Flutter Month (Yay!): Keep Calm and Flutter On

Hello & welcome back to Flutter Month (Yay!)  Well, folks we are closing in on the finale of Flutter Month (Not Yay!).   Today, we are taking a look at Fluttershy's only episode from season 3.  Which is one more then Miss Rarity got but ah well.  Before we get to far into this episode, some set up is needed.  As you see most fans will recall that this episode is a follow up to the season 2, premiere, The Return of Harmony.  In which the girls had to face their toughest enemy,  Discord.  Discord is the embodiment of chaos and loves playing with ponies' minds and he was able to turn the girls against each other as he made them the opposite of their true selves.  Well in this episode, it was up to Fluttershy to reform the embodiment of chaos. Is she up to the task?  We are about to find out!




Episode Title


Keep Calm and Flutter On


This episode title refers to Keep Calm and Carry On, which comes from a British motivational poster from 1939 that has seen a bit of a resurgence lately as Keep Calm has been appearing everywhere. And while it's okay for the episode and it makes sense. I actually prefer the working title, this episode had.

Fluttershy's Home for Reformed Draconequi.

There are a few reasons as to why I like that title,  it's just more fun and I doubt this is intentional but it reminds of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.  A show that Lauren Faust worked on before MLP. Again,  I doubt that it's meant to be a reference and also,  I feel "Keep Calm" kinda dates the episode title.




The Plot



We start off this episode in a field just outside Ponyville, where the girls are waiting for Princess Celestia and a special guest and that special guest is Discord.

And I think that Twilight had the best reaction to this.

With all due respect, Princess Celestia. How could you bring Discord here?!"

And then the rest of the girls expoists  on what happened last time, they faced Discord and how he turned everything topsy turvy. Princess Celestia tells the girls that she believes that if Discord can be reformed, his magic could be used for good. And she brought along the girls' Elements of Harmony to release Discord and cast a spell on them so that Discord could not mess with them.   She believes that Fluttershy is the one that'll be able to reform Discord.  And y'know I gotta agree with Dashie as she questions this.  I loves Flutters but really?  Fluttershy happens to be helping AJ with a dam problem with the beavers flooding Sweet Apple Acres.

There's some tension between the beaver and AJ but after Flutters talks to the beaver, she gets him to remove his dam.    Afterwards,  Dashie flies over and tells them to come on.

Celestia reassures Fluttershy that she can do this.   And then leaves right before the girls release Discord.  I honestly think that she should've stayed in case anything went wrong.  And once he is released, he goes back to being Discord and starts causing chaos and mischief including something that'll play an integral part in the episode later on.

 

Discord starts causing mayhem and mischief and lets the girls know that just because he was in stone, that doesn't mean that he can't hear.  And Flutters at one point, tried to use The Stare on Discord but it didn't work as it just caused him to burst out into fits of laughter because he thought it was "adorable"  that the girls thought he could be reformed.

 

Once Twilight tells him they can convince Celestia that they had to turn back into stone, if he gets out of line.  He stops and he ends up staying with Fluttershy at her cottage.  And a lot of antics ensue.  Fluttershy is trying her hoof but  Dashie tells the girls that'll need a backup plan and Twily agrees.  Fluttershy invites all of her friends to her cottage for a dinner party with a lot of moments that reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, most especially the dancing candles and probably had one of the most memorable moments of this episode with Flutters standing up for Discord.

 

And then Angel Bunny (no Satan calling this time) comes in and tells the ponies that Sweet Apple Acres is flooding.

We then see the flooding at Sweet Apple Acres and it's bad.

Dash asks if she knew this was Discord all along and Fluttershy said of course, she did and asked if her friends thought if she was gullible fool.  She was just trying to gain his friendship, anyway she could so that he would listen to her.  She asked Discord to fix this but Discord ask her to not use her Element of Harmony against him and Flutters agrees and takes it off but Discord doesn't fix it and turns into ice.  And Fluttershy gets angry  and  shouts  that she is not Discord's friend and he has revelation that Flutters was the only friend, he ever had.

Which leads to one of the best lines of the episode.

Well played, Fluttershy

He then changes everything back and it ends with him saying the show's title in front of Princess Celestia and showing that he can be good.   All in all, this isn't one of my favorite Fluttershy episodes.  It has it's good moments to be sure but   I actually just find it to be okay.  It's by no means,  a bad episode but to clarify, I'm going to rank every Fluttershy episode from least to favorite and that should show my feelings

7.  A Bird In The Hoof

6.  Keep Calm and Flutter On

5. The Stare Master

4. Putting Your Hoof Down

3. Hurricane Fluttershy

2. Green Isn't Your Color

1. Dragonshy

As you may have noticed,  it's one spot above A Bird In The Hoof.  Which is legitimately bad episode.  This one isn't bad but with s good as it is,  I feel that every episode, I've reviewed before this was better and also, this was in a way, a duo episode.  Yes, it was Discord's big return to the show but at the same time, it was also supposed to be a Fluttershy episode but it doesn't work in that regard because Discord overshadows Fluttershy and how could he not with the hilarious 4th wall breaking character, he is.  Don't get me wrong, this episode had an excellent concept but  I don't feel it panned out as well as it could have.  It's not a bad episode but as odd as this is to say about an episode starring Discord,  I found this one to be a tad forgettable.



Characters


I'll be breaking this down into Main, & Supporting.  By the way, I'll be grouping the rest of the Mane 6 together.  With that out of the way, let's begin.



Main Characters


Fluttershy voiced by Andrea Libman

Fluttershy was okay in this episode and she did well in accomplishing her task but as weird as this is going to sound,  I feel this episode was so busy and so focused on making this a Discord episode that Fluttershy got lost a little bit in the limelight.  I just feel that this episode was overstuffed for an average length episode and why I appreciate Fluttershy,  and I want to side with her, I understand the others.



Discord voiced by John de Lancie

I should mention that this show was my introduction to the awesomeness that is John de Lancie as he is the voice of Discord and he does so well in the role.  I love de Lancie as Discord because he is so hilarious in the role and Discord has a lot of great moments but herein lies the issue.  Discord is great, but he feels kinda odd to use for a mid-season episode that isn't a two parter.   I'm not saying this episode should've been 2 parts because the story wouldn't have worked.  I just felt like the episode felt the need to cram so much with Discord that it started to overshadow the episode's story.




Supporting Characters


Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, & Rainbow Dash voiced by Tara Strong, Tabitha St. Germain, Ashleigh Ball, & Andrea Libman

I liked the other girls in this episode and they had every right to be wary of Discord because of what he did, last time.  My big issue is that it almost felt as though this episode was trying to paint them in the negative light.  And I don't understand why, they'd do that.  It just made the episode a little uneasy.  




My Final Thoughts



This isn't a bad episode but it's one of my favorites either.  There's just too much going on to make it truly enjoyable for me. Shame because this could've been a really enjoyable episode.  I don't think this is the worst Fluttershy episode and I wouldn't even put it on my list of worst MLP episodes. At best, it's just okay. Well now, I've reviewed every Fluttershy episode and my little friend seems to have run off.  Join me next time for the final review of Flutter Month (Yay!) as I review the Fluttershy Mirco comic.