Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life and today, we continue our look at THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE. As we look at her second appearance in the series as we look at her season 3 return in Magic Duel. By now, we've seen quite a few antagonists return and be reformed. Heck, Discord returned in season 3 and was reformed by Fluttershy. And that is the same season that saw the return of Trixie. Now, in many ways, the show upped the ante with Trixie's return. Taking from a rival for Twilight that was nothing more than annoyance but with Magic Duel, she became a full on villain. With that outta the way, let's look at the plot of the episode.
The Plot
We open with a cloaked figure, but we know that it's Trixie running through the rain at night heading to a store looking up for something and that something happens to be the Alicorn Amulet. A magical item that'll increase a unicorn's magic.Ah, so Trixie is compensating. After we get this setup in a rather nice cold open, we cut to Ponyville where Twilight is practicing a magic spell on Fluttershy's little animal friends as Princess Celestia is bringing the dignitaries of Saddle Arabia to Ponyville. (It says something when cartoon horses have better foreign relations than a lot of people in charge) But that is soon cut short as Rainbow Dash well...dashes in to get Twilight as she has returned.
We get a lot of great moments here as Trixie attacks Twilight's friends and this does make a nice companion piece to her first appearance because as we saw in Boast Busters, she went pretty far with what she did to Twily's friends but her attacks here make it clear that beyond a shadow of doubt that Trixie is out for revenge. So, she of course proposes the Magic Duel but Twilight at first won't do it but Trixie won't stop until Twily agrees to do it. Something of interest to note here is that Trixie's eyes are glowing red showing the Alicorn Amulet is affecting her.
And looking at what Trixie does to Twilight's friends, I feel like poor Pinkie got it the worst as Trixie removed poor Pinkie's mouth. And soon, the Magic Duel takes place but with the aid of the Alicorn Amulet, Twilight is no match for Trixie as we see her use an age spell on Snips and Snails and Twilight is shocked by that as only the highest level unicorns can do that. And with that spell, it is shown that Twilight has lost and Trixie banishes Celestia's student from Ponyville as she places a giant dome over Ponyville and force Twilight out.
We soon see that Trixie has taken over Ponyville and this is a nice contrast yet again to her first appearance as she was seen as a bit of a joke in Ponyville in her episode but here, she's become a bit frightening as she has gone mad with power. In some ways, this episode almost seems like it's putting the girls through training for when they'll be going up against Starlight Glimmer. Twilight has no idea what to do but she remembers Zecora as another magic user that could help her. Don't get to used to see her as the later seasons of MLP forget that she even exists. Which is a shame considering that in the original drafts, she was supposed to serve as another mentor to Twilight in a Yoda style role. Meanwhile, while this is going on, the girls are trying to figure out to stop Trixie and they discover the Alicorn Amulet and want to get a message out to Twilight so Dash volunteers Fluttershy to get the message out. And now this is interesting going back and watching this episode as you really see how far Fluttershy has come since the early days of MLP, especially with her scene of her in spy outfit trying to get beyond Ponyville and kinda being old Fluttershy whimpering about not wanting to do this. That Fluttershy no longer exists, the Fluttershy of recent may not like having to do something like that but knowing that her friends need her help, she'll put on a brave front and do what is asked of her.
Flutters gets the message to Twilight and Zecora and Zecora tells Twilight that she's taught her everything she knows except for one thing, use the sixth. And we see what that means as Twilight returns with a possibly stronger amulet and challenges Trixie to another Magic Duel and through the aid of her friends is able to defeat Trixie. Trixie is dumbfounded by this but Twilight explains that she used the power of friendship and got the Alicorn Amulet off of Trixie. We later see Trixie show up, while the dignitaries of Saddle Arabia are there and helps with the entertainment show and apologizes for what she did.
I do like this episode a lot as it really upped what the show did with Trixie and actually showed as a true threat.
Characters
Once again, I'll only be focusing on Twilight and Trixie
Main Character
Twilight Sparkle voiced by Tara Strong
I really liked Twilight in this episode as it really reflected how far she had come since she last faced Trixie and we see that she is more confident in her magic skills and is willing to do whatever it takes to save her friends and take down Trixie. It's quite inspiring to see this.
Villain
Trixie voiced by Kathleen Barr
Trixie is actually quite frightening in this episode as she went from antagonist to full on villain. Granted, she was aided by the use of the Alicorn Amulet. So, it wasn't all real on her part but her wearing that turned into a villain and made her a scary rival for Twilight.
My Final Thoughts
This was the first episode that I saw with Trixie in it and I instantly became a fan of hers because this was such a great episode for her. I actually enjoy this episode more than Boast Busters but I do think Boast Busters served her better but this was still a great return for THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE. Join me next time as we end our look at Trixie's episodes as we look at...
No Second Prances
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