My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Page 497

I'll start off by addressing the main complaint about the episode, that it was written by one Merriweather Williams. Personally I have never even looked up the writer of any episode, I feel that if there is a predisposition against the writer in question, IE; because she wrote another episode that people didn't like, that causes people to go into the episode already expecting to dislike it, and it makes it easier for people to nitpick and find things they don't like simply because they already dislike the writer. I personally thought Mare-do-well was a fine episode, certainly not enough to throw around hate for a new writer. You have to keep in mind that the show/dialogue/setting/whatever else for her episodes are NOT all on her, I would believe that everything would go through Faust (season 1) and Jayson (season 2), so there would be more approval from the higher ups in that regard. Try going into the rest of the episodes this season WITHOUT looking up the writer or anything else. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Now, on to the actual episode itself. Finally! A Fluttershy centered episode! The FS fans rejoiced as the opening scene showed that all too familiar cottage. It reminded me of a certain opening scene from back in season 1, namely Dragonshy. Fluttershy feeding all her pets/animals. The main thing that stuck out to me, as continuity goes from Dragonshy to this episode, is that her animals are starting to misbehave as a whole. Before, it was simply Angel (whom I'll get to in a minute) who was the one acting out. Angel was displeased with his food being the same, what looked to be store bought food as the others, and I would imagine that he felt entitled as FS's first and longest pet to a better meal. Now, if you look back to season 1's episodes, there has always been a sort of slapstick element when involving Angel. The punting of his carrot, and stomping around to get FS's attention in Dragonshy, and thumping his leg to get FS to go to Celestia's party in "A bird in the Hoof" That's the way I have always seen the FS - Angel relationship, so the slap wasn't too far extended from normalcy. Now, I believe that it was an extension of the moral of the episode, wherein everyone was taking advantage of FS and she needed to be assertive, Angel was simply used to the recessive, enabling behavior of FS and took advantage of it. Classical Conditioning at its finest. Cue to the market scene and the progression to PP and R convincing FS to get some "Help"

I loved the market scene. There were many slight references/influences here that I enjoyed greatly. PP and her Bugs Bunny acting, the Derpy spotting being disappointing that there was no more sprouts, ect. Tabitha was at her finest here as well, but the focus here was on FS and her character flaw, namely her shyness/nervousness allowing people to take advantage of it. Another complaint I saw about this scene came from the stall vendors. From what I saw, even though Equestria uses a currency system (Bits) it still seems to be early on in its use, where haggling and price adjustment are still on a case to case basis. The shopkeepers here are portrayed here as bad/evil, but the capitalist in me sees someone using supply and demand in their favor against someone who looks to be easy to be taken advantage of (again, back to the moral of the ep.) The cherry salesman had one cherry left, and when supply is low, he can charge high for it, especially when FS even TELLS him that she needs it and would pay whatever it takes to get it for Angel. Heavy focus on her flaw here, but it serves to remind the audience of the stacking nature of the problem. She can't say no to Angel ---> Needs the cherry for the excessive meal ----> is essentially blood in the proverbial water for entrepreneurs trying to make money. I wouldn't be surprised if AJ handled her Apple sales much in the same way.

On to Iron Will. Not much to say here, many people enjoyed the character, as did I. Now, the only reason FS is even here, is because her friends want her to be more assertive. Another character flaw in FS is her wish to please everyone in her life. Now, an "Expert" in self help shows up, and FS reluctantly tries out his ideas/techniques. Many self help guru's use the same type of strategies to help out their clients. Simple, easy to remember oneliners and self empowering statements that can be recalled easily even without the guru around. Unfortunately, the setup for this was NOT assertiveness, but nastiness. FS, who has rarely if ever been assertive, or even confrontational, tried out the guru's suggestion, and at seeing the crowd excited and happy, FS used the techniques she learned in her real life, on people and problems she already had. The result was that she enjoyed having power over ponies, and it made her feel great. Add to that the reinforcement by PP and R at Sugarcube Corner, and the stage was set for a continuation of the "Guru's one liners" in FS's immediate future.

This all came into the climax near the end of the episode where there was conflict between FS and PP - R. By this point, she was completely wrapped up in the mindset of assertive anger and aggressiveness. This scene, while very sad, is something that is very relate-able. I believe that FS always had this inner aggressiveness/dislike buried down, and instead of letting it out, she bottled it up. This episode, however, she let it out, much like her outburst at the GGG. In fact, the parallels between this ep and that one are uncanny, characterization-wise. After the conflict, FS sees her reflection, and finally realizes how she was acting, and immediately regrets it. FS to me is a character of two faces, the nice, domicile FS, and the aggressive, dragon-staring, cockatrice subduing FS. I believe that this episode was meant to make FS take the best from both sides of her personality, The kind, caring side and the assertive, smart, and savvy side of FS we saw at the end of the episode, using what she learned from Iron Will, but adapting it to be less aggressive and more assertive, I.E. more like a healthy "person" should be. I also liked the fact that Iron Will, once outsmarted, was not angry/depressed, instead learned his own lesson from FS, and planned on using that in his next seminar, showing him that his methods, while they may have worked, weren't the best way.

I really enjoyed this episode. I went in, saw the comedy, laughed OUT LOUD at several points, teared up once, and really enjoyed the story told of FS learning to expand her personality and grow as a character. I feel that many of you disliked the episode simply because your favorite pony (FS) was misbehaving/behaving in a way that you felt was OOC, however I disagree, as explained above. She acted well in character, it was just a side of FS we very, very, VERY rarely get to see, and is a part of a good character. This was an EXCELLENT episode. Of course, this is all simply my opinion. You are free to dislike things, and I have no place to say that you aren't allowed to dislike something. What I PERSONALLY dislike, are people disliking or even hating (ugh, that word) things based on silly things like who wrote what episode or things they saw as OOC. Remember, this show is a team effort. If there were things you disliked in this episode, it's not ONE person's fault. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far, I ♥ all of you guys =D

I flat out couldn't imagine her, a fundamentally kind pony throughout the whole show, being so cruel to her friends. The trigger for her behavior just didn't seem strong enough.
It seems like half the point of the My Little Pony episode format is to build characters, so any out-of-character behavior doens't sit well with a lot of the audience. We identify with the ponies; that's why OOC behavior can be such a deal-breaker, especially if its the central premise of an episode. It seems like you didn't think the actions were OOC, which is fine. But that's different from liking the episode in spite of OOC behavior.
So could this be some character development, a hidden side of Fluttershy's behavior in SE1/2, an aggressiveness that she could get carried away with? Sure. But that development was handled with a kind of exaggeration that didn't seem believable.
No qualms with the theme and lesson; just the execution. I'm surprised this got through Jayson, tbh, but maybe I'm letting my personal opinion on the episode interfere with the actual quality.