in which I break my streak of not posting to bring you unsolicited My Little Pony meta
I caught all of the first two seasons and part of the 3rd before I stopped having access to it as it aired (ah, my halcyon sheet-ironing days in the Washington Room), but an early episode of season 3 really stayed with me. I recently watched it again and had Many Feelings about it.
In "Too Many Pinkie Pies", sociable and easily-bored Pinkie Pie is unable to choose between multiple conflicting friend events and clones herself so she can be everywhere at once. Slapstick hilarity ensues, except for where the original Pinkie Pie becomes depressed and withdrawn because she isn't sure if she's her authentic self, or if she's one of the clones with short attention spans. She comes up with a solution for how to tell herself apart, though. It's a watching-paint-dry contest, with losers getting "sent home" to the clone pool. In the end, the real Pinkie Pie prevails. As the episode ends, her friends all invite her to different events- and she tells them she'll catch up with them later, she's tired and wants to take a nap!
As someone who identifies really strongly with Pinkie Pie and her problems, I want to pin this episode to my wall and refer to the lesson at the end whenever I'm feeling torn between five different fun activities, or get caught up in something and forget to sleep or eat. I read a bunch of blog posts about this episode to see if anyone else was feeling it from the same angle I was, but while there were a lot of good observations and one or two interesting conclusions, I didn't see anyone making it personal (which I think you need to, to understand why this episode is emotionally powerful.)
One person suggested that Pinkie didn't learn the episode's lesson of how to make reasoned decisions because she goes home for a nap at the end instead of picking one of her friends' activities. I think that's missing a nuance; Pinkie's choice to opt-out of friend activities for once and do something by herself and for herself was actually a huge breakthrough. The lesson isn't "how to make reasoned decisions", it's how to prioritize choices without feeling guilty or anxious.
Pinkie Pie had hilariously massive FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out): she literally cloned herself so she never had to prioritize one friend or activity over any other. This is obviously unsustainable and identity-effacing: the distracted and uninformed Pinky clones are a pretty good visual metaphor for 'being spread too thin', and it's hard to ground yourself or define yourself if you're always outwardly focused. That's why she was depressed and uncertain that she was "the real Pinkie".
But she came up with an elegant solution for finding herself again, which was forcing herself to focus on a goal that's in line with her most deeply held values. If she could soldier on through an unpleasant task, then she'd solidify her identity and also be able to be with her friends in the future. That's not decision-making, that's prioritizing. She watched paint dry in the present so she could have fun with her friends again in the future.
At the end of the episode, she judges which of the options explicitly presented (and not explicitly presented, but nevertheless implied- at one point in the episode, high-energy Rainbow Dash mentions just wanting to relax after working hard) is most in keeping with her goal of having fun with her friends. If she's tired when she hangs out with her friends, she's not going to be having as much fun as when she's hanging out with them fully rested. She prioritizes herself at that moment, so she can prioritize all of her friends in the future.
This episode was for all the FOMO-dogged people like me, who need to practice introspection and focus on what's most important to us before we overcommit ourselves.
In "Too Many Pinkie Pies", sociable and easily-bored Pinkie Pie is unable to choose between multiple conflicting friend events and clones herself so she can be everywhere at once. Slapstick hilarity ensues, except for where the original Pinkie Pie becomes depressed and withdrawn because she isn't sure if she's her authentic self, or if she's one of the clones with short attention spans. She comes up with a solution for how to tell herself apart, though. It's a watching-paint-dry contest, with losers getting "sent home" to the clone pool. In the end, the real Pinkie Pie prevails. As the episode ends, her friends all invite her to different events- and she tells them she'll catch up with them later, she's tired and wants to take a nap!
As someone who identifies really strongly with Pinkie Pie and her problems, I want to pin this episode to my wall and refer to the lesson at the end whenever I'm feeling torn between five different fun activities, or get caught up in something and forget to sleep or eat. I read a bunch of blog posts about this episode to see if anyone else was feeling it from the same angle I was, but while there were a lot of good observations and one or two interesting conclusions, I didn't see anyone making it personal (which I think you need to, to understand why this episode is emotionally powerful.)
One person suggested that Pinkie didn't learn the episode's lesson of how to make reasoned decisions because she goes home for a nap at the end instead of picking one of her friends' activities. I think that's missing a nuance; Pinkie's choice to opt-out of friend activities for once and do something by herself and for herself was actually a huge breakthrough. The lesson isn't "how to make reasoned decisions", it's how to prioritize choices without feeling guilty or anxious.
Pinkie Pie had hilariously massive FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out): she literally cloned herself so she never had to prioritize one friend or activity over any other. This is obviously unsustainable and identity-effacing: the distracted and uninformed Pinky clones are a pretty good visual metaphor for 'being spread too thin', and it's hard to ground yourself or define yourself if you're always outwardly focused. That's why she was depressed and uncertain that she was "the real Pinkie".
But she came up with an elegant solution for finding herself again, which was forcing herself to focus on a goal that's in line with her most deeply held values. If she could soldier on through an unpleasant task, then she'd solidify her identity and also be able to be with her friends in the future. That's not decision-making, that's prioritizing. She watched paint dry in the present so she could have fun with her friends again in the future.
At the end of the episode, she judges which of the options explicitly presented (and not explicitly presented, but nevertheless implied- at one point in the episode, high-energy Rainbow Dash mentions just wanting to relax after working hard) is most in keeping with her goal of having fun with her friends. If she's tired when she hangs out with her friends, she's not going to be having as much fun as when she's hanging out with them fully rested. She prioritizes herself at that moment, so she can prioritize all of her friends in the future.
This episode was for all the FOMO-dogged people like me, who need to practice introspection and focus on what's most important to us before we overcommit ourselves.