Dealing with immortality? Are immortal Ponies depressed?

[Bendy 1,819]

Do you think that Princess Celestia and other Immortal Ponies are possibly very depressed? Think about it, you're immortal and anyone you befriend is going to die. What could you do to keep yourself sane from having to deal with the death from everyone you befriend?

 

 

Just imagine being Princess Celestia watching the world slowly die around you as millions and millions of years pass until the whole world is a lifeless desert and with the sun now a red giant while you are still alive somehow maybe by magic. Celestia would be lonely beyond comprehension with only her memories left to comfort her as she spends forever alone in an once teaming with life world.

 

On a more positive note, it depends on MLP FIM universes if the sun and their world even has a end. Or the Ponies ascend to the stars for a new world to live on.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Rush

[Psych Ward 377]

I feel bad for them. But at the same time, who says all the ponies die? I mean, they probably do but they seem to live pretty long and happy lives. We know Princess Celestia is immortal and OLD. She has her sister though who will always be around.

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

I have to agree. I would never want to live forever purely for the fact that I would see all my loved ones die.

[~Lawful Jordo~ 2,064]

I read a fan thing once where It said that the reason Celestia and Luna chose not to settle down is because they were both mothers at one point, but they outlived their spouses and children.

 

It got me pretty depressed thinking about it

[silvadel 1,393]

Well, for one thing you start referring to everyone around you as children no matter how old they are because everyone who is mortal is a child by comparison. Then there is the superiority complex that one has to be careful about. Then there is the hunt for the novel -- finding the typical boring.

[Demiurge 108]

Damn that is sad. I for one would never choose the immortal life. Unless I had the power to make anyone I want become immortal too. Who knows? Maybe Celestia already has that power. She could then make all the characters immortal and MLP would never end!

[Bendy 1,819]

IWe know Princess Celestia is immortal and OLD. She has her sister though who will always be around.

 

I guess, but still. I doubt they would want to spend forever on a now lifeless planet with just themselves, they would either try go back in time or find a new world for their Ponies to live on.

 

Or not worry at all if in their MLP FIM universe the sun and the world never dies. Apart from those they cared about, dying on them.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Rush

[Eenohay 318]

I dunno, Celestia is pretty old, she must have learned how to cope a long time ago. There is meaning in life if you not only live forever, but also rule a country and have super powers.

 

You better be wondering how the hell did Luna cope being in the moon for a thousand years

[Demiurge 108]

You better be wondering how the hell did Luna cope being in the moon for a thousand years

Low gravity. That would be enough to keep me entertained forever. Just bouncing up and down, spinning around doing flips in the air (or lack of).

Oh wait, she was in the moon. Yeah, that must have sucked.

[Bendy 1,819]

I dunno, Celestia is pretty old, she must have learned how to cope a long time ago. There is meaning in life if you not only live forever, but also rule a country and have super powers.

 

You better be wondering how the hell did Luna cope being in the moon for a thousand years

 

By possibly becoming a mere shadow of her former self Nightmare Moon, who may have cold robotic like emotions and consumed by evil, now only emotions is hate and desire for power.

 

I don't bitterness alone made her become Nightmare Moon. It could be possible there's some ancient evil spirit made her become Nightmare Moon.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Rush

[Xievie 498]

Not once has the show referred to death. Not even a tombstone. Very questionable.

 

Though, Twilight was scared of falling before applejack saved her.

What could this mean?

 

Though she DID take an anvil to the head and had injuries for 2 or 3 scenes.

[Eenohay 318]

Not once has the show referred to death. Not even a tombstone. Very questionable.

 

Though, Twilight was scared of falling before applejack saved her.

What could this mean?

 

Though she DID take an anvil to the head and had injuries for 2 or 3 scenes.

 

Sorry, but funeral in Hearts and Hooves day, during Sweetie Belle's song

 

AHIUHASIUHDUFHAUHSUHF CHARACTER MINIMUN!

[Crispy 5,563]

Do you think that Princess Celestia and other Immortal Ponies are possibly very depressed? Think about it, you're immortal and anyone you befriend is going to die. What could you do to keep yourself sane from having to deal with the death from everyone you befriend?

 

The problem with this question is that though we are looking at eternity, we are looking as ones who are finite beings.

 

Celestia and Luna, having had lifetimes to dwell on such problems, have probably found ways to come to terms with the fact that the ones they meet will eventually die. Instead of dwelling on the end, they hold the memory of those ponies with them. It's all you can do.

[RazzyJam 1,519]

On a more positive note, it depends on MLP FIM universes if the sun and their world even has a end. Or the Ponies ascend to the stars for a new world to live on.

 

Unfortunately, it exists in our universe, given they can see the horsehead nebulae. So I am assuming that the star will die. Given celestia has some sort of connection to the star, I would assume that when the star dies, so will she

[SPLinux 374]

Not once has the show referred to death. Not even a tombstone. Very questionable.

 

Though, Twilight was scared of falling before applejack saved her.

What could this mean?

 

Though she DID take an anvil to the head and had injuries for 2 or 3 scenes.

 

Actually wasn’t there a funeral in a scene from Hearts and Hooves Day?

that implies that somepony died IMO.

 

EDIT: Aww i got ninja'd

Edited August 22, 2012 by superponylinux

[Xievie 498]

 

 

Sorry, but funeral in Hearts and Hooves day, during Sweetie Belle's song

 

AHIUHASIUHDUFHAUHSUHF CHARACTER MINIMUN!

 

Wait what funeral? Maybe you mean the wedding?

 

Oh! Hmm, but the song shows an old pony... so there is definitely aging to a very old age... oh yeah? Grammy Smith too.

[Dusk Lunar-Blaze 17]

I think it would totally suck. All she has is Luna, who will prob go back to the moon once all the ponies are gone. And Celestia controls their sun. She could keep it from Red Gianting.

[Xievie 498]

Oh, just viewed the hearts and hooves day song again. Didn't notice the funeral at all! My bad. So there is one sign of death at least. Hmm

[Bendy 1,819]

And Celestia controls their sun. She could keep it from Red Gianting.

 

And thus quite possibly keep the world livable for all Ponies forever by using magic. I like the sound of that theory.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Rush

[FoxyCryptid 4,327]

It's interesting to think about it if they'd cope well or not. Methos from Highlander is well over 5,000(that's just as far back as he can remember) and he still loses it over the idea of a lover dying and nearly gets himself killed trying to steal an artifact that could make her immortal too.

Edited August 23, 2012 by Shoboni

[silvadel 1,393]

Immortality is never something you quite come to terms with. I mean yes as the years, centuries, millennia pass by you do get a much longer attention span. But -- you never reach a point where you have used up any percent of your life -- it just keeps on. And actually, getting along with mortals gets WORSE not better as you get older -- because the perceived lifespan of a mortal continues to decrease as a percentage of your timespan. So while if you are a 500 year immortal, a 70 year span represents 12% of your time. As a 5,000 year immortal it now is like 1.2%. By the time you hit 50,000 years old -- the entire lifespan of a mortal is like the time between when you wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night.

Edited August 22, 2012 by silvadel

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

I suppose it depends upon whether or not you actually consider Celestia, Luna, and other similar beings such as Discord to be immortal or not. I personally do not--I feel both Celestia and Luna are no more that ~1200 years old, and that they have a finite lifespan. An extremely long lifespan, but a finite one nevertheless.

 

Still, the same general questions apply: how do they cope? Without more information, we can't really say, but I think Discord's apparent insanity might be a clue as to what can happen should they cease to care about those with far shorter lifespands. Princess Luna too has gone mad at least once, if not outright possessed by something in order to create Nightmare Moon. We don't know what all happened during the thousand years Celestia reigned while Luna was imprisoned within the moon--for all we know, Celestia had periods of tyrannical rule.

 

Still, Princess Celestia, at least, seems to be sane, and appears to care deeply for her people. At the same time she does seem distant. It's been often speculated that one reason for her asking Twilight to study friendship--apart from the obvious reasons of maintaining the friendships between the spirits of the Elements of Harmony and thus preserving that weapon for use should it be needed again--is that Celestia herself has forgotten what true friendship is. She might need the help of Twilight in order to learn how to reconnect to her people.

 

And then again she might not. She could, instead, be more like The Doctor from Doctor Who, where she always cares, never stops caring, and simply goes through hard times on occasion where she seems less kind than at other times.

 

The truth is, this question is far deeper than we could probably answer on our own here and now with these characters. I would like to see more detail in season three about Princess Celestia's life, before I am willing to develop a firm opinion about how she copes.

[Music Chart Fan 818]

Heh heh, this is a deep topic. As mortal beings, this mortal life is all we know. We do not know what, if anything, happens to ourselves after we die. Yet, the prospect of nothing after death is depressing and even frightening to many people.

 

It is interesting to me that a lot of people state that they would not want to be immortal, at least while living on Earth. Immortals on Earth always have to see the ones they care about die constantly. Consequently, that seems to take much of the meaning out of an immortal's life - anyone whom an immortal befriends will inevitably die anyway, so why bother? Another concern would be memory. Do immortal beings have perfect memories? Do they have infinite memory storage? Or do they, like us mortal beings, have finite memory space and inevitably lose memories by time passes and new memories are made? Again, if immortals have finite memories, then why bother doing memorable things or making good memories with anyone, when an immortal will inevitably lose such memories anyway?

 

Strangely, though, many people also think that life becomes meaningless if there is no afterlife. Why do good for anyone when, in the end, there is nothing? This dichotomy is interesting to me. Many people think that living forever on Earth is meaningless, and many people also think that a finite life on Earth with no afterlife is also meaningless. Is it the case, if both of these are true, that the only meaningful life is an immortal one in a perfect place where no one else dies and one has infinite ways to entertain oneself - that is, heaven?

 

I don't know the answers to these questions. I just figure that, right now, the only life we know is this one, so make the best of it.

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

They also probably have ways to deal with it. Kind of like how we deal with depression and such, they can deal with that.

[silvadel 1,393]

Heh heh, this is a deep topic. As mortal beings, this mortal life is all we know. We do not know what, if anything, happens to ourselves after we die. Yet, the prospect of nothing after death is depressing and even frightening to many people.

 

It is interesting to me that a lot of people state that they would not want to be immortal, at least while living on Earth. Immortals on Earth always have to see the ones they care about die constantly. Consequently, that seems to take much of the meaning out of an immortal's life - anyone whom an immortal befriends will inevitably die anyway, so why bother? Another concern would be memory. Do immortal beings have perfect memories? Do they have infinite memory storage? Or do they, like us mortal beings, have finite memory space and inevitably lose memories by time passes and new memories are made? Again, if immortals have finite memories, then why bother doing memorable things or making good memories with anyone, when an immortal will inevitably lose such memories anyway?

 

Strangely, though, many people also think that life becomes meaningless if there is no afterlife. Why do good for anyone when, in the end, there is nothing? This dichotomy is interesting to me. Many people think that living forever on Earth is meaningless, and many people also think that a finite life on Earth with no afterlife is also meaningless. Is it the case, if both of these are true, that the only meaningful life is an immortal one in a perfect place where no one else dies and one has infinite ways to entertain oneself - that is, heaven?

 

I don't know the answers to these questions. I just figure that, right now, the only life we know is this one, so make the best of it.

 

This misses one other form of afterlife -- that is reincarnation. If we just keep on coming back -- working to improve in each lifespan -- then you get elements of both worlds. You get to live and die among your peers -- and it does not have to end. Of course then you have issues of if the entire world gets destroyed what happens. Plus when you have HUGE population spikes where do the extra souls come from (are we making promotion to humanity an easy process and there are a lot of animal souls out there?)

 

This could also work for Celestia etc -- maybe she could see the familiar in the new -- See a friend from ages ago in a pony today...

Edited August 22, 2012 by silvadel