Sorry, sorry. A new thread is probably not needed, but... something I'm sure everyone here takes into consideration needs a little verbal acknowledgement, I think, so we can talk less simply about Blueblood -my fave stallion, actually- and more on the characters he either interacts with or simply may know.

First vic- I mean, subject, Rarity of Ponyville, a star-struck mare whom filled her own mind with fairy tales and, for the episode, came off as more-than-a-bit-of a gold-digger.

And yet, while a majority of the fandom hates Blueblood for his on-screen vanity, Rarity is still praised as 'fabulous', and not exactly thought of in the wrong at all.

... ... What?

Eh, a silly subject to start on, but... yeah, it's a silly subject to start on.

With Rarity she is shown to have redeeming characteristics... which are of course ignored by her detractors. Yes she had her mind in fairy tales and was demanding in her pursuit of Blueblood but she isn't a bad mare. Blueblood hasn't got any screen time apart from two episodes, neither really add to his character.

698029

Admittedly true, Pal. Still, my personal gripe is that Blueblood's hatedom stems from demonstrating similar flaws. Sure, Rarity has redeeming qualities, but judging him based on the little screen-time he has is like... like...

... like assuming Discord and Fluttershy would make a cute couple because of that recent episode.

698187
Too late for that Snow.

698192

Exactly.

I do notice how Trixie and Sunset Shimmer tend to get off fairly lightly compared to Blueblood, at least with the fandom.

2686566
Well, they were actual villains at some point. Blueblood was just a clueless jerk. He'd have a lot more fans had he done anything truly evil^^

2688143

Blueblood: Behold, I have murdered a small kitten! Adore me!

2692582
Maybe more in line with what can be presented in the actual show XD

Still, even that would do. That's precisely what Chrysalis did in the comics. As it is now, Blueblood's only characterisation is "clueless entitled jerk", which a lot of viewers find an even greater offense than being evil (since they themselves have to deal with this in real life), and he doesn't have the saving grace of being a cute female pony. I mean, people kept crying that Sombra was a letdown—that's saying something about the attraction of evil characters, doesn't it?

2692682 True.

I've been thinking one reason for his jerk-flankiness in that ep might be something like this; he was raised for awhile by Celestia herself, with her teaching him to be a good pony and all. He wanted to be the best pony he could be.

Then along came a Twilight.

Celestia, knowing how important Twilight Sparkle would be in the future, devoted almost all her time to tutoring her, leaving Blueblood feeling abandoned. He'd try and get her attention; trying to learn magic as well, learning combat skills under the royal guard, ect... And nothing but a few minor praises.

After Twilight becomes the Element of Magic he get an insecurity complex, and maybe even decided to give Rarity a bad time due to her Twilight association.

And Twilight herself is oblivious to it all.

2694010
You're the first to bring up a possible connection between Twilight and Blueblood's behaviour towards Rarity. It's actually a pretty valid explanation! Very believable.

2694226 **Bows** Thanks.

I had other ideas that would compound it such as Blueblood having a crush on Candace, who in turn shunned him without a second thought. A marefriend who tried to get pregnant by him to get on easy street (And had a miscarriage; later in life she'd be regretful of the whole thing), most of the people he'd try to befriend expecting him to be snobbish making it difficult for him to make friends, or identify who is trying to be a friend and who is trying to mooch...

2695144
And from there, he slips slowly into madness, hatches a scheme, it fails without anypony noticing, he stews on this for a while, then comes back with a legitimate evil plan. Villainy ensues, he is stopped, and finally gets a share of that villain-only type of love from the fans!

2697508 Might work, who knows.

2694226 But yeah, I always assumed the two would have known of each other, and Twilight would have been oblivious to how Blueblood felt or she would have given Rarity a heads up before the Gala.

2694010
2697508
Not an evil plan, but something else worked from the idea... a few days after the Gala...

"Nephew, I want to talk."

It is a well-known fact that anypony in Canterlot, perhaps even all of Equestria, would jump at the opportunity to have an audience with Princess Celestia, the Steward of the Sun. To be graced with her presence was a widely sought after honour, and living in the town chosen to host the Summer Sun Celebration was a joyous occasion like no other.

Her nephew, prince Vladimir Blueblood the fifty-first, didn't even turn away from the window to face her.

"Certainly, Auntie. What can I help you with?" he answered. Celestia held back a sigh.

"Nephew... Blueblood... It's about the Gala." Celestia explained. She suspected he had already known that would be the reason. Yet, he did not show it, keeping his gaze firmly glued to the image of Canterlot stretching out below.

"I'm not angry, Blueblood. A bit disappointed, but not angry," she continued, trying to gauge his reaction. Blueblood, for his part, remained silent and unresponsive. "I... would like to know what happened between Rarity and you."

"Nothing, Auntie," he calmly replied. "Nothing at all. Nothing that should be of concern to anypony."

Celestia watched him watch the city for a few more heartbeats. It was clear that he didn't want to talk, and Celestia knew better than to press him now. He was stubborn if he wanted to be.
"I see," she said. "I won't pry. Just please, remember that my door is always open if you do want to talk about the Gala, Nephew." After one last look at his stony expression, Celestia left.

Blueblood, now alone, finally allowed himself a tiny sneer.

"Doest thou enjoy it?"
The hard voice cutting through the silence of the room made him jump. He turned around with a yelp, looking wildly for the source—until his eyes fell on the Princess of the Night, Luna, watching him with disapproval in her eyes.

"You startled me!"

"Doest thou enjoy it?" Luna repeated. Either she hadn't heard what he said, or she chose to ignore it.
"Doest thou enjoy hurting Celestia by pushing her away?"

The stallion bit his lips. When he answered her, his words were tinted with quiet anger.
"I do not know what you are going on about. I am not pushing anypony away, least of all Princess Celestia. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to keep."
Luna looked on as he turned away with a snort and stalked towards the door. When his hoof touched the doorknob, she spoke to him again—much gentler this time.

"Thou should know that our sister loves thee."
Blueblood froze. For a precious few seconds, Luna thought that she could see an echo of regret flash across the prince's face, before it was replaced again by anger. He left without another word.

Luna remained where she was, pondering. She'd recognised the strange mixture of resentment, longing, and guilt surrounding Blueblood. She shook her head sadly. "I wish," she mused, "thou wert more like he. And less like... us..."

2783338 IE; using the Gala as a passive aggressive way to get back at Celestia.

Particularly notable that she didn't approach him after the gala, but a few days after it.

2785388
Celestia is a busy princess. And I bet that, after the Gala, she had to do some serious damage control for a while.

Plus, everypony knows Blueblood can be... well, whiny, whenever things don't go to his liking. He'll probably storm right in while she has a meeting and demand his Auntie fix things!

Yep, any minute now. Just a matter of time.

Alright, so he didn't come speak about it the first day. He's probably still embarrassed. Celestia's just going to ask the servants about that; he usually doesn't mind their presence when he's ranting.

He hasn't talked to anypony about the Gala at all? Not even to his friends? Well, she'll just give him some more time.

Yep, some more time. Just some more time...

Incidentally, Luna's last tidbit was a reference to two particular pieces of headcanon: Namely, that Luna has a strained relationship with Blueblood because he reminds her of herself and her own flaws too much; and that she's actually his great-great-and so forth-grandmother.
That's why she's lamenting Blueblood's jealousy. He's taken too much (in her eyes) after her character, and not enough after the stallion she loved. She'd rather Blueblood wouldn't go down the same path she did.

2787132 And yet Celestia still had time to go visit Twilight at the donut shop after the Gala.

I don't think Bluey would like hearing that.

As another note; one wonders why Luna wouldn't just tell Celestia what the problem is. Part of Luna's downfall may have been lack of intervention or assistance.

As with the ideas I listed above ( 2694010 2695144 ) the idea I had that all of this would be leading to is not 'Nightmare Blueblood' (Blue Nightnare?) but a suicide attempt by hanging. And one of the servants comes along just before he can die, gets him down while screaming bloody murder. Blueblood is unconscious for a few days following, Celestia is in a panic and as they work to uncover the why they discovered how isolated and alone he really is.

2791183
You bring up some good points.
Nightblood would have a ring to it, but I get what you're saying. And by the path Luna took, I mostly meant letting his bitterness fester and isolate him. Honestly, I doubt Blueblood is even powerful enough to do anything but lash out passive-aggressively; ironically, one more source of frustration, guilt, and self-loathing.

Ah yes, Celestia and the donut shop... no, you're right, he wouldn't like hearing that. None of the Gala guests would like hearing that, I wager.

As for why Luna doesn't tell Celestia: maybe she does, after their exchange now. Maybe she hopes Blueblood will catch himself in time, without outside help, unlike herself. Or maybe she thinks Blueblood will have to hit rock bottom as she did, before they can put his life back together.

Your story idea sounds fascinating. Any plans on doing that?

2793347 Didn't she become Nightmare Moon when she hit rock bottom?

And, no, I'm not planning on writing it, at least no time soon. Have at it if you want.

Just make it so everyone thinks that it was an attempted murder before someone (Twilight maybe) catches on to what happened before they start investigating.

2795606
I'll keep that in mind! Your idea really is too precious to just let it go to waste.

2796846 Thanks.

I want everyone to think about it this way. Gilda is a jerk but she gets away with it(Well at least more than Blueblood did) Because She used to be Dash's friend so she has something to get woobiefied on while Blueblood has noone.

Its the same thing between Sombra and Chrysalis, Both are Complete Monsters but Chrysalis has a good excuse so she gets labeled as interesting while Sombra gets labeled as boring.

And to be honest I feel like the only one who likes Antagonists who are actually Antagonists

697961
I explore one theory about Blueblood's behavior that one night in my main story, Space ponies in Chapter 8
I wonder if he was waiting in the Gala for a special pony he had been told to expect. -Except she was spending all her time that night at the Entranceway with Princess Celestia!

Nice try, Momma Sparkle. Think of another plan for Grandkids!

While waiting for any sign of a certain lavender mare.. he *ugh*.. had to shake off.. *oof* another gold-digger.. *erk* ... a very persistant one at that...