Princess Celestia's Impact
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a show that is, what I consider, the ultimate "don't judge a book by it's cover" cartoon. Why it may seem girly on the outside, one watch of an episode will transport you to a place with amazing animation, multi-dimensional characters, interesting storylines, ​and humor that appeals not only to kids, but adults as well. It's no surprise that the show has attracted many loyal fans known as "Bronies" that love the show and like to talk about their favorite ponies.
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But one character has grown on me more than any other in the show, and that character is Princess Celestia. I wouldn't have considered her to be a favorite of mine, but she has surprised me every time I watch the show. The sad part is that the fandom and to a lesser extent the writers of the show don't seem to appreciate her that much.
Princess Celestia is my favorite MLP character.
Image from "Keep Calm and Flutter On"
About Celestia
In the show, Princess Celestia is the alicorn ruler of the kingdom of Equestria, as well as the mentor to the show's main protagonist Twilight Sparkle. She raises the and lowers the Sun each day, while her sister Princess Luna raises and lowers the moon each night. A driving arc in the series was that Luna became jealous of Celestia because all the ponies enjoyed the day and slept through the night. This jealousy caused her to turn into the evil Nightmare Moon, and a small battle between her and Celestia happened. Celestia had no choice but to use the Elements of Harmony (the most powerful form of magic in Equestria and the big maguffin in the series) to banish her sister to the Moon for a thousand years before any real harm could fall to the kingdom.
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Many, many years after that, Celestia soon adopted Twilight Sparkle, a bright young unicorn, as her student, and sent her to the town of Ponyville to learn about friendship. All throughout the process, Twilight was worried about the return of Nightmare Moon, which prevented her from really getting to know her friends (the other 5 main ponies in he show). When Nightmare Moon ultimately returned, Twilight and her new friends managed to utilize the Elements and defeat her, returning Luna back to her original self. Celestia showed up, and told Twilight that while she knew of Nightmare Moon's return, she had perfect faith in Twilight. She would send Twilight and her friends to help with other threats that face Equestria as well.
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That's not to say that Celestia doesn't do anything. She cares deeply about the ponies under her rule and will protect them, no matter the cost. She is also incredibly compassionate and many fans tend to see her as a sort of motherly figure. And despite being someone of hierarchy, she does enjoy a good time and being down to earth with the other ponies.
Princess Celestia is Twilight Sparkle's mentor.
Image from "Friendship is Magic: Part 2".
Defending Celestia
Celestia tends to be the one character everyone seems to make fun of.
Art by Trenton Hixenbaugh (me)
Unfortunately, the same can't be said about Celestia when it comes to the fandom. Out of all the characters in MLP, Celestia is the one that is usually despised and is generally the fandom "punching bag", in which she is the one character everyone tends to make fun of. She's been depicted as a troll, a molester, a lazy bum, and a tyrant who make Megatron look like a Care Bear in comparison. She does have actual genuine fans, but it makes up only an incredibly small percentage.
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The first of which ("affectionately" named Trollestia) depicts Celestia as a trollish prankster. While this may seem harmless in and of itself, the depiction oftentimes shows her as sending a pony to the moon just because they polished her shoe wrong. Some fans claim she's a troll in the show; in the 3rd episode of the series "The Ticket Master", Celestia sends Twilight 2 tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, an event that happens in Equestria's capital of Canterlot. All her friends want to go to the event, but Twilight has trouble on who she wants to bring. Near the end of the episode, Twilight sends the tickets back to Celestia, stating that, as much as she wanted to go to the Gala, she couldn't neglect her friends. Celestia soon responded by sending in an additional 5 tickets so that Twilight's friends could all go (and even another one for Spike!). Most fans would consider this trolling, but you have to keep in mind, Celestia only recently got to know Twilight's friends, and she would't have expected that they would want to attend the Gala. Similar example exist.
Then comes the matter of a fan-created version of Celestia known as Molestia. She first appeared in a piece of fan-fiction that first appeared on FIMFiction.net (a site where people post their own MLP fan-fiction), in which Celestia was depicted as a creepy pervert pony. The fan-fiction itself is pretty cringeworthy, but the Molestia character soon picked up when artist John Joseco created a Tumblr blog of Molestia. This was a tad more tame than the fan-fiction itself, but Molestia was still shown as a shameless pervert who likes to show her butt at everyone's faces. While I do find the Molestia content that Joesco makes funny (mostly because it isn't too perverted and does actually have some humor to it), many fans outright despised it, mostly Celestia fans. While the Molestia blog may have closed in 2014, the character still pops up within the fandom every now and then. And while I do at least tolerate Molestia, it does hurt the appeal and presence of Celestia.
Another distasteful fan-depiction is portraying Celestia as an evil and ruthless tyrant. This depiction is something I dislike greatly, mostly because she is definitely not that way in the show. Tyrants are cruel and ruthless, and they oppose free-will. Celestia is kind-hearted and wise, she hears out all the voices heard. Fans also accuse her of being lazy because when a huge threat comes to Equestria, she usually sends Twilight and her friends to handle the situation. Although you have to keep in mind, Celestia is the princess after all, and she has a lot of duties to her kingdom. Plus she could be doing incredibly important (and possibly heroic) things behind the scenes. A great example is from the Season 1 episode "Swarm of the Century", where a bunch of small creatures called Parasprites cause trouble in Ponyville, and Celestia was suppose to visit during that time! Pinkie Pie manage to lure the Parasprites away, and when Celestia does arrive at the end of the episode, she has this exchange with Twilight:
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Princess Molestia.
Art by John Joseco
Celestia shows Twilight the ruthless power of King Sombra's dark magic.
Image from "The Crystal Empire: Part 1"
"Unfortunately, that visit is going to have to wait for another time. I'm afraid an emergency has come up in Fillydelphia. Apparently there's been some sort of 'infestation'."
[feigning innocence] "An... infestation? "
"Yes, a swarm of incredibly bothersome creatures has invaded the poor town. I'm sorry Twilight, to have to put you all through so much trouble."
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-Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, "Swarm of the Century"
What could interpreted is that after Celestia talked to Twilight and her friends, she headed to Fillydelphia to handle the Parasrite swarm there. Another great quote to advance the argument came from an issue of one of the comics.
"I am very powerful, and there are many things I can do. And yes, sometimes I have let Twilight take care of an incident that I could have cleared away easily. But I do not do this because I am cruel, or because i want to play a joke on Twilight...I do this because i am her teacher, and sometimes, this is how she must learn." Princess Celestia, "Friends Forever #3"
Clearly, it seems that some fans jump to conclusions far too much. They assume that Celestia's antics are stuff to poke fun at and that she does absoluteny nothing, when, in actuality, she does more than anyone truly realizes.
Celestia and me
Celestia is a character I wasn't originally going to care about from the start, as bizarre as it sounds. When I first started watching the show, My favorite Princess character was Luna, Celestia's sister. This was just me trying to fit in with the other bronies, because Luna is quite possibly the most popular and beloved character in the show. And there's nothing wrong with that, but Luna's popularity has spiraled out of control in the past few years, and most (not all) of her fans outright despise Celestia just because she sent Luna/Nightmare Moon to the Moon! Also, Luna seems to get more of the attention than Celestia, and that does damage the status to the latter. It doesn't make Luna a bad character, but it does mean that Celestia barely gets any time to shine. No pun intended.
Celestia's younger sister, Princess Luna.
Image from "Luna Eclipsed"
Celestia using her magic.
Image from "Twilight's Kingdom: Part 2"
As I continued to watch the show more, Celestia started to slowly grow on me. I wasn't sure why at first, but then I learned that she wasn't all that well appreciated to many fans, and it made me wonder why. As 2014 gave way to 2015, my appreciation for Celestia started to get bigger, and she soon developed into one of my favorites until this year, where she is now in my top 3. She is wise, compassionate, and powerful, but also knows her limits, which is all the good qualities a leader should have. However, things haven't really gone Celestia's way in recent years, despite her incredibly important role as the ruler of Equestria, she has not had a single episode that focuses on her! Out of the show's 100+ episode count, Celestia doesn't have one that solely focuses on her as a character. And that's a real shame, because an episode about her would be pretty interesting.
Out of the show's 100+ episode count, Celestia doesn't have any that focus entirely on her.
Meme made by Trenton Hixenbaugh (me)
You would think that an episode about the Princess of Equestria would have been in the works right about now, but it seems that the writers seem to shoe her on the sideline. In contrast, Luna has a whole 2 episodes dedicated to her, which sort of irks me. I heard from one of the producers that they do plan to give Celestia an episode, but they are waiting to do so. That's fine and all, but the big problem is time; it's good that they are waiting to do an episode about her, but I fear that they might wait too long and not go with it. I at least want a Celestia episode before the series ends. My biggest hope for next season is that Celestia gets the episode that she has been deserving for 6 years now. It doesn't have to be the best episode in the entire series, but we should at least have one so it won't seem like she's left out.
Princess Celestia truly is an underrated character. Most fans oftentimes interpret her actions as absurd, but there are a few in the minority who appreciate her for what she really is. Maybe we'll get an episode about her next season, or maybe after that. No one really knows. But given that many fans like what some of the new writers are pulling out, it gives me some hope that an episode about my favorite Princess may be in the works. What I do know is that she has slowly but surely developed into one of my favorite characters in the series, and I hope that we get to see more of her as the show continues.
Praise the Sun!
Image from "The Return of Harmony: Part 2