Is Twilight more arrogant than she makes herself sound?

[SteveMorison 407]

On the face of things Twilight is probably the most humble ponies you'll ever meet. She constantly stresses that she is not above other ponies despite her status as a princess and is very reluctant to take public admiration. She also has what is imo an annoying habit of taking on too much responsibility and blaming herself for things that aren't her fault or not in her control. There are even question marks over whether she even really wants to be a princess. Despite her humble demeaner however there is one aspect to Twilight which displays her underlying arrogance, she knows she's smart and always thinks she knows best. We see this in the pilot episode where she is sent to Ponyville to make friends, but Twilight ignores Celestia's requests thinking that she is right about Nightmare Moon, this being a princess and mentor that Twilight is supposed to look upto dearly, but apparently ignores when she feels she knows better (she was right but that's a seperate issue). After that there is her interactions with Pinkie which suggests she actually looks down on Pinkie a little, in feeling pinkie keen she stubbornly refuses to accept pinkie sense despite the evidence being in her face the whole time, and proceeds to observe Pinkie as a mere scientific experiment, again believing she knows better despite what's in front of her. In Baby Cakes she stops by Pinkie who's babysitting the cake twins and offers help, immediately implying she didn't think Pinkie was capable of handling things on her own, which ends up upsetting Pinkie. In Mmmystery on the friendship express she spends the episode condescending Pinkie to the extent that she won't even show Pinkie the clues she found. In Testing testing 1, 2, 3 she initially believes that since certain study methods worked for her then they MUST work for Rainbow Dash, a lesson she learns is not the case by the end. This one is probably a nitpick but in The last roundup she mentions she gave Applejack a book on organised orchers, this to me says Twilight needs everything to be done her way and comes across as preachy and disrespectful towards Applejack and her handling of her own orcher, again, she knows better.

[-Octavia- 1,176]

I believe you are confusing arrogance with ignorance, and everyone is ignorant of something.

 

Like how this comment is ignorant of your perception of arrogance.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Wubtavia

[cuteycindyhoney 13,324]

I don't really agree with any of the original post. Instead of going line by line, I'll just use the very last example to make my point that you can look at every argument in two different ways.

 

 

 

The last roundup she mentions she gave Applejack a book on organised orchers, this to me says Twilight needs everything to be done her way and comes across as preachy and disrespectful towards Applejack and her handling of her own orcher, again, she knows better.

 

Why couldn't it be that Twilight gave Applejack a book that she thought a farmer would find interesting? I've given books as gifts. If I give someone a book about something they're interested in, it doesn't mean I think I know more about it than they do.

[Jeric 46,871]

Individual scenes do not a personality make, especially if the scene is in a garbage episode like Mmmystery.

 

Twilight appears more confident in her abilities and not arrogant. Her friends also would not mind much. We even had an episode about that in season one.

[PROJECT: Simon 3,955]

Noo~! Never!! D: It's just she cares everything and everyone, a lot!    

[dekutree64 713]

When Celestia is involved, it's usually her own fault for not giving Twilight enough information. Twilight is not good at "going on faith", yet Celestia always asks her to. Same thing with Pinkie sense, except it wasn't deliberate.

 

I do think Twilight looks down on Pinkie more than she should, but only Pinkie, and not ponies in general.

 

Trying to teach Rainbow with Twilight's preferred methods was just because Twilight hasn't had much experience being a teacher yet. And she figured that one out pretty quickly, so if anything, that gives her more bragging rights for her own intelligence If any of the other ponies were as smart as her, they would have seen that their explanations of the Pinkie sense weren't working for Twilight, and adapted to Twilight's own learning style to explain it.

[Marimo 555]

 

 

In Testing testing 1, 2, 3 she initially believes that since certain study methods worked for her then they MUST work for Rainbow Dash, a lesson she learns is not the case by the end.

 

Everyone figured that they should try their own teaching methods on Rainbow Dash and it would work. Twilight was just the first to try and had the most typical teaching method that you would use.

[Mesme Rize 15,690]

There is a line between being arrogant and being Confident. It's easy to perceive someone being arrogant, without knowing him. Being confident is a good thing, because it shows that you have a very good self esteem and i appreciate people who have that.

 

But in the end, i don't really think that you know what arrogance really is. With all due respect.

[Cleverclover 1,526]

Oh yes, definitely. Without a doubt. 

 

Twilight most certainly has an underlying arrogance surrounding her numerous abilities and exceptional smarts. 

 

Fortunately, though, it rears its head only on rare occasions. However, one of the most recent displays was the ending of It Ain't Easy Being Breezies: 

 

 

Just look at her smug facial expression here as she denies Dash further use of her power. That, coupled with her tone of voice just implies a considerable sense of arrogance. It actually feels like she's only denying Dash just to spite her, as though she receives satisfaction to hear her beg for it. 

 

Then again, can you really blame her for her arrogance? She's frequently showered with praise and constantly told how great she is. Hell, there are two songs devoted to telling her how great she is ("The Success Song" and "You'll Play Your Part"). You can only hear that kind of thing so much before it eventually goes to your head. 

[Truffles 2,033]

I don't think she was necessarily arrogant in all of those examples, except for Feeling Pinkie Keen and Testing Testing 123. However, in those cases I think it was the point of the episode to teach her a lesson about being a know-it-all, and once she learned that lesson she has been a lot more humble.

 

Mostly... Aside from the screenshot Cleverclover showed above, I suppose it could be argued her trying to ally with the yaks without any real experience as a diplomat could be seen as arrogant, though I think maybe it was just her feeling inadequate again and trying to impress her mentor more than her trying to puff her ego up.

[ManaMinori 4,146]

Oh yes, definitely. Without a doubt. 

 

Twilight most certainly has an underlying arrogance surrounding her numerous abilities and exceptional smarts. 

 

Fortunately, though, it rears its head only on rare occasions. However, one of the most recent displays was the ending of It Ain't Easy Being Breezies: 

 

Twilight smug.png

 

Just look at her smug facial expression here as she denies Dash further use of her power. That, coupled with her tone of voice just implies a considerable sense of arrogance. It actually feels like she's only denying Dash just to spite her, as though she receives satisfaction to hear her beg for it. 

 

Then again, can you really blame her for her arrogance? She's frequently showered with praise and constantly told how great she is. Hell, there are two songs devoted to telling her how great she is ("The Success Song" and "You'll Play Your Part"). You can only hear that kind of thing so much before it eventually goes to your head.

 

it could also be due to her Canterlot upbringing. Born in the capital, where other snooty, holier than thou high class ponies are, coming from a family wealthy enougj to pay her way through Celestia's school for GIFTED unicorns, having more raw magic than most other ponies, being the Princess' favorite, tutored personally by her

 

No wonder she has a big head

[cider float 2,539]

I can generally detect levels of arrogance on a character instantly but felt none with Twilight from the very beginning. Every character has a certain level of confidence in oneself. To assert oneself one must be able to exude a certain level of self-confidence. Never have I heard Twilight say she is better or smarter than anypony. When one sees a problem going on they try to put their voice in there, that's something anypony would do. I guess that mean all the ponies are arrogant because they all have to say something about something they found wrong. Fluttershy can also be seen as arrogant when she stole Philomena from Celestia to take care of her. But the way I saw it Fluttershy's fear of Celestia's sovereignty was overtaken by her compassion for the bird her mind was not thinking "I know what's better for Philomena than Celestia does and I'll show her up."

 

You can only say one is arrogant when they go over bounds on self-confidence. 

Edited September 14, 2015 by cider float

[Singe 2,111]

 This one is probably a nitpick but in The last roundup she mentions she gave Applejack a book on organised orchers, this to me says Twilight needs everything to be done her way and comes across as preachy and disrespectful towards Applejack and her handling of her own orcher, again, she knows better.

 

Twilight Sparkle 99% likely read the book and thought it had some good information that might be helpful to Applejack, because it was written by someone in the same field of work. Applejack is more stubborn than Twilight Sparkle is arrogant.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Singe

[Buck Testa 5,505]

Well lets put it like this

 

She grew up in Canterlot, where she only consorted with Unicorns and Alicorns, and she only bothered to remember the alicorns when she actually left. One of her friends from canterlot actually moved to ponyville and Twilight by all we have seen hasn't given her or any of them the time of day. When Celestia sent her to Ponyville, she was supposed to make friends, but she tried to avoid these orders as much as possible. Her general reactions to ponies, especially earth ponies at first was generally reserved and distant, though it was slightly less so with Pegasi. Over time though her "reservations" with those ponies changed when they showed genuine kindness to her and welcoming her as a friend, and she developed a strong bond with a lot of them. 

 

However, when a certain pink haired earth pony displays abilities abnormal to what she understands earth ponies are capable of, she goes to try to find out why. In other words, earth ponies are not supposed to be able to do these things in her eyes, and yet here is one breaking her idea of what an earth pony is capable of. 

 

She also sees no problem with altering other ponies minds with magic, or trading living ponies for goods and services, though she would never even consider it with an Alicorn. 

 

Basically, Twi's kinda racist against anypony that are not alicorns. She's not one of those mean hateful racists, just, sorta unintentionally racist. 

 

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

It's funny because I always felt Twilight was more arrogant before she became a princess. Once she was a princess, she was very humble at first and didn't want to show off or wear her crown. 

[MLPFanatic34 3,241]

I don't think Twilight's arrogant, more just humble.

[Prince Firemane 309]

Twilight's not more arrogant than she seems, she's a control freak. She has to have everything her way because hers is the only way she can hope to understand. She's confident in her knowledge and abilities of deductive analysis, and with good reason. They've saved her ass and those of her friends on numerous occasions. Her confidence does slide into arrogance at times, but she's not trying to hide it or be passive-aggressive about it. Every one of the mane six has confidence in their respective special abilities and have had arrogant moments about it, Twilight is no different. Like the others, Twilight has had her arrogance checked and confronted, and she takes steps to curb it. I say her arrogance has lessened since the beginning of the series.

[Red Cedar 1,408]

From the start of the series, Twilight was a highly educated pony, on many subjects besides simply magic. She is arguably far more educated than most other ponies we've seen in the series, and certainly moreso than the rest of the mane 6. While that can certainly be construed as arrogance, and while she didn't seem to have the best impression of Ponyville to start with, she didn't actually come out as thinking she was better than any of the others. She simply felt she had better things to do. (Of course, that was the attitude she had had from the start, which is why Celestia sent her to Ponyville to make some darn friends!)

 

While she has had her moments since then, especially when realizing her intellect cannot decipher things like Pinkie Sense or when trying to explain things to other ponies on a level she thinks they should understand (she being used to speaking with other highly educated ponies), she still has the sense to sometimes leave things to a pony who has a better grasp of a different subject rather than trying to do it herself.

 

In short, while she has tremendous confidence in the capability of her own intellect, she's not really that arrogant.

[ShadOBabe 19,016]

I do think Twilight's a little arrogant.

I don't hold it against her. It's a believable flaw. And she DOES pay for it at times and is learning.

Edited September 15, 2015 by ShadOBabe

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

Spike: "So, you finally admit that you're the most talented unicorn in all of Ponyville?"

Twilight Sparkle: "Well, yeah, but it's nothing to brag about."

 

This is the form Twilight's "arrogance" takes. She doesn't like people bringing it up, but she's aware that from an entirely objective standpoint she is very intelligent, knowledgeable, and better than most people at quite a few things . She'd have to be in severe denial not to. But to her credit, she's very good at not coming off very condescending and has only had a few slip ups (Baby Cakes is the one that comes to mind)

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,991]

She is not arrogant, she just wants to help but she is not perfect. Her choices and ways of doing things may not be the best for every single pony out there. She flat out stated that she does not like bragging about anything, so I am unsure how she is arrogant. More like a pony that makes mistakes at times, like they all do. That makes her pretty equal in that regard.

[Justin_Case001 4,908]

Just look at her smug facial expression here as she denies Dash further use of her power. That, coupled with her tone of voice just implies a considerable sense of arrogance. It actually feels like she's only denying Dash just to spite her, as though she receives satisfaction to hear her beg for it. 

Or perhaps it's because Twilight knows that turning Dashie into a griffon would be an abuse of her power.  What you call arrogance, I call responsibility.  The tone she used was just harmless teasing, imo.  And it's not like Dashie was offended.  However, I do think, as I'm sure you do, that Twilight's sudden use of that breezie transformation spell without her friends' consent was out of line.  But I don't condemn her for that.

 

I do think the writers are portraying her as too perfect these days, though.  I'll agree on that.  But that could be remedied with the right stories, which they won't do.  But I don't think she's arrogant.  But that scene with Dashie does give me a funny crossover idea, though.

 

RD: "Ugh!  You are so arrogant!  If you were a superhero, you'd be Captain Arrogant!  And you know what your superpower would be?!  Arrogance!"

 

Twi: "You're wrong again.  If my power were arrogance, my name would be Dr. Arrogonto."

[Cleverclover 1,526]

 

 

Or perhaps it's because Twilight knows that turning Dashie into a griffon would be an abuse of her power.

 

Oh, please. If Twilight cared about abusing her power, she wouldn't have bothered to learn that abominable spell in the first place. From the first time I saw the episode, I always interpreted that scene as her being arrogantly smug just for the sake it. 

 

 

 

But I don't condemn her for that.

 

 

I do. Big time. Because after Flutterbat, her friends had very little reason to trust her with a spell that would alter their bodies, and the least she could have done next to actually getting their consent was actually telling them what she was going to do to them. 

[Justin_Case001 4,908]

Oh, please. If Twilight cared about abusing her power, she wouldn't have bothered to learn that abominable spell in the first place. From the first time I saw the episode, I always interpreted that scene as her being arrogantly smug just for the sake it. 

 

I do. Big time. Because after Flutterbat, her friends had very little reason to trust her with a spell that would alter their bodies, and the least she could have done next to actually getting their consent was actually telling them what she was going to do to them. 

Yeah, you're probably right.  I just try to give her the benefit of the doubt because I don't hate her.

[-Octavia- 1,176]

Oh, please. If Twilight cared about abusing her power, she wouldn't have bothered to learn that abominable spell in the first place.

I take it that you are not a studious individual yourself, then? Ask anyone with an established career in a scientific field about all of the irrelevant information that had to study just in case they came upon data that did not quite fit the standard model. Given that Twilight's talent is magic itself, then yes, I would absolutely expect her to learn every possible facet about it that she can.