If you watch the episode as a show about friendship, it's kinda messed up. If you watch the episode as a parody of the superhero genre, it's great. I prefer the latter.
[video=youtube;wZWgbF-u9nk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZWgbF-u9nk[/video] "I AM THE TERROR THAT TROTS IN THE NIGHT! I AM THE CANDIDATE THAT ISN'T IN YOUR POLL! I AM THE AIR CONDITIONER THAT GIVES YOU A COLD! I AM MARE DO WELL!" Daring Pony of mystery, Champion of right, Swoops out of the shadows, Mare-Do-Well owns the night. Somewhere some villain schemes, But his number's up, cause here comes MARE-DO-WELL! (When there's trouble you call MDW!) MARE-DO-WELL! (Let's get dangerous!) MARE-DO-WELL! (Mare, Mare-Do-Well!) Cloud of smoke and she appears, Mistress of surprise. Who's that cunning mind behind That shadowy disguise? Nopony knows for sure, But bad guys are out of luck. 'Cause here comes Mare-Do-Well! Look out! (When there's trouble you call MDW!) MARE-DO-WELL! (Let's get dangerous!) MARE-DO-WELL! (Better watch out, you bad boys!) MARE-DO-WELL! Even the personality fits. Most people tend to forget it, but Darkwing IS a stubborn glory hound in the show. In fact, most of his defeats come from his ego and hubris, just like Dash in this episode.
A lot of people hate this episode because apparently the rest of the Mane 6 'ganged up' on Dash, and purposely 'attacked' her to kill her ego mercilessly. I don't understand how that's what they take away from the episode, but I suspect that they are just angry Dashfans. The point of the episode was that having a huge ego ruins friendships. I wouldn't want to be friends with Rainbow Dash acting that way, or anyone else acting that way. She needed to be taken down to a reasonable ego level for the sake of her friendships. There's a significant difference between taking her down a peg, and grinding her ego to dust in a bullying way. She needed to be shown that she was not as good as she was acting like she was; after all, she was endangering lives to sign autographs, and spout her catchphrase!
AGAIN, that's the entire point of the homage. Our nostalgia goggles cause us to have an idealized version of Darkwing. In the actual show, Darkwing had an enormous ego, and said ego was often his greatest weakness, as it caused to put others in danger and jeopadized his superhero career. That's why "LET'S GET DANGEROUS!" is so important, because when he says it, he puts his ego aside and truly works his best to be a noble superhero. It's also why Gosalyn was so important to the show: without Gosalyn reigning him in, Darkwing would have gotten himself killed a long time ago. What's I'm getting that is that Rainbow Dash in this episode is SUPPOSED to have a huge ego, since she becomes Pony Darkwing. If Rainbow Dash didn't act like an egomaniac, then the episode flat out wouldn't work. It's like in the episodes featuring Daring Do: Daring Do is depicted as gruff, rugged and no-nonsense because that how Indiana Jones is.
I wasn't arguing with you lol, but didn't you just post that song that replaced his name with Mare Do Well's name? Wasn't he supposed to be Rainbow Dash?
This episode is so bad, it gets it's own post on my blog: http://www.everypony.com/blogs/entry.php?2991-Why-Mare-Do-Well-Is-The-Worst-Episode-Of-MLP-FiM
It's my favorite episode, mostly because the rest of the mane six gets tired of Rainbow Dashs bull****.
[video=youtube;uOHFCuLj2uI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOHFCuLj2uI[/video] Joking aside, don't you think the others could have had a conversation with Dash instead of, you know... PUBLICLY HUMILIATING HER?!? God, I hate this episode...
They didn't publicly humiliate her. She thought that she was better then everyone else and the rest of the mane six proved her wrong.
Well, they proved that she wasn't better than all 5 of them put together. She's still pretty awesome.
This is episode is my favorite. It teaches kids an important lesson, that it doesn't matter what kind of heroic thing they do because everyone is just going to forget about when a new person who helps people shows up.
And that person is really one of your friends in disguise, trying to show you a lesson in humility. Great lesson for kids.
The lesson that if you act like an douche, people (your friends included) are going to get tired of your bull**** and put you in your place happens to be another great lesson which kids really need to learn as early as possible.
Look, I understand that humility is important, but there are other ways to teach it. What the Mane Six did to Rainbow was not only uncalled for, but it would probably end any IRL friendship, were it to be replicated. THAT is why I hate the episode, because it contradicts the show's message.
What the mane six did were completely right, they showed her that what she did was wrong by doing the exact same thing to her. Sometimes that is what you have to do to get somebody to stop doing something and let's face it, Rainbow Dash isn't that kind of person who would stop doing something just because someone asked her to. It wouldn't end any real friendship, I know this because me and my friends do itto each other from time to time.
*sigh* Again, you are all reading too much into it. The entire episode is just a parody/homage to "Darkwing Duck". That's it. Nothing more. The actions of the other Ponies were a Deus Ex Machina to get Rainbow Dash out of the Darkwing role without resorting to do parodies of Taurus Bulba or Negaduck.
