>>4036
>It was a solid episode.
>perhaps being slightly wonky in pacing.I stress this, I mean only slightly, not even sure I'd say it worthy of note.
well, if your minor complaint is about the pacing, I honestly don´t see it (maybe the short Moondancer cameo?). For episodes with a slice of life touch, it´s really difficult to pile up the pacing and mess it up badly. Having seen Castle Sweet Castle a couple of weeks ago, the pacing in this episode flows more or less in the same was CSC does.

>The early part was my favorite do to the flashbacks and another appearance of unicorn Twilight! (of which I feel conflicted as whether to consider the best Twilight, but that's another story).
Twilight sure feels different with so much time and development behind her. It´s like watching an alien (sort of) because of how far she has gone in her trajectory, from a bookworm of Canterlot to the Princess of Friendship.

>The moral was surprisingly strong as well.
now, the biggest complaint that one fan could use would be about the entertainment value while setting up that moral because in order to make it work, it has to show signs of empathy and a close feeling for the spectator.It can perfectly be described as one of the best and universal morals that you will see here. This episode will not drive you to anything interesting and this is why they use comedy and flashbacks for getting a little bit of entertainment value and discussion. Despite the strong moral, it doesn´t sell that much. It sounds ironic but MLP doesn´t look forward to being a meme show all the time and it tries to end with a high note as a life changing show for the 2010s. This episode proves that it wants to give philosophical takes about life and ones that only time and experience will help you to understand. You cannot see this moral going for a commercial film (superheroes I guess) that Hollywood would do and MLP supposedly comes as a toy commercial...I´ll let that sink in for a moment.

Berrow (in her last episode) has delivered one of the most mundane yet powerful messages that requires a typical situation (returning a book late in a library) in a common place with characters who simply keep on their daily lives. Twilight, despite getting the main role here, doesn´t come as an extraordinary outlandish character because of her princess duties but because of her nerd side and forgetting about a little task she had to do long time ago. Her princess title means little to nothing and she works as another character that worries/fears (a little bit too much) about having to pay the late return

>I could see someponies seeing it as a little lackluster, but for me it was a solid 8/10. This is one of those episodes that I feel could grown on me later and will at least stay average if it doesn't.
see? This episode doesn´t have any intention to be a highlight nor surprising but philosophical and drive you to a simple lesson: stop and think about what you want to do. Also, this episode takes the opposite path that Fame and Misfortune did.Here, it carries a more laid back purpose that is open to interpretations (even for the writer herself) while F&M went too meta for its own good.

I have not seen the poll from /mlp/ but I can see why they would give this a 6 or an average rating. This episode could grow over time and age better than others, it doesn´t want to sell and make people scream in emotions. MLP here as a show, acts like your grandfather who tells you about his old experiences and you as a listener, learn something valuable from those words. If those intentions work, anything else comes as ornaments.