Episode Re-Review: Boast Busters · 7:38pm Jan 25th, 2021
Brace yourselves, folks, we're heading into the show's first true clunker and the debut of what would become one of the show's worst written characters. Considering that the show hadn't really taken off by this point, and nowadays it can only take one bad or underwhelming episode to get your show cancelled, it's a miracle the show would recover from this early self-inflicted wound. Am I being too hard on this episode written by Chris Savino (who has since gained a rather infamous reputation that led to his dismisal from The Loud House), or does it really deserve to be regarded as one of the show's worst clunkers? Well, let's find out.
We begin with Twilight practicing a spell, a spell that can apparently grow a mustache on someone even if they have no facial hair or even hair at all. Spike starts gushing about it, but Twilight is insanely modest and insists that she's not nearly as powerful as Spike thinks she is. An innocent start that's not going to last. As soon as Twilight and Spike step outside they find the town seems to be deserted, before suddenly two colts named Snips and Snails (a reference to the old adge "Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of. Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of.") show up. They lead Spike and Twilight to a stage where we are introduced to Trixie. And we run headlong into our first problem. Before Trixie has even done anything at all, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash complain about her. Rainbow Dash even admits she's as boastful as Trixie before she gets a glare from Rarity and Applejack, but this the extent to which this hypocrisy is ever acknowledged. However, just because they remove sympathy from half of our main characters doesn't mean it automatically goes to Trixie. But all things considered, Trixie looks like a saint because of this. Is she boastful? Yes. But she's a magician, and it's part of her job to attract a crowd by whatever means necessary. At no point is she forcing anyone to stay. But this never gets brought up at any point.
So Trixie decides to make the performer's mistake of engaging the hecklers, throwing down the gauntlet with the challenge "Anything you can do, I can do better". And Applejack stupidly steps up to take on the challenge, showing off her rope skills and basically proving that she's a hypocrite since she's showing off after she attacked Trixie for doing the same. Trixie replies by using her magic to tie Applejack up with her rope and stuff an apple in her mouth. Rainbow Dash goes up on stage not to try and stick up for her friend but just to show off her flying skills, and the same thing happens to her that happened to Applejack. Rarity is initially more hesitant, until Trixie goads her. And take a wild guess what happens. That's right, Rarity is publicly humiliated too as her mane is turned green.
Spike tries to encourage Twilight to take a stand, but Twilight refuses to do so because she's afraid she'll be seen as a show off just like Trixie and shunned by her friends. Nevermind the fact that her friends in this case would almost certainly cheer her on and would probably love it if Twilight showed up and one upped Trixie during her own show. This caries over to an unfunny subplot where Spike keeps encouraging Twilight to use her magic, and Twilight keeps saying no. Meanwhile, we see that off stage Trixie is actually kind of decent. She lets Snips and Snails hang around her and only reacts with disgust when they start taking their hero worship a little too far. Even so, she politely shoos them away. Then Snips and Snails bump into Spike, who seems to take Trixie's ursa major story seriously (even though at no point did Trixie ever claim it was true, and I think most in the audience knew it was made up). He ends up encouraging them to bring a real ursa minor into town for Trixie to vanquish because of this.
So Snips and Snails stupidly go looking for one and bring it right to Trixie's doorstep. Trixie barely escapes in time before her wagon, her very way of life gets destroyed and not because of her own actions either. She did practically nothing wrong and had her life up ended for it. And it's not like she doesn't try to fight back against what she thinks is an ursa major either. Yes, she's clearly just using her parlor tricks, but she could just as easily refuse to fight for a town that gave her no reason to be supportive. She could easily flee and let the town be destroyed, but she tries to fight back despite knowing she's outclassed. And when Twilight arrives on the scene, Trixie willingly admits the ursa major story was just a lie. Twilight then uses her magic to calm the savage beast, revealing that it was actually an ursa minor and not an ursa major. Then Trixie does the only thing remotely antagonistic here. Rather than try to explain herself or even let Twilight vouch for what was an honest misunderstanding gone wrong, she brags about how Twilight will never be stronger than her and then disappears in a cloud of smoke that expires too soon. And does Twilight think to maybe inform the town of what really happened? No. She lets Trixie go without bothering to clear up the record.
Snips and Snails do confess to their part for the ursa minor's rampage, and Spike encourages Twilight to "punish" them and him by giving them mustaches. Yes, that's right, Snips and Snails ruined someone's life through their stupidity and almost caused the town to be destroyed, and they're let off the hook without even a slap on the wrist. This isn't funny, I don't know who thought it was! And the moral is about the importance of being proud of what you are and of your abilities, but not letting that make you arrogant and boastful. But you know what a better moral would be? It's not right to dump on others for doing their job. If you don't like the show, leave or don't bother attending. If you choose to attend despite knowing what the performer is like, you can't complain. But no, protagonist centered morality is in play here.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? I wasn't kidding when I said this was a bad episode and one of the worst of the entire show! I am so glad this didn't get the show killed! Compared to subsequent appearances, the Trixie who appears here might as well be an entirely different character. And when the show brought her back they completely missed the point on what she had been like. It's funny to note that Trixie was originally planned to be a stallion (just imagine the ship fics that would've launched). But just about everything about this episode aside from Trixie for most of it is just horribly plagued by hypocrisy and protagonist centered morality. Snips and Snails are literally too dumb to live, yet they get off with no consequences for what their stupidity causes. Maybe this was a way to get Twilight to be more open about her talents, but she'd already clearly bothered with things like teleportation that as far as she knew no other unicorn could do. This episode is just as bad as I remember it being, and it gets an F as a result!
Well, it can only get better from here, right? Next up is "Dragonshy" which is going to be quite the interesting episode to come back to given developments in later seasons.
This, for me, is the definitive guilty pleasure episode.
From a writing perspective, yeah, it's pretty bad all around.
Yet Trixie is SUCH a ham that I can't help but love it anyway, to the point that this is still one of my favorite episodes of the season.
It wasn't bad of an episode it was cool to see Trixie despite that she's a very unpleasant Pony at first but it was still interesting
In Snips and Snails defense, they were forced to clean up the damage the Ursa Minor made, which is a fair punishment because they are CHILDREN.
Uhhh, Trixie DID claim that she saved Hoofington from the Ursa Major. Spike never told Snips and Snails to go get an Ursa Major, he was saying that he wouldn't believe Trixie's questionable story unless he saw it for himself. And those two idiots DID get punished by having to clean up the mess. Considering they were CHILDREN, I think that's enough. And Trixie is NOT totally innocent. Do you not remember just how bad her bragging was? She makes Rainbow Dash seem as shy as Fluttershy in comparison! And she probably only let Snips and Snails hang around her so they could wait on her like servants and shower her with the praise and attention she craves. Personally, I don't approve of someone who would take advantage of kids like that.
And you need to remember that Twilight is still NEW to friendship at that point. I can't blame her for being afraid of being seen as a showoff, because I know what it's like being in her hooves when it comes to being socially awkward and not having many friends. Can YOU say the same? You can't truly judge someone and make assumptions unless you are able to put yourselves in their shoes. Or hooves in this case. Or claws in Spike's case...
5441790
True, but the fact they also get rewarded with moustaches kinda undermines their punishment.
I actually think this is the best of the first 6 episodes
I haven't watched it in a long time, but the last time I did I wrote a review on it, so instead of saying a bunch of stuff I've already written before, I'll direct you to it. https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/857579/mlp-fim-season-1-episode-6-review-boast-busters TLDR engaging realistic conflict, Twilight, Spike, and Trixie are cool, and the moral, animation, and voice acting are really good.
5441802
During her show. Again, I think anyone with half a brain would assume she was making it up. If a comedian told a joke about beating up a bear with their own hands, would you believe them if they didn't tell you they were just joking? No, because you know you can't just do that. Just because you say something doesn't make it true. And exaggeration is often what performers like magicians do to attract a crowd. It's not their fault if others are dumb enough to believe their stories and think to make them do it again.
Her bragging was a part of her stage persona, and until the near end of the episode it clear that she wasn't anywhere near as much of a bragger off stage as she was on stage. Her mistake was engaging with the hecklers, which is something a performer is not supposed to do. But when Applejack and Rainbow Dash go on up stage without being prompted or volunteered, they're making themselves look as bad as they claim Trixie is for showboating.
Well, if her friends were making remarks about all unicorns or about anyone who showed off, that might be believable. But it's clear their only problem was Trixie because the episode said so. If Twilight had actually gone up on stage and bested Trixie, her friends would've not only supported her but in fact cheered her on and likely would've caused her to become almost as arrogant as Trixie.
5442159
They're in Equestria. They have alicorns that move the sun and moon, pegasi that control the weather, and unicorns (including Twilight) that do a LOT of magic. The impossible is rather stretched there...
Her bragging bordered on insults and she nearly crossed that line if not did cross it momentarily. And I don't blame Applejack and the others for wanting to shut her up. Trixie didn't have to acknowledge them for being skeptics, but she did. And she's a braggart off the stage, so that shows that's who she is as a person. She just got nervous during the attack because she was backed into a corner where she couldn't keep her lies up. She even bragged to Twilight at the end. So it shows that at that point in time, Trixie was a mild version of Lila Rossi who lies to promote herself, nothing more. And I don't see you defending how she took advantage of Snips and Snails, very much how Rossi took advantage of those who believed her lies to get them to do favors for her without needing them to and giving nothing back in return. I agree that Trixie is badly written as heck, but she's not as innocent as you keep insisting she is in this episode.
And did Twilight know what her friends would've done aside from Spike? NO SHE DIDN'T. I know what it's like to feel insecure about friendship, and it's understandable that she did here because she's STILL NEW TO IT AT THIS POINT and STILL GETTING TO KNOW THEM. Twilight may be a one unicorn army (later one alicorn army) with all the spells she knows, but she's not psychic and she can't predict the future. And she isn't a telepath that can read their minds.. Hindsight is 20/20, and you seem to conveniently forget it during your reviews...