TWISI: Twilight Never Became a Princess, but does advance in some way · 6:30pm Jan 9th, 2014
So Equestria Daily posted another Discussion topic dealing with Twilight's Alicorn-Princess-ness, and they specifically use the word "Destiny" when describing her new position. I think now's about time I REALLY talked about my feeling about this whole thing as almost a year has gone by since it happened and all I've said is that I liked "Magical Mystery Cure."
As I've said before, I liked Twilight's change into an Alicorn Princess. It feels like the natural next step for a pony who was already OP as all hell and was probably a surrogate daughter for Celestia anyway. Yes, I would have preferred that such an event be given to the Series Finale, but I can't argue that there are a lot of new things they can do with Twilight now that she's a princess, as the Season 4 opener showed, and it's not as if Twilight stopped being the lovably adorkable pony we all know and love. No, what bothered me about Twilight's transformation isn't that it happened in the first place, it's how it was handled in the episode itself.
As some of you who might have read my Fimfiction "The Harmony Arcana" might have guessed, I felt that Celestia calling Twilight's Princesshood "Destiny" and changing her without asking her was a load of horse apples. Twilight had NO say it what happened to her, and I hate that Celestia tried to write it off as "Destiny". Why? Because I freaking hate the word "Destiny". It's like a nicer way of saying "You have no choice in the matter, this will happen whether you want it to or not." The choice was never Twilight's to make, and even if she would have said yes (Which I feel she would have) it still feels wrong that she wasn't able to make that decision for herself.
The word "Destiny" has actually been thrown around a lot in this series, Particularly when it comes to a pony's cutie mark, but "Magical Mystery Cure" is the only place where I feel it becomes unjustifiable. I can buy the idea that each pony is "destined" to be talented at one particular thing and that one thing is what's going to get branded on their flanks at one point, because I don't actually see it as "Destiny," any more than it's Clark Kent's destiny to be super strong, or Scott Summer's destiny to shoot lasers from his eyes. To me, Cutie Marks are less based on personal tastes and likes, and more about what special "mutations" a pony was born with, and the magic of the world just picks a picture that best fits what that mutation gave him or her. In short, ponies are born with unique and latent special abilities, and it's through finding a use for these abilities does a pony achieve their cutie mark. This is not "Destiny," this is genetics. Genetics altered by a world with air so saturated with magic that a pony could literally be born with the ability to defy logic and reason (It's Pinkie Pie, and I CAN question it!). The only reason I can think of for them to call it "Destiny" in the show is that, to be honest, calling it genetics and applying science to it kind of takes some of the magic out of it.
Now that I've separated and explained Cutie Mark "Destiny" and Celestia's "I'm not going to bother asking about your own plans for your life, even though from the looks of it you didn't have any plans and I just gave your life meaning and purpose again just like I did at the beginning of the show, and just turn you into a pretty princess alicorn just cause I like you so much." and ask the big question EQD has posed to us: What destiny would you give to the pony that doesn't become an Alicorn or a princess?
... personally I saw her traveling the world with friends and learning all that she could before returning to Equestria and becoming Celestia's Archmage until she retired of old age... but that's just the way I see it.
Traveling and becoming Celestia's Archmage until old age... reminds me of 'Always Faithful'. Damn, that was one sad comic.
I agree with you, Xain. The whole destiny thing didn't sit well with me either (and while I haven't read 'Harmony Arcana' yet, I went back and changed it to Celestia asking Twilight to take the next step forward in both of my fics). This begs the obvious question, though. If Twilight becoming an alicorn princess and (presumably) gaining untold powers along with her status (no, not like what happened in the S4 finale), did she know Sunset Shimmer would return and steal the crown? Did she know Discord's killer vines would attack Equestria? Did she know Tirek would break free and lay siege to Equestria? For throwing around the word destiny just like that, she seemed quite shocked when all of these things happened... or is she just going through the motions? Could Celestia by My Little Pony's version of Doctor Manhattan? That's an oddly disturbing thought when I think about it.
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Raising someone, see they have the potential for something, see them reach it- help them reach it without asking whether or not they want it, then claim it was 'destiny', none of this requires actual precognition.