And he used to watch a cartoon about the Flintstones. As children. Where they watched another show about a caveman named Captain Caveman. And his son..
After the jump, he'll break down another episode and discuss what makes it good, what makes it bad, and what makes it just outright crazy. This week's theme? ...well, I can't really think of one. Unless it's "Babysitters are underpaid" or "For god's sake, don't *#%@ with Fluttershy."
The episode opens showing that even when the spotlight isn't on particular characters, it seems our main group can still suffer the occasional mental breakdown. Rarity is apparently attempting to rush through a design job while her sister Sweetie Belle (you might remember her as one of the kids who don't have a "cutie mark") tries to help. In what might be one of the most obtuse Rube Goldberg devices I've ever seen, a single roll of ribbon manages to trigger a series of events that completely devastates Rarity's workroom.
Once the episode starts proper and Rarity's picked things up, Sweetie Belle informs Rarity (and us, the audience, by proxy) that she's so eager to help because, surprise, she's still primarily focused on acquiring her cutie mark. Rarity does show sympathy to her kid sister, but seems determined to get her job done without any more distractions.
This is, of course, the perfect time for Fluttershy to show up. I'll admit, I still love this character for so many reasons, but sometimes, just sometimes, they take her skittishness a bit far. The fact that she apologizes for assuming Rarity's shop was open just because the sign said "Open" is one of those "maybe ask if the sign was wrong first, and then just apologize for interrupting if it was."
Fluttershy's returning Rarity's cat, and there's a brief discussion about how good with animals Fluttershy is. Rarity does ask if, in order to groom Opal, Fluttershy had to use... "the stare." The intensity of which Rarity says it threw me back to the episode where Twilight Sparkle learns about Pinkie Pie's predicting abilities, and is a reminder that some of these characters knew each other for quite a while before the show even began.
Fluttershy insists she didn't, and can't even control when "it" happens...and I admit, now I'm intrigued. I remember when Fluttershy was the one who shamed and humiliated a dragon into submission, but there was no mention of a "stare" at that point in time. It turns out that there's supposed to be a sleepover that night so the Cutie Mark Crusaders (I'm going to refer to them as the CMC for the rest of the episode) can try to figure out their special talents.
Because of how overworked, Rarity feels she has to cancel the sleepover since she'll be too busy to watch the kids, but Fluttershy saves the day by volunteering to watch them. After all, how hard can it be to babysit three kids?
...I was going to post a picture of Vin Diesel in The Pacifier here, but I think the message speaks for itself.
Fortunately, the show doesn't take a standard "babysitter and the kids are the only defense from criminals and international spy rings" (...or maybe I mean unfortunately, as that sounds awesome) and instead it seems Fluttershy has an evening planned of tea, braiding tails, and coloring. Save me.
But we do get a small interlude where Fluttershy meets up with Twilight. Twilight's on her way to the Everfree Forest to get tea from Zecora (I guess they have gotten past zebra racism by this point). I like the fact that Fluttershy has the only logical reaction to hearing that someone is going into the Everfree Forest by themselves.
Okay, it's really just a well-timed screenshot. But that would be my reaction.
Fluttershy gets the kids home, where they immediately start jumping around like, well, like excited children. They don't want tea, or braiding, or coloring (thank the heavens), they want go adventuring. In the EVERFREE FOREST.
...it's a wonder these kids have survived this long.
Fluttershy manages to express to them that this is an absolutely stupid idea, and we some time watching the CMC attempt different things in Fluttershy's house, including catching creatures and fixing tables (that they break). There's a great line here, when the CMC are done trying to fix the table, when Apple Bloom goes "someone needs to put this thing out of its misery." Considering the context of the show and how often it seems characters have to shrug off injury, it really adds a bizarre meaning to that comment.
Fluttershy puts the kids to bed, and we get two really nice little song moments; once when Fluttershy sings a lullaby, and once when Sweetie Belle sings the same lullaby in a mixture of rock and roll, church gospel, and Motown. Kudos to the people who sing these songs, they really seem to match the regular voice actors extremely well.
The noise disturbs Fluttershy's chickens, however, and the kids eagerly take off to herd the poultry back into their pen. At this point, Fluttershy's had it. Anybody who's seen me talk about Fluttershy knows she raises her voice about as often as I speak highly of Barb Wire. So when Fluttershy shouts and then gets the chickens to go backward into their coop, we get our first glimpse of... "the stare."
Complete with spooky theremin music. E-gad.
The kids get put back to bed, the lights get turned out...and of course they don't fall asleep. While pondering how they'll get their cutie marks while stuck in a room, Apple Bloom notices that, in the confusion, at least one chicken escaped its pen and took off into the forest. So, what's the logical thing to do?
a) Shrug it off. There's always more chickens.
b) Tell Fluttershy so she, a responsible older pony, can organize a search group in the morning.
c) Stand at the edge of the forest and call into it before going and telling Fluttershy what happened.
d) Take off into a place so dangerous that ponies are absolutely terrified of being banished there if they do anything wrong without telling Fluttershy.
If you picked a, b, or c, you're not paying attention.
Fluttershy becomes aware something's amiss when she realizes that things are "a little too quiet," and quickly discovers the chicken and pony footprints (and hoofprints, technically) that let her know what happened. So, what's Fluttershy to do? Why, go into the forest as well, of course!
...you know, Fluttershy, if you live right next to the edge of the forest, I suppose that does make you the most aware of what kind of dangers might come out of it, but again, you live right next to the forest. You really have nobody to blame but yourself for being that close to danger.
Fluttershy makes her way through, and if you want an example of just how fast we should expect those kids to be made into someone's lunch, here's the status of Twilight Sparkle, who Fluttershy stumbles upon. Keep in mind, this is a pony experienced with magic and once charged a hydra and defeated a bear made out of outer space (it's been a while since I used that phrase).
Yeah, she's had better days.
Fluttershy seems to know what causes ponies to be turned to stone, though, and this is where concern overrides fear, and we see her take off into action. She finds the kids, and warns them that a cockatrice is on the loose. However, describing a monster as "head of a chicken and body of a snake" doesn't get quite the reaction she wants, and the kids laugh it off. But surely their attitude will change when we see the monster, right? I mean, so far the monster designs for this show are pretty darn epic!
...okay, yeah, that's kinda weak. I'd laugh at that, and I know what a cockatrice is.
We quickly get one "stoned" chicken to demonstrate the threat, and the kids do what you'd expect children to do...they freak the @&$! out. Fluttershy gets the children to hide behind her, which in most cases would be like shielding them with a sack of wet sacks. But there's two things to remember here: this is a woodland creature, and Fluttershy's friends are at risk. What we wind up with is Fluttershy's "the stare" against a mythological gaze that turns everything to stone. I'll admit, I expects Fluttershy to simply ignore the power, but when we start to watch her back legs and body start to stone, it's a bit scary.
However, even mythological terror isn't enough to break Fluttershy, and the cockatrice seems to know this. It quickly retreats, but not before it agrees to return Twilight Sparkle and the chicken back to normal. The kids also learn a very important lesson in that, when Fluttershy speaks, you listen.
Things return to normal, and Rarity gets to be amazed at Fluttershy's ability to control the kids with a few soft words and...well, there isn't really a moral this time. I mean, unless you count "Don't chase chickens into dangerous woods" or "If you see a monster with the body of a snake and the head of a chicken, kick it in the face right away."
The Good:
I love the spotlight episodes much more than I do the ones that focus on two or more ponies (the exception being the ones that feature all of them pretty much equally). When the spotlight is on Fluttershy, it's even better since she tends to be seriously underplayed in many episodes. Getting to see multiple sides of her, from cowardice to bravery and from manipulated to controlling, it's all great and adds such depth to a character.
It was also good to see some more development of the CMC, especially Sweetie Belle's singing. They're giving us glimpses and hints of the talents each one might have, and I expect we'll see more of that soon.
The Bad:
That...was a weak cockatrice. Considering how intimidating a cockatrice can look, this design felt a bit more slapped together, like something you'd expect to see hassling Courage the Cowardly Dog. No, I wasn't a big fan of that series.
While I do like the CMC in moderation, this episode was a little bit much with them constantly ignoring everybody. I mean, I get they they're kids, and kids are rather single-minded sometimes (I remember sleepovers where we got no sleep that night because we stayed up talking about stuff we had already talked about all. day. long.) but watching them literally run headlong into danger without so much as a thought of "is this really a good idea?" is just mind-boggling sometimes.
Overall:
This episode was well on its way to being one of my favorite episodes before the monster showed up and I started laughing. I was willing to overlook the CMC's annoying factor because it was mostly balanced with the humor and talented moments, but besides the stone gaze I didn't really get a sense of menace from the threat. Why they couldn't just turn around and wait for someone to say "now!" before kicking it in the face is beyond my reasoning.
I will say, though, that it is nice that they built upon the threats of the world a bit more, touching more mythological creatures. It really does act like a reminder that while some episodes are silly and fun, the risks of leaving the safety of the kingdom can be extremely high.
I was also a bit puzzled that Fluttershy reacts this way now to Twilight going into the Everfree Woods alone when just recently she herself wandered pretty deep in there to drop off frogs at a swamp.
I'm still not sure how to react to the real lack of a moral. It felt a bit like an episode designed for boys (which is funny since it's the "girliest" ponies who are in it) in that it had action and danger without a sappy lesson for us to groan through.
So, that's it for this week. Next week, we'll sit down, get comfy, and take a look at a new theme in a show about ponies. It's look like we've got another CMC episode with...a tribute to 80s rock?
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