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My reaction to Rainbow Dash singing: D:

But I love Dash's singing voice... I think she's great on this song. :(

Which by the way I officially cannot stop listening to at the moment. I don't know if I was just song deprived or I happen to just really love this one, but I just keep playing it over and over again. So epic... :?:

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I'm a little disappointed that it's a turtle. We had all guessed this weeks ago. Heck there was even a deviant who arted up a RD and turtle pet drawing a long time ago. It would have been nice to be caught off guard.

It was a great episode though. It catered to my natural competitiveness. And the song, while a little off the standard from other songs, was really awesome. Fluttershy get's more adorable points for this one, too.

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For everypony who saw the turtle (or tortoise, as it is... :P) thing coming a mile away, how many of you expected Dash would strap a helicopter to its back?

I think that still qualified as a big surprise and I'm so looking forward to more episodes with Tank the Helicopter Tortoise. :D

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For everypony who saw the turtle (or tortoise, as it is... :P) thing coming a mile away, how many of you expected Dash would strap a helicopter to its back?

I think that still qualified as a big surprise and I'm so looking forward to more episodes with Tank the Helicopter Tortoise. :D

He'll come back in season 3.

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Just finished watching the episode.

Has anyone noticed there are more noticeable and greater flaws in the animation now? At 8:54 -ish Dash skids across the ground in front of the pets, and it looks like they forgot the drop the Duck back a layer. Oh well, I suppose that's a simple mistake to make.

Anyways, this episode had me smiling through the whole thing. I was hoping the tortoise would win via Tortoise and the Hare style, but I'm glad they went the way they dad. I assume it was a 127 Hours reference? The song could have been better, but I still liked it; probably won't go to my MP3 player unlike the other songs though. I also like how silly Rainbow was through this episode! The "DUN DUN DUNNNN!" scene literally had me laughing out loud.

Something else I noticed is Pinkie exclaims at the finish line that it's the "Turtle". And everypony says, "Tortoise!" And then a Fluttershy esque voice says, "Whatever." I feel like they miscued that one. I think Fluttershy was supposed to say that it was the turtle, and then be corrected like she was doing all episode.

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I loved the whole episode. The writing was right on, the animation and how fluently and smoothly the plot progressed...everything had a nice touch to it.

And that song...OH THAT SONG. Such a wonderful amount of variety throughout, and to top it all off, one of the most EPIC one-liners spoken caps the song and sends us to the commercial to anticipate. PERFECT!

Loved this episode.....but dang, that Derpy appearance is....creepy...

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If there is one thing about this episode that made me proud is that I totally called a turtle as Dash's pet. :blah::20:

Now I need to figure out where to put Ghastly Gorge :/

Am I the only one who could tell that she was gonna be with the turtle BEFORE the race? They seemed to hint at it with his persistance during the song.

Still, good episode. Not my favorite of the season, but I enjoyed it.

I'm a little disappointed that it's a turtle. We had all guessed this weeks ago. Heck there was even a deviant who arted up a RD and turtle pet drawing a long time ago. It would have been nice to be caught off guard.

It was a great episode though. It catered to my natural competitiveness. And the song, while a little off the standard from other songs, was really awesome. Fluttershy get's more adorable points for this one, too.

TORTOISE! :eek:

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The Bad: The ending was predictable. I am usually totally oblivious to animation errors, but I caught a lot of them on my first go this time around.

The Good: I loved the song. About damn time we got one. Hidden Derpy. The episode was full of adorable moments. I left it with a big smile. I liked this episode. Tons of fun to watch.

Also, I think it is Fluttershy that gets corrected at the end. I also liked how the butterfly pulled a pinkie during the song. Stared into your soul. (Also, it later used Hypnotoad style to take to toy. I loled)

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Well, I guess I'm the first then: Didn't like it. Writing was bad.

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.

Worst of all is that they tease you at the end of the episode. One of the ponies says that having a tourtoise as a pet would force Rainbow Dash to be more grounded and it makes you think, "Wow, Rainbow Dash is really going to have to compromise to find a balance between her ambitions and taking care of her new pet. Now that she has to think about Tank and not just herself, she'll have to learn to make sacrifices for the wellbing of her pet. This could really be interesting." But then the writers magic away all these problems with one of the biggest copouts I've seen in this show. If the turtle can magically fly at the end of the episode, the eagle might as well have won. There are no consequences for Rainbow Dash's choise so, as far as I'm concerned, there is no lesson worth learning here.

I was hoping that the last episode would mark the beggining of a series of episode that were on the same level as Season 1 but, from this episode, that doesn't appear to be the case. It's not a bad episode by any means, it's just very disappointing. I'm actually surpsrised that so many people like this episode in particular because, as many hangups as I've had with a lot of the previous episodes, I feel that this one is the weakest of the series so far.

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hi hi

You know, in some circles, the surprise twist is considered a literary crutch. So what if you can suspect what will happen at the end? (Watching a million episodes would take over 41 straight years.) Why should Rainbow Dash have to ruin herself for her pet? That doesn't make any sense. Sacrifice without a reason is just waste. It is possible to help someone else out with little cost to yourself, thats what special talents are all about. Its a story about gaining something, not losing it. (in economic terms, this is called comparative advantage)

Life is not a perpetual tragedy.

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I don't want a surprise ending I want some originality. I didn't just suspect what would happen when I saw the tortoise, I knew exactly what would happen and how it would happen, and I was right. And I didn't say that Rainbow Dash needed to ruin her life for her pet. Owning a pet is a big responsibility and you have to take a lot of time out of your day to excercise and care for it. Your time and energy is the sacrifice you make when you own a pet but the effort is definitely worth it. A flightless animal would have been more difficult for Rainbow Dash to care for but it could still be done with a little effort.

This episode actually reminds me of the "Twilight" book series in that the protagonist experiences all of the rewards and none of the consequences or responsibilities. Of course life is not perpetual tragedy but it is filled with challenges that must be overcome. As far as I'm concerned, if you remove the challenges, you remove the meaning, which is what I feel they've done here.

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Ok, now that's the SECOND reference to 'tanks' in a MLP FiM Episode (along with Rarity's song "Art of the Dress" in Season 1).

PLEASE tell me we can have REAL TANKS in the world of Equestria now? PLEASE????

:D:D:D:D

Tank as a term is actually older than the mobile armored vehicle. Also concepts for such vehicles did exist before the first tanks of WWI, some concepts as far back as the 17th century (all pretty impractical). It is easy to have the term without having armored war machines running around. The history of bullets (a word also used) predates firearms (bullets were metallic or stone balls used in a sling). Bullet is based on boulette which roughly means little ball which represented the lead balls of culverins and matchlocks. Even conical bullets first appeared as early as 1823. In short just because these terms are used doesn't suddenly mean Equestria is full of battle tanks and heavy machine guns (really in the kind of world FiM is supposed to be, would you want stuff so contrary to that theme, such as huge mechanized arms of war. to be used willy-nilly?)

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Tank as a term is actually older than the mobile armored vehicle. Also concepts for such vehicles did exist before the first tanks of WWI, some concepts as far back as the 17th century (all pretty impractical). It is easy to have the term without having armored war machines running around. The history of bullets (a word also used) predates firearms (bullets were metallic or stone balls used in a sling). Bullet is based on boulette which roughly means little ball which represented the lead balls of culverins and matchlocks. Even conical bullets first appeared as early as 1823. In short just because these terms are used doesn't suddenly mean Equestria is full of battle tanks and heavy machine guns (really in the kind of world FiM is supposed to be, would you want stuff so contrary to that theme, such as huge mechanized arms of war. to be used willy-nilly?)

you have a point but if equestria was without conflict why would celestia have royal guards? as the way i see it equestria would probably consider armored wagons as tanks, of course that's just my guess seeing how the rest of the world has seemingly 19th century technology made for ponies and magic.

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hi hi

You know, in some circles, the surprise twist is considered a literary crutch. So what if you can suspect what will happen at the end? (Watching a million episodes would take over 41 straight years.) Why should Rainbow Dash have to ruin herself for her pet? That doesn't make any sense. Sacrifice without a reason is just waste. It is possible to help someone else out with little cost to yourself, thats what special talents are all about. Its a story about gaining something, not losing it. (in economic terms, this is called comparative advantage)

Life is not a perpetual tragedy.

We're not expecting a surprise twist, just for the story to not forecast everything. They kept going HEY LOOK. THE TURTLE. LOOK AT THE TURTLE. THERE'S A TURTLE. It insults the viewers intelligence, I think, to HAVE to do that. Even a child doesn't need her hand held to this extent.

And how would Dashie be ruining herself by having to learn some responsibility? It wouldn't be sacrifice without a reason. She'd be gaining a pet and a friend. Sacrifice for the sake of friendship would be a GREAT lesson and it would fit into the theme of the show.

I won't say this is the worst episode of the series (that would be Owl's Well That Ends Well, which commits largely the same sins as this ep), but it's low on my list.

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The tortoise is still not really a cool or stylish pet by any stretch of the imagination, so I do think that RD grew through the experience, who is all about being cool. She did learn to compromise in that way.

Yeah, I guess I can see that. My real problem is with the sudden flight. It's just that I believe that people need to learn to accept others as they are and a tortoise is a flightless animal. Throughout the episode, Tank couldn't fly but, in the end, he made up for it with his loyalty. I wanted Rainbow Dash to realise that he was just as good as the other pets but for different reasons, but instead they went with, he's better than the other pets for the same reasons (ie he can fly) and more (and he's loyal). That's what I meant when I said that the tortoise might as well have been one of the birds.

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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.

On a side note, I'd have preferred it if he'd be flying around with a little blimp, that way he would be airborne, and still slow at the same time.

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you have a point but if equestria was without conflict why would celestia have royal guards? as the way i see it equestria would probably consider armored wagons as tanks, of course that's just my guess seeing how the rest of the world has seemingly 19th century technology made for ponies and magic.

I didn't say no conflict; what I want to avoid is turning the FiM universe into our world of huge standing armies, mechanized warfare, and world of constant conflict; may as well make them humans at that point.

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I don't think the point was ever that Tank couldn't fly. He was hopeless for far more reasons than just that. Yet his drive and dedication to prove himself to Dash were the point of the episode, not flight vs flightless. My favorite moment is in the talent show portion where he has the stuff for some crazy stunt set up and then when he tries it he fails so completely. He's throwing himself worlds beyond what he knows he's capable of, all to prove himself to Dash. He really wants to succeed for her even when its clearly impossible.

Dash wasn't even considering Tank. He was a joke to her. Yet with one single gesture he proved himself to be a friend Dash could count on, beyond what the other pets had to offer. It forced her to reconsider everything about what makes a good friend. That was the key to the lesson.

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.

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