Princess Twilight Sparkle
Princess Twilight Sparkle is the central character of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, based on the first generation or "G1" unicorn toy Twilight.[1] She is depicted in the show's first three seasons as a purple unicorn with a pink-streaked indigo mane, and as a winged unicorn called an "alicorn" after the season three finale "Magical Mystery Cure". Twilight Sparkle is the current Princess of Friendship and the fourth in her nation's history to be crowned Princess of Equestria. Originally from the capital city of Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle passed the entrance exam at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and became the protege of Princess Celestia. After going to Ponyville to help plan the Summer Sun Celebration, Twilight was revealed to be the Element of Magic and became a founding member of the Mane Six, living a life of adventures and helping to resolve her friends' differences.
| Princess Twilight Sparkle | |
|---|---|
| Friendship Is Magic / Equestria Girls / Pony Life character | |
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| First appearance |
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| Created by | Lauren Faust |
| Based on | G1 Twilight Twinkle |
| Voiced by |
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| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria |
| Alias |
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| Nicknames |
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| Species | |
| Gender | Female |
| Title | Princess of Magic and Friendship |
| Occupation |
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| Family |
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| Significant other | Mane 6 |
| Relatives |
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| Origin | Canterlot |
| Nationality | Equestrian |
| Element of Harmony | Magic |
| Coat color |
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| Mane color | Midnight blue with magenta and violet streaks Pale olive (Rainbow Power) |
| Eye color | Deep purple |
| Aura color | Pink |
| Cutie mark | Magenta six-pointed star, surrounded by five smaller white stars |
Development
Concept and creation
Voice
Twilight is voiced by Tara Strong and her singing voice by Rebecca Shoichet.
Characterization
Twilight Sparkle is dedicated to rules and organization. She is an intelligent and dutiful scholar with an avid love of learning and skill in advanced unicorn magic such as levitation, teleportation, and the creation of force fields. Director Jayson Thiessen describes her as "kind of a neurotic perfectionist" who has "a touch of OCD",[2] prone to suffering from nervous breakdowns when confronted with a problem that goes against her understanding. A recurring theme since season two’s third episode, "Lesson Zero", Twilight's perfectionism causes her to be prone to nervous breakdowns when faced with seemingly insurmountable problems or things beyond her understanding, fearing that a mistake on her part will inevitably result in disastrous consequences.
Twilight begins the story as the devoted protégée of Princess Celestia, who tasks her with studying the magical properties of friendship in Ponyville and reporting her findings. Viewing friendship as trivial and unimportant, Twilight resents her assignment in the two-part series premiere. However, as the series progresses, she comes to form strong friendships with the rest of the Mane Six, realizing the value of friendship both from a magical standpoint and in the importance it holds in a person's life. She resides with her assistant Spike and pet owl named Owlowiscious (pronounced "Aloysius") in Ponyville's Golden Oak Library, where she also serves as town librarian.[3] At the end of season three, her apprenticeship to Celestia ends when she reverses an ancient spell by creating new magic based on her studies of friendship, transforms into an alicorn, and is crowned a princess. At the end of season four, Twilight becomes the Princess of Friendship and starts spreading friendship across Equestria with her friends. In season eight, Twilight runs her newly-established School of Friendship to teach ponies and creatures the benefits of friendship with her friends as the teachers. In season nine, Twilight prepares to become the new ruler of Equestria before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's retirement. At the end of the show, Twilight is crowned the new ruler of Equestria, and she establishes the Council of Friendship to maintain her relationship with her friends over the years.
Appearances
Friendship is Magic television series
Seasons 1-3
After studying the legend of the Mare in the Moon, Twilight believes that the evil Nightmare Moon is about to return to wreak havoc on Equestria. She informs her teacher Princess Celestia of the danger. However, the Princess declines her evidence, insisting that her isolated life of study is unhealthy. She sends Twilight and Spike to Ponyville to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. There, Twilight meets the rest of the Mane Six. That night, she attends the celebration, only to find that Nightmare Moon had returned and kidnapped Princess Celestia. Twilight goes back to the library to search for a book regarding Nightmare Moon, and the rest of the Mane Six follow her. Together, the six ponies decide to travel into the Everfree Forest in order to stop Nightmare Moon. After a series of trials, Twilight grows to trust and respect the ponies, realizing their strengths and personalities more and growing to care about them on a deeper level. They arrive at the Castle of the Two Sisters and confront Nightmare Moon herself, and are able to use the Elements of Harmony in order to defeat Nightmare Moon and restore her to the former Princess Luna. Twilight was welcomed as a hero, and she decides to stay in Ponyville with her newfound friends. Twilight successfully completes a number of impressive tasks with the help of her friends, the new wielders of the Elements of Harmony. After she and her friends thwart the return of Discord and help to prevent Queen Chrysalis' takeover of Canterlot, she is tasked with the protection of the newly returned Crystal Empire from the evil King Sombra. Upon her success, Celestia and Luna agree that she is ready to face another challenge: finishing an incomplete spell started by the legendary wizard Starswirl the Bearded. After accidentally switching her friends' cutie marks, Twilight is able to return them to normal and complete the spell. As a result, she creates new magic and becomes an alicorn, and Princess Celestia acknowledges her as a Princess.
Seasons 4-7
For some time, however, Twilight is unsure of the role she is meant to play in Equestria. When Tirek escapes from Tartarus and begins stealing the magic of the ponies of Equestria, the other princesses entrust their magic to Twilight. She later engages Tirek in battle, but surrenders her magic in exchange for the safe return of her friends, thus proving faithful to her Element of Harmony. With the help of a repentant Discord, she and her friends opened the chest from the Tree of Harmnoy, gaining a new powerful magic which they used to defeat Tirek, while also bringing a new castle into in Ponyville. Joined by Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, Twilight reveals that she has discovered her purpose: to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria as the Princess of Friendship. While settling in her new home, the Castle of Friendship, Twilight and her friends create a magical map that sends them to various locations in Equestria through their cutie marks to solve friendship problems. Their first friendship mission brings them to a mysterious village run by Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn who wishes to build a "perfectly equal society" by magically removing everypony's cutie marks because she believes differences cause disharmony between friends, until they stopped everything she built. Some time later, Starlight returns to get revenge on Twilight and her friends by travelling back in time to prevent their friendship before it starts by stopping Rainbow Dash from performing her first Sonic Rainboom. After realizing the catastrophic changes this causes in the present, Starlight is convinced to change her ways and make new friends. Twilight takes Starlight on as her student and teaches her the ways of friendship. After defeating Queen Chrysalis and bringing harmony to the Changeling Kingdom, Starlight is honored a hero and graduates from being Twilight’s student.
Seasons 8-9
Shortly after the Storm King's defeat, Twilight and her friends discover that the Cutie Map has expanded to lands beyond Equestria. Twilight decides to open a school to teach ponies and creatures from Equestria and beyond the benefits of friendship and appoints her friends as teachers. Soon, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have decided to retire from ruling Equestria and they choose Twilight as their successor, so she starts preparing for her new role. Later, Twilight steps down from running the School of Friendship and puts Starlight in charge. Soon, she is crowned the new ruler of Equestria and she establishes the Council of Friendship to maintain her relationship with her friends over the years.
Friendship is Magic comic series
Twilight is a heroic adventurer and her exploits far surpass those depicted in the animated series. On numerous occasions, Twilight has been instrumental in saving both the nations of her world and the nations encountered on other worlds, and her adventures have involved traveling to the Moon in order to free Rarity from Nightmare Moon, traveling to the Changeling Kingdom in order to save the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and traveling to various alternate universes.
The Friendship is Magic television series is continued in IDW comic format.
My Little Pony: Pony Life
Twilight Sparkle is set to appear alongside the rest of the Mane Six in the upcoming series My Little Pony: Pony Life. The new show will feature a different animation technique and will focus more on slice-of-life-style stories than its predecessor.[4]
Alternate versions
Twilight Sparkle (Equestria Girls)
| Twilight "Sci-Twi" Sparkle | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| My Little Pony: Equestria Girls character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Tara Strong | ||||||||
| Duration | 2015–present | ||||||||
| First appearance | "Friendship Games" | ||||||||
| Last appearance | "Holidays Unwrapped" | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Other names | Midnight Sparkle | ||||||||
| Species | Human | ||||||||
| Occupation | Magical girl (currently) | ||||||||
| Home | Canterlot City | ||||||||
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Twilight Sparkle, colloquially referred to as Sci-Twi by the fandom and official Hasbro merchandising, is the human counterpart of Princess Twilight Sparkle and is currently a student of Canterlot High School. Human Twilight's chacter design differs slightly from her pony counterpart: she wears thick black glasses, her hair is tied up into a bun, and the pink highlight in her hair is wider than the pink highlight in pony Twilight's mane. In Legend of Everfree and on the back cover and spine of the chapter book Twilight's Sparkly Sleepover Surprise, human Twilight wears her hair in a ponytail as opposed to a bun.
Personality
Twilight is a genius student who is extremely sweet, kind-hearted and caring. She had no social life and friends before transferring to Canterlot High. Her intelligence exceeds almost everyone else she knows in the human world, with exceptional proficiency in a vast number of subjects. Like her pony counterpart, Twilight cannot bear the thought of not knowing something. Unlike some of her friends, Twilight lacks artistic inclination, but seems to enjoy acting.
Alter Ego
Twilight's evil alter ego, Midnight Sparkle, first appears in Friendship Games; she haunts her in her nightmares and gives her severe anxiety of her previous actions in Legend of Everfree. However, with the help of her friends, she is able to overcome her fear of Midnight Sparkle and gain control of her magic.
Differences
Like her pony counterpart, human Twilight is well-spoken and exhibits extreme intelligence, having skipped two grades in elementary school, and is the youngest student at her school. She holds a great interest in knowledge and science, being able to create intricate scientific devices and solve complex mathematical equations, and her intellect rivals that of Sunset Shimmer. Unlike her pony counterpart, human Twilight is a "wallflower", acting very awkward and timid around others, especially the standoffish students of Crystal Prep. While not a coward, she appears to lack the bravery of her pony counterpart; while her pony counterpart would loudly confront bullies for their mean behavior, this version of Twilight seems willing to merely ignore them.
In "Spring Breakdown", Twilight admires and admits jealousy over her pony counterpart's adventurous life and many accomplishments; comparing her to a superhero. The Princess reminded her that no good can ever come from trying to compare herself or her accomplishments to that of their friends.
Twilight Sparkle in comics
- Twilight is a reincarnation of an "egyptian cat" who bravely fought against the evils of the Nightmare and the former empress of Ponyville. The cat is the Element of Magic and is tattooed with Twilight's 5-star cutie mark symbol, but her personality is the polar opposite of Twilight's; arrogant, reckless, and chaotic, with disdain for books and learning. She and Discord are best friends and is romantically attracted to him.
- The Great and Powerful Twily was a unicorn mare and counterpart of Twilight Sparkle who either visited or was native to Eris' dimension.[5][6] Unlike her Equestrian counterpart, her personality and attire resembles the Trixie Lulamoon, and she seems to have pursued an interest in stage magic rather than actual magic. In this Twilight's homeworld, Princess Trixie is the Element of Magic and Ruler of Equestria.
Appearances in other media
My Little Pony: The Movie
While Twilight and her friends are preparing Equestria's first Friendship Festival in Canterlot, the city comes under attack by the army of an evil conqueror called the Storm King, led by his second-in-command, Tempest Shadow, a unicorn with a broken horn. Twilight and her friends journey beyond Equestria to defeat the Storm King and make new allies in the process.
My Little Pony television specials
In My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever, Twilight and her friends do a "Hearth's Warming Helper" to get just one Hearth's Warming present for another pony, for which they travel all over Equestria to find the perfect gift.
In My Little Pony: Rainbow Roadtrip, Twilight and her friends travel to the town of Hope Hollow to attend their annual Rainbow Festival after Rainbow Dash had been invited as a guest of honor. When they arrived, they found out that the town’s color had faded away. Twilight and her friends starts working to restore the town’s color and bring the Rainbow Festival back.
My Little Pony: The Manga series
Twilight Sparkle appears in the official My Little Pony: The Manga, a manga anthology series published by Seven Seas. The first volume contained 8 stories, with the first six being based off members of the Mane Six, the seventh story featuring the original character Star Dancer and the eighth story featuring Discord creating a manga-themed dimension to "mess with the Mane Six". The manga was first announced on November 13, 2018 with volume 1 released on June 18, 2019.[7] The manga is currently set for a three-volume run.
- Volumes
- A Day in the Life of Equestria volume 1
- A Day in the Life of Equestria volume 2
- A Day in the Life of Equestria volume 3
My Little Pony: Manga
| Twilight Sparkle | |||||||||
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| My Little Pony Manga character | |||||||||
| Duration | 2013 | ||||||||
| First appearance | "Super Serious Twilight" | ||||||||
| Last appearance | "My Future Darling" | ||||||||
| Created by | Akira Himekawa | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Species | Unicorn | ||||||||
| Occupation | Librarian | ||||||||
| Home | Ponyville | ||||||||
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Twilight Sparkle is featured in the non-canonical My Little Pony Manga spin-off adaptation by Pucchigumi. Twilight is depicted as a unicorn mare and the owner of Golden Oak Library. She lives with her best friend, Spike and is the younger brother of Shining Armor and the sister-in-law of his wife, Cadance. Twilight is far more dramatic here than her animated counterpart, being prone to giving off highly exaggerated expressions when good or bad things happen. As in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, she is extremely brave, compassionate, and loving; however unlike the show she is shown to be immature and has a sarcastic sense of humor and a fiery temper. Her best friend is Spike, with the relationship dynamic being reversed from Friendship is Magic, in that Spike takes care of his irresponsible "big sister".
Pucchigumi is a Japanese magazine that contains stories, manga and games primarily aimed at young girls. In 2013, the magazine published 17 My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic stories. The stories have yet to be officially released in North America. The comics are drawn and presumably written by Akira Himekawa, a pair of two Japanese artist and "mangaka". Because show writers did not collaborate on the project, Akira Himekawa took creative liberties with their version of Twilight and is considered by Hasbro to be non-canon within the Friendship is Magic multiverse. The manga currently contains a little over 70 pages with 17 total stories. The stories are typically down-to-earth slice-of-life scenarios that are often jumpstarted by exaggerated versions of the Mane Six. The comedy of the manga is considerably different than the sense of humor depicted in the comics and animated series, as it instead uses "super-deformed" and "chibi" artstyles and much more off-the-wall humor. The manga does not explore the other genres that Friendship is Magic is known for, such as adventure and action, though isn't devoid of such stories either.
- Volumes
- Super Serious Twilight
- Pinkie Sense
- Cleaning!?
- I Love Rarity!
- Welcome to Ponyville
- Pinkie Pie Loves Parties!
- Leave the Dresses to Rarity!
- The Other Fluttershy
- Applejack's Signature Move
- Don't Give Up, Rainbow Dash!
- Friends Are Always Close
- The Titter Tree
- My Future Darling
Reception
Critical response
Popularity and merchandise
References
- General
- Snider, Brandon T. (2013). The Elements of Harmony: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The Official Guidebook. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-24754-2.
- Begin, Mary Jane (2015). My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria. New York: Abrams. ISBN 978-1-4197-1577-8.
- Specific
- Faust, Lauren (November 29, 2013). "[Lauren Faust on Twilight's inspiration]". Twitter. (Self-published). Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- Begin (2015), p. 48
- Snider (2013), p. 18
- "'My Little Pony' to launch new animated series and toy line — see exclusive first look". EW.com. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
- Nightmare Knights issue 3
- Nightmare Knights issue 4
- "My Little Pony: The Manga Volume 1 Released Today! - Download Links, Discussion!". Equestria Daily. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
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