I have to be honest this probably isn't as good as my last one, but I hope that you still find it interesting.
Applejack
Out of the Mane Six Applejack is probably the most “normal” of the lot. She doesn’t have much in the way of outlandish and/or flashy abilities, and her personality traits are not as “extreme” as her friends are. However this leads to some mistaken assumptions that she is static or free of flaws. She does have her flaws, and she did change to overcome those flaws overtime. However the way this was done probably ended up hurting Applejack’s long term appeal and flexibility as a character. Why is that? Well it’s really quite simple. Applejack is a character that peaked early in the series and had her character arc wrapped up in the middle of the second season in a rather disappointing fashion.
The Applejack in the first season, while in many ways the same, was quite different from the Applejack of today. She was generally much more ornery and confrontational, and had a greater sense of self-pride. The latter characteristic was probably what got her into the most trouble with the others, particularly when confronted with the similarly large egos of Rarity and Rainbow. What makes Applejack’s pride distinct from that of Rarity and Rainbow Dash is that while the other two often go through periods of self-doubt and a need to prove themselves, Applejack is completely self-assured not just in her abilities, but in her views. While we see the obvious issues that this can cause by making her blind to her limitations and weaknesses(her stubbornness in Applebuck Season), it also makes her blind to many of her own faults, sometimes more so the others.
We see this a bit in “Look Before You Sleep” where she is rather quick to get annoyed at Rarity for what is really a rather petty reason. Keep in mind that she initially does not mention that she is taking too much time on a simple job, but that she is annoyed at her need to “prettifyin” things. She’s actually seems to take it more personally in the episode then Rarity does (though that’s up to personal perspective). This would again get her in trouble with Rainbow Dash in “Fall Weather Friends” in which despite her being offended at Rainbow Dash’s obvious cheating and “win at all cost” attitude, she was more then willing too stoop to her level in order to prevent her from winning (a bit of a different goal then Rainbow Dash who simply wanted to win). This somewhat self-righteous and hypocritical streak would actually continue to color Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s interaction in the early parts of season 2 (see The Mysterious Mare Do Well, and Hearth’s Warming Eve, though your mileage will vary), it probably could have been developed upon further and effected more of her interactions with her friends, but that was not meant to be it seems.
The Last Roundup is a very important AJ episode as it is both a culmination of many of AJ’s flaws, and it’s also the last time we will really see them. We see AJ’s stubborn pride on display in full force, where she decides to talk on a monumental task believing that she could do it (and in fact does it quite well) but wound up biting off more then she could chew and ultimately failed in her primary goal to get the big prize money. When she fails she decides to find some other way to get the money and avoid this big strike to her ego by going with Ms. Cheery Jubilee. When her friends arrive she decides to stick to her original decision despite the fact that it is worse to leave her friends and family worried then to come home empty hooved and face the fact that she made a promise she couldn’t quite keep. While this is all great from a character perspective it does suffer from the rather glaring problem that the episode was ultimately not about Applejack herself, but about her friends reacting to her strange decisions. This had the effect of making Applejack’s character exploration a secondary concern to her friends trying to bring her home/confess her reasons when it really should have been about Applejack this whole time, especially when we get to Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.
In the episode Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 we get the somewhat infamous “I didn’t learn anything” letter. I was never really bothered by it at the time since it’s supposed to demonstrate that she has learned her and was able to apply them. However, for whatever reason, all of her flaws seem to disappear. From there on out she just seems pleasant and is generally just the “mature and sane” member of the group.
Now there is nothing inherently wrong with her being that way, but I feel it was a mistake for a number of reasons. First, it was poorly handled and abrupt change, especially after the incident in The Last Roundup. Second, it leaves out a lot of possibilities for further development in both her personality and interpersonal relationships. Third, with the kind of show that Friendship is Magic is, it limits her ability to star in solo, or even co-star in an episode.
Part of me wants to say that it’s one of the few times when character development was detrimental to a character, but it wasn’t so much the fact that she developed so much as it was poorly handled and poorly timed. Perhaps, they will find some different ways to develop Applejack in her current state, but until then I have to say that she is pretty much “done”.
Comments
