Moral of the Story - The Crystalling (Patreon)

Welcome back everyone. Here's to another great season. Although I wasn't keen on the story, I saw a lot of really good things within the episode's lesson. In this edition, I focus primarily on the two major umbrellas of learning styles that people often fall into - learning through study and learning through practice. I also discuss on how we can end up like Starlight Glimmer or Sunburst through not balancing how we study and the consequences that can come as a result.

There was actually a lot that I wanted to address verbally in this video, but was uncertain how to go about it while writing the script. I do not believe this is a point against the episode, but a few of the sub-lessons it touched on ultimately didn't play into the main conflict. So I ultimately decided to leave them out of the video and to write it here in hopes that someone will see it and continue the conversation.

One thing that the episode covered is facing your fears; which I've talked about a lot in the past. But it was almost always addressing an external force.

Owning your past mistakes is even more important and a necessary part of bettering yourself and can be applied in two ways. One - without acknowledging your mistakes, any improvement you do make will ultimately be hypocritical. Two - even if you should continue to face consequences and rejection for your past sins from others, it is still a part of the punishment process. This will reinforce your desire to improve yourself and not return to your old, destructive ways.

The second thing the episode touched on was trusting others' input, even if they seem unrelated. This goes back to something I've talked about in the description a few times as well as in some videos. People are multi-faceted and problems are often multi-dimensional. Sometimes, people can have unexpected powers. Even if they haven't specialized in resolving the task at hand.

The third thing the episode touched on is how to be a good teacher. While many people criticize Celestia for being hands-off, I've always applauded her for it. While a student initially needs to be set on the right path, they will eventually need to continue that path on their own in order to achieve the optimal learning experience.

Einstein once said, "Experience is the only true teacher. Everything else is useless information." The method that Celestia used on Twilight was that of gentle nudges in the right direction which simultaneously teach her what she needed to know for the future as well as test her character to make sure she was ready for what was to come.

If everything Twilight learned was spoon-fed to her, she would have never properly absorbed it. Twilight would have had no reason to remember it. If anything, she would have eventually grown to resent the lessons - finding them useless. Morality and strength of character is only something that can be learned through experience. That's why I've always applauded Celestia's teaching style.