art by AssasinMonkey

We’re back!

After one episode that I felt was rather weak, Season Six has returned to form with one of the strongest episodes of a solid season, and perhaps the best Fluttershy episode in a long time.

This episode is a serious progression of Fluttershy’s character arc, comparable even to Rainbow Dash finally becoming a Wonderbolt. The Fluttershy of this episode is a Fluttershy who has been through her previous feature episodes, and she has taken those lessons to heart. She has learned not to be a doormat, how to be assertive without being aggressive or a bully, and that sometimes kindness requires knowing when not to be.

Compare Fluttershy now to the girl we met back in the first episode. She still carries the core elements of her character. She is still shy, meek and admirably kind. But she has an inner strength she didn’t start with. She has the ability to face the world. She no longer hides from it behind her own mane. The transformation has been so gradual, and fraught with setbacks, that we may not have recognized how much she has changed… until this episode gently reminded us in the scene below of how she used to be.

(I noticed that the episode did several nice things like that. Pinkie Pie’s wallet included a picture of Iron Will, again reminding us of Fluttershy’s journey.)

Watching Fluttershy this episode was amazing. Assertive, mature Fluttershy was on full display from the moment her brother tossed down his luggage. (Really, there is nothing quite like family to bring character traits to the surface.) Much like her friend Twilight Sparkle, with this episode Fluttershy has taken on the role of a teacher, helping others learn what she has had to learn herself.

vector by DashieSparkle

Okay, wow. I have talked before about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic tackling increasingly mature morals and themes. “Flutter Brutter” took it to a new level. The episode focused on someone who refused to try because they were afraid of failure, a very real and common fear. But the episode wasn’t about facing our fears and taking that first step – that was the message to Zephyr Breeze, not to us.

At its heart, this episode was about doing what it takes to help someone who needs help but doesn’t want it. It was about how friends and family are there to give you the strength and the push you need to improve. And while these are lessons that apply to children as well as adults, they were wrapped in the package of a brother who was still living at home and taking advantage of his parents… a scenario that is distinctly applicable to adults.

“Flutter Brutter” is an episode that I expect to get mixed and even angry reviews for all the right reasons. The episode does not play gentle, and some people will feel triggered when it shines a light on issues in their own life that are uncomfortable to acknowledge, much less deal with. If it feels like the episode is making fun of you, chances are, there is something in your life that you need to address.

But even for everyone else, “Flutter Brutter” likely strikes a chord of familiarity. Who amongst us doesn’t know one or more people who share at least a few of their less pleasant character traits or habits with Zephyr Breeze? I can certainly think of a few. Allow me to illustrate three examples from personal experience:

Even though kicking her brother out of the house was the right thing to do, it was hard for Fluttershy. I can understand why she felt bad doing it, having had to kick a friend out of my own home. The situation was very different: he was employed and even contributed a token sum to the rent. My friend had fallen into a very abusive, mutually-destructive relationship. When he finally realized he needed to break away, I offered my home as a place to stay. So when he gave up, returning to the relationship that was destroying his life, that generosity ended. I wanted to help him; I wasn’t going to be an enabler.

For the second time in as many Afterthoughts, I find myself referencing my place of employment. In the previous eight years, we have had over six new managers. Our latest manager is uncomfortably like Zephyr Breeze: she shrinks away from doing work, pawns off everything she can on innocent woodland creatures her employees, and indulges in a sense of persecution that absolves her of any responsibility for everything that is going wrong. (To be fair, the last is somewhat justified. The owners are extremely nasty and difficult to work for, to the point that we suffer from severe management turn-over.) Of course, this is not a situation where I can act on the moral of the episode. Trying tough love with your employer is never going to end well.

The final example is me. I don’t have the fear of failure that crippled Zephyr Breeze. (In contrast to him, I couldn’t wait to get out on my own.) But as I have grown older, I have developed a fear of change. Zephyr Breeze doesn’t try to succeed, and even sabotages himself, because he is afraid of failure. Me, I reject opportunities because I find change and uncertainty stressful. I do see parallels in myself.

Within the show, we can draw an interesting parallel between Zephyr Breeze and one of the other brothers we’ve seen: Big Macintosh. While the two may seem nothing alike, they are both facing the same struggle: they are both living in the shadow of their sisters’ accomplishments.

Big Macintosh handles it by buckling down and doing what he can, while silently bearing the weight of not being the one people look up to or cherish. There is a bitterness there, but one he recognizes as unbecoming – that he is ashamed of and keeps from ruling his actions. Still, in “Brotherhooves Social”, we have seen the desperation within spill out. Zephyr Breeze, alternatively, sees his sister as the epitome of success, and has allowed that perception to feed his own feelings of inadequacy to a self-destructive extent.

The writers were wise to end the episode with Zephyr proving he is growing into a better pony, but still has a long way to go and the potential to backslide. The problems he is struggling to overcome are long established habits and deeply rooted character flaws. Overcoming them isn’t something that happens in the course of an episode. It takes time and it take work. Usually, a somewhat daunting amount of both.

art by NCMares

In addition to such a progression for Fluttershy’s character, and the extremely pointed and recognizable character of Zephyr Breeze, this episode brought us a ton of delightful bits.

Perhaps the most fun part was the interplay between Zephyr and Rainbow Dash. This was an entirely one-sided infatuation that Zephyr tried to play off by projecting in the most obnoxious yet hilarious way. Rainbow Dash chose to handle Zephyr by passively not handling him, which really did her no favors. If she had been assertive, she could have shut him down. (On the other hoof, had she been assertive, any continued antics would have strayed into the uncomfortable realm of harassment, and that would not have been amusing at all.)

Fortunately for us, we instead got to see a character interplay that was both funny and fascinating. Rainbow Dash’s nap hypocrisy let us know that he got under her skin in the way only a frenemy can. Zephyr’s admitting he is “into this look” with Rarity’s rainbow-tailed cat betrayed his infatuation.

Possibly the funniest line in the whole episode was Mrs. Shy’s “Thank you, dear, for not giving up on Zephyr. After all these years of pining for him, it must be so satisfying to see him on the right track.” Even the Shys have bought tickets on the ship. Poor Rainbow.

Speaking of the Shys, this is a family who really loves family and self portraits, from Zephyr’s photobombing the family portrait to Fluttershy’s picture of herself in the studio. (What an expression, Fluttershy!) I thought it was a really nice touch that at his lowest, Zephyr had a picture of his big sister hanging on a tree.

I loved Mr. Shy’s cloud collection. The story behind it was so sweet. The collection itself was really cool, especially since they took the time to animate it when it was in the background. Zephyr’s treatment of his father’s collection was his worst character moment. I severely disliked him for that.

Other tidbits: Link pony! Rainbow Dash was reading the Daring Do book co-starring herself. Angel and the garden bunny were a cute touch. Genetics are not only canon, but something ponies reference casually. “Peeved” was hilarious, especially with how shocked Rainbow Dash was at Fluttershy’s outburst. I also really admired the design of the Shy house. Look at that up there!