MLP Review: Dragonshy (Season 1, Episode 7)

The plot of this episode follows Fluttershy, mostly (Andrea Libman) as the group of heroes go try to convince a dragon to move somewhere else to sleep, as the smoke from the dragon's snoring is covering up the sky, which will wreak havoc on the climate. However, while most of the group is more than up to going up the mountain, Fluttershy is...not, being scared of everything (up to and including her shadow). Therefore, she needs to learn to confront her fears, or she'll let her friends down.

This plot is...pretty solid, actually. I see a few of parallels between it and The Hobbit, actually. After all, it's about a group going after a dragon, with one member of the group being unfit for the task and being shunned by the whole group for it. Granted, they aren't going to kill the dragon, but they are going, in a way, to take their home back.

As for the characters, Fluttershy definitely gets a fair chunk of character development. She is shown as being easily scared, but more importantly, she is shown as being aware of her faults, and feeling inadequate compared to the others. However, despite everything, she proves that when it is her friends involved, she is willing to go against her usual personality to protect them. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash in particular really bothered me in this episode. While she's always had an abrasive side to her, Rainbow Dash here is just a jerk towards Fluttershy, constantly begging Twilight Sparkle to send her back home. It's not an episode killer, but it definitely shows one of Rainbow Dash's flaws, that of being a bit too...open to revealing what she feels.

This is totally not Smaug.

An interesting thing about this episode is that the dragon is almost secondary to the true problem, that of Fluttershy's scared nature. I say "almost", as the dragon is a key part of Fluttershy overcoming that problem, but the fact remains that this is one of the first episodes to really have two sources of conflicts. "Boast Busters" had a second source introduced at the end of the episode, but this one had two sources throughout the entire episode.

Overall, this is one of my favorite season 1 episodes, and not only because I'm a Fluttershy fan. The fact that the story was basically adapted from The Hobbit really helps the writing along, and the characters are done realistically, and not out of character for the sake of added conflict. Add in two conflicts, each of which could have taken up a different episode, and making them both satisfactory, and each character getting a chance to shine and get a bit of character development, and you have a great episode.

This is also the first appearance of badass Fluttershy. More to follow.

Overall: 9.5/10