Unpopular opinion time

Trixie is cool because she’s in a perpetual boke/tsukkomi act with the universe. Her insufferable ego is tempered by karma continually giving her a dope slap at the same time her rotten luck doesn’t grate because she’ll be back to bragging a few moments later.

@Latecomer  
@Myoozik  
I just don’t see it. To me, she gets much more love than she deserves.

@GenericArchangel  
And here I’d say that Rainbow’s arrogance issues were lesser, because she can do pretty much everything she says she can and therefore doesn’t need to depreciate others like a certain self-titled Great and Powerful showmare.
 

 
@Meanlucario  
How many characters would be if they weren’t ponies? Ponies are cool. Although Gilda got a fair bit of attention too…
 
Perhaps a better question might be, would she get so much positive reception if she was a stallion as original planned?

@Dustcan  
I don’t think we were watching the same show, pre-Starlight.

@Meanlucario  
Then I don’t know what to say, I’ve always loved her despite her ups and downs.

@Latecomer  
I think gender is a factor, but left it out to avoid sounds like I’m on another “if she were a guy” tirades.

@Meanlucario  
Depends what you mean bi deserve, I guess - she’s more compelling as a character than much nicer ponies. And before Starlight, she had a lot more paths she could take.
 
(also, don’t underestimate the power of getting in there early She was Twilight’s only foil for three seasons.)

@Latecomer  
One, maybe two episodes is too few to call her a “foil.” The Remane Five were better foils if just due to how much more interaction they have with Twi.

@Latecomer  
It’s REALLY telling that the only way to make her an unsympathetic person is to alternately interpret her motives. Besides, being friendless only makes you a bad person in a series that equates friendship to morality (where the worst people ever are given freebies as long as they have friends). In any other series (or in real life), the popular people bullying a friendless traveling entertainer out of their town and laughing about all her worldly belongings being destroyed in the process because they took offense to her act would have been an abominable act. Like, that would be a “these people are officially beyond redemption” kind of thing :P
 
@GenericArchangel  
Lol yeah. Even a lot of side characters. In any other series Shining Armor and Spitfire would have been Zapp Brannigan XD

@Badumsquish  
Fluttershy’s brother was Zapp Brannigan.

@Meanlucario  
Nope - Gilda and Lightning Dust were both foils to Rainbow in just one episode to start with. Earlu show was very self-contained.
 
 
@Badumsquish  
In this case, friendliness comes form her own issues, like her need to be the best at everything (which implicitly everyone else has to be worse).
 
Now, mine isn’t the only possible interpretation - hard to have one of those when uou’re dealing with a performer - but it’s a well-supported one.
 
Oh, and no-one bullied her out of town. She ran away because she was embarrassed at being upstaged and outed in her lie.

@Latecomer  
I’ll give you Lighting but Gilda wasn’t one at all. Still, I can’t call Trixie a foil to Twi, since other than using magic and being boastful, there’s nothing that warrants calling her a foil. At least when Starlight had a ep with her, Trixie admitted to being envious of Twi, the first actual sign of a rivalry in the show. Before than, she was just a boastful dick.

@Latecomer  
She got harassed and bullied by some townsfolk and she was the bad guy for defending herself, then some other townsfolk brought a gigantic wild animal to town and told her to fight it, it destroyed her home and all her possessions, and the townsfolk blamed her for the incident to the point they followed her around and harassed her about it until it literally destroyed her career. That’s almost beyond bullying, like you would go to jail for that in real life XD
 
@Anonycat  
He’s like the anti-Brannigan. He was the only royal guard to actually be fired for gross incompetence, and ironically was the only guard who actually succeed at his duties that day as Luna had purposely put him on sentry knowing the Mane Six could slip past him XD

@Badumsquish  
And he was fabulous to boot.
 

@Badumsquish  

You must have a different memory of “Boast Busters” then I do, because I mostly remembering the mane 6 discussing amongst themselves the matter of her being boastful, ending with a single one of them, Rainbow Dash, calling out boo. And that was amidst a crowd that seemed genuinely interested in her performance. If she’s so thin skinned that a single boo in an otherwise positive audience goads her into challenging the booing pony and everyone else who is with her to a contest where she can humiliate them, it speaks pretty clearly as to what kind of individual she is.
 
And you’re ignoring the fact that she kept up her “I am the greatest ever and deserve to be treated that way” spiel offstage too. So it’s not like it’s just a part of her act.
 
 
@Badumsquish  

And her big plan for getting revenge on Ponyville and all the ponies who laughed at her failing to be as great as she pretended to be was to… buy a dangerous artifact and seek vengeance on the one pony who not only didn’t mock her (who in fact practically didn’t even speak to her in the whole episode), but also saved her life? That makes no sense, unless it was never about anything other than Twilight being better than her. And to that extent, no, I don’t buy that she let bygones be bygones. Even when she became acquainted with Starlight, she admitted that her big goal was to one up Twilight in something, and whatever her eventual feelings on the matter, it seems pretty clear she was initially perfectly willing to use Starlight for that purpose.

@Meanlucario  
Perhaps not in your opinon. I wonder if we’re using somewhat different definitions…
 
And Twilight was excessivlu humble - hence foil. All you need is a mix of similar and contrasting traits.
 
 
@Badumsquish  
Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of her act which we will never agree on, the Ursa was karma for her boastinig (excessive, but karma isn’t alawus fair), her leaving rather than seeking help was her own decision, and I just don’t believe the “followed her around and harassed her” thing coming from an amulet-addled narcissist.

If Magic Duel Trixie was forgivable, it was because she spent most of the episode giving Snips and Snails shit when she wasn’t fighting Twilight. Let’s be honest, some pony in her position who’d been done in by their stupidity probably would’ve wanted to do that to them too, even without the Alicorn Amulet.

@Vivace  
I said when i heard that she was gunning for Twilight “she’d better not forget who’s fault the Ursa actually was!” - and thankfully, she didn’t.

@Background Pony #6CA4  
Actually, Rainbow Dash booed her, she called out Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash went up on stage and got in her face demanding to know “So, “Great and Powerful Trixie”. What makes you think you’re so awesome, anyway?” which prompted Trixie to challenge them to come on stage and best her, which the accepted and came up one after the other, first Applejack, then Rainbow Dash, and then Rarity, and then Trixie proceeded to show them up. If ANYONE in that scenario had thin skin it was the hecklers who couldn’t handle Trixie saying no less than the introductory line of “Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie! Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!” without taking offense and heckling, couldn’t handle being called out for booing without leaping up on stage and ruining the entire act for everyone else, and then couldn’t handle being asked “Can you do anything I can’t do” without eagerly accepting and trying to prove up on stage that they’re awesomer than some random stranger. :P
 
Actually, her getting a power boost to show up Twilight Sparkle makes complete and perfect pragmatic sense. Her career has been completely destroyed and she’s being continually harassed by ponies because she got “revealed as a fraud” by someone who performs better magic. Her getting a power boost and besting that pony in a magic duel in front of her harassers would show she wasn’t a fraud, would show she indeed was capable of the feats she boasted about, would make her harassers back off, restore her reputation, and allow her to pick up the pieces of her career. In fact, I’d say it’s the single most valid villain motive and plan in the entire series :P
 
@Latecomer  
True, but that makes Magic Duel total karma too. Some assholes called someone’s bluff, harassed them unfairly, and said person (albeit by cheating) decided to give them what they asked for :P

@Vivace  
Definitely, if anything, they deserved every bit of it, maybe even more than that.

@Badumsquish  
No, she got revealed as a fraud bi the Ursa. Twilight besting it would only show her up if she was committed to always being the most Great and Powerful pony around, instead of admitting there were those who made her look like a magical minnow.
 
And she isn’t capable of the feats she boasted about - that’s what makes it different from, say, Rainbow Dash’s bragging. (Although not as different as Rainbow would like - she got angry for a few reasons.)
 
As for the Amulet - well, we don’t know what she knew about it, so it’s hard to judge her decision to use it. But it was her decision - noponu forced her hoof.

@Latecomer  
None of that would have mattered though. As far as anyone was concerned she’d been revealed as a fraud compared to a more powerful pony, and winning against that pony would solve the problem. Which it actually did, she ultimately WAS defeated again but she showed herself capable of using great magic even IF she had to “cheat” :P
 
I’d argue she is. Her magic tricks and sleight of hand would take more skill, training, effort, and practice than “real” magic to begin with, while the feats she’s incapable of are reliant on inherent abilities that she simply wasn’t born with or otherwise can’t obtain. She’d be capable of everything Twilight was if she happened to be the chosen child of destiny who (to quote Celestia) “had more raw magical power than any pony she’d ever seen” :P
 
And no, no one forced her to get an amulet she (at least) knew would boost her power, but nobody forced random idiots in the stage to start a fight with her, or forced random idiots to drag a wild dangerous animal to town because they wanted to see someone “vanquish” (so kill) a wild animal in the middle of town for their amusement, and nobody forced ponies from Ponyville to harass her and vandalize her shit. It’s like I said in the beginning, she’s VERY reactive; had the Mane Six not been around that day she’d have just put on a show and left it at that, had Snips and Snails not been around that day she’d have left town peacefully after her show was over, and had her career not been destroyed by Ponyville residents she’d have just gone on with her career with maybe holding a bit of a grudge at worst. Maybe she’d have made an enemy or two, but when left to her own devices she’s at worst arrogant and a bit rude :P

@Badumsquish  

@Vivace  
I know I sure as hell would.

@Badumsquish  
As I said, her lie was that she could beat an Ursa Major, not Twilight Sparkle. I doubt pre-alicorn Twilight could solo an Ursa /Major. Beating her proves nothing except that Trixie is better - which she obviously isn’t if she has to cheat to do so.
 
And while Twilight may have an inborn advantage, I don’t think you can saw she doesn’t work hard to learn magic. Most of what she did at the end took not just raw power, but also skill and finesse. And we know she’s always studying to refine her abilities.
 
And if she’s reactive, it’s in a bad way - she’d rather push others down than just rely on her own skills, because deep down she knows she isn’t the best and can’t stand it. But if she devalues everyone elses’ capabilities while inflating her own, she can maybe fool both herself and the world into believing otherwise.
 
It’s a powerful, compelling recipe for a character who could have gone a lot of ways.