A Deep Dive Into Twilight’s Character (Pt. 2) · 4:44pm Aug 30th, 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 2
We pick up from where we left off in Part 1.
After her adventure with Sunset Shimmer, where she proved herself to be quite the hero, Twilight went back home, now confident that villains can quit their evil ways and be better. The Cutie Map then sent Twilight and friends to a nameless village in a remote location, where they met Starlight Glimmer (S5E1). Starlight did a lot of horrible things to the Mane Six and the rest of the villagers, including ripping out their cutie marks (a physically painful process by their groans) and forcing them to accept her philosophy by locking them up until they break. (I’m pretty sure every villager went through the same torture.) But despite all of that, when Starlight fled through the caves, Twilight said something that really showcased her character development.
Twilight Sparkle: We just have to hope that when she’s had a chance to think it over, she realizes that you all have taught her something.
Twilight is hoping that Starlight, despite being unrepentant and possibly vengeful, will see the error of her ways. Contrast this to, say, Discord. When he was unrepentant, Twilight was basically, ‘Okay, he doesn’t feel bad. He won’t change his ways. Let’s stone him back.’ But now? Twilight has faith. Maybe not a lot of it, but her statement is enough to indicate the feeling.
We move now to another relevant experience. Princess Luna’s crippling self-guilt issues (S5E13). Luna created the Tantabus to punish herself, remember? She had so much self-guilt and self-hate that she felt the need to torture herself for all her wrongdoings. Twilight was witness to that. She got to witness just how destructive those feelings could be; Luna engaged in self-harm. Twilight was the one who snapped Luna out of her spiraling despair.
Princess Luna: How can I forgive myself? I am no better now than I was then. My creation is about to turn the world into a living nightmare!
Twilight Sparkle: But look at what you’re doing! Nightmare Moon would’ve wanted the Tantabus to turn Equestria into a nightmare! You’re doing everything you can to stop it! Don’t you see? That proves you’re not the same pony you were then! Everypony who knows you knows that Nightmare Moon is in the past! We all trust you, Luna! Do you trust us enough to believe we’re right?
Princess Luna: ...I do!
We go back to Starlight Glimmer now. So she ended coming back for revenge, with the crazy plan of messing with time for a little payback. Twilight fought her, endlessly, and attempted to reason with her several times. But it wasn’t until Starlight showed her her backstory that Twilight changed tactics. She got Starlight to stand down by explaining the concept of friendship. She saved the world with a conversation. (You were saying, Star Swirl?) In my eyes, this is the moment where she truly earned her title of Princess of Friendship.
Starlight Glimmer: Ugh! What’s so special about your friends?! How can a group of ponies that are so different be so important?!
Twilight Sparkle: The differences between me and my friends are the very things that make our friendship strong!
Starlight Glimmer: I thought Sunburst and I were the same. But we turned out different, and it tore our friendship apart!
Twilight Sparkle: So try again! Make new friends! And if something that you can’t control happens that changes things, work through it together! That’s what friendship is! And it’s not just my friendships that are important to Equestria! Everypony’s are! When yours ended, it led us here. But just imagine all the others that are out there waiting for you if you just give them a chance!
Starlight Glimmer: How do I know they won’t all end the same way?
Twilight Sparkle: I guess it’s up to you to make sure they don’t.
Twilight’s experiences with Luna, Discord and Sunset paved the way for Starlight’s redemption journey.
She learned from Luna that guilt and self-loathing can be destructive, and so made sure that Starlight felt welcome by not mentioning her past crimes.
Starlight Glimmer: Sorry I’m late. I got a little turned around. I still can’t believe you’re letting me stay here... as your pupil... after everything I did.
Twilight Sparkle: Well, I’m not one to dwell on the past, and neither should you. The castle is your home now.Spike: [muttering] Says the pony who tried to make everypony the same by replacing their cutie marks with equal signs.
Twilight Sparkle: [covers Spike with her wing] I think what Spike is trying to say is that everypony has their reasons for doing things.Spike: Yeah! Ever since Starlight messed with it to go back in time and try to change history!
Twilight Sparkle: [very annoyed] Yes. Since then.She learned from Discord that relapses will happen and one has to be understanding and patient.
Twilight Sparkle: What made you think that casting a spell on your friends to do your bidding was even remotely a good idea?
Starlight Glimmer: Well, when you put it that way, it sounds really bad.
Twilight Sparkle: That's because it is really bad! [Pause] Starlight, I’m not mad at you, but I am disappointed.And she learned from Sunset that villains can fully turn around and be better.
Starlight Glimmer: After all you’ve done for me, this is the least I can do.
Twilight Sparkle: Oh, please. I haven’t done that much.
Starlight Glimmer: Nah. You just taught me the value of friendship. Not much at all.
Twilight Sparkle: I may have offered some guidance, but you are responsible for the pony you’ve become. I’m proud to call you my student and my friend.
And now we get to the interesting part: the rocky start of Starlight and Trixie’s friendship (S6E6). I went in length about Trixie’s behavior in Part 1, both her first and second appearances. To sum it up, I said that Trixie willingly bought a dark an dangerous artifact for a little payback, did terrible things with it and showed questionable remorse after the ordeal. By contrast, once her emotional wounds were opened, Starlight took Twilight’s offer of friendship, and was willing and ready to accept whatever punishment Twilight dished out. So when Starlight and Trixie met and became friends, Twilight was wary. Not just wary, but disapproving and hostile. And to be honest, I understand why. Even when Trixie said she’d changed her ways, she was still a jerkass, not wasting any opportunity to get under Twilight’s skin. Of course, that’s not to excuse Twilight’s behavior at all. How the princess behaved that day was wrong - Starlight is her student and should be given the benefit of the doubt - but Twilight’s fears weren’t completely unfounded. In the end, all three mares learned their lesson. And while Twilight was still greatly annoyed with Trixie, she stopped trying to interfere in their friendship.
Twilight Sparkle: Trixie!
Trixie: What do you want?
Twilight Sparkle: I was wrong. I’m sorry. And I have to hand it to you. I could never have pulled off a trick like that.
Trixie: Thank you, princess.
Twilight, along with Spike, took Starlight’s friendships lessons to the Crystal Empire again, in the midst of kingdom-wide panic. A changeling was spotted, you see (S6E16). Throughout this episode, Twilight’s main priority was to keep her niece safe. She wasn’t particularly vicious to Thorax, but she wasn’t friendly or welcoming either. To be fair, last time Twilight had encountered changelings, their queen had captured and replaced Cadance, mind-controlled her brother and turned all her friends against her. All this before Chrysalis and her army actually invaded Canterlot. Twilight came around in the end - as did everyone else - all thanks to Spike.
And then the impossible happened. Former villains Starlight Glimmer and Discord, antagonist-but-not-quite-a-villain Trixie and changeling-who-does-not-eat-love Thorax joined forces and became heroes (S6E26). They saved the Bearers, Spike and the Royal family, all while usurping Chrysalis and giving the changelings a new way of life. They were rightfully rewarded for this.
Twilight Sparkle: Starlight, Trixie, Thorax, and Discord were brave in the face of danger, resourceful when things got challenging, and proved that the bonds of friendship, no matter how unlikely, are stronger than any adversity. By stopping Queen Chrysalis, not only did they save Equestria; they set the changelings free from her reign.
Princess Celestia: And that’s why we’re proud and honored to give them the Equestrian Pink Hearts of Courage!
Twilight Sparkle: We are so proud of you all!
(As a side note, this is was a major step up for all of them. Starlight, who had been afraid of leadership and unsure of her own redemption, led the charge and became a hero. Trixie, who was nothing more than a braggart with no talent to back it up, went headfirst into danger and became a hero. Discord, who was still a selfish jokester even reformed, went into the hive for Fluttershy and became a hero. And Thorax, who had fled the hive because their values did not align with his, defeated the queen and became a hero.)
Twilight Sparkle, no matter how much she may deny it, was a great influence on Starlight. A guiding light, if you will. Without her mentor’s friendship lessons, Starlight would never have done what she did. And she continued to grow from there. In parallel, Starlight was such a huge part of Twilight’s life that the princess was afraid to let her go out on her own.
Twilight forgiving Starlight and giving her a chance at friendship was a crucial part of both their lives.
We have ended the second third of this analysis. Take a look at Part 3!
Villain count: 8
I may have underestimated just how long this would be. Or how long it would take.
5682954
Thank you, Ocellus.
It's very easy- perhaps too easy- to focus on Twilight as a blank sheet of a character. To lump all of her facets in as a static, conglomerate mass that just exists. But she obviously goes through a lot of change through the seasons. Whether big leaps like the adjustment to her mindset on the wane of her ascension, or the small lessons she learns episode to episode. It's harder to categorize those later changes- and I've a horrible memory- but it's relatively easy to call out the greatest moments of development for her.
Every premiere and finale certainly fit into that category, as well as the movies- but let's set the stage a little. Twilight started with a base background of coddled naivete and a dry wit, owing most predominantly to her rearing in close proximity to Princess Celestia: the kindly pragmatist who is kinda-sorta revered as a holy sun goddess. It's the injected connotation of 'holy' that I mostly latch onto, though the canonicity of such a thing is kind of open to interpretation. cool interpretation wins out, i say so >:[
She's got a clear view of good and evil, and it's not challenged for a long time. Not when she encounters Nightmare Moon and 'purges' her from Princess Luna; though her social growth starts here, and that's a whole other discussion. Neither did Discord give her pause: whom was played as straight as a demented being of pure Chaos could be. Not many of the personal lessons she's been learning have helped, either, except for maybe Zecora- though that was pretty much just about prejudice and impressions.
Twilight knows not to judge a book by its cover, but she's not applying that lesson to every aspect of her life, and Chrysalis certainly didn't make her think to. If anything, her run-in with Chrysalis reinforced the lesson in a bad way; giving her a negative experience with the concept of second faces. Then came Sombra, and- well, he didn't show remorse either.
Twilight progressed through the earliest stages of the show without ever really being morally challenged. The villains were clear-cut, the friendship lessons were straight-forward, and Trixie probably just made things worse. She was becoming a much better pony, but that pony had yet to be truly tested on the fibre of her basest principles. It was all preamble, and while they had all learned of virtue, they had yet to know how to remain true to their concepts.
Honestly, by the time she ascended, Twilight really wasn't the Princess of Friendship yet.
But she wasn't. She was just an alicorn back then, and that transformation came with a lot to consider. There wasn't much consideration given to Twilight's consideration, but obviously, there must've been. And, as she was come to a critical juncture in her growth- redefining all she'd ever thought of her responsibilities and her entire future- there came somepony very important.
When I say that Sunset was a major contributor to Twilight's ascension as the avatar of Virtue and Friendship, I really do mean that she changed Twilight. On a deep and fundamental level; as Twilight was going through the most dire upheaval of her entire life, she was presented with a situation she'd never been presented with before. A villain- a pony, who was startlingly similar to her- who earnestly wanted to change. Somepony who had come from such similar roots as her, who had turned to the 'dark side' and astonishingly back.
It's a good thing the EQG movies have more evidence towards canonicity than not, because Sunset Shimmer makes Twilight Sparkle make sense.
With the facts laid out as I have here, a lot begins to make sense. Twilight was reassembled on a moral level when she became an alicorn. Her preconceptions were brought to question, immediately challenged, and then shattered. Villains could change, and finally, it makes sense why she'd give Discord his... third chance. He had the fundamentals of a regretful creature on his sleeve, and Twilight finally had the ability to see that.
Pragmatism be damned; I finally have a nice interpretation of that scene!
And then, we come to Starlight Glimmer, as Twilight's first problem to solve as a realized Princess of Friendship. She was ascended, challenged, and she proved her ideals were strong enough to handle the adversity of betrayal at the very least; she was then presented with the next step. A pony who had the capacity for change, but who never asked to be changed.
And Twilight rose to the occasion, and forgave her. This is the crowning moment of Twilight as a character. She hit her peak right here. She was met with a pony who wanted to change. She was met with a creature who had changed. And then, she was met with an adversary who could change. It is an identifiable rise in the graph of her morality. She was never more deserving of her title than at the finale of season 5.
But then, of course, she chose to heap yet more adversity onto her shoulders. She had proven herself as an exemplar, but what about as a mentor? As you've said: Twilight had learned that a changed pony doesn't necessarily stay changed forever. In Luna's case, it was falling into a deep chasm of self-loathing driven by guilt and a thousand years' worth of reinforcement. Twilight was smart enough to recognize the potential of a relapse, and worked actively to prevent that.
This, I believe, is the kindest explanation to be given for Twilight's behavior towards Trixie. We all know how intense Twilight can be when it comes to goals, and to be confronted with a very rude and megalomaniacal spectre from her past when she's just barely started to teach Starlight what she knows- it gives weight I haven't considered to her actions. She still acted rude in her own right, and she should have known better than to try to manage Starlight like that, but change is a gradual process. She knows how to give second chances, prances but she's not flawless.
And, as is on display in E16, one of her greatest flaws is again: her goal-oriented attitude. With Flurry having only just been born, she's far too engrossed in the protection of her niece to give the needed thought to whether she should trust a changeling. I've spoken previously on the kinds of things she needs to recognize the 'forgiveness factor,' so I'll only agree with you that Twilight had some very negative experiences with changelings. Her actions here make total sense, and it speaks to the growth we've recognized that, while Starlight was the first to realize the error of their ways, Twilight was the first to come forward.
While we're here, I do want to highlight her actions in E21 - Every Little Thing She Does. To be brief: Starlight has a very cute little relapse and puts all of her friends on strings while Twilight is away in Canterlot, and Twilight returns to find the situation at its worst. But instead of turning red and banishing Starlight to the moon, she is merely... disappointed. In relation to a certain other problem much later on, this speaks metaphorical books on what I am pushing more and more to be her greatest flaw: her goal-oriented attitude. She didn't have one here besides mentoring Starlight, and so she was able to think clearly on how she wanted to handle the situation.
And, I guess to finish because I don't have anything else to finish on: one of the things that the changeling impersonating Twilight in the finale got incredibly wrong was the emphasis on her title. 'I'm the Princess of Friendship-' Twilight is a consistently humble pony, and she really only flaunts her title to gain otherwise unattainable leeway, if ever. It's hard to say where exactly her propensity to downplay her abilities comes from- I doubt entirely from Boast Busters- but an inversion of the expected haughtiness from growing up special makes a certain amount of sense. She got fawned over, and she was kind of an introvert before she came to Ponyville, so the math checks out.
Or, we could just go with the interpretation that she values actions over things like titles and crowed-about abilities. Can't say off the top of my head where that would come from either, but maybe from any interaction with Blueblood at all? They've almost certainly met, let's pretend like they have if i'm wrong, that's good fanon and he's... well... awful, so.
Done here, I think, and I went off on a long tangent because I'm still stuck on the same question of Twilight's forgiveness and morality. Sorry I cluttered up your eyes with all that sort of rehashed nonsense, but I found an angle and decided to run with it. I've never been concise a day in my life.
5683169
...I’m starting to think you should’ve written my blog.
In all seriousness, though, your comment is awesome. I always knew Sunset played a big part in Twilight’s life, but I didn’t realized just how big it was.
At the time it was released, many hated Starlight’s redemption, but I personally loved it (even if a small part of me did want to see her punished). Because that was the moment where Princess Twilight Sparkle of Friendship earned her crown. She went to help Stygian and Tempest, who I’ll talk about in Part 3. Speaking of which, Part 3 will be the last one. I did not realize just how much there was to talk about.
And one more thing...
I will have none of that. I love reading your replies and comments. They make me feel like I’m having an actual conversation with someone who watches and enjoys the show as deeply as I do. A conversation I’ll never have, because I don’t know any fans offline.
What I’m trying to say is: thank you. For taking the time to talk to me and sharing your thoughts. It’s always a pleasure to read them.
5683196
Gosh, you are such a peach! And, well, I know I really should assure you, but I've just gotta say it makes me feel really good that you hold my comment in such high regard. You are doing a good job too, though!
Yeah, I really dig the interpretation we've come up with, here. A lot of the show's events can seem a little disjointed- and it was only when I was writing my last comment when I realized that Sunset was the first villain Twilight forgave- but putting this heavy weight on Sunset's involvement really makes the pieces fit. From a realistic view of the characters: it was a defining, reformative moment for Twilight, and it allows us to nearly treat pre-ascension and post-ascension as two entirely different characters. Incredibly interesting from a deep character aspect, and life-affirming when it comes to trying to reconcile the writing oddities in a realistic way.
Starlight's reformation is still pretty decried even now, unfortunately. I understand why some people dislike it- it's not fitting of her actions, it happened too fast, she just had so much potential as a villain, etc.- but I've always thought that such a belief spoke to just how little those people understood Starlight's character. To wit, as the largest point: she just wasn't evil. She never was. The things she did were entirely unethical and quantifiably monstrous, but she was not acting out of any sort of deep, karmic malice. She was just angry.
She believed that she was pursuing a virtuous goal in her founding of Our Town, and though she performed injustices, it's obvious she was a believer of the 'ends justifies the means' rhetoric. From the broken mind of a mare who understood too much of ponies and not enough about emotions: she was earnestly trying to create harmony- she said so herself. And then, when Twilight and her friends tore in and completely ruined what must have been her life's work, it only reinforced every negative feeling that had stewed like a disease in her mind since she was a filly.
I could go on about Starlight's character, but I feel like that might deserve a whole blog by itself. It's just- her reformation makes sense. As the stakes rose and she went so violently head to head, her anger alone just couldn't support her as it had when she was literally shown the exact and extremely dire consequences of her actions. She was a mare drowning in constantly rising water, just trying to fulfill the unattainable dreams of a filly who never got the help she so desperately needed. She never wanted to end the world.
In that way, it makes her quick turn all the more believable.
I like talking with you as well! Or, well- talking at you. With the fandom unfortunately waning and all the topics discussed to death over the years, it's left latecomers like myself mostly without these valuable opportunities to blather. Debate's fun with likeminded people, and your blogs offer obvious points to let my mind wander and spew essays into the world. I'm not all that good at articulating on the spot, so talking points go a long way towards forming my arguments.
So, thanks! While it's a pain to make myself start, it's a fun excuse to write for a half hour or so! Plus, I think I've a much better handle on Twilight's character after all this talking, myself.
next one's gonna be hard for me, tho. i specialize in mid-show, and i only saw the movie like five times