@0particle  
Doesn’t mean it’ll be easy.
 
And in this sort of circumstance, ignorance usually translates into conditioning, because this sort of willful ignorance tends to be the result of conditioning. And conditioning is a Hell of a lot harder to overcome than mere envy. Because conditioning directly effects ones sense of identity. And nobody likes questioning their identity.

Well, I’m ba-. Nope, never mind. I’m gone!  

@SpacePaladin
 
BB: Okay…I hate to admit this, and I really do…but I may have crossed a line there. I, uh, wanted to get rid of you and make sure I succeeded, so I poured on the jerkishness a bit thick.
 
R: A bit thick?
 
BB: Okay, yes, I was a total ass! But you know I’m a decent guy when I’m not being sought out solely for my position. We had a good time at that airship christening, didn’t we?
 
R: Yes, we did…

I kind of view the relationship souring after Celestia took on Cadance and Twilight, because Celestia has an unconscious obsession with grand destiny, and him being without one more or less led to her ignoring him, and him becoming insular to cope.
 
I like to think that for all her wisdom, Celestia has a bad tendency to ignore the problems of those close to her. Hence why Luna went crazy with or and how Cadance” was able to act completely out of character without her realizing something was wrong.
 
Though I do like the mishmash of both the genuine snobby jerk and embittered cynic headcanon.
 
BB: I acted that way because I’ve dealt with enough status chasers and bit diggers that the moment I get a whiff of that, I turn on my “Prince Badblood” routine then deal with them like pulling off a bandaid.
 
R: *Skeptical* So, when you spat out my friend’s baked goods, or used me as a cake shield, that was just you putting on an act?
 
BB: *Uncomfortable pause* …yes?

Personally, I like the notion that Blueblood was soured on the whole idea of romance after his first love, a brilliant young personal student of Celestia’s, ran away without even a note and he couldn’t get a straight answer out of anyone about what had happened. Not even from his dear auntie!
 
Yeah, after Sunset disappeared, Blueblood was never the same.

@Starswirl  
It sounds like the logic of someone who likes to bully “supidity” out of people with the help of angry mobs while shouting down anything they try to say with “you’re an egomaniac if you think you deserve to speak”. You can’t beat sanity into someone, but you can torture them into playing along with a lie.

@Background Pony #77C9  

 
That sounds an awful lot like Nightmare Moon.  
“You all just don’t appreciate my night! No, you dance and play during the day and sleep the nights away! Well, I’ll make the night last forever, then you’ll have to appreciate me! I’ll show you, I’ll show you all!”

Anypony can change. Even if someone has lost their way, they can find it again.

@Background Pony #77C9
 
Eh, ignorance is not the same as stupidity, and he almost certainly isn’t stupid. She’s still his aunt, he’s still her nephew, they gotta love each other like family. If anyone could knock some sense into him, it’d be her.

@0particle  
People can turn “Smacking some sense into you” into “being an asshole towards you” and “facts and truth” into “evil lies supported by a conspiracy” when willfully ignorant.
 
Ignorance is self-perpetuating. Because overcoming it is about facing a hard truth. And no one likes doing that. Most willfully ignorant people are deeply convinced they are the only ones to understand the whole truth and everyone else is ignorant.

@PonyPon
 
When the one smacking some sense into you is the one that literally moves the sun, it don’t matter.

@0particle  
Even when willful?

@Serathinan
 
Ignorance is INCREDIBLY easy to get over compared to envy.

“There was a time I thought I knew him. He wanted to be treasure hunter when he grew up, like the ones he read about. He was so young the last time I saw him. His parents moved so he could study abroad. What came back twelve years later wasn’t the same little boy. His parents spoiled him and turned him into another dime-a-dozen Canterlot snob. No personality, no respect, just another egocentric pony. One that thought himself superior to other ponies because of his blood ties with me.
 
Whenever I talk to him about the old days he dismissed it with a snort saying he was nothing more than ignorant child. I don’t know how it happened but it would seem studying abroad has only harmed his mental faculties. This so-called prince is dumber than the little foal I used to spend time with.
 
I at one time lost my sister to corruption. A corruption from temptation which she overcame. Ignorance however is harder to get over than envy.”

.@Background Pony #77C9
 
This too.

@The Smiling Pony
 
Pretty much. Was he a jerk? Yeah, kinda. But then again, literally the only reason Rarity wanted Blueblood was because of his wealth and status, presumably just like every other mare who flutters her eyelashes at him. Can you blame a guy for wanting to have a little fun and wind her up a bit? It was just bad luck that the girl he ticked off was a main character.

@Killian_Joy  
@Starswirl
 
Two things that can turn a sweet little colt into a huge jerk are very likely to have been at play during Blueblood’s early life.
 
The first is just spoiled-ness. I think the previous comments covered that base pretty well. The second is, well…
 
Kid’s a prince. A prince with 0 hope of inheriting the throne, since he is extended family to immortal royalty, but a prince nonetheless.
 
While his early life would be spent just playing around, being catered to, and just generally having fun, as adolescence kicked in, well…
 
There would be just too many things that are expected of him, shoes to fill. He would be expected to be educated in all sorts of different things that are relevant to a peer of the realm, to find a suitor within a noble family. He would have all the comfort, money, and influence he could ask for, but very little choice of what he does in life…
 
… And look at his cutie mark. It evokes adventures, exploration, excitement! And yet there he was, stuck having to learn how to be a prince.
 
If that doesn’t make for a bitter and douchy guy, I don’t know what does.

@The Smiling Pony  
I may well concede that she did not treat Blueblood as a person. As I pointed out she pedestalizes him. Which is not treating him as a person.  
Obviously this is not what you were trying to say exactly but the general thesis of what you said is correct (I hope I used that word correctly, it sounds right).
 
But you’re overstating the case with Spike.  
While it is true that he is often used by a pack mule by the ponies and especially by her…it is also true that she cares for him and often shows more concern for him than the other ponies aside from maybe twilight who lives with him.
 
Examples of this started in Season 2 with Secret of My excess where she was unwilling to surrender the fire ruby because it was a gift from him and held sentimental value.  
And afterwards she went to console him over his rampage.
 
Dragon Quest showed her, along with Dash and twilight, going after Spike to keep him safe.  
But here Rarity showed by far the most zeal in protecting him.  
Crystal Empire had a smaller instance of his, but remember she was the one who exclaimed fear over him being hurt when he was fleeing from Sombra.  
In Season 4 she follows this pattern less but till continues it with the pet names and calling him “her best assistant” or something like that.
 
A purely exploitative relationship, as you try to claim it is, this ain’t.  
Of course this is not to say that the way Spike is portrayed in the show is suddenly okay. But it does say that is does not begin or end with Rarity.  
The same goes for her using her feminine wiles on men. Hardly a good thing to show, but not as bad as it is claimed to be.
 
Oh and of course with BB and Trend she was rather supplicating and pedestalizing so it’s not really comparable behavior.

@Whatevs  
No, though.
 
Rarity constantly treats Spike as a child-pet; smile at him and he’ll melt for her, and she knows and abuses it full well. Rarity treats the stallions at the start of the S01 finale like tools. She idealizes Blueblood as a thing, a treat she can enjoy, not a person. She presents herself expecting nothing more than gifts and compliments. At every opportunity she tries to prompt him to to sacrifice himself for her, and is distressed that he expects the exact same from her.
 
If she had tried to treat Blueblood like a person and not her little fantasy then maybe things would have gone different.

@The Smiling Pony  
And yet I can provide direct in show examples of what I am talking about.  
You have what can be best described as a theory.

@Whatevs  
You’re wrong, though.

@The Smiling Pony  
To them? No.
 
Also, citation needed on her wanting him to be a doormat.  
As we can see with Trenderhoof (a more apples to apples comparison since she had the same kind of feelings for him), she’s more of a doormat.  
I think you are deliberately avoiding the issue that she was pedestalizing them. That is an incredible difference between simply feeling entitled as you describe.  
A character who would want a doormat to do things for them would be more like Trixie than like Rarity. And it’s fairly easy to see why since Trixie has repeatedly shown that she treats everyone like doormats, the only exception being Twilight who defeats her.  
Rarity requires no coercion to be made to care about being there for others. Although she may need a reminder.  
Moreover, even when Rarity has a ‘doormat’ (Spike) she still exhibits concern for his wellbeing not infrequently.
 
It’s simply well outside of who she is.

@Whatevs  
Was Rarity “deferential” to the stallions she bat her eyes at to pull her carriage all the way to Canterlot? In the very same episode?
 
Rarity was only “deferential” to Blueblood because she was trying to prompt him to become her idealized princely doormat, nothing more.

@The Smiling Pony  
As I said, there was asymmetry. Rarity clearly was deferential to him (at least at first), he was not to her.  
People picked up on that without knowing it, hence why they instinctively hated him.

@Whatevs  
What evidence?
 
Tell me what Blueblood did that would not be expected if he were a “posh lady” like Rarity. Namely, expect compliments, gifts, free food and shielding. The same things Rarity unsuccessfully tried to prompt from him.