Rating:
I liked the first act of Stare Master
better than when I had to watch it a second time in Sisterhooves Social, but
not by much. Stare Master is an episode filled with awkward moments, clichés, and one-offs, but has enough good to make it at least passable. The
dreaded Cutie Mark Crusaders make their first return in a starring role after being introduced five episodes earlier, and are generally annoying when they
are or aren't using cartoon physics.
Outside of events that could only take place in cartoons, this is
a pretty accurate depiction of younger kids and the difficult dynamic adults
can have in dealing with them. Fluttershy is also featured in the episode, and again shows that she can be surprisingly
assertive when dealing with animals.
This means we don’t get any of her patented ridiculously cute moments,
but it’s refreshing to see there’s a line where Fluttershy won’t be walked
over.
The plot is paper thin so that
there isn't much of a lesson at the end, but it still has enough to produce the
aforementioned comments and at least one dramatic moment. For the first of apparently many times,
Rarity is trying to work on dresses while Sweetie Belle is being annoying. Things were going to get worse since the
other Cutie Mark Crusaders are on their way for a sleepover, but Rarity is able to pawn them
off on a visiting Fluttershy (who is returning the ever-difficult Opalescence
from a cleaning). Fluttershy has little luck trying to control the Cutie Mark Crusaders, whose insatiable quest to find their cutie
marks in the stupidest of activities eventually leads them to the Everfree
Forest. Trying to save a missing
chicken, they run into a half-chicken/half-snake (surprisingly this
animal, a cockatrice, is actually a “real” mythical creature, but it’s a
half-dragon instead of a snake) who has already
turned Twilight to stone. Realizing the
danger, Fluttershy saves the day despite being almost petrified herself. A piercing “stare” convinces the cockatrice
to return Twilight and the chicken to their normal selves, and earns the
respect of the Cutie Mark Crusaders due to the whole halfway-turned-to-stone thing.
While the writing is suspect and
gimmicky throughout, Stare Master actually gets better as it goes on. The first act annoyances of Sweetie Belle aren't any funnier this time than they will be the second time, but at least
she realizes she’s being a problem and tries to stop. Maybe Sweetie Belle really should be a fashion designer as
well, since she made those three capes in about five seconds. The Cutie Mark Crusaders take their annoyance act to
Fluttershy’s, where they’re able to make jackhammer noises from some regular
hammers and strike up a band out of nowhere.
This is less them being stupid as it is being kids, and Fluttershy’s
poor attempts at dealing with them are rightly doomed to failure. Later when they all head out to the woods, a
stone Twilight and Elizabeak (*shakes head*) are surprisingly scary, while the
Fluttershy-cockatrice stare-off is quite dramatic even if it's unlikely to have happened.
Probably the most important section is
the second act, which might just seem like a string of bad jokes not much
better than the first act. Outside of
the obviously cartoony touches, it is pretty accurate as to how kids are,
especially at a sleepover. At that age,
they are much more creative than you are now, and they do jump from idea to
idea rather quickly. It’s also apparent
that Fluttershy has never been to a slumber party before, or at the very least
has forgotten what they’re like. The whole
point of a “sleep”over is that you do as little of it as possible, staying up
as late as you can to play games.
There’s no way Fluttershy should’ve bought that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were going to
sleep at such an early hour. Likewise, the “stay
quiet” game was doomed if only for its boredom (even though I completely
believe that Fluttershy would be the world champion at it).
The solution to “dealing” with kids is
probably found in one of two ways: either find a way to earn their respect or
meet them on their own level, and Fluttershy was doing neither. At some point the first one was going to have
to happen, but losing the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the forest probably wouldn't have occurred if
she realized there was no way they were going to sleep that early. Although it’s slightly
silly and apparently a one-off, “the stare” turned out to be an effective way to earn respect, since at
least it represents the point when Fluttershy is no longer going to take your
crap. One might wonder why she
just doesn't use it on the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but this is actually consistent with her character
in that her relations to other ponies are quite different than to all of the
other animals we see. Fluttershy is much shyer among her own kind, but has a maternal
instinct that kicks in around the fauna of Equestria. Considering she will later proclaim herself
to be “weak and helpless” (even if this is just tongue-in-cheek) and is more
famous for her timid-yet-cute moments (“yay”, “were we arguing? I’m sorry”, feebly kicking a vase in anger, and her remark about the open sign in her entrance in
this episode almost qualifies as well), it’s nice to see this side does exist
in her somewhere, which makes Fluttershy a stronger character overall.
After all the silliness of the first
two acts, the third act’s darker tone and scariness is quite a shock, even though the outcome never seemed in
question. Twilight’s journey into the
forest was nicely set up earlier, but we certainly didn't expect to see her
turned to stone right in the middle of it.
A snail creeping over her later was a nice but not too gory horror movie
touch that rightly provoked loud screams from the Cutie Mark Crusaders (one of the rare times that young girls screamed for a good reason). The chicken’s loud plop into the ground
demonstrates how real the problem is, but the best moment happens as Fluttershy
is close to being turned as well. Not
noticing her impending doom at all, she goes the convincing speech route, which
scares the cockatrice into undoing his spell.
Considering he was seconds away from ending the Fluttershy threat, it’s doubtful the cockatrice would've stopped or had any reason to be afraid of her. Such is the power of the stare I guess. Even if it was quite unlikely, this is still
a rare badass act from Fluttershy, and ranks among her best moments.
In retrospect, Twilight’s inclusion in
the story was probably only to give her an excuse to write a letter, and
likely one of the reasons she was relieved of those duties in the second season. Even though the lesson was
pretty much glossed over, the point was more or less made that dealing with
children is a lot different than with other animals, especially for those who
don’t have any. Earning respect may be
hard but also necessary, since the events would have turned out a lot worse
without that happening. I’m not sure
creating a specific “stare” was the right way to convey Fluttershy’s strength,
or that the Cutie Mark Crusaders would have so quickly respected her since she probably would
never use it on other ponies, but it’s still effective as a symbol.
Writer Chris Savino is no longer with
the series after having only written two somewhat unimpressive episodes
(Boast Busters being the other). His style isn't exactly
crisp, and seems more geared for the children’s show My Little Pony was expected to
be. That said, Stare Master is still
better than half the episodes in the first two seasons, and
found a number of good ideas among the sillier moments. I actually didn't mind most of the things that happened after the first act, including the shouting Cutie Mark Crusader fanfare and
their general attitude about everything.
The accurate kids vs. adults dynamic definitely earns points (unlike
certain comic movies that are more preposterous than this cartoon), as does a
rare time that Fluttershy is more than a cute joke. Savino isn't necessarily missed since there was a
lot of awkward in Stare Master that can turn people off from it. But Stare Master also has a good story in there too
somewhere, and at least some of it got out.
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