Thoughts on Luna and her history · 4:53pm Jul 12th, 2015
Okay, so I've had a lot of interesting thoughts since watching last night's MLP episode featuring Luna and her amazing ability to interact with other ponies' dreams.
First off, the Tantabus is a fascinating beastie—clearly one of the most legitimately terrifying threats Equestria has faced in all of MLP. It was apparently created as a byproduct of Luna's tremendous guilt over her actions as Nightmare Moon. I find this to be tragically beautiful. Tragic because of how much Luna silently suffered over the past five years, and beautiful because of how deeply Luna cares for others, showing a truly repentant heart. The episode wasn't totally clear on whether Luna deliberately chose to create this thing or whether her statements were simply a rhetorical construct saying that the Tantabus was created because she couldn't forgive herself, and it kept her from ever coming to a point of peace over her own past sins. Personally, I prefer to view it as a byproduct rather than a deliberate choice because I don't think masochism is a part of Luna's character. Perhaps that's not the right word, but what I'm saying is that I don't think Luna would deliberately torture herself over her guilt. She may believe she deserves it, but I can't see her going out of her way to create this thing on purpose just to torment herself.
Second, I feel pretty solid about the idea that the Tantabus in MLP and the "blessing" in Past Sins are one and the same. Sure, there are a few key differences, but this is as close to getting Past Sins into canon MLP as we could hope for. The physical description is practically identical. The virulent, parasitic behavior are also the same, although the "blessing" was more physically rooted within the body of the victims and didn't spread via dream association.
But hey, we can't expect MLP to copy Past Sins to the letter now, can we? As far as I'm concerned, it's the same entity. Perhaps it had a different means of spreading when it infected Spell Nexus, plus its purpose in bringing back Nightmare Moon could have had an ulterior motive in that such a rule would make spreading itself that much easier. The important part to remember here is that both the Tantabus and the "blessing" from Past Sins were a part of Luna originally.
I'm not sure whether I'll actually utilize the Tantabus in my story. I don't think it's actually necessary, although I may reexamine Nyx's discussion with Luna regarding her nightmares and see if there could be any improvements on account of this. One thing I have to think about is whether this can fit into my alicorn headcanon. Specifically, I have nightmares as one of the early signs that a natural born alicorn is soon to become a wild alicorn. The theme of the nightmares is that the alicorn is tempted to change identity and embrace the wild alicorn that they would become after the transformation. So in Nyx's case, she would become Nightmare Moon proper (as a first stage) if she let the transformation take place. After a short while, Nightmare Moon would grow dramatically in strength and become nearly unstoppable. Certainly several orders of magnitude more powerful than Celestia and Luna combined. So these nightmares serve a different purpose than self-flaggelation which seems to be the purpose of the Tantabus. However, if I am willing to break MLP canon for the sake of my story, I could say that the Tantabus is a natural cause of alicorn nightmares and is associated with deep-seated emotions, whether personal guilt or abandonment of morals. I'm not convinced this is a good move for my story though, as Nyx's nightmares would not appear to be linked to any living nightmare entity. I'm inclined to let this one pass quietly.
An additional topic to discuss here is a further exploration of the origins of Nightmare Moon. For this, I wish to explore Luna's character and personal flaws as well as her strengths and how they balance with her alicorn nature.
For starters, I need to maintain compatibility with my alicorn headcanon. This presents a small challenge, but I think we can handle it. The problem is that I've got alicorns being permanently domesticated once they discover their virtue. This is so that we can explain why there are no wild alicorns in modern times, as both Celestia and Luna are shown to be nowhere near a demigod level of omnipotence. This allows both the sisters to have a defined and limited level of strength in the story but also allows for ridiculously powerful alicorns to have existed in the past.
Therefore, both of the sisters would have chosen to abandon their wild alicorn potential while they were young adults. This makes Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon kind of an anomaly because Luna ought not have been capable of this transformation. I suppose a key question to ask is whether Nightmare Moon was a "wild alicorn". Certainly, she did not demonstrate the level of strength that I have assigned to the wild alicorns of ancient times. Nightmare Moon could have killed Celestia quite easily had this been the case, and it wouldn't be merely "Luna is stronger, but Celestia defeated her anyway thanks to the Elements". Up until this point, I've been attributing that to the idea of Nightmare Moon being a transition phase which would eventually put Luna in the fully omnipotent wild alicorn state, but that Celestia had to act quickly and banish her before the transformation could complete.
I'm fine with this except it still doesn't explain why Luna transformed to begin with. For this, I'm faced with a bit of a problem. I've already got wild alicorns transforming due to their natural physical maturity. But Nightmare Moon happened when Luna was already some 4000 years old. I know common MLP lore likes to think of Luna as "the young one", but honestly, there's no basis for this because we know that the sisters have done quite a few things together prior to Nightmare Moon. Things such as dealing with Discord as an example. Or Sombra. So what caused Luna to transform at this age??! It had to somehow be her choice to do this. That would maintain Luna as the guilty party, which fits her character much better than if it were simply a consequence of nature. Fanon favors Luna's guilt overwhelmingly, even if the fact of the matter was that Luna may have been possessed by some parasitic entity (other than the Tantabus because that came after her restoration). It would appear that the seeds of Nightmare Moon were within Luna all along.
What I'm inclined to use is a hybrid cause of origin for Nightmare Moon. Luna clearly has issues with deep, private emotions. She kept the problem with the Tantabus secret for years. Her guilt over her actions as Nightmare Moon I find personally moving, and I am very happy that the episode gave Luna such a deep, meaningful story. Likewise, I find it difficult to believe that Celestia was unaware of Luna's jealousy. I don't see Celestia being so self-absorbed as to completely ignore her "beloved sister" like that. Sure, Lullaby for a Princess has Celestia feeling guilty, but that is a natural result of Luna hiding her strong emotions and Celestia not recognizing what she is going through, and thus missing the chance to help Luna through them before it got out of hand. So the animation I still see as completely valid. I see Luna as having hid her feelings of jealousy so well that not even her sister caught the problem until it was too late.
The way I'm favoring it, Luna has had this jealousy "in check" for quite a while. She recognized that her sister received favorable attention compared to her, but she was a mature pony and didn't let it bother her too badly because she had already found her virtue (righteousness). As this is her virtue, Luna would inherently understand that it is not necessary for her to receive the same attention as Celestia. It may have stung on occasion, but Luna would handle it well. Until... she got separated from her virtue. Having lost the virtue of righteousness, Luna would be confused and then view the disparity as an injustice which would have enraged her. Without her virtue, Luna could once again be susceptible to becoming a wild alicorn, letting her own hedonistic passions dictate her actions. And in her case, the actions would be to force others to appreciate her creative work by making that the only thing they could focus on. Thus, eternal night—damn the consequences.
So what would actually separate Luna from her virtue? That would be the external factor. I attribute this to a magical infection from Sombra as depicted in the video Fall of the Crystal Empire. There, we can actually see what this would have looked like. Luna had already been living in a stable frame of mind, handling her feelings of jealousy and also identifying with the dark powers of the night without the associated dangerous attitude of Nightmare Moon. And yet once Sombra infected her, it released all of those emotions because Luna could no longer manage them without her virtue. She banished Sombra on the spot, along with the entire Crystal Empire, giving in to her darkest feelings and forsaking the justice which has been a part of her character for millennia. To be clear: Sombra's infection was merely a catalyst. The transformation into Nightmare Moon would still be entirely Luna's fault. And it would have happened much, much earlier if she didn't have her virtue safeguarding her.
This is how I'm picturing the situation with Luna. I think it's the best compromise between all the possibilities for the origins of Nightmare Moon. Luna has a fascinating character. She's very deep and emotional. She is very powerful, and yet also quite vulnerable. The complexities all work together to make a character that has arguably more depth than any of the rest of the canon MLP cast.
Um... did I just read a discarded script for a Fiery Joker video?
...
No, I guess I'm still seeing Recon's account. I do get too emotionally invested with things I read from time to time. Sheesh, maybe I'm the one taking this blog post too seriously.
3231481 Help me understand what you mean - I'm unfamiliar with your reference.
3231502 Something like this.
I just watched it again- Luna did in fact create the tantalus,
So many people believe that God demand's that they suffer internally because of our sins and mistakes. So they cannot receive God's forgiveness when they cannot forgive themselves.
Also I say Tantalus instead of Tantabus because Tantalus was a famous Greek Mythological figure and was known for his eternal punishment in Tartarus. It involves walking through a marsh and the nector he stole is now forever out of reach no matter how hard he tried. His story gave us the word Tantalize- torment or tease (someone) with the sight or promise of something that is unobtainable. Will it be in my analysis/commentary? You betcha!
But what does that have to do with Luna? I don't know, but the similarities shouldn't be ignored
3233540
I wasn't questioning whether she created it. I was questioning whether she did it deliberately or whether she created it by accident as a byproduct of her guilt.
Also - You sure know your mythology!
I imagine you can guess why I'm naming Celestia & Luna's parents Hyperion and Periapsis in my story.