Boast Busters
Twilight Sparkle faces a boastful unicorn magician.
"Boast Busters" is the sixth episode of the first season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, written by creator Chris Savino and originally airing on The Hub on November 19, 2010. The episode centers on Twilight Sparkle's dilemma when a boastful unicorn magician named Trixie arrives in Ponyville, forcing Twilight to confront her fears about revealing her own magical abilities.
Quick Facts
- Series
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Writer
- Chris Savino
- Director
- Jayson Thiessen; James Wootton
- Air date
- 19 November 2010
- Length
- 22 minutes
Facts from the source article.
Plot
While out on a stroll with Spike, Twilight Sparkle learns from Snips and Snails that a powerful new unicorn has arrived in Ponyville. The two join their friends at the town square to watch "The Great and Powerful Trixie" perform a magic show. Trixie boasts that she is the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria and claims to have saved Hoofington from an ursa major by banishing it to the Everfree Forest. Annoyed by Trixie's arrogance, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity each demonstrate their own talents to challenge her, but Trixie uses her magic to humiliate them in front of the crowd. Spike urges Twilight to show her superior abilities, but Twilight, afraid of appearing to show off, makes an excuse to leave. After the show, Snips and Snails pester Trixie for details about the ursa major, but she dismisses them. Spike tells the colts they should not believe Trixie's story unless they witness such a feat themselves, prompting Snips to get an idea. He and Snails venture into the Everfree Forest, where they accidentally awaken what they believe to be an ursa major and provoke it into chasing them back toward Ponyville. The creature is actually an ursa minor—smaller than an ursa major but still enormous and dangerous. Trixie attempts to stop the beast but fails, admitting she fabricated her story. Twilight then uses her magic to create a soothing lullaby by blowing wind through cattail reeds, levitates a water tower, fills it with milk from a nearby barn, and feeds the creature. After the ursa minor falls asleep, Twilight carries it back to its cave. Her friends reassure her that using her talents to help others is not showing off, while Trixie refuses to acknowledge Twilight's abilities and flees town in a cloud of smoke.
Reception
Sherilyn Connelly, author of Ponyville Confidential, gave the episode a "B-" rating and described it as another example of outsiders coming to Ponyville, causing trouble, rejecting efforts to befriend them, and leaving without learning any lessons. In her review for SF Weekly, she noted that she appreciated that neither Gilda nor Trixie change their ways at the ends of their episodes, calling that "life." Jen A. Blue, in a critical analysis, praised "Boast Busters" as a tour-de-force and declared it "easily the best episode we've looked at so far" in the series. Blue highlighted writer Chris Savino's effective use of visual storytelling, particularly in Trixie's design, which combines the behavior of a stage magician with the visual trappings of a "real wizard" like Tolkien's Gandalf. Blue analyzed Trixie as an excellent foil for Twilight Sparkle, noting that Trixie is confident and confrontational where Twilight is neurotic and avoidant, a dominance-seeker where Twilight seeks approval, and a liar where Twilight is honest. Blue also observed that the episode uses Spike as the point-of-view character, allowing viewers to detach from Twilight's actions and interrogate her character while avoiding a focus on her self-esteem issues and fear of tall poppy syndrome. Brendan Kachel of flayrah called the episode "pretty terrible" and defended Trixie as a stage performer being heckled by the Mane Six, noting that hecklers are considered fair game.
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