Missed Opportunity · 5:00pm Feb 15th, 2014
Warning: Spoilers from the latest episode, Filli Vanilli, abound. Proceed with caution.
First of all, let me go on record by saying I genuinely liked this episode. Fluttershy's dilemma truly resonated with me (as someone who likes writing, but is apprehensive about too much attention), the comedy was solid (except Pinkie's lack of tact, but it wasn't completely unbelievable), and we had a nice callback to previous episodes. This was actually kind of an inverse Hurricane Fluttershy, where Flutters was actually good at something but didn't want to show it.
My only real contention is that this probably should've been a Sweetie Belle episode. Yeah, did we forget that she can sing? And that she doesn't like singing in public, which makes her think that it's not her special talent? Don't get me wrong. The moral of the episode is still one worth learning, and the episode itself has some good character development for Fluttershy (something I personally have been waiting to see for a long time). But I dunno, I think it could've been stronger with Sweetie Belle being the focus, having her come one step closer to earning her Cutie Mark just like Scootaloo did in Flight to the Finish. I get that Sweetie isn't a baritone and thus couldn't replace Big Macintosh (also, we have no idea what poison joke would do to her. Although if the Vocational Death Cruise is any indication, it would turn her into an Earth Pony), but having the conflict happen to her instead of Fluttershy would've made for a top tier episode in my opinion. As it stands, it came close, but no cigar.
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Actually, now that I think about it, what if Fluttershy replaced Rarity as Sweetie Belle's mentor? That has the makings of an interesting episode right there. And if DHX isn't gonna do anything with that idea, I'm sure someone on this site will (just like they always do). This concept is going to be explored one way or another; you guys just wait.
Ooh, yes! I would have loved a Sweetie Belle singing episode. Obviously it couldn't be the same plot, but something similar would have been interesting.
Same here, it might have been too soon at the moment, but I think your idea has merit.
People on tumblr tend to have no idea how poison joke is supposed to work. There is nothing funny about Sweetie Belle losing her horn altogether, just as there was nothing funny about it genderbending Discord Whooves. People had a tendency to go the genderbending route as a cheap cop-out too.