Is one of the members of Team Cloudsdale supposed to be a Ponified version of Mickey Goldmill from the Rocky film series? The pony in question can be seen acting as a masseur for Spitfire around 6 minutes into the episode.
So yeah, the badge is a key. The spool of thread is a key. It's just plainly obvious now. I hate that they ended up giving Snowflake a different name, but i friggin loved the Yaplap/Solrac style voice acting! By the way, did you guys notice?
I really liked this episode. At some point though Rainbow is going to learn that the Wonderbolts might not be worth joining afterall. Even though they seem to learn the right things eventually, their kind of jerks. With all the little continuity and fandom nods, I was a tad disappointed Lightning Dust didn't return.
I'm sure Lightning Dust, Gilda, Trixie, Flim, Flam, and Suri are all having their anti-mane6 adventures.
Omg that Derpy shrug was so much more adorable than the one that already exists! SOOOO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS: Also [video=youtube;y4idKg2mhcQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=y4idKg2mhcQ[/video] I do think Derpy screaming was because of Fluffle Puff Tales. Compare to the image of her screaming from the episode:
To be fair, that was what Spitfire called him. The fans just rolled with it. His other fandom name, Roid Rage, wouldn't have gone over well with parents.
I guess I was wrong. Damn. Now I'm going to spend the next three days trying to remember where I saw canon confirmation of the name Snowflake.
I really liked this episode, but I do wish they'd allow Rainbow Dash to grow and develop character without having to continually be faced with betraying her friends. Then again, how else are you going to challenge an element of Loyalty? The whole having to repeat lessons thing could easily also be argued when it comes to Rarity and Fluttershy. I'm not crazy about the name Bulk Biceps, but I really enjoyed him in this episode. He was super adorable with Fluttershy, which kept me laughing crazily throughout the episode. As for the whole Derpy doing the crazy scream, has there been any confirmation it was actually her? I thought the super high pitched scream came from Bulk Biceps, because it's such a classic cartoon comedy trope to give the scariest looking individual a hilarious scream. So with that in my mind, I absolutely lost it at that scene. No matter who did the crazy scream, I'm just thankful they didn't lazily throw in a Wilhelm scream. I felt like the challenge presented in the episode was a fair one. It's already been established that Rainbow Dash is a huge Wonderbolts fan, and absolutely despises losing. So being faced with an easy out to risking losing a spot in the Equestria Games (which she's also super crazy about, I might add) while simultaneously being asked to become an honorary member of the Wonderbolts must have seemed amazing to her at first. Seriously, if you think about, she pretty much threw away her biggest dream in life to remain loyal to her friends. I'm a bit upset at how long it took her to come around, but I can't honestly say that I'd immediately turn down an idol in my dream career praising me and saying they want me to join them. Speaking of idols, she may want to reevaluate her life choices after the way Spitfire and Fleetfoot behaved. Spitfire has already proven that she doesn't always have the best judgment, and now we see that Fleetfoot is equally nasty. On a side note, I didn't care for Fleetfoot's voice. Imagine my surprise to find out Andrea Libman voiced her. Anyway, I couldn't believe how conniving these two Wonderbolt stars were in the episode. Perhaps there's something in the water up in Cloudsdale... or something. I definitely felt bad for Soarin though. I'd feel awful if those I considered to be friends had completely abandoned me and tried to replace me just because I got injured. All I can say to Spitfire and Fleetfoot is, "Wow, rude." The whole episode was lost potential to bring back Gilda and/or Lightning Dust, which bummed me out. I was hoping to at least catch a glimpse of them, especially since there was a gryphon team that qualified for the Equestria Games. I am happy that the other races at least are getting some representation, though. They easily could have just made all the qualifying teams nothing but ponies. Perhaps when we finally see the Equestria Games episode (which should be awesome!), we might catch at least a glimpse of Gilda or Lightning Dust. Even though it was blatant pandering to the fans, it was still cool to see Derpy make an appearance. They really handled her well since they don't want to give her any more speaking roles (obnoxious fans, I'm looking at you). This is definitely one of my top episodes so far.
