Ranking the Trixie Episodes (From Worst to Best), Version 2 · 5:06pm Sep 15th, 2019
Well, Trixie, it's been quite a ride. A fan favorite character from her first appearance, there's no denying that Trixie owes her long lease on life in the show in part to her popularity with the fans. Heck, she was part of the Princess Trixie AU that remains popular to this day since its inception in the early days of the fandom. But after Season 9 her total of episodes has only increased to 11, so what changed for the magician and was it a change for the better or the worse? Well, let's find out. Here's the first version, from March.
11. A Horse Shoe-In (Season 9, Episode 20)
Why it's on the bottom: Taking all the bad aspects of previous Trixie outings and dialing them up to eleven, this final outing for Trixie completely destroyed her character and her redemption. If she's still this dense and self-centered after all this time, I fail to see why anyone in their right mind should be her friend. I don't even see how this could be funny, it isn't. Trixie is utterly annoying here, painfully oblivious to reality and no matter how hard Starlight spells it out for her she just can't understand that maybe she won't get the job of vice headmare. All of that could be forgiven if Trixie learns her lesson, but she doesn't. Starlight is the one made to apologize for being in the right, and the episode ends with Trixie destroying a potted plant that Starlight cared about. I'm honestly surprised Kathleen Barr didn't stand up and say something about this kind of portrayal here.
10. To Change a Changeling (Season 7, Episode 19 in production order/17 in airdate)
Why it moved up: It only moved up because it's no longer on the bottom. I don't get why the writers were just never capable of showing Trixie and Starlight's friendship as something good. It seemed like it only ever involved the two making things worse for themselves and even at times everyone else. Trixie is probably the least sympathetic character in this entire episode, she starts right out of the gate by whining and trying to milk her own ego for no reason. And she doesn't improve from there, she continues to be self-centered and oblivious to a painful degree. It's just that Starlight and Pharaynx aren't shining examples of sympathy either here, if not for Thorax we'd have no one to root for.
9. All Bottled Up (Season 7, Episode 2)
Why it moved up: Again it only moving up because it's no longer in the old position of second to last. This was the first episode that really soured me on StarTrix and unfortunately it never really improved from there. I just don't get how we're supposed to find Trixie's behavior here relateable, sympathetic, or understandable. Her expression when she says Starlight never gets mad at her makes it look like she's knowingly exploiting Starlight's friendship for her own personal benefit. Trixie wanting to learn magic and getting carried away with it is a fine plot on paper, but the execution shouldn't have meant turning her into an unsympathetic, oblivious character that somehow Starlight is wrong to blow up on. How come we never saw Trixie apologize even once for making Starlight's life miserable? Why was it always Starlight apologizing to Trixie?
8. No Second Prances (Season 6, Episode 6)
Why it moved up: Same as the other two, moving up because the new bottom placer means it doesn't occupy the same spot as it did before. What might be sad is that this friendship between Starlight and Trixie did at times feel genuine here, there was actual room to grow. They just didn't spend nearly as much time focusing on it as they did on Trixie being jealous of Twilight and trying to get revenge on her. Yes, you heard right, Trixie is still jealous of the pony who twice saved her life and probably spared her from being thrown in jail. The fact that they decided to make Trixie the antagonist here ended up souring much of the story and in hindsight tainted her interactions with Starlight, because we can't tell if Trixie would've ever bothered to befriend Starlight if not for Starlight being Twilight's student (likewise, we don't know if Starlight would've ever gone out of her way to befriend Trixie if she wasn't so bad at friendship. Meaning that if either character wasn't so bad and so troubled they never would've met, not the best implications you want to give off in a show about friendship).
7. and 6. To Where and Back Again Parts 1 and 2 (Season 6, Episodes 25 and 26)
Why they moved down: It's the second part where Trixie truly gets her chance to shine, doing the only selfless thing we have ever seen her do as a character. Even then it's not made clear why she needs to spring the imposter Discord's trap. If it isn't sprung the changelings will find out anyway, but it's never made clear that capturing Trixie will keep them occupied and buy Starlight and Thorax time to escape. It's a shame that Discord doing something selfless had more impact, and his was unintentional. Aside from that, Trixie mostly just butts heads with Discord (a shame we never saw the two team up at any point), exploits her friendship with Starlight to rub a victory in Twilight's face, and drags out a confession even though she can plainly see Starlight is worried. In retrospect, this should've been a warning sign about what was to come for Trixie's character and her friendship with Starlight.
5. Magic Duel (Season 3, Episode 5)
Why it moved up: As a hammy villain Trixie definitely felt at home, the problem is that the episode never made it clear what was her own doing and what was the alicorn amulet's influence. Because we can't draw that distinction we're left to assume that Trixie did everything she does here of her own free accord (which I don't think is true. I doubt Trixie would've willingly taken over Ponyville or kicked Twilight out). If I could I would put this in the middle of the two parts of "To Where and Back Again" so that it would be above "Part 1" but below "Part 2". Still, for what was likely to be the original final appearance of Trixie, they did an alright job with her. It's still a shame that her "rivalry" with Twilight fizzled out into nothing.
4. Student Counsel (Season 9, Episode 11)
Why it's not in the top three: Chalk this up to another case of Season 9 not knowing when to leave well enough alone. If this had been Trixie's final outing as a character, she would've seemed like an improvement. Looking back though, she is very rough around the edges in this episode, very bipolar. One moment she's sticking up for Starlight, the next she's throwing Starlight under the bus. One moment she isn't the least bit concerned about Starlight's responsibilities, the next she's joining a search party to look for a missing student. But at least she's actually willing to stick to her commitments for once, and it doesn't feel like she's putting pressure on Starlight to listen to her. But if they could make Mudbriar aware of how annoying he is, there's no reason why they couldn't do the same for Trixie here.
3. Uncommon Bond (Season 7, Episode 24)
Why it stayed the same: Everything as it it was before from here on out, nothing has changed, so if you saw the original version you can probably skip to the end. I'm willing to count this as a Trixie episode even though it takes a while for her to appear. This episode more or less canonized the fact that Trixie now lives in Ponyville. And her magic show for Starlight and Sunburst is great, showing how she's come far but still hasn't mastered every trick in the book yet. The only thing that really drags down her performance is her complaint about being judged for her past. When she's actually willing to learn from it and atone, then she can complain about others getting on her case. Until then, she has no right to expect others to not call her out for her behavior.
2. Boast Busters (Season 1, Episode 6)
Why it stayed the same: Trixie our designated "antagonist" looks like a saint compared to half of the mane six in this episode. Rainbow Dash even points out how she does exactly what Trixie is being lamblasted for and aside from a brief glance from Applejack no one acknowledges this. The only thing remotely villainous or antagonistic that Trixie does in this episode is refuse to own up to an honest mistake. She willingly admitted to her lie, tried to fight against what she believed was an Ursa Major, and did all of this despite Ponyville treating her so poorly for just doing what is in her nature to do as a performer. Had Trixie simply explained herself when given the chance instead of running off, Twilight would've vouched for her and everything would've worked out just fine.
1. Road to Friendship (Season 8, Episode 19)
Why it stayed on the top: Trixie does apologize willingly to Starlight here, but only over something very minor. In fact, this episode decided to reverse the usual roles for the two, where Starlight does something wrong and seems to act oblivious about it whereas Trixie is just honestly trying to being accomodating. Heck, the episode opens up on a promising note about showing her as capable of teleportation. And now she and Twilight appear to have buried the hatchet for good. This episode basically plays to Trixie's strengths, probably the only time since her reformation that such was the case. And because of that it's going to remain her best focus episode.
And there you have it, we'll update the rankings for the Rainbow Dash episodes on Saturday after "Daring Doubt" airs in the U.S.
For me, it goes:
Student Counsel
Road to Friendship
A Horse Shoe-In
Uncommon Bond
To Where and Back Again
No Second Prances
All Bottled Up
To Change a Changeling
Magic Duel
Boast Busters
I just got to watch this past Saturday's episode and... yeah... definitely not a good way to end the overall perspective of how Trixie has 'grown' since Season 1.
I always get the impression that Starlight really wants things to work out with her and Trixie. Starlight, to me, feels disconnected from Twilight's friends and really needs pals of her own that aren't just there because twilight brought them in. Trixie was her first she could 'relate' with and this has a kind of toxic feel as Trixie tends to put Starlight into positions where she struggles immensely to maintain the friendship.
At least in the "A Horseshoe In" we got Starlight not holding back her anger towards Trixie. This was an improvement over "All Bottled Up". Though, personally, I think Starlight is too nervous to lose, to her, the only genuine friend she sees on a regular basis.
Now that Sunburst will be around more, I believe there is a chance that Starlight will fear being lonely again a lot less and not put up with Trixie's craziness as much. However it's only a guess and something that only the fans now will have the chance to work out.
I feel like Trixie been OCC for sometime now. I was hoping they try to strengthen her character. Seeing as this is the final season. However I feel like Trixie can grow as character. But the writers can’t do that because it make Starlight look bad . I’m not a Starlight hater but I hate that the other character has to look bad in comparison, to farther her character.
The writers seems think that Trixie is only an attention grabber and that’s all she will be. Which I seen plenty of stories strengthen her character better than this.
I will say that liked that Trixie stod up for Gallus