Well with having to re-watch Flutter Brutter, I had no choice but to talk about another moment with Fluttershy’s very…interesting little brother Zephyr Breeze. I can say he means well sometimes, but like any sibling that’s randomly tossed into the show, he came with a lot of…quirks? Yeah we’ll go with that. For this short, his little quirk is lying to the point of almost getting himself killed to hit on Rainbow Dash. If I were to give a moral to this short, it would be to just be yourself and not lie about things you can do just to impress someone. Either that or be sure to keep receipts when you make impulse purchases to impress a girl and you know you’re not gonna use it ever again. Let’s hang ten with some surfing mishaps.
I can see two girls like Rainbow Dash and Applejack surfing and actually being decent at it. Rainbow Dash is no stranger to chilling by lakes in the show, but not many oceans and lakes at the Apple Family Farm for AJ. But the odd differences is what makes EqG fun in it’s own way. And trying to get Fluttershy to join in on the surf sounds fun if you have these two teaching you. And by “fun” I mean they might possibly get competitive over who teaches the best. Non-Compete Clause, anyone?
And now we insert our main…antagonist? Bad guy? Anti-hero? Here’s Zephyr Breeze. I do have to comment on the difference in design they did for his human counterpart compared to the pony version. I feel like I can tolerate his face a bit more here without that 5 o’clock shadow and just having a few facial hairs. But it looks like someone is itching to be part of the conversation about surfing and I don’t think Flutters is too hunky dory about it.
Dude you may look like a beach bum, but Fluttershy is calling out your garbage lies. Not even Rainbow Dash and Applejack were buying it. I wanted a bit more sass from Fluttershy like we got in Flutter Brutter, but I understand lightning doesn’t always strike twice. At most Fluttershy is just irritated that her brother’s trying to pull a fast one on them. And by the looks of Zephyr’s face, he knows it.
So I’m at a crossroads with this moment. Fluttershy didn’t have to fully say that he just bought that board and that he’s never been surfing. From the look of AJ and Rainbow Dash, they either weren’t believing him or just didn’t want to hear him talking. And now they’re inviting Zephyr and his board Gladys out to catch some waves. So did they sort of believed him or were they trying to set him up for failure? Because failure in this case would actually be pretty painful and possibly life threatening if things were to take a darker turn. Even Fluttershy had a slight look of concern for his safety and Zephyr was not looking forward to a full body, wing and hoof cast and drinking through a straw.
Yeah no. I was right. This is the face of someone who’s enjoying messing with Zephyr and waiting for him to be called out on his garbage. Just trying to think of something to say when explaining how to tackle a large wave got him in a bit of a pickle. So with the idea that this is a large wave that’s too big for beginners, they really have him out there on a board he just bought.
RD: “Isn’t this just great? The waves today are killer!”
Zephyr: “That’s what I’m afraid of!”
So…we’re really gonna let him get chomped up by the waves and not notice that he’s probably in a lot of danger, huh. Not really that nice of a thing to have happen to your friend’s little brother. I don’t deny enjoying someone’s lies blowing up in their face and having to come clean, but maybe not at the expense of their life?
At least we had a good lifeguard on the beach, but I’m not all for Applejack giving him the talking to when I’m sure you guys knew he couldn’t surf. This is the Element of Honesty here. Wouldn’t she be able to tell that Zephyr was lying the whole time? Or that Fluttershy was trying to call out his bluffs? I’m not taking Zephyr’s side since he did lie and even trying to keep lying all the way to the waves, but this doesn’t take away that someone should’ve stopped him. The bad thing is, he was willing to continue lying instead of not going out there.
It’s a good thing the only thing hurt was his pride. But he might’ve also broke RD’s disgust meter. This is the face of someone who might’ve wanted him to at least break a toe or something. But I will say this. Zephyr is a character of dramatics and just watching him make a fool of himself is still pretty entertaining. Just listening to this monologue about forgiving him and not falling for his charm is stomach churning and awkwardly funny at the same time.
Again, still better without the 5 o’ clock shadow on his face, but not by much. Maybe these eyes are just a family trait since Fluttershy can do faces like these and I won’t feel sick from it along with her infamous Stare. But we can say that he’s willing to put away the façade and ask for some pointers from Rainbow Dash. I’m cringing in my seat just staring at this face. Moving on…
And there’s that Element of Loyalty we’ve been missing. Well…at least loyal to the surfboard that was being rode on by a hack. But hey. It’s a start. And maybe RD can keep her lunch down when Zephyr goes a bit annoying. But this does make his character at least willing to try and learn this time compared to his first appearance so big props to Zephyr on that.
And that was Blue Crushed, reliving what we all dislike and…tolerate with Zephyr. He was one crazy character to add in the show and to make him bring out the stern Sassy Shy made that episode even better. I don’t hate this character compared to someone like Shining Armor, another tossed in sibling of someone in the Mane 6, where he’s kind of just a generic good guy. Zephyr has so many flaws and so much character that even while he ticks us off, you can’t help but want to watch the train wreck. And like I said, at least when he knows he’s wrong, he’ll try to do things right and learn from his mistakes. Still don’t know if I trust whether AJ and RD knew Zephyr was full of it so that kinda puts a damper on the other characters. But this was still fun to watch as long as nobody (except Zephyr’s pride) got hurt. I’m Penny Wrights and I’ll stick to watching surfing from a distance instead.
