Welcome to a new edition of Alicorn Reviews and we have another filler episode to explore with Fluttershy. The episode gets centered around Rarity asking her calm friend to watch Saddle Row while she's away on business. Rarity and her fashionista peers must attend a fashion show in Canterlot but she has no one to watch the store. After asking the ponies around Ponyville with them declining, she goes to Fluttershy who agreed to help watch Saddle Row. As we know about the shy mare, she stays true to her personality of being quiet and not causing trouble or even an issue. However, she has gotten moments where the shy mare either has taken it too far or got pushed to a point. The Element of Kindness turned into a "vampire" once after using her stare ability on the fruits bats as seen in "Bats!". She even used this personality again in the episode titled Scare Master in Season 5. Unlike those other times, in this instant she might have to take another route in other to keep Rarity's business of Saddle Row from declining. We see a return of the shy one's acting skills as it's been a while since she has performed these traits. She puts these to the test to appease the customers who shop at Saddle Row often. Flutters uses what she has learned from previous self-experiences and shows a character that's confident in her ability to sell. It's truly funny how she portrays three different personalities one after the other. We already saw Flutters in Goth mode during season 5 as she brings that personality back once again. Of course, right on cue, the cast of ponies she tries to represent all show up to Saddle Row. Goth ponies are not really a new thing to the series as Ink Rose was another one that stood out in Season 7. A male Goth shows up and the guy literally had a snow flake as his cutie mark. Yeah, I can tell he's one of those special snowflakes, you know the ones that complain about how everything comes off meaningless. Of course, Flutters takes her previous acting and scales this up a couple of levels. She literally emulated him from his gloomy attitude to the way he spoke. The unique thing missing was the evil laughter the shy one would let out on a few occasions. I don't know maybe she's feeling a bit Gothshy, uh? I really need to stop... The next two are genuinely new for her to act and one is a rich upper-class snob and the other a valley girl. Anything you saw with the earlier noble and upper class snobs comes out in all its colors for Fluttershy. She manages to pull it off and match exactly the way the stallion acted about wanted his business coat to always be one thousand threads. If Applejack were to see Flutters lie we might witness something else that isn't an apple tree getting bucked. Next is her valley girl personality and she literally nailed the speaking to a T. I also love the mannerisms Flutters portrayed and saying things as "like this is totally" in a valley girl tone. Honestly, this is the best acting from the shy one that we have seen so far. These personalities did help make her more confident in Flutters' ability to promote to Rarity's Customers. However, it came at a price as she would take the acting too far in probably the worst way. Just like the shy one's characters, we come to the cast of background ponies from Manehattan. I already went over the Goth pony with the snowflake cutie mark but the ones that also stood out were the valley girls. It's probably the way they act and talk that makes them come off funny. These stereo types do in fact exist (not saying that's wrong) and it's hilarious when the mares act this way especially in Fluttershy's case. I did have some problems with this episode as Fluttershy should have learned by now to not take things too far. There were a few occasions where she went too far as seen from "Putting Your Hoof Down" and "Scare Master". However, in these instances Fluttershy was still growing as a character so it made sense for her to make those kinds of mistakes. In "Putting Your Hoof Down", she learned to come off assertive as Iron Will misguided her. That caused her to lash out to Rarity and Pinkie in an uncharacteristic manner. Then in "Scare Master", Flutters got tired of her friends thinking she was a scared and frightening pony every time Nightmare Night came around. Of course, she did turn the tables on them but here she took this a little too far by acting like her "vampire" self. Fluttershy learned in these moments to not take her attitude or acting to such a level it hurts her friends. So what compelled the kind one to keep the acting up even when the Mane Six showed up? DHX probably has run out of ideas for the shy mare as this episode had lazy writing. The only reason they wrote the story like this is because they needed a friendship problem. You don't shoehorn an issue like that when the character already overcame the situation a couple of times. Sure there were times that being firm sounded necessary as seen in "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies and Fluttershy Leans In" episodes. I'm sure the writing staff could be a little more creative and not lean on the fact that Gen 4 will be over in two years. The others obviously have some areas left for them to explore like the way they wrote Pinkie in the Maud Couple. For once Pinkie didn't like someone which made a good area to go in for the Pink Wonder. I don't know what else they could do for Fluttershy's character this late into the show. However, placing her in a forced friendship problem certainly isn't one of them to progress her personality. All they could do is use the teacher arc and put her in a situation that tests her judgment as a educator. The episode wasn't as good as the Maud Couple as the writers tried using a friendship problem that Fluttershy already fixed. There are still some redeeming qualities to this filler and its seen from Flutters' acting skills. It did create some funny moments during her time in Saddle Row with the customers. We knew she could act based on the Nightmare Night episode but never have we've seen Flutters take it up a couple of notches. The best one is obviously her Goth personality and this might have to do with her experience with using that characteristic. The critical issue is how the writers recycled the same story from season 2. The shy one should've been over this attitude of taking it too far as she has grown since then. It did make her feel confident which helped in the situation during the time alone at Saddle Row. The problem is it made her come off hostile than firm and Flutters should have know better than to act in this way. Around her friends is when she needed to stop the act especially when they called her out on it. I'm not saying the writers need to take Rey's example from Star Wars because we all know Mary Sues suck. The episode needed something else instead of recycling the same arc from previous seasons. The writers as mentioned seem to not have a clear direction for what they could do for Fluttershy. Rating: 7.4/10 Solid
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RETRO GAMER
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