Princess Luna
| Princess Luna | |
|---|---|
| My Little Pony character | |
 Princess Luna as she appears in "Bloom and Gloom" | |
| First appearance | "Friendship Is Magic – Part 1" (2010) |
| Created by | Lauren Faust |
| Voiced by | Tabitha St. Germain (Speaking voice) Kazumi Evans (Singing voice, 2014) Aloma Steele (Singing voice, 2016-2019) |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Nightmare Moon (formerly) |
| Species | Alicorn |
| Title | Princess of the Night |
| Occupation |
|
| Affiliation | Equestrian Royal Family |
| Family |
|
| My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic |
|---|
 |
Princess Luna is a fictional character who appears in the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony toyline and media franchise, beginning with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–2019). She serves as the co-ruler of Equestria alongside her older sister Princess Celestia and is responsible for raising the moon and watching over ponies' dreams.[1] She is voiced by Tabitha St. Germain, who also voices Rarity.[2]
Princess Luna is depicted as a wise but initially troubled anthropomorphic alicorn—a pegasus with a unicorn horn—who possesses both the ability to fly and use magic. As the Princess of the Night, she controls the moon, stars, and dreams, and has the ability to enter and manipulate the dream realm. She is characterized by her dark blue coat, flowing ethereal mane that sparkles with stars, her tall stature, and her silver regalia including a crown and ornate necklace. Her cutie mark depicts a crescent moon.
The character's backstory reveals that she once ruled alongside Princess Celestia in harmony, but her jealousy over ponies sleeping through the night and not appreciating her work led to her transformation into the evil Nightmare Moon. After being banished to the moon for a thousand years by Celestia using the Elements of Harmony, she returns in the series premiere where she is ultimately redeemed through the power of friendship and restored to her original form.
Appearances
[edit]![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg?lang=en){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2025) |
Fourth My Little Pony incarnation (2010–2021)
[edit]My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
[edit]Princess Luna first appears in the series premiere as Nightmare Moon, having returned from her thousand-year banishment to plunge Equestria into eternal night. After being defeated by Twilight Sparkle and her friends using the Elements of Harmony, she is restored to her original form as Princess Luna and tearfully reunites with Princess Celestia, who welcomes her back with forgiveness and love.
Throughout the early seasons, Luna struggles to adapt to modern Equestrian society after her long absence, initially speaking in an archaic, formal manner using the royal we and a powerful voice that frightens other ponies. The episode "Luna Eclipsed" focuses on her attempts to connect with ponies during Nightmare Night (Equestria's equivalent of Halloween), where she learns to overcome ponies' fear of her Nightmare Moon persona.
As the series progresses, Luna develops her role as the guardian of dreams and sleep, often entering ponies' nightmares to help them overcome their fears. In the series finale, she retires from her royal duties along with Celestia, passing their responsibilities to Twilight Sparkle.
My Little Pony: The Movie
[edit]Princess Luna appears at the beginning of the film alongside Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance, preparing for the Friendship Festival in Canterlot. When the Storm King's forces attack, she attempts to defend the city but is turned to stone by Tempest Shadow's magic. She remains petrified for most of the film until the Storm King's defeat releases all the captured magic, restoring her and the other princesses to normal.
Development
[edit]Author Mary Jane Begin wrote that "Princess Luna's coloration is an essential part of her overall design, reflecting her role as the pony who rules the night." She also wrote that "Nightmare Moon's overall body shape, wing design, and coloration reflect her more sinister demeanor."[3]
Reception and analysis
[edit]In his 2014 article Reconsidering religion and fandom, history professor Andrew Crome wrote that Christian fans had drawn fan artwork which depicted Jesus supporting a weeping Princess Luna with a juxtaposition of Luna's redemption from her evil Nightmare Moon persona and Bible verses communicating Christ's forgiveness.[4]
Researchers Christian Valiente and Xeno Rasmusson wrote in their 2015 article Bucking the Stereotypes that Princess Luna demonstrated the show's challenges to traditional gender roles and depictions of female authority figures as one of "two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land." The researchers observed that even as the antagonist Nightmare Moon, Luna represented a powerful female villain, and that "return from her imprisonment serves as the driving force of the story arc." They concluded that Luna's dual role illustrated how female characters play the roles of the heroes as well as the villains in what they described as the show's "truly female-oriented society."[5]
In her 2015 essay Everypony Has a Story, author Priscilla Hobbs compared the sun-moon dichotomy between Princess Celestia and Luna to ancient concepts of duality like the yin and yang. Hobbs connected Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon to Greek mythology: Luna is "possessed by the nature of discord" despite having previously defeated Discord with her sister, drawing a parallel to Hesiod's description of Eris as a force of strife.[6]
In his 2018 article My Little Pony, Communalism and Feminist Politics, media scholar Kevin Fletcher analyzed the backstory of Princess Celestia and Luna's defeat of Discord as "a feminist impulse," describing their actions as a form of revolution where "the sisters fight against injustice and liberate the oppressed." Fletcher remarked that this backstory established Equestria as a matriarchal diarchy ruled by both princesses, which contrasted with Discord's previous autocratic kingship. Fletcher also examined Luna's role within the show's cosmic symbolism, observing that she and Celestia are part of a pattern where "three of the alicorns are linked to traditional images of planetary gods." He commented that Luna's responsibility for the moon represents her connection to natural forces, which he compared to Discord's disruption of these same cycles during his return to power.[7]
In a 2017 study of the Friendship Is Magic fan fiction community, researcher Sarah Evans examined discussions about Princess Luna's characterization within online writing groups. The study documented a case where fanfiction authors sought advice on writing Luna; community members provided various suggestions for her portrayal, including depicting her as out of touch with modern culture and technology, and debated the appropriate speech patterns for her character, with some clarifying that she spoke in Early Modern English rather than Old English. The researchers used this discussion as an example of how the My Little Pony fan fiction community engages in so-called "distributed mentoring".[8]
Carly Olsen, writing in Screen Rant, ranked Princess Luna as the third most powerful magic user in Friendship Is Magic, with her sister Princess Celestia ranked second and her protégée Twilight Sparkle ranked first.[1]
In popular culture
[edit]Luna appears alongside Princess Celestia in the popular YouTube series "Two Best Sisters Play", where they are portrayed as video game players.[9]
Luna is a popular character in merchandise and collectibles, with items like the Kotobukiya Bishoujo statue series featuring humanized versions of her character.[10] In 2013, online store WeLoveFine sold plush shoulder bags featuring Princess Luna.[11] In 2019, Princess Luna appeared as one of three characters featured in a limited-edition Magic: The Gathering crossover set called Ponies: The Galloping, released as part of a charity collaboration between Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast to benefit Extra Life and Seattle Children's Hospital. The silver-bordered trading card depicted both her Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon forms with artwork that blended the styles of Magic and My Little Pony.[12]
See also
[edit]- Princess Celestia
- Twilight Sparkle
- Rainbow Dash
- Applejack
- Fluttershy
- Pinkie Pie
- Rarity
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom
- List of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters
References
[edit]- ^ a b Olsen, Carly (2020-04-05). "My Little Pony: The 10 Best Magic Users, Ranked". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2025-05-27.
- ^ "Princess Luna Voices (My Little Pony)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 2025-05-27.
- ^ Begin, Mary Jane (2015). My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria. New York: Abrams. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4197-1577-8.
- ^ Crome, Andrew (2014). "Reconsidering religion and fandom: Christian fan works in My Little Pony fandom". Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 15 (4): 399–418. doi:10.1080/14755610.2014.984234.
- ^ Valiente, Christian; Rasmusson, Xeno (2015). "Bucking the Stereotypes: My Little Pony and Challenges to Traditional Gender Roles". Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture. 5 (4): 88–97. doi:10.1002/jpoc.21162.
- ^ Hobbs, Priscilla (2015-04-23). "Everypony Has a Story: Revisions of Greco-Roman Mythology in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". In Berti, Irene; Carlà-Uhink, Filippo (eds.). Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 197–209. ISBN 9781472532213.
- ^ Fletcher, Kevin (2018). "My Little Pony, Communalism and Feminist Politics". Orienting Feminism. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 25–42.
- ^ Evans, Sarah; Davis, Katie; Evans, Abigail; Campbell, Julie Ann; Randall, David P.; Yin, Kodlee; Aragon, Cecilia (2017). "More Than Peer Production: Fanfiction Communities as Sites of Distributed Mentoring". CSCW '17: 259–272. arXiv:1611.01549. doi:10.1145/2998181.2998342.
- ^ Edwards, Patrick; Chadborn, Daniel P.; Plante, Courtney N.; Reysen, Stephen; Redden, Marsha Howze (September 11, 2019). Meet the Bronies: The Psychology of the Adult My Little Pony Fandom. United States: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 51,78. ISBN 9781476663715.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Roberts, Tyler (2021-03-17). "My Little Pony Princess Luna Turns Human With Kotobukiya". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 2025-05-27.
- ^ Adams, Kelly (2013-10-23). ""My Little Pony" Plush Shoulder Bags Now Available". Big Shiny Robot. Retrieved 2025-05-27.
- ^ Knox, Kelly (2019-10-07). "Wizards Mashes Up MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MY LITTLE PONY". Nerdist. Retrieved 2025-05-28.
