Equestria Daily has been doing spotlights on various ponies for the past several weeks, and this week was none other than best candyfilly! It's a good read, but this one's even more special because they managed to get a rare interview with Twist's voice actor, Alexandra Carter. Definitely worth checking out.

EQD: What would you like to say to the fans who voted for Twist this week?
TWIST'S VA: Hey guys! I had no idea Twist had any fans other than myself! That's pretty awesome to find out, because I love her. I'm pretty impressed you found me, as I believe I was uncredited in the show, which bums me out. We should petition to bring Twist back (into the foreground)! I may not live in Vancouver anymore, but there are recording studios in Philadelphia, and that girl deserves to lisp her little heart out! #BringBackTwist! <3 I found a video compilation on her with over sixteen thousand views (linked below). That makes me feel pretty darn special.

#BringBackTwist, indeed!

For the record, M A Larson has said at conventions that he tried to give Twist a speaking role in some of his scripts, but got told to take her out because the VA was no longer available. It now seems like that isn't necessarily the case.

I, for one, welcome our new filly overlord.

What a Twist.

Here is Ms. Faust's panel at Ponycon on character development. link. Her comments on Twist begin around 31 minutes in (though you really, really, really want to listen to the whole thing). Apparently, Standards and Practices did not like Twist at all, as they saw her design as picking on nerdy-looking little girls. This was NOT how Lauren saw her (Twist was not her design, but she thought Twist looked adorable). But between S&P hating the character and the VA moving away Twist faded into the background. It might just be my impression, but it doesn't seem to me that Twist and Applebloom were supposed to grow apart - they were supposed to remain friends.

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Apparently, Standards and Practices did not like Twist at all, as they saw her design as picking on nerdy-looking little girls.

I guess I can kind of see the reasoning here, but I think it's wrongheaded. Firstly, Twist is beautiful, but even leaving aside personal opinion; she's never portrayed as being different to any of her peers, for better or for worse. Her lisp is just how she talks. Her glasses are just her style. I think that's an extremely positive message for children who have these kinds of traits.

I wonder what Standards and Practices made of this, on the other hand?

Or this?

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Interesting. From what I remember of Lauren talking about Twist at Equestria LA, it sounded more like they wanted to use Twist more but Hasbro didn't want them to.

I remember she also said that Pipsqueak was the result of an order from On High. "Give us a new boy character." "Okay, here you go." And then never anything said about him again, which is probably why he had such a long hiatus.

5078217 As Lauren Faust explains, one of their problems was that originally Twist was the only filly who wore glasses. S&P found this unacceptable, Twist could only have glasses if at least one other filly wore them. So, Silver Spoon was given glasses.

5078228 The objections seem to have come from HUB Standards and Practices, which is close to, but not exactly, Hasbro.

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Just transporting the Lauren Faust quote Elric is thinking of over here, for reference...

...But then there's side characters that I thought maybe deserved bigger roles, like Twist that they were like "No Twist! Never! Never!". It was really weird. We kept trying to write Twist in because she was cute and funny. I thought she was sweet. Every time we'd put Twist in, they [Hasbro] were like "We don't like Twist. Take Twist out." Poor Twist...

She may very well have meant Hub Standards and Practices, of course. I'm on a tablet right now, so modifying text isn't easy...

--arcum42

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That's the one. You can see why I misunderstood.

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I want to say that it feels like a strange solution to also give glasses to one of the mean kids, but really, I'm quite jazzed to learn that this is the reason for Spoony's specs.