Talk About It: SoarinDash · 3:24pm May 3rd, 2022
Hey Folks!
Right. I don’t have a death wish, I swear.
This paring. This paring is… something. I woke this morning all weird, again, and thought, "What exactly makes this paring special and so very popular?" Thinking didn’t really help me 'cause all I kept getting at was that Soarin was a hella boring character with literally no development, and little to no screen time with our Dashie. I’ve seen the question, "Would it work?" or "Would it become canon?" or any other variant of that question been asked, and i saw a lot of repetition in what people said, and most of it aligned up with what I personally believe, and some did the exact.
Now my question isn’t; would it work? Or Why would it not be? My question is; why do people ship it? Or why does it have such a strong following?
I did some digging, and I’m… still kinda stuck on this one. I have a few assumptions I wanna put out there. But there just assumptions I put together with very little digging just 'cause of how boring SoarinDash is to me.
One: Dash and Soarin are both Wodnerbolts. While, yes, this paring was a lot stronger and more relevant back before Dssh became a 'Bolt - Aah, I still, after all these years, haven’t gotten over how proud I am of her for that - this point still has some merit. From what I understand, the idea is that they’d be a cute work couple? I dunno if the military allows relationship within its army, that’s a topic for a military briny, but that’s what I got. It’d be like getting with that hot new colleague you just met. Nothing really special.
Two: Dash getting with one of her idol: Soarin. Actually, this is one of the major reasons I don’t ship this, but apparently this is also one of the major people do ship this, so, way to be on different boats, huh? I don’t get it. From what I know, people like the idea of an idolizer and their idol getting together… yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with that, Nope. It’s… it’s an odd way to look at SoarinDash, or any paring for that matter. Personally I don’t like this idea of a paring being followed out of the idea that one character believes the other character is perfect. Dash considers Soarin flawless. She might not for Spitfire, but she does for Soarin, and as we all know, that is not a good foundations for any relationship.
Three: Dash wants - or wanted - to be a wonderbolt, and Soarin already was one.
Sure, this has some merit, it’s in there somewhere, I think. I mean, Soarin already being a 'Bolt is good 'cause he could help Dash get better and better and eventually become a 'Bolt herself, right? Only problem is; RD's always been a hundred-and-ten percent better than all the 'Bolts combined, so, I dunno what Soarin could offer. A relationship shouldn’t be one-sided. I feel like Dash is getting a heck of a lot out of this relationship but that’s only status vice. Aside from that, Soarin doesn’t give much to her, and gets ALL of Rainbow Dash to himself, which is a lot. If you look at it this way, Rainbow just wants Soarin for his status, not for the pony, which doesn’t reflect very well on her character. I see this stuff happening more so with early season Rarity, and not entire-series Rainbow. Anyway. This has some merit, and from what I’ve noticed, this is one of the more popular reasons, which… I don’t know how to feel about.
So what I’ve noticed is that a lot of their reasonings are problematic. I’ve seen folks point at Rainbow Falls - yes, that monstrosity - saying how "Soarin and Dash had entire scene together to talk[/iJ and interact with each other!". 
I’m sorry, if that’s how people say a ship is canon, then us AppleDashers would have been writing home about our accomplishments more than a decade ago! I just… no.
Anywho!
TL;DR My assumptions are either really incorrect, or the SoarinDash shippers's reasonings are simply put; problematic.
I choose to believe both at a mixed ratio. The ship in itself doesn’t have much in my opinion, so I really do agree with the latter, but I’m not very good with researching and digging into these sorts of things, so it could be a mix.
I wanna add something positive about this ship at the end here but… hm… I can’t think of anything for some reason. Weird. Almost like one of the characters are just really bland and undeveloped and boring making the entire thing the exact same. Hm. Funny. Probably just my stomach acting up.
Right, before I make the entire sub-portion fo this fandom into an angry mob, I must say, these are my opinions, and I kinda wanna know what y’all think o' this, and I’m curious if anyone out there can enlighten me on how this works
Funny/side story: while looking through these old discussions, - kinda? Some were of the finale… Yeah, old. - I came across a discussion that was shitting on AppleDash for being 'implied' in the series finale - it was a 'Is SoarinDash canon in the finale?' discussion, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into XD. The whole time I was reading through that, I couldn’t help but just internally scream at all those hate comments. Like, I just wanna know what makes this stupid parign worthwhile to some o' y’all! Is that too much to ask for people!?! 
And one last thing: - I’m nearly done, I swear! - it’s not that I hate/dislike every or any other paring that doesn’t line up with mine to some degree. I really don’t want that to be the assumption, 'cause all it’d be is a false rumor. I adore a lot of ships of my two favorite ponies which aren’t with them shipped with each other. I adore TwiDash, TwiJack, and RainbowPie to some level. Even SpitJack and RariDash appeal to me in some fashion. I’m even cool with MacDash - ya know, the paring that ships Aj's brother with Dash - and SunsetDash, and AppleSet (or whatever the paring name is) appeals to me, somewhat. SpiekDash, that cool. It's not that I hate any and all ships that goes against my favorite, not at all. I’m a multieshipper, though Aj x Dash is the best, and Rarity and Applejack are the worst.
Now, I’ll leave you to your day. Good day to you reader that stuck up 'till this point. Hats off to you. If you did, lemme know what y’all think o' this ship, whether y’all are a fan, and why you are, or you’re not, and if you agree/disagree with what I’ve said here.
MSz Out!
I find the ship fine, i prefer AppleDash or TwiDash but I respect it. Glad that you decided to speak about your opinions.
Sincerely, DynamicDino
You might be reaching too far for an answer here. Depending on your disposition the idea might be staring you right in the face but it's not something that even registers to you. Some people just don't like shipping same sex couples. On one of my FlutterDash stories I got a comment, that somehow doesn't exist anymore, that the commenter just thought that shipping two girls was just weird and cringy. For me, imagining characters together has nothing to do with gender and all to do with personality. But for some, if they want to see a character have a romantic arc, they need to tie it to a character of opposite gender.
Honestly I think this is why BigMac also gets a lot of pairings despite his lack of interaction with characters. He is literally just a named character of an opposite gender, so obviously he can be paired with anyone.
So Soarin is male and has had at least one conversation with Rainbow Dash. As far a some are concerned that's enough for them to be eternally destined lovers who's continued love throughout all of time through reincarnation is literally the only thing keeping the universe together. Better that then a childhood friends who have been through the best of times with each other, or rivals who stay friends with each other no matter how hard they clash. Not if they are both girls.
To be clear, I doubt that's the only reason. I've seen some Rainbow/ Spitfire pairings that involve hero worship turning into romantic feelings. So the same could be done for Soarin. Also I think it's estimated that Soarin is fairly new to the bolts, so maybe they are still learning the ropes together and that could become a relationship. Lots of ideas to explore. But have you ever heard that old cliche? "It's a classic tale of boy meets girl." Because that's literally the only explanation some need as to why characters need to be together.
5655017
Huh, even worse than I initially thought. Though it does make sense, it seems kinda… weird, for lack of a better word, but does add up. I didn’t really consider the thought 'cause I don’t care for the characters's genders while shipping, but others certainly do. I don’t understand how that mere thought can get people to rally around this paring at the degree that people have, I guess it the commitment people choose to have on something, I suppose. It does help justify this paring a heck of a lot more. Doesn’t help me appreciate it anymore, but you know. Something to think about.
Thanks for enlightening on this one, bud, I don’t think I would have ever considered the opposite genders being one thing that catches folks's appeals.
5655027
No problem. Apparently there are people who literally come on here specifically to down vote same gender romance stories. I just can't understand it personally. If you don't like something, why waste energy on it. The analogy I use is that it's like someone going to red lobster and complaining about there being so much seafood on the menu. So I guess in the case of Soarin and BigMac, they also bring in their own food when they decide they don't want any seafood, but still insist on eating there and being served. Or maybe assembling a meal from side dishes, insisting that mashed potatoes or something like that is made to look like fried chicken for them. Like, just leave if it bothers you.
It cannot be overstated how much the lack of prominent male characters in the early seasons effected the shippers. There's a reason the biggest ships in this fandom are lesbians (well, aside from the obvious...). Heck, larger M/F ships early on was Soarin and Applejack, who meant ONCE in The Best Night Ever.
Anyway, I do think it is fun to talk about shipping even in a purely academic way. It is of the most fun and bizarre aspects of fandom culture, and MLP is no exception. Which is especially interesting considering how the show avoided giving it's main characters any romantic interests, except Flash (in what was arguably the most controversial event in the series and quickly retconned away) and the series finale (where it was mostly off-screen or just implied).
5655144
I was gonna say something like this too. Having been around since back then, I can confidently say this ship existed mostly because soarin was one of very few male ponies in FiM
I remember Soardash being eyed a lot as some equivalent to canon bc they had a photo dancing together at the Canterlot Wedding (during the Love is in Bloom song). Seeing Soarin, a male wonderbolt, with RD, a female who idolized the wonderbolts, kiiiinda made people think they were gonna be A Thing. A very heteronormative way of thinking, but I guess its a fair thought process if mlp were to have ever delved into your typical cliché romance subplots.. That orrr certain bronies were opposed to shipping Dash in lesbian pairs
Of course, MLP doesn't focus on romance, it focuses on friendship, and naturally the episodes went on and Soardash led nowhere and our lovely appledash (which obviously has more of a canon basis to begin with) was implied by the finale.. So! At this point it just kinda feels like a prominently fandom-led ship that some people still have attachments to, which I can understand to some degree. Plus their interactions have been good and I can understand it from a fun little crackish-ship perspective.
For me, shipping Rainbow Dash with EVERYPONY can be fun, just by virtue of a ship including Rainbow and the various dynamics that can stem from that. I'm not really sure why others have soardash as their ultimate OTP but its probably based on that Wonderbolt-y logic. To each their own I suppose.