A Trixie Retrospective prior to No Second Prances · 2:09am Apr 26th, 2016
Prior to this week's upcoming episode, I figured I'd explore my thoughts on the previous two Trixie episodes. Considering that nearly half my stories thus far (8/18) use Trixie in some form, you could say I'm a Trixie fan. I'll note that this is a fairly long post, and I ramble at points.
Boast Busters is where it all began, as the sixth episode of the entire series. I might be going against the grain here, but honestly, I think this is a poor episode. Two things save it: Trixie, and Kathleen Barr's performance as Trixie, and the Ursa Minor animation.
Many words have been written by people other than me, who go more indepth than I'll bother to here. What it comes down to is that there are nine main players in this episode: Trixie, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Snips, Snails, and the Ursa Minor. Six of them are partly or thoroughly unlikable in the episode, one is a bear, and then there's Trixie and Twilight. Trixie is a braggart and a showboat, but from all indications her show was entirely free, she would've been gone within a few days anyways and even in ponyland, it's a very giant leap of logic to think anyone in your audience is an idiot enough to actually go find a bear and bring it into town for you to show off.
Twilight is almost a background character until the very end, as it's actually Spike who drives most of their conversations while she continues to roll her eyes and go "No, no, no" like a broken record. The only flub is her line at the end:
Twilight Sparkle: Just let her go. Maybe someday she'll learn her lesson.
Twilight never elaborates on this. If it's not to showboat, Rainbow Dash does plenty of that herself (to her credit Twilight does in fact do something about this eventually, but I'm sure few people like to think about Mysterious Mare-Do-Well). Heck, Applejack quasi-lies in The Last Roundup and barely catches crap for this. Considering Trixie just got her home wrecked and appears to be running off without any money in hand, I think she learned her lesson thoroughly: karma is a b
Actually, here's an idea: what if Trixie showed up to their Hearth's Warming Eve Play and heckled them? She'd be unlikable in doing so as a character, but it's an amusing thought.
Asides from Trixie's performance, the other good part of this episode is the Ursa Minor. C'mon, don't lie, you all fell in love with the Ursa Minor once it appeared. The visuals on the thing are amazing. The revelation that it's actually a baby and then the shot comparison of the Minor to the Ursa Major is legit one of the best visual gags of the season.
(It may or may not be coincidence that the Minor is blue like Trixie, and the Major is purple like Twilight)
This episode was written by Chris Savino. He only wrote two pony episodes, this one and Stare Master, so it's tough to say how much of this episode is from him working off concepts alone like all Season 1 episodes were. It's sloppy, but on the other hand it gave us Trixie so I guess it wasn't all bad.
Something that gets mentioned lots is that Trixie was originally planned as a stallion, before he was later changed to being a mare. I wonder, how popular would male Trixie have been? He wouldn't have been voiced by Kathleen Barr of course, so we would have no guarantee that he would have a charismatic voice actor (I actually looked up the VAs of all the male adults I could remember that first had a line in Season 1 - Big Mac, Hoity Toity, Mr. Cake, Braeburn, Chief Thunderhooves, Sheriff Silverstar, Soarin' and Blueblood. Surprisingly, only Bryan Drummond repeated for two of them. No idea who the dragons, Diamond Dogs and two Royal Guards from A Bird in the Hoof were voiced by if by a male VA). However, he would have been the first big male character after Big Mac's few lines in Applebuck Season, and as you can see from that list of male characters, he would've been one of seven adult male ponies with some presence. Blueblood was thoroughly unlikeable, Hoity Toity certainly never took off, and Silverstar was relegated to the background by Braeburn's eclectic performance in Over A Barrel.
Male Trixie wouldn't have the horse-waifu effect obviously, but Twixie would still have been a thing regardless thanks to him being her foil, and being the only significant non-family male character she would've interacted with for three seasons - I mean c'mon people, you shipped Twilight with Comet Tail because he was standing next to her in a scene! If he was even slightly likable he would probably have been shipped with boatloads of other characters, much like Braeburn and Big Mac were before Season 2 came around and we got more male ponies. However, Snips and Snails would have to go in their present incarnation, because a male - male/male dynamic would just be weird. I actually wrote a story with male Trixie, and I got around this by having Call of the Cutie take part prior to Boast Busters to have the CMC take Snips and Snail's place instead. It might be good we didn't get that, though - from what I've read of the fandom's history a lot of people thoroughly disliked the CMC in the first season, and an episode where they were as dumb as Snips and Snails would have probably made it even worse.
Now, let's look at Magic Duel, which was written by M.A. Larson, who was one of the show's script heavy-hitters.
I like Magic Duel. I think it's a strong episode. However, as a sequel to Boast Busters, it flops.
Let's look back at Boast Busters again. Disproportionate retribution, jerk Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, and so on. As a result, within the adult fanbase at least, Trixie came off as the best as a poor bunch and became a fan favorite. So what do we get? An episode where Trixie is the clear-cut villain but is still given a forgiveness clause in the Alicorn Amulet, and is basically used as a stepping stone for Twilight (this happens somewhat in Boast Busters but to a much lesser extent).
Now, Trixie mentions having to work on 'a rock farm' during Magic Duel, and the brief scene we get shows Pinkie's dad, Igneous Rock Pie, so it's generally assumed she worked at the Pie Family Farm. Let's run with that. Suppose we instead got an episode where the Mane 6 decide to go to the Pie Farm only to find Trixie working there, practically destitute, after having her reputation tarnished and losing a second cart (as we see in Trixie's flashback window), and having to confront the reality of what sometimes happens to ponies that get caught in Ponyville's antics. Rather like Homer's Enemy, but for MLP, where reality ensues. Perhaps from letters that Pinkie has sent to the farm, Trixie is aware of incidents such as the Parasprite swarm devouring much of Ponyville's inanimate infrastructure and Fluttershy keeping one even after seeing how destructive they are, or deliberately using mind control spells on fillies which accidentally end up captivating the whole town. Remember, two rights do not make a wrong. Just because Twilight and friends have saved the world a few times doesn't mean they're allowed to cause havoc on their own. She could point out issues with her own treatment (again learning this from Pinkie's letters), like how Snips and Snails got punished with a slap on the wrist (mustaches) or how Trixie was the only pony to stand up to the Ursa Minor besides Twilight, and in turn her reputation was still ruined.
That said, I think the majority of fans would still have preferred Magic Duel to something like that, and I'm honestly inclined to agree. Seeing Trixie badass and able to actually outmatch Twilight in her first duel sounds a lot more exciting than Trixie being reduced to working on a rock farm.
As for the episode itself, I think perhaps the most overlooked part is the beginning sequence prior to the theme song. Notice how Trixie looks like she's about to steal the Alicorn Amulet. However, when she is confronted by the shopkeeper, she hands hoofs over a bag of money. That implies to me that the lure of the Alicorn Amulet is a strong one: Trixie intended to pay, but as soon as she approached the Amulet in person its lure got stronger and she was going to steal it instead until the shopkeeper interrupted her. Also, how many fics have been written about this shopkeeper, anyways? Who is he to keep the Amulet around, seemingly aware of what it does and thus disinclined to sell it, at least until he's offered a huge bag of money?
Another interesting note is that Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy get somewhat outsized roles, perhaps to compensate for their lack of lines in Boast Busters. Pinkie of course tells Trixie off and gets her mouth taken away for it. Fluttershy is the real hero of the day, in my opinion. She manages to sneak out and find Twilight, in an action of bravery that we'll later see of her in Keep Calm and Flutter On and The Cutie Map Part 2. Why is it that episodes that aren't Fluttershy-centric seem to do a better job with her character than ones that are? Again, it's interesting to note that Trixie also lifts the dome to let the beavers out. I'm no psychologist, but generally the type of people who are sociopaths have no compunctions with torturing animals. Given she's at the height of her power here and doesn't have to worry about PR, her letting them leave is perhaps a hint that while she's being cruel, it's a targeted one against the residents of Ponyville and outside of her targets she's not going to be needlessly mean.
I'm endlessly fascinated by the power and limitations of the Alicorn Amulet, however. It's never stated precisely what it does beyond blessing its wearers with untold powers. At minimum we can assume this means a magic boost, but what about the actual spells? Trixie pulls off magic that leaves Twilight very impressed, but it's not just the power but the implied skill level, able to induce body metamorphosis on four ponies (Mayor Mare, Rainbow Dash, Snips and Snails) including aging spells, as well as a dragon, creating a dome, and transforming the entire town within a matter of days. Did the Amulet give Trixie the knowledge on how to do these spells, or did she somehow know how to do them already, just perhaps not with the prerequisite power requirements?
Also, wheels. Last year, March 14th was on a Saturday, when new pony episodes normally air. Imagine if Season 5 had started a few months earlier and a Trixie episode had aired on March 14th. That would have been the ultimate meta-joke and my hat would've been off to whoever OKed it, be it the show producer or a Hasbro exec.
Now, No Second Prances. From the looks of it it's going to be a combination Twilight/Starlight/Trixie episode. One of my hopes for the episode is that they do not have a 'Trixie is down on her luck' episode here. The sole reason for that is if they did that, I feel it would have been a better opportunity for a Cutie Mark Crusaders episode in lieu of On Your Marks as they help Trixie reignite her passion for the stage, as opposed to a Starlight episode. Similarly, I hope they don't decide to villainise her, make her a stepping stone for Starlight, or make this What About Discord? Mk II. If they avoid those four things I think I'll be generally happy with No Second Prances. If they show her teleporting then I'd be ecstatic because then her being a directly powerful magician is canon.
I wonder how long ago the NSP script was written. Magic Duel was going to be a Season 2 episode originally before it got bumped up to Season 3. This means it happens to take place after Chrysalis' appearance in A Canterlot Wedding, also voiced by Kathleen Barr. I've heard rumours that it's apparently difficult to consistently get her for voice acting, so maybe they had a script on stand-by and activated it with some rewrites for Starlight once they got KB for the Chrysalis timeline in the Season 5 finale?
That said, in all honesty, I actually hope that we don't get a background story for Trixie, and that her past remains as shrouded in mystery as it always has. The main reason is that I enjoy reading a lot of Trixie stories that have her come from many, many different origins, and I've even written her in at least four different characterisations - as a secret agent, a Boast Busters replay with her as a stallion, as a Pony-Changeling hybrid and as a filly princess runaway pretending to be an adult.
If we were to get a backstory people for her, many authors would instantly allow themselves to be shackled by it and refuse to write anything else. I've seen other fandoms like Naruto and Harry Potter where fanfic writers will drastically retcon their story even though they're several tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of words into it to match the latest issue or book or episode, and it would be a shame for people to do the same here until we lose a lot of originality. Friendship is Magic has a lot looser continuity, but people will allow their headcanons to mutate until they think it's actual canon. There's a reason why the short bio for my profile is 'Leave your headcanons at the door.'
Let's look at a Trixie-related example: who actually said that the pony appearing in MLP Comic #40 is Trixie's mom? Equestria Daily said it, but they don't cite any official sources, and the fans just ran with it. Ted Anderson, the writer of the comic, doesn't even say. For all we know, it could be Trixie's big sister, and there's absolutely nothing to prove that wrong. On a bigger topic of debate, how many people assume it's fact that Twilight is immortal? It's never stated in the show, and Meghan McCarthy's one tweet on the matter fudges so much that you can run with anything from a regular life-span to as immortal as Celestia and Luna, but the amount of fanwork that sees a mortal Twilight is tiny in comparison to an immortal one.
As a last one, I watched the first 12 episodes of the show in 2012, but never bothered to really get into the series until early last year. When I watched Princess Twilight Sparkle, this exchange:
Princess Celestia: I must admit that it is wonderful to actually be looking forward to the Summer Sun Celebration.
Twilight Sparkle: What do you mean?
Princess Celestia: For my subjects, it has always been a celebration of my defeat of Nightmare Moon. But for me...It was just a terrible reminder that I'd had to banish my own sister.
Twilight Sparkle: I guess I never really thought about it that way.
Princess Celestia: But now it has become a wonderful reminder of her transformation back into Princess Luna, and our happy reunion.
I always thought that the space of time within the series from the start of Season 1 to Season 3 was a few years. This exchange didn't really disprove it for me, because as we see in Luna Eclipsed, Princess Luna is still socially awkward, so I thought she had merely skipped out on a few celebrations until she was ready to be out in public on a full-time basis again. Imagine my surprise when lots of other people thought this was ironclad evidence Season 1 to 3 was a single year and use Season 5 episodes as proof while ignoring or trying to explain way discrepancies that go against one year, even though their own proof can also be mostly explained away.
Also, Moons and Months. I doubt we'll ever see a consistent use of the term 'Moons', but they can't mean Months in the Earth sense, because our Months are derived from the lunar cycle, and when you manually raise and lower your sun and moon every day you can't have a lunar cycle.
That's a little bit of a long-winded last few paragraphs in an already lengthy post, but that's me merely pointing out how locked up in one mindset, one set of facts people can get. I suppose I'm a little bit hypocritical though, because I would like another episode where we finally get to see Scootaloo's family which would wipe out a ton of fan headcanons.
In any case, here's to No Second Prances!
Not sure why you don't think it's possible to have a lunar cycle with a manually-raised moon. If memory serves, we've seen shots of moon phases, so all it takes is for Luna/Celestia to keep track of whether the moon is currently supposed to be waning or waxing and there you go.
Of course, you can't get orbital-mechanics-produced months, but that's pretty obvious.
Wow. You pretty much nailed everything I believe about Trixie. So there's really not much to say about that.
On the upcoming episode: I really hope that Trixie is neither a villain nor a "good guy" (in the cliche way, at least). One of the draws with Trixie is that she makes for an excellent "grey zone" character; she can be brave and heroic (happens all the time in fanfics, as well as in her comic appearances, and she did stand up to the Ursa), but she's not required to, and she doesn't have that "hero held to a higher standard" that Twilight is saddled with. Trixie can be nice when she wants to, and nasty if she feels it's called for. So it's perfectly plausible that in the episode she's just this perfectly regular pony who Starlight happens to befriend, and Twilight's paranoia blows it all out of proportion. And in the end, Twilight learns not to make stupid assumptions. Well, maybe that will happen. If Diamond Tiara gets redemption, I don't see why Trixie would get thrown under the bus.
Also, I hope they keep that playfully disrespectful attitude shown in her "Hello, 'princess'," line. Maybe only my headcanon, but I feel that Trixie does not exactly kiss the ground Twilight walks on.
Other interpretations, since you brought them up: Obviously, we're not required to adhere to any pseudo-factual "evidence" for our fanfics. Things we see can fuel ideas, but they should not constrain. I'd rather use it for new interpretations, while keeping old ones for alternate fanfics. For instance, that pony standing next to Trixie in the comics (fan-named Dandy Lion, apparently). Mother? Sister? Matron of the orphanage Trixie grew up in? Complete stranger? Who knows. If one can use it to drive a story forward, do use it. If not, it's not relevant.
Twilight the immortal alicorn: I'm actually of the opinion that she's not. (Again, as mentioned above, don't let "facts" impair your writing either way.) Neither she nor Cadence are. For one thing, I can't see Cadence be very gung-ho about marrying and having a family if she suspects she'll outlive them by centuries. (She didn't know about Flurry, obviously.) Same thing with Twilight outliving her friends and loved ones. She wouldn't want that. And Word of God hints that she won't, however you want to interpret that.
So here's my technical interpretation: Becoming an alicorn doesn't automatically make you immortal. However, it's possible to become immortal in certain ways (which actually doesn't require you to be an alicorn, either). Celestia and Luna are immortal because they've bound themselves magically to the sun and moon respectively; neither can die of old age as long as their celestial body remains in the sky. They chose to become immortal because Equestria needed it of them, and took the burden of loneliness with it. But neither Twilight nor Cadence needs to be immortal (and love and friendship rather runs counter-productively to being alone with only memories) so they don't need to do it.
Besides, there's zero clear evidence as to how long a pony lives normally, anyway. Some early fanfics have suggested a shorter-than-human lifespan to match real-life horses, while others go the other way. (There is, after all, the nebulous evidence that Ponyville's been around for centuries and was founded by Granny Smith, making her centuries old... who's to say ponies can't live that long, really? This is a magical land, after all.) But it all boils down to "Is this relevant to the story?" If Twilight's immortality (or lack thereof) has no bearing on the story, what does it matter? Same thing with "How do they hold things", "How do they use toilets" and "Do they eat meat". Is it relevant?
So yeah. Trixie. Sooo excited now.
I mirror what Mooncalf said.
When it comes down to it, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a collaborative effort built by many people. Writers, animators, story boarders, and so on. With so many different minds coming and going with each season, it's not too surprising that there's been contradictions within FiM own world. Personally, I'm rather pleased with how much continuity has been maintained.
Given five full seasons to draw on, what I've come to understand is that the needs of the plot outway the needs of the continuity. And I'm okay with that as long as the episodes remain entertaining and engaging.
And this is why fanfiction exists. To fill in the gaps left that the show can not, or will not, fill in. Seeing as how involved I've been since the beginning of season 2, I'd say it's been a major success on all fronts.
Saturday can't come soon enough. C'mon, Trixie!
3897086 See, the manually-raised moon is the key. Earth's lunar cycle occurs because the moon revolves around the Earth all while the Earth rotates, but the differences in revolution and rotational speed means the rise and set of the moon in a given area of the Earth is offset by about 40 minutes every day - hence why you might see the moon at 1400/2pm one day at a given spot over the horizon, then two weeks later you'll only see it at that same spot at night. Then it takes roughly 29.5 days for their cycles to join up again.
In contrast, it's very heavily stated that in Equestria, the sun is raised/the moon lowered and vice versa at the same time, and it's finally shown at the end of PTS part 2 as well as Filli Vanilli. What that means is that (at least when Luna and Celestia are in control of their bodies) the day and night are strictly demarcated times, and the moon is only up during the night, never during the day.
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Thanks for the feedback! Do you guys think maybe I should repost this blog post (with a little bit of editing) to one of the Trixie group forums for a wider reach?
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Might be an idea. I've found that while Trixie has plenty of fans, they can have vastly contrasting ideas about her. It could be useful for digging up a few interpretations and discussions.
3897512 Yes, that's what I mean. Orbital mechanics can't cause phases of the Equestrian moon, but since it's not entirely clear that the moon actually works the way ours does at all, that doesn't mean you can't get phases some other way. What is clear is that the moon does not orbit.
3898313 Yes, but here's the thing: the moon has never been shown in anything but a full phase. There's some crescent moon imagery floating around in-show such as in Luna's Cutie Mark, but it's more likely than not just a stylised thing in-universe much like how Celestia has a sun with several spokes for her Mark and that's not what the sun looks like.
3898027 Well, it's up if you want to repost your earlier comment in there.
3898670 Page 1 (gibbous); page 2 (crescent).
Thanks for the search pages, though! I hadn't realized it was quite so easy to dig up phase screenshots.
I too thought of a few years span between season 1 and 3, but the "one year" span actually makes sense. We know that, until "Lesson Zero" Twilight sent weekly reports to Celestia, and "Lesson Zero" is the 29th episode (26th week, counting double episodes. Maybe less, since some episode seems unreported). After that, the weekly rate is no longer strictly observed but we can assume that, on average, every episode covers a week of Equestria's life (except double episodes, or episodes that are contemporary to others, like "Just for Sidekicks"). "Princess Twilight Sparkle" is the 66th episode, that means 61th week or less. Not so far from a year (maybe Equestria's years are a bit longer than ours too).
That means that Trixie's appearances in Ponyville ("No Second Prances" included) are separated by more or less a one year span from one another too. That also makes sense.
Obviously that raises some problems, like the fact that we have not enough winter episodes.