A Royal Problem sure is an episode that almost every longtime fan of Friendship is Magic has been waiting for: An episode heavily involved around the alicorn sisters of Celestia and Luna who has always captivated the fanbase for more reasons then one.

Luna alone is arguably just as popular as the most popular of the Mane 6 (I don’t know who stands out as THE most popular of the Mane 6 though if I had to guess 3 candidates it’d be Twilight, Rainbow, or Fluttershy).

Though that doesn’t mean Celestia has been unpopular as there’s plenty of fandom content centering around the Princess of the Sun including many alternate character interpretations that have their own followings that either are on the humorous side such as Trollestia, the naughty and oft-controversial Molestia, and the grim Tyrantlestia that depicts Celestia as if she is behind the scenes the true villain behind the scenes. None of those particular 3 are canon, but there are moments in the show where fans of those interpretations could take it that way. Trollestia whenever she does a little prank or especially after the Gala in Best Night Ever where we found out she invited the Mane 6 just to make it interesting, the line “There is no wrong way to fantasize” had to have given anybody who remembers Molestia some gigglefits, and any decision of Celestia’s that some people felt was too hasty a decision or too harsh got some accusing her of being at fault for the event happening in the first place.

Though in some ways those interpretations were probably partly made because unfortunately Celestia doesn’t get that much screentime so not a lot of character could be gathered, she still technically doesn’t have an episode to call her own where she’s that central to the plot (Even Luna has had that, especially in more recent seasons). But at least the first episode this season and this episode was a huge step forward compared to everything that came before.

Though one last thing before I get to the episode I should also address the other main character of the episode. And it’s kinda surprising because she’s still kind of a controversial topic within the fanbase right now. I am of course talking about Starlight. Not only is she the one who is chosen to be the character that finally brings us a Celestia and Luna episode, for some reason the map has her Cutie Mark compatible when in all previous map usage it’s been just the Mane 6 and assumably the tree and map being born from the Tree of Harmony it’s particularly Mane 6 specific because they are the elements. There is the possible situation that because Starlight helped restore the Map’s power that it now recognizes her. But that still might not be enough to address the core issue of the map being able to call Starlight in that this was for the Elements, does this mean Starlight is now somehow an Element of Harmony? But if so where’s her throne at the round table? Though to be fair it’s probably a good thing they don’t have that yet. Still it could make people confused on what exactly is Starlight anyway. She doesn’t appear enough in Mane 6-centric episodes to be considered part of a now Main 7 but she seems a little too important to be just secondary now.

Either way though it’s just another chapter that has split the fandom on Starlight even further. My take on it however? I may be one that’s not too keen on Starlight myself, but I’m going to say I was ok with this. Because 1. As I kinda expected the 3 out of 4 major appearances at the start of the Season was an outlier and we didn’t see very much of Starlight aside from a short appearance in Fluttershy Leans In so that’s 6 episodes without Starlight in a major role. 2. There is no one else who would make the hasty decision of switching Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks like that. Twilight’s switched cutie marks in Magical Mystery Cure but we get the feeling if she had known the spell was going to switch her friends Cutie Marks and ruin their lives/memories she wouldn’t of done it. That doesn’t mean you have to like what Starlight did but it was good use of how hasty Starlight can be sometimes and also throws back to how Starlight is able to move Cutie Marks. This time just switching instead of outright removing and 3. I didn’t feel like she stole the show that much from Celestia and Luna to matter. We got a great amount of Celestia and Luna that certainly feels refreshing.

The news of this episode because of the Treehouse leaks just piled on top of those who really, REALLY don’t like Starlight at a time she had just gotten a big role in 3 of the first four episodes of Season 7 plus an announcement that she’ll be in the most anticipated of the 3 EQG specials coming later (They’ve been released in English and I’ve seen them all, but I’ll treat them like episodes and review each one week-by-week). So for those who can’t stand Starlight that was a lot to take in and no doubt expressed displeasure at Starlight seeming to steal the spotlight twice as hard as she did in all of Season 6. I for one however am going to take a more fair approach. It sure seemed like Starlight was getting a lot of attention but we still have much of the Season to go. And heck I’ve seen many synopses for the upcoming episodes and not a lot of them are very obvious Starlight-centered episodes. Unless we get a lot of surprise Starlight-involved episodes like that Maud episode we had, Starlight doesn’t look like she’ll be that much more involved then she was in Season 6. So I’d advise people to take a bit of a more calm approach to it. As for the EQG special that includes Starlight I’ll get to that subject when we get to it. But for now Season 7 is still the subject. So let’s focus on that until we reach the official mid-season break (Which is after Episode 12 airs in the US, so pretty soon)

On to the episode itself though, it’s certainly an interesting setup. And we do get some legit character moments from Celestia and Luna that feels like it’s been ages since that’s happened. Though admittedly it’s also easy to some people who might be a bit unhappy with the portrayal of the sisters because some of their arguments feels more like petty sisters then the royal leaders who’ve led Equestria for more then 1000 years. And I won’t fault anyone for thinking that way, Celestia talks down to Luna pretty much like any episode in a cartoon where siblings switch jobs or whatever duties they have for a day. When you also have to keep in mind Celestia once had to do at least the moon raising part of Luna’s job as well for the 1000 years she’s been gone so you would think she kinda understands after that long of double-duty. Though it’s fair to say she hasn’t been much to the dream realm at least. Perhaps it does give a little leeway into what developed into Nightmare Moon. I mean if Celestia and Luna still have sisterly fights even now after the whole 1000 year banishment. You have to wonder if it was much, much, much, MUCH worse when they were 1000 years younger.

Anyway, as they switch we see that Luna lacks the social skills to do Celestia’s job. While Celestia has a hard time handling the loneliness of night duties without someone to talk to.

But perhaps I’m sure what will be the most memorable part of the episode is we see while Celestia is in the dream realm a Nightmare Moon version of Celestia called Day Breaker. Which is awesome, this was something I thought was going to be one of the timelines in the Season 5 Finale due to the card game having something like it at around the time the finale was approaching. But hey better late then never. Remember when I mentioned the alternate character interpretations that the fandom made for Celestia? Day Breaker is practically Tyrantlestia incarnate. And Celestia fights that side of her valiantly to prove the kind of pony she is.

The ending of the episode is plenty heartwarming and perhaps for the first time since the pilot we had some happy dialogue between the two. So we can definitely appreciate this episode for showing some things we’ve always wanted. I won’t blame people for being not as sure for either of Starlight being in the spotlight again or perhaps making the sisters argument scenes rather more petty then they should be. But I think otherwise it’s a welcome episode to have.

Next time is the final episode before the midseason break featuring the return of the Yaks. Seeya then.