Flutter Brutter review

Brotherly Love

These reviews do contain spoilers

In the past seasons of FiM, we have been introduced to the various parents of the main characters. First we saw Twilight's parents, Pinkie's family then Rarity's, Rainbow's dad, and then we all know about Applejack's parents. For the longest time, we have all wondered just what do Fluttershy's parents look like. There have been numerous theories and pics in regards to this question. The various ideas and creativity around this made us all hyped to find out who Fluttershy's parents are. Well the day has finally come after it was revealed last season there would be an episode involving Fluttershy's brother.

The revelation of this kind of episode sparked some talks and discussions about Fluttershy's family. I was especially excited since Fluttershy kind of fell low in my eyes after the disappointment of Scare Master. And her dealing with her freeloading brother and trying to make him actually do something of worth made for some nice character development for Fluttershy. It's also a nice change in pace considering most of her episodes center around her getting over a fear. So what exactly does this episode have in store for us? The wait is over, ladies and gentlemen.

In Flutter Brutter, Fluttershy tries to get her freeloading brother, Zephyer Breeze, to move out of her parents' house. However, he ends up moving in to her house and start doing the same thing he's done at home. With her running out of options on what do, Fluttershy must find a way to stand up to her brother and make him do something with his life.

On paper, the concepts is actually really good and something I can get behind. Having dealt with several freeloaders myself over the years in school projects and at work, this is something that I'm pretty sure everyone can relate to, and has potential to not only develop Fluttershy's character to make her brother work, but also make for a way to make us relate to Zephyer in some way.

Fluttershy herself is written rather well and actually does have some strong characterization. She seems to be back to herself before Scare Master needlessly turned her into being afraid of every tiny thing. Here, she's confident and is stern, but caring about her family. She wants what's best for her brother and wants him to actually do something with his life instead of giving up instantly. She just wants her brother to succeed and tries to get his life on track with linking him up with several jobs. The overall characterization of Fluttershy is really well done and shows how much she's grown over the seasons. Not have her be afraid of stuff like bags of candy.

Now as we all know, this is the episode we finally get to see Fluttershy's family. We've waited for this day for a long time. There have been numerous pics and ideas thrown out there about what they look like. If you did like a Deviantart search or a Google search, you'd find some really creative designs for Fluttershy's family. Hell, I've seen a couple of good ones myself. So after all of this time, we finally get to see them at last. The result? Well, if I had one word to describe Fluttershy's parents, it's this:

Disappointing.

Fluttershy's family are just poorly designed and downright uninspired. Fluttershy looks nothing at all like her family at all. If  you were to look at Fluttershy's parents and brother, and you had no idea they were her family, would you really think they were Fluttershy's family? Of course not. She shares virtually none of the physical traits her family has. The only thing that they seem to share is their very stylish looking manes and tails, and that's really it.

The color choices are also another thing that bother me so much about these designs. Sea green, turquoise, and some shade of yellow? (I think it's daffodil or something.) Were those really the best choices her for the colors? Why not a bit of a consistent color scheme like golden yellow, red, and white? That would work out so much better than these color choices. The overall color scheme for this family doesn't work at all and doesn't suit Fluttershy's family at all.

The sad part is that with all the creativity we've seen with the other ponies' parents, there has been some great designs and they do have traits that traits that our heroes have from their family. Rainbow having her dad's rainbow like mane. Twilight and Shining look kind of like their parents. Rarity gets her mane and coat from each of her parents. Even Pinkie shares some traits and has a similar mane to her sisters when her mane is deflated. With Fluttershy's family, they really have nothing in common with their own daughter.

Some have argued that Pound and Pumpkin look nothing like Mr. or Mrs. Cake. However, at least in Baby Cakes, it was explained that the twins got their abilities from different family members. As for Pinkie and why she looks so different, well maybe she got them from her Granny Pie (I still think we need to see what she looks like). The overall designs aren't God awful, but they just don't fit Fluttershy's family. It really feels like they chose three random background ponies from previous episodes and just made them Fluttershy's family. They really could've done a better job with the overall designs as a whole instead of making them look like this.

If I will say something positive about the parents, it's that they seem to be soft spoken and meek like Fluttershy herself. Even her mom seems to be some botanist with her planting flowers as revealed in the episode. So maybe that's where Fluttershy got her love for being more on the ground instead of flying. However, I do find it really odd that it's Fluttershy who's the older sister and yet, Zephyer is the youngest. I guess he inherited some traits for being tall. I still say though the designs overall are just poorly thought out and should've been scrapped for something better than this.

Part of the focus on this episode, aside from Fluttershy, is Zephyer Breeze himself. I will admit, he is rather annoying and can get overbearing. He plays the generic guy who takes advantage of others and cons others. In some way, Zephyer is relateable because of his fear of failure and trying, but at the same time, he kind of falls flat on being a good character. For most of the episode, he's kind of whinny, or being a slime ball around everypony else, especially Rainbow and how much he keeps hitting on her. While we do see that he puts on an act to hide his insecurities about failing, it can't make up for how rather unlikable Zephyer is as a whole.

He rubs off the wrong way for most of the episode, and kind of really gets annoying fast with his whiny behavior and him acting like a sleaze around others. Even at the end of the episode, it doesn't seem like Zephyer has learned much at all. He's still kind of a dick around others and acts still full of himself. You know, I know Rainbow can be kind of guilty of that, but not even she's that full of herself and egotistical, and that's saying something.

To the episode's credit, he does get a little better towards the end; especially with the ending and him finally getting some encouragement to keep trying at what he was going for; which was being a mane therapist. However, I kind of wish they did make him a little more sympathetic. It's kind of hard to sympathize to somepony who really is either really full of himself, or just being a bit of a pervert around Rainbow. His redemption is kind of out of the blue, but at least it wasn't as sudden as Sassy Sandals' redemption. The one thing that does help him though is something we all deal with and face up to every day; fear of failure.

Failure is something we all dread. We never like to deal with it, but it's something we deal with almost all of the time. It's easy to just give up when you fail miserably at doing something the first time. It hurts your confidence and without the proper support or anything, you can get this mindset to not try. However, sometimes it does take failing to realize your mistakes and try again. It is a nice moral and something we can all relate to. I just kind of wish we got to see this played a little more instead of Zephyer just outsourcing his job to others. Maybe have him have some psychological worries about failure or something, but I guess that would be too deep.

Another thing that does work well in this episode is the Fluttershy and Rainbow bonding. They both work out well, and I like the interactions between the two of them. I especially like how Rainbow knows Fluttershy's family so well, and shows how far back the friendship between her and Fluttershy is. Rainbow also makes for some good support and doesn't have to do much to encourage Fluttershy to stand up to her brother. Rainbow even tries to give Zephyer a chance, despite him constantly hitting on her, and it was kind of satisfying of Rainbow to shock him.

Surprisingly, we do get a song this week. The song itself is pretty good and I'm always a fan of Fluttershy singing. Rainbow is okay for the most part, but she kind of sounds off key in some parts. Zephyer actually does get a few solos here and there, and he doesn't sound too bad all things considered. Granted he's not as good as his older sister, but he does at least sound pretty decent.

So that was Flutter Brutter, a pretty nice Fluttershy episode and a huge step up from her previous one in the last season. Despite some issues here and there, this episode is actually pretty good. The characterization of Fluttershy is really solid and it helps flesh out her character more. Zephyer, despite being irritating, can be somewhat relatable with his fear of failure. The moral actually has more of a buildup unlike last week's episode. The writing is pretty solid. The plot itself, despite being rather predictable, is pretty good as well.

It's a nice change of pace for Fluttershy based episodes, and I feel like they should explore Fluttershy being so assertive in the future. It's also good to see just how far she's come and how this episode got her back on track. For what it does, Flutter Brutter is a pretty good episode with a moral that others can relate to, as long as you are willing to overlook how rather unlikable Zephyer really is.

FINAL SCORE: 7.5 out of 10 ( B )