Virgin Celestia vs Chad Farquaad

Lots of textual walls in the comments. Nothing truly impressive, but there sure are many of them.

Lying picture.

@441TheSecond  
Also, she’s not necessarily rational while in that state.
 
@Beau Skunky  
If I may, I’d liken it to the Alicorn Amulet or the Inspiration Manifestation book/spell.

@landshark15  

 

Although you forget one thing OP’s friend. Celestia is taller than her subjects, unlike Lord Farquaad.

 
it’s not even funny..

@JustTheBast  
Well. Different interpretations and all. Maybe it’s bias because the idea of Celestia going from a silly little filly that nopony took seriously into Equestria’s greatest monarch is an idea I can very well get behind.

@Jarkes  
Ok, sorry about that, but you did come off as kinda snarky. People have getting on my case about the comic a bit, so I kinda overreacted.

@JustTheBast  
I thought the tribes chose Starswirl to choose, who chose them for the figurehead reasoning.

OK, this image is completely illogical and not to be taken seriously, but still: “Banishes creatures to a swamp”? What the heck was OP’s friend thinking of? (Unless they share Ilsor’s headcanon)

@Beau Skunky
 
Dude, I wasn’t even freaking out like some people will do about the comic; I like to think of myself as one of the sane people around here (though I’ve certainly had dickish moments).
 
And yeah, that about sums it up. I actually have an explanation in mind as to why Nightmare Rarity seemed closer to a case of possession (basically, Rarity knew deep down that her friends would never abandon her, so the Nightmare Forces had to take a more direct approach, whereas Luna never had something like that to reassure her, so she had more control).

@441TheSecond  
Hmm, that’s not the impression I got from the diary. While the united tribes chose alicorns as the new rulers, because they symbolically represented all three kinds of pony, their office itself was not symbolic - they were actually expected to lead.

@Jarkes  
For the sake of cheese, CHILL! I wasn’t even refering to that… (Seriously, the comic-hate is getting old, we can’t even discuss the comic casually on this site anymore without drama…) It’s debatable if the comic canon & the show’s are the same anyways.
 
What I meant was Luna’s personality & Nightmare Moon’s are very different. Celestia didn’t banish her sister to the moon, she banished “Nightmare Moon.”  
Kinda like the whole “Darth Vader killed Luke’s father” thing.

@Beau Skunky
 
Yeah, the idea that an outside force known as “The Nightmare” influenced Luna into becoming Nightmare Moon was Faust’s idea. It’s entirely possible that the comic writers knew about this and decided to write something based off of that idea.
 
Now mind you, they ended up making it look like it was straight up possession and it came across as trying to absolve Luna of any of the crimes she committed as Nightmare Moon (essentially claiming that none of it was her own fault), but that’s a debate I’d rather not get into.

Also, Lauren Faust revealed that the “eternal night” would’ve eventually caused major ecological problems, and such. Nightmare Moon was to evil/blind/twisted to that logic to see the downside of a “night lasting forever.”
 
Nightmare Moon was basically a whole different entity to Luna.

@JustTheBast  
Well, it also implied that Luna and Celestia were originally supposed to be just figure heads in their Diary.

@Background Pony #C4AA  

 
I’m not even going into the other bits of your post - I’m not friggin insane, thank you - but this one bears elaborating a bit.
 
It’s based on the false idea that there is one “true” model of monarchy, wherein specific titles denote specific positions, and that’s what they always mean. In reality, the existence of a “Lord” or a “Princess” does not in any way imply that there must be a “King” or “Queen” who is of higher rank, or that any ruler who is not called by those titles is not a “proper” monarch. That would be like me saying the president of the U.S. is not really the head of state, because he’s not called the “chancellor”.
 
A sovereign state where the highest ruler is called a “Prince” or “Princess” is technically called a “Principality”, rather than a “Kingdom” - but I think it’s rather understandable that the show went with the word that the target audience would actually know, rather than the technically correct term, for the opening narration. :)

@Background Pony #C4AA  
Because SHE BECAME NIGHTMARE MOON, Nightmare Moon IS FUCKING EVIL AND CORRUPTED. She’s Luna’s desires to be loved and respected twisted into egomania and selfishness, she doesn’t give a FUCK about what happens to the rest of Equestria so long as ponies bow before her.

@Background Pony #C4AA  
Supposedly, it wouldn’t.
 
Because that side of Luna is just that twisted.

@Jarkes  
>that whole “eternal night” thing  
Assuming 3 things.  
1, That it was meant literally, and not, for example, as a metaphor for the rule of the “Princess of the Night”.  
2, That NMM meant to follow through on this, inspite of the statements being made while she was in a highly emotional state.  
3, That NMM does not have magic to offset the ecological effects of a long lasting night.
 
Considering her goal, being appreciated by her subjects, it would be strange for NMM not to allow the day/night cycle to continue, once she has won and had time to calm down emotionally. How would making the planet uninhabitable advance her to her goal of being appreciated by her subjects, when they are all dead?

@Jarkes  
Oh, that was, uh, CELESTIA MANIPULATED THE MEMORY POTION! YEAH!

@Background Pony #C4AA
 
Last I checked, Luna was trying to usurp Celestia when she was Nightmare Moon. Oh, and there’s also that whole “eternal night” thing that Celestia haters always completely ignore just because the purified Luna was cute.

>Cruel  
>Evil  
Subjective terms open to interpretation.
 
>Not a proper Monarch  
True.
 
>Tyrant  
Celestia was the sole ruler of the country for a thousand years, after usurping her coruler and sister. In this time, said banished sister became widely known as a canibalistic monster, inspite of noone but Celestia ever having talked to her after becoming Nightmare Moon, which looks like a classic case of Blood Libel which conveniently supports Celestia’s usurpation of her sister.  
Even after Luna’s return and Twilights latter ascension to alicorn hood, Celestia remains the only princess we have seen on the show to actually make decrees, dictate policy or in any other way wield political power. It is entirely possible to argue that she is in practice still the sole ruler of the country.
 
>Arrogant  
Subjective. Celestia certainly does not act like she is a normal commoner, but rather caries herself in an aloof manner with a queenly air about her person.
 
>Banishes creatures to a Swamp.  
To the moon, bury them under a glaciers, in hell or other such convenient places.
 
>Ruthless  
Yes, considerably. She has a history of fighting anything that threatens her rule of the country head on. Sombra, Discord, Nightmare Moon.  
She also has a history of using unusually cruel and torturous punishments for said threats. Discord was turned into a statue and placed in public to spread fear for over a thousand years, left concious throughout the whole ordeal. Nightmare Moon was banished into complete isolation for a thousand years when she wanted equal attention from the citizens of the country.
 
>Dictator  
See entry on tyrant.
 
>Fierce  
She has a history of personally fighting many of her foes.