The Op-ed
Opinion | Princess Twilight Sparkle, The Product of Nepotism
On her coronation, Princess Twilight Sparkle famously admits to being the 'luckiest pony in all of Equestria.' Though her definition of luck for many seems to be slightly skewed. Coming from a life of privilege, favouritism, and wonder, it is no surprise that Princess Twilight Sparkle rose to acclaim. Because the simple truth of the matter is, that you can have anything when you are well off with connections.
As soon as she was born Twilight was surrounded with opportunities. Opportunities other ponies could only dream of. For Twilight, these opportunities were a plentiful commodity. A common commodity her parents could afford with a wave of their name.
It is no surprise that those who work closely with the Canterlot municipality are certainly well off. From the prestige, the position in any cabinet holds you can be expected to be paid a hefty sum. As Night Light and Twilight Velvet work as prominent astronomers (and minor nobles) for the city, they uphold the best interest of Canterlot through their work and publications. This means the royalty they receive from years of service allowed their family to afford more than just a grand home in the heart of Canterlot.
(The city suddenly has housing to spare when the rich come by.)
The money they have, as well as the position they held, made it easy for them to slip their average daughter into Celestia School for Gifted Unicorns. Her application was approved instantly just by the sight of her name which allowed her to move onto the next stage of the vigorous application process easier, while other unicorns had their dreams and aspirations crushed.
It’s all simple cronyism. As the old saying goes, "It's not what you know but who you know.” Twilight’s cronyism from her parents granted her a network of insiders. Insiders that confer favours for her. Favours that gave Sparkle a breezy education equipped with the perks of being a personal student to the Princess herself as well.
From what we know the rest is history. Sparkle gets recruited to be Princess Celestia’s personal protégé, a title that allowed her even more power due to amassing the Princess’ favouritism. Princess Celestia’s favouritism to this sole student allowed for free housing, be it a tower, or a sanctuary, for Sparkle’s endeavours. In the midst of Canterlot's worst housing crisis at the time, it begs the question. How many more empty towers does the crown own? And are they all reserved for the ones with instilled advantages? Disguised as a study location, it takes no detective to understand that free exclusive property is more than just a study playroom.
Twilight’s winning the Princess’ favour also allowed for a lot more opportunities, not limited to, access to dangerous wings in the castle, access to every spell imaginable, and information that has not been leaked to the public. It is said that Sparkle knew of Celestia’s love for cake before the press released the information and before anyone else knew the information for that matter.
You would think after living the life of luxury in Canterlot moving to Ponyville should have kickstarted her quiet, low-key, and humble life. Away from all the money and fame. Incorrect. Twilight Sparkle immediately was granted a home inside Golden Oaks library. She got a home without having to struggle with the Ponyville housing crisis. On top of that living in the Golden Oaks library, she was given a decent job as the town's librarian. Did she even go through an interview process? To be frank, they probably took one look at her name and hired her. No need for a resume, no need for qualifications, just have a reputation.
This is all favouritism that has allowed Twilight Sparkle to ascend to where she is. Her wings? Bestowed to her by her mentor who loved her from the start regardless if she was a sack of potatoes.
Now after all of this, things cannot possibly get better for the young princess, right? Well, next thing you know, she grows out of her treehouse and moves into a huge castle. Made of valuable crystal.
Another topic to touch on would be Sparkle’s other family members. As we know Prince Shining Armor is her older brother. ‘Destined’ to become the Captain of the Royal Guard right before he stepped foot in the cadets. Then he marries an alicorn, who later became the ruler of a whole empire, and finally father an alicorn daughter himself.
This alicorn princess whom he married is none other than Princess Cadance, who foalsat Twilight at a young age. Which families could afford to convince an Equestrian Princess to foalsit? Only the most privileged, rivaling the money of a Princess. They could have had any other foalsitter on the market yet somehow they got a Princess to do the job. The fact is simple. When you have money, you can have anything from your wildest dreams.
Sparkle’s family has assembled enough power that it is plausible that they are actually the ones ruling the country. Full control of the Royal Guards, control of the Crystal Empire, and three alicorn Princesses, one of which rumoured to be the next sole monarch of Equestria. It would not be a surprise in the upcoming years that this family will continue to make clever moves in the scheme of gathering even more power and prestige.
It is clear that without the means that she did not work for, Twilight Sparkle would not be where she is. From living the life of privilege from the start, it had allowed her access to favouritism even Canterlot Dukes would envy. Utilizing her nepotism she turned what she gathered into power. The immense power will continue to be passed around to her Captain of the Royal Guard brother, Princess of the Crystal Empire sister-in-law, and the two reigning monarchs.
Princess Twilight Sparkle’s rise was not a story of a hard-working unicorn working and fighting with her blood sweat and tears, it was a matter of a rich unicorn being born into a shell she would grow into. Princess Twilight Sparkle is a product of nepotism.
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They're right to be fair. But who cares lol 😁.
While your right, I love Twilight to much to agree😘😂
I can’t help but think Twilight needs to relax about this. (I know she wouldn’t be Twilight if she did but she should.) because while she was given some great opportunities she still had to take advantage of those opportunities.
For every person who was given a unfair opportunity there are about a dozen more who blow the same unfair opportunity
11315510
That's a fair opinion, for sure! I definitely made the situation out to be more than it was for comedic effects! I think that's the fun in the story though, that everything is so ostentatious and exaggerated.
11315573
Please don’t miss understand. I got what you were doing and enjoyed the story immensely.
I just felt it should be said that opportunity means nothing unless you take advantage of it.
Personally, while the op-ed might be factually correct, I think that it misses the context of the situation. Yes, Twilight was granted massive advantages, potentially unequal ones (parents paying for their children's education is one thing, bypassing a gate keeping prospective students out through noble blood another), but those advantages aren't the only reason for her current position in society. Even had her family been simple commoners, her love of learning, intelligence, determination, and skill at planning could still have helped carry her on a path parallel to, if not exactly the same as, her current one. Twilight was the beneficiary of privilege, including potentially unfair privileges that should be investigated, but she made her current position herself; privilege gave her the blocks, but she was the one to build them into a castle.
This is true, Twilight got so many advantages because of her birth and nothing else. But the reason she is a alicorn and non of her classmates are is because of who she is. Yes the school of gifted unicorns may only have 50,000 students from the wealthiest families. But Twilight is the best of those 50,000. Is that monstrously unfair? Yup! Does that mean she did nothing? No. If Ruth Bader Ginsburg looked through all of Harvard Undergrad(and no where else) to see who would get personal tutelage from her, then if you were chosen you earned it. Sigficantly less then if you were competing against the country or if Harvard was free, but still you accomplished something impressive.
Twilight's life is one of nepotism but it's also one where of her socioeconomic pears, she's the best of the best.
11315645
On the contrary, her first castle was a gift from inscrutable mystic forces, and her second was doubtlessly repaired by countless unknown laborers after she failed to prevent it being blown up. And given her views on labor rights, they were probably corveed or indentured, and certainly were not permitted to combine for mutual aid or protection.
11315593
I completely agree with that statement then!
11315645
Very well said, and I totally agree. Money and reputation were not what allowed Twilight to reach where she is now, it was sheer skill and talent, an immense talent we saw over the course of nine seasons. So not discrediting her work, just adding in a funny perspective as the media we consume tend to luster in a lot of different talking points :)
11315670
Love this argument, the paper purposefully oversight how deserving she is of her role for a very skewed and very biased opinion.
Really, it's a demonstration of the importance to consider not what the editorial says, but rather, what it doesn't say.
Has Twilight enjoyed numerous advantages not afforded to others? Yes, that seems fairly obvious. Were those others, upon their graduation from Celestia's tutelage, conscripted into an unending war against the forces of disharmony, degeneration, and tyranny where the everyday risks include insanity, grievous bodily harm, and death? Probably not!
If anything, Twilight's cushy life as a princess is compensation.
Remember kids: The quiet part is often much more important than the loud one!
11316031
On the contrary, that wasn't the use of a favor, that was an exercise of her own sovereign authority. A lawless exercise, to be sure, but the authority was her own and not someone else's delegated to her.
Awesome story! Hope for more :)
11316337
Not so much the act of reopening the school, but Celestia deciding to stand by it and do nothing. This sets a dangerous precedent.
11317012
Equestria is not a constitutional monarchy. It's an absolute monarchy with remnants of a feudal system.
Twilight is a crown princess of Equestria; Chancellor, ministry of whatever ... it doesn't matter. Neighsay answers to her, not the other way around. He was only able to pull his stunt because he made Twi believe she'd broken the rules. And Twi would never deliberately break the law like that; so she closed the school. When Glimmer pointed out to her that she had it all backwards, she rightfully stopped giving a crap about that racist's tantrum.
He was out of line, to a dangerous degree. Not Twilight.
Realistically, from a princess' point of view, not gelding that jerk was the only dangerous precedent. Unless the sisters overrule her, Twilight's word is the law. Literally. And 'kids show' and all that aside, he only got away with just a slap on the hoof because of Twilight's forgiving nature and because Celestia knew that punishing him would make Twilight feel guilty. Just imagine his fate if he'd tried to pull that shit with Luna. He'd be a wall rug now.
Soo ... I read the story, after several hours I read the first chapter a second time ... and I still got to ask:
What exactly was the point of this piece?
It could've been funny and even thought provoking if you'd stuck with the canon; but this is just 99% made-up "facts" on all sides for the sole purpose of jamming the word 'nepotist' in there.
It could've been a humorous story about the nature of mass media and the effects of things like bias, perspective and context. But it's from it.
And for it to work as a satire at least one element, doesn't even matter which one, needs to be true to the original ... but sadly the characterizations are too far off to make it work.
11328173
I recognize that now. It was never supposed to be serious I had thought the prospect was humorous so I expanded on the idea of the simple fact that she grew up wealthy. To be honest, you're right that it lacks merit, it was my first time writing something that lacked any substantial plot and I just wanted to try out writing in a different genre. I think being able to write various degrees of stories will ultimately improve my writing, so I suppose that's why as well. Overall, I did it for fun, and it remains a reminder for me that writing is fun regardless. Now, I would definitely write it differently if given the chance to rewrite it again: changing some of the elements so it can ring true to canon and keep the characters consistent.
11315719
… when did Twilight have views on labor rights?
11328070
Source? Other than “because no one ever mentioned one?” Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
11383779
And we all know how that one ended.
11383781
When she ruled from the bench that Rainbow could bind Fluttershy to a year-and-a-day indenture (Trade Ya!) or when she thought it appropriate to break a strike by threatening to cannonade a picket line (The Summer Sun Setback). To say nothing of Spike.
11383784
Who calls the shots in Equestria? On the fly and without anyone else's input or approval necessary?
Absence is the evidence in this case.
As much as I love Twilight Sparkle, it is indeed true that she would sometimes do or say things without thinking because of her rather gifted background, and she can be a bit snooty as well. That said, the article made her out to be conscious of and willfully abusing said privilege which anyone who actually knows her knows isn't true. And to be honest while these traits would be frustrating at times, I wouldn't have liked her nearly as well if she had been a "perfect princess" who's always kind,sweet, etc.