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| It's often forgotten now that this short scene caused quite a stir back in 2012 |
Written by Charlotte Fullerton
3 Mar 2012
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.0
The one with goats.
Thoughts: One of the odder Fluttershy episodes here, and one that's elicited very mixed responses from the fandom. One reason for this is Angel, who behaves worse here than in almost any other episode, to the point of actually hitting Fluttershy. Obviously this is beyond the pale, though I'm irritated by those fans who ever since have simplified Angel's character as though he was always like that. We'll see later this very season that he isn't. Anyway, another oddity is the market scene – this is one weird market, with all sorts of unPonyvillish features. The Equestrian economy still makes absolutely no sense, but at least we get a "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" gag. Rarity and Pinkie try to get Flutters to stand up for herself, with... mixed results. And then it's off to the Hedge Maze to meet Iron Will, to my mind one of the more likeable antagonists the series has had. Most of the "New Fluttershy" stuff is a bit tiresome if you ask me, and the infamous "flying feather" euphemism stands out. (It was noticeably never used again.) However, the ep becomes much more likeable after Flutters realises that she is becoming a monster. We even get an Easter egg: her sad walk back to her cottage is modelled on the Hulk's "Lonely Man", piano theme and all. The final section, in which Iron Will comes to collect his fee and 'Shy stands up to him, is great fun – Pinkie's cartoonishness helps, including the episode's second "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" nod, but Fluttershy herself is the star. A very mixed bag of an episode, sometimes a rather strange one, but I think one with more to like than to dislike.
Choice quote: Bon Bon: "Try one of your jokes out on me. I laugh at everything."
New rating: ★★★
Next up is "It's About Time", another episode I haven't watched for a long time. I recall its being in the "like, not love" category last time around.
The original Hulk TV show? What a thing to reference! :D
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on Angel, but you know who else got shafted in this episode? Iron Will. He honestly didn't do anything wrong besides maybe not having a release valve on his self-improvement schema. "No refunds" is valid, he's just trying to run a business.
It's not until season seven that we find out he's actually a money-grubbing grifter. Funny as that episode was, I always felt like it was a retcon of his personality, because none of that shows up in this one. He's just really loud and stands behind his product!
I always thought that his singling out Fluttershy as the one attendee who *didn't* volunteer to come up on stage, and then effortlessly getting her to take part even so obviously against her will in order to illustrate - not just to the audience, but also to Fluttershy herself - how badly she needed assertiveness training, was a great bit of writing.
DeleteHe was honestly good at what he did! And what he did wasn't even anything bad!
DeleteI think "weird" does cover this one pretty well, though I have slightly different likes and dislikes to you (shock)...
ReplyDeleteBut I agree Iron Will is "one of the more likeable antagonists the series has had", as well as being one of the funniest and hammiest. I especially like how Fluttershy is quick to deny that Iron Will is a monster; when push comes to shove, it's a triumph of Fluttershy's that she and he agree to terms at the end.
And yes, Angel is an abusive brat in this ep. He was always a bit on the pushy side, but the way he was written was an exaggerated misstep. I heard people cheered when he slammed into a tree in "Hurricane Fluttershy".
That said, now to disagree with you! ;P
I'm largely OK with the marketplace and the New Fluttershy scenes - I like the idea that we're seeing it from Fluttershy's POV, so that informs how it comes across a bit (maybe). Although Ponyville took its nasty pills throughout the episode, I think it's just enough to get a basic point across reasonably economically, and probably would work fine for a one-off. Sometimes, people are jerks, and all that. If it's condensed into a single ep randomly, it's awkward compared to the rest of the season, but I'm willing to give it a pass.
Lastly, I'm kind of bothered by how Rarity's and Pinkie's techniques were presented as "assertiveness". For one thing, they both involve trickery, just one was more emotionally manipulative and the other was cartoony word juggling. I'm open to the idea that the ending with Iron Will was a subtle way to torpedo that idea by having both techniques fail where Fluttershy's genuine assertiveness succeeded, but that subtleness seems shaky compared with the blatant endorsement it gets in the early offing.
Let's not forget to shift some censure onto Rarity, whose lesson on getting what you want involved empty flattery and seduction. She basically stole that guy's [whatever he had that Fluttershy wanted].
DeleteAsparagus, I believe. Nobody would get my asparagus that easily, as I absolutely love the stuff! (They grow excellent asparagus about 20 miles from me.)
DeleteOh, one more talking point on its own, because I sense my take is going to be controversial.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm almost certainly in a minority here, but one thing I also quite like is Fluttershy's blow-up scene at Pinkie and Rarity.
Not just from the dramatic standpoint that Fluttershy needs to go too far for the moral to stick - that's open to the charge of character derailment in service to the plot - but because I think it does make for an interesting character take too.
I've long held the idea that a good slice of Fluttershy's reclusiveness involves suppressing any anger or negativity, for fear of exactly what she ends up doing in this moment. And I've always been slightly attracted to characters who have darker or crueller parts of their minds that they usually put a lid on.
Plus, it's strangely yet viscerally satisfying to see a shy character get to lash out for a while, knowing full well they shouldn't. Like they get a moment to prove they're not doormats and don't pretend everything's hunky-dory. I can relate to that, in kind if not in degree.
So seeing her feel liberated enough to get existentially aggressive - while horrible - added a darker side to her character that I thought was a welcome addition (in the sense of being interested in her psychology, not in the sense of morally endorsing it). It's akin to those stories of heroes who suppress their own dark urges in order to be better people. In a way, even kind of admirable.
Plus, I can sort of see where her accusation of frivolity comes from, because it dances at the back of my mind a bit whenever Rarity's dressmaking or Pinkie's party obsession comes into play. Especially in Rarity's case - I've always had a bias towards practicality over artistic merit, so seeing her dressmaking get hit with that point kind of chimed with me.
Oh, it's nasty. By gods, it's nasty. It's not something I'd want the show to do as a matter of course. But I lean closer to finding it a fascinating moment than a character-breaking one. If anything, I'd have kind of admired the episode more for delving into that point, rather than going back to a more straightforward "Fluttershy stops being nasty now". It seems a bit deeper than usual.
To be fair, that moment also probably owes more in this case to the same writing that gave us Abusive-Angel. I'm willing to cut Fluttershy more slack on the grounds that she realizes and overreacts almost immediately to her own aggressive outburst.
And I'm probably talking through my hat. I don't know for sure these are the reasons I like the moment. They just seem the most obviously plausible.
That scene is why I was so disappointed when we finally met her parents. "Her shyness is genetic" is just nowhere near as satisfying to me as having well-meaning but overbearing parents. (I've read a lot of stories where one or both of her parents were abusive, and while that also fits, no way would it make it on screen.)
DeleteOf course, Dash got those and look how she turned out. <.< Maybe it would have been funnier if they'd swapped parents?
The first time I saw "Flutter Brutter", I did find it disappointing that Fluttershy's parents were also shy. Of all the ways to go with her family, that particular direction fell flat for me.
DeleteThat said, the episode does suggest that Fluttershy, if anything, was the confident one, so there might be a way to make it work. Have Fluttershy be the well-meaning but overbearing kid once, get into a troubled incident as a result, and then learn from her parents the understandable but unwise lesson that she should repress all bad feelings from now on.
Still game for the "Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy swap parents" concept, though! Oh, the fun you could have with that one... :D
No, Will wasn't bad, at least not in premise, but I do think some of his assertiveness went too far. It went beyond standing up for yourself and straight into bullying/antagonism. Exhibit A: Fluttershy immediately jumping to yelling at and insulting the mares blocking the bridge instead of making a firmer request. This was definitely an up-and-down episode, with snippets I really liked or didn't like rapidly alternating The ending was probably the best part. Not only was I put off by Angel's abusive behavior, but that nobody called him out on it except for urging Fluttershy not to put up with it. There was no punishment, no apology, nobody telling him he'd done something wrong, and he completely got away with it.
ReplyDeleteThere was no punishment, no apology, nobody telling him he'd done something wrong, and he completely got away with it.
DeleteNot a million miles away from Pinkie in the previous episode -- yet it seems to be extremely rare for anyone to dislike both episodes for that particular reason.
I also did not like that in the previous episode.
Delete