spoiler Rainbow Dash's Role Models - The Wonderbolts

[Cwanky 17,579]

Over the course of the series Rainbow Dash’s growth, or lack thereof, has been interesting to watch. One of the interesting aspects of Rainbow to watch however is the presence of her role models and their own growth. These role models however, often are highly flawed and Rainbow’s worship of them has often negatively affected her character, intentionally or not by the writers.

 

No discussion of Rainbow is quite complete about the mention of the Wonderbolts. She basically fantasizes about them subconsciously, and they do merit their reputation. Yet they also have proven to be consistently incompetent, but this is acceptable towards the general nature of FiM’s plot and episodes. The leadership and virtue of the Wonderbolts is highly flawed, and shows a culture of recklessness, lacking leadership, and lacking much loyalty.

 

The viewers truly start to see how the Wonderbolts and their leaders act in Wonderbolts Academy. If the story’s narrative is followed, the Wonderbolts encourage a cutthroat, reckless environment, overlook teamwork and lack leadership. Lightning Dust is rightly portrayed as reckless and lacking compassion or teamwork. Spitfire in turn is a poor leader for encouraging her behavior. Unfortunately, though we see Rainbow confront Spitfire, she instead of truly taking responsibility for her poor leadership uses Dust as a scapegoat to cover herself and avoid taking further blame.

 

Even with this negative view of Wonderbolts Academy Spitfire, and the Wonderbolts as a whole, may be forgiven for the sorry display. But then in Rainbow Falls, not only does Spitfire with Fleetfoot continue the cutthroat behavior, throwing this time Soarin under the bus to win, but Rainbow Dash apparently just as quickly blindly follows the Wonderbolts once more.

 

Now its not that the behavior was bad. For plot purposes it made sense to have someone close to Rainbow act against loyalty and to have Rainbow stray from her own loyalty. But it doesn’t negate the fact that Rainbow follows along. Worst of all, as many pointed out about Rainbow Falls, Rainbow simply wasn’t credible, unlike how it was in Wonderbolts Academy. She not only tried to run from her problems, Rainbow also had to have Twilight tell her what was the right thing to do, like a child. To top it off, Spitfire and co after being confronted by Rainbow and Soarin just brush off their transgression as if they had learned their lesson, despite having made similar mistakes in Wonderbolts Academy. Spitfire really didn’t show that she was sorry or learned anything. She just brushed it off as another “valuable lesson” Rainbow taught her.

 

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED RARITY INVESTIGATES

 

But of course, this trend continues even with the latest episode Rarity Investigates! Rainbow is of course not only shown to be a big admirer of the Wonderbolts, but the veteran legend Wind Rider. As we discover at the end of course, Wind Rider justifies his crime with these words:

Wind Rider: I did what I had to do to protect my record! Sometimes you gotta play dirty to be the best!

Rainbow Dash: That's not what being a Wonderbolt is all about.

Soarin: She's right! Wonderbolts look out for each other! Which reminds me, where is Spitfire?

 

Its highly ironic because despite the show making Wind Rider the villain of the day, what he did was more or less what Spitfire did in Rainbow Falls and allowed Lightning Dust to do in Wonderbolts Academy without really taking the blame either time. While I actually do trust Soarin’s integrity, its still unfortunate that yet another role model of Rainbow’s, and another Wonderbolt no less, is so lacking in integrity and loyalty.

 

Although I am not myself a fan of Rainbow, it does pain me to see that her character at times exercises such poor judgment and chooses poor role models. The Wonderbolts as a whole, unfortunately do not impress me in the slightest with their hypocrisy and shallowness and after Spitfire’s past incidents she has not proven herself to be either a good teammate nor role model to respect.

[Melon Blitz 423]

It feels like Rainbow Dash has already far surpassed her "idols." She's the only pony who can perform a sonic rainboom (and by now she can do it on command), has aided in defeating threats that would end Equestria multiple times as an element of harmony, she almost straight up replaced Soarin, set academy records at training, fast enough to almost beat the wonderbolts team all by herself in the equestria games relay, and she's so good that a "living legend" wonderbolt feels threatened by her enough to try and get her kicked out.

 

I'm so confused why she's still a "reserve." She is constantly cleaning up after the Wonderbolts and keeping them in check. She is literally better than them in almost every way except organization and in some cases maturity.

 

Rainbow Dash is OP

[Jeric 46,851]

Have you considered this: What aspect of of friendship do the Wonderbolts appear to lack? Spitfire, Soarin, Lightning Dust, Wind Rider all seemed to have moments where they were not the most loyal to their peers.

 

Could it be that Rainbow Dash is the eventual missing piece needed to turn around the Bolts?

 

 

#Destiny

[Truffles 2,033]

Now its not that the behavior was bad. For plot purposes it made sense to have someone close to Rainbow act against loyalty and to have Rainbow stray from her own loyalty. But it doesn’t negate the fact that Rainbow follows along. Worst of all, as many pointed out about Rainbow Falls, Rainbow simply wasn’t credible, unlike how it was in Wonderbolts Academy. She not only tried to run from her problems, Rainbow also had to have Twilight tell her what was the right thing to do, like a child.

 

To be fair to the writers, there are actually many instances of her acting childish - Read it and Weep and Tanks for the Memories come to mind. So for her key episode I wasn't all that surprised that she'd try to take the easy way out and avoid the problem altogether by faking that she was injured. (And for me at least it was nice to see Twilight acting in the role of a princessly advisor there.)

 

She's a character that still has a few flaws. She's learned to be more humble, had her loyalty tested and seems to have learned that lesson. But she still can act childish at times, it seems. @@Jeric could be right - Dash may be the missing piece the WBs need to really become a fully functioning organization, and when she learns to stop being childish when there's a problem, that may be when she gets to finally live her dream and have it be as fulfilling as she imagines it will be.

 

Now, having said all that, I did also just say in the Rarity Investigates topic that it seems like her childishness is becoming a broken record of a character flaw, just like how Spike keeps getting depicted as greedy over and over. So it's fair to be critical of the writers if they keep doing this to her without having her grow. She doesn't have to grow out of it completely, because she seems like she's always going to be a foal at heart. But she should at least start being more cognizant of the fact that throwing a fit or lying to herself isn't going to make a problem go away.

 

But I can blame the writers for Spike because he is explicitly learning his lesson and yet they keep throwing it back at him. Her learning to grow up a bit has been conveniently skirted in all of the episodes where it's been a problem. It came closest to being resolved in Tanks for the Memories, but the main message there was about accepting loss, and there were no repercussions for her sabotaging the weather factory. Seeing how she responded to Rarity's actions in Rarity Investigates, it does appear the lesson is still unlearned.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Truffles

[Tao 7,763]

I think it might even in the long run have something to do with she is always going off on missions with Twilight?  Given she can't always be there all the time unlike the Main Wonderbolts?   So being in the Rev gives her place in them but also keeps her free to do the missions things.   Also I'm not a big fan of Dash,  I will say she can out fly most of the Bolts and has the talent,  I just think she needs to grow up a bit.

[Megas 27,630]

Have you considered this: What aspect of of friendship do the Wonderbolts appear to lack? Spitfire, Soarin, Lightning Dust, Wind Rider all seemed to have moments where they were not the most loyal to their peers.

 

Could it be that Rainbow Dash is the eventual missing piece needed to turn around the Bolts?

 

 

#Destiny

More or less this. I feel they're still having her pursue the Wonderbolts more in the manner of "they need her more than she needs them"

 

Now, having said all that, I did also just say in the Rarity Investigates topic that it seems like her childishness is becoming a broken record of a character flaw, just like how Spike keeps getting depicted as greedy over and over. So it's fair to be critical of the writers if they keep doing this to her without having her grow. She doesn't have to grow out of it completely, because she seems like she's always going to be a foal at heart. But she should at least start being more cognizant of the fact that throwing a fit or lying to herself isn't going to make a problem go away.

 

But I can blame the writers for Spike because he is explicitly learning his lesson and yet they keep throwing it back at him. Her learning to grow up a bit has been conveniently skirted in all of the episodes where it's been a problem. It came closest to being resolved in Tanks for the Memories, but the main message there was about accepting loss, and there were no repercussions for her sabotaging the weather factory. Seeing how she responded to Rarity's actions in Rarity Investigates, it does appear the lesson is still unlearned.

Not really sure how she was immature or childish in Rarity Investigates. The closest things we saw to childish behavior was her fangirling over Wind Rider and her little dance when they had her participate with the Wonderbolts, both of which I'm positive were nothing more than visual gags and funny little quips the writers wanted to include

Edited September 21, 2015 by Kamina

[Truffles 2,033]

 

 

Not really sure how she was immature or childish in Rarity Investigates. The closest things we saw to childish behavior was her fangirling over Wind Rider and her little dance when they had her participate with the Wonderbolts, both of which I'm positive were nothing more than visual gags and funny little quips the writers wanted to include

 

The parts I was referring to was her complaining every time Rarity did something that didn't seem related to the investigation. It came off like she was whining, although I admit it wasn't that big of a deal since I knew her rep and future in the Wonderbolts were on the line. But, I think it warrants use as an example, albeit a minor one.

 

The other stuff you mention I didn't have any problems with at all - the aerial dance moves were endearing, and I wouldn't expect anything else but for her to fawn over a legendary Wonderbolt. 

[Megas 27,630]

The parts I was referring to was her complaining every time Rarity did something that didn't seem related to the investigation. It came off like she was whining, although I admit it wasn't that big of a deal since I knew her rep and future in the Wonderbolts were on the line. But, I think it warrants use as an example, albeit a minor one.

I'd still say it was frustration, rather than immaturity and childishness, and it was due to lack of her not understanding Rarity's methods of investigation(which Rainbow apologized for at the end), which, at first glance, it's pretty understandable, especially with what was at stake

[Truffles 2,033]

I'd still say it was frustration, rather than immaturity and childishness, and it was due to lack of her not understanding Rarity's methods of investigation(which Rainbow apologized for at the end), which, at first glance, it's pretty understandable, especially with what was at stake

 

Your bringing up her apologizing for the doubt and complaints was the actual lesson of the episode does make for a good point!

[Red Cedar 1,408]

Full disclosure: Haven't seen the new episode, so I can't comment on it directly, however, Rainbow Dash's admiration of the Wonderbolts up to this point has been based on two things: Their flying ability, and the elite position they hold in Equestrian society because of their flying ability. That, above all else, is what she admires, and what she wants to emulate. As far as the shortcomings in character exhibited by some of the Wonderbolts themselves, Rainbow Dash has, consistently, rebuffed them on it herself, once to the point of almost giving up on them. So while the Wonderbolts themselves might not have a character Rainbow wishes to copy (and she knows this), her flying ability still is what gives her the biggest thrill.

 

If anything, I think perhaps her encounters with the Wonderbolts' flawed characters has perhaps strengthened her resolve to join them, not just because of their status as elite fliers and their place in society, but because one day... just maybe... when Rainbow Dash is sitting in Spitfire's old office, there's going to be some changes made.

[Sectus 246]

Rainbow Dash's fangirling has officially gotten to the point that it is so overbearing that I consider it cringe-worthy. I can understand feeling a lot of respect and admiration for someone, but you would think that such a thing would eventually develop out of over-the-top squealing and squirming to a nod of the head in respect.

 

I still don't like the idea of every single guy falling for Rarity's 'charm' nonsense, either. It would be nice for once to see someone give her a funny look and scoot away from her when she tries it.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Sectus

[cider float 2,538]

Same can be said about how incompetent Celestia is yet she is held up in such high regard by all ponies and especially by Twilight.

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

It must have devastated RD to see her hero try to Sabatage her career.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

yeah, I'm not a big fan of the wonderbolts at this point due to their actions.
I know it won't happen, but I'd like for Dash to end up deciding that, though it was a good goal and fun, being a wonderbolt wasn't for her and she'd want to do something else with her life, Like trying to be like daring do as an adventurer, or starting up her own flight team instead.

 

It feels like Rainbow Dash has already far surpassed her "idols." She's the only pony who can perform a sonic rainboom (and by now she can do it on command),

I hate to say it, but the sonic rainbow is "so season 1". It seemed impressive back then, but its all she's really done and she hasn't continued building on that accomplishment much.
Compare for example how twilight constantly showed more and more spells and achievements after Boast busters to show she wasn't a one trick pony. Dash really just seems like a one hit wonder at this point honestly.

[Melon Blitz 423]

I hate to say it, but the sonic rainbow is "so season 1". It seemed impressive back then, but its all she's really done and she hasn't continued building on that accomplishment much.

Compare for example how twilight constantly showed more and more spells and achievements after Boast busters to show she wasn't a one trick pony. Dash really just seems like a one hit wonder at this point honestly.

it's not that it's impressive, it's the fact that she's the only pegasus that can do it in all of equestria. It's not her moves or tricks that make her superior. She's just far more skilled at pretty much everything that has to do with flying than everyone else.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

it's not that it's impressive, it's the fact that she's the only pegasus that can do it in all of equestria. It's not her moves or tricks that make her superior. She's just far more skilled at pretty much everything that has to do with flying than everyone else.

 

but All a sonic rainboom is is Flying really fast with a rainbow occuring, which seems to come more from her color than anything. I mean, twilight did a similar looking thing with that star explosion during her trick in S4 and no one's saying she's the best flyer ever.

 

 

You can't just point to one accomplishment to say you're the best, you need to show a full repetoire of good moves and abilities. Dash herself admitted she's not as good as windrider and Lightning dust was equal if not better than dash in WA. Plus, Dash's Wing power score wasn't dramatically higher in Hurricane fluttershy, at least not enough to declare her the best flyer in equestria-- it was only a few notches above the other ponyville ponies, good but not especially inspiring.

[Melon Blitz 423]

but All a sonic rainboom is is Flying really fast with a rainbow occuring, which seems to come more from her color than anything. I mean, twilight did a similar looking thing with that star explosion during her trick in S4 and no one's saying she's the best flyer ever.

 

 

You can't just point to one accomplishment to say you're the best, you need to show a full repetoire of good moves and abilities. Dash herself admitted she's not as good as windrider and Lightning dust was equal if not better than dash in WA. Plus, Dash's Wing power score wasn't dramatically higher in Hurricane fluttershy, at least not enough to declare her the best flyer in equestria-- it was only a few notches above the other ponyville ponies, good but not especially inspiring.

Lol wat, I never said she was the best because of the sonic rainboom alone. I listed like 6 things in the original post as to why she was the best. Did you even read it? XD I feel like youre just trying to find things to argue about now.

[Megas 27,630]

but All a sonic rainboom is is Flying really fast with a rainbow occuring, which seems to come more from her color than anything. I mean, twilight did a similar looking thing with that star explosion during her trick in S4 and no one's saying she's the best flyer ever.

 

 

You can't just point to one accomplishment to say you're the best, you need to show a full repetoire of good moves and abilities. Dash herself admitted she's not as good as windrider and Lightning dust was equal if not better than dash in WA. Plus, Dash's Wing power score wasn't dramatically higher in Hurricane fluttershy, at least not enough to declare her the best flyer in equestria-- it was only a few notches above the other ponyville ponies, good but not especially inspiring.

The Sonic Rainboom is Rainbow Dash's signature technique, not her only one. Like how speed is her signature attribute, but she's capable of other things

 

In the past she's shared her knowledge of techniques she's seen, known and performed herself. It's not like she's John Cena or anything

Edited September 22, 2015 by Kamina

[Buck Testa 5,505]

She just needs to ditch the wonderbolts and be shipped with Go on adventures with Daring Do, whom actually is what the stories claim her to be. 

 

[Singe 2,111]

I understand that Pegasus are going to appear more reckless than others because their environment is the open sky with fluffy soft clouds and they are trained to fly. One real example of recklessness being an issue is when Earth Ponies and Unicorns are involved like when that hot air balloon popped up out of no where..

 

Lightning Dust gets flak for what she's done, but really where else would it be acceptable for her to discover and learn her own limitations. The Wonderbolts Academy was a specially designated environment to train Pegasus away from non-flyers, so they can push themselves and see if they can handle it.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Singe

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I think if Rainbow Dash joined the Wonderbolts she'd set them on the right path since it's been shown they sometimes seem to lack what Rainbow Dash shows.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

I've reached the point where I fully expect the Wonderbolts to get shown up, and almost maliciously enjoy it when it happens. Really though, it's past time for some progress to be made with Dash's whole Wonderbolt storyline. She felt fully ready to join em' at the end of Wonderbolts Academy, and by now it feels like she's a better person and flyer than anybody on the team. So whether it's joining them and reforming the organization, starting her own team with Gilda, or something else, the writers should figure out where they're going with this and commit. It's only going to get more awkward if nothing changes.

 

I mean, I'm sure I could find some way to enjoy Rainbow Dash Teaches Spitfire a Lesson, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back but I'd prefer if the writers tried something new.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

I could accept the wonderbolts if they introduced some other higher ups than Spitfire that run the organization, in at least a organizational style if not actively flying themselves, to show that there are far more competent and nice/intelligent ponies than spitfire and Fleetfoot in charge.

 

 

The thing is though, for all intents and purposes spitfire seems to be the head honcho, and that's really low of a bar.