Ranking The Fluttershy Expys From Worst to Best · 2:57am Oct 9th, 2020
Pinkie Pie might have gotten a ton of expys, but Fluttershy got perhaps the most out of the whole bunch, although at least two eventually became more of their own characters. And today we're going to be looking at the eight official Fluttershy expys from the show (no comics exclusive characters) and how they would stack up. As always, this list is purely the result of my personal opinion so please respect it.
8. Vapor Trail
Why she's on the bottom: Looking on Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger now, it really seems like someone took all the worst stereotypes and assumptions about Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and just threw them together for new characters. Silverquill even mentioned that Vapor Trail is basically Fluttershy when pushed to one extreme, an extreme where her own self-worth means nothing at all and all that matters is helping someone else even if her contributions are ignored or she's not actually helping. Not even the backstory makes sense for why the characters end up the way they do. It's usually the younger children in big families who find themselves becoming withdrawn and subservant to others, while the only children tend to grow up thinking the world is theirs (especially if their parents spoil them rotten). And I must reiterate that Vapor Trail is aiding Sky Stringer in broad daylight, literally flying under him. At some point the suspension of disbelief gets stretched just a little too far for my liking. With Vapor Trail, she would honestly be better off on her own, because with the kind of suspension of disbelief required of Sky Stinger to not know what's going on, I can only assume he does know and doesn't care. He is so unable to cope with the reality of his poor flying skills that he will take advantage of Vapor Trail's devotion to him to drag her down as well. Yes, I get that that's not the intention, but intentionally or not it's there.
7. Ocellus
Why she's not on the bottom: Ocellus' problem is that she feels like a miniature version of Thorax with a little bit of Twilight mixed in. Ocellus' entire character is basically being an atoner for the changelings, haunted by their past and desiring to prove that they're not bad any longer. I get that they glossed over Thorax molding the new hive to his direction and vision, but Ocellus really needed more time and more development to truly blossom on her own. We never got to see her overcome her shyness and the few hints of development happened off-screen or were just forgotten (what exactly was up with her unexplained self-identity issues in "Student Counsel"? Couldn't something like that have been an episode instead of any of the number of rehashes we got in Season 9?), even her being part of the cheer squad. She was interesting, but sadly she was quickly forgotten and her character amounted to very little in the grand scheme of things. Her problem as a Fluttershy expy is that she just skipped an arc entirely with no hint as to how it happened.
6. Marble Pie
Why she's in the bottom three: If we just had the show to go on for Marble's character she would almost definitely be dead last here. Those of you who joined the fandom in later years probably don't know this, but in the early years of the fandom Fluttershy was the most popular character to ship with Big Macintosh, and FlutterMac was alongside AppleDash one of the most popular and frequently used ships in fanfiction. So Marble Pie getting paired up with Big Macintosh only cemented how she was a poor man's Fluttershy, with no personality to make her stand out otherwise, even Limestone Pie felt like a slightly more interesting and original character. Thankfully, the comics stepped in to help Marble Pie with that issue back in January, and she really became her own character there. Some say her relationship with Big Mac was incest, but fourth cousins twice removed is distant enough for that not to apply (incest is defined as family up to the first cousin). It's amazing how it only takes one small thing to change so much about a character.
5. Thunderlane
Why he's in the bottom half: Thunderlane may have gotten paired up with Rarity for a time, but there's no denying he has Fluttershy's kind attributes and gentle nature. Even "Hurricane Fluttershy" suggested he was a nice guy, and it would seem that Blossomforth was responsible either for giving him the feather flu or helping him spread it. Admittedly though, his nice guy attitude and Fluttershy tendencies only really got to shine through in "Marks and Recreation" and it's kind of a shame that was his last appearance. I really think they could've done stories with him and Rainbow Dash in the Wonderbolts, I imagine Rainbow would be thrilled to know she wasn't on the bottom of the totem pole anymore.
4. Big Macintosh
Why he's in the top half: Throughout the first four seasons, Big Macintosh was very much the male equivalent of Fluttershy. He was quiet, shy and withdrawn. He said little and did little. He was good at that, but eventually he started to develop into his own character (I realize now at the expense of Applejack, who became more and more of a background character, sharing episodes with other characters in every season after Season 4). Yes, in the last three seasons much of that was devoted to Sugar Belle and I'll have more to say on that later, but I do like that it got him to open up more. And this was occurring around the same time Fluttershy stopped regressing all the time and started becoming rather sassy. Ultimately, by the end of the show Big Macintosh was no longer defined solely by who he shared so much in common with and was once so often shipped with.
3. Mage Meadowbrook
Why she's in the top three: While she does have that connection to nature and critters, Mage Meadowbrook as an earth pony is a bit unconventional (I suspect the most likely reason for her and Somnambula not swapping species is to make it a parallel to early G4 plans when Pinkie Pie was going to be a pegasus and Fluttershy an earth pony). She has a lot in common with not just Fluttershy but also Zecora, and ironically she might be the youngest of all the pillars while Fluttershy is the oldest of the mane six (Fltutershy is a year older than Pinkie Pie and had a noticeably different filly model than the rest of the mane six). "A Health of Information" showed the most similarities between Fluttershy and Mage Meadowbrook, and it made sense she was the one who had the least trouble adjusting to modern times considering her home was still intact and she had a descendant (though the comics state that Meadowbrook never had foals, so Cattail's exact relation to Meadowbrook is uncertain).
2. Sugar Belle
Why she's not on the top: Of the equal four, Sugar Belle was ultimately the only one who got to develop beyond just being an expy of a specific character (in her case, Fluttershy). And yes, that's because she was shipped with Big Macintosh in a ship that is still very polarizing among fans. I still personally prefer CheeriMac as that had more chemistry and connection, but I think they did a good job of selling SugarMac. The problem was more that the ship just went through a lot of the cliches from romantic sitcoms, and their wedding was obviously a rushed decision done because they knew the show was wrapping up and needed to get that plot thread resolved. I think that two thirds of the focus during SugarMac was to Sugar Belle's benefit, even if she did get reduced to mostly being a satilette character for Big Macintosh. I enjoyed her becoming Mrs. Cake's baking student, and she really made the most of what she had. But ultimately, there is one character who eclipses her as a Fluttershy expy.
1. Coco Pommel
Why she's on the top: This one is probably even more predictable than Cheese Sandwich as the number one Pinkie Pie expy. There were even some rabid fans who clamored for Coco to become the new element of kindness right after her debut, and she was easily the best thing about every episode she appeared in until legal issues caused her to be treated as if she'd been erased from existence. Coco is unquestionably the most realistic look at what Fluttershy would be like if her flaws got the better of her, but unlike Vapor Trail there's an understanding and more time devoted to showing that Coco doesn't have the best influences in her life. Suri Polomare is just using Coco, but she does it in the kind of way that ensures that Coco can't simply abandon her and in turn affects Coco's thinking to the point where she believes Suri is the rule and not the exception. What we saw of her before the legal issues that got her removed from the show indicated she was taking steps to becoming better, giving back to her community and eventually coming to work for Rarity. All the while she never stopped being adorable, but Coco's placement on the top confirms that the best Fluttershy expy isn't just the one who was the cutest or the most withdrawn, it's the one that underwent the most development and best became her own character. So for all those reasons she takes the top spot.
And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll look at and rank the Rainbow Dash expys.
Thunderlane being a Fluttershy expy isn't something I ever considered, but it makes sense.
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Eeyup, nor did I.
I agree with your picks here.
Shame on the Coco Chanel company for not realizing that Coco is a given name. IT'S BULLSHIT OF THEM!