art by Circus-Cinnamon

This was simply fantastic. As much as I enjoyed several of the others, “Top Bolt” ranks as the best map episode yet. And probably one of the best episodes for Rainbow Dash.

But on top of everything else that this episode does beautifully, and there is a lot, the most stand-out element of “Top Bolt” comes from what happened behind the scenes which brought us the background character Angel Wings.

In the words of Loquacious of Herd:

”As you may know, the folks working on My Little Pony are awesome. Not only do they produce this awesome show for all of us to enjoy, but they occasionally do good and charitable works for the fans. Angel Wings is the result of such kindness. “This character is the OC of Alexis "Lexi" Heule, and Lexi got to voice Angel Wings for the episode. All of this was facilitated through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a non-profit organization that arranges to fulfill the “wishes” of children (ages 3 – 17) who are suffering from life-threatening medical conditions. “So kudos to all involved, and my sincere wish that things go well for Ms. Heule.”

Kudos and best wishes indeed. I couldn’t possibly have said it better, LoH.

The Friendship is Magic Wiki has this to add:

Heule has a congenital heart disease and connective tissue disorder, and she was able to play her own character in the show through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, making her the second individual to do so after Sylvain-Nicholas LeVasseur-Portelance, who voiced Stellar Eclipse.

Above everything else, the kindness and generosity shown by the people who create this show deserves top recognition. These people already have our thanks and appreciation for the amazing show they have given us. But it is because of deeds like this that they are truly worthy of our admiration.

My thoughts on “Top Bolt” after the break.

art by Asika-Aida

In “Top Bolt”, our favorite plot device draws Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash together to tackle a friendship problem. And while this one has similarities to other map episodes, it markedly improves on those elements.

Unlike previous episodes, neither Twilight nor Rainbow are chosen because of a character flaw or weakness. This episode and the friendship problem plays instead to both of their strengths. Nor are either of them useful primarily for their unique abilities (like the ability to freeze a mob of ponies or the ability to talk to animals). While at first it looks like Twilight’s interest in academics and teaching may be her reason for being here, what really allows her to help with the problem is her own personal character growth.

In fact, the talks that Twilight and Rainbow have with Sky and Vapor (respectively) are some of the most mature and poignant character moments those to have had all season. Having Twilight help Sky Stinger regain hope by talking about her own growth from very flawed beginnings to being an example to others was incredible. And hearing Rainbow Dash draw out Vapor Trail’s desires for herself and help her embrace them was deeply touching.

Likewise, we again had a map episode where the two members of the Mane Six had very differing opinions on how to tackle the problem. But here too, “Top Bolt” excelled, as both characters made very strong points, drawn from personal experience. And what is more, they immediately talked to each other about this, explaining their reasoning and respecting each other’s viewpoints. There was no malice and no haughty assumption that one was right and the other wrong. And just as importantly, neither of them were framed as being obviously right or wrong by the episode. In fact, both strategies for tackling the problem were given a try, and they both failed.

In failure, greater understanding was gained. The point where both Twilight and Rainbow admitted their plans were flawed and why was yet another strong point in the episode.

art by tyuubatu

“Top Bolt” surprised me by delivering a very mature friendship problem, and one that had no easy answers. This is often the case in real life, where normally everything is more complicated and more morally grey than we would prefer (and that morning cartoons tend to portray). In this case, everything had to fall apart before they could even start to really fix the problems.

In the case of this episode, the core problems were those of a relationship grounded on a lie, and the mutually damaging nature of enabling.

Sky Stinger’s and Vapor Trail’s friendship was true (and, honestly, I cannot help but believe they are “best friends” in the Lyra and Bonbon sense… I ship them so much) and the emotions and caring are very real. Yet they were brought together by a “white lie” that, being allowed to continue and grow, had become something that threatened to seriously harm both of them. And with both the length of time that the lie had been allowed to continue, and the extent to which it was enacted, I cannot blame Sky Stinger for his reaction when the illusion was broken and reality set in.

Helping is good. We should seek to help our friends and strive to help each other. But there is a point where repeatedly helping ceases to be beneficial, when it actually becomes a bad thing. That occurs when helping prevents someone from improving on their own, or when it allows someone to continue on in a bad habit or avoid fixing a problem. At that point, helping has turned into enabling.

I have witnessed the poisonous effects of enabling on a marriage. And I have struggled to help a friend who inevitably proved unwilling to break the cycle. (To the point where I myself had to stop trying to help or become an enabler myself.) Not only was the person being enabled allowed to spiral downwards without ever facing the reality that she needed help, but the person doing the enabling slowly became a shadow of his former self, putting all his effort into propping her up, while becoming beaten by the weight of it.

A relationship, whether a friendship or a marriage or any other, will be poisoned by a long-standing lie or by the type of dependency (or even co-dependency) that enabling will generate. In both situations, a break needs to be made before healing can occur. But when the people involved really and truly care about each other, that healing can occur. Sometimes, however, it does need a little outside intervention to begin. And here, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash step in to provide that needed intervention.

art by Sea-Maas

Both were in excellent character. Rainbow Dash in particular really showed how much she has matured as a character. Her bravado, while still there, remained in the back seat and never interfered with tackling the problem. In this episode, we got a wonderful continuation of her new career in the Wonderbolts, and with it we saw how naturally she is fitting in, and even how comfortably she has come to terms with her “Crash” nickname that was (understandably) such an issue for her in “Newbie Dash”.

I also loved the characterization of our pair of friends. Sky Stinger challenged the stereotype I had assumed of him when he asked Twilight and Rainbow Dash to help Vapor Trail. Vapor Trail’s first self-compliment was heartwarming, and it was so good that Rainbow Dash pointed it out. The dialogue for these two characters was perfectly written and I could absolutely believe in their relationship. Getting to see how things started was a level of development that we don’t often get for new characters, and it really went a long way to explaining the dynamics involved without being too complicated for a children’s show.

I have to point out that the drive for a “middle child” to excel in an attempt to garner the attention they feel (and often are) deprived of is fairly common and a classic seed for issues later in life. (And Sky Stinger definitely deals with this much better than Autumn Leaf does in Fallout: Equestria.)

As a side note, I also feel Spitfire’s characterization in “Top Bolt” really helped her characterization in previous episodes come together as a gestalt. Perhaps it is just me, but I have a much better and more rounded grasp of her than I did previously.

Wing Ponies:

The animation for Vapor Trail’s spin training was really cool, including a bit of rare first-pony-perspective.

I also found the split montage really interesting. Classically, a montage is used to show improvement over time. Here, we saw Vapor Trail improve over time, but Sky Stinger fail to do so in contrast.

We have a new location, presumably a pegasus city: Stratusburg!

Vapor Trail was utterly adorable with her “sugarcubes” and her best sneeze.

“Thanks. Good pep talk.” Perfect sarcasm.

Quote of the episode goes to Spitfire: “Do you want to tell me why one of my most promising students is flying like a balloon with a hole in it?!” That is an excellent metaphor.

It was nice to see they remembered Starlight Glimmer and had her at the castle, even if she had no role in the episode.

There were some interesting new pony designs amongst the trainees.

I loved the ponified version of Leonardo da Vinci’s classic L'Uomo Vitruviano in Twilight’s notes. Also, the idea that this information was “fresh in her mind” from events that happened at the beginning of Season Four reaffirms my suspicion that she has some sort of eidetic memory. That would also explain her reconstruction of a spell she had only read once back in the season premiere. Nice (if possibly unintentional) continuity.

I also really liked the podium in the Wonderbolts Academy classroom. I’m regularly impressed with the little details that the show’s artists include.

I liked that Rainbow Dash was the one to notice Vapor Trail was helping Sky Stinger.

We got a nice return of some of the pegasus training devices we have seen previously