Good Grief (MLP Style); My Review of "Tanks for the Memories"

Spoiler Alert! Do not continue on unless you’ve seen the episode/s! If you wish to continue, read at your own risk. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Hey, all! Welcome to another review of “My Little Pony”! In this review, I will cover "Tanks for the Memories". As I have discussed before, I will lay out the standards of my reviews. If you just want to skip to the break below, feel free by all means. Here are my standards:
• How in-depth I will go into the episode will vary on the impression it made.
• I may refer to stuff almost related to the show. It depends on what I’m reminded of in the episode.
• Some of the references may be unknown to you guys, so I apologize in advance if anything confuses you. I will do my best to clarify what I mean.
• I will list the pros and cons of each episode and then sum it up.
• The last thing I will do is give the episode one or a mix of the following:
o A letter grade
o A percentage
o A number on a scale of one to ten
• I may skip over select episodes due to a low impression or personal reasons. My apologies in advance to anyone I might offend by skipping over an episode they like.
Please keep this in mind so I don’t have to worry about boring you.
Here’s my review of "Tanks for the Memories"!

******

Forget the Ring of Destiny! This episode has some serious gold! EMO GOLD! I am overly ecstatic right now, but first, I just want to start off by saying what horrible timing Season 5 has! True, Rainbow Rocks delayed it by several months, but if the crew had intended for Season 5 to follow the regular schedule of its predecessors, then this season is a very late (dare I say?) bloomer. On the other hand, maybe they didn’t want another short season like Season 3. Well, they certainly paid the price by prolonging the hiatus. I’ll get back to the episode at hand.
At first, it wasn’t very exciting for me, save for some humorous bits. When I first read the summary for this episode, I wasn’t too keen on seeing this. It was mainly because the premise seemed a bit like a scenario from a kids’ show. However, I did not expect Rainbow Dash to go through the stages of grief in this. I honestly didn’t. I think this is a very gentle way of teaching kids about grief, even though Tank’s only going to be gone temporarily. The only thing I would’ve liked to say to Rainbow Dash at that point is “Your pet’s not going to die”.
I also found some interesting bits in the episode that will be quite useful for a future fanfic I’m planning. I won’t say what exactly I’m going to write, but I will tell you what clips are going to be essential: Rainbow Dash’s anger and her getting sucked into a tube. Can any of you take a wild guess? I’ll give you a few hints now and then. Now, I will continue on to the most important part of the episode.
As I have stated in my first two blog posts, I’m a big fan of cartoon crying, and this episode was no exception. This marks the first time that Rainbow Dash has turned on the waterworks to full blast. I knew at some point she would break down, but when she did, I was over-the-moon thrilled! I was more elated when three of the Mane Six joined Rainbow Dash in her epic tear-fest. I was glad that AJ and Twilight were sensible enough not to break down as well. For me, that would’ve been too much.
This episode mirrors elements from the Frasier episode “Good Grief”, in which Frasier loses his job (albeit temporarily). Since both he and Rainbow Dash experience grief for unique (yet mundane) reasons, I have decided to name this review after my fave Frasier episode. The one part that is most similar to “Good Grief” is when Rainbow Dash goes through depression. Both she and Frasier don’t let out their tears until their loved ones tell them the hard truth. This is exactly how Fluttershy does it.
Cue scene from “Good Grief”.
Niles: “Frasier? You’re not famous anymore.”
Frasier: *bawls*
Martin: “What the **** did you do that for?!”
Niles: “Now, Dad. He needed a push.”
Martin, Frasier’s dad, says a swear word here, so I omitted it.
One key difference between scenes is that Frasier’s family and friends only comfort him, not cry with him. If any of you are not familiar with Frasier, my sincerest apologies for confusing you. I think that either the crew took ideas from Frasier or they completed invented their scene without knowing about “Good Grief”. If it’s the first theory, I’ve yet to see hands raised from those who watched the show.
Like I have mentioned in my second blog post, strong ones like Rainbow Dash have walls built up to protect their emotions. This time, I will add that some of them will let out a few leaks from time to time, as she did. When her walls came down, the flood came swiftly and roughly. This type of situation is what I would like to dub as the “Eureka release”. In Teardrop, a book by Lauren Kate, Eureka must remain stoic and keep her emotions suppressed because it had been prophesied that her tears would raise Atlantis. At a major part of the book, Eureka releases her emotions and sobs deeply and almost endlessly. Given how much strength she possessed, the same could be said about virtually every strong being who rarely cries.
The Eureka release applies to those who keep in their emotions for so long until they break down in a most powerful way. This is where I would like to say…Discord has his Eureka release next! Of course, that’s my opinion, not a spoiler.
One major (and uncanny) coincidence here is that one reviewer did a follow-up on the episode in Dr. Seuss style. My sister and I went to see our college’s adaptation of “Seussical” on the day we saw “Tanks for the Memories”. How creepy is that?! The reason that EQD did their review in Seuss form might’ve been because of Rainbow Dash’s Grinch-like grin when she schemes to stop winter. I honestly did not realize that until it was brought up. At first glance, it was too creepy to look at.
For the love of Tank and Rainbow Dash, let’s get on with the pros and cons.
Pros: My absolute favorite part was the crying. A kid reviewer said the group sobbing was her favorite part, too. My sister later pointed out that she saw somepony who might be Scootaloo’s dad. If she’s right, I’ll be glad that Scoots is not without family. Some parts made me chuckle, especially when Rainbow’s at her most emotional, either angry or sad. I’m glad we got to see more of the castle and Rainbow Dash’s house. It was pretty funny that Pinkie just walked through the bedroom wall like that.
Cons: It was a bit realistic for my taste and didn’t excite me much except for a few key parts.
In Summary: The episode didn’t really interest me much, but then it pulled the old “PYUP” (predictable yet unpredictable) again. It did seem boring at first, but the crying pretty much saved it for me. MissKoi and I rated this episode high on our charts for different reasons: she’s a Rainbow Dash/Tank fangirl and I’m a geek for cartoon crying. Overall, this wasn’t as bad an episode as I originally thought.
My rating: 8
See you till the next episode!
<3 KidatHeart5

Comments

[misskoifishpony]

Bwhaha lol thank you for reading my review and mentioning me in your review, you're too king milady What did you think of my review by the way? I really liked yours Raising my hand in the air, I know about Fraiser! I've seen that show! Pick me! Haha lol Same here, I didn't know about the Grinch reference till reviewers on YouTube started pointing it out. Oh, Rainbow might be Eureka in your story! Sweet! That's my theory and I'm sticking to it Haha anyway, YES let Discord cry beautiful tears of ultimate feels in episode 7 because he wants Fluttershy to be his one and only date at the gala! What did you think of the "Who's on First?" joke in the episode? I liked the crying scene too because Rainbow was so genuine in her sadness on Tank leaving, his sad little face looking at Rainbow is so heartbreaking, the joke about AJ crying on the inside was hilarious, and Rainbow's acceptance and nuzzle with Tank at the end was just perfect.

[KidatHeart5]

3026652 You're welcome and thanks for commenting on mine!
I'm glad that you know about Frasier!

Oh, Rainbow might be Eureka in your story!

If you're talking about my Teardrop adaptation, that's not exactly the one I was talking about. Forgive me for trumping your theory, but I was hinting at a new one I plan to release this summer. I'll give you a hint: Rainbow's supposed to represent an emotion she expressed during her grief process.
I liked the "Who's on First?" joke. I forgot what it was called the first time I saw this episode. It's like the Grinch grin that also flew over my head!
Though I want Discord to cry, I want it to be in character and for a perfectly good reason.
I'll comment your review soon.

[misskoifishpony]

3032083
Haha no worries, it isn't the first time that my theories have been crushed Same here, I want Discord's cry to be natural so that way it can properly gave us the feelings