Mini Re-Reviews: "It's About Time" - Season 2 Episode 20 · 10:58pm Mar 27th, 2020
TWILIGHT: "Wow. It's like looking in a dimensional mirror. Is this a version of me in an alternate timeline of Equestria where we're at war? Or in a resistance? Or where we lost to Nightmare Moon?"
FUTURE TWILIGHT: "...Discord! Have you been mixing visions of alternate timelines into Present Twilight's subconscious dreams again?"
DISCORD: "Who, little old me over here? I... may have poked around her mind here and there. Nothing harmful, just enough to keep her alert enough that her eye keeps twitching. That's the barometer, you see!"
EDITOR'S NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: A lot of my reviews on these Season 1-3 episodes haven't held up, so they do not necessarily reflect my current take and evaluation of the episode. I will not edit the review, but I may add a brief score alteration and an explanation at the review's bottom, to better reflect my current take. That will be all.
It's funny; I always used to mentally think of "It's About Time" and "Lesson Zero" in the same breath despite both being separated by a solid 17 episodes. Understandable, as both feature Twilight going crazy as she obsesses a problem that ticks stealthily closer. I even used to misremember M.A. Larson as having wrote "Lesson Zero" too as a result, though I'd rectify that whenever I remembered "oh, wait, he'd just come off of writing a two-parter - nope!"
"It's About Time" was an episode I remembered thinking was really great, and having seen it again, that hasn't changed much. It does have a slightly shaky start - the cold open doesn't exposit any info we don't later learn by proxy and doesn't have any character based gags that aren't played again later to better effect. More then that, Twilight getting a visit from herself is the logical place to start the episode. It's easy to imagine that scene being the cold open, and her rushing out to town right after the title song. The cold open we get only lasts 1:10, that could have easily been made up with more shots in the disaster-proofing montage and a few extra gags here and there throughout.
If I'm nitpicking, it's because that's the only real obvious structural flaw in the episode. After that, we have a clear winner, down to a rather sound presentation of time travel. It thankfully follows the pattern of closed loops where any events are already pre-destined to happen, and while it does leave the obvious question of why the original Future Twilight went back in the first place, it does make it clear that such an event is an elastic and present part of the loop (it's the Douglas Adams approach, where anything to do with time travel was supposed to happen that way to begin with). Being that MLP, despite being an immensely lovable haven of wonderful nuanced characters, is still often first and foremost a comedy, it's fitting MLP went that route, as that approach works best in comedy. At least in this episode - trust me, we'll get to the series' other big time travel episode in about three seasons.
And speaking of comedy, what comedy! Twilight, Pinkie and Spike (and most others in their brief appearances throughout) are just in top form throughout this episode. Most of the memorable stuff there comes from the episode's back half, as Twilight starts looking more and more like her Future Solid Snake self, but there's plenty fun in the episode's first half too. Early MLP often knew just how to storyboard and animate gestures just right, and there's a moment during the disaster-proofing montage that perfectly encapsulates what I mean. Twilight pops into view, turns to a startled Mrs. Cake filling up the water tower, looks at the water, then brings up her checklist and ticks a box. It's not elaborate, but its hits the right balance of the right simple details at the right speed that it just feels really satisfying (and the music during said montage is another killer montage music for the show, one I'd totally forgotten, which probably means it was never re-used again). And the whole scene of Twilight trying to warn the citizens of a disaster to come.
It would be far too easy for me to just turn the rest of this review into a laundry list of the best gags and moments, which is not terribly fun to read, so let's hop on over to the characters. Spike gets good treatment here, used as a counterpoint to Twilight; where she gets fixated on the future to the exclusion of the present, he fixates on the present to the exclusion of the future. Thus, the moment where his stomach ache catches up to him, by coming right after Twilight decides to not over-worry about the future, has a thematic point, and the end result is both learning to not focus too much on one point in time. Then you have Pinkie over in the corner, becoming a key character in the episode's second half for no obvious reason except that she and Twilight make for a wonderful comedic duo. As "Feeling Pinkie Keen" among other, demonstrated, they have great comic chemistry together, whether it be Twilight being the straight man to Pinkie, or Pinkie acting nonchalant about whatever has Twilight fretting so much she wears a pacing groove in the ground. Both camps are used throughout, and Pinkie is the right balance between Spike's non-worry and Twilight's over-worry. Getting her as a fortune teller is cool enough, but Twilight assuming it's just the Pinkie Sense by another name is both a logical character deduction and a neat callback.
The episode's main character achievement though, is of course Twilight herself. Having watched the episode again, I am reminded both of why I love M.A. Larson and, more specifically, why I love how he writes Twilight. He's always able to keep her well above the bland smart lead she could have been (and which she would become, in later seasons), but without having her descend into a vehicle for crazy lols. Anytime Twilight has a crazy moment, it lasts just this side of too long before it buries itself again for the next time. He just strikes that balance so well, and it's clearly because he believes in her character so much. Kudos is also due to the artists for the right expression to match the lines and Tara Strong' delivery of them - she is in top form this episode. Oh, and Larson's stakes in the Twilight-Spike friendship is on display throughout too; even though there's not many friendship moments between the two, the relationship is portrayed warm and right around all the snark.
Is this episode as good as "Lesson Zero?" For the most part, yes; that one just has a few more iconic moments and was a true turning point, both within the show's canon and for the directions it took for the staff and the viewers. This one will have to make do with being a wonderfully wacky comedy episode, and as those go, it's one of the best. 9/10 here.
EDIT (May 10th 2021): Just rewatched the episode - for the most part, my opinion hasn't changed, and I found it to be a great time. Some of the acclaimed aspects weren't AS strong as last year, and there was the odd character-breaking gag that was a sore spot (Pinkie pulling a Rarity and having Fluttershy carry al of her stuff was out-of-character, and not even in the way Pinkie is often flanderized - it legit feels that should have been Rarity).
More so then before, the episode's sense of humour and irony make it quite atypical, but the way it uses Pinkie Pie to suspend our disbelief over many aspects, jokes and the tone makes the episode work. Spike as a dry commentator fulfils the same purpose on a smaller scale. Gags like nopony else, even the guards and Princesses, bating an eye at Twilight breaking in, add a certain touch to Twilight's overblown self-aggravation in a way that strengthens the script too. Just a few ways in which it comes together in a way that most future attempts at the same style fell apart!
You also don't realise how much early unicorn Twilight delights you until you've spend a while with her blander alicorn counterpart (and unlike "Lesson Zero", which I have cooled on quite a bit, this one keeps her craziness in appropriate check).
While I am dropping this to a 8.5/10, the episode is still really, really solid, and a delightful bout of cartoony fun. "It's About Time" remains a joyful, delightful winner - not among the show's absolute best, bo close enough it had nothing to be embarrassed about.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- Spike and Rainbow Dash being a troll team is perfect too. I'm reminded of when he and Owlowiscious joined her in making music while Twilight was trying to teach Rainbow Dash some Wonderbolts history in "Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3". This was a comic pairing the show never used enough, though you can say that about any Spike/Main 6 pairing that doesn't involve Twilight or Rarity, to be honest.
- If my memories hold true, we're in for a treat now. While not as consistently brilliant as the same period in Season 1, this last quarter of Season 2 is stuffed with instant classics of episodes, with only one or two being weaker then that high standard, and none as much as "Owls Well That Ends Well".
- One neat scripting/visual technique I noticed was the episode not dwelling on Twilight's black outfit getting torn for more then a moment, visually. At first it seems like it's just for the viewers' benefit, to realise, "oh, that's how that part happened", and that the episode doesn't need to focus on all these moments of Twilight becoming more like her Future self overtly. Which, well, it doesn't, but the decision to later have her notice and remark on it actually works, coming from an honest character place and not one of needing to remind the audience. It's hard to explain, but it just lands right.
- Being so used to the show's more modern pronunciation of Tartarus (and the correct way) makes the way this episode choses to pronounce it, stressing the syllabic difference between "Tar" and "tarus" far more, super weird. I have no hesitation in proclaiming this later change to how it was pronounced to be the right one. It's only mentioned by name twice, so mabye it was just how Tara Strong decided to pronounce it, not being super familiar with the word (I can't remember whether she self-directed herself when recording for the show, though I don't believe she did, at least not during those earlier passionate days - did Lauren direct, since they were both based in L.A.? Possibly!)
