Pinkie Pie is the element of Laughter. Make her feel even the slightest bit unwelcome and she spirals into depression so crippling she isolates, bringing an aura of grief everywhere she goes.

Fluttershy. Kindness isn't always polite and nice, so she naturally struggles to be kind when it calls for confrontation or assertiveness of any kind.

Apple Jack. She lied as naturally as she breathed when she was a filly and tends to delude herself (like doing unnecessary tasks or being overprotective of Apple Bloom and Granny Apple Smith.) She had her fair share of honesty struggles dealing with Flim and Flam on top of all that.

Rarity. She's a successful business woman. Generosity doesn't exactly pay the bills, her boutique is not a charity after all.

Twilight Sparkle. She's so good at representing Friendship that she became the princess of it and made a school to teach it! She's awesome at friendship unless there's an important task at hand, a test to prepare for, a disaster to watch out for, or a list to take care of, then everyone else is second priority.



Making the Mane 6 struggle with their elements of Harmony naturally without having to go full Discord or Chrysalis on them is the kind of down-to-earth writing that makes these ponies more relatable. Not every athlete feels strong or fast. Not every veteran feels brave. Not every college graduate feels smart. Nonetheless, it doesn't change the fact that they are and earned the stripes to prove it. This is a show where second chances were given to ponies who enslaved and destroyed entire civilizations, so having grace for the main cast for switching up on the elements they represent occasionally should not be a hanging offense.

Rainbow Dash would have been better as the Element of Honesty. Or maybe create a different element like Bravory. I feel the elements were assigned based on the plot needs of the first episode, not what is best for the characters or series.

I think she is a terrible friend—and I don’t just mean the issue of loyalty (that part you analyzed perfectly), but also the fact that she is a bully. And sure, friends sometimes joke around or tease each other in good spirits or even calling each others names if they know each others long enough, but she constantly mocks ponies, making fun of them and tears them down just to prove she’s better. She often makes cruel jokes, laughing at someone rather than with them.

Can I say she's also kind of a mean person? I mean like the episode of holloween and she went around terrorizing other ponies (mostly children) and calling it "pranking"

She IS a bad friend, she’s extremely self-centred and has multiple episodes where she has to re-learn her lessons it’s extremely frustrating. Jumps into conclusions and never trusts her friends (especially Rarity) her misogyny is highlighted in season 9 where she’s told to lead the cheerleading club, instead of keeping in mind of her past mistakes she undermines cheerleading as a whole, which judging by her wonderbolt title she’d also know how hectic another sport such as cheerleading can be. There’s several other cases where she’s extremely underwhelming :/

I have to disagree. Not that she isn't a bad friend, but that she is terrible in other ways. About the loyalty... See, the point of rainbow falls is that she needed to receive an item that symbolized her loyalty for the fight with tirek later. And she didn't choose loyalty because the wonder bolts lied, she chose loyalty to her friends because she saw the wonder bolts not being loyal to *theirs*.
Another episode with her ambitions being held hostage is when she did wonder bolts camp. The thing that made her snap and tell spitfire that she was quitting was that her friends nearly got hurt. And her lightning dust didn't even care. Through the whole episode lightning dust was wreckless, and didn't care about the team as a whole. She wanted to fight against it, several times trying to speak out against lightning dust, only to be shut down by the perceived authority, see Stanley milgrim. She was battling against loyalty and authority the whole time, eventually giving in to her loyalty at the cost of never being a wonderbolt, her lifelong dream, because they valued skill over teamwork and safety.

I disagree with your take. Your examples don't demonstrate her failure to be loyal at all. Her challenge was basically loyalty toward an old friend vs loyalty to her new ones, and loyalty to her dream and herself vs loyalty to her friends and commitments. Loyalty doesn't always apply only to people, it represents tenacity towards concepts, ideas, goals, and ambitions too. Easily that's why her character harbors such a specific and unyielding dream, because she represents loyalty to many things, not just her friends. And you are right that the show did not meaningfully resolve the conflict by making her choose, if anything *it showed she valued her own ambition as equal to her friends*, and for a character that's written as incredibly selfish and self-focused, the intent is for her skeem to demonstrate how she's unwilling to hurt her dream or her friends as a testament to her loyalty to both, which paralyzed her and gave her no real meaningful action to take, which ultimately isn't a great lesson and doesn't make for a great episode as the writers seem to have written themselves into a corner and limited the episode to a demonstration of how Rainbow feels about both things. But to people looking for a lesson, this episode holds none.

So basically Rainbow Dash’s loyalty is influenced by passion. However her passion might always be selfless which in turn means her loyalty isn’t always selfless either?

But like genuinly she was so insufferable at times like her ego was so high it used to piss me off sm as a kid and even now...I still don't know how most of the girls even managed to stay friends with her for this long 😭😭

3:42 Correct me if I’m wrong, but when Gilda was being mean to Granny Smith and Fluttershy, I don’t think Rainbow Dash was even there. So she didn’t even know.

Fork found in kitchen
I know they make Rainbow Dash make poor choices as a way to teach children what true loyalty is, but it still bothers me because her selfishness, ego, and meanness are more consistent than her loyalty imo. And like you said, she rarely gets consequences or called out for her actions. Spike and Apple Jack are arguably more loyal than Rainbow Dash ever was. It also feels like the mane six mostly tolerate these traits from her. I also agree that this makes her an interesting character to read at the exact same time

to be fair the main conflict the writers should have highlighted in the ponyville v wonderbolt ep shouldnt have been loyalty but integrity...like im pretty sure the mane 6 would have been fine if rainbow chose the wonderbolts if she was upfront and honest from the begining..( i think they mention that? i dont remember) like they literally went  out of there way to help miss girl study for the entrance exams in one ep so like they fully get her ambition...the episode being centered around picking sides and loyalty shouldnt have been a rainbow dash exclusive issue...the other ponies have also had situations where they would struggle with loyalty coz struggling with loyalty happenes to everyone....every pony in the group has other commitments than just their friendships and its bound to clash at sm points, the writers just didnt make a big deal out of it or framed it as something else

the issue is rainbow dash is brash, shes rude,her egos too high and in some episodes she genuinly didnt gaf about how her actions hurt her friends they should have really dedicated more episodes on how rainbow dashes toxic traits clashed with the group dynamics coz aint no way non of the girls were just letting miss girl run her mouth and insult them without getting somewhat defensive or messy

I feel like applejack is genuinely the best out of all six, shes not much egoistic, shes pretty assertive, and she also doesnt get depressed when someone doesnt welcome her.

To be honest if I had the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream and my friends didn't support that I'd say that's my friends being a bad friend idk man

Now that you mentioned it, I honestly wish the show did confront Rainbow's loyalty in the way you mentioned around the end of the video. That being said, I don't think the show suffers from not fully committing to it. Mlp fim was made under a strict deadline on a relatively cost-effective budget so it's actually a miracle the show is as good as it is. There's still lots of other great moments the show does acknowledge like the episode where Rainbow and Rarity realize they have almost nothing in common and have to work through their relationship as friends. The final note I want to make is that different episodes were written by different writers and "Rainbow Falls" is probably one of my least favorite episodes in the show due to how out of character the wonderbolts were. So using a poorly written episode to support your argument kind of falls flat at the start, even if I ultimately ended up agreeing with your overall statement.

More like the writers hate her she always gets the short end of the stick

Was  Sunburst an alternative version of Twilight that was fired?

A prototype twilight?

And was twilight ever in danger of suffering the same fate?

She has more dissonance than other characters.. but I think that's what makes her more realistic. If we look at her from a human lens she struggles to make decisions, has regrets, and can be inconsiderate. I don't think this makes her a terrible friend, but she also doesn't always make good choices.

In my opinion it's important to show this kind of thing in a kid's show. They show a character being selfish and immediately regretting it, showing her conscience at work, and showing how her friends sometimes react negatively to her choices. She's an example of how to right your wrongs and sometimes what choices not to make.

I like her for her nuance and abrasive personality. She's not perfect and that's fine.

I’d actually like to argue that Rainbow Dash is a pretty good representation of what ADHD can look like. The ADHD brain is able to lock in during an emergency, making them a real asset in times of crisis; but when it comes to the more “mundane” and “boring” things in life, they’re easy to distract. The ADHD brain often has to be explicitly told, have things pointed out, and constantly reminded when the matter isn’t understood to be urgent. Their brain craves excitement, novelty, and investment (not the money kind); but can struggle to remember what lays beyond their immediate, limited, and intense current focus - be it task, time, person, or goal.

Shes still my fav character🫩