S02E22: Hurricane Fluttershy

[itinerant nomadSurprise Pedantry!]

Did anyone else notice that the flashback was of Flight CAMP, whereas it was Flight SCHOOL back in S1 (which RD dropped out of) - and FillyDash looked a lot younger than Fillyshy (which she was of course)

We find Dash somehow dropped out or left flight school in "Sonic Rainboom".
Fluttershy's portion of the "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" happened at summer flight camp.

This is either an inconsistency or the two things are separate.

[Herr Generalfabulous]

Summer Flight Camp is like summer school; it's for the pegasi that failed out of regular flight school.

[HuffyTheMagicDragonboop]

Well, Pegasi do have a long military heritage, as evidenced in Hearth's Warming Eve.

I still don't think they changed Spitfire's voice actress. Where is everyone getting this...?

[TailspinQueen of the skies]

I still don't think they changed Spitfire's voice actress. Where is everyone getting this...?

I don't know, she sounds the same to me.

[itinerant nomadSurprise Pedantry!]

The grass on her face is almost a stand-in for running mascara. Oddly enough, the only other character I can think of with a similar look with all the crying that has happened was Opal in "Sweet and Elite", which seemed to be actual mascara.




This episode has a lot of Rainbow Dash, the striver. I think her character benefited immensely from it.
Contentment doesn't do Dash many favors, so seeing her set her sights high and facing the challenges that come with it presents us with a bunch of shadings of her personality that get washed out when she's in "I am awesome Rainbow Dash" mode.
Her role at the head of the weather detail is also fleshed out, and it helps anchor her more into the world built up for Ponyville and Equestria. That was an area where the character was among the least moored of the main six.

[MochaBean]

Yeah, it still sounded like Maryke Hendrikse was doing Spitfire's voice to me too.

Listening to Best Night Ever, they still sound the same.

[Wayoshi]

I still don't think they changed Spitfire's voice actress. Where is everyone getting this...?

It has been nearly 11 months since the Gala... guess people kinda forgot.

Still can't quite tell what was on that watch! Oh well.

[HuffyTheMagicDragonboop]

Still can't quite tell what was on that watch! Oh well.

It's one of the dudes from the Wonderbolts poster: http://bronibooru.mlponies.com/post/sho ... onderbolts

You have to look at it upside down, since the watch is turned toward Spitfire, not us (which is a nice detail).

[Wayoshi]

How dare the pony do the upside down

[Headless Horse]

By the way, this is an interesting pose:



Anyone else seeing some Patton up in this?


E: Another interesting bit of hi-res logo graphics:



What was that movie where someone's dad always went around spraying Windex all over everything to kill germs? You're reaching Howard Hughes levels of :spergin: there, Twi.


E2: Okay, this kid is so great:



Just starts buzzing her wings in excitement when Fluttershy gets ready to take off.


E3: Whoa, the first sound Fluttershy makes when the camera zooms in on her crying under the tree is her squeak from Episode 1.

Weird that they chose to recycle that, when she's already doing a ton of very emotional acting right there anyway. The way she goes YE-HE-HE-HES (and how she whips her head around to reveal the tears, after her face has been obscured by hair as she runs off-stage) is ripping my heart out.

[FightingDreamerBrony For Life]

Oh God, the "YE-HE-HE-HE-ES!" DESTROYED me. Also, has it really taken us this long to get to a "horsing around" joke? Or is there one I'm not remembering?

[SlateSlabrock]

What was that movie where someone's dad always went around spraying Windex all over everything to kill germs?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

[numsOic]

Oh God, the "YE-HE-HE-HE-ES!" DESTROYED me. Also, has it really taken us this long to get to a "horsing around" joke? Or is there one I'm not remembering?

Fall Weather Friends:

Rainbow Dash: I don't believe it. Twilight beat us.
Twilight Sparkle: Well, with all your horsing around, it was quite easy.

[FightingDreamerBrony For Life]

Ah. So it's just been a while then.

[Pocketis she just gonna go booty booty]

Summer Flight Camp is like summer school; it's for the pegasi that failed out of regular flight school.

Joking aside, that sounds perfectly reasonable.

And then Fluttershy dropped out of that too.




...All the way to the ground.

[Headless Horse]

Screw it, I'll just do my usual thing for the rest.

- The montage music is totally based on "You're The Best Around"

- Okay, what the fuck are trees made of in Equestria? Between this (Fluttershy crashing right through one in the montage like the dragons did twice last week) and the tree costume and Rainbow Dash's eyeball gag, I'm really starting to wonder—are they all hollow? And made of papier-mache?

- Oh holy hell I missed the gag the first time with her eyes sucking the tears back up (accompanied by a drinking-straw sound effect). GOOD LORD

- At the end of the montage she goes straight from



to



HNNNGGGG Best sports training montage ever. And interestingly, everything that ever attempts to do such a thing following South Park's "Montage" song necessarily has to do it as a self-aware parody to some degree; the way this is handling it is with the gleeful, joyful girliness of it—her mark of success is that she goes so effortlessly into a face like ^^ that. I love seeing her in her comfort zone again, especially after having shown us so forcefully how far she has to climb to get there.

- Egad:



Right after Dash goes "Cloudsdale still needs water", Twilight does this little half-foreleg-flourish with just one leg before running off. God dammit I'm overloading again

- Hah, okay so we haven't had much this season of Applejack grabbing Rainbow Dash's tail in her mouth, but we've had at least a couple instances now of Twilight taking over for her. I love Dash's squawk of annoyance when Twilight latches on with her magic.

- The water arcing through the air into the receptacle evokes a rainbow. Rainbows have been used enough times now in situations like this that they've become emblematic of triumph.

- Aww, I like how when she says "anypony's contribution, no matter how small", it cuts to all of Fluttershy's little animal friends cheering her on.


I don't know if I can quite express how much I love the whole concept of this episode's setup, with the whole "get water into the weather factory" thing. Every bit of it makes perfect sense in-universe and expands on ideas we've seen expressed before; and at the same time it's little more than a MacGuffin to allow Fluttershy to have her character development arc, which is the real meat of the story.

I've really been enjoying the last few episodes, always feeling like they've kept consistently raising the bar of awesomeness; but really, compared to this one they feel awkward and almost forgettable. This thing was a damn masterpiece.

[FightingDreamerBrony For Life]

Aw, c'mon, Headless, you don't really mean that (the awkward and forgettable thing). Just because they did things differently or weren't *quite* as good doesn't make them any less special in their own ways.

[Wayoshi]

^Well, yes, but honestly I've caught myself reevaluating Putting Your Hoof Down as more B-tier (I had it as an A-) after seeing this one.

We expect this show to produce at least B-quality stuff every week now, because for the most part it actually does. When an A+ comes along though, it really blows the rest out of the water, even the A's like Friend in Deed. This one really just executed and went above & beyond on all levels:

-Characters: Fluttershy & Rainbow. Each arguably has their best episode right here. Twilight & Spike are great in support, and I have to throw in the animals too - first time we see Fluttershy have a meaningful conversation with them!
-Plot: One of the best-paced stories on this show. Worldbuilding gets a big bonus with the 50s video
-Voice Acting: Libman had some amazing lines here, reused stuff aside.
-Visuals: Fluttershy's pony pox, EYES EYES EYES and her suffocating, her faces crying at the moody tree that Isaak pointed out, the tornado... it's all there.
-Gags: Big McLargeHuge, the whole 50s video as a parody, Fluttershy as a tree, R.D. treeeyes, Mama Twilight in background, training montage... for sure they kept the humor down, but they brought it up at the proper times.
-Audio: As usual Anderson knows how to do pony music, when has he never not given us a notable moment in an episode?

This is something that honestly had not come together yet in S2 until this point, and I dunno if ever - even the best S1 episodes had a couple problems here and there.

[HuffyTheMagicDragonboop]

Man, you guys sure do love the sappy episodes. But yeah, I do too. This would be probably be my S2 favorite if 3 of the main 6 weren't missing.

E: Another interesting bit of hi-res logo graphics:



What was that movie where someone's dad always went around spraying Windex all over everything to kill germs? You're reaching Howard Hughes levels of :spergin: there, Twi.

Smooze repellant.

[synthorangeLook at me, I'ma talking butt!]

Fluttershy hamming up her illness in the doorway, that scene was utterly ridiculous. And RD not buying a second of it and just throwing a bucket at her.

[Chaos Sonic]

SEMPER FLY

Oh my, someone should make this logo right now. I would were I not so crap at visual arts.

[Mechanical ApeThank you Sweetio!But your cutie mark is in another castle!]

Fluttershy hamming up her illness in the doorway, that scene was utterly ridiculous. And RD not buying a second of it and just throwing a bucket at her.

RD knows a case of lazy-itis when she sees it.

And yeah, Fluttershy's hilariously unconvincing "achoooo" always gets a laugh from me. Even her fake sneezes are graceful!

I'm probably a monster, but I thought Fluts' "YE-HE-HE-ES!" was hysterical. I mean sure, it's sad too, but it's so overwrought (deliberately on the show's part, IMHO) that I can't take it quite entirely seriously. Also, "I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I just don't! have! the courage! right now!" -- hilarious too.

Give the credit to Andrea Libman, who's able to give a delivery that's and comedic at the same time. Or, again, maybe I'm just an awful human being.

[DavyinatogaEw, will you please just stop posting already so I can stop having to look at it?]

This is probably the single most perfect example of RD/Flut dynamics condensed into a single image.

I love, love, love the almost ritualistic slow-stomp they all start doing there.

It evokes a feeling like there's stuff going on with pegasi that we'll never really understand, us filthy Dirtvillians.

What kind of army do you bring? These men are not soldiers.
What do you mean? They can fight as much as any man here.
So you say? You, what is your profession?
I'm a farmer.
Indeed. And you? How do you work your days?
I am a designer.
Hmm. *nods*
PEGASI!! What is your duty?
HUAH!! HUAH!! HUAH!!

I almost relate that group stomp almost more like a cooldown from having to push themselves so hard for the waterspout. Their bodies are tired but still in a "gotta keep moving" state. Somepony happens to begin stomping as a way to exhume what remaining energy is left, and others happen to join in as a group acknowledgement of their recent achievement.

[MLPMan]

Put me in with the group of people that loved this episode =D

I really can't think of anything if any faults (other than that steroid pony), it was just awesome. It had a lot of Derpy, Dash was being awesome this episode, and there was a lot of Pegasi!

I hope next week's episode is a good one =)

[SlateSlabrock]

On third watch, I'm still surprised at how serious Fluttershy's episodes have been this season. Last Roundup could have been, but they didn't dwell on it. Friend in Deed had a dark undercurrent that was always kept lighthearted by Pinkie Pie. Luna Eclipsed and maybe Secret of my Excess are the only other ones this season (aside from the two-parter) that focused on that sadness even briefly.

But now we have Fluttershy The Terrifying, Assertive Monster and Fluttershy Can Hardly Fly. It feels like she's the character they pull out when they really want to explore serious emotional issues kids will struggle with. Not that they can't get a point across in, say, a CMC episode, but these are on a whole different level.

[Paperback WriterStarry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caughtTrapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended]

I loved this episode. Fluttershy's crying bouts just about ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it, though . Also, I think Rainbow Dash came out of this one a big winner in the character development department. I liked the way she was even willing to give up her dream of setting a record, just to make sure Cloudsdale would get enough water, and the way she forced herself to be more tactful and sensitive with Flutters, rather than picking on her or yelling at her all the time. (As in the moment where she starts to yell at FS, stops herself, and continues more calmly.) Gotta agree with HH, I also saw a lot of the famous speech from Patton in Dash's speech to the pegasi, down to her poses.

The weird roided-out pegasus dude who kept yelling "Yeah!" also made me laugh, because of how small his wings were. They looked so absurd on that big body.

Other highlights:

--The animals cheering FS up, that was such a D'aww moment. The stern badger telling her to get back in the game was pretty funny, too.
--Coach Angel during the highlight montage. Actually, that whole montage was one of my favorite sequences this season.
--Twilight getting increasingly annoyed with Spike to the point of bonking him on the head and miming a little "zip it!" motion with her hoof. A great little piece of character animation.
--Some fun callbacks, like the mule from "Ticket Master" reappearing, and Fluttershy pretending to be a tree ("I wouldn't mind being a tree" ), and the Derpy cameos were cute.

This was easily a Top 5 episode for me, up there with "The Last Roundup" and "Lesson Zero."

[IsaakEquus Ludens :3]

Man, just thinking about this episode gets me all hyped up. So I watched it again

I was missing some emotional weight over these past few episodes, I think the last with such an impact was Sisterhooves Social, but this... this just launches emotion levels straight into orbit.
After the show reaches a new height (Friend in Deed) I always assume that that's it, it can't get any better. Then an episode like this comes around and I just have to completely reevaluate everything. DHX Media, I am at your mercy.
When I first saw it I was thinking "it would be cool if Rainbow Dash had a bigger role in helping Fluttershy" but Fluttershy beating her inner turmoil on her own is ultimately all the more beautiful. You rock

I will reiterate what others have said: Rainbow Dash is amazing too in this episode. I love, love, love, love the dynamic they've managed to create between these two characters. There's so much... stealth development given to her in this episode. The focus is on Fluttershy, but here we have Rainbow Dash portrayed not as the "I AM AWESOME"-character but as someone not backing down even in the face of impossible odds. Someone who, when met with disappointment, brushes it aside and gives it all she's got. The scene when she asks Fluttershy what's going on and she goes "Suck it up!", then she sees what that does to Fluttershy in her eyes. And we see it... and it's all so GOOOOOD.

Aaaaahh!!! I'm talking like a madman but I don't care! This is My Little Pony and it's the best thing ever!

Some things I've not yet seen/completely missed in this thread:



Yes, Rainbow Dash's 16 Wing Power is indeed a thing of beauty

[Headless Horse]

Okay so I was wondering:

Highland Reservoir? Uh, you don't usually find reservoirs in the highlands, do you? Not without dams. And this reservoir doesn't appear to... have a...



...Okay, so not a dam, but an artificial inlet.

So this reservoir (different from the Hoover Dam-looking one first seen in MMDW) is an artificially dug water storage facility, kept at high ground, that they pump water into. And it's as high up as possible both so it can feed the town's water system by gravity and so it can be used conveniently by the pegasi for the water-lift.

I ... don't even know what to think. Anemometers, waterspouts, realistic power numbers... this fucking episode, man. Everything just fits together so well.

And then you get shit like this!



SHE'S DOGGY PADDLING YOU GUYS



Oh but I'm not done. I have to get to work but



This. This right here. This makes me tear up even more than her face before she flees the training ground, or her inconsolable weeping afterwards. Because I get all gooey over moments of well-articulated triumph even more than scenes of maudlin emotion. Seeing Fluttershy with a well-earned confident, badass expression on her face and Dash and everyone looking at her with renewed respect... this is one of the best moments I've ever had watching anything.

just about covers it.

[WildfireYa ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ya ta ta ta ta ta ta ta do doh duh va zha da ya dya da KABOOM. KABOOM.]

Have a pic' of Iron Will and Brock Hoofstomp (my name for him):



http://milkman213.deviantart.com/art/Bu ... -292346502

[DavyinatogaEw, will you please just stop posting already so I can stop having to look at it?]

I'm wondering if Jacked Buffkins is a pony/horse hybrid. The shape of his head doesn't conform to standard pony appearance at all, his wings are ridiculously ill-proportioned, his legs are much more realistic, and HE HAS ACTUAL HOOVES.

[CorpusCavernosumThe bear and the unicorn fair]

There is no way to explain the existence of Captain Beefhorse. He just is.

[machchunk]

Fluttershy the Perfectionist was awesome I totally know how it feels to give a performance that's good enough for everyone else but cripplingly flawed to yourself, and you really want them to understand that if only to satisfy the critic in your mind.

Just a spectacular episode all around; I can only think of maybe two inconsequential things that could be fixed. First time I teared up at Ponies, in fact.

[Dong Strongly]

I think Beef Swollington's there to teach kids that steroids will shrink your wings.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

I think Beef Swollington's there to teach kids that steroids will shrink your wings.

Hah! That was my take. "Hmm, look at those bulging veins and those tiny wings. Somepony's been juicin'."
Things are rough in Dirk Hardpeck's life.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

Finally watched the episode. Daaaaaaaang

I think Bruce H. Musclebig is getting accused of steroid use a little too hastily. It doesn't look like 'roid rage so much as mindless enthusiasm and machismo. The huge gross muscles may be because he's just your standard gym rat; you really can get that big without drugs. Maybe he's also trying to compensate for his wings? All I'm saying is, give a guy a break.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

Finally watched the episode. Daaaaaaaang

I think Bruce H. Musclebig is getting accused of steroid use a little too hastily. It doesn't look like 'roid rage so much as mindless enthusiasm and machismo. The huge gross muscles may be because he's just your standard gym rat; you really can get that big without drugs. Maybe he's also trying to compensate for his wings? All I'm saying is, give a guy a break.

Actually, he has a natural mutation in the Myostatin (also known as growth differentiation factor 8, abbreviated "GDF8") gene. Resulting in uninhibited muscle growth, and he's just trying to make the best of his situation.

"Similar to this here. See Figure 1." -->

[LiamA]

More commonly known as "double muscled!"

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

Poor guy.
Also are you aware that whenever you show your doctor chops it's pretty fucking awesome

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

That's whay I saved that Humourless Clod made ( ) in my siggy. It comes in handy and it looks awesome.
Also, not a Doctor, just a lab guy. I do all the blood testing for every condition ever, so, you read up on a lot of it. Sometimes Trauma, mostly Oncology/Hematological disorders.

[milesluigiAll nightmares start with a dreamMiles Luigiworth]

Someone did some calculations that I was too lazy to figure out myself:
http://cuwxnerd.deviantart.com/#/d4u2td1

To summarize that comic, "It appears physical, with winds around 130mph, or an EF-2. "