History Characters / FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TaraStrong; Creator/CarlaCastaneda (Latin American Spanish); Creator/MiyukiSawashiro [Seasons 1-2], Manami Hanawa [Season 3-onwards] (Japanese)\\

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TaraStrong, Creator/CarlaCastaneda (Latin American Spanish), Creator/MiyukiSawashiro (Japanese)\\

* DoingItForTheArt: In-universe, Twilight hoof-stitches the borders on her Starswirl robes, even though she's a unicorn and could have done it with magic.

!This character is a WalkingSpoiler. Therefore, all spoilers will be unmarked on this page. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.

* WalkingSpoiler: There's no getting around the fact that she became a Princess at the end of the third season. Her new wings are a dead giveaway.

* SilenceofSadness: Twilight Sparkle finally crosses the Despair Event Horizon after the Elements of Harmony fail to activate against Discord. She silently and sullenly trudges back to her home at the library, barely responding when Discord shows up to taunt her.

* WalkingSpoiler: There's no getting around the fact that she became a Princess at the end of the third season. Her new wings are dead giveaways. Nor the fact that she becomes the sole ruler of Equestria in the series finale.

* BewareTheSuperman: Twilight is a powerful sorceress — one of the most powerful in the setting — who is nonetheless inherently kind-hearted, sensible and responsible, always listening to reason and never using her magical powers frivolously. A few episodes, such as Lesson Zero, show what could have happened if she stopped acting reasonably.

* BewareTheSuperman: Twilight is a powerful sorceress — one of the most powerful in the setting — who is nonetheless inherently kind-hearted, sensible and responsible, always listening to reason and never using her magical powers frivolously. This episode shows what could have happened if she stopped acting reasonably.

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[[folder:Tropes D to H]]

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[[folder:Tropes I to M]]

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[[folder:Tropes N to P]]

[[folder:Tropes T to Z]]

** In the movie, by manipulating her friends to [[spoiler:commit theft]] and then angrily lashing out at them afterwards, she became the exact opposite of what she was supposed to represent.

** [[spoiler:Lord Tirek destroying the library? Congrats, [[LetsGetDangerous you got a pony with the power of four Alicorns to fight you without holding back.]] If he hadn't been empowered by the magic of countless ponies plus Discord, he would've become even more a case of FamilyUnfriendlyDeath than his G1 counterpart.]]

** Part 2 of "A Canterlot Wedding" knocked this out of the park; [[spoiler:she went into a state of UnstoppableRage over the thought of her brother being in danger and fired several beams around the dungeon Chrysalis trapped her in that could shatter stone. She seemed seconds from killing the real Princess Cadance, thinking it was her impostor]].
** In "Twilight's Kingdom -- Part 2". [[spoiler:After Tirek effectively nukes Golden Oak Library, Twilight goes ''utterly berserk''. Had Tirek not been invincible at the time, she would have reduced him to not much more than a scorched crater.]]

* BigBrotherWorship: As a filly, she thought of Shining Armor as her best and only friend (until she hatched Spike). When she came to Ponyville and made new friends they started to drift apart. [[spoiler:This is what makes it hard to get others to side with her when she claims that Cadance is evil (she turns out to be right when this "Cadance'' turns out to be an imposter), since she did appear to be possessive of her brother in the eyes of her peers for much of "A Canterlot Wedding".]]

* BigGood: According to [[Creator/LaurenFaust Lauren Faust]], [[TheHeroine Twilight Sparkle]] was originally intended to become Celestia's successor. Over the course of the series, this has more or less actually happened. In earlier seasons, Twilight often played the role of TheLeader in various situations and saved Equestria multiple times with the help of her friends. In the Season 3 finale, Twilight becomes an {{Alicorn}} princess, and performs some greater royal duties in Season 4; most notably, in the Season premiere Twilight briefly becomes the ''de facto'' Big Good when Celestia and Luna temporarily go missing. However, it wasn't until the Season 4 finale that Twilight received her official role to spread friendship across Equestria as the Princess of Friendship, a duty she is to carry out with the help of her friends. In the following seasons, Twilight and her friends continue to spread friendship and peace all over Equestria, even to other species. [[spoiler:In the last season, Celestia and Luna retire, and Twilight officially takes over as ruler of Equestria.]]

** The final season begins with Twilight struggling to adjust to her eventual role as [[spoiler:the new ruler of Equestria]], and it ends with her fully assuming the position.

** She gets hit with this in both parts of "Return of Harmony". What starts out as the Mane Six finding the Elements of Harmony that can defeat the latest ArcVillain becomes a twisted game of Discord's design where he separately {{Hate Plague}}s Twilight's TrueCompanions into their polar opposites which then treat Twilight like dirt. When all of them are corrupted, Discord points out [[NiceJobBreakingItHero it was Twilight's idea to go to the maze]] and claimed that her friends' corruption was ''her fault''. When Twilight does figure out where the Elements of Harmony are, her town has already been turned into a WorldGoneMad ruled by Discord where her companions get even more vicious to the point of resembling real-life bullies [[HopeSpot and after finally finding the Elements Of Harmony]], they were revealed to be powerless thanks to Discord's earlier mind manipulation of the others. [[EtTuBrute The result is all of Twilight's friends leaving her]], making her [[HeroicBSOD hit rock bottom]] and fall victim to Discord's HatePlague ''without any brainwashing''. Even though [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E3LessonZero the next episode]] treats Twilight's [[SanitySlippage nervous breakdown]] for [[PlayedForLaughs laughs]], given all that happened during the last two episodes, it's hard not to think the poor girl truly snapped. Not to mention what [[spoiler:seeing Golden Oak Library as a smoking ruin must have done to her. Even if it does result in an epic fight sequence]].
** The movie hits her particularly hard. Not only is she forced to deal with the ungodly stress of being Equestria's last hope against a threat bigger than anything else she's faced, she's constantly frustrated by how her friends are treating the crisis as just another adventure despite what the stakes are. [[spoiler:It eventually gets so bad that Twilight tries to steal the Seaponies' prized Pearl of Transformation in a desperate attempt to gain ''some'' sort of advantage over the Storm King. When she's caught and called out, she ''explodes'' in fury, accusing the Mane Five of treating the fate of Equestria like a joke and calling them terrible friends (but she's not wrong).]]

* TheCameo: Most of the time, when Twilight is not the main character, she only makes a background appearance or plays an insignificant role in an episode that doesn't involve her. [[spoiler:In ''Friendship Games'', Human Twilight is the main focus while this Twilight doesn't appear until the very end of the film in a post-credits scene]].

** In "The Summer Sun Setback", Twilight shows that she has finally overcome her habit of stressing out over big responsibilities, handling the organizing of the Celebration (and even [[spoiler:sabotage caused by Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow]]) with calm ease.
** At the beginning of season nine, the idea of [[spoiler:taking over ruling Equestria from Celestia and Luna]] is so daunting that she can barely think straight, unable to consider herself worthy of the position. By the time of "The Ending of the End", she has grown confident enough in herself and her impending ascension that she is perfectly calm on [[spoiler:what would be her coronation day, to the point where she [[TheGadfly teases]] Rarity by saying she needs a "marshmallow-eating contest" gown]].

** One of these is how Twilight receives her key. In "Twilight's Kingdom, Part 2", the medallion Tirek gives to Discord as a sign of "trust" turns out to be Twilight's key, which Discord gives her after she shows she still considers him a friend after [[spoiler:his betrayal]].

** In the Season 4 premiere, after [[spoiler:the Mane Six give their Elements back to the Tree of Harmony]], she gets a new crown. She stops wearing such after Season 5.
** [[spoiler:She receives a new crown during her coronation as new ruler of Equestria, created by Celestia and Luna merging both of theirs together.]]
* CoolTeacher: She is one to the Cutie Mark Crusaders in "Twilight Time", and later becomes one to Starlight Glimmer. Later still, she becomes this to the students of the School of Friendship [[spoiler:(to the point where they (with a nudge from [[ManipulativeBitch Cozy Glow]]) revolt against Chancellor Neighsay for declaring that he will be taking over the school, and that Twilight's "reign" is over)]]. [[spoiler:She also becomes this for Luster Dawn in "The Last Problem".]]

** She also serves as one in both ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'', where Sunset Shimmer's CharacterDevelopment ultimately takes center stage, and for the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' sub-series as a whole, where Sunset Shimmer supplants her as TheHeroine by the end of the second film. She doesn't even appear in the third movie, replaced by her human counterpart. [[spoiler:She does make a cameo during the stinger before the credits, though.]]

** This trait seems to have faded after Twilight took on Starlight Glimmer as her student, [[spoiler:but gets [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] in the Season 7 premiere episode "Celestial Advice" where she absolutely dreads having to let Starlight go on her own to continue her studies ''because'' Starlight has become such an important part of her life and has given her a lot of the meaning that she's been looking for. She does cool off after some advice from Celestia reveals that she had the exact same issue about sending Twilight to Ponyville and when Starlight reveals that she doesn't want to leave Ponyville just yet, but it does show that she still has the issues, it's just that the focus of them have shifted off of herself and onto Starlight]].

** And in the series finale, [[spoiler:she achieves the ultimate RankUp and is crowned as the new ruler of Equestria to succeed Celestia and Luna]].

** In "Surf And Or Turf" everyone in Mount Aris and Seaquestria loves Twilight, despite the last time she was there she [[spoiler:tried to steal their Pearl of Transformation]]. The attempted theft is never even mentioned. Justified in that Twilight is the reason they are free now.

* EmperorScientist: She becomes a princess after demonstrating her skill and knowledge of [[FantasticScience magic]].

** [[spoiler:In the series finale she realizes the true nature of the Elements of Harmony, summoning their power herself before channeling them through all three groups (Mane Six, Pillars of Equestria, and Student Six) that are strongly linked to them, magnifying the power before using it herself to defeat three super-empowered villains.]]

** In the two-parter episode, "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E1TheReturnOfHarmonyPart1 The Return of Harmony]]", she felt this way when [[spoiler:one by one, her friends were brainwashed by Discord and refused to help fight Discord for her]].
** She shows this reaction again in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 A Canterlot Wedding]]" after her brother, friends, and mentor turn their backs on her for saying that Cadance is evil. Subverted in this case since her being dismissed for accusing Cadance leads her to rethink her accusations and suffer a JerkassRealization. Even after [[spoiler:she was revealed to be right and the others show their remorse, with Applejack being the one to apologize on everypony's behalf, she made it clear in that she doesn't hold it against them]]. The real Et Tu moment came when [[spoiler:she realizes that the fake Cadance she is apologizing to is evil, confirming her suspicions moments before she is dragged down to the abandoned cave in the underground]].
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E26SchoolRazePart2 School Raze -- Part 2]]", she reacts this way to [[spoiler:Cozy Glow's betrayal, sadly asking her why she did it and lamenting that she was unable to teach her student the true virtues of friendship]].

** In "Shadow Play", she's determined to [[spoiler:free Starswirl and his fellow Pillars of Olde Equestria from Limbo, ignoring the possible risks. This leads to the Pony of Shadows being freed also, something Starswirl admonishes Twilight for. Twilight becomes so desperate to prove herself to her idol that she doesn't protest when Starswirl scoffs at Starlight's suggestion that Stygian can be redeemed (which Starlight [[WhatTheHellHero calls her out on]])]].

** In the end of Season 4, [[spoiler:Tirek, noting they are at a stalemate in magical power, tells her to surrender or he will kill her friends, Spike, and Discord]]. While glaring hatefully at the villain, she [[spoiler:picks Friend and gives up her magic. Tirek initially releases all but Discord, but at Twilight's insistence he releases Discord to]].

** In the end of the Season 4 premiere, [[spoiler:Discord reveals that ''he'' planted the seeds thousands of years ago that sprouted and attacked Ponyville, and had he bothered to say something they could have solved the problem much sooner. When Twilight asks why he didn't speak up, he more or less references this trope.]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Discord:''' And rob you of a valuable lesson of being Princess? What kind of friend would do a thing like that, hm?]]

** She enters into a big one in "The Ending of the End", [[spoiler:after Discord admits that he set up the Mane Six's defeat of Sombra in order to boost her confidence. Because of this, she loses faith in her abilities, and starts to think nothing the Mane Six ever accomplished mattered in the long run.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: She willingly sacrifices [[spoiler:not just her magic, but the magics of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, in order to free her friends, Spike, and Discord from Tirek. The fact she would make this for Discord, even after he just betrayed them all, moves Discord and sets in motion Tirek's final defeat]].

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: In the 2017 movie, she attempts to [[spoiler:steal the Pearl of Transformation from the seaponies, even though her friends were close to working something out with Novo and Skystar, and justifies it by saying it was needed to save all of Equestria]].

* LargeAndInCharge: Downplayed. After she became an alicorn, while she is the protagonist, she is now only slightly taller than her friends. She also runs the Castle of Friendship in Ponyville after it's introduced in the Season 4 finale. [[spoiler:Played straight in the series finale; enough time has passed that she's now grown to match Princess Celestia for size, and she's moved into Canterlot Castle as the ruler of Equestria following the retirement of Celestia and Luna.]]

* LovedByAll: Everyone on the show so far seems to like, or at least not hate, her. Her friends and family all love her, and the Princesses all think she deserves to be an alicorn. Everyone she knows seems to be on at least friendly terms with her, and she has a lot of friends, even if you don't count the rest of the main cast. Even those who were once her enemies, such as Discord, Sunset, Starlight and [[spoiler:Chancellor Neighsay]] soon consider her their friend, while Trixie says she "used to" hate Twilight (and still sometimes enjoys getting under her skin). The only notable exception are main villains like Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow (who are hating her in part because she's so loved).

* MentalHealthRecoveryArc: Downplayed. One multi-season arc of Twilight Sparkle revolves around her learning to deal with her anxiety. She starts out prone to fits of anxiety but over the course of several scenes learns tactics to help soothe her panic attacks. [[spoiler:By the time of her ascension to ruler of Equestria, her anxieties are all but gone.]]

* {{Metamorphosis}}: Downplayed. All that really changes about her when she becomes an alicorn is that she has wings, a longer horn, is taller and has more powerful magic. [[spoiler:Played straight in the series finale, in which she's grown to match Princess Celestia's height in the years following her coronation as ruler of Equestria.]]

** Even after her coronation, she continues living in the library rather than a castle. [[spoiler:Until Tirek blows it up.]]

** In the first part of "A Canterlot Wedding", she realized that she made the bride cry, and was afraid that no-one was going to forgive her. [[spoiler:In this case she was right.]]

** She has this reaction in the 2017 movie when [[spoiler:her actions cost them the last chance they had of stopping the Storm King when the Seaponies were about to help them, and she takes her built up frustrations out on her friends by saying things would be better if she didn't have friends like them]].

** In "Shadow Play, Part 1" her over-enthusiasm [[spoiler:for releasing the Pillars of Equestria (and Starswirl the Bearded in particular)]] causes her to ignore the fact that it would also release the Pony of Shadows. This is despite Starlight warning her that the original spell was done the way it was for a reason.

** In the 2017 movie, [[spoiler:she gets so angry at her friends that she tells them that she would be better off without friends like them. When the Princess of Friendship says something like that, you know something is wrong]].

* PalsWithJesus: She's the personal apprentice of Celestia, became a good friend of Luna during the events of "Luna Eclipsed", and had Cadance for a foal-sitter and later a sister-in-law. "Friendship University" reveals that she's become pen-pals with [[spoiler:Starswirl the Bearded]].

* ParentalSubstitute: Can be seen as a mother or sister figure to Spike knowing that she hatched him as part of passing the entrance exam at her school as revealed in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and also following the events in "Owl's Well That Ends Well". The parental skills are further supported by her remarks to Pinkie in "Baby Cakes". She seems to know well what babies need. The IDW comics #40 shows she was taking care of him when he was a baby and his crib stood in her room. In "Father Knows Beast" Spike mentioned twice he was raised by Twilight and later he [[spoiler:breaks her heart saying she's jealous of him having a ''real'' parent now]]. Her response and earlier remarks show that she, in fact, sees herself as [[spoiler:a parent]].

** Zig-zagged with her duties as a princess. She seems to only be needed for official functions when one of the other princesses isn't available, or it's some big event that demands all of them be present. Otherwise, she's living the exact same life as she was before and seems to have no particular responsibilities. [[spoiler:Given the arrival of her castle at the end of Season 4 and the teaser for Season 5, her role as princess is to spread the magic of friendship.]]

** In the 2017 movie, [[spoiler:she's willing to steal the Pearl of Transformation from Seaquestria in order to gain an advantage over the Storm King]]. Though that was due to a large amount of stress on Twilight's part, she still fully intended to go through with it.

** She's against Starlight becoming friends with Trixie in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E6NoSecondPrances No Second Prances]]", fearing Trixie would be a [[ToxicFriendInfluence bad influence]] on her. She turns out to be partially right, as [[spoiler:Trixie had initially befriended Starlight just to get back at Twilight and made her ditch a very important dinner with Princess Celestia without informing Twilight]].

* PseudoRomanticFriendship: Although Twilight is very close to all her friends, her relationship with Sunset Shimmer seems to be the closest out of all of them. They're often gazing into each other's eyes, complimenting one another, ''blushing'' at each other, and even singing a duet together [[spoiler:in the battle against the Dazzlings]] while holding hands. It's very easy to assume that they care more about each other than one would think.

** In the 2017 movie, [[spoiler:she slowly becomes frustrated when her friends don't take the situation seriously, treating it like another regular adventure instead of realizing all of Equestria and their very lives are at stake. When her attempt to steal the Seaponies' Pearl of Transformation fails and she gets them all banished from Seaquestria, [[BothSidesHaveAPoint her friends calls her out on her actions and not trusting them while she calls them out for their irresponsbile behavior]]. This finally causes Twilight to snap and she shouts back that none of them have made things any easier for her and things would be better if she ''[[WhamLine didn't have friends like them.]]''. Though she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regrets what she said]] immediately afterward]].

** In "The Ending of the End", it is revealed that [[spoiler:Discord arranged for the villains to team up and attack Equestria so that Twilight could defeat them, and thus feel as though she was ready for anything being the new ruler of Equestria would bring.]]

** Twilight gets another ''epic'' one in the season two premiere. [[spoiler:She ''weaponizes'' her normal AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle speech into this.]]

** While in Seaquestria, Twilight [[spoiler:tries to steal the Pearl of Transformation while using her unknowing friends as a distraction. However, because the Pearl is a treasured object, the throne room has a security system - which she sets off, resulting in her and her friends getting kicked out of Seaquestria]].

* TarotMotifs: In "Magic Duel", she uses telekinesis to levitate a bunch of animals above her head in the form of an infinity symbol, bringing to mind the Magician card which symbolizes not the protagonist and [[GuileHeroine trickery]]; [[spoiler:fitting, considering that's what she used to stop Trixie from using the Alicorn Amulet in that episode]].

** While she's certainly already powerful, [[spoiler:in the Season 4 finale, after absorbing the powers of the other Princesses, she proceeds to fight Lord Tirek, who had already assimilated the magic of every other pony in Equestria plus Discord, to a draw (in a ''Anime/DragonBallZ''-style throwdown no less)]]!

* TricksterMentor: She's this to Rainbow Dash in "2, 4, 6, Greaaat", placing her in charge of the cheer squad in order for her to learn [[spoiler:that even if she doesn't care about something, she should still care about her friends that do and can enjoy working with them on it]].

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 Twilight's Kingdom, Part 2]]", her extraordinary act of forgiveness towards [[spoiler:Discord]] enables her to save Equestria when all hope is lost.

** This is demonstrated in the Season 4 finale, where she temporarily [[spoiler:gains the powers of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance on top of her own]]. She's shown to have horrible control and can barely make her magic do what she wants it to, but she's just so insanely strong that she matches up equally against Lord Tirek -- who, in addition to his own magic, has [[spoiler:the stolen magic of all of Equestria and ''Discord'']].

* AllForNothing: Subverted in the movie. It appears that Twilight single-handedly renders the quest to find the hippogriffs virtually pointless when, [[spoiler:after losing faith in her friends to do anything right, she tries stealing the hippogriffs' magic pearl, turning the queen and the rest of the Mane Six against her]]. However, [[spoiler:the other allies the Mane Six have made over their adventure end up playing an instrumental role in defeating the Storm King]].

* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: At the end of most episodes in the first season, she writes a letter to Princess Celestia describing the {{Aesop}} she learned this week. [[spoiler:It becomes a ChekhovsGun when, after her losing faith thanks to Discord in the Season 2 premiere, Celestia sends them all back to break her out of her HeroicBSOD and motivate her to reunite her friends.]] As of "Lesson Zero", she has been given permission to pass this duty on to anyone around her that learns AnAesop. The concept is revised again in Season 4, where a shared diary replaces the letters since Twilight is no longer a student. The diary is ditched as of Season 5.

* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:Twilight comes dangerously close to falling into this during the movie. She knowingly manipulates her friends' trust in order to commit theft of a pearl that an entire race relies on. And then verbally lashes out at all of her friends in the scene immediately afterwards. What downplays this example is that she ultimately felt like she had no choice in doing this if she wanted to save Equestria, and she immediately felt remorse after her verbal lashing.]]

** The third season finale of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E13MagicalMysteryCure Magical Mystery Cure]]''. [[spoiler:Twilight becomes an alicorn and is crowned a Princess.]]
** In a flashback of the show's GrandFinale episode, ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E26TheLastProblem The Last Problem]]'', [[spoiler:Twilight Sparkle is crowned by Princesses Celestia and Luna as the new ruler of Equestria]].

* TheSmartGal: Twilight Sparkle takes this role frequently, though it's subverted more often than not due to her lack of real world experience. She's certainly capable of some Awesomeness by Analysis however, along with some hardcore exposition.

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TaraStrong, Carla Castañeda (Latin American Spanish), Creator/MiyukiSawashiro (Japanese)\\

[[quoteright:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see her as future ruler of Equestria]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/future_princess_twilight_sparkle_by_andoanimalia_ddjugxy_fullview.png[[/labelnote]]]]

* YourWorstNightmare: In the Season 3 premiere, King Sombra turns out to have set a trap like this to prevent anypony else from getting to the Crystal Heart. Twilight Sparkle falls into it and sees a vision where Princess Celestia angrily tells her she failed her test and she should just give up on her magical studies.

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TaraStrong, Creator/MiyukiSawashiro (Japanese)\\

[[folder:Tropes # to C]]

--->'''Twilight:''' The whole place organized by style, cross-referenced by size, ''and'' reverse-indexed by fabric. She'll be able to find anything in three seconds flat! ''[sighs and gives a satisfied smile]'' It was some of my best work.* OccamsRazor: In "Bridle Gossip" Twilight suggests that Zecora might just be making soup in the cauldron... then assumes differently when Zecora wonders aloud where Apple Bloom is.

* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: Twilight has this relationship with responsibility. She can't live with it because she tends to get stressed out and turns into a NervousWreck thanks to her nitpicking, ObsessivelyOrganized tendacies, and her fear of failure or disappointing her friends. Similarly, she can't live without responsibilities either as her self-worth is linked to her accomplishments, feeling that she was useless and undeserving of being a princess in spite of her previous heroic actions simply because she did not have a special task like Celestia, Luna, or Cadance.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Twilight takes her duties to Celestia as SeriousBusiness, be it academics or saving Equestria, to smallest details. Coupled with her ObsessivelyOrganized tendacies, Twilight believes that Celestia is a perfectionist that will reject her at the slightest mistake in spite of knowing her more intimately than most of her subjects. Her worst fear was revealed to be Celestia denouncing her as her student and she was reluctant to accept being a princess if it meant no longer being her student. Even with them being equals, Twilight still finds every reason to hang out with her mentor again, except that she is not as tense as before.

* BrokenAce: Her good track record makes her set extremely high standards for herself, suffering from neuroses, an InferioritySuperiorityComplex and a high order case of SuperOCD. If she's not managing to be TheAce, she's convinced everyone will hate her and her very fabric of life will fall apart.

* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: Twilight has this relationship with responsibility. She can't live with it because she tends to get stressed out and turns into a NervousWreck thanks to her nitpicking, SuperOCD, and her fear of failure or disappointing her friends. Similarly, she can't live without responsibilities either as her self-worth is linked to her accomplishments, feeling that she was useless and undeserving of being a princess in spite of her previous heroic actions simply because she did not have a special task like Celestia, Luna, or Cadance.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Twilight Sparkle resembles a common SmartGirl protagonist, but her intellect and no-nonsense behavior are exaggerated to the point of being a SuperOCD perfectionist prone to mental breakdowns over the smallest slight, meaning she is just as often reliant on her friends' support as being the Only Sane Man to arguments.

** Her hubris is particularly inconsistent. Generally, she has an InferioritySuperiorityComplex, but she can either be a HumbleHeroine who's a bit too over preoccupied in being accepted, or a complete InsufferableGenius that insists that everyone follow her direction [[CondescendingCompassion should they not survive without her]]. She can also be extremely laid back and dorkishly indifferent to personal presentation or a stuck up, [[SuperOCD detail-obsessed prude]].

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Twilight takes her duties to Celestia as SeriousBusiness, be it academics or saving Equestria, to smallest details. Coupled with her SuperOCD, Twilight believes that Celestia is a perfectionist that will reject her at the slightest mistake in spite of knowing her more intimately than most of her subjects. Her worst fear was revealed to be Celestia denouncing her as her student and she was reluctant to accept being a princess if it meant no longer being her student. Even with them being equals, Twilight still finds every reason to hang out with her mentor again, except that she is not as tense as before.

** In the first season, Twilight was orderly and no-nonsense, but to a fairly lucid degree, a lot of it owed to [[FishOutOfWater her inexperience with social life]]. By the start of the second season her meticulous habits are exaggerated to cartoony measures, with a lot of gags based on her SuperOCD neuroses. Inverted in other aspects, she has become far less acerbic and more outgoing and friendly, for example.

** She blames herself entirely for her friends' abandonment in "A Canterlot Wedding" and Discord's corruption of them in "Return of Harmony", and is prone to high standards and [[SuperOCD a sense of inferiority when she doesn't meet those massively high standards]].

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Twilight can be condescending and arrogant about her intelligence over the others sometimes, and frequently badgers others over tasks; however, it's revealed that she has brought herself up with [[SuperOCD very high standards]] to upkeep, and is absolutely terrified of disappointing peers or friends (and especially her superior, Princess Celestia). She had a ''mental breakdown'' when she was off schedule for a single task.

* OccamsRazor: In "Bridle Gossip" Twilight suggests that Zecora might just be making soup in the cauldron... then assumes differently when Zecora wonders aloud where Apple Bloom is.

* ParentsAsPeople: Her relationship with Spike leans her as the surrogate variety of this. While Spike is more an assistant, she hatched (effectively gave birth to) him and was enlisted to take care of him. For the large part Twilight is respectful and compassionate to Spike and tries to treat him more as a friend and co worker than a servant. However Twilight's very easily fixated personality leads to her often being insensitive or negligent to Spike by mistake, or sometimes outright accidentally abusive (eg. injuring him while performing spells or sorting items). She is usually repentant whenever she realises this mistake, unfortunately, [[SuperOCD being her]], this doesn't happen a lot.

* ThePerfectionist: Twilight Sparkle with a heaping side-helping of SuperOCD. She has the version of this you find in RealLife in people who did very well in early schooling... [[TheBGrade and thus never got used to getting less-than-perfect scores]]. The mere thought of not having a friendship lesson prepared for Princess Celestia and being tardy causes a meltdown that results in her brainwashing half the town in an attempt to engineer a friendship problem.

* SuperOCD: On and off; often [[RuleOfFunny whatever happens to be funnier]]. Alternately leaves her library in an unholy strewn mess and then applies neurotic meticulousness rivaling Rarity's in cleaning it.
** In "Winter Wrap Up" she goes to help Rarity makes bird's nests, when Rarity dumps a pile of straw, sticks, and ribbons in front of her; when the camera pans away for two seconds and then goes back, Twilight has sorted the ribbons and sticks into rows, and separated the straw into piles according to color.
** "Lesson Zero" shows just how bad this can get when she fails to keep a schedule. She goes ''insane'' when she realizes she hasn't submitted her weekly friendship letter to Celestia, and resorts to using magic to cause a conflict so she can resolve it and write to Celestia about it.
** She makes checklists for ''everything''. Including checklists of items she needs to make checklists for. She then lists "complete making a checklist" on those checklists, and at the bottom of the checklists includes reminders to double-check and triple-check the checklists to make absolutely sure she didn't miss anything.
** In "It's About Time", she stayed up all night worrying about not having left time in this month's schedule to make a schedule for ''next'' month.
** In "Spike at Your Service", she gets so wrapped up in reading specially assigned books that she doesn't hear Applejack enter the room and yell at her. Then Applejack goes to her desk and nudges one of her ink wells out of place, behind her back, making a small tinkling sound; Twilight instantly snaps to attention and takes notice. Applejack apologizes for scaring her and Twilight forgives her while moving over to the desk to nudge the ink well back into position.
** She's also shown to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in the physical act of sorting things. In "The Saddle Row Review", for instance, she starts out trying to subtly nudge Rarity into letting her sort and organize the stock for her new boutique, but in short order ends up desperately begging her to let her organize the clothes. During said organization she comes up with a better method than the one she had been putting into practice, and is excited because that means she gets to start over; by the time she's done, she summarizes her methods thusly:
--->'''Twilight:''' The whole place organized by style, cross-referenced by size, ''and'' reverse-indexed by fabric. She'll be able to find anything in three seconds flat! ''[sighs and gives a satisfied smile]'' It was some of my best work.

** She is slightly tomboyish in comparison to Pinkie Pie, who is a bubbly Genki Girl.

* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: She's a deadpan snarker with a confrontational personality, has intellectual interests that aren't feminine compared to most of her friends, serves as the Team Dad to her friends, has a love for adventure and strategic planning, hasn't been shown to care much about her physical appearance, and along with Rainbow Dash and Applejack is one of the most capable combatants, and one of the quickest to utilize physical force when necessary. However, when she gets excited about something, she will occasionally squeal with excitement in a very girlish way, occasionally obsesses over boys like Flash Sentry, and when attending grand events will wear dresses like all the rest of her friends.

* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: By the end of the series, she has becomes the sole rules of Equestria, and by that point has demonstrated multiple times over that she has the personal power to hold that position if necessary.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Her first name is Twilight, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight a period where the day and night intersect]], she has a dark colored coat of fur, and she can use magic that's more or less BlackMagic, but she can also use magic to create light like most unicorns and she's a decent girl most of the time.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Twilight Sparkle resembles a common Smart Girl protagonist, but her intellect and no-nonsense behavior are exaggerated to the point of being a Super OCD perfectionist prone to mental breakdowns over the smallest slight, meaning she is just as often reliant on her friends' support as being the Only Sane Man to arguments.

* FreudianCouch: Twilight has to substitute a bench for an actual couch, but otherwise pulls it off exactly. Add in her half-moon glasses and her impromptu hairdo changes into a Prim and Proper Bun.

* AllForNothing: Subverted in the movie. It appears that Twilight single-handedly renders the quest to find the hippogriffs virtually pointless when[[spoiler:, after losing faith in her friends to do anything right, she tries stealing the hippogriffs' magic pearl, turning the queen and the rest of the Mane Six against her]]. However, [[spoiler:the other allies the Mane Six have made over their adventure end up playing an instrumental role in defeating the Storm King]].

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: By the end of the series, she has becomes the sole rules of Equestria, and by that point has demonstrated multiple times over that she has the personal power to hold that position if necessary.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Twilight is one of the sweetest and kindest characters on the show, but ''man oh man'' do you not want to make her mad. This unicorn can pack a punch.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: Everyone on the show so far seems to like, or at least not hate, her. Her friends and family all love her, and the Princesses all think she deserves to be an alicorn. Everyone she knows seems to be on at least friendly terms with her, and she has a lot of friends, even if you don't count the rest of the main cast. Even those who were once her enemies, such as Discord, Sunset, Starlight and [[spoiler:Chancellor Neighsay]] soon consider her their friend, while Trixie says she "used to" hate Twilight (and still sometimes enjoys getting under her skin). The only notable exception are main villains like Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow (who are hating her in part because she's so loved).

* PowerGivesYouWing: She gains wings after completing Starswirl's spell and becoming an Alicorn.

** The whole reason she was sent to Ponyville to make friends was that Celestia knew Nightmare Moon was coming and friendship is requiered to activate the Elements of Harmony and defeat her.

* OffModel: Sometimes her alicorn wings become the normal pegasus wings as an animation error.

* ButtMonkey: Shares this role with Spike as she runs into a lot of trouble.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: The most notable example of this for Twilight was the episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen", in which Twilight's repeated attempts to observe and document Pinkie Pie's alleged powers of clairvoyance resulted in a constant string of Looney Tunes-esque shenanigans, up to and including having a flower pot, an anvil, a hay wagon, and a piano fall on her in one scene.