Why No Luna?

(Requested by NonFaustDevotee)

One of the aspects that make Friendship is Magic so popular is its large and diverse cast, especially after the fandom gets hold of them. Can you imagine a show where the fans didn't name every single background pony, give them extensive backstories, and then write fanfic after fanfic exploring their fan-granted personalities? But back during the first season, there was one particular pony that fired off the imagination like no other, one that received the most fan attention of all the characters despite having less than a minute and two lines worth of screentime.

Princess Luna.

So that's the point of today's article: Why was Luna, a character with such a significant role in the show's backstory and such a large fandom, totally ignored for a full season?

When Lauren Faust first began designing Friendship is Magic, she had envisioned a show with a balance between adventure and slice-of-life stories. This included a multitude of mentor characters for the heroes, in particular Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia was a given: she was Twilight's personal teacher, after all. But there were also plans for Luna to become one herself. She would have been much colder and more pragmatic, making her stand out against Celestia's more motherly and warm approach. These two would have been rounded out with Zecora, who would become the team's go-to zebra for dealing with more exotic creatures and situations.

Unfortunately, Hasbro decided to dedicate the show towards the slice-of-life content, and thus the adventure episodes were more or less shelved save for a handful like “Dragonshy” and the second half of “Feeling Pinkie Keen.” This obviously shut out Zecora, as she was a character based entirely around providing assistance during those kinds of storylines. Celestia was able to stay on just fine as an occasional supporting character, and her exclusion from most of the show was justified by her presence in Canterlot.

But Luna? She never appeared again after the second episode. The show seemingly forgot she even existed. But why?

Again, it all comes back to Hasbro and princesses. Originally, Celestia was going to be a full-on queen, but because of Disney's history of turning queens into villains, Hasbro said she had to be a princess. And then there was Luna's design, meant to symbolize her connection with the night. She was a dark, somewhat cynical pony who ruled over the nighttime hours, something that usually wasn't what middle-aged men thought little girls would be interested in. So Luna was unceremoniously kicked to the curb for what was thought to be a short series to market some toys. When the show's ratings proved strong enough to warrant a full second season, however, the executives caved and let them bring Luna back.

I won't comment too much on Luna's visual redesign, but the character they turned her into was not too far from Faust's stated vision. She was a lightly cynical figure who wanted love and affection as planned, but with a few additions. She started “Luna Eclipsed” completely out of her depth, speaking in an archaic tongue and shouting at her subjects to start loving her already. By the end of the episode, however, she finally got a few to accept her, and left Ponyville on a high note. So, surely there were more epic adventures planned for her in the future, right?

No. She made a few brief cameos in “A Canterlot Wedding,” appeared briefly again during “The Crystal Empire,” and finally made a major appearance in “Sleepless in Ponyville.” But outside of the last episode, she simply hasn't shown up, even when it would be logical to have her. Why is that?

I can think of a couple of reasons:

A) CADANCE

If you've been looking at the princess merchandise lately, you've probably noticed that Cadance has been adorning a lot more of it than Celestia or Luna. She's had two major appearances (with a third coming later this season) and received a lot of promotional attention. But why is that? The answer is dead simple:

Wal-Mart.

As mentioned previously, the show is designed to sell toys. That's how Hasbro makes the money to keep it running, after all. But back when the show first began, many retailers refused to carry Princess Celestia unless she was colored that ugly pink and shouted inane phrases like “My wings are so pretty!” Because again, middle-aged men trying to guess what little girls like. That was ultimately why Cadance was changed from a unicorn to an Alicorn; that way, they could market a pink princess toy alongside the show-accurate Celestia.

The same holds true for Luna. While she has had a few figures, she's never been pushed heavily by the marketing team. Most of her toys are either included in packs or aimed at the older fans, cutting the little kids out completely. This makes no sense to me, since the little girls I do know that like the show love Luna, but again, old people.

B) LOCATION

The other problem is where the show takes place. Most of the episodes are centered around Ponyville, far away from Canterlot where Luna lives. This makes working her into the story troublesome; unless the problem requires the team to go to Canterlot, or the princesses to go to Ponyville, it's hard for the two groups to interact. That being said, there are still times she should have appeared but didn't, like during the Changeling battle in “A Canterlot Wedding” or the entirety of “Return of Harmony.” In those cases, the only thing I can think of is that she just didn't fit in with the dynamics the story was going for, and unlike the previous example, that's at least a valid reason not to use a character in a particular script.

C) PERSONALITY AND POWERS

Luna is...well, not the nicest pony out there. She's still one of the good guys (now, at least), but she's still been shown as being bitter, temperamental, and not the least bit afraid of throwing her weight around. Celestia has been shown to be very powerful, but only uses her magic a few times, and specifically to either demonstrate something to Twilight or try to fight off a threat. In “Luna Eclipsed,” Luna was not shy about using her magical abilities, turning bean bag spiders into living ones, summoning lightning whenever she was angry, and using the Royal Canterlot Voice practically as default. In fact, the only time so far she was genuinely nice was in “Sleepless in Ponyville,” and that was when she was interacting with a scared filly; if she had started screaming in Scootaloo's face, she would have been crossing some serious lines.

So we have a Luna that's in the wrong place, not stereotypically appealing to the munchkins, and has a tendency to blow up at anypony who gets on her bad side. That's the most likely reason I can think of for keeping such a popular character to a minimum. That is, save for one thing:

D) MYSTERY EQUALS FASCINATION

One of the things that can kill any character, story or concept is overexposure, and Luna is no different. By keeping things as vague as possible about her, it keeps up audience interest in her character. We want to learn more about her, and thus tune in every week in hopes of seeing her again. People check for the most important episodes to see when she'll show up, and sometimes you get a complete curveball like “Sleepless in Ponyville.” Even better, this motivates the fans to buy her toys, and that's really what this whole business is about, is it not?

The question now is, what kind of role will Luna play in the future? Considering the nature of the finale, it's hard to say right now, but Hasbro would be foolish to block her now considering her popularity. But then there's the matter of her sister, and the fact that the two have only made the barest of appearances together despite being co-rulers of an entire nation. So this leaves us with the issue of their relationship, a topic that a lot of fans would like to see explored in greater detail. Unfortunately, this will most likely never come to pass on-camera, thanks in no small part to the problems such a script would pose due to Hasbro's guidelines regarding the Mane 6. (One of them has to appear in every episode, which is why Twilight was kind of just tossed into “Hearts-and-Hooves Day” for a few seconds.) This will have to remain the domain of the fans for the time being.

So, that's...really all there is to it. Luna has a lot of strikes against her from a traditional marketing perspective, but the fact that she has a figure (both as herself and as Nightmare Moon) shows that she's making great strides from her cast-off beginnings. Hopefully Hasbro will continue to notice her potential as the show goes on.