@Psi Awwww, I liked AJ in that episode

see ya later Turtle and goodnight

storyeller: Maybe it's I'm so used to that quality with the show. They manage to have most of the cast say or do something rather notable according to their quirks each time they appear, even via little background scenes, so an exception stands out. I like that in a character, one that can make a unique and amusing interaction to nearly any random scenario.

@ginger: It's just I don't remember her doing anything in that episode, outside Pinkie slapping her hand away from the cake I guess. Granted they wrote the other three ponies in by a stretch.

edited 27th May '12 8:05:22 PM by Psi001

And now is the perfect time for me to go as well.

Goodnight.

Night...everyone who is leaving (mass evacuation).

And I'll be going even though I've been in and out all night

goodnight crowlover

@Ginger

You are ginger? you are so lucky. I have had 10 regenerations not to mention a pony body and I am still not ginger.

@psi Well that's why I liked her, that she was the one of the only ones who didn't succumb to underhanded, treacherous methods of stealing the cake, despite being the one who clearly wanted it the most (her TONGUE was hanging out)

Evening Doctor.

1. ginger, stop getting upset about people not having the exact same tastes as you, EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT.

2. AJ just felt like AJ, no differnt between seasons, it's just in season 2 there was less times when the situation was one that would have cuased one of her more drastic flaws or quirks to come out. She is simply the pony that is LEAST likely to overreact, go nuts, or have any sort of breakdown barring a very very narrow set of circumstances. Rest of the time she's just herself, and she's great.

ALL the ponies got downplayed in season 2 due to there being fewer episodes with the Mane Cast as a whole, versus season 1 where almost every episode had all 6. And that's not a bad thing, yeah wish there was a bigger % of full cast episodes, but lack of all mane 6 does not count as anything wrong wth the episode, why waste the limited screen time on shoehorning in ponies that don't add anything to the story just to have them there? Spend the extra time to further develop the episodes story.

I love Aj , but I think she is perhaps too perfect. Not so much in season 2 but in early season 1... there was a reason she was so unpopular.

But I love the six ponies equally

edited 27th May '12 8:09:14 PM by FallenLegend

Except for Twilight, who got loads of brilliant exasperated lines and a Holmes style Chewing the Scenery in comparison.

Really? I thought she was more flawed and wacky in early Season One. Season Two seemed to play her more as The Everyman or The Ace to me.

edited 27th May '12 8:10:22 PM by Psi001

Meh, Twi in MM Mystery got on my nerves a little bit

seriously..i'm waiting for somebrony to compile a list of the EXACT amount of time each pony was on screen thought season 2, as well as how many syllables they said to try and prove on pony is being screwed by the show while another is proved to be there favorite.

Eh, maybe it's just I like more abrasive and exagerrative traits in characters. Hense why Twilight's Character Exagerration in Season Two I think improved her.

I admit since only two seasons have passed, it may just be luck of the draw, and the cast may be perfectly the same in Season Three as in Season Two. As said before, there were spotlight differences in either season.

edited 27th May '12 8:12:47 PM by Psi001

@Psi yeah she was. But in comparision to the other cast memebers she wasn't as flawed as lets say Rarity.

edited 27th May '12 8:12:48 PM by FallenLegend

Lilypichu is great as a Fluttershy VA :3

edited 27th May '12 8:12:40 PM by AceOfScarabs

exagerated character traits make them feel less human for me.

It's why I feel like Pinkie and Shy are my two least favourite members of the cast (yes, Rarity is now 4th I still love both Flutters and Rare though) They just feel the least human so I don't connect with them

Fallen: Maybe, but she still played a more distinctive and humorous foil for her in Look Before You Sleep than in say Sisterhooves Special, where she was more just a generic 'good big sis' to counter Rarity's problem (though I admit the latter was a warm hearted episode).

Yeah, while a lot of people tend to dislike exaggeration of character traits, I find that they tend to improve the characterization by showing exactly where a characters breaking points are, so long as the exaggerations don't drown out the rest of the character. I think we can safely say that nopony's lost any important aspects of their character this season.

That's because the circumstances were different. LBYS forced her into a situation out of her comfort zone, while SS had her smack in the middle of her comfort zone, and most capable of giving advice to others.

edited 27th May '12 8:15:42 PM by PerpetualLurker

New Trixie PMV :D

I think Character Exagerration is different from Flanderization. Flanderization is when a cartoony trait completely takes over the character and other complexities end up forgotten. Character Exagerration is when one trait is taken up a notch but still not neccessarily at the expense of others.

As said it might be too early to assume, I just think AJ got the short straw in Season Two. Sisterhooves Special was a fine role for her in it's own right however.

It's like how people complained RD was taking a level in jerkass because she was getting a large role of jerk roles one after the other in Season Two. When they balanced it with nicer ones like Hurricane Fluttershy, people cooled down because they realised she was still a complex character rather than becoming one note.

edited 27th May '12 8:18:42 PM by Psi001

@ Psi, I notice NO differnce between any season as far as AJ goes, season 2 just had less situations in which AJ's flaws and quirks would come into play. She still has them, there's just no reason to make a point of it unless it fits naturally into the story. Again a whole lot of criticism's I see come from people that are expecting the show to behave in a certain manner based on The Big Book of How Stories Work. The show take hat book and uses it for srap paper.

We're not seeing a "show" we're looking into a window on the everyday lives of the ponies, (baring some glaring faults *cough*MMDW*cough*) everything just makes perfect sense if you look at is if we are seeing what's happening for real rather then being told to us as a story.

Yeah, exaggeration isn't a bad thing unless it substitutes for other characterization, although there's a fine line between stretching a character to the limits of their characterization, and going beyond that into OOC ness. I don't think we've ever hit the OOC side so far, but it's pretty subjective.

This is a pretty good summary of it. The showmakers aren't going through each episode with a checklist to make sure that each character displays X traits. They're plopping them into a situation and seeing how they react, and if it's in accordance with pre-established characterization, it's fine. There's no reason to keep bringing up AJ's flaws then there is in pointing out that she's the element of honesty every time she shows up. There are cases where it's relevant; but there are a lot of situations where those aspects of her character just don't come up.

edited 27th May '12 8:19:25 PM by JapaneseTeeth