Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life and today, we continue our look at The Great and Powerful Trixie as we dive into her first episode, Boast Busters. Now, it's interesting, I've noticed that this episode is rather divisive amongst the Brony community and that comes from the handling of how Trixie is introduced to the series. We will discuss that in a bit. With that outta the way, let's begin.
The Plot
As we will see with the first two episodes in this little retrospective, Trixie is the first of three characters that are the antithesis of Twily.
What's even more interesting about these three is that the threat level of their antagonism increases. Let's start with Trixie. She starts as a boastful and annoying antagonist that is there to be a counterpoint to Twilight in showing that it's okay for Twilight to use her magic. The threat level of Trixie increases in her second appearance in season 3 with the Alicorn Amulet.
Sunset Shimmer stole the Element of Magic and was going to use it to enslave the students and faculty of Canterlot High to try and take over Equestira. And finally, Starlight Glimmer had convinced a plethora of ponies to give up their cutie marks and individuality. The other thing that these 3 have in common in common is that through interactions with Twilight, they've been reformed.... mostly. There's no arguing that Sunset and Starlight have been reformed as we see in the EQG sequels and season 6 with Starlight. With Starlight now acting as kinda leader for The Humane versions of the characters. And Twilight took Starlight in as her student. Trixie, she's had character growth since her debut back in season one and we saw go through some stuff with the Alicorn Amulet and that is the only time that one could actively argue calling her a villain because she is more of a foil/rival for Twilight. And that still persists as we saw in No Second Prances.
Anyways, let's get to the actual plot of the episode. We open on Twilight practicing magic on Spike as we see her grow a mustache on the purple dragon. After that cold open, we see Twilight and Spike walking through Ponyville and Snips and Snails crash into our main characters as they exclaim of the arrival of a powerful new unicorn in town. And that new unicorn is none other than... THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!!!
Trixie is putting on a stage magic show. And yes, she is being a bit boastful about her talents. And this is what I mentioned about the Brony community finding Trixie's introduction divisie. Some people people agreed with the Mane Six (minus Pinkie and Fluttershy. Yeah, Andrea Libman isn't in this episode at all) that Trixie was being a bit too boastful and a bit arrogant. And that rubbed people the wrong way. On the other side, you have people that see Trixie as a showmare doing her job. And yes, she did have a bit of an ego but that is what made so endearing to many. That's why she's one of my favorite characters. Yes, she's egotistical and thinks way too highly of herself but I think that makes her a nice contrast to most of the ponies that we had seen up to this point as she is the first pony centric character that is introduced as being a bit of a jerk. Albeit, a lovable one and not in the same vein as say Gilda in her first episode.
We get a rather fun moment of Trixie upping some of The Mane Six and we also see that Twily is feeling self-conscious about her own magic. What I mentioned in the beginning about Twilight facing three characters that represent the antithesis of her. Well, Trixie's first appearance is perhaps the most overt way possible. Because the more we see of Trixie showing off with her stage magic, the more we see Twilight pull back in on herself more and more. And Trixie's more boastful nature is as I have established the exact opposite of Twilight and with Twilight seeing Trixie's nature, she sees a reflection of a pony that she doesn't want to be. As she's afraid that if she uses her magic, her friends will shun her and think negatively of her. Even though, we know that isn't the case and Spike tries to reassure Purple Smart of this but when you get in a headspace of convincing yourself of something that isn't true, you come to believe it. And that is what we see with Twilight in this episode as the more she sees of Trixie showing off with her magic, the more Twilight pulls back.
Twilight finally uses her magic after Snips and Snails aka Dumb and Dumber of MLP decide to wake up an Ursa and bring it to Ponyville as they bought into Trixie's story of defeating an Ursa Major and crazy and idiotic bring the Ursa into town thinking it's an Ursa Major but it's an Ursa Minor and it was just cranky after being woken up. Twilight soothes things over and returns the baby back to it's mother. Snips and Snails are just lucky that the Ursa Major didn't come rampaging through town looking for her child. Trixie runs off and Dash wants to go after her but Twily says to let her go.
The episode ends with Twilight giving Spike, Snips, & Snails mustaches and making the two crazy ponies clean up the town. This episode more than most is truly character driven as the introduction of Trixie allows the audience to see a side of Twilight that hadn't been explored up to this point. The fear of people/ponies hating you for your talent. And helping people to realize that there is a difference between one being proud of what they are good at and being like Trixie boasting about what you are good at.
Characters
For the sake of this article, I'll only be focusing on Twilight and Trixie.
Main Character
Twilight Sparkle voiced by Tara Strong
As I mentioned in the review portion, this was a great highlight for Twilight as Trixie's introduction helped to highlight Twilight's biggest insecurities of being afraid that her friends would dislike her for using her talents. But we see that isn't the case at all and this episode helped Twilight to understand that.
Rival
Trixie voiced by Kathleen Barr
Trixie is an excellent character and I love her introduction as it really brings out a side of Twilight that we hadn't yet seen. And just on her own, I love her personality and the way that she talks in third person. I just find everything about to be so adorable and just so much fun. For the longest time, she was my favorite antagonistic character.
My Final Thoughts
This is a great episode and I really enjoy it overall. As it perfectly highlights a flaw in Twilight. That is not a bad thing as characters shouldn't be perfect. Instead, they should be allowed to be for a lack of a better word, human. And that is exemplified wonderfully through Twilight in this episode. Join me next time as we look at...
Magic Duel
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