Fillies, gentlecolts, and foals of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Recap/Review. And this week, it’s time to duel! Trixie, one of the show’s most beloved villains makes her great and powerful return, with revenge on Twilight Sparkle in mind. Was this an epic battle between the master mages of Equestria? Let’s find out with this week’s episode “Magic Duel”.
Trixie returns, and is even greater and powerful..er.
We open the episode at a mysterious shop, where a pony in a black cloak is seeking a rather mysterious item. That being the Alicorn Amulet, an item of extreme power. Later on, we see that Twilight Sparkle is busy using Fluttershy’s animals for some sort of levitation juggling act, much to a frightened Fluttershy’s chagrin. This is all for entertainment that she has planned for Princess Celestia and delegates of Saddle Arabia (Yes, that is a real place in this universe).
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash tells Twilight of a disturbance at town hall. It appears that a pony is zapping others with spells. When Twilight arrives, the pony reveals herself to be Trixie, the boastful magic pony from way back in season 1. After being humiliated by Twilight, Trixie is out for revenge, and wants to prove that she’s is the most powerful unicorn in Equestria by challenging Twilight to a duel, with the loser being banished from Ponyville forever.
Ponyville under glass
Twilight is hesitant to do so, but Trixie continues to put the pressure on her by casting spells on Twilight’s friends. Enlarging Dash’s left wing, putting Rarity is a very ugly dress (the brute!), and even completely removing Pinkie Pie’s mouth and nose. Seeing the damage Trixie’s doing, Twilight accepts.
However, despite her best efforts, Twilight can’t defeat Trixie, especially when the blue unicorn pulls out a powerful age change spell that goes even beyond her magic. Trixie banishes Twilight, and places Ponyville under a glass dome. Twilight is undeterred however, as she promises to find out what is making Trixie so super evil, and reunite with her home, and her friends.
Miss Zecoriyagi and Twilight-San
With no Celestia to help her, Twilight seeks out the next greatest mystic she knows in Zecora, who offers to teach Twilight to be able to combat Trixie’s evil might. While that’s going down, her friends are being forced to entertain Trixie, who has turned Ponyville into her own ego-fuelled paradise.
The rest of the ponies soon discover what’s the cause of Trixie’s newfound powers (well, Fluttershy does, but she’s too scared to speak up). It’s the Alicorn amulet mentioned earlier in the episode, which amplifies the powers of whoever wears it, but can’t be removed by anypony except the one who wears it. They send an unwilling Fluttershy to relay the message to Twilight, who sets up her brilliant plan to return home.
Applejack's a man, baby!
Equipped with an amulet of her own, Twilight Sparkle challenges Trixie to a rematch, which the arrogant unicorn easily accepts. In the battle, Twilight somehow manages to trounce Trixie at every turn, both being able to change the age of ponies in an instant, but also clone others as well, and change genders of ponies as well.
Trixie manages to get the Amulet from Twilight, while taking hers off. But she soon learns that she was duped all along. Twilight never learned an age spell, she had her friends jump in to make it look like she could. The episode ends with Twilight doing her animal juggling spell for the delegates of Saddle Arabia, but gets a little help from Trixie, who is apologetic for her actions, and seems to have a new, more positive outlook on things.
The Great and Apologetic Trixie
Yeah, you kicked me out of my home, tortured my friends, and turned the town into your ego-centric orgasm, but whatever, we cool. Oh, and Pinkie eventually gets her mouth back, but is cut off before she can talk.
Well, this was… one hell of an episode. Damn near the show’s tour de force in so many ways. And it gives us so many pros and cons to mull over, so let’s get to them.
PRO
Trixie made a great villain in this episode. A vast improvement from the annoying loudmouth boaster from Boast Busters. She was dangerous, smug, and pretty darn evil, even if a lot of it was out of revenge, and an amulet that powered her up. You could find yourself both enjoying the evil acts she does, as well as straight up hating what she was doing. That’s a definite sign of making a great villain. However, we’ll get my thoughts on what happened at the end, in a bit.
This episode feels like a love letter to the bronies, especially the ones who like to make their own certain fanon for the show. There seemed to be references abound. Minor, regular ones like Lyra and Bonbon being together, to subtle shipping bits, to everything from Fluttertree, to gender swap and age changing. It was really kinda cool to see a lot of these done.
Speaking of references, so many previous episodes got mentions in one way or another. Winter Wrap-Up, Swarm of the Century, Even a slightly minor reference to Over a Barrel with the pies. It’s always nice to see continuity in this show, even if it was just being used for a magic duel.
This show's getting way too real.
Another pony land, and new types of equines have been revealed in this episode with that of Saddle Arabia. One of the things I always put in my pro section is the addition of new types of creatures and new lands in this world. And it’s really cool to see that the Saddle Arabians actually look a lot like real horses. The world of My Little Pony continues to grow, and I’m down for the ride.
Zecora returning was definitely something that made my day. It’s always great to see everyone’s favourite rhyming zebra mystic, and her involvement in the episode was handled quite well. Always awesome to have her on board.
CON
I’ll make it clear right now, I don’t really care for a redeemed and apologetic Trixie. There’s a lot of reasons behind it, but if I had to throw two obvious ones out then I will. The first being that it kinda feels so out of place when you consider that Trixie made such a great villain in this episode. Even if it was the amulet’s doing, she made such a strong antagonist, that you’d want to see more of it.
And therein is what makes this a bigger problem for me. The show doesn’t have too many recurring antagonists. The only real one I know of is Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and that’s just for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. And while we don’t completely know if a certain chaotic draconequis is returning, it would have helped to know at least we still had Trixie, or even Gilda around to cause trouble for our mane six heroes. And while I’m pining for old villains to return… BRING BACK THE DIAMOND DOGS! Seriously.
While I was very entertained by a lot of the in-jokes and clear cut shout outs to the bronies, I do feel it was a bit too much. I don’t mind a reference here and there, but this just felt like overkill throughout the episode, and it does feel like a burn out by the end, which is definitely not a good thing.
If I were in charge of this show, I’d have put “Magic Duel” as the season premiere. It has more energy, laughs, action, and excitement than “The Crystal Empire” ever did. While not everything hit home perfectly with me, and I do feel they overdid it one some levels, this is a must-watch episode for any fan, and definitely a sign that this show continues to be one of the best on TV today.
RATING: 9.5 out of 10
Next week, don’t go to sleep, or you’ll miss an all new episode. When Rainbow Dash tells scary stories to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, it causes Scootaloo to have nightmares. Can the young filly overcomer her fears, or will she forever be “Sleepless in Ponyville”? Find out next week.
Until next week everypony.