S07:E07 - Parental Glideance

[Truffles 2,033]

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

I'll admit to having some bias when it comes to how I see the cheerleading for Scootaloo, and for Rainbow done earlier. One part of it is that I've read about how "participation trophy culture", indiscriminately praising kids and trying to shield them from failure or bad feelings, can lead to those kids growing up to be anxious, unwilling to take responsibility, unable to independently motivate themselves, etc. Another part of it is that - having a rather analytical, realistic, and grounded personality - that kind of deliberately hyperbolic praise comes across to me as a little disingenuous, offputting, and unnecessary. My thinking is that Scootaloo obviously isn't the "greatest report giver of all time", so why say that if it isn't true? Why not give praise or compliments that are grounded in reality (e.g., praising the effort that went into it, saying that they thought x, y, and z about the report/presentation were good, or the like)?

I guess I'm more against participation awards from overly doting parents like Rainbow's than such awards from organizations like schools. I kind of pre-date the whole participation award wave, so other than going out and getting ice cream or something after completing a task there wasn't anything like the trophies RD has for doing things like eating an apple. The reason I don't mind if schools do it so much is it didn't take long for my class to figure out things like "honorable mention" or "consolation prize" were pretty much the "loser" awards, so there was still a drive to do better. (At least for those of us who cared.)

Plus it depends on the circumstances, I imagine. If the thing a kid participates in is really, really hard to do, then awarding them for having done nothing other that complete it seems sensible. But giving everyone the same award for writing a report or making a science project that they should be capable of doing without any real difficulty seems wrong and unfair to those kids who really put their heart and soul into it compared to some kid who wrote a few paragraphs or spent 20 minutes on an erupting volcano.

I guess I have to admit Scootaloo's report was pretty easy for her to work on (and in fact was pretty fun for "classwork", lol), so you too have given me some thought as to whether all the kudos should just be for the report. I guess in the end it's all the other stuff that she's done that she deserves being lauded for, and the report was just a convenient place to do it since her cutecenera was a while back now. And that event is the only other time I can think of Rainbow giving her individual praise for having accomplished something. (And only two sentences at that, lol.)

 

On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 6:18 PM, Batbrony said:

Thunderlane's a Wonderbolt - Holy shit, Thunderlane's a Wonderbolt now!  When did this happen?  I don't know, but I don't care, it's just really cool that he's a Wonderbolt now.  I think we'd seen him in the Wonderbolt Reserves before, but based on the one shot of him in the Wonderbolts locker room, in an actual Wonderbolt uniform, not a Reserves uniform, I can only conclude that Thunderlane is now a Wonderbolt.

I have to chuckle considering of what Rainbow Dash thought of him back in the day, calling him "lazy" since he supposedly always tried to get out of doing work. I guess she was an inspiration to him as well to step it up and make a go for the Wonderbolts!

[Batbrony 15,994]

57 minutes ago, Truffles said:

I have to chuckle considering of what Rainbow Dash thought of him back in the day, calling him "lazy" since he supposedly always tried to get out of doing work. I guess she was an inspiration to him as well to step it up and make a go for the Wonderbolts!

Eh, I'm not crazy about that.  I like the Mane 6 doing their thing, but I don't like the idea that any initiative a supporting or background character takes is because of them somehow.  "Slice of Life" is actually a perfect example of how life in Ponyville doesn't really revolve around the Mane 6, so much of the time they're just involved with the particularly crazy stuff while the rest of the town goes about (to the best extent they can) their normal business.  For all we know it was just a lifelong dream of his as well to get into the Wonderbolts, and I'd kinda prefer if that was the case; I mean, we did see him in flashbacks of RD participating in Young Flyers' Competitions, and he joined the Reserves around the same time she did.

[Zel 56]

All in all that was a good episode. Rainbow Dash's parents were cool characters and it has good ideas like the parallel between RD ultra supportive parents and Scootaloo lack of which was a pretty cool concept to showcase. But some things were a bit off in this episode to be truly an excellent episode, mostly how was treated the lesson, the end of the story and the characters at fault. Here Rainbow take all the blame but the episode would have been so much better and clever if it would have shown instead that both sides were in the rigth and in the wrong at the same time.

Of course it's important to tell kids (the target audience) that parents supporting them is a good thing and that shouting at them is not the best solution and in fact being agressive against someone in general is not the best way to treat your problems and explain your feelings but the way the episode was written Rainbow - even if she had her faults in this whole thing - was not the only one who should have learned a lesson.

In fact a lot of scenes in this episodes were indicators that her parents were going too far with their supports : they disrupt a training session of the Wonderbolts with their shoutings, disrupt an autograph session with fans of the Wonderbolt, spoil a Wonderbolt show for every spectators around them with screams and even go as to shoot firework AT the Wonderbolts which was a very dangerous thing to do and could hurt Rainbow or one of her pal. So of course I think that at the end they would have learned what supporting someone is important but that they need to calm down sometimes in order to not kill someone with fireworks for example or even not spoil an event for every pony. In real life a constant support is as bad as no support at all and we shouldn't go in any extrem and I thought that was where they were going to go in this episode.

Instead of that they decided to go with the more mundane and easy lesson to accept support from other no matter how invasive or destructive it is which is a good lesson I guess... but it just could have been more than that... and some scenes in the episodes made me really wonder if the original script for the episode wasn't gonna go in this direction but was change in later part of the production to become what we have now... ^^"

Edited May 25, 2017 by Zel

[Truffles 2,033]

10 hours ago, Batbrony said:

I mean, we did see him in flashbacks of RD participating in Young Flyers' Competitions, and he joined the Reserves around the same time she did.

That's a good point. Maybe all other pegasi are lazy in the eyes of RD whether it's true or not just because she's so focused on winning as was the case with the water spout record.

[Dowlphin 459]

@Zel

Dashie should have told her parents "Hold your horses!". ^^

[Zel 56]

5 hours ago, Dowlphin said:

@Zel

Dashie should have told her parents "Hold your horses!". ^^

But they're ponies 

[bluseymoe 258]

I loved Rainbow Dash's parents. They feel like the only mane 6 parents so far that actually had effort put into them. They actually have personalities. Also Windy Whistles is a cutie.

[Allen 1,371]

I will say this episode is great! 

In my opinion for this episode:

When Scootaloo introduces to Rainbow Dash's parents, she screams out and I say "Stop! You're too annoying!"

Another part is when Rainbow Dash's parents shout and cheer out at their daughter Rainbow Dash (and her fellow Wonderbolts), I say "Stop! You're too annoying and I want you to keep it down!" and Rainbow Dash is annoyed at this as well with her fellow Wonderbolts. Being disappointed at her parents by being too loud, she makes them cry and I say "You can't do that to your parents like that!"

At the later part, her parents is calm now and I will say that's okay when they watch the private Wonderbolt event, they hug each other after the event. The last thing is in school is Scootaloo explains about Rainbow Dash is her inspirational pony in her life and Rainbow Dash along with her parents cheers out at Scootaloo. And it went successful.

[Truffles 2,033]

I do love it when the show gives their characters the "Lesson Zero" crazed look. Spitfire can now say she's joined their ranks, all thanks to a mother's commentary about goggles! XD

[MilkTea 283]

Loved this episode! I hope we get to see Scootaloo's home again sometime...

(I can't believe I just got around to making an account now. I'm still a blank flank, how embarrassing!)

[Adamgreen 1,129]

Such a nice episode. Rainbow Dash's parents are just so loveable! Not to mention too supportive.

It's nice to explore Dash's life on how she became the pony she is.

[Sh Pie 65]

This was a decent episode. Scootaloo had several humorous moments like arriving in Cloudsdale by catapult, her reaction to meeting Rainbow Dash's parents, taking pictures of their reactions and putting absurd items in her hero report including half a sandwich. Rainbow Dash keeping her Wonderbolt job a secret from her parents was understandable and something a lot of people with parents can relate to. There's definitely a moral about parents respecting their kids' wishes even if it means supporting them from afar.

Unfortunately, that moral was downplayed in favor of Rainbow Dash learning that it's better to have oversupportive parents than neglectful, abusive, absent or dead parents. Scootaloo's ambiguous parental situation is likely one of these cases and although there is truth in her words and the moral, I think it would have been mutually beneficial to address both sides of the conflict simultaneously.

Rainbow Dash was right to stand up to her parents but her means were wrong. Instead of lashing out, she should have kept her cool. If she was having problems with parental embarrassment ever since she was a filly, she should have told them sooner instead of pretending everything was fine. How were they to know it was upsetting her if she never spoke out or explained the situation. It was unreasonable to assume they would understand her wishes without communication.

However, their support in the past helped Rainbow Dash become the confident high flying (get it? It's a pegasus pun!) pony she is today, even mundane activities like taking a bath or eating a carrot have helped so some degree of positive reinforcements from parents and even friends can go a long way and that's fine as long as there are spoken, established boundaries to avert conflicts. Someponies are generally apathetic and support their kids whether they like it or not. Those are the ones they should scold when all other means are exhausted. It's a last resort and if it peaceful means can be used to resolve the problem, they should be used.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Sh Pie
grammatical error

[Tropico 225]

i expected so much more from the debut episode of rainbow's parents. i wish it was focused about a completly diferent plot, like her parent being kidnaped by some daring do villan or something idk. i would like them to have a main trait that was more personal, not only "being her daughers fans".  for example fluttershy's parents debut episode was about his brother, but still they showed a bit of variety with their personalities and even hobbies (his father collecting clouds. etc). rainbow's parents felt like a fan fic character.

also i didnt like scotaloo here. she was super annoying, specially when she screamed non-stop. i know this annoying scene was made on purpose, but still was too much to handle xD i laughed with the door with epic sound joke tho, specially the second one xD also at the ending cherrylee mentioning her work had a sandwitch in between lmao

 

Edited June 1, 2017 by Tropico

[GoldenGumdrop 164]

In general I liked the episode and Dashie's parents are much different than I expected! I especially like her father! Scoots was having some major fangirl moments (I've had those, trust me!). I love seeing Cloudsdale and I also loved that Bow installed the angelic sound effects himself! I always like seeing Dashie with the Wonderbolts. Someone pointed out the reactions the other Wonder Bolts gave Dash's parents, and I agree, those were funny! I also liked how Bow was crying over Rainbow becoming a Wonder Bolt! I can understand Rainbow getting upset at her parents showing TOO much support and they were being overbearing like when they cheered her for everything (towel hanging and the like). Coming strictly from a teacher's standpoint, overdoing the encouragement and giving too many rewards is detrimental to children. The whole "participant" reward system was a fad for a while and it shows that children come to expect things rather than earn them.

I got the feeling Dashie appreciated her parents' enthusiasm and support when she really met her goals and accomplishments, but there should have been a talk that they can tone it down at times. After all, her parents said that Dash's show made them embarrassed!. I also have a feeling Dashie talked with her parents before and they ignored her more or less. I agree with a different poster that Scoot took the fangirl thing a little far (the diaper thing did gross me out) and the sandwich in her scrapbook! I like that Scootaloo got a B+ on her report! That is a hard teacher, what was an A report? I did like to see Rainbow Dash and her parents cheering Scootaloo for her report! It was a pretty good episode, but did have some down spots in it.

[ImpctR 155]

Late for the hype train? That's how it is going to be mostly.

 

This episode, is AWESOMEee 5/5 10/10! The best Rainbow Dash episode (ever?)!! Certainly better than any of the past I have seen in the past 2 or 3 seasons!

 

There are few things that annoyed and I will start with them: Just like in the previous episode (forever filly) Rarity's crying was too much. Here, Scootaloo's squeaking  was continuous to the point of being redundant. It once again was exaggerated because we know that he is a big fan of RD but over time shouldn't seeing RD's parents be less of an excitement and some of the things Scootaloo got exited about for nothing? Though seeing some of the trophies of Rainbow was surely in place to be super hyped about. The other thing that was weird and a bit unrealistic is Rainbow's parents were a bit empty minded. They really cared about nothing but being obsessed with Rainbow Dash, I get that but it looks like they were like mesmerized and would do anything they are told if it is even remotely related to RD. It looked a bit unrealistic also the endless crying.

Except for that, everything else was just amazing and seeing in details the story of Rainbow Dash was amazing! Also I like the connection with past episodes when they started retelling the story how she became a Wonderbolt. At first it was weird her parents would not know about her being in the WBA but the explanation that she was  cheered too much by her parents and she probably was let train on her own, thus somehow losing the contact with her parents long enough to hide about being a Wonderbolt works for me. I see a new writer but he did a nice job with the episode. As I said Scootaloo was being a paparazzi and annoying to some extent but I liked that there was a conflict and I don't get that some may frown upon RD's yelling at her parents and Scootaloo. Some would downvote the episode just for that scene, like why? There was plenty of reasoning and I am with RD, she had enough of being ridiculed there was nothing wrong with her reaction! Also the episode presented well enough why she acted that way. and yes it is OK TO FORGET QUICKLY, you expect Scootaloo to remain upset for long because of that?? No, the episode was great, Period.

And now in details what I liked seeing enough to be worth posting in frames:

Scootaloo sling-shooting herself into Cloudsdale was not a bad idea, though I wonder how some sink off the clouds and fall off. This place reminds me a lot about the house of Fluttershy's parents. It's like it was used as a base to show RD's family.

What was that about the sound effect at RD's room of trophies? Not needed but ok. The room looks so shiny, like some treasure room, a shrine to Rainbow, I love it, I like all the shiny objects looks so good. I have to show these two images to come back to how nice the place looks!

 

It is nice to see that the other wonderbolts did not mock at Rainbow Dash for the parents' glideance and seem to have accepted her like that,. Nice effects too:

Edited June 4, 2017 by ImpctR

[Tiny Hoofs 200]

I finally watched this episode last night. Rainbow Dash's parents are so cute!

[Grtxkkyz 387]

It was great to finally see Rainbow's parents in the flesh, but RD being portrayed as the bad guy for angrily yelling at them because of their constant over-doting ways was quite off-putting. She had all the reason to call them out on such behavior, but i do admit she could've been somewhat less furious over it. Also, i liked to see Lightning Dust and Cloud Chaser among others as fillies in that montage. Opens up plenty of possibilities for fanfic writers. So does Scoot's reference to having no support as a younger filly.

[Silver Note 735]

Scoot's fan girling is serious in this episode. 

Also, many fanfics of bronies ruined. 

Acually, I loved the episode. Scootalo (I think I spelled it wrong) was so cute! 

Also, nice too see Rainbow acually has parents!  Also, they're epic parents. 

[Megas 27,052]

On 6/8/2017 at 10:20 AM, Dino-Mario said:

It was great to finally see Rainbow's parents in the flesh, but RD being portrayed as the bad guy for angrily yelling at them because of their constant over-doting ways was quite off-putting. She had all the reason to call them out on such behavior, but i do admit she could've been somewhat less furious over it. 

She kinda was the bad guy though, she let it bottle up, then just completely rips into them and kinda just makes them feel like shit.

The episode at least gives her a chance to make up here at least so it's all good

[dlw 11]

It seems no one got the 'Moana screaming chicken' reference that Scootaloo performed in the beginning.

That was the first thing I thought of.......None of youtube's MLP reactors caught it either.

[Star Petal 215]

Anypony else think that RD's reaction to her parents was justified? 

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

Just now, Star Petal said:

Anypony else think that RD's reaction to her parents was justified? 

Her anger was justified. Yelling at them and implicating disownment because they cheered her for everything were not.

[Thrond 3,257]

15 hours ago, Star Petal said:

Anypony else think that RD's reaction to her parents was justified? 

Maybe not the way she snapped at them, but she had every reason to be annoyed, and her parents should have backed off. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that she's asked them to stop before and they didn't listen. 

[Guest]

Finally got some explanation for Dash's selfish personality. It's kinda cool how they showed that overly caring parents affect their children. It's a pretty good irl example.

[Steel Accord 6,658]

A B+?! Screw you, Cherilee! 

This episode was really good. By this point, I had thought everything about the Mane Six was pretty much "mined" as characters. It appears Scootaloo thought the same thing and nothing knocks a hero of a pedestal quicker than meeting the parents. That blow up she did was really heartbreaking and effective. The pacing with that felt a tad rushed but they only got so much time to an episode. (Hey, alternate universe version of the show were episodes last as long as the likes of GoT, Westworld, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, or what have you. ) And I could really relate actually. I also have super supportive parents whom I love dearly. I thought it was interesting that Rainbow doesn't start the episode hating them, just thinking their praise is overwhelming. Which it can get so at times, to have all that pride and belief placed upon you. It can make one feel a greater sense of expectation.

And I really liked that she apologized at the end and Spitfire was cool with putting on a private show for them. All and all, really great episode.

God, I love coming back to this show after a long break.