Celestia is a terrible ruler

Let us jump right into the debate. Also, spoilers, for those that have not seen the end of season 4. == Failures to maintain Equstria’s sovereignty == First, we must establish a timeline to get some perspective. This can be difficult, since the show was not originally designed to be that deep (it is for little kids after all). However, in S4E1 (season 4, episode 1), Celestia states that this will be the first Summer Sun Celebration with Luna back. That indicates that the first 3 seasons all take place in one year. Others one Reddit have speculated that it was actually two years (this would allow the episodes to be able to be placed in a proper timeline) and that while Luna was freed from being Nightmare Moon, she wasn’t present at the last one [1]. Either way, that shows us that the entire four seasons take place over only two or three years. So let us look at all the times that Celestia has lost control. Obviously we start with S1E1 [2], when Nightmare Moon comes back and Celestia disappears (either by being captured or just hiding). It is again lost in S2E1 [3], when Discord successfully neutralizes the Elements of Harmony. Once again we find her out in S2E26 [4] when Queen Chrysalis defeats Celestia. In S4E1 [5], Celestia is captured by the evil vines that Discord had sowed millennia ago. And finally, in S4E26 [6], Celestia willingly gave up her power so that it would not be taken. We see five cases in only a few years where Celestia has lost control and in all times, it was someone else, not her, that managed to restore the power (four times it was Twilight, and once it was Cadance). With the inability to maintain power, this makes her an ineffective ruler and that others would do better in her place. == Poor choices that almost cost everyone their lives == Let’s stop and look at only the most egregious examples that we can find in S4E25 and S4E26 [6]. There are several things that just compile upon each other here, but let’s go in chronological order through the episodes. First, Celestia receives a vison that Tirek has escaped. She receives this vision and fully believes it (she didn’t just dismiss it as a dream) when Tirek was still weak. This gives her a huge advantage, she knows who the adversary is, what his powers are, and how to track him down (she correctly understands that Discord is able to track him down with ease). However, she sends Discord by himself, rather than going with him. There is no reason to not go with him at all. She knows that he is only recently reformed and still shows to be a problem (we can see from S4E2 and S4E11 that he still hides the truth, manipulates others, and puts ponies in danger). One can argue that there is the fear that he will take her power, however, it is shown later in the episode that his power absorbing spell can be dodged (Twilight does this in their fight, and he has to resort to making her give it up, rather than just taking it). She could have easily gone with Discord to let him track Tirek down and she could have easily defeated him herself. She even says (after Discord turns) that they are not able to defeat Tirek BECAUSE Discord is with him. Which is to imply that they could have before. However, let’s move past this. After Discord betrays everyone and teams up with Tirek, Celestia offers nothing to her subjects. No plans to protect them, or get them to safety. No evacuations, or coordinated counter offensives. She does absolutely nothing for her subects. Her only plan is hide the Alacorn magic so that Tirek cannot take it. Though, of course, this becomes a moot point, because even if he doesn’t have the Alacorn magic, the Princesses won’t have it either, so Tirek will still be the most powerful being in the land and able to rule over everything. Celestia’s plan literally does nothing to help anyone. Moving on again, the reasoning that Celestia gave for transferring all the power to Twilight does not make any sense. She says it is because Tirek won’t know that there is a forth Alicorn so she can go into hiding. However, this is faulty on two levels. First, they are standing in a room that has a window mural of Twilight becoming an Alicorn, which takes Tirek all but 15 seconds to find after sending the other Alicorns to Tartarus. Second, they know that Discord is with Tirek and he is fully aware of Twilight and where she lives as well as her friends as a weakness (which he fully gives to Tirek). Lastly, we see that with all the Alicorn magic, Twilight is on equal grounds with Tirek (after Tirek absorbed Discord’s magic). This means that Twilight would have been stronger than Tirek had she faced him before he absorbed Discord’s magic (like when he showed up at the castle by himself). It would have been far more wise to transfer all the Alicorn magic to Celestia or Luna, as they have millennia of combat experience and they could have easily defeated Tirek when he walked in. Celestia had a number of easy options to defeat Tirek, however she completely failed as a leader to do them to protect her subjects and citizens. Also, she's a bit of a bitch. [1] . http://www.reddit.com... [2] . http://www.dailymotion.com... [3] . http://www.dailymotion.com... [4] . http://www.dailymotion.com... [5] . http://www.dailymotion.com... [6] . http://www.dailymotion.com...