What's up with Rarity?

[ZStrike37 107]

So is it just me or is Rarity a bit more shallow and fashion-diva-y than what I was used to from the past seasons? 

 

I mean, she's pretty much just talked about appearances and dresses, not to mention in Episode 6 she was a complete slavedriver to Sweetie Bell.  Of course I'm well aware of it being mostly for comedic effect, but the degree to which she was fussy kind of surprised me.  I do like that she's a bit more sisterly with Sweetie, something I'm glad we can see grow and develop. 

 

Maybe I'm just weird and she's acting like usual and it's more me than her.  I don't know.  Does anyone else think she's being a bit too.. prissy?  A little bit is fine, that's her character, I just think maybe the writers are really laying it on a little thick.  I did like her camping outfit though.

 

On another note, did anypony else get diabetes from Sweetie's super sad face near the beginning?

[Princes Cadance 345]

I think they just did that to emphasize on Rarity's opinions towards camping, but we do know that she can be very fussy and shallow sometimes, but again, I think that was just to add to her character.

[Rarietty 632]

To be fair, the person who wrote this episode had never written an episode for the show before, so she's not used to writing the characters. Usually every writer has a character they write the best or worst, and maybe this writer is skilled at writing a character like Rainbow Dash but struggles with prissy characters like Rarity. 

 

Even so, I thought she was in-character when she acted all snobby about camping. She's just the kind of person who would hate being outdoors. And about Sweetie Belle. she could have volunteered off-screen to pull Rarity's cart for her. I doubt Rarity would just force Sweetie Belle to do something like that. 

Edited December 14, 2012 by Rarietty

[Wingnut 7,018]

Maybe I haven't noticed it in the other season 3 episodes, but Rarity was at her "prissy" worst today.  Yes, I too get the comedic effect of having Sweetie pull a ridiculously heavy cart and being a slave in general.  Maybe SB had to agree to that to get Rarity to go camping in the first place?  Whatever.  But if I wrote the episode, I would've shown Rarity take at least one turn pulling the cart herself just to demonstrate that she is not self centered. 

 

Edit:  As noted above, this episode was done by a first time MLP writer, so not throwing in an aspect to soften Rarity's prissyness is an understandable oversight. 

Edited December 8, 2012 by Wingnut

[Leafeon 2,702]

Yea. I feel like Rarity was a bit more prissy then usual in the episode. I always feel like Rarity should be less of a stereotypical female. But that's kinda just her personality.

[ZStrike37 107]

To be fair, the person who wrote this episode had never written an episode for the show before, so he's not used to writing the characters. Usually every writer has a character they write the best or worst, and maybe this writer is skilled at writing a character like Rainbow Dash but struggles with prissy characters like Rarity. 

 

Even so, I thought she was in-character when she acted all snobby about camping. She's just the kind of person who would hate being outdoors. And about Sweetie Belle. she could have volunteered off-screen to pull Rarity's cart for her. I doubt Rarity would just force Sweetie Belle to do something like that. 

 

Yeah, you make a good point.  To be fair, I didn't even think of that.  Thanks for letting me know.

 

And to be clear, please don't think that I didn't enjoy the episode or anything, it was great!  I'm just thinking that Rarity was a little "too" much.  And I really do mean "a little".  My friend just talked to me about how he thought Rarity was acting just a little over the top and that got me thinking about it, too, so maybe I'm just seeing a ghost where there is none. 

 

Anyway, as I stated, this still was a great episode and I enjoyed it very much.  S3 is really looking great so far.  Now all we need is Applejack to sing and I'll be all set.

[Circadian 1,273]

Rarity went, didn't she?

 

Last season before Sisterhooves Social, she would have said "no" without a second thought. For Celestia's sake, she was with Applejack and Dash, of course her way of going about things is going to look ridiculous in that context.

 

Give a mare a break, will ya?

Edited December 8, 2012 by Circadian

[Forsooth 18]

The notes people have made about the writer being new makes sense, but if we think it odd for her to act in such a way I would expect a writer-to-be to feel so as well. The Rarity whose virtues were exemplified in the first two episodes was not the Rarity in todays episode.

[Discovery Dream 592]

It's a cartoon. Why do personalities *have* to be 100% consistent? When Rarity gets an episode, her Generosity will show, I'm sure. It was just something played for comedy is all.

[Zygen 6,066]

Well I think it was just for the comedy of it, plus sweetiebelle proably did it to make sure she would go, because Rarity isn't exactly a lover of camping.

 

Also like it was said before, if this was Sisterhoove social she would've totally said no. Atleast she said yes, but being the fashion diva, and very idk just civil pony, shes the perfect one to pull the whole Pack everything for a camping trip thing.

 

So I don't really mind it, I suppose if its a first time writer then that may be part of it to.

 

I loved the episode, Nothing was in there to ruin it for me.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

I did think it was a testament to Rarity's character that she went camping at all, but I kinda agree. She was treating Sweetie like some kind of servant (That's Spike's job! )

It was just for a joke, and previous episodes have established that she loves Sweetie Belle a lot, so I'm not worsening my opinion of Rarity because of anything that happened today. In fact, she even comforted Sweetie after the ghost stories.

As for the new writer it is possible. It wouldn't be the first time that a new writer portrayed a character overly negatively in their first episode ( Grumble grumble Merriweather Williams grumble) but I'm not saying definitively that this is the cause of anything.

Overall I wouldn't worry about it, Rarity hasn't even had an episode yet and they have plenty of time to portray her positively.

Edited December 8, 2012 by DashForever

[Silverwisp the Bard 2,354]

I think part of that was getting back at Sweetie Belle for emotionally blackmailing her into coming. (being manipulative seems to run in the family).

But like Circadian said, she did go along, when she could have easily said "Ask mum or dad.", so Sweetie Belle could have fun, comforted her when she got scared and raced her at the end.

So no, I don't think her behavior was all that bad, all things considered.

Edited December 8, 2012 by Silverwisp the Bard

[Tall_But_Short_37 236]

I definitely do dislike that there are many more instances of Rarity being selfish rather than generous. I feel like she struggles the most of the 6 to fulfill her element.

[Akemi Homura 7,682]

I chalk this one up to, once again, comedic value and the writer for this episode not really being experienced with designing the story. Even then, I thought Rarity wasn't portrayed to be an outright snob which would be sort of delving into the infamous "out of character" realm, which was a pretty good effort in producing something like this.

 

I will say this, though: When the attention is placed on Scootaloo and Luna (some Rainbow Dash as well), it's easy to draw up more negative conclusions of another character that wasn't predominantly featured, in this case Rarity. I don't really blame her for not wanting to do manual labour, however, insisting that Sweetie Belle do it instead.

[Silverwisp the Bard 2,354]

I definitely do dislike that there are many more instances of Rarity being selfish rather than generous. I feel like she struggles the most of the 6 to fulfill her element.

Actually that's one of the reasons why I like her that much.

Her Element (Generosity) is at points at direct odds with her special talent (creating beautiful things), so she struggles with it, unlike e.g. Fluttershy who's talent is almost identical with her Element.

Take for example the Fireruby: She clearly wanted that thing because she saw the potential for beauty in it, but she could not quite bring herself to ask for it directly, because she was aware that it would seem jealous. Imo this makes her a much more interesting character than let's say Applejack who, while being awesome, is a bit one-note.

Edited December 8, 2012 by Silverwisp the Bard

[Tall_But_Short_37 236]

Actually that's one of the reasons why I like her that much.

Her Element (Generosity) is at points at direct odds with her special talent (creating beautiful things), so she struggles with it, unlike e.g. Fluttershy who's talent is almost identical with her Element.

Take for example the Fireruby: She clearly wanted that thing because she saw the potential for beauty in it, but she could not quite bring herself to ask for it directly, because she was aware that it would seem jealous. Imo this makes her a much more interesting character than let's say Applejack who, while being awesome, is a bit one-note.

 

While I do agree that this internal conflict of hers makes her character more complex and interesting, I wish the creators would have a stronger balance of the selfish and the generous. In this episode, she's just plain rude and takes advantage of Sweetie Belle's desire to be loved by her sister to get her to do her dirty work.

[Silverwisp the Bard 2,354]

While I do agree that this internal conflict of hers makes her character more complex and interesting, I wish the creators would have a stronger balance of the selfish and the generous. In this episode, she's just plain rude and takes advantage of Sweetie Belle's desire to be loved by her sister to get her to do her dirty work.

Sweetie Belle knows that Rarity loves her, in this episode her desire was to go camping (which she knows Rarity dislikes immensely). And Rarity still went along, closing her business for several days, so her sister could have some fun. I'd say that's pretty generous.

[Faceless 101]

Character development should never completely change the character's personality. She will still keep having the traits she has, it is just a bit hard for the writers to keep that obvious...

 

Plus, she did agree to go with Sweetie Belle, instead of downright say "no". So that's some CD, if I ever did see some!

[Radiance64 7,054]

Yeah I know what you mean, I too thought she was kind of a jerk. But still, I suppose it wasn't entirely out of Rarity's personality to behave the way she did, just look at how she treats Spike!

[GuillermoGage 246]

To be fair, the person who wrote this episode had never written an episode for the show before, so he's not used to writing the characters.

Based on that, it would make more sense to use a writer who was responsible for writing Scootaloo's recurring feelings about Rainbow Dash into the show.

 

But the episode turned out okay.

 

I wouldn't quite say Rarity is being flanderized. I mean....her behavior wasn't so bad! She wasn't really being a bad pony in the episode.

 

Scootaloo is my third favorite character after Spike, so I was pleased about this episode and watched it without reading a preview description. The moral wasn't very obvious, but also, now the character of Princess Luna is more expanded and Tabitha St. Germain got another chance to show how oddly diverse she is as the voice of the Olden Pony.

 

Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash are cute!

[Arcus (Silver Lining) Wind 983]

I don't think it's much more than it was in previous seasons.Though maybe it's just that I kinda like that side of her. And yes, that may be one of Sweetie Belle's best faces to date.

 

[Tall_But_Short_37 236]

Sweetie Belle knows that Rarity loves her, in this episode her desire was to go camping (which she knows Rarity dislikes immensely). And Rarity still went along, closing her business for several days, so her sister could have some fun. I'd say that's pretty generous.

 

Fair point, I can agree with that. But she could've been a little more helpful with all the stuff she brought, at least acknowledged that she over packed.

[ShyForever 284]

I believe that Rarity was just fine. She improved since the first two seasons, I can tell because she actually went on the trip.

 

The only disappointing scene was Sweetie Belle singing. When she volunteered to sing, I was so excited to hear another fantastic song. But, no. I feel like Scootaloo improved greatly in her singing ability, and Sweetie Belle dramatically got worse in her singing ability as well. 

[PonyPowaX1000 69]

Yeah in Season 3 episodes 1-2 she was acting more diva-ish then usual.

 

To be fair, the person who wrote this episode had never written an episode for the show before, so he's not used to writing the characters. Usually every writer has a character they write the best or worst, and maybe this writer is skilled at writing a character like Rainbow Dash but struggles with prissy characters like Rarity.   

 

 

Yeah that is fair, I don't blame him writing an episode is not an easy task ,(hell I can't plot a decent story line ) but he did a decent job.

[mycarhasaMoustache 449]

I didnt notice any extra "prissyness" in Rarity but then again I was too distracted with the fact we got a rainbow dash and scootaloo episode with an appearance from princess luna to boot. 

Edited December 14, 2012 by mycarhasaMoustache