A funny thing happened on the way to the blog post... · 1:03pm Nov 23rd, 2020
It's been a while yeah? We had a good thing going, the inspiration was there, the productivity was present, there were even some people interested enough to comment! The towels were fluffy, the air smelt of warm root beer, and everything was indeed peachy as I prepared to talk in-depth about my personal take on the Sisters.
Then Common Sense tapped me on the shoulder and asked me why I was revealing all of the character development and history for arguably the two most important characters in the setting, in a blog post.
Whoops.
Kind of derailed my train of thought really, why would I do it like this? Kind of the definition of spoilers really, like Lucas talking about Vader's familial relation to Luke in a random TV interview. This put me off the idea for far too long, ye gads, five months in fact; but I'm back to bend your collective ears again.
So I'd like to talk about generalities instead.
When people write for the princesses, and particularly Celestia, I often feel like they're missing something of the character (and I'm trying not to come off as a hipster here) and only capture one or two facets of her. The old ruler, the tired mare, the whimsical prankster, the manipulator, the wrathful protector, the romantic, the bureaucrat, and so on. Just a few stereotypes to fit the narrative and leave the rest to lie.
Celestia is old, in a way that's hard to really think about. Thirty-some years past 1000 on the conservative side, a few decades past 3000 in my case, and onwards from there. Ruling effectively for that span of time, maintaining a basic level of familiarity with your own civilization, keeping busy in a personal sense, it all adds to the character. When I look at Celestia I see someone who has been many different people over her lifetime, slowly shifting with the times even if those around her aren't quite aware of it.
Stern and unyielding in the face of a Griffon empire this century, merry and carefree in another, manipulative as she forgets herself for a while, homespun and down-to-earth when she loses patience with a Versailles nobility, fanciful to tease dour stoics. Variations, you see?
But it's not just "hey this would be cool", that way lies inanity and fanfic limbo as you realize that your story's made of hot air. I want to start on solid ground and try to see/say/learn where and how Celestia goes from a caring older sister and nothing more, to a much older and regrettably wiser sister waiting for Luna's return.
A progression, Celestia is a sister, friend, farmer, organizer, mayor, protector, champion, princess, ect. Each layer builds on the next, each informs the next. she was a humble farmer before she was a leader, she was first among equals in a town council before she was a princess of a nation, and she was a sister before anything else. I'd like to portray a Celestia who has lived a very long life, and carries the trappings, scars and memories thereof with her.
Well, that was a nice bit of writing, I'd like to do more of it if I can keep the mood going. Questions and commentary are always welcome, and on the older blogs as well! I know it's something of a faux pas to comment on someone's older blogs, but I consider these topics to always be open for conversation.
This is very much a concept that I think a good majority of people (nowadays, at least) acknowledge and understand. In the hands of a single author, this is a pretty gargantuan task, as you're practically writing the character of the immortals—like Celestia and Luna—from scratch. Most people have chosen to focus on a few of these facets over the years because it's simply faster to get it done that way; if people could sit down and fully flesh out these ideas in the time it would take to write a handful of fanfics, the princesses would be portrayed in this way 24/7, guaranteed.
This, however, is the ideal situation. In reality, we end up with a great deal of wonderfully unique characterizations that occasionally shine in more complex ways. Not ideal, but equally strong in their own ways.
Referring back to what I hinted at before, though, we're getting to the point where people have spent a great deal of time sitting down and developing these ideas on their own. Stories of the immortals and their ideas have been hammered away at for years. Traits are becoming easier to slide into place where needed, like tools of a trade. The number of people who understand that Celestia doesn't have a simple two-aspect personality is far greater than it used to be, but that doesn't make the task of showing the intricacies of a thousand-year-old mind any easier.
As you said similarly in your last post: you can walk back to follow the trail of how the sisters became who they are. But you can only walk one path at a time.
The sisters have lived very long lives, and so I think it's only natural that it takes a long time to properly work them into tangible and branching, yet cohesive ideas. Personally, it's still very hard for me to write them without feeling preachy, or overly reliant on headcanon.
At the end of it all, stories about the sisters are only getting better by the day. Keep at it with your ideas, and you'll have something to be proud of.
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Oh yes, I've no illusions that I'm magically the first one to have this thought, not ten years after the fact.
My main issue/thought was to ensure that I don't do the "Celestia is caught off guard by foreign hostility" kind of thing, as if the story is the very first time in Equestria's history that things have been anything less than completely idyllic. She can make mistakes of course, things fall through the cracks, she gets set in her ways, perhaps something genuinely new and unheard-of blindsides her.
I've no issue with this taking a while, I'm contemplative by nature. And indeed I've no intention of parsing out a blow-by-blow biography of a three-millennium old princess. I mainly want to sort out a series of bullet points so to speak, account for the time, give her proper grounding. As to headcanon, well I'm afraid there's a fair bit of headcanon going on here, quite a lot of it really.
I'm glad you enjoyed the read through, thanks for the comment! I'll touch on Luna in a day or so, once anyone who cares to give this a read has had some time to think on it.
Interesting; thank you for sharing, and good luck with that mood. :)
You make some good points.
I feel nothing but contempt towards Celestia so I'll ignore all those good points.
Thank you for your time.
I'm half jesting but most people would react this way if we're honest.
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Ah, such is life on the internet. no worries.
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On a more serious note:
my problem with Celestia comes from her characterization. Do you know about the "Three Faces of Eve"? something similar happens with Celestia: there's Celestia the ruler, Celestia the teacher, and Celestia the sister.
the thing is that both in canon and in fanon she utterly fails at all three.
I can forgive her failings as a ruler and even as a sister, but her failings as a teacher really piss me off (third-generation teacher you see), and they're so bad they even bleed into the other two aspects.
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Well that's what that big shiny "AU" tag is for!
Disclaimer: this author does not intend a fix-fic, but death of the author means that it will inevitably be taken as such anyway.
I'm not going to write a perfect Celestia, not by any means. But I feel that most/many of her problems tend to stem from isolation, be it self-inflicted or as a result of ponies walling her up in an ivory tower. It's difficult to govern effectively when everyone refuses to think ill of you or bring bad news, no?
So, I'm planning to address that isolation by providing someone, or a series of someones, to pull/push/drag her out into the day-to-day a bit more.
Teaching, I can see your point there. she's point-five for two so far as canon students go, and both times it's due to misunderstanding the psychology of the one she was trying to teach. Refusing to challenge and effectively discipline the driven Sunset, and letting Twilight turn herself into an neurotic hermit. Not a good showing at all. Again, I think an outside perspective will help with that, or, Twilight anyway, whatever happened with Sunset happened on Celestia's watch alone.
And no, I'm not writing a Celestia-OC shipfic, we've plenty of those already.