Fillies, gentlecolts, and foals of all ages. Welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recap/review. This week’s episode was quite the batty affair, as we not only have another episode involving an infestation of creatures, but easily something that is far more awesome than what I would have expected from a show like this. What is it? Let’s find out with a review of an episode simply known as Bats!
Sweet Apple Acres has a big bad bat problem
We open the episode at Sweet Apple Acres as Applejack is excited because apple bucking day has finally arrived. However her dreams to buck some delicious apples is squashed as she discovers her crop is being eaten by a swarm of vampire fruit bats. She gets the rest of the mane six to help her rid the farm of the bats before they eat her entire orchard. The only pony not happy about this is Fluttershy who, being the resident animal lover, believes that the bats should be allowed a part of the farm to feast. After a rather entertaining song akin to a Danny Elfman song, she eventually gives in to help her friends with the bat removal.
The plan is to have Fluttershy use her stare ability to keep the bats in place while Twilight casts a spell to make them no longer interested in eating the apples at the farm. It all seems to go pretty well, and the bats no longer have a taste in apples. However, the next day arrives, and it turns out that something is still eating Applejack’s apples. The mane six and Spike hold a stakeout at the farm during the night, and Fluttershy begins to act rather strangely. In fact she even grows a rather large set of fangs.
The Flutterbat
The mane six soon discover the culprit behind the apple eating is Fluttershy. Or, in this case, Flutterbat! The newly transformed Fluttershy attacks the mane six, who finally realize that this was a side effect of Twilight’s spell. It somehow backfired, getting rid of the apple hunger of the vampire bats from the bats, and transferring it into Fluttershy, creating this vampire pony bat hybrid. They eventually learn the only way to get Flutterbat to stay still is to get her to stare at herself. So, using a giant apple Applejack planned to use at the fair, they lure Flutterbat into being distracted by a mirror, and Twilight manages to reverse the spell.
Applejack decides to listen to Fluttershy’s advice, giving the vampire fruit bats their own spot in the orchard, which has benefits since the seeds they eat will produce more trees. And the episode ends with a diary entry, and Pinkie being classic wacky Pinkie Pie. Which means everything’s back to normal.
Or is it?
This episode was batty as all heck, but was it a good episode? Let’s break down what worked and what didn’t with the pros and cons.
PRO
First off, once again Daniel Ingram gives us an amazing song. A loving tribute to the works of Danny Elfman, and a song that could fit in almost any Tim Burton film, the Fruit Bats song is another amazing example of the range of just how different almost every song in the series is from one another. And with several more episodes coming up with songs, including a full on musical episode, I can’t wait to see what they come up with.
Flutterbat is a great design. Just the right amount of creepy and weirdly adorable. It’s also interesting that in the previous episode we saw Fluttershy become the Hulk, and now she became a vampire bat. She’s almost becoming fodder for all the strange fetishes. Not that that’s an entirely bad thing.
I also like the design of the vampire fruit bats. When I first heard of the synopsis, I thought they’d be similar to the more cuter looking fruit bats from Apple Family Reunion. But I’m glad that wasn’t the case. They gave off a bit of a gremlins vibe in their design, and that’s always a good thing in my opinion.
CON
After several great episodes that really helped in building Rainbow Dash’s character, this episode really made her come off as idiotic. Focused far less on the safety of the transformed Fluttershy, and almost 100% concerned on the possibility of no cider due to the destruction of Sweet Apple Acres. For a character who’s known for her loyalty, it really makes her come off as the Rainbow Douche mindset that she had back in the early days of the series.
I would say the moral of “I was right all along” was kind of annoying. But it could have been a far worse moral in the end, I guess.
I would also say that Pinkie was annoying in this episode, and really had no purpose other than some hokey jokes. Honestly, you could have removed Pinkie, Dash, and as hard as it is to say, Rarity, and you’d probably have lost nothing in the grand scheme of things.
I’d also argue the plot felt similar to Swarm of the Century. It has creatures that are causing problems eating all the food in a part of ponyville, and Twilight’s attempt at a spell to stop their eating habits makes things worse. But I will say that at least this episode had a far more interesting story, and wasn’t as infuriating as “Pinkie needs musical instruments, but won’t tell anypony why, or that it has to do with the parasprite infestation”.
Bats is not a perfect episode by any means, but it did have some funny moments, some surprisingly creepy moments for a show like My Little Pony, and I really liked the design of Flutterbat. While there were some rough flaws, for an episode written by the infamous Merriwether Williams, this one was far better than I’d have expected going in. This vampire bat episode certainly did not suck.
RATING: 7 out of 10.
But nevermind all that, next week is more important because after two damn years, IT’S A RARITY EPISODE! When Rarity and her friends go to Manehattan for fashion week, the fashionista unicorn finds her works being ripped off by a rival designer. Could Rarity’s rage end up causing a rift with her friends. We’ll soon see as Rarity Takes Manehattan next week.
Until next time everypony!