Is Princess Celestia Really That Great? (And Other Issues) · 4:40am May 14th, 2021

Now, just to clarify some things before I get to my argument, no, I do not despise the character. No, I'm not some crackpot conspiracy theorist looking to ruin anyone's good time with baseless propositions. Finally, no, I am not sh***ing on anyone that loves Princess Celestia and thinks of her as their pony waifu or favorite character. I'm just going to go into a discussion about the evidence provided on the show having to do with her character and my own personal thoughts. If you disagree with me or have any good defenses against my claims, then I am more than happy to go into them in a very calm and rational manner. Sounds obvious, I know but this is the internet, after all.

Princess Celestia, the Princess of the Sun. She was the other half of the former Royal Diarchy of Equestria, it's longtime ruler and defender. She was a maternal figure to her subjects, a kind and patient ruler, and a warm and sagacious mentor. However, after reviewing the series under a much more critical lens, it seems to me that she isn't all that she's presented to be. Despite what we're told and shown about her, perhaps there is a darker side to this alabaster alicorn. It is entirely possible that Princess Celestia wasn't as benevolent as we've been led to believe.

My first piece of evidence comes from the first two episodes of the very first season entitled, "Friendship is Magic-Parts 1 & 2". When Twilight Sparkle learns of Nightmare Moon's return in a book of prophecies, she hastily writes to Princess Celestia warning her of the incoming threat. Celestia soon replies, telling her to not bother with "dusty old books" and sends her to make friends in the small town of Ponyville. Despite knowing full-well of the danger, Celestia lies to Twilight and allows events to unfold despite how badly they could've gone awry. Did she know for a fact that Twilight would be an Element bearer or that she would just happen to find five other mares that corresponded to the rest of the Elements in the exact same place?

Did Celestia somehow know that Twilight and company would be able to make it to the Castle of the Pony Sisters, discover the Elements, and figure out how to use them? And if they did end up using the Elements, how would she know what the Elements would do to Nightmare Moon? For all she knew, they could've just sent Nightmare back to her moon prison. In essence, Celestia gambled with the lives of her student, a baby dragon, five other mares, and the fate of Equestria with no concrete plan or any back up strategies. Keep this in mind for later.

Then, after Nightmare Moon was transformed back into Princess Luna, Princess Celestia addresses her as "sister" and everyone else expresses shock at this fact. Does that mean that no one was aware that Nightmare and Luna were the same person, as well as Celestia's sister and the second ruler of Equestria? How is this not common knowledge? Celestia was ruling alone for the past millennium so she knew the facts and could easily aid in the editing of history books. Or is the show suggesting that she deliberately erased any mention of Luna in both records and in books?

That is honestly quite a horrific thought once you stop and consider it.

To the rest of Equestria, Princess Celestia is a goddess, her name even being used in everyday conversation as an exclamation of surprise. She even has her own holiday called the Summer Sun Celebration, in which everyone celebrates the defeat of Nightmare Moon and to watch and cheer on Princess Celestia as she raises the sun. And what does Luna get? Nightmare Night, a pony analogue to Halloween that has ponies putting on costumes and bringing offerings of candy so that Nightmare Moon doesn't eat anyone. Not only does it seem mean-spirited in concept and unfair when compared to the grand spectacle of the Summer Sun Celebration but it would no doubt be a painful reminder to Luna of her past and is treated more or less as a joke. The holiday was around for a very long time and Celestia just let it slide, despite the implications of such an event and the fact that she could've done away with either holiday at any time but didn't.

In "The Crystal Empire", we are introduced to the titular empire and its dark former ruler King Sombra who, in Celestia's own words, had a "heart as black as night" and required both royal sisters to beat him. And yet, eerily similar to "Friendship is Magic", Celestia sends Twilight and her friends to the empire to deal with the returning dark unicorn. Again, she is risking the fate of both the Crystal Empire and Equestria in order to test Twilight. Princess Luna even offers to go with them but Celestia shoots her down, something that the younger alicorn is not pleased with as she mutters, "We always have to do things your way." This could've gone horribly wrong.

As we later discover, Celestia had been planning to have Twilight replace her for quite some time, ever since their initial meeting years ago. Think about it: ever since Twilight was a foal, Celestia was manipulating the course of her life. Twilight's life in Ponyville? Her ascension to both princess and alicorn? Her eventual role as Equestria's sole monarch? All due to Celestia's machinations. The only real independent choice Twilight made was opening the Friendship School but she didn't even get to keep it, instead handing (hoofing) it over to Starlight so she can replace Celestia and Luna.

Now some of you might be saying, "But don't you see? Celestia did this for the good of Equestria as she knew that Twilight would be a better ruler than her. Twilight becoming the ruler of Equestria is a natural progression of her character arc. Just as she was once a student to a princess, now she's fulfilling that very same role with Luster Dawn. It all comes full circle."

Firstly, just because Celestia manipulated Twilight's life for "the greater good", doesn't mean that it's what's right. It's arguably wrong and alarmingly Machiavellian, almost to a sociopathic degree considering how often Twilight was placed in danger because of Celestia's "tests". Secondly, Twilight becoming the A-Number One of Equestria is just lazy, an ending that could easily be seen coming and lacking in any kind of creativity. Thirdly, Twilight has shown herself to be an anxiety-ridden wreck that either falls apart under stress or becomes so focused on her idea of perfection that she completely unwinds. Even by the time of season nine, she's still shown to crack, whether it be under something going awry or something as simple as participating in a trivia game.

Now, I don't mean to make digs towards anyone with anxiety or stress-related disorders. Hell, I myself take medication for anxiety and stress, so I can speak from experience and let me tell you, I do not do well in situations were I'm expected to completely take the lead.

"But Twilight's leadership and compassion should make up for that."

Look, just because someone is a kind ruler that doesn't make them the right one. There's a lot that goes into being a monarch or a similar position of authority. The show did not choose to go into this route; Twilight is barely ever shown doing anything that a head of state would do, such as overlooking and approving laws, sorting taxes, meeting with foreign dignitaries, authorizing governmental positions, etc. She's also never been depicted as being particularly politically or socially savvy. The point that I'm trying to make is that Twilight Sparkle is not ruler of an entire nation material.

"According to the princesses in season nine, Equestria was 'enjoying its longest period of harmony in recent years.'"

Let me ask you something: what does "harmony" mean?

Answer: "A consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts."

Yeah, the almost-constant attacks perpetrated by villains and monsters is not what I'd call "orderly". Aside from the fact that none of Twilight's accomplishments were possible without the aid of her friends, there's also the issue that just because someone is a good military/combat leader, that doesn't automatically make them a good political leader. Ever read Coriolanus?

Let's also question how Celestia was so certain that Twilight was the one when they first met. Previously, she had an apprentice named Sunset Shimmer and that didn't pan out so well. Granted, we don't know the particulars of their relationship but we can assume it was similar to what Celestia had with Twilight. And going by that logic, we can assume that Celestia's possibly had other students before, though none of them able to become alicorns. Luckily, only one turned evil (then redeemed) and one ended up working out fine despite all of the many, many terrible ways that Celestia's plan could've crashed and burned.

Isn't it also curious that most of the villains that the Main Six faced were ones that Celestia previously defeated and/or had a connection with?

Nightmare Moon: Used the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister to the moon instead of reforming her

Discord: Turned Discord into a statue and then let him roam around despite backstabbing her and Equestria twice

King Sombra: Trapped under ice for a thousand years and had no other plan than to send her student and friends after him

Lord Tirek: Locked up in a prison with no other guards besides a giant, three-headed dog and decided to place all of the alicorn magic inside of Twilight despite the fact that Discord, who they'd discovered had switched sides, would just tell Tirek of Twilight's existence anyway

Sunset Shimmer: Didn't tell Twilight or anyone about her or increase security around the palace

From the looks of it, Celestia is terrible at her job.

"Celestia is a pony and is flawed like everyone else."

A fair point but when those flaws keep screwing things up for others, perhaps you need to seriously work on them. Which brings me to my next point: Celestia and Luna's retirement. Celestia had been ruling Equestria alone for a thousand years and, if the universe follows the timeline of the show, then Luna was only back for nine years. Why would Luna need to retire too? Some might argue that she willingly followed Celestia into retirement but that doesn't make sense to me. Remember how much importance was placed on cutie marks in the series? According to the show's own rules, Luna's destiny is to raise and lower the moon and to patrol the dreams of her subjects. Apart from that, she has nothing and we never get any indication that she's moved on past her insecurities or has been accepted by normal Equestrian society outside of Ponyville.

In "A Royal Matter," we see the sisters switching roles and discovering what the other does as the Princess of the Day and Night respectively. They learn to appreciate the other and reconcile their differences. However, does Luna still feel underappreciated by her subjects? Does Celestia realize that her sister feels trapped beneath her shadow? We don't know. The Elements of Harmony turned Nightmare Moon back into Luna but she's still shown to question Celestia's authority and since Celestia appears clueless to Luna's emotions, does this mean that she could turn evil once again?

At the end of "Friendship is Magic-Part 2", Princess Celestia says, quote:
"I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle shall take on a new mission for Equestria. She must continue to study the magic of friendship. She must report to me her findings from her new home in Ponyville."

Then, in "The Beginning of the End-Part 1", when addressing Twilight, Celestia tells her:
"Everything you've gone through over the years has been a training program."

Both of these examples are quite telling. In the first one, rather than having Twilight decide to stay in Ponyville after having experienced the benefits of friendship and teamwork, Celestia orders her to remain there. Sure, it's presented in a half-joking manner but that still negates what could've been a big character moment for Twilight. As for the second quote, it just re-enforces Celestia's manipulative nature and relegates all of Twilight's growth and struggles to a "training program". This tells me that friendship isn't something that one can discover for themself but rather, is a concept that everyone has to have and your life will be empty without it. Friendship is mandatory and meant to act as a personal trial for someone on the way to greatness, a tool used to get ahead in life and to wield against others in order to force your ideas onto them.

What really has me scratching my head is that throughout the entire series, Celestia is never once called out on any of this. She is a manipulative mare who has screwed things up time and time again, placing others in life-threatening situations with no clear plan in sight, yet gets to retire to a beach and presumably lounge around for the rest of her possibly-immortal life. With that being said, do I think that she should've been replaced by the end of the series?

Yes and no.

I don't think Celestia should get to walk away from her responsibilities and needs to make up for her past mistakes. However, I think someone else needs to be put in charge of her, telling her what to do and ensuring that she learns from her mistakes. Twilight, although a brave and kind-hearted individual, is not the right choice as the new ruler. Cadence is running the Crystal Empire with Shining Armor and has a daughter to look after. Sunset Shimmer is off in the Human World doing good there and Starlight Glimmer doesn't have the experience or know-how for the position.

If you haven't guessed by now, I think the clear answer is Princess Luna.

I mean, why not? She has a legitimate claim to the throne, is an experienced diplomat, so she can be counted on to deal with nobles both foreign and domestic, and is sympathetic and compassionate towards others, which has been demonstrated several times. Although unsure of herself and filled with self-doubt, Luna doesn't fall into an anxious, spastic heap like Twilight and has been at the princess game longer than her. Give her more confidence and a chance to prove herself and I feel Princess Luna would rise to the occasion. She could even keep Celestia on as an advisor, thus freeing her of the burden of doing everything herself while ensuring that her talents don't go to waste. Plus, this allows Twilight to remain a defender of Equestria and to have a say in her own future for once.

The sun has reigned so give the moon a turn.

But hey, that's just me.

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midnight arrow

midnight arrow #1 · May 14th, 2021 · 1 · 1 ·

don't forget luna wanted to retire too

MisterEdd

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Is Princess Celestia Really That Great? (And Other Issues) · 4:40am May 14th, 2021

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