WHY does Rainbow Dash have self-worth issues?

[WriteCodes46 178]

Throughout the show, Rainbow Dash has clearly been shown to have self-worth related psychological issues, including Grandiose Delusions and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. She also appears to be very insecure and have a very low internal self-esteem.

 

What I wonder is WHY does she have such issues. Could it be due to parental mistreatment/neglect? Or could it be due to the environment she grew up in? Or maybe is was a specific event that ended up causing it?

 

What do you think is more likely that caused that?

Edited February 23, 2015 by WriteCodes46

[Shanks 10,817]

Any one of those things could have caused it but until there is any confirmation about that I am just going to go with the fact that such insecurities are very common in type a personalities which is what Rainbow Dash is. Rainbow Dash has high expectations and standards of herself which can be a good thing if properly channeled but there also needs to be a recognition that not every mistake or short coming is the end of the world which Rainbow Dash has improved on but still has to work on. Twilight also has some problems with perfectionism though the reasons for it and how they manifest themselves are very different from Rainbow Dash and it hasn't shown up as much in later seasons. Rainbow Dash appears to be confident but in some cases we clearly see some false bravado but as the series goes on more and more of that is being replaced with genuine self confidence.

[Prince Firemane 309]

To know explicitly why, we'd have to be given more of an insight to her earlier life. But just taking what we've seen into account, we know that she's had issues with bullies in the past. Like many of us, she's put on a brave face in order to hide her insecurity. she probably did have to deal with some kind of early-foalhood neglect and found that getting admiration from other ponies is the only way she feel like she has any worth. This is a trend that I've seen in all of the Mane Six. I'm sure that Rainbow Dash figured out that physical accomplishment is the quickest way to get that admiration that she longed for, not to mention getting a boost to the ego after finding out that not only was she an exceptional flyer, but created a Sonic Rainboom as a filly, a move thought to be so extraordinary that it's very existence was called into question.

 

This is probably when she aspired to join the Wonderbolts, they are the best of the best when it comes to flyers. She knows she has what it takes, her grandiose dreams are not without substance. But at some point, her ego got the best of her and it started to show. But again, it wasn't without substance because she really does have the skills to be the best flyer in Equestria, if she isn't already.

 

But it seems to me that she still has the insecurity, she has issues performing in front of others because she has a fear of failing and risking the loss of the adoration that she feels she needs. I think she actively avoids joining the Wonderbolts as well. She has high expectations of herself and reaching those expectations means that she has nothing more to strive for. She wants their adoration, but I think she knows that she will have reached her peak once she gets it. And with Spitfire having had her 180 in personality, I think Rainbow Dash is using that as a convenient excuse to herself to not join.

[Dulset Tarn 441]

It's just who she is and how she views the world, and in turn how she looks at herself.

One thing I've always said about her is that she doesn't even care if others think she's awesome, it only matters that SHE thinks she's awesome. She's much more worried about disappointing herself than anyone else.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,164]

Well, I think it's largely because she puts her heroes on such high pedestals, and she tries to measure herself to them. I mean she idolizes the heck out of Spitfire and the Wonderbolts, and we know how much she fangirls over Daring Do. Of course she's self-confident & all, but she tends to be self-critical when she feels she doesn't measure up.

 

Her confidence took a hit when she was playing second fiddle to Lightning Dust, and she was really kicking herself when Daring Do was captured.

 

Could it be something from her childhood? Maybe, but I would think it's also from other psychological issues.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,337]

It's just who she is and how she views the world, and in turn how she looks at herself.

One thing I've always said about her is that she doesn't even care if others think she's awesome, it only matters that SHE thinks she's awesome. She's much more worried about disappointing herself than anyone else.

You pretty much said what I was going to say. I'll let Pinkie Pie take it from here...

[Pastel 7,630]

Isn't that just how she is? I don't think a traumatic childhood could have caused her to have a fear of failure.

Always wanting to be awesome and number one is her personality, she's just born with that.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Blobulle

[sweetolebob18 728]

Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3... (season 4) shows she had some kind of learning disability (ADD?) & thought she was stupid.  Also, in Sonic Rainboom (season1) the others called her "Rainbow Crash".  This shows she was probably fast but clumsy as a kid (look what she did to Fluttershy in the Cutie Mark Chronicles, for instance).

 

Plus, it is possible her parents pushed her too hard to succeed as an athlete.  (One of those 'nothing is ever good enough' types)

[Cloud Strife 928]

One thing I've always said about her is that she doesn't even care if others think she's awesome, it only matters that SHE thinks she's awesome. She's much more worried about disappointing herself than anyone else.

 

Actually, this isn't true. In "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", there's a very character-defining moment (in an otherwise atrocious episode) in which she does feel that she's awesome, but it seems, to her, that others don't think the same, and it puts her into a bout of depression.

 

Rainbow Dash, in fact, cares an awful lot about how others think about her. People and ponies like her who showboat are doing it because they want validation, that outward acknowledgment that other people and ponies think they are as awesome as they like to believe. She wants someone to say "of course you are" to her, and genuinely mean it. This comes from the fact that she thinks her friends are the absolute best ponies in all of Equestria and they're wonderful, and she wants to be the best for them in turn.

 

Also, if Rainbow Dash didn't give a flying feather about how other people thought of her, there would be no reason for her stage fright that is not only prevalent but outright crippling in "Sonic Rainboom". After all, why would it be any different failing the Sonic Rainboom in her own privacy from failing it in front of a crowd if she didn't care about what the ponies in the audience felt about her?

[Red Cedar 1,408]

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3... really highlighted Rainbow Dash's insecurities perfectly, I think. She obviously was never very good in school, and knew it growing up, so she focused on her flying, which she found out early on she was good at, so much so it was what got her her cutie mark. Even so, getting called out by others and getting called "Rainbow Crash" did get under her skin, seriously, because flying is such an integral part of her life.

 

I think, subconsciously at least, Rainbow has realized that she is really only good at one thing, and that is flying. If her skill at that is called into question, or she is required to do something that doesn't involve flying which she has difficulty with, her self-esteem plummets. Deep down, I think she is terrified that if she doesn't get into the Wonderbolts, there is nothing for her to fall back on except, perhaps, the most pedestrian of jobs for a pegasus - moving clouds.

[Dulset Tarn 441]

Actually, this isn't true. In "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", there's a very character-defining moment (in an otherwise atrocious episode) in which she does feel that she's awesome, but it seems, to her, that others don't think the same, and it puts her into a bout of depression.

 

Rainbow Dash, in fact, cares an awful lot about how others think about her. People and ponies like her who showboat are doing it because they want validation, that outward acknowledgment that other people and ponies think they are as awesome as they like to believe. She wants someone to say "of course you are" to her, and genuinely mean it. This comes from the fact that she thinks her friends are the absolute best ponies in all of Equestria and they're wonderful, and she wants to be the best for them in turn.

 

Also, if Rainbow Dash didn't give a flying feather about how other people thought of her, there would be no reason for her stage fright that is not only prevalent but outright crippling in "Sonic Rainboom". After all, why would it be any different failing the Sonic Rainboom in her own privacy from failing it in front of a crowd if she didn't care about what the ponies in the audience felt about her?

Actually, I think there's a small but significant difference. She is quite obviously affected by how others see her, but her own self-opinion is still the source of her insecurity. When others don't see her as awesome, she herself begins to doubt her own awesomeness. However, it's still entirely internal, only driven by external opinions.

 

You're probably asking "So what's the difference?" Either she's motivated by others' opinions of her, or she's motivated by her own self-opinion, which is guided by others' opinions of her. The difference is that in my framework, Dash would only be affected by a negative opinion of her if it's one that, on some level, she agrees with. She never gets down on herself with no idea of what she did wrong or what the problem is, solely on others' opinions. She sees the problem in herself and doubts her own confidence, but only when it's forced to her attention by others.

 

This is important, because it's exactly why she's the element of loyalty. It's exactly why no Gilda or Fleetfoot is going to get her to do something she disagrees with just because she's be "lame" not to. If your theory were true, she'd be much more impressionable and able to be pushed into doing things she knows are wrong (like Fluttershy is). But she's not. She's driven internally, by doubts brought to her attention from the outside, but she's never pushed around.

[Odyssey 5,719]

It's just who she is. It's also too early to assume Rainbow has low self-esteem. She may have a rough past, from being kicked out of flight school to putting up with bullies, but for the longest time Rainbow doesn't care what others think of her. She usually speaks her mind.

 

Not just that, but Rainbow also has quite the ego because she's supposedly the fastest flyer of Equestria. Since she idolised the Wonderbolts ever since she was a filly, she practices all the time just to show them how amazing of a flyer she is. And it really shows how much she takes pride in her flying, as seen in Friendship is Magic Part 1. Eventually her ago started to wind down starting from Season 3, but even still I would hesitate to say that Rainbow has self-esteem issues.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Odyssey

[Cloud Strife 928]

Actually, I think there's a small but significant difference. She is quite obviously affected by how others see her, but her own self-opinion is still the source of her insecurity. When others don't see her as awesome, she herself begins to doubt her own awesomeness. However, it's still entirely internal, only driven by external opinions.

 

You're probably asking "So what's the difference?" Either she's motivated by others' opinions of her, or she's motivated by her own self-opinion, which is guided by others' opinions of her. The difference is that in my framework, Dash would only be affected by a negative opinion of her if it's one that, on some level, she agrees with. She never gets down on herself with no idea of what she did wrong or what the problem is, solely on others' opinions. She sees the problem in herself and doubts her own confidence, but only when it's forced to her attention by others.

 

This is important, because it's exactly why she's the element of loyalty. It's exactly why no Gilda or Fleetfoot is going to get her to do something she disagrees with just because she's be "lame" not to. If your theory were true, she'd be much more impressionable and able to be pushed into doing things she knows are wrong (like Fluttershy is). But she's not. She's driven internally, by doubts brought to her attention from the outside, but she's never pushed around.

 

When did I state that Rainbow Dash was a pushover? I said she cared about other ponies' opinions, which she does - your assertion that you made in your original post was that she doesn't, which is not true. You can care about others' opinions while not being a pushover, you know.

 

You're not really correcting me, rather you're more or less agreeing with me and just narrowing down what I already said.

[Dulset Tarn 441]

I said she cared about other ponies' opinions, which she does

And I said she doesn't, only her own self-opinion really matters to her.

[CC_Maud_Pie 6,431]

That's who she is as a Pegasus.

 

This bring us to the question. Why is she like that? Well, like humans, some ponies tend to focus on increasing their self-esteem because it makes them feel better and love themselves. After all, if you don't manage to love yourself and allow others negative opinions of you to control your feelings, chances are, it can open the door for low self-esteem and even worse, depression. In Rainbow Dash's case, she tries to do things that she feels will increase her self-esteem like performing a Sonic Rainboom to win a competition for example. Accomplishing things is one way of increasing our self-esteems in real life.

[KatonRyu 1,036]

I think her insecurity is just a part of her personality, just like her competitive nature. To pump herself up (and maybe in competitive circumstances intimidating her opponent) she becomes excessively boastful to hide her insecurity.

 

The combination of insecurity and being competitive may seem a bit strange, but it happens IRL as well. I know one person on the fencing circuit who behaves pretty much the same as Dash does. He acts supremely arrogant, is very flashy when celebrating hits, but he's afraid of failure and hates losing. He's also quite nice off the strip, much like Dash is very nice when she's not in a competitive setting.

 

In short, I believe her insecurity is a personality trait and her ego is simply her masking that insecurity.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

With regards to some of the discussion above, I think saying RD has fragile self-esteem is more accurate than saying she has low self-esteem. She's a daredevil who flies around faster than a speeding bullet, kicks dragons in the face and challenges spirits of chaos to hoofboxing matches for Pete's sake. She speaks her mind, doesn't let other people push her around and puts herself out there. This is definitely a courageous person. And look at how she handles pressure~

 

 

Rainbow Dash: Aaaaaah! What do I do?! Everypony's gonna see me fail! The Wonderbolts will never let a loser like me join!

 

 

 

Rainbow Dash: Aww, who am I kidding?

 

 

Rainbow Dash: How could everypony forget about me so easily?

 

 

Rainbow Dash: They're wrong. But... then... why am I all alone? I hate being all alone.

 

 

Rainbow Dash: No. My hero's way better off without me

 

 

 

Rainbow Dash: It's okay. You were just trying to help. It's just too bad I'm too dumb to learn anything.

 

 

Rainbow Dash: Yeah, I get it. I wouldn't want to hang out with a loser like me either.

 

 

 

o-oh

 

Even if her baseline is "I'm awesome", I think she does need for everybody else to believe she's awesome as well. Sorta like a fire that needs kindling, but the kindling is the praise of others. While she's making progress, she's still not the best at keeping her confidence up when other things or people are making her feel like a screwup. RD isn't afraid of anything except failure.

 

---

 

To answer the thread's question more directly, my best guess is that it comes from her childhood in Cloudsdale. She was terrible at school, to the point where she gave up and dropped out, she was a fast but clumsy flier, and she was picked on by bullies along with Fluttershy. I believe she wants to be a Wonderbolt so much because it would serve as the ultimate sign that she isn't a failure, so she'd always have something to cling to whenever any lingering doubts ran through her head.

[Arctofire 227]

This is all strictly head canon territory for now, I suspect she did something, probably the Sonic Rainboom, and she was constantly told how great she was.

[Rainbow Diamonds 282]

There are many things I can relate to Rainbow Dash on, but one is that I believe I'm stupid even when others say I'm smart. 

 

Going by personal experience, I think Rainbow's self worth issues are because she lived her life thinking she's stupid. If it's because of a learning disability, then that's yet another thing I can relate to her own. (I think I'm stupid because of a learning disability.)  

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

This is all strictly head canon territory for now, I suspect she did something, probably the Sonic Rainboom, and she was constantly told how great she was.

But nobody believed her about that; when she went to cloudsdale all the other ponies and bullies blew her off on her actually doing that.

 

 

I kind of think its that she DID do something awesome, but nobody believed her and she was never able to do it again, which probably caused her to have self esteem issues over it. (In that she'd know she COULD be great but was failing constantly, making her failures that much worse)

[Steel Accord 6,660]

There was once a young man named Thjalfi, who visited Jotunheim with Thor. The giants there challenged each of them to a series of challenges. Thjalfi was a very swift runner so he offered to race any in the castle. His opponent was a giant named Hugi. The race was a joke, Hugi outpaced Thjalfi so badly that he went back to meet his opponent. They raced again, and again. Each time Thjalfi grew more tired while Hugi never seemed winded.

 

The reason, reveled to them later was because they weren't competing against actual opponents. Hugi was truly, thought, which no one could outpace.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

 

I think it's mainly because she's set up unfair expectations for herself. Her loyalty to the Wonderbolts? They have been the gauge by which she measures herself since she was a filly. While I think some are a little too quick to throw the Bolts under the bus for their canon appearances, they have proven to not be the paragons that Dash had built them up to be. She herself may be starting to realize this but the damage is already done.

 

In short, she suffered what so many competitive athletes have, she set out to compete not with a real person but an idealized projection . . . and no one can outpace thought.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Steel Accord

[Gestum 2,493]

Because certain people over analyse every thing that she does and then claims that she has issues.

 

Honestly, I would have selfworth issue too if people did the same thing to me.

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

The best that can be said about this is that this is because Rainbow Dash's self-image is intimately tied into validation from others. She thrives on it, aspiring to be a showman and a role model. There's little backstory to go off of, so it's hard to tell if there's one or a series of events in her childhood that triggers this. However, from what we know, she fears failure, thrives on praise from herself and others, and also hates to see failure come to herself and others, especially Fluttershy, whom she defends in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and trains in "Hurricane Fluttershy".

 

Like @LZRD WZRD mentions in a video about Pinkie Pie, it's selfish motivations that drive her to act altruistically. I think it's especially true for Rainbow Dash as well. Rainbow Dash's desire for praise and validation drive her to act virtuously and in her own self-interest.

[JonasDarkmane 19,790]

 

 

There was once a young man named Thjalfi, who visited Jotunheim with Thor. The giants there challenged each of them to a series of challenges. Thjalfi was a very swift runner so he offered to race any in the castle. His opponent was a giant named Hugi. The race was a joke, Hugi outpaced Thjalfi so badly that he went back to meet his opponent. They raced again, and again. Each time Thjalfi grew more tired while Hugi never seemed winded.   The reason, reveled to them later was because they weren't competing against actual opponents. Hugi was truly, thought, which no one could outpace.

 

 

Hugi = Hugur, which means "mind". You can't be physically faster than your own mind . 

 

Nice to see someone knows the story when Thor and his friends go to meet Útgarðar-Loka 

 

Anyways, I don't know about self worth issues. I notice little of it, but I guess there are always some things that can be drawn out. The only time that I could say that I saw her having any self worth issue, would be during "Testing testing 1, 2, 3". But otherwise, I guess you can say that people have certain expectations from her, considering how she has placed herself socially, so people are not expecting her to fail. That is how I would be able to justify her having any self worth issues, but otherwise, I don't think she really has any of those . 

[cider float 2,539]

Not all characters need to have a reason to be the way they are though.