Before The Last Roundup I felt as though Applejack's character was just severely under-developed. Now, I feel like she's been made to be naive, un-trusting, un-trustworthy, and even, on occasion, un-honest. And I STILL don't have a feel for her character. I'd always thought her to be the most mature of the group, kind of a happy medium between Twilight and Fluttershy, an equal dose of problem solving and leadership. Now, I don't even know what to think.
I think the problem may be that there's not much you can "do" with Applejack. She's never seemed to have a whole lot of flaws to play off of to me; maybe this episode was an attempt to introduce some.
Hmmm, the new episode actually made me relate to her character more. It's interesting, she did act a little immature in this one, making a big deal about something that shouldn't be a big deal at all. I would even go as far to call her a drama queen, reacting to her failure that way, and also acting a little stuck up beforehand. But it also made me admire her character a bit more, she messed up, but was scared to let her friends down. I feel that her hiding away was more out of not wanting her friends to be let down or disappointed than it was to not have to face her shame. Can't really word it in a way that makes sense. But that's just what I got from it. Even the most mature ponies make mistakes, and every one of them has their faults. Apple Jack's is, well, not wanting to disappoint her friends to the point she doesn't think logically.
I get what you're saying, but one of the problem's I'm having is that Applejack's Element of Harmony is honesty, not loyalty. It seems like she's demonstrated that, and most commonly, generosity, but for some reason, never honesty.
Good point about that one, but I see it more as she was afraid of not being honest with promising her prize money to fix town hall. It seems more like a little white lie to ensure her promise grew out of proportion, instead of it all starting out as one big ugly lie. Then again, the characters sometimes do go out of their elements, like Rarity's questionable move in Secret to my Excess. Even though it's their own special personal quality, I suppose they sometimes overstep their bounds and have to be guided back in by the power of friendship. Or it could just be, being further on in the season, the producers simply forgot that one bit.
I saw Applejack not returning because she would feel like a donkey if she returned without the money. A mean, think about this for a moment. Let's say you promised your friend that you would buy them an Xbox. Now this friend is very happy and can't wait for the Xbox to come in. A week goes by and you are unable to get one. What are you going to do? Are you going to say, "Nope, couldn't get it, sorry." You could, but some people wouldn't do that. Some people don't like making a promise and then breaking it, or making a promise that they can't keep. Applejack thought she could keep this promise, and she wanted to do what was best for the tow. However, she didn't want any pony to think she was a liar for not bringing home the money. So, Applejack stayed to make money. That's my guess.
I've always liked Apple Jack and I completely understand why she did what she did in The Last Roundup. Having that amount of pressure put on you to be the best must be difficult. She didn't want to let everyone down and letting them know she failed to get the prize money, and not just that but breaking it to her friends and little sis that she didn't get first. The character flaws they introduced in the last episode made me like AJ even more in knowing she's not perfect and even though she's the most mature she still has her bad moments.
Applejack is probably my favourite character, thus it is hard to flaw her character from my perspective. This episode was no different. When she revealed her reasoning, it concluded what I'd been feeling all along, that her intentions were good natured; She didn't want to let down her friends, and was working hard to keep then satisfied. If anything, I felt the rest of the main cast were irritating in their constant harrassment of Applejack. It felt unfair that she had undertaken this situation of extra labour for the sake of Ponyville, yet her friends had made her out to be some sort of villain. Obviously all was nice and cheery at the end (excluding Pinkie's actions at Rarity's expense), but that's what the prior events made me feel. That said, one thing that has been bugging me, and I will agree with the first post here, is that I feel the key part of Applejack's character, honesty, is being somewhat sidefooted. There have been several instances throughout both seasons that have neglected to address her elemental manifestation, and it bugs me. It was reinforced during the opening two episodes of season 2, what with her polar opposite personality being a compulsive liar, but that underlying concern that the writers are forgetting her honesty is still there. Despite that negative paragraph, I'll reinstate that Applejack is still pretty nifty as a character, and I do essentially enjoy watching her. It's just that one little niggling detail that's there.
I'll agree with the Lupr on Applejack-she is one of the strongest characters of the bunch, and while she may not have the same dynamic in comparison some of the others, she DOES have a strong balance. As for the honesty issue? Simply put, it's called conflict. Applejack ends up as an interesting pony because on the one hand, she does very often exist as a symbol of honest, the one who is willing to put information simply and plainly, to get things out in the open, but on the other hand, she does break it. THis would be bad and a problem if it weren't for one thing- Just about every instance(that I can think of) has a counter-acting character point. Applejack doesn't like making anybody feel bad or let down, but her sense of honesty conflicts with that, and she doesn't always make the right choice. Now sometimes this is showcased and sometimes it's not. With 22 minute long episodes and a friendly reminder that you can't stuff too much in for kids(not saying it has to be dumb, just that there is a limit to what you can stuff it), you can't always highlight conflicts like that for the sake of continuity for the show. I think a large majority of the times where she does lie, it would be detrimental to the show's sense of progression-it'd be a slight speed bump that's unnessecary. The times they do highlight, it works well for humor or for the point. But the key point is that even if she is a good example, she's not perfect, and therefore a much more real character to the viewer and a better role model for it. I dunno, just my take on it. To be fair, while I have enjoyed Season 2, it's just not shaping up to Season 1's character dynamics. God, I could write an essay about how the start of each season differ and use that to reflect on each season respectively.
Well you have to remember the fact that she hasn't had an episode since Applebuck Season, but it seems like she really only has about 5 angles to play off, but I really would love to see her character develop more, she still seems severely underdeveloped to me
This actually makes a lot of sense. What it made me realise was that being a representation of an element doesn't necessarily mean constant adheration to it's values. It could mean that representing an element gives you a higher affinity for learning about it. After all, learning the values and appreciation of friendship and the respective elements is an integral part of the show. I guess learning that she should have been honest about what happened means she learned a thing about honesty. She's represented that trait without necessarily rigidly fixating to it. Look Before You Sleep Fall Weather Friends Sisterhooves Social Granted they were shared episodes, but they still did enough to provide some insight and development into Applejack's character. I think she's rather well developed, as I genuinely like the character, although I do agree that perhaps she could do with further elaboration.
She has too much pride. She won all the previous competitions, so she didn't want to tell her friends in fear they would think of her as a failure. If she were blatantly honest ALL THE TIME, it'd seem too robotic. It shows her flaw of having too much pride, and a fear of how her friends see her. Is Rainbow ALWAYS loyal? Didn't think so. They are both the "tomboys" of the group. As a result they enjoy heavy competition and hate failure more than anything.
If you ask me, her character would be a lot better in general if they didn't make her the element of Honesty, since she lies all the time.
im wondering why everyone is trying to psychologically value the main cast based off of there element if you watched the first episode you would know that they could of lived there entire life without knowing they were a element of harmony if not for nightmare moon and so now that they are there supposedly gonna have to drop everything that they are, to become everything that there element is? (now dose that sound like a good story to you?)
Fluttershy is kind, Pinkie Pie laughs (a lot), Twilight uses magic (duh), Rarity is generous (most of the time), same with Rainbow Dash. Applejack is kind of the only one who doesn't match up.
She never lies, she just doesn't reveal the whole truth at times. But that's not lying. Rarity on the other hand, I won't get started.
That's why I put "(most of the time)", she's one of my favourite ponies, but even I'll admit that she's not always generous. I still think Applejack needs to learn a lesson in honesty. Heck, maybe even 2 or 3.
I'll say it again. Applejack never lies. If you rewatch any episode where she 'lies', you'll see that she actually says the truth. The one thing I don't get though is why the others get Applejack to do the 'lying'. Surely it'll be easier if anyone else did it.
apart from her being the element of honesty to counter act her bad acting skills when it comes to lying?
