The Ultimate Pinkie Rant: there is no pie, only crust

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It is well-known around these parts that my favourite pony is Pinkie Pie. There's a plethora of reasons why someone may choose Pinkie over the others or perhaps one of the others instead and every reason is perfectly acceptable. But in a way you can say it's also very easy to dislike this pink rocket of happiness despite her best intentions to give smiles to everyone she knows. And I don't mean in the sense of how much you can tolerate an extremely extroverted individual or how well your eardrums can withstand the sheer shrieks of such a high-pitched unrelenting voice. Frankly, Pinkie Pie is quite possibly one of the most inconsistently written characters of the entire series. If there is criticism that Rainbow Dash may be too harsh, Rarity too selfish, Applejack too unremarkable, Fluttershy too static, or Twilight too condescending, then outcries of Pinkie's sometimes questionable behaviour must be called out as well.

 

Why I like Pinkie may not be strong a reason enough for others to like Pinkie. In fact, why I like Pinkie may be a reason that saves Pinkie for others and she is simply an adequate pony in their eyes. Her highs are so high in my mind that I can overlook her flaws and confidently say that no other pony is even close to such a pony who makes the show all that much entertaining for me. What is Pinkie Pie? Why do I, in my own opinion, rarely discuss her among other grievances I may have on this ongoing likely-long-lasting show? 

 

Well...

 

Season 3 was quite a long time ago. Being a shortened season each pony most likely would only receive one episode to put them in the spotlight, so whatever episode Pinkie would get would hopefully be good otherwise we'd have to look forward to some episode eons down the road and whatever the result may be would linger in our minds until such a day arrives. Before this season, Pinkie's episodes were overall quite solid. The most infamous episode in the entire series, Party of One, is right up there. A Friend In Deed spawned one of the catchiest and recognizable tunes of the cartoon, but otherwise the rest of them were...there. Still most of the rest that likely isn't called out as the best featured some of the greatest Pinkie Pies as well. We learn in her very first episode, Griffon the Brush-Off that Pinkie was initially believed to be an undesirable pony to be around. A pony who would best be consumed in small doses, but soon we discover that Pinkie is not the near-parasite some ponies such a Rainbow Dash and arguably Twilight believed. Her sense of humour and quality of fun is quite high, as otherwise why would she be the Element of Laughter? Not only that, but she takes in account other people's feelings to make sure everyone's having the grandest of times, this being Fluttershy's well-known sensitivity that even her oldest friend almost overlooked for the sake of entertainment. Pinkie Pie was quite awesome. From her own words "I can take it, but no one treats Fluttershy like that. No One."  sadly, Gilda did not seem to understand this.

 

Unfortunately this episode could have also given us a second Aesop, that perhaps Pinkie was overbearing or bothering two friends who just wanted to catch up. Even though Rainbow Dash didn't mind, had Gilda not been a colossal bitch, perhaps this lesson may have come to fruition. Instead the Aesop went to Rainbow Dash and how she had to figure out what type of people to lie her loyalties with. We leave the episode knowing that Pinkie is a better and less annoying pony than one would think, but she does have the capability to be clingy. This is brilliantly brought back up twenty episodes later in Party of One.

 

Of course before we can reach that pinnacle of an episode, there are a few that are arguably also Pinkie episodes along the way. Swarm of the Century could simply be the other ponies attempting to deal with Pinkie, but similarly to Griffon the Brush-Off, their expectations were off and Pinkie was actually a better pony than they had realized. (with again capability to cause misunderstandings due to poor communication which is brought up once again, brilliantly mind you, in Luna Eclipsed) Then there is Feeling Pinkie Keen which is more of an episode painting Twilight to be a terrible pony than actually pointing out how much better than expected Pinkie was and in my opinion not that strong of an episode. I don't really think it brought to the table anything new about Pinkie either and all it did was vilify Twilight and make her look really stupid. So...yeah.

 

Pinkie obviously appears in episodes where she is not the main character and most of the time she's usually contained. By that I mean she doesn't steal the spotlight from whoever the focus is in the episode and her contribution to the episode would be minor scenes, lasting a few seconds or so, or sometimes longer of comic relief. Her presence could perhaps lighten the mood of a dire situation and usually doesn't ruin that situation. Pinkie is basically used efficiently and properly in these instances. One of the best showings of Pinkie as a secondary yet necessary character in an episode is Green Isn't Your Colour, which while doesn't blow anyone's minds is an episode that utilizes every character so well and is written so satisfying that it's definitely one of if not the most, solidly written episodes of the series.

 

What we learn of this pink pony this time around is that she may have lingering trust issues. Pinkie is very rarely serious, but when she is serious she is definitely ding-dong diddily serious. We do not know why keeping secrets is such a big deal to her, but it is an interesting new aspect to her character. Usually the loud, cheery ditsy character is terrible at keeping secrets because they are so eager to gossip or to reveal such juicy details to others due to it being fun to discuss or something or another. But we know by now (or at least soon) that friendship and smiles are a very big deal to Pinkie and something like misplacing or betraying a friend's trust is definitely something that would take time or even ruin the friendship in the first place, thus losing those smiles and the happy times forever. It suddenly makes sense that Pinkie finds keeping secrets to be such a big deal. Her place in this episode does not overwhelm the stars, that being Fluttershy and Rarity, but is necessary to keep the conflict going and adds an interesting dynamic to Pinkie. Also it's entertaining which Pinkie as a side character should be a shining example of such.

 

Finally we reach the great episode that is Party of One...and everything makes sense. If Pinkie can understand Fluttershy's sensitivity, it's not too much of a stretch that Pinkie herself can be sensitive, in this case insecurities about her friendship with the others. Not only that, but as demonstrated in Swarm of the Century, Pinkie can get carried away by things and has a poor sense of communication that could clear up any misunderstandings from not only her behaviour, but from others. Finally, her trust issues that came about in Green Isn't Your Colour explains why Pinkie would be so upset that other ponies are keeping a secret from her. This episode makes SO MUCH SENSE! It's not just "OH MY GOD PINKIE WENT CRAZY AND THAT VALIDATES OUR HEADCANONS THAT SHE'S BATSHIT INSANE!" because while that scene is indeed very memorable, that's not the only reason and not even the main reason this episode was so well done!

 

Pinkie's mental breakdown however does spell one thing out that becomes a reoccurring theme of the series, that being whenever your cutie-mark and thus your identity is threatened, your mental state deteriorates. For Pinkie this is even more emphasized by her deflating mane. Now the fandom decided to run with this and exaggerated this reaction beyond all measure, but this state of Pinkie so affectionately referred to as "Pinkamena" only appeared once since then, Magical Mystery Cure. I'm very very glad the writers have not drilled that form of Pinkie into our heads like fans have done so because that kept the integrity of Pinkamena perfect, and only in the most dire of situations does Pinkie ever fall into such despair.

 

In conclusion, season one Pinkie is the greatest.

 

But that's not all I'm here to discuss, we now move on to season two. Here Pinkie has about two episodes all to herself and a few episodes where she acts as a very important side character. I want to point out Pinkie's role in Lesson Zero. This is the second instance in which a pony went batshit insane and I'm very glad Pinkie had the smallest role of the Mane Six in this episode. She likely wasn't included with the others in scenarios where Twilight may have had to help them due to time constraints, but it's also unnecessary to force a scenario when three examples is enough. (That being the "RULE OF THREE") Since it was unnecessary for Pinkie to be involved she was suitably written off-to-the-side, with her most notable scene having let a balloon of baskets fly high into the air. It's very subtle, but that is probably one of my favourite Pinkie scenes ever. This scene illustrates that Pinkie does not need to be domineering or an attention whore to be herself. She can even be subtle.

 

Well, it probably helps that it spawned one of my most favourite fanmade songs ever, but hey. (I'm well-aware I've discussed this before, but since this is my giant Pinkie manifesto, it must be included!)

 

Of course that brings us to Luna Eclipsed, where Pinkie's role in the story is necessary for the conflict to continue. While some people found Pinkie to be unnecessarily "mean" in this episode, this is yet again a pattern where Pinkie demonstrates poor communication skills that end up with a misunderstanding as opposed to Pinkie actively being terrible for the sake of fun. She had no idea she was making Princess Luna upset because every year for her whole life since she's been in Ponyville, the tradition was to be scared of Nightmare Moon. That was all she was doing. Rainbow Dash was also only pranking people which is a thing she kind of does, as established such forever ago in season one episode five. This is a case of intentions vs. actions, how the consequences of people's seemingly harmless actions could result in something undesirable.

 

Luckily Twilight was around to resolve this misunderstanding and though Pinkie once again caused an incident with her lack of hindsight, this wasn't the episode where Pinkie would learn a lesson involved in this, what with not being the main character. 

 

We then get a break from the more zany Pinkie in Baby Cakes, which while is a fine episode in itself, was not one of my favourites as I'm not a fan of baby humour and babysitting and the whole concept of "responsibility" which sometimes feels like a forced lesson in children's shows. Still, this episode does give us a glimpse into Pinkie and how she is not merely just a fun-loving laughter-inducing machine, she's still her own person (pony?) and should be treated like so. And yet...the VERY next episode...

 

I really really really love The Last Roundup. Truly I do, sometimes I do in fact enjoy this type of humour Pinkie sometimes utilizes, but it does have potential to affect her character negatively. I'm going to start bringing up a particular writer named Amy Keating Rogers here as well. She's a writer well-known for writing a majority of the Pinkie episodes and her Pinkie is actually a bit different from the "normal" Pinkie we are all used to. In this episode, Pinkie's status as a side-character starts looming a bit too much. By that I mean instead of being at her corner being Pinkie like in Lesson Zero, Pinkie starts being overwhelming and obnoxious, stealing spotlight from an episode meant for Applejack (and it doesn't help that this is the episode Derpy speaks in, but I digress) which is fine actually, so long as Pinkie continues the conflict and basically keeps the episode running.

 

She does, but...not in the fashion that I find to be her character, after all these other episodes. Remember, just one episode ago we learn that Pinkie is actually a pony who isn't a fun-loving laughter-inducing machine. She is her own person. But in this episode, suddenly her gags start treading into territory where the humour is more important than the character. It starts off small, Pinkie surprises and scares Fluttershy which Pinkie apologizes for when Fluttershy explains. We know from a past episode Pinkie treats Fluttershy differently because of her sensitivity, so we could forgive Pinkie for this, since she did apologize. But then moments later she does it again. Why? Well because it was funny. That's literally the only reason I can think of her doing it again otherwise Pinkie is a dick. She just apologized for what she did and then just DOES IT AGAIN. What the fuck.

 

Later on, Rainbow Dash refers to Pinkie as a heavy-machine gun weapon type of pony, in order to coax Applejack into telling the truth. The question here is this, is Pinkie being purposely annoying towards Applejack? Or did her friends, knowing Pinkie is annoying, just tell Pinkie to talk to Applejack? You would think it would be the former, but at the end of the episode where Pinkie continues her discussion about chimicherrychangas, she suddenly keeps repeating the question like a broken record, being obviously annoying. What reason does she have to be annoying to Rarity at this point? They're both stranded in the desert and have cactus stuck in their fur. Rarity is already quite irritated, so why would Pinkie do this? The only reasonable explanation is that Pinkie ISN'T aware that she is annoying and perhaps her incessant talking is her attempt to make Rarity smile. That kind of makes Pinkie out to be really stupid to be honest because if you can't tell your own repetition of a question for likely hours on-end isn't irritating at all, you're not very bright. Once again, it implies something about Pinkie thus sacrificing character for comedy.

 

The reason I still love this episode however is that every other moment of Pinkie is pretty damn good. She's firing on all cylinders every other time. Her anger at Applejack is in-character because again, the whole Pinkie Promise trust issue is a thing with her, and jumping off the wagon to be captured by Rarity is one of the finest shining examples of comedy in the entire series. Not only that but the episode was filled with action with the crazy chase scene and the I Love Lucy reference. It's otherwise a fine episode with tons of content. The humour is hit and miss, but when it hits it hits with a cold hard diamond knuckle of laughter. The misses are however, legitimate concerns.

 

AKR returns with another episode, this time with an actual Pinkie episode. (I know The Last Roundup seems like a Pinkie one, but it's an Applejack episode I swear) A Friend In Deed...this episode could have been perfect. This could be the episode where Pinkie learns her behaviour could cause misunderstandings and ruin things, or perhaps Pinkie learns that not everyone enjoys pies in their faces or maybe she can't be friends with absolutely everyone. Not everyone is compatible with everyone. Instead Pinkie learns that some people prefer being left alone and aren't as high-octane insane as she is. 

 

...wait, let's dial back a bit. She specifically said in Griffon the Brush-Off not to prank Fluttershy because she's sensitive. We later learn two seasons later she has a sister named Maud who is definitely nothing like her. She also was raised on a rock farm. As far as I'm concerned Pinkie was raised in an environment of Crankys. They may not have been well, as Cranky as Cranky, but they definitely weren't high-octane insane. Pinkie already knows people who would rather be left alone and don't enjoy her type of extroverted craziness. Even Twilight would rather be reading a book inside instead of having cake blasted into her face. Shouldn't Pinkie already know this?

 

But no, instead we waste this perfectly fine character on this lesson of all lessons and we are back to a theme often repeated in Pinkie episodes of season one. Pinkie is a pony better than we expected. This doesn't work this time around because Pinkie is TREMENDOUSLY ANNOYING. You can't have her act so negatively and then have all the ponies affected by her this episode learn that Pinkie is better than expected. That doesn't excuse her behaviour! What we learn instead is that if you want to be friends with your idol, simply stalk and hound them for three weeks but then justify it by finding their missing dog. Sure they're super relieved their dog is fine, but that doesn't mean you should stalk and hound them!

 

But this episode's flaws aren't magnified because it has so many songs. Smile Smile Smile is one of the best songs in the whole franchise, and it makes you feel super good. You're then conflicted at the end because Pinkie has this ability to make you happy, but then has this ability to give you a horrible, aching headache. Instead of the nice balanced lovely Pinkie of season one, we now have the very polarizing Pinkie. I had no idea how to react to this episode initially because as a hardcore Pinkie fan, I was trying to find ways to justify her actions so people would not hate her. In fact I actually don't like Smile Smile Smile as much as a lot of other people do, but thought that I might not be a very good fan of hers if I didn't like the song, so I ended up singing it a whole bunch and memorizing some of the lyrics. I still don't like the song as much, but hey at least I can sing it now! 

 

Instead of being positive about the songs and criticizing how Pinkie was written, I was focused on how much I didn't enjoy the song. So my opinion of the episode was weird. I had it very high because holy crap, tons of Pinkie shenanigans, but at the same time she was written very differently than per usual. Cranky is a great character but I wish he was used for a way better lesson than what the Aesop ended up being. Pinkie already has a bunch of friends she shouldn't act like a rocket of sugar towards, while a brand new character would be an example of someone you don't have to be friends with, or maybe a lesson of not hounding new people in town and letting them set in first. You're not supposed to play with hamsters the moment they come home because they can die from stress. I'm glad Pinkie's pet is an absurd baby alligator and not a hamster.

 

Before we jump to Pinkie's next episode also written by AKR, she has again more appearances as an important side-character in some episodes. The most prominent is Putting Your Hoof Down. Considering my opinion of the awful Fluttershy episodes in season four, I've actually found this episode far better in comparison. However in terms of Pinkie herself as this is not the post for me to rant about Fluttershy, Pinkie's definiton of "assertiveness" bothers me. I may have discussed this in the post dedicated to the episode itself, but Pinkie's and Rarity's examples of assertiveness are terrible. I can see why the writer went about doing this, so it exemplifies what Fluttershy does at the end as the proper method of being assertive, but it's not like Rarity has only or even often used "manipulation" to be assertive in past episodes. Rarity is perfectly fine just being assertive by being well, assertive. She can just command ponies to do things and they will. (A Dog and Pony Show? I've never heard of it. But you know what I mean!) Likewise, when has Pinkie ever conned other ponies out of things and that is indeed an example of Pinkie's assertiveness?

 

No, it was another case of comedy over character, where Pinkie's an absurd eccentric offbeat character, so clearly she's Bugs Bunny, so clearly this joke makes sense and is funny. Hahaha hohoho. But otherwise the episode was quite good if you ignore suddenly everyone, not just these two as being much worse jerks as per usual. Fluttershy tearing down Pinkie and Rarity was great. It truly shocked me, so much that I rated this low because "OH MY GOD SHE MADE PINKIE CRY D<" but really, it was a very powerful scene.

 

Anyway, MMMMMystery on the Friendship Express.

 

Ugh, do I have to cover this episode? Fine.

 

I can simply say comedy over character and be done with it, but to elaborate, Pinkie's an idiot and this episode was bad.

 

Oh, I need to actually elaborate. Aghghmghmghmgh. I don't know if it's truly canon that Pinkie is a smart character, but I like to think she is, and while I know this is a kids show so sometimes Aesop are going to be super asinine (oh come on, kids aren't this stupid damnit) it just...THIS EPISODE WAS BAD OKAY.

 

Okay it's funny that Pinkie has that type of imagination, but it isn't unexpected at all, sort of predictable. Pinkie apparently jumps to conclusions very easily, and I guess she sort of does considering Party of One. The idea that her friends would take a huge bite out of the cake because it was SO DELICIOUS-looking means these other three have zero self-control. And Pinkie, someone who normally just eats everything (she ate the food meant for the Princess that one time!!!) never does. That is very hard to believe. When Twilight helps her discover that her friends are horrible, Pinkie's first reaction is to attack them.

 

Alright. Okay. 

 

Let's just move on.

 

So the next Pinkie episode because I really have nothing to say about her role in premieres and finales thus far is Too Many Pinkie Pies. Pinkie is actually fine in this episode. I have no problem with her beyond maybe she's portrayed more stupid than I am comfortable with. But thanks to some new track record this might become a reoccurring theme, so there is nothing to do but to accept this unfortunate new side to Pinkie's character and just hope she'll be consistent from here on out. Anyway I didn't like this episode. 

 

It gave me a headache. It literally did when I first watched it. There were TOO MANY PINKIE PIES and I had a sensory overload. My ears did not want the pummeling that was the FUN FUN FUN FUNS! that littered this episode. Yes, Pinkie was fine, but I just could not like the episode because I physically did not enjoy it. I can't even re-watch it. I tried doing so once while watching a reaction and I got another headache from it. I CAN'T WATCH THIS EPISODE AGAIN IT HURTS ME. 

 

I AM PINKIE FAN. I LOVE PINKIE. YOU GIVE ME TOO MUCH PINKIE. IT HURTS.

 

The saying is there can be too much of a good thing, but this wasn't a good thing. These clones were obviously not Pinkie because Pinkie normally does not give me a horrible headache no matter how shrill she can be. Obviously my tolerance for Pinkie is quite high because when she is annoying instead of reacting immediately that Pinkie is annoying, my reaction is to justify all that being a Pinkie fan. I want to love Pinkie more and forever, and why would she be my favourite if she often annoys me? No, these clones are my WORST NIGHTMARE. They are caricatures of Pinkie. These clones are what Pinkie will become down the line if they continue to sacrifice character for comedy. Eventually she'll just be a husk of herself, a literal fun-loving machine that doesn't even make you laugh!

 

What is terribly sad about all this is that her friends also can't tell which is the real Pinkie. Sure you probably still want to do that whole paint-drying test thing because hey, maybe Pinkie isn't herself today for whatever reason. You obviously can't risk murdering the fuck out of Pinkie. Of course, that brings up the question of just asking Pinkie when everyone's birthdays are since she demonstrated just last season that she knows them all, and since all these other Pinkies can't even get names right I don't think figuring it out is that hard. And if the sheer state of being distracted can get you killed I think that is a very bad method of figuring out who is the real Pinkie. I watched an incredibly entertaining review of this episode that explains everything far better than I can by AntonyC. Click here. I highly recommend it.

 

It's probably significant to consider that my favourite episode in season three did not have Pinkie at all. In a majority of this season I don't believe she was characterized all that well, and don't mention Games Ponies Play. I'm not sure what happened to her in that episode. Maybe a clone escaped that day and Pinkie was back home baking cupcakes or coming up with a new song. I don't know. 

 

At this point my interest in ponies was waning. Pinkie's only episode physically pains me and her presence in the rest of the season is either irrelevant or downright terrible. But there was one saving grace and that was the very controversial finale of Season 3, Magical Mystery Cure. As annoying as it may be that Hasbro is forcing a princess down our throats for the sake of marketing to little girls, (yeah I loved princesses so much as a kid omg!) I realize now that this was the best they could have done with what they had...and actually, it's really impressive.

 

I mean every song is AMAZING. They only had 22 minutes to turn Twilight into a princess and give us a finale, and using a musical to rush through instead of being a horrible mangled mess of pacing was quite clever. Even though it is a shame we didn't have more of the Cutie-Mark Confused ponies, what we did have was actually really, really good. The writer did a fantastic job. The only people we can blame for this episode are executives who wanted the whole thing in the first place and only gave them one episode to set everything up. After thinking through of how Pinkie has been characterized in season four, M.A Larson has become my favourite writer and also why I find season four lacking because he's written zero of the episodes. Where is he? Did he leave!? Where is that great magnificent writer!?!?

 

But anyway Pinkie was done very admirably in this episode. At first I was disappointed that she had the smallest singing role of them all because I am very adamant about Pinkie's role as the bard in this ensemble. Singing is part of her character damnit! But what she had was impressive and I really cannot complain about A True True Friend (except maybe the repetitive lyrics) because how it sets up Pinkie returning to normal with the townsfolk shouting her name as the climax is wondrous. The sheer feeling of euphoria and just "YES!" when they shout her name is a bask of jubilation for every Pinkie fan and then some! Yes baby! PINKIE PIE IS BACK! ALRIGHT! Tell yo' friends!!! SUMMON PARADE! YEAH! I LOVE PINKIE PIE!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Ahem. But before that happened, the return of Pinkamena also made sense. If Pinkie isn't bounding around being happy and providing smiles, she has no reason to have that big fluffy mane powered by ponies' happiness. Also seeing Pinkie vulnerable and sad gives us a sense that yes, Pinkie is a pony and not again, a fun-loving laughter inducing machine. She's a true character. She has feelings and emotion and values and goals and all that stuff. So very happy Pinkie was like so in this episode and while I will happily bash season three, the finale did do her justice for once, and well, at least that's all I usually ask for in episodes. A really well-done Pinkie Pie.

 

This leads us to this season. I haven't mentioned every single episode Pinkie has a role in, be it major or minor. It would take far too long and she's usually rather inconsistent episode-to-episode depending on the writer, so I have no comment on that. Apparently before Pinkie Apple Pie a lot of people had an outcry about Pinkie's behaviour to start this season. Admittedly for half the season I have been very sleep-deprived watching the episodes. I've either stayed up till 7:30am to watch the stream or woke up early at 7:30am to watch the stream, so largely I have been very lethargic watching these episodes. I'm pretty sure my opinion of episodes are lower thanks to my mental state at the time, but it's not the only reason. (I really do think Season Four is a dip in quality) But I haven't really found Pinkie too problematic to begin season four. It's partly due to how I am sadly fairly used to her inconsistency now, and my love for Pinkie Pie is me looking out for really good examples of her character that might result as her being a side-character, or an episode dedicated to her.

 

Pinkie Apple Pie. How I love thee. How many ways do I love thee? Let's count.

 

Since most of the cast isn't around, we don't have Pinkie being overwhelming and stealing attention from most of the cast. In fact you could argue this episode is more an Apple Family episode than anything else. Even if Pinkie's name wasn't in the episode title she'd still work in the episode because she doesn't actually take the spotlight from the family. She's there for comic relief yes, but her behaviour is necessary, so that at the end when Applejack and co. are ashamed of their own behaviour, we realize through that hilarious road trip that Pinkie doesn't care. They act like a family anyway and it's the best she's ever been in (I wonder what that says about her own family). They never conclusively tell us if Pinkie IS an Apple, but we do get hints that yes, they may be related. Both ponies learn a lesson from one another (even if Applejack's lesson to Pinkie is sort of rehashed, she should already know she's part of AJ's family since the cider episode, but she probably needed to be reminded of such to cheer to up due to the uncertainty of their kinship)

 

This is the Pinkie I and certainly most Pinkie fans love. She's not obtrusive and not obnoxious. She's Pinkie Pie. This is all we really ask from her character, but thanks to the sad progression that is comedy over character this Pinkie Pie may become rarer indeed. Once again Pinkie has an instance of vulnerability and I want to say humanity, but these are ponies so I can't use that term, when she actually feels sad that she'll never find out for sure if she's part of the Apples. Yes it is funny when Pinkie isn't affected by normal things, like going through the Scariest Cave of Equestria™, but at the same time that doesn't mean Pinkie Pie is affected by nothing. When we are reminded that Pinkie is not a fun-loving laughter-inducing machine, we are humbled as viewers and have the ability to empathize with her character. She's not just there to make us laugh believe it or not, but it is her role and she was written perfectly in this episode. 

 

It's not since Party of One have we seen such a satisfying Pinkie Pie. 

 

I always tell myself never to have high hopes, especially in media. YOUR EXPECTATIONS WILL BE DASHED SPOTTO, AND ALL FEELINGS ARE DOOMED TO NEVER RESULT. In Rainbow Falls Pinkie was the screechy Pinkie. In Three's a Crowd Pinkie is the stupid Pinkie so again Pinkie continues to be consistently inconsistent, oh well. So long as Pinkie isn't a major side character or the main character that type of Pinkie I can overlook, I suppose. It's a sad state of affairs, but just how it is.

 

Pinkie Pride is considered by many to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest of episodes in the series.

 

And that is where we will have to agree to disagree.

 

It's similar to Too Many Pinkie Pies in that yes, Pinkie Pie herself is fine. She's characterized admirably. I had no qualms about Pinkie herself. My only problem is how serious she takes party-planning. We've never seen this from her before because whenever she is seen planning a party she seems to have a lot of fun doing it and her talent at organizing these things seem to be well, a natural talent. Pinkie taking it super seriously seems to come out of nowhere. She then gets mad at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy for not also taking parties seriously, when they were simply making harmless remarks or just didn't know. Also hello, the party is FOR Rainbow Dash it's not about you, Pinkie! There is no need to be crazy angry at her! Anyway, I've read many bad fanfics and probably written many more through my adolescence many a time. The OC who comes in and gets ALL the love while being a better version of that character is one of my most hated stereotypical plots.

 

But this time it's Weird Al, so all is forgiven.

 

Uh, okay. I'm sorry for not being as hyped about Weird Al as everyone else, but that doesn't really excuse the plot to me. Yes, it's probably really easy to explain this all away. Cheese Sandwich is the absolute perfect character for Weird Al. He fits completely! It's true! It's more like they wrote a character for Weird Al as opposed to writing a character for Weird Al to play and that's lazy to me. It's like Discord. He's Q. That's it. That's his charm. His charm is that he's a character from some other franchise. Cheese Sandwich's charm is that he is Weird Al. That's not good writing. That's like a really popular reference making everyone laugh.

 

Isn't it kind of like the Simpsons constantly having guest stars and people complaining that their show is depending on guest stars instead of having intelligent writing? Yes it's only happened a few times in pony, but I'm not going to praise them for it. Discord amuses me yes, but his episodes aren't the best to me and they never were. His episode in season four was pretty bad actually even if he saved (whatever I can still remember of anyway) the season four premiere for me. 

 

But you know what? Pinkie was written really well this episode even if I don't like her friends abandoning her for better Pinkie, even if I don't like how better Pinkie somehow has the money to buy Rainbow Dash a roller-coaster or how better Pinkie has a much more enormous cannon. It probably stems from the fact that I am a very very biased Pinkie fan and I don't like it when Pinkie isn't as unique as she once was (there's this other dude with a CHEESIE Sense!? What is this madness!?) and again it has A Friend In Deed syndrome for me...I'm trying to force myself to like the songs.

 

And I just don't. What kind of Pinkie fan am I!?!? I don't like Smile Smile Smile! I don't like her musical episode! I AM TERRIBLE! I should change my affiliation to Applejack and go hide in a hole! But really, if people love this episode and see it as one of the greatest ever, I get why they do. But I just cannot get over my own feelings for this and why I don't like it, so sadly it is not top tier for me. On the bright side, Pinkie is written well, so it's not like we have stupid Pinkie or screechy Pinkie this time around. 

 

Nah, that's AKR's next episode.

 

Which doesn't exist.

 

Nope. It doesn't. My mind has blocked out all existence of it.

 

God damnit I have to discuss it again don't I? Fah.

 

FILLI VANILLI. In this episode Pinkie Pie falls off a cliff, is crushed by the boulders and is never seen again. All rejoice. HOORAY!

 

No?

 

Son of a bitch.

 

Let's just get it out of the way, I really really like PinkieShy. I don't really ship that often in ponies mind you. Season one Pinkie was the best. She was the friend you'd want, who would make you laugh but understood your sensitivities and gave you your space when you needed it. It explains why Fluttershy jumped Pinkie in Over a Barrel! They had reason to be friends. I don't care for the romance in this ship at all either. I don't want to read them making out or god forbid beyond, I just REALLY like the friendship potential of the two and when you cannot find friendship fics, adorable shipping fics will have to do. 

 

So this episode basically threw that all away. And invalidated everything that was Pinkie in season one. The only way I can see this episode being saved is if in a future episode, Pinkie once again damages Fluttershy severely, but learns her lesson so she NEVER DOES THIS EVER AGAIN HOLY FUCK. If this was the very first episode of MLP I was ever shown, Pinkie never would have been my favourite character. Ever. Pinkie's characterization is not just her being stupid or screechy or anything of the sort. She's actively malicious for the purposes of COMEDY. BECAUSE TRAUMATIZING POOR FLUTTERSHY AND MAKING HER CRY MULTIPLE TIMES IS SO FUNNY. HA HA HA.

 

I fucking hate this episode. I thought Daring Don't was bad. I thought Games Ponies Play was bad. I thought Too Many Pinkie Pies, which physically hurts me, was bad. No, this episode is the worst episode in the entire series. As far as I'm concerned it never happened. Even if we remove Pinkie from this episode it would be bad. Why would Fluttershy have stage fright!? She's been a supermodel! She's sang in front of an audience in the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant! Why does no one notice she's singing from a barrel or out the window!? Why is Big Mac staring at her butt!? HOW DID THAT GET PAST CENSORS!? WHY IS FLUTTERSHY NOT REALIZING SHE IS SHAKING HER BUTT!? IS THE MUSIC THAT FUCKING GOOD!?!?

 

Hold on let me breathe.

 

So as a person whose favourite character is Pinkie Pie, whose second favourite is Fluttershy, and whose favourite friendship is between the two of them, you ruined all three!! HOW!? HOOOOW!??!?!

 

I remember how happy I was when this writer was coming back for season four. They wrote some of my favourite Pinkie episodes. Now I'm just...sad. Just disappointed beyond all measure. I can't believe this episode exists. I can't even read PinkieShy stories anymore. I just can't. It's gone. It's ruined. My initial reaction was my usual reaction for anything with controversial Pinkie Pie, try to justify her behaviour. But I can't. I can't do it. Pinkie Pie was so bad in this episode. And from my analysis of her episodes and appearances up to this one, I should have expected it. That's what season four has been so far, Pinkie Apple Pie, quite possibly the best episode of the series, and Filli Vanilli, a piece of garbage that never should have existed.

 

I'd rather mediocrity than a roller-coaster like this. (and Fluttershy's other episode did NOT HELP. I pray for Fluttershy's episodes. Hopefully one day she gets a good one.)

 

Welp, let's move on because there is an episode that actually spurred this rant in the first place. Pinkie's potential and actual family episodes have been so good this season and this next one is not an exception. Her sister is RAAAAAAAAAAD! Maud Pie ladies and gentlemen!

 

She seems to remind people of multiple people, like goths or Daria or Raven from Teen Titans, or basically a character who gives no fucks. It's not so much the dry humour that made me enjoy the episode (because if it was just the dry humour the episode would be kind of uh, dry) but Pinkie's reaction to all of them as well. So Maud tells Twilight a poem and Pinkie's grinning and sliding around on the library ladder like it was the greatest poem in existence, but it's just...grey rocks. The sheer absurd contrast between the two and the reactions of the rest of the Mane Six is fucking hilarious. Sisterly relationships is definitely one thing My Little Pony has hit the nail on. Almost every episode themed around sibling relationships has been spot-on, brilliant and always always heartwarming. Maud is teetering the border of being a complete douchebag or just someone who doesn't care to being really amazing. 

 

For example she shows up and doesn't hit it off with the rest of them at all. This can be insensitive, indirectly insulting Rarity's fashion sense by choosing a dish rag, undermining the importance of fauna to Fluttershy by staring at rocks over fascinating spiders, somehow not being competitive and thus shocking Rainbow Dash, etc. but in the end even though her interests are so different from the rest, including Pinkie Pie she is still a very devoted and loving older sister to Pinkie. She keeps the rock candy necklaces despite disliking candy. The ending was brilliant! The character is brilliant! The fact that Pinkie is loved even by a pony who by all means shouldn't really like this type of pony at all, says something. It's super heartwarming.

 

While the Aesop of the episode can be many things, having Pinkie Pie sorta fail (and kind of not really, I dunno) to get her friends to adopt her sister as one of them may teach the children that if people don't click, they don't click, so forcing people to be friends is stupid. On the other hand, it also teaches the children that just because someone is different doesn't mean they're being a douchebag or mean to you because they show no interest in your interests, they're just different. It's a refreshing take on the usual "what we learned about friendship" kind of thing at the end of the episode because it can be many things, and thus has depth.

 

There's still a few "comedy over character" instances, like Maud being able to toss a rock and cause a huge atomic explosion bringing about a significant shockwave and indirectly getting everyone soaked. Still, she's not showing up Rainbow Dash if she isn't faster than her. Yes the rest of the Mane Six (well like two of them) are capable of saving Pinkie from her insanely hazardous obstacle course near the end there, and they were about to run to go save her, but they stopped short when they noticed that Maud reacted even faster than they did thanks to familial instinct to protect stupid little siblings, and her ability to drill into rocks could be her cutie-mark talent kind of thing. Pies are weird like that I say. Earth ponies are also known to be stronger than their other pony counterparts, so there's that. 

 

Basically Maud Pie was so good I wanted to watch some reviews of it and such and went through a pony phase a bit again thanks to the quality of this episode (Pinkie episodes have been real good this season. She's overtaken Rarity for the "quality-episode" department, which she had a monopoly on during both seasons one and two. Too bad her latest episodes aren't as deep and interesting as they used to be, even if they aren't too bad and are adequately entertaining. [Rarity Takes Manehatten was a bit too obvious trying to force the generosity over me @_@ and I don't generally like the key episodes so I really hope the finale isn't a massive disappointment, unless Flutterbat returns then all is forgiven...I mean what?] ) and due to that, churned up this humongous rant you see here. Which I'd call the Pinkie Manifesto, but season four isn't even over yet so it's just me wanting to type an absurd amount of text and hopefully you are not overwhelmed with the sheer amount of paragraphs.

 

I had a lot to say okay?

 

Anyway there was a quote going around Tumblr for a bit where you can like something but still realize it has problems. So basically if someone criticizes very often, it doesn't mean they hate the show and should stop watching because they do not enjoy it. They like the show, but they see problems and complain so that maybe the problems will improve and the show itself will improve. This has given me a better understanding of those who criticize, and the argument of "if you don't like it stop watching" has been dropped from my normal line of defenses. (Unless their criticism is baseless or is blind hate, then they can go fuck themselves) I love Pinkie Pie a lot. You can tell because I wrote all this, but I realize her character has tons of problems and I want her to improve as a character so she doesn't become universally hated or cause MLP to be cancelled or something. In this way, I can indeed understand if people do not like Pinkie at all, but hey, it ain't stopping me from liking her.

 

Even if she made poor Fluttershy cry multiple times. ;___; 

 

RIP in peace headcanon. ;__; RIP in peace my OTP. I will miss you.

 

This has been Spotto, over and out.