@Background Pony  
that turned into a hatefest

@d715  
That was her putting on a puppet show for kids…

@Great And Powerful Trixie  
I was talking more about her comic cameo

@Great And Powerful Trixie
 

 
We cant possibly know that, and what little weve seen of her implies that ‘stage’ personality is just how Trixie is. Shes always the great and powerful Trixie. You cannot claim that ive got a wrong view of her character because she may or may not act differently offscreen. Until she is viewed acting differently - her established personality is the personality we see on screen.
 
Megalomania is the obsession with gaining power. She definitely has that.
 
On the apology thing, no one is going to claim seriously that Trixie is socially anxious. Shes a performer. Shes not anxious. Some of your explanations are semi-viable, but occams razor would say the reason Trixie only apologised to one pony was because she only wanted to apologise to one pony. nuff said.
 

 
The Ursa was just there, in front of her. The danger of the town hadnt come into it yet. It was just about her, and it. And she said she could do it, so naturally shed try. she failed - partly i suspect because the writers said she had to - but she had a go. That shows shes brave, not that she cares intimately about others.
 

Who said anything about the amulet? Trixie has no problem with hurting others, and shows that off in Boast Busters. Some irritating ponies are interrupting her show and she basically walks circles around them while hurting and embarassing them for her own personal amusement. The amulet episode shows that she has a problem with hurting innocent ponies or hurting ponies too much, but she has no problem with giving out punishment if she feels somepony has slighted her. And since slighting her can involve a lot of stuff, and she has already established megalomania problems, thats pretty dangerous.
 
You feel defensive of Trixie. I dont think you should. Trixie can damn well defend herself. The reason i like her personally is because she isnt a particularly nice pony, while not being actually full-on evil. shes just got a serious mean-streak and a lot of personality problems. And id rather she not have those personality problems brushed under the carpet because then we will a) need new ponies with personality problems and b) lose some of the stuff that makes Trixie actually pretty unique as ponies go.
 
Overall, trying to niceify Trixie is a disservice to her character. We feel like she should, because shes had without a doubt the shittest most karmically unbalanced treatment of any character in MLP with basically her whole life ruined by a pony who is only powerful because the writers say so, but that doesnt mean we should ignore her genuine faults. Characters have faults. Rarity is a snob. Pinkie Pie is obnoxious and insensitive. Fluttershy is a self-hating coward. Applejack is self-important and thinks she knows more than she actually does. Rainbow Dash is a bitch. Twilight is a spoiled ivory-tower alumnus who has never had to work a day in her life, and Trixie is a power-hungry self-obsessed mild sadist.
 
Those most-negative parts are their characters every bit as much as their most positive parts. Respect them.

@clockworkinsomniac  
Allow me to demonstrate why her actual personality is basically unknowable, using other (very genuine) character analysis…es that I’ve heard around the place.
 
“Shes a megalomaniac. Shes a narcissist.”  
She only brags when she’s actually on show, and when around kids who like her for the role she plays. It’s not the real her. She’s a performer, after all.
 
“Even after her freedom from the amulet, she very specifically apologises to Twilight. Twilight has earned her respect – if nothing else. The other ponies havent.”  
…that’s one I actually haven’t heard before. “Trixie only apologised to one person, not the town itself”. Clever.  
Still, I can counter it with “Too socially anxious to apologise in public”, “Twilight took the worst of it”, “Trixie has an impression to uphold and Twilight’s basically the boss”, and of course “Twixie”. Brrr…
 
“Shes apathetic to others, and doesnt seem to care about anyone other than herself.”  
She tried to fight a giant space-bear that was terrorising Ponyville. Nothing sociopathic about that.
 
“Trixie is proud and self-centered and most importantly she has absolutely no problem with hurting ponies if she thinks they deserve it.”  
The personality-changing amulet doesn’t count as her personality.
 
 
Basically, yes, Sunset could have been Trixie. But it would’ve pissed off a huge number of fans who just don’t think she’s evil.
 
(Fun fact: I once wrote up a list of about two dozen different perfectly-legitimate character interpretations for Trixie that I’ve heard people give… but it seems to have evaporated from Derpibooru airspace. Oh well.)
 
 
@d715  
Funnily enough, I didn’t! See Point #4.

The funny thing is, it all took place in her head.

@Great And Powerful Trixie
 
Um… what? I like Trixie, admittedly not as much as Twilight or some other ponies, but i mostly take her side. But shes got a buttload of pretty nasty personality traits.
 
Shes a megalomaniac. Shes a narcissist. Shes apathetic to others, and doesnt seem to care about anyone other than herself. Even after her freedom from the amulet, she very specifically apologises to Twilight. Twilight has earned her respect - if nothing else. The other ponies havent.
 
Trixie is proud and self-centered and most importantly she has absolutely no problem with hurting ponies if she thinks they deserve it. And theres a damn lot of ways they can deserve it.
 
All of that adds up to a pony who could do a lot of bad if she felt slighted. And lets face it here, its not exactly hard to find how Trixie has been slighted even if the above comic wasnt true. Life has sucked balls for Trixie pretty constantly.
 
Trixie could have totally been a main movie villain with very very little work to change her. Seems sort of a waste creating Sunset for that instead. Im not saying Sunset = Trixie. Im saying Trixie could have performed the exact same actions with very little change overall.

@Great And Powerful Trixie  
You forget
 
9: Edits real stories/events to make her look better

@clockworkinsomniac  
Allow me to remind you of the actual known characteristics of Trixie:  
1: Trixie’s a showpony. Mostly magic, sometimes puppetry.  
2: Trixie brags a lot. A LOT! May be part of the show.  
3: Trixie one-upped hecklers in her show.  
4: Trixie lied about beating up a space-bear, then later fought a space-bear for reals. Trixie later lied about beating up that space-bear too!  
5: Trixie likes powerful amulets. Paid for in bits.  
6: Trixie did a bunch of stuff while evil. Nobody really cares because that could mean anything.  
7: Trixie apologised that one time.  
8: Trixie tripped.
 
In other words, saying Trixie has Sunset’s characteristics is total headcanon.

@The Smiling Pony
 
I for one am glad they made that decision. This way, the real Trixie isn’t trapped in magic-less high school land.

@clockworkinsomniac  
My best guess is someone decided they didn’t want to make Trixie a horrifically despicable villain so they just copied all her badness into a new character.
 
Meanwhile Snips and Snails are still lackey numbskulls.

@The Smiling Pony
 
Seems that way.
 
Sunset confuses me in general really. Equestria Girls may be a blight on the face of ponydom, but they could have just used Trixie instead of Sunset and not changed much at all. Sunset is a character that already exists.

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
Remember though, the school is different from being Celestia’s apprentice. Sunset and Twilight were apprentices, Trixie was a student in the school proper.

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
I’m pretty sure at some point they split Trixie into S3 Trixie and Sunset Shimmer.

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
I kinda like that she was just some student and once done became a traveling magician
 
no tragic backstory, or deep pain, just a mare with a massive ego

I remember this comic. Damn this is an old one.
 
This was my headcanon… until Sunset Shimmer came along and changed everything. Now… I’m not really sure what my headcanon for Trixie is.
 
Lauren did once say that Trixie was also in the School For Gifted Unicorns contemporary with Twilight (though they never met), so this comic really isn’t too far-fetched.

this seems to be made per season two
 
that’s kinda right…

Well Faust did say she went to the school for special unicorns.
 
Whether or not that is used as showcanon is up to be seen. But well… if thats the case, theres gotta be some reason she isnt still going there.

headcanon rejected

Trixie, stop thinking your Sunset Shimmer.

Hmmm… no.

Ancient, even.

…Well she sure has a vivid imagination.

Wow, this is obscenely old.