You're forgetting Faustpony◊.

but my problem was that her reasons for picking Tank were purely circumstantial. He was the only one who stopped to help, because he was the only one who passed her AFTER the avalanche. She admires his tenacity, but that's because he's so useless he pretty much HAS to be in order to function (the other pets weren't pushed to the relative extent that Tank was so we don't know if they aren't as tenacious as him)

edited 20th Nov '11 6:07:55 AM by gingerninja666

Actually, turns out you're right about the avalanche bit.

Still not swayed by your argument, though, to be honest. Sorry.

My argument isn't "Tank didn't deserve to win" it's "Tank didn't deserve to win MORE than the others" yet the episode plays up the latter as such.

You don't have to be mean

edited 20th Nov '11 6:19:15 AM by gingerninja666

MST Mantra

Wait a minute, what? The avalanche had already happened and Dash was already stuck by the time the other pets passed by. Right?

edited 20th Nov '11 6:21:57 AM by BornIn1142

I assure you, I meant that in the nicest way possible. Sorry it came out worse than I meant.

She got hit by the rock just AFTER the others flew past her

Yeah, I know MST Mantra and all that. Maybe it's because of the Foregone Conclusion and that I KNEW she was going to end up with Tank, but I felt VERY little sympathy for the guy (not none, I do have a heart y'know)

edited 20th Nov '11 6:28:02 AM by gingerninja666

I can see what your getting, and I think I can even agree with you, but "who deserves to be Dash's pet" was never really the point of the episode.

The ending was not Dash thinking "I know who really deserves to be my pet", but instead she came to the conclusion of "I've been going about this the wrong way". Besides it's not like she was completely dismissive of the other animals at the end of it, in fact she looked kind of conflicted about choosing Tank over the Falcon.

Yeah, I guess I can see that.

Still, I'm just a might saddenned by the fact that RD basically dragged these pets into a gruelling (and dangerous) contest, promised one of them a position at her side, then suddenly discarded the entire contest at the final second with no warning. And all the while these pets did nothing but exactly what was asked of them, and did it to the best of their abilities.

It just felt like RD learned a lesson at the expense of these other animals

edited 20th Nov '11 6:58:00 AM by gingerninja666

Ah well, I still loved this episode. (probably my least favourite episode of S2 so far though) The song was awesome.

How would you compare it to the songs from season 1?

The song was kind of "meh" compared to the ones from last season. It was nice but it really didn't leave a lasting impact like some of the songs from last season.

Then again the songs have never been something I paid all that much attention to so my opinion probably isn't worth much.

edited 20th Nov '11 7:23:37 AM by Mio

These two arent contradicting each other. They were told to do whatever it costs to win, but RD selecting the type of animals that think that can think that way, doesn't ma ke this a good line of thinking.

And there were other implications during the race, like the bat screwing over the hawk at the thorns. Even if they didn't see RD getting hit by the rock, they saw the avalanche itself, and they were too busy to start caring about each other, or anything else than winning, to even turn their heads back to check if everyone is OK.

It wasn't really a "song" kind of song, more of a "3-minute segment from a musical" kind of song.

Which I happen to like.

Still, I highly doubt they would've ABANDONED RD if they'd actually seen her get trapped. They still wanted to be her pet after all.

and I always thought the bat was just following the most efficient path through the thorns (using its sonar powers) and that path just so happened to lead past the falcon.

None of them were outright MALEVOLENT towards each other. The falcon even accepted defeat gracefully in the end, which IMO made it WORSE.

It did feel a lot more musically than previous songs didn't it?

edited 20th Nov '11 7:36:08 AM by gingerninja666

Is Fluttershy just REALLY fond of that flying squirrel? It has its own podium with flashing lights and everything

edited 20th Nov '11 7:46:43 AM by gingerninja666

If you are willing to choose a "most efficient path" that leads through someone else's body, you are probably not a nice person.

And yeah, it doesn't mean that they are evil either, just that they are not particularly nice.

If you wish, think of it as a Secret Test of Character. Except that it was accidental, but still, that was the moral point: Sometimes there are more important things than blindly following the objective.

So anyway, was it RD's leg or her wing that got trapped? I'm disappointed at the lack of 127hours references.

They were being no worse than RD usually acts. If we can sympathize and side with her, then why not these guys?

Again, they were clearly TERRIFIED of the gorge but still bravely went through with it because they were promised a position by RD's side if they won. Imagine being sent through a race that involves needing to avoid charging bears who're trying to maul you to death. You succeed in doing so, only to be told at the end "No, that race didn't mean anything" I have ENDLESS sympathy for these guys.

WHAT TEST OF CHARACTER?! None of them SAW that RD was trapped, the only one who did was Tank, and that was because he passed her AFTER the avalanche.

edited 20th Nov '11 8:03:03 AM by gingerninja666

Oddly enough, the only thing the seemed to be actually pinned down was the tip of a feather. Normally, you'd think she could have easily plucked it off so she could fly away, but that's cartoon physics for you.

(More accurately, it's probably an abstraction for the actual wing, flesh and all, being pinned down. But again, cartoons.)

Yeah, and RD herself is kind of a jerk, too. That's what she has to learn a lesson about in Fall Weather Friends, and now, too, that friendship is more important than competition.

That being the fastet, most athletic pet isn't worth as much as love and affection.

edited 20th Nov '11 8:10:42 AM by Ever9

I don't think it did. One thing I noticed was that Rainbow was actually very conflicted there. She knew that the falcon was not only everything she was looking for, but had also won the competition as had been set out. But the turtle, in his own way, deserved the prize just as much. I like that she managed to make a decision in such a way as to let the rest of them save face.

The worst you can accuse the other animals of being is somewhat thoughtless and being overly focused on winning the contest at all cost, which really isn't that bad at all. But like I said previously the point of the episode was not who deserved to be Dash's pet, but Dash learning that she shouldn't choose companions with such shallow criteria.

I can understand Ginger thinking that the other animals got the raw end of the deal (they did give it their all in the competition), but I don't feel that that detracts from the episode's overall message like Ginger does.

And it went out of its way to show that none of the competitors were malicious or heartless. I mean, the falcon definitely acted the part of the gracious loser. Even shook the turtle's hand.

It came back to it being a hard decision, but not, this time, because she was trying to decide which one was "coolest", but because both of them... heck, all of them deserved it.

edited 20th Nov '11 8:16:56 AM by Enlong

If Tank could be as fast as RD and the others then he'd be right there flying alongside them. You're SERIOUSLY telling me that they were in the WRONG because they did exactly what was expected of them? This is ignoring the fact that a major source of our sympathy for Tank stems from the fact that he was diligently TRYING to do as he was told as well. The only difference was that the other contestants were actualy competent and Tank wasn't.

Tank only stopped to help because he saw that she was trapped... because he was too slow (you could clearly see that he was TRYING to go ast though). If the bat had seen the rock fall on her, no doubt in my mind it would've tried to help too. and we have no reason to assume otherwise

edited 20th Nov '11 8:19:22 AM by gingerninja666