A Deep Dive Into Twilight’s Character (Pt. 1) · 1:27pm Aug 28th, 2022
Hiya, lovely peeps!
Today, we’re going to start a 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 1
We start at the beginning.
The first villain Twilight and her friends faced was Nightmare Moon (or Princess Luna, if you will). When the Elements of Harmony blasted her, it purified and de-corrupted Luna, banishing the Nightmare for good (S1E2). You’ll notice that the only one who interacts with her after that is Celestia. Twilight did not talk to Luna at all, since she was busy enjoying the newfound wonders of friendship. Luna then disappeared for a while.
A little while later, Twilight had her first encounter with Trixie Lulamoon (S1E6). Trixie was antagonistic but not actually evil or villainous. She came to Ponyville, made up a few falsehoods and left it at that. Twilight, annoyed with Trixie’s antics and unwilling to engage, simply walked out of the scene. She came back to save the day by calming the Ursa Major Minor. This had the unfortunate side effect of ruining Trixie’s career and reputation, which Twilight never intended to happen. But instead of blaming Snips and Snails (who led the Ursa to town) or the Ponyvillians (who ridiculed her), Trixie decided her beef was with Twilight and wanted vengeance.
Our next villain on the list is Discord. Everypony knows how the girls dealt with him: they blasted him with the Elements, imprisoning him in stone once more (S2E2).
After that, Twilight saw Luna again on Nightmare Night (S2E4), for the first time since the former’s move to Ponyville. Throughout the entire night, Twilight proved herself to be very understanding and patient. She was the only one who did not bow to Luna upon her arrival, she was the one who went to comfort Luna and help her get re-adjusted to modern society. She accompanied Luna throughout the entire night - taking her to Fluttershy for a lesson on speech, taking her to AJ for a lesson on fun and confronted Pinkie after the latter incited a Luna-angering riot. Not once did Twilight refer her as Nightmare Moon - in fact, she spent the entire evening correcting everyone who addressed her as such.
Spike: You can’t talk to her! She’s Nightmare Moon!
Twilight Sparkle: No, she’s not. I saw the Elements of Harmony change her back to good.[...]
Fluttershy: It is you. Ah, and Nightmare Moon. [gasp] Nightmare Moon? [yelps]
Twilight Sparkle: [nervous laughter] Wait right here.
Twilight Sparkle: Fluttershy... you remember Princess Luna?[...]
Pinkie Pie: Nightmare Moon! [chicken squawk]
Twilight Sparkle: She’s changed, Pinkie! She’s not evil or scary anymore!
All of this points to Twilight recognizing when someone has changed their evil ways and is willing to help them through this change. It also doesn’t hurt than Nightmare Moon has a different appearance than Luna, so the two can be taken as two separate ponies.
Following her encounter with Luna, Twilight went on to fight Queen Chrysalis (S2E25 & S2E26) and King Sombra (S3E1 & S3E2), both of whom were blasted off and unreformed.
Cut to Trixie’s next appearance (S3E5) where she challenged Twilight to a duel. In the end, Twilight beat her. But what happened after that? Trixie apologized, yes, but she didn’t actually feel bad, did she? She said sorry and then proceeded to brag. Again. She also didn’t stay behind to clean the mess. Trixie might have lost her senses because of the amulet, but she bought the amulet to begin with. She bought it out of her own free will, having been warned of its danger. She wrecked havoc, turned the citizens into her servants and threw Twilight out of town. Despite all of that, she felt no remorse or guilt (maybe a little) and fled the town. In Twilight’s eyes, Trixie never truly changed. All this will become relevant later.
Twilight Sparkle: Trixie?
Trixie: It’s the least I could do. I treated you and your friends so horribly when I was wearing that Alicorn Amulet. I just couldn’t control myself. You can forgive me, can’t you?
Twilight Sparkle: Hmmm. Sure.
Trixie: Oh, good. Don’t you think the Great and Apologetic Trixie is the most magnificent humble pony you’ve ever seen?!
We go back to Discord now. Princess Celestia wanted to use his magic for good so she tasked the Bearers (Fluttershy specifically) to free and reform him (S3E10). The girls (sans Fluttershy) were not buying into Discord’s false promises at all. To see why, we have to compare the first villains Twilight faced - Nightmare Moon and Discord. When compared to Nightmare, Discord was much more of a threat. Nightmare threw obstacles in their way, yes, but those obstacles did more good than harm. Discord, on the other hoof, broke the girls’ friendships and spirits. He messed with their minds, stole the Elements. He was the first real danger they faced. So Twilight was understandably wary and peeved, constantly threatening to stone him back. Personally, I agree with the girls’ behavior towards Discord. So Twilight did not forgive Discord or gave him a real chance to prove himself changed. I don’t blame her. (I feel the need to mention this was Twilight’s first experience with villain reformation.)
Princess Celestia: I’m fully aware that the last time Discord was here, he created serious havoc.
Rainbow Dash: If by “serious havoc” you mean “turning Ponyville into the chaos capital of the world”...
Rarity: ...and tricking us all into being the opposite of our true selves...
Our heroine then became Princess Twilight Sparkle.
The first villain Twilight faced as an alicorn was Sunset Shimmer (EqG 1). Compared to previous threats, Sunset was harmful, but not that much, at least not to Princess Twilight. I mean, yes, she stole the Element of Magic and brought it to another dimension, but she did not psychologically mess with Twilight’s mind or turn her loved ones against her. So in the end, when Sunset was blasted with the Friendship LaserTM and found herself in a crater deeper than she’s tall, Twilight saw it in her herself to give her a chance. Why? Because, unlike Discord and Trixie, Sunset actually showed remorse. Guilt. Regret. Sunset recognized she was wrong, apologized for everything and was willing to change her ways. Only then did Twilight help her up and out of the crater. Of course, Twilight couldn’t stay for Sunset’s redemption journey because she had to go home, but still. Twilight forgave and gave her a second chance.
Sunset Shimmer: [crying] I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know there was another way.
Twilight Sparkle: The magic of friendship doesn’t just exist in Equestria. It’s everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours.
Sunset Shimmer: But... But all I’ve ever done since being here is drive everyone apart. I don’t know the first thing about friendship.
Twilight Sparkle: I bet they can teach you.
Twilight then went back home and got adjusted to princess life. Let’s talk about Discord. When the Everfree Forest invaded Ponyville, not only did Discord not do anything help, turns out he was the one responsible for it (S4E1 & S4E2). Discord continued to be irritating afterwards, messing with Cadance’s visit to Ponyville and infecting Twilight’s friends with an unknown disease (S4E11). And then came the attack of Lord Tirek, where Discord all but lapsed back into evil (S4E25). Twilight, despite being constantly annoyed with Discord and his antics, still genuinely believed he had changed. Hence her surprise when she learnt of his betrayal. After Discord was himself betrayed by Tirek, he was repentant and for the first time ever, remorseful. And he gave Twilight her Key of Magic, so that’s a plus. So Twilight forgave him - for real this time. Even if she’s still ticked off by his personality.
(A bit of personal headcanon here. It’s always been my belief that the entire experience with Tirek made Twilight distrustful of reformed villains.)
This leads into our next event: Twilight Sparkle’s reunion with Sunset Shimmer (EqG 2). You’ll notice that when Twilight first flew out of the portal into the human world, Sunset held out her hand to help her up. Twilight was hesitant, despite being the one who had helped Sunset out of the crater last time they saw each other. Now throughout the entirety of the Battle of the Ends, Sunset proved herself trustworthy and helpful. She had the resources and knowhow to call Princess Twilight, she suggested the musical counterspell, she reminded the Rainbooms that they were late, she put a stop to the tension between the girls and, ultimately, she was the one who tipped the scales in the heroes’ favor.
Sunset Shimmer: I may have an idea how we can get in touch with Princess Twilight!
[...]
Twilight Sparkle: It doesn’t make any sense. I should have been able to create the spark that would help us break their spell. That’s how it worked before.
Sunset Shimmer: But to defeat me, you drew magic from the crown I was wearing. The sirens’ magic comes from their music. So maybe you have to use the same kind of magic to defeat them. Or... maybe not.
Twilight Sparkle: No. I think you’re onto something.[...]
Sunset Shimmer: You don’t have time for any of this! You’re supposed to check in at the Battle of the Bands in fifteen minutes!
[...]
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie: [arguing]
Sunset Shimmer: Stop! You have to stop! This is what they've been after all along! They’re feeding off of the magic inside you!
Applejack: How can they be using our magic? It’s the magic of friendship.
Sunset Shimmer: Ever since you started this band, you’ve been letting little things get to you. I never said anything ‘cause I didn’t feel like it was my place. Not when I was so new to this whole “friendship” thing. I still have a lot to learn. But I do know that if you don’t work out even the smallest problems right at the start, the magic of friendship can be turned into something else.
Twilight Sparkle: I can’t believe all this tension was happening right under my nose and I didn’t realize it. I’m supposed to be the one with all the answers. And all I’ve done since I got here is let you down.
Sunset Shimmer: I don’t think anyone is supposed to have all the answers. But you can count on your friends to help you find them.
Twilight Sparkle: I think you already have.[...]
Twilight Sparkle: Sunset Shimmer, we need you!
[Sunset Shimmer]
You’re never gonna bring me down
You’re never gonna break this part of me
My friends are here to bring me ‘round
Not singing just for popularity
All of this helped solidify Sunset’s redemption and her turn to the good side. But more importantly, in another little bit of headcanon, this solidified Twilight’s belief in second chances. That villains can, in fact, turn around and change for the better. Maybe even become heroes in their own right.
We have ended the first third of this analysis. Take a look at Part 2!
Villain count: 7
Hmm... it will be interesting to see what your thesis is here.
5682364
Thanks, but what is a thesis?
5682369
Hmm... in this case, I suppose I'm referring to the point you're making about Twilight's character. Since the show was written kind of inconsistently, it will be interesting to see you trying to make sense of it all.
The only person I really like here is Nightmare Moon and Discord. Trixie is an arrogant, lying dickhead that feels like the writers themselves created her for the purpose of being hated upon. Like even reading the dialogue up there on the episode Magic Duel. If I was Twilight it feels I just faced a joke, A laughingstock and the village idiot of Equestria. The one who slaps me and says thank you? Why do we need to redeem her? She doesn't need a redemption.
With Twilight saying though that she believes in second chances on the part of Sunset Shimmer then why did the writers make it so that Dazzlings ran away at the end of Rainbow Rocks and not giving Sunset the chance to offer them friendship like Twilight had with her in the first movie even though the writers can do that if they wanted too? At least at the end of the Season 6 finale to solidify Starlight's character development, she tried to offer Friendship to Chrysalis but the sirens didn't even get to have a say in that matter? What was the point of Sunset's Journal Friendship Lessons then?
5682370
I might draw a conclusion when I'm done. You’re right; the show is written inconsistently, but that’s because their are many, many writers in the show.
But you can see a trend. All of it will be explained in Part 2. (Or Part 3. Depends on how long Part 2 is.)
5682377
To be fair, the Dazzlings ran away before the Rainbooms had a chance to catch up to them. By the time the Rainbooms came down from the hill, the sirens had already fled to who-knows-where.
Also, my paragraph on Trixie was not meant to be hateful. (I really like her character post-S6.) I was just setting up the stage to explain Twilight’s character in “No Second Prances”. But I understand why you don’t like Trixie. She doesn’t exactly come off as likable (or even tolerable).
I love Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon. My feelings on Discord are... mixed, so to speak. Sometimes I like him, sometimes I don’t.
The lengths people will go to in order to rationalize.
5682394
Yes. Is that a problem?
I just really like Twilight as a character and I want to do a deep analysis on her. I’m confused; does that bother you?
5682402
It’s the act of embracing Twilight as a princess in spite of everything that irks me. Princess Twilight is a vastly different character from Twilight Sparkle and nowhere near as relatable or commendable.
5682403
Her personality didn’t actually change, though? You sound just like those ponies in “Fame and Misfortune” that said, “Twilight was better she got wings!”
This isn’t the subject of this blog, so I won’t say more.
5682411
I’ll admit the comparison was uncalled for. But you are the one who decided to make this comment.
And likewise. Please avoid speaking to me again.
5682412
I will, under one word of advice.
Don’t delete comments you don’t like. It muddles the context of your response and just looks shady, making you look very dishonest and insecure.
5682418
You insulted me and my maturity, and called me a child. Spoiled the comment section on a blog I’m very proud of, because you don’t like the fact that Twilight is an alicorn princess.
5682421
You insulted me and my intelligence by declaring I was a strawman who had only petty complaints and had no idea what I was talking about. While you have stated you are only 18. That kind of obnoxious generalization will make people hate you.
You are a naive child who has a lot to learn. My criticisms towards you were well placed. And they will continue to be justified until you grow up. Learn from this encounter and grow from it.
Gosh, we've tipped into some rather antagonistic waters here, haven't we? Let's see if we can't cleanse our palettes with a little old fashioned word vomit.
There's something I've been thinking about Twilight, and I think it was your interpretation of how she acted during Luna Eclipsed that really made me take another look at it. Twilight, the filly who grew up much smarter than everypony else and swaddled in the comforts of being the Princess's favored, may be just the teensiest bit naïve.
It's an immediately negative connotation, but it's really not such an overtly bad thing. Twilight's very, very intelligent- but it's a major sticking point in her character that she's socially inept. I don't think I need to give any examples, reading a book about slumber parties but to get to the point: when she was faced with Luna, she was very forgiving. She did know exactly who Luna was and wasn't.
Because she'd firmly set her mind on the fact that Luna was good, and that meant Luna was good. She'd been able to firmly and finally categorize her, and there was nothing to make her think at all that she was wrong. She's driven by her intellect, and she categorizes creatures.
Nightmare Moon was banished, and Luna, who was good, walked free. Trixie was a jerk, and she ran away without really apologizing; she stayed a jerk. Discord: evil- oh, but there's another sticking point, there. Discord was the first villain that directly harmed Twilight and her friends, and the meaning of that cannot be understated. It goes a long way towards the weight of Twilight's constant mistrust of him- but I'm not entirely lucid enough to dissect that in whole, so I'll just leave the sentiment recognized.
Chrysalis and Sombra were purebred jerks through and through, and Twilight never once thought whether they could be listened to because they never once took even the slightest step out of the circle in her head labeled 'villain.' They never showed remorse, and they never slowed down. Those conflicts were very clear-cut, and Twilight never thought any harder about it.
Discord came back, but he'd barely changed. He said he was reformed, and Fluttershy vouched for him, but Twilight just couldn't trust him after what he'd done. He was still a villain in her eyes, and that was only reinforced over and over again until the season 4 finale.
But this is where my head starts to hurt, and that's because we've come to Sunset Shimmer. To be honest, I don't like the first EQG movie- I don't think anyone does- and I wish Sunset could have had a better reformation, but it still works, however tentatively. Sunset had a chance to be redeemed. To step out of that circle labeled 'villain.' Lying at her literal rock bottom, after what basically amounted to an intervention where she slapped someone and then curled up and cried when she realized what she'd become, she apologized fervently.
Twilight has the capacity to forgive, and this is a retread of an argument I've already made. Sunset Shimmer was a villain, but she apologized, and Twilight gave her the chance to grow. She left for home, and when she came back- though she was cautious- she found that Sunset truly had changed.
It's Twilight's intelligence, I think, that entirely gives her the capacity to forgive. She grew up around Celestia: the pragmatic Sun Goddess with surprising amounts of apathy who'd sent her sister to the moon, whatever her true intent. She has a very black and white outlook on good and evil, one that she can't always overcome. When Cozy Glow betrayed her- hurt her specifically- she couldn't think of the filly as anything but irredeemably evil. She never tried to be anything else, and Twilight never once thought about whether she could've been saved. It was one of Twilight's greatest failures, and nobody around her tried to correct it because Cozy was so obviously evil. She hurt everybody.
But back in season 1, her first thought about Zecora was to rationalize her. She wasn't an enchantress, she was just a zebra. Until she seemingly cursed them all; then Twilight was less sure. To go in the opposite direction: Twilight was ready to tear Starlight apart until she began to see what made her tick. When she was finally able to understand Starlight, in a way that she'd never had a chance to understand a villain before, Twilight was able to set aside what she might've thought was right. Starlight hadn't taken the first step, but Twilight knew better.
You know, some people hate writing inconsistencies. They say it makes characters wishy washy and difficult to understand. Do you know what I think? I think it makes them better. When a character acts opposite to how they 'should' be acting, my first thought isn't 'this is wrong,' it's 'why is this wrong?'
Twilight acts a lot of different ways that don't always make sense, but that makes her feel alive. When she forgives one villain and sends another to Tartarus, I find it a dire character moment that gives unconsidered depth in ways I'd never thought to look at. Why did she do that? What in her backstory can make this make sense? How can I interpret this? It's wonderful.
Can the characters and scenes in My Little Pony be bland? Yep. Absolutely. That's why I love it. There's endless room for interpretation that's only cracked open all the more by the flaws present wherever you look- it makes it so easy to create nuance. Is it odd for all the signs to point to Twilight letting Discord be strung up by the frayed ends of the friendships he's broken, only to tell Tirek to 'give her all of her friends?' Yes. Yes it is. And now, I want to understand why.
It was a pragmatic move against Tirek. It was a selfless act. She did it for Fluttershy. She did it because that's what Celestia would've wanted. She just plain flipped a mental coin. They could all work, and that's why Twilight is a great character.
My arguments here are a little scattershot and I've ended on an afterschool special message, but that's because I've just woken up and my brain is mush. Regardless, I've clumsily made all of my points, and said the very least of what I'd wanted to say. Twilight is naïve because of her upbringing around the 'holy' Princess Celestia, her intelligence guides her where her morals cannot, and she has a streak of growing vendettas against those who personally hurt her.
Please tell me where I screwed my arguments up so I can rectify them when I'm more sober. Also: have a great day!
and don't let weirdos with ego-driven tempers trying to prove they don't care creep you out. debate's fine, but there's a difference between debate and useless personal defamation. see: useless
5682584
I love your arguments. You’ve brought up a lot of points I’ve never thought of before. And your conclusion is awesome.