Best Pony Dragon Dad: The Hitch Trailblazer Thread

[CoffeeHorse]

In this thread we talk about Hitch Trailblazer, an actual trailblazer. He's the first stallion in a gen's core group (Mane 5 in this case). He's also the town sheriff. And most importantly, animals constantly flock to him for some reason and there is nothing he can do about it.

 

[Caldwin]

A Stallion main character is such an oddity. I'm honestly mostly interested in Sunny and Izzy, but I definitely have my eye on Hitch. He's got some potential to be interesting.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Another interesting thing about him is he is technically an antagonist for a good portion of the movie, but he's still driven by heroic qualities.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

He's also Sunny Starscout's brother

...Did I miss something? "Best friend", maybe even "brother from another mare-ther", but I don't believe they're related.

Anyway, yeah, Hitch is a lot of fun. Being a cop opens up a lot of story possibilities. And...he REALLY needs to find a new deputy, so a recruitment drive where we learn more about the citizens of the town could be a fun episode. Also, one where he attracts a chimera or a bear or something into town, and everypony just has to deal with that.

Also...Sky Police! "Pfft, there aren't any crimes in the skies" *Pegasus gets her purse stolen literally 10 feet above his head* "Okay, there WEREN'T any crimes in the skies". And then Izzy makes him wings...that just look pretty and were NOT intended to be functional.

Will he get some sort of season-long arc where he takes down a crime syndicate? Or a serial litterer?

...I've been thinking about episode possibilities lately, can you tell?

 

[Shadewing]

I still wish there was a minor confrontation between him and Sprout. "Before I left, I told you not to start any wars; I come back and what are you doing?" "...Starting a war..."

 

[CoffeeHorse]

...Did I miss something? "Best friend", maybe even "brother from another mare-ther", but I don't believe they're related.

... Hug it I'm going to rewatch it already.

[...]

Wow I got that one wrong. In my defense, I was a bit distracted that Saturday and I did not hear some of the dialog, but a lot of the visuals seemed to scream it.

This makes it even more impressive that Sunny can talk him into doing their overly elaborate secret shake in public. Hitch's loyalty to her is astonishing.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Over in Transformers Discussion I keep getting confused by the spelling of 'Trailbreaker'.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Hitch is a more interesting character than he's getting credit for.

Hitch has become a bit of a joke and a slapstick magnet since the movie. But I've watched the movie a few times and I've noticed something. Hitch was always a joke. He's only impressive in the movie because he's been preparing for that moment his whole life. After that things just go back to normal.

Hitch isn't the Ace. He's a parody of the Ace. Tales survivors might notice a bit of Patch in him. He has the soul of an old fashioned hero, in a world where all the old fashioned villains disappeared. The high adventure days are over. He's the sheriff of a town where nothing ever happens. Sunny is the biggest troublemaker in the whole town and she's probably only a problem once a year. Sure there's unicorns and pegasuses out there, but no one's ever actually seen one.

Hitch puts up with Sprout because he quietly understands him (or at least one layer of that crazy onion). Hitch is actually just as bored and frustrated with his job as Sprout is. The job just isn't that important. But where Sprout seemingly gives up (but is quietly seething at his lack of importance), Hitch copes by overcompensating. He treats every little thing as seriously as he imagined the job was supposed to be. Littering is a red alert. Everything has to be a red alert. You can almost hear the internal narrator dramatically reframing all his deeds in the most heroic possible light.

But now he has a dragon. This has given him a meaningful outlet for his hero complex. He is wearing himself out taking care of this dragon but I bet he's never been happier.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

He has the soul of an old fashioned hero, in a world where all the old fashioned villains disappeared.

Imagine what he's going to be like once he finds out about Opaline. He might just cry from joy.

I can just see them both just throwing cliches at each other and having a ball.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Opaline is not prepared for what's going to happen to her when she successfully kidnaps Sparky. She's going to get the Bale voice for sure.

"WHERE IS HE?"

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Oh, if Sparky actually gets kidnapped I can see Hitch going full-on Liam Neeson in Taken.

" I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have bits. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my baby go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I WILL BEFRIEND you."

I'm not sure if Sparky will ACTUALLY get stolen, or if his kidnapping will just be a distraction for Opaline to go after the Unity Crystals again. We probably still need to pay off that crystal-cracking moment from the Special, after all. Maybe she'll actually get ALL the things she's been after in MYM, the Crystals, the Lantern, and the Baby.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Hitch has a paid off mortgage. He probably does have bits. Or whatever the currency is now.

Opaline wants to be a G1 villain. She has to capture someone at some point.