S02:E08 - The Mysterious Mare Do Well

[BlueEyedPegasus 59]

Big news, y'all!

 

Being that I have an account on fanedit.org, I've had the great pleasure of presenting my experimental edit of this episode on the forums, and at least one user who happens to be a brony thought I did a great job with it. Also, fellow user g1orkatsos, who happens to be a skilled cover artist, agreed to create cover art for my edited version. Check it out:

 

 

 

Pretty cool, huh?

 

 

[BlueEyedPegasus 59]

Major update: check out this trailer I've made!:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5cSZkzTEMg

[Life Giver 1,063]

I just had a feeling the other were up to something with mare do well.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

Quoting from a PM convo I had with somebody

 

Makes sense to me. Ironically for somebody who's grown so much, I get the impression that Rainbow Dash has a pattern of thinking with a fixed mindset. At least when it comes to herself. She'll acknowledge that Fluttershy can do her best and get better, that Scootaloo can grow up and kick ass whether she can fly or not, and all sorts of stuff like that, but when it comes to herself I think she's kind of locked into the mindset of "I'm doing amazing " or "I'm a useless failure ", and she's largely reliant on others' opinions to figure out which she is. Which I think is why Mare Do Well was so confusing for her, because one second everyone's raving about how fantastic she is and the next everything's blown up in her face and she's alone, and it's all happened so fast and she's completely confused about why.

 

I also think this is why she wants to be a Wonderbolt so much, really. It's not about flying at a high level because she can already do that. I think it's mostly because once she has that, she'll always be able to say that she's made it whenever she gets those doubts and starts feeling like a failure. Because nobody tells the Wonderbolts that they're dumbasses who've done stupid junk and need to shape up (Except Rainbow Dash herself of course, but that's why she's already surpassed them )

 

All in all, I think that what happened in this episode was very good for Rainbow Dash. In a generally better received episode, Sonic Rainboom, she got to feel the joy of finally getting the monkey off her back, proving that her greatest accomplishment wasn't just a fluke, and that she was worthy of being a star in her own right. Mare Do Well follows that up pretty nicely by showing her that however nice stardom is, it doesn't last forever and can lead you to do dumb things that you'll regret forever. And I think we see this lesson applied later in another of Merriwether's episodes, Wonderbolt Academy. In maybe her best moment, she showed that when it comes down to it, her integrity and morals are far more important to her than any dreams of glory.

 

Took me a while, but I think Mare Do Well's become one of my favorite S2 and Dash episodes because of this. However convoluted the moral seemed to be to a lot of us, Dash seems to have taken away a valuable lesson about the unfortunate places stardom can take you and has applied it masterfully. Looking forward to seeing her continue to grow, to become less dependent on the opinions of others, and to become more self-confident in a healthy way

[Pastel 7,630]

The weakest episode of the season, the end is so disappointing.

I really wanted that Rainbow Dash had a rival, like Twilight has Trixie as a rival. But this episode doesn't even introduce a new character...

 

The first part is great though and very entertaining, when Rainbow Dash wonders who could that be.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Blobulle

[User07832407840 177]

I was really happy about the ending, because it was unexpected and taught a good lesson. That would just have been dumb, I think, for Mare-do-well to be an actual rival. Like, what would have even been the point of the episode? I guess Rainbow Dash would have still learned that she needs to be humble sometimes, but fans don't want to watch a whole episode of an awesome main character being bested at everything she does, that would just be sad. This way, she still learns the same lesson but remains awesome as ever at the same time, plus they don't have to come up with a reason that Mare-do-well doesn't continue to appear in future episodes saving people from stuff. 

Also, I love how in this episode it seems like the Mane 6 are like the superheroes of Ponyville, just saving people left and right, haha.

[More_Fluttershy 127]

So the opinion on this episode is negative. A lot of people call it the worst of the series. I agree with all of their reasons. However, somehow I kinda like this episode?

[TheJLeeTeam 914]

This was a decent episode. It involves Rainbow Dash being a hero when all of a sudden a mysterious mare shows up and steals fame from Rainbow Dash. I heard this was considered one of the worst if not the worst episode but I don't think so. I honesty don't see what's so bad about it.

[Nerd-Letter 5]

I agree with TheJLeeTeam. I don't see what's so bad about this episode. It's actually one of my favorites, in fact! It had a great story. Yet again, I'm probably biased because I like figuring out who the mysterious person is in stuff like this.   I also loved the references to spiderman. Just oh god. 

[Cloud Strife 928]

I don't really like this episode, but my complaint might come off as rather strange to some - because my complaint is not with Rainbow Dash. In fact, I think she's depicted rather well in The Mysterious Mare Do Well, where I can understand how she feels and it completes her character in a way that it provides substantial evidence to what I suspected of her all along: that she needs other ponies' attention and when she loses it, she doesn't feel all that great about herself. This episode acts as a pretty good character arc wrap up for her, and set in stone a lot of the development that was necessary for her in future episodes, where she has gained a softer disposition.

 

My problem is actually with how the moral is handled, and funnily enough it would've been easy for them to fix. Instead of having the characters directly communicate with Rainbow Dash, they talked behind her back (which they also did in May the Best Pet Win) and then went to sabotage and humiliate her, not to mention being hypocritical while praising themselves. (There have been some arguments in favor of this but honestly it would've been better if they just had not had that scene at all.) All they needed to do to fix this issue was have a scene in which they try to talk some sense to Rainbow Dash, like directly, and she just brushes them off. No, them making faces in the background does not count.

[legionbrony 107]

I don't really like this episode, but my complaint might come off as rather strange to some - because my complaint is not with Rainbow Dash. In fact, I think she's depicted rather well in The Mysterious Mare Do Well, where I can understand how she feels and it completes her character in a way that it provides substantial evidence to what I suspected of her all along: that she needs other ponies' attention and when she loses it, she doesn't feel all that great about herself. This episode acts as a pretty good character arc wrap up for her, and set in stone a lot of the development that was necessary for her in future episodes, where she has gained a softer disposition.

 

My problem is actually with how the moral is handled, and funnily enough it would've been easy for them to fix. Instead of having the characters directly communicate with Rainbow Dash, they talked behind her back (which they also did in May the Best Pet Win) and then went to sabotage and humiliate her, not to mention being hypocritical while praising themselves. (There have been some arguments in favor of this but honestly it would've been better if they just had not had that scene at all.) All they needed to do to fix this issue was have a scene in which they try to talk some sense to Rainbow Dash, like directly, and she just brushes them off. No, them making faces in the background does not count.

I've heard this elsewhere. Honestly I think it is well within Dash's character to brush something like that off, and it can easily be assumed it happened off screen, though I agree it probably should have actually been shown. I make it headcanon because the episode makes more sense that way.

[RainbowTashie 378]

Dashie can brag all she wants  

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

I'm watching Season 2 again and I wanted to see if 'Mare Do Well' would be any better the second time around!

 

It's not.   The whole thing is so flimsy it falls apart in my mind before I can even figure out what happened.

 

Dash's ego is still exaggerated. Even she wouldn't hang around outside her own fan club or delay saving somepony's life to sign one more autograph. The plot is still contrived--are we supposed to believe Ponyville is faced with several life-threatening disasters per day? These things just happen one after another with no context or clear time frame.

 

Dash herself brings up a good point, saying Mare Do Well "somehow knows what's going to happen ahead of time." How do her five friends always know when and how these accidents are going to take place? How is the pony who needs to play MDW always available to do it? Do they just take time off from their jobs and hide from Rainbow Dash while they wait for something bad to happen? Why doesn't anypony except Dash and MDW ever try to help? Since when does Ponyville need a dam? Why is there a downhill road ending in a cliff with no fence or anything? 

 

There are just more unanswered questions at the end. Dash's best friends put on an elaborate, dangerous hoax to deceive her when they could have just got their point across by talking to her. And I just noticed Fluttershy is the only one who doesn't appear at the end of the episode. Why? She was involved in this with everypony else. (Remember the scene where MDW flew? It had to be Shy.) 

 

I'm just going to stop now and move on to 'Sweet and Elite.' 

[YoshiFanGM 50]

I actually enjoyed this episode the first time I saw it, didn't even know it was one of the most "hated" episodes from the season  

Although I kinda agree with others opinions about the episode.

[Alex Z 848]

This episode is a guilty pleasure for me.

[SteveMorison 404]

This episode in a nutshell:

 

[The Second Opinion 270]

It might seem inevitable to get a few of these, but I actually think this is a misunderstood episode. (I just did a whole video on why, in fact.)

[Judgement 445]

You gotta love how Scootaloo thought it was a good idea for nearly 8 ponies to be inside the CMC's fairly-small treehouse. I'm surprised that the treehouse didn't fall down from all that weight.

 

Sorry if I'm not suspending reality, as the treehouse definitely looks bigger on the inside as opposed to the outside, but out of all places, Scootaloo had to bring RainbowDash fanponies into the CMC's treehouse.

 

 

As for the actual content of the episode, I found out pretty quickly that "The mysterious Mare-do-well" was just the rest of her friends posing as a superhero. That is not really that practical. They should have just told RainbowDash that she was being too full of herself. So they go out of their way to make sure she can't be the center of attention. I understand that the writers were just coming up with ideas, but this isn't exactly the best episode of Season 2. I liked it because it kept me entertained, but plot-wise there wasn't that much to it to have a positive impact on the show. If the Mysterious Mare-do-well was Apple bloom and Sweetie Belle, that would have been an excellent twist. I could imagine that they were upset that Scootaloo was using their treehouse for the RainbowDash fanclub and that they would lose a member of the CMC otherwise, so they decided to make RainbowDash seem less-awesome to get their friend back.

[Xenomorphic 362]

Hmmmmmmmmm I think this episode is well OK not good by any means but ok

[Wicked Funky 2,955]

 

I feel like im one of the very few people who really like this epiosde, Though now that i think about it... I only dislike like three episodes

 

Anyway, I really liked this epiosde. And since im pretty slow in the head I didn't get that it was the rest of the mane 6 who were dressed up (Exept for Rarity ). So that set up a pretty intresting little plot twist for me

[FlutterDash4072 189]

Okay, I'm sure it's been posted before, but I don't care. When it comes to MMDW, it can't be posted enough.

 

[JonasDarkmane 19,785]

I didn't really like it, I just did not find it entertaining at all and I found RD to just be plain annoying 

[cider float 2,537]

Saw this again and AWESOME episode as usual. Begin to notice full group episodes can be done right like this!

[FlyingLikeDash 33]

A lot of people hate this episode so i hear. I found it ok. 

[thegamerator10 38]

I feel like I'm the one person on Earth and Nirn who likes this episode.