Spoiler: Summary The episode follows Rainbow Dash's invitation to the Wonderbolts Academy, where she encounters Lightning Dust, a potential rival in her pursuit to become a Wonderbolt. Rainbow Dash's tumultuous partnership with the reckless Lightning Dust leads her to wonder if becoming a Wonderbolt really is her dream. [video=youtube;J0pGv880WRY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0pGv880WRY[/video]
well, spoilers are allowed if you tag the thread with spoilers. *topic edited* (mod hat) Berry Punch I think it's best we don't accidentally spoil it for anyone, that page had a link to the episode on it. (/mod hat)
I watched it. I want to say so much about it, but I'll wait until after it airs on Saturday. I mostly watched it now because I won't be able to watch it Saturday. Because I'll be at Disney World.
well, this was unexpected. oh well, seems like that link had link to real episode itself (didn't know that when I was posting, I supposed it was just one of teasers form hub, as usual). Since I downloaded it , and watched it, I can only say this: Spoiler: spoilers alert episode was ok. Didn't know Pinkie Pie could be so paranoiac. Have to say, this episode was kinda average. I give it 4/5.
So I've just finished watching it, and this episode in my opinion was ehhhhh. I have to say, the one thing I've always disliked about Rainbow Dash has been her big-headedness, her arrogance, and her inability to be humble, so the fact that this is addressed in this episode is a good thing. Unfortunately in The Mysterious Mare Do Well she learned exactly the same lesson so I don't know how long this one is going to last either. But To my surprise though, Dash was the best character. She accepted she would have to be a wing pony eventually, and didn't persist too much, she stood up to her hero, she saw the wrong-doings of her overly competitive partner, and almost gave up her dreams for her friends. But the ending irritated me a little, she saw how flawed the Wonderbolts could be and was off to find a new dream with her friends, then Spitfire comes along and gives her a leadership badge, which she instantly accepts to stay in the academy. Um. inb4 all the Lightning Dust art and fanfiction for when she was kicked out too, although I'm glad she was. It was nice how it wasn't entirely Rainbow Dash-centric, but Pinkie I thought was a little more annoying than funny in this episode, over the top screaming and paranoia...eh...doesn't do anything for me. Oh and Spitfire's never done anything really to show that she's nice to ponies, so I'm not surprised about her attitude in this episode too much, I mean she was pretty harsh at the Gala in ignoring Rainbow Dash, but that brings me to another point. She recognised Rainbow Dash at the Gala for being the one who performed the Sonic Rainboom, which Dashie did again at the Royal Wedding, and then Spitfire had also put Dash in charge of getting water to Cloudsdale, and I know she needed to be militant with all the participants to keep her strong leadership equal for all of them, but why was Rainbow Dash treated by Spitfire like total dirt after all she's done?.... Spitfire's harshness as an instructor was so bad I'd say it teaches kids anti-teamwork. Her attitude was just beyond belief, Celestia puts that kind of pony in charge of her elite flyers?! Speaking of Celestia, she must be feeling lonely, because nopony's written her a letter yet except for Pinkie Pie this season. And what the hay happened to her awesome voice?! Eh, must be taking lessons from Bon Bon. But no Soarin' either? Seriously? And that Lightning Dust character...she's interesting, and she's got a nice design, but I really disliked her character, which I know was the intention. She turned everything into a competition and that is my biggest bloody pet peeve, so I was gritting my teeth a little in this episode. No Derpy, which surprised me, I would have thought this would be an episode where she'd show up a little in the background. The message the episode gave was presented a bit strangely which could have been prevented, I really despise Lightning Dust, and have lost some respect for Spitfire who I thought would take more responsibility I loved the look of Cloudsdale and the academy, as I always have done, and Rarity, although she only had a small part, was pretty lady-like and cute, like when she hugged Thunderlane. So this episode was ok, but there were some terrible parts. I'm picking at things here, something about this episode just annoyed me considerably.
OMG reasons for being a freaking sick episode: 1.Rainbow Dash Episode 2.Wonderbolts 3.OC 4.Return of Steroid Pony 5.IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!! Not sure if better that Too Many Pinkies or not but it was incredible! 10/10
Poetic, Spitfire acted that way because she was acting as the drill sergeant, which are always insulting and tough with the intention of weeding out the weak-hearted (I don't really like this, but then I don't plan on entering the military, and it does work well). I really liked the episode, personally. It showed me a side of Rainbow Dash that I've always wanted to see but was never sure existed. She realized her flaws and saw them reflected in Lightning Dust, and stood up to them all on her own without any outside influence. In fact she did it despite outside influence (Spitfire). I felt really proud of how she acted in this episode. ^^ I never thought I'd love a RD episode, but here we are!
Knew someone would say this, but she was promoting the wrong thing, she wasn't wise and tough, which is what drill sergeants should be like, what's the point in having a drill sergeant train you harshly for the wrong thing? She didn't notice what Lightning Dust was doing was wrong, it took Rainbow Dash to go up and tell her. That's a bad instructor. I see nothing wrong with the militant approach if it works, but she was just being plain wrong. She was just bossy, unpleasant, irresponsible, promoted being the best over working as a team, which is needed considering it's more than one Wonderbolt in Wonderbolts, and made incredibly biased decisions.
@Poetic: I don't think the message was flawed perse, just not presented clearly, I mean if they were trying to teach the viewer to not be reckless, they really didn't bring that into play until the end. but Lightning Dust was a good sort of "Looking into the mirror/cautionary Tale" Type character for Rainbow Dash, I mean the two were a lot alike, but LD was even more extreme, Dash learned she didn't want to be that way, good for her. But yeah it was a solid episode, not the best, but no big complaints. Also think Spitfire having a Pheonix cutie mark is BUCKING AWESOME!!! Also, Pinkie Dash is now cannon as far as i'm concerned XD. *Kiss Me You Magnificent Mare You!*
I see you reversed that GIF Rarit E. Also, I give it at most a day before some major PinkeDash, LightingDash, and ThunderRarity pops up.
SNOWFLAKE RETURNED! #knew it was going to happen And apparently, Snowflake gets his muscles from Cloud-roids
Ok, remember how I said last week's episode was the best this season? I've changed my mind. Drill Sergeant Spitfire, Roid Rage returns, new pony who's a jerk, Rainbow Dash episode, etc. I rate it 11 Wonder Bolts out of 10.
Ok, so watching it again changed my opinion a little, there are still quite a chunk of things which irritate me, but it isn't a bad episode. To be honest I was in a pretty bad mood anyway at the time, which may have affected my opinion. If I focus on the positives now, the animation was beautiful, the action was amazing, Rainbow Dash learned a valuable lesson, and has gained a little bit of pony respect from me. However, I still despise Lightning Dust, still think there were continuity flaws in Spitfire's character, and hoped there'd be more screen time of all the mane six. But I suppose if you ignore how Spitfire's acted in the past, she was a good character in this episode. My final verdict is: 8/10 Some things just felt really annoying about the whole thing at parts, especially how Dash learns her lesson, but then Spitfire gives her what she wanted and suddenly she thinks the Wonderbolts are great again.
