Ask Trixie From "Trixie Vs."

Welcome one and all! Send The Great and Powerful Trixie your questions! You can find more "Trixie Vs" here: http://evil-dec0y.deviantart.com/

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

So here it is, the culmination of over six years of a story(this makes it sound like there was a plan all along, as opposed to me just winging it every year like I actually did). This is easily the biggest comic I have ever made, by almost ten panels. So necessary to say there's a lot to get into here in the description. (Also I'm sorry if it takes a while to load being such a large file, but please try to avoid the description before you read the comic to avoid spoilers). All together this year had over 130 panels, almost double the second closest year. First of all, from the comments I got over the course of this year's 'TvHWE', it was obvious to me there were going to be some people who aren't happy with the ending. Some people wanted a bittersweet ending where Ghost Aunt Bea still died in the blizzard but Trixie still manages to become a good pony. While some were wanting other less happy conclusions. I apologize that this may not have been the climax you wanted, but I'm not going to lie, I'm an absolute sucker for a happy ending, especially in Christmas stories(I cry watching It's a Wonderful Life' every year). With only so many panels and Trixie being at her parent's house I wasn't able to make as many differences to "the timeline" as I would've liked. I threw a few things in there, like I added taped pictures to the mirror in Trixie's room(each with a little bit of Aunt Bea in them), and Jack Pot not being worried about blizzards anymore. I realize there are some unanswered questions, but I wanted to make sure all of the big ones were taken care of, and I didn't want to make a whole extra comic that just turned into a "Question and Answers" segment. I do have actual answers for the questions that I didn't get to in this comic, so instead what I will do is ask yall to send in any questions you may have and I’ll do my best to answer them in text posts.  As I said last year in the journal concerning the future of 'Trixie Vs. Hearth's Warming', I'm not closing the door on it, I can easily see me putting out shorter comics come future Christmases. I just do not believe I'll do anymore with the size or seriousness(since this is at it's heart a light comedy) of this year, or last year's story of Trixie trying to steal Hearth's Warming. With this story starting as just a funny spoof of 'A Christmas Carol' I thought ending it with a relevant quote from the book would be fitting.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

Due to tumblr not allowing more than ten pictures to uploaded in a post this is sort of ‘Part 8: part 1′. I have the full finale finished and it is easily the biggest comic I’ve ever made, but I didn’t want to make a single post with a bunch of tiny panels pasted together so I had to break it down into two separate posts.

And I also didn’t want to post both parts on the same day and have people on tumblr risk seeing the second part before they saw the first so I will be delaying the second part by a day to give my tumblr followers a chance to not accidentally get ahead of themselves. 

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

Valentine's Day? That's a funny way to spell Christmas time... So yeah, this has taken (and is still taking) a lot longer than I was expecting. I tried to add a bit more humor in this part than was in the last two, since at its heart 'Trixie Vs.' is a comedy series. But I also took care with the timing and the type of comedy because didnt want to ruin the mood since this part has probably one of the most serious scene's I've ever done. Hopefully neither missed its mark. There is very likely only one more part left, and I'm hoping for a much quicker turn out than this part took. I did have an extra part to this comic that I cut out at the last minute. It had Trixie remarking on the fact that she couldn't even use her body heat to save Ghost and that there was nothing she do to help. I ended up removing it because it felt like it was a little clunky and obvious, and it didnt really add anything. There's actually very little lore for the Fire of Friendship, outside of the original Hearth's Warming Eve episode it's only ever shown as a tree topper in season 8, and disregarded as a myth by Starlight Glimmer. I will say it was fun looking through the old years for the right scenes for the flashback. Brought back some nice memories and even some laughs at some of the jokes I had forgotten.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

So this is VERY late, but sadly I have a good reason for it. If you read my Christmas Day journal on deviantart you saw that I was delayed due to a family emergency, and at the time of writing it seemed like things were looking better and everything might be okay, but unfortunately that was not the case and it turned out to be a worst case scenario sort of deal. And with Christmas and New Years happening as well it completely threw all of my plans out the window, and by the time things settled back to normal my momentum was completely gone. With this being a dialogue heavy installment there isnt really much to talk about here in the description, but if you think of anything you want to discuss about it in the comments feel free to say something. So in case it's been long enough that you've forgotten; last we left Trixie she had just found out her long-time companion/scolder Ghost was actually her aunt that she shares the name Beatrix with. Needless to say their are some... unresolved issues in the Lulamoon family. Ghost/Bean/Beatrix resents Jack Pot for having a seemingly easier life, with his magic, his cutie mark apparently his relationship with their dad, and on the other side Jack Pot is exasperated by his sister's actions. And Trixie is torn because she obviously recognizes that Ghost is in the wrong and she's defensive of her dad, but Ghost is her friend and she's been in a similar place and was lucky enough to have other ponies there for her when she needed it. and she knows how Ghost's story ends.Ultimately she wants to help her misguided friend get off of a destructive path in the same way her friend helped her.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

Happy new year. Any progress on the comic?

Needless to say this is pretty late(Happy New Years btw) if you’re a long time follower of this blog you know I’m typically late on things,, though TvHWE has only ever been late on one other occasion. There’s a good reason for this and I get a bit into it in the next installment.

Which leads to the main point here, The next update will be out within the next 12 hours of this post here. It’s January 15th, that’s only about three weeks late, no biggie... in fact it’s sort of like the Christmas special went on a midseason break for Christmas.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

I said you guys weren't ready for this part.

There it is, so many big reveals of questions I've had asked of me over the years all in one single installment. The question of "what is Ghost's real name", "what was Ghost like when she was alive", "Did she have a connection to Trixie before she died", and "Was Jack Pot a cute teenager pony". Okay, maybe not that last one.

And I still have (I believe) two more parts left before this is all wrapped up! It's almost completely an unnoticeable reference but the "Bean Counter?" part is supposed to be a throw back to the old "Hansel?" joke from Looney Tunes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVYT2O… The original plan was to have a montage of all the bad things Ghost Bean Counter Beatrix did, but once again I didnt have the time to do it without risking the comic being pushed back until after Christmas. You know, the same problem I have every year :/ I also was going to have the Bean Counter name last for a whole comic before revealing her real name in the next part, but I think it would've been a bit much to do a name switch two comics in a row. It was surprisingly difficult to get the pose right(well as right as I could get it) in the sixth panel, without it being too awkward or looking like Trixie was going in for a kiss.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

"Press F to pay respects for Olive Twist."

You guys are SO not ready for the next part...  

Usually I release these on Friday afternoon, but since there is only one more Friday, but several more parts, I figured I'd have to break

away from that schedule and release them a bit more frequently between here and Christmas. Though I'm still not entirely sure I'll wrap this

all up by the deadline since Christmas is practically here(well almost).

Yeah, you can tell Sombra is new at this whole "Spirit of Hearth's Warming Eve" thing.

P.S. "Ghost" and Olive Twist are supposed to be talking, not just making funny faces at each other.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

OH is Olive Twist in anyway related to Peppermint Twist (AKA Twist-a-loo)?

I didn’t have any intended connection to Twist, but I’m not against the idea of them being related.

As an aside, this question gives me the opportunity just in case anyone didn’t get the reference with Olive Twist. 

Olive Twist is a reference to the classic novel ‘Oliver Twist’ which is about an orphan boy named Oliver Twist. The novel was written by Charles Dickens, who also wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ which is the major inspiration for ‘Trixie Vs. Hearth’s Warming Eve’.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

“Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more.”

Look who's alive! Well, alive again... well alive for the first time we've seen her. Ghosts and time travel can be a bit confusing.

So as per usual there were some things I had to edit out of my original script, and one thing was a joke and an explanation about why Sombra has fewer chains than Ghost. It went something like this: Trixie: "Wait a second, why do you have fewer chains than Trixie's friend Ghost? You enslaved an entire empire for crying out loud." Sombra:" Actually, I have many chains, in fact it only looks like it's so few because it's more chains than your mortal mind can comprehend." Trixie: "Wow..." Sombra: "Yeah, I'm like a walking snow tire." Unfortunately I couldnt find a way to make it fit without throwing off the flow and making this comic several panels longer. I also wanted a pony with a leisure suit and an afro to walk by in the background as a visual gag representing the era they're in, but decided to cut that for many reasons.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

A small rant you’ve probably seen dozens of times this week.

Over the last week I’ve had my previous two ‘Trixie Vs. Hearth’s Warming’ comics flagged as inappropriate. Now I know this has been happening to countless other people on here for equally ridiculous innocent posts, but there is something from the heart I would really like to say...

This is really wack.

That is all.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

I guess you could say this is “a shadow of things yet to come”...

I think instead of "Trixie Vs. Hearth's Warming Eve' I should've named this series 'Later: the comic series'.

I promised you last time that things would really start picking up in this installment.  I also said I'd explain more about my original idea for Trixie's parents before Jack Pot showed up on the show. Well my original head canon was that Trixie was born to a pair of very praise happy earth ponies in an earth pony village, and she was mostly self taught when it came to magic. Hence why she has such a high opinion of her mediocre magical skills. But I believe I still put out a story different from more than 95% percent of most Trixie head canons. Because in this story unlike almost all others, she actually comes from a happy unbroken home. Like seriously people, why do you all demand Trixie have been a sad filly?! lol. I know there's going to be some people who say Jack Pot doesn't know Trixie exists, but that isnt remotely canon or even implied. As an idea it's only based almost entirely on a tongue in cheek tweet from Big Jim Miller. Now I'm not against other's having that as their head canon, but that just simply isnt my Trixie's origin. And as for her mother, I figured the best choice for her would be the orange mare that was used in a single, now non-canon, panel from IDW comic #40. She has so many different unofficial names(Showcase, Spectacle, Sunflower etc. (They all start with "S" for some reason) that I decided I wouldnt even bother having somepony call her by her name. Just not worth the headache XD. I've been wanting to have a comic where somepony call Trixie by her full name "Beatrix" for a few years now, so I figured this would probably be the best opportunity I'd get. And now that I've typed enough about Trixie's parents that I'm far down on the description page so someone isnt likely to accidentally spoil the surprise at the end while the comic is loading. Yes that is indeed Sombra, he just looks weird without his armor. I tried to get the point across as obviously as possible, but I'm still afraid someone's not going to recognize him and just see "Dark vampire OC pony", lol. Believe it or not, I'm still not halfway through with this year's TvHWE, there's a lot more coming in the next few weeks.

[glapplebloom]

((Remember those Trixie Vs Comics? What if he did one for Maud.))

@maudyoulook

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

I, for one, certainly remember those comics ;)

Btw, This is great!

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

I realize this part is pretty small and sort of uneventful compared to the usual installment. The reason for that is because it was originally put together with the previous part, but I felt a 19 panel total would have been a bit much for a single comic. So instead I made both a 12 panel and a 9 panel comic. But I promise things will really pick up with the next update!

On an aside, I had the idea of Trixie visiting her parents planned long before the events of season 8, but sadly I had to alter my plans. I'll go into this more and describe what my original plans were in the next part. I'd hate to give anything away early ;).

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

“Find out next time on Dragonball Z!”

Here we go, part 1 of this year’s Trixie Vs. Hearth’s Warming Eve. This year is going to be a big one.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

Trixie Vs. Hearth’s Warming Eve news...

First off, I want to wish my fellow Americans a happyThanksgiving! So here we are, believe it or not Christmastime is upon us once again, and that means that another year of 'Trixie Vs. Hearth's Warming Eve' is coming too. This will be the Seventh(?!) year of TvHWE, which in and of itself seem pretty unbelievable (Man, where has this decade gone?), but with some pretty mixed emotions I must also announce it will very likely be the last one of its kind. Though I will add that I very much hate the idea of putting a final "No more." cap onto this series that I love, and one that has been a part of my life for so long, so that isn't the case here. There very likely may be future installments in the coming years, but I don't see any large scale multi-part stories happening after this year's finale arc. Which brings me to the brighter part of this post: this year's TvHWE will be the biggest one of them all! Both in length of the story, and the scope of characters and emotions. I'm not going to give anything away, but there will be some things that have been highly requested over the years. It will take place in some pretty surprising locations, and include some new, original and canon characters, and will hopefully have some completely unexpected story elements. And of this will all begin with 'Trixie Vs. Hearth's Warming Eve' Year 7, part 1 this Friday afternoon, and hopefully I'll be able to get this all completed before Christmas Day. (because who wants to read Christmas stories in January amiright?).

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well there it is, another ‘TvHWE’ in the books, I hope you all enjoyed it. This one was the biggest so far. I tried to give this one a bit of the feeling of an actual episode of MLP instead of just a webcomic, and I’m happy with how that turned out.

Now I think I’m going to go into Christmas hibernation for a couple of weeks now.

[ask-trixie-from-trixie-vs]

I remember when I used to complain about Twilight's library being difficult to do, the size of the rooms, the details, and the giant multicolored crystals of the castle makes me almost miss the endless shelves of books. The number of backgrounds I did for this comic doesn't help either.

If everything works out as planned there will be just one more part in this year's 'Trixie Vs. Hearth's Warming Eve'.