Let’s Discuss- Léon the Alicorn

[Mana Minori]

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It's canon. The show staff and IDW staff have confirmed that what happens in the comics and pony books are canon until the show itself contradicts it, so I'm taking their word that its canon. Anyway, I'm surprised that I haven't seen anyone ( to my knowledge) talking about the adorable addition to the alicorn family- that being, Celestia (and Luna's, I'm assuming) cousin, Leon. Granted, he's only shown up in the French magazine, but hey- canon, still, says show staff. He looks exactly like Prince Blueblood, Luna and Celestia's nephew, by adoption, but he's an alicorn. The similarities in appearance to Blue make me want to think that Leon is either Blueblood's younger brother (or clone?) and just an ascended alicorn, at such a young age, or a born alicorn, and whatever bloodline he came from has someone in there with some crazy strong genes, to get their stallions coming out looking that identical to one another, in ages so far apart.

[Marshie]

If he was born an alicorn, I'm curious if it was by another alicorn or if it's an extremely rare case of genetics. If by another alicorn, who? I don't know much about other canon things from other countries so I'm not sure if there are other alicorns overseas?

[Shaz]

The TV show is obviously in denial about how many alicorns there are . The toy-line has Skyla, Sterling and Gold Lily as well.

I like that Blueblood's name in French is....Vladimir. A wonderfully random choice of name. Then again, it does mean 'powerful ruler'. Is he more than just an indolent aristocrat? Does he have his own country somewhere? Does he hail from the pony equivalent of Russia? Or perhaps from a pony country known as Ro-mane-ia ?

Also, if Vladimir (that's now his name as far as I'm concerned. Much better than Blueblood) is a nephew and Léon is a cousin, just how closely are the two actually related? Vladimir must be the son of a sibling of Celestia, which is interesting since she apparently only has one sister and Luna has been on the moon for a thousand years and hardly had time for procreating. Unless of course she had a foal before her exile? And is Vladimir that actual foal, or do unicorns not live that long? Is he actually a great-great-great-great-etc nephew? And a cousin must be a child of one of Celestia's parents' siblings. Unless of course he's actually something like a second cousin or a cousin once removed in which case he could theoretically be Vladimir's son or nephew (but not his brother, otherwise he would be Celestia's nephew too).

So much to speculate on! G4 canon is more interesting than I thought. Although probably the reality is 'the writers of the French magazine wanted to introduce characters that are randomly related to the royals, so they did' .

Edit to add:
Ooh wait, I see Vladimir is a nephew by adoption! I didn't know about that. Is adopting family members something Celestia and Luna do?

[Mana Minori]

The TV show is obviously in denial about how many alicorns there are . The toy-line has Skyla, Sterling and Gold Lily as well.

I like that Blueblood's name in French is....Vladimir. A wonderfully random choice of name. Then again, it does mean 'powerful ruler'. Is he more than just an indolent aristocrat? Does he have his own country somewhere? Does he hail from the pony equivalent of Russia? Or perhaps from a pony country known as Ro-mane-ia ?

Also, if Vladimir (that's now his name as far as I'm concerned. Much better than Blueblood) is a nephew and Léon is a cousin, just how closely are the two actually related? Vladimir must be the son of a sibling of Celestia, which is interesting since she apparently only has one sister and Luna has been on the moon for a thousand years and hardly had time for procreating. Unless of course she had a foal before her exile? And is Vladimir that actual foal, or do unicorns not live that long? Is he actually a great-great-great-great-etc nephew? And a cousin must be a child of one of Celestia's parents' siblings. Unless of course he's actually something like a second cousin or a cousin once removed in which case he could theoretically be Vladimir's son or nephew (but not his brother, otherwise he would be Celestia's nephew too).

So much to speculate on! G4 canon is more interesting than I thought. Although probably the reality is 'the writers of the French magazine wanted to introduce characters that are randomly related to the royals, so they did' .

Edit to add:
Ooh wait, I see Vladimir is a nephew by adoption! I didn't know about that. Is adopting family members something Celestia and Luna do?

Cadance is also niece by adoption, which would make her also related to Blueblood and Léon, legally, anyway. And since Cadance is married to Shining Armor, the entire Sparkle family (and Spike) are also related to Celestia and Luna.

And so is Star Tracker (who was appointed as honorary family in “Once Upon a Zeppelin”) and the rest of the mane 6 (also appointed honorary fam in “Super Cider Squeezy 6000””)

Oh, and did I mention the royal sisters also have another cousin?
According to the book, "My Little Pony: Under the Sparkling Sea", Princess Celestia's cousin is shown to be a sea lion named King Leo of the underwater city of Aquastria, and ruler of the mermares and seaponies.

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What a confusing family, indeed.

[Taffeta]

I know absolutely nothing about any of this contextually, but the idea of the alicorn wings/horn combo on an infant reminds me weirdly of Japanese families who got their kids conferred high ranks when they were tiny just to further the family power and influence. So now that's an interesting impression of the whole court of Celestia.

Vladimir makes him sound vampirish and a bit creepy xD.

Also, this is slightly off topic but relates to the above scan...Celestia suggested that Rarity was dying to meet Vladimir...Malicieusement?... O.o.
Mischievously? Maliciously? Which one? O.o.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Also, this is slightly off topic but relates to the above scan...Celestia suggested that Rarity was dying to meet Vladimir...Malicieusement?... O.o.
Mischievously? Maliciously? Which one? O.o.

Went to check it out on mlp.fandom:

In this story, he is referred to as Vladímir, although it is inconsistent with his original name which has been also retained in the show's French dub.

...why change it?

[lalalei2001]

I like his design! I wonder what he'll look like as he gets older.

[Shaz]

Maybe in Equestria and its surrounding lands anyone of high/royal rank becomes an honorary relative of the Royal Sisters. Perhaps to show their allegiance to Equestria, which seems to be the dominant political power. (I'm still not sure how all the kingdoms work in G4. The Crystal Empire seems to be actually rather small as empires go, and I think also it's actually a part of Equestria?)

Like Taffeta being reminded of Japanese history, I've been deep into medieval Romania (and surrounding countries) recently, so that's why the name Vladimir delights me so much A good strong Slavic name! The name of the prince/saint who Christianised eleventh century Kiev! Maybe pony Vladimir going to friendshipise (?) some distant kingdom!

Celestia is a sort of pony god, isn't she? (It's so long since I watched G4!) Maybe 'cousin', 'nephew' or 'niece' is a honorary title given to important ponies to imply that they have a divine right to rule. Maybe Prince Léon is the infant ruler of some little Equestrian principality! His immediate family perished in some battle and he was left the only heir to the throne, and ascended to alicorn status at an alarmingly young age....my imagination is running away with me

Also, this is slightly off topic but relates to the above scan...Celestia suggested that Rarity was dying to meet Vladimir...Malicieusement?... O.o.
Mischievously? Maliciously? Which one? O.o.

Mischievously. Although I quite like the idea of a malicious Celestia . I seem to remember that she has a reputation for amusing herself with tricks at her subjects' expense. I suppose after living for a millennium you have to do something to pass the time....