#Parental Anxiety

[morganbritton132]

Me: You know how when you were a kid and you’d wish that you’d get sick or injured in a way that would justify why you didn’t live up to your potential?

Everybody, apparently: No?

[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.

[mirpkechi]

this is me btw . . . me when online frienfds . . . me when close mutuals . . . me talking to the silly people in my phone . . .

[agox]

There are guys next door doing stuff with extension ladders. I keep hearing the racket through open windows and it sounds like my cat/toddler knocking over piles of aluminum in the worst way

[proxycrit]

(I point. Gently, in the voice of somebody who’s mind touched by the outer gods, i whisper truth in your ears:

Your honor the horses are now lesbians

(Anyways here’s the designs)

[jhsharman]

Joe Edwards is Hap Holliday

A father's anxiety as their daughter goes off all by herself and friends with no adult supervision to "Funland". The two panels deemed expendable in tucking it from 4 and a third to 4 pages --a descent into a vortex of madness, which removal does disrupt the flow for the next panel where he fades back into sanity -- lines straightening and fading.

[pixlokita]

May we have some headcanons on you Weretrap Oswald please?

He collects batteries, spare arcade game parts and other trinkets that might be useful. He’s mostly looking for them during nightmare hallucination episodes ⚙️🪛✨

[starnerve-fanpage]

Fear gave Anxiety his teddy bear🥹

[specialagentartemis]

I wish Sam and Tucker got to be characters more often. Thinking about how they also have a significant part of their lives they have to hide from their parents because they're also out ghost hunting with Danny all the time. And they have the capacity to walk away from it in a way that Danny doesn't. But they don't. This has got to be a strain on them too, this upended their lives too, and they don't even have any ghost powers to deal with it.

Sam already isn't on good terms with her parents; she could probably tell them upfront exactly how much time she spends hunting ghosts and if she said it in a bitter and sarcastic tone of voice they would probably just frown at her and tsk for her being so morbid and dramatic. I can't imagine she's the kind of kid who talks honestly to her parents about anything anyway. We barely ever see Tucker's parents but the few times we do they seem generically nice and normal. Do they worry about him, suddenly out all the time and coming home harried and beat up and found at the scene of rampant property destruction? Is he lying to them for the first time in his life? Does Danny ever ask them about this or is he too wrapped up in his own Family Angst?

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

growing up with a perpetually anxious primary caregiver is such a mindfuck. that shit will rewire your nervous system

[silence-ofdeath]

“I am alone with my own thoughts and it’s dangerous.”

-cress

[toonsforkicks22]

(A challenge on my Twitter for hitting 2k followers)

Am I the only one who thinks Peri kinda looks like Fear???

[skepticismisokay]

Who else saw inside out 2 anyways GUYS FEARXIETY I LOVE THEM ME WHEN FEARXIETY GUYS Fearxiety art dump cuz they canon my parents

They changed my life for the better😍💥

[ottpopfic]

I fucking love writing parental Leo because that man will just throw kids. I headcanon Cabin 9 as one of the ones who will just tackle each other and roll around in minor roughhousing as a form of affection. There all canonically very strong, they can do it with each other easily. Now here Leo is with kids just turning them upside down and shaking them and tossing them around. Kids love that shit, but it gives Jason anxiety because ‘what if you drop them!’ But Leo never does because he's been doing it with his cabin siblings for forever.

[teethburger]

you know what I would really like to see from a season 2 of a new wish?

an episode/multiple episode arc where peri tries out human life with his parents and he’s super anxious and trying to do everything exactly right, while cosmo and wanda are way more lenient

(im imagining a scene where cosmo is dancing in the supermarket and peri is like “NO DAD YOURE GONNA GET US FOUND OUT” (to outsiders it just looks like a teenager getting embarrassed by his dad))

and eventually he learns that it’s okay to be weird and awkward and silly sometimes and making mistakes is actually more human than painstakingly following social rules all the time