It isn't like it isn't accurate. Some people really are just naturally inclined to be really good at something. It's only annoying in fiction if the character is naturally gifted and doesn't have to work at it. Twilight clearly does work at her magic, so it isn't an issue.

What is L-Space?

edited 5th Jan '12 6:41:04 PM by Crowfall

@JT but why does she NEED potential in the first place?!

My issue was never "she didn't work hard for her power", it's "someone else could've trained JUST as hard as her, but because she lacked the raw potential that Twilight was BORN with, she's shit out of luck"

Yeah, Twilight has raw power, but she had to learn how to use it. Having tons of mana is kinda totally useless if you can't use it for anything. Heck, I don't think it's a stretch to say that other unicorns might have an easier time learning magic if they don't have to worry about keeping a crazy amount of mana under control.

Because, simply put, it makes sense in the context of the story. Every pony has a special talent, and there's no reason that Twilight's talent can't be magic. Also, some people are just better at things than others, and the story reflects that. I know you don't like that in your stories, but that doesn't make it bad writing.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:43:14 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Twilight, in fact, has worked at nothing else for ten-fifteen years of her life.

^^She wouldn't be shit out of luck, she'd still be a very powerful unicorn.

L-Space is the space that connects all libraries, Crow. It's referenced in Discworld and it's the reason libraries feel so big when you go into them.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:42:29 PM by RedSavant

It doesn't hurt that Twi is a serious bookworm and has probably read the entire Canterlot Keep public library twice over.

Is there something about my posts which you people aren't seeing or something?

I just don't get how you can't understand what I'm saying

but will never be AS strong as Twilight.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:43:32 PM by gingerninja666

I get what you're saying, I just don't see how it's an issue. Okay, so Trixie would never be able to beat Twilight even if she had spent years practicing and not just showing off. So what? That's pretty accurate to real life. Do you think you could out swim Michael Phelps even if you'd spent your whole life training? Probably not. Sometimes someone is just really good at something.

I understand what you're saying, I'm just not sure why you're so averse to the idea that Twilight's natural skill and hard work can work together. If we take your train of thought to its logical conclusion, everypony is exactly the same aside from the stuff they like doing. But it makes for more interesting characters when some elements are out of their control.

EDIT: Wow, ninja'd by like the exact same statement.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:45:18 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Again, what did the thing Celestia said even mean? She never said "Potential". Is her untamed magic simply very visible and strong for someone of that age, or what?

Maybe she was just an early bloomer, so to speak.

Apparently people don't think that Twilight wining the Superpower Lottery is that big a deal, so long as she studied enough.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:46:02 PM by Mio

Ginger, nobody knows whether or not someone else could have reached her level. Nopony in Ponyville cares to try. There could very well be unicorns elsewhere in Equestria with her level of skill, but our point of view is limited, so we never meet them. You're jumping to conclusions for no reason other than your own paranoia. Just headcanon it a way that makes you happy and roll with it.

I've been saying that she didn't so much win the Superpower Lottery so much as her passion is for magic, which led to her spending years and years studying it in all its forms.

Another excellent point. We've yet to see another unicorn that actually cares about magic power and has been shown to put anywhere near as much effort into it as Twilight has. The closest we've got is Trixie, but there's no indication that she actually studied all that much.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:48:49 PM by Crowfall

Yeah, I don't think Superpower Lottery applies here; that would be if she had like Celestia-tier magic without even having to try, or if her innate magic allowed her to copy any spell every without having to study it.

It's just that in Equestria passion and talent are very visibly married. In our world we're still more likely to be passionate in something we're good at, we just don't have nice, flashy tattoo to show for it.

On the subject of Trixie, I find it slightly annoying that people keep setting her up as Twilight's nemesis. Foil I get, because that is her narrative existensial purpose, but Trixie doesn't actually out and out antagonize Twilight, does she?

edited 5th Jan '12 6:50:36 PM by Crowind

Look at it this way, Ginger. We'll never know if any of the other unicorns could reach Twilight's skill with magic, because they don't want to try to. Twilight's potential means nothing; it's what she's done with it that makes her the most powerful.

Because if Twilight had worked her way up from absolutely NOTHING Jack Rakan-style, then it would've been the single greatest thing EVER.

Why does everyone want things to be realistic? I was born with a better capacity to analyze films than my peers in college, and I hate myself for it every single day. It's not fair. My fellow students work SO much harder than I do.

The marks can be kinda nebulous at times. I mean, Rarity's is marked by something that's tangential at best to her skill and passion.

Well, she began without even the basic skill needed to control her reserve of magic, and struggling to turn the page of a book.

...and now I feel bad for taking this line of discussion.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:52:39 PM by Enlong

You guys think way too hard about this stuff

I'm sorry, what?

Well, makes sense if you're a bard, at least.

I don't reall view any of their "Special Talents" as superpowers myself. It's more like that carrer your really passionat about, that job you love every second of, that field of study that you always want to learn more about. She is good at what she does because she loves to do it.

She talent isn't magic because she's powerful in it, she is powerful because magic is her talent. Or something like that

Gotta earn our geek badge somehow.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:52:51 PM by Mio

Not really. If I think way too hard about it I'd be trying to figure out how does the whole controlling sun and moon work instead. Or how their genetics work, or how do ponies have candy colors and talk and are basically homo sapient and homo faber.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:53:37 PM by Crowind

We're tropers, after all. There's no such thing as "thinking too hard about it"!

And Twi has too many eggs in one basket if you ask me.

She has her magic and her organisational skills...and that's it.

Poor girl, if confronted by a foe immune to magic...she's shit outta luck.