason; while it is realistic for them to cheer her on, their presence is unnecessary. Pinkie Pie tagging along to cheer makes perfect sense, and she works okay, but the others feel a bit forced. Applejack making those high-carb treats could have been a funny gag, but it never really goes anywhere interesting - it just kind of is there, without anything more to it. Her trying to imitate the Cloudsdale team was a nice touch, and COULD have been an interesting point... but as it turns out, the episode never really follows up on that at all, which was fine, but just kind of left her pointless. Rarity, likewise, really did not need to be there - she could have just have been mentioned as having made uniforms, and had no need to actually be physically present at the competition. Twilight was there to cheer for her as well, but... honestly, she's there for the little talks she gave Rainbow Dash.
The problem with their presence is they show up, they talk a bit, they get a little attention a few times... but really, they didn't have any presence in the episode, and they have precious little character between them. Pinkie Pie was very one-note, as were the rest of them, and they were obviously just kind of there to be there. They could have just as easily been shown in the background and not had any lines, and it would have worked just fine. Rainbow Dash DID need at least one of them to watch her and talk to, but did it really need to be Twilight? Applejack's little angle could have worked okay too, and while the guilt trip about how everyone was pulling for them was nice, I'm not sure how necessary it was. Applejack could have just as easily stood in for Twilight, and then had more things to do - having more focus on just one support pony would have made for time for that support pony to show off their character. Instead, they all got bland, generic, one-note appearances.
As an aside, I was a bit let down that Applejack herself wasn't competing in anything - her being the other athlete in the group, it seemed likely she would be doing something. Perhaps her own event is at another time? Who knows.
Finally, we had the Wonderbolts. And unfortunately, they were very one-note here as well. They are ultra-competitive, which is reasonable, but Spitfire and Fleetfoot were basically indistinguishable - their voices sounded similar, and there really wasn't any clear distinction between the two character-wise. Honestly, Spitfire felt a little awkward here anyway - the way she was trying to be sneaky and underhanded didn't really feel right to me relative to how she had behaved previously, where she was much more direct. I think it would have been much more effective if the two had been differentiated more, with Fleetfoot sticking with the whole underhanded "be with the winners" thing, while Spitfire was pressuring her more directly, saying she wanted to see more of what she could do and intimating that by being on the Cloudsdale team Rainbow Dash would have a better shot at making it on the Wonderbolts. That would have been a much more interesting form of pressure, and it would have been much more unfair to Rainbow Dash. Moreover, it could have lead to Rainbow Dash calling them out more powerfully at the end - that they want her to join their team, but how could they ever trust her if she was willing to turn her back on another team to join theirs?
The overall plot arc was very reasonable, and could have been quite powerful: Rainbow Dash wants to win a gold medal at the Equestria Games. To do that, she and her team, from Ponyville, have to qualify. But the best pegasi are already all competing in other events, leaving Rainbow Dash with the worst pegasi in Ponyville who want to compete (or who Rainbow Dash could drag into competing, which was probably the case with Fluttershy). We have a scene at the start where we establish that all of her friends are going to cheer her on, as well as establishing that the "new" pony, Bulk Biceps, is becoming a real character this episode. We even get a justification for why her team sucks - ponies are only allowed to compete in one event, and Rainbow Dash is on the relay team in part because she can carry them on her own because she's just that good.
Soarin is noted as being the slowest on his team, with his teammates shouting for him to hurry up, and the overall professionalism of the Cloudsdale team, lead by the Wonderbolts and supported by clearly paid-for, experienced staff is a sharp contrast to Ponyville's very hometown, thrown-together support team. So when Soarin is injured, the Cloudsdale team is supposed to be very attractive to Rainbow Dash - it has her heroes on it, it has a much more professional setup, and it is clearly going to win. If they don't win the gold, what are they even doing?
All of this is well and good, but the episode just doesn't sell things as well as they should. Rainbow Dash's voice actor feels a bit off all episode; the lines just aren't as well-delivered as I'd like. The Wonderbolts, too, are very flat, and their attempt at recruiting Rainbow Dash is transparently obvious, but more to the point, it also just doesn't sound as well-pitched as it should - it would have been better if it was a bit more coercive, and also stated in a bit more attractive manner, as in, Rainbow Dash SHOULD want this. It emphasizes the winners aspect, but it should also have emphasized who they were more - that the Wonderbolts always win this. They should have equated winning with the Wonderbolts, with being a winner with the Wonderbolts, and tried to recruit her more actively. Instead, the lines felt rather flat and generic, when it should have been really enticing.
Bulk Biceps has very little character; we get some idea of what kind of person he is from the episode, and he is obviously a bit playful judging by his behavior, but on the other hand he never really matters as a character. If the entire episode had had some other random pony who wasn't terribly competent in the place of Bulk Biceps, it would have turned out exactly the same; his presence in the episode was basically a gimmicky, repetitive gag, and his character and personality never got out of it. Indeed, he hardly actually interacts with Rainbow Dash at all, and never really as a person; he's just a burden to her. Heck, Fluttershy is the same way - the only real interaction she has is when Rainbow Dash is pretending to be injured. Outside of that bit, there was little interaction with her as a character - she expressed that she was happy to be given the opportunity to represent Ponyville, and that was about it.
Having Rainbow Dash actually act as more of a coach to them, being a bit more like she was in Hurricane Fluttershy, would have helped make us care more about the conflict, and would have also helped us bond with the characters more. Having them actually interact back with her - having her help them with specific things - would have helped us bond with them more. Instead, they just got generic exercises to do, but nothing which really spoke to them as characters. We just got her jumping back and forth between the teams, without any real opportunity to see any character interactions.
Because the characters had little actual character in the episode, and most of their interactions were extremely straightforward, the episode relied heavily on visual gags which, while decent, were unexceptional - there were funny things here and there, but there just wasn't anything super special. Where the show really shines with its humor is usually in the dialogue, but said dialogue requires multiple characters showing actual character to do it, and in this episode, there was actually precious little true interaction - the scene at the very beginning of the episode, Rainbow Dash's stay in the hospital, and Rainbow Dash talking to Twilight were the only real times we saw any real back-and-forthing which was really showing off or examining character, and of those, only the dialogue with Soarin was really all that strong.
I think this episode really exposes the fundamental weakness of season 4 - the use of a gimmick in the place of actual cleverness, the lack of "real" character interactions, the use of a huge number of ponies when fewer ponies would do (this episode may have had the most speaking roles of any episode - we had the mane six, three Wonderbolts, Bulk Biceps, Thunderlane, Thunderlane's friend, the cheerleaders...), and just a general lack of anything which was really exceptional.
Even Derpy's appearance wasn't as strong as it should have been - they didn't let her talk, when her talking could have really helped drive the point home, that Derpy was doing it for Rainbow Dash, someone who has only expressed frustration with her previously. It could have further driven home the guilt, that someone was going to try so Rainbow Dash could still get her gold medal and so Ponyville would be represented, and reminded Rainbow Dash of what was important in the first place. But instead she was merely given a silent role and, while cute, she didn't really do anything effective.
In the end, I think this episode well-exhibits the major issue of why making use of characters is so important - ultimately, the show is about the characters, but for someone to show their character, they have to have others to show their character to, not mere cardboard cutouts set up in the background, but real, living people. As it was, the episode had Rainbow Dash navigating her way through it on her own.
Now, for the most important thing of all.
BINGO!
Yeah, that's right. Clearly I'm psychic to get a Bingo by episode ten. Or you know, I just put all the most likely guesses on a single line. Though I will admit, I was not expecting Bulk Biceps of all ponies to be the background pony of choice.
One final aside: I really don't like Bulk Biceps' name. It doesn't really feel much like a pony name, and it just sounds kind of weird. I think it would have been better had they gone with a cutesy name for him, simply because it would have been much funnier for him to have some sort of silly, unmanly name. He is a walking joke, after all; best to complete it.
This blog post was done in a somewhat different format from my previous episode analysis posts. Did you guys think this was a better writeup than my previous writeups, which went into more of a blow-by-blow of the episode, or did you prefer the old way better?
This method>old method
Fact is anyone reading these has already seen the episode so going over it brick by brick isn't required. This way you better focus on what the actual problems (or strengths) were.
Though I highly recommend writing a 'throw back positive review' sometimes soon so the silly things realize you actually LIKE things.
Remember back during S3 when people elsewhere would call you a Hasbro who liked everything they put out automatically? Good times
I mostly agree with your problems here... there's a lot of little things that could have fixed this episode plot wise certainly:Smaller cast, give the VOR role to applejack, play around with the structure of the wonderbolts so they're less one dimensional and don't go against established character, turn Bulk into the replacement and derpy into the original third pony, give names to the griffon team so people can stop arguing about them, among others.
In the end though we can talk about fixing little narrative problems all we want; the REAL problem here is the episode wasn't funny enough to DISTRACT us from those problems. The lack of punch and solid acting is the real weight tied around S4's legs, and while some of the above contributed to this (Mane6 all the time, gimmick ponies etc) they can't be the only source, problems like this rarely only have one.
Somethings off on the writing teams end for this to keep on coming up. Problems with the new director? A portion of the lost writers this season hurting things by not being in the brain storming sessions? Some sort of mandate involved that's forcing them to dedicate time and energy thinking up action scenes, and ways to get -everyone in the scene- rather than focusing on other things? Or perhaps they've become patients of their own asylum and find these gimmicks amazing on their own the same way some bronies do? A combination of the above or something else entirely?
Sadly most of these are 'behind doors' issues that we can't really know about so it's all guess work. But the problems certainly there. Problems that... might not be fixed given the season IS still going to do well whatever happens, meaning they'll have very little incentive to change anything.
Granted it's better then the show doing POORLY because of them and being cancelled so we have a -chance- of quality pony but yeah! I'd like to see more good stuff man!
1738242
I second the idea of doing a retrospective on an earlier episode, because I've found that I respond best to critics when they compare and contrast, when the speak in terms of "better or worse" rather than "good or bad". If Yahtzee didn't take the occasional opportunity to praise a video game and hold it above the others, I would have stopped watching Zero Punctuation a long time ago.
I'm also grateful that you appear to have tossed your out-of-five scores from the reviews, because there's an implication that each episode scoring one out of five is equally good. For instance, I remember you saying that Rarity Takes Manehattan was completely functional on a dramatic level, and yet you gave it a 1/5 because you didn't want it scoring higher than Crystal Empire. I'm assuming this rating means your eyes glazed over from a complete lack of entertainment or engagement, but to most of us it means that this is an episode that will put the viewer in a foul mood because of how broken it is. So throwing out the score and explaining it with more words (since you're already using quite a few) was a good decision.
1738800
Well let me ruin it for you then.
He gave this episode a 2/5~
1745632
Maybe if he would put up a review for something good I wouldn't be so annoyed.