S05:E05 - Tanks for the Memories

[mlp_trixie69 108]

at first I thought they were hinting at fallout boy thx fr th mmrs. but they are not. second, all I was saying through out the whole episode was that it is part of life if you have a pet that hibernate through winter. sad that you won't see that pet till spring yes.

[Batbrony 16,055]

Overall, terrific episode. This alone has made me more hyped for what S5 has in store than any of the last four episodes have by themselves.

 

 

Super happy for you and all the other RD fans out there, buddy (not that I mind seeing any of the Mane 6 get a terrific episode either, I just know it means even more to their "(blank) is best pony" fans  ).  With an episode like that, I just gotta sit, hope, and pray that Derpy and the other background ponies will get to shine just as awesomely come the 100th episode.  Gosh dang, I wish it wasn't still over a month away, but I'm sure the wait will be worth it!!! 

[Abia 258]

I seem to be the only one to notice that when Dash decided to stop winter, she had the same expression the Grinch did when deciding to stop Xmas.  Also, Dash totally trashed the weather factory & didn't even get scolded?

 

*Sigh*  The trend continues.  Seems like if I like an episode, everyone else thinks it sucks & vice versa.   I seem to have what Parkinson called "negative infallibility"

 

Don't be worried. You're not the only one who noticed, and you're certainly not the only one who enjoyed it (just look at the poll)! Seems this is one of the more controversial episodes, with part of the fandom loving it and another part hating. Either way you've got people agreeing with you. 

[Trickilee 139]

It was pretty good. At first I thought they were talking it to a weird place pretty fast, what with Rainbow Dash picking fights with her friends, but it ended up being totally daww and endearing.

[Batbrony 16,055]

I'd kinda consider her behavior in Mare Do Well in this category-

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kDAxhTGkvc

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33kw_UxPZfE

I will ALWAYS shoehorn this reference in

 

-but it's sort of like Lesson Zero vs It's About Time. It's About Time had crazy Twilight, but it wasn't, like, her crazy episode.

 

Agreed.  And correct me if I'm wrong, but you and I are among the few who actually like "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" correct? 

[UnknownFry 169]

It was a good episode for what it was. Sure it had some over the top behavior from Rainbow Dash we got some priceless faces and as well as greater insight into her relationship with tank as she coped with the various stages of grief.

 

The other five were well used as I got a chuckle out of wintetr's coming. and also the whole crying seen which was awkwardly hilarious at best considering who was and wasn't crying. I thought Fluttershy was used well in this episode as being the one to administer tough to love Rainbow Dash by stating that her winter was going to be petless.

 

Other highlights included the weather ponies getting mixed up with names, and also AJ crying on the inside.

 

I'll Fly was a pretty good song as well and a good one for Dash's first solo,

 

Still I find it a little weaker than the first three episodes of Season 5, but a step up from Bloom and Gloom.

 

8.7/10

[RainbowDash24 71]

@, @@RainbowDash24, @,

 

You don't know what overanalyzing is. The one line of Dash saying it'll be her first winter with Tank is a small detail with a lot of implications. To flip it around, say Tank didn't feel well after waking up from a previous hibernation. Dash would have a reason to be worried or upset because she'd feel something as bad as then can happen here, if not worse. It would make her desperation make sense. Stupid, yes, but excuses it to an extent.

 

Here, the one line completely affects the continuity of the episode. Since season two, the show's seasonal timeline has been consistent. MTBPW! was the seventh episode of season two. HWE was a few weeks later. This means Tank would've hibernated at some point while still Dash's pet. But the episode instead handwaves it away.

 

Your example with the dog is completely apples to oranges. Very early in the episode, Fluttershy told Rainbow Dash that Tank was preparing to sleep for the winter. Dash and Fluttershy are close friends, and FS is around animals who hibernate. So Dash should know about hibernation prior. Tank isn't dying, and FS explicitly stated Tank is healthy. Given her knowledge of animals, Dash should've trusted her.

 

Think of the one line and how it connects to the climax of Winter Wrap Up. AJ and Fluttershy were arguing about how to clear the weather, and Fluttershy explicitly stated that the snow couldn't be quickly melted to wake the animals slowly.

 

You're factually incorrect. HWE aired after MTBPW!, and Twilight was still a unicorn. Even if HWE didn't air out of order (originally supposed to be S2's thirteenth episode instead of the eleventh), the continuity drawback flaw applies.

 

If you're going to make an opinion credible, never pull fallacies like this. Just because some people have plenty of problems with an episode doesn't mean they don't like the show. Not every brony will like every episode, and I certainly don't like this one.

 

This kind of attitude is what helped make what should be family products into "kids' shows," such as modern Spongebobs and MLP G3's. Factually good shows don't pull BS excuses. Contrary to some people here believe, I do enjoy the show, but if an episode's gonna publish crap, it deserves to be called out for it. Blindly defending it is tolerating bad quality.

 

It's very naïve to call this nitpicking. A simple animation error such as the cyclops pony in The Best Night Ever is a nitpick because it has no actual effect to the episode quality. The repetitive "divine" from Rarity in The Cutie Map is also a nitpick because there are no implications, and the dialogue altogether's very well written.

 

Dash calling her time with Tank as their first winter is akin to the line of dialogue from the Nightmare Rarity Arc (where she states how it was the Nightmare Forces controlling her, not Luna herself). It's a complete contradiction of established canon, and it affected the entire plot. When it affects the whole story, that's not a nitpick anymore.

 

I don't know about your case, but this situation feels very different. Dash and Fluttershy are close, and they worked to clean up winter at least once before. Dash knows about hibernation and should know how important it is to many animals, from mammals to reptiles. Like I told ryanmahaffe earlier, Dash had to work with the other teams to clear the weather, and one part was having Fluttershy wake up the hibernating animals. She should understand how important hibernation is.

 

More importantly, how she tried to stop it was absolutely irresponsible of her. She sabotaged Cloudesdale and only made things worse. As a captain, she should've been punished for it. instead, she all but got away with it. No sound consequences whatsoever for her bad behavior.

 

Uhh, is there a reason why I was mentioned in this post? I haven't posted in this thread. 

[Foliha 395]

 

First, dealing with the loss of a loved one is a great lesson for the audience. The problem? Nobody was losing anything. If you wanna pull a message like that make sure the characters in the episode are actually dealing with something similar. Otherwise everything ends up being an over-reaction. They did a better job with that in "Castle Sweet Castle".

 

Well, Tank may not have been dying, but he was going away.  Rainbow Dash would be facing a longish period without her pet/friend.  Continuity issues aside, Rainbow Dash has been forging/deepening a bond with Tank.  Her independent nature would have you believe she could take the hibernation in her stride, but aggressively independent types often have abandonment issues. 

[Galen Selanno 351]

Oh, my God, if anyone finds out that Rainbow Dash was the one that unleashed power-winter on Ponyville, she's gonna be released (Giver reference. I a nerd like that).

[Silver Letter 1,832]

 

 

What we didn't see was Twilight pulling the Princess strings keeping RD out of prison.

Why? I thought it looked like an accident to the ponies.

 

 

 

I'm the only who think that tanks' hibernation is a reference to "death" ?

I thought it was just about saying goodbye to a friend. There was at least no intended reference as far as I know.

 

 

 

Happen to know when it was confirmed exactly?

I thought it was during 'Hurricane Fluttershy'. Cloudsdale moves around to collect water. Also every map shows Cloudsdale in its normal location which is here. North of Ponyville.

[Fawkes The Phoenix 737]

Well, Tank may not have been dying, but he was going away.  Rainbow Dash would be facing a longish period without her pet/friend.  Continuity issues aside, Rainbow Dash has been forging/deepening a bond with Tank.  Her independent nature would have you believe she could take the hibernation in her stride, but aggressively independent types often have abandonment issues. 

 

Of course. I do understand that it must have been hard for Rainbow, but she went too far and acted like something worse was happening. One thing is having a hard time accepting that, and other thing is to go crazy, try to destroy an entire factory and mess with the nature (Not to mention she tried to destroy all the hard work of the other ponies) without thinking of the consequences. That's an overreaction, and if it wasn't because it was so "convenient" for the plot she would have had to face the consequences of her actions. They could have easily pulled that message without trying to make it look "deeper" than it was.

 

Just an episode about Rainbow feeling sad and the mane 5 trying their best to cheer her up would have been nice. No crazy plans to destroy winter, no overdone reactions, just a nice episode about the loss of someone you love.

[Gearbox10mm 794]

This face needs to be added to the emoticon list asap.

 

[TheJLeeTeam 914]

Well I finally saw this episode one day late. This episode had a focus on sleep and ironically slept in yesterday morning when it aired. But better late than never right? Anyway as much as I dislike Rainbow Dash now, I liked this episode and it's the best Rainbow Dash episode I've seen. And the song was good too.

[roptiriolg 49]

Like nearly every RD episode so far, I LOVED it! That's what I voted too. Now to get in details: Rainbow Dash, I haven't seen her so riot and disagreeable like in any other episode but since we have development in character over the episodes or seasons, I liked this. In fact, it made up for some interesting episode. There are things I would have disagreed with, though - like RD's never been that harsh with her friends like in the first half of the episode.

 

How winter was brought was new to me. I thought it came naturally, now it seems it comes from Cloudsdle.

 

But the part with the factory or weather plant or whatever that's called was hilarious! I laughed at the mess RD did there

 

Maybe over-dramatic in the late part, didn't touch me much for watching the episode once but I think this was a touching moment overall. But I am fan of RD too, didn't like her suffering :/

[Vox 870]

Nice to see a pet holding greater significance. 

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Overall, I didn't like this episode. The conflict of the episode revolves around Rainbow Dash being unbelievably and escalatingly immature, stupid, reckless, and selfish. Her motivations for her actions throughout the episode - yelling at her friends and not listening to them (and willfully doing/believing the opposite of what they say), trying to "stop winter", and sabotaging the Cloudsdale winter lab - are not well-defined, and I feel like Rainbow Dash's conflict should have been able to be resolved in a much less destructive and unbelievable way than the events of this episode.

 

Of course, perhaps the biggest problem in this episode is that the central conflict - Rainbow Dash refusing to believe that Tank needs to hibernate, and desperately trying to prevent him from doing so - is implausible in itself. As others have pointed out, it's hard to believe that this is really Rainbow's and Tank's first winter together. And Rainbow should already know about hibernation and how it's necessary for certain animals, like Tank, to do. Fluttershy shows Rainbow in a (assumedly trustworthy) book that tortoises hibernate, and she says that Tank needs to hibernate and that it's healthy for him. If Rainbow trusts her friend, and if she really cares about Tank's well-being (and for both, she should), then you might think that Rainbow Dash would reconsider her willful denial. Instead, she doesn't spend a second thinking about it - she asserts with no basis that Fluttershy and her book are wrong, and yells at and insults Fluttershy in the process.

 

Rainbow Dash eventually comes to believe that Tank is trying to hibernate because it's cold. So, even within those parameters, she could come up with a solution of, say, keeping Tank in a greenhouse or some other warm location (inside a building, etc. - I don't know if Rainbow's cloud house has heat). But instead, she comes up with the nonsensical solution of "stopping winter", and again, doesn't seem to spend a second thinking about the practicality of that endeavor or how it would affect everyone else. She goes on to do a series of temporary things which would not fundamentally change the fact that it's getting colder, which, as she said, is supposedly the whole problem in the first place. As we see Rainbow doing these increasingly stupid, reckless, and destructive things in the episode - hiding snow clouds, getting rid of ice and snow, hiding ski gear, rerouting migrating birds, putting leaves back on the trees, and the grand finale of sabotaging the Cloudsdale winter lab - I couldn't help thinking that NONE of this is preventing the temperature from going down, which, again, is supposedly the issue. Of course, we would say that Rainbow shouldn't be trying to prevent Tank from hibernating, but if Rainbow thinks that she can stop him by preventing it from being cold, she isn't even acting rationally to achieve that goal. (Plus, if she really were to "stop winter", that would mean that she couldn't do all of those winter activities with Tank, which is apparently a major reason why she doesn't want him to hibernate in the first place.)

 

And we have to keep in mind what's really going on here - Rainbow Dash apparently can't bear the prospect of Tank hibernating (and hence not being with her) for a few months. To me, this seems like it shouldn't be anywhere near as big a deal as it's made out to be in the episode. Part of the problem is that Rainbow has supposedly had Tank as a pet for less than a year, and we've seen relatively little interaction between Rainbow and Tank up to this point. Furthermore, it has been a joke previously that Tank barely responds (if at all) to events around him, so how different would it really be if Tank isn't there? Throughout the episode, and especially in her song, Rainbow talks about not wanting to be alone, not having to say goodbye, and how much Tank will be missed, but these sentiments seem needlessly overblown. Rainbow would not be "alone" without Tank - she has the rest of her friends, and surely the winter activities she was planning to do with Tank could be done with the rest of her friends. And again, Tank is hibernating for a few months, not dying or permanently moving away. So, considering all of the above, it seems implausible to me that Rainbow "needs" Tank to the point of destroying winter, sabotaging the Cloudsdale winter lab, and causing a great deal of trouble for others in the process. 

 

This leads to the crying scene. Far from bringing on "the feels", I was just left flabbergasted at the whole thing. Why is Rainbow screaming and crying and throwing a tantrum like an immature child with zero control of her emotions? What's with the slippers and robes on Rainbow and Tank? Why do Fluttershy, and especially Rarity and Pinkie, join in on the crying for no particularly good reason? As discussed above, Rainbow's reaction seems inappropriate to the actual nature of what is going on, and lacks sufficient context in the show to be believable. All of these questions, along with the whole overdramatic nature of the scene, just led me to think "What the hell is going on? Is this supposed to be a joke?" while watching it.

 

The final big point about this episode is that, as others have pointed out, Rainbow receives no apparent punishment for her reckless, destructive, and selfish actions in the episode. I would think that hiding snow clouds, trying to destroy the work of the weather pegasi, sabotaging the winter lab, causing a "winter bomb" to go off on Ponyville, etc. would all be a pretty big deal, and would lead not just to punishment, but also maybe a talking-to from the rest of the Mane Six about controlling her emotions and thinking about the consequences of her actions. (For example, before Rainbow tries to "stop winter" solely because she can't accept Tank hibernating, maybe she should think about how everyone else - and especially the Cloudsdale weather ponies who have to clean up and repair the winter lab - would be affected by that.) But we don't see any such things happen in the episode.

 

Now for a few other miscellaneous observations:

 

In the beginning of the episode, I don't know if there's much point in Rainbow asking Twilight if Tank looks all right, and taking her word for it that Tank is acting normal. I don't know that Twilight should be considered any kind of expert on Tank's behavior (or tortoises in general), and Rainbow has spent the most time with Tank and should know better than Twilight if Tank is acting differently than usual.

 

Fluttershy's "teensy-weensy-beensy bit slower" line is meaningless and annoying. If Fluttershy can't detect any significant difference in Tank's heartbeat, and thinks that Tank is preparing for hibernation, why not just say so from the beginning?

 

 

Fluttershy's explanation of hibernation seems out of place - Rainbow should already know what hibernation is, so the explanation seems solely aimed at the audience.

 

When Rainbow is infiltrating Cloudsdale, how does she unscrew the screws of a vent from the back with her bare hooves (i.e. she isn't carrying any tools) in a matter of seconds?

 

The series of events in the winter lab don't really make sense to me. Why would the contraption to suck up and transport clouds be able to create such a large suction force that Rainbow and Tank couldn't escape it? And after that, why is the contraption powerful enough not just to suck Rainbow and Tank through the entire machine, but create a "winter bomb" big enough to cover Ponyville and the surrounding area, without it failing or breaking down at some point? I would think that such a big and powerful machine would be designed to fail (in a relatively safe manner) before things got that out of hand.

 

After Rainbow lands on the ground from the "winter bomb", is she supposed to be sick from being in the snow and/or going through the machines in the winter lab? Or is she just really cold? Is this supposed to explain why Rainbow and Tank are wearing robes and slippers in the next scene?

[Argumedies 1,748]

I didn't get to watch much so I'm not staying in this thread long but I cought enough to say this...

 

Are they going to put a song in EVERY EPISODE NOW!

 

Not that it wasn't good, but COME ON, to me it just subtracts from story telling time

My apologies for being crude

 

I almost feel bad for writing what I did but it was only because I had not watched the episode at the time.

 

But now I've come to a better appreciation for the song and was quite happy that this was in here

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

I seem to be the only one to notice that when Dash decided to stop winter, she had the same expression the Grinch did when deciding to stop Xmas. 

Sorry, but I beat you to that! Click the spoiler to see the post I made last night.

 

 

I was quite excited when I realized we were dealing with Rainbow Grinch in that scene!

Let's not forget another absolute gem of a reference.

 

 

Edited April 26, 2015 by cuteycindyhoney

[Jeric 46,851]

 

 

I thought it was just about saying goodbye to a friend. There was at least no intended reference as far as I know.

 

Cindy Morrow did reference that she appreciated that people liked the "bigger message". 

Sorry, but I beat you to that! Click the spoiler to see the post I made last night.

 

 

I was quite excited when I realized we were dealing with Rainbow Grinch in that scene!

 

 

 

 

Ok, I wasn't going to say anything, but while this is a Grinch reference ... it is also another more recent reference that is connected to FiM.

[CT-1138 3,182]

Let's not forget another absolute gem of a reference.

[boris Karloff voice]: I mushtop this Christmas Winter from coming! But how....

 

I gotta admit, if there's not a PMV of "You're A Mean One, Ms. Dash" by the end of next week, I will be disappoint. 

[FlutterDash4072 189]

Season 5 has been off to a great start so far! I wasn't expecting much out of this episode, but it wound up keeping me laughing throughout most of it. That being said, I think the Game of Thrones reference was probably one of the worst the show's done.

[Trickilee 139]

Season 5 has been off to a great start so far! I wasn't expecting much out of this episode, but it wound up keeping me laughing throughout most of it. That being said, I think the Game of Thrones reference was probably one of the worst the show's done.

 

I sorta agree. It was really, really.. blunt, but it had its place. I'm pretty sure a let loose a *heh* when I heard it.

[IJoinedForPonies 126]

 

 

I thought it was during 'Hurricane Fluttershy'. Cloudsdale moves around to collect water. Also every map shows Cloudsdale in its normal location which is here. North of Ponyville.

 

 

I wasn't aware that it moved to collect the water, I just thought that the lake happened to be right under Cloudsdale. I'll have to watch that episode again...

[Time Shield 402]

Slice of life episodes can't be considered to be in chronological order, because when first writing them, the writers have no idea what order the producers are going to decide to air them.  In the rare instances that they do, that's when they can include references to earlier episodes.  On the whole though, it's safer to just avoid any references to 'nearby' episodes in case their positions get shuffled.  But that's more to avoid potential spoilers, not to say that this happened before that.

Edited April 26, 2015 by Time Shield

[Foliha 395]

Re:  Music Chart's post at 12:28 PM  (His content, normal text, mine italicized)

 

Of course, perhaps the biggest problem in this episode is that the central conflict - Rainbow Dash refusing to believe that Tank needs to hibernate, and desperately trying to prevent him from doing so - is implausible in itself. As others have pointed out, it's hard to believe that this is really Rainbow's and Tank's first winter together. And Rainbow should already know about hibernation and how it's necessary for certain animals, like Tank, to do. Fluttershy shows Rainbow in a (assumedly trustworthy) book that tortoises hibernate, and she says that Tank needs to hibernate and that it's healthy for him. If Rainbow trusts her friend, and if she really cares about Tank's well-being (and for both, she should), then you might think that Rainbow Dash would reconsider her willful denial. Instead, she doesn't spend a second thinking about it - she asserts with no basis that Fluttershy and her book are wrong, and yells at and insults Fluttershy in the process.

 

Rainbow Dash is acting on an emotional level.  Not a rational one.  No, she doesn’t think.  She’s in emotional overdrive, desperately trying to find somepony who will co her denial.

 

Ask anyone and they will tell you that bears hibernate.  Ask about lemurs,bats and woodchucks, and you may get blank looks.  And Rainbow was right – Fluttershy’s book was wrong - it showed rabbits hibernating.  They don’t. You want the scientific method from Rainbow Dash? We live in a world where a lot of people don’t know that chickens are birds, or that glue (some glue) is made from the hooves of horses and other animals, and Jello is derived from collagen obtained from various animal by-products, like hooves, connective tissue and bones, and candles – at least in some places - are made of rendered fat from stray dogs and cats.

 

As to this being their first winter together, maybe it is.  Maybe it isn’t.  Maybe last winter Rainbow Dash got called up for Wonderbolts reserve duty.  If so, it is entirely possible she could have missed the whole hibernation thing, plus she would have been stoked about doing “radical stuff” with the Wonderbolts, and Tank might take an emotional back seat.  Rainbow Dash is a solipsistic creature.  If something else engaged her, she might not even miss Tank.  But this year no such condition exists, and she is fixated on all the stuff she wants Tank to do with her.      

 

Rainbow Dash eventually comes to believe that Tank is trying to hibernate because it's cold. So, even within those parameters, she could come up with a solution of, say, keeping Tank in a greenhouse or some other warm location (inside a building, etc. - I don't know if Rainbow's cloud house has heat).

 

Rainbow Dash has her heart set on sledding, horse-hockey, etc. She wants Tank to do winter sports with her so keeping him indoors where it’s warm won’t do. For some reason Rainbow Dash was dead-set on having Tank with her all winter.  We may never know why.  Do we know why Spike’s egg was taken from his mother? Or why he doesn’t have wings? They can’t spend the entire show on expository stuff.  They’ve only got 20 minutes to tell the story and make it entertaining.

 

But instead, she comes up with the nonsensical solution of "stopping winter", and again, doesn't seem to spend a second thinking about the practicality of that endeavor or how it would affect everyone else. She goes on to do a series of temporary things which would not fundamentally change the fact that it's getting colder, which, as she said, is supposedly the whole problem in the first place. As we see Rainbow doing these increasingly stupid, reckless, and destructive things in the episode - hiding snow clouds, getting rid of ice and snow, hiding ski gear, rerouting migrating birds, putting leaves back on the trees, and the grand finale of sabotaging the Cloudsdale winter lab - I couldn't help thinking that NONE of this is preventing the temperature from going down, which, again, is supposedly the issue. Of course, we would say that Rainbow shouldn't be trying to prevent Tank from hibernating, but if Rainbow thinks that she can stop him by preventing it from being cold, she isn't even acting rationally to achieve that goal. (Plus, if she really were to "stop winter", that would mean that she couldn't do all of those winter activities with Tank, which is apparently a major reason why she doesn't want him to hibernate in the first place.)

 

Nope.  Not rational.  But she isn’t rational about this.  She is desperate. “Hiding snow clouds, getting rid of ice and snow, hiding ski gear, rerouting migrating birds, putting leaves back on the trees, and the grand finale of sabotaging the Cloudsdale winter lab”  were all febrile attempts to sabotage winter. 

 

And we have to keep in mind what's really going on here - Rainbow Dash apparently can't bear the prospect of Tank hibernating (and hence not being with her) for a few months. To me, this seems like it shouldn't be anywhere near as big a deal as it's made out to be in the episode. Part of the problem is that Rainbow has supposedly had Tank as a pet for less than a year, and we've seen relatively little interaction between Rainbow and Tank up to this point. Furthermore, it has been a joke previously that Tank barely responds (if at all) to events around him, so how different would it really be if Tank isn't there? Throughout the episode, and especially in her song, Rainbow talks about not wanting to be alone, not having to say goodbye, and how much Tank will be missed, but these sentiments seem needlessly overblown.

 

Seems overblown to you.  Might be way over the top to you.  But everyone is different.  Rainbow Dash is an impulsive, high-drive, single-point-focus kinda girl.  She’s not Applejack, or Fluttershy or any of the others.  She’s Rainbow Dash – and that means reactionary.  Besides, we don’t know what is bringing this up for her.  She may be dealing with a reaction to past events she’s stuffed up until now. 

 

Rainbow would not be "alone" without Tank - she has the rest of her friends, and surely the winter activities she was planning to do with Tank could be done with the rest of her friends. And again, Tank is hibernating for a few months, not dying or permanently moving away. So, considering all of the above, it seems implausible to me that Rainbow "needs" Tank to the point of destroying winter, sabotaging the Cloudsdale winter lab, and causing a great deal of trouble for others in the process. 

 

See above…

Did you never have an individual-specific wish to do something with someone? You never thought, “These three records are the best – I want to share them with this person because they are special to me and we’ve never listened to my cool collection of singles before”? Yeah, you could go listen to them with someone else, but maybe you want more than anything to share that thing with this person.

 

This leads to the crying scene. Far from bringing on "the feels", I was just left flabbergasted at the whole thing. Why is Rainbow screaming and crying and throwing a tantrum like an immature child with zero control of her emotions? What's with the slippers and robes on Rainbow and Tank? Why do Fluttershy, and especially Rarity and Pinkie, join in on the crying for no particularly good reason? As discussed above, Rainbow's reaction seems inappropriate to the actual nature of what is going on, and lacks sufficient context in the show to be believable. All of these questions, along with the whole overdramatic nature of the scene, just led me to think "What the hell is going on? Is this supposed to be a joke?" while watching it.

 

Slippers for the fanbase.  Just like the Rarity stuffie.

 

Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie, join in on the crying because they have empathy. You’ve heard of that, right? Do you ever cry at the end of a sad movie? Maybe, maybe not, but you get that people do get emotional when their friends are freaking out.   

 

The final big point about this episode is that, as others have pointed out, Rainbow receives no apparent punishment for her reckless, destructive, and selfish actions in the episode. I would think that hiding snow clouds, trying to destroy the work of the weather pegasi, sabotaging the winter lab, causing a "winter bomb" to go off on Ponyville, etc. would all be a pretty big deal, and would lead not just to punishment, but also maybe a talking-to from the rest of the Mane Six about controlling her emotions and thinking about the consequences of her actions. (For example, before Rainbow tries to "stop winter" solely because she can't accept Tank hibernating, maybe she should think about how everyone else - and especially the Cloudsdale weather ponies who have to clean up and repair the winter lab - would be affected by that.) But we don't see any such things happen in the episode.

 

The second time I watched the episode I paid more attention to how the big snowball-blast affected the weather factory.  It looked pretty much OK from the outside, and although I’m sure there was damage on the inside, sidetracking to get Rainbow Dash chewed out, or otherwise punished would have bent the story-arc all to hell. 

 

Another thought…  This show was (originally, at least) conceived and designed for children.  Children are usually as solipsistic as Rainbow Dash is in this episode.  They scream and cry and break things if they can’t reach their desiderata. This show could be a great object lesson in the concept of ’You Can’t Always Get What You Want.’  And Rainbow Dash finally gets that after her weeping and wailing is all spent.

 

Now for a few other miscellaneous observations:

 

In the beginning of the episode, I don't know if there's much point in Rainbow asking Twilight if Tank looks all right, and taking her word for it that Tank is acting normal. I don't know that Twilight should be considered any kind of expert on Tank's behavior (or tortoises in general), and Rainbow has spent the most time with Tank and should know better than Twilight if Tank is acting differently than usual.

 

Sure there is…  It may not make any more sense (and be just as futile to ask) as “Does this dress make me look fat?” but it’s human nature to check in with the first friend who come along when you have the feeling that things are going awry in some way.

 

Fluttershy's "teensy-weensy-beensy bit slower" line is meaningless and annoying. If Fluttershy can't detect any significant difference in Tank's heartbeat, and thinks that Tank is preparing for hibernation, why not just say so from the beginning?

 

Because she wouldn’t want to hurt Rainbow’s feeling by blowing off her concerns flat-footed.  This is Fluttershy, after all.

 

Fluttershy's explanation of hibernation seems out of place - Rainbow should already know what hibernation is, so the explanation seems solely aimed at the audience.

 

(Reprise) Ask anyone and they will tell you that bears hibernate.  Ask about lemurs,bats and woodchucks, and you may get blank looks.  And Rainbow was right – Fluttershy’s book was wrong - it showed rabbits hibernating.  They don’t. You want the scientific method from Rainbow Dash? We live in a world where a lot of people don’t know that chickens are birds, or that glue (some glue) is made from the hooves of horses and other animals, and Jello is derived from collagen obtained from various animal by-products, like hooves, connective tissue and bones. And candles –at least in some places - are made from stray dogs.

 

When Rainbow is infiltrating Cloudsdale, how does she unscrew the screws of a vent from the back with her bare hooves (i.e. she isn't carrying any tools) in a matter of seconds?

 

The same way Bugs Bunny pulls train schedules from the “pockets” of his fur. It’s a cartoon!  The ponies are always doing stuff with their hooves that they couldn’t really. 

 

The series of events in the winter lab don't really make sense to me. Why would the contraption to suck up and transport clouds be able to create such a large suction force that Rainbow and Tank couldn't escape it? And after that, why is the contraption powerful enough not just to suck Rainbow and Tank through the entire machine, but create a "winter bomb" big enough to cover Ponyville and the surrounding area, without it failing or breaking down at some point? I would think that such a big and powerful machine would be designed to fail (in a relatively safe manner) before things got that out of hand.

 

Yeah, and if you know anything at all about horse harness, you would know that a cinch and shafts do not a harness make, yet ponies routinely pull wagons with that rig, and Big Macintosh routinely pulls heavy loads with nothing that would really work as a harness, and frequently goes around with a harness collar when he’s not working. 

 

Ponies with heads almost bigger than their bodies should be falling over front-ways all the time.  C’mon…  It’s cartoon!  It’s called ‘willing suspension of disbelief.’

 

After Rainbow lands on the ground from the "winter bomb", is she supposed to be sick from being in the snow and/or going through the machines in the winter lab? Or is she just really cold? Is this supposed to explain why Rainbow and Tank are wearing robes and slippers in the next scene?

 

Rainbow and Tank are wearing robes and slippers in the next scene to show that Rainbow is hiding out from the world because she is depressed and defeated in her efforts to keep Tank from going off and hibernating.  The whole experience has been pretty overwhelming for Dashie.

 

I liked this episode a lot.  I think part of the reason I liked it and Music Chart didn't is a difference in temperament.  There's a linear thought/ intuitive thought disconnect.  It's fine, we see things differently is all. 

Edited April 27, 2015 by Foliha