Aren't Castles Useless?

[Bendy 1,821]

Are the castles in this universe basically a useless defensive structure? What's the point of walls, towers, and other defenses when Pegasi can fly over the walls and unicorns can teleport behind them? Even Earth Ponies could be lifted or teleported by their friends over the walls.

Do they just make castles to make the place look nice?

Edited October 22, 2018 by Bendy

[ManaMinori 4,145]

sweet gravy, Hasbro has conditioned us for generations that it's normal for ponies to live in castles, so I didn't even think about it!  But you're right! There's absolutely no need for them, because we never see them being utilized as a defensive structure (and in g1, the ponies that lived in Dream Castle weren't even royalty.) Yeah, completely unnecessary, now that you mention it. As a matter of fact, the place would look much nicer if ponies were in more natural environment rather than having chunky, clunky castles littering the landscape.

[Ethan Tran 950]

you have a point, but...

you live in a house. what's the point when anybody can crawl in, unlock the door or break windows.

same for Castles. ponies (and people in our universe) live in them. or use them for other purposes.

I mean if someone want, they can break into anything. be that castle, country, or some super-hidden underground bunker.

so the main reason is how your defense system is working.

[Lord Valtasar 12,700]

the castles look like palaces to me, and they seem to serve the same purpose palaces in our world do, mark somepony's status, when Twilight became a princess, she got a castle(not right away, but i believe it was even commented, that she doesn't have one even though she's a princess, which makes me thing it's what princesses do live in castles and twilight was the exception/odd one, was it discord? i can't recall)

[Feather Spiral 1,892]

Yea, pretty much to show status.

The whole "why live in [structure] when anybody can make an effort to get in" doesn't really hold water in real-world conditions though. In case you guys missed, humans can't just fly over or teleport through obstacles.

Sure, anyone can break a window, but you can pay extra money to get more resistant glass. You can also get taller fences, maybe with sharp tops, to prevent people jumping over them.

Not sure how anyone can just crawl in or unlock the door, they'd need lockpicking expertise (unless you leave your door unlocked, then a credit card or plastic sheet is enough), much less that "super-hidden underground bunker".

I kinda sorta see what you mean by that, yeah, someone with the necessary skill can access any place. But isn't it worth lowering that risk, by making it harder to achieve? We live in closed and locked houses, and don't reveal our address to just anybody who asks, because that helps keep us safe. It doesn't nullify the danger, but considerably restricts the pool of people who can force their way in. Instead of having millions of people who know our address and living habits, we only have a handful of really determined (and some very lucky) potential intruders.

That doesn't apply in, say, Canterlot with all its magic-capable population.

[Vulcan 3,255]

From my understanding...

Nations have walls and Castles mainly to defend themselves from outside invaders rather than to protect the elite from the lower class...

The Castle in MLP probably shares that purpose...It's not to defend themselves against Ponies but rather creatures of other races...

Also the MLP castles do seem to have magical barriers as shown in the Wedding episode. So invasion through Teleportation would likely not be possible. 

 

 

[Denim&Venöm 19,384]

On the contrary, they're still very effective. For every way to get in, there's a way to prevent it. Pegasai flying over or unicorns teleporting? Create a force field or add in narrow openings and choke points for fliers. Or just have unicorns and pegasus guards to match the threat.

Most castles in MLP aren't really castles at all. They're more palaces. 

Save for one. Canterlot.

That place was built with defense in mind. Anchored to the side of a mountain, the enemy has to climb up hill, getting bottle necked on the only available road where they're easy targets from the high ground. Even if the reach the gates, there's a draw bridge that can cut off their accsess.

So feasibly, the only way to attack is from the air, and the guard are able to defend that route thanks to magic barriers, defensive turrets and a flying force of their own. 

[Goat-kun 2,530]

Give me one airship with "party cannons" ...

 

A fantasy fortress needs to be reinforced through arcane methods in order to be a functional defensive structure.

[Prospekt 11,021]

I guess castles are just traditional architecture, with the design serving more of an aesthetic purpose than a practical one. The defenses really aren't all that strong.

In The Return of Harmony, Discord was able to infiltrate the castle in Canterlot with ease due to his incredible magical power. In A Canterlot Wedding, Changelings were able to sneak through the magical shield around the castle and, upon disabling the force field, they were able to enter in swarms. In To Where and Back Again, apparently Chrysalis was able to capture the princesses with ease. In the 2017 movie, the Storm King's army conquered Canterlot quickly and enslaved most of the ponies there in the blink of an eye. The Mane 6 were able to get into the Castle of the Two Sisters with no problem in part 2 of Friendship is Magic once they got around the plethora of traps set by Nightmare Moon in the Everfree Forest. When they returned in Castle Mane-ia, it was even more painless (though the legend of the Pony of Shadows probably would've kept the average pony from even considering exploring the castle).

And honestly, Twilight's castle is basically just a redesign of her old library. Ponies are always coming in there for one reason or another. There are no royal guards to be found, so it's easy for an intruder to get in.

[Sondash Studios 4,853]

Well, you have a point, but Princesses and the Royals do need to live someplace fancy. The castles might be more for looks and bragging rights.

[CypherHoof 26,483]

I always just assumed princesses=castles. Most ponies are terrible at fighting anyhow, as Tempest easily demonstrated; any competent pegasus airforce would have left that airship a crater MILES away from the castle.

[They call me Loyalty 1,948]

To stop the infantry conformed by earth ponies. Most unicorns and pegasi constitute the generals and other higher rank officers, whose purpose is other than personal carrier.

[Thrond 3,263]

Twilight's literally sprung from the ground wholly formed, so maybe castles just sort of appear in that world, and the princesses maintain them mostly because it creates jobs. 

[RDDash 19,206]

On 10/22/2018 at 2:39 AM, Nightmare Muffin said:

(and in g1, the ponies that lived in Dream Castle weren't even royalty.

The people or ponies who lived in the castles doesn't need to be royal, they are just need to be wealthy enough to provide a housing to other ponies who would live on their land for a monthly fee in the form of taxes, food, gold, silver. 

Having Twilight to be a landlord of entire city would make sense I guess, but I don't think the show writers wanted her to go that way because she opened a school instead.

Edited October 26, 2018 by R.D.Dash

[sweetolebob18 728]

You're right. Between flying enemies (Dragons, Griffons, Pegasi) & the way Diamond Dogs can dig, caste walls are a lot less useful than in IRL.

Still, they can keep out most monsters & some street riots. Plus, there is probably some prestige involved 

[BornAgainBrony 2,398]

It's good enough to give some cover to the fighters. And I'm sure unicorns would rather be putting up forcefields from the relative safety of stone walls, instead out out in the open.

[Jeric 46,861]

For quite some time in our world, castles serve more as a symbol of national/regional pride and status than functional defensive structures. But to be honest, we can easily get into odd semantics here becaue as LV stated the Equestrian castles are more like palaces, though refered to as castles in almost the same way American palaces and mansions are refered to as castles which they are technically not.