TheBrianJ Reviews - Scare Master and What About Discord? (Double Mini-Review!) · 2:17am Nov 12th, 2015
NO TIME TO TALK! The last few weeks have been intensely busy, as I have officially gotten my first freelance client, and put in my notice at work, I leave in December. Not only that but I’ve been working hard on the outline for Of The Night and the actual body of the comedy story that will be a fun side project. And I’ve been streaming more to try to build a fanbase (my current record for viewers is upwards of four at one time! None of whom were logged in or chatting, but still!) The point is, I really haven’t had a whole lot of time for writing reviews.
Thankfully, these last two episodes weren’t the kind of emotional powerhouses that others in the season have been, so I’ve decided to combine them into two mini-reviews to quickly touch on things from both episodes. Let’s do this!
I couldn’t decide which episode would get the header, so I panicked and went with Bob Rosscord.
SCARE MASTER
I was a little disappointed that Wonderful Night-Related Horse Luna did not appear in this episode, given that Nightmare Night really feels like her thing (as opposed to everything else which is Celestia’s thing). That said, I guess she wasn’t really necessary for the overall plot of the episode, as it was entirely Fluttershy-focused.
It’s kinda funny to realize that Fluttershy’s fear hasn’t really come into play for a while. It’s a part of her character, but the last time it was the focal point of an episode was I think Filli Vanilli (still the best named episode of the series btw). Here we get another look at how the character has evolved over time; she still has that fear and shyness, but is now willing to take steps towards getting over her fears.
Most of the episode was pretty silly. The myriad of fun costumes, Fluttershy’s constant over-the-top worry and reactions, her attempts to fit in while her friends are unsure how to react, her apparently undying love of anime (wait what?), it was all fun and enjoyable, just the kind of thing you’d expect from a halloween episode.
But all that said, what set the episode apart—and what has become a running theme this season—is a lesson that I actually didn’t expect, and was far more valuable than the “standard” I was expecting. The way the episode was going seemed to be setting up for a perfect “Everyone can find something to enjoy about halloween,” but I was pleasantly surprised to find the lesson be one that is far more applicable to real life: “There are some things you just won’t like that your friends do, and that’s fine.” A much more respectable lesson and a nice cap to an enjoyable halloween episode.
I am so disappointed this was a costume and not “she can transform back whenever she wants.”
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WHAT ABOUT DISCORD?
Yeah, what about him? And Raven, too!
This was another episode that surprised me in the ending, but we’ll get there. As with most Discord episodes, this was an excuse to do whatever the hell they wanted, throw in insane references, all the usual stuff. But what I liked is the overarching story of the episode; it was an episode that had Discord in it, but really, the focus was Twilight Sparkle.
As the episode went on, I honestly thought that it was going to twist us in the end and reveal that Discord actually did hypnotize/use a spell on Twilight’s friends, and use it as a way to teach Twilight to not worry so much about things like that. And I mean… we kinda got that, but in a different way. It was a happy surprise to see that Discord really DID make friends with the Mane 6 while Twilight was away, even if he had a bit of a sinister motive behind it.
This was another episode all about character interactions, but in a different way than others. It was more about how everyone plays off of Discord, especially in a situation where they all were far friendlier to her than usual. I honestly would love to see episodes where it’s just Discord and one other character, more than just him and Fluttershy.
The episode did feel a bit clunky at times, mostly because of the sort of swerve-no not really a swerve-yes actually a swerve ending that revealed exactly what Discord’s plan was. But really, that kinda added to the end. It’s that little bit of clunkiness that helped to sell just how shocked/angry at Discord the Mane 6 were after finding out what the truth was in the situation. It was a fun episode, as Discord ones tend to be, although in the grand scheme of things it isn’t the kind of major episode that will really be remembered and analyzed.
Well, that’s about it for now. I’ll see what I can do about a review next week for the episode, but as I said, I’ve hit the maximum busy period for the next month or so, so while I’ll try to get a review out, don’t expect it to be as in-depth as other ones (and if it ends up being not much to talk about, I may do another double bill)
See you next time!
-Brian J
I see you...
I really liked Scare Master. The moral was great, and Fluttershy was too adorable and try-hard-ing to handle.
To be honest, I found the Discord one to be decidedly meh. While Discord is a good character, I don't think he's best deployed in a plot-lite episode when he's not the main character. He was great in the S4 finale with Tirek when there was character development, and his crashing of the GGG was a nice bit of work to develop his friendship with Fluttershy, but I felt this episode tried to crowbar him in for the sake of it, and it didn't feel particularly fluid, given he wasn't acting either as an antagonist per se or as the main focus for character development.
That being said, Scare Master was a lot of fun, and a nice subversion of the message as mentioned in the main post. That being said, I agree the lack of Luna is a pity; one pines somewhat for an entirely Lulu/Tia episode, though one risks it being too overtly aimed at the adult fanbase and thus be too winky.