• Member Since 9th Sep, 2014
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LightningSword


Me. Take it or leave it.

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Oct
11th
2016

Headcanon Time! · 10:54pm Oct 11th, 2016

Fast as lightning, sharp as a sword

Rainbow Dash is frustrated and angry at her new WonderBolt callsign, despite the WonderBolts' acceptance of her. She feels helpless against having to relive that horrible nickname every single day, and feels out of control with her life, and feels the need to take it out on others. Their reactions to her pranks, for example, are predictable and stimulating, and it gives her back the illusion of control by making her control the reactions of others, so that's why she does them.

And that's why "28 Pranks Later" exists.

If they came right out and said this in the show, I'd tolerate Dash a bit more.

Don't get me wrong, she'd still be a dirtbag. But at least I'd understand.

Anyway, do with that what you will.

Stay quick, stay sharp, and thanks for reading

Comments ( 14 )

People are going to hate you for saying this. I'm not, because I respect you, but I'm just warning you. I expect this to be filled with mindless rage comments in an hour or so. People just like to find a reason to hate someone.

And that's why "28 Pranks Later" exists.

Hands down the episode that I'm gonna have a violent arguement with because many people love it when it's clearly written by people who WANT to hate the show.

And I don't care how many times you say you hate Rainbow Dash. That's absolutely NO REASON to have her undergo such a bullshit revenge scheme like that. F.M. DeFuckYou almost ruined the show for me, and I'm GLAD that it's the only episode he had a hand in this season...

Narcissitic Personality Disorder, Inferiority Complex, and impulsive. Tack on athletic ability, imprinting of jock temperament, speedy flight, a prismatic mane, and a reckless disregard of the feelings of others until made to look at them, and you get Rainbow Dash.
But don't worry about that, 'cuz she's awesome! :ajbemused:
Awesome like a hot dog: full of things you don't like, not bad in controlled small doses, but causes nausea above that, and not healthy in the first place. And better with ketchup and mustard.
Note that I don't actually hate her, but her bad points grate on m' nerves quicker than those of the rest of the Mane Six.

4251921 If you hate that episode, you must viciously despise "Mare Do Well". At least with "28 Pranks Later", the scheme fit her behavior.

That headcanon is brilliant. Also, RD being bullied in school is probably what gave her such a tough exterior in the first place. She clearly needs hug therapy and/or a smack.

4251954 No. Mare Do Well is godlike compared to the shitstorm that is 28 Pranks Later.

ALL of the continuity is ignored here, even from Applejack and the other townsponies. None of them are trying to settle the problem and are instead ENCOURAGING her to keep going.

Mare Do Well was beter because she was showing off and I think that it was right of them to steal her thunder. It was a refreshing take on the whole scenario and I ENJOYED Mare Do Well more because of it. It showed that Dash didn't have to be a show-off all of the time and I think it benefitted her character more because of it.

If you like 28 Pranks Later, then I might've just lost some respect for you. I consider it to be absolutely garbage and anyone who says otherwise is never going to hear the end of my rambling...

4251955 I doubt it. That "bullying" was a badly-placed, badly-timed and lazy excuse to make Dash relatable. The writers clearly don't know how trauma works, otherwise, Dash would have lost her shit when she got called "Crash" in "Sonic Rainboom" and "Bridle Gossip". I don't buy it.

With Fluttershy, I do, because nothing conflicts with it. I'd even buy it with Gilda, despite it being a lazy attempt at redeeming her (especially after what she's most infamous for :twilightangry2:). But with Dash, it simply doesn't work.

4251960 I never said I liked it. In fact, all things considered, it's ordinary.

Most people hate it because it shows Rainbow Dash for what she really is, and has been since day one: an obnoxious, inconsiderate, narcissistic bully. She hurt Fluttershy's feelings after knowing perfectly well she hates being scared. She broke into AJ's house, stole Rarity's sewing machine, damaged Mr. Cake's teeth, humiliated Cheerilee, and skunked Cranky Doodle Donkey.

She had it coming. Period.

In "Mare Do Well", she did more good than harm, and the only reason the rest of the Six did what they did was to shrink her ego. They talked to her, in a very half-assed manner, ONE TIME, and then went straight to plan B. A plan, by the way, that fooled the entire town into thinking someone was there for them, helping them and saving lives. It was cruel, stupid, poorly thought out, and WAAAAAAAAAY disproportionate to what Dash did. All she did was bask in the spotlight. It's not like she hurt anyone.

Like in "28 Pranks Later". And that time, the plan was appropriate to her crimes, the whole town knew so know one was as fooled as Dash, and she got what was coming to her.

I'm not saying I liked it. In fact, the reactions by rabid Dash fans crying out that she was a victim annoy me more than anything else. And I'm not saying you should like this episode. Hate it all you want for all I care. I have no room to talk. I have the same amount of rage for "Tanks for the Memories".

But I am asking you to reflect on why this episode bothers you. I mean, the real reasons why. Put some honest, lucid, CALM thought into it, and don't just fly off the handle at the mere mention of its name.

And for God's sake, don't attack the writer. That's just childish. I'd never attack Cindy Morrow. It's that kind of bullshit that makes people hate Bronies (Amy Keating Rogers, anyone?)

4251966 Fine then. I guess that I hate this episode purely because it's one of those episodes that negates the lessons that Dash had already learned in the past and subverted her into a pre-season one version of herself. I personally never like it when they forget the continuity in Friendship is Magic, but they forgot about Rainbow Dash and the others altogether.

The thing is, I don't really think that the punishment fits the crime that well. She was doing harmless things for a good laugh. There's two different episodes that I can reference here that show the deeper meaning of the balance between a harmless prank and a malicious one.

The first one is Prank War from Regular Show, in which Muscle Man pulls a prank that ultimately blows up in his face and hurts Pops in a physical manner. His confidence is dampened and he gives up on pranking permanently because of this, and only really came back to save the day when he saw the rival park doing the same thing to the other members of the show.

The second one is Joke Victim from Steven Universe. In that episode, Lars played a cruel joke on Sadie and lied to her about his back injury, so she is in the right to feel crushed and take revenge on him with a Fire Salt donut from Steven. When she executes the prank, though, it causes major pain for Lars, and she comes to terms that she stooped to his level, and that she wasn't the hero in this case either. It's quite a strong thing to learn here. Two wrongs don't make a right.

I guess that when I compare those two episodes to 28 Pranks Later, it makes this episode feel really weak and flimsy. A metaphorical house of cards ready to be blown over by a simple breeze. The writer did try to make the episode stand out, but I honestly think that he was trying too hard with a prospect that's hard to pull off, and even harder to intertwine with that of a zombie apocalpyse plot, and that's ultimately where this episode falls apart for me.

The only good thing I can pull is the theming when it actually starts, though. Everything gets dark and foreboding, the music and backgrounds accent perfectly with the situation at hand, and even the designs of the fake undead are very disturbing. If they used real bloodstains instead of that paint stuff, it could pass for a real and convincing zombie apocalypse.

That's the only positive I can pull from it, though.

I'm sorry that I lashed out at you. It's just that this episode drove me absolutely f**king crazy when it came out, and my fury reached a new level after seeing it. I hope you understand and accept my apology...

4251976 I do understand. I have similar problems with some episodes from Seasons 4 and 6. Season Four episodes like "Simple Ways", "Somepony to Watch Over Me", "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils", "Filli Vanilli" and "Twilight Time" really aggravate me with the regression in character. And Season Six episodes like "The Cart Before the Ponies", "Newbie Dash" and "No Second Prances" frustrate me for the same reasons.

I get where you're coming from, I really do. In fact, being a recent Steven Universe fan, I saw "Joke Victim", and yes, I think the joke went pretty overboard. To be fair, though, neither Steven nor Sadie knew just how bad it would turn out before doing it.

But most of Dash's jokes were not harmless. At all. Putting a brick in a guy's sandwich? Stealing? Breaking and entering? Not cool at all. And definitely not funny.

Clever, maybe, as far as the cake went. But not funny.

And let's not forget what the number one cardinal sin in MLP is:

fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/174/b/0/you_made_fluttershy_cry_by_heliotroph-d3jqb5k.jpg

Again in fairness, that moment showed us just how far Fluttershy has come as a character. When Gilda scared her, she just took it, and didn't report it to anyone out of fear and anxiety. When Dash scared her, you could tell that wasn't the case. She wasn't just scared, sad or upset. She was PISSED. And she went straight to Twilight about it, wanting Dash to own her shit.

It may seem wrong to do the same thing to Dash that she did to others, but Dash is just too hardheaded and egotistical to see reason most of the time. The only way to get through to her is forceful empathy. You have to MAKE her understand how it feels before she stops making others feel that way. When she was cowering in that barn, waiting for the "zombies" to attack, she was in Fluttershy's position. So she knew how horrible she'd made her friend feel. It may not have been right, but it was a necessary evil.

Yeah, it sucks when characters develop Aesop amnesia. But Dash was always like that. Otherwise, we wouldn't have gotten episodes like "Read It and Weep", "May the Best Pet Win", "Tanks for the Memories", "Newbie Dash", and one-third of "The Cart Before the Ponies". To say nothing of small moments between her and Fluttershy where she makes Flutters do something she doesn't want to do. Of which, there's just too damn many to list . . . .

"Pranks" didn't seem like it was trying all that hard to me. In fact, given the genre, they didn't try hard enough. The Zombie sub-genre is a gold mine of referential humor, and they didn't capitalize on that, despite giving us the pony equivalents of Doctor Who, Sherlock, Link, and so many others in the past. But I give it one thing: it did the "Mare Do Well" approach much better.

Like I said, I get it. This episode upsets you a lot. I have episodes like that too, so I have no right to come down on you for it.

We're cool. :scootangel:

This is surprisingly not a head canon I hate.:rainbowderp: well done.

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