Don't Trust Anypony Over 40 [episode spoilers!] · 3:55pm May 7th, 2017
Holy shit, I actually watched a Canada episode via livestream! Totally unplanned! :O
This episode was not what I wanted, but it was absolutely what I needed. Best cringe comedy since Equestria Games!
This was a good episode. I'm talking top of the season, solid return to S5 quality, inb4 the fandom hates it for stupid reasons >:B
Seriously, though. Rainbow Dash's parents are tremendous squares. They're obviously living vicariously through their daughter. They're a real portrait of baby-boomer tragedy. Also, Rainbow Mom's name is almost Wind Whistler. I mean, so much for Firefly Mom, but still. I will assume her dad's name is "Bow", short for "Rainbow".
How great is it that they flung Scootaloo at Cloudsdale and it actually worked? Granted, what would she have done if she didn't land head-first in Rainbow Dash's yard or if her dad had decapitated her what was he doing anyway I just kind of love Scoot's role for the entire episode of watching Rainbow Parents be super-stoked about everything their daughter does and she's just like "This is fine, me too."
Goddamn. I had a lot riding on this episode, and it paid off way better than I could have anticipated. I mean, you even get some good Wonderbolts bonding! (Fleetfoot obviously feels Rainbow's pain, and Spitfire gets a Best Captain award for being a mensch at the end.) References to Lightning Dust, including filly Lightning Dust (I didn't grok even half the foals in that scene), VaporStinger cameo... damn.
And then Scootaloo pulls the orphan card. I mean, yes, she does not come out and say "Rainbow Dash how dare you not like your parents because I do not have parents to like", but this is the exact same thing they pulled with Flight to the Finish, about whether or not she can fly, a distinct, "Yeah, we're not saying it's true, but we're heavily implying it." So yeah, either Scootaloo lives alone, or that was the Ponyville orphanage we saw in that episode. I'm so happy. :3
I will say the climax wasn't quite as good as the buildup, but I get why they went that way. I mean, what other sort of moral/emotional lesson are you going to get out of "embarrassingly supportive parents episode"? This is still a solid fucking episode. I mean, S7 started off pretty crap, but it seems to be slowly building to lift itself out of the "S6 again" doldrums I was dreading. Tentative hopefulness!
Parental Glideance
All Bottled Up
Rock Solid Friendship
Forever Filly
A Flurry of Emotion
Celestial Advice
Fluttershy Leans In
Best Friends Until the End of Time
Creators: SCOOTALOO HAS NOT PARENTS! HAVE THE FEELS!
Present Perfect: I'm so happy. :3
Creators: WRONG FEELS!
The fact that you consider S5 to be a high point to be aspired to says volumes about the present quality.
Man, I'm falling behind on all the episodes being released. Of course, my desire to watch hasn't been too high, lately. You just can't top a Trixie episode.
4523411
Hasbro has no control over us. We did dark and depressing before it was cool!
Yeah, this is easily the best RD episode of the entire series.
Of all of the headcanons I so desperately wanted NOT to be true, Orphanloo was the number one.
It IS the best of the season, but the rest of the season HAS been great, and this episode just pushed it into "Best Season Ever" territory.
4523414
S5 was great! :O Amending Fences and Do Princesses Dream alone are enough to establish it as actually good.
A moment of silence, please, for the first Great Headcanon Massacre of 2017. A lot of uncertainty removed here, some of it I'm none too happy about. I don't like Orphanloo, darn it.
Still, at least Derpy won that first flashback race.
4523434
Hey, she could still have parents... just not especially good parents. Neglegtful/busy/abusive/supervillian parents are still on the table.
Also, wow best episode of the season so far. Ball of awesome end to end, 9/10 Final Destination Dash Only
4523442
Yes, but I want her to actually have a happy home life. The best I can hope for now is being taken for granted.
EDIT: Actually, upon further review, all Scootaloo said was that no one told her she'd be the best at anything. That actually allows for a fair amount of leeway. Hmm. This bears further consideration.
I didn't like it as much as you did, mainly because I am not a fan of cringe-comedy, but it was pretty good anyway, and the animators knocked this one out of the ballpark. I loved seeing the pegasi use their wings as fully functioning limbs for lots of complex tasks.
Poor mud-horse Cheerilee gets dumped on again... I swear, someday that put-upon mare is gonna snap and trample a whole class of mis-behaving foals.
4523425 4523434
Look at the bright side. She either has to be adopted or disabled, but I’m pretty sure this dialogue leaves no room for both.
4523486 honestly, i hope it's the former
Scootaloo confirmed for complete lack of positive reinforcement as a child. But it's okay, because this episode did everything possible to set Rainbow Dash's parents up as being the absolute best option for adoptive parents, right down to them showing Scoots the same overwhelming positivity they showed their own flesh and blood.
4523442
From the corpse of each dead headcanon, there arises something greater.
4523444
Scootaloo happy? You have not been paying attention to this show, sir. :V
4523454
Cheerilee is going to have to smack a bitch. V: Also yeah, the wing-hands have come a long way since we first saw them.
4523505
Honest to god, I hope that's what they were actually going for. I mean, Rainbow Dash has already 'adopted' her as her sister, and she bonded with Rainbow's parents pretty handily. That's a good reason for her to be an orphan. Or, y'know, have shit parents. :B
4523527 Heck, she shattered their collection of commemorative plates of the God-Empress, and they didn't even care. Best parents.
Derpy gradually sinking down the rostrum positions as her eyes became increasingly derped was a great touch. I only just caught that one. Loved the episode.
4523411 Makes you wonder about some people, doesn't it?
Get help, PresentPerfect.
... Who are you and what did you do with the real PresentPerfect?
4523434
Yeah, but we also see her performance going down as her strabismus got worse. Guess she and Scoot have something in common.
Someday the target audience will watch it again for nostalgia, and find themselves understanding things they hadn't before.
4523534
I fucking love that Rainbow Mom collects commemorative plates. That's the kind of shit my mom does. :D
4523568
I need to pay closer attention to that scene the next time around. (I was sorting laundry at the time.)
4523572
I need to, but I'm scared :C
4523505 I noticed that as well. It feels like the writers did everything except put a note at the end saying "fanfic writers, please write Rainbow Parents adoptaloo stories now."
4523734 I'm surprised they are Celestia commemorative plates instead of Twilight commemorative plates. What has Celestia done recently to be commemorated? Perhaps they are valuable collectibles because they are ancient?
4523844 Summer Sun Celebration commemorative plates. Certain zealots would be pumping out custom plates for every single sunrise, but they've acknowledged that would cripple the market.
Good gags (LOVED the sound-effect door), good synergy between Scoots and the new characters, good feels, good moral, good story...
Good.
And as icing on the cake, not a hint of Starlight Glimmer.
4523844
MAYBE RULE A COUNTRY FOR A THOUSAND YEARS OR SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW
Rude :|
Also:
If Dash episodes before now are any indication, we shall soon see a fic where Rainbow Dash was right about everything forever and should not have apologized because she is perfect and brilliant and everyone else are just jealous losers.
4524021 So you're saying these plates are commemorating Cellie's Orachalcum Jubilee or something?
4523434 Many perished, but some headcannons were confirmed, or at least made much more likely. Since nopony else posted this one yet, I will; Scootaloo is definitely a stalker. "School report" my flank. There were pictures from places where there were no cameras and, more importantly, no visible Scootaloo.
I actually have to disagree. My wife and I... we... uh... we both thought it was down there near Spike at Your Service. Maybe it's because I'm no fan of cringe comedy, but I think the moral was all wrong, too. If Rainbow's parents had been more restrained then it would have worked better. But they went beyond overbearing. They shot off fireworks in the middle of a performance, which could have totally hurt one of the Wonderbolts. If I was at a football game and shot fireworks into the air from the stands, I'd be arrested, even if I was the family of the star quarterback. They saved things they had no reason to keep around because they hero-worshiped their daughter to an unhealthy level. At first I thought that room was just a trophy room, which would have been fine. But no, it was a shrine that would have made anyone freak out.
I thought the episode would be about boundaries, and that would have been fine. Nope, Rainbow justifiably loses her mind when her parents take it a hundred steps too far, as opposed to the ninety nine that they'd already gone. Then she's portrayed as the bad guy when she finally tells her parents to calm the hell down. Yeah, she was a bit rough with it, but even then her parents didn't get it, praising her for yelling at them even as they cried. Then they're justified when Rainbow is the one who has to apologize in the end. They didn't even apologize for the lines they crossed. Nope, it's all Rainbow's fault.
I'm surprised that Rainbow didn't turn out to be a total narcissist with how her parents raised her. When you raise your kid to believe that they're the center of the entire universe, that's not going to end well. Rainbow can have a big head, but at the end of the day she'd trade her wings if she thought it'd save the lives of any one of her friends. She was raised to believe that she was the greatest thing in the history of ever. I can't figure out how she turned out that well.
At first I thought that the episode would be that her parents were fans, but reasonably so. When RD's dad showed Scoots that shirt he had, but then made the joke that he was wearing it because it was laundry day, that was 1. funny and 2. restraint from them. If they'd been played as parents who were supportive and a little oblivious to Rainbow's feelings, that'd be fine. A bit stereotypical, but fine. Then they could have taught the lesson they went for. Your parents might be a bit embarrassing, but they love and support you. Instead RD's parents not only ruin RD's Wonderbolt derby for Rainbow, they also ruin it for everyone watching, too. The ponies in the box weren't watching the show they'd presumably paid a lot to see, they were just freaking out at these freaks in the box with them. I know I'd be pissed if some jerks ruined my evening by not only being too rowdy, but rowdy enough to stop the show itself.
There was no middle ground. It's just "they're way too over-the-top but Rainbow is in the wrong when she tells them to calm down. Then she enables that behavior with Scootaloo at the end, which, oddly enough, did lead to the best moment of the episode: Cheerilee telling them to calm down. That was funny. Sometimes I wonder if she's the only real adult in the show.
But yeah, overall, I can't see why anyone would like this. RD's parents were too annoying and creepy, and RD is painted as the one in the wrong when she tells them to back off, which is what literally anyone would do. It did have its moments, though, such as the above laundry day line, Cheerilee at the end, and them flinging Scootaloo up to Cloudsdale with a giant slingshot. That would be how they'd try it out first. Sweetie and AB might have been wary of the idea, but they still went along with it. There were also a few tiny details I really enjoyed, too, such as the filly cameos in the competitions and the door music. When RD's parents aren't being too freaky, there are some bits there that are fun.
There's been:
This whole "valedictory" air to the season so far. I mean, just about every episode so far has focused on one character or another learning that they have to let go of something in their past and face the future. And we've got the long-awaited "Applejack's parents" episode coming up around episode 13, don't we?
Mike
Was not expecting that.
The vapor stinger, filly lightning dust, colt thunderlane combo almost broke my brain. Did you notice the time lapse on the pedestal? How derpy got lower the more her eyes got screwy?
4524134
Honestly, for those to whom plates are an attractive collectible, very little of importance is needed to commemorate. :B
4523444 Exactly. She could have loving parents who try not to give her undue expectations about things. Thing is... we know something is wrong with Scoots by now. It's not just the puny wings, because Bulk Biceps is capable of flight. I don't think she lacks pegasus magic entirely, because she can walk in Cloudsdale. I think it's a lack of confidence, and weak pegasus magic.
Now, what could account for that? Well, she lives in Ponyville, which is a town in which we have all three races. That means a lot of interbreeding, and sometimes the foals come out in interesting combinations as a result (see the cake twins).
My best theory is that Scoots's parents are both earth ponies, and had no idea how to help her. It became worse as their daughter showed no natural aptitude for flight, and now it's a combination of physical, magical, and psychological problems.
Honestly, I think the ideal situation to help her would be Twilight helping her learn the mechanics while Dash gave her strength building training sessions and regular visits to the Dash family to help cheer her on. We'd have her airborne in a month.
4524285 I have to agree. I wasreally hoping the moral would be something about middle groun
Scootaloo is an orphan, YAY!!
...
Wait, am... am I the baddie here?
4525532
If wanting Scootaloo to be an orphan is wrong, I don't wanna be right. :V
4523734 That scene with the pedestal is great. Everyone's expressions are great. There are all these little stories. The two sisters switch places on the pedestal a few times, one or the other being off it once dash is on it, Lighning makes such a face when Dash pushes her off the top spot, and it's interesting where the three future wonderbolts place and the faces they make, or don't. If I remember right Soarin is just chill where ever he places.
4525532 It's a matter of perspective, really.
4525658 Now you, you are a baddie.
4529545
Don't
Wanna
Be
Right :V
4529547 Which is what makes you a baddie, yes.