Just watched No Second Prances · 10:48am May 1st, 2016
Never done a blog post that wasn't about a story... but I LOVE THIS EPISODE! Trixie so awesome!
I actually really love Boast Busters, even considering the misfired moral of the story. Besides the obvious awesome introduction to Trixie, I really liked the Ursa and how they got the three most outgoing and combative members of the main cast to try to one-up her - with Pinkie and Fluttershy, being the most tolerant and likely to preach restraint, somehow conspicuously absent.
One thing I am happy with Prances is not just how Trixie acts, but Twilight too. Twilight doesn't have enough episodes where she makes straight-out mistakes. I think the fandom is probably bored of writers quoting Lesson Zero as an example. Plus there's a bit of her old I-wanna-impress-Celestia trait I loved about her back when she didn't have wings. If it isn't crazy obvious when you look at my stories, Twilight used to be (and still kind of is) my favorite character. But ever since she became a princess, she's gradually become less and less relatable than the awkward librarian we used to know, even though the writers did do very well in retaining her personality post-alicornhood.
Part of the charm (for me) of S1 and S2 was how even though the girls were heroes they still had mundane (by Equestrian standards) problems and lives outside of the season premieres and finales. But from S4 onward, Twilight's stories were often related to her adjusting to or dealing with being a princess. The thing is, this is great for little-girl wish fulfillment, but none of us adult (or near-adult) fans actually are princesses who can relate to her new problems. Since Twilight is the cast member whose personality is most like mine, I empathized with her the most, but that's been muted somewhat by her princessdom.
Starlight Glimmer is doing well, but I seriously wish the writers would give her more character. Right now she is totally defined by her role as the penitent. Like, let us know what she likes eating or doing when she's not being all repentent-y. I do like the fact that they portray her using magic to solve everything - it's funny how that little bit of foreshadowing didn't go anywhere. I wonder if it'll be a plot point in a later episode?
I guess this kind of makes one of my stories completely redundant (or semi-canon?), but eh, totally worth it to see a sympathetic portrayal of Trixie in the actual show!
This was one of my favorite episodes of the season so far (not just because Trixie came back)! It's good to see more development on her end. I'm sure Starlight will get more developed as the season goes on, but this is a good start.