Patience is the key!
What Akko lacks is patience. She always wants things done in a hurry and in her way. She showed her lack of patience many times this episode, but she’s showed it a lot in previous ones such as just not being patient with her lessons and practicing. In this episode Akko tells Lotte and Sucy everything Ursula told her. They visit her and ask what the fourth word is. They know it but Akko can’t use it because now isn’t the right time. She can’t use it until she realizes the one thing she lacks. It’s then she goes to Lotte’s house as a group to meet her parents and eat some pies. Except some strange bull about a time when pretty much everything is perfectly aligned in the universe and after eating these pies baked at perfect temperature, those who ate it will be affected with Greenman Disease, and disease where you turn into a bush-like thing. The head witch of the area is supposed to heal everyone, and that witch is Lotte’s mother and she was affected, so it left the three girls to handle the antidote.
But soon Lotte and Sucy become affected and Akko is left alone. This is when her “trial” begins. She had half the ingredients but she needed the other half herself. And as usual with lacking patience, she ran at the reindeer and scared it, hit its butt with the book, and yelled at the poor yeti when he kept making the medicine base wrong.
Once Akko got all the ingredients and realized her mistakes, she immediately made the antidote and said the fourth word, which helped cure everyone. A pretty simple episode. As usual there was some funny moments, but it was a straightforward episode where Akko grew just a bit. Not too much happened except for seeing Croix make some scary looking things, but we don’t know what for.
It’s looking like searching for these words will help Akko grow into a better person. Akko’s lack of patience kind of annoyed me before, but at least she’s learning. I loved how Sucy asked Akko why Ursula knew so much, and I wish they had expanded on that more because I was surprised she didn’t wonder that sooner. Doesn’t Akko think it’s weird she knows so much? :/
Thing is, the lesson Akko is learning here isn’t patience (not that a bit of it wouldn’t hurt her). It’s staying on mission.. No matter what happens; reindeer holding it in, Yeti isn’t feeling it, snow everywhere, she needs to drive the recipe to completion, alone.
Since she has serious focus problems at first she bounces all over the place: First she tries nice with the Yeti, only losing patience when his work isn’t up to snuff (that thing has to save her friends it BETTER be PERFECT). Then when she realizes she pushed too hard she tries contrition, THEN she pulls out that crazy charisma “forget about them, what do THEY know?!”
Remember this is a story of by people who have to make animation for episode after episode every week. HOW isn’t as important as DOING it (patience is another tool, but if you just wait, no episode). Diana would have been impressed if she saw this, Akko isn’t giving up at the first or even sixth setback. Her technique is still rough, but she’s learning what she does well (she has charisma, and a common touch Diana can’t match). People respect Diana, but they will FOLLOW Akko. Diana never brings her roommates along when things get serious, Akko brings a posse.
My guess, Diana will have to say the last word for Akko (marking her as the chosen one). Croix wouldn’t do the same for Chariot 10 year ago, and that is what crushed her.