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Celestia and Luna- a thousand years without. Celestia, Luna, or the elements to blame?


ManaMinori

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I was listening to Lullaby for a Princess again, and still get a little choked up at the song, after all this time. The line of “the blame was my own, the punishment yours” by Celestia always makes me consider if the elements of Harmony had truly delivered a fair and just sentence for Luna who was simply hurting and desiring appreciation for what she created by her subjects, or if the elements had simply doled out the punishment befitting of Luna’s “crime” with no regards for it being appropriate of justified, since the blame was absolutely Celestia’s for not taking notice of her sister’s (her closest companion’s) hurt and suffering and sadness at that time.

 

The excuse of “oh she was so busy running a kingdom so she couldn’t have possibly noticed” is weak, imo. And with her sister as co-ruler, there HAS to be good communication to ensure a government functions properly, and even moreso behinds the scenes in their personal time, as sisters rather than rulers. And as the older and more mature sister, it was Always Celestia’s responsibility to ensure this. So yes, once again, the blame is 100% Celly’s. 
 

But going back to the elements ad their method of punishment. Was it just, considering the price Luna had to pay for her specific situation, and other party’s being to blame? Do you guys think the elements really function on a fair justice system, given not only Luna’s circumstances, but other villains? 

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Yeah, absolutely Celestia is to blame for not trying to talk it out (or at least the show portrays it that way until Nightmare Moon is defeated). Luna was upset because it didn't seem too fair to her but Luna didn't really seem to express that appropriately. I think Celestia's pride blinded seeing her sister in pain and only saw an angry version of her sister, which led to her being banished for a long time and led to tall-tales which portrayed Luna being "evil". Which, in reality, it was resentment created from sadness and a bit of jealousy.

Is it just? I think there could've been other options (talking it out for starters) but in the heat of the moment, I doubt Celestia was even thinking of wanting to talk it out and nor was Luna. "A Royal Problem" does touch on this though, which is close enough to what I think could've prevented their heartbreak. They should've tried seeing what it was like in each other's positions and realize they need each other.

It's also just like Stygian and the Pillars. Did Stygian deserve that kind of punishment? No, but they thought he was trying to conjure some evil thing up so in the moment it's understandable. And, he should've expressed that he wanted to be of more help because honestly it does seem strange if your personal possessions are taken from you without your permission. (and that's not even touching the whole magical cloning thing he wanted to do.) And after they pushed him away, that sadness turned into resentment. And the Tree of Harmony was trying to signify that it was a friendship problem which didn't need any punishing or banishment involved. Imagine if Luna and Celestia had that!

I don't think the elements themselves are to blame for anything as it depends on who is using them.

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The elements of harmony are inanimate objects, and as such, they cannot be responsible for what they do. With that said, it is also not the wielder's responsibility as to what the elements do either, or at least not that I am aware of. Instead, I would say that it is the tree of harmony that controls the elements and is therefore responsible for what the elements cause. We all know that the tree of harmony is connected to the elements and that there must be someone or something that determines what the elements of harmony do when they are used. One could say that the elements are programmed to do certain tasks when used rather than being controlled directly, but if the former is the case, then one would need to explain why the punishments are different for each villain. It is for that reason why I say that the elements are directly controlled.

So, moving forward, I think that the tree of harmony directly controls the elements through its connection with them. Therefore, the tree determines what punishment each villain should receive. This does raise the question as to how the tree of harmony knows what punishment each villain deserves, to which I respond by saying that the tree has knowledge beyond that of a mortal as seen by it being able to find the perfect matches to the friendship problems that it sends ponies and other creatures to solve. Yes, that does imply that the tree has god-like knowledge, or at least god-like senses. That doesn't necessarily mean that the tree is perfect in its knowledge and senses; rather, it means that the tree has knowledge and senses that a normal being couldn't possess.

Anyways, to connect this to Nightmare Moon's 1,000-year punishment, I would say that it was the tree of harmony that decided to send her to the moon for 1,000 years. It is not certain why that happened, but I would also say that since Celestia was aware of and actually took part in her sister's release, the tree of harmony decided to fulfill Celestia's will to give Luna a punishment that wouldn't be permanent yet still be severe. In the end, the tree of harmony is to blame for Luna's punishments. However, what I said is mostly theoretical and cannot necessarily be proven.

Now, that is not the only theory I have. I have another, which is that the wielder of the elements of harmony is directly responsible for what the elements do, so Celestia would be the one responsible for Luna's punishment according to that theory. I have run out of time though, and I don't want to make this post too extensive either, so I won't elaborate on that theory despite the probability that it is more reasonable than the theory that I presented. Also, before I end, I wanted to say that I think this post is on-topic, as it is a sub-topic (the topic is who is to blame for Luna's punishment and the sub-topic is how the tree of harmony functions in controlling the elements to punish villains like Nightmare Moon) and I do answer the OP's question. I just go way off into the sub-topic to come to the answer.

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