Delayed Reaction: Best Episode · 7:30am Oct 3rd, 2015
Me, attempting to keep up with my life all this great new pony content.
What a time to be alive.
Really, I feel spoiled. Rarity Investigates was utterly fantastic. Since several others have already made intelligent comments regarding this episode's great continuity, snazzy music, and overall excellence of characterization, I would like to bring the perspective of an obsessed appreciative Wonderbolts enthusiast to the figurative table.
Perspective:
1) Best Episode has a great premise
As someone who is highly invested in Rainbow Dash's dream of becoming a Wonderbolt, I was excited by this premise alone. Finally-- Dash is queued up to fly with her heroes. She's so close to achieving her dream (and, arguably, does achieve it by the end of this, though I believe she's aiming for a full-time spot in the Wonderbolts' performance squadron and thus isn't quite there yet).
The fact that the episode starts off with Dash being called in as an alternate is huge. From the very first episode of the show, Rainbow's wanted to be a Wonderbolt. We've seen this dream influence her time and time again, whether through attempting to break the water tornado wingspeed record, trying to pull off a difficult stunt for a flight competition, getting excited about a party, showing off at said party, and-- eventually-- taking the beginning steps to actually fulfilling this dream by going to the Academy.
That's probably what I love so much about the show's handling of Dash and the Wonderbolts so far-- it's been a long, drawn-out process. Rainbow wasn't invited to join the team after winning Best Young Flier's and saving the lives of three 'Bolts. She wasn't delivered an invitation on a silver platter after saving Soarin's pie. She wasn't made a Wonderbolt the second she graduated from the Academy, despite her record-breaking.
It's been five seasons and over one hundred episodes since we heard Rainbow Dash first declare her Wonderbolt ambitions. Over one hundred episodes, and only now is she listed as an alternate for a garden party. It's taken years-- both in our world and in Equestria-- for her to even get close to performing with her heroes. And in that time, things have changed. The team itself has lost some of its shine. Dash's heroes have fallen from the pedestals to become ordinary ponies. Though she no longer blindly idolizes the Wonderbolts, her dream of joining the team remains intact. Even better, she's closer than ever to realizing that dream. And it's taken her years to get this close, because it often takes just as long to achieve your dreams in real life.
When Rainbow finally is accepted full-time into the Wonderbolts (which needs to happen, or else I will throw a table), it won't be because she's a fast flier with a cool trick. It won't be because she knows the right ponies. It will be because she's earned it. She will have trekked the long, arduous path of dreamers and emerged victorious-- because even though dreams and ambitions may sometimes seem out of reach, even though they may be difficult to hold on to when the going gets tough, even though they may turn out to be dull and lusterless once they are finally within our grasp, they are worth chasing.
There is a sweeping, grandiose character arc unfolding before us, ladies and gents. And it is magnificent.
But yeah, great premise.
2) Best Episode features Best Pony and the Wonderbuddies
And they act as a team should act. Behold:
Food is important. I nearly got myself demoted over a biscuit, once.
I don't think they're even trying. Their heartbeats are probably coordinated, at this point.
Practice. All day er'ry day.
General confusion because I swear Soarin said Spitfire said her mom was sick sheesh nopony ever tells us what's going on.
This.
This is so important.
I've seen a smattering of people claiming that the Wonderbolts were being jerks, and that jumping to blame Dash for Spitfire's disappearance was wrong (even unforgivable, in the case of one story).
No. Spitfire is a Wonderbolt. She's been a Wonderbolt. Not only that, she's the Captain-- a Grade-A, Category 5 hurricane of authority, talent, and personality. She's flown with these ponies through rain and sun, trained beside them, helped them hone their talents, shared meals with them, performed complex, difficult routines with them countless times-- you name it. Within any close-knit group is a certain sense of camaraderie, of esprit de corps, and the Wonderbolts are no exception. They care for Spitfire, and have every right to be upset/angered over their Captain being sent away right before a show. Not only is this a direct attack on their Captain, it's nearly an act of sabotage.
Wind Rider is a Wonderbolt. He's been a Wonderbolt even longer than Spitfire has (and possibly Soarin, though I still maintain that Lieutenant I-Always-Have-Lines-Under-My-Eyes is older than Spitz and thus ineligible for The Ship That Shall Not Be Docked). The current Wonderbolts have probably walked by trophies emblazoned with Wind Rider's name hundreds of times. Heck, for all we know, Wind Rider might have been Captain before Spitfire, or he might have been their personal trainer for a while-- we don't know the specifics. What we do know is that Wind Rider carries authority not (only) because he holds a sweet record, but because he is a Wonderbolt.
Rainbow Dash is not a Wonderbolt. She is in the Reserves. Yes, she gets to come to Real Wonderbolt Practice (and might even fly in a Real Wonderbolt Show!), but when it comes to intra-squadron relations, she is very much still on the outside of the group dynamic. Is this a horrible feeling for her? Yes. Is it a pleasant situation? No. But it makes complete sense that the Wonderbolts would latch on to Wind Rider's explanation, because Rainbow Dash is the newcomer. Not only that, but she has yet to earn her laurels-- and since she's made no effort at all to hide her dream of being a 'Bolt, she's facing an uphill battle against the team's opinions because they know she is trying to prove herself. They know she wants to be flying beside them, and maybe, just maybe, she wanted Spitfire out of the way (because rivalry).
When you put high-caliber, super-competitive performers in the same playing field, they become rivals. Friendship can sometimes overcome this rivalry so that it's not malicious (just as the rivalry can overtake everything and result in bitter enemies), but most of the time you wind up with semi-acquaintances jockeying for titles. Dash and Spitz are very similar (See: Rainbow Dash's pet speech and Spitfire's Academy speech), and in a real-life situation, it wouldn't be unusual for there to be suspicion and resentment on Spitfire's side and jealousy on Rainbow's.
But I digress. It was good to see the team standing up for Spitfire-- I was afraid that after Rainbow Falls, their group bond wouldn't be portrayed very strongly, and I was pleased to note that this was not the case.
Wing salutes are a thing and all my dreams are coming true.
Oh look, food.
Same.
I actually didn't see that ending coming-- it was a great idea for Wind Rider to be super-possessive of his record, but I was too distracted by Spitfire to pay him much attention. This is mainly because:
3) Best Episode has best shipping material
Yeah, yeah, the Raridash in this one is off the charts. But have you looked at the Dashfire?
Because I sure have.***
There's no such thing as a "lucky Reserve." Someponyyyyy went and specifically picked snickerdoodle here.
Bragging about her favorite cadettie.
Okay, but we go from posing, to slight surprise, to... disappointment? Is Spitfire disappointed that Dash jumped all over Misty Fly instead of her? idk, man. idk.
Oh, yes. It's definitely standard procedure that the newbie gets one of the rooms with the best views. It is also entirely coincidental that someponyyyyy arranged for Spitfire and Dash to be alone in a secluded part of the castle.
BUT WHAT HAPPENED ON THE MOUNTAIN? DON'T MAKE ME WRITE THIS STORY.
Has Spitfire always had this habit of ripping articles of clothing off of ponies, or has it just been since she met Dash?
***I actually friendship it just as hard.
In conclusion:
Everything is Wonderbolts and nothing hurts.
I thought I loved you for writing Daring Doesn't and Records. Now I love you more for loving best episode.
I've seen lots of those myself, and I think I know which story you're referring to. If it's what I think it is, I'll admit I kinda got into a heated argument over that and saw my blood boil. So yeah.
This and the paragraphs that follow put everything into perspective nicely. I'll also admit I thought the same when watching this episode, though trying to defend my point did get rather tiring. I always had a hunch it was because the team cared for Spitfire, and with Rainbow's overly-excited behavior, her recounting her dream, and some of the coincidences, I was under the belief that them blaming Rainbow was understandable given the circumstances. Heck, they even gave her a chance to prove her innocence. Anyway, you put it into words much better than I could.
And now you're making me want to ship ponies.
Anyway, I did enjoy reading your thoughts on the episode, and I feel it does put a nice perspective on what happened and why things went the way they did. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.
WRITE THIS STORY.
As for the Wonderbolts ganging up on Rainbow...It just seemed to me that they could have at least performed some kind of cursory investigation before readying the noose. Suspicious? Sure, and it makes sense they would believe Wind Rider, but I mean c'mon. He even planted evidence for this and they didn't even bother to check? It wouldn't even have really done anything to alter the episode. A 'Bolt runs in with the envelope, they see the hair, Soarin' gives Dash one chance to prove her innocence, Rarity checks the hair, and offers to help investigate, episode goes as normal. 'Bolts would have looked better about the affair (They have hard evidence now, instead of entirely circumstantial evidence), and Soarin' would have looked better for offering Dash the chance. Especially as Soarin' and Spits both have more reason than any of the other 'Bolts to have a soft spot for Dashie here, even without any shipping.
In anycase, it was hardly an episode ruiner for me either way, and this episode ranks as one of my favorites regardless. I didn't notice Spits' disappointed face there near the beginning either. Neat-o! (I ship it. Course I ship everything.)
After all the above you mentioned, looks like Dash might be getting a bit of that camaraderie going on after Wind Rider's nasty plot there.
THAT'S NOT FOOD
THAT'S A PRINCESS
THIS IS HOW RARITY MANAGED TO KNOCK YOU ALL OUT THAT ONE TIME, IS ALL I'M SAYING
EDIT:
wait
celestia usually carries cake
fffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu-
I've been meaning to say something like this, but I could never get the words to work out. This does it pretty darn well.
Ever since Wonderbolts Academy, I've criticized portrayals of the Wonderbolts, how they react to Dash. But you're right, everything in this episode rang true. In WBA, no suggestion was made, even in private, that Dash was anything more than a regular recruit. In Rainbow Falls, they were just plain jerks. Well, Fleetfoot was a jerk; Spitfire was just not being a good captain and going along with her.
But here? They have every reason to suspect her, and a crime like that, it's made very clear, goes completely against the core of "being a Wonderbolt". That's the kind of thing you tread carefully with and don't let a little thing like "she saved my life once" cloud your judgment over.
Thanks to WBA, Spitdash is still a dead ship, so far as I'm concerned. I will take your evidence into consideration, however, that Spitfire wants her snoogy back. :V
This blog pretty much sums up everything I said about the episode.
Honestly, I feel like a lot of Wonderbolt hate comes from a sense of protagonist bias: people want everyone to take notice that Dash is awesome like she claims. But here's the thing, the Wonderbolts don't want or need a maverick who hot dogs it to make herself look good, they need a team player and she's slowly coming to that point. At the Academy, they put her as wing pony because they thought Lightning pushed herself more, but fixed the mistake when evidence was shown that she went too far. At the Falls, it got a little heavy. On one hand, a lot of people forget that Dash is from Cloudsdale originally and would be perfectly eligible to compete for them. Spitfire and Fleetfoot grabbed the most promising recruit for their team as an emergency replacement, like any intelligent leader on a sports team would. The one thing they did wrong was lie to Soarin and Dash. And again, they owned up to their mistakes in the end. In this case, they rightfully suspected foul play and moved to protect one of their own from what they thought was a recruit willing to do "anything" to fly with them. Little did they know, it was one of their legends. And again, they owned it and gave Dash props, even letting her fly with them.
Frankly, the Bolts get a bad rap. It's stupid to demonize them for making mistakes when we see the M6, CMC, etc making their own. Sometimes, our mane girls are even worse (hello, want it need it spell). The important thing is that they own their mistakes and learn from it.
Also, SpitDash is totally an awesome ship. Spitfire's just waiting until Dash makes it so she can't be accused of nepotism when she finally makes her move~
3439172
wait wha
In terms of character, WBA was like the fourth or fifth step to making SpitDash possible in the first place. Every Wonderbolt episode has been a crescendo of Spitfire being given reason to respect Dash on equal terms, with a possible climax point actually being this episode.
SpitDash was only ever dead before the Best Flyer's Competition, mang. The only thing that's ever been half in the way has been that possible-not-possible nepotism issue.
This is good stuff, Farenheit.
On the "Wonderbolts are jerks!" thing, I like the idea that their worse moments (as in Rainbow Falls) may be evidence of a too-strong "winning is the most important thing" attitude that Wind Rider is at least partially responsible for. I, too, think that he would fit in very well as a previous Captain or a chief trainer before his retirement.
3439585 This. Take my green thumb, Bookish. Just take it.
3439585
Nah, she pretty much spent that whole episode ignoring Dash and throwing her under a bus whenever possible. :B
3440200
...Present confirmed for not watching episode endings.
It was good episode. Alaikit alot.
3438906 Awh.
Wonderbolts love for everyone.
3438937
Ehe. Yeahhhhh. First time I've ever genuinely disliked a story.
Yes! I really think this is the case. Considering the fact that Wonderbolts routines undoubtedly require a ton of coordination, timing, and trust, the only way for the group to function successfully is if they're all friends (friendly at the very least, though BFF's is more likely).
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed this, and even more so to hear that you found it put things into perspective! (Also, DON'T RESIST. SHIP THE PONIES.)
3438970
I'M WRITING THIS STORY
Ooh, I agree that having a Wonderbolt find the hair would have solved that situation nicely. As it stands, their evidence was pretty circumstantial, as you said. I imagine that the muttered conversation went, "yo, Rainbow Dash was the only one near Spitfire's room, and I didn't do it, sooooo."
Her face is actually what threw me off for the episode-- I couldn't place it at first, and I was afraid that they were setting it up for Spitfire to have constructed some convoluted plot to keep Dash out of the Wonderbolts because she was jealous/worried that Dash would replace her and thank goodness that the actual plot was so much more parsimonious, sheesh.
YESSSSSS :D
3438986 IT'S FOOD I'M TELLING YOU. FOOD IS THE MOTIVE.
3440553
Yesssssssssssssssss.
3439108 Thanks! I'm glad I was able to (visually) voice what you've been thinking.
3439172
Thank you for noting this Very Important Distinction. A+
I definitely agree with you in regards to the whole "being a Wonderbolt." You're absolutely correct-- if the team suspected self-serving sabotage, they should definitely take it very seriously, regardless of Dash's past contributions.
Also,
Would you like my
dissertationconcise rebuttal to this statement formatted according to APA or MLA guidelines?3439290
Yes
More yes.
Yes you understand; where have you been all my life?
Exactly.
3439623 Thanks, pal! It's funny you bring up a win-at-all-costs attitude; it does seem like the Bolts are focused on results, results, results, with their methods taking a backseat to their objectives.
3440463 Me too. 10/10.
3440666 Florida. :P
A lot of that comes from me playing sports and having family who served. Two grandparents in the marines, one in the Air Force.
Delayed Question: Why is your avatar in a box?
So this episode has by far the most RariDash and DashFire we've seen the entire show, (and Noir sequences,) which is fantabulous beyond belief. But it makes we wonder: Is there any good RariFire around? I don't think I've ever seen that ship before, and a quick search with Fimfiction's tags doesn't turn anything up. One of them kicked the other in the head, surely that's the basis for some kind of relationship?
3440755 Florida? Hey, neighbor! Yeah, having a family member in the service will definitely give you a closer perspective on that.
3440848 My ponysona is in a box because I
recentlymoved off to college! I should probably change it to something Halloween-ish, since that appears to be a thing around here.The Noir scenes were fantastic! I don't recall reading any Rarity/Spitfire shipfics, per se, but I have read something that was almost there-- it was mostly a setup for the two girls to have a conversation about Rarity kicking Spitfire in the head, and provided a chance for the former to apologize. I'll see if I can find it, though it definitely wasn't a romance.
3441001 Ha! I was up there for hockey last year. We played Georgia Tech and Liberty University, if I recall correctly. And yeah, having family in the service does give a lot of perspective, as does having friends enter into it over the years.
God I feel old. I'm only 23 dammit ;-;
3440553
Excelleeeeeent.
3441007 Nice! You played? And feeling old isn't necessarily a bad thing-- I'm getting close to twenty and I still forget I'm technically an adult sometimes.
3441092
3441189 Yeah, I was the goalie. It feels weird saying that I'm in rec leagues now, since I've graduated. Only thing that feels old are my knees in the morning! XD
As The Doctor said, "What's the fun of growing up?" (or something to that effect, I'm too lazy to quote :P
3441189
Getting close to twenty he says.
3441007
23? Youngins.
The lack of a Granny Smith emote makes me sad.
3441324 Um excuse me sir, this is the oldest I have ever been in my entire life.
Food is 110% powerful motivator. Second only to potential shipping.
Also, "#deliver us from hashtags" hahahah
3452855
What is the best way for me to share this blogpost ?
Ok I really like this blog post a tonne and agree with a lot of other comments that you have. The in show reactions, camaraderie and authority displayed seems well played, mostly (the punishment while appropriate seemed given a little too quickly). The too stronk shipping teases, thx (even that light rainbowfire/dashfire i was too busy focused on dashes happy face that I didn't notice spitefire ). I've been primarily an appledash, twidash or dash +2 fan but I'll be damned if raridash didn't make some godly gains.
I'll read that story or should I say the two stories that will likely be the result of best episode.
As for living her dream, I think this technically qualifies her wish to fly with the bolts, whether she got to again or not, even more amazing was the position she got. I did kinda wish we got some color even if just a couple frames for that flower with her coming through it since I think the petals were rainbowed.
My only real disappointed with the ep is that it doesn't seem like any of her other friends got to see her performing. Kinda makes ya look forward to her next show though don't it? Coming in as a reserve and then having to prove her innocence oh the fan references left unsaid of best and loyalist pony lol does given reasonability for her friends non presence at the end.
3476271 In terms of sharing, what ZOMG did was provide a link from his blog post to mine.
I'm glad to hear that you agree! I think the rapid punishment was likely a side effect of having to fit an entire investigation into a twenty-minute episode.
Yeah, it was a bit disappointing that the shot of her and the 'Bolts was in black and white; that would' em been gorgeous if it was colored like you think. And yes! I hadn't even thought of the fact that the rest of her friends weren't there to see her fly— that does make it seem like we'll see her flying with them again, doesn't it?