Post by Mio on May 28, 2014 1:17:49 GMT
Hey everybody. Remember when I did those long-winded character analyses of those pastel colored equines from that TV show?
Turns out I didn't get my fill the last time and decided to give them another go for the fourth season.
If you are at all interested in what I said the last time I did this you can find it here.
Be warned that these new statements will likely be even more long-winded then the last ones. . .somehow.
Rainbow Dash
I had mentioned by in my previous pieces that Rainbow Dash probably had the most complete character arc of anyone in the show. While I still believe that is true I should probably point out that I also feel that said arc was more accidental then intentional. I bring this up because before the Season began Meaghan McCarthy mentioned that she liked the direction Rainbow Dash’s character was taking, when I feel her character hasn’t really gone much of anywhere this season. This is partially due to the fact that her episodes don’t align in such a way as it can be interpreted as an arc like in previous seasons, but it’s also because several of her big episodes didn’t explore their subjects as well as they could.
Before we get to those though let’s look at some other things that Rainbow Dash was involved with this season.
Daring Don’t is a pretty controversial episode for a variety of reasons, but not so much because of Rainbow Dash. This episode builds on Rainbow Dash’s then new found love for the Daring Do series with her anticipation of the latest book and wanting to go help the author when the book is delayed. It also allows for her to be much closer to her friend Twilight then she would in normal circumstances and seemed like it could have been the basis for more expanded activity between the two later. That all being said however, the thing that this episode expands upon the most is Rainbow Dash’s tendency towards idolization, particularly in reactions and interactions towards the now very real Daring Do. We’ve seen Rainbow idolize the Wonderbolts, but not quite to the extent that we see with Daring Do, which makes sense in a way. After all, until this point Daring Do was fictional. She could build her up in her mind in a way that she would not necessarily with the Wonderbolts, especially after meeting them and spending some time with them. Knowing that, it also makes sense that Rainbow Dash reacted as though she really wasn’t good enough to be tangling with Daring Do and her nemeses; even by the end of the episode she has only barely come to terms with the fact that Daring is real and that she helped her.
The lesson Dash takes from this situation builds on others like Sonic Rainboom and it seems like another step towards moving past her insecurities, and it also builds on her more nerdy side, but this is ultimately not that big a deal in the grand scheme of this season.
Flight to the Finish is primarily a Scootaloo episode, but Rainbow does play a role. It’s interesting to see her role as a leader and a sister to Scootaloo. It’s not much but it is nice to see some of these things followed up on, especially her role as a sister to Scootaloo.
And now we get into her big episodes this season starting with Rainbow Falls, which also happens to be Rainbow’s “key” episode. For such milestone episode however, not a whole lot seems to happen on the character front. I suppose it makes sense to a degree, given how it’s (like the other key episodes) meant to challenge/ reinforce her “element” of loyalty, a quality of hers that’s been since the series primer. From that perspective the episode didn’t really need to tread new ground with her character, however the fact that the conflict set up for Rainbow Dash is a fairly weak one doesn’t really help her.
The conflict put forth in this episode is one that fans have been expecting for since Season One, and is structured in a fairly archetypical fashion. Rainbow Dash is competing with the decidedly inferior Ponyville team when a series of events leads to the Wonderbolts trying to tempt her over to the “winning” side. And on top of that the conflict plays out in the most unsubtle way possible, complete with the “winners” brushing aside their “dead weight” (which I admittedly liked the scene of Soarin and Rainbow in the hospital). I suppose in universe it sort of conflict does make sense since Rainbow doesn’t have any obvious reason to mistrust them, but sadly the audience does. With that knowledge it ultimately just makes the whole conflict feel unsatisfying and doesn’t give me a sense that Rainbow is strong or has become stronger in her “element”.
The last and probably biggest episode for Rainbow Dash this season is the educationally themed Testing 1, 2, 3. This episode is very important for Rainbow Dash since it’s her big chance to finally get into the Wonderbolts (or at least their reserve unit). All she has to do is take a little test about Wonder bolt history. So naturally, as one of their biggest fans . . . she knows nothing about their history. Now I say that, but it’s not really that far-fetched to think that she doesn’t know about the historical origins of the group or some of the other things revealed in the episode. What’s really more eyebrow raising is how she acts throughout the episode. Where as we saw last season how much changed, in this episode we really got to see how much she stayed the same. She starts off being rather uncaring about the importance of the test, then when Twilight attempts to help she switches to class clown mode, and when finally confronted with the fact that she knows nothing about what’s going to be on the test, she freaks out and blames Twilight for her lack of knowledge. Classy.
Now, despite what I said above this episode does build on something that goes back to Read it and Weep and even Sonic Rainboom. Rainbow Dash is aware of her academic deficiencies, and that they are in fact deficiencies. Whether it’s her reactions to being told she was kicked out of flight school or her admission to Twilight that she thought reading was just for smart ponies, and now this episode which brings it all to the forefront. It makes her many anti-intellectual (I wish I could think of a better term) remarks and actions seem less like stereotypical ignorant jock behavior (even though it still kind of is that) and seem more like a defensive mechanism. Sure it’s based a great deal in denial, but it does lend some depth and puts a rather different spin on some of her interactions with Twilight. Unfortunately the episode does not really do a good job of demonstrating that in an endearing way, and in the end it really is all for nothing.
The thing about this situation is that throughout the entire episode Rainbow Dash is lazy, and no, I don’t just mean in the beginning of the episode. All of her friends try to help her learn in a different fashion and all of them failed to teach Rainbow Dash what she wanted, but what doesn’t really get touched upon is that Rainbow spends little time on them before moving on. What she is looking for is not to learn, but for a quick solution to her problem, and when she doesn’t get it she gives into self-pitying despair. What she doesn’t realize is that, just like with anything else, you have to put in actual effort to learn and not just give up when the knowledge doesn’t come to you. And you certainly don’t just dismiss yourself as incapable lest you want people to actually believe you are useless.
The worst part though is how the episode chooses to acknowledge these flaws; mainly that it doesn’t. Instead it focuses on learning styles and finding “the right way” for Rainbow Dash to learn. And on top of that we don’t so much see her friends help her find a learning style so much as they unlock a hidden superpower for her.
Well, I guess I may have gone a bit overboard at the end, but I do feel that Testing 1, 2, 3 did a real disservice to Rainbow Dash’s character and to the educational message it wanted to give. That all aside this season was rather mediocre on the character front for Dash with not a whole lot of interesting developments or explorations. We’ll see if anything becomes of her ostensible membership in the Wonderbolts reserve and whether or not her Daring Do fangirlism or big sister role to Scootaloo will go anywhere.
Turns out I didn't get my fill the last time and decided to give them another go for the fourth season.
If you are at all interested in what I said the last time I did this you can find it here.
Be warned that these new statements will likely be even more long-winded then the last ones. . .somehow.
Rainbow Dash
I had mentioned by in my previous pieces that Rainbow Dash probably had the most complete character arc of anyone in the show. While I still believe that is true I should probably point out that I also feel that said arc was more accidental then intentional. I bring this up because before the Season began Meaghan McCarthy mentioned that she liked the direction Rainbow Dash’s character was taking, when I feel her character hasn’t really gone much of anywhere this season. This is partially due to the fact that her episodes don’t align in such a way as it can be interpreted as an arc like in previous seasons, but it’s also because several of her big episodes didn’t explore their subjects as well as they could.
Before we get to those though let’s look at some other things that Rainbow Dash was involved with this season.
Daring Don’t is a pretty controversial episode for a variety of reasons, but not so much because of Rainbow Dash. This episode builds on Rainbow Dash’s then new found love for the Daring Do series with her anticipation of the latest book and wanting to go help the author when the book is delayed. It also allows for her to be much closer to her friend Twilight then she would in normal circumstances and seemed like it could have been the basis for more expanded activity between the two later. That all being said however, the thing that this episode expands upon the most is Rainbow Dash’s tendency towards idolization, particularly in reactions and interactions towards the now very real Daring Do. We’ve seen Rainbow idolize the Wonderbolts, but not quite to the extent that we see with Daring Do, which makes sense in a way. After all, until this point Daring Do was fictional. She could build her up in her mind in a way that she would not necessarily with the Wonderbolts, especially after meeting them and spending some time with them. Knowing that, it also makes sense that Rainbow Dash reacted as though she really wasn’t good enough to be tangling with Daring Do and her nemeses; even by the end of the episode she has only barely come to terms with the fact that Daring is real and that she helped her.
The lesson Dash takes from this situation builds on others like Sonic Rainboom and it seems like another step towards moving past her insecurities, and it also builds on her more nerdy side, but this is ultimately not that big a deal in the grand scheme of this season.
Flight to the Finish is primarily a Scootaloo episode, but Rainbow does play a role. It’s interesting to see her role as a leader and a sister to Scootaloo. It’s not much but it is nice to see some of these things followed up on, especially her role as a sister to Scootaloo.
And now we get into her big episodes this season starting with Rainbow Falls, which also happens to be Rainbow’s “key” episode. For such milestone episode however, not a whole lot seems to happen on the character front. I suppose it makes sense to a degree, given how it’s (like the other key episodes) meant to challenge/ reinforce her “element” of loyalty, a quality of hers that’s been since the series primer. From that perspective the episode didn’t really need to tread new ground with her character, however the fact that the conflict set up for Rainbow Dash is a fairly weak one doesn’t really help her.
The conflict put forth in this episode is one that fans have been expecting for since Season One, and is structured in a fairly archetypical fashion. Rainbow Dash is competing with the decidedly inferior Ponyville team when a series of events leads to the Wonderbolts trying to tempt her over to the “winning” side. And on top of that the conflict plays out in the most unsubtle way possible, complete with the “winners” brushing aside their “dead weight” (which I admittedly liked the scene of Soarin and Rainbow in the hospital). I suppose in universe it sort of conflict does make sense since Rainbow doesn’t have any obvious reason to mistrust them, but sadly the audience does. With that knowledge it ultimately just makes the whole conflict feel unsatisfying and doesn’t give me a sense that Rainbow is strong or has become stronger in her “element”.
The last and probably biggest episode for Rainbow Dash this season is the educationally themed Testing 1, 2, 3. This episode is very important for Rainbow Dash since it’s her big chance to finally get into the Wonderbolts (or at least their reserve unit). All she has to do is take a little test about Wonder bolt history. So naturally, as one of their biggest fans . . . she knows nothing about their history. Now I say that, but it’s not really that far-fetched to think that she doesn’t know about the historical origins of the group or some of the other things revealed in the episode. What’s really more eyebrow raising is how she acts throughout the episode. Where as we saw last season how much changed, in this episode we really got to see how much she stayed the same. She starts off being rather uncaring about the importance of the test, then when Twilight attempts to help she switches to class clown mode, and when finally confronted with the fact that she knows nothing about what’s going to be on the test, she freaks out and blames Twilight for her lack of knowledge. Classy.
Now, despite what I said above this episode does build on something that goes back to Read it and Weep and even Sonic Rainboom. Rainbow Dash is aware of her academic deficiencies, and that they are in fact deficiencies. Whether it’s her reactions to being told she was kicked out of flight school or her admission to Twilight that she thought reading was just for smart ponies, and now this episode which brings it all to the forefront. It makes her many anti-intellectual (I wish I could think of a better term) remarks and actions seem less like stereotypical ignorant jock behavior (even though it still kind of is that) and seem more like a defensive mechanism. Sure it’s based a great deal in denial, but it does lend some depth and puts a rather different spin on some of her interactions with Twilight. Unfortunately the episode does not really do a good job of demonstrating that in an endearing way, and in the end it really is all for nothing.
The thing about this situation is that throughout the entire episode Rainbow Dash is lazy, and no, I don’t just mean in the beginning of the episode. All of her friends try to help her learn in a different fashion and all of them failed to teach Rainbow Dash what she wanted, but what doesn’t really get touched upon is that Rainbow spends little time on them before moving on. What she is looking for is not to learn, but for a quick solution to her problem, and when she doesn’t get it she gives into self-pitying despair. What she doesn’t realize is that, just like with anything else, you have to put in actual effort to learn and not just give up when the knowledge doesn’t come to you. And you certainly don’t just dismiss yourself as incapable lest you want people to actually believe you are useless.
The worst part though is how the episode chooses to acknowledge these flaws; mainly that it doesn’t. Instead it focuses on learning styles and finding “the right way” for Rainbow Dash to learn. And on top of that we don’t so much see her friends help her find a learning style so much as they unlock a hidden superpower for her.
Well, I guess I may have gone a bit overboard at the end, but I do feel that Testing 1, 2, 3 did a real disservice to Rainbow Dash’s character and to the educational message it wanted to give. That all aside this season was rather mediocre on the character front for Dash with not a whole lot of interesting developments or explorations. We’ll see if anything becomes of her ostensible membership in the Wonderbolts reserve and whether or not her Daring Do fangirlism or big sister role to Scootaloo will go anywhere.