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On Talking Time, someone said this simple phrase: “Twilight is pony Hermione Granger.” While not completely inaccurate, and certainly a decent shorthand, I, overall, disagree with this statement. Twilight Sparkle’s character is quite different from Hermione’s, and because I have a blog where I can write and post completely silly things, I am now going to explain to you why Twilight is not pony Hermione Granger.

First off, let’s just talk about how they’re similar, because they are, in many ways. Both characters study magic, and extensively. It is, in many ways, their entire life. They both love books, to the point of people around them thinking maybe they are a bit weird for it. They’ve always read something esoteric and are surprised when others haven’t looked into the same sorts of things. They’re also both insanely good at magic. They work hard to be the very best at what they do, spellcasting, and it shows. They are at the top of their game in that regard.

However, outside of that “professional” side of their life, they really split as characters. It really comes down to the fact that Twilight is clueless about social interaction, while Hermione is not.

Hermione understands dating, relationships, and how to interact with people. While she certainly puts her academic life above being popular, she understands what’s going on with the other students around her, and has insight into why they’re acting the way they do that Ron and Harry often miss, being stereotypical school-age boys. She is hurt by social conventions carelessly broken (Ron waiting forever to ask her to the dance, like she didn’t have other prospects) and just generally “gets it.” She’s not outside of social actions. When she does show a level of cluelessness about how social interactions work (her idea that SPEW is a thing that people will want to get involved with), she does not realize it. She knows she knows this stuff, and thus her errors are not immediately apparent to her. She’s confident in her social prowess.

Twilight, on the other hand, knows absolutely nothing about social interaction. We see this all the time, whether having to follow a checklist to have fun at a party or trying to be helpful in an episode like Baby Cakes in about the worst way possible, and getting shut down for it. In fact, her cluelessness is so bad that her mentor and teacher, Princess Celestia, basically went “look, enough with the magic, go make some friends!” and forced her to try to integrate into society at large. She just does not know what’s going on in social circles.
Still, she realizes that, which is a key difference. She knows she knows nothing, and is super, super excited to figure it out. After being shown the benefits, she is not about to stop trying to learn, because she loves learning, even this sort of learning. She’s willing to admit her mistakes and improve upon them, and she does with every silly letter to Princess Celestia she writes.

It’s this eager cluelessness to social situations that, in general, endears Twilight to me and makes her my favorite pony. She is a character that knows it all, like Hermione, but unlike Hermione, she also knows nothing, and embraces it. Personally, I just connect with that better. I’ve been the person with all the answers, quite often, but so often I feel like I have no clue what I’m actually doing. I can feel that struggle in Twilight, and that’s why there’s a connection there. It’s more well rounded and real, especially when compared to Hermione, who so often just kind of becomes the source of magical plot devices in the Harry Potter novels. When Hermione does show a weakness, it mostly is of the “I am a woman with emotions” stereotypical school of weakness. In general, she always has the answer. Twilight does not. Hers is a generally humble genius. She knows her Intelligence is much, much higher than her Wisdom and Charisma, and those are stats she needs to work on. She’s willing to listen, and willing to admit she’s wrong, but she’s never going to stop trying, even when she does it incredibly badly. Practice is how you learn, after all. Her weaknesses are not weaknesses to her, but rather ways she can improve herself. When you find yourself in similar situations, having someone to look at who gets back up, smiles, and learns from complete failure is refreshing. It makes failure something that’s okay, instead of the worst thing. I like that. I like Twilight Sparkle.