Review: Rainbow Falls (My Little Pony, Season 4, Episode 10)
Spoiler McSpoilery under the cut.
[Spoiler spoiler, this is a spoiler]
Well. That was a thing, the return of The Pony That Must Not Be Named. I was actually kind of glad to see her, at least in the way she returned. Fluttershy brought her in there like Mighty Mouse: "here I come to save the day!" waving the Ponyville banner, and I guess she's on the team now, since she's in the team photo. I've always liked her as a cute little background pony, and I'm sure they'll leave her unnamed and unvoiced so everyone can enjoy her. It's just that on the day after Ask Princess Molestia went down, the whole thing could be seen as keeping score or something. Anyway, since it's really meant as an Easter Egg surprise, I don't want to talk more about that.
I had mixed feelings about this episode. Why is Pinkie Pie back to random shouting and screaming? Why does Rarity suddenly have such terrible taste? I think she could actually design nice uniforms, not something like tablecloths. Why was Applejack suddenly all about "have some apple pastry, have some more apple pastry?"
I think the premise threw me off. There are no other pegasi in all of Ponyville who can fly in the qualifiers? Really? What happened to everypony in Hurricane Fluttershy? Did Fluttershy actually volunteer to do this? Poor Fluts. I've been sat on like that: it reminds me of when I was at three different Big Ten schools in a row.
And I'm not so nuts about the implied moral: if you're a whole lot better than your friends at something, you should stay with the group. If you get into Harvard, but your friends are all going to Yatsville Community College, you should stay with them. I don't think that was intentional, but you could see it that way. There's nothing wrong with wanting to win. I don't think Twilight should have lectured Dash about how she should stay with her team. I think she should have listened and then said "hm. You have a real dilemma there. Maybe you should go talk to your teammates and see what they think, and I'll support you no matter what." Of course, they couldn't do that, because Fluttershy would immediately have said "oh, of course, Rainbow Dash, what a wonderful chance for you!" I guess Bulk Biceps would have been disappointed, but isn't there an event where his bulk would be an advantage? At least Twilight didn't tell her what to do. And it seems kind of weird for Dash to pull out the "I can't fly" card after dealing with Scootaloo.
The setting was absolutely gorgeous! Nothing to argue with about the pretty. The pretty was pretty. And the funny was very funny. Did you notice all the little horse noises? Those cracked me up. And Griffons! Cool!
The Wonderbolts are such jerks. They never change. I don't think it's the individual ponies: it's the whole organization. HOW many times does Dash need to save their pies or their butts before they quit acting as though they're doing her a favor? Spitfire needs to learn this lesson again, seriously?
I guess you could see Soarin' as the male Cloudsvale version of Coco Pommel. Both of them are used to the idea that other ponies use you or take advantage of you, or that they drop you the second you aren't useful to them. That's not terrible to them; it's the price of being in fashion or in sports. Soarin' saying wistfully that none of his teammates came to see him is pretty sad.
Someone pointed out, and I was wondering about this: the moment they get those rainbow glinting objects is when they teach someone else generosity or loyalty or something, and start passing the magic of friendship around. Maybe that makes it alive, like the Tree of Harmony? Who knows?
Anyhoo, I did enjoy it. It just had a bunch of flaws that threw me off and there are episodes I liked more, but it definitely wasn't bad and there were things I liked.