Favorite Episode Countdown #2 - Lesson Zero · 4:39pm Mar 22nd, 2018
LESSON ZERO
Clock... Is... TICKING!
This is now and always has been one of my favorites. Every time I watch Twilight's slow descent into madness it's just as great as the first time. From the casual beginning to the chaotic end, I really can't think of anything to complain about. Let's break it down.
We're gonna start with characters this time as they take a back seat to the real reason I love this episode. Twilight is amazing in this one and we learn tons about her character. Her obsession with schedules, Celestia and duty are on full-blast here and it's really the earliest occurrence I can think of where she has a flip-out over something small like this. So, in a way, almost every fanfiction on the site where Twilight is over-anxious about a test or some other minute thing has its roots in this episode. She was a lot of fun and I base a lot of how I write Twilight off things from this episode.
And oh yeah, Spike saved the day which was pretty cool. Friendship is magic and all that jazz.
Now, just briefly, another reason I really like this episode is more of a sentimental one. It was far from the first episode I watched (that honor belongs to Read It and Weep), but this is the episode that I tend to show my friends and family when they take an interest in pony and pony accessories. It's extremely accessible because it doesn't require a whole lot of backstory and its plot is simple to follow and very energetic. I've had a lot of great memories showing my friends this one.
But now, for the reason I really really like this episode. It's a very simple reason, at that.
It's funny.
This episode is hilarious. It doesn't have a fate of the world plotline or anything crazy like that. It's just an episode that takes a purple then-unicorn to the edge of sanity in hilarious ways. Seeing Twilight make mistakes and then force them downhill is just beyond entertaining. And the thing is, the jokes have yet to get old.
Anyhow, that's it for this one. Get ready for number one, tomorrow!
Keep rockin'!
i forgot how unstable twilight was in the early seasons
This episode was brilliant.
Oh hey, my favorite episode.
So do you think that 'everything she does' redoes this episode ?
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No, I just think this episode is a foundation for the growth she's continuously experienced.
I did love this one. It's like all the attributes that made Twilight such an outstanding student worked against her. I also have to wonder just what kind of relationship she had with Celestia up until then. Her fear of punishment in this episode seems to indicate that she may not have had an understanding of how her teacher thought of her. Twilight was so caught up in her sense of awe that she didn't sense the trust that Celestia had in her to send her off on her own like that in the first place, and that if she hadn't gotten a letter, it probably wouldn't have even crossed Celestia's mind that Twilight of all ponies was slacking off.
Good thing Spike was there in that episode (for any number of obvious reasons), but if for nothing else than that scene by the park bench. When he had to yell at her to get her attention, and she looked up from the ground to the viewer, that was when I had to say to myself "Damn...she's cute!"
"I like her... mane?"
- Sweetie Belle
This episode always reminds me of my roomie from sophomore year, the one and only time I had a college roommate who watched MLP. First off, while she did watch it with her siblings and didn't really call herself a "brony," she was still a pretty huge Supernatural/Doctor Who fan. Never found out if she liked Sherlock, too, but in any case, it was still a brony living with a Supernatural/Doctor Who fan. Pretty much the banes of the Internet together, a true millennial sitcom.
Anyway, I had this one really strict English professor that made us post twice a week on Moodle, this one teacher grading website. Well, one day, there was some sorta glitch on Moodle, and of course, it had to go out about ten minutes before the assignment was due. Needless to say, I was panicking a ton, probably hyperventilating, the whole nine yards. And then my roomie looks me straight in the eye and asks me, "You remember that episode where Twilight freaks about her letter to Celestia?" I nod.
"I want you to remember how that ended, and calm down."
I spent another few minutes trying to explain that my English professor was nowhere near as lenient as Princess Celestia, but I eventually got the point and made the post on time without fangirling too much about my roommate trying to deescalate the situation with MLP references. So that's always what that episode reminds me of.
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As good of a reason as any!
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The only other MLP-related thing I remember with her is how, when I saw a cheap Spitfire plushie on Etsy, she thought I should buy a Diamond Tiara one instead. Considering the fact that this happened in 2014, I thought she was crazy for thinking anyone, let alone me, would want a Diamond Tiara plush.
Update: I never bought the Spitfire and I would now actually buy the Diamond Tiara plushie. She must've predicted something, that's for sure. But in any case, she transferred colleges second semester and I meet up with her at the Renaissance Faire now. She laces up corsets at a dress shop there, and I have absolute faith that she'll someday run into the one situation where that'd come in handy. I still don't know what that situation would be, honestly, but I know she'll run into it.
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One never knows when corset tying will come in handy. Gosh, I need one on a daily basis.