Does season 6 contain too much Rarity?

[Captain Sorzo 56]

For all the screentime she's had this season, Rarity has yet to receive an episode focused squarely on her. Furthermore, her major appearances this season have, for the most part, been thoroughly underwhelming and nowhere near the gold standard set by most of her episodes in past seasons.

 

Saddle Row was quite enjoyable, to be sure, but it was ultimately an ensemble approach focused on the Mane 6 as a whole, and one limited to comedy, at that. As entertaining as it was, it didn't explore Rarity as a character or use her as a means of conveying complex themes.

 

In Gauntlet of Fire, both Rarity and Twilight had completely superfluous roles. They were essentially there to provide commentary and give Spike someone to talk to. The episode could easily have been written without them.

 

In both of their episodes, the Fox brothers have demonstrated a nauseating inability to pen anyone well, and that unfortunately includes our favorite fashionista. In Gift of Maud, she inexplicably loses any sense of composure while around the title character, and the episode ends with an incredibly out of character moment where she, the Element of Generosity, apparently fails to grasp the basic concepts behind gift giving, requiring an explanation from Pinkie that feels suitable for an elementary school student. In Applejack's Day Off, she fares little better, coming across as impatient, selfish, and lazy for most of the episode for the sake of making Applejack look good.

 

Perhaps the most alarming of her appearances this season, however, is Spice Up Your Life. I'm willing to chalk up her characterization in Gift and Day Off to general ineptitude on the part of the writers, particularly since their grasp of every other character they've penned is little better. But Spice goes out of its way to use Rarity to convey its message...in one of the worst, most out of character ways possible.

 

Since her inception, Rarity has been the artist character of the show, a means for the writers to explore concepts concerning art and its relationships with society, business, and commercialism. Virtually everything about her as a character stems from this singular base. This includes her love of high society, which is strongly implied to be something she grew up viewing as a society of like-minded individuals, people more inclined to appreciate her art and create their own than the denizens of her backwater hometown. Similarly, her businesses exist for the primary purpose of allowing her to finance and distribute her art; as much as she enjoys the finer things in life, material wealth is not her first priority.

 

Canterlot Boutique was a beautiful culmination of numerous aspects of her character, one that explicitly emphasized the importance of artistic integrity to her as a person. Sassy's business model offered Rarity incredible wealth and social standing, yet it left her deeply unsatisfied as an artist. Because of this, she was willing to close her new boutique, to sacrifice her lifelong dream, in the name of keeping her art from being further perverted, no matter the cost to her finances or reputation.

 

The 'Rarity' we see in the first two-thirds of Spice Up Your Life is so opposite to this, so antithetical to the very foundation of the character, that one would half expect her to hail from a mirror universe dominated by goatees. She has to learn a lesson that she was teaching just last season, a set of values that have always been as natural to her as breathing. It's every bit as bafflingly egregious as an episode where Twilight has to be taught the importance of education or Fluttershy taught how to care about animals would be, and I cannot fathom why the script was not only written, but approved, particularly by a showrunner who claims that Rarity is one of his favorite characters on the show. Of course, Haber's own Simple Ways was itself an utterly detestable mangling of her character, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

 

Going back to the point of the thread, I can understand frustrations that Rare has received a disproportionate amount of screentime. Setting aside my own considerable bias toward the character, I agree that other members of the main cast deserve more time in the spotlight. However, given the above points, I feel it is perfectly reasonable for Rarity fans such as myself to continue desiring for her to receive at least one solid focus episode from the season.

Edited June 29, 2016 by Captain Sorzo

[EverEverOn 346]

I thought season 5 had too much Rarity.  I do think we've been getting quite a lot of Rarity, although I doubt we'll see this trend continue into the second half of the season. If I remember correctly, we didn't see much focus on Rarity in the first half of season 5, and in the second half, we got 2 or 3 episodes in a row of Rarity.

But for some reason I feel like we're seeing too much of both Rarity and Pinkie. We already got two episodes with them together this half.

[Lucky Star 972]

There will never be too much Rarity, Darling. They may as well turn her into an immortal alicorn princess so that all generations of Equestria can know of her fabulocity

Edited June 29, 2016 by Lucky Star

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

RARITY CONFIRMED FOR NEXT ALICORN!!!111

When an evil race of sentient clothes invade equestria and being brainwashing their hosts, only one pony has the skill and flair needed to create a competing clothes line and stop their plans cold

ID WATCH IT! Sounds like it be hilarious.

[Stellafera 3,836]

Rarity spotlights are usually the best, but it has been very Rarity heavy thus far.  However, I say that's technically not possible to have too much Rarity; it's only possible to have too little of everypony else.

 

This, basically. (Although I'd counter that AJ usually has the most consistently good appearances).