Protagonist #6 – Applejack

Chapter 5 is out, so let's celebrate with my thoughts on something more or less unrelated. This blog post is completely subjective and to keep it that way I won't even pretend to have done research.

As a writer I don't know what to think of Applejack. As a brony I love the show and all of it's characters (more or less), but the writer part of me can't help but feel like AJ came out last when they got their character traits.

I think almost every fan work I've seen that was centered specially around Applejack was either "Lying Applejack" or another attempt to make innuendo out of apple-related words ( = Porn).

I can see two big reasons for that: AJ has almost no defining character traits, or at least none that don't get overshadowed by other characters. For one, she has barely any flaws. As the Bearer of the Element of Honesty she doesn't lie to her friends and rarely keeps something from them, and as the mare who practically runs the family farm alongside her brother she is very responsible and hard-working. The competitive streak she might have is overshadowed by Rainbow Dash's competitive streak, which is unfortunate since it only seems to show around Rainbow Dash. She had two episodes about the problems she has with accepting an uncomfortable truth or accepting help from her friends and I can only assume that she learned her lesson by now.

The second reason is her little sister Applebloom. Unlike Sweetie Belle, who is in many ways different from her big sister Rarity, Applebloom has practically been taught to be like her sister in certain aspects; Helping out on the farm, appreciating her family and acting responsible. Basically, she is a far more adorable Applejack (which, on its own, is enough for most fans to choose her over AJ as a protagonist) with the added character bonus of her whole Cutie Mark scheme. Not to mention she has two friends, each of which could probably out-character both of the two sisters at once (at least Scootaloo could).

Still, I'm not saying that Applejack is not fit to be a protagonist. In combination with the rest of the Mane Six (and Spike) she is the perfect character to play the straight guy (straight mare?) and basically take all the lines that aren't reserved for the other ponies. That is what I usually do to give her the story time she deserves. I just probably won't ever try to make a story only about her.

That said, no matter what the story is about, I absolutely hate it when a writer overdoes Appplejack's accent. Seriously, if I as a foreigner can understand her in the show (easier than Pinkie Pie at least) her accent can't be that bad.