The End of SPOILER (Generation 5 related) · 11:26pm Mar 24th, 2018
This post contains discussion of Generation 5 spoilers, specifically the dropping of a certain character. You’ve been warned.
So. The leaks came and went. Concept pictures – some of which are very appealing – have made the rounds in deniable corners of the internet. The end result of everything is unknown right now, but it seems clear our ponies are getting a shockingly controlled shakeup. Images say Fluttershy will be a unicorn, but her yellow and pink will be familiar to anyone. Her personality isn’t likely to veer far, either (“Shy” is in the name, after all). Similar treatments appear to have progressed for Twilight and Rarity. Concepts for the new Dash – a Rainbow-maned pegasus that radiates a six year-old’s definition of “cool” – look more like fanart than a reboot. All of the Mane 6 appear to be getting a makeover small enough to keep us interested, but large enough to make us cringe.
Except for one.
Leaked emails make fools of us all, but the creative team was not kind with their handling of Applejack. The concept in place looks nothing like her, and they are allegedly unanimous the new character will have nothing to do with farms, “hicks” (their unfortunate choice of words), etc. She will not be named Applejack, and it is questioned whether she will be Apple-anything. Applejack of all the characters is the one to disappear – casualty of corporate control over creativity.
I will explain. Applejack (and all the characters we know and love) was not conceived in a lab, or by an hourly-waged creative team. They were born in Lauren Faust’s notebook, as pencil sketches. Free *enough* from surveys, focus groups and corporate mandates to be something special. A magic-bullet proof that even the girliest of concepts can have appeal beyond the target demographic, from the established master of doing just that. Miss Faust (presumably) did not concern herself overmuch with the ponies McDonalds would dispense with Happy Meals, or which would be more marketable than others. She wanted a cute farmer pony, and so made one to be the earthy, dependable one on which the rest could rely.
A decade passed, and Generation 5 is assuredly not coming from a single mind. The creative team have interesting ideas, but for Applejack they have only numbers. Her toys don’t sell – small girls want to be princesses, not farmers. They want to wear dresses instead of overalls, and they want superpowers instead of day jobs. Small boys might be interested in a farm playset, but as much as we trumpet the show’s broad appeal, My Little Ponies rarely make their Christmas list.
The lack of sales created a death spiral – everything from McDonalds to that weird goth pack ignored AJ for more marketable ponies, pushing her further from the plastic spotlight. Culture also proved a lodestone, as AJ came off as distinctly American. This is problematic for a company trying to expand in developing countries (where children still play with toys instead of iPads), where farmers generally lack the idealized romance of American cowboys. Between such concerns and the creative team’s indifference, it is easy to see why the decision is all but made, and the old sketchbook left behind.
Now, I am an Applejack fan. I am an Applejack fan because I love muscular women she teaches the right kind of lessons. She doesn’t get a free castle because she’s so awesome. She doesn’t defeat problems by assertively stating her position and looking angry. She works for a living, sweats money, and cares for both younger and older relatives. She’s the character kids need, even if she’s not the one they want. Comments that “She’s boring,” “Her character goes nowhere,” etc. have always been absolute bunk, uttered by people already disinclined towards her and unwilling to turn the same microscope to their favorites. Look at that God-blessed Applejewel scene and tell me again she’s boring.
I am an Applejack fan, and so this is hard. Even if G5 ends up decent, it will be hard to watch these near-clones of G4 cozying up with their sixth, a mare who is not even close to being Applejack. It will be hard to watch the outpouring of fan-art that does not include her, or the barrage of fics welcoming the newcomer (or writing AJ’s eulogy). And this is perhaps only worsened by the knowledge some of the ideas for Not-AJ are really, really good. An idea with prominence was her being a poor slum-dweller from the wrong side of the tracks, initially antagonistic to her more privileged peers. I like this for the same reason I like AJ – hardscrabble and tough, instead of fastest thing alive without having to work for it.
But enough of me – how do you look at the end of AJ? Do you agree with my charge of corporate interference, or do you think it reflects good creativity? Do you think the retirement is premature, or a long-time coming? Or are you a fan of a different character who wishes their #1 was retired in such a way, rather than mutated into something (and someone) new?
I think it's too early to panic. As a YouTube video pointed out, we are at the point where Pinkie was a white pegasus named Surprise.
I like Applejack but I expect all the characters to be different in one way or another in G5. It would be pointless if they weren't.
See the thing is, I was always under the assumption most people liked Applejack. I understood the whole background pony thing, but I always took it as a running fun-poking at her character, not one coming from a genuinely critical place. Most fans I've sat down and spoken with have reflected positive opinions of her character. She's the Captain America of the Mane 6 — she brings a bit of maturity and levity to a cast of less-than consistently reliable ponies. Rarity? We can expect her to be there for her friends, but she's been known to have emotional reactions and selfish streaks. Pinkie Pie? She means well, but isn't exactly trustworthy in a decision-making position.
So seeing her character painted over completely, for some seemingly cynical marketing reasons? While all the others remain the same? It doesn't sit right at all. If this is the route they're going, I'd prefer the same white paint be taken to the rest of the cast, too. Let's start fresh with a new group of ponies with new careers in a new town.
I’d say wait and see, we’re at the concept stage.
Wait, is G4 ending? I thought it was already set for a ninth season.
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Til 2020, I think, but it's never too early for fandom drama.
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Yeah, that's really the problem. To start with a new cast could be fun. Hell, I think I'd prefer it to some "soft reboot" or whatever. But to keep everyone except Applejack is so horrendously off-putting.
Honestly, I'm not really sure yet. I mean, we're still in concept stages. Like Everday said, we are at the same point where Pinkie was still Surprise.
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God, I hate fandom drama.
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So far as we know season 9 will be the last. The concept stuff is just that, concept stuff that was leaked. Smarter move would have been continue the series but have the Mane Six become secondary characters. As for the new AJ. Not a fan of the entire keeping five of the six and replacing one.
I have never been an Applejack fan, but I'm legitimately upset about what they're doing to her.
Like I said in... probably some blog somewhere c.c It's okay that they're changing her. It's a new generation, we cannot reasonably expect things to stay the same. But the reasons why she's being changed are just completely not okay.
It's hard to argue with numbers. I've read many great fics about her, but not many that would translate well into episodes. They could try and make her more badass, like we saw when she took on the chimera. I hope she stays street smart in that way.
I really adore AJ and I have since season one. The Apple Family and Sweet Apple Acres as a whole are some of my favorite things about the show, and that emphasis placed on honesty, something I rarely see as a value anymore, was wonderful. She fit the world well. She was mature and absolutely fun. She's cute! There's so much to love about AJ and she's one of the shows strongest characters, even if that strength is more subdued, that to here she's being tossed away is just so... anti-everything there really was to love about ponies, even though so much of what I love about ponies really died around season five and just kept going from there.
It's not the main six without her. It's not the Two Sisters without Celestia or Luna. It's not the Elements of Harmony if one isn't there, even EqG, which many people still hate, got that right from the start.
G5 sounds awful. It doesn't look good either. I haven't heard anything about a Celestia and Luna for that yet, and so much of me really doesn't want to. If they aren't in it, it's just another sign to me of the writers and people who run pony not knowing anything about the world that they're crumpling up and tossing away like old newspaper in the name of marketing. If they have their own versions of Not-Celestia and Not-Luna part of me is going to feel crushed at how they're going to just take a wrecking ball to them too.
Of course, there's reasons that are okay to retire characters or redo them. Applejack isn't a character worth redoing, especially not for the core group that she really was made for. A character that was done poorly, or a character that had a VA that passed away, maybe, are good reasons to retire a character.
But marketing?
No.
I'm going to miss Applejack, even if I don't watch G5.
For me, this is the part that's most worrying. The decision (Discussion? I haven't actually read any of the leaked material.) to rework AJ seems like one of those group consensus things that happen because one or two people really didn't like the current version and nobody else cared enough to fight them over it. While that sort of process can still produce good episodes, it's not going to produce a strong overarching vision like we got with Gen 4.
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Discussion, yes, and fairly early ones at that. Which raises its own worry that they're trying to build this with only 2 years until the anticipated start... and that they're basically just porting over the same characters except for AJ.
But yeah. There are promising things in the leaks (an interesting world-build, a more realistic art style, and a willingness to engage darker themes to try and maintain the show's cross-gender appeal). But it looks like corporate-controlled, market-driven, creativity-paid-by-the-hour from front to back. AJ is just unfortunately none of their favorite character, and we see it with the routine (bullshit) excuse that 'she's hard to use.'