A Look at Luna

Of all the characters on 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' my favorite has to be Princess Luna. You know what—scratch that. She's one of my favorite characters PERIOD.

Why?

Because she's one of the most psychologically fascinating characters ever.

Let's start with Luna's past.

For a long time she ruled the land of Equestria with her older sister, Princess Celestia, but after a while, Luna turned, attempting to bring about eternal night. Celestia banished Luna to the moon with the Elements of Harmony, and so on.

But here's the thing—until…say season 2 there was no way to say what caused Luna's turn. Why did she go Dark Side?

Here's my theory—Before Luna went evil, three things happened: Discord, the Sirens, and Tirek. Who's to say that one or all of these villains didn't do some whispering in Luna's ear, convincing her to turn against Celestia and Equestria? Telling her that she was getting a raw deal as she always worked during the nights when everyone else slept?

In many respects, you can compare her to Anakin Skywalker since both characters sought power which became their downfall. The major difference is that Anakin sought power—ultimately—to save the woman he loved from death, not knowing that the pursuit would, in fact, cause said death. (Or to translate the Latin expression "After the fact, therefore because of the fact".)

Luna saw that her sister was getting constant attention and glory while Luna received very little. This led to the younger princess to grow angry and lash out at the world and her own sister, endeavoring to take over Equestria through eternal night.

Cut to…

Yes, Mr. Elephant in the Room, I see you and I'll get to you shortly. Just sit tight.

As I was saying, 1000 years later Twilight Sparkle and her newfound friends again wield the Elements of Harmony and turn Luna back to good.

And here's where Luna gets really interesting. In season 2, Luna finds that Ponyville is celebrating 'Nightmare Night' where her evil persona is celebrated. I can imagine Celestia telling Luna to go out and mingle with the crowd, hoping that the holiday will help Luna understand that she is no longer feared, but this backfires. Luna is perhaps hoping to celebrate with the townsponies and instead they flee from her, screaming.

There's a wonderful scene where Luna studies a statue of Nightmare Moon and Luna seems to be thinking on her past and how she can possibly deal with everyone fearing her. Her guilt and inner turmoil are weighing on her and she wonders how she can possible make things right.

Luna has a lot of guilt, fear, and uncertainty to deal with. Because of this, she often reminds me of the character of Angel from the TV show 'Buffy, the Vampire Slayer'. Angel killed, tortured, and tormented hundreds—if not thousands—of people until he was stopped by a gypsy curse. And even then, it took a long time for him to figure out what to do with himself. Eventually, he sought redemption through helping others, protecting the Slayer and eventually the citizens of Los Angeles.

Luna went down the same path. After a rocky start interacting with other ponies as a group, she instead focused helping individuals—specifically, the Cutie Mark Crusaders: Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom. Luna mentored these three, helping them with their fears and insecurities.

But even with all this newfound love and acceptance, Luna still has her guilt. Which leads us to that elephant in the room—the episode 'Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?' and the creation of the tantabus?

More than a few internet reviewers and critics have come down on the episode because it shows Luna as mentally unstable and using magic as a method of self harm. She's letting her guilt and inner pain eat away at her and not seeking help.

But… Here's the question I want answered first before I come to any judgments on Luna's behavior—How long has this been going on? No, really.

If this has been going on for months—if not all year—then the critics and reviewers are absolutely right, and Luna is in dire need of professional help. Weeks, then I'd call the tantabus a coping mechanism that has gotten out of hand.

If—at the time the episode takes place in—we're talking days… I actually have a very different theory.

I wouldn't be surprised if Luna's usual nightmare ended with Celestia banishing her into the moon again because it's something ever present in her mind. Not just the memory of the original event, but worries that someday something could happen to make Luna go Dark Side again. I like to think that's why she wanted so desperately to go to the Crystal Empire to help defeat King Sombra. Luna wants to prove herself as a good guy. She wants to show Celestia and everyone else that she has truly reformed and she will not go down the dark path again.

I also think that's why Luna didn't want to tell Celestia that the tantabus had started infecting the Mane Six's dreams as well. Luna was probably afraid that Celestia would overreact and banish her again.

Now let's talk about why Luna would create a nightmare monster in the first place. I mean, she's happy. She's celebrated. She's a mentor to three young fillies.

Well, let's go back to Angel for a minute, and specifically that curse I spoke about before. Angel was a soulless monster for more than a century before killing the favorite daughter of a gypsy tribe. The elders gave him his soul back, allowing him to feel guilt for what he'd done. But that curse came with a loophole—if Angel experiences a moment of true happiness, then the curse would lift and he goes back to his evil ways.

I can't help wondering if that's how Luna feels. She's happy in her new life, but does she constnantly wonder that she could grow complacent and slowly slide back into Nightmare Moon?

The tantabus could be Luna's way of reminding herself about what she'd done and those she hurt in her quest for power. It could be her way of telling herself not to become that powerful again.

Also, the fact that Luna created the tantabus to infect her own dreams says that she wanted to deal with her issues herself. Now… why would she do that? Well, she thought it would be a punishment for her, and her alone. A self-contained monster that would keep her in check if she felt that she might be going out of control and remind her of why going evil is bad. But the tantabus got fed up—literally—with Luna's nightmares and went after others, especially after the Mane Six came into the nightmare to save Luna.

Now the other thing people take issue with on 'Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?' is how easily the townsponies and the Mane Six get Luna to ease up on herself. And they're right.

Guilt related depression is very hard to get rid of, especially when it stems from directly hurting someone you care about. And while a lot of people would claim that depression can only be fixed by therapy and medication, I think that's only partially true.

When I accidentally tripped my 4th grade teacher and she broke her elbow, it was years before I stopped feeling guilty about not watching where I was walking. Everyone told me it wasn't my fault. My teacher sent me a card saying that she knew it was an accident and she didn't blame me at all.

Guilt related depression stems from your emotions and memories. Even with psychiatric help and medication, those memories and feelings are still going to be there. They're not just going to go away. It takes time, reassurance, and emotional support to get over the guilt before you can start working on the depression.

So, over all—I love Princess Luna. She has such potential and so many psychological nuances that I hope get explored further on the show.

Oh, and 'Lullaby for a Princess' is TOTALLY canon.