Thoughts on "The Washouts" · 7:23pm Sep 10th, 2018
*learns that The Washouts are a group of pegasi* Oh, come on! Does every daredevil have to be a pegasus? I'd love to see an earth pony--or heck, maybe even a unicorn--that does stunts. Like a canon version of Olive except an adult professional and not a teenager with attitude.
And so... after five seasons, Lightning Dust has returned.
It's kind of funny, seeing Dusty here after giving her a secondary role in one episode of Brotherly Bonding Time. She was basically attending Cheese and Tomato's cousin Peanut Butter's wedding, since she knew him during a Youth Sports Camp, and he was essentially like a big brother to her. I portrayed her there as being in a rut and was rather grumpy about it, to the point where she's just uninterested in helping out with setting up her friend's wedding. And also getting repeatedly attacked by seagulls in one chapter.
And since BBT is set during Season 5 and this is Season 8... looks like she got out of that rut! And is still as reckless as ever.
Anyway, with that out of the way, I have to say, I loved how Rainbow Dash was portrayed in this episode. Sure, she reminds us that yes, she still has an ego (especially after feeling betrayed by Scootaloo moving on to other daredevils), but the best part of her character in this episode is that she is genuinely concerned for Scoots' safety. And she does at least admit that the Washouts' show was awesome. Something tells me that this is what Dash would be like as a mother.
Holy cow, Scootaloo is hitting that rebellious teenage phase, which was especially prominent in the scene she joined the Washouts. And the part where she shouts that she'd never be like Rainbow because she can't fly... ouch. People will still dispute if it's a disability or she's still just a late bloomer for quite a while (as they always do), but as for me, I'm on the disability side of the argument. Because life isn't fair, not even in Equestria, and you have to work around the unfairness to survive. I'd have liked to keep Party Favor disabled in my fic universe, even though as a character that doesn't appear that often, I could probably still do a lot with him without complaint, but I do not want to deal with smart alecks popping in and saying, "Actually, in the Season 6 finale...". 
Still, there is a time when you gotta let kids make their own decisions, and hope they make the right one--something Scoots does learn a teensy bit too late. Although I do have a problem with how all the adults don't even seem to be concerned when Scootaloo is doing a dangerous rocket stunt. Where the heck are her parents? If there was an episode where they needed to appear, it's here! Gee, I guess they are too busy to pay attention to her, huh? Good thing Rainbow came to the rescue, because hey, she's loyal to her honorary little sister.
On other notes, Lightning's teammates. Rolling Thunder I didn't care much for, all I can say about her is that she's got at least some semblance of a personality instead of being a cutout with wings--she just comes off as Lightning Dust with an Australian accent to me. Short Fuse, on the other hoof, I find hilarious with his random outbursts and his clear holding back of anger when called a "knucklehead". The fact that he has similar coloring to Ketchup is also pretty funny.
This scene is my favorite:
WHAT KIND OF SORRY EXCUSE FOR A TOMATO SANDWICH IS THIS?!
Hey, I can make a good Tomato Sandwich:
No, none of you can eat him.
And... I gotta be honest, the Spitfire scene got annoyingly repetitive after the first refrain of "full hoof-and-body cast, drinking through a straw". I know it's a reference to something, but it's a something I don't care about, so that gag was just tedious. Though I was worried about her voice blowing out.
But, despite the whole deal with the adults not doing anything at the end, and the tedious Spitfire gag, I still think the writing is pretty darn solid. This might be my favorite episode of Season 8.
And lastly...
Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!
The moment he mentioned a tomato sandwich, I thought of you.
And yeah, this was quite fun overall. And I definitely heard some vocal fatigue over the course of Spitfire's scene.
But washout are ex Wonderbolts and Wonderbolts are mostly pegsi . I think it’s because the Wonderbolts are mostly Pegsi that why most stunt teams are pegsi. That and the fact that training for the WB train on Cloudsdale , which almost impossible for non winged ponies to go .. yeah
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So? Who said that a pony had to fly to be a daredevil?
I get the concept of the Washouts (I'm not an idiot); my argument was that I'd like to see some daredevils on the show that are not pegasi for once. Because I recall that there are human beings in real life who are professional stuntpeople, and last time I checked, humans don't have wings and can't walk on clouds. Who said that earth ponies couldn't do the crazy stuff we humans do? So a random earth pony can't start a stunt team with other earth ponies, because the Wonderbolts can only inspire other pegasi?
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Yes you’re right after all I do remember Evel Knievel. I’m not saying it’s impossible I’m saying it’s less likely .
However,Diamond Tiara’s Butler was inspired by the Wonderbolts and became an acrobat is that count? http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Randolph?file=Randolph%2C_High-Flying_Earth_Pony_card_MLP_CCG.jpg