KTAG

Good morning!

It's a working title

But seriously, the scene where it all goes horribly wrong for Trixie is one of the reasons I love this show - there is just so much packed in there.

First, Trixie is possibly the happiest she has ever been - she is going to get to do a magic trick, using real magic, for the first time ever (ok, so its not HER magic, but as a stage magician, how the effect works is less important than the impression it leaves with the audience) and not only has Starlight made that possible, but has chosen her company over that of Celestia.

At the same time, Twilight storms in, upset and humiliated - while a lot of that is of her own making, Starlight does bear a big chunk of the blame, as does Trixie - she was clearly attempting to get Twi angry in the earlier scene, and a lot of Twi's bad judgement calls in the interim developed from there.  Trixie can't resist turning that key a step or two tighter, and Starlight... well, lets just remember her sole reason for ripping the cutie marks from an entire village was her reaction to being let down by her first friend - calm, rational consideration isn't a major part of Starlight's makeup and yeah, typical Starlight reaction there.  In Starlight's defense, she tries to get Trixie to tell her it isn't like that, only for Trixie to manage to get all four hooves simultaneously in her mouth as she is too caught up in gloating, and while her apology is prompt, she also manages to mess THAT up by slipping in another gloating comment. The general tone of Twi's comment, that of "way to go on that one, Jackass" was cut from the same cloth though, so while not TOO surprising given the nature of the scene, it frames the scene nicely as being a confrontation between Trixie and Twilight, with the hurt to Starlight collateral damage neither party wanted.

Which brings us to the forgiveness aspect.

Sunset's actions led to her shunning by the school in the bulk of Rainbow Rocks - clearly, while she WAS eventually forgiven, that didn't come for free. Starlight? well, nobody in Ponyville really knew what she had done before she became Twilight's pupil, so it is understandable they were neutral or even friendly towards her - I suspect Big Mac may not be so welcoming in future though, and CupCake probably needs an apology or two. Trixie however, is being treated a little better than Sunset was - the ponies are willing to come to her show, at least - and is being given a chance to make up for her mistakes which is fair enough.  Twilight had reasonable reason to suspect Trixie of trying to use Starlight to get back at her, and the conversation in the trailer reflected that suspicion. Trixie's reaction though, and her subsequent actions (literally gambling her life on Starlight forgiving her) showed Twi the mistake she was making, and led to an apology from Twilight and a sorta-apology from Trixie.

So, was it the right choice? well, the MATURE solution would have been for Starlight to tell Twi that she had promised to help Trixie with her magic show, and suggest that Twi invite her mentor to join the audience, then they could have had dinner together, afterwards. That would have been incredibly awkward though - not the show, but the sniping between Twilight and Trixie at the dinner while Celestia and Starlight watch uncomfortably. At least this cleared the air, and hey, instant Friendship Lesson for Twi, too.

It IS a great episode, but as I see it, the confrontational scene is not a low point, but the entire focus of the episode, which all the prior scenes had been building up to; without it, the whole story would have been poorer.

Yeah I get that. The whole episode was to building up to that part. I just think that Twilight was a little too harsh on Trixie, for such small past "crimes."