Newbie Dash: The Most Misleading Episode in All of MLP

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,826]

Ah yes, this episode...this episode where Rainbow Dash flies with the Wonderbolts for the first time...and completely blows it...resulting in her role models...the ones whom she looked up to as a filly to call her that despicable name...Rainbow Crash. But...amidst all of the hurt...Rainbow...doesn’t exactly go the way we want...and the relationship between Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts has quite the bump in the road.

 Let’s take a pause for a moment and examine Rainbow Dash thus far. So...we meet her in season 1 as the ponies are preparing for the Summer Sun Festival. We immediately get that tomboy and brash nature. We also see her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt and wanting to show her stuff. But most of all, it is established that she is the Element of Loyalty. When we meet Scootaloo, we see that she is a big fan of Rainbow Dash. During Mare-Do-Well, we learn more about Rainbow and how she likes to be in the spotlight. This is perhaps one of Rainbow’s biggest traits that could also be a bit of a curse. The reason why it’s a curse? It leads her to becoming a little arrogant and thinking that other ponies are out to steal her thunder, which is why ponies started to ignore her and prefer Mare-Do-Well because she was silent and humble about what she did.

 Another big episode for Rainbow was Wonderbolt Academy. This is where we see her stand up to the Wonderbolts, exemplifying her loyalty for her friends and criticizing the Wonderbolts for promoting recklessness over the safety of others. It was here that the Rainbow Dash taught her own role models a lesson. We see it yet again in Rainbow Falls where the Wonderbolts leave Soarin’ in the hospital and offer Rainbow Dash a sub spot. Again, Rainbow’s loyalty to her beloved Ponyville shines through. It is quite the decision and conflict though, as she wants to train and fly with the Wonderbolts since they are they are her forever role models, but Ponyville is her home. It’s where she met her friends and where everything began for her.

But then we come to “Trade Ya”, where we notice the writers completed backtracking to a part of Rainbow we haven’t seen in a while: her selfish side. In this episode, because of Rainbow’s thirst for the premium Daring Do collectable, this causes her to lose herself and trade away Fluttershy when she didn’t even realize the pony who made the offer knew she would fall for it. It’s backtracking episodes like this that sadly make Rainbow look bad. But buckle up everypony...this is where Newbie Dash comes in.

 As stated before, after the big fluke that Rainbow pulled in her first real flight with The Wonderbolts, Spitfire and Soarin’ bring up the name that forever hurt Rainbow Dash: “Rainbow Crash”. They then go as far as to say to deal with the name and that they had names themselves. Uhm...hello? This is Rainbow Dash we’re speaking about...you know there are things that are sensitive to her…

You see? Right here. This is one of the biggest problems with this episode. Instead of speaking up and being assertive about that name, Rainbow Dash goes out of character, imitating her friends, acting like she is emotionally ok, when really, the pain is almost unbearable. To make matters even worse, she pulls a Lightning Dust and gets Scootaloo involved. Like...really? This isn’t at all the Rainbow Dash we all know. I understand that pain and hurt can drive people to do the craziest of things but...this is just ridiculous.

 Rainbow’s out of character feats are what really destroy this episode and made it become what it is. Rainbow Dash is the Element of Loyalty. She may be a bit brash and arrogant, but in the end, she’ll always be there for her friends. Here, they showed how that dreaded nickname turned her into something else that led her into nearly getting kicked from the Wonderbolts.

Ok ok...I think I’ve gone long enough about Rainbow Dash...let’s focus on the real culprits of the episode...Spitfire and Soarin’. Ok, so we all know about hazing, which is what Rainbow’s actions led her to...cleaning the entire facility and accepting her nickname. But...here’s the thing I said before, she didn’t have to accept her name. She could’ve been assertive and stood up to whatever Spitfire and Soarin were doing. Speaking of which, Spitfire, and Soarin’ had no business ganging up on Rainbow like that...and that leads me to one conclusion: Ignorance.

 The Wonderbolts ignorance has been going on for quite a bit...which...leads to say that this ignorance is…(Sorry I gotta steal this from ya Silver Quill)

Yes...the Wonderbolts have had a string of ignorance since Wonderbolt Academy, when Spitfire promoted Lightning Dust to leader instead of Rainbow because she was “pushing herself more”, when in reality, she was being reckless. Here, in Newbie Dash, Spitfire AND Soarin’ completely ignored Rainbow’s emotional turmoil thus causing things to get worse, and then...the hazing began. And then we get a lesson about standing out vs fitting in when we know that the writers totally screwed up on the episode. There’s no recovery from that mistake.

This is the biggest reason why Newbie Dash is the most misleading episode of FIM...because it fails to address the real problem: realizing the effect of a bad name on a person and thinking you’re using it for their benefit, when in reality, it is tearing them up on the inside. In addition, another possible lesson is along the lines of the “standing out versus fitting in”, is this: “fitting in to stand out...as a team”...which can boil down to...self-control.

In the end, Newbie Dash is unfortunately a sad representation of how society can force you to accept something you don’t want to be, or that has hurt you in the past. Sure people can say “Forget about it! It’s in the past! Man up and deal with it and stop acting like a baby about it!” But that’s ignorance too. Rainbow Dash may continue to lionize The Wonderbolts, but in reality, The Wonderbolts themselves have a lot to learn...and so do we. As a popular saying from Tae Kwon Do says “Because there’s always more to learn...the paper is never full”, we will continue to learn valuable lessons in our lives, and as far as MLP, we hope that the writers will continue to supply us with valuable lessons that we can cherish for a lifetime.

(Image credit goes to Silver Quill)

[Megas 28,358]

This right here was when my love for the show started to plummet

I still can't believe they decided to pull this shit here after 5 years of build up on an episode that completely throws everything in the trash just """""to teach RD a lesson"""""". I refuse to believe they wrote this episode on good intentions, especially after the leaks. It just reeks of the writers actively laughing at the audience for wasting 5 years of their lives on a character arc that ends with them punishing the audience for liking the wrong characters. It's a giant middle finger and nothing more.

[Splashee 28,602]

It would be so fun, if everyone on this forum got together to watch Newbie Dash. Imagine the noise level of disappointed and angry people, you wouldn't be able to hear Rainbow talk

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,826]

10 minutes ago, Splashee® said:

It would be so fun, if everyone on this forum got together to watch Newbie Dash. Imagine the noise level of disappointed and angry people, you wouldn't be able to hear Rainbow talk

Yea, I even did a rewrite on this episode and a follow-through analysis of what could really happen when someone is pushed so far. 

[ExplosionMare 26,567]

I think I’m the only one who liked this episode 

[AppleButt 8,684]

12 minutes ago, ExplosionMare said:

I think I’m the only one who liked this episode 

Well you’re not the only one haha.  I enjoyed it.   I’m not hard to please though. 

[Splashee 28,602]

29 minutes ago, ExplosionMare said:

I think I’m the only one who liked this episode 

It is easy to enjoy seeing Dashie suffer, when you aren't the biggest fan of Rainbow Dash like the rest of the Internet

[ExplosionMare 26,567]

1 hour ago, Splashee® said:

It is easy to enjoy seeing Dashie suffer, when you aren't the biggest fan of Rainbow Dash like the rest of the Internet

Oh my gosh, true!

[Splashee 28,602]

4 minutes ago, ExplosionMare said:

Oh my gosh, true!

While it is weird to see Rainbow Dash being bullied by the group she admires, it also shows she wants to become like them one day, a bully.

I don't like that about Rainbow Dash

[ExplosionMare 26,567]

2 hours ago, Splashee® said:

While it is weird to see Rainbow Dash being bullied by the group she admires, it also shows she wants to become like them one day, a bully.

I don't like that about Rainbow Dash

Reminds me of a Cutie Remark theory where the person said in the timeline where young RD watched Starlight and Twilight fight with the bullies, she may have bonded with them which led her to becoming one of the mean batpony guards

[Splashee 28,602]

11 hours ago, ExplosionMare said:

Reminds me of a Cutie Remark theory where the person said in the timeline where young RD watched Starlight and Twilight fight with the bullies, she may have bonded with them which led her to becoming one of the mean batpony guards

I still think Rainbow is too close to being a bully rather than a friend in these misleading episodes.

Competitiveness and being nice and understanding would be better for Rainbow rather than being an a**h***. I am also thinking about her friendship with Gilda, and her 28 pranks later. And her way to treat Pinkie Pie hiding and lying about her pies 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,826]

2 minutes ago, Splashee® said:

I still think Rainbow is too close to being a bully rather than a friend in these misleading episodes.

Competitiveness and being nice and understanding would be better for Rainbow rather than being an a**h***. I am also thinking about her friendship with Gilda, and her 28 pranks later. And her way to treat Pinkie Pie hiding and lying about her pies 

Everyone has their flaws but in this particular episode, the Wonderbolts seriously needed to be put in their place. Their ignorance has been their biggest flaw. 

[Splashee 28,602]

9 hours ago, C. Thunder Dash said:

the Wonderbolts seriously needed to be put in their place. Their ignorance has been their biggest flaw. 

I would love to watch a break down of there actions from that episode, to fully see what they did wrong.

Remember, a lot of people hated this episode the most because Rainbow Dash (their favorite untouchable pony) got her feeling hurt. But maybe you are right and the Wonderbolts were the fault 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,826]

58 minutes ago, Splashee® said:

I would love to watch a break down of there actions from that episode, to fully see what they did wrong.

Remember, a lot of people hated this episode the most because Rainbow Dash (their favorite untouchable pony) got her feeling hurt. But maybe you are right and the Wonderbolts were the fault 

From the very start. They played off of Rainbow's weakness to being called Rainbow Crash, and because it was like the military, no one could express their true feelings (hence why Rainbow impersonated her friends and pulled the whole Scootaloo fiasco). The Wonderbolts' ignorance is indeed their ultimate fatal flaw, which if the episode had gone another direction, then Rainbow could actually have unloaded hard on them, and I mean unloaded. 

[Will Guide 21,376]

5 minutes ago, C. Thunder Dash said:

From the very start. They played off of Rainbow's weakness to being called Rainbow Crash, and because it was like the military, no one could express their true feelings (hence why Rainbow impersonated her friends and pulled the whole Scootaloo fiasco). The Wonderbolts' ignorance is indeed their ultimate fatal flaw, which if the episode had gone another direction, then Rainbow could actually have unloaded hard on them, and I mean unloaded. 

Which is actually why in the very next episode to feature the Wonderbolts, Parental Guidance, they actually have the Wonderbolts be a lot more praising of Rainbow Dash, especially to her parents for raising one of their best fliers. Not a perfect recovery but at least it was an improvement.

Personally if Rainbow just told them from the very beginning that she doesn't like to be called Rainbow Crash they would have told her right away that they meant it to be a funny nickname because the rest of them had embarrassing nicknames too. Spitfire had the worst. Could have save a lot of trouble. 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,826]

1 minute ago, Will Guide said:

Which is actually why in the very next episode to feature the Wonderbolts, Parental Guidance, they actually have the Wonderbolts be a lot more praising of Rainbow Dash, especially to her parents for raising one of their best fliers. Not a perfect recovery but at least it was an improvement.

Personally if Rainbow just told them from the very beginning that she doesn't like to be called Rainbow Crash they would have told her right away that they meant it to be a funny nickname because the rest of them had embarrassing nicknames too. Spitfire had the worst. Could have save a lot of trouble. 

Well with their attitudes, they'd probably would've told her to get used to it or just suck it up, which reflects their ignorant personalities. Rainbow was pretty traumatized that she was called that by basically her lifelong role-models. 

[Will Guide 21,376]

1 minute ago, C. Thunder Dash said:

Well with their attitudes, they'd probably would've told her to get used to it or just suck it up, which reflects their ignorant personalities. Rainbow was pretty traumatized that she was called that by basically her lifelong role-models. 

Look let's just agree to disagree. The important thing is Rainbow Dash finally got the job she always wanted to do. I finally got to work at Disneyland and it wasn't always 100% of I imagined it to be what with the paperwork and long wait to be put into a better role, but still I made it.

For an better example, when I was a kid in day-care, one of the adult supervisor always used to call me Big Will which I didn't like but you know what it actually grew on me. 

Besides fictional or not,  it should be Rainbow Dash's choice not ours to choose wheter or not she stays with the Wonderbolts or not.

[Miss 6,241]

I really like this episode 

Firstly, in Mare-do-well ponies didn't start to prefer MareDoWell because she was humble, they preferred her because she was actually saving ponies while RD was taking her time, being too arrogant to actually save ponies while MareDoWell, who was humble and silent actually saved every pony. 

So now to "Newbie Dash" 

With scootaloo being involved, that is nowhere near comparable to what Lightning Dust did as all she had to do was kick a cloud that even Scootaloo was more scared for RD than herself. Remember Scootaloo is somewhat familiar with demolition type activites. 

Rainbow Dash isn't out of character. In season 5 with "Tanks for the Memories" RD starts destroying the Weather Factory in order to stop winter. So in this episode all she was trying to do was look awesome and really what she did wasn't that out of range for her to do. This episode doesn't take away her title of "element of loyalty;" I would say this episode actually doesn't really have anything to do with loyalty. 

Rainbow Dash doesn't speak up and I think there is an argument there for that being in her character to actually speak up against her heroes as she has done in episodes prior as you have stated and in general the negatives to worshiping heroes such as Daring Don't and Rarity Investigates. So I would say the tedium with this message is showing. But I would say things are arguably different in this episode: she is a wonderbolt and everypony around her is doing the same thing happily, different pressures, which could arguably be enough to have her keep her mouth shut.

Spitfire and Soarin don't ignore RD's turmoil, they just didn't know about it. Which later on when RD reveals her feelings, they console her. 

The truth about the "rainbow crash" is that the name has a sort of a "ptsd" to it. When she hears it, it brings up bad memories and makes RD want to act out. In other words, it's unhealthy for this to be the case. When the Wonderbolts start calling her that name it's not because she was flying bad, it was because she wasn't paying attention and crashed. It has nothing to do with her flying; however, when she was younger it did have to do with her flying. The point being, Rainbow Dash associated the name with her flying ability but really had nothing to do with it. The name shouldn't have had the affect it did on RD but because of the "PTSD" it did. As we see later all the wonderbolts have nicknames like that and it's no issue, why? Because the wonderbolts are the best flyers ever, which is what is illustrated at the end. The WB's tell RD she the the best flyer they ever had, and she saved equestria many times, and even that they were waiting for a spot to open up so she could join for a long time. 

I'll agree that the episode's moral is a bit misleading. There seems to be two morals in the episode. One being, like you said, "fitting in to stand out" which is exemplified well imo because the WB are a team and as we all see during the performance RD does the whole performance perfectly but wants to showboat in the end because she thinks she sucks, which goes wrong, and thinks it means she is off the team. As we see later she isn't and totally was just having the wrong outlook. I think the episode could've homed in that message a little stronger about working with a team, but either way I think they did well. However, the second moral about the nickname seems to fly under the radar, but I think it's a deep moral that flew under the radar just because it's a deeper, more complex message. It's ignorant to say "man up and deal with it" but it's not ignorant to understand that a name shouldn't have that much power over you that it causes you that much pain and resentment for yourself. The end of the episode has RD overcoming the turmoil that comes along with that name and becoming a better self overall. That moral wasn't the main one as it's too deep, but it was still brought up and I commend the writers for it. 

So in the end I agree the episode is a bit misleading but overall has the one moral that really takes charge and another in the background for those looking for something deeper, almost like one moral for younger viewers and one moral for older viewers. The main moral is strong, but could've been hit a bit harder is what I come out with. 

I will also add that if yall want an episode about a not bottling up your feelings and just coming out with it, there's an episode called "All Bottled Up" where this was the main focus. 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Miss