S05:E21 - Scaremaster

[CheekyBoy 31]

You think it's coming close to ending?

I mean the whole show, yes. I think it will most likely end after The EQG movie in 2017. Edited October 31, 2015 by CheekyBoy

[BlackWater627 700]

I liked how it was released to coincide with Halloween. I heard it was leaked prior to today's airing though, what a shame. Overall, it was a decent episode and the pacing was slow at some parts. The plot was also predictable especially the segment where Fluttershy tries to partake in activities that her friends were participating in and she was pointing out all the things that could possibly be terrifying to her.

 

On a more positive note, the costumes looked fantastic and Derpy makes a brief appearance cosplaying as Twilight. Also, I had expected the episode to conclude with Fluttershy finally conquering her fear of being out on Nightmare Night, but I'm glad that the resolution was somewhat unexpected as she decided that Nightmare Night was not her cup of tea.

 

I love it when they surprise us with an unexpected ending that's good. I didn't see this one coming but I was very happy with it. 

[Wonderbolt 68]

Flutterscare
 

Although the episode is officially broadcast today as your probably well know it was leaked on itunes a month or two back so ive have a copy I have have managed to resist watching until this week.
A great episode all in all, Fluttershy was adorable and it was great fun how she went from being totally terrified of the night to being the one who totally terrified everyone else.
The costumes were all cool (Applejacks lion being the best) also did anyone else so the pony cosplaying as Twilight in the maze (Twilight was in shot to)?
Glad to see the (sort of) return of Flutterbat and enjoyed Rainbow Dash being a sarcastic jerk to Fluttershy and the other ponies shutting her up (she commonly did that in season one but it seems to happen less now).
Maybe the episode could have done with a bit more background ponies though

 

Edited October 31, 2015 by Wonderbolt

[RarityFan01 2,444]

I mean the whole show, yes. I think it will most likely end after The EQG movie in 2017.

It's not going to be an Equestria Girls movie. It's going to have ponies.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,207]

I had already seen this one back in September and gave my thoughts on it in another thread, but I will be brief here:

 

This episode was cute. The ending was a bit fast paced, but there was so much fun here. The costumes, Fluttershy was ADORABLE, Derpy being a bootleg Twilight, it was a really good Halloween episode. I prefer this one to the first Nightmare Night episode honestly. 

 

To me, the best part though, was the moral. This season has been doing the morals so incredibly well and this episode continues that. So many other cartoons would have the character in question, this being Fluttershy, at the end she would overcome her fears and then continue to do the thing that she overcame her fears for. Instead, she realizes that it is just something that she has no interest in and she decides to continue doing what she always did on Nightmare Night, that is just awesome. Self acceptance for the win.

 

One of the top episodes for the season for me. The moral was enough for that on its own.

[Varrack 1,080]

This episode was not that good. Basically it was Fluttershy trying to go out for Nightmare Night but she was scared of just about every little thing,so it was kinda hard for her. Then she refused to go out until Angel and the other animals persuaded her to go scare her friends. And then she did, was sorry about it, and decided to spend her Nightmare Night reading stories while her friends were like "ok". What kind of ending is that?

 

While she did (sort of?) overcome her fear of going outside, the ending was unsatisfactory. I mean...she didn't decide "ok, I'm brave enough to go out every year", she decided she *wouldn't* go out every year after that. She could just go out and not have to scare her friends. That just...it made no sense.

 

The scene where she first attempted to scare them was slow-paced, and kinda boring to watch. Same with a couple other moments. And what's up with her costume? The writers could have at least made a decent one for her.

[Lexamena 391]

Excellent episode. Lots of cute little extras as usual. Loved loved loved pinkies retro costume the most. She wasn't overly too obnoxious which is better than it has been. I didn't see the leak which hate I spoilers so I'm glad I didn't. I was really entertained. Tho I will say granny smith is pissing me off. She's getting really overbearing and acting like she doesn't give a shit about anyone's feelings lately. Overall great Halloween episode. I wanna go back and watch the other Halloween episodes now too.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

For anybody who is interested, i made a blog about it last month when it was leaked.

 

https://mlpforums.com/blog/2414/entry-18076-my-thoughts-on-the-scare-master-s05e21-spoilers/

 

In short, i really enjoyed the episode.

[FirestormCAN 246]

See, people could wait another four weeks for this one. Long as you have the right tools and know who to unfollow.

 

As for the episode itself, I was taken aback at the ending. Even though Fluttershy shows she can find a way to participate in the festivities, she decides to go home and ride out the night. You don't see that often, a character sayin' "Hey, it's just not my thing. You guys have fun, I'm headin' home." A good lesson for kids, saying not everyone wants to join in on Halloween. Well played, DHX.

[ggg-2 3,549]

People say that if the leaked episode had showed the CMC's (i'm still calling them that, call it force of habit) flanks, their cutie marks would have been spoiled. But what people don't seem to realize (or are choosing to ignore, which wouldn't surprise me) is that this episode came before Crusaders of the Lost Mark in production order.

[BlackWater627 700]

 

 

To me, the best part though, was the moral. This season has been doing the morals so incredibly well and this episode continues that. So many other cartoons would have the character in question, this being Fluttershy, at the end she would overcome her fears and then continue to do the thing that she overcame her fears for. Instead, she realizes that it is just something that she has no interest in and she decides to continue doing what she always did on Nightmare Night, that is just awesome. Self acceptance for the win.

 

 

Quite right. I may like this season the most for the moral lessons alone. It's super rare to have this kind of ending where a character gets to overcome an obstacle and yet retain themselves without conforming to the majority. It's really quite profound when you think about it. 

[Carolina 212]

Eh, this one was okay. I thought the episode itself was a bit slow. On the other hand, I did really like the moral. Give things a try, but if you don't end up liking them, that's perfectly okay too!

 

I also liked Rarity's mermaid costume and Applejack's lion costume. And Fluttershy's "scary" tea party was also kind of funny.

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

I think this was the best episode of the season. The narrative structure and writing style reminded me a lot of the early seasons - this is a very good thing. I'm sure Faust is looking down at us from her throne in Valhalla and smiling

[Sunset188 193]

I didn't watch this early because I wanted to save it for today, and I'm glad I waited. I swear this season just keeps getting better with every episode. It was great to see focus on Fluttershy

[Buttonmash1973 1,024]

Good to see mroe Flutterbat, in disguise,.

[Batbrony 15,994]

Hello everypony, and welcome to a super special spoooooooookkkkyyyyyy edition of "Batbrony Reviews"!  First of all, a Happy Halloween and Nightmare Night to you all (and to any of my fellow Lutherans out there, Happy Reformation Day as well!  ).  That out of the way, let's dive into Episode 21 of Season 5, "Scaremaster"!

 

Overall, I don't have a lot to say about this one.  Not cause it wasn't fun or didn't have a good message, oh no, I liked it on both of those counts, but I suppose it wasn't quite as... fresh, if you will, as say last week's episode was.  This was a wonderful episode, but a somewhat predictable one as well, at least once it was clear what the issue is.  Basically, the episode was an extended version of this:

 

 

You may think that's an exaggeration, but not really.     So what was going on here?  Well, Fluttershy, as we all know, hates Nightmare Night.  Like, a lot.  It's really never been her cup of tea, and she generally as a rule of thumb just spends the night literally hiding under her bed.  With her animal friends.  Including Harry the Bear.  So what goes wrong this year?  Angel Bunny, that's what.    Because of course he would.    Yes, poor Flutters has to go out and about on Nightmare Night after Angel Bunny demands she pick him up some carrots, and for the first half of the episode she basically has a panic attack.  Even after she finds her friends and tries her best to celebrate the holiday with them, nothing really works out for her.  She just seems too uncomfortable with the notion of a holiday dedicated to scary things and ponies scaring each other.  Oddly enough, Angel Bunny eventually steps up and helps her find a solution... of sorts.  She ends up, with the help of her animal friends, delivering the biggest scare of the night to her friends, but also comes to the conclusion that, really, this holiday just isn't for her, and she's OK with that.  She sees that it really is a fun night, but at the same time something she just doesn't want to be a part of.  She's happy, her friends are happy, all ends well.

 

 

We all probably knew this already, but this episode pretty much confirmed that this bunny is, in fact, the devil incarnate as a tiny, fuzzy mammal with big ears

 

If there's one critique I have of this episode, it's that the message is a bit confused at times and the entire episode is pretty by-the-books as far as a Fluttershy episode goes.  Fluttershy has deep insecurity about something and needs her friends help to overcome it, we have seen this MANY times before, and executed much better.  Not that this wasn't an issue, oh no, we've known since Season 2 that Fluttershy has a big problem with Nightmare Night.  But there were bits in the first half of the episode that were just ludicrous, namely when Fluttershy kept questioning whether something horrible would happen if she tried to partake in some games with her friends (seriously, that scene was kind of asinine, I've never seen Fluttershy overthink something THAT MUCH!  Even Twilight rarely goes to those lengths, and she's far more OCD than Fluttershy  ).  Also, even though I understood that Fluttershy was content with not partaking in Nightmare Night at the end of the episode, it was a bit confusing just what exactly she thought of the holiday from then on.  Like, it seemed like she understood the appeal and thus was less bothered by it, and I know she doesn't want to scare her friends, but if that's the case why doesn't she just celebrate with them from now on in ways that don't involve scaring them?  Look, I get that the message is saying you don't have to partake in something that everyone else does, even if it's a good or harmless thing, if it's really not something you like, and that's a good message to be sure, but here it was just a bit odd how it was executed.  I don't know, maybe again as I said before my biggest problem was just that we've seen Fluttershy do this song and dance before, it's just this time it involved Nightmare Night specifically.

 

 

The most important bit of canon to come out of this episode 

 

 

OK, not gonna lie, this was pretty bucked up.  I would've been right behind AJ in that situation, I can tell you that much!

 

Those issues aside, I loved this episode very much.  Nightmare Night is a very fun holiday as presented in the show, and Ponyville looked just as great this time as it did in Season 2 during "Luna Eclipsed."  All the costumes, the festivities, seeing who's going as what and what everypony was doing, it was a blast.  I especially got a kick out of Derpy's "Princess Twilight" costume and Spike dressing as a dragon (again!), this time a two-headed one (so original Spike, so original  ), and Rarity's "Mermaid/Sea Pony" costume was pretty funny too, but they all were great.  Just like "Luna Eclipsed" as well, this episode was also very, very funny.  Between Fluttershy's panicked behavior, Granny Smith scaring the bejeezus out of her, Fluttershy's failed attempts to celebrate with the gang (culminating in the best scene of the episode, the least scary "Scary Tea Party" ever!), and the climax in the Apple's Haunted Corn Maze, there were just laughs after laughs after laughs.  We even got to see the "return" of Flutterbat, and that was a pretty entertaining nod to that bizarre episode from last season. 

 

 

Thanks M.A. Larson!

 

 

Rarity: She whips her tail back and forth

 

 

DAT LIP BITE, HNNNGGGGGGGG!!!   

 

Besides all that, Fluttershy and the rest of the Mane 6 were spot on overall.  Spike and the Mane 6 tried their best to give Flutters a good time, even if it took away from their own fun at times, and Fluttershy had a solid episode overall, even if it was hardly her most serious appearance ever and the conclusion and message left something to be desired.  I was just a tad disappointed that Princess Luna didn't show up in any capacity at any point, but eh, that's a very minor complaint.  All in all, while not quite as amazing as "Luna Eclipsed" was and still is, "Scaremaster" is for sure a worthy successor, and a wonderful way to kick off Halloween this year.  Hope ya'll enjoyed it as much as I did, and that's all I got for this one.  Have a great and Happy Halloween this year everypony, and be sure to stay safe no matter how you may be celebrating it (especially if alcohol is involved in your festivites, drink responsibly ya'll  ).  This is Batbrony signing off.  I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*

 

 

[colt .45 259]

I resisted the urge to watch the early leak of this episod, and feel like a chump. I held out for this? A Nightmare Night episode airing on Halloween, and my b-day, maybe my expectations were a bit too high ( in defense of my expectations, I have loved almost every episode this season, it's been an amazing season!) But this was a big disappointment. Maybe the most disappointing episode ever.

 

It is no big secret that fluttershy is my least favorite pony, and this episode only made me think even less of her. It's my birthday, so I'm going to try to be positive, and try not to go on a rant about everything that's wrong with fluttershy.

 

Despite the utterly disappointing, overall nature of this episode, there were some things I liked about it. First of all, like the rest of this season, the art direction of the animation was beautiful. The richness in the textures naturally shine in (what should have been) a darkly themed episode. The costumes! What else can I say, the costumes were the highlight of this episode to me. Scootaloo in the Wonderbolt outfit was adorable! Missed Derpy as Twi, so I'll have to keep an eye out for that next watch. Rarity's mermaid costume was as ridiculous, and impractical as you would expect from her. The best was when she was trying to help fluttershy pick out an outfit, and every time she turned around, the tail slapped that useless bitch in the face. Yes, Rarity s mermaid tail, doing what I wanted to do that whole scene FTW!!! I found the gags with Pinkie on the skates, running throughout the episode, humorous. I liked that it was rather subtle (for Pinkie) ,and not just, over the top, Pinkie being silly. Not being able to stop quickly, because, wheels on hooves, and not being able to get traction to run away quickly, because, wheels on hooves, was so cute!

 

And finally, saving the best for last. My favorite part of the episode, was at the end. Not just because a relatively bad episode was over. But because we learn that fluttershy will not be trying to ruin Nightmare Night for her friends anymore. Which means that from now on any, and all Nightmare Night episodes will be fluttershy free, and will have a much better chance of being fun! So at least it finished on a good note.

 

 

P.S. also regarding "flutterbat", she had to wear a costume to have that appearance. She can't actually transform her shape into that, (except in her dream per "Do Princesses Dream of Magical Sheep?") so let it go. I think this episode put that notion to rest. So, I guess I liked that part too.

 

 

 

 

Needed more Luna!!!

Edited October 31, 2015 by colt .45

[Pineapple Bloom 511]

It was a fun episode, I could relate because Halloween makes me feel a lot more skittish than usual too. I liked the moral and a lot of visual aspects of this episode were great.

 

Also, Pinkie Pie's costume was the cutest IMO.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Pineapple Bloom

[Fluttershyfan94 5,737]

That was an awesome episode, definitely one of my favorites. It would have been awesome if Flutterbat wouldn't have been a costume but rather a transformation she could do. Lot of references, funny episode overall. Fluttershy really is the scaremaster.

[StitchandMLPlover 930]

SPOILER ALERT! 

I saw Scare Master a few weeks ago or rather little snippets of it when it was leaked. I believe it was leaked via iTunes. Anyway this was a neat little Halloween episode that got me into the spirit of said holiday today. My favorite parts of the episode are the animation and costume designs on all the characters. The lighting/coloring was particularly well done and when you compared it to "Luna Eclipsed" you see how far the animators have really come. I was glad to see the character development with Fluttershy being willing to give something a try to see if she likes it while also being willing to say "No, I'm not comfortable" which really shows how much she is growing despite the fact that people might think this a just another "Fluttershy freaks out ep" I mean heck she goes out on Nightmare Night to buy food for Angel. Takes initiative by saying she will try Nightmare Night herself more or less and then she honestly admits she doesn't like it, that takes guts and is also completely within her character. I also liked even her first scare attempt because it was rather clever how she tried to tap into her friends and her psychological fear. That shows how much she knows about them even if her delivery didn't give her the results until the end. I also related to how she was constantly like "What if this or that happens" even though nothing had happened yet. I know I do that kind of thing a lot in certain instances and I know it must drive my friends up the walls LOL. I can't say anything bad or really much else about this episode except that it was cool to see Twilight and Rarity use the light spell at the same time and I liked seeing the CMC again. That's it for now….Happy Nightmare Night!!!

Edited October 31, 2015 by StitchandMLPlover

[NeonCobalt 256]

This was a really great episode, even if it was a bit obvious who was doing all of the scary things in the maze. I'm not ven sure if it was supposed to be a surprise, that's how obvious it was. I did find it a bit humorus how Fluttershy kept finding something bad about the various things they wanted to do. Finally, the best part of the episode was definitely the moral. You would expect it to be that now Fluttershy is going to take part in Nightmare Night from now on, but I liked that they showed that just because you may not have an issue with something, doesn't mean it's something you would do on a regular basis. I've been trying not to watch this, seeing as it was leaked about a oath ago, so that I would be able to watch the Halloween episode for the first time on, you know, Halloween. I'm definitely glad I waited, because this was a perfect Halloween episode. I'd rate it 10/10.

[theonenamedDJ 37]

I couldn't stand this episode. Fluttershy got some actual character development in the first half of this season with having to be blunt with Rainbow and having to be firm with Discord, not to mention one of the best lessons in "breezies" (notice how most of these were written by Natasha Levinger). I thought they were past this, I thought they were going to expand Fluttershy's character and try new things with her. 

 

Well, that's what I get for being optimistic.

 

This episode makes me angry with how safe it is, with how.. regressive it is towards Fluttershy. She is scared of Halloween decorations and being startled by some vague non-existant scenario if she so much as turns her head at the wrong time. I refuse to believe that Fluttershy is this paranoid and this cowardly. The truth is I'm more angry about what this episode represents than its actual story. It represents the knowledge that no matter what, the writing staff will just not try to give any kind of plot that will expand Fluttershy's character. Even Levinger, who writes great Fluttershys in the past, will do this and kill all the good will I had for her.

 

FUCK THIS EPISODE!

[Chronamut 355]

yeah I watched it leaked - told you it wouldn't disappoint

[cybershocker455 324]

I can so totally relate to Fluttershy and the moral of the episode. I love Halloween but I can totally understand Fluttershy's situation. There have been times where I can't enjoy something that otheers do. While there are different things I want to try out sometimes you have to know that there are just things that just don't personally enjoy as much as other people do, you know.

[MoltenKitten 341]

Is Angel dead now because he never got his carrots?

Edited October 31, 2015 by MoltenKitten