Why am I the Only Member of Lightning Dust's Fanclub?

[CHAOS_FANTAZY 42]

I know this is an entire season ago and probably completely off topic, but I wanted to discuss it with a large group of people.

 

It seems like I am the only one who would be so bold as to say he likes Lightning Dust, from Wonderbolt Academy.  Even amongst my circles of bronies whom I am close friends with, they seem to be indifferent towards her, whereas I'm pretty sure everyone else in the brony community almost instantly decided they hated her.

 

What are you talking about, CHAOS?  Plenty of people like Lightning Dust!

Not from my perspective.  As aforementioned, every person I've talked to on the matter have opinions that range from "indifferent" to "seething hatred."  I seem to be the only person who likes her, let alone wants her to come back.  Another handy scale I find in this fandom is to gauge something's popularity by how much fanart it gets.  I'm pretty sure Lightning Dust is second only to Prince Blueblood in terms of having the fewest pictures of her drawn by fans.  Yep—I'm pretty sure there are more Diamond Tiara pictures than there are Lightning Dust pictures.  There aren't enough words in the English language to describe how sad that makes me.

 

Most people seem to say just about the same thing about why they don't like Lightning Dust, and, to be honest, I'm really not seeing what makes her a bad character.  So anyway, I thought I'd open up this topic to see why so many people don't like her (Or to be proven wrong and find that I am not the sole member of her fanclub, which would be lovely).

 

Discuss.

[jackleapp81 456]

I don't like her. She's reckless, inconsiderate, and she's willing to put other pony's lives at risk for her own satisfaction. Definitely not somepony I'd like to know.

[Deesinn 393]

I agree, I don't like how she's designed aesthetically, but her attitude is perfectly fine.  She's simply very confident and demands the very best for herself.  Although this kind of thing can be self-destructive and harm the ponies around you, especially when you become so self-absorbed that it effects your ability to empathize, that's her own choice at the end of the day, and other ponies can choose weather or not they want to be around her. 

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

I'm a Rarity fan over every other pony in existence, but I'll join the Lightning Dust fanclub

 

She was a damn good foil with personality that didn't fuck with my best pony on a personal level 

 

I can appreciate that.

Edited January 28, 2014 by ghostfacekiller39

[Moniker 93]

It may seem like a bad opinion but, I will like you to know she isn't my least favorite character.

 

She's a cocky jerk more so than Rainbow Dash. Unlike her, she was given a cardboard-copy personality to Rainbow Dash and Spitfire. And Spit has an ever-changing personality. Not to say she's the worst pony ever, that depends on the person. Maybe she's the worst, maybe she's not. But, she's just above middle-ground for me. With such a copied personality it's hard to feel bad for her but, I did. I can see her coming back to Rainbow Dash and apologizing for her misdeeds but, that's just me. She is a great rival to Rainbow. And over all is ONE of my favorite antagonists, or able to be redeemed ponies.  

[Megas 27,928]

I wasn't aware that there was a Lightning Dust fanclub(or remember one), but I'll gladly join. IMO, she was one of the better antagonist, still has a lot of potential and has one of my favorite designs

[FNGRpony 658]

Well i'm team bad guy,

what do you mean the only one?

she's criminally underated.

[hawkflame 3,310]

She's basically Rainbow Dash without the redeeming qualities.  And considering that Dash's personality and bravado bug me enough that she's near the bottom of my ranking for the Mane Six in spite of those redeeming qualities, I have no interest in LD as a character. 

 

Rainbow Dash - loyalty - any character growth + a dangerous sense of recklessness = Lightning Dust.

[Scootalove 10,689]

I like Lightning Dust, similar to Rainbow Dash but with the opposite qualities and the complete opposite of Rainbow Dash in every way. She is one of my favorite antagonists in the show though.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

As people said above, she's reckless and doesn't care about who she puts at risk just so she could make herself look good. I like her as an antagonist, and makes a good "false friend". 

[Asternose 30]

I'm not quite a fan of her, but I think she would have an interesting back story. Maybe she had a reason for being so reckless...maybe it was a huge dream for hers as well to impress the Wonderbolts, and she just went about it the wrong way. I think she was a nice mare who made a few mistakes

[Metemponychosis 1,262]

I like her as a character. Like Discord, for example.

I mean, she is a foil to Rainbow Dash and I'd rather it had been her in Rainbow Falls.

 

But, like Discord, while I like her as a character, I'd be disgusted by her if I lived in the same universe as her.

 

Am I making sense?

[King Sejong 859]

   I am part of the Lightning Dust fan club, I think she is an interesting character, who may have an interesting back story, and she was not a villain, an antagonist possibly, but she was too ambitious in pursuing her goals, personally I know too many people in real life, that were just as reckless with their and some else's career. Lightning Dust is misunderstood, like Discord or Trixie, and they had redemption, Discord is now a regular character, and I would like to see Trixie back, the same for Lightning Dust, perhaps she needs some friends to keep her grounded, like Rainbow Dash has her friends to keep humble yet exalted, so for anyone who would not mind seeing Lightning Dust again, have some sympathy for her and wish the best for her, Lightning Dust can be a wonderful character if we give her a chance.     

Edited January 30, 2014 by Emperor Peter

[PoisonClaw 8,171]

Maybe it's because she was shown to feel absolutely no remorse for her actions? She injured her fellow recruits, damaged property and could have potential killed five innocent civilians and her response is "Yeah, who cares about that? Did you see how awesome I looked and made all those pathetic losers look?" 

 

To name a trope, she's basically an extreme flanderization/caricature of Dash, removing anything good about her and filling in the holes by taking her ego and drive to win and cranking it up to 11. All she cares about is making herself look good, damn the consequences. Lightning Dust is the only character from this show I can say I truly hate, and that's coming from someone who has a soft spot for Blueblood and Diamond Tiara! 

[CHAOS_FANTAZY 42]

Alright, so that's a little verification for the textbooks.  It would seem I am correct in assuming everyone who dislikes Lightning Dust dislikes her for the same reason (And, interestingly, it seems most of her supporters like her for the same reason, too).

 

About the whole "fanclub" thing—it may or may not be common knowledge that I'm (Relatively) new here, and I assumed that "fanclub" topics were mostly to discuss the pony for which they were made, and why you like that pony so much.  Indeed, I, too, have never seen a Lightning Dust Fanclub topic; but I didn't search very hard.

 

I don't know why anyone would ever have a soft spot for Diamond, let alone Blueblood, but that's not what the topic is about.  I guess this can be repurposed to a generic Fanclub Topic now?

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

Considering that I made a thread called "The Lightning Dust Fan Club" several months ago, I think it's safe to say you're not alone . @Stellafera likes her quite a bit too. I'm up for a Lightning Dust discussion thread.

 

When talking about Lightning Dust, I hear a lot of people say that she's Dash without any of the qualities that make her great. And that's true, but only to an extent. I feel that it's often overlooked that Dust does have a very good trait, in how far she's willing to push herself to achieve her goals. She willingly pushes herself as far as she can possibly go just for the sake of getting better. That's fantastic, and she does that even better than Rainbow Dash. When that becomes a problem is that she'll let nothing stop her from doing her best, even the health and basic safety of other people, which is why she got canned. I do think it's important to recognize though that however messed up her attitude towards others is, it all starts off with a trait that's actually really good in moderation.

 

Overall, Dust is maybe my sixth favorite character or so, and I really liked how she helped show that Dash is willing to put her principles above her dreams. I hope she comes back this season or next, since I feel that the ending of Wonderbolt Academy left her with loads of room to grow. It'd be a shame to not do anything with it.

[Ianpiersonjdavis 513]

I like love Lightning Dust!

 

In fact, I was hoping that either she or Gilda would make a reappearance in Rainbow Falls.

 

She made a great rival for Rainbow Dash and there's still a lot potential for her character. 

Edited January 30, 2014 by TimeLordRainbowDash

[Jokuc 8,174]

No. nonono.

 

I don't like her at all. She is a meanie who put other ponies in danger so she can win... The way she acted in the wonderbolts academy made me dislike her directly

[RED20 289]

She was cool at first, then a total butt. Pretty much anti-RD

 

I don't really buy that she was "Rainbow Dash from season 1" though. 

[FNGRpony 658]

Lightning Dust played off of Rainbow Dash VERY well.

 

I like her design, too.

 

However, I don't like her.

She really represents Rainbow's old personality and that is annoying and disgusting.

 

I already don't like RainbowDash, so seeing another character act just like her made me mad.

 

I'd love to see a character represent the old twilight show up.

Imagine a pinkie character that never discovered the joy of parties?

[zev_zev The outcast 415]

I don't love her very much, but I also don't have anything against her. I'll say "I like her" But I admit that Lighting Dust it's the embodiment of all the bad qualities of character Rainbow Dash. It's like if Rainbow Dash would be more "Rainbow Dashed" than she really is. Rainbow proved to us (and to her haters) that she's better, and she's more kind than it looks like, especially in comparing with Lighting Dust. Simply - Lighting Dust was created for showing that Rainbow isn't so selfish as we usually thought. So we can't judge Lighting Dust. By the way I like her name. Best name for one-episode-character. Lighting Dust... Yeah.

Edited January 30, 2014 by zev_zev

[Malinter 3,064]

To be a fan of lightning dust is basically being a fan of season 1 Rainbow Dash.

[Burning Question 69]

She's little, self centered bi*** who don't know when to stop doing... whatever she's doing and when to apologize and admit she did something wrong. I really have nothing against her thinking she's better than others cause obviously- when it comes to flying- she IS. But she's acting horribly about it and THIS is very very bad about her. She has no empathy and don't treat others well even if they're trying their best.

[~Silver Essence~ 2,625]

Lightning dust is like the chaotically enhanced version of RD, just without the good qualities that would make her liked.

 

I do like her though, just like susnet shimmer, despite their negative and stupid qualities, I enjoy their spotlight for the moment.

[Naive Wolf Josh 93]

Hey, I like her, at least as an antagonist.  I can't wait to see her return as they're are so many potential plots that branch off from her departure from Wonderbolt's Academy.  She could very well be the next Trixie.