@TexasUberAlles  

 
This is my opinion on Celestia summed up in a nutshell. What bugs me is that so few other people think the same way and just go with how Celestia’s acting in the episode and take it as all there is to her.

@moonlightaveger  
Celestia is plenty powerful. The reasons she seems comparatively powerless now are as follows:
 
A) Every enemy of significance in the show had to be defeated with a power none of the characters wielded for any other occasion. Whether it’s the Old Elements, the New Elements, the Rainbow Elements, the Lovesplosion, or whatever, it’s never actually the power of the characters themselves that defeats the enemies. Even upgraded Trixie was defeated with a trick, something she must have lost cognizance of while under the amulet’s influence.
 
B) Princess Celestia no longer has access to a power beyond her own. Neither does Princess Luna, for that matter, so why aren’t you calling her weak? Probably because she’s never around to do battle, although given her personality, she’d probably be thrilled to -win, loss, or tie.
 
C) Combat capacity has almost no point outside of these special occasions (which should be exceedingly rare and can’t be predicted), so it isn’t developed. Just look at the Royal Guard for proof. They do nothing.
 
D) In this particular occasion, Celestia has no interest in resolving the situation. In fact, she’s probably faking being unable to do anything about the Smooze. She’s feeding off the chaos as much as Discord normally would. It’s possible that every Gala since a certain point has been a serial escalation of madness that just went unnoticed.
 
As far as Celestia being shown doing paperwork, inspections, meetings, and other royal business goes, why would that ever be shown? This is a show for kids, and that’s boring.

 
@moonlightaveger  
I would also very much like to see Celestia kicking rump and taking names, but there’s not really any way to do that other than in flashback without stealing the focus both from the main characters and from the subtitle of the show itself; she’s not really set up to Friendship someone to death the way the Mane Six are, and look at how much metaphorical blood gets spilled in the comment sections any time something as chaste and tame as Discord giving her flowers gets mentioned. And we have seen her being the badass everyone talks about her as being, in flashbacks. I wish they would show us some more of that, because a principality that’s existed for thousands of years with literally the same leader(s) has probably faced a crisis or two in between DiscoSombraMoon and Celestia telling Twilight to stop reading dusty old books and Twilight somehow not immediately assuming she’d been replaced by a robot or a Changeling.

@Cyborg_pony  
Don’t worry, I’m not arguing those points, because you’re right. This is just how I interpret his brusqueness.

@TexasUberAlles  
That was aggressive? I thought I was the soft skinned one here.
 
What I’m saying has nothing to do with “fanfiction”. At worst I’m talking about other official material. There is a description of Celestia and she doesn’t match it. Characters talk about how powerful she is, but she is never show as powerful, for example, and yet that is not a problem for Cadance who is allowed to fight off a monster with Twilight. We never see Celestia doing the boring things she’s always doing to justify her wanting to screw up other ponies’ parties because she is bored.
 
Even thought I DO think that the Gala in season one was different from the one in this episode in the way she deals with her boredom, I’m not complaining about that. Sure I love that she taught Twilight and then gave her space to be herself, be it would be nice to see Celestia being competent at something when things matter.

@LanceOmikron  
It still doesn’t help any argument when you have someone like him interject with his mannerisms. Language is everything. I didn’t even really read what he said knowing it was some juvenile attempt to kick sand in eyes then tag a bunch of fast jabs when they can’t see.  
That’s no way to have an discussion no matter how it was started, it’s just rude. Plus, You’re not really the winner when the opponent says “You know what, you’re just being a jerk. I’m done.” That just makes anyone associated with them look bad.

@Cyborg_pony  
Yeah, his brusqueness can be a little off-putting at first, but I guess I’ve just gotten used to it and don’t take it too seriously. It’s kinda funny if you just think of him as playing a Brutally Honest character.

@LanceOmikron  
The problem is he doesn’t help when he just throws insults at people. All he really had to do was say
 
Celestia really hasn’t done much in the show, because they never really wanted her to be an all-powerful deity, but more of the wise-master character. It really would make a rather dull show if Celestia Even if it is the case was just able to eradicate any threat like with Chrysalis and such. Even so, Smooze is immune to magic so it wouldn’t have made a difference no matter how powerful she is.
 
In stead, you have the “Tex” way. Which is self evident.

 
professional writers can’t have her being competent  
I’m terribly sorry that DHX went and hired professional writers instead of just animating somebody’s fanfic or whatever, but to quote God Himself:  
 
Everything about Celestia’s relationship with Twilight makes perfect sense in the context of her carefully training her own replacement, because someday Princess Sparklebutt is going to have to do all of this “saving the world” bidness without Celestia’s help.

@LanceOmikron  
Oh, I know him.
 
And this is the excuse people give to pretend that the cartoon is perfect.

@moonlightaveger  
Evidently you’re not familiar with Tex. He’s always brusque and to-the-point. That’s just how he is.
 
And he’s not ignoring anything. He’s explaining that Celestia’s MO is to let ponies help themselves. Celestia knows that if she solved all of her little ponies’ problems for them, they’d never learn anything.

@TexasUberAlles  
You are being aggressive without reason and ignoring that Celestia is always turned into a prick and/or useless moron because professional writers can’t have her being competent without ruining the story they’re trying to tell.
 
If that is Celestia, then fine. But that is not how characters talk about her.

@asiagatdogblue  
Because it would take some actual effort to explain why she didn’t fix everything right there. Better make her powerless by smudging some jelly on her horn.

people are still going on about celestia?

@TexasUberAlles  
Thank you for setting the record straight, Tex. ^_^

@asiagatdogblue  
twilight did no better

@moonlightaveger  
Yes, yes, that was an adorable comeback in third grade I’m sure, but you’re still dancing around the fact that Celestia has always been like this. She’s played the giggling prankster with the fate of Equestria literally since the first episode, and her MO all along has been to push people in the right direction and then step aside so they can do the rest themselves.

Why did they make Celestia even more useless?

@TexasUberAlles  
Pretend you didn’t understand. You’re doing a perfect job.

To the royal bath! Away!

@moonlightaveger  
Celestia getting her character destroyed over stupid plots and jokes  
 
 
 
So are you new to the fandom, or…

smooze is a magic resistant entity, there’s little anyone can do about it

I’ve Just Realised: Celestia is basically Fredrick from Fire Emblem:Awakening. Both start out as O.P. Badasses, only to become progressively more useless as the game/show goes on as everybody else becomes increasingly powerful.

Oh, come on guys, it’s a reference. /Nothing/ can stop the Smooze! Celestia’s still all powerful, but so are references! And if she went all full Sun God on it, it would have killed the mood of the episode, which was lighthearted and fun! Besides, Tree Hugger’s help was what was needed to help progress Discord in the end, so lighten up.
 
…But yeah, seriously, come on, Studio B, let Celestia cut loose once in a while, will ya?