Thoughts on the Antagonists: The Great and Powerful Trixie · 6:45am Oct 7th, 2012
Well, you’ve survived my ramblings about episodes, the delays for Chapter 11 (IT’S COMING!), and just about every other thing I’ve thrown at you, so let’s resurrect this deservedly-dead series and take a good, long look at one of the fandom’s most beloved characters while also regurgitating some blog post I did eons ago.
That’s right, it’s the GRRREEEEAAATTT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!
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The Great and Powerful Trixie was introduced to us via a stage show in Ponyville’s town square, where she dazzled the crowds with the most spectacular feats ever witnessed by pony eyes. Unfortunately, three ponies and a dragon were less than impressed with her arrogant attitude; even worse, those three ponies – Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity – made up one-half of our protagonists in the series. Despite their heckling, however, Trixie still managed to put on a good show about how she’d defeated the dreaded Ursa Major and saved the city of Hoofington, and finally topped it off by defeating her mortal enemies. All in all, a good day for her.
Unfortunately, two of her young fans, Snips and Snails, lured an Ursa (actually an Ursa Minor) into the town so she could vanquish it. After a pitiful showing, Trixie finally admitted that she made all her stories up just to make herself look better. The day was only saved when Twilight Sparkle managed to use her own magic to lull the Ursa to sleep and float it back to the Everfree Forest. Trixie, however, refused to eat her humble pie, and thus galloped off into the night as arrogant and egotistical as ever.
And then Season Two…mentioned she existed. Oh, and she’s going to be back in Season Three…as a villain from the looks of it…
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If one were to go solely on the show’s presentation, Trixie is an arrogant loudmouth who thinks she’s better than everypony else, despite not really being shown to be that talented outside of stage magic. Mind you, she’s very good at what she does, and wows pretty much everypony except for the aforementioned three. However, her attitude is that she’s the greatest thing to ever live and nopony is going to ever come close to matching her, even if she never even does the thing they were challenging her to do in the first place.
That being said, she had one good moment. Rather than instantly flee the town, she stood her ground and tried to fight off the Ursa Minor using her small repertoire of skills. However, all of these proved grossly ineffectual, and she was saved only after the one pony who had refused to stand up to her earlier used her powers, easily outclassing anything Trixie was capable of. And so Trixie left, unwilling to mend her ways or learn her lesson.
After that, we have seen neither head nor tail of Trixie, outside of one namedrop and a vector for Season Three. That doesn’t, however, mean the story stops there.
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Out of all the characters in the fandom, Trixie has somehow become quite possibly the most popular villain the show has seen, with only Discord coming close to matching her popularity. It might not sound like much, but remember, she’s a regular jackass pony who’s able to match up to a God of Chaos in a popularity contest. And yet, her character has just the barest sense of a third dimension. What is it that she has that other villains lack?
The theory I’ve gone with the most is that it has to do with the episode “Boast Busters” itself. While the intention was obviously to hate Trixie for being a braggart, and we were given plenty of reason to dislike her actions, the episode was hideously cruel in delivering its message. While she did show up three of our heroines in some downright vicious ways, they did start the mess, and outside of Spike and Twilight, nopony else really seemed terribly upset with her. So of course, the episode ends with a star bear smashing her wagon, Trixie being humiliated publicly, and finally her running away, seemingly homeless and friendless. Meanwhile, the ones who actually brought the Ursa into town are let off with moustaches and community service. It’s a particularly vindictive ending for what really isn’t all that serious of a crime.
Of course, the more likely reason is that a certain editor of a certain popular blog shoved Trixie down everyone’s throats until they all had no choice but to love her. The point is she’s attracted a huge number of supporters and fans since her episode’s debut almost two years ago. But once you pierce the Trixie fandom, you start to notice a HUGE amount of fanon revolving around the character, often pulling in completely different directions. I’ve managed to isolate these down to two distinct versions, although there are also plenty of minor mutations and subgenres. In any case, here we go:
SAD TRIXIE:
“Sad Trixie” basically revolves around the rather depressing implications of the episode’s ending, where Trixie is left to wander homeless and alone. Granted, just how necessary this all is depends on the story in question. Sometimes, all of Ponyville hates her and wishes her dead; other times, it’s only the ponies she humiliated that are angry with her and the rest are willing to let bygones be bygones. She also has a tendency to end up living as a hermit in the Everfree Forest, and for a while her munching on pinecones was one of the most popular pieces of fanon out there. That’s to say nothing of what happened to her career, since apparently something that happens in one country town is enough to destroy her entire career instantly.
One of the things that defines “Sad Trixie” is the emphasis on Trixie’s backstory. Giving a character a tragic background is incredibly popular and could be great if used properly, but a lot of fans put all of their emphasis on everything that led up to the show itself, and hardly anything about what comes afterwards besides shipping. If you can think of any generic tragedy, then Trixie has suffered it at some point. Some stories have her parents dying in an Ursa attack when she was a filly. Others have her simply being an untalented Unicorn whose only ability is to perform basic magic tricks, or an exceptionally powerful pony who got screwed out of a good education by a stroke of misfortune. Heck, one story even had her as Princess Celestia’s original protégé, who ran away from Canterlot after she thought that Twilight was replacing her. No matter what, though, the story tends to serve as a means of excusing Trixie rather than explaining her.
“Sad Trixie” walks a very fine line between making her a sympathetic figure, and just making her pathetic. Quite a few stories show her bragging as coming from self-esteem issues and a desire to make friends. And while friendship is the main theme of the show, the best stories are the ones where this realization doesn’t just come out of nowhere, but instead is gradually built up over the course of the narrative, until even Trixie herself can deny it no longer. Simply having her blurt out that she’s a lonely pony is very much against the character set up by the show; she has to be broken down before she can even get to that point.
POWERFUL TRIXIE:
On the other side of the coin in “Powerful Trixie,” also known as “Vengeful Trixie.” In this setup, Trixie actually is as powerful as she claims to be, was simply having a bad night when the Ursa attacked (if that’s even mentioned at all), and now wants revenge on Twilight and Ponyville for showing her up. She can control Ursas with but a thought, perform feats that would make even Celestia blush with envy, and will gladly destroy everything in her way to get to Twilight. If Trixie is the villain of a story, expect her to be this.
The key thing to remember about this style is that Trixie’s powers have to be either equal to or greater than Twilight’s. After all, she has to show up that good-for-nothing Unicorn who dared to save her life, and she can’t do that without the firepower to back it up. Sometimes, however, she’ll go a craftier route, turning Twilight’s friends against her before going in for the kill. Still others simply have her joining another villain, assisting them so that she can watch the pony who ruined her suffer.
This Trixie tends to be considered to be closer to canon, but at the same time can be overplayed to the point of cartoonish supervillainy. It also requires greatly stretching out just how powerful Trixie is; while the show simply gives her the ability to perform stage magic tricks and the like, this genre requires her to have skills and abilities that she simply does not have in the canon. It’s also much harder to make this kind of Trixie sympathetic, since she’s actively seeking to hurt others rather than just humiliating the ponies heckling her.
BOTH TRIXIES:
Regardless of which route the author takes, the events of “Boast Busters” are the single most important things to ever happen in either Trixie’s or Twilight’s lives. Trixie obviously can’t just go to the next town, pull off some damage control, and gradually work her way back up the stage magician ladder, nor can Twilight simply regard the incident as something that happened in a long string of weird situations. No, this was the moment that defined both their lives, and by Celestia they shall remember it forever!
There are also a tiny number of stories that actually manage to avoid all of these pitfalls and simply have Trixie be her usual arrogant, bragging self. Sadly, such stories are few and far between these days.
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Relationship-wise, by far the most common ship is TrixieXTwilight, or Twixie if you prefer. In many ways, the ship itself just feels obvious. Both are Unicorns who present themselves as being powerful magic users, with Trixie often being painted as the pony Twilight could have become if things had turned out differently. In addition, Twilight was the one who ultimately showed up Trixie, saved the town, and then stopped Rainbow Dash from administering beatdowns afterwards. In any case, the two are apparently perfectly right for each other, despite only speaking less than a dozen lines to each other over the course of the episode.
By far the best shipping story with Trixie, however, is “Kindness’ Reward,” which pairs her up with Fluttershy. Seriously, it handles the ship perfectly, Trixie is allowed to be sad but also be in character, and it’s just a great fanfic.
Obviously, Trixie doesn’t have much in the way of friends, but one pony she also tends to be paired with is Princess Luna. Perhaps it’s to reinforce the whole shadow counterpart thing between her and Twilight, but quite a few fanfics, fanart, and even an entire universe have Luna either taking an interest in Trixie or making the mare her own student to counter Twilight. A lot of this was back in the first season, when evil!Luna was still kicking and having her team up with Trixie to bring down Celestia and Twilight sounded like the coolest thing ever. Personally, though, I don’t really see it. While Luna’s loud and bossy, it’s only because her etiquette is a thousand years out of date. Trixie, meanwhile, is loud and bossy because she has an ego that needs a serious deflating. Still, this can be heartwarming at times, and if done well, and not at the expense of any others, I don’t mind it at all.
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Overall, Trixie’s high place in the fandom is a testament to the ability we fans have to take basic characters, pick their personalities apart, and then create something truly complex to replace the simplistic. Regardless of what flavor you prefer, there seems to be something for everyone who can get past the mare’s mightier-than-thou attitude. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the third season. Will the addition of more canon to follow help or hinder her?
We shall see…
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Well, I hope you enjoyed this waste of time. If you have any complaints or comments on your own interpretation of Trixie, feel free to leave them below. In the meantime, I have a chapter to finish.
>IT’S COMING!
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Great analysis. Only other thing I would point out is that its not merely Trixie's bragging that establishes her as an antagonist, but the fact that her performance and achievements are built around humiliating other ponies in an attempt to build herself up. Oftentimes, she doesn't even outdo her "opponent" despite her claim of being able to anything better than them. Trixie was neither faster nor more agile than Rainbow Dash, nor was she able to be as flashy as Rarity. Instead, she humiliates them, apparently with the intent of manipulating the crowd into neglecting to notice that she didn't actually meet their challenges.
You forget Trixie X Big Macintosh (The Empty Room), though I'm fairly sure that was (almost) a one-time thing...
Speculation: What if Trixie came back in S3 and had a major role for 2+ episodes?
Curiosity: Why do people hate Blueblood more than Trixie? (bar the fact he used Rarity as a bomb-shield)
Dare to Anyone (not to be taken seriously): Trixie X Blueblood. Yeah... no.
This could be, though personally speaking, during my nascency in this fandom, I'd hardly even herd of that particular blog (let alone that its editor had a Trixie fetish), yet the Great & Powerful one was still a high point of the original three day marathon of S1 that got me started. Wanting more stories about her was one of the two driving forces that made me seek out MLP fanfiction in the first place, the other being this crazy thing I'd heard about people crossing ponies with Doctor Who.
That might also just be why the first ever pony fic I started writing (before a certain AU open continuity project distracted me) was going to star the two of them together. I really do need to get aback around to that (no sense wasting 5,200 words).
I think most of my favorite Trixie fanon tends to give her the motivations from this setup, but without stretching her powers beyond what was seen in canon. She talks big and may even try to take Twilight head on, but is hopelessly out classed and so has to continuously make up ever more ridiculous excuses to explain her continued failings.
Kind of makes me feel like a bit of a jackass to think of how much I seem to enjoy watching her struggle in such futility.
At the same time though there's an oddly uplifting quality to such a Trixie. She might often share the tragic elements of SAD TRIXIE, but she never seems to let it break her confidence, and in fact, she only seems to get more ridiculously flamboyant as she goes.
Real though I guess it all comes down to good old fashioned Schadenfreude!
This cannot be said enough. That was probably the first shipping fic (of ANY sort) I ever read where the ship didn't feel needlessly extraneous and tacked on. To some extent it's still pretty obvious that the rest of the plot only exists as an excuse to facilitate the shipping, but it still manages to handle it all quite organically and without hijacking the characters with any blatantly OOC behaviors in the process.
407703
True, but distraction and misdirection is pretty much the bread and butter of any good stage magician. No doubt that Trixie was blatantly mean spirited about it though.
Crack shipping is best shipping. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Trixie_lolface_1.png
It MAY have influenced me just a teensy bit. 
Kindness' Reward really was good stuff. And this is coming from a flouncing Twixie fan. Trouble is, it was Gravekeeper's Ballad of Twilight Sparkle that got me into Trixie shipping. Actually, that was, I think, the second fanfic in this fandom I ever read.
That said, I just have trouble accepting powerful Trixie. Aside from stage magic, she didn't seem to have power beyond any other unicorn in the show. Although, I can more readily accept that she isn't powerful, but very skilled (Lunaverse comes to mind, as well as Twisted Tales Through Time).
Oh, and I think another reason she is popular is that rather adorable hat and cape. C'mon, that's freakin cute. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Trixie_lolface_2.png
407704
I actually read a fic that was Trixie X Blueblood... I don't remember the title, though. It was pretty well done, though, if I remember correctly. It was made a long time ago.
I really don't get the amount of love Trixie receives from this fandom. I can't stand her cannon personality, and I think fan fics almost always have her OOC. I really just don't see the appeal. I really think that her season 3 appearance is going destroy most of the fannon built around her. Especially if she is going to once again be the antagonist.
And now you know why I'm racing to get my Trixie-teaches-Sweetie story written and posted before S3 starts. I'd hate for my story to be invalidated by canon before it's even posted. :-)
Boast Busters was the second MLP episode I ever watched, and the first one that I liked (the first one I watched was Feeling Pinkie Keen). So I like the Trixie character. I think she provides a good platform for a lot of possible fic interpretations. She also makes a neat foil to Twilight.
407704
Already read a Trixie x Blueblood. It was pretty well done actually, involving catharsis for both characters concerning stuff that happened to them, as well as giving both characters reasonable backstories and what happened after their episodes.
The person who wrote the stories is geldon, and you should read Blueblood's Return, Blueblood's Redemption, and The Blueblood Conspiracy in that order, despite it not being the order it was written in.
Somewhat confusing, I know.
Is Trixie less powerful than Twilight? Absolutely. Could she own just about any other unicorn we've seen? IMO, hell yeah.
It's not just the utterly cruel ending that has me sympathizing with Trixie, it's also the stage show. I have no sympathy for those flankholes who interrupted it.
EDIT:
I also don't need a 'sad' background for Trixie. Just what happened to her is enough.
408802: One theory I like is that, while Trixie has less raw power than Twilight, she might be more clever about using it in an actual fight. Or, to put it another way, she might know how to cheat. Twilight probably doesn't.
407752: KR was fun, until the end (I felt that the random addition of clop was extraneous and annoying). But I loved the Fluttershy-takes-on-AJ bit, and the whole thing about pegasus feathers being of deep significance.
408943 yeah. A lot more skill and finesse than Twilight, but lacking the raw power and versatility.
Also, I don't cotton to the idea of Trixie hating Twilight. One of my favorite fics ever, 'Out in The Cold', has Trixie returning to Ponyville... to simply try and salvage the stuff from her wagon.
Overall, still have massive sympathy for Trixie, and I think she's a lot better than how some people paint her. She's not perfect, and was a bit of a flankhole, but overall she's not that bad. Even pretty good.
408114
I very well think this might be the true reason for what makes Trixie such an appealing character. She's the nemeses, the rival, the shadow archetype. She might not be Twilight's equal, but she is in pretty much every way that counts her opposite, which pretty much gives her instant traction.
408943
That's what you consider clop?
The two of them engage in an act of passionate intercourse, but we are never given anything more than a few fairly vague and metaphorical details. I've seen steamier and more explicit sex scenes on daytime public television.
Yeah... that bit in KR was not clop.
Against all odds and despite massive temptation including a pre-established in-universe valid excuse (strange eating habits), I have somehow managed to avoid even putting a pinecone near Trixie, let alone having her eat one. Not certain whether or not I'm going to continue that trend, or break it at some point. We'll see.
Kindness' Reward being, I think, the Most Triumphant example of this. It's certainly my favorite Trixie story - oh, I see you mentioned it below already. Awesomesace.
DagaYemar's "My Little Disney: the Movie" posits that Trixie is incredibly powerful at contract- magic, like Ursela from The Little Mermaid. SInce she couldn't get the Ursa Minor to even agree to a verbal contract, she was outclassed.
Then again, it's also a random, comedy fic that features Trixie singing a rendition of "Poor Unfortunate Souls," so take that with a grain of salt.
Other than that, I can't really think of any "good" examples of this kind of Trixie, unless Harpflank & Sweets counts.
The fic Trixiecord actually has a great bit in it where Trixie meets all six of the M6 at once, and has to spend several moments trying to remember who they were - unlike all of them, who remember her almost instantly and are further convinced that she's somehow evil. While she remembers Ponyville well enough, she focuses a bit more on the bear than on the ponies who lived there.
I actually really like that idea, and I hope it's one that the show goes with, even if they decide to make Trixie a villain for some reason.
Mane 6: We're here to stop you!
Trixie: ...why? Who are you?
Twilight: Don't you remember me? From Ponyville! With the Ursa?
Trixie: Ah...no. I don't.
Twilight: What?
Trixie: For you...the day the Great and Powerful Trixie graced your tiny little village was the most important day of your lives. But, for me...? It was Teusday.
Anyway. My own personal take on Mane!Trixie? What we saw in "Boast Busters" was what she wanted to be doing. She liked wandering Equestria putting on magic shows; she wasn't running from some dark past or something similarly tragic. I actually imagine her with a pretty decent foalhood with plenty of freinds and family. She just enjoys putting on magic shows for ponies, it's her special talent.
And as for after Ponyville?
Trixie: Maybe Thursday. I can't be expected to remember every little thing.
If she remembers Ponyville at all, it'll probably only be so that she can one day return there and put on an even bigger and better magic show to make up for the loss there.
Ah, yes, my mane mare. Who needs the other six?
Fanfiction and a little bit of EqD are what drew me into this character. At the time, Trixie was one of the characters that I thought didn't have a proper conclusion to her arc. Luna? She was redeemed and stuff, probably slowly integrating her way back into society. Gilda? She had it coming in some ways and it's not too much of a stretch to think that she went back home and sulked for a bit.
But Trixie? No idea what happened to her. The possibilities were endless and I wanted to explore them all. Fanfiction, both others and my own, helped with that. Though I agree with 412984 in that I like to think Trixie's backstory isn't tragic at all and that she's just doing what she likes to do. Sad Trixie kinda got old after a while.
But really? Maybe I'm drawn to her because she's a bad girl. And I like bad girls! Just look at who's riding Trixie in my avatar.
Looking forward to what they have planned for his this season! It will definitely be the highlight for me!
412984 Yeah. I don't think she needs a tragic backstory either, in that she doesn't need it to gain my sympathies. The events of the episode are enough to do that!
I do think she'd remember the events and they'd have a big impact on her, as she lost her wagon and everything inside of it and was offered not one iota of sympathy. Excuse me. I have to rip a hole open in reality and chew out those three flankholes.
A good story is In A Tavern, Down By The River. I actually presents a Trixie who's life doesn't revolve around the events of Boast Busters.
When Boast Busters first appeared I took Trixie's boasting as just stagecraft shtick. Lots of stage magicians assume stage personas of some sort or other. I spent the first half of the episode wondering why the Mane 6 were objecting so much.
I personally see Trixie as a powerful unicorn, but not nearly in Twilight's weight class. Think Trixie is Spiderman to Twilight's Superman. Head and shoulders (power-wise) above the common unicorn, but not up to levitating Ursa Minors in a single bound. I think she has to have some serious magical muscle for the crowd's reactions to her tricks to make sense. This might've given her serious reason to think she was indeed #1 in the field, demigodesses aside.
As for the fans' attraction... I think she's just adorable. I really think it's just that, cuteness, rather than something complicated.