Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - Becoming the Rainbow · 3:51pm Jul 25th, 2018
Pinkie Pie is prone to depression. You might not know it to look at her, or to talk to her, or to attend one of her parties, but Pinkie’s exuberance? It’s fragile.
It always has been.
Like many comedians and clowns, she cheers herself up by making others smile. There are countless examples of this in the show. The best one might just be in A Friend in Deed, during her famous Smile song. Not only does the inspiring tune sum up Pinkie’s core philosophy - not only does it introduce the idea that smiles and good cheer are actually something of an addiction for Pinkie - an altruistic high that she actively craves - the musical number also dramatizes Pinkie Pie’s inner struggle with a striking visual.
It’s a powerful image, and one that I don’t think gets enough credit or attention. I’m talking of course about the image above. Where Pinkie Pie literally picks herself up and rescues herself from gloom and sadness using the healing power of smiles.
Could anything else sum up her modus operandum so completely?
The thing to remember about Pinkie Pie is that she is like a Warrior of Joy. Long ago, when Dashie’s rainboom caught Pinkie’s eye and lifted her out of a fillyhood that had hitherto been characterized by gloom, Pinkie Pie made a personal mission out of laughter. It is a passion, not only for experiencing all the joy that life has to offer, but to actually become that rainbow - to be the force that brightens others’ spirits and lifts them out of that quagmire of sadness.
For Pinkie Pie, life is a spiritual battle between joy and sadness. 99% of the time, she is victorious.
Then there’s Yakkity Sax. It is well-established that, while Pinkie may be full of manic jubilance, when crashes, she crashes hard. This latest episode was a prime example of that.
A friend of mine argued that a flaw in this episode was that, after giving up the yuziphone, Pinkie Pie lost all interest in absolutely everything else, and that that characterization was somehow too drastic.
I respectfully disagree.
This is how depression works. If an act of discouragement triggers someone into a spiral of depression, they’re not only going to be depressed about the subject which originally upset them. Depression robs you of joy in all things. It numbs you.
In real life, when somebody starts giving away their most valued possessions, it’s a sign that they’ve lost all hope, and a great big red flag warning sign that they may be contemplating suicide. Now obviously, the show isn’t going to a place as dark as that, nor should it, but this was still a powerful way of showing how far Pinkie Pie had fallen.
It’s not that the yuziphone was the only thing giving Pinkie’s life meaning. It’s that her passion for the yuziphone was, at that stage, fueling the super frantic Pinkie-energy that she needs every single day to give her the strength and courage to engage with the world.
She runs on momentum.
Here’s the thing: Pinkie is frequently used to insert random jokes into any scenario; often times she is characterized as a never-ending positive-energy machine who shrieks a lot. In reality, however, she has a wide emotional range, even if we don’t always get to see it, (especially in episodes that are not her own).
Her desire to make everyone smile is, at its core, existential. Her passion for making others happy - for becoming that rainbow that lights a spark in the lives of those who know her - it is a noble exercise, and an example we all can learn from.
However, the downside of this is that Pinkie requires constant positive feedback. She is paradoxically the most resilient character in My Little Pony, and the most fragile.
Side note: I just want to take a moment to give a shout out to anyone here who wrestles with, or has wrestled with depression. The solution may not always be as simple as it is in MLP. Life seldom is. For what it’s worth though, you’re all warriors too.
-Sprocket
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I needed this blog. This is invaluable insight for what had been a dealbreaker for me, covering every angle of objection I had. Thank you for it.
4907439
Thank you. A dealbreaker for what, though?
4907498
Up until now, Pinkie's obsession and collapse had struck me as the behavioral equivalent of her literally falling to pieces in "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows," taking things so far for the sake of comedy that it snapped my suspension of disbelief, even when allowing for Pinkie's general Pinkosity. But as I said, this addressed that thoroughly.
4907511
Glad it changed your perspective then.
Pinkie’s got soul.
Boosted over on my blog.
Pinkie was the reason I got into the fandom.
(I stayed for Fluttershy)
Thank you for sharing your look at the situation. :)
THAT'S why it made sense to me, damn it!
I couldn't put my finger on it, but that totally fits with so much of my life. Rolling along, trying my best not to let the cracks show, then boom - some silly, stupid little thing comes along like gravel hitting the windshield, and the cracks can't be missed.
I will take this blog as "this episode portrays Pinkie's depression well" and agree with you on that note.
However, it still leaves the episode's moral on this weird spectrum of "either annoy your friends and everyone nearby at all hours, or be depressed". There are, in other words, more things wrong with the episode than Pinkie's reaction to being told to stop playing the yaridovich. :B
4907920
Definitely. It’s a deeply flawed episode for a wide variety of reasons.
The essay is more about exploring the emotional range of the character.
I've been saying this for eight years now.
Pinkie Pie only has two 4th Wall Breaks. At most she exhibits Medium Genre Awareness, in that her jokes are mostly pop culture references to he current situation. In the vaguely Western-themed Pinkie Pride she cracks on Western tropes and cliches, etc.
She's extremely intelligent, just hidden behind a bubbly exterior and masked by a habit of being obtuse because it's funny.
Her mile-wide smile hides a deeply broken soul. Most of the main six's primary extreme characterizations seem to be like this.
Rainbow strikes me not as cocky but someone who repeats that she's awesome with the hope that one day she'll believe it. Pinkie smiles because eventually she'll smile inside, too.
4907920
The message is about pursuing a passion, even if you don’t measure up to the professionals. This kind of lesson is great for any kids who may judge themselves too harshly when they’re only just starting to play an instrument, or create anything else with the arts. The fact that Pinkie got interested in an instrument that can make things explode is just for the sake of slapstick. Kids aren’t dumb, they won’t start playing to disturb anyone.
This episode even pointed out that partly it’s everyone else’s fault for never bringing up the problem in the first place. The way they broke the news to Pinkie wasn’t as constructive as it should have been. That’s the last leg feels even more relevant today, where we anonymously leave angry comments for what we don’t enjoy, regardless of where a content creator is starting. It’s not surprising that so many in this fandom are calling Pinkie a jerk and a bad friend in this episode. We have so many introverts that turn to this show, so it makes sense that they’d see being overly loud as some kind of attack.