Celestia's behavior

In this blog entry, I'd like to discuss how I've depicted Celestia in chapter 3 "Cold." Especially since I'm expecting numerous complaints about how out of character I made her act.

Yeah, that's the point.

As I said in an earlier blog, the thing that really struck a cord with me in regards to the "Reflections" story arc was the depth it gave to Celestia's character. Rather than a near perfect semi-divine big good, it depicted her in a way that was realistic, relatable, and surprisingly insightful. Put yourself in her hooves and think about it for a moment. You're the ruler of an entire kingdom, the hopes and lives of your subjects rest entirely on your shoulders. But despite their worship and adoration of you, your personal life is not so glamorous. Aside from the immense responsibility you have, you have the burden of living up to their expectations, your relationship with your only family is becoming strained, and your only friend is an elderly eccentric who lives in his own little world.

But then something changes. You meet someone who carries the same burdens and responsibilities as you. Immediately you feel a kinship with this person and from that friendship a love starts to grow. (I'm not saying that Celestia fell in love with Mirror Sombra solely out of loneliness but I do think it was a huge motivation for some of her actions). Unfortunately, circumstances forbid you from being together aside for a few moments at a time. And then things really hit the fan when you're forced to imprison your only family in order to save your kingdom. Now the loneliness and chains of command become unbearable and you spend more and more time with your love in order to cope, ignoring the possible consequences and ultimately forcing your eccentric friend to forcibly attempt to separate you before it gets out of hand. (While certainly cruel, I do agree with Star Swirl's actions considering what was at stake.) But at this point, you've become dependent on your relationship with this person, so you go behind your friend's back once again in order to maintain it. Despite all of this however, you're not a bad or selfish person, you're just misguided. In your heart, you know that this relationship can never work out and will eventually bring consequences that you'll have to face. Even if you realize that your friend only had your best interests at heart and superficially make amends with him, your friendship will never be the same because you're still deceiving him, creating a gap between you that can never be filled. But when the only alternative is a return to the isolation that drove you this point can anyone really blame you if you choose not to go back?

Finally, the chickens come home to roost and you must face up to all of your actions, even if that means taking the due punishment. And it's then that fate deals the cruelest blow of all and the one you love takes it upon himself to save you. Even if they don't die, the experience has changed them and they are forever wracked with suffering that you caused. To make matters worse, the method you used to meet with him is destroyed, separating you forever and leaving you unable to help him or even say goodbye.

Once you've digested all that, take a moment and think about how that would make you feel. In addition to a broken heart; you now have guilt for how you deceived and hurt those close to you, the risks you took for your own selfishness, and the suffering that you brought upon the one you love. And even if you realize that you have none to blame but yourself; it's just human-nature (or pony-nature as the case may be) to feel at least a minor sense of resentment towards others either by seeing them as what drove you to such actions or envy that they can have what you couldn't. Of course, the real reason Celestia is beloved by her subjects isn't because they see her as flawless but because she genuinely cares for them. Despite the trauma and heartbreak she endured in the Mirror World, I do believe that she wouldn't allow it to break her spirit and in time would be able to recover.

Unless of course somepony poured a little gas on the fire. As Heath Ledger's Joker said, "Madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push." In her period of mourning and grief, I do believe that Celestia's spirit would be weakened enough that an opportunistic and genre-savvy villain would seize the chance to slip something through her defenses. Something that would play on her shattered emotional state when she was at her most vulnerable to unleash everything she had tried to suppress. And what makes this particular curse so effective is that it doesn't even change the nature of the one it is laid upon, but rather just amplifies what was already there and lays it bare to the rest of the world.

So how does one fight a curse like that? Well that depends on whether you feel evil can only be defeated through great power and force, or through simple acts of love, kindness, and most of all....friendship.

-To Be Continued.