darknessrising24

It wasn't a prank, it was a vindictive attempt to "teach her a lesson" that was unnecessarily mean-spirited. Hence why it was terrible.

"Generic and Dull"? I'd like to know what episode you are watching, because what you described was clearly not the same one. For those of us IDW fans, this is the first time we ever see ANY characters from the comics make an appearance in the show. As for characterisation, Shovel Knig-I mean Rockhoof, may have been scrawny when he was young, but damn if he didn't have the determination to do what was right for his village! I mean, digging a giant trench all on his own despite the odds being against him? This guy's got some huge stones right here. Mistmane's character actually feels like a combination of both Twilight and Rarity, looking past ones villainous deeds to extend the hoof of friendship once more, and yet being so generous as to give up one's physical beauty restore the inner beauty to everything around her. And finally, Flash Magnus' (a possible ancestor of Flash Sentry) story is not only amazingly action-packed, but it's also a perfect blend of both military strategy, and another showcasing of friendship and true loyalty. As for the settings and of the world it's self, you'd remember that he's a story being told by the main character to their younger siblings, so it makes sense that they focus more on the events taking place than the entirety of the world around them. Getting straight to the point also not prattling on too much. Seriously, you come off as one of those fans who just can't be satisfied with anything the show gives you these days just so you can have an excuse to complain more.

Time To Be Awesome, one of the few times we get to here Rainbow Dash sing solo.

I'm sorry but.... no. Their actions were in no way justified, especially considering how far they took it in this episode. Many people like to point out that she put many lives at the list due to her bragging. With the hot air balloon I can understand, if RD stopped signing autographs she could have saved the mare before MDW popped up. But with the rest? Even if she had been super-modest and humble, nothing would've been different at all. For example: Runaway carriage - Nothing more RD could have done with this one than she did. RD did not have the strength to even slow it down at all. She even hurt herself trying to stop it. AJ would've had to step in anyway. The construction site- Nothing more RD could have done with this one than she did. She barely saved one of workers and only got out unhurt due to his help. Again, Pinkie would've had to step in. The dam- If the theme is so fragile that simply leaning against it too hard caused it to give away, it was definitely gonna collapse anyway. Being modest before then wouldn't have altered a thing. We never see Rainbow's over-confidence directly leading her to making a mistake. The times she wasn't able to save ponies in the second half of the episode (the construction workers, the runaway carriage, the dam) wasn't because she was overconfident. The way they set those up, she couldn't have handled those on her own regardless of whether she went in humble or bragging. So that doesn't support the lesson they were (allegedly) trying to teach. You have a pretty sadistic mindset when it comes to humor if you think watching her mentally break down like that the home she was practically alone and crying is something amusing to watch. An endless parade of implausibly close-together disasters still doesn't validate shattering a friend's self-esteem and driving them into depression without even TRYING to talk to her. I'm not saying they shouldn't have leaped to the rescue. I'm saying they should have sat Dash down before any of that, as a group -- maybe even with some of the pestered townsfolk tagging along -- and given her a firm but gentle talking-to. The exact one they gave AFTER emotionally torturing her. Tell her that it's okay to be proud, but not to rub others' faces in it. Tell her somepony is going to get hurt while she brags, and then NOPONY will cheer. All that stuff. Maybe even mention how bad Shimmer-Wing-Rarity made HER feel back in Cloudsdale. Again no. I'm sorry, but you need to look at the bigger picture here. I acknowledge that RD was in the wrong,there were points in the episode where lives were at risk and her showboating could’ve been saved for later. And while I understand that she kind of needed to be taken down a peg when lives were in danger, but the mane five were also in the wrong, and the way they conveyed their message was very poor and came off as VERY mean-spirited and hypocritical! Not mention that Fluttershy didn’t even DO anything in the grand scheme of things aside from said flyby when RD expressed the joy that flying was the one thing she was the best at. So what? RD wasn’t allowed to be proud that she could fly?? That is NOT humbling someone, that’s just pouring salt in the wound! Also, how can they call her out on bragging and saying she should be humble if they showed up at the parade? That comes off as more hypocritical since the episode practically begins with her enjoying the fact that she has a fan club and the Mane five get on her case about her huge ego while she’s at a gathering of said fans at Sugarcube Corner, which was technically after her heroics. And yet it was ok for Mare Do Well to attend her own parade under the same circumstances? They both technically EARNED that praise. While I can understand not being thrilled with Rainbow's boasting, both in and out of the show, the girls decided that rather than talk about it with her which worked to get her to dial it back in previous episodes, they would abuse Rainbow's trust in them to use her deepest fears and personal insecurities against her. realistically that should have deeply and permanently shaken Rainbow's trust in them, possibly to the point of breaking her friendships with them entirely. Another one of the biggest problems I have with the episode was the aspect of "SHOW DON’T TELL" being ignored. "28 Pranks Later" worked better with that reason because of that solitary aspect. We actually SEE them SIT HER DOWN AND TALK WITH HER. And when that fails they have Pinkie confront her one on one. It’s one of the reasons why I was able to genuinely enjoy "28 Pranks Later" despite having a similar premise. For me, if we had seen the two scenes where they talk it out with her and she didn’t listen in place of the flyby and Sugarcube Corner scenes then it would’ve worked a lot better in my opinion. That way it doesn’t feel like they all just jumped in on the plan without thinking of other options, but instead the gang DIDN'T talk to her, then messed with her behind her back, then praised THEMSELVES (instead of Twilight praising the runaway vehicle save, AJ praising the Dam rescue, etc) in front of her. Even if she was too stubborn to listen, why can't they at least make the ATTEMPT? Then, if Dash rebuffs them, THEN they are JUSTIFIED in their actions! More crucial are the issues that the Mane Five conceived of this plan -before- the balloon incident or anything like it occurred and most importantly, that was NOT their motivation for it. Their motivation was that "heroes don't brag." If you want to argue that Rainbow's intention outweighs the fact that she was saving ponies, what does that say about her friends then? They didn't do a single thing to help until after they became annoyed with Rainbow's attitude. If their priority was saving lives, they wouldn't have bothered with the costumes and the charade. They would've just went out and helped, period. Instead, they put teaching Rainbow Dash a lesson over saving lives. How is that any better than what Rainbow did? If anything, it's worse. The argument since Rainbow Dash's ego could've risked lives, therefore what her friends did was correct, fails because her friends NEVER said a word about trying to prevent Rainbow from making mistakes or pointing to how over-confidence can lead to messing up. The ONLY justification they gave in-show was 'heroes don't brag.' As far as rationales go, this is far from convincing. In fact, why did her friends bother with costumes at all? That was done SOLELY so Rainbow Dash wouldn't know who they were. It served no other purpose and I'm sure took time and energy that could've gone to helping ponies sooner. But they prioritized teaching a "lesson" over saving lives. This isn't like super-heroes safeguarding their identities in DC or Marvel. They had no secrets or love ones to protect. They only bothered with them for the purposes of messing with Rainbow Dash. So she was not out of bounds in trying to unmask them. Go watch the episode again, they never talked to her about anything. If they had taken a minute for a scene with her brushing off the others concerns things would have been much better, but as is what happens is they see Rainbow showing off to her adoring fans and the next thing we know they are one-upping her left and right. The other big problem is that they do not seem to care about how badly they hurt Rainbow at all in the final confrontation, and the fact that they rub it in after they one-up her makes things even worse. Not to mention that this is the Element of Loyalty we're talking about here-to her, this is a pretty awful bit of backstabbing, in Sonic Rainboom how fragile her self-esteem can be, and Rarity's arrival and showboating only compounded the problem, to the point Dash suffers a mild nervous breakdown. So what would the Mane Six have done if she suffered a similar breakdown here? if you have to resort to tricking someone into learning a lesson, you do NOT have the moral high ground. There is no way Rainbow could've possibly gotten the "right" message from Mare Do Well. Her reaction (which the others should've known) would be to either try to outdo her, or to quit and retreat into self-pity and doubt. When other characters make mistakes (like Rarity in Sisterhooves Social) she's given the chance to realize that she made a mistake on her own and THEN let her friends help set her straight. Here Rainbow Dash wasn't, so the whole episode comes off as just dumping on her. How could she get that message? "Wow, MDW doesn't sign autographs and ponies like her. I guess I should..." there's no logical way to draw a proper conclusion. And her friends laughing at her didn't help, especially since she went into depression soon afterwards. Sure, Dash has an ego and occasionally she trips on it. However she also has a paralyzing fear of screwing up and being humiliated in public (as seen in Sonic Rainboom"), and her friends KNOW this! They could've showed up as themselves to do heroic actions and pointed out how Dash is better off with allies, or called her out on the autograph sessions since that could have got somepony killed. It's not like RD would've said “hey! Stop saving Ponies when I'm the hero!” She's not an asshole! Also, there's the fact that RD didn't learn her lesson from MDW herself, but her friends. Not once does she ever think about MDW’s actions or have a realization that she's doing things wrong, it's only AFTER the Mane five take off their masks and TELL HER themselves that she gets the message, further proving that just talking to her might’ve WORKED. Think about it, she only reacted negatively towards MDW but when she was faced with her friends, she actually swallowed her pride and acknowledged her faults. So in hindsight: MDW’s creation was POINTLESS. This episode is bad, meanspirited, and well-deserving of it's bad reputation.

The crucial difference is the fact that Twilight's situation was due to her own actions. Rainbow Dash barely did anything aside from gloat the way she usually does and her friends suddenly took it upon themselves to go behind her back instead of being upfront about the problem. The episode does not work because of that, nor does it teach Rainbow Dash of lesson, if anything it only harms said lesson because the main fix themselves proceeded to praise themselves and even attend the parade later in the episode despite them trying to teach her not to be so full of herself. That's not a lesson, it's hypocrisy.

The problem is that it doesn't give her more depth, it just makes us feel sorry for her because her friends are acting like asses. Pushing her to her lowest point with that method only makes the episode more mean-spirited, and it pretty much makes it seem like her friends don't even trust her enough to try to be honest with her. Mean-spirited humor only works if it feels deserved, and this was just unnecessarily cruel.

The problem is that they didn't teach the lesson well. All they did was basically devalue her actions and mock her behind her back. For further details I refer you to my previous comments:

No, and these idiotic assumptions are becoming pathetic. She won't nor will she ever lose those wings. She's earned them, they're part of her now, get over it.

Doesn't make it it doesn't make it any more bad for her either, they both laughed, one does not share more blame than the other. This episode taught her a lesson in all the WRONG ways, the Mane Five bragging about their own accomplishments behind her back and then laughing at her is just downright cruel. You don't just do the exact same thing you're trying to teach your friend NOT to do, if you're gonna teach her to be humble then that involves being humble yourselves. Not to mention that with episodes like Applebuck Season, The Last Roundup, Bats, Sonic Rainboom, and Sweet and Elite(which takes place AFTER this one!) under their belts, AJ and Rarity are the LAST characters I want teaching someone about humbleness. The runaway cart: that one right there proves you didn't really pay attention to the episode. The cart was already careening down hill while she was trying to stop it, and yet nobody else came in to try to help her. Not only that but she had absolutely no time to suddenly ask anyone for help in that situation. The construction site: once again, it all comes down to being able to outmaneuver all the falling debris and get the ponies to safety, mainly because she only had enough time to save one of them. And unlike Pinkie she doesn't have a sixth sense but this kind of thing. The dam: again, absolutely nothing would have changed. The damn would have broken anyway so that argument is null and void. The problem is that that's not the way it is,t theepisode practically begins with her enjoying the fact that she has a fan club and the Mane five get on her case about her huge ego while she’s at a gathering of said fans at Sugarcube Corner, which was technically after her heroics. And yet it was ok for Mare Do Well to attend her own parade under the same circumstances? As I stated before, they both technically EARNED that praise. Not to mention the fact that while Rainbow Dash celebrates the fact that she's the best, she actually has the talent to back up her claims in a heartbeat and never once made any hollow promises that she couldn't keep, she isn't Trixie. There were a number of times she went too far, got called on it, and backed off in seasons 1 and 2, so that argument is null and void. Furthermore, since the rest of the town seemed perfectly fine with it and Rainbow was genuinely doing good work which she was justified in being proud of regardless of weather she went too far or not, the actions of the rest of the girls really come off as petty jealousy and tall poppy syndrome rather than anything substantial about boasting, especially since they turn around and brag about their part of Mare Do Well later in the episode. That said, ultimately that argument is completely irrelevant because no matter what she would or would not have done, they should have talked to her about it because that's what friends do, not stab each other in the back the instant they do something you don't like. Why should she have? There was literally no reason for there to be a mask in the first place. That was done SOLELY so Rainbow Dash wouldn't know who they were. It served no other purpose and I'm sure took time and energy that could've gone to helping ponies sooner. But they prioritized teaching a "lesson" over saving lives. This isn't like super-heroes safeguarding their identities in DC or Marvel. They had no secrets or love ones to protect. They only bothered with them for the purposes of messing with Rainbow Dash. So she was not out of bounds in trying to unmask them. Go watch the episode again, they never talked to her about anything. If they had taken a minute for a scene with her brushing off the others concerns things would have been much better, but as is what happens is they see Rainbow showing off to her adoring fans and the next thing we know they are one-upping her left and right. The other big problem is that they do not seem to care about how badly they hurt Rainbow at all in the final confrontation, and the fact that they rub it in after they one-up her makes things even worse. The rest of the Mane characters showed absolutely zero interest in helping Rainbow Dash out, or saving lives on their own--they ONLY got involved because they objected to Rainbow's attitude. Plus, it's not as if Rarity didn't brag about her skills, or Applejack hadn't been stubborn and prideful a few times (like when she didn't want to accept help despite her getting tired and overworked) so Rainbow's attitude was just a minor problem. If Rainbow's attitude hadn't rubbed them the wrong way, they would've sat on their plots the entire time. I once again bring up the parade, they could have just sent a note that says this: "While I appreciate your efforts, I do not wish to be thrust into the spotlight, the honor of protecting this town is more than enough of a reward for me." Tell me, wouldn't that have showcased more humidity than them just showing up? So no, they weren't attempting to be an icon, they were just being hypocritical. Also, what place? Under the bootheel the everyone else just because she got a little too egotistical? That just makes it worse! It was NOT a good lesson, it was a manipulative and downright CRUEL thing to do to her, the negative aspects and escalation from the competition between RD and MDW could have been at least downplayed if it was RD's friends showing her up, rather than some shadowy entity that she has no previous good interactions with. After all, at the end of the episode, we see that RD is quickly able to swallow her pride when she finds it's her friends 'out-heroing' her. Even the scene at Sugarcube Corner would have seemed more of a nudge than hypocritical if it were the Mane Five joking about something RD knew about. Not to mention that this is the Element of Loyalty we're talking about here-to her, this is a pretty awful bit of backstabbing, in Sonic Rainboom how fragile her self-esteem can be, and Rarity's arrival and showboating only compounded the problem, to the point Dash suffers a mild nervous breakdown. So what would the Mane Six have done if she suffered a similar breakdown here? If you have to resort to tricking someone into learning a lesson, you do NOT have the moral high ground. Their stock response to Rainbow doing something they don't like seems to be humiliation. I don't know about how you lot see it, but that would make me think long and hard about who I called my friends. That said, ultimately that argument is completely irrelevant because no matter what she would or would not have done, they should have talked to her about it because that's what friends do, not stab each other in the back the instant they do something you don't like. Even if she didn't listen, it would’ve been a nice gesture of faith if we saw that her friends trusted her enough to at least TRY that first! Just jumping into the Caped Crusader scheme shows a lack of respect towards their friend; they were basically saying "Why bother?" instead of "We have to try!", and that just isn't the way they roll. Even the BRIEFEST attempt to talk Dash down (even if it failed utterly) would have PROFOUNDLY changed the feel of this episode. What would the others have said if Dash had asked "Why did you do all this? Why didn't you just TELL me I was being a jerk?" What COULD they have said that wouldn't have gravely damaged their friendship? "Well, gee, Dash... we assumed you wouldn't listen, because you're a cocky jerk. So we didn't bother!” Another one of the biggest problems I have with the episode was the aspect of "SHOW DON’T TELL" being ignored. "28 Pranks Later" worked better with that reason because of that solitary aspect. We actually SEE them SIT HER DOWN AND TALK WITH HER. And when that fails they have Pinkie confront her one on one. It’s one of the reasons why I was able to genuinely enjoy "28 Pranks Later" despite having a similar premise. For me, if we had seen the two scenes where they talk it out with her and she didn’t listen in place of the flyby and Sugarcube Corner scenes then it would’ve worked a lot better in my opinion. That way it doesn’t feel like they all just jumped in on the plan without thinking of other options, but instead the gang DIDN'T talk to her, then messed with her behind her back, then praised THEMSELVES (instead of Twilight praising the runaway vehicle save, AJ praising the Dam rescue, etc) in front of her. Even if she was too stubborn to listen, why can't they at least make the ATTEMPT? Then, if Dash rebuffs them, THEN they are JUSTIFIED in their actions! But no, her friends made it clear to her that believe she's too thickheaded and stupid to even TRY to reason with, and they duped the entire town into worshiping a made-up Pony who promptly vanished forever. Twilight and the others contradict themselves by saying bragging is bad when they've clearly done it more than a few times in the past. Even Twilight tried to talk to Applejack when she was doing the harvest by herself in Applebuck Season. But Twilight and the others never did that when it came to Rainbow's bragging. If they'd acted this way in Applebuck Season, they would have snuck around taping apples back up on branches and letting AJ keep working and working and working until she woke up in the hospital... and THEN given her the aesop. But instead Twilight spoke with her immediately. Why doesn't Dash deserve the same respect? AJ is stubborn. Everypony KNOWS she is stubborn. Later on, she nearly abandons here entire LIFE in The Last Roundup because she's stubborn. But TS still TRIES to talk to her in Applebuck Season. Even if it doesn't work for several attempts, she actually TRIES. So Twilight can repeatedly try to talk with AJ during Applebuck Season even though her antics were causing trouble throughout the entire town and yet RD’s completely unreasonable to the point where instead of trusting and talking with her, her friends talked behind her back and formulated a conspiracy whose sole purpose was taking her down a peg?! Unlike the above episode, where AJ's refusal to accept help leads to rather disastrous results for all of Ponyville, RD's bragging rights simply make her insufferable to her friends - there's no real harm to the town that she directly causes, just that she's annoying. But they never approach her directly on this, nor are we shown that when they are alone away from RD's fanclub, that RD is impossible to be around. I'm saying they should have sat Dash down before any of that, as a group -- maybe even with some of the pestered townsfolk tagging along -- and given her a firm but gentle talking-to. The exact one they gave AFTER emotionally torturing her. Tell her that it's okay to be proud, but not to rub others' faces in it. Tell her somepony is going to get hurt while she brags, and then NOPONY will cheer. All that stuff. Maybe even mention how bad Shimmer-Wing-Rarity made HER feel back in Cloudsdale. There is no way Rainbow could've possibly gotten the "right" message from Mare Do Well. Her reaction (which the others should've known) would be to either try to outdo her, or to quit and retreat into self-pity and doubt. When other characters make mistakes (like Rarity in Sisterhooves Social) she's given the chance to realize that she made a mistake on her own and THEN let her friends help set her straight. Here Rainbow Dash wasn't, so the whole episode comes off as just dumping on her. How could she get that message? "Wow, MDW doesn't sign autographs and ponies like her. I guess I should..." there's no logical way to draw a proper conclusion. And her friends laughing at her didn't help, especially since she went into depression soon afterwards. Sure, Dash has an ego and occasionally she trips on it. However she also has a paralyzing fear of screwing up and being humiliated in public (as seen in Sonic Rainboom"), and her friends KNOW this! They could've showed up as themselves to do heroic actions and pointed out how Dash is better off with allies, or called her out on the autograph sessions since that could have got somepony killed. It's not like RD would've said “hey! Stop saving Ponies when I'm the hero!” She's not an asshole! Instead, they play on her insecurities, and then gloat about how awesome they are in what's an inside joke to them, but a jerkass ploy to Dash, who's not in on the joke. Think about it, she only reacted negatively towards MDW but when she was faced with her friends, she actually swallowed her pride and acknowledged her faults. So in hindsight: MDW’s creation was POINTLESS.