Princess Twilicorn reminds me of Goku from Dragon Ball Z

[Commander_PonyShep 349]

And not just Goku, either, but also multitudes of other Shonen Jump protagonists, like Yugi Mutou and Ichigo Kurosaki. Oh, and Superman, too, despite being a DC comic hero rather than a Shonen Jump hero.

 

Why? Because what Princess Twilicorn has in common with those heroes, is that they have companions, but those companions either barely assist them at all, or get left in the dust in-terms of development. I mean, why would Superman join the Justice League, if he's pretty much a one-man superhero team who has no need for other costumed heroes, like Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Aquaman? And, why would Goku develop so many friends and allies in the original Dragon Ball, only to discard them all for Gohan, Vegeta, Goten, and Trunks in Dragon Ball Z? Why would Ichigo bring Chad, Orihime, and Uryu to save Rukia, if all three of those companions weren't going to do anything to help Ichigo? Why would Yugi constantly talk about the "power of friendship", if Jonouchi/Joey, Honda/Tristan, and Anzu/Tea did nothing to help him, either?

 

Likewise with Princess Twilicorn. The beauty of Twilight was that she couldn't do anything without help from her friends, from saving Luna from Nightmare Moon, to saving Equestria from Discord and his obsession with chaos. You turn her into a princess, and that means declaring her friends utterly useless, even if they were also responsible for helping Twilight become a princess.

 

If you're going to give the main-protagonist a series of companions, you need to make those companions equal and useful to the protagonist, rather than inferior and useless. Otherwise, what the hell is the purpose of giving the hero companions in the first place, if they don't do anything useful?

[hawkflame 3,308]

One of the reasons why the only Shonen Jump series I follow is One Piece is because the other supporting characters don't get left in the dust.  Luffy's the most powerful of all of them, but Zoro, Chopper, Sanji, Robin, Nami, Brook, and Franky *all* get major power/ability upgrades in the series and can hold their own.  It never becomes "The Luffy Show". 

 

There was an MLP Writers' Panel at Las Pegasus recently, and one of the things they said is actually fairly comforting to me:

 

 

• How will you balance out Twilicorn with the other ponies? "You will find out." -Meghan

 

This inspires hope in me that there *will* be some kind of balance made to the rest of the cast this season, and it won't just be "The Twilicorn Show".

[Commander_PonyShep 349]

One of the reasons why the only Shonen Jump series I follow is One Piece is because the other supporting characters don't get left in the dust.  Luffy's the most powerful of all of them, but Zoro, Chopper, Sanji, Robin, Nami, Brook, and Franky *all* get major power/ability upgrades in the series and can hold their own.  It never becomes "The Luffy Show". 

 

There was an MLP Writers' Panel at Las Pegasus recently, and one of the things they said is actually fairly comforting to me:

 

 

This inspires hope in me that there *will* be some kind of balance made to the rest of the cast this season, and it won't just be "The Twilicorn Show".

Balance, as in the whole "two of each species" thing, right? I hope they find a way to restore that balance, because otherwise, Rarity would be a lonely unicorn while Applejack still has Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash still has Fluttershy.

 

And, I do have to agree with you regarding One Piece. The writer of the One Piece manga, Eiichiro Oda, understood the problem with companion-characters in other Shonen Jump manga almost always becoming useless. So, he rectified that mistake by doing as you said, even though he would focus exclusively on Luffy during the Whitebeard War story-arc, before eventually reuniting him with his Straw Hat Pirate crew. I just wish the same could be said for the dynamics between Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

[duidamasterXD 9,626]

Kind of sums up my concerns about the whole Twilicorn thing and where they come from as well, although like Hawkflame said I was slightly comforted by the fact that they are making conscious efforts to keep the show as as balanced as possible.

[Commander_PonyShep 349]

Kind of sums up my concerns about the whole Twilicorn thing and where they come from as well, although like Hawkflame said I was slightly comforted by the fact that they are making conscious efforts to keep the show as as balanced as possible.

How they'll make the show true to itself while keeping the Twilicorn change, I have no idea until Season Four comes out.  But I hope for the best, because all I do is despair over the worst.

[Tall_But_Short_37 233]

Obviously Twilight is the last descendant of an ancient lineage of Alicorn whose planet was blown up by Luna hundreds of years ago while Twilight was sent in a space capsule to Equestria.

[Scootalove 10,684]

Yeah, Twilight does remind me of Goku. Goku always saved the day and defeated antagonists in each movie/episode. I guess they both can defeat villains with the help from their friends.