The delicate science of visual shorthand in My Little Pony

[Buck Testa 5,505]

Visual Shorthand is an extremely useful tool in the shows repertoire. With it, new characters and environments can tell their story to the viewers without the need for lengthy exposition bogging down the episode, and it engages the viewers knowledge of what those visual cues mean to them. However as useful as it is, using this tool in a heavy handed manner can lead to the viewer rejecting what they are seeing as a stereotype or as the internet likes to call them

"Cookie Cutters" 

 

This recent episode is a good example of Visual shorthand done right. Moondancer, as some have pointed out, is basically a recolor of twilight's character design. There are those who would write this off as the animators being lazy, but that isn't exactly the case. Her looking like twilight along with the interaction they had as fillies sends the message "These two are very similar" "Moon Dancer is like Twilight" and other similar ideas. She is meant to be a foil of Twilight, something that Twilight could of been, and her bearing the visual resemblance to twilight's character design helps drive this idea home. Her appearance after the flashback is another instance of Visual shorthand; Her being in a dark rundown house, her mane being a tattered mess in a makeshift bun, broken glasses held together with tape, a sullen expression, all cues that she is reclusive and uninterested in interacting with other ponies. 

 

These choices in visuals work with the writing to send the messages that add to her emotional breakdown's impact later on in the episode. The viewer empathizes with her because they feel that they understand her and where she comes from even though she only had less than 22 minutes of screen time. Visual shorthand helped tell her story and helped the viewers fill in the blanks that such a time constraints really couldn't explore. 

 

A bad example of Visual shorthand would be a character like Diamond Tiara, or snips and snails. Their designs and dialogue are so heavily reliant on their visual shorthand that they are merely walking stereotypes. Part of the impact of a character comes from their dissonance with the assumptions we make about them. This tool lets the viewer form an initial opinion, but they expect to discover more as time goes on. If they find that there is nothing more to see then the character will be written off as bland or flat. Especially in these three's cases, they are so closely tied to negative character types and do so little or nothing to deviate from them that they are almost unanimously written off as the worst characters in the show, and with good reason. 

The Mold is there for the initial opinion and letting the viewer in on what the character is about; However its by revealing that there is more to this character than the shorthand that makes the viewer invested in the character. It makes them feel like the character is "fleshed out" and "3 dimensional" even if they've only had a few minutes of screen time. 

 

One example that is prone to have mixed results would be TreeHugger. This character carries many visual cues that connect her to the hippie stereotype, even her name and the way she talks adds to the connection between the reference and the character. A lot of people have a really negative view of Hippies, so seeing a character that reminds them of a hippie brings up all the turbulent feelings they have towards that type of person. Even if Treesy herself has potential and is a nice enough individual, not enough was revealed about her in that episode to really change the hearts and minds of people already coming in not liking hippies. This is another danger of shorthand, drawing on a reference or stereotype that can be considered offensive or negative will make connecting to a character that much more difficult in that short of a time frame, and requires that much more skill to pull off. Her next appearance will have the boon of not needing to establish her, potentially allowing for her screen time to explore who she is beyond her stereotype that she is drawn from, and gain a deeper insight to who she is as a pony. 

 

There is no exact science with this kind of thing, as its hit and miss with even professionals, but it's an invaluable tool none the less.　Perhaps this helps show how a bit　of the creative process works in making the show. 

[Grepper 3,193]

That's an interesting write-up.

[Jaxsie (Inactive) 1,343]

Very interesting! I actually gleaned a bit from this; since the same principals can be applied to creating visual images with words in stories. Thanks for sharing!