Just how "goddess like" is Celestia

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

It hasn't been confirmed whether or not Celestia is omnipotent, but by her life span alone as a reference appoint, I can say with confidence that I believe she lives forever.

She is goddess-like enough that she is best pony.

[Metemponychosis 1,258]

Lauren Faust, for all it's worth, has said that Celestia's power had been left undefined on purpose. If you ask me, somepony who moves a star around a planet (assuming Equestria's sun is like ours), qualifies as deity. This is very loose and can mean a lot of things. The problem is that we don't really have anything with which to compare her power except that scene from the wedding, and it's not good for this.

 

Buuuuut... The amulet trixie was using to give her more power was called the Alicorn Amulet. So, alicorns seem to be a "example" of power.

[Biff 37]

(Forgive me if this topic has been asked before, but I ran a search on the forums and came up with nothing.)

 

Princess Celestia: what is she, exactly?

 

This is something I've always wondered and I haven't quite made up my mind on it yet. She's clearly either immortal or invincible, or at least has a very, very long lifespan. She's definitely in charge, and has been for quite some time--she's got incredible powers (unless you're a Changeling Queen, then I suppose she's screwed). We've seen ponies use her name multiple ways, such as "As Celestia is my witness!", obviously paralleling "As God is my witness!", indicating a sort of deity status, at least among her subjects. 

 

It could possibly be that because she's so long-lived, her subjects have simply accepted this as proof of her being a god/deity figure, but she's not in actuality. But I doubt she's just a monarch who's been around a long time, mostly because she's a Princess, not a queen. The title "princess" implies there once was a king and queen, at least at one point in time. But clearly not in recent pony memory, because in A Hearth's Warming Eve we saw that history has kind of been divided into two sections: pre-Celestia and Luna and current times. 

 

Anyway, I'm curious about your thoughts and personal headcanons. 

[Castle Bleck 19,319]

Monarch and demigod, but not deity.

[StormRider245 61]

Possibly Monarch and demigod. Because she is powerful and ruler in Equestria.

[Biff 37]

Possibly Monarch and demigod. Because she is powerful and ruler in Equestria.

 

 

Right, but you can be a powerful ruler and still be mortal. Augustus Caesar, Queen Victoria, and the like were all very mortal but still powerful. We wouldn't call them demigods. The definition of a demigod is half god/half mortal, which implies that there was a mare out there who mated with an all-powerful god, or vice versa, and then Celestia and Luna happened. Which still leaves us with questions, like, what on earth happened to that god? Is he still there? Do the Princesses consult their dad if times get too tough? 

 

"Hey, um, Dad, there's this Discord fellow who's being quite stubborn..."

 

"LET THE PURPLE UNICORN HANDLE IT."

 

"You mean Twilight? She's still pretty young, we wouldn't want her to get hurt or--"

 

"NAAAHHH, SHE'S FINE. COME UP INTO THE SKY AND HAVE SOME TEA WITH YOUR OLD MAN." 

[StormRider245 61]

Right, but you can be a powerful ruler and still be mortal. Augustus Caesar, Queen Victoria, and the like were all very mortal but still powerful. We wouldn't call them demigods. The definition of a demigod is half god/half mortal, which implies that there was a mare out there who mated with an all-powerful god, or vice versa, and then Celestia and Luna happened. Which still leaves us with questions, like, what on earth happened to that god? Is he still there? Do the Princesses consult their dad if times get too tough? 

 

"Hey, um, Dad, there's this Discord fellow who's being quite stubborn..."

 

"LET THE PURPLE UNICORN HANDLE IT."

 

"You mean Twilight? She's still pretty young, we wouldn't want her to get hurt or--"

 

"NAAAHHH, SHE'S FINE. COME UP INTO THE SKY AND HAVE SOME TEA WITH YOUR OLD MAN." 

Celestia trusts Twilight and wants to make her just like Celestia herself: A queen. Possibly because she is getting older.

[Biff 37]

Celestia trusts Twilight and wants to make her just like Celestia herself: A queen. Possibly because she is getting older.

Celestia isn't a queen, though. I realize that her character was originally titled that way, but the important thing is she's not anymore. She's a princess. 

[Pastel 7,630]

The only reason Celestia is a princess and not a queen is that "Queen" is a title generally reserved to antagonists and villains like Chrysalis.

I don't think there has ever been a King and a Queen of Equestria.

[Singe 2,111]

The only reason Celestia is a princess and not a queen is that "Queen" is a title generally reserved to antagonists and villains like Chrysalis.

I don't think there has ever been a King and a Queen of Equestria.

 

Hearth's Warming Eve mentioned a King prior to their Unicorn Princess finding Equestria. Then there was the Alicorn revolution which violently removed the Unicorn royal family from power and ushered in Celestia and Luna era.

[ArcheoPony 76]

She's possibly a "god" in the sense of a highly respected power that has been around far longer than most. Other than that, she's just a "forever young" being of high magical power. It's not something that's hard to grasp.

[MysticShine 529]

She is definitely a monarch. I think the term "Princess" in Equestria shares equal status to a Queen in our world. I don't think Celestia is a Deity. She is not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent. I think she is a God compared to ponies though. 

Edited March 2, 2015 by Mountaineer28

[Tao 7,496]

Monarch: given she rules and the land such along now with her sister but they were asked to rule by the three tribes given they share traits with all three in equal standing. Also given she took over raising the sun and such let the unicorns free themselves up and made balance for the land!

 

Demigod:  So Ima going to have to say no on being a god or demi-god,   I mean as a Alicorn she has a huge boost in power/magic which lets rise the sun but she has been shown to be defeated and be on hoof to hoof terms in power.

[hip-indeed 304]

Monarch.

 

A) the whole "moving the sun thing" is likely not nearly as crazy or godlike of an ability as we make it out to be given the fact that Equestria is a storybook children's fantasy setting.  It's probably less that Celestia is literally magically moving an extremely massive celestial body millions of miles away and more that she just so happens to be the one pony who was given the magical gift of simply causing the sun to magically, whimsically rise into the sky each morning.

 

As the canon has shown time and time and time again, she's not even really that powerful outright, or in combat, or anything like that.  She's more of a gentle sweet queen-figure that definitely has a good deal of magical power, but any and every truly fearsome adversary out there with any kind of gimmicky power or just a lot of plain ol' strength can and does easily knock her aside.

 

C) I just personally dislike the idea of deities in fiction, especially childrens' fiction, like this.  That kind of thing should be for every child to decide about on their own (or perhaps their families depending on your view of things), and not shoved around in their face, especially in the form of non-omnipotent horse ladies in cartoons.  I can accept Discord as a god of chaos (though even he is shown to not be omnipotent) but nothing else.

Edited March 2, 2015 by hip-indeed

[Prince Firemane 309]

Well, technically Celestia would be a diarch in a Princessipality, she rules with Luna who has equal status in Equestria. Especially since Cadance rules the Crystal Empire and Twilight now rules her own Provence, most likely the Everfree area in which Celestia and Luna ruled a thousand years ago. I believe her, and by extension the other Alicorns to all be demigods.

 

Warning: Headcanon alert. I believe that each Alicorn is assigned a powerful magic to govern over upon ascension, a specific Patron that is their reason for existence. Celestia's is the Sun, Luna's is the Moon, Cadance's is the magic of Lovers and Twilight's is either Magic itself or the magic of Friendship. This Patron is their sustenance and their lives and because of this, they wouldn't be immortal, they would live as long as their Patron does.

[Jeric 46,850]

@Biff, I merged your post with an older one of the same topic.

[Zoraxe 546]

Hearth's Warming Eve mentioned a King prior to their Unicorn Princess finding Equestria. Then there was the Alicorn revolution which violently removed the Unicorn royal family from power and ushered in Celestia and Luna era.

 

Celestia quite clearly states that she doesn't wan't to 'step on anyponies hooves' in reference to pony rulers like the Unicorn King, its probobly a safe bet there still is a Unicorn King now. (read the Journal of the two sisters)

 

Celestia is powerful but doesn't seem to be god level power, as far as I can tell. She moves the sun but so did unicorns before her, she is powerful but has been beaten several times, she is wise but has been out smarted and done very foolish things.

 

She is basicly a wizard who is also a bureaucrat.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Zoraxe

[Guest]

I guess it depends what type of goddess you mean. In Greco-Roman mythology, the deities were fallible and could be wounded by heroes. Despite this, they were also held with reverence and respect. Certain gods also orchestrated mortal events and helped mortals achieve apotheosis. All of the above can be attributed to Celestia on some level, so she seems rather similar to a Greco-Roman goddess IMO.

[MysticShine 529]

I personally believe Celestia is a natural born Alicorn. Queen Chrysalis became more powerful by feeding off Shining Armor's love for Cadence, which was so great that it super charged her to have God like power. The Elements of Harmony are by far the most powerful thing in the show. Nothing will ever be more powerful than them...

 

Twilight, now that she is an Alicorn, does have a chance at becoming more powerful than Celestia. Celestia's talent is raising the sun; Twilight's is Magic itself. Magic is raw power in the MLP World. Put two and two together, and you'll get what I'm saying.

[Nature's Spell 526]

Clearly she is the senior monarch, but nothing indicates that the ponies worship her as such. Religion doesn't seem to exist in MLP.

[TheJLeeTeam 914]

Maybe Celestia along with Luna are children of Sun and Moon Goddesses and have a higher power than other ponies.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

I see Celestia (and Luna) as powerful and long-lasting alicorns. They are not immortal and they are not all powerful, but in comparison to other ponies they are top of the pile; easily.

 

I can see why some may revere her as a goddess, but the human concept of divinity may be very different from pony reality.

[Fractured 2,684]

Goddess. Comics seem to indicate that, prior to the Nightmare moon scandal, ponies actually used to worship her and her sister. 

Even now, she and her sister are ridiculously revered, to the point of the entirety of Ponyville halting its actions and planning entire days around their arrivals, not to mention several seemingly national holidays.

 

Of course, she's not all powerful, but that has little to do with her role as a deity; power even among gods is relative, and quite a bit of them are neither all-powerful nor all-knowing.