A Deep Dive Into Twilight’s Character (Pt. 3) · 8:25am Sep 3rd, 2022
Welcome back, lovely peeps!
Today, we’re going to continue our deep dive into Princess Twilight Sparkle and her history with villain redemption. (Fair warning: some text is going to be colored. I’m using night mode, so some colors might not be visible in light mode.)
Twilight Sparkle: A Character Analysis
Part 3
We pick up from where we left off in Part 2.
Twilight had officially succeeded in reforming Starlight and make her a better pony. Twilight then went on to make one huge, gigantic mistake: she accidentally freed the Pony of Shadows (who’s feeding on Stygian’s hate) from limbo (S7E25)! Wrecked by guilt over having released such an evil villain and inadequacy when compared to her idol Star Swirl the Bearded, Twilight Sparkle completely forwent her own morals and values, agreeing with the plan to sacrifice the Elements of Harmony and banish Stygian to limbo. This was only fueled by Star Swirl’s black-and-white-morality.
Star Swirl the Bearded: I doubt we can save our homeland with a conversation.
Starlight Glimmer: But we could try.
Twilight Sparkle: Starlight, I’m sure Star Swirl and the others did try.
Star Swirl the Bearded: The Pony of Shadows was not interested in reconciliation. Once a villain, always a villain.[...]
Star Swirl the Bearded: Stygian was the name the Pony of Shadows gave up when he turned to darkness.
Starlight Glimmer: And I’m just trying to figure out why.
Star Swirl the Bearded: Envy. He wanted more power than he had, and that desire led him down a path from which there is no return![...]
Star Swirl the Bearded: Stygian wants to destroy all that is good in this world. There’s no way to befriend a pony like that.
Thankfully, Twilight snapped out of it. When she realized that there actually was a pony in there, a pony who was trying to get out of the darkness. Stygian was actively trying to escape, but was unable to. Upon seeing this, Twilight jumped into the shadow to figure out what’s going on. I’ll reiterate this - Twilight jumped into the beast as it was being banished to limbo, running the risk of being banished to limbo herself, just for the chance of talking to the pony inside.
Twilight Sparkle: This is all a misunderstanding! If the Pillars knew how you felt, I’m sure they wouldn’t have turned their backs on you. The shadow isn’t who you really are. Let me help you be Stygian again.
Stygian: Even if my friends did still care, what makes you think you have the power to help me?
Starlight Glimmer: Because it’s what she does. I wasn’t so different from you, and Twilight helped me change. If there’s one pony in Equestria that can save a friendship, it’s her.
Stygian: I... I want to believe you... [growls] But the darkness will not be stopped!
Twilight Sparkle: Fight the darkness, Stygian! You don’t need it anymore! Revenge isn’t what you want! Friendship is!
Our next villain, or rather villains, on the list are Tempest Shadow and the Storm King (The Movie). Now we all know how what happened with the Storm King; he was turned into a statue and then shattered to pieces, and besides, we didn’t get to see enough of him to say more. What I really want to talk about here is the broken-horned unicorn.
So Tempest. Fourth evil unicorn mare Twilight’s encountered, and the last on the list. The princess did not start talking to Tempest until the latter captured her. Twilight tried to reason with her, several times, but Tempest was having none of it. On a side note, it’s interesting to note the similarities between Tempest and Starlight - both unicorns who were traumatized as fillies, abandoned by their friends and turning to the dark side while rejecting the ideals of friendship.
Twilight Sparkle: Why are you doing this? You’re a pony! Just like me.
Tempest Shadow: I’m nothing like you! I’m more than you’ll ever be![...]
Twilight Sparkle: I’m so sorry you felt so alone.
Tempest Shadow: I saw the truth. My “friends” abandoned me when times got tough. Looks like I’m not the only one. Face it, Princess. Friendship has failed you, too.
Twilight Sparkle: Friendship didn’t fail me. I failed friendship.
Tempest is a little different compared to other reformed villains. Previously, for Twilight to consider someone worthy of forgiveness and redemption, she had to see that they were willing to change and showed remorse. But this time, Tempest only showed regret when she was betrayed. If the Storm King had honored his word, she would’ve continued to serve him. But despite that, Twilight still found it in herself to save Tempest when she had the opportunity to grab the Staff of Sacanas and save her people. Tempest repaid the favor by saving Twilight from the Storm King’s obsidian orb.
Tempest Shadow: Why are you saving me?
Twilight Sparkle: Because this is what friends do.[...]
Rainbow Dash: Whoa! I can’t believe she just [saved you]!
Twilight Sparkle: I can.
So that was Tempest Shadow. She then went on her merry way, travelling the world. The Bearer’s experience outside the borders of Equestria inspired Twilight to open a school dedicated to teaching friendship. The princess’ success with teaching Starlight the magic of friendship paved the way for the school. Now, the school got off to a rough start, what with Twilight’s views opposed by Neighsay’s, but she continued to teach at her School of Friendship.
And this leads us to our next villain - Cozy Glow! The last villain introduced in G4. Now, Cozy was introduced as a sweet filly, a good student who was helpful and kind (S8E12, S8E16, S8E22 & S8E25). Turns out it was just a front; her real self is manipulative, cruel, sociopathic and power-hungry. Cozy had wormed her way into Twilight’s life, gaining her trust and lying to just about everyone. After her scheme was revealed and thwarted, Twilight was more sad than angry, and genuinely tried to understand Cozy’s motives and reason with her. But when she was unrepentant and still wanted to cause more harm, they had no choice but to lock her up.
Twilight Sparkle: But I still don’t understand why.
Cozy Glow: [growls] Why?! Because friendship is power! You might be the Princess of Friendship, but as headmare of this school, I can collect even more friends than you!
Twilight Sparkle: You’re the one who doesn’t get it, Cozy. Friendship is powerful, but power isn’t why you make friends. I’m sorry I couldn’t teach you that.
I’ll be the first to admit that Tartarus was not a good solution. Not because Cozy is a child, but because imprisonment has been, time and time again, proved to be a bad way of dealing with villains - it’s just kicking the can down the road for someone else to solve.
And Cozy, admittedly Twilight’s biggest failure as a friendship instructor, did cause more trouble. She, along with Tirek, were broken out of Tartarus to join forces with Chrysalis and Sombra and conquer Equestria as a team (S9E1). Unbeknownst to everyone, heroes and villains alike, this act was done by Discord, disguised as the legendary Grogar (who we sadly never got to see in the show proper). Discord’s plan was to boost Twilight’s confidence by staging an attack on her coronation as Ruler of Equestria. Terrible plan, I know.
Unfortunately, Twilight was far too preoccupied with saving her kingdom to truly understand the severity of Discord’s action. He was forgiven, yes, but I really wanted to see her reaction after the fact. When Discord revealed his plot, Twilight was, similar to how she reacted to Cozy, more sad than mad. And in the end, when the villains were defeated and were at our heroes’ mercy, they were petrified. Twilight did not petrify them, but neither did she stop it (S9E25). I really wish I knew how she truly felt about this decision, so I could add it in my essay, but alas.
Twilight Sparkle: The real magic has always been right here! And the more who understand how powerful friendship is, the stronger we will all be! Together!
And thus we have covered all the villains Twilight Sparkle has encountered - those she forgave, those she banished and those she straight-up destroyed. My concluding statement would be that Twilight’s forgiveness is a result of character development. Prior to becoming an alicorn, Twilight used to deal with villains with imprisonment. This changed after she met Sunset Shimmer, offering her forgiveness. She then hit her peak with Starlight Glimmer, not only forgiving but guiding her through her redemption journey. Twilight went on to do the same thing to Stygian and Tempest Shadow. She was deeply saddened and hurt by Cozy Glow’s betrayal and the filly refused to change.
On the sliding scale of ‘Is Twilight forgiving or not?’, I would give her a 1/10 at the beginning of the show and a 9.5/10 at the end of the show.
We have reached the end of this analysis. See here for my final thoughts!
Villain count: 12
I've said it before, and I'll say it again- this one's gonna be hard for me. When I've tried to categorize Twilight in the past, and I frequently have, I've always done it at the exact midpoint of the show. Season 5 is my favorite, and while I don't dislike any conglomerate part of the show, the later seasons can be a little hard for me to watch sometimes.
Pretty much just because I start to get all depressed as the Big Finale starts to loom. I like to cut it short so I can save myself that melancholic, bittersweet goodbye. Besides the point, though- I'm just giving excuses. Let's see about my take on the analysis, shall we?
So, I've made it clear that I believe Twilight had reached the peak of her virtue mid-show, right? Well, with that said, it sort of implies that, as the show progressed from that point, she went kind of downhill. Not in any sort of grand, 'bring back old Twilight' way or anything, she just started to show a lot of cracks.
I haven't really touched upon it, but as Sunset was the defining factor in a key moment of Twilight's development, Starlight grew to be a sort of compass for Twilight. Most obvious in the finale- but it's evident in even more places the more you look. A Royal Problem, Fame and Misfortune, and even the season 8 premiere: as Twilight begins to buckle and question her decisions, Starlight acts as her foil. As Twilight loses sight of her goal in the blind pursuit of what's 'right,' Starlight is there to redefine that 'right.'
Twilight... she sort of began to buckle a lot. It's hard to say where it came from- maybe from her growing popularity as made evident by episodes 14 and 22- but Twilight began to wane, in a sort of way. As she and her friends came under more and more scrutiny from the world finally waking up to its heroes, her flaws began to exacerbate; most imminently: her problem with hero worship.
The whys of Twilight's hero worship are well documented, but the sudden reintroduction of Starswirl into the modern era came at a tremendously bad time. Her student had left the nest, her life was on full display, and she was suddenly thinking more deeply on what it actually meant to be a Princess of Equestria; then her confidence was entirely smashed.
Her fantasy come alive had views completely at odds with her own, and she was left too uncertain to act. She was crippled by the doubt her hero was preaching to her, and torn by the lessons she'd learned about forgiveness. Ponies could change- she knew that, but...
A lucky glimpse spurred her into action and Starswirl had an inexplicable change of heart, but her foundation had been called into serious question. It doesn't matter if it stuck, it happened. She had been shaken, and this, I believe, acts as a decent explanation for her actions during the movie.
I haven't seen the movie that many times- truthfully, I don't quite love it- but I remember well how she lapsed when she tried to steal the hippogryphs' magical pearl. It was a crime. A dire, inexcusable crime, driven by Twilight's sole focus on achieving her goal. She wanted to believe, again, that she could act to save Equestria. That she knew. That she was its Princess, capable of doing the right thing this time.
But she failed. And then, she failed again; she couldn't change Tempest's mind. She couldn't redeem the filly in over her head, just trying to achieve an impossible dream. She couldn't reach her, and it took a betrayal for her to save herself.
She leaned on her friends in the aftermath, and tried to find her legs. She opened the School of Friendship to widen her purview; tried to spread what she knew she had learned. But her uncertainty with herself didn't seem to go away, and she kept falling prey to her worst traits. She couldn't tell Celestia the truth, when she knew what a virtue honesty was. She tried too hard to be the perfect principle; reprimanded the Crusaders too harshly for something that wasn't their fault. Her focus on her goals overwhelmed her again.
Didn't see what was really happening during an out-of-sorts picnic. Couldn't let go of her prejudice, however justified it was. Almost enabled a hero to make an awful mistake. Didn't see the snake in her midst.
Didn't help a pony who desperately needed it.
I've tapped into my dramatic flair a bit here, but my point is that Twilight messed up a lot in season eight: topped off by her greatest failure as a Princess. It's difficult to reconcile her willingness to help Tempest Shadow with her willingness to let Cozy rot, but it makes a certain sort of sense when the foundation of her morals are called into question. I believe in the goodness of Twilight's character, and I want desperately to believe she had a reason for every growing misstep.
It can't be ignored just how deeply Cozy must have hurt Twilight, and it may just account for a part of her sentence. She wasn't some faceless or known villain come out off the street: she was her student. This was somepony she'd trusted. If Twilight had already been uncertain after her near-failure to help Stygian and her actual failure to directly help Tempest, then I can only imagine what this might've done to her.
This was Twilight's lowest point, both as a Princess, and as a pony. From failure to failure: she sent a filly who may very well have had the chance for change to a certain hell. If I was writing it, Twilight would've been near comatose after this. i'm a drama writer, and i spent my day writing drama if you couldn't tell
...Of course, only an episode later she was thrust into the height of responsibility. To be honest: I don't really want to talk about the final season here, for more reasons than my vague familiarity. Her ascension to the throne highlights a part of Twilight's character that I find difficult to understand: her ability to rise to the occasion. For better or for worse, Twilight applies herself to situations. It's why I think she so suddenly decided to open the School; she was coping by letting herself fill a role.
I do want to mention that Discord's... actions during season 9 were totally foreshadowed. I noticed the way he was trying to push Twilight during my latest rewatch of season 5, when he tried to teach Twilight a lesson about recognizing her own flaws. Whether he was trying to do it genuinely or not is a negligible point: he has precedent for trying to help Twilight grow. He was still totally insane for doing what he did, but boy is it neat that it goes that far back.
Well, I accidently just posted this early, so I'll cut it off here since there's no telling if you might come back early and see this half-done. I kinda screwed up some of my arguments, and I just plain don't know this part of the show as well- and you know what? I kinda slept weirdly last night. My analysis is all over the place.
But I said the basics of what I wanted to say, however brutishly. Following season 6: Twilight unfortunately began a decline in her morals due to a lack of confidence rising from her book's publication and her hero's reintroduction to the world. Growing pressure from the public and a clinging lack of assuredness led her to make an awful mistake, and she failed to talk Tempest into righteousness. This lead her even deeper into a pit of incertitude, and very soon, she was too blinded by her flaws to save even a single misguided child.
I love Twilight, I really do, but the finale of season 8 is in no way a triumph. It's the pinnacle of a long descent into tragedy- and something you said really resonates with me. When Twilight learned of Cozy's betrayal, she wasn't all that mad. She was just sad.
I think Twilight may have been sad about a lot of things, then.
...There was more I wanted to say about Starlight, but it seems my time's up. Had fun, though! Twilight midshow was a definite 10/10, though she really messed up as time went on. I absolutely love that for her character, though, even for how grave I made it sound. Tragedy's fun too.
...Might've been a teensy bit too grim, though. There's certainly a happier interpretation somewhere.
for the sake of my tidy argument can we just pretend season 9 doesn't exist?
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Twilight’s my favorite character, so it makes me really uncomfortable whenever I see her make a mistake I know she shouldn’t be making. I enjoyed Season 8, but yes, Twilight was deeply OOC that season, making basic mistakes Season 1 Twi wouldn’t have made.
But yikes, the movie was hard on her. I felt sad for Twilight the entirety of the movie. My feelings on the movie were mixed, so to speak. The animation was gorgeous and the songs (all of them) were fire! But the plot? It was lacking; missing something and I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Thank you, Jinx, for all your comments and your thoughts. For taking the time to reply to all three parts. Stick around for a special surprise. (Don’t worry; it’s not more analysis.) And I’ll see you around!