Twilight's Purpose

[Varrack 1,080]

I found it interesting how in the beginning of FiM, Twi went from not caring about friendship to having other ponies show her how significant friendship is. Then in Equestria Girls, the opposite happens: the other five lose their understanding of how valuable friendship, and Twi helps them realize again how important it is. I think this is cool because it's pretty much Twi repaying her friends, whether it be in her own dimension or not. Originally she was sent there to go retrieve the crown she lost, but somehow was able to restore a needed something for those five.

 

Her "purpose", which she does focus on a lot in the show, comes into play here. It's obvious that part of her destiny is to spread the magic of friendship everywhere, but at the end of season 4 she's questioning her purpose and doesn't seem to understand what her destiny is and what she needs to do. But we've repeatedly seen her focus on friendship in the past, and it's she's the princess of that very thing, so why did she question her seemingly obvious purpose? It may be because there's something else she's meant to do. The show focuses a lot on her character development so maybe there's an unseen point she's trying to reach that isn't 100% focused on being there for others.

[Stormghost 136]

Twilight's purpose is to spread friendships, also peace

 

(Nice signature, it reminds me of vanna -.-)

Edited September 16, 2015 by Shape-Shift

[Partialgeek514 4,920]

It's true that it seemed a bit obvious in Season 4 that Twilight was supposed to bring friendship to others. I think the reason why she might not have been able to clue into that for a while is that she can get over stressed about what she thinks she needs to do as a princess. She tries to follow the examples of the other princesses in figuring out her purpose. It seems to me that Twilight may have had so many ideas about what a princess should do, that she was blinded to what she actually needed to and could do with her life. I also don't think this is very uncommon behavior in real people. I have noticed that the are some people who are so sure about what they're supposed to be, or so unsure, that they don't realize what they can actually achieve. Even I struggle with this problem.

 

(Sorry if this is a bit hard to understand)

[NezPPTS 36]

I made a post about this after the season 4 finale.

 

https://mlpforums.com/topic/97606-s04e2526-twilights-kingdom/?view=findpost&p=2626443

 

TL;DR I feel like Twilight/the show should focus more on her magical abilities rather than spreading friendship.

[PROJECT: Simon 3,953]

Spreading the friendship. That, is her purpose and it won't change xD :DDDD <3 <3

[-Octavia- 1,176]

 

TL;DR I feel like Twilight/the show should focus more on her magical abilities rather than spreading friendship.

This. She needs to increase her magic level so she can get back that amazing hair she had whilst absorbing the Alicorn magic.

[Justin_Case001 4,857]

I made a post about this after the season 4 finale.

 

https://mlpforums.com/topic/97606-s04e2526-twilights-kingdom/?view=findpost&p=2626443

 

TL;DR I feel like Twilight/the show should focus more on her magical abilities rather than spreading friendship.

I agree with your review of Twi's Kingdom, and her role as Princess of Friendship.  (Loved your job promotion analogy, btw.)  It sort of does seem like a wee-bit of a cop-out to just say that her role is to spread friendship.  Is it really necessary to have a princess in charge of a social thing like that, something they would basically do anyway?  All three other princesses have clearly defined duties that must be performed.  They have jobs to do.  Twilight kinda...doesn't.  I mean, she's more like a superhero in that she just flies into action to help when needed, but doesn't actually have defined duties as princess.  Nothing really wrong with that, but why did Tia make her a princess, exactly?  It seems like there should have been an actual job of sorts for her to do.  It's like, Tia made her a princess, but didn't know why, then at the end of Twilight's Kingdom, Tia's like, "Oh, sure Princess of Friendship, that's sounds good.  Yeah, yeah, that's what I intended all along.  Why not?"

 

Don't get me wrong; I think it's a great role for her, but it just kind of feels like that's what she did anyway, and that perhaps her royal position should include other duties.  I wanted episodes where she would actually be training with Celestia, learning to do various princess duties and such, but that never really happened.  The crown, the map, and the castle were more akin to the bat cowl, the bat signal, and the bat cave, and it's just like, "Ok, here ya go.  Have fun!"  The mane six didn't plan on being superheroes, but sometimes life doesn't work out the way you think.  Who are they?  The Big Hero Mane 6.  (Oh, gawd, I'm sorry.  I'm facepalming myself for how corny that was.)  Twilight's done some actual royal duties, such as running the swap meet thing.  They need more stuff like that, but on progressively bigger scales.

 

*EDIT*  Holy crap, I just thought of what Twilight's actual royal duties should be!  I've brought this up before, and I can't believe I forgot about it.  Twilight needs to be a professor of magic and teach a class at the Canterlot Magic Academy.  I mean, it's magic related, it's nerdy, it's about learning and studying, it's TOTALLY Twilight!  In fact, I'd wager a lot of bronies would have been happier if they had gone more that route instead of turning her into a superhero.  I think it probably would have better.  I enjoy the show as is, but I'd be tickled to death to see Twlight at the front of lecture hall someday.  Granted she may not have the experience quite yet, but teaching would absolutely be her thing.  And I guess it's worth pointing out that there's no reason she needs to be a princess to do that, either.  But that's what she should be doing.

Edited September 16, 2015 by Justin_Case001

[Skyling 14]

All three other princesses have clearly defined duties that must be performed.  They have jobs to do.  Twilight kinda...doesn't.  I mean, she's more like a superhero in that she just flies into action to help when needed, but doesn't actually have defined duties as princess.

 

I believe that might have been the point, sort of. I mean, Equestria has been getting along perfectly fine with just Celestia as the 'administrator' type of Princess for a thousand years - it doesn't seem like the country needs another Princess-tier paper-pusher, nor would it necessarily benefit from having one.

 

A hero, though? Considering all the sealed-evil-in-a-can beings that crawl out of the woodwork lately and other mishaps and villains that pop up occasionally - yeah, they can definitely use a hero, especially one that isn't too busy running the country to go and personally help where needed.

 

And there are a few ways that being a Princess helps here - for one, it makes her very presence a symbol of hope and motivation, should she ever need to organize a large scale relief effort of any sort, and gives her the authority to do so. After all, a Princess has been Equestria's guide and proverbial protector for a thousand years, capable of feats few other ponies would ever dream of - having a Princess on the scene is probably the fastest way to get everyone moving and thinking productively (Just look at the ponies in Princess Spike and how almost instinctively they follow all the directions of a Princess).

 

It also gives everyone a clear figure to rally behind should anything ever happen to Celestia (or Luna/Cadence) herself - a wise precaution for sure, seeing as how the Royal Guard immediately went to Twilight for orders after the plunder vines abducted the elder princesses. SHe's essentially an immediately-available backup and makes Equestria's leadership less of a "all eggs in one basket" type of deal, which is obviously preferable. And having schooled Twilight herself since young age, Celestia can be reasonably certain that her values will be largely upheld even in her own absence.

 

And since Twilight does serve as Celestia's primary "troubleshooter", it probably helps to give her the full authority to ensure that she can always focus on the problem at hand, rather than having to jump through potential bureaucratic nonsense and red tape if some corrupt official turns out to be the problem and can't be denied access to any loction or evidence. It makes her job as a "hero" potentially easier, in other words, by ensuring that she is the highest authority during whatever crisis she needs to solve.

 

So in short ... she may not have typical "princess duties" (besides ones that she assigns herself), but the title seems to be there both so that she can do her 'actual' job - being the hero that Equestria needs - easier (and it's non-commital enough to not interfere with whatever heroics need doing - I mean, "Princess of Friendship"? That practically screams "yeah, do whatever it feels like you need to do to make this country a better place, no specifics") and makes her in to a backup that Equestria can turn to in case something happens to the other Princesses (which can happen, as we have seen).

 

Or something like that.

Edited September 16, 2015 by Skyling

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

I feel like we've moved on from learning friendship and we should now focus on awesome action and adventure story arcs.

[chirox the pony 1,334]

Simple, the other princesses didn't tell her. And besides the other princesses have very different roles so it's understandable why she couldn't figure it out. 

[Truffles 2,033]

 

 

Twilight needs to be a professor of magic and teach a class at the Canterlot Magic Academy.  I mean, it's magic related, it's nerdy, it's about learning and studying, it's TOTALLY Twilight!

 

Wow, how many times can I brohoof this? When Twilight was offering to teach all of the CMC's acquaintances in "Twilight Time", she fit into that teacher role like she was born to do it. She's the kind of teacher that if a student came to with a question and (somehow) she didn't know the answer, she'd be delighted to go off and research it for them (or have them along for the research trip) just so they gain the knowledge.

[sweetolebob18 724]

Well, she is teaching the Cutie Mark Crusaders during Twilight Time.  But, she has been questioning her role all Season 4.  Look at Princess Twilight, she was all "what am I doing?"

[Varrack 1,080]

I feel like we've moved on from learning friendship and we should now focus on awesome action and adventure story arcs.

Yeah, there should be more adventure and action-filled episodes, but "Friendship" is literally in the title of the show, so they can't just abandon the focus on friendship.

Well, she is teaching the Cutie Mark Crusaders during Twilight Time.  But, she has been questioning her role all Season 4.  Look at Princess Twilight, she was all "what am I doing?"

I know, it seems so obvious what she's meant to do, but she can't figure it out. At the end of Twilight's Kingdom she ended up using friendship to save the day again, but even then she wasn't all " oh, so THAT'S what I'm meant to do!" It's just kind of a confusing addition to the two-parter and maybe the whole show in general.