Displaced Character Analysis: Pinkie Pie

  Well, as long as I started talking about ponies, I figured it couldn't hurt to let out a few more of my thoughts.  So I'm going to take a look at the character in My Little Pony who probably has the most character, Pinkie Pie.

Just look at her, being almost normal.

  When I watched the first episode of Friendship is Magic, I was pretty sure that Pinkie Pie was going to be 'the annoying one.'  I was also sure that Rarity was going to be the one no one liked.  It's nice that the characters managed to be more than base character traits.

  Pinkie Pie is the element of Laughter, as such, she likes making people happy.  She is friends with everyone in Ponyville.  Despite her ditzy manner of acting, she can remember important facts about them all, such as their birthdays.  She is very, very pink.  Just saying her name made me feel like I needed to be embarrassed when I first started watching the show.  She also has a pet alligator named Gummy, who may or may not want to maul everyone, but lacking teeth, is unable.

"First, this confetti shall know my wrath, THEN THE WORLD!"

  So is Pinkie Pie 'the annoying one?'  Maybe for some people.  For me she can usually put a smile on my face.  But what happens when you peer closer, when you take away the layers, when you see what is truely... deeply inside of Pinkie Pie?

"I can count to cupcake!"

  Some people enjoy writing and reading fanfics that are violent, bloody, sad or other things that seem a bit out of tone with the television show.  One of the more famous stories was a story named Cupcakes, in which Pinkie Pie murders Rainbow Dash for cupcake ingredients.  This was most likely the source of the meme that Pinkie Pie is really a psychopath.  When the episode 'Party of One' was released, in which Pinkie Pie went crazy due to thinking her friends were abandoning her, some people considered that to be confirmation.  Pinkie's hair drooped during the phase, creating a different appearance for her.  This appearance became the standard 'evil Pinkie' look.

"Your home, your life, your friends.. when I am done, you will beg for death.  But by then, I won't give it to you."

  Is Pinkie Pie a psychopath?  Well, no, she is not.  Pinkie Pie is, I believe, merely a very 'needy' individual.  She gives a great deal of herself to others.  But it's not completely selfless.  By giving to others, she gets friendship in return.  I am not saying that Pinkie Pie is selfish, in the least.  She'd probably give you the coat off her back.. if she was wearing a coat.  And if it was cold.  Otherwise you might get too hot.  Why is she wearing a coat when it's too hot anyway?  Oh Pinkie.

  The greatest example of this is most likely in the episode 'A Friend in Deed.'  In it, a new donkey moves into Ponyville.

The awesomely named Cranky Doodle Donkey.

  He did not want to be her friend.  He wanted to be left alone.  Pinkie Pie decided he needed a friend and mostly ended up making life miserable for him in her attempts.  It all worked out in the end, but why was Pinkie so insistent?  Well, in her head it was most likely because he 'needed a friend.'  But Pinkie was shown to get upset when he didn't want to be her friend.  That wasn't about him, that was about her.  At the core of it all, she WANTS everyone to be her friend.

  She presumably learned a lesson in that episode that everyone doesn't always want her hanging around.  But this is the core of her character.  If she is 'crazy' she is crazy in a need to have people around her.  When Pinkie thought that all her friends were abandoning her, she did snap, but she snapped in a manner where she started talking to inanimate objects.  Basically her brain created 'new friends' for her.  Pinkie Pie wouldn't hurt a flea.  What if it was the flea's birthday or something?  In fact, she has some presents handy just in case.  Even if it's not the flea's birthday, everyone likes getting presents!  Pinkie Pie would never harm a friend.

What, this?  No.. Rainbow Dash enjoyed that.  Honest.

  I'm probably saying all this needlessly.  For the most part, the 'Pinkie is a killer' stuff is a joke that people don't take seriously.  There does seem quite the bit of fan art over it.

  Pinkie Pie's habit of focusing on friendship and the needs of others makes her appearance in Equestria Girls a bit more odd.  We learned that she broke up a friendship with Fluttershy over a text message and that she hadn't even asked Fluttershy about it.  All of the not-ponies had done similar things.  It makes it appear that they weren't very good friends, but I suppose there was little time in the movie to devote to all that, and they wanted to parallel the 'Twilight gathers them all together' bit from the first episode.

  So, Pinkie Pie takes friendship very seriously.  In fact, she seems to have a psychological need for it.  She is also the character most known for breaking the fourth wall.  She glances at the 'camera', she notices screen transitions, she appears in places that she should not be able to.

Scene that launched 1000 memes.

  In a way, this also makes her the most 'cartoonish' of the characters.  She is the character who will remind you that you are watching a TV show.  Based on your own sense of humor, this may or may not be a good thing.  Personally, I prefer it being kept in moderation.  I don't mind Pinkie being slightly odd, but I don't want her to pull me too much out of the show, either.  The show generally doesn't have that problem, but in some other media, Pinkie Pie gets a bit Flanderized.  Mostly this shows up in fan works, but the official comics are pushing her a bit hard as well.

"No one will suspect that it's me, Pinkie Pie, in this PINKIE PIE COSTUME!"

  The comics seem to be leaning a bit heavily on pleasing the fans with various bits that the fans have wanted and various references to things.  But I don't think that we want Pinkie Pie to degrade into just 'the crazy one who makes jokes.'  

  Pinkie Pie isn't the most complicated individual.  This doesn't mean that she's simple, either.  She has a deeply rooted need for friendship, but she shares her own freely.  She sees the world in her own, special way which is most likely the source of most of her apparent oddity.  When she says something, it makes complete sense to her.  Why didn't she stop to explain to everyone that she needed those instruments to spot the Parasprites?  She probably thought she was already being clear enough, like duh!  So in the end, she may be a bit crazy, but she's not murder-crazy.

"Good, now that the fools don't suspect anything, I can begin my plan to convert the land into LOW QUALITY OATMEAL."