MLP:FiM Season 9, Episode 18 - "She Talks To Angel"

[TJgamer]

Spoiler

It's about time we finally got a body swap episode (unless if you count "A Royal Problem"). I'm willing to call Fluttershy in Angel's body "FlutterBunny", and Angel in Fluttershy's body "AngelShy".

I liked this episode for the most part, so I'll just get the negatives out of the way first. I still find it a little weird that while in the sanctuary the predators aren't allowed to eat prey. Makes me wonder if animals would be willing to do damage to their health in order to stay in this haven. And the giraffe still sticks out like a sore thumb (or neck).

Also I would have liked to see AngelShy interact with the other ponies. Missed opportunity in both character development and comedy. 

Now I've heard someone point out that Zecora was being careless in this episode as her body swap idea caused a lot of danger to both FlutterBunny and the animals at the sanctuary. But, keep in mind that she was intending for Fluttershy and Angel to be at home and not needing to do stuff first before taking the potions. That said, I wonder if she knew they had already switched bodies when FlutterBunny came to her hut and was nearly killed by an eagle. If she did, then she should have escorted her back.

The rest of the episode I thought was entertaining enough, and does shed a little bit of light on why Angel is such a needy little brat. And I absolutely love how Andrea Libman was able to subtly change the mannerisms in her Fluttershy voice without giving it up completely. That's hard to do.

That line about "wanting to marry Discord" though.    I'm willing to believe this was just AngelShy taking a jab at Fluttershy and her friendship with Discord. But, yeah, one could imagine.

Last thing I want to mention was the scene between Antoine the python and Muriel the baby elephant.
When AngelShy gave Antoine's cookies to the fire lizard and he slithered away menacingly, I was like "No way...they're not going to show that...not in MLP..."

Spoiler

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Yeah, that freaked me out a little bit.   

In the end, a pretty good episode. Nothing fantastic, but a fairly solid one.

[Zapper]

This episode made me like Angel (after 9 seasons of hating him), so...

Zecora has always been the better Celestia when it comes to setting up scenarios to test ponies. I approve of her methods

[caseysealia]

Spoiler

the discord line was my favorite part tbh

[Shatyr]

Spoiler

Last thing I want to mention was the scene between Antoine the python and Muriel the baby elephant.
When AngelShy gave Antoine's cookies to the fire lizard and he slithered away menacingly, I was like "No way...they're not going to show that...not in MLP..."

Spoiler

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Yeah, that freaked me out a little bit.   

In the end, a pretty good episode. Nothing fantastic, but a fairly solid one.

Spoiler

I... wonder if that part with Antoine the serpent and Muriel the baby elephant is a nod to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who has a whole bit in his book, Le Petit Prince, about a drawing of a serpent that ate an elephant.

[StarSwirl05]

Spoiler

What exactly did I watch? The experts aren't an expert at their careers, there was no explanation for the transformation at all and the viles were exactly the same. Angel was behaving badly and should've been told off for her behavior.

[Al-1701]

Spoiler

What exactly did I watch? The experts aren't an expert at their careers, there was no explanation for the transformation at all and the viles were exactly the same. Angel was behaving badly and should've been told off for her behavior.

Spoiler

This was my reaction.  I guess they wanted to try to give Angel a redemption arc, but it was too little too late.

[TJgamer]

Spoiler

The experts aren't an expert at their careers

What do you mean? Explain.

there was no explanation for the transformation at all and the viles were exactly the same.

Did there need to be? And did the vials need to be different?

Angel was behaving badly and should've been told off for her behavior.

Was he not? Granted, a firmer sense of discipline would be appreciated.

[StarSwirl05]

Spoiler

The experts aren't an expert at their careers

What do you mean? Explain.

there was no explanation for the transformation at all and the viles were exactly the same.

Did there need to be? And did the vials need to be different?

Angel was behaving badly and should've been told off for her behavior.

Was he not? Granted, a firmer sense of discipline would be appreciated.

The vet is supposed to be good at taking care of animals as is Fluttershy but neither did anything useful. The vials clearly reacted differently so to me that implies different formulas. There wasn't an explanation for why they'd react differently. Angel hasn't really changed much at all.

[MJNSEIFER]

Not seen it yet, but I've been dreading this episode more than any episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and from the spoilers, it seems that my fears were at least somewhat justified.

I know it's weird, and I don't rage over it like some people do with characters that they are "protective" over, but I am very "protective" over Angel Bunny - I feel he gets a lot of unfair hate in the fandom (at least in the brony-section) and is treated like a much worse character than he is, when he is usually a good friend to Fluttershy and helps her out a lot, but the fandom basically ignore all that.

I was concerned that this would make Angel out to be the bad guy in a sense, even if it was to give him a kind of redemption at the end of it - I didn't want that.  The writers should know that Angel is a nice guy, albeit spoiled.  He's not what the fandom think he is...

So yeah... dreading this one, but you never know, it might be okay - I'm still watching it, I'm going to watch all the season nine episodes.

[Dragonflitter]

I've never felt the hatred of Angel that some people seem to have. He is a brat, yes, but being a cat owner myself, I am VERY familiar with brat pets. (Listen, if you have never refused to let your tomcat go outside for one day because the neighbors are doing heavy construction to their property, and then woke up in the morning the next day and stepped in cat vomit placed exactly beside your bed where you put your feet every morning, you don't have a brat pet.)

I thought a body switching episode was a good idea! Especially between a pony and a non-pony. When I realized what was happening, I felt like a little lightbulb went off in my head like "Oh wow, yeah, they haven't really done this before, have they?" It was nice to see some good ideas for plots that hadn't been done yet, even after nine seasons.

Of course the "you will understand a friend more if you walk a mile in their shoes" is a storyline that has been done a few times already in this series, but like I said, the pony and non-pony POV's kept it fresh and different from the other eps.

I'm a little mad that we didn't get any sort of backstory for Zecora. Not that it would have had anything to do with the episode, but I really wanted a backstory for her before the end of the show, and with so few eps left, I doubt it will happen now. At least it was nice to see her again before the end, even if we didn't learn anything new about her.

Post Merge: September 09, 2019, 10:21:36 AM

Angel hasn't really changed much at all.

Eh, the difference between a pet character and a sentient character is that they don't really change that much, especially in the personality department. Yes Angel shows a lot of sentience, but clearly he's an "animal" character like Opal and Winona, not a "person" character like the ponies. I'm not expecting a lot of character growth from an animal character.

[Galactica]

I've never felt the hatred of Angel that some people seem to have. He is a brat, yes, but being a cat owner myself, I am VERY familiar with brat pets. (Listen, if you have never refused to let your tomcat go outside for one day because the neighbors are doing heavy construction to their property, and then woke up in the morning the next day and stepped in cat vomit placed exactly beside your bed where you put your feet every morning, you don't have a brat pet.)

I thought a body switching episode was a good idea! Especially between a pony and a non-pony. When I realized what was happening, I felt like a little lightbulb went off in my head like "Oh wow, yeah, they haven't really done this before, have they?" It was nice to see some good ideas for plots that hadn't been done yet, even after nine seasons.

Of course the "you will understand a friend more if you walk a mile in their shoes" is a storyline that has been done a few times already in this series, but like I said, the pony and non-pony POV's kept it fresh and different from the other eps.

I'm a little mad that we didn't get any sort of backstory for Zecora. Not that it would have had anything to do with the episode, but I really wanted a backstory for her before the end of the show, and with so few eps left, I doubt it will happen now. At least it was nice to see her again before the end, even if we didn't learn anything new about her.

Post Merge: September 09, 2019, 10:21:36 AM

Angel hasn't really changed much at all.

Eh, the difference between a pet character and a sentient character is that they don't really change that much, especially in the personality department. Yes Angel shows a lot of sentience, but clearly he's an "animal" character like Opal and Winona, not a "person" character like the ponies. I'm not expecting a lot of character growth from an animal character.

Don't you think all the pets are "sentient" - it just means able to "perceive" things-  which is really all animals I can think of (even bugs)

[Zapper]

Don't you think all the pets are "sentient" - it just means able to "perceive" things-  which is really all animals I can think of (even bugs)

Yeah and like, in FiM the cows AJ herds can talk to her. And their relatives, the buffalo, are the stand-in for Natives. Who gets to be a pet and who gets to be a person is warped, so Angel is his own person as well as Fluttershy's pet.
The most pet-like pet might be AJ's dog and Pinkie's gator might be furniture

Btw, anyone notice how some of the pets vanished over the seasons? Whatever happened to Twilight's owl? Did she set him free after Tirek destroyed her house? I am legit asking. I don't remember the owl sticking around.

[Ragamuffin]

Don't you think all the pets are "sentient" - it just means able to "perceive" things-  which is really all animals I can think of (even bugs)

Yeah and like, in FiM the cows AJ herds can talk to her. And their relatives, the buffalo, are the stand-in for Natives. Who gets to be a pet and who gets to be a person is warped, so Angel is his own person as well as Fluttershy's pet.
The most pet-like pet might be AJ's dog and Pinkie's gator might be furniture

Btw, anyone notice how some of the pets vanished over the seasons? Whatever happened to Twilight's owl? Did she set him free after Tirek destroyed her house? I am legit asking. I don't remember the owl sticking around.

I feel like he was mentioned once or twice... (not including the episode where Rainbow Dash gets Tank... just from memory)

[TJgamer]

Spoiler

The experts aren't an expert at their careers

What do you mean? Explain.

there was no explanation for the transformation at all and the viles were exactly the same.

Did there need to be? And did the vials need to be different?

Angel was behaving badly and should've been told off for her behavior.

Was he not? Granted, a firmer sense of discipline would be appreciated.

The vet is supposed to be good at taking care of animals as is Fluttershy but neither did anything useful. The vials clearly reacted differently so to me that implies different formulas. There wasn't an explanation for why they'd react differently. Angel hasn't really changed much at all.

I can sort of see where you're coming from with Dr. Fauna (the vet). She probably could have contributed a little more, but bear in mind she can't do what Fluttershy does exactly. What would you want her to do exactly?

The vials reacted differently? Different formulas? What do you mean? 

[StarSwirl05]

Spoiler

The experts aren't an expert at their careers

What do you mean? Explain.

there was no explanation for the transformation at all and the viles were exactly the same.

Did there need to be? And did the vials need to be different?

Angel was behaving badly and should've been told off for her behavior.

Was he not? Granted, a firmer sense of discipline would be appreciated.

The vet is supposed to be good at taking care of animals as is Fluttershy but neither did anything useful. The vials clearly reacted differently so to me that implies different formulas. There wasn't an explanation for why they'd react differently. Angel hasn't really changed much at all.

I can sort of see where you're coming from with Dr. Fauna (the vet). She probably could have contributed a little more, but bear in mind she can't do what Fluttershy does exactly. What would you want her to do exactly?

The vials reacted differently? Different formulas? What do you mean? 

:Well as a vet, she didn't really do anything to control the situation with the animals. As for the vials, they affected Fluttershy and Angel differently. They just switched bodies without explanation.