Stupid stuff that comes to mind that we want to post (pony version)

@Myoozik
S3 in general really was her best season imo

@Latecomer
The last episode I finished was Wonderbolts Academy before that Sleepless in Ponyville.

I’m watching them chronologically.

@Kiryu-Chan
She seemed a lot nicer in this season than she sometimes was in season 2.

Except for The Crystal Empire, Rainbow was pretty bitchy in that episode.

Just watched Wonderbolt Academy, written by Merriwether Williams.

My biggest problem with this episode is that it doesn’t feel like a logical step on Rainbow Dash’s journey. It feels like Merriwether Williams apologizing for The Mysterious Mare-do-Well. The lesson is not something “Equestria’s most elite fliers” should have to learn, and especially not from Rainbow Dash. She hasn’t really done anything to earn the moral high ground, and Lightning Dust feels like a strawman that only exists to give Rainbow that high ground.

As someone who likes Rainbow Dash, I think her becoming a Wonderbolt after a legitimate “fall-and-redemption” story would have been way more satisfying.

@DerpyFast
Except the episode had already been finalized before MMDW even aired, so they wouldn’t have even known the reaction to MMDW by that point. My own real gripe was the ending where Lightning Dust gets demoted, when they changed it the ending feels a bit rushed. I get the feeling they changed it after the show got renewed for S4 expecting to bring the character back at some point and, uh, we all know how that went

@DerpyFast
I don’t know, it looks like she earned it to me, damage control episode or not which I never saw at all.

@DerpyFast
Is there a reason she should start from a position of moral inferiority to the Wonderbolts?

@Kiryu-Chan
@Myoozik
@Latecomer

Rainbow Dash is easily the most flawed of The Mane Six. In Season One, she’s lazy, arrogant, impatient, reckless, and kind of mean, too. I don’t think she was ever given the moral high ground over another member of The Mane Six, and she got some kind of comeuppance way more than anyone else. I haven’t watched Seasons 2-7 in a very long time, so I don’t have a strong mental map for Rainbow’s character season-to-season. For all I know, Read It and Weep was a turning point for her character.

But if we’re meant to interpret The Wonderbolts as a professional, respectable organization, then why did they let Lightning Dust get away with her behavior, and why did it fall to Rainbow Dash to call them out on it? I guess I just expect the best fliers in Equestria to know better.

@DerpyFast
Rainbow Dash expected them to know better, too. And to be fair, they only stood for Lightning Dust’s crap so far.

“Those with great talent and fame aren’t necessarily the best people” is an important moral.

MLP ends with the ponies draining Discord’s magic with Grogar’s Bell, then turning him back to stone.

Reaction?

Unless Discord chose this for himself, I’d obviously go ‘The fuck?’

Then again, I still would, whether or not it was the case

@DerpyFast
Then I see that as more against the Wonderbolts themselves rather than Rainbow Dash

@Myoozik
That’s exactly it. I don’t like how The Wonderbolts are portrayed, and how the story is structured. The conflict should be “Rainbow Dash versus her own flaws”, not “Rainbow Dash versus the lax safety standards of The Wonderbolts”.

@Background Pony #5F86
Mostly “what the hell were they thinking?”… you know, just like the actual ending, but more.

@DerpyFast
It’s kind of both? Or more “Rainbow Dash VS her externalised shadow” in a way - sort of showing her growth (although I’m not sure if she was ever quite as bad as Lightning Dust).

Butter by BTS goes pretty well with I’m On A Yacht’s music video. (I mean the song and video don’t line up perfectly, but still stand by this thought)

When you put it that way, I really like the concept, but in the context of the story, it’s a huge problem.

Rainbow Dash was given all these character flaws, and to me, The Wonderbolts always represented what she could be if she overcame those flaws. That’s what made the climax of Sonic Rainboom so satisfying; she puts it all aside, focuses on saving Rarity, does the impossible, and her reward is hanging out with The Wonderbolts.

If we’re meant to believe that Rainbow Dash has grown as a character and that Lightning Dust represents Rainbow Dash without her growth, then does it not completely undermine her growth and delegitimize The Wonderbolts as an organization, if they reward someone as bad as Lightning Dust, rather than Rainbow Dash? Kinda makes it seem like Season One Dash could have just shown up at the academy and done fine because The Wonderbolts don’t give a damn.

@DerpyFast
I think the disagreement here is to what the Wonderbolts should represent - the ideal Dash aimed for, or a more flawed reality? Is the best she can do to rise to their level, or should she and they be able to learn and grow from each other?

@DerpyFast
I feel like you’re reading too deeply into it

Why does humanized or anthro Fluttershy always have big breasts?

One theory is that it’s mother quality, but I think it might be that, Fluttershy is an underdog, so it feels only right that she has at least something about her that’s a benefit to her.

It’s like Hinata who started out as looking extremely plain but then she becomes much more attractive as she grew older.

We want the shy loser characters to have something great about them.

Imagine if say Rainbow had them while Fluttershy had small ones. That would feel unfair.

@Myoozik
Not really. The Wonderbolts are Equestria’s best, most elite fliers, and I just think that should mean something.

@DerpyFast
It does mean something - that they’re very good at flying!

But athletic excellence and being a good person are orthogonal qualities.

@Latecomer
Fine, I want it to mean more than the obvious. I want it to mean the things a person would reasonably infer it to mean if they weren’t being deliberately obtuse.

@Background Pony #4DCE
That theory applies to alot of fan depictions. Partciaulry when it comes to her abilities. So much that they tend to overcorrect and have her be exceptional or knowledgeable at damn near everything.

@Background Pony #4DCE
People like the idea of having the shy one having the biggest knockers. Blame anime for popularizing that