Post by Mio on Jul 17, 2014 20:18:14 GMT
I still do not quite understand how I can write so much about these things. Oh well, I guess it's good practice if nothing else.
Pinkie Pie
Pinkie Pie has become the subject of controversy in some circles, particularly after a rather unpopular outing in one episode where the writer then turned around and mentioned that she was her favorite character to write. It’s become increasingly clear at this point that some people are growing tired of Pinkie Pie’s “party loving Looney Toon” schtick and some believe that she has grown increasingly one dimensional over the season, but for me this was not unexpected given what I had said in my last review. In fact there is actually a couple of interesting things we get from Pinkie Pie this season. Not necessarily good things in the grand scheme of things, but interesting nonetheless.
In the episodes Maud Pie, and Pinkie Apple Pie we learn that Pinkie does seem to value family a great deal. It’s a bit of an unexpected development since she doesn’t really speak well of her past in Cutie Mark Chronicles and it’s implied that she didn’t get along to well with her family. On the other hand, that may be the very reason she acts the way she does in those two episodes. If she really didn’t get along with her family that well then it would make sense that she would be all gung ho about being part of a different family, and one of her best friend’s family no less. With Maud it still makes sense with the assumption that she does not have a good relationship with her family with how protective and empathetic Maud acts towards her, in possible contrast to the rest of her family. Now of course another perfectly reasonable explanation is that her relationship with her family got better after she discovered her cutie mark, or that she exaggerated and her relationship was always fine. If that’s the case then this is probably just an extension of how hyper social and obsessed with social bonds that Pinkie is.
Outside of that tidbit about family, Pinkie doesn’t do much in those episodes though.
In Pinkie Apple Pie she acts oblivious to most of the goings on and enjoys the journey even though she doesn’t get the answer she wants and everyone else is not having a good time. Whether that’s out of genuine ignorance or not is unknown.
We also learn that Pinkie really loves her sister Maud and is really sad that her friends aren’t as warm to her. Eventually they all find common ground in their enjoyment of Pinkie Pie, but if you ask me it would have been a more powerful and relevant lesson for Pinkie to learn that not all of your friends are necessarily going to get along, and that’s ok. But as I’ve said before things tend to work out for the perky pink pony, even when they shouldn’t and she should have to learn something. In the end though it’s probably good for her that the universe is on her side, because her key episode demonstrates just how Pinkie is when it isn’t.
Pinkie Pride is Pinkie’s key episode. In it Pinkie is working full time to plan Rainbow Dash’s “birthiverserey” when a new party pony (voiced by Werid Al Yankovic of all people) shows up, demonstrates that he is about 10 times better at her job then she is, and almost immediately the whole town and her closest friends turn away from her in favor of the “better” party pony. Ignoring the rather unbelievable development of her friends functionally abandoning her what happens next is very revealing.
I mentioned back in my Fluttershy commentary that a lot of her character reactions could be traced back to how dependent on her special talent for her self-esteem and social interaction. Now we kind of saw this with Pinkie in Party of One, in which after she assumes her friends reject her friendship she still clings to her special talent and just makes up her own friends. In Pinkie Pride however she does try to do some other things when she finds that someone else is so much better at her special talent then she is she becomes very depressed. In the aptly titled song Pinkie’s Lament we see a montage of her trying other jobs since she is no longer the best party planner. Whether this is supposed to be real or all in her head the results are clear; anything else she tries, she fails. It’s really no wonder that she is so obsessed with parties. She is honestly convinced that without her special talent that she can’t do anything. Be it making friends, relating to others, or just making a living, without parties, or specifically being the go to party planner it all might as well be impossible. In that sense beating Cheese Sandwich in the goof off is very important to her, because if she doesn’t then she has nothing but misery to look forward to. At least that’s what she thinks.
So what does all of that mean? What lessons can she learn to help her through such situations when her abilities fail her? Well, in the end it doesn’t really matter. Before she can leave for spoiling Rainbow Dash’s birthiversery her friends finally realize that they probably shouldn’t have left her alone after this whole episode and comfort her. And then we learn that not only did Cheese Sandwich not mean to upstage Pinkie Pie, but that Pinkie was instrumental in him becoming the pony he is today and that he meant to impress her. That actually raises a couple of questions about why he went about things the way he did, but for Pinkie herself it means that she can go back to the way things were and not have to worry about the fact that there may not be anything more to her then just parties. The people love her once again, her supposed enemy was a friend this whole time, the party goes off with out a hitch, and Pinkie’s world has been preserved once again.
After all that the season passes by without much more major coming from Pinkie Pie. She does some jokes and plays minor parts in several episodes and that’s it. To be honest if it weren’t for the admittedly sad display we saw in Pinkie Pride I probably would not have cared at all for her character in this season. It makes me wonder why she keeps getting such episodes if they are ultimately not going to matter. As I’ve said before, some are growing tired of her current persona, and juxtaposing these episodes with her normal behavior does not make her seem multi-faceted, it makes her seem inconsistent and static (oxymoronic I know, but I feel it makes sense). If she’s just supposed to be a gag character, fine, just don’t expect me to care when she goes through another existential crisis.
Pinkie Pie
Pinkie Pie has become the subject of controversy in some circles, particularly after a rather unpopular outing in one episode where the writer then turned around and mentioned that she was her favorite character to write. It’s become increasingly clear at this point that some people are growing tired of Pinkie Pie’s “party loving Looney Toon” schtick and some believe that she has grown increasingly one dimensional over the season, but for me this was not unexpected given what I had said in my last review. In fact there is actually a couple of interesting things we get from Pinkie Pie this season. Not necessarily good things in the grand scheme of things, but interesting nonetheless.
In the episodes Maud Pie, and Pinkie Apple Pie we learn that Pinkie does seem to value family a great deal. It’s a bit of an unexpected development since she doesn’t really speak well of her past in Cutie Mark Chronicles and it’s implied that she didn’t get along to well with her family. On the other hand, that may be the very reason she acts the way she does in those two episodes. If she really didn’t get along with her family that well then it would make sense that she would be all gung ho about being part of a different family, and one of her best friend’s family no less. With Maud it still makes sense with the assumption that she does not have a good relationship with her family with how protective and empathetic Maud acts towards her, in possible contrast to the rest of her family. Now of course another perfectly reasonable explanation is that her relationship with her family got better after she discovered her cutie mark, or that she exaggerated and her relationship was always fine. If that’s the case then this is probably just an extension of how hyper social and obsessed with social bonds that Pinkie is.
Outside of that tidbit about family, Pinkie doesn’t do much in those episodes though.
In Pinkie Apple Pie she acts oblivious to most of the goings on and enjoys the journey even though she doesn’t get the answer she wants and everyone else is not having a good time. Whether that’s out of genuine ignorance or not is unknown.
We also learn that Pinkie really loves her sister Maud and is really sad that her friends aren’t as warm to her. Eventually they all find common ground in their enjoyment of Pinkie Pie, but if you ask me it would have been a more powerful and relevant lesson for Pinkie to learn that not all of your friends are necessarily going to get along, and that’s ok. But as I’ve said before things tend to work out for the perky pink pony, even when they shouldn’t and she should have to learn something. In the end though it’s probably good for her that the universe is on her side, because her key episode demonstrates just how Pinkie is when it isn’t.
Pinkie Pride is Pinkie’s key episode. In it Pinkie is working full time to plan Rainbow Dash’s “birthiverserey” when a new party pony (voiced by Werid Al Yankovic of all people) shows up, demonstrates that he is about 10 times better at her job then she is, and almost immediately the whole town and her closest friends turn away from her in favor of the “better” party pony. Ignoring the rather unbelievable development of her friends functionally abandoning her what happens next is very revealing.
I mentioned back in my Fluttershy commentary that a lot of her character reactions could be traced back to how dependent on her special talent for her self-esteem and social interaction. Now we kind of saw this with Pinkie in Party of One, in which after she assumes her friends reject her friendship she still clings to her special talent and just makes up her own friends. In Pinkie Pride however she does try to do some other things when she finds that someone else is so much better at her special talent then she is she becomes very depressed. In the aptly titled song Pinkie’s Lament we see a montage of her trying other jobs since she is no longer the best party planner. Whether this is supposed to be real or all in her head the results are clear; anything else she tries, she fails. It’s really no wonder that she is so obsessed with parties. She is honestly convinced that without her special talent that she can’t do anything. Be it making friends, relating to others, or just making a living, without parties, or specifically being the go to party planner it all might as well be impossible. In that sense beating Cheese Sandwich in the goof off is very important to her, because if she doesn’t then she has nothing but misery to look forward to. At least that’s what she thinks.
So what does all of that mean? What lessons can she learn to help her through such situations when her abilities fail her? Well, in the end it doesn’t really matter. Before she can leave for spoiling Rainbow Dash’s birthiversery her friends finally realize that they probably shouldn’t have left her alone after this whole episode and comfort her. And then we learn that not only did Cheese Sandwich not mean to upstage Pinkie Pie, but that Pinkie was instrumental in him becoming the pony he is today and that he meant to impress her. That actually raises a couple of questions about why he went about things the way he did, but for Pinkie herself it means that she can go back to the way things were and not have to worry about the fact that there may not be anything more to her then just parties. The people love her once again, her supposed enemy was a friend this whole time, the party goes off with out a hitch, and Pinkie’s world has been preserved once again.
After all that the season passes by without much more major coming from Pinkie Pie. She does some jokes and plays minor parts in several episodes and that’s it. To be honest if it weren’t for the admittedly sad display we saw in Pinkie Pride I probably would not have cared at all for her character in this season. It makes me wonder why she keeps getting such episodes if they are ultimately not going to matter. As I’ve said before, some are growing tired of her current persona, and juxtaposing these episodes with her normal behavior does not make her seem multi-faceted, it makes her seem inconsistent and static (oxymoronic I know, but I feel it makes sense). If she’s just supposed to be a gag character, fine, just don’t expect me to care when she goes through another existential crisis.