[S5E21] Scare Master !EXCLUSIVE!

First of all, I have to say Angel was actually characterized well and had a good role in this episode. I think I've stated before that Angel was a character that despite getting a lot of hate, I felt he's actually a good "helper" for Fluttershy which is shown in a few episodes (i.e. A Bird in the Hoof for trying to remind Fluttershy about going to Sugarcube Corner to meet up with Celestia and the others) and this episode helped that. While he did start off as a bit of a dick about making Fluttershy get vegetables, he actually helps her later in the episode by getting Fluttershy to set up the scare trap for the Mane 5 during the map, which led to the climax. In the end, he actually came off as being helpful for Fluttershy here, which is definitely a plus.

[S5E21] Scare Master

As for Fluttershy's characterization, I will say that I was honestly pretty iffy with it the first couple times I watched this episode. Her getting scared of obvious decorations and whatnot at the beginning of the episode honestly felt pretty far-fetched to me. But looking back at this episode, I'll admit that it sort of annoyed me in the beginning, I can see where they were trying to go with her character development, essentially highlighting her social anxiety here. After going out during Nightmare Night (which she was known to be scared of doing in Luna Eclipsed.. as weak as that episode was lol), but after meeting up with her friends, she starts to show interest in it and actually tries to participate and even tries throwing a party for her friends, and we really see her conflict in this episode. The party scene actually shows that she's moreso scared about being considered of being looked down upon, especially during gatherings and whatnot. In the end, she manages to try and scare her friends at the maze, which she does successfully. It's for these reasons, that even after thinking it was just another "lol fluttershys scard again" episode, it highlights Fluttershy's social anxiety problems well, and really helps to develop her character, putting her in a good direction.

I think one problem I had with this episode was a couple problems with the characterization. They weren't big or anything, but for one, Rainbow Dash complaining about Fluttershy being scared of everything got on my nerves, although that can be somewhat excused since she didn't want her ruining the fun. Granny Smith, though, was also sort of an ass at the beginning, by despite knowing that Fluttershy doesn't like coming out on Nightmare Night, she decides to scare her anyway. This felt arrogant on her behalf, so I think she was actually at a worse pedestal than Rainbow Dash was. Other than that, I dunno, not much wrong with this episode on further inspection. 041b061a72