spoiler Royal Titles

[Earl Grey Ghost 444]

This has probably already been brought up, but it is something that has confused me highly.

So you have Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, all rulers of their respective places. Great, that's awesome. Questions though arise for me.

Why is Princess Celestia and Luna not Queens? To be a Princess means you are the daughter of the King and Queen, where are they? Obviously from what we can glean, they have passed away. They are never shown, nor really talked about (unless somewhere in the comics, to which I am not privy too unfortunately, so please educate me if this is so).

On the same page? Great. SO, if the King and Queen pass away, that makes the Princess...now become a Queen. So why is it not Queen Celestia and Queen Luna? Or since Celestia is the older of the two, Queen Celestia and her sister Princess Luna? Why have the titles not changed?

Now we also have Queen Chrysalis, which is explicitly stated, obviously, as a Queen. Why is she given the title of Queen and Celestia and Luna, and even Cadence, are not?

It should even been King Shining Armour and Queen Cadence, but again, this is not so. You'll also notice King Sombra kept his Kingly title, and turned out evil, even if in the comics, he started off as "good". We have good Kings then, but hardly ever, IF ever... GOOD Queens.

There has been a theory put forth called, aptly "The Princess Theory" and what it tackles is the issue as to why female main characters in certain things are called Princess without the knowledge of the whereabouts of their parents, either they are not mentioned or it is made clear that they are dead. That would boost the character up to QUEEN, but it never happens. Why? The theory goes that little girls like the idea of "Princess" because of what it denotes. Royalty, status, special treatment, yet kindness, care, beauty, and above all: YOUTH. 

Queen means older and MORE RESPONSIBILITY. Little girls (Disney and society assumes) wants all the perks of royalty but not the RESPONSIBILITY of a nation like a Queen has. It's less desireable  to a young child to have responsibility. Disney has had a ban run, (if you notice) of making Princesses the "good guys" and all the Queens "bad guys". Have you noticed this? Queen has become almost equal to "bad guy". The EVIL Queen, trope. This has become so engraved into movie and story pop culture it's become an unfortuante staple.

So therefore, in MLP, they don't call the "good guys" Queens. Notice, QUEEN CHRYSALIS.=EVIL. PRINCESS CELESTIA/LUNA/CADENCE=GOOD

Why cant we break this cycle? Why cant we respect and honour the actual royal titles? Why can't a Queen be good? Why is age, wisdom and resposibility taugh to young girls (and even boys!) as undesirable? Why can't this become a positive?

Thoughts?

Edited May 4, 2018 by Memento Mori

[Porrot 95]

Lauren Faust wanted Celestia to be Queen Celestia, but as you're probably already aware, it was decided that (yup, thanks to Disney) "Queen" has become a synonym for "Evil Old Witch" and that Princess Celestia would convey a more postive image. That said, we had a Queen who wasn't totally villainous, if MLP the Movie counts as canon. I hope that this trend for portraying mature female rulers who powerful and formidable but not evil continues.

[SharpWit 2,472]

9 minutes ago, Porrot said:

That said, we had a Queen who wasn't totally villainous, if MLP the Movie counts as canon

Not villainous but I'd argue cowardice on some level. I respect her for putting the safety of her subjects first, but Celestia clearly wouldn't have asked for her help if they weren't closely allied in some way . Anyways, movie is canon.

Hasbro has one goal and that's to sell toys which is what the title of princess does.

If I'm wrong, I'd love for someone to correct me, but I don't beleive there's actually every been a nation where there were truly two co-rulers. Either they ruled different parts of the country simultaneously or they'd take turns, having one ruling from the capital and dealing with more domestic issues, and the other out in the field running the military. Perhaps it is because of this that Celestia doesn't take up the role of Queen, for there can only be one, and I beleive that would then make Luna have the title of Grand Duchess.

[Gestum 2,493]

Eqeustria is obviously a principality like Liechtenstein and Monaco.

[The Recherche 29,965]

It really all just comes down to market appeal.  As a word, Queen just isn't as appealing as Princess for young girls, justified or not. Like Gestum said; Equestria is a principality, largely due to Princess simply being a more appealing word.

[Earl Grey Ghost 444]

See that's exactly what I assumed, it is not only marketing (again the princess title is more appealing to 'young girls') but the principality nature of it. But the general point I'm making is really, that's a shame.. really. I wish they would try to turn it around, and hopefully with Queen Novo, it'll start doing that in the show.

Edited May 4, 2018 by Memento Mori

[Altastrofae 933]

I have a theory

What if Equestria is an Empirial Colony, where lesser monarchs are sent to act as the ruling class while the King and Queen stay in the Mother Land?

5 hours ago, Gestum said:

Eqeustria is obviously a principality like Liechtenstein and Monaco.

Yeah, exactly.

[kaiser5578 340]

my guess (keeping it in the show and ignoring the actual hasbro reasons) is that it is because they are all co-rulers of the country and not absolute like a human monarch. thus giving them the lower rank, or perhaps it's merely a cultural thing

[Wonderbolt Slipstream 263]

Maybe there is a King and Queen of Equestria, they're probably just retired...

Edited May 5, 2018 by Slipstream95