S5E21 (though it's really S5E15): "Scare-Master" (SPOILERS) · 4:01pm Oct 31st, 2015
Preface: Because of the iTunes leak a while back, most of us have already seen this episode. As such, this will be slightly different and slightly more detailed than my usual stream-of-consciousness write-ups.
It's Nightmare Night in Equestria--the holiday Fluttershy hates the most. For all that we've seen Fluttershy try to conquer her fears over the last five seasons, you'd think she wouldn't be this scared of a night of costumes, candy, fun, and fake scares. I mean, really, she should be over this by now. But we open with Fluttershy reset to her season one fear levels, preparing a hidey-hole to ride out Nightmare Night. Unfortunately, she forgot to get carrots for Angel, so she's forced to brave the terrors of Nightmare Night to go shopping.
At this point I'd like to interject that Angel would be fine for the night without carrots, and I'm pretty sure the only reason he even made a fuss about it was to get Fluttershy to leave the house and realize that Nightmare Night is actually fun.
That or Angel's just being season two uber-dick Angel. It's hard to tell, really.
We learn that Sweet Apple Acres does this haunted corn maze thing, and Granny really gets into it. But back to Fluttershy.
So anyway, Fluttershy's out and about, getting scared of things (and Granny Smith certainly made things worse), and her friends (mostly Spike) convince her to at least TRY to have some fun on Nightmare Night.
We get a continuity nod, where Fluttershy thinks perhaps this will be like when she got over her fear of singing in public.
The animators had a lot of fun with the Nightmare Night costumes this time around. Twilight's costume is of particular interest, especially to me, Zef, and certain among my followers, because this time around, she's dressed up as Athena.
Yeah, it's probably a coincidence, but it's a really FREAKY coincidence.
Anyway...
So Rarity's dressed as a mermaid (and there's a hilarious running gag where the tail of her costume keeps slapping poor Fluttershy across the face), Applejack is a lion, Rainbow Dash is an astronaut, and Pinkie Pie is...whatever Pinkie Pie is. Roller derby pony? I have no idea. Rarity tries to get Fluttershy to dress up as a vampire queen pony, but it falls through...as does everything else she suggests, until Fluttershy just ends up in a plain black dress.
While we're on the subject of costumes, there's a pony wandering around dressed up as Sailor Moon, Snips and Snails are He-Man and Skeletor, Apple Bloom is a platypus, Scootaloo is a Wonderbolt, and Sweetie Belle is, for some reason, Marie Antoinette.
Also, the CMC are into toilet-papering houses. Yikes.
And then there's Derpy, who's dressed up as Princess Twilight Sparkle, with a horn made out of a toilet paper tube. D'aww.
Fluttershy tries to get in on her friends' Nightmare Night fun, but she just isn't very good at conquering her fears OR coming up with scares. She ends up becoming a massive party pooper at Sugar Cube Corner, even being terrified of eating candy Pinkie picked out just for her. Twilight comes up with the idea of Fluttershy doing the scaring instead of doing the being scared. Fluttershy invites her friends back to her cottage for a "spooky tea party", and the whole thing is just awkward and uncomfortable for all involved. Things get off to a bad start and only go downhill from there, because Fluttershy's idea of "spooky" is just a string of socially awkward situations, which culminates in the arrival of "unplanned guests":
Apparently, Fluttershy loves 90s anime. 
I'd like to say that Zef and I especially got a kick out of this, as these shows were popular right around the time we were really getting into anime and the growing fan community of the late 90s. (Well, in Zef's case, a lot longer than that, especially Dragonball.) The animators also clearly had way too much fun with this part, and outed themselves as otaku. I'm wondering who among the staff drew which aniponies, as there are clashing art styles at work here, and whoever drew Sailor Moon and Utena clearly loves Detective Conan, because they have pronounced Aoyama noses.
Anyway, for you kids out there who don't recognize all five of these and haven't already seen a list somewhere, here they are in order:
- Tsukino Usagi/Sailormoon (Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon)
- Ayanami Rei (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
- Tenjou Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
- Bulma Briefs (Dragonball)
- Saotome Ranma (Ranma 1/2)
After this awkward disaster, the others agree to go on with their Nightmare Night activities without Fluttershy, making everypony feel bad. Fluttershy doesn't like that she isn't included with her friends' fun, and feels like she let them AND herself down, so she resolves to try harder to be scary. She asks Angel for advice on how to be scarier.
Ponyville is screwed.
With the help of her animal friends and Granny Smith, she succeeds...a little too well. Fluttershy creates the most terrifying haunted corn maze Ponyville has ever seen and spends the rest of Nightmare Night terrorizing the horseapples out of her friends, culminating in directly menacing them as Flutterbat.
But when she sees the looks of genuine terror on her friends' faces after MASSIVELY overdoing it, Fluttershy gets upset. In the end, she decides that she's no longer afraid of Nightmare Night, but also has no intention of ever participating in Nightmare Night activities ever again, because it simply isn't something she enjoys doing.
The moral of the story: you don't have to do EVERYTHING your friends enjoy doing if it's something you don't enjoy. Friends can like to do different things and that's okay.
The best part of this episode was all the references and silly costumes, of course. But seeing Fluttershy go all-out with her scare-fest was definitely a crowning moment of awesome.
Happy Halloween, everybody!
I thought the Utena nose was because of the Utena noses. They're kinda... nosey. Egh, and you beat me to the post about that one.
Huh. I never made the Athena connection with Twilight's costume; I just assumed it was some obscure Pegasopolitan general.
As for Fluttershy's fear levels, I suspect some degree of it is sheer habit. How many years has she been cowering in fear of Nightmare Night? How long has it been ingrained in her psyche that this night is the most terrifying of the year? She wasn't at Season 1 levels of frightful, she was above them. She was so keyed up and paranoid that she was finding potential danger even things she'd normally enjoy because they were happening on Nightmare Night. It's almost Pavlovian. See jack o' lanterns, break out in cold sweat.
Also, my favorite bit has to be Harry, spawn of Dagon. I suspect there are some Mythos fans among the otaku at DHX.
This episode had a real bad pacing problem, and switched stories three times like "Princess Spike". And it reset Fluttershy's character development.
All in all, I can tell the animators had fun, and I appreciate the moral, but this is exactly the kind of Fluttershy episode we should done rehasing at this point. Season 5 Fluttershy has been constantly growing a backbone, you can't just take that away because it's easier for your story!
Angel is the devil for Nightmare Night, how ironic.
The show doesn't comment on it all, but there's a lot of irony in Fluttershy avoiding "scary" things by hanging out with a spider, a giant bear, and *shudder* Angel.
3509958 They certainly did over do it for Flutters being scared.
Finally caved in and decided to watch the leaked episode earlier today.
I'll say it...third weakest episode of Season 5 so far.
I have to agree on the front half or so of the episode concerning Fluttershy. After all she's been through, we shouldn't be doing this again. I find it situations like these a little grating now, and don't even get me started on "Magic Duel"...
The back half, however, I really enjoyed, and it shows just how frightening Fluttershy can really be when pushed. I flipped when I saw Flutterbat again because before the reveal that it was just a costume she'd thrown together, it looked like she had really transformed. Beware the nice/quiet ones, indeed!
Their acceptance that Fluttershy just doesn't like Nightmare Night, however, is the best part. I'm going to a friend's tonight and having a party, and some of the people there probably won't watch the anime or play the games that are planned. Totally fine! Everyone can have fun in their own way.
3509895 I might be projecting. The past week I've gotten massively back into Detective Conan and also started watching Magic Kaito 1412 on Crunchyroll, and Aoyama's tendency (or the anime character designers cloning his style anyway) to draw sharp, upturned noses has actually gotten WORSE in the last six years or so. I was just commenting on it to Zef last night, then I took another look at the Otakushy drawings, and the Aoyama Noses jumped out at me.
3509961 I have to agree there. Seeing Fluttershy acting like this again is a huge step backward. You can make excuses for it, but it still stands out. To me this episode is more for the point-and-giggle references than the Fluttershy plot.
3510122 Agreed.
Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed this episode when it was leaked. Of course, I was excited that it was an extra episode to watch that day, but it was also incredibly fun to watch!
3510181
We're not supposed to provide links on Moth's page. Instead, just type My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 5 Episode 21 into your search bar. You'll find it.
3510181 Please do not ask that here.
3510285 sorry. I will delete the comment then.
I think Angel really was just being a dick in the first half, but he made up for it by masterminding Fluttershy's scares in the 2nd half. He's like an Fluttershy's evil Jiminy Cricket.
I forgot or didn't realize this had been a leaked episode and was wondering why it was up again lol. It was a fun episode for the costumes and references and had an alright moral at the end. So not a bad one for enjoyments sake.
3521718 That does make some sense.