Talk:Applejack/@comment-5362605-20120827095612

Here is a comment by someone named Harwick on this website here: http://ravishingdiamonds.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-little-something-new.html?showComment=1345304777694#c5297009218725907854

None of this was written by me, but I seriously, seriously couldn't agree more.

Poor Applejack is so very much a supporting character, invaluable to the group and to countless episodes, but so rarely commanding the most attention in any one of them. Even "The Last Round-up" wasn't told from her point of view, despite revolving around her and spurred on by her fears of disappointing everyone. How different would that episode have been had we gone with her to the rodeo, and saw her desperation as she repeatedly finished just out of reach of her goals?

I remember watching one of the women's track races in the Olympics where one of the runners fell in the final lap of the multi-lap medal race and she stayed down sobbing because that was her one chance and in a blink she was out of it. Despite all of the training, making the Olympic team, advancing through all of the qualifying rounds to make the final race, and positioning herself for the final sprint in the final lap, it all fell apart when someone stepped on her foot and sent her tumbling. Who knows if she'd have it in her to go through everything needed to get to that point again in 4 long years?

I tend to think that, had "The Last Round-up" been written after watching the Olympics, we would have seen AJ's struggles to keep her word and the crushing disappointment as she failed, and I think we would have bonded with her character that much more rather than just thinking "Silly AJ..." at the end when she thought she shouldn't come back home.

Some have speculated that the only thing there is to explore in AJ stories is her pride, and that to do so again just negates any character development from before. I don't think her pride is her defining feature though... I think it's her sense of family. I think that's the untapped potential for future AJ-centric stories. Yes, she works great as the supporting character in something like "The Cutie Pox", but why not tell a story like that from her point of view? Why not follow her struggles to take care of Granny's health, or deal with Applebloom's lack of parents (or her own for that matter?). She seems to have nothing in her life but Applebucking to look forward to... and yes, she seems content with that, but perhaps there's a story in exploring the things she's had to pass on doing in order to fulfill her desires for her family and farm life?

I suppose the trouble is that here we get into some more mature themes. Not "inappropriate" mature, but the kinds of things that Hasbro may feel the average 6 year old doesn't particularly care about. That may be the real handicap to AJ shining as a lead... not that there's no conflict left to explore with her, but that it's harder to make it all into a silly little adventure.

And so perhaps she's stuck as a supporting character until the writers work out some wackier angle to apply to her. I do feel like she'd be better suited to a high-adventure show, as I've said many times that she works exceptionally well as the one who supports Twilight when they're in the thick of things and working as a team. She really is a well-designed supporting character... it's just that the slice-of-life format favors the wacky and dramatic over the supportive.

I feel like she deserves a corny apple analogy, so here's a shaky one. The average person tends to think of the apple core as garbage... the part left over after all of the good bits of apple have been eaten. But here's the thing... the core is so very important in an apple. The whole apple exists not to be eaten but to get seeds to the ground in order to grow more trees, and the core supports those seeds (as well as the flesh which people believe is the best bit.) I like to think that AJ has a certain love for the overlooked apple core, myself, and wouldn't resent being given that supporting role, regardless of how easily the core is tossed aside.

If you're too lazy to read the above, I'll sum it up:

Applejack is only now a supporting character. Even one of episodes didn't get told from her point of view. The Last Roundup really matches with how sometimes in the Olympics, you make a fatal mistake, despite training for so hard. The poster thinks that one of AJ's episodes should really be told from HER point of view. And there's that analogy, lol XD