Am I the only one who has a problem with Celestia and Luna’s retirement?

[dead account 2,710]

On 2021-08-30 at 9:06 PM, Paleopony said:

I guess it was fine for Celestia. I mean, ruling for a thousand years? She must be exhausted now! It was very stupid for Luna to retire, as she was in the moon for a thousand years and she didn't get much of a chance to do her part as a princess.

Exactly. That's what I think too.

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

Luna seriously got the short end of the stick with this arc. Not only would she have reason to want to stay on the throne for longer due to the thousand years she missed, but also because of her other motivations. The whole reason Luna became Nightmare Moon and turned on her sister in the first place was because she felt she and her night wasn't getting the same appreciation her sister was. She wanted to be loved and adored the way her sister was. But now in the modern day it seemed to me like Luna was starting to get that love and appreciation she wanted, with things like the ending of "Luna Eclipsed" or "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep" it seemed to me like Luna was getting more of what she wanted. On top of that, Luna clearly feels remorseful for becoming Nightmare Moon and leaving Equestria without her for a thousand years, to the point where she literally created the Tantabus to torment her in her dreams. She got over that self-harm, but to me it seemed she wanted to atone by helping to defend Equestria and being a better leader.

But come Season 9, that's all gone. Luna's unique situation of having been gone for a thousand years is never acknowledged and she's treated as if she's just been around the whole time like Celestia. Her desire for the love of her subjects that she so dearly wanted before? Gone. Her desire to atone and be the leader Equestria deserves? Gone. At the very least I'd expect her to be conflicted, to wonder if she truly wants to retire or not, to have to think on it. But the season never explores her reasoning or tries to make any sense of her decisions. Luna was simply stripped of all her unique history and motivations for this plotline. The most tragic part is that by doing this, from a Meta sense the writer's have reduced Luna to being exactly what she never wanted to be: Celestia's Shadow.

Edited June 4, 2022 by BastementSparkle

[ExplosionMare 18,062]

It is too bad that Luna felt obligated to retire with Celestia since like most people are saying, Luna could've ruled for a thousand more years on her own. They also could have at least given Twilight some training before they threw her into ruling. 

[Splashee 28,564]

FIM time line:

FIM starts -> Twilight moves to Ponyville (S1) -> Twilight becomes a princess (S3) -> Twilight becomes the princess of friendship (S4) -> Twilight becomes a principal for a school (S8) -> Twilight becomes the ruler of Equestria (S9) -> Princess Celestia and Princess Luna retires (S9) -> G5 (Equestria is broken, no friendship, no magic, etc).

 

 

Yes, I have a problem with their retirement