Hello & welcome back to another year of Trotting Towards Nightmare Night. Ah, but what is Nightmare Night.
"Every year, we put on a disguise to save ourselves from her searching eyes. [...] But Nightmare Moon wants just one thing: to gobble up ponies in one quick swing! [...] Hungrily, she soars the sky. If she sees nopony, she passes by. So if she comes and all is clear, Equestria is safe another year! [...] Fill up her belly with a treat or two, so she won't return to come eat you!" - Zecora
Yes, it's a celebration of Nightmare Moon and that is what this year on Trotting Towards Nightmare Night will be about. We will take a look at the original Nightmare Moon, her time on the moon, and what happens when one of the Mane Six becomes Nightmare Moon. As we take a journey into the IDW Comics to take a look at the Nightmare Rarity arc.
But before, we can look at Nightmare Rarity, we must go back first and look at the original Nightmare Moon. As always, this'll include Voice Actress, Entrance, Personality, Most Evil Deed, Demise, Is Nightmare Moon A Good Villain. But before we get to that, we must look at one unique segment to Trotting's Villains Profile, Current State because as we've seen with villains from Equestira before, they can be redeemed but in the case of Nightmare Moon, they don't always forget and let the memory weigh heavily on them. With that out of the way, let's begin.
Voice Actress
Tabitha St. Germain
Wow, has this become the year of Tabitha St. Germain on Trotting? An entire Rarity Retrospective and now an article on another of her characters. As Nightmare Moon, she does a great job of giving you the Royal Canterlot voice while finding a way to instill fear into the audience. It's loud, deep and booming.
Entrance
Now technically, the first time that we see Nightmare Moon is in the intro of the pilot episode as we see that great artwork from the book that Twilight is reading that shows how Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon and that Celestia had to fight her off.
Now, it wouldn't be until season 4 in the premiere episode that the show would show us how Luna was transformed into Nightmare Moon.
As we see Twilight Sparkle drink a potion that shows her a flashback of this very moment. Now, this one moment is something that up until that point, many fans had speculated on how it happened and to see the show address it was rather shocking. Which I think as we go along, that moment will help us to understand why Nightmare Moon is the most tragic villain on the show and in turn, Princess Luna is the most tragic character.
Personality
Like all of Nightmare Moon, her personality stems from the jealously and resentment that Luna felt in the shadow of her older sister as her subjects adored the day but would always sleep through her beautiful night. These years of anger, jealously and resentment are what caused Luna to turn into Nightmare Moon as she let her bitterness eat away at her. And this is seen as she in her return, 1,000 years later to Equestira as you can still the sense the anger in her and that she has not forgotten, how it felt all those years ago. Though as you’ll see with the Nightmare Rarity arc, this is one area where the comics differ on the Nightmare Moon lore as they show it more as a sentient being that can influence anyone to become this villain whereas in show, it’s presented as the anger and jealously culminating into creating Nightmare Moon.
Most Evil Deed
This is truly tough because we do not know much about Luna’s time as Nightmare Moon. We are only given brief glimpses into what she did as Nightmare Moon such as you saw in that clip there raising the moon to try and cause Equestira to go into eternal night. And then there is the Fiendship Is Magic comic that I’ll be reviewing as a part of this event. That gives us a glimpse into Nightmare Moon’s time on the moon, where she tricks one of the Nyx…
We’ll get into that more, when I look at the Nightmare Moon comic.
Demise
Once again, I think we need to look at Nightmare Moon’s first fight with Celestia and then when the Mane Six defeated her.
Yeah, that fight is pretty awesome and also rather tragic on the side of Celestia as you see her forced into a position that she wishes that she wasn’t in as she forced to fight her sister and make the right call of a ruler by banishing her to the moon. Which it has been depicted as her being banished on the moon, even though the show shows it as her being banished in the moon. Which in hindsight is a bit weird. Now in the final part of the pilot episode, the Mane Six using the Elements of Harmony defeat Nightmare Moon and free Luna from the clutches of Nightmare Moon.
Now, it’s a nice moment and all but the big takeaway here is Luna and her guilt over what she had done. Something that still eats at her and she as we will see has a hard time forgiving herself.
I’m so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!
The way that this line is delivered, you hear the hurt and remorse in Luna for what she had done. Which as we will explore, this is something that she still struggles with.
Current State
We’ve seen briefly, how Luna still struggles with what she did as Nightmare Moon. Which goes into how she isn’t able to forgive herself. Luna Eclipsed touched on this briefly and this is a big part of the Nightmare Rarity arc but nowhere, is this better exemplified than in the season 5 episode, Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep.
We’ve seen briefly, how Luna still struggles with what she did as Nightmare Moon. Which goes into how she isn’t able to forgive herself. Luna Eclipsed touched on this briefly and this is a big part of the Nightmare Rarity arc but nowhere, is this better exemplified than in the season 5 episode, Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep.
Princess Luna: I created the Tantabus to give myself the same nightmare every night… [pants] …to punish myself for the evil I caused as Nightmare Moon!
Fluttershy: But why would you do that?!
Princess Luna: To make sure I never forgave myself for how much Equestria suffered because of me! But it seems I have not learned my lesson, for now I have only made you suffer more!
Twilight Sparkle: But that means you might just be the key to stopping all this!
Rainbow Dash: Yeah! If it gets strong because you feel bad about what you did as Nightmare Moon, then you just gotta stop feeling bad for what you did!
Princess Luna: How can I forgive myself? I am no better now than I was then. My creation is about to turn the world into a living nightmare!
Twilight Sparkle: But look at what you’re doing! Nightmare Moon would’ve wanted the Tantabus to turn Equestria into a nightmare! You’re doing everything you can to stop it! Don’t you see? That proves you’re not the same pony you were then! Everypony who knows you knows that Nightmare Moon is in the past! We all trust you, Luna! Do you trust us enough to believe we’re right?
[Tantabus growling]
Princess Luna: …I do!
In this episode, we learn that Luna had created this creature known as the Tantabus to give herself nightmares as a way of punishing herself for misdeeds as Nightmare Moon but it escaped and by going into the dreams of everyone in Ponyville, she along with the Mane Six and many more fought it off. But by Luna creating this thing, we learn that while others may have been willing and ready to forgive her, Luna wasn’t able to forgive herself. Which is often the hardest thing to do. Because by our very nature, we are our own worst critics and even when people are able to forgive us, we may not always be able to look past what we did and that we may not be able to forgive ourselves.
Is Nightmare Moon A Good Villain?
Honestly, Nightmare Moon is a great villain and is easily one of the most tragic figures on the show and that in turn makes Luna, one of the most tragic characters in the entire show’s run. You truly feel bad for Luna as you see her become Nightmare Moon and want Luna to breakthrough and come back to us but we know how the struggle that she faced and that it wasn’t easy for her to break free from being Nightmare Moon. Join me next time as we explore Nightmare Moon’s time on the moon as we look at her issue of the Villains event, FIENDship Is Magic.
No comments:
Post a Comment