My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic “Tanks for the Memories” Review

It greatly arguable, but it wouldn’t be unfair to say that Rainbow Dash may be the fan favorite character from the show. There’s no denying that she is a good character, though her episodes are more on the mixed side. “Reed it and Weep” and “Testing Testing 1, 2, 3” for example aren’t that great because of the way she is utilized. The stories are good, but she herself is just written as annoying & unreasonable in those, and quite a few other episodes. In “Testing,” she seeks Twilight’s help and then blames her for not being able to understand, which just defies all logic from somepony her age. This episode once again has a rather annoying rendition of the character, though it is sandwiched with some great emotion.

Here’s the official description from Discovery Family:

Winter is almost here and Rainbow Dash is not happy about it when she finds out that Tank will have to hibernate all season long. To make sure this doesn’t happen, Rainbow Dash tries everything she can think of to stop winter from coming.

The premise at first sounded off because Tank has been with Rainbow since his debut way back in the season 2 episode “May the Best Pet Win.” So, you mean to tell me between that season and now winter has not hit Equestria? This could be considered a plothole, but we won’t spend anymore time on it. Let’s get into the story. It has rarely been explored just how close Rainbow is with Tank. This episode tells us nicely just how much of a bond the two have; it’s quite heartwarming. In fact, one could argue that is one of the most emotional episodes yet. I could definitely agree to that, but at what cost is all this emotion displayed?

Once Rainbow Dash notices that Tank is acting strange, she of course contacts Fluttershy who tells the former that the tortoise is ready for hibernation. (Like Rainbow Dash, I too didn’t think tortoises went into hibernation, who says you don’t learn anything from cartoons?) At this point we come to expect that Rainbow would not accept this, which is fine, but to an extent. For one thing, she blatantly tells Fluttershy that she’s going “To get a second opinion from a REAL reptile expert.” which was unnecessarily mean. One could justify that because of her intense emotion of not accepting the fact of hibernation it’s alright. But then trying to stop winter from happening? That’s comically extreme and beyond selfish, even for her. (Especially at this point, with all the lessons teaching her not be selfish and reckless.) And then the crying at the end is more laughable then emotional. It would have been appropriate if Tank was, well, dying, not leaving for three months.

Cindy Morrow has been with the show since Season 1. Her quality writing of the characters greatly shows. The entire crying scene was quite hilarious, with fantastic moments such as Pinkie Pie telling Twilight that Applejack “cries on the inside” with the orange pony saying “it’s true.” Sadly, Rainbow is just not good for a majority of the episode. Yes, her mindset is far different from somepony like Twilight’s, but to plot to stop winter is the characteristic of a madpony.This is evidence for the fact how close she is with Tank, which in that aspect it succeeds. But it would have been better if it had gone down a more mature way, because I don’t see  a young adult pony plotting to stop the winter without considering the bigger picture. The song featured, “I’ll Fly” is quite good, easily the best song of the season yet. In fact, this is the first time Rainbow Dash has a solo, and her voice actress Ashleigh Ball sings it wonderfully.

Overall, “Tanks for the Memories” is an emotional episode with a rather annoying Rainbow Dash. As seen in “Testing,” she is once again comically unreasonable. Yes, some of it is justifiable for the writing attempting to show how close she is with her tortoise, but it just goes to crazy levels. Still, there are some genuinely heartwarming moments, something My Little Pony is great with. As far as Rainbow Dash episodes go, it’s about middle of the pack.