Episode Review: Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3. · 4:12am Apr 8th, 2014
No new news, just a fairly early review. Oh, and I was right about the finale being a two-parter! =D
Also, yesterday was my 2nd anniversary on FimFiction! Yay.
Amy Keating Rogers has been a writer for Friendship is Magic since the very beginning; her first episode being the third of the series and first not to be penned by Lauren Faust. She's had her fair share of hits and misses, with episodes like The Best Night Ever and The Cutie Pox just to name a few. Her deal is more the slice-of-life episodes riddled with jokes and humourous visuals and this episode is no exception. But what is this one about? To sum it up in a single sentence: everybody/everypony learns in different ways. But is it a jab at the broken North American Educational System?
Rarity is having none of this s*it. Let's move along.
Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 opens with Twilight Sparkle sitting outside of the library while reading a book and is interrupted by a low-flying Rainbow Dash. The plucky purple princess proceeds to postulate on the pegasus' priorities when it comes to studying for an exam. Apparently, the Wonderbolts have created a new division call 'The Wonderbolts Reserves' and Rainbow has secured a history test. We also get a subtle hint to the conflict's resolution, but let's save that for later. When Twilight hears of Rainbow's blase attitude towards studying for the test, she takes it upon herself to help her study for it. Rainbow makes a rather nice reference to the Failure/Success Song from The Crystal Empire last season, but Twilight is adamant and teleports them both into her library with a classroom set up with a single spell. Behold: alicorn power!
Rainbow Dash, however, is not a very good student; she gets distracted, she misses the point of different techniques and is generally that one kid who would always sit in the back of the class and/or hurl spitballs at others or the teacher. We get some great jokes and transitions in this part, but when Twilight gives a pop quiz to Dash to emphasize that she NEEDS to learn this and that she'll fail for sure and never be a Wonderbolt, tempers flare. Dash calls Twilight a failure and criticizes her for taking time out from HER day to HELP HER. Twilight says some harsh things too, like saying she could be on the team instead, but Fluttershy intervenes and cools them down so that they apologize. She then uses some of the pets to put on a play, thinking it will help Rainbow out, but it does not work. Now all of the Mane Six chime in with their own methods of study in an effort to help. Pinkie Pie does a Rap song that can only be described as 'painfully 90's', and Rarity does a sort of museum thing with the old Wonderbolts uniforms, who wore them, and why they were significant.
When these both fail, Rainbow turns to Applejack, but she tells her right up front that she knows diddly-squat about the team and when Dash says she only has twelve hours, she says she's up a creek and leaves. Oh Applejack. -.- Eventually, Rainbow gives up in despair and leaves them, but Twilight follows in hot pursuit. After nearly being hit by a helicopter, she realizes how she can help Dash study and rallies a good part of the town to help. She goes to Dash later and asks if they can go on a fly, to which Dash sadly agrees and by the time they get back, she knows all of the history. Why? Rainbow learns best by flying and observing her surroundings, which is crucial to her high-speed stunts and normal flight alike! Twilight set up a bunch of scenes and boards with the help of the townsponies in order to subconsciously teach Dash as she flew! Twilight later writes in the journal that not everyone learns the same way and Rainbow gets a perfect score on her test. The end.
We've done nothing productive all day!
[youtube=gDB54M-C7QE]
The Rappin' Hist'ry of the Wonderbolts is our last song until the season finale. The best way to describe it is 'painfully 1990's' but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I will admit, I am not a fan of Rap music, since I see it as poetry set to a beat, nor was I old enough (being born in late 1989) to understand where this reference came from exactly. This is a short song, clocking in at only 42 seconds or so, but it's not a Pinkie Song due to accomponyment of a couple of ponies, including Vinyl Scratch making her second appearance this season! Not a lot to say about the actual song itself, but those visuals were AMAZING as well as Pinkie's dance moves! Plus, I can't say no to my favourte musical pony! (Sorry, Octavia. You are still classy and adorable though.)
Heart Attack Counter: 6* Cause: Swag overload.
So much to talk about! What should I possibly choose? *Ponders* The obvious choice would be the way in which Rainbow learns things and commentary on the American/Canadian educational system. I am a lot like Rainbow Dash: I learn best by seeing and doing it for myself. Reading helps, but only if I visualize what they are talking about. Dash can learn by seeing and hearing, but her mind needs to be multitasking on something she likes at the same time, like flying. Education on this side of the Atlantic is about 'what works for the most people' and anyone who differs is left behind and suffers for it the rest of their lives. Uh... at any rate, this episode is one where I can understand where Dash is coming from, though I did take Twilight's side in their argument.
Oh, and before I move on, I just want to comment on DHX by saying they have, once again, raised the bar. But I'll go into detail in a bit.
Now kiss. o.o Er... I mean... um... Intense Competition Inbound? Yeah! Let's go with that!
First and foremost, the special effects of this episode are ASTOUNDING! Compare this one to any early season 1 episode and the contrast is so pronounced. Shadows bent with the landscape, the camera was pulled back in flight to give a sense of space, the creative transitions and lighting, DHX have really taken Flash to new levels and it makes me excited for season five! There were also some subtle references like Easy Glider's outfit (looks like General Patton) or Dash saying she might as well sell hats or dig ditches (a song from Singing in the Rain). Spike was also great side-character because even if he said nothing, he was entertaining and used every shot perfectly. Then, we have things like the Pedalcopter and Tabitha St Germain playing a role that is playing the role of another character of hers (Roleception?) and the fact that General Fyre Flye was a direct reference to Lauren Faust (via her DeviantArt account name).
Not everything was perfect though and these might come off as being nit picks, but they did detract a tiny bit from the quality because they were in such stark contrast to the rest of the polish. My biggest thing is that Fluttershy only bothered to interpret the play twice and both times where because Dash was utterly lost. It almost seems like she's parading around the cute pets rather than giving a damn and helping Dash learn, or became too invested to remember that NOPONY other than her understood it. Applejack is also a bit of a d*ck in this episode by insinuating that she could liken the history of the Wonderbolts to apples and then spewing an apple fact nobody asked for. As cool as it might be that Granny Smith discovered the granny smith, it's not relevant, AJ. -.- The pony who played Admiral Fairy Light had the WORST voice possible and I kinda hoped that Spitfire would have adjudicated the test.
She's Twilightlicious.
So what is the verdict? This is definitely a hit of an episode for Amy Keating Rogers and in the running for Best of the Season, for sure! It has a good, relatable plot, excellent visuals and humour, and is very entertaining and done right. If you were to make me go back to high school, I would give this episode a soaring 91/100! What it suffers from are relatively minor compared to the whole and I will gladly watch this over again for fun.
Next week... wait... next week, we don't have an episode before entering the final stretch. You remember what THAT means? That's right, next week will be... Equestria Girls. Dun-dun-dunnn! Until then, this is Ciroton saying, "Captain Crrrrrunch!"
Face it, that thought crossed your mind too.
One quick note - Firefly was a major character in earlier incarnations of MLP, and before copyright came along was who Rainbow Dash was going to be, so that's probably what the reference was. The Fyre Flye thing is pretty cool though!
Pinkie's video is a reference to this one:
Don't we all?
But you can't really learn history that way. That's why I hated it throughout my school years. Math, physics, chemistry, even biology - those can be understood (well, OK, some would argue about that 
) but history? You always had to memorize facts, names and dates. God, how I hated that. 
Moral of the episode: some ponies need the help of a WHOLE TOWN to remember a single passage from a history textbook.
Kids, do not take it by heart. 
1990820
Actually, no. Ciroton is right.
The best part?
Gives us a frame of reference to time periods.
1990969
Oh yes, I forgot about that. The only problem is that we have no clue what the other three were, or how long they lasted. Unless there have been other ponies who have controlled sun and moon, as we saw in Hearth's Warming Eve that could have been the THIRD Celestial Era... but I doubt we'll ever know for certain. =/
1990957
Huh that's pretty cool. I stand corrected!
1991596 bet that got people's headcanons firing on all cylinders. the idea of what came before.
though this did paint a dark picture to equestria, just a splash. there HAS been war in equestrian history. if we combine the comics the last war seemed to happen around the time the paple family moved to the future site of ponyville even.
also they better some day combine elements of the comics into the show cause inkwell.......... just inkwell.