Deconstruction is Magic: A My Little Pony Retrospective (S1E6) · 9:56pm Oct 16th, 2020
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreetings everypony, and welcome back to Deconstruction is Magic, my Retrospective/Review/Analysis of every My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode ever! Today's analysis may be shorter, as Boast Busters doesn't involve a ton of narrative depth. But without wasting any more time, let's get on with the analysis! I am the Mage of Mind, reminding you, as always, that even a cheeseburger can be deconstructed to its source.
Boast Busters is the debut episode of Trixie, and seems to have a general mixed response from the MLP fandom. Some like its humour, others find its moral hypocritical. As for me? Well, while the episode is far from the show's best, I would hesitate to call it the worst, either. Trixie is presented as a fairly flat antagonist. She has a big ego and thinks she's the best at everything, presented as part of her stage magic, making huge boasts of grandeur.
I think most of us agree with the mane six when they find it irritating. It makes her an endearing and recognisable antagonist, for sure, but also fairly typical of kids show antagonists for that reason. Of course, she will get development in later seasons, but for this episode alone, there isn't much to her beyond a shallow ego, overall.
(Better than my speed painting attempts anyway.)
As others have pointed out, Twilight's friends are kind of hypocritical when it comes to their reactions to Trixie's boasting. Yes, we all desire to see Trixie taken down a peg, but having them challenge Trixie is only really there to pad out the run time. Though it does bring me to one of the positives I can say about this episode: the physical comedy. The lead up to the jokes are well timed, and they play off the character's emotions to, in a sense, punish them for their attempts to show up Trixie.
(Screw the rules, I have green hair!)
Twilight's anxiety over been shown as a show-off is obviously unfounded, and again, this feels more like an attempt to pad out the story rather than contribute something meaningful to it. After all, she is told (and shown) directly by her friends that it's not using her talent which is the problem: it's being an arrogant butthole! This could be improved by Twilight displaying her paranoia, with her making increasingly absurd rationalisations, despite Spike's attempts to keep her grounded. This could also feed a potential bullying narrative, with Spike rising to the occasion and falling for Trixie's taunts.
(Knock Nock.
Who's there?
*Slam!* The door!)
What I liked most about this episode was the representation of Equestria's Soft Magic system. When I originally reviewed the episode Inspiration Manifestation, I complained that the magic system was broken, because it needs to have some limitations in order to avoid becoming a deus ex machina. While that criticism still mostly holds true (I'll get to it in time), I do think it requires some elaboration on what a soft magic system is in the first place.
Hello Future Me has done a much better analysis of what a soft magic system is in this video than I can, but for a basic definition, a soft magic system is defined as:
These are systems of mysticism. A soft magic system doesn’t have hard and fast rules. It is wild and undefined. The reader can see it play out but is often unaware of the mechanics. Gandalf came back to life because he is a wizard. Rules can’t be broken if you never establish them.
(Don't think about this scene too hard.)
The magic of Equestria is wild and diverse, unique to each pony tribe, as we see in the season 4 finale. Here, it is demonstrated to be primarily focused around unicorns. And while it is strictly a unicorn-only ability, we are never given a direct set of rules as to what it can and cannot do. We can only infer from what we see, which is that magic requires something to act upon. Twilight can do something small, like conjure a few moustaches here and there, but rocking the Urusur Minor to sleep takes considerable effort.
I also love the ever-increasing bestiary of Equestria, giving us something new to think about in the wider world of Equestria. I have used an Ursor Major in one of my stories, corrupted as it may be, which builds upon information we get in this episode! As such, it's for that reason that I can't hate what we're given.
(Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Star Child"!)
Conclusion
Boast Busters is another one of those mixed episodes. The story is simple, and the characters are stretched in order to fill the run time. However, Trixie is still a distinctive character which shows the potential power of unicorns, in addition to giving us a taste into the inner workings of Equestria's soft magic system. For that reason, I will give this episode a final rating of 6.5/10.
What did you think of this episode? Is my assessment fair? Feel free to let me know in the comments! Until next time, take care all :).
