spoiler Would Nightmare Moon be a bad ruler?

[Broken Gear 29]

After watching season 5 finale a question came to my mind. Would Nightmare Moon be really a terrible ruler?

An obvious answer seems to be "yes". After all, she imprisoned Celestia and brought about the Eternal night. But what does that entail, exactly? As we see in Cutie Remark, the lack of sunlight does not kill all the plants, again showing how different the world of the show is from our. Someone might say, "But she might just took over!". The problem with that is, awakening of Nightmare Moon was first thing that happened in the show. So even if all episodes were a showcase of everyday since Twilight came to Ponyville, there still would have passed at least a few months. Enough for plants to start dying.

This does not exactly prove that she's not "bad" ruler but certainly makes saying that night eternal would be "horrible" look like a bit of overstatement.

Let's look like her motives for becoming Nightmare Moon to begin with. She loved her subjects but felt that they didn't like her in the slightest. Nowhere was said that she would stop caring abut them (well, at least when it comes to matters other than sun-and-moon-raising business).

In her castle we don't exactly see anyone unhappy (hell, RD looks like she's very much into her job). The most we see is Rarity being.. busy. I don't know abut you but I would be upset as well if someone who I don't know came up to me while I was doing my job and started talking to me like I'm their friend, and spewing some nonsense.

As far as I'm aware there is nothing saying she would be a bad ruler.

So, any thoughts?

Edited November 30, 2015 by Broken Gear

[DANUTERCISD 202]

Yes, nightmare moon is 2nd best villian

[Broken Gear 29]

 

 

Yes, nightmare moon is 2nd best villian

Ok? How does that make her a bad ruler?

[Megas 27,050]

I dunno, it seems the worst she can do is eternal night

 

EDIT: If she forced everyone wear those ugly hairstyles RD and Rares had she'd definitely live up to the "Nightmare" part of her rule

Edited December 1, 2015 by Thrillho

[Sporemane 545]

Nightmare Moon is evil so I don't think she would make a great leader. She would make a great dictator though.

[Broken Gear 29]

Nightmare Moon is evil so I don't think she would make a great leader. She would make a great dictator though.

While I agree that her rule would be a dictatorship, imo it wouldn't differ much from what was happening in medival times. The previous king was weak so someone stronger came and took his place. That's it.

I know word dictator has a very pejorative stigma (and for good reasons) but that doesn't necessarily mean people ponies would have bad lives under her rule.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Broken Gear

[Sporemane 545]

I can agree about her rule being a dictator ship. However Nightmare Moon doesn't strike me as the benevolent leader like her sister. So I don't think living under her rule would be good for any one. All we saw from the alternet time line was the upper class of her kingdom. I would like to see more of her kingdom, and the lives of her subjects. Exploring the class system of this world, would be interesting. It's unfortunate that the writers did not have enough time to expand on the cannon.

[WriteCodes46 178]

The plants haven't died simply because there hasn't been enough time. Eventually all living things will die, so, I'd say she would be a terrible ruler. (Also, Luna sucks at politics too.)

[The Nth Doctor 652]

She rules pretty fairly

 

Rarity seemed happy enough with her job and nobody looked unhappy

 

 

Hooy boy, the Tyrantlestia fics are a-comin'

[Broken Gear 29]

 

 

The plants haven't died simply because there hasn't been enough time. Eventually all living things will die, so, I'd say she would be a terrible ruler. (Also, Luna sucks at politics too.)

As I pointed out, night had to had lasted at a very least few months. I don't know exact numbers but I'm quite sure 1 one month without sun in our world and we would have a problem (not to mention unbearable coldness it would cause). And I don't think we see enough of Luna doing official stuff to judge her as a politician.

@@Sporemane, you raise a fair point. It would be really cool to explore that (or any other) alternate universe a bit more. Then again, we don't really see lower classes in any other episode, do we? The lowest class pony in mane six would be Applejack (I think). And she has a very successful monopoly over apples in Ponyville so I don't think she exactly qualifies. We literally can judge Celestia only by what she seems.

[cmarston1 5,951]

Eternal night would lead to all the plants and crops dying on the entire planet and would lead to global freeze where nobody would be able to escape.

So yeah dooming an entire planet and leading everyone to freeze to death eventually would make someone a bad ruler.

[Arrowstormen 62]

Seemed pretty dystopian and fascism-ish to me. Nightmare Moon is an example of a leader who wants to rule for the wrong reasons and motivations. While Celestia maintained both day and night in her sister's absence, Nightmare Moon wanted to rule using eternal night, because she's jealous, greedy and petty. 

Edited December 1, 2015 by Arrowstormen

[Singe 2,109]

The world would probably be more secure under Nightmare Moon since she would have a strong order and controls the access of magic. Since she wants her subjects to adore her, she has to make sure her endless night doesn't kill them off.

 

Magic can override laws of reality.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Singe

[cider float 2,535]

No her rule made Rainbow Dash shave her rainbow mane off.

 

Just kidding.

[Firedog 320]

All we really saw was the castle. The ponies obeyed her orders, but when celestia was brought up they looked really nervous. It makes it seem though they are threatened to not talk about celestia. So while they appear fine, their is defiantly lots of limits to what they can say and probably do as well. So not really a great ruler.

[pony.colin 156]

As Twi kept going back in time, the AU scenarios got less and less time to show off.  There's not enough time to really evaluate the scenario of Nightmare Moon winning the throne upon her comeback. So I would really hold back in saying it was a "peaceful" kingdom in Nightmare land and NMM was a great leader.

 

Probably dictator like (I'm too lazy to really look at it).  Just because everything looks fine, doesn't mean things are actually fine.  Afterall, I'm doubtful every pony would've willing accepted NMM as being the next legitimate ruler and probably there was some resistance to her taking over leadership after defeating Celestia.  I'm guessing there would've been a number of ponies who opposed her rule, and I'm extremely doubtful that she would've given her opponents quarter/mercy and dealt with them swiftly.  I wonder how many bodies are piled in those back dungeons there NMM?  Did everyone just willing accept your new reign? Or did you also use fear, coercion, oppression, suppression and aggressive means to also secure your throne as well?    

 

I don't really care though, the AU was kind of more fluff to me for the episode and for people to enjoy fun little scenario, cameos and such.

[cider float 2,535]

Without the sun how would they grow crops or at least enough to feed a whole nation? Without the proper sunlight all life would starve.

[ANGEL33 87]

YES SHE WOULD! You've seen that timeline, it's horrible.

[Broken Gear 29]

Without the sun how would they grow crops or at least enough to feed a whole nation? Without the proper sunlight all life would starve.

As @@Singe, said, magic can override laws of reality. And as I pointed out in my first post, there had to have passed at least a few months. If they did not starve by then, I don't think they will just because of lack of sunlight.

@@Firedog, who is to say that we see everything when Celestia is shown? We actually see very little of Celestias interaction with her subjects. The royalty will always impose some taboos onto their subjects.

@@ANGEL, what is so horrible about it?

Edited December 1, 2015 by Broken Gear

[Sunny Fox 5,929]

A bad ruler. Debatable. A worse ruler than Celestia / Non-NMM Luna? Absolutely.

[Philomena1009 22]

It would be so cruel that eternal night would be miserable and her ruling would be so harsh.

[BurningBright 4]

Yes. Even if we magic-handwave all of the crops dying and the world becoming too cold to survive on, NMM's rule would be grim:

 

1) Most ponies in the FiM universe seem similar to Earth ponies (the irl ones, not the show's Earth Ponies). This means they are diurnal creatures. If every single pony was forced to be nocturnal, their circadian rhythm would be screwy and while I'm sure some would adjust, many would probably end up tired and depressed all the time. I wonder if the bat winged/eared ponies seen in Luna and NMM's guard are nocturnal, perhaps by magic or a special bloodline?

 

2) We only got to glimpse at it for a couple of minutes but as others said, it appeared to be a dictatorship ruled with an iron fis-er, hoof. Even in that small window of time, the ponies appeared scared to even say Celestia and all of the armed guards looked like a military force. There are already enough real-world examples of such things to show how miserable living under those conditions would be.

Edited December 2, 2015 by BurningBright

[heavens-champion 1,893]

Imagine what kind of punishments she'd use. Probably a spell that puts ponies in a nightmare-ridden sleep.

Edited April 7, 2016 by heavens-champion

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

 

 

 This means they are diurnal creatures. If every single pony was forced to be nocturnal, their circadian rhythm would be screwy and while I'm sure some would adjust, many would probably end up tired and depressed all the time.

People with night jobs aren't all depressed and unhappy

[Phanact 333]

I don't know how bad of a ruler she would be. 

 

I think of her as more of a yardstick or a meter stick. She's quite tall.