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File: 141200936484.png (54.12 KB, 320x180, 320px-No_issues_with_Applejack…)

What's up with people and Season 2 Rainbow Dash? Anonymous 36779655

I know that this may be a bit on the controversial side but I am genuinely curious, especially since it's something that's come up in EQG 2 discussions.

I know that many people, particularly fans of RD did not like the way she was portrayed in season two. As someone who didn't really start to warm up to RD until about the end of season two this has often confused me, because I honestly didn't find her behavior all that different from how she behaved in season one. The only major difference I could perceive was that she was called out on her behavior more often in season two then in season one.

Is there something that I'm missing about how she is different going from season one to two, or is it just a case of people just plan old not liking the episodes she stared in, or is it something else entirely?

36779659

Im not sure, people preobably remember stuff like mare do well and stuff.
so they think rainbow dash will say line like "fuck evverybody, im awesome and thats the only thing that matter"
"twilight, i know you feel so much pain for that knife on your back, but thank to me you are now in the hospital. in 10 second flat, im so awesome isnt it?"

Rainbow dash hasnt been in my priorities ponies most of the time.
i wasnt a fan of pinkie, fluttershy and pinkie pie.
and i was most inclined for applejack, twilight and rarity....

now a days i dont know how to feel about twilight. because most of what she does now is cry about herself thinking she is lame, pull off stuff out of her ass, and then succedding. and that is what have done over this last seasons. oh yea, and she got the title of disney princess.

NostalgiaSchmaltz!jdKt6Dif02 36779660

File: 141201099205.png (335.25 KB, 529x585, shahrukh14.png)

She was noticeably more jock-ish and generally douchey in both of her focus episodes.

In S1, she was mostly just an edgy tomboy, but in S2 she was more of a douchey jock.

Even my mother, who doesn't watched the show, ended up watching MTBPW one time, and commented that "the rainbow one isn't very nice".

It certainly didn't help that MMDW was so terrible.

But as always, it boils down to >opinions. I see a very clear difference between S1 Pinkie and S4 Pinkie, while others claim that she hasn't changed at all.

Last edited at Mon, Sep 29th, 2014 10:17

Anonymous 36779662

Roughly translated from the Gospel According to Foxx0rz:

Mare Do Well is not how Dash is supposed to be...she's supposed to be self-empowered but this episode makes her overly reliant on external validation. Thus it makes her lose what many of her fans like most about her. And while she may be self-centered, she would never be SO self-centered to the point where she prolongs a dangerous situation just so she can milk the crowd, because, well, that's just despicable, no matter which character is doing it.

May the Best Pet Win is generally okay but makes fans wary because of the overuse of the words "awesome" and "cool", which aren't necessarily bad, but because they're repeated so much it suggests Flanderization (compared to season 1 Dash), and leads into the concerns about...

Read It and Weep shows Dash in a rather pathetic state. Once again she's obsessing over what other people think of her, she doesn't want her friends to think she's an "egghead". But before that, she can't even be okay with acknowledging it herself. It's the same "I have to be cool" thing from Best Pet but far worse, and it seems to conflict with the scene where she had absolutely no problem cuddling an adorable parasprite.

Beyond that, my own problem with Read It is when Dash fakes injury to get back in the hospital, because somehow she figures that looking frail and weak is preferable to being caught reading. It makes no sense, because she cares about flying more than anything else, and if she's really so concerned about her image, she'd realize that faking injury does MORE to damage her reputation as a flyer than reading does, not to mention the damage to her DIGNITY.

(As a small note, the off-stage scenes in Hearth's Warming Eve are the same problem as Mare Do Well, but even more removed from reality. It's ACTING you idiot, nobody cares that you're Rainbow Dash, and your character isn't even supposed to be liked.)

As to why you started to like her at the end of season 2, that would make sense considering Dash fans love Hurricane Fluttershy; it's regarded as "the best Dash episode of the season".

NostalgiaSchmaltz!jdKt6Dif02 36779665

File: 141201463582.png (522.52 KB, 635x645, shahrukh37.png)

>>36779662
>Dash fans love Hurricane Fluttershy; it's regarded as "the best Dash episode of the season"

Just like TLR being the best Dərpy episode?

Anonymous 36779671

I feel like most of it stems from MMDW. Honestly I'm almost certain people wouldn't hate S2 Dash so much if they didn't have the episode

NostalgiaSchmaltz!jdKt6Dif02 36779677

File: 141201670414.png (766.69 KB, 814x789, You got me.png)

>>36779671
MMDW was a horrible episode, yes, but not the only instance of bad RD characterization.

Anonymous 36779688

>>36779665
Y-yes. :(
Like that.

Anonymous 36779696

>In S1, she was mostly just an edgy tomboy, but in S2 she was more of a douchey jock.

I don't know. Fall Weather Friends seems to suggest otherwise.

>It certainly didn't help that MMDW was so terrible.
>Mare Do Well is not how Dash is supposed to be.
>I feel like most of it stems from MMDW.

While MMDW was a terrible terrible episode, I actually don't think RD was characterized as badly as people think. Yes she was being self-centered, and an obnoxious braggart, but she had behaved similarly in Season One. Not to mention that she was genuinely heroic and self-less in the beginning, arguably (and I do mean arguably) the only character who acted self-less in the episode. I will admit that her characterization was some what in consist within the episode, especially when you compare the end of the episode to the rest of it.

DemonioBlanco 36779697

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>>36779665
And for the worst ammount of circunstances
Dərpy's name is ban forever on anything.

Even if they start selling for adult merchandise rated R media. and plain gore pony porn, they would avoid using the name dərpy.

Last edited at Mon, Sep 29th, 2014 13:08

NostalgiaSchmaltz!jdKt6Dif02 36779698

File: 141202154101.png (171.85 KB, 393x411, You know.png)

>>36779696
>Fall Weather Friends seems to suggest otherwise.

Both AJ and RD were being really antagonistic and competitive. As Celestia stated out, "it's easy to get swept up in the spirit of competition" or something like that.

Anonymous 36779722

>>36779698

Well yeah, but between RD mentioning how she hated losing and how worked up she got over losing to one of her best friends her reactions towards Mare Do Well shouldn't seem that weird or outlandish to people.

NostalgiaSchmaltz!jdKt6Dif02 36779723

File: 141203210803.png (251.13 KB, 414x462, sunil58.png)

>>36779722
There's a bit of a difference between "hating losing" and "striving to be the center of attention and praise, even when it means risking the lives of others".

Though it wasn't so much RD as it was the rest of the episode. And the other 5 being complete douches as well.

Anonymous 36779750

>>36779723
I suppose that's true, I guess I just saw her actions in MMDW as her feeling she was in a competition with Mare Do Well, which she kind of was. From that view I find it easy to connect her hate of losing with her behavior there.

Though I agree that the surrounding episode was worse then RD herself.

Unlikeable Pony (element of being banned. again) 36779756

File: 141204553000.png (827.42 KB, 724x1024, RD_equest.png)

She has an overfocus on being awesome and making others love herself basically.

While in season one she was not one to hate praise, she was about building herself up first and foremost: Her character was about being a dream seeker, becoming the best there was at what she loved in Life: Flying with a desire to become the best wonderbolt ever.


But in season 2, this part of her dissapeared until Hurricane fluttershy. Basically, when you have her desire to be "Awesome" without a mitigating reason for her to be trying to succeed (her life dream), she doesn't come off sympathetically, she just comes off as a douche.


Basically, think of it this way: It'd be like if Naruto screamed that he was going to be Awesome, instead of saying that he wanted to be the Hokage, and trying to improve himself as a ninja just to Make others praise him as a person rather than as a ninja.



Anyways, this is a BIG reason why she's coming off as season 2 dash in Equestria girls. Without a Goal that she's applying herself to, her Attempts to grandstand are just coming off as Ego, its not like she's trying to turn the band into a career and that's why she's trying so hard, she's just being an attention horse.

Anonymous 36779794

>Basically, when you have her desire to be "Awesome" without a mitigating reason for her to be trying to succeed (her life dream), she doesn't come off sympathetically, she just comes off as a douche.

You know, that does make sense.

Mind you, I would argue that there were episodes in season one where she was just looking for glory/attention for no reason except ego. But when you put it that it does allow me to understand why people like her in one season and not the other better.

Thank you.

Anonymous 36779912

Am I the only one to truly enjoy Rainbows' progressive narcissism in MDW? It was pretty obvious that all of that fame and glory were getting to her head, but that's a side effect from being a gifted, ambitious go getter like Dash. It was only a matter of time before she went on an ego trip. The thing that bother me about MDW, however, was the poor execution of the morals. Her friends looked like total hypocrites.

Anonymous 36779913

>>36779912
It was also poor execution of getting Rainbow Dash to the ego trip in a believable way. I think the concept of the episode could have worked if it didn't make it look like the ego trip was so...NATURAL. It gives you the impression that Rainbow is constantly on the verge of doing that.

Think about if someone watching FiM for the first time, and they happen to start with that episode. They'll get a very wrong impression of what Rainbow is usually like. There is no episode that gives the same treatment to any other character (except Spike episodes, but even I don't know what he's supposed to be like at this point).

First episode is Putting Your Hoof Down? "Oh so Fluttershy is usually quiet, timid, and probably nice, and likes animals. But in this episode she goes on a power trip."
First episode is Rarity Takes Manehattan? "Rarity is usually giving and compassionate, but here she acts like a bitch."
First episode is Mare Do Well? "Wow, Rainbow Dash is a huge asshole and an idiot. Glad she learned her fucking lesson."

Anonymous 36779914

>>36779913
Well, the concept of Rainbow Dash going on a total ego trip is inevitable, given the moral-centered episode format, but you do have a point. Endangering the lives of citizens to boost your own ego is a sign of a sociopath, something the writers want to avoid.

Anonymous 36779917

>>36779914
Right, and before anyone mentions Lesson Zero, I'd like to point out that the writers probably want Twilight to look like just a liiiiiiitle bit of a sociopath, sometimes.

Nº 441 !fOINzMA0KU 36779918

>>36779917
I miss when Twilight was allowed to be a bit of a Socipath. It's what made her my favorite member of the Mane Six.

Anonymous 36779920

>>36779917
So why can't the same be said about how the writers want Dash to looks like?

Nº 441 !fOINzMA0KU 36779922

>>36779920
The difference was that in all the instances where the Mane Six were assholes, there was a fair reason as to why they did dickish things. Rainbow Dash was a egomaniacal bitch for her own sake.

Anonymous 36779959

>First episode is Mare Do Well? "Wow, Rainbow Dash is a huge asshole and an idiot. Glad she learned her fucking lesson."

I would have argued that the beginning of the episode showed RD to actually be quite selfless and genuinely heroic. After all she certainly taken aback by all of the praise initially.

then I remember the cold opening and. . .yeah, not the best first impression.

>>36779918

Are you talking about Lesson Zero? I thought that was kind of dumb actually, or at least the end of that episode was dumb.

Nº 441 !fOINzMA0KU 36779961

File: 141209134057.png (89.56 KB, 300x225, dontchu.png)

>>36779959
Yes, yes I am. I liked Twilight back when she was allowed to be crazy and neurotic, as opposed to nowdays where she's now Miss Goody Good Two Shoes, who is all perfect and crap because Princesses never fail, and all her "neurotic attacks" are so forced and token that they make me wonder why they even bothered at all.

>or at least the end of that episode was dumb.
BITCH YOU CALLING CELESTIA DUMB?

Anonymous 36779964

>>36779961

Twilight's neuroses have always felt forced and token to me. Then again I always preferred her episode one characterization, especially the more casual relationship that she seemed to have with Celestia.

>BITCH YOU CALLING CELESTIA DUMB?

Normally I would not, but she hasn't exactly been a bastion of good decisions starting from. . .well around season two really. It only got worse as it went on.

Anonymous 36779965

File: 141209234392.png (14.19 KB, 864x218, Capture.png)

>>36779959
>I would have argued that the beginning of the episode showed RD to actually be quite selfless and genuinely heroic.
Nope. Even after the cold open, the ridiculous grandstanding was there at all times.

Nº 441 !fOINzMA0KU 36779966

>>36779964
Say it for yourself, I liked the ball of mental issues in Season 2.

>Normally I would not, but she hasn't exactly been a bastion of good decisions starting from. . .well around season two really. It only got worse as it went on.
That's because the writers realized that they had Cadence, they had Luna, and soon they would have Twilight, so they decided "fuck it, nobody cares about this shitty character, so let's stop writing about her".

Anonymous 36779969

>>36779965

But it wasn't getting in the way of actually helping ponies, which was more my point then anything else.

!dmE/Zk0X6M 36780237

>>36779965

All I'm seeing is Rainbow loudly narrating her own actions to nobody in particular. It rather reminds me of the opening to HWE.

- We're going to Canterlot!
- Canterlot!
- Let's talk loudly about nothing for no reason!
- I like to talk quietly.
- I surprised you! I was concealed in Rarity's hideous chapeau!


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