Adventures in Foalsitting 2: Electric Boogaloo · 5:43pm Apr 22nd, 2017
When Princess Flurry Heart was introduced, so many questions popped up. How can alicorn be born naturally? Why are her wings bigger than her body? Why did nopony put a magic prevention ring on her to stop her massive chaotic magical use? But, there was one question that quickly came to mind; when would we get the obligatory babysitting episode for her? The answer, not in season six, but in season seven they went with it. As soon as this episode was revealed, people immediately thought this would be a revisit of another episode in the past; Baby Cakes.
Depending on who you ask, Baby Cakes is either a good episode or one of the worst episodes. It's certainly an episode I don't really find that good to be honest. It had its moments, but it wasn't exactly a good episode to be honest. It was pretty boring and got annoying fast with how the babies were. Pinkie didn't really have a lot of funny moments in the episode at all. The ending felt pretty confusing with the babies' face turn. It's probably my least favorite Pinkie Pie centered episode so far. So the question is, do we get a retread of an episode that's very mixed, or does it improve it like last season did with some other bad episodes?
Shining Armor and Princess Cadence come by at the last minute to see an art show by Shining's friend named Spearhead. They decide to drop off Flurry Heart with Twilight, who already has a jam packed schedule, to go see the show. Deciding to be the best aunt ever, as she puts it, Twilight agrees to it and, with Spike helping, must juggle between the responsibilities. If you're like me, you are probably asking the most logical question about this whole set up already.
Where is Sunburst? Or a royal nanny?
You would think that Shining and Cadence would have had one of those two watch over Flurry, but they never give an explanation as to why they can't do it. Where is Sunburst? Is he in some threesome with Trixie and Starlight? (If that's the case, I can get behind that.) I suppose you could argue that they wanted Flurry close by in case of an emergency, but I argue that they still could have asked and come with them to Ponyville. Again, I know this was the last minute, but don't tell me Cadence and Shining didn't think about doing something like that.
Now to be fair, despite that plot hole, the scenes with Twilight playing around with Flurry Heart are very cute. I especially enjoyed them playing around with those bears and Flurry dragging hers around aimlessly. There are some really adorable and funny moments with Twilight when trying to entertain Flurry Heart. It's also nice to see Flurry Heart be better this time around not the one end up causing the problem unlike in the season six premier.
However, some of the stuff Twilight does makes you scratch your head. Not only is she ignoring Spike for parts of the episode, but there's one part in particular that makes you wonder what she was thinking. She brings Flurry Heart, a baby mind you, to a room full of sick foals. Let me repeat that statement; Twilight brings a baby to a hospital full of sick foals who have the Horse Hives, or in other words, the equivalent of the Chicken Pox. Was Twilight trying to do one of those Chicken Pox parties in hopes of getting Flurry sick with the Horse Hives very early? I'm pretty sure Cadence and Shining would be pretty angry about that. I'm pretty sure the doctors and nurses there would have said something or isolate Flurry from possible viruses. Either Twilight is an idiot for doing this, or the doctors are for not doing something.
Spike on the other hand, is shining well in this episode again. Not only is he the voice of reason in this episode, but he gets a few good laughs. He has some really good scenes and does everything he can to help out Twilight as usual. An interesting thing to note is the book that Spike reads at the end. It involves a dragon as the main character who uses his breath to defeat his enemies and spouts one liners. Spike has defeated a giant ice cloud with his breath and spouts some one liners every now and then, and even a foal points out how similar Spike looks to the dragon on the cover. This may be me, but maybe something like this could be possible foreshadowing in the future for Spike. If that's the case, I would welcome seeing him grow into a big, muscular, flying dragon spouting one liners.
Meanwhile, there is the subplot of Shining and Cadence at Spearhead's art show. Now unlike All Bottled Up with the Mane 6's story, this one at least has more of a point. There are some pretty funny scenes in it poking fun at abstract art like that all black picture or that statue with a bunch of shields on it. Shining and Cadence don't really get much character development in these scenes though, but we do get to meet Spearhead, who seems to sound more like a possible surfer guy than an artist. He's a pretty cool new character, but it's a shame we don't see him a lot in this episode. At least this subplot doesn't have song out of the blue that sounds like it was put in at the last moment.
Going back to an earlier question, does this episode end up being like Baby Cakes again? To be honest, not really at all. In fact, I say this episode is more similar to another old episode; Applebuck Season. If you think about it, it's similar in some ways to that episode. You have a character being stubborn about something and won't accept change (In this case, it's Twilight). Another character trying to be the voice of reason to not do too much (This time, it's Spike). Things going wrong at the end because of the massive overload. Combine that with some minor elements from Baby Cakes and kaboom! You got Flurry of Emotions.
The moral about the difference between spending time with your loved ones and quality is a good lesson. It's always important to remember about how you spend time with your friends and family, not how much time you spend with them. I think it was a pretty good arc for Twilight. And after is said and done about some of the stupid stuff she pulls, she at least learned something very important. Though, I don't think the school, Sugarcube Corner, or the hospital will want to see Twilight with Flurry Heart again for a long time.
Flurry of Emotions, while not perfect, does manage to stand out on its own merits. It thankfully avoids being like Baby Cakes and avoids a lot of the problems that episode had. It has some good character development for Twilight and Spike to an extent. Flurry Heart doesn't really end up being the problem in this episode, and she was pretty adorable in the episode. There are some funny moments for both plots in the episode. While it does have some questionable stuff such as Twilight taking a baby to a hospital full of sick foals and some other minor annoyances, it's still a fine episode for what it is. Hopefully, we'll get to see Twilight being B.A.E. again the future. (That's Best Aunt Ever; not that other "bae" term, people.) Maybe next time we see Flurry, we'll get an episode about her with Starlight and Sunburst, but we'll have to wait and see.
FINAL SCORE: 8 out of 10 ( B )
They also changed Redhearts cutie mark. I guess the Red Cross didn't like them using it on a pony.
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4506018 I don't know why. I thought it was great promotion for the Red Cross.
4506018
They changed her voice too
To be honest, I was halfway wishing that Flurry heart said a word, even if it was garbled, similar to the end of Baby Cakes where the twins said "Pinkie" and "Pie" quite clearly, and that made Pinkie have the teary smile showing how touched she was. Not to mention that it would be a big surprise to Shining and Cadence that Flurry said her first word while she was with Twilight.
But then again in another light, that would figurately be a moment of drawing to the well too much, so in hindsight I can understand if that is their intention.
And you are right, sometimes Twilight has to learns lessons from the unlikeliest of sources, in this case, her own niece,, whom without saying a word made Twilight show how poorly she was doing as Flurry's babysitter at first.
And I think that even though it's a minor thing, I'm starting to think that the writers finally know how to use Spike effectively with his strengths and foilibles, and it appears that the reason mostly is the introduction of the new writers to the show.