Ask Rainbow's Dad

I personally prefer something more along the line of an uncle than a brother.  The Mane Six all have siblings already and we don’t need anymore.  There is also an extreme lack of siblings in all the photos RD’s parents had.  So either they only had the one foal, or they are completely ignoring their son in favor of Rainbow Dash.  Which I find doubtful because Bow and Windy are such loving parents, they would never ignore a single child of their’s.

As of right now, I am placing Blaze as Bow Hothoof’s brother.  His twin brother to exact.  Same colors and they both sported the same hair style when Bow was younger.  A younger brother or cousin might also work too, but that hair do man.  Strong brother vibes coming from that hair.

Hey now.  You are making me sound old here when you say retire!  ^_^;

Say hello to the new Rainbow Dad!

Thanks to our Canadian neighbors up north, this episode came out sooner than when we Americans will be able to watch.  Which is good and bad depending on if you consider this a spoiler.  So as fair warning, I will be talking about the episode... mostly.  If we can get pass the part where I gush over Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles that is.

First, let me address the rainbow colored elephant in the room.  I think I can say that a LOT of people were upset that Rainbow Blaze turned out to be not the father of our rainbow bruiser, Dashie.  Can you blame them?  Hasbro did a pretty bad job at trying to decide if they should make Blaze RD’s canon father.  In the TCG, he was named and given the title of “Rainbow Dash’s Mentor”.  Which is a pretty big deal when it comes to establishing a connection with a main character.  When you have a mentor that is rainbow colored, male, an adult pony when Dash was still a filly, and you have everything you need to conclude that Blaze and Dash are related.

According to one of the designers in the staff, the pony in the flashback in “Games Ponies Play” was not intended to be Rainbow’s father but just another horse entirely.  A lot of people can argue that the physical similarities are way too strong for that statement to be true.  Ofcoarse, it is possible that she had meant that on the production side of things and Blaze was just a happy little accident.  In any case, whether intentional or not, Blaze clearly had a huge influence on Bow Hothoof’s design.  The color scheme being the biggest tip off along with their cutie marks having a cloud and rainbow trail in them.

As somebody that had been working on this blog since Blaze first shown up, I was highly anticipating this episode since the characters’ names where first announced.  On that day, I knew that my ask blog is completely noncanon instead of being semi-noncanon.  So seeing whether or not Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles can meet my expectations was an annoying tingle that festered my brain for months.  Now that the episode is out, I am glad to say that the two have passed the test.

You see, I had two clear visions of what RD’s parents would be like.  One of them, as you may have already figured out, was the Rainbow Dad blog.  Single dad taking care of his daughter by himself.  A mix of being an incredibly cool dad and a super embarrassing dad towards Rainbow.  Somepony that Dash can get along with, but not be seen in public with.  Pretty much a loving but overbearing dad.

The second headcanon of mine is just like the first, but in stereo.  I knew that if Rainbow Dash ever did get parents in the show, they would be the super enthusiastic supporting types.  Dashie has always been a very ego driven character so it stands to reason that her parents are the type of ponies to fuel that fire.  She is also seen as somebody with hidden insecurities as well.  So I always figured that, whether it be just one or both, that her folks would be one of those “super fans” you see at sporting events.  Being so loud and obnoxious about their cheering that Rainbow Dash would feel incredibly embarrassed by them.  They would be just too much.

And oooooh boy!  That is exactly what we got and I love it!  It is like they took a page from my unwritten book.  They even had Rainbow Dash NOT tell her parents that she is a Wonderbolt.  If I had been more competent with my own ask blog updates, that would have been the big reveal during the Hearth Warming Eve arc!  Like...  Dang!  Are the staff writers secretly downloading the contents of my brain or something?  This is just freaky.

As far as character designs go, you already have a good idea how I feel about Bow’s look.  He is an older version of Blaze with a scruffier face and he has a buzz cut.  Meanwhile Windy Whistles is a clone of Rainbow Dash except she has freckles and hair that is not a rainbow.  I am actually really glad for that last one.  Having both parents have rainbow hair or a mix of rainbows did not appeal to me much at all.  Rainbow hair, I feel, should be a rare recessive trait among ponies.  The red heads of pony society.  It would be a bit conceded if the only two ponies with rainbow hair decided to get together and make a rainbow haired kid.

It is also good that much like Twilight’s mom, Windy Whistles is also a throwback to the 80′s toyline and cartoon in the form of Windy Whislter.  Not quite Firefly but if you reverse the color scheme then you would have something to reach for, right?  Hopefully more people will catch onto the Windy Whistler part though.  Firefly got to be the first Wonderbolt.  Let Whistler be the baby mama, guys!

Now then, how was the episode?  This was suppose to be a sort of review, right?  Well, yeah.  I like it.  Though I might be a bit bias for obvious reasons.  The episode is pretty simple.  Scootaloo meets up with Rainbow’s parents, we spend time watching the three fangasm over her, Scoots brings them to Rainbow Dash and they embarrass her, she gets mad at them, she learns to appreciate that they meant well, she apologizes to them, and everybody is one big happy family.

The lesson of the episode is pretty good if a bit situational.  Not all parents are like Dash’s so it is not a lesson that can universally fit into everybody’s life.  Another lesson that parents might get out of this episode is how you should be supportive of your child, but be aware that there is such a thing as too much.  Scootaloo was really good in this episode.  She is both the catalyst and the solution.  We also get a lot more subtle insight into her family life.  It is not made clear if her parents are dead or just very neglectful (in a too busy for bonding way).  She brings insight that Rainbow needed to realize her folk’s good intentions and repair the strain she had between them.

Okay,  So it has been awhile.  Like... a looooooong while!  A ridiculously long while.  Like, I haven’t done anything since October of last year while.  The reason for that?  Well...  Nothing really excusable.  Combinations of real life and creative blockage.  Made worse with my terrible procrastination tendencies.  And with the announcement of Rainbow’s REAL parents being revealed months ago, I have been sitting on my hands on how to address that.  So I did.  About three times.  None of them published cause I didn’t like how each of them sound.  But this time, I am going to be super clear.

As far as activity goes, this blog is more or less dead.  Officially.  With Rainbow’s parents now being canon, it’ll be odd to keep calling Rainbow Blaze her dad.  Which I am not at all bitter about.  In fact, in a few moments, you’ll see that I am actually really happy with how that turned out!  But that will be later.  Maybe in another post dedicated to the episode Parental Glideance and how it did Dashie’s parents right by my book.  Like seriously, Bow Hothoof is basically my version of Rainbow Blaze but much happier.  Cause he still has a wife.  God, I am a monster.

So what does this mean for the Rainbow Dad blog?  Is it going to be DEAD dead?  Well...  Not really.  What I really want to do is make atleast one last comic.  A proper send off like all those other blogs.  It can be one big comic or a series of smaller ones.  Either way, I will be giving this blog some proper closure.  That, I feel, is only fair.

So as far as being an ask blog goes, yeah it’s dead.  Not that I have been very good at keeping up with it anyway.  Especially during all of last year!  And with me being busy in the near future, I doubt would have improved.  That said, I think I can rework this blog into a normal pony art blog.  See how that fairs.  Have it be based on the Rainbow family as a whole.  Will Rainbow Blaze still be in it?  I don’t see why not.  Rainbow Blaze is such a radical name that it’ll be a waste not to make him RD’s uncle or brother.  Strongly leaning on uncle though.  Cause we do not need anymore siblings for the main six. Zephyr Breeze is the last one!  No more!  We’re done with that nonsense!  The families have been filled!  Extended families only yo!  No siblings!  Period.

So yeah.  Clearing the ask box and I will be answering anything you folks give me.  It can be either you saying good bye to Rainbow Blaze, or maybe questions about the overall story of this blog and its characters.  I would love to answer some of those actually.  It’ll be fun to finally spill the beans.  No reasons to hold onto any of those secrets, right?  Maybe I can do some doodling upon requests.  I am a free agent now.  YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I WILL DO!

A grumpy dad giving out candy to all the good little ponies.

Me: Hmmm, that's an interesting question. I'll try to find the kind of thoughtful response this deserves while I browse my dashboard.

Me: Haha, you're too big to fit in that cup, kitty.