Celestia - Impressions of the Enigmatic Sun Queen

[Amethyst_Gem 6]

Here's a montage (two now):

Princess Celestia Season One

P. C. Season Two
(apparently missed the weird 'ending clip moving to the start' issue on this one, but its just a spit second)

I meant to have this done in time for Summer Solstice.. not too late right?

There are two key aspects of Celestia which leads to so much negative interpretation of the all-powerful, kindly calculating, mystery monarch.

Lack of focus is the bigger draw. Her longest screentime for one episode is a bit over 5 minutes, twice, and she only appears in 2/5ths of the series, too. She appears off and on all over the place, sometimes when least expected, and often just for brief appearances. Even her sister outdoes her on screentime per single episode (especially if we count Nightmare Moon as Luna too). 

If watching the show normally, especially when these episodes were first aired, this provides plenty of fuel for rumor and uncertainty of her royal Sunnyness. Plenty of time inbetween to gossip and presuppose about who and what Celestia is really all about.

Another aspect to her mystery and uncertainty is the fact that in at least half of her appearances, she is performing her role as monarch and/or teacher, resulting in a pleasant yet ambiguous impression, like a skilled political diplomat would acquire. This impression is topped off with her expectations to hear social moral lessons from the rest of the cast.

Watching her scenes in one sitting gives a stronger sense of appreciation for her less common personality quirks, like her humor and casual attitude. Of course, even such quirks can be open to scrutiny. She's also by far the least likely to do any overtly human-style gestures with her hooves or body, making her more effectively, believably horse-like, but also more foreign and alien too.

Noticing that one aspect of hers distinctly absent in in season one is her angry side. She does get upset at villains and even Twilight sometimes. I think all the dark rumors about her were circulating before season 2 began, though.

There have been collected clips of Luna before, but she has less screen-time (I think) and less episodes to browse through overall, so her scenes are much easier to put together. That, and she's more popular, more incentive. Celestia appears in at least a third(?) of her sister's screen time too. Moreover, its certainly a lot more daunting to patch together her much more numerous and spread out appearances.

Didn't mean for this to come out as some sort of analytical essay, but there you have it.

Curious to hear others' opinions and impressions. 

[NavelColt 22,883]

I enjoy Celestia more than Luna, which apparently puts me in some sort of minority, considering Luna's fanbase is bloated. Celestia was actually my sole favorite character for most of Season 1, when I first joined the fandom. I still very much enjoy her, and always will. A great little insight you got here :3 I'm only sad to see that it hasn't garnished any attention yet. Hopefully that can change now that I'm throwing it back up at the top.

[applejock 359]

She honestly needs more flaws. I think Luna's fanbase is so huge due to this simple fact, shes really a broken character. And time/episodes will "fix" her. People LOVE broken, i mean look at Pinkie Pie she has a HUGE fanbase and this mare lives with a married couple who have foals are not relatives and she rents/works for them, and she is clearly an adult, while ALL of her friends are either buisness owners, independant or educated. That's a broken persona. 

 

Roleplayed characters need flaws to be loved, or even liked. Celestia is just well..TOO good. Now as a story someone who has spent way to many years Rping i can tell you for a fact i see LOTS of chances to break our dear Princess. Not going to suggest a possible romance, too easy. I would suggest however a addiction of some sort, perhaps to cider or sweets, innocent enough to start with and easy to make jokes of. Move on then to her relationship with Luna, give those two there OWN episode of just day to day life in the Palace. Let the drama flow naturally from that, Sisters are always poking fun or having secrets just make it "natural" relaxed, Luna doing something human like enjoying a hobby she just found that annoys Celestia, or Tia forcing Luna to go to a social gathering like  Rarity's public gala type event when her friends showed up. Hell, show them argueing over a play to see or music to listen too, or hell  anything that envolves conflict.

 

The meme of Gamer Luna and Molestia are great footings, some call them out of character or gross even, others like it because its so "human" and we relate to them. Give the fans that, just in tiny doses. Let our imaginations work! Damnit!

 

lol

[NavelColt 22,883]

She honestly needs more flaws. I think Luna's fanbase is so huge due to this simple fact, shes really a broken character. And time/episodes will "fix" her. People LOVE broken, i mean look at Pinkie Pie she has a HUGE fanbase and this mare lives with a married couple who have foals are not relatives and she rents/works for them, and she is clearly an adult, while ALL of her friends are either buisness owners, independant or educated. That's a broken persona. 

 

Roleplayed characters need flaws to be loved, or even liked. Celestia is just well..TOO good. Now as a story someone who has spent way to many years Rping i can tell you for a fact i see LOTS of chances to break our dear Princess.

 

I still want to see an episode where Celestia gets corrupted into Nightmare Supernova or something, by a darkness similar to what corrupted Luna. That would give Celestia some character development opportunity, and allow for Twilight and possibly Luna to team up with Twi's friends to return her to normal. Celestia's entire role in the show thus far has been that of a teacher, and even a mother-figure for Twilight as well, and while that's great and it's one of the things I love about her, she needs to have something like the above happen to her, imo.

 

I'd be satisfied even if the comics did it (which is far more likely than the show). Even though the comics aren't 'canon' per say, they're the next best thing, and give us events that 'could' happen in the universe, even if it's not shown in the show.

[Scootalove 10,692]

I respect your long essay on your opinions on Celestia.

 

Celestia is a pretty solid character when it comes to her backstory but, I can't really leave Luna out of this since she matters too. But I want to see an episode where Celestia turns evil/corrupted and faces Twilight in a very huge battle sequence. So, we give credit where credit is due and it would be a pretty good episode to see.

[Concord 1,982]

Hello!

 

Well well well... You hit the jackpot with me on this topic...

 

Where Chaotic Discord calls the group of people who like Celestia more than Luna a minority, you can imagine the ammount of people like me, who call Celestia - "Best pony". This was a very nice "review", you can call it. Celestia is not only a wise pony, a majestic one, but she's also a very cute one. She is a pony I feel a special connection, which is very hard to describe... The thing I never got is that, even with more screen time than Luna, she is heavily overshadowed by her Nightly sister, why?

[hawkflame 3,315]

I still want to see an episode where Celestia gets corrupted into Nightmare Supernova or something, by a darkness similar to what corrupted Luna. That would give Celestia some character development opportunity, and allow for Twilight and possibly Luna to team up with Twi's friends to return her to normal. Celestia's entire role in the show thus far has been that of a teacher, and even a mother-figure for Twilight as well, and while that's great and it's one of the things I love about her, she needs to have something like the above happen to her, imo.

 

I'd be satisfied even if the comics did it (which is far more likely than the show). Even though the comics aren't 'canon' per say, they're the next best thing, and give us events that 'could' happen in the universe, even if it's not shown in the show.

 

 

I don't know about that.   I've never bought into the idea that flawed characters are automatically better or more interesting.  Having personality quirks, yes, but not necessarily being shown as corruptible or imperfect in that sense.  I'd like to see some different sides to her personality, but a Face Heel turn isn't necessary.  Maybe an extension of her playful, fun-loving side, or maybe a private moment between Celestia and Luna showing them to be "typical" sisters.  

 

I like the few times where she's shown not to be a big fan of the uptight, stuffy side of being royalty and all the protocol that entails (teacup trolling the Cakes, the Gala in general) and I'd like to see some more of that.

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

I like Celestia, don't get me wrong however, she's essentially a marry sue type character. She's defined as an all knowing entity and all powerful. Unlike Luna who is/was socially distant, though Celestia doesn't have any obvious flaws that singles her out so honestly the writing team needs to do something about it.

 

I would love to see an episode where Celestia turns evil as Chaotic Discord mentioned. She doesn't have to necessarily have to be corrupted by darkness or said element. She could perhaps test Twilight on her leadership as a princess and see if she's ready to defend her subjects.

 

Another interesting fact is that while Twilight, the Mane 6 and the rest of the ponies of Equestria revere and respect Celestia, they seem to be scared of her at times and get real nervous and jittery around her ( watch the first part of A Bird in Hoof to see what I mean) An episode centering around Celestia trying to ease thier tensions would be interesting.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,837]

Celestia has always been and will always be best pony. She's just the nicest, prettiest, all around best monarch.

 

All hail the sun goddess.

[WildCard 1,037]

I am also one of the biggest Celestia fans here and I've enjoyed reading your post.

I think maybe I like her because she is such a wise and almost flawless pony. She is beautiful and gracious when she behaves royal, but it's absolutely heart-warming to see her more casual side in the show or in fanart. I really wish for more such scenes in Season4. I think she doesn't need to be corrupted to gain character development, some casual stuff and maybe something from when she was younger would be more fitting in my opinion.

Celestia also has such a warm aura of trust and understanding surrounding her. She reminds me of Galadriel in the LoTR saga....and of the teachers that I liked the most,

[Metemponychosis 1,262]

Celestia is my favorite pony by far.

She is also the reason I dislike so much the parts of Fallout: Equestria that cover the time during the war.

And she is also one of the rare characters that I like, despite apparently "having no flaws".

 

Well, she doesn't even have enough character development for us to know much about her. Of course she seems to lack any flaws. But even if she has no flaws, she is still my favorite. I don't know how to correctly phrase it, but I feel that she is a different kind of character. It's like... If the Mane Six were characters in a RPG, she would be a quest-giver. I like characters like that because they feel wise and powerful, often weaving plans that the others can't see.

 

Another part of her that I love is that she is a benevolent ruler that appears to be a veritable good dictator. Of course, she didn't make Equestria the way it is by herself, but just for keeping those Canterlot nobles under control, by herself, for a thousand years, makes me think that she could be the answer for Earth's problems. 

Not to mention the whole controlling the sun thing that I just love.

[Inazuma 53]

I don't like Celestia but I don't dislike her either. She is very flawed, you just need to look the right way in order to see it. One of them being if she was so perfect then Luna would've never turned into Nightmare Moon.

Edited July 4, 2013 by Inazuma

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,696]

I am not a fan of Princess Celestia. We don't have much to go on even after three seasons, but I've seen enough to make me question her judgment and overall character several times. She seems to be a fine administrator and diplomat who makes the trains run on time, but beyond that I'm not impressed with how she mentors Twilight or protects Ponyville. How many times has Twilight been totally lost because Celestia keeps her in the dark? How many times have the Mane 6 had a disaster on their hooves only for her to show up late to the action or not at all? It's a wonder that Equestria wasn't destroyed long before they came along to act in her stead.

 

I understand Twi has to learn some things by experience but Celestia just can't give her what she needs IMO. Twilight doesn't need a pen pal who communicates via status reports from a hundred miles away, she needs an active guardian and surrogate mother figure. Celestia can't give her that and I wish the show would stop pretending otherwise.   Cadence or Luna, maybe. Twi needs that so much more than a pair of wings.

Edited July 5, 2013 by TailsIsNotAlone

[RrVPfX9cPtw59FpC 1,304]

Celestia isn't evil. She might be a troll, but she isn't a monarch or a tyrant or anything like that. She just likes to have fun, and her position as princess prevents her from doing so.

[Nature's Spell 526]

@TailsIsNotAlone Twilight has a Mom. :-) But I get your general point. Still the best teachers are often the most distant and aloof. Seems counterintuitive, but it's often true.

 

I like Celestia alot, even though I'm a Luna fan. Luna has the edge and awkwardness and darkness that I just respond to. But, I've often said that Celestia is exactly what she needed to be. Yet it would be nice to see her other side. We get glimpses, but never full views.

Edited August 1, 2013 by Nature Spell

[Dark Horn 430]

The only reason Luna has the higher amount of screen-time per episode is due to Luna Eclipsed. The total amount of time we see Celestia on-screen is far greater than the amount of time in which we see Luna.

 

Even though I like Celestia... well, aha, I much rather prefer Luna.