Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life and today, we continue our Rainbow Retrospective as we look at what is easily the best Rainbow Dash episode of the series. I want to do something here, think back to my very first character retrospective when there were only 4 seasons of this show. During that time, I looked at episodes featuring my favorite character, Fluttershy and at that time, I looked at what is undoubtedly the weakest Fluttershy episode, A Bird in the Hoof. Why am I bringing this episode up? Tanks for the Memories is what that episode should have been. Let me quote what I said about that episode there here.
She's dead, honestly, if the episode had ended this way I would've been okay. Especially considering that I recall reading that this episode was originally supposed to deal with the loss of a pet. You mean, you guys actually thought about tackling the concept of death and how it can affect someone, when they lose a loved one. And instead decided to do an episode that was played for laughs. Here it is from the Equestira Daily article, Random Facts From Lauren Faust.Bird in the Hoof was originally conceived as a tug-at-your-heartstrings style episode about losing a pet
WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!!?!?!??!!?!?!?!?!?!? Did you back away from the original idea? Don't even try to hide behind the excuse that you are a children's show. Because one of the greatest children's shows of all time tackled death in a respectful manner. What am I talking about? Sesame Street
Ahem, ignoring some of the overdramatic hyperbole from one of my earlier reviews, we did finally get to an episode that deals with the grief and sadness of loss. There are a few things that made this stand out more what was done with A Bird in the Hoof. There was a sense of sincerity to this episode and most importantly, even when Tank or Dash weren't the main focus of an episode, we saw how much their relationship had developed since May the Best Pet Win. Just look at this adorableness.
Seeing the relationship between these two develop over time helped to make the impact and ending sting that much more for the viewer.
The Plot
If I'm honest, while this is my favorite Dash episode, the plot is in many ways secondary to how the characters are feeling. Mainly, in this case, Rainbow Dash. I'm going to post a video here that kinda goes through what Dash is going through in this episode.
This skit while basic highlights everything that Dashie is going through.
Denial, in her case, this comes when she tries to argue that Fluttershy's book is wrong.
Fluttershy: [giggles] When the weather grows cold and less food is available, many animals hibernate to conserve energy. It's like taking a really long nap during winter, and then they wake up in spring. And see? Even tortoises do it! When the time comes, Tank will leave and dig into the ground.
Tank: [yawns]
Fluttershy: But don't worry. He'll reappear when the spring sun warms the ground back up.
Rainbow Dash: Come on! Tortoises don't hibernate! Somepony put that picture in there as a joke.
Fluttershy: It's not a joke.
Rainbow Dash: Well, then your book must be wrong!
The audience already knows how stubborn Dashie is and this episode reinforces that in a rather heartbreaking way.
Stage two is anger and with Dash that can be viewed by her having a certain trigger word in this episode, hibernate. She tends to go off and get angry at her friends when that word is brought up throughout this episode. Let's do some comparing here, that giraffe has no-one to lay his anger at whereas Dash has been laying her anger at her friends throughout this episode and they take it in stride. They understand, usually better than her what she is going through.
Bargaining, I'm not so sure we see that in this episode as Dash tries to selfishly stop winter from coming for her own benefit. I'm not sure, that can be classified as the same thing but the interesting thing there is while Dashie's act is of a selfish nature, she believes that it's for a good reason. After all, this can be seen with Dash's Grinch face.
The best way I think that this can be viewed is that Dash goes behind the backs of the weather ponies in an attempt to quote-unquote bargain with the weather. Which goes pretty badly. As Dash ends up bringing about a landslide of snow and causes the opposite of what she wanted.
And that brings us to the last two things that Dash goes through, depression and acceptance. Depression comes when Flutters has to tell her oldest friend that her winter is going to be petless and yeah...
And while I've mostly been focusing on Dash here, I wanna bring up Flutters here for a moment as here being upfront with Dash and telling her this shows a growth on her part, where she started to become more willing to speak her mind and tell her friends what they needed to hear. It was around this season that she stopped being so timid and shy. Sure, she still has her moments but she's a lot of braver and more willing to say what needs to be said now. Which is highlighted rather well in this sequence.
For both the Pegasi of the series, this was a great episode. Moving onto acceptance, we see that as Dash at the end of the episode is willing to say the word, hibernate and decides to stay by Tanks' side and read him a bedtime story, so that even if they are apart, she can still be with him.
I apologize for not doing a plot breakdown for this episode but it wouldn't work for this kind of episode and if you want a more informed take on what this episode tackles, I suggest watching Silver Quill's videos on this episode. I'll link to his video about this episode and the grieving process here as it does a better job of conveying my thoughts on what this episode stands for.
Again, this is a bit of a basic take on a rather serious matter but this episode is one of the most important episodes that this show has ever produced. Rainbow Dash's grief is very palpable and real here. She feels her whole world is coming to an end because of having to say goodbye to her friend. And that is what makes this so real. What Rainbow Dash is going through reminds me very much of the song, No One is Alone.
In the sense, that she is facing one of her greatest fears in having to say goodbye to someone that has meant the world to hear and she feels all alone but it's up to her friends to remind that she isn't alone. This is very reminiscent of an interaction that The Baker and Jack have. When The Baker has to tell Jack that, his mother isn't coming back. There is a difference here in that Tank does eventually come back but the sentiment remains the same. Dash had to learn to accept and I won't say move on as that'd be callous to say considering what she's going through but rather that as much as we may not like it, loss is a part of the everyday lives of people. It sucks yeah but there is nothing we can do about it, just the Ninja Turtles who had to see Master Splinter die twice after going back in time in the hopes of preventing his death.
This episode doesn't kill off Tank but we still see the grieving process handled in a beautiful and mature fashion for the young audience that watches this show.
Character
Rainbow Dash voiced by Ashleigh Ball
What can say about Dashie that I haven't in this review? This episode highlights her loyalty, sometimes to a fault in the best and saddest way imaginable. Just thinking about what Dash puts herself through in this episode is enough to make me teary-eyed.
Song
I'll Fly
This... this is the best song that has ever come from the MLP franchise. It's strange but this song makes me think of the music of Wicked with how big and bombastic it can be, while at the same time being heartfelt and doing a fantastic job of both moving the story along as we hear what Dash is planning to do and what's interesting here is that you hear the regret in her voice for what she is about to do but where she is, at this point in the story, she thinks that it's the only option and that brings us to how this song gives us insight to where Dash is in the moment, she has always been a bit brash and this shows it in spades as she goes about in a way that makes sense to her but isn't a good option for anyone, even Tank.
My Final Thoughts
What can I say? Fantastic episode and it's the best Rainbow Dash episode to come out of the series. Join me next time as we look at Rarity Investigates.
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