Talk:To Change a Changeling/@comment-10390252-20170902161720

Let's start by talking about just how weird this episode was on a meta level. In very many ways, this was an episode about how pony methods might not work with other species. It had Starlight being incompetent simply because she couldn't get into other beings' heads. It had Trixie being... well, basically being obnoxious and effectively spitting all over her friendship with Starlight all the time. It had in many ways the Changelings solving their own problem, which actually had Pharynx at least partly in the right and and the putative heroes at least partly in the wrong.

It is this inversion of most of the usual tropes that makes this episode stand out to me. Starlight is shown, somewhat unusually, as being at sea and out of her depth. We can actually see a rare example of objectively negative emotions being held up as sometimes being necessary. Being peaceful does not mean being pushovers and it does not mean that you suddenly are not responsible for dealing with their own problems.

The over all quality of this episode was good (although this is the single most annoying portrayal we've ever had of Trixie; I suspect the writers were over-exaggerating her bad traits in order to emphasise the friendship problem at hand). However, I found the climax satisfying and I am glad that Starlight and Trixie didn't get free passes for their mistakes. I hope that they both have to spend some time making up to Thorax for this one.

BenRG's Rating: 7.5/10

Oh, and bonus half point for Starlight's channelling of William Wallace.