Princess Twilight Sparkle

Dear fimfiction.net community,

I'm not one to write blog posts. Most of the time, I don't feel that any of my thoughts are really diverse, elaborate, or simply interesting enough for the rest of the world to care. But on this one, I at least feel strongly enough about something that I need to share it with a few people who might understand what I'm talking about. This something is the princesshood of Twilight Sparkle and her role in the past season and the season finale.

This past season 4 could be called The Season Of Princess Twilight Sparkle. After she was transformed in the previous season's finale, we got the chance to see the consequences of that transformation, see if and how it affects her in everyday life. But I feel calling this season that, isn't very accurate. Throughout this season we only had three episodes with her as the main focus: the season opener, "Princess Twilight Sparkle", the episode "Three's A Crowd", and the season finale, "Twilight's Kingdom".
Sure, this wasn't the only episodes in which she played a pivotal role within the plot, but it still were only these three epsiodes in which she was the or one of the main characters, and this entails some consequences. One important feature of the main character in an episode is this: they fail. Most of the time they do something stupid or selfish, which in turn comes back to haunt them with a lesson learned in the end. But throughout the season, I daresay, Twilight Sparkle never failed.

There were little things that went wrong. In "Princess Twilight Sparkle" she temporarily leaves her friends. But she doesn't do so voluntarily; it's their idea to which she reluctantly obliges and she immediately regrets her decision. "In Bats!" she joined everypony else in their attempt to rid themselves of the fruit bats and is ultimately the one who turns Fluttershy into a bat. But the one who learns her lesson in the end, because she feels responsible for it all is Applejack, not Twilight. In "Equestria Games" she lights the torch for Spike with some unwanted consequences. But it is arguable if her decision not to light the flame for him would have been even worse, and in the end, Spike has to learn the important lesson, not her. All these examples pale in comparison to the previous seasons.
In the previous season we have seen a selfish Twilight, who in "Lesson Zero" didn't care what happened to the rest of Ponyville as long as she got her friendship lesson. In "Feeling Pinkie Keen" we got a stubborn Twilight, who refused to believe in something she couldn't explain. In "Sweet And Elite" we got a dorky Twilight, who trashes a garden party with the most adorkable dance ever. All of these little things made her more relatable, more approachable, all around more sympathetic. I liked her because of it, not in spite of it. (I'll admit, we did get an adorkable eating scene in "Twilight Time".)
She didn't only not fail throughout this season. Many times she was also the only one with a level head and an answer to the problem at hand. When all her friends are freaked out in "Castle Mane-ia", she is the one who isn't afraid. In "Rainbow Falls", she is the one to lecture Rainbow Dash into making a decision. Granted, these kind of scenes appeared throughout the previous seasons, but they didn't appear as frequently. This season, everything and everypony keeps reminding her that she's a princess, but she always remains level-headed and shows her humbleness by replying that she isn't better than anypony else. This brings me to the season finale.

(Warning: spoiler ensuing)
The season finale was sort of a final step in the transformation of Twilight Sparkle, quite literally. But there was one pivitol difference in her getting her key from all the others.
All the others had to learn a lesson regarding the virtue behind the Element of Harmony they uphold. Their lessons were very different, but in the end all of them made a severe mistake they had to fix themselves, learning their lesson and what it means to be generous, loyal, uplifting, kind, and honest in the process.
With Twilight Sparkle it was different. She didn't make a mistake and she didn't learn a lesson. The conflict she had to face didn't come up until she had to make her decision and then shhe knew instantly that her friends were more important to her than pretty much all the magic in Equestria combined. She didn't need to evolve into somepony able to do so, she already was that pony. She already was a Mary Sue.
That word is disgusting and I feel disgusted by myself for using it on Twilight Sparkle, but it's what describes my feelings most accurately. She has become a little-miss-perfect, who always knows the right thing to do and say, and never ever falls into the trap of doing something stupid or selffish. She has become completely bland and unrelatable.
(Spoiler end)

I don't really know what I want with this. Maybe for someone to tell me I'm not crazy and that there's some truth in what I'm saying. Maybe for someone to tell me that I am crazy and that there's a fantastic season 5 coming up next year to look forward to because it's every bit as good as before. But I feel like Twilight Sparkle lost a part of herself, and by extension the series has lost a part of itself, a part of its charm, a part of its magic that always kept me coming back for more, no matter the sillyness of the idea of watching candy-colored equines.

Before the season started, Tara Strong said in an interview:

Strong: Well the good news is, Twilight is going to stay Twilight. She is overwhelmed and surprised and grateful for this new phase in her life but it’s not going to change how she is or how she interacts with her friends, she’s staying in Ponyville.

I believe that notion was impossible to uphold from the start. When your best friend comes back from vacation and tells you: "By the way, I'm now the Prince of Norway." you don't go: "Cool! Wanna go bowling on Saturday?" It's an improtant change that will bring with it other important changes. It's something they had to deal with in the show and which they ultimately dealt with in all those moments Twilight's princesshood became undeniable. The change by itself isn't bad, it's an opportunity for the show when its taken into a new direction, but it has to be done conciously and in the right way.
In the end I feel like there was a lack of trust at some point. Maybe it was a lack of trust on how we, the viewers, would take this change if it was stated publically. Maybe it was a lack of trust of the writers in their own ability to make the change really work. I don't know. But a lack of trust is always a hurtful thing. After all, what is trust other than the one thing we bestow upon all those we hold dear and call friends.

Signing off,
Sarcasmo