Head Poet's Anxiety

"Head Poet's Anxiety" is the fifteenth episode of the third season, and the one-hundred-sixteenth episode of The Loud House.

Plot
Luan teaches Lucy how to manage the ups and downs of pursuing a life in the arts.

Synopsis
Luan has taken up a new gig of entertaining the elders of Sunset Canyon whenever they go on their day trips on their bus, the Giggling Geezer. When the bus arrives at the Loud House, Luan jumps off, says hi to Lincoln and Clyde, and tells them that entertaining the elders is bringing her closer to her dreams of being the youngest person ever to perform at the Royal Woods Theater. When Luan enters the house, she accidentally steps on Lucy, who was laying on the staircase out of depression due to her best poem being rejected. Luan escorts Lucy into her room and shows her all of her rejection letters. Luan explains that when she was younger, she always started out rough, but after graduating from clowning academy, she started her own clowning business, and became a successful comedian. Feeling better from Luan's story, Lucy asks her if she can help her become a better poet, and Luan agrees to help her.

Luan makes up a plan for Lucy on how to become a better poet. First, she has to sharpen her skills at home. She does this by writing the description of dishes for the Aloha Comrade menu for Lynn Sr., and a detailed explanation of a dress for Leni to put on her fashion blog. Second, Lucy has to get some formal training. At the Royal Woods Recreation Center, a poetry teacher asks for her students to come up with words that rhyme with "rose," and Lucy comes up with "decompose." Third, Lucy has to showcase her work. She does this by putting her content on decorative pillows at an art show. Lastly, Lucy has to test if she has thick skin. When she tells one of her poems to her siblings, they intentionally boo at her (except Leni), while Lola gives the meanest roast she can, and Lucy quickly comes up with a poem to jab at her back, successfully proving that she has thick skin. The next day, Luan completes her comedy routine on the Giggling Geezer and tells the elders that she brought Lucy as a guest to recite one of her poems. The poem Lucy tells is an ode to Pop-Pop, and it is met with overwhelming praise. Arriving home, Lucy thanks Luan for being a great mentor.

The next day, while doing her comedy routine on the Giggling Geezer, Bernie loses his teeth from laughing too hard, prompting him and Luan to find them. While looking, Lucy arrives on her scooter to explain to Luan that her poetry teacher loved her poem so much, that she's allowing Lucy to read it at the Royal Woods Theater. Luan, distraught and clearly angry that Lucy is stealing her lifelong dream, hugs her in a rather strangling manner, all while her eyes twitch, and mouth become jagged. Sometime later, Lucy tries asking Luan for more advice, but Luan responds to her questions indifferently. Late at night, Lincoln discovers Luan acting rather negatively, and when Lucy explains that she was given an opportunity to perform at the Royal Woods Theater, Lincoln, realizing why Luan is acting so negative, tells Lucy the whole story.

The next day, as Luan gets herself ready for Lucy's show, Luan discovers that none of the other siblings are ready, and Lisa explains that Lucy is feeling sick, and has decided to skip out on performing, despite her equipment saying that Lucy's completely fine. When Luan asks Lucy why she's skipping the performance, Lucy explains that she didn't want to steal her dream of being the youngest person to perform at the Royal Woods Theater, and thought skipping out would give Luan the chance to accomplish that dream. Feeling bad for Lucy, and realizing that her jealousy got in the way, Luan encourages Lucy to perform, saying that as her mentor, she wouldn't be a great mentor if she allowed Lucy to miss this opportunity. This prompts Lucy to hug Luan out of gratitude.

At the Royal Woods Theater, the family and elders are attending the show, and the poetry teacher introduces Lucy. Once onstage, Lucy recites a poem dedicated to Luan:


 * Dreams burnt to ash, hope tangles like laces
 * Till love swept in with puns and funny faces.
 * Where my path will lead, I can't be sure
 * But if ever I'm lost, I'll look up to her.

Cast
Rita, Seymour, Steve, and Bratty Kid's Mom have no lines in episode
 * Collin Dean as Lincoln
 * Catherine Taber as Lori / Pregnant Goth Mom
 * Liliana Mumy as Leni
 * Nika Futterman as Luna / Poetry Teacher
 * Cristina Pucelli as Luan
 * Jessica DiCicco as Lynn / Lucy
 * Grey Griffin as Lana / Lola / Lily / Scoots / Poetry Student 1
 * Lara Jill Miller as Lisa / Poetry Student 2
 * Andre Robinson as Clyde
 * Brian Stepanek as Lynn Sr.
 * Fred Willard as Pop-Pop
 * Fred Tatasciore as Bernie / Poetry Student 3

Accidental release
Like with "Future Tense", this episode was accidentally released on Amazon before its intended release date. The episode was meant to air on April 30 but was released onto the website nine days earlier on April 21. The most likely cause of this was the episode's sister episode "Teachers' Union". When Amazon got permission to make the episode downloadable, it's likely that Nickelodeon forgot to exclude this episode before giving Amazon the releasing rights.

Trivia

 * This is the second episode that Amazon accidentally leaked onto their website, the first being "Future Tense".
 * This is the first episode where Andre Robinson voices Clyde.
 * The quote "Embrace the darkness" was seen before in Lucy's poster in "The Loudest Yard".
 * This episode was first originally going to air on April 20th, but it was pushed back a month and 15 days later.
 * When Luan was young, she originally had two ponytails.
 * Her teeth were also noticeably crooked, which might explain why she currently wears braces.
 * Lucy lost a shoe between moping on the stairs and going in Luan's room.
 * However, this contradicts her flashback in "Hand-Me-Downer", where Luan received her braces after accidentally biting a bowling pin.
 * This episode reveals that Luan's dream is to be the youngest performer at the Royal Woods Theater.
 * However, Lucy now owns that accomplishment.
 * This is the third episode in which a character's backstory is shown, in this case, it's Luan.
 * The first was Luna in "For Bros About to Rock" and the second was Lincoln in "Not a Loud".
 * Because of Leni's big heart, she was the only one aghast at her siblings jeering at Lucy, despite the fact that it was a test to see if Lucy had thick skin.
 * Luan tells a joke that she previously said in "No Laughing Matter".
 * Innuendo: The first poem Lucy tried to recite to the elders began with "The end is near. Give up all hope." The elders being aghast to this makes sense since elders are close to death.

Errors

 * When Lucy says "Luan, I don't understand", the Closed Captions says Lynn instead of Luan.
 * After Luan thanks Lincoln for being supportive, she walks into the house and shuts the door. However, the next shot shows her walking into the house again without shutting the door.
 * When Luan is walking upstairs the stairs in front of her can be seen, and Lucy is nowhere to be seen.
 * Lucy's rejection letter has the words "regretfully" and "applying" spelled incorrectly.

Running Gags

 * Luan helping Lucy with her poetry.
 * Bernie losing his teeth.
 * Lynn Sr. telling Rita to get the camera while Lucy is doing something relating to happiness.