MLP Episode Review: Magic Duel · 10:42pm Apr 24th, 2016
And it's Sunday, so...
Let's look back, shall we? Before the next episode, when a certain Great and Powerful pony in all likelihood wasn't thrown under the bus for Starlight 'Karma Houdini' Glimmer. The one, the only, my favorite G4 character...
TRIXIE LULAMOON, MOTHERBUCKER!
Magic Duel
We open on a dark and stormy night. Captain Picard is having flashbacks to the Royale. A pony in an Ominous Cloak of Hiding +1 goes into an Ominous Shop of Mystic Items. The shopkeeper comes out and asks if she-Trixie-needs help. The Alicorn Amulet, turns out. And I just noticed the words 'great' and 'powerful' used close together. Clever. The shopkeeper says it's too dangerous, but Trixie channels Ted Dibiase and places a bag of bits on the counter. "Would you like that gift-wrapped?" HAH!
After the credits, we're in Ponyville. Fluttershy says to her friends that 'Twilight is wonderful with magic'. I call bullshit on that... and she threatens Twilight with bodily harm if anything happens to them. I'm fully behind her on this. Twilight's horn lights up and... they begin floating and flying around? Oh, and Fluttershy has chewed through her hooves in nervousness. We get a small infodump that this is entertainment for delegates from 'Saddle Arabia'. Okay, bad pun there. Also, this is their entertainment?! Good grief! And Spike butters Twilight up with praise about her magic.
Suddenly, Dash flies in... and barrels into Twilight. There's an emergency! Timmy fell down a well again?! No. In front of City Hall, Rarity suddenly has colorful dress teleported onto her. It... looks nice to me, but not to her. "This shade of brown should only be used for accents!" LOL. And Twilight arrives and...
The Great and Powerful Trixie has returned!!!! And her eyes are flashing red. Foreshadowing, dontcha know. Or she needs extra-strength Visine. Dash challenges her, and Trixie enlarges one of her wings. Trixie, ALL my love! :D Snips and Snails try sucking up, but Trixie's not buying their horse apples, OH NO! She fuses her horns together. Trixie for Princess at this point! Give HER the wings!
Trixie challenges Twilight to a magic duel. Winner stays, loser leaves ponyville for-EVER! Twilight says no, so Trixie begins to try to 'persuade' her. She turns Spike into a superball, and dunks him. Twilight asks why, and we learn... after Boast Busters, yeah. Trixie's career was ruined, complete with assholes graffiti-tagging a new wagon of hers. Although personally I'd put the blame more on Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Spike. She even took a job on a rock farm, which now makes the canon and not Pinkie's inane ramblings. Pinkie Pie speaks up, and Trixie... tosses Pinkie Pie's mouth into the trash.
...
I have NO words for how much I am loving Trixie right now. None.
She then TKs Golden Oaks up and spins it right round, baby, right round, like a record, baby. Sadly for Twilight, it takes the library and books for her to agree. Trixie restores everything... except Pinkie's mouth. Keep it that way!
We get a staredown while in my mind Sergio Leone plays. Suddenly, "Draw!" i can't. I mess up stick figures. She sends a cart flying, but before it crushes someone, Twilight stops it. We also see the corruptive effects of the Amulet beyond the flashy light-show, now. Then it's flying pies straight out of the 30's, but Twilight summons a parasprite to eat them. Trixie drops a nor'easter, but Twilight melts it. Twilight retaliates with a mustache spell... which to be honest is kinda lame. Trixie counters with... age magic. Snips is turned into an infant, and Snails into an old geezer, way back in nineteen-dickety-doo! Twilight's flabbergasted. "That's only for the highest-level unicorns." Ugh, I hate power levels. Twilight tries... but it's no good! So that means Twilight is not one of the highest-level unicorn. Oh, how sweet that is.
The other Mane Six try to defend Twilight, but no go. Twilight's flung out like Team Rocket, and a dome descends over Ponyville. Hmm, good. Mint-in-box is always worth more. Not that it matters to me. You've seen my pics. I play with my toys. Twilight reassures them and says to keep an eye on Trixie. "There's something strange about her." And water is wet... And there's a rather nice shot of Spike watching her as she runs off.
After commercial, we see Twilight training, and a rather good reason why she can't contact Celestia-she's in Saddle Arabia, Spike is under the dome. I'm gonna figure Luna's there, too. Good. Plot-hole filled. We cut to Zecora's hut, who offers to train Twilight, including a rather clever refilling of her cup. And twilight spills her drink. Again. Twilight...
Back at Ponyviulle, Trixie's kinda gone Sith Lord, if the colors of her banners are any indication. She's kinda gone a bit Palpatine, using tickle-torture on Applejack for an applesauce facial, forces Pinkie to dance-which I will admit I love-and has Rarity making those banners. Back at Zecora's, Twilight is balancing on a lake and floating water blobs around. "Unlearn what you have learned." Ah, good. Using from the best.
Yeah, Yoda may have tested Luke a bit... but when it came to brass tacks he taught Luke, and, something the Prequels forgot, he DROPPED THE YODA-SPEAK!!!!
Twilight loses concentration. "I can't stop thinking about Trixie." Twixie confirmed! Out in the Cold canonized! OTP WINS! :D Twilight also cottons to the personality change... something I picked up kinda-sorta instantly. ;)
Back at Ponyville, an ill wind blows through. Carrot Top and what appears to be her daughter/younger sister follow. At Golden Oaks, Spike and the Mane Six are searching for info on Trixie's magic. "Twilight has every magic book there is!" no, she doesn't. Fluttershy finds something, but she's drowned out by Rarity's histrionics, Applejack's complaining, Pinkie's mumbling... and finally Spike pulls the book down, and we get the infodump on the Amulet. Also, I could be wrong, but show-wise, this is the first time we hear the word 'alicorn'. It gives great power, but also great insanity. Natch. And finally, it's gotta be removed by the user. Dash comes up with a plan to have Fluttershy sneak out and find Twilight, and she's all kinds of oblivious about Fluttershy having a mini-freakout. Also natch.
We cut to Snips and Snails dragging Trixie about on a chariot because the force field was tripped. They ask her about wheels, and she... doesn't trust wheels.
She says this while we just established LAST SCENE her mind is being fucked with. So, the whole 'Trixie hates wheels' meme was tired when it started.
*Ahem* Even Snails is getting it. At the force field, Trixie lets some beavers out. She then turns her chariot into a throne/bed combo. "Why is she so mean to us?" Because you morons got an Ursa Fucking Minor into town and was semi-responsible for the ruining of her life. "I miss the days when she was just a fraud." And Snips becomes Worst Pony. Whip them good, Trixie!
Back with the beavers, Wally and June let Fluttershy out. She tries to backpedal, but ponies up. The birds tell her she's in the Everfree, and fly her off by her hair. OUCH! At Zecora's hut, Fluttershy tells Twilight. Zecora tells her she's learned all but one lesson. "You must nix your magic and use the six." Six friends? Six demon bag? What, Zecora is Egg Shen?!
Back at the dome, Twilight says she knows about the Amulet. And she says she's got her own Amulet. She challenges Trixie to another duel, and uses a bit of psychology to get Trixie to agree. Later that night, it's set. Oh, and I just noticed Mayor Mare in the cage. Trixie, could you be any more awesome?! Trixie turns Dumb and Dumber into foals. Twilight calls Rarity and Applejack forth. They're turned into foals, too! Then back, and some more tricks. Dash is cloned, which sucks. Then Pinkie does the anti-parasprite song. Trixie's freaking out, and finally... rule-63 Applejack. And back. Trixie steals Twilight's Amulet and ditches the Alicorn Amulet. No, Trixie! Nope, turns out, to quote Ackbar, it's a trap! Dash flies in and gets it. Trixie tries a torture spell, but no go. And the amulet she's got, it's a doorstop.
And we get the full monty. Twilight used sleight of hoof. Pretty clever, actually. Except for Pinkie. She's just Pinkie. No, not gonna buy it. Never gonna buy it. Trixie backs off, and the sun comes out.
Later, Twilight us twirling the animals about while Fluttershy nearly strokes out. How is this entertaining?! Fireworks go off, and everyone, including the horse-like delegates from Saddle Arabia, are impressed. Turns out it was Trixie, humbled and apologetic. Twilight makes her sweat it out a bit, but ultimately... she forgives Trixie. Aww... now there's someone who deserved that! Trixie hams it up a bit, but it's all good. She drops a smoke bomb and runs off, tripping a bit. But she picks herself up and keeps going.
Unfortunately, the episode ends on a slightly-sour note as Pinkie gets her mouth back. Dammit...
Thoughts
Yeah, loved this one. :D "Trixie comes back for revenge" was and still is a stock fanfic plot. Here, it's done right. The Alicorn Amulet was a great way to add menace and have Trixie be evil... while remembering she really wasn't all that bad to begin with. Very clever. All-around it was a fantastic episode... although the entertainment still leaves me puzzled.
And... I got some catharsis and some evil chuckling when Pinkie, Dash, Snips and Snails got screwed with. Ah, that was wonderful!
Trixie is, if you haven't noticed, my favorite character from FIM. And third only behind Wind Whistler and Megan. I think she's been woefully underutilized, with only this episode, Boast Busters, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot in Cutie Re-Mark and... the upcoming episode. Which I have a BAD feeling about.
No, I don't trust them.
Although I will say... one alternate ending I've heard of is that Trixie does some community service. Tears down the throne, helps clean up, apologizes to others and puts on an uninterrupted show. I think I would've liked that better. But it's a minor gripe overall. Trixie is Best Pony, and right now this is best Episode of season three.
Headcanon
Haven't done this in a while. ;) In the Hasbroverse, which if you're on Other Media almost none of you know about... Trixie almost went dark, but pulled herself back, did a lot of studying, and in the course of a week... made friends with Queen Rosedust and Morning Glory of the flutter ponies, saved the CMC mark two from an Ursa Minor, made up with Applejack, Rarity, Spike and sorta-Dash, and is now really good friends with Megan. Yes, G1 Megan. Saving Megan's daughters kinda helps out with that. :D She now lives in Ponyville and runs the Ponyville Theater. Quite successfully, too.
I don't know if I can get an episode reviewed tomorrow, sorry. It's my mother's birthday. Rest assured, though. I'm getting season three done this week. Wednesday and Thursday off, and nothing to do!
One of my favorite episodes too! Trixie fans got some dark catharsis seeing Ponyville turned upside down.
Pretty sure this is the first time alicorn is used, too. What's interesting is that the writer, M. A. Larson, said he never used that word in any of his scripts, including Magical Mystery Cure. He called the Alicorn Amulet the UniCharm but Hasbro had the script changed. Guess they liked the term the fandom was using at the time.
What's nice is that the comics explored Trixie even further, giving her a satisfying send off. So, if this week's episode isn't to your liking, just pretend it doesn't exist and go with the comic version. That's what Star Wars fans do with the prequels!
All this is doing, is maing me think about waht to say about my history with Trixie when I get to Getting back on her hooves for my anniversary next month. That, and what I have done to her so far by making her into a guile badass who doesn't need super powers, but wits and cunning.
Yep, it's all downhill from here.
But hey, I've got something else for you to look forward to this week.
ROFLMAO!! Trixie is kinda tied with Ditsy/Derpy and Lyra for best pony in my book. She also is BADLY underused.