>>42724988
I'll take "Yet another non sequitur word salad" for 2,000, Ken.

The other anon will probably get to this in his analysis, but I'd just like to say that my reason for disliking Testing 123 is how it's one of those episodes that just completely spits in the face of character development. Some of Dash's defining character flaws are that she's impatient and hot headed, and here for the very first time in the show, those flaws are actually serving as obstacles to her goal. For the first time, her own impatience is going to make her fail something that would prevent her from joining the Wonderbolts. That's great, that's what character flaws are supposed to do. They're supposed to be things that stand in a character's way and stop them from achieving their goals, requiring them to develop and grow past the flaw before they're able to accomplish their goal. But instead of doing that, the show just goes "Actually, Dashie is amazing and perfect the way she is, and instead of needing to learn to slow down and have patience for once, she just needs the help of an entire town in order to learn a 3 minute history lesson." And so Dash doesn't actually grow past her flaws. She's still impatient, she's still hot headed, she's still brash, and she just accomplishes her goal regardless because the writers gave her a mental superpower that allowed her to circumvent the flaws that would otherwise inhibit her. There is no development, no growth, Dash's flaws are just glorified and she can get what she wants without having to change for it. Hell, she just gives up during the episode when she decides that the effort of learning 3 minutes of history is just too damn hard. So much for that devotion she's supposed to have. She doesn't grow, she doesn't mature, instead the show bends over backwards to keep her exactly as she is and removing all obstacles for her so she never has to change.
It's no wonder so many people complain about characters learning the same lessons over and over again when most of the fan favorite episodes are ones that glorify the characters and give them everything they want without having to change for it. No shit the characters were stagnant, that's what everyone cheered for.