JBM: Use of Pinkie's Fourth Wall Breakage · 6:44am Mar 22nd, 2012
So I was reading one of my tracked stories. It was pretty good, nice description of actions and place, though the character development is a bit too fast, and, yes, it was shipping shut up. But then came up one of my biggest pet peeves(probably right behind Rainbow Pie and right above people still using Fanon!Luna's characterization for Canon!Luna). It went along something like this.
"Pinkie haven't you ever heard of personal space?"
"Nope! don't you remember Bridle Gossip?"
*insert blank stares and/or some sentence or thought along the lines of 'Pinkie Pie you are so random!' here*
While not enough to ruin the story for me, it definitely bugged me throughout the rest of my reading. Pinkie's a tough character to use. I've yet to written anything that really happens from her POV, focuses on her, and/or shows her thoughts. So I'm not trying to be judgey here. But Pinkie's 4th wall breakage is subtle, to the point where you wonder if she really does see us or if she really is just "random". Remember, when Iron Will looked at the camera and smiled, Pinkie was just as confused as Rarity. The most she does is teleport off screen, use Looney Tunes logic and powers, and maybe a few sly looks at the camera. She does not say "Don't you remember *episode title*?" or "This fic only has a few pages left guys!". The only times these are acceptable are in a comedy story, preferably one more off-the-rails and/or meta than the show usually is, or if she's in a crossover with a work of fiction that commonly uses such humor. She's not Deadpool people. When I see these jokes(Even worse is when people use these to introduce Pinkie's character in fics as if that's the only or biggest part of her character-Pinkie's way more than that) I want to bang my head against the wall. If the show ever does do such jokes, I'm positive I actually will do that.
/endrant