Episode Re-Review: Flutter Brutter · 2:55pm May 23rd, 2021
Because two surprise siblings never mentioned before apparently wasn't enough, I guess they wanted to ensure Rainbow Dash was the only mane six member to be an only child. At least this time it was a younger sibling instead of an older one. Dave Rapp returned to write for this episode, but Meghan McCarthy is credited with the story. So I guess that means she at least started working on this before she had to be called away to work on the movie? I mean, Dave had debuted quite horribly with "Newbie Dash", an episode that is the prime example of a show trying to tackle something way outside of its comfort zone and not knowing what it's doing. But maybe Dave could do better with a story someone else had already written, or at least partially written? Well, let's find out.
We begin with an introduction to Fluttershy's parents, named solely Mr. and Mrs. Shy. And quite frankly, they have to be the worst parents of the entire bunch at least in terms of personality, because they are just carbon copies of Fluttershy from Season 1. I mean, they're so unoriginal the show couldn't even bother to give them names (then again, Night Light and Twilight Velvet were only credited as Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle for some odd reason even though their names had long since been canonized in other media). Anyway, Rainbow Dash is with Fluttershy and mentions needing to get away from the Wonderbolts because things have been so crazy. I know she's not admitting to her secret spa treatments, but it is kind of jarring that we saw her getting pampered in the previous episode and now she's apparently looking for more relaxation.
Mr. Shy apparently used to work but now he's retired and is focusing on a cloud collection, no word on what he or Mrs. Shy would do for a living. Then the conversation starts shifting to Zephyr Breeze, Fluttershy's little brother who has come back home and is quickly taking over. He apparently was attending mane styling school, but decided to be a non-conformist and dropped out. And he talks a lot like Mushu from Mulan.
So while Zephyr Breeze is apparently hitting on Rainbow Dash (and she non-chalantley keeps rejecting him), Fluttershy decides to stage an intervention with her parents insisting that they stand up for themselves against Zephyr. They claim that they know how to handle themselves, and then Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash leave. On the flight back, Rainbow notices how Fluttershy is being unusually quiet even by her own standards. And Fluttershy mentions being "peeved" which is treated like a swear word in-universe.
Apparently, Zephyr's behavior and tendency to leave and come back home is well known since even Applejack gets in on teasing Fluttershy about it. I mean, this is like how "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" treated the existence of Spoiled Rich as if it were common knowledge even when it was the first time it had been mentioned, and there was little indication as to how anypony could've known besides Diamond Tiara and maybe Silver Spoon. Fluttershy then goes back home (for some reason) and more or less convinces her parents to kick Zephyr out. Except Zephyr then moves in with Fluttershy, who agrees to let him stay on the condition that he get a job.
Rather than leave it up to Zephyr though, Fluttershy opts to take the liberty of finding a job for him. He's tasked by Rarity with painting some fabrics, but he opts to try and make Opal do it instead which gets him fired. Then he's tasked by Twilight with washing the windows in her castle, and he pulls a Tom Sawyer on Spike to make him do the job for him. Fluttershy berates him for this afterwards while a ponyfied Link runs past in the background.
So Zephyr is then approached by Rainbow Dash to carry out an assignment at Wonderbolts H.Q., and she warns him that if he tries to weasel out of his job she'll literally zap him with a storm cloud. Rainbow makes good on this threat since Zephyr shows up later clearly electrocuted, though it's never specified what Rainbow Dash was asking him to do. Anyway, since Zephyr Breeze continues to be a lazy bum who weasels his way out of work, Fluttershy kicks him out of her cottage.
Fluttershy does regret doing this, but Rainbow Dash rightfully tells her that she had to stand firm and not let Zephyr pull the same stuff he was doing on their parents. Soon afterward, they learn that Zephyr Breeze is in the Everfree Forest and trying to fend for himself with predictable results.
It's only when Zephyr is confronted by Fluttershy and Rainbow that he mentions that he's apparently afraid to fail, something that doesn't quite click when we saw him unwilling to do anything before and look for the first opportunity to get out of doing even the simplest of tasks. Still, the two agree to let Zephyr come back if he does what they say. And this leads into the song "Can I Do It on My Own", which just feels very out of place and sudden. Heck, if it's supposed to show us Zephyr's character progression it kind of fails because we see him get frustrated and try to quit, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash have to force him to get back in there.
The song ends with Zephyr Breeze apparently confident enough to go back to mane styling school, and we later see that he graduated. Mr. and Mrs. Shy also apparently support his delusions about his feelings for Rainbow Dash even when she's clearly not interested and doesn't reciprocate. But Zephyr is still moving back in with his parents anyway since he'll need time to set up his own business (as opposed to maybe interning with someone?).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, it is a good showcase of Fluttershy's growth as a character, especially since with Mr. and Mrs. Shy we can see what Fluttershy would be like if not for her growth. She's willing to be firm and refuses to let her brother get away with any of his lazy behavior, but she's not doing it to be cruel. She's willing to be fair and give him chances, only kicking him out of her cottage after he continuiously fails to hold a job. Rainbow Dash also plays surprisingly well here in a subdued role, supporting Fluttershy and encouraging her to stand firm on her commitment. At the same time however, she can empathize with what Fluttershy is doing and even she can be made to feel sorry for Zephyr Breeze. Zephyr, however, is by far the worst aspect of this episode. What we're told doesn't match what we see. If he is afraid to fail, he never shows it outwardly when he keeps looking for any excuse to weasel his way out of doing what he agreed to do. His entire personality seems to be every negative stereotype you can think of for people on welfare and/or millienials, though I will say that at the very least his stupidity thankfully only ever hurts himself. I really don't get what the point of the song "Can I Do It on My Own?" was other than to just fill the run time, and again if they wanted to show Zephyr's character growth they shouldn't have shown him try to quit as soon as it got hard and more or less be told he had to get back in there. Plus, after a while his flirting with Rainbow Dash gets repetitive and you'd think he would take a hint. Plus, it's weird that Zephyr is treated even among the mane six like he always existed and they all know what he's like. Those are not so minor flaws that ultimately hold this episode to the level of a straight B. If we saw more of Zephyr Breeze's alledged fear of failing and the song wasn't so out of nowhere, this episode would be stronger.
So, Season 6 was doing fine but it seemed like it wasn't really pushing the envelope or making use of the status quo changes from Season 5, and the first half would come to a close with a return of the map missions starting with "Spice Up Your Life".
Zephyr is still much more tolerable here than he was in Sparkle's Seven
I think I speak for everyone when I say that we're all grateful Dave Rapp didn't regress Fluttershy's character in this episode just so he could have her learn a lesson about standing up to family members.
5523811 Yes, but it may be that Meghan already did most of the work for him. The story was there, Dave just had to not mess up the characters.
This is one of my fav season 6 episodes. I don't think Zephyr being the way he is detracts from the episode, when that's sorta the whole point, and he grows a lot. And his refusing to work IS subtling showing him being afraid of failure. He just went about it in a blase way to hide it. And I thought his flirting when Rainbow obviously wasn't interested but he was oblivious was funny. Also introducing a new character as if he always existed is common, like with Shining Armor.