#regarding applebloom whenever i think about her and her parents i think about that scene in steven universe where steven looks up at

[bixels]

Learning that fans hated Applejack and called her "boring" is crazyyy to me because I genuinely, unironically believe AJ's the most complex character in the main six.

Backstory-wise, she was born into a family of famers/blue collar workers who helped found the town she lives in. She grew up a habitual liar until she had the bad habit traumatized outta her. She lost both her parents and was orphaned at a young age, having to step up as her baby sister's mother figure. She's the only person in the main gang who's experienced this level of loss and grief (A Royal Problem reveals that AJ dreams about memories of being held by her parents as a baby). She moved to Manhattan to live with her wealthy family members, only to realize she'll never fit in or be accepted, even amongst her own family. The earlier seasons imply she and her family had money problems too (In The Ticket Master, AJ wants to go to the gala to earn money to buy new farm equipment and afford hip surgery for her grandma).

Personality-wise, she's a total people-pleaser/steamroller (with an occasional savior complex) who places her self worth on her independence and usefulness for other people, causing her to become a complete workaholic. In Applebuck Season, AJ stops taking care of herself because of her obsessive responsibilities for others and becomes completely dysfunctional. In Apple Family Reunion, AJ has a tearful breakdown because in she thinks she dishonored her family and tarnished her reputation as a potential leader –– an expectation and anxiety that's directly tied to her deceased parents, as shown in the episode's ending scene. In The Last Roundup, AJ abandons her family and friends out of shame because believes she failed them by not earning 1st place in a rodeo competition. She completely spirals emotionally when she isn't able to fulfill her duties toward others. Her need to be the best manifests in intense pride and competitiveness when others challenge her. And when her pride's broken, she cowers and physically hides herself.

Moreover, it's strongly implied that AJ has a deep-seated anger. The comics explore her ranting outbursts more. EQG also obviously has AJ yelling at and insulting Rarity in a jealous fit just to hurt her feelings (with a line that I could write a whole dissection on). And I'm certain I read in a post somewhere that in a Gameloft event, AJ's negative traits are listed as anger.

Subtextually, a lot of these flaws and anxieties can be (retroactively) linked to her parents' death, forcing her to grow up too quickly to become the adult/caregiver of the family (especially after her big brother becomes semiverbal). Notice how throughout the series, she's constantly acting as the "mom friend" of the group (despite everything, she manages to be the most emotionally mature of the bunch). Notice how AJ'll switch to a quieter, calmer tone when her friends are panicking and use soothing prompts and questions to talk them through their emotions/problems; something she'd definitely pick up while raising a child. Same with her stoicism and reluctance at crying or releasing emotions (something Pinkie explicitly points out). She also had a childhood relationship with Rara (which, if you were to give a queer reading, could easy be interpreted as her first 'aha' crush), who eventually left her life. (Interestingly enough, AJ also has an angry outburst with Rara for the same exact reasons as with EQG Rarity; jealous, upset that someone else is using and changing her). It's not hard to imagine an AJ with separation anxiety stemming from her mother and childhood friend/crush leaving. I'm also not above reading into AJ's relationship with her little sister (Y'all ever think about how AB never got to know her parents, even though she shares her father's colors and her mother's curly hair?).

AJ's stubbornness is a symptom of growing up too quickly as well. Who else to play with your baby sister when your brother goes nonverbal (not to discount Big Mac's role in raising AB)? Who else to wake up in the middle of the night to care for your crying baby sister when your grandma needs her rest? When you need to be 100% all the time for your family, you tend to become hard-stuck with a sense of moral superiority. You know what's best because you have to be your best because if you're aren't your best, then everything'll inevitably fall apart and it'll be your fault. And if you don't know what's best –– if you've been wrong the whole time –– that means you haven't been your best, which means you've failed the people who rely on you, which means you can't fulfill your role in the family/society, which makes you worthless . We've seen time and time again how this compulsive need to be right for the sake of others becomes self-destructive (Apple Family Reunion, Sound of Silence, all competitions against RD). We've seen in The Last Roundup how, when no longer at her best, AJ would rather remove herself from her community than confront them because she no longer feels of use to them.

But I guess it is kinda weird that AJ has "masculine" traits and isn't interested in men at all. It's totally justified that an aggressively straight, misogynistic male fandom would characterize her as a "boring background character." /s

At the time of writing this, it's 4:46AM.

[pedanticat]

Thoughts and realizations on MLP season 1 and 2

With MLP ending I’ve decided to start watching the series from the beginning. Before I started watching season 3, I wanted to talk about and point out all the things I find interesting about the show early in its early years, things I didn’t realize the first time around, questions I never really thought of until rewatching the first two seasons and how things are different in the show now compared to season one and two.

It’s kind of weird how we don’t see more Luna and Twilight interactions since Twilight helped Luna reconnect with her subjects and how to fit in with modern Equestria. By the end of Luna Eclipse, Luna and Twilight become friends, but not only do we never really see the two interact with each other that much after the episode, there’s also that weird scene in the season 3 premiere in which Luna doesn’t seem to think Twilight is up to task at the Crystal Empire.

I never really realized how weird it was for Luna to not show up again till season 2. Like, the second episode of the series ends with the revelation that the villain was actually Princess Celestia sister, yet she doesn’t make another appearance till season 2.

Luna punishing herself for her actions in Do Princess Dream of Magic Sheep make zero sense when you consider the fact that the whole point of Luna Eclipse was that she wanted to be forgiven by the ponies of Equestria and be friends with them

It’s never explained what Luna did as Nightmare Night or how long she was Nightmare Night. Like she’s regarded as this terrible villain according to myth, but it’s never really explained what terrible things she did. All we know that in the show, Luna grew jealous of Celestia, became Nightmare Moon and was then banished to the moon.

Pinkie Pie Pinkie sense really isn’t utilized that often and is barely even referenced. Like with Pinkie Pie having her own version of spider sense you think the writers would utilize it more, but they don’t. Like there have been numerous times in the show in which Pinkie Pie Pinkie sense would have come in handy but they didn’t since the writers seem to have forgotten about it for the most part.

Despite being capable of speech just like ponies, Cows and Sheep are treated like farm animals even though creatures like Buffalos and Yaks have their own culture

We have no idea what’s the deal with Donkey’s and mules are. Like its never really explained if they are from another country like Zebra’s or if they’ve always been part of Equestria. You got to imagine that Donkey’s would feel jealous of ponies since they don’t seem to have any magic at all and are just plain. Plus, a mule is a combination of a horse and donkey, so it honestly would be interesting to see an interspecies relationship between a horse and donkey on screen.

It's interesting how the Everfree forest became less of a threat as the series went on. Early on its regarded as this scary and dangerous episode but then in season 8, you see the Mane Six and Starlight planning a camping trip in the forest

I find it very weird how despite saving Equestria twice by the end of season 2, barely anyone seems to recognize the heroes of Equestria. In Suite and Elite, you would think the fancy ponies of Canterlot would recognize that Rarity is one of the six ponies that helped saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon and Discord. Like, you would think that the ponies who saved Equestria would be very famous and recognizable yet there have only been a few moments in the series in which a pony will recognize them for that. Rainbow Dash and Rarity seem to be more well known for their respected careers in later seasons than their aid in saving Equestria. This is made even weirder since every time Spike steps foot in the crystal empire, all the ponies treat him like a celebrity due to saving their empire twice. I’m not saying that the mane six need to be treated like celebrities but just like how everyone knows who Kim Possible is because of her exploits, you would think every pony in Equestria would know who the Mane Six are.

The fact that Twilight wasn’t revealed to have a brother until the season 2 finale is comes out of nowhere. I mean yeah, the show goes on later to introduce siblings of other members of the mane six without any notice and other shows have pulled the same thing, but the fact that they never revealed that the main character had a sibling until till the end of the second season is just bizarre.

With the final season approaching, I still can’t believe we don’t nothing about Zebra culture. Like Zecora haven’t talked about her homeland, her homeland hasn’t been shown, why she decided to leave her home is unknown and we haven’t even seen another Zebra at all.

On the topic of Zecora, not only did she get the short end of the stick since the original plan of her becoming a second mentor to Twilight was scrapped, but we also never really see her and Apple Bloom interact anymore. Like the show set up this plot line of Zecora teaching Applebloom how to make potions and such yet that haven’t been referenced since season 4 I believe. Heck, in the season 6 episode, On Your Mark, why didn’t Applebloom just hang out with Zecora and practice potion making when the other CMC was doing their own thing?  

There are some episodes that are much better then I remember them being such as Stare Master, A Dog and Pony Show, The Best Night Ever, Cutie Pox and Hearts and Hooves Day.

For all the worldbuilding that has been done in the show, I find it weird how we haven’t gotten to learn or see more of Buffalos, Diamond Dogs, Minotaur’s or Bat Ponies in the series. Heck, why don’t we see any members from those species attending the school of Friendship?

It's kind of a shame that we don’t really see Spike interact with other members of the Mane six beside Twilight and Rarity. Yeah, there’s some interaction between Spike and other members in the first two seasons but even then, you see him interact with Twilight and Rarity the most. I know one interaction I really enjoy is his and Pinkie and you would think one interaction that would have stayed prominent would be Spike and Fluttershy considering hoe Fluttershy fawned over Spike in the series premiere.

I know the reason Luna wasn’t at the Grand Galloping Gala in season 1 was that she works night’s but this ends up being contradicted when there have been several instances after the season one finale in which we see Luna at night.  I suppose she could be taking a short break but still

It's funny how Celestia was seen as this very incredible powerful character early on but after being defeated by Chrysalis it just started this trend of her and all the other princesses beside Twilight almost always being useless whenever a villain tries taking over/destroying Equestria.

Speaking of uselessness, don’t even get me started on the Royal Guards. Despite being around since season 1, they have never been useful in any situation besides the apprehension of Cozy Glow in the season 8 finale. Heck, they weren’t even around during the Storm King invasion for some reason. Jim Miller, the supervising director of the show, answered my question about why they are never helpful in times of crisis with him explaining that if the guards were competent then the Mane Six wouldn’t be needed which I don’t agree with. You can still have the guards be competent and help out and still have the main characters be the ones to save the day. You see this in stories involving superheroes in which cops and firefighters are competent and helpful while the superhero deals with the major crisis.

Sweetie Belle living situation is confusing and has never really been cleared up. We know she goes to school in Ponyville and she seems to normally live with her parents, so does that mean Rarity parents live in Ponyville? Also, Rarity parents are the only parents of a member of the mane six that haven’t been focused on that much which I think is a shame. Hopefully, they’ll get a moment in the spotlight in the final season

The show can’t seem to figure out what the Wonderbolts. It switches between them being fliers who perform air shows to a military branch that, like the royal guards, are useless during times of crisis or when danger is happening

I find it hard to believe that no one knows anything about Spike origin even though someone must have found the egg, documented it with it then being used for Twilight entrance exam for some reason. Surely Twilight could have asked Twilight where Spike was found at as an egg

In Heartwarming Eve, it seems to be confirmed that the planet Equestria is on is called earth