Nyactis Mewcis Catlum

I can't tell if people are trolling or using anti-humor (in which case, you totally got me, congrats), but in case it wasn't obvious: these two being her proposed parents is a joke. Their cutie marks are related to chickens.

Strange. "Hurricane Fluttershy" was in Season 2, and "Wonderbolts Academy" and "Sleepless in Ponyville" were both in Season 3. This is also leaving out "Sonic Rainboom", which is usually cited as the reason a lot of people become bronies. I'm not saying that I don't believe you, I just find it interesting and curious.

So I'm guessing you didn't like "Hurricane Fluttershy", "Rarity Investigates", "Pinkie Pride", "Wonderbolts Academy", "Flight to the Finish", "Sleepless in Ponyville", "Too Many Pinkie Pies"... damn that's a lot of episodes.

This is absolutely paramount. Even bad episodes can have something to like or talk about as long as they have something interesting within them. The worst sin to be committed in entertainment is to be boring. So yes, this would have to be the absolute base-line of what makes a good episode - and not just in MLP. This is not necessarily important for me personally; I can still like an episode whose moral at the end I don't agree with, and I can hate episodes that have good morals. MLP: FiM is constrained by its moral framing, though, and it always will be given the SoL direction it generally takes, so a good moral wouldn't hurt the episode, at least. Somewhat important. Established characters should behave like their established personalities in other episodes. I don't think episodes have to continue off of other episodes, although the fact that this show does build off of other episodes is a strength in its favor. That being said, MLP: FiM is primarily episodic more than story-arc driven, like A:TLA, so if an episode doesn't have much connection to other episodes, it's not going to count against the episode so long as it doesn't contradict previous episodes, either. A lot of people are bothered by little details, such as debating over an Equestrian year and how much time has passed between x event, but those personally don't bother me and I don't expect the show staff to keep intimate track of that. It is, however, really impressive when an episode does keep track of that, so again, like a good moral, it wouldn't hurt the episode to have strong continuity. I think this relates to continuity. Again, somewhat important. For some shows, character development isn't that important, but MLP: FiM has shown that character development and interaction is a big focus, and therefore it is pretty important to MLP: FiM in particular. A character shouldn't be learning the same lesson over and over again, for instance. World development is not really important much at all. MLP: FiM is a SoL show with some action at the end of the day. It's not your next Lord of the Rings, and I don't expect it. Again, as I said with the previous things, it doesn't hurt the episodes - so long as the world development is done well. If it contradicts previous development, it might raise some eyebrows. In addition to that, if the world building dilutes the focus of an episode, I'd rather cut out the world building than anything else the episode presents. Entertainment is the most important part of an episode as well as considering the audience and implications in the episode. Characters are, at the end of the day, tools for storytelling. I'm willing to forgive some out of character moments if the ride is enjoyable, or that out of character moment is justified well enough. World building is something I don't go to MLP: FiM for, so I personally am not into that, but I can understand why other people enjoy it since it's a fantasy land and fantasy lands have the most interesting world building of any. Still, I do think that MLP: FiM should have some internal integrity. It's just that some things that may be implausible at their current explanation I'm willing to forgive if an episode has the right amount of heart and strong character interaction. It bugged people that Scootaloo was up all night on her own in "Flight to the Finish" for instance, but it was something that didn't personally bother me as much because the core message and everything else about the episode make me like it enough that it just didn't get to me much. It's not that it's not a valid complaint, but I'm willing to forgive an episode's flaws more if it's got heart, or if it's really entertaining the full way through.

Those are pretty good additions, but here are some others I'd like to provide: If you're going to include the Remane 5 for the solution about Fluttershy's escalation, have each of them provide a viewpoint with respect to their character. This is a problem I'm noticing with the show in general, but the Mane 6 or otherwise are being treated as one group of mouthpieces, which might be what's making people feel like they have less focus. If you're going to bring certain characters, have there be a reason you choose those specific characters to be there. "Top Bolt" is actually a good example of what I'm talking about, as it has Rainbow and Twilight's suggestions play into their character. Something like that could be utilized here. This is more of a pacing issue, but if the focus of the episode is on the whacky personalities, allow each of the personalities more time to shine. This could easily be done by trimming some of the unnecessary jokes (such as Fluttershy being the last for Rarity to ask) to make time for each personality to have time to get established. There are people who have said that they don't understand some of the dialogue of the personalities, and this is likely due to those personalities not having enough establishing time. Give Fluttershy more of a reason to change her approach. There was one instance of that within the episode, but it didn't receive enough spotlight and it doesn't explain why she became more aggressive. Have the customers be more resistant to her approach which would make her feel as though she must escalate it. This is more of a personal gripe, but the moral of the episode of "be yourself" is not that great of a moral. A better moral perhaps would be something that is a bit more like "Putting Your Hoof Down" if you want to make a similar approach, but with more nuance, such as the fact that customers being jerks to you doesn't mean you can be jerks to them, or to trust your own judgment in a situation. I can't think of the best moral for this on the fly, but pretty much anything would be better than "be yourself". It's really a moral I think we should stop preaching in general. When Fluttershy is getting out of line, have Smokey and friends approach Rarity first. If you want the other Mane 6 to be there instead and have Rarity come in last, it'd be easy to explain away with a line of dialogue from the Mane 6 or otherwise that Rarity was too busy, so Smokey and friends came to them instead. That's just a few suggestions, I'll put in more if I think of them.

DQ already pointed out flawed reasoning, but I want to focus on this in particular. You are aware that the people who complain about characters being OOC are doing so because of character development, right? Character development, by definition, suggests that a character changes over time. Also, Jeric pointed it out earlier, but while people do have different attitudes and change their dispositions in certain situations, people also generally have a moral compass that they will not defy no matter the circumstance, and insulting her animals would be one for Fluttershy. Insulting other ponies is one thing (it's still atrocious, especially the comment that she made to Rainbow which was extremely out of line and literally actual stereotyping), but animals are Fluttershy's livelihood and her special talent, it's nigh impossible to buy that she would insult them under any circumstances. It might be an easier sell if - hilariously enough - the episode took a "Putting Your Hoof Down" approach in which Fluttershy would tear up and outwardly feel awful about it, but it actually didn't. Fluttershy seemed a little down about it, sure, but not the crippling guilt that she has been demonstrated to feel when hurting others in other episodes. Yes, there are certain people with whom I get upset when I'm normally pretty chill, but even in those situations I never resort to name-calling. Ever. No matter how upset I've gotten. It just doesn't happen, period. That's what I mean.

This is actually a really interesting idea. Rainbow would make the most sense as she's impulsive about reacting to aggressiveness. In fact, the fact she only reacted as aghast as everyone else in this episode was strange to me. Plus, it'd be a much more interesting lesson to have that you can't be a jerk back to someone just because they're a jerk to you. It's a lesson a lot of people need to learn. And it'd be an interesting variety over the countless episodes in which she's made insensitive for no good reason. In this case, you could actually sort of understand why she would be like that. Interesting premise that got muted because of its execution deciding to trail after "Putting Your Hoof Down". That's how I can sum up this episode. Also, Andrea Libman was The Bomb, too bad the episode itself isn't that great. Also, I don't like "be yourself" morals very much and I think this episode exemplifies why. The methodology Fluttershy was using at the beginning for the storepony persona was actually pretty good, especially the first thing she said while using that persona. You're kind of supposed to do that when you're acting as a businessperson. If you don't know the answer to a customer's question, you kinda gloss over that, praise the customer, and advertise how the product would benefit their life anyway and how their potential complaint about it could be circumvented.