S04:E07 - Bats!

[Shiny 54]

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN 

 

[Ventuslicious 26]

I loved that episode! I found Fluttershy as a bat cute, that is if she wasn't an apple juice sucking menace...

I loved that episode! I found Fluttershy as a bat cute, that is if she wasn't an apple juice sucking menace...

[BrawnyCharger 511]

First let me discuss my take on the argument regarding the bats between Applejack and Fluttershy. I stated this in a YouTube comment once.

 

I have arguments to make for both Applejack AND Fluttershy.

 

First, Applejack's side:

 

In her defense, I say she has a strong argument to make. Sweet Apple Acres is the Apple Family's home, business, and livelihood. It is also Ponyville's #1 source for apples. Every single apple on every single appletree on the grounds of Sweet Apple Acres is the Apple Family's source of food and income. That's why they have to make sure that ALL the apples are fresh and delicious for the customers. As long as Sweet Apple Acres thrives, the Apple Family remains healthy and financially stable, and Ponyville can enjoy the most delicious apples,apple pies, apple fritters, and especially the best apple cider that only Sweet Apple Acres can provide. However, if Sweet Apple Acres suffers, then life would be just unbearable for Applejack, Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, and the rest of the Apple Family, Not to mention how this would effect every pony in Ponyville who would then have to get apples imported from other parts of Equestria.

 

These bats are a most legitimate threat to Sweet Apple Acres. Part of running an apple orchard or any farm is protecting your crops from bugs, thieves, disease and other infestations. And it may appear as though the bats are going after a small part of the orchard, but a wildfire destroys everything in it's path, meaning that eventually more bats are going to start gorging on the apples until Sweet Apple Acres is sucked completely dry!!!!!! That's why I feel that Applejack has every right to do whatever is necessary to protect her livelihood.

 

However there is a reason Fluttershy has to go argue against Applejack.

 

Fluttershy (as her Element of Harmony clearly states) stands for kindness. She is well known as a champion for ALL living creatures (and I emphasize the word "ALL" very strongly) and that includes pests such as insects, vermin, snakes, and especially bats, the very bats that are threatening Sweet Apple Acres. Fluttershy feels a lot of sympathy for the fruit bats, claiming that they're "mommies and daddies". She also claims that the fruit bats spit out the seeds back into the orchard which will eventually grow into new apple trees. More on that in a bit. But the main reason that Fluttershy takes a stand in regards to the fruit bat infestation is because it is among her principles to take the sides of the animals regardless if they wind up doing more harm than good. So even though she sympathizes with Applejack and doesn't want to see Sweet Apple Acres destroyed, Fluttershy really doesn't want the fruit bats harmed or to suffer as a result of her friends' decision to drive them off. So even if the situation winds up harming her friends, Fluttershy ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT go back on her principles for ANYPONY!

 

As for which pony I'm going to side with on this issue, I am going to approach this from a realistic point of view.

 

Fluttershy's argument about the bats spitting out the seeds is actually flawed. Granted that it would cause new apple trees to grow on the orchard, but realistically, a new apple tree doesn't spring up overnight. I read somewhere that it takes an apple seed 6-10 years to grow and produce apples, which is quite a long time and there is ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE that the Apple Family, Ponyville, or bill collectors are going to wait until Sweet Apple Acres recovers that long. This issue has absolutely nothing to do with the concern for the welfare of animals. This is an issue regarding survival. As much as I hate to admit it, the Element of Kindness has to take a back seat here, because if Applejack doesn't fight back against the fruit bats, then the apple family won't survive! It's either "suffering fruit bats" or apple famine.

 

I'm ruling in favor of Applejack.

 

As far as the rest of the episode goes, I really enjoyed various parts of it. I enjoyed the nod to the bat-signal in the sky with the cutie marks. I enjoyed the Flutterbat. But I had wished that they wouldn't have given part of the orchard to the fruit bats. I wish that they would have had Fluttershy just adopt a few fruit bats and just feed them some apples that were bought and paid for. But at least we won't get apple famine.

 

I enjoyed the episode nonetheless.

[PacificGreen 1,163]

Wow, I can't believe it's been over two years since this episode aired! Feels just like only a few months ago.

 

Anyways, I think we need more Fluttershy and Applejack. I hope a future episode has the map calling the two of them together.

Edited January 23, 2016 by PGNatsu

[Steve Piranha 29,419]

I hope Flutters shows that cute fang of hers again 

[Chrystella 15]

I may need to re-watch this episode, but why did Fluttershy turn into a bat? Something tells me it was intentional but I don't know for sure...

[powerpuff-tsubasa 448]

i liked seeing fluttershy becoming a bat

 

BEWARE OF FLUTTERBAT

[ChB 18,550]

I wouldn't be surprised if this episode has inspired some horrifying fan-art, involving Fluttershy, the stare, and the spell.

[cmarston1 5,959]

This episode really grew on me.

The song is great and it was nice to see an episode focusing on both Applejack and Fluttershy which is a pair we never got to see before this episode.

[Thrond 3,263]

I find this episode kinda insidious. It pretends to be about short-sightedness and tries to be about peer pressure, but it pushes its pseudo-environmentalist subtext so hard that it feels unbalanced and manipulative. Scenes supposed to depict Applejack's side triggering Fluttershy's anxiety come across as demonizing her, because it leans too heavily into the ethical side of the argument. I find it insufferable, as Applejack has a perfectly fine point about the pests hurting her farm, and Fluttershy only briefly counters that in a reasonable fashion. It fails to be properly nuanced, and that weakens its arguments considerably. I like the episode more when it gets sidetracked by Flutterbat, but then the stinger at the end invalidates the conclusion of that subplot, so it's all pointless anyway. Ugh. 

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

I liked the Bats Song and it was entertaining to watch a real Bat-Pony in action. After we just saw the 2 ones, carrying Luna, without doing anything in one Episode.

[Ziltoid the Omniscient 286]

I get to listen to the song from this episode multiple times a day. It's one of my daughters favorites.

 

STOP THE BATS!! STOP THE BAAAAATS!!!!

[Thrond 3,263]

I still just think the environmentalist message is facile and poorly delivered. What, did Applejack just let the fruit bats suck her trees dry until the sanctuary was ready? That's her livelihood at stake, y'know. Both Fluttershy's and Applejack's arguments are reduced to annoying caricatures in the musical number, but the episode simply doesn't take Applejack's argument very seriously; when Fluttershy comes up with a very clear solution, Applejack & co. don't even consider it. And why do all of Fluttershy's friends so quickly take Applejack's side? Do they not care about animals? Rarity and Rainbow get it the worst, because their motivations are just so shallow and selfish, and that's all just really annoying to me. I at least see the peer pressure angle now, but that feeds even further into the episode not giving Applejack's side fair consideration. As a result, I find much of this episode incredibly annoying, if not as insidious as I used to - it's just kinda crummy. The Flutterbat stuff is fun, but it still feels like a distraction, something to keep the episode from actually backing up its argument. It just seems so much easier for everyone if Applejack and Fluttershy came up with a compromise of some sort. Plus, why was Fluttershy distracted by the mirrors? I don't think that's how the Stare works. The song's catchy, though. 

Score:
Entertainment: 5/10
Characters: 3/10
Themes: 6/10
Story: 3/10
Overall: 43/100

[bigbertha 414]

The story of this episode is a bit of a mess. The message about the vampire fruit bats was underdeveloped and the explanation of how Fluttershy became a vampire is really stupid. The way the Flutterbat conflict was solved was also stupid. What makes episode enjoyable is the comedy and the atmosphere. The first half was decent enough with a great song and okay jokes. But the second half kicks it into high gear with better jokes and a nice dark setting.

Also the "Spike is useless" joke is especially funny since this episode came right after 'Power Ponies".

Score: -6/10

Edited August 15, 2018 by bigbertha

[Meushell 52]

I enjoyed this episode, though largely because of Flutterbat. 

Twilight putting a spell on the bats was a stupid move on her part. Doesn’t she and the others remember what happened last time she tried to alter what creatures ate? I wonder what the bats were eating after the spell.

The use of the large apple was kind of silly. It seemed like slicing a few small ones would have had the exact same effect. I know what the writers were going for, but it didn’t work for me.

[starrymiss 114]

Flutterbat is cute. The reason she became a bat was dumb. 

Also, the resolution was dumb. No matter what way you look at it, those bats were pests that were threatening Applejack's livelihood. 

I liked that Fluttershy stood up for herself, even in the face of literally everyone telling her she was being dumb, but... leaving a part of your livelihood for the pests to feed off of? That would only encourage them to return.

[qwerE 96]

Flutterbat is one of the best things ever! The whole episode was so fun because of her. I really found this episode entertaining.

However, I do think that the comments here criticizing its poor environmentalist message has a point. I still find it hard to defend Fluttershy's point because of how terrible the situation seemed to be. To make her point more convincing, the writers should have said that the bats were sucking only some, and not all of the apples. Saying that AJ should leave the bats alone until the sanctuary is built does feel ridiculous.

 

[bigbertha 414]

Why does this episode try to convince the audience that Applejack's in the wrong? She has a point. If the vampire bats aren't taken care of, her apples will suffer and her family will suffer. Yet the episode says that she's being too harsh and should just give the bats a section of the orchard, which is a terrible plan since the bats can still go to any other part of the orchard. It's not like there's a dome keeping them from leaving. Fluttershy is not right here, yet the episode paints Applejack as the antagonist for wanting to protect her crop. This is the most frustrating during the song where, despite how good the song is, Applejack is shown as being too aggressive while Fluttershy is portrayed as angelic in her solution. This message is what the episode is about so it's a big problem. If the solution at the end was actually a good one, this might not've been as bad, but nope. It's just a fence around a part of the orchard. Nothing to stop this whole situation from happening again. Even if the sanctuary keeping the bats in is in the process of being built, the bats could get to the rest of the orchard before the sanctuary is built. 

Everything else isn't much better. Fluttershy becoming a bat is a fun idea, but it comes off more as a distraction from the big problem with the episode with how bad the explanation for how Fluttershy becomes a vampire bat is. The jokes are mostly pretty dull and there's nothing that good here. The atmosphere while the mane six are chasing Flutterbat is pretty well done, but if I wanted creepy atmosphere, I could just go to Castle-Mania. That episode at least didn't try to shove in a bad message and kept things simple. 

Score: 2/10

Edited January 23, 2019 by bigbertha

[bigbertha 414]

5 minutes ago, Bas said:

@bigbertha Did you just change your rating from -6 to 2? That's quite an improvement.

The negative meant I still liked it, just as a guilty pleasure.

[Rushing cash 836]

Flutterbat is best fluttershy, I could not believe they actually went this far and showed her transformation. The bats song is a great song, I liked how it went from the dark version of AJ to shys brighter. The moral was important and the visuals were amazing however they should have showed more of the situation in shys favor cause it looked pretty bad and shys points did not seem convincing at all,otherwise, it was one of the best episodes in season 4 for me, 9\10

[SunburstRainbow2019 3]

Poor Fluttershy is all I can say, but she couldn't control the urge too become a bat, but really was an interesting surprise too see

 

8/10

[Justin_Case001 4,881]

It was okay.  I enjoyed it, and the song was decent, but I wasn't a fan of how they all sort cruelly ganged up on Fluttershy like that.

The best part of this episode was Fruit Bat Round-Up.  I really wish they had written and recorded a full version of that song.  I mean, like, a entire, proper version, full lyrics, music, the whole thing.  I really want to hear that.

[Astralshy 26,421]

Good episode with a great song.

The idea of FlutterBat was definitely is a fun one. I also liked the scene where Twilight explained what happened.

And yes how could I forget Pinkie Pies drill mane

On 2020-10-21 at 6:15 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

 I enjoyed it, and the song was decent, but I wasn't a fan of how they all sort cruelly ganged up on Fluttershy like that.

This was the one thing in this episode I didn't like.

[Tom Gallagher 33,581]

4 hours ago, Astral Soul said:

This was the one thing in this episode I didn't like.

I always thought that the Mane Five ganging up on Fluttershy was only part of the song in kind of a fantasy way because right after, they’re all pretty calm again and Rarity is acting more sympathetically than she was in the song.  Just my reasoning. 

[Astralshy 26,421]

10 hours ago, TomDaBombMLP said:

I always thought that the Mane Five ganging up on Fluttershy was only part of the song in kind of a fantasy way because right after, they’re all pretty calm again and Rarity is acting more sympathetically than she was in the song.  Just my reasoning. 

You can totally see it like this :) Their behavior towards Fluttershy changes right after the ending of the song just as you said . Still I didn't like it and that's all I mean