spoiler Was Applejack "dumbed down" too much for S6E10?

[pony.colin 156]

Okay, wot? This episode (Applejack's Day Off), seriously wot?

 

When we finally got back from the spa and actually watched AJ feed the pigs, all I kept doing was tilting my head and thinking, what the heck are you doing AJ? This is how you feed pigs?

 

Like seriously, I kept thinking that AJ can't be this uh, idiosyncratic with doing chores around the farm.... by that I mean, EVERYTHING SHE DID FOR DOING HER CHORES SEEMED COMPLETELY ILLOGICAL, POINTLESS AND STUPID! (well okay not everything.)

 

AJ can't be THIS moronic to not noticing when some step becomes unnecessary or that she has already fixed up the original problem?! Like seriously, AJ, you can't be this moronic to not notice?!

 

Let me break this down.

 

Chore 1: Feeding the pigs

 

steps involved

 

1. Open and close gate

2. run to other side of pen and try to scare pigs to the direction of the feed trough

3. Imitate chicken dance to scare pigs again to eat

4. hang over pen with a fishing rope with corn as bait

5. (accidentally) knock over bucket of food into feed trough

 

 

Cause of problem

 

1. gate door squeaked (scaring pigs).

• later fixed by AJ some time ago.

 

SERIOUSLY, what competent pony would continue to do all the above complicated and unnecessary steps if you ALREADY fixed the original problem... ages ago!!!! AJ, YOU FIXED THE GATE ALREADY! Place food into feed trough, how hard is that?!!!

 

 

Chore 2: collecting the eggs

 

steps involved

 

1. individually put chicken feed infront of each chicken to get them to come out of their pen so that one can collect the eggs.

 

Improved method

 

1. Place large amount of chicken feed outside of chicken pen to feed ALL chickens at the same time, allowing one to collect all eggs quickly.

 

Cause of problem:

 

1. ??? (none. simply less efficient method)

 

 

Chore 3: Irrigating the crops

 

steps involved

 

1. water each lane of crops, individually, one at a time. Requiring one to turn on and turn off the main water valve to water the next lane.

 

Improved method

 

1. simply open all valves and turn on the main water valve to water all the lanes at the same time.

 

Cause of problem:

 

1. Most likely there was a leak somewhere in the piping which originally caused AJ to water each lane one at a time. Most likely AJ PROBABLY fixed the leaky pipe some time ago again.

 

 

Chore 4: Repairing the wire fence

 

steps involved

 

1. cut out wire from the main wire roll, to fit the size of the hole made in the original fence.

2. Fumble around and try to manually tie and connect the wire to fill the hole. (pain in the butt to do without opposable thumbs)

 

Improved method

 

1. Cut out a whole strip of wire and replace the whole section of the fence that has holes in it.

 

Cause of problem:

 

1. ??? (Cutie Mark crusading ?)

 

Side-note:

 

• Actually there is some legitimacy in doing AJ's original method, but that's based only on a heuristics cost issue. If the cost to replace the whole section of fence outweighs just cutting out a small snippet of wire, then someone might have legitimate reason to do it. That being said though, since AJ's an earth pony, the trade off though, is the amount of labour and time it takes to try and manually tie the section of wire back into the face, which is something that should also be considered. This is basically explaining a stop-gap measure to fixing something. The likely trade off is that if you replace the whole section of fence, you save time and probably labour in trying out the improved method (but at the cost of using up a lot more wire, which if the wire is expensive, but not be a desirable outcome).

 

 

And this whole, she got “stuck in a routine and didn't notice the issue/fixed the issue”, I'm not buying that with AJ. AJ isn't incompetent to not notice when she's doing unnecessary steps to solve a problem. She can be a stubborn work-aholic, but not incompetent. (Or at least I don't believe that, but what are others thinking?)

 

The episode I felt was very medicore, wasn't the worst. But just, really? This is sort of the main conflict of the episode?

 

Like, I seriously feel that AJ was literally “dumbed down” for this episode to work. Does anyone feel that's a bit insulting to AJ's character? Did anyone else feel that way?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Starlight Breeze 4]

Yes, I thought they dumbed her down a lot.

 

The pig scene made me cringe because she didn't even need to open the gate to begin with. Just dump the food into the trough from outside.

 

The chicken scene made me cringe but because of person nitpicks. Chickens don't sit on the nest 24/7 like that unless they are broody. They lay their eggs then get off.

 

You raise good points about the plant irrigation scene. I'd thought of having one primary valve but hadn't accounted for possible leaks. But you're right AJ probably fixed those.

 

The fence scene is the only one that bothered me with its 'solution.' Like you said, it's more expensive to replace an entire section of fence than a little hole, harder too.

 

 

Applejack isn't stupid but this episode made her seem so.

 

It seems that personal episodes are more damaging to the characters of the mane six.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,220]

The scene was a tad cringeworthy, I won't deny that, but I actually think that was the entire point. Twilight and Rarity were also looking at AJ going "What are you doing???" but it doesn't show that AJ is dumb, it shows that she was so stuck in her ways. Granted, *why* she started feeding the pigs that way is a tad questionable but the point of the moral is that she was stuck doing so many unnecessary things when the solution is simple.

 

I can understand why some may hate the scene because it was sorta out of the blue, but I liked the moral tied to it.

[cmarston1 5,951]

Not necessarily, but then again I don't care enough about the episode for something like this to really be on my mind in the first place.

[Stardust* 3,302]

She didn't seem dumbed down. She seemed a bit eccentric and a bit OCD. But not dumbed down. She had probably learned many of these things when she was small. I mean. Look at Granny Smith with her Zap Apple Jam routine.

 

Growing up with her as a role model probably gave her some OCD techniques. That is what she knew and once you are in a habit it is hard to do it any different.

 

Look at Twilight for goodness sake. And her episode where she was late sending in her friendship report.

 

I feel like this was a good experience for AJ and even her friends thought she was a bit off her rocker. But she learned some new and better ways to do things instead of traditional ways that she was brought up with.

[galaxysquid 2,121]

I'm not sure. I don't think she was necessarily "dumbed down."

 

I think it was mostly just representing how she can't help being stuck in her old ways of doing things and that is the result of the way she was brought up. That method was just how she knew how to do it, and stuck to that. She didn't really grasp the concept of doing things easier because it was just how she had been doing things for years. It could have also been a bit of OCD in her personality, possibly? 

[twiia 1,842]

She seemed a bit OOC and stupider, becausee the plot demanded it.

[Luminn 109]

She seemed a bit OOC and stupider, becausee the plot demanded it.

this is exactly how I felt.

[twiia 1,842]

this is exactly how I felt.

Yeah. They change characters and make them OOC just because the plot demands so.

 

"It must be done for the plot to work out! If it doesn't, then we're doomed. doomed. DOOMED!"

[cider float 2,535]

Yeah I thought of her as being the most practical of the bunch. But then again maybe she picked this side up from Granny Smith.

 

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

She seemed a bit OOC and stupider, becausee the plot demanded it.

Like fire twi says, because the plot demanded it.

 

And yeah, that's kind of a problem. AJ basically went full retard to justify half of a plot (And I do say "half of a plot" in all seriousness, that episode was empty as hell XD)

 

Like, it doesn't piss me off, because its not making AJ out too bad or shitting on her too much, but it still feels OOC.

[chaosprincess 1,064]

I agree when I saw that long list just to feed the pigs I was kinda confused I can see her helping fix the hot water issue, but once she returned and she showed how she feeds the pigs and get the eggs I was done    I understand they may have been going for humor with Applejack, but they went about it the wrong way instead they made her look completely stupid    I did not really like the episode to be honest.  

[Luminance 2,181]

She wasn't "dumb" down but rather was blinded that the fact that she does things in only her own ways. Her flaws showed that she's not akin to new ways to simplify her chores and just like ponies in the spa, they sticked to only what they know and don't deal with the inherent issue.

[pony.colin 156]

She didn't seem dumbed down. She seemed a bit eccentric and a bit OCD. But not dumbed down. She had probably learned many of these things when she was small. I mean. Look at Granny Smith with her Zap Apple Jam routine.

 

Growing up with her as a role model probably gave her some OCD techniques. That is what she knew and once you are in a habit it is hard to do it any different.

 

Look at Twilight for goodness sake. And her episode where she was late sending in her friendship report.

 

I feel like this was a good experience for AJ and even her friends thought she was a bit off her rocker. But she learned some new and better ways to do things instead of traditional ways that she was brought up with.

 

Upon self-review of what I originally wrote, I actually have changed a few things on my mind.

 

In retrospect, it was really only chore 1: Feeding the Pigs, which went far too off on a limb to try and establish AJ as having "quirks" or idiosyncrasies as the first half of the episode literally had AJ being analytical and practical in determining the source of the steam problem at the spa. Those two events in this episode were just horribly juxtaposed together (specifically just the chore 1 feeding the pigs and the steam problem. The other 3 I'm re-addressing).

 

With Chore 2: Collecting the eggs, this one isn't nearly as bad as chore 1 in putting AJ in a bit of a bad light.  It's actually fairly more reasonable to believe that AJ may not have realized there was a better method to getting the chickens to come off their eggs.  Feeding each individual chicken rather than all of them at the same time seems like just an old habit. Now chore 2 can be a little bit more believable in terms of displaying that idiosyncratic and stuck-routine theme that this episode was trying to display (in retrospect, this is probably the best example used).

 

Chore 3: watering the the plants, that one I'm guessing with AJ probably fixing the problem earlier. Worst than chore 2 and chore 4 because it suffers from the same problem as chore 1, but that would only be on the condition that I'm making a reasonable guess that the irrigation pipe was leaking earlier. It's entirely unknown with the circumstance as to why it was being used in the manner that AJ presented. I can, again, only guess AJ had actually repaired it earlier as well. But it's not as egregious as the overall exaggeration of Chore 1 in comparison.

 

Chore 4: explained earlier in my side note. Nothing actually changed.

 

The very crux of the problem with Chore 1 is this. AJ fixed the original problem, the squeaky gate. Why? If she thought the gate squeaked and was the cause of the original problem of pigs not wanting to eat because they were scared, then it makes no sense as to why she would continue the "routine" for feeding the pigs post after fixing the gate, knowing that this was the original problem in the first place that caused all this.  It would make sense for her to continue the routine if the gate was still squeaking. But she fixed it earlier, and didn't think anything about it afterwards, even though she knew that was the cause of the whole problem in the first place.  Chore 1 was pushing it too far and I chalk this one up as being the most poorly written chore of the 4 of them (The other 3 are reasonable in comparison).  As such, I feel that AJ was only 'dumbed down' for chore 1 in feeding the pigs, the other 3 chores get more of a pass in review of things said now.

 

 

I had to go back and re-watch Family Appreciation Day. But Granny Smith's actions with Zapp Apples, was actually explained with reasonable thought and care displayed by Granny Smith.  Her methods aren't exactly eccentric, because we later learn near the end of the episode, that most of Granny's choices for doing the things she did for the Zapp Apple Routine weren't crazy or unusual.  Given the circumstance as well, Zapp Apples are magical entities so everything can be unpredictable with them so anything goes with them. But most of Granny's methods for the routine, were done with reasonable thinking (most of them, not all of them).

 

I don't view AJ as the type to be eccentric and OCD, I've viewed her as generally the most humble, if somewhat stubborn at times, of the mane cast. She doesn't strike me as the type to be idiosyncratic with things (Twilight is completely different on the other hand) I would need more examples to review of when AJ was being really idiosyncratic prior in the earlier seasons.

[Castle Bleck 19,163]

If anything, it seemed like she was given a Complexity Addiction (where someone is definitely smart, but ends up overlooking more-mundane solutions in favor of overblown strategies as a consequence).

[Megas 27,048]

I definitely got the impression that a lot of AJ's work on the farm was the result of the Apples being idiots rather than genuine hard work, if they've been doing the things the way they did in ADO all the time