S03:E05 - Magic Duel

[DerpyFanatic 114]

I thought this episode was very good. It was definitely funny; this episode made me laugh more than any other episode to date.

 

If I was drinking something, I would have spit it out at "I can turn a mare into a stallion!"

 

 

I thought Applejack's "you're giving me a SEX CHANGE?" expression was hilarious. Even though the whole thing was planned, she had the presence of mind to look properly horrified in front of Trixie and other ponies. Applejack's hardly one of my top ponies to like, but I have to give her and Big Mac serious points for that trick. 

[Jammo 986]

Anyone else think the shopkeeper at the beginning was going to offer Trixie cursed frogurt with potassium benzoate? Loved mouthless Pinkie with that fakeout ending.

[Sks_Burns 730]

Fluttershy's angry/scared scene at the beginning was priceless. oh, and Trixie is still awesome. 

[Lost Profile 644]

It was a good one!

 

Tho I saw how it was going to end from a long shot

 

When I saw twilights neckliss... I somehow knew it was a fake...

 

But anyways... I liked it how trixie learned her lesson!

Now I want Gilda to return!

[weegeez 150]

Awesome episode, just like every S3 episode thus far, although this isn't as good as the last 2 for me personally, but still a great episode nonetheless. S3, WHY U SO GOOD? (maybe because quality over quantity)

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

Actually blood was canon as of season 2. When future Twilight had a cut on her face.

Blood was actually canon the first time anypony on the show was shown blushing, since a blush is nothing more than blood in the vessels in your face.

 

So yeah, turns out quite hard to find a picture of a pony blushing. But here's one:

 

 

That was "Call of the Cutie" way back in Season 1.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Full Spectrum

[Flying Whales 311]

Fluttershy was great in this episode. It definitely had a darkness to it, even though Trixie was seen to be a gloater and sore loser, she wasn’t a power hungry tyrant  . A serious plot is nice too, I enjoyed it. Pinkie was still humorous even while having almost no lines in the whole episode. 

 

What Trixie did to Spikie just cracked me up too, when she turned him into a ball, poor thing, but man was it funny  .

I thought this was a great episode, honestly, much better than the last one I thought. 

[Drehgunklew 136]

I did enjoy the episode, but I hate. Trixie. So. Much.Her voice disturbs me. Everything she does disturbs me. But I was sure that Twilight would kick her flank again. Me and my lilbro started screaming at her when she started to talk to Twilight.Please, never return again.

[WildCard 1,037]

Timeline thoughts:

If anything, I'm mildly disappointed that the amulet didn't have anything to do with Sombra. Oh well, a minor nitpick. Plus, in a way, Trixie acted like Sombra. Darkish magic that, though a different color, kinda resembled his dark magic, plus she was super cruel like him. Still hope we seem him more in the future, though.

I have the feeling that something big is coming and Sombra as well as Trixie are just the beginning. A big dark magical power that has taken posession of Sombra as well as the Alicorn amulet

[Spring Storm 276]

This was an all-around amazing episode! While Trixie isn't on my list of personal favorite ponies, it was nice to see her return, and I like that she got character redemption at the end. Season 3 has never ceased to be amazing so far

[K3WRO 79]

Is it just me, or is Trixie suddenly being the most sadistic villain the show's ever had?  Let's see, so far she's: (1) almost killed a background pony with a wagon, (2) physically altered ponies in rather disturbing ways, most notably the age spell she cast on Snips and Snails, and (3) cut off all of Ponyville from the rest of Equestria!!!  Gosh dang, Trixie's a stone-cold b*tch!!!!!!!!! 

Well, the thing she was wearing corrupted her remember?

 

Also, Rule 63 is now cannon, but I'm still wondering how pinkie played the sousaphone.....maybe with her butt?

[Wingnut 6,988]

In contrast, my mind was fixated around Yu-Gi-Oh for much of the episode. While they didn't play with duel monsters cards, the guiding principle of the game held true. Believing in yourself and your cards (in this case, spells/tactics) is the key to victory as cheesy as that might sound.

 

Actually, as a matter of fact, the very first scene of the episode could be taken as a Yu-Gi-Oh reference. In the anime's first episode, Seto Kaiba wanted Yugi's grandpa's Blue-Eyes badly from his game shop and would trade a lot of his already-polished decks for that one card, but Yugi's grandpa refused. In this case, the shopkeeper buckled under pressure when Trixie presented quite the hefty sum of money to him. Another glorious reference by M.A. Larson, in any case.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for posting that clip of Seto trying to buy the Blue Eyes card.  That was the first thing that came to my mind after I reflected on Magic Duel.  And who made that awesome picture of Twilight as Yugi? 

Edited December 2, 2012 by Wingnut

[dad george 105]

D-d-d-duel

So many fetishes in this episode... People who watched it on the octabooru livestream will understand.

Pretty good episode IMO, the ending seemed a little cheesy, the "alicorn amulet" is just a stupid name for the thingy, but all in all pretty good. 7.5/10

[Batbrony 16,051]

Well, the thing she was wearing corrupted her remember?

 

Also, Rule 63 is now cannon, but I'm still wondering how pinkie played the sousaphone.....maybe with her butt?

 

I mentioned this to another person who said the same thing about that post, but I'll say it again; I posted that in the middle of the episode before they'd mentioned the corrupting effects of the Alicorn's Amulet, largely as an observation of how different Trixie was from earlier; it did make sense to me later when they explained the corrupting effects of the amulet, but until then, for all I knew, she was just nastier than she was before. 

 

As for Pinkie Pie, well, despite the fact that that was impressive, even for her, I've simply come to accept at this point that anything out of the ordinary that she accomplishes can be completely explained by "Physics?  LOL, I'm Pinkie Pie!!!". 

[Arcanel 3,041]

A few illogical/inconsistent things I noticed in the episode:

 

Twilight says that she can't send a letter to Princess Celestia in Saddle Arabia because she needs Spike to do that. But Twilight was talking to Spike and the rest of the Mane Six when they ran over to her immediately after she was banished. Why couldn't Twilight have told Spike to send Celestia a letter then? We know Trixie's bubble around Ponyville is not sound-proof, since Twilight was talking to Spike and the Mane Six as though they could hear her, and later in the episode, Twilight can talk to Trixie through the bubble.

 

Furthermore, even if Twilight didn't tell Spike to send a letter, why wouldn't he or another one of the Mane Six think to do that? Was Trixie's bubble letter-proof? I suppose it could have been (although it would have been nice to establish that), but if that were the case, they could have smuggled Spike out of Ponyville with a letter for him to send to the Princess outside the bubble. Spike could have found Twilight and told her about the amulet as well, or it wouldn't have been too much trouble to sneak someone else out with Spike also.

 

In the first Magic Duel between Twilight and Trixie, the format appears to be that one dueler performs a feat of magic and the other dueler attempts to undo it. Twilight then lost when she failed to undo Trixie's age spell. Therefore, I thought something strange was going on when during the second duel, Twilight did NOT undo Trixie's age spell, but cast her own instead. Furthermore, I'm not sure what the point was of Twilight doing multiple age spells in a row; if she proved she was capable of doing it, isn't that enough? Is it more impressive to perform a difficult spell multiple times in a row? Maybe; it's unclear whether "difficult" magic is difficult because it requires great physical or mental fitness.

 

I guess it must be against the unwritten rules of amulets to wear more than one amulet at one time, since that's what I thought Trixie should have done. Then she would have been twice (or more than twice) as powerful!

 

Why is it particularly impressive for Twilight to levitate ordinary animals in a giant spinning infinity sign in the air? Levitation is about the most common thing that unicorns use their magic for, and I think Twilight has levitated animals before without a fuss. I would think it would be more impressive to levitate large, heavy objects or levitate with great precision.

 

Finally, there was no letter to Princess Celestia about the friendship lesson learned, although maybe Twilight's explanation to Trixie was the substitute for that.

May I try giving these things an explanation?

 

Twilight could have asked, yes, but I don't think her mental state at that time allowed her too. Think about it. She just got kicked out of Ponyville, her friends all trapped with a powerful Trixie AND because of her fault, in her mind. While she was determined to get back, I don't think talking to Spike would have been the thought of ANYBODY in her position.

 

Any letter burnt still transforms into physical magic, which has to go somewhere for someone to receive, since the bubble is a material thing, it probably would not have been able to pass through it. As for smuggling Spike out, the main thing was to tell Twilight about their findings. The problem is, she was at Zecora's house in the Everfree Forest, AKA, danger everywhere. It would have been too risky without someone who didn't know the forest well enough, and the only who do are Zecora and Fluttershy, hence why sending Fluttershy, as much as she was completely terrified, would have been the best choice.

 

I don't think that the duel was about undoing the other's spell. It just so happened that there were spells that could be undone. Rather it was about casting the most powerful spell, waiting for the other to follow (like a Follow the Leader thing). For Twilight, in the second duel she started "casting" age spells quite quickly and without breaking a single sweat, which probably can only be done by someone VERY powerful, and that was until she brought the big gun and made a GENDER CHANGING spell, which probably tops as highest difficulty in the spell casting ranking.

 

The typical set of mind for these things are that "Wow...that's so powerful...and I paid/stole/killed for this! WHAT A SCAM! I have GOT to get the other!", which tends to make them throw away the other thing in use. Plus, I don't think she could used both anyway due to space XD. Besides, she DID still have the Amulet but Rainbow took it.

 

Like I told Chaotic Discord before, she MIGHT have lifted living things, but not like this and so many. Plus, these weren't just any animals. These are tre animals Fluttershy takes care of every single day, so it would require further concentration to not let anything happen to them (plus, she was "under threats" XD). It isn't about the difficulty of the spell itself, but rather the fact nothing bad happened to the beings being lifted, and I have the feeling that moving your friend's animals one by one in a loop formation without having any single bump into each other or whatever would imply LOTS and LOTS of concentration.

 

And finally, yeah, I think that's it. I think this time, the lesson was replacing Celestia with Zecora. With all this, since the lesson did involve that friends are the most powerful thing you can ever have, it's also nice for Trixie to apologize. Plus, I'm thinking that with Celestia personally there afterwards, she could have told her herself after the presentation.

 

That sound good?

[GoldenShield 46]

I have the feeling that something big is coming and Sombra as well as Trixie are just the beginning. A big dark magical power that has taken posession of Sombra as well as the Alicorn amulet

Well actually if you think about it, why would Trixie have gone so far to acquire this evil amulet and how did she know where to look, what if something was controlling and corrupting her before she even put the amulet on?

Also, I could see straight away that this episode would be somewhat of a dark one but even I was shocked when I heard Trixie say that the spell she cast on Rainbow Dash at the end was supposed to have her writhing in agony! D: I don't think I have ever heard anything that extreme in a western kids show before, I mean think about it, a spell that was supposed to cause extreme pain and agony, that's pretty harsh for a kids show. I love it!

 

Now for my review of the episode, I loved it, best of the season so far possibly even of the whole show! The storyline was cool enough, if a little bit over used, the whole evil magical magguffin that turns the minor harmless antagonist into a serious evil threat thing has been done quite a bit but I thought it was well implemented here.

 

As for the magic, a lot of people were very happy with Twilight defeating Trixie without using the Elements of Harmony and so am I the 'super magic weapon that automatically beats everyone just because' thing gets really annoying when used too often, which is also why I love the way it was done, I would have been equally as frustrated if Twilight had suddenly gotten this massive power boost just to suit the situation so I am happy that they didn't do that mainly because it could lead to the writers having to power-up all the other characters as well so that they stayed relevant (something I like to call Dragonball Z Syndrome). However there was some significant development when it came to Twilight's powers that showed up in a scene that many people seem to have dismissed, in the scene where Twilight attempts to use the age spell on the flower she actually does succeed in reverting it to a bud, if only for a second, since the age spells are meant to be so significant and hard to perform it really does show that she has gotten stronger while at the same time showing that she still has a long way to go.

 

As for Trixie apologizing, lots of people don't seem to like this but I do, I think that it makes a lot of sense, Trixie may have been mean to people before in her first appearance but for the most part she was just a show off who enjoyed proving to others that she was better than them but in this episode she was vindictive and cruel just for the sake of it, the pain causing spell I mentioned earlier being a prime example of this. I would imagine that after the corrupting effects wore off she would have felt pretty bad about some of the things she had done, the apology was also very well done in that she still boasted a little bit afterward, showing that while she learns a lot about her behavior and where it could lead her she was still essentially the same person she was before and the fact that she was the one at fault and that her humiliation for which she had previously blamed Twilight she knew was actually her own fault.

So, all up I thought it was a pretty good job that they did and I really liked how they managed to create a somewhat darker tone to the episode while still including some great comedic moments. All in all an excellent episode! XD

[Akemi Homura 7,680]

Thanks for posting that clip of Seto trying to buy the Blue Eyes card.  That was the first thing that came to my mind after I reflected on Magic Duel.  And who made that awesome picture of Twilight as Yugi? 

 

I'm not sure who drew it. But if it was just right after the episode aired, the person's got some serious skill for drawing as well as they do.

[roptiriolg 49]

This was a great episode, I liked it! I really didn't know Trixie would turn out to be one of the villains of MLP as nothing suggested it after the episode from Season 1 but it seems that's what she is. The magic duel was very nice and seeing a stallion Applejack was hilarious! Eeeeyup!

 

In the end it was hard to say would she turn into a friend that Twilight Sparkle and the rest in Ponyville don't get along with, but the way she fled seems there will be more of her. Well, it would be nice to see more episodes with her.

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

Now that I'm calmed down from my...possibly excessive outrage from yesterday...I can take another look at this episode and see a lot of questions and a lot of fun from it.Most of the questions I have revolve around the amulet. Where did it come from? Why does that seller have it? How did Trixie know about it?Was the book that Fluttershy found that info in the same book that had the info on the lake? What was done with the amulet after Twilight took it from Trixie?Additionally I feel like the episode didn't really resolve things. In fact, I daresay Trixie is likely to show herself again in the future, as a Zecora-esque character, pulled out whenever the show needs her.Beyond that, there are so many good moments that I'm not sure where to begin. I'd have to rewatch the episode.And if anyone is wondering why I haven't been writing huge walls of text in the episode threads this season? The simple truth is...you all are saying everything I might have to say. Anything I could even come up with, the rest of you have done so first. So...I see little reason to bother.

[~Chaotic Fireball~ 499]

Okay, TONS of fandom in this Season. I couldn't believe my eyes when 

1. Trixie's necklace is called an 'Alicorn Amulaet'. Didn't bronies invent the term 'Alicorn?'

2. Rarity and Applejack turned into Fillies

3. Applejack turns into a guy!!

4. Trixie deletes Pinkie's mouth (Seriously that's the worst crime you can commit to her!!)

:/

[Arcanel 3,041]

Now that I'm calmed down from my...possibly excessive outrage from yesterday...I can take another look at this episode and see a lot of questions and a lot of fun from it.

 

Most of the questions I have revolve around the amulet. Where did it come from? Why does that seller have it? How did Trixie know about it?

 

Was the book that Fluttershy found that info in the same book that had the info on the lake? What was done with the amulet after Twilight took it from Trixie?

 

Additionally I feel like the episode didn't really resolve things. In fact, I daresay Trixie is likely to show herself again in the future, as a Zecora-esque character, pulled out whenever the show needs her.

 

Beyond that, there are so many good moments that I'm not sure where to begin. I'd have to rewatch the episode.

 

And if anyone is wondering why I haven't been writing huge walls of text in the episode threads this season? The simple truth is...you all are saying everything I might have to say. Anything I could even come up with, the rest of you have done so first. So...I see little reason to bother.

Yahoo! As for the questions, I think the amulet probably belongs to something like inside the Balck Market, so it probably got stolen from an important place. Or the antique dealer got lucky as an archaeologist.

 

And I don't think it was the same book (though I would have to go look both books to really be sure). But I think it's a difference between magical artifacts and legends of, probably particularly, places.

 

And I too think Trixie will come back. I think it went with a nice closure. But that Trixie will come seems to me like a good possibility.

 

And when I answer here, it's normally when others have questions, but I myself don't make an initial post.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

That sound good?

 

You make some good points. I think both our arguments are defensible, so I'm not trying to "win" the argument or prove you wrong or anything like that. That being said, let me elaborate on a few points.

 

First, I think it still would have been a good idea to send notice to Princess Celestia of what was going on in Ponyville as a back-up to Twilight and company's plan. Imagine what would have happened if something went wrong which exposed Twilight's "powerful" spells as fake, or if Trixie had held onto the Alicorn Amulet as she tried Twilight's, and finding that Twilight's was fake, put the Alicorn Amulet back on. There were many ways that their plan could have failed, and had that happened, things could have been even worse. They would have had to come up with a different, cleverer way to get the amulet away from Trixie after she already saw one attempt to do so, or wait for Princess Celestia to come back from her trip and notice that something is wrong in Ponyville. We don't know how long the latter option would take; by the time that that happened, Trixie might have done irreparable damage to the town, grievously harmed or killed someone, etc.

 

Spike did not have to be the only one smuggled out of Ponyville; he could have sent a letter and then hidden and waited for Fluttershy to come back and get back into the town with her. We are never shown exactly how Fluttershy got back into Ponyville, but she did somehow, so Spike could also have done so.

 

We might have to agree to disagree on the impressiveness of Twilight's "show" at the end. From what we've seen in the show, is levitating animals and levitating multiple objects at once uncommon things for unicorns to do? If not, then I don't see that levitating multiple animals at once would be particularly impressive. It is true, though, that I don't know what level of magic average ponies see in-world; perhaps we as the viewers of the show see more powerful magic by watching Twilight than usual.

 

Also, to me, the fact that the animals belong to Fluttershy doesn't seem especially relevant to the impressiveness of the act of magic. Fluttershy's animals are not physically any more difficult to levitate than any other animals. Furthermore, I would expect Twilight to not want to harm any animal she is performing magic on, regardless of whom the animal belonged to, and I would expect an expert unicorn like Twilight not to become flustered because her magic is being done on her friend's animals rather than any random ones. Also, do the spectators watching the show (including the guests from Saddle Arabia for whom the show is being done) know that the animals belong to Fluttershy and know who Fluttershy is?

 

It's nice to engage someone on points of logic and consistency like these, since I don't often find people willing to think that much about a TV episode they watched, especially one of a cartoon like this.

[Arcanel 3,041]

You make some good points. I think both our arguments are defensible, so I'm not trying to "win" the argument or prove you wrong or anything like that. That being said, let me elaborate on a few points.

 

First, I think it still would have been a good idea to send notice to Princess Celestia of what was going on in Ponyville as a back-up to Twilight and company's plan. Imagine what would have happened if something went wrong which exposed Twilight's "powerful" spells as fake, or if Trixie had held onto the Alicorn Amulet as she tried Twilight's, and finding that Twilight's was fake, put the Alicorn Amulet back on. There were many ways that their plan could have failed, and had that happened, things could have been even worse. They would have had to come up with a different, cleverer way to get the amulet away from Trixie after she already saw one attempt to do so, or wait for Princess Celestia to come back from her trip and notice that something is wrong in Ponyville. We don't know how long the latter option would take; by the time that that happened, Trixie might have done irreparable damage to the town, grievously harmed or killed someone, etc.

 

Spike did not have to be the only one smuggled out of Ponyville; he could have sent a letter and then hidden and waited for Fluttershy to come back and get back into the town with her. We are never shown exactly how Fluttershy got back into Ponyville, but she did somehow, so Spike could also have done so.

 

We might have to agree to disagree on the impressiveness of Twilight's "show" at the end. From what we've seen in the show, is levitating animals and levitating multiple objects at once uncommon things for unicorns to do? If not, then I don't see that levitating multiple animals at once would be particularly impressive. It is true, though, that I don't know what level of magic average ponies see in-world; perhaps we as the viewers of the show see more powerful magic by watching Twilight than usual.

 

Also, to me, the fact that the animals belong to Fluttershy doesn't seem especially relevant to the impressiveness of the act of magic. Fluttershy's animals are not physically any more difficult to levitate than any other animals. Furthermore, I would expect Twilight to not want to harm any animal she is performing magic on, regardless of whom the animal belonged to, and I would expect an expert unicorn like Twilight not to become flustered because her magic is being done on her friend's animals rather than any random ones. Also, do the spectators watching the show (including the guests from Saddle Arabia for whom the show is being done) know that the animals belong to Fluttershy and know who Fluttershy is?

 

It's nice to engage someone on points of logic and consistency like these, since I don't often find people willing to think that much about a TV episode they watched, especially one of a cartoon like this.

Haha, neither do I, but trust me, I like overanalyzing lots of things when they come up. Only opinions come and go, not changes, winnings or losses.

 

As for the plans itself, I don't think neither of the ponies would like to rely on Celestia UNLESS they really needed to. Especially Twilight. She more than anyone needed confidence in her magic skills. Plus, Twilight did assure her friends she could try and come up with something, and if they trust anyone on magic issues after Celestia or Luna, it's her. Hence why the tried to come up with something as fast as possible. It's all about confidence from each other as well. We also don't know how quickly could have Celestia come back from Saddle Arabia should she have receive the letter, and for all we know, Ponyville might not have lasted that long.

 

While smuggling both Spike and Fluttershy also seems plausible, Flutershy knows her way around the Everfree Forest, (in my opinion), unlike Spike. Plus, I don't think either of the rest of the Mane 6 would dare let Spike stay out on his own out there (probably for fear of something happening to him. After all, especially Fluttershy and Rarity, they ARE protective of him, not counting Twilight). Fluttershy could have come back on her own or with Zecora. Like I said, they are the ponies with most knowledge of the Everfree Forest, I think, especially Zecora. That, and Fluttershy has her animals to guide her as well.

 

As for the impressiveness, we also have to consider the fact that, this was probably a show arranged for the delegates of Saddle Arabia coming to Ponyville. For all we know, they are all earth ponies as well (like the crystal ponies), and a magic show like the one Twilight imposed is probably highly impressive for any resident of Saddle Arabia.

 

The animals coming from someone doesn't make it more impressive, but it does make a certain pegasus worry as hell, and a certain unicorn to treat them with the utmost care. I'm not saying that it makes more impressive for anyone outside Fluttershy's or Twilight's circle, but it does increase the risk factor for Twilight. The care is this. Regardless of who she is lifting, she WILL do it with the utmost care anyway. But Twilight probably asked Fluttershy about letting her using the animals for the trick show, something which might have taken some convincing words for Fluttershy to agree, so Twilight knew better than anyone how important was this to happen, for the safety of the animals, for Fluttershy, for the confidence in her own magic skills, AND for the task of making anyone around her in the magic show (especially the delegates from Saddle Arabia) impressed. I think that, whoever you are, you're STILL going to feel that in your mind.

 

As for finding people, you're seeing 13 pages of people commenting on the show...trust me, overanalysis ISN'T lacking. I don't know if I'm the best or most reliable, but I'd go to Alfonzo Dennard, Dark Qiviut, Kyronea, Scootacool, Chaotic Discord and Thereisnospoon303 for show analysis. At least that I know of.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Arcanel

[Radiance64 7,053]

You guys are bringing back all my Yugi-oh nostalgia! I guess connections can be made, but I'm not to sure if they were actually referencing it.

[Silverhoof 2,844]

This is the spoiler artwork I saw before the show. I was convinced that Trixie went to jail afterwards, condemned to hard labor (the old turn boulders into gravel bit).

Edited December 2, 2012 by Silverhoof