Thoughts on Fake It Til You Make It · 4:59pm Apr 9th, 2018
This one made me laugh a lot. It's just so absurd to see Fluttershy taking on three different personalities to interact with different customers that I'm not really in a critical mood. Even if there are flaws like how the heck these ponies (and raccoons) travel between Ponyville, Manehattan, and Canterlot so quickly, or how Fluttershy's behavior might put some people off.
Or how she was changing clothes so fast; it got to the point where I wondered if Fluttershy somehow managed to find three doppelgangers, or even used the Mirror Pool. Still, that moment with Rarity firing all three of the personalities was very chuckleworthy.
When I read the synopsis for this, I was expecting it to be entirely predictable through and through; well, thanks for taking me for a loop again, MLP. This was a wild ride.
Though, I'm not gonna lie, seeing this guy show up had me laughing the hardest:
G O T H C H E E S E
It's basically a given that when someone with that particular model shows up, I'm going to make a big deal about it and possibly call them some variant of "something Cheese Sandwich".
That goth pony is the best part of the episode, to be honest. He ought to have a name. I say “Ice Cold” fits, but I don’t know. Seems kinda cliché.
Fluttershy’s different speech patterns in her different personalities are super funny to me (being an aspiring voice actress), even if it’s a little OOC. BUT! This episode is funny enough to ignore that, I think.
What pleasantly surprised me about this was how well it fit into my fanon of Fluttershy having been originally created by Chrysalis as a Royalty-level super-Infiltrator. Under that theory she was actually Shifting into other forms, but doing it so rapidly and unobtrusively that onlookers were missing what she was doing. What's more, when she was getting lost in the new personas, that's called being "Split-Minded" in Changeling parlance.
The episode lamplshaded the unnatural (or supernatural) nature of what was happening with Rarity's own reaction when one of the Fluttershy personas exited stage left and another one reappeared stage right. That added to the humor of the scene.
What's interesting about this is that Rarity is the one of the Mane Six who probably knows Fluttershy better than any other one, given that she is the one who spends the most time with her socially. And yet Fluttershy's actions managed to astonish her.
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Goth Stallion's Cutie Mark is a snowflake, if that helps?
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That’s why I thought of Ice Cold. I can’t think of anything else right now.
It's an interesting idea. I mean, Cheese does seem to act very different from his usual self when you put him in a western poncho and cowboy hat. I could see Cheese's party sense compelling him to throw a party in Manehatten for a goth, and he needs to get into the mood. (Or in your 'verse, he's in disguise so his parents won't know he's in town).
4836847 That's a good point about her changes being dissociative in nature. The fact that Rarity had to fire all 3 personas separately says a lot.
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Note that at the climax Fluttershy's alternate personas did not seem to have access to knowledge from each other or from the real Fluttershy. This is full and classic (though temprorary) schizophrenia, and we have before seen Fluttershy display this characteristic -- in particular when she became "Flutterbat."
Interestingly -- and remember, I wrote Fluttershy Is Free before I saw "Bats!" -- Twilight Sparkle's sidescattered spell shouldn't have changed Fluttershy's form; at the most, it should have given her the delusion that she had become a vampire fruitbat. This leads credence to my idea that Fluttershy naturally has the ability to Shift her form.
4836961 And of course, we remember her fangs remaining at the very end of that episode.
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I think Ice Cold is a good name. Not everything has to be not-obvious.
I'm still gonna jokingly call him "Goth Cheese".
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I can just imagine Tomato's reaction...
T: "Cheese? What the hay are you wearing?"
C: (wearing all black with studs, his face heavy with eyeliner) "It's just for the local goth convention, I swear. It's one of those times where I have to get in the zone to set it up, you know?"
T: "...I'm not dealing with the blackness of your soul again."
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I'm a little disappointed in myself for not going the route of "she got a changeling to help". Though, I will agree, it does give more credibility to your headcanon. It's always awesome when a thing on the show happens and it supports your headcanon.
Rarity's reactions made that scene that much funnier. XD
4837229 Ha!
Goth-Cheese would probably be named Black Coffee, since that's the only thing a true goth orders at a diner, instead of a cheese sandwich.
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Update: Apparently, his official ‘name’ on Derpibooru is Snow Hope.
And yeah, I was calling him ‘Goth Cheese’ while watching the episode
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"Snow Hope"? Really? First off, that sounds more like a mare's name, second, it seems weird to name a guy like that 'hope', and third... was "Ice Cold" taken? Because that name is far better.
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I don’t like it either, but here we are
Thanks! Y’know, I think my own name for him is growing on me now, since Snow Hope is so ... unfitting