My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 421 - Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3

Rating:

Testing, who wants to learn how to take a test?  Not me, and certainly not Rainbow Dash either.  Fortunately I’m long out of school, but Dash isn’t so lucky even though she probably is too.  There’s a test coming up as part of some Wonderbolts initiation, and Twilight is only too happy to help Dash study.  Yay!  Amy Keating Rogers takes an idea it feels like she had from the first season, and fleshes out the final two acts to make a decent episode.  It starts off as a Rainbow vs. Twilight funfest, with the second fastest pony goofing off in extremely ADD fashion during class.  Thankfully much of this actually is funny.  Then the rest of the mane six get involved, trying other unsuccessful ways to learn Dash the material.  Testing, Testing metamorphosizes here into an honest look at how some students may need a different method from the usual highlighting and flash card cramming.  Dash’s preferred choice is a little unorthodox, and telegraphed early enough that the reveal isn’t surprising at all.  Despite a heavy dose of Twilight flying, the character interactions feel like we jumped into a time machine.  Testing, Testing doesn’t really have a place in the fourth season, since its lesson is vastly different from the surrounding episodes.  But it also wouldn’t have been as good either, because some of the best moments come from Pinkie’s early ‘90s rap video and Rarity’s flamboyantly retro costumes; touches that probably don’t come off any earlier.  Even though it congeals into a nice effort, Testing, Testing is a bit too much dumbed-down educational video to count as a good episode.  That Rogers could find something from a silly premise though proves that her return to the writing staff is most welcome.

Ooh, ooh, can I go to the bathroom?  Rainbow Dash needs to absorb everything about the Wonderbolts’ history, but paying attention is just too hard.  And who can blame her, because Twilight starts spouting names and numbers that will not likely be mentioned again.  Yawn.  Dash starts rocking her stool, and this begins an impromptu fife and drum song with Spike and Owlowiscious helping (no one plays the flute, so it’s probably in Dash’s head).  Later, Dash starts blowing spitwads at Twilight because BORING!  Teach understandably gets pissed, but Fluttershy happens by before Dash gets sent to the principal’s office.

Now the rest of the mane six take their turns at trying what the TA failed.  Fluttershy puts on a play starring the pets as historical figures, but this only confuses Dash more when they “surprisingly” screw up.  Rarity decides that showing Dash what the early Wonderbolts wore would help, but holy shit those clothes look bad.  Well, not bad really, but extremely old fashioned.  Bell bottoms, fuck.  Pinkie hasn’t listened to rap since she was a baby, but it probably hasn’t changed too much.  She grabs her homies and cuts a 4:3 video on VHS.  Damned if I know what Pinkie’s saying, but it sounds solid in that Will Smith sort of way.  Applejack prefers learning by repetition, but there’s no time for that.

So none of these work either, and Dash flies off to brood.  Twilight follows her and lectures all the way, but then she nearly gets run over by a helicopter.  Despite never paying attention on the ground, Dash saves her because she focuses on everything in the air.  This includes events down in Ponyville, which I guess is important since someone might be loading up a SAM or something.  Twilight quickly figures out the solution, although apparently we weren’t supposed to.  She takes Dash for another flight where nothing interesting happens, but the latter suddenly knows everything she’s supposed to about the Wonderbolts upon arriving at Cloudsdale.  Since Dash is only alert while flying, Twilight had various members of Ponyville act out her lessons from the ground.  Dash subliminally took them in, and now goes on to ace her test.

The fourth season often feels different from the previous ones, but Testing, Testing just doesn’t match that quality.  Rainbow Dash acts like a young teenager again, as she can’t be bothered to pay attention in school, plays pranks, and pouts on a rain cloud (eeewwww, by the way).  This only changes near the end when she finally shows some intelligence while flying.  Her character is literally all over the place, and it’s doubtful she would learn but not realize it from the ground presentation.  Dash would more likely stop Twilight and say: “wtf is that, seriously?”

And don’t get me started on Twilight.  After a few times of TA-ing the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she now thinks she’s a full-blown prof who knows everything.  Fine, I can see her remembering the Wonderbolts stuff after reading a book, but why did Twilight care about this test in the first place?  Obviously Dash didn’t ask for her help, so that means Twilight just butted in somewhere she had no business being.  Since no one’s tried to be Dash’s mother yet, I guess Twilight figured she’d try out of boredom.  Although maybe she wanted to help Dash as payback for all those great flying lessons in Princess Twilight Sparkle.  “Flap harder.”  They must have worked, because Twilight’s practically a Pegasi in this episode.  With a little more focus, she could indeed be a Wonderbolts member.

I’m not sure the rest of the mane six were meant to be in this, but thankfully they showed up given how poor Ms. Sparkle’s lessons were going.  Fluttershy is too forward at first, and she’s never shown a talent for playwriting before.  Given everything else she can do though, it’s not much of a stretch.  The others provide what we would expect.  Rarity’s costumes look pretty good, Pinkie is ill as fuck, and Applejack don’t have much use fer learnin’.  Even in supporting roles, they all improve the episode.

Rogers has clearly dealt with learning disability children before, so I suspect Testing was a very important expression for her.  It’s not necessarily new, since the Cosby Show did it that one time too with Theo, but Twilight’s method of cards and highlighting won’t work for everybody.  I know I never did that crap, and school went more than fine for me.  The theory is that not everyone learns the same way, which is clearly true, and that you can teach anything to anybody if you find the right way, which is debatable.  Teachers might have to work harder than they want to with certain students, but our current education system doesn’t really allow for that.  Also, long-term retention isn’t nearly as important as cramming and regurgitating. Rogers doesn’t address that issue since this is exactly what Rainbow Dash does.

Despite the admirable lesson, Testing, Testing is a huge mess.  Dash seems to age ten years within minutes, while Twilight is almost a different character.  The other mane six members are more themselves, but a bit crazier than usual.  And the story follows this pattern, as it veers sharply from season one snorefest to a season four touching lesson.  At least the comedy works most of the time, although this episode is probably only meant for younger viewers given how our intelligence is treated.  Like Dave Polsky before, Rogers found a way to save her episode with the final two acts, although they’re not nearly good enough to forget a suspect first.  At least there’s a lot to think about amongst the clutter.