What Is With Spitfire Being So Out Of Character In Rainbow Falls Episode?

[Shanks 10,816]

As much as I loved Bulk Biceps (I prefer to call him Macho Pony though) and Derpy (especially Derpy) one thing that really got under my skin in the episode Rainbow Falls which just how pathetically out of character Spitfire was. Soarin was his mellow self and since we haven't had any character development for Fleetfoot until then why she acted that way is forgiveable but Spitefire seemed to do a complete 180 in this episode. In all of her other appearances Spitefire was fairly harsh yet fair, a large professional ego but one that is measured. Bascially what I see in Spitfire is a more mature and level headed Rainbow Dash but what I saw in Rainbow Falls was a lying manipulative bitch. She had Soarin fake an injury to get who she thought was a better flier to join her team so she would have a better chance of winning. This is in stark contrast especially to her role in Wonderbolt Academy which while she did indeed have a lapse in judgment by letting LIghtning Dust get away with way too much until Rainbow Dash called her on it she did own up to her and said that Wonderbolts are "not just about pushing yourself hard but about pushing yourself in the right direction."

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

She made Spitfire look bad to protect herself from me.

She knew that she was gonna screw up Rarity, and needed the insurance.

 

(In reality, probably because of her desire to win being so strong, it lead her to being someone that she actually wasn't.)

Edited January 19, 2014 by Champion gfk39

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that. I don't know what the writers are doing with her. Just stick with one personality. 

[FlitterFlutter 1,589]

you know it is interesting that you would bring that up because i saw the same thing. but i think that i saw in subliminally or something because i knew that something was wrong but i did not know what it was.   

[Castle Bleck 19,396]

It's The Mysterious Mare Do Well all over again!

Edited January 19, 2014 by Anti-Villain

[Scootalove 10,689]

That is one of the problems I had with Rainbow Falls, they basically did a complete 180 with Spitfire's character and had her out of character by having her lie to not only Rainbow Dash but Soarin as well just to replace him with a better flier so that her team can qualify for the Equestria Games. Not cool, Corey Powell.

[Malinter 3,064]

well she is off-duty. here she's less strict than in WA but not as relaxed as at the grand galloping gala, she's abit inbetween here.

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

That is one of the problems I had with Rainbow Falls, they basically did a complete 180 with Spitfire's character and had her out of character by having her lie to not only Rainbow Dash but Soarin as well just to replace him with a better flier so that her team can qualify for the Equestria Games. Not cool, Corey Powell.

Powell confirmed for worst writer.

 

Scootalove says it, it must be true.

 

Let's just add Spitfire to the list of characters she's f*cked up in her episodes. I liked Rainbow Falls, but yeahh, Spitfire =/= antagonist.

[Moonlight 7,289]

It just seems like she was way too focused on winning to even care about anything else. I'm definitely not defending it though, that turn of a personality for Spitfire was completely out of nowhere. 

[Spartan 433]

Spitfire is a celeb, so she only cares about herself.. Remember when Soarin said no one visited him? its just goes to show Spitfire doesn't care about anyone else but herself

[Scootalove 10,689]

Powell confirmed for worst writer.

 

Scootalove says it, it must be true.

 

Let's just add Spitfire to the list of characters she's f*cked up in her episodes. I liked Rainbow Falls, but yeahh, Spitfire =/= antagonist.

Very funny, she isn't actually the worst writer I'll give her credit she wrote my favorite episode Sleepless in Ponyville.

 

But, that was a bad decision on her part with the complete 180 of Spitfire's character.

[Hive King 2,001]

We haven't seen much of Spitfire before, from what we've seen this is consistent. 

 

She's obsessed with winning and needs it pointed out to her, she was like that in the LD episode too

[ReverseFaller 2,484]

Spitfire's team consisted of nothing but wonderbolts, and that still wasn't good enough for her? She had to take away Ponyville's best flier just so her team could be slightly better? Don't forget she lied in the process, and didn't even visit Soarin in the hospital.

 

I was never a big spitfire fan before this episode, and this episode hasn't made me become one. Her character kind of annoys me to be honest.

[Hive King 2,001]

To be fair, Spitfire is a lot more likable and sympathetic than certain antagonists *cough* Trixie and Suri *cough*

[Rappy0 338]

If she wasn't mean it would be hard for people to care about Soarin even if it means ruining a characters personality. If she cared about winning so much then maybe she shouldn't be a wonderbolt she should go play a sport, you know something that you can win everytime you play. we've seen footballs so go play that Spitfire. She's the captain, a leader pathetic she was only mean because Corey was trying to get us too care about Soarin.

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

I agree with dragon master. we have obly seen bits of spitfire before the academy episode and the academy episode shows that she wants the best of the best. I think fans are seriously looking into this too deep. when competing, everyone tends to lose focus. Rarity did when she got hwr butterfly wings. dashie did when she became ponyville's celebrity.

 

it happens. relax, peoples

[Nature's Spell 526]

If you consider that the Games an amateur competition, like the Olympics used to be, than the Wonderbolts should never have been allowed to compete since they are professionals. But yeah it was a plot connivence.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Nature's Spell

[BalanceBrony 259]

So, how was she out of character again?

 

There was never any implication in the past that she valued loyalty over winning, at all. In fact, the opposite was shown. She always showed herself to be blind to moral issues when being competitive, and that was corroborated by this episode. I don't get why people say she's out of character here.

 

And even if it were out of character, there's no need to point it out: because it was intentional. Spitfire was intentionally written as an asshole. In this episode we see very clearly the difference between her and Rainbow Dash. That difference is Loyalty. Spitfire did not understand Loyalty until Rainbow Dash showed her its true value. She was written as disloyal purposely, in order to really drive home the message, and to show how far RD has come. It is to show that even Rainbow Dash's heroes now look up to her, instead of the other way around.

 

This is why it's a key episode. Rainbow Dash finally puts it all together and discovers the true meaning of loyalty, and then she teaches others how to live by it. Spitfire awards RD the badge for showing her the true meaning of loyalty, and being a team. She was a dick to begin with, but RD taught her how to stop being a dick, and as a result, the badge was infused with pure Loyalty energy, becoming the second key (Do you really think that the right ponies just happen to be carrying the keys?). That's what I have to say on the matter.

Edited January 20, 2014 by BalanceBrony

[Anadu Kune 668]

Ok which episode were you guys watching where we got to see a big side of Spitfire's personality. In season one she got a few lines and that's about it. Then we got Wonderbolt Academy which showed a harsher in command Spitfire, which makes sense as we had never seen her interactions on duty before. At that point we could start making some statements about her. One was that her personality off duty was different than her personality on duty. That shouldn't come as much of a surprise as many of us have to dawn a bit of a different personality at our occupations. This was also shown in this episode as she did seem more soft spoken and casual.  We can also say that she is competitive in spirit and promotes that spirit in Wonderbolts Academy. She promotes it so heavily and gets so caught up in it and what's good for the Wonderbolts that she fails to see extremely reckless behavior. She can only see the performance of Lightning and Rainbow Dash calling it an excessive but effective tactic. Rainbow has to point out that it was reckless before Spitfire realizes it and concedes the point later. The same is the case here. Spitfire gets caught up in the heat of the competition and makes a bad judgment call. She's so caught up in representing Cloudsdale and doing the best for her team that she doesn't realize what she's doing is wrong. Again Rainbow has to point it out and again She concedes that she was wrong. Her character seems fairly consistent to me.

[Jack Spades 162]

I know. The changelings took her. They're going to take down the militia from the inside to weaken the security so the Changeling king can come. Oh my gosh. This is going to be good.

[LordDiscord 289]

Yeah I feel that the lesson she learned in ''Wonderbolt Academy'' should have stuck with her. I feel as though the entire episode was just revolved around, resurrecting Derpy. While this isn't a bad thing, it still does not excuse why they would have to undo the lessons Spitfire learned just to test Rainbow Dash's element. 

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

I do think that on some level, everyone (including me) was making assumptions about Spitfire before we really got to know her. Not wild and crazy and random ones, but they're proving to be more and more inaccurate as time goes on. We saw the relaxed, confident, sexy, captain of the Wonderbolts and thought that since Dash's big goal was to be a Wonderbolt, that over time she'd start to act more and more mature, more like Spitfire, in our minds. As time has gone on though, it's shown Spitfire as an extremely flawed character and really, not much of a role model at the end of it all. She's not Suri, or Lightning Dust or anyone like that, but she's also been shown to be nobody especially worth admiring either. Both she and Dash have their flaws, and all things considered, I think the Spitfire we saw in Rainbow Falls and Wonderbolt Academy has much more to learn from Rainbow Dash than the other way around.

 

Unless Dash's arc in the show is more related to finding her own greatness and not trying to look up to that of others' (which I wouldn't mind, so long as she doesn't stay a weatherpony) I'm going to need to see a lot better behavior out of the Wonderbolts in the future.

 

However, I will say that nothing in Wonderbolt Academy pointed to her being so manipulative, bitchy, or unnecessarily convoluted in her behavior. I can give some wiggle room for her being seen in different circumstances and not having seen a lot of her, but it does seem out of character to me.

[Bucky McGillyCuddy 956]

People talk about character consistency like every episode is written by the same person. writers don't always cross check with other scripts to make sure personalities are consistent across every episode (I'm sure they at least try with main characters). Character consistency in MLP only seems important to them during the season premier and finale.

[Castle Bleck 19,396]

Spitfire gave no indication she knew about Dust's carelessness, and when RD ultimately reported Dust, Spitfire immediately reprimanded Dust, saying that pushing one's self to their limit is good, but that doing so over basic morality is bad.

 

Yep, definitely OOC here in comparison to then. At least she learned her lesson at the end here, but OOC is still OOC.

[Shift 4,274]

She wanted to win.

 

And the whole 'Changelings took her' idea is so great I might have to write a fanfiction about it.