REVIEW - TBOI (The Best of Intentions) by Dilarus

For those unaware, TBOI is a comic by Dilarus which can be read here. It is part of an overarching story world called "Southern Belle AJ". It is a direct sequel to the events in his previous comic, Wild Storm. I would consider Wild Storm to be required reading to understand the setup of TBOI, but nothing previous to that. I admit I have not read any Southern Belle AJ before Wild Storm.

Now that that's out of the way, we can move on to the review.

So, after the events of Wild Storm, we are given a very conflicted Fluttershy who starts to realize that she has stronger feelings than just friendship for Rainbow Dash after a couple of scenes in this comic. First, we have the Cutie Mark Crusaders asking Fluttershy where baby bunnies come from, and that leads to the subject of marriage, and the CMC decide that Fluttershy should marry Rainbow Dash because Dash is so cool. This is laughed off, but it sets Shy's mind in motion. The following scene, which I'll revisit later, is quite the turning point. Flutters and Dash take a walk and talk about what happened during Wild Storm. Fluttershy is clearly still shaken up about Dash almost dying, and Dash is shocked by that revelation. The two of them go get tea together.

Now, here's where things get a little weird. Dash just asks Fluttershy out of the blue if she has a boyfriend. Fluttershy is flustered by the line of questioning, and her character is absolutely nailed, spot on cute shyness, but I have to wonder... why was Dash even asking her about that? Not to mention, later in the conversation, Dash says there must be a stallion out there for Shy, or a mare. Fluttershy becomes even more flustered since she'd already been thinking about Dash a bit, and then Dash says "Can you blame me? You're really cute when you blush."

From this exchange, we already know Fluttershy is thinking about Rainbow Dash and trying to come to terms with her feelings for her, and from the way Dash behaves, it certainly seems like she's attracted to Fluttershy. Her behavior is rather flirtatious, and honestly feels a tad out of character for Rainbow Dash. None the less, I can roll with that if this is a typical sort of shipping story... but if you've read to the end, you know it's not, so let's continue.

So, Fluttershy wakes up the next day and is talking to Angel about her feelings. It seems she is still confused about it all, and it also seems that she wants to have a child someday, but she knows that Rainbow Dash would never be able to give her one. Her feelings for RD and her desire to be a mother are in conflict. This is a really good plot point, in my opinion! It added some tension, and it also leads to a misunderstanding that drives the story. Rarity overhears Fluttershy with Angel, but Fluttershy avoids Rarity and doesn't want to talk about it. However, Rarity comes to Fluttershy's hut later on to talk. They don't talk about a whole lot, to be honest, but at the end, Fluttershy asks Rarity if she ever wants to have a family. Rarity says yes, and Flutters then asks her what she'd do if she could "never have children". However, instead of talking about it, Fluttershy quickly ducks out, saying she has to feed the animals, leaving Rarity thinking that Fluttershy is infertile.

The rest of the comic is actually quite a long and drawn out bunch of not much. We have Rarity telling Dash that she thinks Fluttershy might be sterile, and we have Fluttershy going into the Everfree Forest. She eats a Heart's Desire in hopes that it will tell her what her heart's desire is, but it doesn't help. Zecora appears and basically tells her that she has to figure out what she wants on her own, and nothing can help her.

Finally, the climax of the comic, if you can call it that, is a scene with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Fluttershy gets back home, Rainbow Dash is waiting for her. Rainbow Dash starts to try and ask Fluttershy about her being sterile, but she simply says "If there's somepony you love, it shouldn't matter if you can have a family or not, it just matters that you love them." - But she get sinterrupted by Fluttershy planting a big kiss on her lips.

Rainbow is shocked by the sudden kiss. She finally figures it out, asks Fluttershy if the reason she can't have a family is because she likes mares. Fluttershy says she doesn't like "mares", she just likes Rainbow Dash.

NOW - given Dash's flirtatious behavior previously in the comic, I would have expected this to go a bit more predictably, but the direction it gets steered feels really strange.

Dash thinks that Fluttershy is only acting like this because of what happened during the storm. She thinks Fluttershy's love for her isn't true, and says as much right to her face. She says "I'm sorry, but I don't feel the same way. Goodnight, Fluttershy," and then just leaves poor Shy lying on the ground, crying and probably feeling humiliated and embarrassed.

And that's the freaking end!

Like WHA-WHA-WHAT?

If you haven't caught on to how I feel about it, I think Rainbow has been just completely out of character this entire series. Come to mention it, a lot of characters are out of character feeling in Wild Storm, too. It's excusable only because it's an alternate reality setting, but it's really jarring.

Furthermore, Fluttershy had, during Wild Storm, gone through a series of flashback memories while trying to revive Dash about all the time they had spent together. If anything, that experience made her realize just how dear Dash is to her, not just from that trauamtic experience, but throughout their whole lives.

To see Dash be so careless to a friend she may know the best out of all her friends, even given the intense situation... it got me really mad. I can't believe she just walked away and that's the bloody end of the comic. I have a very hard time accepting that Rainbow would just walk away. Not to mention the fact that earlier in the comic, she was the one flirting with Fluttershy and calling her cute. Mixed messages, much, girl? Totally crazy to string Fluttershy along like that only to blow her off in a couple brief sentences after she want out on a limb to tell you how she felt. I feel like even if Dash really didn't love her back, Fluttershy deserved more than what she was given.

I'm hoping there's some sort of continuation of this storyline in the coming comics. Dilarus's new comic, Sugarcube, looks to be a Pinkie Pie and Applejack story, so we'll see where that goes, I suppose.

I also fully admit that I'm a fan of bisexual Fluttershy. Those who read my main fanfic, The Conquering of Love, know that I write Fluttershy as bisexual in that, as well... and like I said, I think Dilarus nails that role really well. This is a confused bi-shy that is just starting to realize her own sexuality, and she feels major despair when her first crush totally denies her. I can really feel her sadness. At the same time, though, Rainbow is just inexcusably heartless. In my opinion, if this is revisited, she needs a major apology scene and some relationship rebuilding after this. Whether Rainbow is straight, bi, or gay, doesn't matter - Fluttershy deserves better from her best friend of so many years, and Rainbow should know that.

Comments

[TheStratovarian]

I sorta stopped watching the series with how dash was handled here.