Is that a rhetorical question?

No, I'm being one hundred percent dead serious. I honestly don't know what you mean.

If there's one thing I can't tolerate, it's incompetence

For starters, it's not like Trixie isn't awesome, even compared to most of the mane cast. She is no Krillin trying to keep up with Saiyins, she is a skilled magic user compared to pretty much everyone except Twilight, who is a noted prodigy whose raw talent even managed to impress a Physical Goddess and does a lot of studying to back that talent up. In other words, more like Batman vs Superman (that might be a bad example, but you catch my drift, non?).

Plus she has only appeared in one episode and she was the antagonist. As Kayeka said the trope is more designed to be applied to Krillin type characters who are a consistent member of the cast but are weak compared to the rest.

edited 29th Dec '11 9:12:51 AM by Mio

Yeah, Overshadowed by Awesome is more about someone who is (becoming) useless over the course of a series, rather then someone who is only 'weaker' then the main character.

I don't think you can stretch the definition so far that it includes a character that has been a major antagonist in a single episode.

edited 29th Dec '11 9:12:34 AM by Kayeka

Still, I just feel like there's a skill to writing a character's competence.

There is a difference between one character being MORE competent than another, and said character's greater competence actually making the OTHER character look incompetent. That's what I think happened with Trixie

Laconic for OBA: "They're not weak, but the other characters are so powerful they seem that way."

That sounds more like Can't Catch Up

edited 29th Dec '11 9:14:54 AM by gingerninja666

Trixie never was weak, or seemed weak. Twilight was stronger, but Trixie was stil depicted as pretty strong herself.

And yeah, those particular tropes do end up getting mixed a lot.

When did Trixe display magic half as strong and Twilight's?

I can't really say that Trixie was made to look incompetent because of what happened. And honestly she was the antagonist of the episode. You can kind of expect the protagonist to come out on top in the end.

I guess if you really wanted to apply the trope to somepony then the most likely candidate would be Applejack.

edited 29th Dec '11 9:21:05 AM by Mio

I don't WANT to apply the trope to anyone.

and no, AJ is awesome enough already

It's just, as I've said, competence is a big issue for me

When did anyone besides Twilight show magic half as powerful as Trixie? In fact, as Ginger pointed out some pages ago, Trixie is the only unicorn besides Twilight to have performed a teleportation spell.

edited 29th Dec '11 9:31:11 AM by Kayeka

God I want her to come back.

It'd be great if ALL the antagonists returned to help out at some point. Like a Big Damn Villains

actually, no. More like a traditional Big Damn Heroes moment only with antagonists

edited 29th Dec '11 9:41:53 AM by gingerninja666

While I'm not completely opposed to the idea of Trixie coming back, I'd rather not have it. She played her role just fine, short as it was. I just can't really figure out a reason for it.

I see no reason why any character shouldn't return at some point. Even thogh the show doesn't care much for it, isn't continuity generally considered a good thing?

From our point of view yes (mostly).

From Hasbro's point of view not so much. Then again this show has gotten away with quite a bit in terms of continuity so who knows.

I'm personally of the opinion that Trixie's talent is showmanship (showponyship?), not skilled use of magic, and all of her coolest looking feats are clever uses of smoke and mirrors and slight of hoof. Otherwise she wouldn't have built up such false bravado and travel around showing off for a living. She obviously has above average skill, but it's focused in improving her illusions and faking even bigger spells. If she does return, I think it would be neat to show the results of her training as becoming a full blown illusionist, rather than a jack of all trades mage just to counter Twilight. Just my 2¢ on the topic.

edited 29th Dec '11 9:54:03 AM by PerpetualLurker

Part of me thinks it would be cool, but the part of that is sick of the fandom over hyping her, does not want to see this

Yeah, she's pretty much just a meme at this point, but it's not one that seems to be wearing out any time soon. I'd rather hopefully speculate about things without giving in to all the hype than simply disregarding everything due to Hype Aversion.

I'd be cool with either direction they choose to take honestly. I like the idea of her being an alchemist/illusionist like you said. I even mentioned last night that she should become a student of Zecora's

She did create a full blown storm cloud. (albeit a small one) I don't think we've seen any other unicorns create Weather before

I'm sorry

edited 29th Dec '11 10:00:19 AM by gingerninja666

Really, comparing Twilight and Trixie is like comparing apples and oranges; they're proficient in different skills. Twilight's specialty is what I'd call practical magic, while Trixie's is performance magic. The problem wasn't that Trixie was incompetent, it's that she was hyping herself as having skill in an area she wasn't skilled in. It's like someone who's an excellent actor using their skill to pass themselves off as a doctor and then being found out when they actually try to do something related to medicine. The fact that they're actually a terrible doctor doesn't make them incompetent as an actor. Trixie's an excellent performer, but she used that skill to pretend to be something else, rather than just being a performer.

As far as having her come back...it's a mixed bag. I'd kinda like to see her again, but I get the feeling it would trigger a massive Hype Backlash in the fandom. Everybody has their own ideas of how Trixie "should" be handled, and they're going to complain if it doesn't match up.

Luna faced that same problem, but for the most part she turned out better than everyone expected. I would wager that additional doses of Large Ham should counter half the fandom's desire for her to be the ultimate woobie.

That's... pretty dead on actually. Thank you, JT

Yeah, Luna was hyped up WAY more than Trixie ever was, and personally, I'd be happy if she DIDN'T become redeemed by the end of her return. (I'd like it if she did, but I'm comfortable with her being a glorious Large Ham too)

Also, Luna kinda still WAS a woobie in her reappearance, it's just that that wasn't the ONLY aspect of her character

edited 29th Dec '11 10:26:06 AM by gingerninja666

What we got with Luna...was glorious. It gives me faith that characters like Tixie will be handeled well on their reutrn.

Oddly enough that and other aspects of her have been wiped away by the fandom in favor of making her some Globe Theatre escapee with no indoor voice. It honestly kind of annoys me more then her old fanon personality.

edited 29th Dec '11 10:31:52 AM by Mio

The only thing it's changed about her for me is that now I consider her a bit more Blood Knightish and quick to use force when compared to her sister.

edited 29th Dec '11 10:43:24 AM by gingerninja666