What I Thought About "Dragonshy" · 12:13am Jun 29th, 2015
Episode Review
Ahh, the first episode to put some focus on Fluttershy. The first one where she is cute, acts scared, and overcomes her fear to deal with a problem. And that's all I going to say about that, so let's move on. Though I don't have a lot to say about this one.
I think this is Angel's first appearance [I was corrected in the comments. It is his second]. He seems more like just another animal, here. He even has a pet house outside. Their initial dynamic is interesting to see. He doesn't feel quite so much like a douchenozzle. He's kinda rubberbanded a bit, though. Sometimes better, sometimes worse.
Oh, look, Pinkie Pie is being oblivious again.
And there goes Twilight taking command again. She really does have some pull in Ponyville, doesn't she? She has more authority than I previously realized.
"Welcome to my cave, Rarity. Care for a diamond? Rawr!"
I know I must be sounding like a skipping MP3 at this point, but this and it's callback are both things that feel childish. Again, not really bad, just kinda irritating to me.
You know, I find it kinda weird to see Fluttershy be this scared by something. Like, she was afraid in Hurricane Fluttershy, but she at least tried more and wasn't terrified beyond the ability to move. She really has gotten tougher over the years. Static character my ass.
Applejack, why did you bring apples to fight—nevermind. Stupid question.
"But if you're so afraid of dragons, why didn't you say something before we came all the way up here?"
She tried, Twilight, but you were ignoring her and walked away.
Oh ho ho, it looks like Spike isn't the only dragon to be charmed by Rarity's beauty and honeyed words, eh? Too bad she didn't get those gems. Not like her strategy would've helped, though. Telling a dragon to stop sleeping and go show off his scales? He'd probably do more damage out there than he would by snoring. At least they can outrun the smoke more easily than they can a dragon. Either way, the ponies would have to move elsewhere.
Rainbow is so badass. Well, at least for a few seconds, and then she gets lame for the rest of the episode. Oh well.
Huh. I suddenly just realized that Fluttershy's triumph over her fear comes completely out of nowhere. I mean, yeah, this is the predictable plot and I knew what was gonna happen pretty early on, but there's nothing foreshadowing it in the episode itself. No moment where she displayed protectiveness of her friends, no little moment of her shrugging off fear to get the job done, nothing. Never noticed that before.
"You're not a bad dragon [...]"
No comment.
"[...] never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest fears."
Wait, wait, what? None of Fluttershy's friends helped her overcome her fear. Some of them tried, but they failed. She only faced down the dragon because it was gonna eat them or whatever. Yeah, her friends were technically the cause of her overcoming her fear, but not at all in the way the letter to Celestia implies. The lesson would seem to be that everyone has the strength to overcome their fears inside them. But whatever.
This episode isn't as entertaining as it initially was. Like, it's kinda boring, now. Nothing jumped out at me, or even made me smile more than a tiny bit. Weirdly enough for all the people who complain about Fluttershy, though, she's just about the least boring thing in this episode, to me. At least she's cute to look at. Yeah, her constant fear and the problems it causes are kinda annoying, but come on, like you've never been afraid of anything (assuming standard brain functionality). I think Applejack had the right approach to Fluttershy: help her along and remind her that it needs to be done, for the sake of everypony. Ultimately, though, Fluttershy triumphed on her own. Nopony shoved her in front of the dragon or gave her a mighty pep talk. She saw her friends in danger, and even though she was scared, she got right in that dragon's face and berated it. She did it herself. Flutter on, Shy. Flutter on.
So yeah, I'd give this a 6.5/10, maybe a 7/10. I think my boredom with this episode was mostly just me, because I'm still pretty depressed and I've seen this at least four times before. It was a okay, but looking back, there's some stuff that bugs me and not much that entertains me. Not a bad episode, just not a great one, in my less-than-professional opinion. Just kinda bland.
Angel's first appearance was in "The Ticket Master", where he already demonstrates a surprising amount of influence over Fluttershy. :)
I know what you mean about this episode. Although it starts off strong, the pacing throughout the episode is quite plodding and really, it's only the badass moment at the end that won people over. But we all give it a pass because the show's still finding its feet at this point.
That said, it did play out awesomely as a campaign in the webcomic Friendship is Dragons. ^^
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Damn. I forgot about that first appearance. My bad.
Exactly, yeah.
Hilarious in hindsight, huh?
I once read a book in which a protagonist was attacked by a (small, but still dangerous) dragon. At first he threw rocks at it, but the dragon was swallowing them, heating them and throwing them back. Eventually, the guy threw some apples at the dragon. When the dragon tried to heat them, they exploded inside of him and killed him. Maybe Applejack read that book too.
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Must be, yeah. Apples. Like giant popcorn kernels.
I honestly never understood the appeal to Fluttershy. Yeah, she's timid and all (and I suppose that can be somewhat relatable), but she's my least favorite of the Main Six since she's so freaking boring. She only ever gets interesting when something directly happens to her or around her (Flutterbat, Flutterhulk, et cetera). Fluttershy acting by herself is incredibly lame.
Speaking of which, someone I can watch all day being herself and never get bored is Rarity (mostly because she's my favorite character).
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Rarity is da best. Best pony. Most interesting and fabulous pony.