Why fans like Luna over Celestia.

[Skycoaster 698]

To be honest, the reason I like Luna so much, is that I feel a connection to her, as I'm sure most of her fans do. The feeling of being overshadowed and often ignored is quite common. My love for grew even more during "Luna Eclipsed" seeing the trouble she had fitting in, another reason I feel that She and Twilight are of the more popular ponies.

 

Celestia, to me at least seems to be the typical Marry Sue.

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

Because Luna is like Sunset, she has her flaws and had her weakness moments, and is now good.

[Adamgreen 1,130]

Because she has more character than Celestia. She's cute, pretty, and likable. I love her so much!

[Guest]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. As a classicist myself, I particularly loved your references to the Iliad (my favourite character is actually Hector, I never cared for Achilles. ) As inevitably flawed beings, I suppose it is natural to connect to characters who clearly exhibit harmatia such as Achilles and Luna. Having said that, I have always preferred Celestia to Luna.

[LHfunk 422]

Luna became my immediate favorite because of Nightmare Moon. Awesome villain turned into an awesome character. I personally prefer dark and night and stuff like that, and Luna just has an amazing design and color scheme. I've loved her in each episode she's been in, and her self centered episodes were great. Celestia has always just kind of been there. Not really doing anything. She never interested me, and was just a bland character. Now, thanks to season 5, she has been better. In Make New Friends But Keep Discord, she was great. In Slice of Life, she and Luna were hilarious. But other then that, she hasn't done much to make her a likable character for me.

[Sectus 246]

I like to look at it from a gaming perspective. Suppose you create a character and max level them to the end game, so that character has all the super powerful weapons and abilities, and even the toughest enemy can be knocked out with the flick of a finger. That absolute power gets boring after a while, so we create a second character to go through the struggle to get to the top again. It is the conflict, and the risk of failure that brings our intrigue. That is why so many people like Luna - she isn't perfect yet.

[ShadOBabe 19,027]

Celestia is my favorite character in the entire series. I love her to pieces.

I also love Superman. Paragon characters don't lack depth, you just have to look for it.

Imagining yourself in their shoes helps a lot.

 

For example, I had a friend that said Superman was boring because you know he always wins. Where's the conflict?

So I told her that the conflict is the fact that Superman has all these incredible powers and is a truly good person, and he STILL can't solve every problem in the world. And it hurts him. That sinking ship full of people he saved? A father of two kids was just mugged in an alley somewhere else in the world while he was helping them. "I'm Superman", he thinks. "If I was just a LITTLE faster, just a LITTLE stronger, just a LITTLE better, I'd be able to help more people." But he he still can't save everyone, and it hurts. That's a LOT of pressure for someone to put on themselves.

 

My friend said, "Huh, I never thought of that."

Most people don't.

 

Celestia isn't cute.

 

I beg to differ... http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/8/89/Princess_Celestia_smiling_S2E02.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20120813070435

Edited September 19, 2015 by ShadOBabe

[Persona22 205]

Celestia is my favorite character in the entire series. I love her to pieces.

I also love Superman. Paragon characters don't lack depth, you just have to look for it.

Imagining yourself in their shoes helps a lot.

 

For example, I had a friend that said Superman was boring because you know he always wins. Where's the conflict?

So I told her that the conflict is the fact that Superman has all these incredible powers and is a truly good person, and he STILL can't solve every problem in the world. And it hurts him. That sinking ship full of people he saved? A father of two kids was just mugged in an alley somewhere else in the world while he was helping them. "I'm Superman", he thinks. "If I was just a LITTLE faster, just a LITTLE stronger, just a LITTLE better, I'd be able to help more people." But he he still can't save everyone, and it hurts. That's a LOT of pressure for someone to put on themselves.

That's totally true.

However, no writer for either TV, comics or movies will EVER make a story about THAT point of view of Superman.

[Megas 28,108]

Echoing what Key Sharkz and Hypnosparkle said, a lot of people like Luna more because they find her cuter(debatable), she's your dorky, sheltered, naive sister while Celestia is a wise and elegant mother figure. And like they've said Luna's gotten entire episodes dedicated to her (or at least episodes where she has a vital role, like the 3 CMC dream episodes)throughout the show's span while Celestia has more or less gotten the shaft since S2(or the beginning, however you want to look at it).

 

I find Princess Celestia and Princess Luna much better in the comics than in the show.

I'm inclined to disagree. Personally I never got the hype to the comic's Luna. To me she's a completely different character from the shows, and just feels like Pinkie Pie in Luna's body. Celestia is an odd case though. On one hand some of the comics surrounding her usually do her justice like Celestia's micro and FF#3. Then then there's the oh-so controversial and divisive "Reflections" that, for most fans, seem to have done more damage to her(though personally I can at least appreciate it for at least TRYING to do something with her, even if it left me dissatisfied)

Edited September 26, 2015 by LAZENGANN OVERLOAD

[They call me Loyalty 1,954]

Luna has shown genuine personality and relatable traits.

Celestia is constrained by stereotypical roles in the show, which is detrimental to her character. Being mostly a plot device.

I feel she hasn't been portrayed as pony yet, which makes it pretty boring to me.

[El Duderino 881]

I think people like Luna because they can relate to her. Even though Celestia is still a likable character, we only see her from the perspective of other characters, and therefore, we don't actually know much about her personality. We can't relate to her, but I think that is on purpose.

[Rainbowdash_82 404]

Maybe people like luna over celestia because luna learned from her experiences . The only thing I know about celestia is that she has been a princess forever and that she has always been the same since day 1, so yea...

 

Or probably because there has been a handful of princess luna episodes and there hasn't been a single one about celestia

[pony.colin 156]

While I completely agree with most of what you said, the thing is that I was trying to analyze is why the FANS liked Luna over Celestia, by analyzing how Celestia is portrayed in the show by Hasbro's writers. Not what Celestia is supposed to be or if she represents some deeper meaning. Just how her character is used in the show. The comparsions used were for ease of explanation.

 

Really?  I thought you were trying to talk about what Celestia represented as an idea, ideal, archtype, trope and concept in a work of fiction.  You seemed to be going towards an literary analysis of her character and used examples from the Illiad to help make crystal clear your explanations and analysis. I thought of it as a good analysis.  

 

Granted, I do understand that you were also coming to these conclusions to help explain why you thought fans liked Luna more than Celestia. And these conclusions might work for some, those who understand the concepts that you are working with probably better understand at what you are getting at from a literary, philsophical critique background.  Of course, others can have different reasons for finding a character more interesting (in this thread, asethtics, self-relation to another, trendy, vulnerability and a whole set of other reasons to go on).  

 

Nice post.

Edited September 30, 2015 by pony.colin

[Persona22 205]

Really?  I thought you were trying to talk about what Celestia represented as an idea, ideal, archtype, trope and concept in a work of fiction.  You seemed to be going towards an literary analysis of her character and used examples from the Illiad to help make crystal clear your explanations and analysis. I thought of it as a good analysis.  

 

Granted, I do understand that you were also coming to these conclusions to help explain why you thought fans liked Luna more than Celestia. And these conclusions might work for some, those who understand the concepts that you are working with probably better understand at what you are getting at from a literary, philsophical critique background.  Of course, others can have different reasons for finding a character more interesting (in this thread, asethtics, self-relation to another, trendy, vulnerability and a whole set of other reasons to go on).  

 

Nice post.

 

I do admit that there was a lot of analysis of what Celestia represents as an idea and such things. Basically, because every single character in every single work of fiction can be reduced to a trope or concept. The Hero, the Anti Hero, the Villain, the Anti Villain, and so on and so forth. Celestia fits into a trope, but so does Luna, and Discord, and Twilight, and Rarity, and Rainbow Dash...

But the main reason I did that analysis is to try and find an explanation as of why most people like Luna over her.

 

And I do also understand that for some people it would be a different reason, or have an opposite opinion. My goal was to try and find a common ground.

And if the post creates a good debate about how and why Characters are the way they are, even better.

[State the FACTS 0]

Just saying this, Moonbutt has more fans than either applejack or rarity ( in the polls I've seen ) so it would make sence to give her more screen time, but if Moonbutt got screen time it would have to include princess sunbutt as well cause it would only make sence plus if she didn't I could see a lot of people being pretty t off at hasbro for dumb stupid reasons.

[cmarston1 5,964]

Because Luna actually has had episodes dedicated to her and is allowed to actually do stuff in the show.

[cider float 2,539]

I really don't think those are the core of the reasons why bronies like Luna more than Celestia.