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Great And Powerful Trixie

…Y’know, I was gonna end that with my own conclusion. But when I wrote all that up, I realised something that was so very, very different from everyone else’s interpretation, while also completely explaining why the Mane 6 were such jerks in this episode, that I really feel the need to make it an image post!
Great And Powerful Trixie

Okaaaayyy, lets get the facts straight here, because people are arguing vague claims, some of which aren’t even true.
 
1: Trixie’s boasting before being heckled was that she would perform “the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes”. That is all she said. I think we can safely say that that is something a magician can say at a magic show.
 
2: Rarity then accuses Trixie of saying she’s better than everyone. This is… questionable. Trixie didn’t say it on-camera, but considering Snips/Snails were saying “she’s the most powerful unicorn around” before, Rarity probably heard the same thing.
 
3: AJ’s complaint of a magician showing off at a magic show is incredibly stupid. Rainbow Dash also does this later on.
 
4: Whatever about talking amongst yourselves in the front row, Rainbow Dash did actually boo Trixie. That’s definitely heckling.
 
5: Trixie lies. I think it goes without saying that that wasn’t a good idea.
 
6: Trixie finally boasts about being a tiny god.
 
7: Trixie then trolls ponies, ponies fall for it, Trixie trolls ponies some more, everyone laughs.
 
8: Later, bear happens.
 
9: Twilight’s lesson is “Sometimes you should be showing off, sometimes you shouldn’t”.
Background Pony #62E6
@Background Pony #2CE3  
Well sometimes, people who had previously enjoyed certain episodes would enjoy those episodes less after watching better episodes because they have had their expectations raised over time.
Background Pony #5F82
@Background Pony #AD74  
I expect if you polled 100 members of the target audience (girls 4-8), you’d get 98 of them saying Trixie was the villain, and the other two saying Snips & Snails.
 
To be honest, at this point I’m baffled that the show garnered the fandom that it did, considering about half of the first-season episodes are mostly discussed in negative terms when I see people talking about them.
Background Pony #6A17
Or better yet, find better things to argue about than the writing quality of a kid’s show episode broadcast four years ago.
Background Pony #866A
@Draco_2k  
“In the future, mind that making the same claim twice and expecting it to stick despite the reply to it only assures the others that you’re not listening.”
 
“If someone’s wrong twice, don’t try to correct them again.”
Draco_2k

@Background Pony #AD74  
Well, this is going nowhere. That’s enough for me.
 
In the future, mind that making the same claim twice and expecting it to stick despite the reply to it only assures the others that you’re not listening.
Background Pony #866A
@Draco_2k  
“Anything you can do, I can do better!”  
>taking a character tagline spoken to a crowd
 
“Haven’t we been over this already? I don’t want to go in circles.”  
Apparently you’ve not understood it.
 
“That’s bad writing.”  
Pretty much everyone agrees Boast Busters was poorly written, because it doesn’t make Trixie the clear villain the writers most likely intended her to be, and it paints 3 of the M6 as petty jerks. That’s the whole point.
Draco_2k

@Background Pony #AD74  
“Anything you can do, I can do better!”
 
>Exaggeration and lies is what entertainers do  
Haven’t we been over this already? I don’t want to go in circles.
 
>Clearly they willed wrongly, because it’s shown that Ponyville at large liked Trixie’s show.  
Well, yeah, it’s contrary not just to common sense. But worse is that it’s contrary to representation of opinion offered by the main cast, so it’s internally inconsistent as well. That’s bad writing.
Background Pony #866A
@Draco_2k  
“I’m better at debating and logic than you are. I’m also much smarter and I smell better.”
 
You call me out, specifically. Someone saying “I’m the best” is a very different matter. And again, it’s a performance, an act. Exaggeration and lies is what entertainers do. When a stage magician says they’re going to saw someone in half do you believe that’s what they’re actually going to do?
 
“The crowd will behave how they writer wills it.”
 
Clearly they willed wrongly, because it’s shown that Ponyville at large liked Trixie’s show.
Draco_2k

@Background Pony #AD74  
Uh, no.
 
I’m better at debating and logic than you are. I’m also much smarter and I smell better.
 
See? Annoying.
 
Kasparov can brag all he wants, though. He really IS a grandmaster. Trixie is not. Trixie isn’t better than everyone at everything, and even if she was, putting herself on the stage (literally) and rubbing it in everyone’s face (also literally) would be rude regardless of her achievements. So, again, you can’t blame anyone for repaying kind in kind.
 
>Only the M6 had any issues with it, the rest of the crowd was cheering her
 
It’s a cartoon. The crowd will behave how they writer wills it.
Background Pony #866A
@Draco_2k  
“saying you’re better than everyone else sort of implies”
 
And only someone with a massive inferiority complex would have an issue with that. Saying Garry Kasparov is the world’s best chess player implies everyone else is worse than him, but it doesn’t belittle anyone.
 
“great way to annoy everyone in your immediate vicinity.”
 
Only the M6 had any issues with it, the rest of the crowd was cheering her.
Draco_2k

@Background Pony #AD74  
Uh, no. That was an analogy.
 
She said plenty of both. To top that, saying you’re better than everyone else sort of implies that they’re below you as well.
 
Basically, ordinary bragging (albeit on false pretenses) with a large helping of contempt on top. Again, great way to annoy everyone in your immediate vicinity.
Background Pony #866A
@Draco_2k  
Did you just compare a performer making outlandish claims to police brutality?
 
And what are you talking about belittling? She claimed she was the best unicorn in Ponyville/Equestria, not that everyone else was crap. The only people that could be offended would be those that honestly held that belief about themselves or someone they knew, and were childs. So basically Spike; the other three were being petty jerks.
Draco_2k

@Background Pony #AD74  
That argument always baffled me, to be honest. As if blatantly lying and boasting is supposed to be not just an expected part of a performance, but somehow acceptable. As if, say, police brutality was seen as a good thing just because it was ordinary and expected. I don’t know how old-timey fairs go myself, but I’m pretty sure there’s a difference between making empty boasts for a laugh and making empty boasts to make yourself look above all the rest.
 
At the very least I’m pretty sure most performers don’t deliberately try to belittle their audience, and if they did, they couldn’t really complain about what follows.
Background Pony #866A
@Draco_2k  
It. Is. A. Performance.
 
Go to any old-timey fair; you’ll see performers swear up and down that they’re strong enough to punch down a building or faster than a speeding bullet. Nobody’s dense enough to actually believe that, and anyone giving them lip will find themselves arm-wrestling or racing them, and ridiculed for the cheering crowd, assuming you’re not just outright kicked out.
Draco_2k

@Background Pony #AD74  
As I said, you can only call it that by a huge stretch of imagination. Like comparing a playful jab to an assault and battery.
 
As for main cast not being the better ponies and taking the bragging and insults in stride: they don’t have to. No one does. Don’t dish out what you can’t take, after all. It may not be entirely right, but you can’t blame them for it either.
 
Trixie wasn’t playing any violin here. She wasn’t a poor blind orphan collecting for a sick puppy charity. She was openly bragging, dishing out insults, belittling others, putting herself above all else, and telling tale tales of obvious lies.
 
You know, the kind of thing that results in the front row accusing you of being an annoying braggart.
Background Pony #866A
@Draco_2k  
They were in the front row, speaking at a normal volume. They’d have to expect Trixie to be extremely hard of hearing to not hear them badmouth her. It’s heckling.
 
If they were so appalled by her they could have just left. Picture me and my friends going up to a violinist playing on the street, standing 2m from him, and just talk “normally” about how he clearly has no idea what he’s doing.