Tag Archives: trixie

Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 75: To Where and Back Again, Part 1 + 2

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Introduction / Navigation

< Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 >

Season 6, Episodes 25-26

I wanted to start my Eurovision blog post series so badly, but I had promised myself I would finish this little order of business first. It turned out to take, well… longer than expected. Because I wanted to start my Eurovision blog post series so badly! Still, I promise this review will be a fun one.

(As of this post’s publication, my first Eurovision review is out, but I wrote it after finishing this post.)

Season 6 Episode 25: To Where and Back Again, Part 1

In five words: Starlight faces changelings’ great revenge.

Premise: Starlight Glimmer has returned from a trip to her old village to find out changelings have kidnapped her friends, so she gathers an entourage of supporting characters to save the day.

Detailed run-through:

Typical of Starlight Glimmer episodes, we begin with a calm slice-of-life scene where she and Twilight Sparkle reflect on how far their relationship has come, plus some goofy Spike gags. Their calm reflections are broken when Spike notices something strange incoming:

Twilight, Spike, and Starlight are bowing down to our true lord and savior.

This is the entire purpose of the season 6 finale: for the queen of all things good in this world, Derpy Hooves, to crash into Twilight’s castle and deliver a letter to Starlight. Everything else is an irrelevant afterthought, including all the boxes of books she crashes into. Clearly, Derpy used this method of delivery to make sure the letter would end up in Starlight’s hooves, not Twilight’s. She knows Twilight can be self-absorbed and assume all letters are meant for her, and she knows a letter to Starlight might contain something extremely private. If all characters were as thoughtful and forward-thinking as Derpy Hooves… I would say that would be great, but it would make the show completely boring. There can only be one best pony, and her name is Derpy.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 63: No Second Prances

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Introduction / Navigation

< Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 >

Season 6, Episode 6

My first MLP post written inside my new house that I own is a MASSIVE doozy. Are you prepared for lots of words about a love/hate triangle between three magically oriented mares? You better be.

Season 6 Episode 6: No Second Prances

In five words: Twilight Sparkle demonstrates double standards.

Premise: Twilight Sparkle wants Starlight Glimmer to make a new friend, and she’s shocked and infuriated when that new friend turns out to be Trixie, even though she’s forgiven Starlight Glimmer for much worse actions than anything Trixie ever did.

Detailed run-through:

This episode starts with a low-stakes slice of life scene between Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, which is possibly my favorite way to begin Starlight’s episodes. I should clarify here that I’m not just OK with Starlight Glimmer being reformed, or tolerant of how much screen time she gets in this season. I massively enjoy her as a character, both before and after reformation, and she’s one of my favorite characters in the entire show. She’s a character whose name I’d eagerly put between the phrases “I love” and “so much”. Or put more concisely: I love Starlight Glimmer so much.

Twilight Sparkle: First lesson of the day: we very carefully set the table without using magic. So that—YIKES!
Twilight Sparkle: Did you— how— when— WHAT?!
Starlight Glimmer: What?
Twilight Sparkle: I said, no magic. You were supposed to do it by hoof so I could work in a friendship lesson.
Starlight Glimmer: Oh. I heard “set the table” and just kind of went for it.

Part of making a good reformed villain is to make them frequently miss the point when someone tries to teach them a friendship lesson, and no character does this better than Starlight Glimmer. She might be even more impulsive after reformation, because she wants to impress her mentor at all costs. Sounds like another purple unicorn well-versed in magic, doesn’t it?

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Why is trans Trixie so popular?

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If you’re familiar with transgender headcanons from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic—wait, did I seriously just TYPE that?! There seriously is no hope for me.

Anyway…

Let’s try this again.

If you’ve heard of only one transgender headcanon from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, it’s probably the headcanon that Trixie is a trans girl. As you know if you’re aware I wrote a trans fic about Rarity, I have had a change of heart about transgender headcanons over the past few months and now find them more fascinating than ever before. A friend of mine suggested I talk about trans Trixie in my review of No Second Prances (which I haven’t started writing yet), but I decided to make a separate blog post about it instead. And it’ll be my own earnest explanation of why I think this headcanon is so popular, without any of that patronizing attitude a lot of trans headcanoners have (cough cough Vylet Pony). I mean seriously, you won’t get people to respect your headcanon if you’re going to be a jerk about it.

I think I know why Trixie is so commonly thought of as transgender. She hits the perfect storm of qualities to make this headcanon appealing:

  • She first appears in season 1, meaning just about every fan knows who she is, and she’s considered one of the MLP characters even though she only appeared twice until season 6. The sad truth is a lot of fans have only seen the early seasons anyway.
  • She has a distinct mix of being self-absorbed and insecure about herself, which I think a lot of trans people can relate to.
  • She seems to have a difficult upbringing and rocky history, flitting between unfun jobs and a shoddy reputation after Twilight Sparkle initially outmatched her. A lot of transgender people live difficult lives too, because it unfortunately isn’t easy for everyone to accept that they’re real.
  • She has a human-sounding name, which means that a good amount of trans people will name themselves after her.
  • And finally, she’s a fun and unique character with a lot of depth! This means there are a lot of aspects of her character to explore if you interpret her as trans, and fans clearly love doing so.

I think as far as MLP transgender headcanons go, trans Trixie is a pretty basic choice. But I promise I don’t mean this in a bad way! There’s nothing wrong with liking something so popular—typically, such things are popular for good reason.

Now with that said… Rarity being a trans girl is the best MLP trans headcanon by far, because it requires you to rethink her upbringing, her ladylike mannerisms, her complex dynamic with Spike, and so much more. It may be weird to say, but I think it suits Rarity really well to be transgender. Her character has always been meant to subvert gender roles, and if you assume the most ladylike of the Mane 6 was born as a boy but passes as a girl REALLY well, that truly changes everything about her. Well, not quite everything—it doesn’t change that she’s incredibly cute and lovable.

I should stress that you don’t have to agree with the above paragraph. If you think trans Rarity makes no sense, that is perfectly fine.

Wait, this post was supposed to be about Trixie. So I’ll end it by saying this: if you headcanon Trixie as a trans girl, that is totally understandable and you have no need to feel embarrassed about it.

Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 24: Magic Duel + Sleepless in Ponyville

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Introduction

< Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 >

Season 3, Episodes 5-6

Pointless trivia: I worked on my review of Magic Duel entirely within my own house, whereas I worked on my review of Sleepless in Ponyville entirely within a hotel room at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. Pandemic restrictions or not, I’m happy to report I had a great time at MAGFest 2022 (though as of this post’s publication, it already ended a few weeks ago).

Season 3 Episode 5: Magic Duel

In five words: Boast Busters’ much better sequel.

Premise: After getting brutally owned in Boast Busters, Trixie returns to Ponyville with a desire for revenge and a special magical amulet.

Detailed run-through:

The intro portion of this episode teases viewers with loose hints of a familiar face. A hooded figure goes to a shop to obtain a dangerous magical amulet, and while she’s denied it at first, she gets it after giving the shopkeeper a big bag of money. Trixie is a fan favorite character, so it makes sense that her return would start off subtle.

After this, we get a scene of Twilight Sparkle practicing her magic skills much like she did at the start of Boast Busters, showing that she’s sharpened her magic prowess since then. She uses a magic spell to levitate Fluttershy’s animals in a gentle looping formation, keeping them calm and happy despite Fluttershy’s extreme nervousness. Again like Boast Busters, this scene shows that Twilight takes great pride in her magic skills. Twilight then mentions Celestia hired her for the entertainment in an upcoming special event. She’s clearly referring to magic tricks here, and that was the one thing Trixie thought she was so good at.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 3: Boast Busters + Dragonshy + Look Before You Sleep

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Introduction

< Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 >

Season 1, Episodes 6-8

Season 1 Episode 6: Boast Busters

I’m going to analyze this one a bit differently from prior episodes. Specifically, I will be discussing spoilers for later seasons (up to season 6), where Trixie becomes a recurring character instead of a one-off (two-off, rather). If an episode’s title is colored red, that means my review will contain spoilers for later episodes!

In five words: Twilight begins irrational Trixie grudge.

Premise: A boastful magician named Trixie visits Ponyville to perform a magic show, and Twilight Sparkle develops a gnawing urge to one-up her and prove she’s full of nonsense, because clearly the entire point of magicians is to tell the truth and never deceive anyone, and also to never make up an exaggerated fictional backstory to immerse the audience.

Detailed run-through:

The episode begins with Twilight Sparkle practicing her magic skills by giving Spike a mustache, which she gets rid of once he starts thinking about impressing Rarity. This scene makes it clear that magic is a skill that Twilight is very proud of and holds in high regard, setting up her rivalry with Trixie, who is more skilled in the illusory kind of magic.

Spike: 25, Twilight. 25 different kinds of tricks and counting! I thought unicorns were only supposed to have a little magic that matches their special talents.
Twilight Sparkle: True, for ponies whose talents are for things like cooking or singing or math. But what if a unicorn’s special talent is magic?
Spike: Like you, Twilight! And you know a ton of magic.

This passage comparing Twilight Sparkle against your usual unicorn suggests to me that she’s probably a magic elitist who makes a sharp distinction between true magic and bogus magic and is aggravated when people conflate the two. Even though Twilight responds with modesty, her passion for the field of magic is undeniable, and she always gets annoyed when people misunderstand things she’s passionate about.

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