Need help Writing Pinkie Pie....Input from her fans Appreciated. · 8:12pm Nov 14th, 2014
Now I'm going to be honest, I don't really like Pinkie Pie.
BEFORE you all freak out, I DIDN'T say that I hate her, but I have trouble liking her.
Let me explain-the reason I have trouble sympathizing with or enjoying her character is because I am unable to understand what her character is supposed to be and thus, have no idea who Pinkie Pie really is aside from being random.
That's why 'Pinkie's Balloon' is the weirdest story I've written to date because I didn't understand the proper way to characterize her.
I know she's goofy and random, but the inconsistencies in the way she's been written make it difficult for me to ascertain exactly who she is and what is technically in-character for her when it comes to interactions-let me give a few examples;
Admittedly, at first I thought she was just going to be one of those stereotypical air-headed characters, but then this came along and made me realize she had more depth than that and seemed to genuinely care about others, rather than simply being just about 'fun' all the time.
This is what I like to believe;
Season 1 Episode 5; "Griffon the Brush-Off"
Dash and Pinkie go around town pranking everyone, until Pinkie learns their next target is Fluttershy-at this point she reminds Dash that Fluttershy is too sensitive for even the most harmless pranks.
Later, she is shown to be visibly upset by Gilda's interaction with Fluttershy.
At that point I realized that she wasn't as annoying as I had originally thought as she cared about her friends, didn't want to offend them, and was willing to stick up for them.
Season 3 Episode 3; "Too Many Pinkie Pies"
Pinkie again shows consideration for an exhausted Rainbow Dash and he positive traits; restraint, empathy, having more character than just single-mindedly focusing on fun 24/7.
It stands out even more against the backdrop of horribly simplified Pinkie clones representing the traits that tend to annoy some.
Season 4 Episode 12; "Pinkie Pride"
Pinkie learns that just because she is having fun, doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else is and learns to put aside her pride when that happens.
And now the ugly parts that make me wonder if this is even the same character;
"Luna Eclipsed"
Princess Luna is clearly not in on the joke and the whole Nightmare Moon thing is evidence of her already present self-esteem issues, which this fiasco certainly didn't help and was extremely counterproductive to what Twilight was trying to achieve.
Dash shares the blame too, but Pinkie has been shown to be more empathetic than that.
"The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000"
The gag where she takes a dozen mugs of the last of the Apple's cider and rubs it in Dash's face after screwing her and a sizable portion of the rest of the town out of it-even if she had the money for it, did she really need that much? And at the expense of her friend and ten other potential customers? I wasn't sure if she was just casually trolling or if she was really oblivious to all of this-she's not supposed to be stupid, right? And isn't she supposed to have regard for her friend's feelings?
"A Friend in Deed"
-Unable to take 'no' for an answer multiple times, focusing on her desire to be friends with the new guy who clearly isn't interested and her continued harassment is clearly increasing his contempt for her.
-"This donkey is really, REALLY BALD!" and when the town residents start laughing, she seems genuinely confused.
-Destroying his most precious possession.
While she does apologize and try to make up for it by have a custom made toupee, re-introduces her to Matilda and seemingly learned something, this still confused me as she couldn't just respect someone's privacy, despite being asked repeatedly, which doesn't seem like the same Pinkie from Griffon the Brush-Off.
"Filli Vanilli"
This one is obvious, I'm not as sensitive as others when it comes to Fluttershy-I would be horrified if it were anyone she did this to.
I am aware and horrified that Amy Keating Rogers got death threats over this, which people were taking WAY too seriously (you don't see me doing crap like that over Mare Do Well or Rainbow Falls) and I do not feel that one poorly written episode warrants the taking of human life-that's just insane.
With that said, this was a horrible issue that prevented me from enjoying the episode-Pinkie Pie just didn't know when to shut up and the point where she was crawling up the wall like something out of The Exorcist, while reminding Fluttershy of how horrifying the experience was made me cringe-I actually had a fever dream like that once (minus the ponies) and as someone who suffers from anxiety I was far too aware of horrible it is being in front of everyone like that (I had to take drama as an elective in high school, since nothing else was open) and it was nerve-wracking.
And filter or no, she should have seen that her friend was upset by the fact that she was visibly sobbing and no, 'maybe she has autism' isn't an excuse (and yes, that was actually used on MLPforums as an excuse), I have autism, but I can still recognize that sobbing typically means that something is wrong. Then, there is the fact that seemed genuinely confused as to why everyone was mad at her.
While I now know that it wasn't Amy's intention, when I first saw it Pinkie came off as a little sociopathic and I was wondering if this was some kind of warped 'Cupcakes' reference, given the increased number of fandom nods and references in Season 4.
"Trade Ya!"
I have a issues with every aspect of this episode, but focusing on Pinkie;
The part with the foal, where she says "You're not going to tell anyone, ARE YOU!?" and then...
"Is...is she gonna hurt that kid?"
That wasn't an attempt at levity, those were honestly the thoughts going through my head while watching that scene and after Filli Vanilli, I wasn't really filled with much confidence that she wouldn't do something like that.
And finally, there are moments where she just seems stupid, I mean it seriously seems like the writer's lowered her IQ at certain points for plot convenience;
"Wonderbolt's Academy" she has some of the dumbest logic I've ever heard and I spend the better half of my time on the internet, to get the girls to the Academy.
"Three's A Crowd" she's distracted by a balloon of all things, while Dash abandons everyone because Meghan couldn't think of a better way to write them out of the episode.
With all of these conflicting portrayals, I have always tried to avoid writing about her most of the time, since it's difficult for me to understand the 'proper' way to portray her with all of these conflicting character examples-so now, I'm just going come out and admit that I need help understanding the character.
I kind of need to know this to finish up 'This Night Aria'.
I draw my main impression of Pinkie Pie's personality from Season 1 Ep 25 'Party of One' ... which shows Pinkie Pie as a damaged and insecure stepford smiler, only, she's also clearly not sane either. It also doesn't hurt to look at her family and how she stands out from it. What does a rock farmer do anyway?