Twilight has no authority?

[Zoraxe 546]

Nopony seems to care about Alicorn-Princess Twilight. And I don't mean just her friends in Ponyville, Daring Doo didn't care, the citizens in Manehatten didn't care. The only ponies who cared were some pirates in the comics that wanted to ransom her.

 

It seems to me that ponykinds reaction to Twilicorn isn't "its a Royal goddess!" and is more like "oh look, she has wings and a horn? Huh, that's weird... whatever"

 

It seems to me that 'princess' itself is a meaningless title, Cadance was one and she didn't seem to do anything until the whole Crystal Empire thing, unless you count being a popular girl/babysitter in highschool as being something.

 

Maybe what gives princesses any authority is whatever tasks they may have. So if Twilight is given any Princess-y things to do than its because Celestia gave her that responsibility (Celestia does indeed have authority).

 

But I guess saying its Twilight's destiny to become a princess is more poetic than saying its Twilight's destiny to become a civil servant.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Zoraxe

[Hive King 1,998]

Maybe Twilight doesn't want to be treated that way? It's possible she could just send out a royal decree saying "Hey, treat me normally or go to the dungeon". 

[Malinter 3,064]

She is kinda smaller than Celestia so I could see somebody not noticing at first glance she has wings and horn. if folks were rushing about at most they'd only see her face and the horn.

[Scootalove 10,684]

Twilight doesn't want to be treated that way with special treatment. We know she is willing to take charge, but for Twilight to have authority there would have to be a reason for her to take that route. We saw Twilight take charge in the first two episodes of Season 4, but she still deserves to be respected.

 

We're still trying to learn about the responsibilities that she will have, the rest of the season could show that.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Scootalove

[Inactive01 5,298]

She was only recently an alicorn. Plus, Twilight never acts like on throughout the season. Those could be the biggest reasons. She also doesn't raise the sun or the moon like the other Princesses do, nor does she own territory at the present moment.

[hawkflame 3,308]

She is kinda smaller than Celestia so I could see somebody not noticing at first glance she has wings and horn. if folks were rushing about at most they'd only see her face and the horn.

 

Some ponies not noticing, sure.  But *no one* noticing?  That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?

[Billy-Rex 54]

I noticed that too in the latest episode. "Get in line like everypony else." And I was like "WHAT?!"

But Malinter has a point. At first glance you see the face and the horn.

[JonPear 209]

Ponies need to learn some respect, dammit

 

 

[Doctor XFizzle 8,651]

She might as well be a ceremonial princess while Celestia, Luna, and Cadence are still around and taking care of things.

 

When she does take authority it should be like this

Edited January 5, 2014 by Doctor XFizzle

[Shanks 10,811]

Maybe Twilight doesn't want to be treated that way? It's possible she could just send out a royal decree saying "Hey, treat me normally or go to the dungeon". 

Of course she dosen't want to be treated that way, but that dosen't always mean that everypony will always respect her wishes. We saw her friends treat her a bit differently in the season premier but I am surprised that we haven't seen any flank kissers try to butter up to her to gain influence yet.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Twilight has no authority just yet, in the season premier she was in charge while Celestia and Luna were missing but aside from that the whole ascension seems completely pointless. We don't know anymore about what her responsibilities are now than we did before, granted we still have the rest of the season but still.

[Radiance64 7,051]

Yeah, it's a bit odd that she seems to have little to no authority, the only time anyone seemed to care was in S4 E01 when the other princesses were gone and the citizens of Canterlot only had Twilight to turn to. It seems her only royal duty atm is restoring the old castle, so at least she's doing something, but not enough to have higher authority for now it seems.

[FirestormCAN 246]

You would think just the sight of Twilicorn would make ponies realize they're in the presence of a future ruler. But nope, all they seems to care about catching their own cab in the rain (Daring Do at least had an excuse 'cause she was in the middle of one of her adventures). Then again, these same ponies didn't seem to acknowledge her as Celestia's flippin' pupil.

 

Though like the others said, she is a new princess and she doesn't like to be treated as such, she just wants to be treated like everypony else, especially by her own friends. The only time she showed real authority was in the season opener, and that was during a crisis. While it didn't work out the way she'd hoped, it at least proved she has the potential take some form of authority. It's just going to take a long time for her to know what exactly this mare's going to do. Namely Celestia (and the writers) finding a position she could take.

 

And Cadence probably went through the same thing as she was growing up a princess, she was learning how to take authority before she finally got her chance to do so in the Crystal Empire. Knowing how to rule takes time, it can't happen overnight. (No, tyrants don't count, they don't learn a thing about being a good ruler.)

[raspymanic 36]

She has no official royal duties yet but i feel her role as a princess will be discovered soon enough, that being said she should still be respected by everypony

[Hive King 1,998]

It could just be that she is the understudy for Celestia and Luna

[Winona the Dog 1,981]

It may be because Twilight's behavior and the fact she was only recently a princess.

 

I think Twilight as a princess hasn't really has any influence because she isn't really ruling anything. Though you have a point with them saving the world several times.

 

I think everyone can agree that the Mane 6 statusv should be legendary by now.....

[Frosty Flurry 173]

She's only just become a princess and is barely used to the wings.

She's not really ready for the big things in equestria

But on the other hand she can easily deal with any villian as she has done

But she no longer has the elements of harmony.....

my opinion!

[Wingnut 6,733]

Considering how rare alicorns are she should have gotten unwanted attention from somepony about it by this time.  :/

 

I wonder, does Equestria have some weird protocol that only "on duty" princesses identified by a crown or a tiara have authority and special privileges?  Obviously, Twilight would be next in succession even without a crown if the others are incapacitated.  But as several have noted, Twilight is newly coronated.  A transitory time where they continue to be an ordinary citizen may be customary too. 

 

I'm more amazed that the Mane 6 live such normal, almost mundane lives.  Having saved the world on several occasions, they should be household names by now.  The doorpony should want to tip Rarity. 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Wingnut

[Zoraxe 546]

In regards to saving the world, hmmm... I guess for Nightmare Moon it was never made known to the world that the mane6 are the ones that did it. Discord is harder to explain because there was that whole Star Wars award ceremony thing...

 

Maybe nopony knows who the mane6 really are, that all they know is that 6 ponies stopped Discord but not their names or how much of a threat Discord really was. So they never made the connection between that white pony they remembered and Rarity, for instance. Its a stretch but its the only explanation that I can think of.

 

As for Twilight being Celestia's protege. Celestia has had proteges before (Sunset Shimmer) and she does run a magical school. Its very likely that being Celestias protege isn't all that special. There can be hundreds of them running around and Celestia might have replaced Twilight with a new student already.

 

And for being princess, well... She has no land, no money, and no royal job, yet. Prince Blueblood is more important than Twilight.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Zoraxe

[Zygen 6,065]

Well, maybe because she doesn't have authority over any part of Equestria really yet the citizens don't think of her as highly yet. Plus she doesn't want to be treated that way either!

 

I mean once Twilight did get authority, or was the only authority left in the premier she was called Princess and expected to know what to do, which is sorta like authority as the ponies were basically asking what was going on and what needed to be done, putting her on a pedestal so to speak.

 

But Twilight has many times expressed she dislikes this, which may be part of the reason citizens and other ponies don't treat her that way, plus it could be partly the authority thing like i said.

 

I have a feeling as the season progresses we may get this better explained, who knows.

[hawkflame 3,308]

When it comes to the Mane Six it's at least somewhat easier to suspend disbelief, because the media there isn't like it is here, you're not going to be on television all the time or anything, and it seems like they could avoid the attention easily if they wanted.  And it's not like they go around wearing the elements all the time, so there's no real distinguishing feature about them.

 

Twilight, on the other hand, is an alicorn.  She has both wings and a horn.  Even if you lived under a rock for over 1000 years and have no clue as to what a princess looks like, that should at least strike you as odd or noteworthy.  And if you weren't living under a rock, you can't *not* know that Alicorn=Royalty.

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

I think it would be really insufferable if they had Twilight constantly pulling rank and ponies trippling all over her, also it would distract from the actual focus of the episode in episodes where she's not the main character. We'll probably see her doing princess stuff once she gets a focus episode again.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I sort of found it a little odd, that in the Rarity Takes Manehattan episode no pony seemed to care that she was royalty, I mean if I saw a princess, queen or king asking others to let their friend in a cab, I would surely obey the royal individual. Eh, that's just me though. Hopefully we'll see Twilight do more royal duties this season.

[Nature's Spell 526]

I just listened to an interview with Dave Polsky and he was asked this question. He said it was complex, but he have a few reasons (heavily paraphrased).

 

1. Twilight isn't princess of anything yet and ponies might not recongize her as a princess.

 

2. Doesn't want to throw her weight around (for her friends) and wouldn't be respected if she did so. It's also a question of when does she act the princess and pull rank.

 

3. Manehatten, being like NYC, is a place that doesn't care who you are and you can wait in line too.

 

You can find the interview below and he answers the question around the 35 min point.

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ponytoast/2014/01/05/ter-episode-89-why-is-twilight-still-an-acorn

Edited January 6, 2014 by Nature's Spell

[Hive King 1,998]

Alicorns aren't as gasp worthy as people say. Cadence was considered to not be anything special and, depending on how you view this, there are Alicorn Guards and Alicorn Fillies in Magic Kindergarten

[Anadu Kune 668]

Considering the fact that no one in Equestria ever seems to acknowledge the fact that they have saved the world on numerous occasions and have their images engraved in stained glass for all to freaking see, which were presented during big ceremonies which were headed by the Princesses themselves it comes as no surprise that they don't notice twilights princess hood. Seriously why the sudden resurgence of this problem? Its the same problem we've had since season freaking one. It was one of those nagging things that always pierced the back of my mind, I mean they rediscovered the elements of freaking harmony what does it take to be notable in Equestria?