Time for the Nursing Home, Rarity [episode spoilers!] · 7:02pm May 6th, 2017
For those of you just now watching Fluttershy Leans In, I apologize. Foremost because it's a shitty episode and you had to watch it, but moreso because I'm going to talk about it up above the page-break, and "next week's" episode down below. You had your chance! >:B
One complaint I've had about this episode since I first watched it (oh god, I've seen it three times and it's so bad D:) is that it seemed pointless. "Fluttershy yells at experts" just... what was going on here?
Well, it turns out the answer lies in the title. xjuggernaughtx figured it out, pointing me to a seminar and self-help book that coined the phrase "lean in" to imply aggressiveness in business, specifically in regards to women's success.
Now, this is a fine thing, if you ask me. But it also explains the problems with this episode: It's meant to be about Fluttershy asserting herself and getting what she wants. All the direct expositing about what her expertise is, her finally learning her lessons and yelling at people, even her telling off her friends to make sure they follow her vision: it's all what a woman in our world would have to do to cut through patriarchal bullshit and get people in charge to listen to her. That's why it doesn't work; this isn't an issue in Equestria! Instead, it just looks like three dicks ignoring Fluttershy because reasons? And then she yells at them because she's bad at managing. And then she says the lesson was everyone moves at their own pace. What.
And that's why it's bad. :B As for today's nonsense, it turned out far better than I expected for something branded with the Fox Brothers name!
What a fun episode! This one more than anything coming before it this season feels like something we would have gotten in... season two or five? Is that too much praise? All I know is, by the end, my mind was full of fuck, but it was funny, and sometimes that makes all the difference.
So let's see. Sassy Saddles was about as grating as she ever was. That whole first scene is just weird, and kind of filler.
And then someone went, "Hey wait, Tabitha hasn't chewed any scenery lately, I'll bet she's getting hungry," and we got some amazing shit. :D I mean, the last time a pony cried for a long period of time was, what, that awkward scene in Tanks for the Memories? This is way better.
And it was pretty obvious from that point that "Rarity is losing contact with Sweetie Belle and has to deal with the fact that she has a job now" was more or less going to be the conflict, but I'll take telegraphing over morals that make no sense and/or are poorly handled. >:B
What follows was more or less pure hilarity, from Scootapet to that bizarre photo shoot to Zipporwhill being dumbest filly. :V I was pleased to see her again, though. Actually, am I wrong in thinking there's a trend this season of "recap season 4"? Because she's from season 4, the puppet guy and Sassy Saddles were from season 4, Maud from two episodes ago was originally introduced in season 4... 'S just kind of oddly specific, is all. :B
Anyway, it wasn't perfect, but I'm perfectly happy with this episode. :)
All Bottled Up
Rock Solid Friendship
Forever Filly
A Flurry of Emotion
Celestial Advice
Fluttershy Leans In
Best Friends Until the End of Time
In terms of episode chronology, it was more of a “let’s put endcaps on as many episodes as possible.” This particular episode references at least four episodes of Season 6, Rock Solid Friendship referenced five episodes of Season 6 and one in Season 5… And most of the side characters prominent in Season 6 were introduced in Season 4.
The fact that there wasn't any age-regression in this episode makes me feel very cross.
Every other show has done age-regression at least once. Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents, Kim Possible, even Johnny Sodding Test of all shows did age-regression at least one time, if not more...
It kind of dragged for me, mostly because I could see how everything would get resolved ahead of time and I found it hard to enjoy the humor along the way. This will be one of those episodes I'll enjoy more on the second viewing.
I kind of saw where it was going too, but the way Rarity delivered that final bit hit me like a firetruck(you know which part I’m talking about unless you lack a soul
).
This episode was painful for me, to the point where I had to mute and fast forward and finally skip about a third of the episode before it got watchable again. I can see Rarity is trying so hard, and Sweetie just won't come out and say "Hey listen, this was fun, but I have an idea. Let's try something that you enjoy instead!" Or really any number of other things she could have said to resolve this instead of just suffering through it and being obvious about it.
Now, that being said, I enjoyed it, I just wish it hadn't doted so much on the cringe.
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Sad Rarity is adorable. I loved her to bits.
Also that Wrangler pony from the Fluttershy episode is cute.
I sure could use some anthro por―
…whatever art creators deign to come up with of her.
Sassy was from Season 5, actually.
4522568 More like "Once you've built a Flash puppet, it only makes sense to reuse it dollar-wise."
One mark of a successful episode is reaching an audience on two levels.
1) To the younger kids, how do you tell older siblings and parents that you like different things now?
2) To the parents, how do you cope with the way your kids don't like something now that they did before?
So for this episode, I would say they hit the puppy right on the head. Err, nail.
On Fluttershy Leans In, it would have made a FAR better episode if they had *included* the three contractor-ponies in the 'Let's Build a
BarnNature Preserve' scene. It would have taken a few seconds, max, and would have pounded on a much more important meme of 'Sometimes you can't put words to something and just have to show somebody what you're trying to say.' (Instead of 'Be loud and ignore the advice and skills of people/ponies who know what they're doing' which the world has far too much of anyway.)I like that they're referencing previous seasons that aren't season 1. Later seasons, and especially season 4, made plenty of callbacks, but only to season 1, making it seem like that was the only good season worth mentioning.
-I swear Zipporwhil's voice changed... maybe? Ah well, still fucking adorable.
-Rarity makes her entrance by shoving Zippy to the side.
Overall... eh? Cringe humor and me don't get along, but it got salvaged by frantic manager Sassy, Adorable Zippy, and Rarity being Rarity. With a fine, oddly-mature moral to boot.
EDIT: And seeing the messy-faced *Rarity* grinning at the camera at the end sold me completely.
I cared much less for the episode than you did. Every time Rarity did something cringe-worthy, I snapped another part of the silverware I was using to eat dinner with in half. My plastic fork and knife were ruined by the end.
However, there were two amazing moments. 1. Rarity walking in to the CMC headquarters, looking and Zipperwhol and saying "oh, hello, you're tiny." Absolutely hysterical. 2. Sweetie Belle at the puppet show where Rarity asks her what kind of theater she's into and she says "I dunno, black ops experimental theater." I think that's what she said. I think all of my problems with the episode would have gone away forever if they'd showed what that was.
Other than that, I didn't care for it. It wasn't quite Spike at Your Service bad, but it was too cringey for my taste. That and they didn't make a female dog because that would mean they named her after Ellen Ripley of the two Alien films. That would have been awesome.
Although, my wife liked the episode more because she has two older sisters and she's experienced this kind of thing. So there's that.
...Awkward. That's what we're calling it now?
So, I actually enjoyed the episode. Once I realized what the moral was going to be, and I really don't get when it was we started complaining about the predictable morals the show always had, I sat back and enjoyed the weird set-pieces it dragged everything through. I particularly liked how the episode basically confirms Sweetie Belle is the smartest of the CMC, which will hopefully finally buck that stupid trend of writing her as a complete idiot.
It also gave us a new hetero ship, for those few of us who care about that.
Okay, this is now the second or third blog I've seen on here that commented specifically about this being a "Fox brothers episode". I'm going to sound dumb here, but where did that come from? I guess I can assume that these Fox brothers are behind the series less enjoyable episodes or something?
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goddammit
4522607
Goes to show how much I actually care about her, then. :B
4522659
I've been wracking my brain for a way to fix that episode, and I think you just hit the
puppynail on the head!4522997
I'm pretty sure she said black box? I dunno what either would mean. (Looks like the transcript agrees with me, tho. :B) Given that Zipporwhill doesn't know when a puppy's turned into a dog, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't know the difference between boys and girls, either. I mean, her special talent is having a pet, she can't be that smart. :B
rip ur fork :C
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You shut your mouth D:
And new het ship, what?
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They wrote Gift of the Maud Pie, which was awful, Applejack's Day Off, which was awful, and PPOV, which was not super-great and a lot of people thought it was awful though I enjoyed it. :B It's unfortunate that it seems to take most new writers an entire season of misses before they start getting the hang of writing for the show.
4523293 Twisty Pop, the balloon salespony.
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Oh, right!
Actually, I was thinking of that sculptor colt from the first CMC scene. He was kind of extra-adorable. I wonder if he was another Make a Wish pony. :B
4523430 I'll be entirely honest, my first reaction upon seeing him make that statue of the three of them was the CMC going:
"We are totally gonna
this guy when we're older."
I have no shame. Fuck the batpony.
4523293 Black box. Okay, that makes a little more sense. Still want to see that. Although tell me Black Ops experimental theater wouldn't be amazing.
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Oh no, you're totally right about that. XD
Sassy Saddles hasn't changed outfits in two whole seasons, what is she even doing in the fashion world? #FashionDisaster #NiceDressGranny #ZeseAreNotZeMagiks
4523293 I'm basing this entirely on numerous parodies of it I've seen over the years, but basically it's that you have the stage set up as this featureless black box and then do things. The parodies are generally about it being pretentious and/ or generally awful. The reality should be minimalist theater with focus on the characters over props, but I'm not entirely sure. I think either way is the intent is it's very arty and hip.
About Fluttershy episode:
Questionable plot aside, there is nothing in the episode that might be inapropriate for kids show.
You haven't found it, at least.
And moral-wise I think it's rather simply:
1-shit happens.
2-the episode is a good example of what you shouldn't do.
Aside plot, the quality of episode was good imo, but that sadly out topic here.
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You think teaching kids to ignore expert advice is a good idea?
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Well, it's not a good idea, but choosing experts poorly isn't a good idea either.
Besides, listen to experts without thinking, it's... unwise.