My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Headscratchers/Season 1: Difference between revisions

'''Rainbow Dash''': So, great and powerful Trixie. What makes you think you're so awesome anyway?

'''Trixie''': Why, only the great and powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major! }}

* New troper to this argument, but Twilight herself seemed to feel her friends weren't being entirely fair to Trixie. She was afraid that if she did what Spike urged her, and bested Trixie with her magic, that they would then think of Twilight herself as showing off. If she thought they were being reasonable, why was she worried about that?

** At first, yes. Then Applejack explained to her that they were less bothered by the talent than by the public boastfulness. Somehow, Twilight got it into her head that any public demonstration of her powers, especially to upstage someone (even a show-off like Trixie) would be tantamount to showing off herself, and so she became shy about it until the Ursa came into town. Being seen getting up on stage and "showing off with her magic tricks" seemed to her to be what her friends disliked. Rainbow Dash does make it clear at the end that Twilight got the wrong end of the stick: "Magic's got nothing to do with it. Trixie's just a loudmouth."

*** Okay, got that, but what was their problem with Trixie and her bragging exactly? She wasn't hadn't yet insulted or belittled anyone when they started voicing their complaints, she certainly wasn't hurting anyone, and "She shouldn't be talking herself up so much," sounds so hypocritical when you see how much Rainbow Dash pats herself on the back throughout the series and how easily everyone else puts up with it. It's not like Trixie was ''forcing'' the crowd to watch. They pretty much caused a scene in the audience for very trivial reasons, and they were acting almost as stuck up as Trixie throughtout the whole showdown against her. Hubris is a character trait that should cut, but not by more hubris, and thats what made Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity look so unreasonable and catty in this episode; they got angry at a performer just for bragging about how good she is, which is what at least one of the three does themselves almost every episode, and responded by saying they were better than her.

** Their problem was that the advertising did not match the product. Bragging that includes "she's got '''more''' magical powers than any other unicorn ever", she "performs the '''most spectacular''' feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes", and "the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria", especially when the latter two are said in a voice that practically screams insufferable show-off, is just asking for it. Note that the few ponies who are skeptical of her claims have recently dealt with a [[Physical God]], are friends with a unicorn whose defining attribute is magical power, and actually can follow up their own boasts.

** The key word here is 'skeptical': they don't actually make a scene, they pass comments among themselves, and RD makes the scene by shouting boo. The others don't insult her beyond comparing her to a school filly with fancy ribbons, the implication being that her announcing her magic using so many superlatives is simply immature. This is while she magics flowers out of thin air, so it is implied that this sort of thing is more mundane than Trixie makes it out to be. Plus, whatever else her failings are, Rainbow Dash actually asks the sensible question: what makes her think she's so special? Their skepticism pays off because the answer tells you everything you need to know about Trixie. Long story short, they're reacting to Trixie's overblown advertising.

*** Lastly, calling complaining, never mind their getting up onto the stage and showing off their skills ''in response to being directly challenged themselves'', a "bastard move" is excessive; not least of all because they were actually good at what they did, Trixie challenged them into doing so with the assurance that she could (and was going to) do better, and was frankly overdue a [[Break the Haughty]] (the only way she could possibly have lost face in that situation was by being exposed as a fraud by her own excessive boasting). If anything, the Ponyville crowd made the "bastard move" when they laughed at the mane cast's humiliations, despite knowing them at the very least as the ponies who saved them from Nightmare Moon. Frankly, I'm surprised we're not discussing that little headscratcher instead.

*** In this Troper's opinion, Trixie lodged herself clearly into "bad guy" territory with lying about having defeated an Ursa Major, and using that lie to win approval she didn't earn. The rest could be excused as just being overly boastful, but Trixie's guilty of outright "fraud." I'm not talking about the fireworks or the other tricks; I'm talking about the fact that Trixie's lie is exactly the same as if I told a woman I beat up a live bear single-handedly (when I never did) in order to make myself seem more attractive so I could talk the woman into having sexual intercourse with me. "Fraud" is when you knowingly misrepresent reality in order to gain a selfish advantage. Trixie having lied about defeating an Ursa Major to make more money than she was capable of earning with her own true skill clearly falls into that category.

* Why does everyone love Trixie so much? She seems to be written to be deliberately unpleasant, she doesn't learn her lesson at the end or show any good or likeable qualities at all, and she doesn't even get any funny lines.

 

== 1.07 Dragonshy ==

 

* Close to the end of the episode, Spike is left asleep on a chunk of ice floating in the middle of some cold water. Instead of, I dunno, trying to HELP him, the ponies joke about how "he's in fer' a big surprise as soon as that there ice melts" and then LAUGH. Sure, he got better, but that's a bit [[Jerkass|cruel]], don't you think?

 

== 1.12 Call of the Cutie ==

*** Would it have? Applejack and Rarity don't seem to have made much small talk before "Look Before You Sleep", if any, and Sweetie Belle doesn't even live with Rarity most of the time. It wouldn't surprise me if the subject was never mentioned to Applejack. Also, keep in mind that for adults like Applejack and Rarity, getting a cutie mark is no big deal; certainly not a great topic of discussion or matter of concern. It was a plot point that Apple Bloom being teased over and ashamed of her lack of a cutie mark was a problem no one else could really understand, except Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo.

* Just what is Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's talent anyway?

 

== 1.13 Fall Weather Friends ==

*** I judge it a 3-2 victory for Rarity's designs on humanized Ponies. I think the human versions of Rainbow and Twilight pull the looks off better than the pony versions. Rarity's dress wasn't judged because there is no quote-unquote "ugly" version of it.

** How much of [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_g8VfdWzt6tQ/S9HR6HNU0rI/AAAAAAAAAPo/Hy_bISB1-dU/s1600/dior-haute-couture-ss-2007-500x3282.jpg French haute couture] ISN'T hideous and overdone (that's Dior in the photo, btw)

** The sketch seems to be in Rarity's drawing style, so I would assume that was one of her standard example sketches and not a representation of Fluttershy's specific request. The end result ''is'' probably due to some target drift from the original concept, though.

** The whole concept of "French Haute Couture" bothers this troper. So is there a pony parallel to France? Prance?

** As for French Haute Couture, I think it's simply a name, having nothing to do with France or the French. I think it's just the name for the style, a bit like saying something is Steampunk or Victorian.

** Doylist answer: [[Most Writers Are Human]]. Watsonian answer: the ponies simply have a word ("French") which by pure coincidence can be used like ours.

 

** No one imposed their beliefs on Twilight, she came to believe on her own, because of what was happening, not because of what anyone else said.

** The aesop was probably "don't deny what's in front of your eyes just because you don't understand how it works" or "don't get angry with your friends just because they can do things you can't". That said, the creators could have handled it better, not least of all by not giving Twilight such a hard time. It looked like the universe itself was punishing her for being sceptical.

 

* Was there room for that hydra under the bog? How long had it been living there, and what had it been eating?

 

* How in the world did a regular electric fan create a strong enough air current to knock over the sets?

 

== 1.19 A Dog and Pony Show ==

** They don't live in our society, so the equivalent of 80s fashion wouldn't neccessarily be 20-30 years ago for them.

** She was a pre-teen, or young teen though. 20-30 Pony years seems about right.

 

* Pinkie Pie's "And that is how Equestria was made"... now that I think about it, it is more like an expression than a literal statement. But it confused me then since Pinkie Pie is known to be [[Literal-Minded]]. Besides, Pinkie Pie then offered that she will tell the story of how she gained her cutie mark. Unless, by "And that is how Equestria was made", she means "And that is how she started her party spree" instead of "And that is how she gained cutie mark", it can really sound weird.

 

* Fluttershy says that she had never been on the ground before and didn't all of the animals were there, but then how did she know what the names of the animals were?

 

== 1.24 Owl's Well That Ends Well ==

** Despite being a baby(By Dragon standards), Spike has shown to be on a mental level equal to the mane cast(young adults) and has shown enough resolve, cunning and level head to be able to take care of himself. Furthermore, Twilight knows how strong and durable Spike is. It's much more likely for her to get hurt than him.

*** Equestrian society seems to support young children being allowed to explore on their own at a level more comparable to 1950s society than modern Earth -- we see the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who seem to be schoolchildren-equivalents, out on their own pretty often -- and in turn the Palace Grounds are probably more like a second home to Spike than a dangerous and unknown place.

 

* So, given that the Wonderbolts were apparently finished with their show by the time they arrived at the party, does that mean the girls not only arrived too late for Rainbow Dash to try to crash their performance, but to even ''see'' it? You'd expect her to complain about that.