Character Study: Pinkie Pie

I said a while back that I'd start a series of writing advice blogs, but I've kind of put that off. 'S a running theme with me, most of the time. But there's no time like the present to start!

I've noticed that a lot of people seem to like my characterization of Pinkie. A few hundred of them liked it enough to upvote my first-person Pinkie comedy, and out of over four thousand readers, only sixteen (Theoretically, anyway; I'm ignoring the possibility of drive-by downvotes.) downvoted it. So those are encouraging signs. And roughly a fifth of you, my followers, decided to watch my future work after reading that. I feel relatively safe in assuming that discussing my portrayal of Pinkie is a relevant topic.

So what is there to Pinkie Pie? There are some concrete facts: she likes to throw parties, she knows everyone in town, her favorite pastime is making others smile, etc. Most of my portrayal of Pinkie, however, is based on interpreting canon, not on what is explicitly given to us. I therefore make no claim that mine is the best (that title goes to Twinkletail, who just might actually be Pinkie), but I offer it for your consideration.

First, we should consider her personality. Obviously, she tends to be cheerful most of the time. She's silly, playful, positive, and just plain fun. She's usually the one smiling in times when no one else can, and her happiness is contagious... most of the time. Pinkie seems to have a hard time understanding boundaries, as demonstrated in Friend In Deed, and she sometimes lacks a filter, as seen in Filli Vanilli and Castle Sweet Castle. This causes some to think she's an unrestrained nutcase, and the ran-dumb lines they give to her don't do much for her character, either. But underneath that, I believe there to be a method to her madness. We don't get much to back this up, only a few hints at it. However, Pinkie's shenanigans often make sense in hindsight, and the moments when she springs in seemingly out of nowhere to save the day are some of my favorite moments in the show. Don't be fooled by moments when sarcasm seems to go over her head; Pinkie is brilliant, just in a way that's sometimes hard to follow. And isn't that usually how genius works?

That's a lot to consider, and that's just how she is on a good day. Pinkie has also had moments where her optimism was completely crushed. These are the moments when she feels like her friends have abandoned her. Party of One is usually the episode people point to for this, but I think Pinkie Pride showed this better. In one scene, Pinkie acts like her normal, cheerful self, but it's clear to the audience that it's just a facade. Immediately after Twilight leaves, Pinkie reverts to her moping, and by herself, she's left to wonder if she even has anything to offer that Cheese can't provide.

I believe this to show several key insights into her character, specifically her motivation and how she sees herself. The first is that Pinkie bases her worth around her ability to make others happy. It's not just a hobby, it's what keeps her going. With her friends finding happiness elsewhere, Pinkie slips into a depressive state (I hesitate to call anything outright depression, since I'm not an expert on the subject). Pinkie likes to make others smile because it makes her feel good about herself. The second is that Pinkie internalizes her problems. She has a friend willing and able to talk to her, and yet she pretends she's fine because she doesn't want anyone to think that there might be something wrong. Everyone just kind of expects Pinkie to always be happy, so she feels like she has to keep up that mask, which means she has to deal with problems alone. And third, Pinkie's greatest fear seems to be that her friends will abandon her. This point is less substantiated, but the fact that two episodes center around Pinkie wrestling with sadness and anger after her friends seem to ditch her. The repetition lends it a certain degree of emphasis. Pinkie Pie is insecure. Her self-image is based, to some extent, on what others think, and the fact that two episodes have included breakdowns based on this suggests that she draws a large amount of her self-image from what she thinks others see. It's no wonder "Pinkamena" is such a popular character; Pinkie, to a certain extent, is a familiar archetype: the "happy-go-lucky" girl who's really just trying to keep it together. I know a handful of girls like that, personally.

Pinkie is an unusual character. She's so simple on the surface, but fairly difficult to fully understand. I've tried to experiment with her character a bit, and even after watching her episodes and reading others' takes on her, I'm not sure I have as solid a grasp on her character as I would like.

When I wrote Icky-Sicky Pinkie Pie, I focused more on the silly, goofy aspect of Pinkie's character. I delved somewhat into what happens when she's sad, but the overall tone was cheerful. That's pretty much the epitome of how Pinkie is, I think. She's capable of emotions that aren't joy or happiness, contrary to what some seem to think, but for the most part, she's just enjoying making everyone smile.

And I, for one, love her for it.