MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #16 - Read It and Weep

Okay guys, what's up? This episode is all about Rainbow Dash learning the joys of reading, and yet I have noticed no significant increase in TwiDash shipping! This is absolutely unacceptable! I'm serious, you guys!

Also, this episode is incredibly silly. Spoilers to follow!



So with the episode beginning, we can safely file all the fanfics about Rainbow Dash breaking her wing(s) as very possibly canon! Since, despite her other shenanigans having left her unfazed, she breaks her wing here. Ah, cartoon physics!

So the episode is mostly in a hospital, introducing us to several new nurse and doctor ponies, and involving Rainbow being incredibly bored due to being cooped up. Twilight recommends a book for her in a sudden bout of inspiration, and Rainbow eventually begins to read said book after being stripped of any other possible recreational opportunities.

The book is called "Daring-Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone", and most of the episode is about it. Whether this is a good or bad thing kind of depends on your taste, but I was honestly kind of bummed that it ended up being more about Daring-Do and less about Rainbow Dash developing. Even the moral comes off as relatively weak because of it - Daring-Do is clearly the A-Side plot.

Also a tad bit odd is how the writers chose to portray the story. Instead of parodying a famous book or something similar, they instead make Daring-Do a very definite knock-off of Indiana Jones. Which is hardly a bad thing, as it certainly makes sense that Rainbow would be interested in an action story, but it just seems odd. Even the sequences portrayed as within the book are very clearly shown as movie-esque sequences, complete with scratchy film-style effect and the widescreen borders on the top and bottom. Admittedly I'm not entirely sure how they could've portrayed the book as more, well, book-like, but it just seems weird from an artistic standpoint.

The emphasis on Daring-Do does give plenty of great action sequences, though, which are things we don't typically see in MLP, so the variety is really nice. The villain of Daring-Do is also pretty cool, despite being completely ridiculous looking, as he is based on an old North American mythological creature. It's always cool when the writers pull in that sort of thing!

Which ultimately makes the point clear: this is not an episode intended to be particularly insightful or to make a particularly emotional reaction, it is a distinctly comedy/action episode. Whether that's a good thing or bad thing really depends on your point of view. Personally I wish it had had more content to at least be thought-provoking, like Lesson Zero did. As the episode stands, it seems a little cut-and-dry.

Not that the humor is bad, mind you! There are some really great gags and references, my favorite of which being the distinct implication (though it is never actually said) that Rainbow Dash has been in the hospital plenty of times before. But I feel like the humor never quite reaches the levels of, say, The Last Roundup, and the lack of substantial plot doesn't help back this up.

Overall, this is an episode that is all about Daring-Do, not Rainbow Dash, which is interested but not quite the sort of thing that really strikes me as fantastic in an MLP episode. This is definitely one of my more subjective reviews due to its nature, so I have difficulty pinning down a rating.

For me, at least, I'll give Read It and Weep a

for the forth time this season, I'll give this episode a

6.5/10

Pros:
-Pretty funny, full of amusing gags and quips
-Some of the best action int he series

Cons
-Strictly comedy/action, not spreading its boundaries much
-The lesson feels very weak due to not really being the main plot
-Very little substantial character interaction

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In conclusion, I set my hopes up very poorly for this episode. I probably would've liked it more if I hadn't been looking forward to the Rainbow/Twilight interaction it seemed to imply. Aaaahhh well, I suppose. It was still a solid episode, just not exactly one of my favorites.

Next week is the Valentine's Day episode! That's pretty crazy! Apparently Big Mac and Cheerilee are going to get together, at least temporarily. It will almost certainly be temporary, really, but I honestly wouldn't mind that being a canon couple.

Just as long as the next episode has Zecora in it, I will no-doubt be quite happy.

~C.O