MLP:FiM 2x22 "Hurricane Fluttershy"

[Kemaiku]

Fluttershy struggles to overcome her fear of public humiliation so she can help Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi create a tornado powerful enough to lift the water required for rainy season in the cloud-producing city of Cloudsdale.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_My_Little_Pony:_Friendship_Is_Magic_episodes#cite_note-12

 

[Gepard]

Five seconds in and we've got prominent Derpy and the return of Fluttertree. Yay!

 

[Kemaiku]

Fluttertree, Derpy (her right eye is fine, but her left eye is lazy?)

So Spitfire is turning up, don't know what that huge white...thing is that keeps shouting "yeah!" but it looks like they have steroids in Ponyville. And was Cloudkicker doing 1000lbs weights with her wings?

 

[TrekAlliance92]

Well, this is now my favorite Fluttershy episode. Maybe as someone who''s always been fascinated by the weather, I'm a bit biased, lol :P

It was nice to see Derpy in the teaser...and several times during the training...and the end sequence...and that one of the animals wore a Derpy mask at the end. Also, Fluttertree in the teaser was funny.

The parody of the old-style PSAs has been done many times before in other cartoons, but it still amused me here.

The "juiced up" muscle pony saying "YEAAAAAHHHH!" throughout the episode was a funny running joke. Another good running joke was when Spike kept stepping in it and getting smacked by Twilight.

The scene where Fluttershy was faking being sick or injured was very enjoyable and funny.

Twilight stole her scene with the anemometer technobabble. Loved it.

The music in parts of this episode was really good, especially the training music and Rainbow Dash's 10+ speed run.

Lots of nice, cartoon animation throughout, including RD's eyes-through-the-tree for the ending.

The whole tornado sequence was great, including the end bit with Fluttershy still flying.

Episode Rankings (Subject to Change on Future Viewings) -
(A) The Return of Harmony, Lesson Zero, Luna Eclipsed, The Mysterious Mare Do Well, Sweet & Elite, Secret of My Excess, The Last Roundup, Read it & Weep, Hearts and Hooves Day, A Friend in Deed, Hurricane Fluttershy
(B) The Cutie Pox, Baby Cakes, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, Putting Your Hoof Down, It's About Time
(C) Sisterhood Social, May the Best Pet Win, Hearth's Warming Eve, Dragon Quest
(D) Family Appreciation Day
(F) None So Far

Final Note: I like that they're airing previews for upcoming episodes during the airing of the new episode.

 

[Gepard]

Fluttershy confirmed for PTSD sufferer. Angel bunny was kind to her this week, though, so that's a nice change.

So do they not have evaporation in Equestria? Physics must be weird in the pony universe. What happens to sweat? Does spilled liquid just stay around until somepony mops it up? How do they dry clothing? I'm overthinkimg this, aren't I?

I find myself wondering why Spitfire didn't lend a wing at the end, but eh. Good episode all around.

 

[Kemaiku]

I think it's just difficult for such a landlocked town to generate enough, when they have smaller pockets of water around. They just help nature along and pump a major amount of water into a rain maker device.

Spitfire was useless, I mean come on, really useless, not even some sort of lame throwaway ship moment with Dashie. Not that I was expecting that to happen. Or something.

It was a great Fluttershy episode and followed up on a lot of old storylines and plots around her, even another flashback to her lanky child self in Cloudsdale. Wow the other Ponies are looking more and more mean as time goes on.

The steroid Pony was just scary, what the hell? that female Pegasi was lifting 1000lbs weights with just her little wings, what was that guy like?

Derpy seems to have a lazy left eye and a normal right one or something like that, she can read okay, even something out of hoof's reach from her. Nice that she got so many little moments this week.

More white trash/trailer ponies with those bad haired twins with the weird voices (and wigs?). Nice wing power but fashion obviously not their strong point.

So many tree casualties, and a Fluttertree sighting, nice nods there but how the heck did Dashie put her *eyes* through one without her snout? yikes

Angel was actually nice instead of potential rabbit-stew-fodder this week. And Spike was being a real ass instead, did they switch personalities for a week?

Nice acknowledgement of Fluttershy's ability to talk to animals right out yet again lifted from CMChronicles last season. And her wings snapping shut ala Dragonshy. But all that assetiveness gone again.

Loved the 40's/50's projector educational video, and Twilight's semi-explanation that the Pegasi work via some water vapour based anti-gravity ability over a certain level that allowes them to manipulate the clouds. And Dashie catching Shy with a cloud-mit.

The Dash/Shy scene early on with the dramatic music was almost breakup-ish, the sound of Bronies furiously typing out fanfic, among other things, was almost audible.

Very nice episode, hopefully we'll get this quality or better the rest of the season to see it out.

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, this episode was top notch for me. Putting aside how much I adore Fluttershy, everything seemed more consistent. As for Spike, he's not an ass, he's just oblivious. Subtlety has never been Spike's strong point anyway, I mean, he is a dragon, albeit a more kind and caring one.

You can see that some of the assertiveness training stuck with Fluttershy, in that with effort she can call on her more confident side. I won't lie, I cried when Fluttershy was in the woods sobbing. I mean, come on, sad Fluttershy is sad! She's such a sweet and gentle pony! I just wanted to hug her.

Also, Dash was all kind of awesome this week, being a real friend to Fluttershy, trying to help her step up to the plate and be more confident in herself. Loved that, because it shows Dashie's element of loyalty to her friends. Also, old school filmstrip, Twilight's science jargon, musclebound testosterone pony, and DashFire for the win.

All in all, a terrific episode. I have to give it an A!

 

[Count Zero]

That was a beautiful episode. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside at the end. I adore Fluttershy and so I really felt for her with her overpowering fear and like J. I nearly cried along with her. The episode contrasted her natural ease around animals with her anxiety around ponies quite nicely.
Twilight was so cute with her enthusiasm for the whole thing. I love her line, "Do I look like I speak squirrel?"
I loved the old film at the beginning and the many new pegasi we got to see like the posh sisters, Thunderlame and the astronomy stallion. Is the wings = penis analogy now canon thanks to the bodybuilder pegasus with the smal wings?

So do they not have evaporation in Equestria? Physics must be weird in the pony universe. What happens to sweat? Does spilled liquid just stay around until somepony mops it up? How do they dry clothing? I'm overthinkimg this, aren't I?

Well, they were talking about additional water, so I guess they only need the hurricanes to produce additional clouds and to have a constant supply for their cloud factory. I actually quite like the idea of producing the weather like that. I find the artificialness of Equestria in that regard quite fascinating.

I find myself wondering why Spitfire didn't lend a wing at the end, but eh.

Me, too.

 

[Wanderlust]

A+

Derpy all over the place

 

[Gepard]

Is the wings = penis analogy now canon thanks to the bodybuilder pegasus with the smal wings?

Well, that would be wings = testicles in this case, but yeah, I think that's the implication they were going for.

So do they not have evaporation in Equestria? Physics must be weird in the pony universe. What happens to sweat? Does spilled liquid just stay around until somepony mops it up? How do they dry clothing? I'm overthinkimg this, aren't I?

Well, they were talking about additional water, so I guess they only need the hurricanes to produce additional clouds and to have a constant supply for their cloud factory. I actually quite like the idea of producing the weather like that. I find the artificialness of Equestria in that regard quite fascinating.

There's something kind of horrifying, IMO, about how artificial it all is at this point. Don't know why it stuck out at me that way in this episode when I thought it was charming and/or funny in season 1. Maybe because it was a plot-point this time rather than background detail, so I started thinking about it. It just makes me feel like their entire world must be made of plastic or something, like in the movie version of The Lorax.

I find myself wondering why Spitfire didn't lend a wing at the end, but eh.

Me, too.

When they first brought up that Spitfire would be there, I felt sure they would have Dash freak out and lose confidence after failing in front of her idol, and that would cause Fluttershy to step up and take charge of the Pegasai and lead them to victory – sort of flipping their roles with Dash having the crisis and so forth. It was really surprising they brought the character in and then didn't do anything with her.

Come to think of it, they did the same thing last week with that incinerated letter from Celestia. For some reason, they keep introducing Chekhov's Guns that they never fire.

 

[Amaris]

That was a beautiful episode. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside at the end. I adore Fluttershy and so I really felt for her with her overpowering fear and like J. I nearly cried along with her. The episode contrasted her natural ease around animals with her anxiety around ponies quite nicely.
Twilight was so cute with her enthusiasm for the whole thing. I love her line, "Do I look like I speak squirrel?"
I loved the old film at the beginning and the many new pegasi we got to see like the posh sisters, Thunderlame and the astronomy stallion. Is the wings = penis analogy now canon thanks to the bodybuilder pegasus with the smal wings?

So do they not have evaporation in Equestria? Physics must be weird in the pony universe. What happens to sweat? Does spilled liquid just stay around until somepony mops it up? How do they dry clothing? I'm overthinkimg this, aren't I?

Well, they were talking about additional water, so I guess they only need the hurricanes to produce additional clouds and to have a constant supply for their cloud factory. I actually quite like the idea of producing the weather like that. I find the artificialness of Equestria in that regard quite fascinating.

I find myself wondering why Spitfire didn't lend a wing at the end, but eh.

Me, too.

Yeah, I love it when more of the world gets revealed. There's a fan fiction called "It's a Dangerous Business Stepping Out Your Front Door" that basically says back before Equestria became what it was, there was an ancient deer race that wielded magic, and they had an all out war using extremely powerful magic, and in the process, damaged the natural cycle of the earth, to the point where magic had to be used to make everything work properly.

I mean, granted, it's not canon, but I just love that idea.

 

[Kemaiku]

and the astronomy stallion

Orion, he's been in a few episodes now.

 

[Count Zero]

Thanks for posting the name, Chem.

There's something kind of horrifying, IMO, about how artificial it all is at this point. Don't know why it stuck out at me that way in this episode when I thought it was charming and/or funny in season 1. Maybe because it was a plot-point this time rather than background detail, so I started thinking about it. It just makes me feel like their entire world must be made of plastic or something, like in the movie version of The Lorax.

It's certainly a little unsettling because it means that if the ponies don't care about this, they'll end up with a somewhat apocalyptic world. The fact that we see them concerned about making nature work the way it's supposed to ("Winter Wrap-Up" was another episode where that featured prominently) drives the point home that keeping it all together is hard work. I kind of like that because reality is like that in a way, too. I find it a valuable lesson to learn especially if it's handled relatively subtly.
I think of this as a side-effect of banishing chaos from the world. It has some very positive consequences - no destructive weather phenomena that kill ponies, the ability to engineer the weather you need, e.g. for goos crops - but it also means you have to take constant care to keep it working.

It could certainly be seen as a somewhat dark aspect of the ponyverse. Then again, they apparently don't live too far away from the entrance to Hades so there isn't any shortage of dark aspects there.

Come to think of it, they did the same thing last week with that incinerated letter from Celestia. For some reason, they keep introducing Chekhov's Guns that they never fire.

They want to keep us on our toes.

There's a fan fiction called "It's a Dangerous Business Stepping Out Your Front Door" that basically says back before Equestria became what it was, there was an ancient deer race that wielded magic, and they had an all out war using extremely powerful magic, and in the process, damaged the natural cycle of the earth, to the point where magic had to be used to make everything work properly.

I mean, granted, it's not canon, but I just love that idea.

Sounds like a great story.


Another thing I forgot to mention earlier is the running gag where somepony would say something that stereotypes mules in a negative way, then apologise to an actual mule nearby. It's kind of funny but I really feel for the mules. They also say somepony instead of somemule so I wonder whether they're Equestria's people of colour who use the pony language and have adopted the pony culture and can't take offense when ponies say inconsiderate things about them. I'm overthinking this, am I not? Other Equestrian ethnicities are just very fascinating to me.

 

[Kemaiku]

Yeah this is his second appearance, Twilight insults him in season 1.

 

[milo bloom]

Haven't seen this ep yet, but "It's Dangerous Business..." is a fantastic story.

As for helping the weather, wasn't there a season 1 reference to the Everfree forest taking care of itself in comparison to how places like Ponyville have to be helped? Even without the explanation in It's Dangerous Business..., there's still indicators of some horrible ecological disaster that happened long ago, one so bad it requires a God-Empress (or two) to "raise and lower" the sun (ie, keep the planet turning properly on it's axis.