Are there too many Applejack episodes about apple farming? · 1:10am Mar 6th, 2014
Let’s talk some more about Applejack!
As Applejack’s publicist-- wait, I’m not her publicist? Could’ve fooled me. Anyway, as someone who spends a lot of time defending Applejack, one of the complaints I hear goes something like this:
“Applejack is boring because all of her episodes are about farming. Seriously, she needs to get another interest!”
And… well, it is true that she loves her shiny red fruit, the show itself has acknowledged that a number of times. But, the interesting thing is that despite a minor obsession (an eccentricity, really) Applejack’s episodes don’t seem to be about farming apples any more than Rarity’s are about fashion.
Take a look at these lists of episodes where the main plot centers around one of them, or one of them as part of a two-pony-pair.
Applejack, apple/farming related episodes:
Applebuck Season
Over a Barrel
Super Speedy Cider Squeezy
Bats!
Simple Ways
Applejack, other:
Look Before You Sleep
Fall Weather Friends
The Last Roundup
Apple Family Reunion
Spike at Your Service
Pinkie Apple Pie
Rarity, fashion related episodes:
Suited for Success
Green Isn't Your Color
Sweet and Elite
Rarity Takes Manehattan
Rarity, other:
Look Before You Sleep
A Dog and Pony Show
Sisterhooves Social
Simple Ways
First of all, it’s interesting that Applejack has more episodes where she’s at the center of the action than Rarity does… and more coming up this season. Not bad for a “background pony.”
That aside, Applejack has five episodes where her plot is driven by apples and farming, and six where it’s incidental or doesn’t come up. Rarity has four that focus on fashion, and four that don’t. So, half the time we watch Rarity we’re watching her fashion, and slightly less than half the time we watch AJ we’re watching her farm.
Now, this list isn’t absolute -- for example, one could argue that fashion design didn’t play a big part in Sweet and Elite, or that it was actually the origin of the conflict in Dog and Pony Show. Or one could argue that Applejack isn’t really a major supporting character in Over a Barrel (it’s really an ensemble episode), or that The Last Roundup still included farming.
But unless you’re really trying, AJ and Rarity are pretty much neck in neck in terms of their rage of interests shown in episodes. So, why does it give AJ a bad reputation and not Rarity? I have a few ideas.
1) Farming isn’t cool to a large part of the internet using population.
Fashion, sports, celebrities, politics, academia, parties, adventures, these things are all pretty exciting to people in their late teens and early twenties. But, while there certainly is an audience for stories about family and farm, it’s not usually 16-25-year-old internet users. I’d imagine that there aren’t a lot of country music fans here. (Note: I love country music.)
Of course, that’s not the case with the target audience. A lot of kids love farms, and the chance to pick a pumpkin out of a patch, see how they milk cows, pick blueberries or, yes, apples, or ride horses. So, stories about Sweet Apple Acres are just as likely to be cool and exotic to most kids as stories about fashion shows. (Anecdotal evidence: Last year I asked a group of six-year-old girls at a dance recital what they wanted to be when they grew up: all but one of them wanted to be princesses, and the one non-princess wanted a ranch with 3000 horses.)
2) Applejack and farming tends to be reactive, while Rarity and fashion tends to be proactive.
Applejack already has a farm, and most episodes about her farm tend to be about maintaining the status quo-- she has to keep things from falling apart. Rarity’s business is something she’s trying to build, so her fashion related stories tend to be about her trying to achieve something bigger. Even the basic nature of the jobs fall along these lines; Rarity is creating something, while Applejack is harvesting.
Once again with the demographics, 16-25-year-olds can relate more to a character trying to advance in life than they can to a character who has what they want and is trying to hold on to it. So AJ’s stories might seem the same because they’re all about rescuing or saving something she has rather than trying to build something new. (I’ll also throw out a quick theory that this might have to do with gender lines too-- I’m not as sure about this, but I think it might be more important to guys that a character be proactive than it is to girls.)
3) The word “apple.”
This is a weird theory. While Rarity’s focus is just as tight as AJ’s, there are more words for it: fashion, designs, dresses, outfits, ensembles, fabric, gems, beautifying, fame, glamour, society, upper-class… to Rarity, all of these are part of the same thing, the success of her business, but they can make an episode feel like it’s about more than just Rarity’s design business and her goals for it and herself.
Aspects of Applejack’s career, on the other hand, all pretty much use the word “apple.” She farms apples, harvests apples, sells apples, makes apple cider, bakes with apples, and takes apple trees to relatives. On top of that, one of Applejack common non-apple farming themes is her family, so... Apples. Despite the fact that her job, and the plots the writers give her dealing with it and other things, are just as varied as Rarity’s, they always involve the same word: apple. That might make it feel more like the same thing over and over, even if what Applejack is actually dealing with is just as complex as what Rarity has to deal with. It’s just hard to talk about Applejack without saying “apple.”
I don’t know what the real reason is, and I’d be happy to talk about other ideas. But whatever the reason, Applejack’s episodes aren’t all about farming… people just seem to think they are.
Also, Rarity's episodes that aren't about fashion involve Applejack. Hmm.
I wanna see them do an episode where Applejack loses her hat...
...oh wait.
I grew up in Michigan, so every year during the autumn I like to visit an apple orchard. It's pretty nostalgic for me and exciting for most kids to pick a bushel of apples and enjoy some donuts and fresh cider. It's practically tradition.
I wonder if there is any subliminal connection to Apple computers that creates a feeling of dislike towards AJ among some users. I know I refuse to allow any Mac computer or any i(whatever-the-f*** piece of crap electronic device it is) in my house.
That's something that I suspect is also variant on age. Obviously I can't speak for more than myself without lots of money and undergrads doing surveys for me, but I found that age has made me more keen to secure what I have rather than chasing every new fad I see pass by. If I want to increase what I have, I need a firm foundation to start from, and that means maintaining and preserving where I am now so that it'll give me something to fall back on.
Teenagers usually already have something to fall back on in the form of their parents - or, if they don't, then they have that extra incentive to chase something that can provide the fall-back.
... anyway my point is that I'm at the age where I can appreciate and identify with a character who understands the necessity of a solid foundation and a reliable means of support.
(I've also found myself ranting about teenagers a lot recently. I suspect I'm turning into Granny Smith...)
So what you are saying is that Rarity x Applejack is best ship, right? Because that's what I came away with.
1899802
You probably should check your reading comprehension...
I love country music too!
At least Applejack isn't a broken character. In every Rarity episode, she starts out a bitch and then pulls a Timmy Turner promising she will "not do it again" and actually put her friends before her goals and then she doesn't. Rainbow Dash does the exact same thing except for Wonderbolt Academy (ironically Merriwether made one of the only 'good' S3 episodes, but that's another story) where it was more integrity and her friends weren't involved.
Applejack's character in of itself is satisfied so far as the writers have done. She is an honest, hardworking, loyal (more than RD *cough*) farmpony who's only real troubles lie in helping others, not herself. This is why people so venomously call her a "background pony" because she isn't upstage making an asshole of herself in every episode centering around her.
Final note - it's sad when authors on FIMFic write the main cast better than the show writers do.
Final final note - Applejack is best pony.
1899786 Nah, I'm a Microsoft fanboy and love Applejack. xD
1899802
1899826
N-no, I think he's onto something here, Book. Please, continue Seeth.
1899912
This man gets it. Well played, old sport. AJ ain't broke, so don't fix her.
There need to be more Applejack episodes about Equestria-wide deathbattles.
I don't disagree with you, but the show should really give AJ better hobbies than just something having to do with apples. Or competitions with Rainbow Dash. A lot of people I know are saying that she is one of the most important ponies with an "undeveloped background." They should really build her character more.
1899802
Um....no.
1900032
That's kind of my point... AJ already has more background than Rarity. She does rodeo, she spends time with her family, she competes with Rainbow Dash, she's constantly doing stuff for Ponyville... plus she's a farmer.
Rarity goes to the spa, has crushes on guys, tries to get into fancy parties, and designs dresses.
Which of these is a more well rounded character?
1899988
1899802
I'll let you guys get to writing those fics. Me, bats and Jake will be churning out the TwiJack.
1899912
Agreed.
Applejack is best pony. Shameless group publicity.
She isn't a Mary Sue, she has her own problems that most of the fandom can't or won't relate to. She has priorities and I am a PC.
1899802
1899826
I think this is a case of a terminal lost cause~
1899912 Broken?
While she obviously has her flaws, it's a rare and unreal person (or pony) who changes all at once. Rarity is ambitious - as much if not more so than Rainbow Dash - and in a cutthroat industry. She wins by combining generosity (which builds social capital, though she doesn't plan it, she just gives knowing it helps make her world a better place) and ruthlessness, though as she matures she's discovering (slowly) that generosity is a better investment.
But that's how people work. Forget every book and movie, and consider real life. People only change when what they were doing doesn't work anymore. You, me, everyone reacts based on experience, and experience comes from the world we live in. That's why kids seem to change all the time: their world shifts rapidly as they move through school, and a few new memories can drastically change the sum of their experience. A middle-aged adult stays more constant, because their world does, and they've adapted to it.
AJ is pretty much the same too, as you would have seen from the press release above. She's not quite as stubborn as she was in Applebuck Season, but she's still stubborn and trustworthy and friendly and everything else she was: she's had the same lesson (it's okay to ask for help when you need it) hammered home in 3.5 episodes (Over a Barrel only sort of counts) and she's still more likely to go it alone then ask for assistance.
That doesn't make AJ a broken character either. It makes her
humanequine.I think AJ should have an episode in which she joins a hoof-wrassling competition and in a bizarre betrayal the existing champion is her brother.
Are any of Applejack's episode's really about farming? I guess the plots of episodes like Applebuck Season are related to farming, but that episode is about Applejack as a character, and a conflict she faces as a result of a specific aspect of her personality. That's an episode about Applejack, not an episode about farming. How much farming actually takes place in any of these episodes, anyway?
I don't think there's ever been an Applejack episode about farming.
Reactive, proactive... Let's talk alienation.
Youth unemployment is through the roof around the world, but most of all in the first world. To be young and jobless in the modern world is to be told you're a worthless freak who will never be individually valued. When there are no jobs to be had, it must be because the jobless deserve their status for their laziness and stupidity.
In walks Applejack, who is young enough that a narrative of struggle is expected, yet she owns a farm. She jumped straight into the oppressor class[1], the conventionally-minded and secure ones, the people who have a place in the world and sneer at everyone who doesn't. The ones who dug little fortified trenches and wrapped themselves in unconcern for those without such resources.
Rarity by contrast is a small business owner whose business fluctuates between "wildly profitable" and "fashionista in a town of nudists" on what seems like a month-to-month basis, fluctuating at the whims of people richer and more powerful than she is. She wants to be part of the conventional set, but she's not, or not stably. Yeah, it's not AS outside, but it's still a narrative of struggle. She gets acceptance, if sometimes grudgingly, by current outsiders.
Alienation even drives some of the affinity for Twilight Sparkle, whose inclusion in the conventional set (first royal ties, then princessdom) is so unnatural to modern culture as to become inoffensive again. Especially when Twilight Sparkle doesn't act like a Princess - she self-alienates, and so has some of the same sense of struggling back to a firm place in the world.
Few people who are sane would ache to be Twilight Sparkle. Her situation is shielded from envy by its sheer impossibility. Oh, but Applejack's life aches with its possibility. That could exist. It's as unlikely as winning the lottery, but it's possible, and it burns to the dislocated.
Normal people don't obsess over what they can't have. So, obviously, Applejack's life can't be desirable. It must be blandly conventional, empty, and going nowhere. It's not a coincidence that this is also the charge is leveled against people with secure normal careers by those who are assured of no such thing. It's also a completely vapid charge. Applejack has so much place in the world that she's busy six fifths of every day in planting and harvest seasons, and four fifths the rest of the year. Three, at worst.
She's rounded, but it costs something for people in the 16-25 age bracket to admit that.
[1]I'm not saying that Applejack is part of any kind of oppressor class in-setting. Nor does she sneer at people who don't have a place. It's clear that almost everypony in Equestria has a place. Therefore, Equestria doesn't have this dynamic to any meaningful extent. The real world does, though. We're talking about the reactions real world people have to characters in a minor utopia.
There is also the general entertaiment value (perceived) between AJ and Rares. Rarity is deliciously hammy, and often times, even at her worst, she is enormously enjoyable to watch freak out. This can be polarizing, as she has a large truckload of people who hate her guts as well, but she stands out, and her admirers love her to absolute bits. AJ is almost always the straight man, the one with a level head.Applebuck Season remains probably her most popular focus episode I think, partly because she actually loses it in that episode. It usually keeps her from standing out very well, and she usually isn't as uproariously funny like Rarity (or Pinkie Pie, who is similar to Rarity in this regard).
1899802
You spelled TwiJack wrong.
1900210
You want his sister to steal the last champion title he has, after being so cruelly robbed by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy?
The majority of people who hate Applejack think she is too perfect, therefore she doesn't have any flaws.
In my opinion on the 'all of her episodes are about farming', that is pretty much true, BUT FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE, THE PONY IS DEDICATED TO SOMETHING SHE LOVES. Just as much as anyone who likes doing dancing, singing, voice acting, drawing, ect. It is not strange to be so focused on something that your life revolves around.
1900308
The argument there is that AJ is a struggling farmer... there are plenty of those in the real world. There's a whole charity for them. And AJ is no different, she went to the gala to work, because her grandmother needed a hip, and her farm needed a new barn and a new plow. Any competition in the cider business and they don't have the money to get through winter.
Rarity, on the other hand, seems awfully successful for a small business owner... as far back as season one she was designing for celebrities, has her own shop and all the trappings of the upper class in her home. She's obviously aspiring for something higher, but it's something that a lot of young people want: fame and fortune.
It may be true, but it's not something I would have thought of. I find it weird to think that people are jealous of AJ's life, because she's constantly struggling just for stability.
1899912
I agree. If I lived in the MLP universe, I would much rather be friends with, the lover of, or the husband of Applejack than of Rarity. Applejack is simply kinder and more dependable than Rarity, and while Rarity's tantrums are funny to watch, they'd be less funny to see coming from the mare one loved.
And I like Rarity. But Rarity is high-maintenance, while AJ is the one who's always there for her friends.
1900359
Applejack's struggles are the struggles of an accountant. If AJ ever really blows something, she has a vast support network that can and will rebuild her. In all likelihood, they'd rebuild her to right back where she is. The fundamentals of her business are solid. Ponyville is going to need apples for the foreseeable future. A bad Winter would be a personal tragedy, might even cost her Granny Smith, but next Spring she'd be out there planting again. Given the size and tendencies of the Apple family... it probably wouldn't even cost her that much.
Rarity's struggles are the struggles of an artist. Her fame is ephemereal. The celebrities she designs for may pay huge amounts of money, but they barely notice her. The fundamentals of her business are absurdly poor. The townsfolk don't wear clothes most of the time. The exceptions have such poor taste they'd never buy from Rarity. If Rarity ever misses a step, she won't be back after a hard season or two. She's working as a fashionista on borrowed time, trying to achieve something stabler before she flames out irrecoverably.
Her talent emphasizes this. If Rarity wanted a secure, normal career, she wouldn't be blinging dresses. She'd be prospecting for gems and selling them. They seem direly common, which means she's probably wringing more wealth out of them like this... but she wouldn't be any worse off than a rock farmer, and Pinkie Pie came out just fine from that upbringing.
I feel like this argument is silly. Are there too many episodes about Rainbow Dash wanting to fly with the Wonderbolts? Are there too many episodes about Twilight doing magic/reading books? Nope. So why is Applejack any different? Each character has got their thing, and Applejack's thing is farming/apples. Fluttershy's thing is animals, Pinkie's is...being consistently random (oxymoron?) and friendly. Plus, Applejack seems to hang out with her buddies as much as all the others. It's not like she's constantly ditching plans because farm stuff comes up or something (not saying that wouldn't make sense, but the show doesn't go out of its way to make it a thing).
I suppose I fall into the age group that's possibly more likely to think "lol farming's lame" but I guess knowing enough people who own farms or similar businesses makes me respect them for it. Farming ain't easy. Heck, gardening on a small scale ain't easy. There's stupid bugs and stupid weather and stupid animals who don't seem to understand that the beans in the boxy thing are not a free buffet. Anyone who can stick with it, even love doing it, hell, they got my support.
Reminds me of kindergarten. All of my friends were princesses/fairies/things with dresses and wands, and I...was a firefighter.
My one friend felt lame because everyone was dressed similar, so I gave her my helmet and told her she could magic up some water with her wand to help me out and then she'd be different because she'd be a firefighter fairy princess. Agh - I just nostalgia attacked. Little kid logic can be hilarious sometimes. 
1900143
Blah blah blah Applejack
Still a background pony
When do we get to best pony Punkum Pie, as well as her lezeriffic lover Ranbow Batch?
1900095
I'm drukn as shit, but I'll do a Rarijak fic for you, buddy-bro.
Tonight for dinner I had an apple, some grapes, and two tacos.
1900725
fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/357/a/1/2_hoofs_up_by_comeha-d6z0lto.png fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/357/a/1/2_hoofs_up_by_comeha-d6z0lto.png
AJ boring? No.
Cards on the table here: I do prefer Rarity to Applejack. But there's the factor of reality vs. fiction here.
Stripping away all the fantasy elements and considering just personalities, I think I'd find AJ much easier to get along with -- or, at least, respect -- than Rarity. It'd be really difficult to spend much time around Rarity without mocking or having a go at her.
But as a character, I find Rarity's unpleasant traits make her more interesting to watch. The hamminess, the indulgence, selfishness, and, of course, the contrast with her attempts at grace and magnanimity. (Basically, what 1900356 said).
As for hobbies and livelihoods -- and again, I can only speak for myself -- I don't think that has any bearing on it. Fashion and high society hold no more interest for me than farming does. Possibly less. These are only interesting as far as they're something for the characters to be passionate about.
1900143 The issue I take is that when you are the embodiment of a certain character quality (Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty) they are expected to exemplify that at least in a fractional amount. Cutting off your tail to give to a random serpent in the water doesn't make you the #1 generous pony in the world. You are being generous yes, but you aren't at the level that one with the title of "Element of Generosity" would have.
Applejack's only true bout of dishonesty (besides the absolutely dreadful forced corruption state) is in The Last Roundup but keep in mind she really didn't want to do it and mostly ran away (which she had no problem being truthful that she didn't want to be there). Whereas Rarity doesn't even think twice about ignoring her friends and being overall selfish (Sweet and Elite, Green isn't Your Color (even worse because of being outright envious of Fluttershy))
1901391 AJ is just as ready to lie to protect her pride as Rainbow Dash. It doesn't come up much, but when it does, she's willing to be dishonest. But that may be Twilight's fault: Celestia, in MMC, refers to her element (more accurately) as intergity, which comes closer to what AJ's all about. AJ keeps her promises, even when it might be better if she didn't/
She wasn't honest with Spike in Spike at Your Service, the entire plot of Look Before You Sleep was based on little white lies going too far, and Last Roundup contains the most deceptive act that anypony in the main six has pulled to date. (CMC are, of course, worse...). If AJ isn't the embodiment of honesty, and especially if she isn't even the most honest of the main six (that would be Pinkie) then I find it easy to say that the bearer of the Element of [Virtue] isn't always the living embodiment of [virtue]. She just carries a rock that shoots rainbows.
To be entirely fair: none of the main six (except Fluttershy and possibly Twilight) are living saints with respect to their element. Dash is loyal, but her loyalty can be tested (and in Wonderbolt Academy used against her for a while), AJ isn't devoid of deception, Rarity is capable of selfishness and Pinkie's cheer has it's limits. Twilight is always magical (occasionally to a fault) but that's a talent, not a virtue. (Twilight's key virtue is either self-honesty or wisdom, but those are also things she sometimes struggles with). Fluttershy may be always kind, but she is very frequently too kind (Bats!, Breezies, et al.)
They may have the traits listed by their elements, but they are not perfect embodiments of them. It's unfair to give AJ a pass and not grant the same forbearance to Rarity, is all I'm saying.
1901543 It's not a matter of perfection, but merit. I can back the statement that Applejack sticks to her element closer than Rarity does before there is an issue rather than mostly after it. Of course Applejack isn't getting a pass, but to put her beneath any other of the main cast (especially Rarity) would be just as wrong. I bash Rarity because not only do I biasedly dislike her, I also unbiasedly believe she cannot truly exemplify the Element of Generosity.
Also Fluttershy is underdeveloped and actually can be too much like her element which also makes her with flaw. Having every episode be about crippling Kindness (except for Hurricane Fluttershy) also breaks her as well. So she was friends with Rainbow Dash and fell off a cloud. What else? At least we know Dash had a father.
And Twilight...she's a tricky topic so I have no wish to dive into that.
I will note this is more than a little misleading. The reasons he has a background reputation is because a lot of "Applejack episodes" aren't actually "Applejack episodes". She isn't even in a good chunk of The Last Roundup, the hero of Applebuck Season is Twilight, Over a Barrel is more of a group episode, and Super Speedy Cider Squeezy doesn't actually focus that much on Applejack. Moreover, she is more or less the antagonist of Applebuck Season, The Last Roundup, and Apple Family Reunion. While it is true that a lot of the problems the characters face are of their own making, in Applejack's case she's had several episodes where she is filling the role of the "villian".
Compare to Rarity's episodes; yes, she struggles and she is far from perfect and causes a lot of trouble, but she is the protagonist of her own episodes.
I think this is the real reason why Applejack kind of gets the "support cast" vibe sometimes; several of her own episodes are about other ponies overcoming the problems she is creating for them, and she isn't the real focus of a few of "her" episodes.
Ehh... while it is true that only a very small percentage (1%ish IIRC) is involved in agriculture these days (Go go green revolution!), the trouble with this theory is that very little of the population is actually all that interested in, say, parties for little kids (while this is popular with the target demographic, how many of the adult fans really want to go to a party and play pin the tail on the pony?), fashion (how many guys are interested in women's fashion? Not a whole lot. Heck, a lot of women aren't interested in the hoity toity kind of fashion Rarity does), and suchlike?
I don't think the answer lies in farming being inherently boring, and indeed, the reality is that farming is one of those "cool things" to the population at large - they have Trend's view of farming.
No, the problem is that farming as presented in the show is uninteresting, and none of the farming activities are meant to engage the audience - the only real exceptions were Bats and Apple Family Reunion, the latter of which isn't even an Applejack episode. Farming seems to consist of bucking apple trees and planting seeds. Then we had cider making, which was a contest, but the actual activity itself wasn't important. When we had the zap apple harvest, we were more involved in the process, even though it wasn't the most interesting thing in the world. But with most of them, the actual activity isn't terribly important and isn't designed to (and thus does not) engage the audience.
When there isn't anything beyond "farming is a lot of work", you don't really get engaged. It is, but isn't terribly interesting. The only Applejack episode which had the potential to be interesting in this regard was Bats, but they failed to address the issues involved at all in favor of Fluttershy swooping around for five minutes and a generally lackluster plot. There was no real addressing of the issues involved, it was all very arbitrary and superficial.
Conversely, when we look at Rarity's fashion, something which is ordinarily uninteresting to us becomes interesting because it is an avenue for Rarity's creativity. We know why fashion matters so much to her, and we feel involved with it, feel involved with the work she puts into it, as well as the spirit and creativity. Fashion feels much more alive to us because Rarity is about doing things with style and panache and not accepting anything but the best and she sells her whole raison d'etre to us every time.
Applejack does not. Farming is something she does, but it isn't something which involves the audience. We may have stakes in Applejack, but we have no stakes at all in the farming really. The actual activity of farming is not made interesting to us, or involving, or anything, so as a result, it just feels like filler - because it kind of is. They just say "Well, Applejack is a farmer, so we'll have conflict X which peripherally involves farming" but it doesn't really involve farming on a practical level - what she is doing doesn't really matter a whole lot to the plot. With something like Suited For Success, the plot is contingent on her making outfits for her friends that make them happy (and eventually a fashion dude), but with, say, Applebuck Season, the fact that Applejack is harvesting apples is actually entirely incidental to the plot - she could be doing absolutely anything and it wouldn't change the episode at all, because it doesn't matter at all. Her overworking is the issue, but what she is working on is completely meaningless.
In other words, while Applejack is a farmer, we don't actually care about what Applejack actually DOES, whereas we DO care about what Rarity does because we get more invested in it. It isn't actually a bad thing, necessarily - it is perfectly fine for something related to the farm being an interchangable activity which drives the plot of the episode - but the fact that it is so interchangable means we have no actual reason to care about the activity itself. We care about the characters, not what they're doing, while with Rarity, we care about the results because we're more involved in the process from Rarity's perspective - her episodes help show why she cares about fashion and thus why we should care about her success, even if we think the ponies all look better naked.
1899735
Funny how that works.
1899789
Who wants to live on a muddy old apple farm their whole life?
Certainly not the character who ran away from home...
1899912
Except Applejack is the antagonist in several of her own episodes. Assuming they're even "hers", anyway.
Also, it is more complicated than that, seeing as very often Rarity is trying to help out her friends (Suited For Success, obviously, but also Green Isn't Your Color, Look Before You Sleep, Sweet and Elite) and ends up doing what Sweetie Belle wanted in Sisterhooves Social (and Sleepless in Ponyville), so... I dunno. Seems kind of weird to say she's a "broken character".
She's the element of generosity and her flaw is selfishness. Applejack is the element of honesty (and loyalty), and her flaw is both complimentary and not - stubbornness. Though she has some other flaws as well.
1900075
Rarity is, actually. She has a lot more conflicting motivations and drives.
Applejack really is a simpler character. There's some hints of complexity (she didn't want to live her whole life on a muddy old apple farm, but missed home too much to leave), but they've never really been followed up on - what WAS it that little Applejack wanted?
1900273
Bats is about farming. It also sucked.
There's also Family Appreciation Day, though that was an Applebloom episode.
1900308
"The hideous thing about meritocracy is it tells you that if you've given life your all and haven't gotten to the top you're thick or stupid. Previously, at least, you could always just blame the class system."
- Laurie Taylor
Thing is... it isn't even wrong. People just don't like the idea that being UNABLE to get a job (as opposed to being lazy and not wanting to get one) means that you are, literally, worthless, because no one trusts you enough to do meaningful work, and you can't even come up with meaningful work for yourself.
Youth unemployment, I think, is actually largely driven by a sense of dissatisfication with available opportunities, and many such people are choosing not to work or work minimally rather than struggle to actually work their way up in the world like their ancestors did. They think the whole thing is a stupid game that they shouldn't have to play... and frankly, they might be right to some extent, but they're also overconfident in their own abilities.
I mean, there are the useless people - there are many low-functioning individuals whose opportunities for employment are shrinking as everything becomes automated, and your job is to make sure machines are working right and doing complex tasks, not the same thing over and over again but actually solving problems - and they make up a fraction, but there's also the people who graduated with college degrees, who COULD do a lot of jobs, and just... don't.
Hell, I was one of them. I still feel like I AM to some degree. There are so many things I COULD be doing... but what I SHOULD be doing (or rather, the many things I could should be doing) require a dedicated effort. Raw ability is nothing if it goes unused or underused.
1904000
Your interpretation of Applejack is unfathomable.
If what you took away from her story about going to Manehattan is that she threw away her 'dreams' over homesickness, we are watching entirely different shows.
1904001
I don't think there's any sign that Applejack thinks of it that way in the show. If she does, it is only very seldom, and it doesn't eat away at her. Or possibly she has redirected that energy elsewhere, into Applebloom and rodeos, and that's enough for her to feel okay with herself.
Internal conflict can help to drive a character in a story. Applejack really doesn't have any of that really in the show - her only real conflict is trying to do more than she can.
Rarity, conversely, plays a very complicated sort of balancing act.
It doesn't mean Rarity is a better person than Applejack, but she's a more complicated character. Applejack is simpler, and while there is nothing wrong with that (and frankly I don't think the show creators want to send the message "don't be a farmer kids, it sucks", even though it probably is a true one) it does deprive her of the same sort of internal conflict we get from people like Rarity, where she has tension between her various desires, versus Applejack who, in the show, really doesn't. We could easily come up with some in fanfics, but in the show, her challenges are external.
1904007
The issue is that if I didn't know better, I'd say you were willfully misinterpreting why she left to Manehattan and why she came back.
Also, I like how you say she doesn't have internal conflicts directly after saying she's her own enemy in most of her episodes.
1904010
They aren't really internal conflicts, though. An internal conflict, to me, is about having multiple desires or values which pull you in opposite directions. Applejack is frequently an antagonist in her own episodes, but I don't think any of them have ever been because of her values being in conflict with each other - they're always just about her failing at doing something she wants to do. While that is an internal conflict in the sense that you are trying to do something and failing at it, the conflicts in the episode are not internal but center around how everyone else deals with it.
I suppose one could argue that her pride is what prevents her from asking for help in Applebuck Season, which is fair enough, I suppose, but the episode is not presented from that point of view; it is presented from the point of view of everyone else suffering because Applejack is stubborn.
1904012
No no, it's just her pride getting in the way for Applebuck Season, the fact that we're presented how that internal conflict caused external strife was just to lend it a more concrete set of consequences.
Her pride is a source of a lot of conflict with herself and others. Sometimes it manifests as her desire to protect those around her, for example it getting in the way of her common sense (Bridle Gossip). Or, and the big one, her taking on more responsibility than she has any reason to take on because she feels it's expected of her to live up to her own lofty expectations (managing the whole family reunion, presenting the best face of 'being an Apple' to Pinkie).
Anyway, the point of this blog isn't that Rarity is less complex a character than Applejack. I think your measuring stick for that in the form of 'most internal conflict award' is sort of ridiculous, but that's besides the point. It's about, you know, the focus of episodes.
But hey...that might require staying on topic.
1904021
Staying on topic?
Bah, what do you take me for?
Anyway, any thoughts on my thought re:farming, namely that it isn't really so much that there is a lot of it as that we're never given any reason to actually care about farming in the same way Rarity's episodes make us care about what she's up to?
1900359 There's a much bigger charity for them.
I love this quote from "How to get a farm subsidy":
1900725 I feel better about humanity knowing there was once a girl who wanted to be a firefighter fairy princess.
1901543 This bugs me: I'd like either to be able to say each character has that element that they excel at, or that element that they need to work on the most. We have half of each. Perhaps we can say each character has the element that they ought to excel at.
Oh, no; you've triggered one of my rants.
I've been studying the backgrounds of successful physicists in America. What I found is that, while from 1900-1970, most of them came from poor families, from 1970 on, almost all of them came from wealthy families.
This is because since 1970 it's been a requirement for a scientist to go to Harvard, Yale, MIT, or the equivalent, to be hired into a position where they can do their own research. But Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, etc., from 1970 through about 2010, admitted only the wealthy and the very poor, mainly because their tuition rates skyrocketed over that time period (despite all those institutions having so much money that they don't need to charge tuition at all).
Historically, successful scientists were:
~1500-1800: lower-class people with patrons
1800-1900: upper-class wealthy people
1900-1970: lower-class
1970-present: upper-class, or else a member of a subsidized minority (generally black, hispanic, or female), or an import from a country with a meritocracy (Europe, India, China).
If you look at the high-paying jobs (MD, lawyer, investment banker, business consultant), the first two have even more outrageous start-up costs, and the last two have an absolute, 100%-firm requirement that you went to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or a few other super-expensive places to be hired into the just-out-of-college $400K/yr jobs.
Europe, India, and China have meritocracies. We used to have a meritocracy, but we don't anymore.
1904213 I think Jake R put it best when writing from Rarity's perspective: (quoting from memory)
While it would be a great setup for an allegory, (which I assume to be your annoyance) the simple fact is the Elements are not used that way in the show. I don't mind fanfics where they are, but I do mind people who argue that they have to be or you're betraying canon. I also find that Celestia's names for the elements are a lot closer to how the characters actually behave:
charity
(actually there are reasonable arguments against this one)
compassion:
devotion:
integrity:
optimism:
leadership:
Looked at from this perspective, and suddenly the Elements fit much better, IMO.
1903991
I suppose you could be right about the farming thing, for some people. I didn't think of it because it's certainly not true for me-- from The Ticket Master on I've seen Sweet Apple Acres as the "family farm" so everything Applejack does to help it or save it has way more weight to me than any bunch of dresses Rarity makes.
But that might just be because it tapped into a narrative that I enjoy and care about. If other people don't buy that narrative, or enjoy it, then they certainly might find the drive to preserve a way of life less interesting than the drive to create.
She isn't even in a good chunk of Sisterhooves Social, the hero of Simple Ways is Applejack. Moreover she is more or less the antagonist of Simple Ways, Sisterhooves Social, and Sweet and Elite. (Not to mention being the one who actually caused the whole problem in Look Before You Sleep.)
I will give you that Over a Barrel is more of a group episode, as I said in the blog. But Super Speedy is focused on Applejack, she's the one the camera turns to at the important moments in the episode.
Rarity plays the antagonist just as much as AJ does... more, if the morals of both Look Before You Sleep and Bats! hadn't been thoroughly mishandled. She's just rarely painted as broadly when she's the one causing problems... more on that below.
1904146
Applejack's struggle isn't totally internal, I'll give you that.
Rarity's struggle is between two sides of her nature, selfishness vs. generosity.
Applejack's struggle is honor/pride vs. reality. While it's not totally internal, it's just as complex internally because it forces her to deal with questions of when to dig in and when to surrender, what she can or should be able to control and what she can't, and if it's even possible for her to be the things she thinks she should be.
In this sense, Rarity has it easy; she knows what's right and wrong, and the only problem is convincing herself to do the right thing. In Applejack's episodes, she's almost always doing the right thing already, and learning that the right thing isn't enough, it has to be done with wisdom, care, moderation, and attention or else all of your good intentions aren't going to matter... and sometimes you still fail, and have to live with that. That's a much more complex lesson to learn.
This is probably one reason why Applejack might look more antagonistic in her episodes even when she's more "right"-- you don't want to send kids the message that it's bad to help your family and friends, or to try to keep your promises, or to work hard to make an event successful, so it has to made really clear to kids that she's doing this the wrong way. With Rarity, in Sweet and Elite for example, it's clear to the audience that she's doing the wrong thing-- blowing off your friends and lying to them is bad-- so the writers can make her more sympathetic to show why you might want to do the wrong thing.
... Also, if you think Applejack really didn't want to live on the farm, you're nuts.
When I was 11, I tried to run away and live in the park because I was tired of helping to take care of my baby brother. That doesn't mean I didn't want to live with my family, or that my true dream was to live in the park... and now I'm having a baby of my own, living next door to my family, and more than happy with that. I've never once though "what if things had worked out with running away to the park?"
So, it's likely and realistic that Applejack went to Manehattan looking forward to a life without farm chores, but realized after a some times away that they were well worth it and never looked back. You're giving a brief, childish dream a little too much weight in the mind of an adult character, I think.