theonenamedDJ

There was something about this episode that was "off" to me. The plot felt very thin and meandering, like there was no conflict in it. Now that I think about it, the core conflict is presented about 9 minutes in and solved like 5-6 minutes later with a good 6-7 minutes left. This is also compounded by the fact that this episode has the least surface-level entertainment.

Fluttershy's characterization was pretty good but this leads me back to the whole "thin conflict" part. She barely struggles or doubts herself, there's no progression or flow or arc to her characterization, even the experts leaving is not really considered a big deal. Even Rarity had to give up on her dream after it had creatively and emotionally drained her in "Canterlot Boutique".

With the experts, I'm conflicted. On one hand, I'm not sure if simply discounting the expert opinions presents a good message. Then again, they were presented as going behind Fluttershy's back and not following her vision and I suppose this "never done before" idea was something they weren't willing to experiment with. Then again again, this could be a missed opportunity to bring up a more realistic moral, like if you can't put ideas onto solid clear plans, then they might not come into fruition. This would make Fluttershy have to rethink her plans and work better with the experts.

I just don't know about this episode...

Ugh, maybe I am getting too old for this show. Now spike himself was great and I can't say anything bad about the characterization, but the ending seemed so safe, saccharine, and far too optimistic for its own good. Because I'm sure if you sing really, REALLY well and with such LUV and PASSION in your heart you too can solve prejudice and paranoia. Yeah, no.

Stick to more personal social problems, like "Stranger than Fanfiction", or light character comedy like "saddle row review" because you are not smart or talented enough for something like this.

Selective memory? 2015 and Season Five gave us plenty of growth moments with Fluttershy. This last episode was just another entry in a long line of well crafted and genuinely purpose laden Fluttershy scenes or episodes. One even touched on a Erikson-esque stage 5 psychosocial aspect that many in this community completely missed.

 

Feels like a person who normally nets $165,000 annually making $175,000 proclaiming that it is the most money they have ever made. It may be technically true, yet it marginalizes prior accomplishments if not contextualized.

This thread was made before Flutter Brutter aired, and I wasn't sure what we were in for. And yes season 5 gave us plenty of moments of growth in her being more assertive, and maybe the occasional dry line. But those are generally when she is a secondary character, and those all revolve around the "shy-to-assertive" arc. What I'm saying is we need more episodes, like flutter brutter, where they expand on her character past that. To give her more dimension and make her more interesting and dynamic.

Rarity is complex, varied and versatile, and has been since pretty much from the start. Principled, savvy in business, sees fashion as an art rather than through trends, hammy, overdramatic, prideful, socially aware, confident, generous, caring, ambitious, all things demonstrated by fashion horse. I credit this as one of the reasons her episodes are usually so well-received. I just wonder if Fluttershy can even come close to level of characterization after 6 seasons.

One of the biggest complaints about Fluttershy is that she always learns the same lesson. While I think this is an MASSIVE oversimplification, it does seem like that the writers have little direction for her. Season 5 had moments where she was assertive in order to reel her friends in, and emphasizing her love of animals in ways that were lost since season 1. But these are mostly developments as a secondary/supporting character and more to reinforce already established but forgotten traits.

What I'm wondering is what would be good for her character. What other things can be done with her to expand on her character beyond shyness (which should no longer a big problem) and her love of animals?

Some of my broad ideas:

-A teaching role: after so much experience with facing fear, I feel like a good opportunity to cap this off is to help someone else with their own problems with shyness. Maybe even one of her friends having a crisis of nervousness and helping them through it

-An animal that doesn't like her or she can't understand: The raccoons in "Saddle Row Review" and Philomena's trolling show that her connection with animals can be fallible (in my opinion). I would like there to be an animal that is not receptive to Fluttershy's attempts to befriend them and she has to either learn to accept that not everyone will care for her or that despite so much experience with animals she can still make mistakes. The latter I would prefer because, since Fluttershy's connection with animals is something she has based a lot of her life on, it could give her some pride in her talent and a chance to show how despite being so experienced, she can still make mistakes.

-Give her a ritual with one of the other Mane 6: I like that Fluttershy had spa days with Rarity and that she and Discord had a regular tea time. I think they should expand on this and give her some ritual or get-together with one of the other Mane 6. An example in the comics had Applejack and Fluttershy have camping trips. Having one-on-one would be better for fluttershy to reinforce the idea of her being an introvert, give her a unique dynamic with one of the other Mane 6, and give her some some secondary traits and interests to round her out.

That's all I got right now. Is there any directions you think Fluttershy should go to get her out of this rut.

I have him on my subscription list. While I don't always agree with his opinion, he is always entertaining.

If you don't mind, can I have an example where you did not agree with him? Not judging, just curious.

Silver Quill is one of my favorite brony reviewers and has been since the end of season 4. He has a goofy sense of humor that makes him stand out from many other reviewers, he is very polite and accepting of other viewpoints (whenever he gives his opinion on something, he is almost never obsessive or angry), and I like the way he approaches reviewing an episode from as many angles as possible. He also at least knows more about television/film production and storytelling compared to many other brony reviewers.

What do you think of him?

I guess like you said, details about the synopsis, if there will be any other actors voicing other characters, maybe some screen shots or concept art.

I'm surprised that this is going on at Cannes Film Festival, The FIM Movie doesn't sound like the kind of movie that would be discussed at such an event.

Nope, never offended me.

Never even got me angry. Okay I lied, I did get angry, but in retrospect I was being an idiot.

It's not the type of show that means to ruffle some feathers or pop some monocles, although like many said some types the writers can screw up and have something with unfortunate implications or with a bad interpretation.

While criticizing bad writing is perfectly acceptable, I don't think a bad or poorly delivered moral will screw up a kid, considering that kids are smarter than that and their family, friends, and the world will ultimately be bigger teachers of morals and values than a kid's show. It's not an excuse to not write good morals and satisfying stories, but there is an limit to what fiction can do.

You know I'm not going to rate the individual seasons because i cannot be arsed.

So I will say this: I would score objectively (as in taking it's goals and strengths/weaknesses into account) score it as a 7.5/10.

What it has going for it is very endearing characters and interactions, and teaching morals through earnestness, sometimes cleverness, and some pretty decent development of those characters. What holds it back is being inconsistent with episode to episode quality, and it having to be written for young audiences in mind means it cannot be expected to be as mature or gutsy as a lot of other cartoons (or maybe that's just hasbro's decisions).

 

@@VG_Addict, At least two components that SU does better than FIM are:

1. More consistent story quality. In FIM, you have a good mediocre-to-terrible lineup of episodes. SU has a lot of good-to-great episodes.
2. It deals with some mature themes better than FIM. Most notably in SU, gender identity and homosexuality. Even in eleven minutes, SU isn't afraid to explore themes and not pull back punches. FIM deals with mature themes, too, particularly in seasons four and five. Many of the FIM's best episodes, like Amending Fences, executes very strong, real themes. But sometimes they really screw them up

 

I generally agree with those 2 points, but looking back to when I watched SU, I remember hating the slice of life episodes. I really disliked the episodes where Steven was paired up with someone from beach city, it just wasn't interesting to me. The show's a lot better when it was focused on the development of the gems. Even in the "screwed up" episodes of FIM, at least it was lively and entertaining. Steven Universe can put me in a roller coaster of reactions, but unfortunately one of the most common is "sleepy".

I'm glad this episode acknowledges that you can try new things, not be good, but still enjoy doing them. There is an overall message of trying new things in order to meet new people and make new friendships and becoming more well-rounded as a result. So yeah I like this episode.

Also I swear that Taps is Fluttershy's brother, I mean it would make perfect sense.

There is a possibility that season 6 will be the last, and the movie will be the send off.

However Hasbro tends to deal with their properties in generations. So I like the idea of Legend of Korra/The Next Generation situation where there is a new group of friends who have to learn friendship lessons and become closer to each other. New personalities, new dynamics, new stories, new character developments...

Thoughts?

I couldn't stand this episode. Fluttershy got some actual character development in the first half of this season with having to be blunt with Rainbow and having to be firm with Discord, not to mention one of the best lessons in "breezies" (notice how most of these were written by Natasha Levinger). I thought they were past this, I thought they were going to expand Fluttershy's character and try new things with her. 

Well, that's what I get for being optimistic.

This episode makes me angry with how safe it is, with how.. regressive it is towards Fluttershy. She is scared of Halloween decorations and being startled by some vague non-existant scenario if she so much as turns her head at the wrong time. I refuse to believe that Fluttershy is this paranoid and this cowardly. The truth is I'm more angry about what this episode represents than its actual story. It represents the knowledge that no matter what, the writing staff will just not try to give any kind of plot that will expand Fluttershy's character. Even Levinger, who writes great Fluttershys in the past, will do this and kill all the good will I had for her.

FUCK THIS EPISODE!

I really liked it. The yaks were really annoying, but aside from that interesting world building, returning minor characters, and Pinkie Pie was just delightful. It's everything I could ask for and more in a Pinkie episode.

"How would you like it of every one was flying with 10.0 wingpower, and you were only flying with 2.3"

"Well I... uhhh, I..."

"EXACTLY! Humiliated. I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I just can't do it."

This is sad on two levels. Fluttershy feels like she doesn't measure up to the other pegasi, showing how much the bullying from the past has affected her.

But also Rainbow Dash has trouble trying to figure out how to tend to her. She has trouble relating to her and giving the right words to help her, despite wanting to fly with her best friend.

I don't care for EQG but it is canon and the events are known to the main characters. Nothing I can do about it.

I guess the character designs. I don't like the skirts, or the way the torsos look like they only have 10% of the character's body weight.

Because plot convenience...

But outside that, I think Fluttershy is a decent flyer hampered by insecurities. Adrenaline and focus, however can do wonders. Faster than Rainbow Dash though... no.

I personally love them. Their episodes usually have really good morals, a lot of charm, and are usually pretty funny too. Hell, I actually look forward to CMC episodes.

Maybe it's because they're children who have some growing up to do, but the lessons they learn are usually quite good. Every episode has given them some decent character development, and has given them interesting conflicts.

I think what I also like about them is that they don't feel as... archetypal as the Mane 6. In their episodes, they don't feel as exaggerated as the Mane 6 tend to feel. For the sake of comedy or plot, the Mane 6 can be written as exaggerated at times, but the CMC have mostly avoided this.

So, what do you think of the little fillies?

I guess I'll go with "Lesson Zero" just for how batshit insane Twilight goes. (The rest of the mane 6 were pretty funny too)

Since I don't get Hub or Discovery Family here, I rely on dailymotion and watchcartoonsonline.com