Scare Master

…I’m pretty sure this is only our second ever not-Halloween episode! It’s about Fluttershy trying to overcome her fear of Nightmare Night and trying to participate. It’s also got some Very Subtle Anime References if you pay close attention.

This is also incidentally only the second ever episode title to be a pun on a previous episode title, referring back to season 1’s “Stare Master”, which was itself a pun on StairMaster, as in the exercise equipment company. The first MLP:FiM episode whose title is a pun on a previous episode title was last week’s “Brotherhooves Social”, which was a pun on season 2’s “Sisterhooves Social”.

I feel like the show making puns on previous episode titles says something about the state it’s in at this point, but I don’t know what it says.

What About Discord?

…Is generally considered to be one of the weaker Discord episodes as I remember it, but like, it’s still Discord. John de Lancie Dragonhorse. We love that guy don’t we, ponies! This episode is apparently based on the movie “What About Bob?”, hence the title. Basically Discord’s got some in-jokes with the rest of the Mane Six that Twilight’s not in on and she doesn’t like that one bit.

There’s also a number of References™ sprinkled throughout this episode, including one to Back to the Future, because this episode happened to come out about three weeks after the date Marty McFly and Doc Brown went to in BTTF Part 2… Wow, geez, remember the hype around that back in 2015? I am still young, yet I feel old now.

The Hooffields & McColts

…Yes, this episode is based on the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud that killed over a dozen people in the Tug Fork watershed in the latter half of the 19th century! Remember in season 1’s “Over a Barrel”, how the writers turned the genocide of the Natives of Turtle Island into literal pie-throwing? Well “The Hooffields & McColts” is basically a repeat of that except it’s settler against settler! Very Cool Friendship Map Episode! I don’t really have anything else to say about this episode.

The Mane Attraction

…Lena Hall appears in this episode. She’s one of them celebrities I have no relation to at all, but apparently a lot of ponies were excited about her cameo here. This was the last episode written by Amy Keating Rogers, too. She’d been involved with the show since the beginning and was also credited as writer for “The Last Roundup” — remember Derpygate? That sure was something, wasn’t it.

But anyways, as for this episode: basically a fillyhood friend of Applejack’s, who Applejack hasn’t really kept in touch with, has become a pop star without Applejack knowing. When they finally come into contact again, we soon discover that the life of this pop star isn’t so glamorous after all, when it comes to creative freedom and so forth. This episode gets weirdly patriotic at points, too.

The Cutie Re-Mark (parts 1+2)

…The season 5 finale, which some believe was intended as a potential series finale, in case the show didn’t get renewed for another season. This finale definitely stands out for its revisiting of past “bad guys” and for just generally being pretty daring in what it shows. It was the first season finale I caught as it aired, and I’m sure that in hindsight it won’t be nearly as good as I remembered.

To summarize the plot: Starlight Glimmer, famous Horse Gommunist from the season 5 premiere, has finally returned after a season of Gman style background appearances, to finally get her revenge on Twilight Sparkle. Starlight’s plan? To use a time travel spell to buck with the timeline. Thus Twilight and Spike end up being sent to all sorts of different timelines showing all sorts of different gritty alternate realities where the bad guys of the past five seasons take over Equestria. Twilight has to find a way to put a stop to Starlight’s scheme, but how‽

The end of this finale n’est pas une allégorie pour la dissolution de l’Union Sovietique. Yeah, sorry to get your hopes up, but Starlight Glimmer never establishes Horse Gommunism in Equestria.

• A character seems to show signs of PTSD…? (Scare Master)
• Eye stuff (Scare Master)
• Characters are scared for their lives (Scare Master)
• General Halloween imagery, incl. skeletons, spiders, etc (Scare Master)
• Bodily transformation (What About Discord?)
• Characters feel left out…? Also some fans say this episode is just generally awkward to sit through (What About Discord?)
• Characters rub spit on each others’ hooves (The Hooffields & McColts)
• Classism / hillbilly ponies (The Hooffields & McColts)
• Mice are almost killed (The Hooffields & McColts)
• Food fight based on a real violent conflict (The Hooffields & McColts)
• Settler apologia? (The Hooffields & McColts)
• Characters are frozen in place using magic (The Hooffields & McColts, The Cutie Re-Mark)
• Environmental destruction (The Hooffields & McColts, The Cutie Re-Mark)
• A musician has a shitty manager (The Mane Attraction)
• Flag-waving patriotism (The Mane Attraction)
• Home intrusion (The Cutie Re-Mark)
• A character becomes effectively homeless (The Cutie Re-Mark)
• An adult uses physical force on a child (The Cutie Re-Mark)
• War, slavery, and mind control (The Cutie Re-Mark)
• Ponies adopt “tribal” aesthetics…? (The Cutie Re-Mark)
• Gommunism Bad / liberalism (The Cutie Re-Mark)
• Child in peril (The Cutie Re-Mark)
• A mythical creature is killed (The Cutie Re-Mark)

NB: Zecora appears in “What About Discord?” and “The Cutie Re-Mark”, but I honestly kinda feel like we just don’t really need content warnings for Zecora at this point.