So she may not be a princess or even royalty in the human world. So she only runs a school with as many teachers as she has fingers on one hand. So she has legs for days and is one inch away from being considered a titan. I know I was going somewhere with this. Oh yeah, Celestia Day! I can joke a kid that she doesn’t really do or have much to do when being just a simple junior/high school principal with her sister as Vice Principal of the Night Classes, but she slowly makes her way into my mind when thinking of the comparisons to her alicorn demi-god counterpart. So let’s get Celestia Day a good start with a principal who probably needs more recognition than we give her.
1. Celestia and her backstory with the staff
I’m glad I really paid attention with the short The Road Less Scheduled since it kind of dropped a big clue into Celestia and her possibly becoming a teacher and principal. The fact that these three knew each other before becoming the staff of a school is interesting. There’s even a good nod of continuity in the pony world in Cranky’s first appearance in Season 2’s A Friend in Deed since Cranky would still be a young donkey and Celestia and (absent) Luna would still be practically unaged and immortal. So the idea that they knew each other in the human world is pretty interesting. And that it might mean Celestia is a lot older than we know. And just the idea that these three probably went to school and even college together to run their own school is kind of amazing to think about.
2. She did TRY to help
Ok this is probably what we kick Celestia in the flank for all the time when it comes to being a princess demi-god. The idea that she could at least put up some type of fight, but still lose in some way just to have anyone else do most of the work. Whether it be her niece and royal guard for a wedding, side villain and antagonist characters against a changling army, a baby dragon against a smoke monster, or the Mane 6 against…everything. But in this case, we have a human principal with no powers or strength trying to protect her sister and students. She was not meant to succeed against magic when she had none herself. In this sense, she at least cared to shield them from harm even if it meant being trapped behind branches in a millisecond. Even going against Principal Cinch in the Friendship Games, she tried not just helping her own students but protecting the Crystal Prep students from possible dangerous magic. Say what you will, but I like the idea that she doesn’t focus just on Twilight alone compared to her pony counterpart.
3. Hard Worker to a Fault
So it’s fair that we wouldn’t get to see much of princess life when it comes to Celestia’s daily live as ruler of all Equestria, but for a principal like Celestia, she can be more hands on. There’s a bit of contradiction with what Princess Celestia does since she’s a public figure for royalty, but has a committee of others that do most of the hands on work as said by Fancy Pants in Between Dark and Dawn. So Princess Celestia does have help in situations like big events. With Principal Celestia, she has Vice Principal Luna, Cranky Doodle the teacher, Cheerilee the teacher/librarian, and Granny Smith the lunch lady. And this image was from a short called Subs Rock, where Celestia substitutes for some unknown teacher and is constantly interrupted to solve a problem. She is truly one who does it all by herself. But maybe she should look into hiring more staff. Working with your sister and friends is fine, but only having them is not gonna cut it.
4. She’s not so flawless
When a character is less polished and can have other emotions other than just happy and content, that’s when they really shine. This was just a normal school with normal kids and the next thing you know, you have magic running about everywhere. And there are times where Celestia takes it in stride, and other times where she makes these types of faces and thinks heavily about retirement. We don’t really see that happen with our beloved princess, where it feels like she rarely ever makes mistakes, but we can see things like anger and frustration from a principal. The realism here is truly incredible.
5. She just…knows too much
Yeah there shouldn’t be a doubt in anyone’s mind about how “just right” these words needed to be heard from Celestia, even if it’s a Celestia that Princess Twilight doesn’t fully know. She just happened to know the right things to say to this pony princess girl from another dimension? A very strange and unlikely coincidence I would say. But I guess if Pinkie Pie is capable of great wall breaking, so can a school principal. This along with the “writing letters” joke in The Road Less Scheduled shows how much of a wise, attentive and all-knowing troll Celestia is as a character. Makes for great comedic timing on her part.
And that was my Top 5 moments with Principal Celestia. I know she was supposed to just be more of a background character compared to the princess we all know, but it doesn’t mean she never had presence. She’s still the caring, sweet, and whimsical leader we all know her as and it’s really a shame we didn’t get more of her and Luna’s interactions. It felt like those moments with her sister really brought out another side to Celestia where she didn’t have to be prim and proper 24/7. We get a bit of it in Legend of Everfree when Celestia and Luna mentioned going to camp when they were kids (Forest of the Two Sisters reference? Who knows). There’s no moment with Celestia on screen where I’m not happy to see her just like any other background character only because it makes her seem more…human (hah). It’s probably just due to occupational differences, but when you can just not question why she would be in the background somewhere is nice. She’s a principal with a life and maybe just wanted to go around the mall with her little sister. With Principal Celestia, I know her door will always be open. I’m Penny Wrights and I maybe I’ll cosplay Celestia myself. Anybody got any stilts I can borrow?
By the way, this is an honorable mention.
