May the muffins be forever in your favour.Let's talk a little about Pony Identities: Archer Bodkin, the Background Filly who Disappeared · 4:05am Feb 14th, 2021
Something I lacked for a long time since I became a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, was the ability to decide for a favourite pony. At the very beginning, it was Pinkie Pie, because she is so crazy. Then, as I progressed through Season 1 in January of 2012 and came to "Stare Master", it were Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle who tied for 1st Place.
Months later then, when I watched Season 2 for the first time and after I had seen "The Last Roundup", it became Derpy. In the year after, when I watched "Sleepless in Ponyville" for the first time on August 3rd, 2013, Scootaloo became my favourite pony. And she remains my favourite pony to this day.
Something I lacked for an even longer time, precisely until almost four weeks ago, was a pony who I can 100% identify with. This is something that's very common in the fandom, everyone has their pony they're strongly identifying with. But not me. I always related a lot to Twilight, because she is as orderly as I am and has an affinity for schedules like I have. And a little bit to Pinkie Pie, because I sometimes get crazy thoughts in my head like she does. Then, years later, I began to relate to Tempest Shadow a lot, when I discovered that we had a very similar event happen to us during our foalhood while watching the Movie in cinemas. I even call her my soulmate because of this event. And I still strongly connect with Tempest. But I didn't have a pony with whom it completely clicked. Even Tempest Shadow has aspects in her personality that are different than mine.
This was always the status quo for me, until almost four weeks ago. And then it changed all of a sudden and I found that pony. A pony about whom I can say that we match up in every aspect:
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Archer Bodkin. Archer Bodkin is, for all intents and purposes, a mysterious and tragic filly. We have seen her in Ponyville twice, the first time during "Call of the Cutie" in Cheerilee's classroom (as pictured above) and the second time far in the background of "Hearts and Hooves Day" playing an arcade game. And after these two times, Archer just disappeared. We haven't seen her in the show again, neither in Ponyville nor anywhere else. She also did not appear in the official comics and the official books make no mention of her. Suddenly, after these two appearances, Archer was just gone..... Like suddenly sucked out of her world.
Where did she go? Where is she now? And why did she disappear? These are questions I can't tell you the answers on. But how Archer just disappeared and was never seen again is a mystery and it's equally interesting as it is terrifying to think about this, where she might have went or what happened to her.
More than a month ago, a dream motivated me to think about Archer Bodkin. I began to analyze her, spent hours upon hours thinking about her and even going through all the screenshots on Derpibooru that depict foals to verify that Archer really does not have more appearances than the two I mentioned above. I have spent an entire weekend thinking about and analyzing Archer to find out how much truth there is in this dream. And since January 18th, I can tell that there is an incredible amount of things that Archer and I have in common.
The simplest one, is Archer's passion and special talent for archery. This is easily verifiable by looking at her cutie mark, a bow with an arrow. I don't know what exactly she uses her archery skills for; if it's just a sport for her, if she fights monsters with weaponized arrows and defends Ponyville or if she maybe even uses her arrows for sinister purposes..... But one thing is crystal-clear, Archer loves to shoot arrows with her bow.
I have never tried shooting arrows with a bow and I am likely too clumsy to hit a target with one, but as long as I can remember, I always loved bows and arrows whenever I got in contact with them in some kind of way. This goes as far back as my teenage years, now almost twenty years ago, when I always felt a strong passion for archer characters in videogames, such as "Diablo 2". The same was the case for movies. When I used to watch "Lord of the RIngs", I felt a lot more passionate when orcs got struck down by arrows, rather than melee weapons. I loved to see bows and arrows in action and always felt a certain elegance in these weapons, while melee weapons always felt rather brutish and uncivilized to me.
And it's still the case today, like when I see a certain dude shooting zombies with a crossbow in "The Walking Dead" (which is the only other TV show I watch besides My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, because zombies) or at one of the rare occasions that I play "Left 4 Dead 2" with pony mods, a game that doesn't have crossbows as weapons (you can bet that I'll search for mods which add that weapon now!), but where I still feel a lot better when using guns at a long distance than when I resorted to axes or crowbars.
And "videogames" is a good keyword for the second thing. I am able to tell that my view on videogames matches up with Archer's view on videogames to a T. We see Archer playing an arcade videogame in "Hearts and Hooves Day", but at the same time, her expression in this moment is bored, with little enthusiasm for what she is doing. This mirrors how I think about videogames:
I can enjoy them to a degree and can get invested in them for a little while, but for the most part, I see them as pure timewasters. They can be used to pass some time when bored and when there is nothing better to do or in a strong phase of escapism when something is needed that really lets you forget the world around you. But there is no real, long-lasting goal with videogames and I prefer activities with a tangible goal, like writing. Playing videogames is the lazy thing you do on the couch, while writing is an active thing that actually creates something and gives you a feeling of true accomplishment.
Archer's expression while playing this game exactly reflects this mindset: She does enjoy videogames a little and can spend some time with them, but isn't very enthusiastic about them, grows bored of them quickly and then returns to the activity she actually cares about because it has real goals to achieve and a feeling of accomplishment: Archery.
This is something Archer and I see completely eye to eye about.
Lastly, there's accuracy. As a filly who practices herself in archery, accuracy is a crucial skill for Archer to have, to guarantee that she hits her targets. And as long as I can think, I have done things in very accurate ways. Mostly related to sorting files and placing objects.
A trait I have is that I can't live or sleep in peace as long as things aren't at their right places in the right ways. I have a sense for accuracy that goes so far that I exactly align objects with each other and make sure that they have the same distance to each other. And if I have to temporarily remove an object or item for a little while, I later put it back exactly where it was before, correct to a millimeter. If I can't do this for a while because I don't have enough time, I feel uncomfortable until everything is accurately placed again. One reason why I take a picture of each new MLP: FiM fan article or merchandise that I bought after I placed it is so I can put it back at the exact same position and exact same pose it had before I removed it from its spot.
The same also goes for sorting files on my computer. Windows 7 aligns files automatically, but when I still had Windows XP, until April 10th, 2013, I manually aligned files so that they were at the exact same height and the exact same length as the files around them. Often, depending on how well I could concentrate, I spent minutes staring at files until I knew that their alignment was perfect. It was a task that was sometimes taxing, but it would have driven me nuts if a file would have been off by even just a single pixel.
The same thing goes for photography (which has, interestingly enough, a certain resemblance to shooting arrows, as you also have to aim with a camera), if I take a picture, I make sure that the object is exactly in the middle and that the space between the object and the edges of the picture is the same at all four sides. And I do the same thing when cropping screenshots (depending on your own eyesight, you might be able to see that in the above screenshot of Archer) as well, the distance to the edges needs to be the same.
Accuracy is a manner I was born to and I can't live without it. And accuracy is something that's very important for wielding bows and shooting arrows. I don't shoot arrows, but Archer and I have this sense for accuracy in common.
These are the things I realized about myself and Archer almost four weeks ago and I am still baffled by how much everything is matching up between me and her. As long as the fandom exists, bronies and pegasisters have identified themselves with certain ponies who are like them and now I have finally joined that club, after being a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for nine years.
Archer Bodkin is my pony.
Stay easy as a filly!
~ Fluttercheer
I am now imagining her as a roaming archer causing trouble for bandits and other miscreants throughout the land and I love what I am seeing in my head! Her parents would be along for the ride, because of course they would!
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You read my blog entry about Archer! It makes me very happy if I see someone who is interested in her.
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A good theory. Or maybe, Archer herself used to be a miscreant or bandit? And she got punished for it? I am seeing things about her, several things, but what exactly happened is foggy and unclear. There is still a lot I need to learn about Archer Bodkin.
*Reads about her love for videogames.*
For shame, Fluttercheer. You talk about who she is, but you don't address the elephant in the room.
Archer Bodkin is named likely after a character in the videogame series, 'Dragon Quest'. A monster that goes by the name, Bodkin Archer.
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Hmm, interesting resemblance.....
But does her name really come from there, though? Archer's cutie mark was always bow and arrow, after all. 
And Archer loves video games, really? There I have to correct you a little. She has a bit of an interest in video games, but sees them more as a distraction when there's nothing else to do. The only two exceptions for this are when she plays a video game with a friend, something akin to "Minecraft" or GMod, or when there is a story in the game, as opposed to, like, a jump 'n' run with little to no story. Because, that's a little-known fact, Archer is also a little author in her spare time.