Scaremaster Review · 7:17pm Oct 31st, 2015
So we all know how last week brought forth a Christmas episode in October, right? Well, some people have theorized that it's because the second half of season five was meant to air in October. Especially with Hearthbreakers, possibly meant to come out in late November. But because of the five-year anniversary of the show itself, they put Crusaders of the Lost Mark first. I'm guessing that was the case, too. XP
But anyway, today we have a Halloween episode! Right on Halloween! Pretty good timing! Let's dive right into the scares!
Our episode this time takes place on Nightmare Night, with Fluttershy going through her usual preparations of waiting it out until the next day. Whoa, when did this turn into an apocalypse? But understandably so, she just isn't into things meant to scare her.
It is exaggerated, mostly, but here's the thing. This episode isn't actually about that. No, the real focus is actually on the very idea of trying something you already formed an opinion on, but never truly got into it. Like, watching a show you didn't like the sound of, for example.
The rest of the Main Six, upon seeing her out, coax her into trying to celebrate with them so that she can see what it's like. Fluttershy agrees, not wanting to disappoint her friends and to actually give it a try for a change. Despite her efforts, her fears of the inevitable scares get the better of her.
But Twilight has a solution, but suggesting that Fluttershy be in charge of the scaring. Now this is interesting, you would never expect a character of her type to do that sort of thing!
So this is where it gets interesting. She tries to scare them, but fails. It was pretty silly the way this scene played out! Because the elements of scares were there, yet just not quite in a spooky way. Rarity even points out that Nightmare Night is about scares of a different nature, which makes perfect sense.
As we later come to see, with a little help from her animal friends... Fluttershy succeeds. WAY too well, it seems! The rest of the Main Six are completely spooked and blown away by the elaborate scares! It was creative, had a sense of danger, the suspense was chilling, and it all came together beautifully!
Now you might think that this means Fluttershy enjoys it more than she expected to. But nope! Instead, she makes it clear to her friends that it isn't her thing. And I think this was actually a very nice lesson to learn. This happens a lot in life, where you do give something a chance, and maybe even end up good at it! But at the end of the day, you find it's just not for you. And that's perfectly understandable! Have you tried something for the first time, disposition about it or not, and found you didn't like it? Of course. We all have.
Fluttershy even said it best, in which, yeah, they do all kinds of fun stuff together. Nightmare Night just won't be one of them. And the fact her friends wholeheartedly understand and accept it is very sweet. The entire idea with all this was the fact she gave it a chance, tried her best, and found it just wasn't something she liked. It wasn't about overcoming her fears. It was about trying something you felt unsure about, giving it a chance, and realizing you truly aren't into it.
So overall, I found it pretty entertaining! It was a nice little Halloween episode and made for a good lesson to learn. It's very much in-tune to Filli Vanilli, but from a very different angle that doesn't feel like a re-tread to it.
Now that I've had time to digest the moral and appreciate it better, my one concern with the episode is that Fluttershy was never called out for being paranoid. It's potentially dangerous when you lack the skill to rationalise so as to prevent unhealthy fear, without anyone to put you at ease. I'd have loved for the first half to have a bit of dialog where the five reassure her that her fears are ultimately baseless.
When you think about it, this episode can give us some FlutterDash ideas, like with Rainbow being impressed with how effective Fluttershy's scare was. I know she wasn't having fun with it, but I'm bet afterwards, she was surprised at what Fluttershy could really accomplish if she put a lot of heart into it.
3680281 That's true, all right! I thought the same thing! I get the feeling Rainbow was pretty much glued to her side the following day.