My thoughts on "Scare Master"—A very delayed review

Hey peeps! Looks like I'm a bit late on this one, am I? I'm not gonna lie that I’ve hit a very rough patch in my life that’s been distracting me from being involved in the fandom. I’ve been very busy with several jobs, worrying about finances, gender dysphoria and transitioning (Notice how my user-name/profile has changed to be more gender-neutral), therapy, general anxiety and depression, all while trying to start a successful career I can enjoy.

Despite all of this, I miss this fandom very much, as well as writing. I really hope to get back into the habit of Fanfiction and my involvement with the brony community starting now, pretty much. It’s all a matter of finding a proper balance.

To activate my writing muscles again, I'm going to talk about a long promised review that I said I would write, but am just finally getting down to it. Today, I'm going to review this past season’s Halloween episode, Scare Master. Though I understand that Halloween has long past, I still feel like this episode is about much more than that, and is still worthy of being talked about in any time of the year. So without further ado, I give you my (regrettably delayed) take on Scare Master!

Synopsis:
Scare Master:
By: Natasha Levinger

It's that wonderful time of year again; Nightmare Night has come to Ponyville! In the crisp autumn air, many of the town's residents and children are beyond excited to once again, celebrate the spirit of Nightmare Moon and the spooks and monsters that surround them. A truly festive time indeed! However, just on the outskirts of town there is Fluttershy, who has a much... different approach to the holiday.

The episode opens with Fluttershy frantically flying around her cottage, barricading herself, locking windows, closing blinds, and preparing a fort under her bed—all with the help of a spider named Fuzzy Legs, Harry the Bear, a group of birds, and Angel Bunny. However, once she thinks she is safe from the world outside, Angel rudely alerts her that he doesn't have any carrots for the evening, demanding that his owner get him some. In the vulnerable state of mind Fluttershy has fallen victim to, she frighteningly looks out her window, and reluctantly forces herself to do so.

In Ponyville, we see her cautiously enter and try very hard not to make contact with any decorations, costumes, scary games, or even innocent sounding children with false teeth that would scare my dentist! While hiding under a wagon, she runs into Granny Smith and Big Macintosh, and asks them if she could borrow some hay. Granny, however, explains that they need it for their corn maze; and decides to further frighten and scare the poor pegasus with details from the attraction. She doesn't realize how she's making Fluttershy's fear worse, causing her to sprint away like Road Runner.

Deciding that town isn't the best place to look, Fluttershy then tries Twilight's castle. As she enters the dark and seemingly hollow building, she runs into Spike wearing a homemade two-headed dragon suit. Realizing that she's out, Spike casually convinces Fluttershy that she should try Nightmare Night, as it would make her friends happy. Fluttershy, seeing the logic her friend is making, agrees to oblige and put this fear of hers to rest! Her decision is met with great enthusiasm from her friends, and they head to town to begin the festivities!

We begin the night with Rarity helping Fluttershy find a costume that would not only fit her personality, but also make her feel most comfortable. Fluttershy, unfortunately, is a tricky customer, and panics at the thought of wearing layers, for fear of tripping, and wearing a mask for not being able to see. Rarity, however, is very patient and let’s her friend choose a simple back dress for a costume.

As the night progresses, the gang decides to introduce Fluttershy to some fun games and activities, hoping to show the lighter side of the holiday. But, again, Fluttershy panics at even the simplest traditions like wearing a blindfold for a game, refusing to bob for apples because she might all in, and even decline candy out of fear of not being able to scream for help. Sensing the frustration and annoyance of her friends, our heroine starts to feel hopeless and almost gives up.

That is, until Twilight gets an idea that may sound very familiar upon re-watching Luna Eclipsed: Fluttershy does the scaring. With the idea that she won’t be a victim of hijinks and she can still participate in Nightmare Night, Fluttershy immediately agrees with the idea. Then as adorably as Fluttershy could, she creeps out of Sugarcube Corner, telling her friends to meet at her cottage in an hour.

An hour passes, and everypony arrives at the cottage, where they find a foreboding setting with fog, darkness and even Fluttershy’s spooky(?) voice as their host and narrator; the theme she chose: A haunted tea party. Not a bad idea, right? Unfortunately, her idea of being scared is not on par with her friends. The party is void of anything scary and only includes awkward incidents like an empty sugar bowl, “Unannounced Guests” inconveniently arriving in anime form, and a wind up cat toy.

While her friends still give her an “A” for effort, Fluttershy thinks that she really isn’t cut out for Nightmare Night. Thinking she’ll continue to ruin the fun, she ushers them out. Now she’s ready to retire for the evening and go back to hiding… but wait! We see Angel Bunny (who seems to have forgotten he was hungry) give Fluttershy a push to try again. And with a new spark in her veins, Fluttershy vows to make the scariest attraction her friends have ever seen.

We then join everypony at the Apple Family Maze. The attraction the Apples have assembled is very amateur but still fun, allowing the group to walk through with enjoyment. But their mirth quickly runs out when a scurrying creature dashes behind them. Applejack, who organized the maze with her family, begins to worry about the new addition. They are then chased down several pathways by a trio of ghosts until they fall down a random hole.

Twilight ignites her horn to see that they’re in a cave, and hear a creaking rocking shadow closeby. Applejack, thinking it’s Granny Smith, walks over to investigate. When we get a clear view of the object, it’s revealed to be an old skeleton with a head that falls right off, and sends everypony into a panic. They are chased even further by a giant, sea monster like creature into a very sticky spider web that renders them unable to move or even see clearly. Twilight thinks quickly and teleports them to the opening on a hill top.

Think our little ponies are safe? Think again!

A wicked cackle is heard, and is revealed to be no other than Flutterbat! She makes her round swooping at them and trying to bite them in what appears to be a seemingly triumphant victory that is very short-lived. We find out that it is actually Fluttershy in a pony bat costume. And once she sees the terror on her friend’s faces, she immediately breaks character and begins apologizing repeatedly.

However, her friends commend Fluttershy for her amazing prank, that included the help from all her animals, and say she should do this every year. Fluttershy, on the other hand, being the kind and sensible pony she is, admits that while she did work hard to scare them and that she’s proud they enjoyed it, she did not have fun causing the terror. That being said, Fluttershy has come to the conclusion that she has realized what Nightmare Night truly was, and accepts it for what it is with no more fear. The one condition being that it is simply not for her, which her friends are proud to support her on.

The episode concludes with Fluttershy back in her home, windows now wide open, and under her bed, reading to the animals that helped her. Finally finding peace and contentment with a night that used to haunt her, she says with a smile that this is, “A perfect Nightmare Night.”

My Thoughts:

Overall, I will say that I found this episode to far exceed all expectations I had. While it has the very familiar set up and formula used in some of Fluttershy’s episodes, I think this added something completely new and unexpected: You can try something, but not have to like it. While I will arguably say that Fluttershy did conquer her fear of Nightmare Night in the episode, I still really like the original take it had on that.

The fact that Fluttershy was able to discover that the night is really nothing to be gravely terrified of, it didn’t unrealistically portray her craving to scare anypony else. Instead, Fluttershy realized that there was no right or wrong way to see Nightmare Night; it was really whatever she decided to make it out to be. She recognizes that she is now able to accept the holiday in the years to come and not let it bother her, but at the same time, she doesn’t have to feel guilty about not wanting to spend it with her friends, while she gets to do her own thing. And if her own thing is spending a peaceful night in under her bed while reading stories to her animals by lantern light, then I say go for it, girl!

I thought this was a very empowering episode for Fluttershy in the way it was done. There are so many people out there, not just kids, who think they have to conform to something or do something that everyone else does just to fit in, or not be labeled different in a negative way. Fluttershy is not obligated to please anybody after this episode and she shouldn’t fear disappointing others for that. A little lesson that I wish some fans would see more clearly, thus bringing me to my next section:

What I’ve Noticed:

While I’ve seen that reception for Scare Master has mostly been very positive, I can’t help noticing people either being unable to empathize with Fluttershy, or just missing the point of the episode entirely. While I think those are fair opinions for them to have, I still think it’s worth discussing them. Example: When Fluttershy is entering town on Nightmare Night, I was surprised to see a lot of people get annoyed with her for being scared, or that she was anxious while trying to play the games. And I was just sitting there the whole time, wondering if they remember her scene in Luna Eclipsed. Her two minute appearance in that episode did absolutely nothing to ease her fear of the holiday (It probably only made it much worse, to be honest), so I still don’t understand why they are so shocked to see her like that. If anyone could possibly explain those reactions to me, it would be appreciated, because I am seriously so confused about that.

Another thing I noticed was that fans were annoyed that Fluttershy was either anxious or unwilling to play the games, thinking something bad would happen. I want to say that I understand entirely why Fluttershy would be scared in that kind of situation. I suffer from anxiety in a very similar way she does. When you’re in an environment or situation that’s unfamiliar, or you’re doing something that looks in any way frightening, it can be extremely unsettling. All your brain has to do is drift to the worst case scenario, that’s actually least likely to happen, and let the panicking do the rest. You could clearly tell that Fluttershy was still unsure of her decision to do all of this, but she tried anyway to the best of her ability.

What that scene was trying to show was what anxiety does to you. You may appear to be annoying to others, but in reality, you’re having very terrifying thoughts that you think you can’t control. It’s a shame that people aren’t as understanding about that kind of thing, because God Damn it, it’s really a living hell!

Other Thoughts:

-I really enjoyed the costumes this time around. They appeared to be much more creative and even higher quality than the last Halloween episode. It was a very nice touch to see that Rarity was the one who made them all for her friends; especially since she was cut from Luna Eclipsed entirely. I also agree with everyone else that Applejack’s lion costume was a very clever follow up from her being a scarecrow last time. But when they were in the cave panicking, I was very disappointed that Applejack didn’t start chanting, "I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do believe in spooks!"

-I really have to say that the cinematography in this episode was excellent! You could tell the whole episode had a much different vibe from Luna Eclipsed, just with the way the picture looked. There was fog rolling all over Ponyville, there was almost a dark like quality to every scene, kind of like the colors were toned down or something; I’m not sure if anyone else noticed, but to me, most of the scenes were really not as bright as the show usually is. Perhaps this was done to show how gloomy and unclear the night has become for Fluttershy every year. The camera angles and frame shots really deserve to be commended as well. This is especially for Twilight’s castle, where the wide shots helped make Fluttershy look small and alone. The quick cuts and views of the maze really gave a sense of panic and a wide sense of being lost, it kind of reminded me a little of The Shining. The cave was really well executed with the reveal of the skeleton, almost resembling an Alfred Hitchcock film. And of course, Flutterbat being revealed in the moonlight with her extreme closeups to show her face go from intensity, to remorseful in only a matter of seconds—that was just wonderfully artistic!

-It’s really no contest that Fluttershy would win for best facial expression and movements not just for the season, but also this episode. While she was intended to be a bit of a comic relief in Luna Eclipsed, you can tell the animators really tried this time around to give her those panicked looks on her face, and the trembling of her body. It honestly looked a lot of times that she hasn’t been getting enough sleep lately, or that she was about to be sick. Which is pretty much exactly how I would picture Fluttershy around that time of year. I also thought her spastic movements when reacting to fear and quick gestures was a nice touch. I may have an unpopular view or opinion here, but I think those additions to her character ended up serving as a bit of a homage to the original classic horror films of German Expressionism. Some examples of those jerky movements and wide expressions to show chilling terror include Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Both are amazing works of cinema that I highly recommend, and I was greatly reminded of them while watching this episode.

-Did anyone else notice a similarity between the conflict Fluttershy faced here, and what Luna faced in Luna Eclipsed? Think about it: both mares feel like a round peg in a square hole, both struggle with socializing and helping others have fun, both are having this psychological battle to really find acceptance from others as well as their place, and Twilight, in both cases, suggests scarring to help solve their problems. I’m starting to develop a bit of a theory that Luna and Fluttershy have a lot more in common than either of them may think. The more I thought about the episode, the more similarities I found between them to a point of being almost scary. Maybe when Celestia and Luna held the Elements of Harmony, Luna was the one who held Kindness, and was much like Fluttershy in her youth? Just a little something to possibly think about.

-I know that I’ve mentioned Luna Eclipsed several times already, but I’ve also noticed that fans are comparing this episode with the other, seeing which one is better. For my input, I think they share some similarities, in a good way, but both are also fantastic episodes in their own lights. This episode helped Fluttershy’s conflict in Luna’s episode find resolution, while still being true to her character and in the spirit of Halloween. There will also like and dislike both episodes for various reasons, but I simply found myself to be more connected to this one due to the theme it presented.

Well, that definitely turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated, but I hope you enjoyed reading it. Are their any other episodes you want to see me review? Be sure to comment.

It’s good to be back, FIMFiction!

-Dramapony