Applejack: There's More to Her than Stubbornness and Honesty - A Character Analysis, Part 1 · 6:46am Jan 4th, 2017
This is the first in a series of posts that will deal with the personalities of several main characters in My Little Pony.
If I asked you to name one of Applejack's character flaws, I can almost guarantee that you would say stubbornness. And if I asked you to name one of Applejack's character strengths, I can completely guarantee that you would say honesty.
I get it. I totally get it. I would give the same answers. But the difference between me and most people is that most people can't think of anything else. In this fandom, Applejack is only known for stubbornness and honesty (and the sour-lemon face she makes whenever she attempts a lie).
But there's more to her than that! So much more! I'm not going to say that Applejack is the 'best' pony, because there's really no such thing. She is, however, my favorite. I love her to death. And it's not just because she's honest, loyal, hardworking, and totally badass. She has personality flaws, too - plenty of them. I mean, characters aren't even fun if they're perfect, right? In fact, her creators seem to have gone to incredible lengths to make her imperfect... which, in my opinion, only makes her even more perfect, because it gives her one of the most complex personalities of all the ponies.
At the risk of sounding nerdier than Twilight Sparkle, I'm now going to give you the gift of an in-depth analysis of Applejack's personality in order to prove to you that there is so much more to her than meets the eye. In this post I am going to discuss her flaws, of which I have identified 13 (more than you found, I bet! Suckers! No, just kidding :D). In the next post, I will discuss her strengths.
If you don't like Applejack, then I hope this post gives you an increased appreciation for her (well, if you don't like her, you probably wouldn't even be reading this now. Or maybe you hate her and are reading this so you feel justified in hating her. If so, then I have no words to express my disapproval). If you do like her, than I hope this post just makes you love her even more as you come to realize how complex and multifaceted her personality really is. Also, please remember that Applejack is my favorite pony and I am not listing her flaws for any reason other than that I think each and every one actually makes her a better character.
Ah hope y'all enjoy.
1. Let's start with the obvious: stubbornness. Applejack is known for this. Sometimes it is an advantage, but most of the time it just lands her in deep trouble. She doesn't listen to her friends' advice and does whatever she feels like, whenever she feels like doing it, refusing to accept her friends' counsel. But where does this stubbornness even come from? Well, I like to think it stems from another personality flaw...
2. ... Overconfidence. We all know that Rainbow Dash is the confident one, and Applejack is the humble one... or is she? Well, actually, no. She is just as overconfident as Rainbow - sometimes she's downright cocky. She has waaaay too much faith in her own abilities. This is seen in one episode when she refers to herself as 'the loyalest and most dependable pony in Ponyville'. AJ is certainly capable of modesty, but she's equally capable of overconfidence that almost borders on egotism. She thinks she's capable of anything, which is fine... until she fails miserably, as in that one episode with Cherry Jubilee (blanking on the name). At this point her stubbornness kicks in and she absolutely refuses to admit her mistakes, instead preferring to try to persistently attack the problem until its fixed. Her stubbornness, or at least certain aspects of it, therefore comes from a desire to prove that her confidence in herself is justified. Applejack's faith in herself also leads to another huge problem....
3. ... Her reputation is way too important to her. Again, this seems more characteristic of different ponies - Rarity and Rainbow Dash, namely - but Applejack cares just as much about her own reputation, even if this is less noticeable. Again: "yore talkin' t' the loyalest an' most dependable pony in Ponyville, remember?" She knows exactly what ponies think of her and will do everything in her power to uphold that reputation. In that episode with Cherry Jubilee (shoot, what is that episode called???) she runs away from Ponyville after losing the rodeo. Why? To get the money to help out her town, sure. But also because she doesn't want to mess up her reputation by saying she could do something and then not coming through on it. Applejack's worry about maintaining her reputation leads to another character flaw...
4. ... Trust issues. AJ seems pretty suspicious of other ponies' ability to take care of themselves and/or do the right thing. She didn't trust Applebloom to stay at home on her own, for one. She is also reluctant to trust anypony to do something that she can do herself, as seen in the episode where she (very reluctantly) let Twilight and Spike take over the farm so she could go to the spa with Rarity. That could stem from her desire to continue upholding her reputation (why let somepony do something that I can already do really well?) If she knows she's good at something, then she's gonna do it.
5. Remember how I mentioned Applebloom a second ago? That episode revealed two more of Applejack's character flaws. The first of these is overprotectiveness. Applejack likes to be the protector - standing in front of other ponies and shielding them. That's a good thing. But she sometimes gets a little carried away in her desire to make sure that everypony is safe, and ends up annoying the ponies that she cares most about when they realize that she's not even giving them a chance to prove that they are worthy of protecting themselves.
6. The second flaw: Applejack is a total control freak!!! I know, I know - this seems totally incongruous with everything else we know about her character. But think about it - she couldn't leave her sister alone for two seconds, partially because she didn't trust her, and partly because she literally couldn't stay away for two seconds without knowing that things were going smoothly on the farm while Applebloom was running it. In that one episode where the Cutie Mark Crusaders were supposed to design vehicles to race in, Applejack took over the design of Applebloom's vehicle just as much as Rarity and Rainbow Dash took over Sweetie Belle's and Scootaloo's. Now, liking to be in control is not a bad thing - I like to do so myself, and it's true that working on a farm requires you to always be in control. Applejack just takes it a little too far sometimes. She is NOT a slob, as most people seem to think. Just because she doesn't mind dirt doesn't mean she's a slob. She likes everything to be neat and perfect under her control, which is about as organized as you can get.
7. Okay, we've been discussing some pretty abstract personality traits for a while. Let's talk about a couple of AJ's flaws that are easier to identify. One of these is that she tends to rush into things without thinking things through. Applejack definitely has a lot of common sense, but she seems to forget this sometimes. She's often more impulsive and reckless than Rainbow Dash, like when she abandoned her family to work for Cherry Jubilee without thinking of the consequences...
8 ... Thinking of the consequences - there you go, flaw number eight. Applejack often doesn't think about what other ponies will think or feel before she jumps headfirst into something. Most of the time she's a 'think first, act later' kind of pony, but sometimes she's just the opposite - and when she is, she often ends up ruining things for other ponies or disappointing them with her behavior (although, to her credit, she is always the first to apologize when she comes to her senses again).
9. Another obvious flaw is her competitiveness. Some competitiveness is definitely healthy, but not the amount that Applejack has - she will literally kill herself to win, just like Rainbow Dash. This all ties in with her desire to uphold her reputation and her stubbornness, both of which ensure that she has a strong competitive streak. Although, luckily for her, even when she goes way off the deep end in terms of her crazy competitions everything still seems to turn out alright.
10. This brings up another character flaw - her unwillingness to admit that she is wrong, which is basically another form of competitiveness. In an argument, Applejack would kick your butt, and definitely mine. But not because of the logic skills that we know she has whenever she's being rational. No, she'd win out of sheer tenacity and a fear of being wrong, and nothing more. Part of this is definitely about stubbornness - she's too stubborn to admit that somepony else might have a point, and would rather keep arguing or competing until the other pony gave up out of sheet exhaustion. Indeed, Applejack hates failure just as much as she hates being wrong.
11. Let's return to another obvious flaw. There is such a thing as too much perseverance, and Applejack has it. She's a hard worker, but she works waaaay too hard. She's literally working herself into an early grave. The problem is, again, her fair of failure and her love of her own reputation combined. She doesn't want to let anypony down, and she doesn't want to seem less trustworthy in the eyes of her friends and family. And so she'll just keep working forever, trying to ensure that neither of those things happen.
12. A flaw that ties in with the one above is that Applejack doesn't know when to stop. Not just in terms of her farm work, but in terms of her whole life. Ponies have to tell her something multiple times before she finally stops questioning. It takes Applebloom much longer than it should to convince her big sister to leave her alone to tend the farm, for example. Applejack just never wants to back down.
13. This final flaw is probably the most obscure out of all the ones I listed, because it's not one that's even briefly mentioned in the show. It's a flaw that I have assigned to her character myself after some careful thought, so you might completely disagree with it, but I'm putting it out here anyway. First of all, we know that Applejack can have an explosive temper. We also know that she tends to be sarcastic and always has a snarky response for everything. These are established facts and all one has to do is watch a couple of episodes with her in them to determine them. It therefore stands to reason (at least in my insane mind) that Applejack would probably have a tendency to lash out at ponies and say hurtful things to them when she is angry, which is definitely a flaw. Combine sarcasm and a bad temper, and that's what you get.
So there you go. I've done my best to provide an in-depth character analysis of Applejack's shortcomings, some of which are explicitly established in the show and some of which are a bit more obscure (and, in doing so, I've noticed that I have every single one of those flaws that I wrote about. Great). In my next post, if I stop procrastinating long enough to write one, I will discuss the personality strengths that make Applejack shine, of which there are plenty. The flaws I listed above are just that - flaws. But to me, they simply make her more perfect, for they add a level of complexity and depth to her character that is not commonly found in any other TV show, book, or movie. Applejack really is something special. She has been created with the utmost care and it's a pity that she is so underrated and underestimated. For this reason, I'm really looking forward to sharing my thoughts about the aspects of her personality that make her awesome in my next post.
I would love to know what you all think of AJ. Did I introduce you to an aspect of her character that you hadn't thought about before? What do you think her flaws are? Her strengths?
Please share your thoughts. An' see y'all next time, sugarcubes.
This.
I cannot agree more to this. She has a lot of flaws, like everypony else and those don't make her less likable!~
4468713
Aw thanks! Yeah, I think her flaws just make her more awesome;)
Yeah, you nailed it here. Remember in my blog when I said she grinds my gears at times? This is what meant. Well, on to part two...
4572964
Yep, kind of expected that. I just figured it was unfair to only talk about her strengths since she does have several weaknesses too:)
I agree with this she has always had more flaws than just her stubbornness, and it annoys me that people think that its her only flaw, you nailed it with this on to the next part.
Thank you this was super helpful!