Unpopular opinion time

@Background Pony #22C2  
But it’s a spark the others already have, strictly personality wise. And Twilight doesn’t become this strong, passionate, independent and empathetic character, she remains the most oblivious of the 6 throughout. Her lack of ability to read the room or understand others feelings is what constantly gives her the most trouble.
 
So what spark is attained besides the superficial magic aspect of it? Seems redundent, so what is her actual purpose story wise beyond taking orders from Celestia?

@CronoM  
Not really - most of the others had always been social. Kwilight may have had frinds of a sort, but she didn’t really recognise them as such. I’m sure she felt she would be the only one who could beat Nightmare Moon and save the day. And maybe she could have made it there on her own - but she wasn’t alone, and she didn’t have to be. She had five wonderful ponies with her - ponies he’d be proud to call friends.
 
It’s not just her I’m looking at of course - you have to consider the other Magic bearers - Star Swirl, Gallus, arguably Sunset and Starlight… all friendless to start with.

@Latecomer  
Starswirled wasn’t really a big advocate of friendship despite having friends and being “the pillar of magic” either. We thought he was in S4 when we heard about Scorpan, but when we finally meet him, that was more the exception then the rule. He did have friends, but he had a stick up his butt and was a judgemental ass.
 
This isn’t about them being friendless beforehand. It’s about them embracing friendship for their destiny… but only to the bare minimum. Not much of an impressive character arc for the supposed main character, the element of magic, know what I’m saying?
 
Let me put it plainly…they kind of oversold us on Twilight in the long term. Instead a character with main character charisma, we got a character who embraces the bare minimum compared to her friends, and most of her character motivation is following the path celeatia lays out for her without question.
 
I don’t hate Twilight, but I can’t help but feel underwhelmed from our supposed main character/element of magic.

@Latecomer
 
AJ hasn’t had an issue admitting she needs help since Applebuck Season, though.

@Spinny
 
Admitting, sure. Realizing, well…

@Latecomer  
I know 5x more about Sci Twi’s personal wants, desires and unfiltered personality then I have about Pony Twi watching her for 9 seasons. When a character is constantly brown nosing to be in someone else’s expectations, it’s very hard to relate to. Sci Twi didn’t have that problem.

@CronoM  
I don’t want to admit he has a point about Twilight since I do like her, but…
 
…ugh, it’s like the Starlight shilling we got at one point. Great characters, until the narrative starts telling us they’re paragons of virtue who can do no wrong and are shiny awesome. Like, no one can live up to that shit. And those who can generally possess the character depth of pudding.
 
Twilight, Starlight and… hell, the rest of the cast are lovable imbeciles who win mostly by blind luck and pluckiness. I like that. I wish they would stop trying to portray them as anything else.

@Philweasel  
This.

@CronoM  
It would have been nice if she’d made more friends - heck, if all of them had - but I’m quite satisfied with her as a protagonist in most areas. It’s not often the brainy one gets to be the leader.
 
And I think someone who lacked friends and then opened up to them may have insights a pony who always had friends might lack.
 

 
@Philweasel  
Even if the writers may ynot be the best at showing it, she’s a genius who wins by thinking smart and trusting her friends. (if this isn’t happening they’re doing it wrong.) All of the Mane 6 have skill, talent and competence when the writers remember them.

@CronoM  
@Philweasel  
They as characters are in a weird place where they have TONS of flaws. Like, probably the nicest thing you could realistically say about them is some of their hearts are in the right places sometimes (and even THEN, a lot of their accomplishments are based out of selfish or even outright negative desires), and nearly all their victories are due to sheer blind dumb luck or contrived circumstances. It’s just that the show downplays these flaws and acts like they don’t have them. There’s even this weird double standard where other characters do the same bad things the main characters do and WILL be called out for it :P

@Badumsquish
 
Agreed.
 

@Latecomer  

 
The problem is she almost never shows it. Twilight’s intelligence has been depicted as a negative more often than not. She overthinks herself into so many messes, and it’s rarely her smarts than get her out of them. More often than not it’s getting her friends to fix her shit the magic of friendship that solves her problems.
 
…the bizarre fact of the matter is Twilight is often the least competent of the mane six. Now I love me some Twilight derp, but it makes the fact that their tongues are fixed firmly up her ass half the time feel really strange.

@Philweasel  
Hmm… can you think of an episode where she could have succeeded using her brains without upending the plot?

@Latecomer  
She was 100% right during the first half of A Canterlot Wedding and the conflict was that nobody believed her.

@Spinny  
That song still irks me because of the lyrics and the message.

@Myoozik  
“We’re not perfect”, the entirely wrong thing to sing in the face of criticism.

@WyrmSpawN  
Basically, most backwards message I’ve heard in a song.

@Latecomer  

 
That’s kinda the problem. The show is designed around the main characters being painfully stupid to force co-dependence, let’s face it. It makes character shilling seem… forced.

@Anonycat  
Kind of right for the wrong reasons, though.
 
 
@Philweasel  
Early on we saw them solve problems with their skills and teamwork, or at least make solid attempts.

@Latecomer  
More like 100% right, but still forced to be seen as wrong for plot’s reasons.

@Anonycat  
No, she had no idea Cadance wasn’t Cadance. She just thought she had gone bad somehow. Can’t see that as more than 75% right at most.

@Latecomer  
She was the only one to notice how “Cadence” was being a bitch just pretending to be nice, and how she was casting a weird spell on her brother to make him obedient. Of course, by then she still had no idea that “Cadence” was an impostor, but Twilight still noticed that something was smelling fishy about her.  
She was also able to solve a tough case all by herself on MMMYstery on the Friendship Express.

@Anonycat  
Hence 75% right - although she did have the advantage of knowing her. I’ll give you MMMystery, though.

@Latecomer  
She was pretty suspicious though

@Latecomer  
And I get what are you saying- basically, the series treated Twilight the same way as Spider-Man in the last panel here.