Friendship Is Magic S02EP07 - "May the Best Pet Win!"

[teygrim]

Making him able to fly is just logical. RD lives in a cloud home after all, and only pegasi can walk in clouds. How would Tank be able to be her pet if he couldn't fly? Even if there is the possibility for RD to live on the ground instead, she would always have to leave him behind when she visits Cloudsdale, for example.

Does it make logical sense? yes, but I think there were better ways around the problem of the flightlessness. Rainbow Dash could have left him with Fluttershy when she slept in her cloud home, or visited Cloudsdale, and she could have carried him around on her back during the day.

My problem is that I feel the writers have inadvertantly sent a message with this. The message that pets need to fundamentally change what they are in order to suit the wants and convenience of their owners. Throughout the episode they've established that Tank can't fly but when it becomes a problem for Rainbow Dash then magically he can. Instead of teaching kids about responsibility they've used a magical solution that can't be applied to real life.

[teygrim]

And besides, the helicopter thing isn't even really a compromise exactly. It's not like Tank isn't happier like this. Watch him throughout the episode. He clearly wants to be cooler and he wants to be more mobile. Dash gave him what he wanted just as much as he became what Dash wanted. Dash learned a lesson about looking past the surface and seeing inner drive and the end result is something that appeases all parties.

That message just makes me even more uncomfortable. Fluttershy established that Tank wanted nothing more than to be someone's pet so you can only assume that he was doing all the things he did just to impress Rainbow Dash. Remember the song when Rainbow Dash described what she wanted in a pet and Tank did his best to change accordingly. In the end he became what Rainbow Dash wanted but I don't think this is a good thing considering his motivations for doing so.

[RarityDash]

Yeah. I still disagree. I mean we're to assume he set up that trick in the talent show thing himself, right? Why would he set something up like that if he didn't somewhere want to succeed at it? When he fails there, he's surely frustrated by it. I think the same can be applied to the other trials. He wants to be able to compete with the others, but meets only with frustration at his inability to keep up. He competes against the others because he wants to be Dash's pet, and he doesn't give up on the goal even through his continuing, no doubt frustrating failures. He wants to become the sort of pet Dash wants, so I would assume he is happy in the end to become just that.

I don't see why the end result can be considered bad when Dash get the sort of pet she wanted and Tank gets to be the sort of pet he wants to be.

[Dessa]

Okay early on, somepony says "Does dash even know what being a pet owner is about?" It establishes the question of responsibility. Dash's motivations and methods are COMPLETELY selfish. They make a point of it.

At the end of the episode, Dash chooses the animal that saved her from the avalanche. She makes her choice based on a selfish reason. Sure, it's a good reason, but it doesn't discuss the issue set forth at the outset. It's left as the point of tension, unsolved. Dash was and is selfish.

Missed opportunity.

[Ashwood]

The writers won't give up on the main cast flaws despite the moral of the episodes, it would make them Mary Sues.

Still it's annoying the flaws in themselves are sometimes so exaggerated. Especially on R.D and Rarity, they often write them borderline irrating.

I really liked the song but the rest of the episode... not convinced

[RarityDash]

I don't think responsibility vs selfishness was ever going to be a theme of this episode. It was about making new friends. The lesson was to give a second look and let yourself see what is really important when considering friends. I'm willing to bet a responsibility lesson wasn't even on the writer's table.

Maybe Dash will get a responsibility oriented episode later on, as I do agree that it kind of does seem like a lesson she could stand to learn, but I just don't think this was ever going to be it.

And looking at the transcript, the line you mentioned comes from Applejack and is used as a set up for a lame joke from Twilight. Not something I'd ever take as being the line that sets the theme for the episode (especially since that moment never stood out to me at all even after watching the episode three times).

[Hippo]

Dash has too many problems to solve them all in one episode. Her shallowness will be addressed in another episode.

[CrossStitch]

I actually went back and listened to the song again.

I really don't know why, but I loved it this time around. I think the first time I watched it, I wasn't really paying attention to the song in a whole, but more to the rhymes and rhythm, almost completely ignoring the instruments. There was also a lot going on in the scene, so I couldn't really focus on the music.

This time around though, I absolutely loved it. I kind of wish it was more catchy though, still. I have all the songs memorized by heart, basically, but this is just a bit to remember. OHWELL.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Still, I wonder if this was inspired by that one fanart of Dash with a tortoise pet, or if it was just a coincidence.

Or it could've been done just to sell more toys...

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Also, did anyone notice that there were NO BG ponies this episode?

Well, there might have been ONE.

When you see it...

[teygrim]

Yeah. I still disagree. I mean we're to assume he set up that trick in the talent show thing himself, right? Why would he set something up like that if he didn't somewhere want to succeed at it? When he fails there, he's surely frustrated by it. I think the same can be applied to the other trials. He wants to be able to compete with the others, but meets only with frustration at his inability to keep up. He competes against the others because he wants to be Dash's pet, and he doesn't give up on the goal even through his continuing, no doubt frustrating failures. He wants to become the sort of pet Dash wants, so I would assume he is happy in the end to become just that.

I don't see why the end result can be considered bad when Dash get the sort of pet she wanted and Tank gets to be the sort of pet he wants to be.

That's all right everyone's entitled to their own opinion and own interpretation. But I think I might not have explained very clearly. The best anology I can come up with is a relationship. You see young teens pretending to be something that they aren't for the sole purpose of impressing the object of their attraction. But even though they are happy in the short term, the relationship never lasts because they were never a match in the first place. This is what I feel happened here and that is why I don't see this as a possitive outcome. Because, although things seem to have worked out here, and help but think of the consequence so such actions in the real world. You can magic away consequences in a cartoon but you can't in the real world.

Okay early on, somepony says "Does dash even know what being a pet owner is about?" It establishes the question of responsibility. Dash's motivations and methods are COMPLETELY selfish. They make a point of it.

At the end of the episode, Dash chooses the animal that saved her from the avalanche. She makes her choice based on a selfish reason. Sure, it's a good reason, but it doesn't discuss the issue set forth at the outset. It's left as the point of tension, unsolved. Dash was and is selfish.

Missed opportunity.

My feelings exactly. I feel that this problem has occured in a few episodes in this season. They establish an interesting conflict but then they turn around and resolve a completely unrelated conflict and ignore what really mattered.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Thank you, I'm tired of being the only neighsayer on this forum. But I didn't think it was so much the righting as it was the painfully predictable story. As soon as you see that turtle you know exactly what's going to happen and exactly how it's going to play out. There is no surprise in the slightest and it becomes boring to watch a story you've seen a million times play out for a million and one.

Meh, I don't think this ever really bothers me. Cartoons are made for kids, TONS of times they have the same moral/storyline. Especially with a show like this, made for younger kids... I just expect it to happen at times, I guess.

[Hippo]

Or it could've been done just to sell more toys...

Yeah, I totally wanna buy that now!

Not...

[Dessa]

Meh, I don't think this ever really bothers me. Cartoons are made for kids, TONS of times they have the same moral/storyline. Especially with a show like this, made for younger kids... I just expect it to happen at times, I guess.

This cartoon is particularly good at transcending this. Even when it explores issued explored in other cartoons, it tends to have real emotional honesty that's hard to find in any media, be it for children or adults.

Were this simply some funny show on the Cartoon Network, I wouldn't waste time explaining the shortcomings of the moral, or what went wrong in direction or writing. I would simply enjoy it for being funny and having good action sequences and leave it there. But this is Friendship is Magic, and I hold it to a higher standard.

It's kinda like when you turn a paper in to a teacher, and you know it's the best paper in the class, but the teacher sends it back with a c and a note in red: "I know you can do better." Yeah, it's a cartoon, but it's not any cartoon.

[Ashwood]

I wait an episode without a moral, would be mind-blowing.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

Today a bunch of crazy stuffs happened and everything returned to normal all by itself. Perhaps I should relax a little more."

[RarityDash]

That's all right everyone's entitled to their own opinion and own interpretation. But I think I might not have explained very clearly. The best anology I can come up with is a relationship. You see young teens pretending to be something that they aren't for the sole purpose of impressing the object of their attraction. But even though they are happy in the short term, the relationship never lasts because they were never a match in the first place. This is what I feel happened here and that is why I don't see this as a possitive outcome. Because, although things seem to have worked out here, and help but think of the consequence so such actions in the real world. You can magic away consequences in a cartoon but you can't in the real world.

I sort of get what you're saying, but at the same time, I really don't think it's quite the same. There's nothing that indicates to me that Tank is uncomfortable with the new setup. Again, to me, he seemed consistently frustrated by his lack of agility. I wouldn't be surprised if Tank was a tortoise who wanted to move faster, fly around and do complicated tricks, but couldn't for the simple reason that he was a tortoise. Using the helicopter thing is less pretending to be something he's not and more using a tool to make up for his shortcomings and allow him to be who he wants to be from how I see it.

I admit I'm reading into things to an extent there; Tank is a silent character and we didn't see any of his life prior to wanting to be Dash's pet. Still, I just don't see it in Tank's character from what we do see that there are ever going to be any negative consequences for him, as I see nothing that convinces me he's more content or comfortable being slow and on the ground compared to flying around in the air.

[teygrim]

I sort of get what you're saying, but at the same time, I really don't think it's quite the same. There's nothing that indicates to me that Tank is uncomfortable with the new setup. Again, to me, he seemed consistently frustrated by his lack of agility. I wouldn't be surprised if Tank was a tortoise who wanted to move faster, fly around and do complicated tricks, but couldn't for the simple reason that he was a tortoise. Using the helicopter thing is less pretending to be something he's not and more using a tool to make up for his shortcomings and allow him to be who he wants to be from how I see it.

I admit I'm reading into things to an extent there; Tank is a silent character and we didn't see any of his life prior to wanting to be Dash's pet. Still, I just don't see it in Tank's character from what we do see that there are ever going to be any negative consequences for him, as I see nothing that convinces me he's more content or comfortable being slow and on the ground compared to flying around in the air.

Okay, I think I need to tell you something about myself for you to understand where I’m really coming from and why this issue is so close to my heart. I am half Pilipino and half Irish living in Australia. Growing up, I was conditioned to believe all the stereotypes about Asians so I came to identify strongly with my Irish heritage and completely reject my Asian blood.

I believed that everyone was right. I believed that Asians were only good for math and lacked all social skills and that Asian men were impotent. But I believed that I was an exception. I wasn’t one of those Asians who hung out with other Asians speaking in Asian. I was better than that. I was white.

But later on in life I came to realize that although I saw myself as white, others viewed me differently. I still remember the reaction of one of my white friends when he found out that I was half Asian: “I knew there was something off about you.” He said it in a joking tone but it hurt all the same.

I started to accept myself for what I was and began to hang out with more Asians. But when my white friends noticed this one of them asked me, “do you identify as an Australian or an Asian?” it was very clear from the tone that she was trying to determine which “side” I was on but the context and wording of the question made it very clear that you can’t be both. Either I’m an Australian or an Asian and Australians apparently only associate with white people.

And currently I’m trying to find work. During an interview, I was told that the interviewer believed that I could do the job but he still said that I was not suitable. One reason he gave was that I was too “smart” (that was the exact word he used) and that I would get bored. He went on to recommend that I find a more academic and less manual job.

So basically, no matter how hard you pretend to be something that you’re not and no matter how much you want to be that something, you can only really fool yourself. I can’t change the way that others perceive me so I can’t deny my Asian blood any longer. I’ve come to embrace my multiracial heritage and when I see someone (or something else) in a similar situation, I believe that they should embrace what they are as well. An Asian should not be ashamed of being an Asian; a Black should not be ashamed of being Black; and even a tortoise should not be ashamed of being a tortoise.

(I’m probably going to regret saying all this here because I know that people who have never dealt with racism like to fool themselves into believing that it doesn’t exist in modern society, but I feel it must be said.)

[RarityDash]

I want to make it clear that I agree with what you're saying. All I'm saying is that I just don't see how it applies to Tank's situation in this episode.

He's still a tortoise. He's not pretending he's anything he's not. He's not going to start acting like an entirely different animal just because he has that thing now. He's simply using a machine to help him do things that i believe he earnestly wants to do. I just don't see how the helicopter takes away from the tortoise's identity as a tortoise, and in every way I can think of it just makes things easier for him.

[teygrim]

Tank spends the whole episode trying to be what Rainbow Dash wants him to be and Rainbow Dash wanted a flying pet. Every animal in the competition was a flyer except Tank. He was a tortoise and tortoises don't fly, that is part of what they are. You can't make a flightless animal into a flying animal in the real world just like you can't make a black man white. It might seem fine in the context of a cartoon but when you apply the same logic to the real world then you create a standard that very few can live up to. A tortoises value doesn't lie in it's flying ability so it should have been up to Rainbow Dash to relax her policy of "flyers only". By sticking to this policy and making the non-flyer conform to an impossible expectation, the writers have inadvertantly legitimised discrimination (ie, it's not up to the employer to remove racist policies it is up to the employee to conform to them, even when this is impossible).

This might all seem trivial but let me put it into context. There is a famous study that takes black and white girls (aged, I think, around 5) and presents them with a black doll and a white doll. They are asked to pick the doll they prefer and tell the experimenters why. The majority of the black girls picked the white doll and told experimenter that they picked the white doll because it was better. And when the girls were asked to tell the experiment which doll they were most like, they pointed to the black doll. It seems from this study that coloured people in America are conditioned to believe they are less good than others from an early age and I believe it's because of shows like this.

[RarityDash]

I still just can't see the racial connection for anything in this episode. Being able to fly or not is just in no way analogous to skin color to me. It's a capability. It's not something like race that bears little significance outside social constructs. It's something you can or can't do.

Tank uses technology to fly; he enhances what he's capable of and gives himself new capabilities. It's the same as how humans have been developing and using technology to enhance what we're capable of constantly throughout history. It's simple ingenuity used to overcome shortcomings. I don't see what's wrong with that.

[Hippo]

Does it make logical sense? yes, but I think there were better ways around the problem of the flightlessness. Rainbow Dash could have left him with Fluttershy when she slept in her cloud home, or visited Cloudsdale, and she could have carried him around on her back during the day.

My problem is that I feel the writers have inadvertantly sent a message with this. The message that pets need to fundamentally change what they are in order to suit the wants and convenience of their owners. Throughout the episode they've established that Tank can't fly but when it becomes a problem for Rainbow Dash then magically he can. Instead of teaching kids about responsibility they've used a magical solution that can't be applied to real life.

Kids don't rely on magic when they learn and grow older, even if they truly believe in it. Tank was willing to try as hard as he could to impress, even though everyone knows he can't fly. I feel that it's more of a lesson in doing your best, even when you think you wont be able to succeed.

I have a OC pony named Arrow Plain. Her entire character is built around her wanting to learn how to fly. She can't wait to fly, see the wonderbolts, and even visit Cloudsdale where she believes her long lost family is from. However, she's not even a pegasus. She's a unicorn. But the fact that she's a unicorn doesn't keep her from dreaming her dreams. She may never be able to really fly. But, perhaps, seeing the the W-bolts and finding her family in the sky isn't ruined by her physical inabilities.

I don't think that 'trying to be someone you can't' is even a minor message they intended on putting in the show. Tank's helicopter system was 5 seconds of the episode at most--a lighthearted gig at the end of the episode to create a high note ending. It also may have answered a couple questions from us critically watching bronies. But Rainbow Dash did meet him halfway in order to make that possible. Up until the end of the episode, she was unwilling to do so.

You mentioned later that it's like a relationship that should not have worked. But as in any relationship, sacrifices are made to adjust to the other person's needs or wants. It's a give and take. Tank was giving it his all, and Rainbow wasn't giving him anything. Tank's helisystem was not about what he could or could not do. It was about what RD should have done to make things work.

[Conor Colton]

Ok I just finished watching it, I always hate being behind on these things

That was one of my most favourite episodes yet

The humour was great, the idea was great, the song was great, the ending was great, just everything was great.

But then again, I expected nothing less at this point

[Tenkan]

Wohoo! New song! Pretty sweet, but not too catchy.

Nonetheless it was just fun to watch another feel-good episode of MLP.

I'm only a tad confused thinking 'Where on Earth did they get a helicopter cap for the turtle?'

[Dessa]

But Rainbow Dash did meet him halfway in order to make that possible. Up until the end of the episode, she was unwilling to do so.

How did Dashie meet the turtle halfway? As I see it, she sacrificed very little, while the tortoise, inexplicably smitten with somepony who couldn't be bothered to care about him, just gave, and gave, and gave. What was Dash's sacrifice? In the end, she just got everything she wanted anyway: a cool pet that could fly.

This turned into an episode about not judging a book by its cover -- a boring and cliche message, IMO.

[Davroth]

How did Dashie meet the turtle halfway? As I see it, she sacrificed very little, while the tortoise, inexplicably smitten with somepony who couldn't be bothered to care about him, just gave, and gave, and gave. What was Dash's sacrifice? In the end, she just got everything she wanted anyway: a cool pet that could fly.

This turned into an episode about not judging a book by its cover -- a boring and cliche message, IMO.

A tortoise isn't a cool pet, though. Not cool in the way a bird of prey or a bat would have been. Why is that not a compromise on RDs part?

Also, she compromised on ALL of her previous criteria for a pet, really.