Flutterdragon
Jun. 13th, 2011 06:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kd7sovIt is very interesting to rewatch My Little Pony specifically watching for Fluttershy, what she does and why. It's not my only focus - I'm also on the lookout for hilarious youtube subtitles - but it is a thing I'm looking for.
For instance, the episode Dragonshy. When I first watched it I was all "character defamation!" Which, yes, it kind of is, but it's also quite revealing.
To start with, let's back up two episodes, to Griffon the Brush-Off. Pinkie Pie notes, there, that Fluttershy is very sensitive. (Which, as TVTropes, points out, may not be the only reason she doesn't prank her - Pinkie seems to be aware of the fourth wall, and thus may know that they share a voice actress. But that's not actually relevant to Fluttershy herself.) Not long afterward, Fluttershy meets Gilda, who is very insensitive, to put it mildly. The encounter affects her so much that she actually flees, crying, for the only time we've actually seen. When Twilight Sparkle asks her to describe Gilda, later, the only response is "I'll tell you later" - pretty obviously a combination of "I don't want to talk/think about it" and "I don't want to hurt your feelings by brushing off your question". She then spends most of the rest of the party - as far as we see - conducting the music rather than mingling or really participating. (This is not a thing entirely unlike my own habits.) At the end, after Gilda's tirade, she seems fine hanging out and partying with her friends, but I wouldn't want to see her later that night.
Don't get me wrong, I see no reason to think Fluttershy's afraid of the dark. But night is also a time of aloneness, and she strikes me as a very dependent personality. We almost never see her interacting with anypony else without at least one of the rest of the Mane Six there with her. When she's all alone and has to reflect on the events of the day... Well, I'll just say that I wouldn't be surprised if Angel gets brought in and treated more like a stuffed animal than a real one more often than he'd like.
The next episode, Boast Busters, confused me for a while. I had heard about the "Cockatrice Incident", as I called it, and wanted to know why Fluttershy wasn't there to send the Ursa away. Then I watched again, closer, keeping the above in mind.
We can, I think, assume that little time has passed since the previous episode. Fluttershy does show up in this one, but only for a little while and without saying anything. What I find interesting is where and how she shows up. She's at Trixie's performance; not only that, she's in the front row. Now why, I ask myself, would someone as naturally backgroundy as Fluttershy stick herself at the front of a crowd? The answer, of course, is that that's where her friends put themselves, probably without even thinking about her. Rainbow Dash and Rarity are, in different ways, very fond of attention and of being at the center of whatever interesting thing is going on. They would naturally gravitate toward the front row, and probably not even realize Fluttershy was uncomfortable. She wouldn't mention it, because that would make the other ponies uncomfortable.
Then Trixie starts singling out her friends, humiliating them and driving them off, and Fluttershy is suddenly nowhere to be seen. She remains offscreen for the rest of the episode. clearly not a pony who wants anything to do with the limelight. (Incidentally, I can't figure out the first fashion show in Suited for Success at all. Everypony except Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Hoity Toity acts very different than usual. The second show is much better - one at a time, a more intimate, familiar setting, and much more in-character.)
So we return to Dragonshy. Still recovering from the last two episodes, Fluttershy is just fine in her element - helping out the animals - but not at all willing to put herself forward enough to get anypony's attention when she wants to warn them about the fire. Then it turns out to be not a fire, but a dragon, and everything is suddenly worse. I have no idea what past experience Fluttershy has with dragons, but clearly her fear of them greatly amplifies every other fear she has. Even the "afraid of her own shadow" bit works, kind of, if you look at it not as "ACK SHADOW" but as "nervous nervous nervous AAAAAH SOMETHING MOVING AND IT ISN'T JUST LEAVES IN THE WIND", up to eleven. Throughout the episode, she absolutely hates being a drag on her friends, but every fiber of her is screaming "DRAGON DON'T GO CLOSER TO IT". Which makes the progress she does make without being dragged - the "so wide" gap, for instance - really impressive. And then there's the ending.
I haven't worked out exactly what goes through Fluttershy's mind when the rock breaks. There are a number of possibilities ranging from "calm that animal down" to "my herd is in trouble". But the long and short of it is, something clicked that she, Fluttershy, was specifically and individually needed. And immediately. And so she completely switched modes. She's scary, yes, but just scary enough, and for just long enough, to interrupt the dragon's anger and entitlement. Once it realizes that it's not in the right, she reverts to her usual, quiet, kind self. And then every single one of her friends congratulates her and thanks her. She ducks away shyly, but remember how dependent I think she is. She needs that kind of personal validation. (But not the adoring masses in Green Isn't Your Color. The frankly conditional approval of crowds of strangers has no place in her psyche.) Afterward we don't see her in anything like so bad a state, and even when she's frustrated or out of her depth it isn't for several more episodes. Just after, curiously, another odd moment for her - the Best Young Flyers competition. But that, I think, is the subject of another post.
For instance, the episode Dragonshy. When I first watched it I was all "character defamation!" Which, yes, it kind of is, but it's also quite revealing.
To start with, let's back up two episodes, to Griffon the Brush-Off. Pinkie Pie notes, there, that Fluttershy is very sensitive. (Which, as TVTropes, points out, may not be the only reason she doesn't prank her - Pinkie seems to be aware of the fourth wall, and thus may know that they share a voice actress. But that's not actually relevant to Fluttershy herself.) Not long afterward, Fluttershy meets Gilda, who is very insensitive, to put it mildly. The encounter affects her so much that she actually flees, crying, for the only time we've actually seen. When Twilight Sparkle asks her to describe Gilda, later, the only response is "I'll tell you later" - pretty obviously a combination of "I don't want to talk/think about it" and "I don't want to hurt your feelings by brushing off your question". She then spends most of the rest of the party - as far as we see - conducting the music rather than mingling or really participating. (This is not a thing entirely unlike my own habits.) At the end, after Gilda's tirade, she seems fine hanging out and partying with her friends, but I wouldn't want to see her later that night.
Don't get me wrong, I see no reason to think Fluttershy's afraid of the dark. But night is also a time of aloneness, and she strikes me as a very dependent personality. We almost never see her interacting with anypony else without at least one of the rest of the Mane Six there with her. When she's all alone and has to reflect on the events of the day... Well, I'll just say that I wouldn't be surprised if Angel gets brought in and treated more like a stuffed animal than a real one more often than he'd like.
The next episode, Boast Busters, confused me for a while. I had heard about the "Cockatrice Incident", as I called it, and wanted to know why Fluttershy wasn't there to send the Ursa away. Then I watched again, closer, keeping the above in mind.
We can, I think, assume that little time has passed since the previous episode. Fluttershy does show up in this one, but only for a little while and without saying anything. What I find interesting is where and how she shows up. She's at Trixie's performance; not only that, she's in the front row. Now why, I ask myself, would someone as naturally backgroundy as Fluttershy stick herself at the front of a crowd? The answer, of course, is that that's where her friends put themselves, probably without even thinking about her. Rainbow Dash and Rarity are, in different ways, very fond of attention and of being at the center of whatever interesting thing is going on. They would naturally gravitate toward the front row, and probably not even realize Fluttershy was uncomfortable. She wouldn't mention it, because that would make the other ponies uncomfortable.
Then Trixie starts singling out her friends, humiliating them and driving them off, and Fluttershy is suddenly nowhere to be seen. She remains offscreen for the rest of the episode. clearly not a pony who wants anything to do with the limelight. (Incidentally, I can't figure out the first fashion show in Suited for Success at all. Everypony except Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Hoity Toity acts very different than usual. The second show is much better - one at a time, a more intimate, familiar setting, and much more in-character.)
So we return to Dragonshy. Still recovering from the last two episodes, Fluttershy is just fine in her element - helping out the animals - but not at all willing to put herself forward enough to get anypony's attention when she wants to warn them about the fire. Then it turns out to be not a fire, but a dragon, and everything is suddenly worse. I have no idea what past experience Fluttershy has with dragons, but clearly her fear of them greatly amplifies every other fear she has. Even the "afraid of her own shadow" bit works, kind of, if you look at it not as "ACK SHADOW" but as "nervous nervous nervous AAAAAH SOMETHING MOVING AND IT ISN'T JUST LEAVES IN THE WIND", up to eleven. Throughout the episode, she absolutely hates being a drag on her friends, but every fiber of her is screaming "DRAGON DON'T GO CLOSER TO IT". Which makes the progress she does make without being dragged - the "so wide" gap, for instance - really impressive. And then there's the ending.
I haven't worked out exactly what goes through Fluttershy's mind when the rock breaks. There are a number of possibilities ranging from "calm that animal down" to "my herd is in trouble". But the long and short of it is, something clicked that she, Fluttershy, was specifically and individually needed. And immediately. And so she completely switched modes. She's scary, yes, but just scary enough, and for just long enough, to interrupt the dragon's anger and entitlement. Once it realizes that it's not in the right, she reverts to her usual, quiet, kind self. And then every single one of her friends congratulates her and thanks her. She ducks away shyly, but remember how dependent I think she is. She needs that kind of personal validation. (But not the adoring masses in Green Isn't Your Color. The frankly conditional approval of crowds of strangers has no place in her psyche.) Afterward we don't see her in anything like so bad a state, and even when she's frustrated or out of her depth it isn't for several more episodes. Just after, curiously, another odd moment for her - the Best Young Flyers competition. But that, I think, is the subject of another post.
