Newbie Dash Review

Normally I don't do reviews, but this episode wasn't that great and I wanted to say why. It bloomed into a full on critique.

The story starts off with Spitfire telling Rainbow Dash that she's finally achieved her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. Naturally, Rainbow is excited and all her friends are excited for her too.

But here's the thing: when she shows up for practice, she considers herself to be the best even though it's her FIRST DAY, for Celestia's sake. When Spitfire tells her the #1 rule, Rainbow blows it off. And then not paying attention to the #1 rule gets her in the middle of trouble. She just has to make an even bigger of a dork of herself by saying she was "just testing them". Hello? Rainbow Dash? You're not the team captain. You're a rookie, and you've been on the team for literally six hours (or less). But no. It would have been easier if Rainbow had just sighed, admitted she had made a mistake, and moved on. But nopony ever does that in the show.

She gets stuck with some nickname she doesn't like, and mutters under her breath that it's not her name whenever others call her that. She can't tell that to anyone, though, because she still considers herself the best on the team. And when Fleetfoot tries to help her "up" from her slump, Rainbow Dash just pulls the old Rainbow Dash trick of completely lying about how she's feeling and then expecting everyone to understand her thoughts.

Then Twilight gives some great advice about making the team remember her for something different, which apparently to Rainbow means acting like all her friends. She's not any of her friends, though! Acting like them makes her...not her. The different mane styles to match them were pretty hilarious, though.

Then she pulls another old Rainbow Dash trick of attempting to show off to make everyone notice that she's the best (which she isn't) and fails. I'm glad the Wonderbolts actually told her that they didn't not like her, which was a thing that should have happened way earlier.

The episode ends with Rainbow doing her part and coming to terms with her nickname. Good ending.

This episode could have been way shorter if Rainbow had actually done things that made sense. This is why I don't like Rainbow as a character -- because she thinks of herself as the best. Anyway, most of it was cliché Rainbow Dash fluff that the writers put in to make the episode 20 minutes long.

On a scale of one to five, I give it a two.