All Bottled Up: After the Fact · 1:27am Aug 18th, 2017
All Bottled Up: or... Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin.
Upon a recent binge of My Little Pony episodes to stave off the post-BronyCon depression, I was re-watching Season 7, Episode 2: All Bottled Up. And on a fresh viewing, I felt it deserved a more in-depth analysis.
We open with Trixie trying, and failing, to transform a salt shaker into a teacup. Starlight, a pony she considers to be her best friend, offers advice to her. Trixie succeeds in transformation.
"Starlight, I did it!" Trixie shouts in excitement. Trixie pounces on her friend Starlight...
and causes her to mess up the cupcakes she's working on.
Trixie become so excited, she can't help herself but transform everything, including Starlight's frosting, into a teacup.
Now is it Trixie's fault that the cupcakes were ruined? Well, in the strictest sense of the word, yes. Starlight even goes so far as to say: "Trixie! You ruined my teacakes!"
"I just got excited. This is the first time I did a transfiguration spell. Real magic! Come on, be impressed by me!"
But does that make Trixie the villian? That is a bit harder to answer. But before we explore that, let's continue with the episode.
Trixie is obviously excited. Both as a unicorn, and a magician by trade. This is a big deal for her. But another thing to take away from this scene is her hope for Starlight to be impressed by her. Starlight is clearly important to her, and her approval means the world to Trixie, perhaps more so than the ability to do magic itself. But in counterbalance to that, Trixie fails to apologize for ruining Starlight's teacakes. But to Trixie's defense, this is a life-altering moment for her, performing 'real magic' for the first time, and to impress her friend, Starlight. The cost being Starlight's teacakes.
In this regard it is understandable, at least, to see how Trixie would dismiss the loss of the teacakes as a minor thing. To her, the teacakes are merely a snack. Her practical solution, is to offer a bag of pretzels that are also, technically a snack. Trixie simply does not understand the symbolic weight of the teacakes. Where as Starlight is likewise trying to impress her friend and mentor, Twilight, with the teacakes. Objectively a minor gesture, but important to her. The fact that Trixie is too preoccupied with her own excitement to acknowledge this is the beginning of Starlight's anger.
Now, clearly, the thunderous cloud of red is obvious to us, as the viewer, as a bad thing. But it is simply there to serve as an artistic symbol of anger incarnate.
The B-plot of the mane six is entirely inconsequential to the point of the episode and easily dismissed except for the need for pacing.
Save for one part: The train station.
"Relax, if anything breaks, Starlight will just go back in time and fix it."
This one off-color joke is spouted so flippantly by Trixie, it could be easy to ignore in any other context. But Starlight is clearly upset by it. It is too personal to a subject that she is sensitive about. And in the moment, Trixie fails to understand this, by making light of it. Trixie is obviously wrong to do this, but she isn't doing it to intentionally hurt Starlight's feelings. It was meant as an inside joke, (admittedly with the wrong choice of subjects.) But even Twilight's expression demonstrates that the joke was in poor taste. To which Trixie (to her credit) is quick to redact.
Then Trixie gives Twilight the pretzels on Starlight's behalf. Starlight is obviously uncomfortable with this. But Trixie is doing it because she thinks that Starlight forgot to give them to her. What is important to note her is that Trixie genuinely thinks that she is doing Starlight a favor by giving Twilight the pretzels. She is oblivious to the discomfort that she is causing Starlight. She really is just trying to help. And this is the point of the episode I really want to hammer home. The difference between a friend and an enemy is:
A friend may do things that hurt you.
An enemy does things TO hurt you.
The key difference is intent. Trixie is doing things that hurt or embarrass Starlight. But it isn't her intention. Meanwhile, even though Starlight understands that Trixie isn't malicious, she is nonetheless irritated. But her kindness holds her tongue, to spare her friend's feelings. Nobel, yes. But as we'll see, ultimately the wrong thing to do.
Ponies (and by extension, people) are like dogs. When a pet dog does something good, like say, follow a command to sit, you want to reward the behavior immediately, and consistently, to reinforce the behavior. Contrariwise, when a pet dog does something bad, like pee on the carpet, you want to correct the behavior immediately and consistently, so that they associate the punishment with the undesirable act. Classic behavioral psychology.
Starlight fails in this by not addressing Trixie's behavior immediately. Trixie simply does not understand that what she is doing is wrong, and therefore assumes that it is permissible.
Now, is this Trixie's fault?
Short answer, yes. Long answer, no.
Is this Starlight's fault?
Short answer, no. Long answer, yes.
Forgive my language but Trixie is a grown-ass adult mare who ought to have some sense about her own behavior and courtesy to other ponies' feelings. But she simply does not. Perhaps she wasn't raised right, or has some kind of social maladjustment. But she is, at the very core of her personality, flawed. AND THAT'S OKAY. Nopony is perfect. And that is what makes everypony unique and interesting, and, yes, irritating sometimes.
Starlight ought to see the maladjusted puppy that she has taken in for what it is, but she is (understandably) still too upset to come to grips with Trixie's ignorance.
Back at the castle, Trixie is eager for Starlight to teach her more magic. Starlight explains that Magic is tied to her emotion. And Trixie says,
"Right, like when you were so upset that cutie marks took away your friend that your magic was strong enough to enslave an entire village!"
"Yup. Thanks for bringing that up." Starlight said. Sarcastically.
But Starlight tries her best to brush it off. Again, letting Trixie believe that her behavior is acceptable, (so why would she change it?)
They decide to do a teleportation spell, and try to pick something to test it on. Spike wisely decides to GTFO. They go with an apple, but Trixie is too excited to show off that she makes the table disappear.
Starlight has a lot at stake here. Twilight trusted her to be alone in the castle (since apparently Spike doesn't count). Trixie on the other hoof is too preoccupied with the fact that she was able to teleport something. Even if the result was disastrous.
At this point, it becomes a bit too on-the-head with the point of Trixie being oblivious, to the point of being almost immersion breaking. Starlight's angry tone would make even a blind pony understand that she was upset. But it needs to be said that some ponies, (and by extension, people) really are just that dense.
Some ponies don't get subtle hints.
Some ponies don't get obvious hints.
Some ponies need you to tell them, to their face, in all caps, that they are doing something wrong.
Starlight instead decides to, quite literally, bottle up her anger, for fear of losing Trixie as her friend.
Spike is the voice of the the audience, which is to say, the voice of reason. Spike is the only role needed for this since the mane six would only echo his question:
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Spike also represents an important role in this friendship dynamic. The bystander. He's the view from the outside that we share as the audience. He has the sense to know that he should tell Trixie that something is wrong, even if Starlight won't, for both their sake. He can see the train wreck coming. But he remains a silent bystander.
I must fault him for this point, and he is partly to blame as well, if only just. It's a minor thing. But it's worth noting. Nobody wants to interfere in their friends' lives. But if in your heart of hearts, you know it's the right thing to do, if you know it really is what's best for them, DO IT. They might be mad for a while. But if they truly value your friendship, they will understand and forgive you.
And since Starlight never explicitly tells Trixie that she is mad at her, she assumes that:
"You never get mad at me."
Starlight gives her no reason from there on to think otherwise, and Trixie keeps on with her inappropriate behavior. But Starlight's continual effort to use magic to contain her anger is a visual metaphor for the effort a person makes to contain their own anger. But instead of magic, it's stress. And it is just as equally exhausting. And for a person as terrible at reading body language as Trixie, the effort is invisible. At least for a while.
It progressively gets worse and worse for Starlight until she is visibly deflating until even clueless Trixie notices that there is something wrong with her friend that she care so much about:
"Are you okay Starlight? Because you seem a little- bleh."
Finally it gets to the point where Starlight's anger literally explodes. And, cartoon logic of infecting three ponies' worth of anger aside, Starlight finally goes off on Trixie about all of the things that had been upsetting her. And it is... not attractive.
"I'm really mad at you. You lost Twilight's map table. You make jokes like it's no big deal. It's like you don't even care that you could get me into a lot of trouble. If we can't find that table, Twilight's never going to trust me again. And the worst part is, you didn't even say you were sorry!"
Each of the things that Trixie had done, by themselves may have been minor. Each might have been resolved right away if Trixie had only realized what she was doing was wrong. But when they were all 'bottled up' into one big cloud of anger, it became cataclysmic.
Trixie is hardly blameless.
Throughout the entire episode, her behavior was selfish, narcissistic, and downright mean at times. But none of it was malicious. Trixie is not a villain in this episode, she's just dense.
It's hardly Starlight's fault that she's friends with a mare that has the social aptitude of a petulant foal.
There are no clear 'good guys' or 'bad guys' in this episode. There is no simple 'friendship lesson'. And that's what I really love about this episode. It is a far cry from the simple lessons of season 1, such as, 'Applejack needs to not be so stubborn' in Apple Buck Season. It's a dynamic, and complex lesson that just goes to demonstrate how much the show has grown in it's own maturity. It tackles these kind of complicated friendship problems that have no clear positions of who is right or wrong. Because real friendship is complicated. Real friendship isn't always easy. But it's worth fighting for.
I mean, just look at that face, when Trixie is finally told directly, point-blank, how much she has hurt her friend:
You can see just how much it tears her up inside, to know now what she had done. You can see the remorse, the regret, the pain. It's the look of a pony that would far rather have taken a beating from Bulk Biceps than to have hurt her friend as much as she had. You can hear the heartbreak in her voice when she says,
"I'm sorry. I had no idea you felt that way."
"Yeah, I DO!" But to be fair, I don't know how you could have known.... ...I bottled up my anger."
"Not gonna lie, hearing you say all those terrible things about me wasn't easy. But I needed to hear it. Why didn't you just tell me how you felt?"
"I didn't want to lose you as a friend."
"Come on. It would take a lot more than that to lose me. Our friendship is stronger than a few angry words... ... I'd take that over the boring pony you were becoming any day. The Starlight I love is passionate, lively, and yeah, sometimes angry. Those are my favorite parts of you."
In the end, Trixie hears what she needs to in order to correct her behavior for her friend. For the sake of the episode, it was more colorful as an emotional explosion at the end. But the lesson is that friends should resolve small problems right away through communication, before they become big problems.
Communication is key. THAT is the lesson.
Because some ponies, just like people, are terrible are reading body language.
They don't get subtle hints.
They don't get OBVIOUS hints.
If something is bothering you, TELL THEM.
Correct them immediately and consistently, or else that puppy is going to just keep peeing on the rug.
A small quarrel is far easier for a friendship to overcome than a huge fight.
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Interesting how this episode and The Tower of Dr. Zalost have the same basic message, but go about it in very different ways, and while I do think the latter is more subtle and emotional (and with better music) I also think this was a pretty underrated episode, at least when compared to Celestial Advice, which of the premiere episodes gets more attention it seems.
Bootiful analysis
...I should probably pay closer attention to stuff like this, but I just get distracted by colorful horses and lesbian horses and colorful lesbian horses.
i'm just surprised at the level of trust trixie shows starlight knowing her trime travel adventure and how she enslaved that town. even being chased by the possessed ponies, she still reaches for starlights help.
This is something people nowadays always seem to forget.
The whole red cloud of angry doom thing was something that came out of nowhere, but paired with the bottle makes a good metaphor for the lesson.
Huh... contrariwise is an actual word, didn't expect that.
In all seriousness though, quite a good analysis. Hadn't really thought about whose fault this was, or if any one
perpony was even to blame.Any other episodes you want to dig deeper into?
4645367
Yes.
Great analysis. I now have the image of Starlight swatting Trixie's nose with a rolled up newspaper.