Episode Re-Review: No Second Prances · 4:18pm May 17th, 2021
So now Starlight Glimmer was getting a focus episode, an episode carrying rather high stakes considering how devisive she still was. And this episode was being touted largely for the return of a certain fan favorite character who fans had been dying to see more of since Season 3. Nick Confalone was writing this episode, and by now he'd proven himself to be a pretty competent writer. But not only did this episode go on out to be overshadowed by what came next, but nowadays it tends to be seen as one of the show's worst all time episodes? Has it deserved that reputation? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Twilight trying to instruct Starlight on how to set the table, but she only just gets to "Without magic" before Starlight goes and sets up everything all by herself. Twilight mentions that she wanted to work in a friendship lesson during this, but of course she doesn't have one (and not everything needs to be a lesson, unless the lesson is supposed to be on following directions). This isn't just for show though, there's an important dinner with Princess Celestia taking place in a day or so and Twilight has tasked Starlight with making a new friend. Twilight thinks that if Starlight brings a new friend along it'll make the teacher look good by comparison in front of Celestia. But it's odd they don't mention that Princess Celestia already met Starlight during "The Crystalling", unless this is meant to take place before that (which doesn't seem likely). Also, it's weird that there's no mention of Spike attending this dinner. Even if he wasn't going to be at it they could at least include a line about him not wanting to be there. It's just like his unexplained exclusion from the pancake breakfast in "Castle, Sweet Castle", cutting him out of these activities doesn't make the ponies look good.
Then, the episode basically confirms that Starlight is friends with all the mane six and not one of them are the least bit bothered by who she used to be. Again, there's probably been a time skip between seasons but in this case the time skip seems to make all of this a case of "Show, don't tell". They're telling us Starlight has changed and befriended the mane six, but they have neglected to show it. Sunset Shimmer's reformation wasn't completely free of this problem either, she had already inexplicably gained the trust of the Rainbooms by the time of "Rainbow Rocks" (and presuambly Flash Sentry too), but at least there she still had the rest of the school that was still on edge around her. Anyway, Pinkie Pie suggests Starlight befriend Mrs. Cake, who gets upset when Starlight bakes a cake using magic and thinks Starlight is trying to put her out of business even though there's nothing that would suggest that.
The next clip sees Starlight being introduced to Big Macintosh, who is back to being just an "Eeyup" and "Eenope" character. It's kind of understandable since he's probably shy and Applejack says he's "Not much of a talker" but it does feel like a step back after he finally stopped being the silent character in "Brotherhooves Social". Anyway, Starlight uses her magic to basically compel Big Mac to speak, and this time I can understand why Starlight ends up getting angry looks since she does cross a line. She then seems to realize an important thing about "Magically compelling ponies to act the way I want them to", which is going to go on to get tossed aside in her next focus episode without fanfare. Once that's over with, we have Rainbow Dash offering to introduce Starlight to the Wonderbolts and is shocked to learn Starlight's never heard of them. Considering how casual Rainbow Dash is around Starlight here, I can't possibly buy that all this time has passed and the Wonderbolts have not been a conversation topic even once with how much Rainbow idolizes them.
We do also have clips of Rarity and Fluttershy, which don't really accomplish much and just seem to be done out of a desire to include all the mane six at least once. Then, Starlight begins to wonder if maybe something is wrong with her if she can't make friends on such short notice (meaning Twilight is not exactly a good teacher for springing such a task on her student so suddenly and with such a short window of time to complete it). She begins stressing out and drawing attention to herself, so I guess maybe it's a mild panic attack of sorts. She then decides to head to the spa to relax and unwind, and it's there that she meets a pony she can finally relate to. We don't see said pony's face, but the coat color and voice are a dead giveaway as to who it is. That's right, it's Trixie.
However, when Trixie is officially introduced by Starlight the reunion with Twilight doesn't go smoothly. For some unexplained reason, Trixie is acting like a smug snake with something to hide and the ending of "Magic Duel" is retconned so that although Twilight did forgive Trixie she's not exactly pleased to see her again. The two do seem to have a sort of mutual rivalry going on, almost like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck where even when they're working together they always seem to be at each other's throats.
Twilight then opts to pull Starlight aside and express her worries about how Trixie maybe isn't the best influence for Starlight, before Starlight rightfully reminds Twilight that she said Starlight was free to make friends with anypony she wanted to. Though I don't quite like how Starlight uses Trixie's forgiveness in conjunction with her own to try and imply that by Twilight not immediately trusting Trixie, she's not trusting Starlight. Not only is Starlight wrong to demand trust at a moment's notice, but she doesn't know what Trixie did yet so for all she knows Twilight could have a good reason to be wary of Trixie. I mean, if Trixie is really innocent she shouldn't be trying to act all secretive and sinister like Discord. It's the same problem, if you're innocent then don't act like you're guilty. Anyway, Trixie reveals that she's come to town as part of a repentance tour, even going so far as to call herself "The Humble and Apologetic Trixie". Not exactly sure where else she could go with such a tour since Ponyville is the only town we know she ever endangered.
Twilight does seem to agree to let Starlight and Trixie be friends, and then we see Trixie and Starlight working on setting up the stand for Trixie's show. Trixie complains about how ponies don't forget even when they say they'll give you a second chance, but then she ends up revealing why she's probably not trusted when she confesses to Starlight about how she did what she did because she was jealous of Twilight. Yes, that's right, Trixie is jealous that Twilight dared to save her life twice just because in doing so she upstaged Trixie. Nevermind the fact that all Trixie had to do the first time was explain that the Ursa Minor wasn't her fault, or that the second time she willingly sought out the alicorn amulet even though she was at least vaguely aware of how dangerous it was. It's a pretty one sided rivalry when Twilight was never actively seeking to upstage Trixie and only did what she did out of necessity.
Despite this troubling revelation and despite Trixie never saying she regrets being jealous, Starlight decides to not only stay friends with Trixie but also stroke her ego. The two do seem to hit it off while Starlight offers to help Trixie unpack her wagon, as Trixie says she spends a lot of time on the road with it. Kind of odd that Starlight will forget this a few seasons down the road when she'll inexplicably be able to trade it away.
Then Twilight not so secretly calls out from the bushes, trying to suggest a series of replacement friends at the last minute for Starlight in the form of DJ-PON-3 (it's likely that most ponies only know her by her stage name), Derpy Hooves and even Cranky Doodle Donkey. But Starlight complains that Twilight isn't trusting her, which makes a bit more sense here because Twilight is being rather dense even if she has valid concerns. Starlight then goes to help Trixie finish unpacking as she suggests Trixie is good at magic, to which Trixie agrees. However, there is a trick she's never been able to pull off that she really wants to do: The Moonshot Manticore Mouthdive. A trick that only her "hero" Hoofdini pulled off, a trick in which you apparently shoot yourself out of a cannon into the mouth of a manticore (the design has been changed, which could suggest that the manticore we saw in the pilot was a different gender than the one we're seeing now), then after it "chews you up and swallows you", you step out of a black box on the stage completely unharmed. So Trixie has decided that she should do that too even if such a trick might no longer be considered safe. Then again, contrary to popular belief, the original Houdini didn't die because he botched one of his famous escape tricks but because he ruptured his appendix. Still, if you're going to do stuff like what Houdini did you probably should look into how he did it and how he practiced it. But Starlight offers to just teleport Trixie out of the manticore's mouth and into the box without any attempt to practice.
Excited at having a helper, Trixie is ready to do her show that night and interestingly one of the posters for it depicts what looks like a dragon ball (there don't appear to be any stars on it, though). The problem is, that night is the night of the important dinner at Twilight's castle. And Starlight vents to Trixie about Twilight not trusting her because of one incident, again indicating that she seems to think trust can be given at a moment's notice even if you've done nothing to prove you deserve it. She doesn't suggest Trixie postpone her show until the next night, and Trixie basically decides that it's too late to reconsider and will go ahead with the show even if Starlight doesn't show up while not so secretly guilt tripping her. This creates a rather uncomfortable dinner for Twilight since she brought all three of her replacement friends (but not Spike) to meet Princess Celestia. But Starlight is nowhere to be seen.
So Twilight slips away to look for Starlight Glimmer and finds her at Trixie's magic show, the two getting ready to perform as Pinkie Pie and Applejack briefly remark aloud about the show's title. Twilight then storms backstage and berates Starlight, not because she left unannounced and without a note of any kind but because she's ignoring Princess Celestia and fine silverware placement. Starlight then tells Twilight off for not trusting her, taking this as validation of her earlier belief (I mean, she is doing what Twilight told her to do). But then Trixie declares that she wins, and when pressed she claims that beating Twilight was "just a bonus".
This reduces Starlight to tears as she's convinced that Trixie never wanted to be her friend and she runs off. Twilight berates Trixie for this, but to her shock she finds Trixie appears to be legitimately heartbroken at having chased away her only friend. Despite this, Twilight doesn't try to stop Trixie from performing and just inexplicably goes away. Trixie then goes on stage and goes straight to performing the Moonshot Manticore Mouthdive on her own, even going so far as to climb into the cannon and light the fuse. Now, the show staff said this wasn't a suicide attempt, and to an extent they should be taken at their word. But then again, a similar defense was offered up when Plankton said he was trying to get run over after lamenting there was no point in living anymore, and the context was quite clear that it was a suicide attempt whether they meant it to be one or not. So maybe it's the same thing here, it wasn't meant to be a suicide attempt. But the way it's portrayed unfortunately carries the implication of one. And especially in a show that is still primarily for kids, depicting a suicide attempt of any sort can be dangerous.
Twilight then finds Starlight on a ledge watching the show, meaning Starlight is going to potentially let Trixie do something horrible just because of what happened earlier. But Twilight apologizes to Starlight and mentions that she needs to more or less let Starlight do what she was already doing, make friends on her own time and at her own pace. I mean, at least she seems to be understanding that she can't be exactly like Celestia and that what worked for her won't necessarily work for Starlight. Meanwhile, Trixie is blasted off of the cannon and seems to have some regrets as she flies right into the manticore's mouth.
Fortunately, Starlight is able to teleport a battered Trixie into the black box and then appear on the stage to take a bow alongside her (and the manticore, which could suggest it was tamed or trained). The two hug each other right as Twilight shows up to apologize for earlier and even congratulate Trixie for her performance, meaning Trixie finally got to beat Twilight at something. But after some fireworks, we cut back to the important dinner where the ice sculpture there has melted and Princess Celestia seems impatient and annoyed. Really wish we'd gotten a better resolution to this instead of just having it end with her looking really unhappy.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, there's no denying it's insanely rough around the edges. I get what they were going for, they wanted a story where everyone was partially in the right and partially in the wrong. But Twilight ended up being the one most in the right by the end when her suspicions of Trixie were proven correct. The implications behind this friendship don't look good when, if not for Starlight being so desperate to make a new friend despite being kind of bad at friendship, and if not for Trixie's desire to get back at Twilight over a one sided rivalry, the two would've never become friends which is far from the kind of message you want to send. Their friendship does appear genuine in some scenes, it does look like there was room for it to grow and show that not all friendships start out the same or even on the best of terms. Starlight and Trixie do get some good moments to shine on their own, though they lose a lot of points for how stupid and selfish they tend to act. And even Twilight at times seems to get with the stupid stick and made to look overbearing. The climax is what really needed reworking though, because if it wasn't meant to be a suicide attempt it really shouldn't have looked so much like one that you could be mistaken for thinking that it was. And not for nothing, but Trixie lighting the fuse while calling out to Starlight seems like an emotionally exploitive trick not unlike: "Let's be friends or I'm gonna let myself get eaten by a wild animal!". And Starlight doesn't look good when she's sitting there, watching it unfold and is going to let it happen in front of a live audience.
We also really didn't need those scenes of Rarity and Fluttershy when they accomplished nothing, that time saved could've gone into giving the dinner with Celestia a proper resolution. Like with "The Crystalling" I don't hate this episode despite how critical I sound of it, there are good moments throughout even if they're hard to see. But again it really feels like there are ideas that were not fully fleshed out or thought through, and it doesn't seem like a coincidence that was happening in episodes where Starlight Glimmer played a major role. This episode ultimately gets a very narrow B-, not bad but it could be a lot better.
Well, next up is where Season 6 could be said to have undisupitably proven itself to be a major step down in quality from what had come before it, the disappointment that was "Newbie Dash"!
This is honestly my favorite episode of the season
Plus, when you take into consideration everything Twilight has done for her (letting her off the hook for her crimes, offering to help her become a better pony, and giving her a free home in the castle) and the implication that she didn't leave so much as a note saying where she would be to spite Twilight for not trusting her, this episode kinda makes Starlight look like an ungrateful spoiled brat.
I thought the issue with Twilight's trust (as seen by Starlight) wasn't that she wanted Starlight to earn it first, but that she said it she already trusts her student with making new friends, while her actions showed something different. If Twilight said she was trusting in Starlight's intention to become a better pony, but noting that someone new to friendship like her still needs some guidance to avoid being taken advantage of, then her words and actions would be more in sync. It was more of an issue of honesty, really.
5520570 Maybe, but trust and honesty aren't necessarily mutually inclusive. Just because someone is honest doesn't necessarily mean you'll trust them right away. And likewise, just because someone can be trusted doesn't mean they're always honest.
5520580
True, but you can see why Twilight not being honest about having trust in Starlight, might make the latter worry about being a lost cause? When she tried to make friends and failed she thought that there has to be something wrong with herself. In such a state of mind it was easy for her to jump from one conclusion ("Twilight lied about trusting me with making new friends") to another ("Twilight doesn't really believe I can be a better pony").
5520589 Maybe, but considering how easily Starlight seemed to be forgiven, it didn't carry as much weight as it should've here.