Fluttershy: The Least Developed Character In My Little Pony?
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- So Fluttershy is widely considered by many people to be a character with little to no development in My Little Pony, is this true? Or maybe she has a bit more development than we think, including more than the other Mane Six!
Music Used:
Fire Emblem Three Houses OST
One thing I notice when people talk about Fluttershy not having character development is how she's still shy. But at that point, that's just a basic character trait. Sure, she doesn't get the same level of complete 180 as, say, Twilight (going from reclusive nerd to lowkey social butterfly), but the important part of her development is how that shyness manifests. I use shyness with big quotation marks here, because even though the show says that Fluttershy's issues come from her being an inherently soft and shy uwu cottagecore fangirl, I, and many others, saw a lot of our own mental health issues in Fluttershy, and it's a shame that the show seems to have sidestepped a potentially very important message about mental health because I guess they thought kids would be just too dumb to understand so they just brushed it off as Flitterfloosh being "shy".
In writing character development, we usually consider a few factors. It varies from genre to genre and from author to author, but my own personal list of traits to be able to be developed that I have noticed in Fluttershy is essentially:
1. Is the trait preventing the character from accomplishing a certain need? Crippling social anxiety prevented Fluttershy from helping the pegasi in Hurricane Fluttershy, and prevented her from being heard several times in the beginning of the show.
2. Is the trait negatively affecting others? Her insecurity in the way others see her caused her to flip completely 180 in Putting Your Hoof Down. She seemed to believe that there were only two options: patience and kindness, or impatience and anger, and didn't seem to understand that you can assert yourself without being a complete jerk about it.
3. Does the character want to change that trait? Fluttershy has stated multiple times that she wishes she was as bold as other characters.
4. The most important one, does the character actively work on that trait or is actively shaped by their experiences into overcoming certain negative traits? This is the big one, as it takes a Doylist approach to character development, and gets us to see whether or not the author themselves wished for the character development to occur. For the case of Fluttershy, a lot of her episodes were *directly* about confronting her negative traits and working to either lessen them, cope with them better, or get rid of them altogether. Her working on her social anxiety allowed her to almost completely nullify it during Hurricane Fluttershy, and she shows a gradual and steady progression from "complete pushover who couldn't ask someone to save her life to avoid being a bother" to someone who is able to clearly put her hoof down (hue) and even raise her voice at others when they're being disrespectful to her. Her outbursts are often accompanied by a "woops hehe uwu" moment because she is still good old shy Fluttershy, but she definitely has learned to make herself heard better.
Conclusion to this ramble: people who say Fluttershy hasn't gotten any character development are mistaken. Her personality remained more or less static, but the deeper issues that prevented her from fully exploring her life options and kept her stuck home by fear of social contact are all but gone by the end of the show. If that's not character development I don't know what is.
I mean I don’t believe the few parts of the writers thinking their audience would be dumb kids. They obviously believe kids aren’t dumb and that there would be a wider audience considering the things that happened throughout the seasons, but I agree with everything else.
I love Fluttershy the most for how relatable she is just like her development
Finally someone who said that! I'm not so sure why people think "character development" means "becoming the exact opposite of what you were at the beginning". She's still clearly herself, but she overcame what used to create a problem to her, what stopped her from doing what she actually wanted to do. Like, silly example, in season 1 ep 22 she was about to miss the brunch with her friends and Celestia just because she was too afraid to speak to the guards ("Who goes there?" "No one. Never mind. I'll go home.") and it's actually Twilight to let her in in that occasion. While in later seasons she manages to do things she likes, travel, go on her own and, as you said, make new friends on the way.
Also I don't think "Scare Master" is a step back. At the beginning of the episode we can already see an "improvement" in her as she actually gets out during Nightmare Night because of a necessity, without even realizing it at first. ("I couldn't be out tonight. I just couldn't." "Technically speaking, you already are out right now." "Oh. I guess that is true." ) When she, herself, realizes that, she decides to force a little step more and spend the night with her friends, so what's the deal? Even if she tries, and eventually succeeds in doing something scary, she realizes something important: she doesn't like it. That's it. Just a realization. She's perfectly capable of going out during that night, she just doesn't want to. ("I'm not afraid. I'm perfectly fine with it." > I watched the italian dub too, and the adaptation of this line stuck with me: "I don't say so because I'm a coward. I only want to do what I ACTUALLY want to do")
I think no one would be 100% comfortable forcing themselves doing something they hate :/
Dang I talk so much... Anyway, great video! :D
i think that people who think that fluttershy didn't get any character development should,,, REALLY rewatch the first episode and then any of the later seasons episodes 😭😭 she could hardly even introduce herself at the start but now she's able to teach a whole class
She developed from a very shy, treebased doormat, into a Fluttershy that killed a bear and got bebeeped in the maze though...
Exactly! I need people to understand that shyness doesn't just go away after multiple lessons. In fact sometimes shyness gets worse the more experiences you go through. I did singing on stage, I did acting in front of people for 14 years and it only made my social anxiety a tohusand times worse. IF you constantly go through experiences where theres negative feedback then of course your confidence won't improve and only worsens. But If you go through experiences even with positive feedback then your social anxiety ain't just gonna dissappear like that either. Its a very slow process for some people , and its also extremely normal and realistic for characters to go back and fourth on their lessons becasue just like humans, they make mistakes, they relearn what they already know, they regress back to who they were. Shes the most developed character honestly.
I agree with every point you made!
The thing is people just expect a complete 180 social butterly happy go lucky.
Thats just not her. Not her personality, shes all about keeping peace and harmony more than the other 5, the pogrrss shes made is enough.
Her scene in the movie calming down the bad guy became an instant favourite. If only she could’ve down that to Tempest! Fluttershy is the best and I’ve personally never had any problems with her, I even liked her when she was shy and thought that was endearing 🥰❤️ Ahh, the days when I would watch MLP without worrying about people’s opinions lol
I personally think flutter shy has great development
Cool video. I never knew there was a sizable group of people that claimed Fluttershy never had any character development lol. I feel like you must barely pay attention to the show if you believe that.
I think the main problem with the people saying that she "doesn't develop at all" and the like, is that they usually havent gone back to watch previous seasons, and typically watched the show over a long period of time. Because Fluttershy takes baby steps, it's pretty much impossible to see her growth the first time through if you're not binging the whole series in under three weeks, because the changes are so miniscule that you don't see them building up.
It's like a plant growing; if you watch it in real time you won't see anything change, but if you watch a video of it growing on 50x speed, it's pretty clear how much is changing, and if you look at a picture of when it started versus where it ended, it is a massive obvious difference.
You don't notice all the small things that build Fluttershy's character until you're looking back at season 1 after finishing the show, and realise that the reason you didn't see her develop as fast as the other characters is because social anxiety can't be fixed in a few big lessons like the other character's main flaws, and honestly can't be fully "fixed" at all, but instead has to be made better through all the teeny things. If people are used to seeing flaws resolved in big chunks, then slow and steady won't even come to mind when thinking about Fluttershy's development.
This video explains perfectly why Fluttershy is still my favorite character from the show. Her character progression is actually quite realistic. Does she have to "relearn" her lessons sometimes? Sure. SO DO A LOT OF PEOPLE. Sometimes, it takes a few times for the lesson to stick!
also i may be digging too deep into my own analysis of fluttershy’s design in the last episode of s9 but i love how they show her older self as having her hair pulled back from her face. to me it represents how far she’s come from the first season and how much more willing she is to stand up for herself and express her opinions and how she feels. for example in s1 ep1 when fluttershy tries introducing herself to twilight she constantly hides behind her hair and covers her face with it. she consistently does this in other episodes when she isn’t feeling confident or secure. having her final design be having no hair to hide behind means that she has completed her arc and is living her best life. again, just a small detail that makes me very happy
I hoped for some mention of Smugshy/Sasyshy :3
Fluttersmug and fluttersas
Fluttershy herself has already answered this question in season7 "Fame and Misfortune" clearly, she said "Can you learn something one time and completely change who you are⁉" Social anxiety is not a character, it's really a mental problem. people who hasnt experienced this problem can never understand how difficult to overcome it, it really requires determination, effort and time. And Fluttershy has overcomed such problem all by herself, this is actually really tough.
I think those audiences should really rewatch that episode(Fame and Misfortune), they are like those pony readers in that episode who just focus or view the plot through their own aspects, and won't change their opinion even someone has already revealed the truth and explained the real moral of the story
I really like "Putting Your Hoof Down", and I think Iron Will could have been used a little bit more than just THREE EPISODES. I would like to call him the Bubble Bass of MLP.
Bubble Bass appeared twice in Season 1 of SpongeBob, then disappeared until Season 8. Then he became a reoccurring character.
Iron Will: One appearance in Season 2. Doesn't reappear until Season 7. Then once more in Season 8. And that's it.
Nice explanation...and fluttershy is one of my favourite characters
great video. the pipsquicks want a pipp fans video.
i feel like people expect character development to be like going from one extreme to another. in fluttershy’s situation, she starts out being extremely shy and nervous around anyone she tries to talk to. she hardly speaks her mind and is super quiet, she just doesn’t speak up in the earlier seasons. i feel like people wanted to see her become more extroverted and able to be not shy at all in the later seasons. This isn’t only against her character as a whole, but also unrealistic. nobody who is shy goes from being socially anxious to a social butterfly. fluttershy’s character journey is honestly the most relatable and realistic development i’ve seen in any show.
My biggest issue with people is they think being shy is a bad thing. I know it's not for everyone, but ad long ad you can speak up when it's needed be as shy as you want. I personally think season 1 fluttershy is better than season 9. Much more attractive personality.
Idk why but this video and the last remind me of Alex mlp's video
Exactly episode one she couldn't even look at twlight and now she can teach a class that isnt character development? I personally think all the mane six has great character development
Good points. Well delivered. Cheers
3:25 Which episode did she meet Treehugger?
Anyone who claims that flutters doesn't get any development has never actually watched the show.
From her first focus in dragonshy to some of the events in season 9 she grows CONSIDERABLY as a character. Just because she's still 'shy' doesn't mean she hasn't advanced.
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Holy shit I didn't think of this