Hesitations about Putting Your Hoof Down

[Bunny-san]

Now that I've watched the episode (Now definitely replacing Lesson Zero as my least favorite), the reason I had hesitations AGAIN-- If you had read. Was that I had feared that they would change Fluttershy's character permanently in a manner that just wasn't canon to FLUTTERSHY. Like how they changed Pony. Simple as that.

The entire episode genuinely made no sense. All they did was make Fluttershy into Flutterbrute for an episode. In "The Staremaster" as well as "Dragonshy" It was already established that she had the ability to assert herself without being a complete scream-your-head-off, kick your butt, a-hole. Why did Hasbro feel the need to bring out the "Psycho-brute" side of Fluttershy (again)? It was completely unnecessary. And talk about a great example to present to kids! Some of the ponies horrid behavior around ponyville left me flabbergasted. It was like Ponyville had been horribly transformed into the Northern VA/DC area, a town full of ba$+)*ds. I watched it with my husband, but without our son.

Spoiler

And we just sat there, slack-jawed when Fluttershy made Rarity and Pinkie Pie CRY. REALLY?!

Of all the episodes, we just sort of agreed that this wouldn't be one that we'd share with him. While it ended up well as all episodes do, and they didn't change her character irreparably to some super-dominant tough pony, I was still very disappointed in the overall content of the episode.

[Wardah]

You need to have more faith in your parenting skills. I am sure your little one won't get the wrong message from the episode since I am sure you have been sending the right message and right messages from parents override TV shows.

I kind of was not crazy about the fact that she has shown she can be assertive before but I can just fix that by realizing that these episodes are not in chronological order and this must have happened before those episodes.

[Elisto]

OK, now that I've seen it, the only thing that bothered me a bit was Rarity's "assertiveness" at the beginning was more like manipulation to me; I don't particularly like the suggestion of flirting with someone to get what you want, and neither her solution or Pinkie Pie addressed the issue of Fluttershy not only being not assertive, but being taken advantage of. But the main point of the episode was fine, I though...maybe I've just forgotten the other Fluttershy episodes already, but this one seemed a little different. I can relate to worrying that in being assertive you'll go too far and having trouble finding a balance.

[StarSwirl05]

Honestly, I didn't like Fluttershy being her sort-of Discord'd self. She needed to be right in the middle as she learned at the end of the ep. She went so far as to make both Rarity AND Pinkie Pie cry! Those two may not be my favorite but I think I'd take them over Flutterjerk any day!

[Elisto]

I think not liking her like that was the whole point.

[Bunny-san]

I agree with y'all. Particularly about Rarity's manipulation at the start of the episode. Honestly, I've always called my husband "Geeki" as a nickname, since he's the smart glasses, not so athletic or muscly type guy, who honestly, is just a self professed Geek. And he was offended by that.(But we swallow our pride and move on. :p) And such a great thing to teach little girls too, that if you use your looks and some sweet words you can get whatever you want out of men. Nice.At least she paid him for the veggies. <<

And Wardah, I have plenty of faith in my parenting abilities--which is why I choose not to willingly expose my son to behaviors I see as completely undesirable. If he encounters these bad behaviors in everyday life, I assure you I'll do my duty as mom to make sure he knows that those behaviors are NOT appropriate. But until then, why force exposure to a bad thing? I think that makes me a pretty good mom, personally.

[Vintergatan]

I personally think the "unintentional" offenses are just as bad as the intentional ones because by saying it's OK as long as the person didn't mean it, that implies that it's OK to not be aware of how what you say or do affects others. This is much more an issue to me in children's shows than in intentionally adult/offensive shows because children presumably don't know. And since MLP is supposed to be "educational", I think that means they have to be extra careful about the messages they're sending because the whole premise of having a moral at the end implies that this is not "just a cartoon." This is why I have been critical of a number of episodes and portrayals in FiM, as much as I do like it. I don't think it's sending a "bad" message, but I think there are times when it could be better. As for the current episode, I'm still waiting to see it....

This is exactly how I feel about all the issues, so it's completely nonsensical to compare FiM to South Park or to dismiss any issues with "it's just a cartoon".

But this is my opinion and I´m not imposing it on anyone else, which is why I find it pretty insulting and hurtful when people casually blame those that see things this way for destroying the show for them.

This is a huge fandom, there will be sooo many different opinions on every single thing within it, and I think we all have the right to our opinions without being dismissed and told to "chill out"

how Hasbro handles things though is their own problem and they have obviously tried to cater to all these different opinions and in the end everyone felt at least a bit uncomfortable by some of their decisions, but I don't think it's ok to blame it on the fans.

Being a really casual watcher of FiM, I really don't understand this animosity that has infiltrated the forum and I think it's really unfortunate and I have felt on numerous occasions that some members here have been rudely dismissed.

I know i´m just escalating the problem, and i´m sorry, but I just can't seem to shake the feeling that there is a bit more rudeness and intolerance on these topics than what I´d like to see, considering most of us are no longer kids and are discussing touchy but important topics here.

[Clementine]

I'm suprised there's so much controversy for lesson zero. I don't really see how that episode or the most recent one are offensive to people with extreme anxiety. In fact, I am one of those people with major anxiety problems and on both occasions I could really relate to both those characters. In fact, the rest of my friends could relate to Twilights madness in lesson zero as well, all of us having gone /slightly/ crazy over assesment and all of us having our concerns dismissed. It was a good lesson at the end! I also don't see how Fluttershy learning to stand up for herself on things that are important is breaking cannon. I like that they are showing some character development I also love the line "No means no." I think it's a wonderful line to use and a great message in todays episode Rarity's methods were a bit iffy but I'm not going to let that overshadow a what was otherwise a wonderful episode.

[MikaUtsukushi]

So I took a look at this episode when it started and I want to point out that I actually liked it. It did feel a little bit lackluster to me... but maybe I was feeling a little lackluster myself. (Today's kind of a boresnore day.) But in other cases I had figured Rarity would at least use her feminine charm. Though Pinkie Pie doing a 'Rabbit Season, Duck Season technique' was the first time in a while that amused me from Pinkie Pie.  Though I am a bit disappointed in the way the whole town was acting I mean... jeez. I did like the fact that Iron Will had his seminar in a middle of a corn maze though I'm not sure why he had a group of goats help him out. I actually do like Fluttermeanie. It's just so different and OOC... I know I'm probably one of the only people on here that likes new Fluttershy though but if you think about it... Fluttershy has been pushed around all of her life at least what have we've seen. When she got this new ability of assertiveness, it did went to her head, but I don't blame her, these ponies have been acting mean, if I were there I would have given them a piece of my mind too. I totally smiled when Fluttershy made Pinkie Pie and Rarity cry, call me mean but I enjoyed that. (I honestly wish those two would just disappear.) All in all I enjoyed this episode, I don't see a single thing wrong with it other than a couple things here or there. To be perfectly honest, I think people are just getting their feathers in a ruffle over nothing.

[Snapdragon]

No comment. Anything I say is going to come out too angry.


I'm still kind of wondering why we're all still discussing Pony, but whatevs. I haven't seen the new episodes, so thanks for the spoiler tags, y'all, I appreciate it. Gotta see it! Even if it is probably just a revamp of Dragonshy, sigh.

[Majesty]

Sometimes it bothers me when characters act not like themselves but I also keep in mind it's only a cartoon and my opinion of certain characters won't change.  It's just a way to see another side of them I guess.

[Elisto]

I guess I'm not really sure I understand why people are upset with Fluttershy acting out of character since the who point of the episode was that she was out of character and mean, and how that's not the same thing as being assertive. Bunny-san, the part you put in spoiler tags...I guess I just disagree that showing someone doing something wrong and then regretting it is a bad thing. Even nice people can make mistakes, and she certainly did realize pretty quickly how wrong she was.

[Bunny-san]

Elisto, it wasn't that she DID something wrong. It was how far and how extreme they took it. It just went way too far for me. They didn't have to make her be that mean. I just kinda don't like how in these episodes where the ponies seem to go, shall I say "Off their rockers" temporairily, they really just go off the deep end. I think they can communicate their message without doing that.

Also, Vintergarten. I know my posts are long winded sometimes, but I thought I was pretty clear. In no way did I ever compare, or say that FiM was LIKE South Park in any way. Comparisons are saying one thing is like another. I said they were opposites. What I said is that South Park takes genuine stabs at mentally challenged people and can be racist for the sake of laughs, whereas FiM's percieved offensive moments have always been completely unintentional. It's not really a comparison, so much as it's just a statement of fact.

[SourdoughStomper]

I'll go ahead and lock before this gets worse.