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 Pink Pony is Best Pony? Discuss

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Rarity
Royal Guard
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Rarity

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PostSubject: Pink Pony is Best Pony? Discuss   Pink Pony is Best Pony?  Discuss I_icon_minitimeTue Jun 28, 2011 3:05 am

Pink Pony is Best Pony?  Discuss OAbO1

Okie Dokie Lokie. Here we're going to discuss our favourite (Or possibly not so favourite) Pink Pony Bubbling to Burst with Excessive Energy. Before we get this discussion on Pinkie Pie going, I'm thinking I want to describe the Posthumous Pink Pony Perfectly and Precisely with Peering Practicality. Alliteration enough go description now!

Pinkie Pie is a bubbling fountain of energy, she is depicted in the show as having a good sense of humour and has the element of Laughter. But what really goes on in the mind of this pony? Well looking closely she appears to have high amounts of energy, and wavering attention spans. This could possibly mean that she has some form of ADHD or similar condition. We see in Friendship is Magic Part 1 that Pinkie Pie has an extreme amount of energy, with an almost endless supply of breath. In Part 2, we see that she also has a clear disregard for her own self-preservation. She's not stupid, she knows some things are bad for her health, but she doesn't seem to feel the need to be frightened by things that the other ponies find terrifying, including the Everfree Forest at the beginning of the episode, and the Trees that Pinkie Pie is seen laughing at. In simplicity measures one could chalk this up to having a great deal of courage, and naturally being the element of laughter she is bold and likely courageous. I'd take this a step further and say that she has some form of anxiety problem, but not in the usual sense. Instead of the anxiety part of her brain being hyperactive, it is instead hypoactive, that is to say it doesn't function at normal levels. I know there is some sort of disorder name for that but I can't recall off the top of my head and the internet has failed me in finding it. Point being is that Pinkie Pie doesn't feel fear the same way that we do. She'll feel it in certain situations, for example the fear that her friends might leave her, including a fear for their self-preservation, but her own self-preservation instinct seems to be turned off, at least judging by the increasingly risky things she is prone to doing. Another thing that Pinkie Pie likely has is some form of Bi-Polar or other Manic/Depressive disorder. We clearly see her 'depressive' states in Cutie Mark Chronicles and Party of One. In CMC (The Episode, not the fillies) we can tell that she was clearly unhappy, unable to find any joy in the world. One might chalk this up to just pure unhappiness of her lot in life, but I'm going to go one step further. The look her father gives her before closing the door on her clearly shows that he is unhappy with her. The clear reasoning for this is uncertain but I am under the impression that it is either because she is constantly depressed never showing signs of happiness, therefore lacking in quality of the work, or perhaps she's just the odd one out with having a pink colour scheme and therefore destined to be the black sheep of the family. There's also the way that Pinkie Pie describes her life on the Rock Farm, she says there was no laughing, no smiling, there were only rocks. Again, some may take this literally but I'm thinking that each of the recollections of the mane cast had a certain amount of fabrication to them to make them more sensational. People in real life often exaggerate their childhood in either a positive or negative light, depending on the person and since ponies are essentially a human analogue we can assume that they do that as well. Back to the gloomy rock farm, a manic/depressive person when in a depressive slump often sees the world around them through one of two common lenses. The first is that everyone is so much better off than they are, the second is that everyone is just as miserable as they are and are just hiding it. I would be very surprised if the Pie family never smiled before Pinkie's first party, as even the Amish who they're clearly modelled after have their own forms of entertainment and are more than strict gloominess. However, if I am right in my assumption that Pinkie Pie is Manic Depressive, even the good times would look gloomy when viewed through that lens. My Manic/depressive argument is further enhanced by Pinkie's sudden mood-swing in that episode, going quickly from the gloomy depressive to excessively happy, and even throwing an entire party and setting it up overnight. You might say that Pinkie Pie is just Pinkie Pie, but I'll argue that Manic/Depressives when in a Manic phase often have increased energy, can sometimes even become insomniacs, and will often pursue anything that they can with increased gusto. As such it would be entirely feasible for Manic Pinkie Pie to throw an entire party overnight. It would also explain her gusto for parties in the present. Another thing that supports this idea is Party of One, where Pinkie Pie 'crashes', as it is sometimes called (It's what I call it at least.). She comes out of her Manic phase and goes into a depressive phase, which is seen as having some severe psychosis that I'll get to in a minute. The only thing that doesn't truly support this idea is we don't see any mood swings from Pinkie Pie, which is somewhat unusual for Manic/Depressives. They usually will get locked into one of the two moods (Manic or Depressive) and stay that way for X amount of time (I put X there because it varies depending on stimuli and person) until they have a massive and sometimes violent mood swing to the other end of the spectrum where they'll be that way for X amount of time until they switch over to the first mood and the cycle starts again. We can only make two assumptions on this providing that we accept that Pinkie Pie has a Manic/Depressive disorder, that either Pinkie Pie is just highly unusual in this sense and her personal timing and stimuli has nurtured an extremely long manic period, only broken when Party of One came around, or that we never see Pinkie Pie's mood swings because they're all off screen and possibly excessively short. The idea of a Manic/Depressive Pinkie Pie is also enhanced with the idea of her refusal to accept defeat at the Grand Galloping Gala. She is shown with a very small down time before her denial kicks in, and her mood only heightens, another way the Manic side is showing through. But I'm getting on with this and there's so much more to Pinkie Pie than just that. There's the Schizophrenia and I didn't really dive into the ADHD did I? We'll start off with the Schizophrenia, if Pinkie Pie does have this it is likely an add-on with her Manic/Depressive disorder, possibly classifying the disorder with Bi-Polar which can sometimes come with various forms of schizophrenia. We primarily see this during Party of One, when we see the analogues of Pinkie Pie's friends such as Madame le Flour, the Bucket of Turnips, and the fan named Rocky. All of the objects around Pinkie Pie clearly are speaking in their own voice, spoken by Pinkie Pie though when we mind-delve we see that she's not previewing that she's speaking but that they're speaking to her. I'd say this is likely a mild form of schizophrenia, not quite strong enough for her to actually see images, but strong enough that she hears voices. To rationalize to herself she moves the objects and speaks in their voices. Honestly, I've never really heard of a schizophrenic speaking aloud what their hallucinations are saying, so it could be that she isn't displaying schizophrenia but some other psychosis or perhaps it's just a part of her depressive state. But there is something in my favour for her being a schizophrenic, and that's all the times she breaks the fourth wall, such as looking at the camera. Now I know I'm going to get a lot of flank-hurt feelings about this, but removing the audience from the equation Pinkie Pie would be just staring into space, but she's still focusing on something, something that she only can see. This is a tenancy for schizophrenics. Some of them realize that certain things they see aren't there, but this is rare at best. Then there's the ADHD, which she seems to have in some extent but not a great one. Pinkie Pie is clear to be able to switch topics at the blink of an eye, and sometimes doesn't bother to explain herself (Case in point, Swarm of the Century), but she also seems to be able to hyper-focus on things, such as defeating the Parasprite invasion and her songs. One of the characteristics of ADHD isn't necessarily the inability to focus, but sometimes it's to focus too hard. Good examples of this are in the episodes Griffon the Brush Off and Party of One, in both she seems extremely focused on her tasks and won't let go of them. In Griffon the Brush Off Pinkie Pie Hyper-focus's on two things. The first is to get Dash's attention, through the means of pranks (Doing them with her, not doing them on her). I'll get to that in a minute. The other is a hyper-focus on Gilda though this one is less pronounced, She is clearly showing an unusual interest in the griffon, trying to rationalize Gilda's actions the best she can. Even outright lying to herself until Gilda beats on Fluttershy. In Party of One she Hyper-focus' on the next party she wants to throw, Gummy's After-Birthday party. This episode just screams psychological impairment doesn't it? She focus's on it so much that she actually forgets that it was her own birthday, going to extremes of stalking her friends and even Pinkie Pinquasitioning Spike to say lies to satisfy her own obsession and eventually sending her into a depressive state. She's so obsessed with the party that at the end of the episode, when everything is all better she's STILL on about having that party. This tendency for having to THROW the party, as well as having to be the life of the party and her constant attention begging from her friends clearly shows an inferiority complex. Now truth be told, everyone has an inferiority complex of some degree, and we all deal with it in our own way. Some people have it worse than others, and some people react to it more extremely than others. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Pinkie Pie likely has a large inferiority complex, likely developed during her childhood when she was primarily in a depressive sate. It's common knowledge that when you feel down and people put you down you often feel worse. As I've already said, Pinkie's father clearly showed dissent when looking back at his daughter. This could imply that her father wasn't precisely the supporting type, and likely was very strict. Combine this with Pinkie's depressive state and we've got the building blocks for an inferiority complex. How does Pinkie combat this? By being as outgoing as possible and making sure that she laughs as much as possible. They say Laughter is the very best medicine, and perhaps for Pinkie it is. Her parties are a way for her to get attention, as if everypony knows that they can have a good time at Pinkie Pie's Parties, then it serves to bolster her confidence. There's also the fact that Pinkie Pie seems to be extremely possessive about her friends, in particular Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie is extremely upset when Rainbow Dash is 'stolen' away by Gilda (Though to be fair, all Gilda would have had to do was share. Pinkie, in her constant craving for attention, probably would have loved the attention of someone as exotic as a griffon, providing it was positive attention.) and she's even more upset when she thinks her friends have all abandoned her, so much it puts her into shock and into a depressive state. Pinkie Pie's pranks also are clearly a cry for attention, though she clearly wants the pranks to be light-hearted fun and nothing mean-spirited (Though depending on your definition of mean spirited and the infinite tolerance of some of the other mane cast this could be debated). She is clearly concerned during her first prank on Spike, not wanting to lose his friendship but as soon as she finds out that everything is fine she just laughs it off. Her pranks and calls for attention don't blind her to her friend's needs all the time though, for example in Griffon the Brush Off she stops Rainbow Dash from Pranking Fluttershy, saying that it would hurt the gentle pegasus' feelings.

And that's all I can really think about Pinkie Pie right now, it's currently around 1 and I need to sleep. I'll post this now and see if it sparks any discussions.

TL;DR version: Pinkie Pie clearly has several mental disabilities that likely could use some form of medication. The ones discussed were ADHD, Bi-Polar or similar Manic/Depressive syndrome, Schizophrenia, some sort of reverse anxiety disorder, and an inferiority complex.
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PostSubject: Re: Pink Pony is Best Pony? Discuss   Pink Pony is Best Pony?  Discuss I_icon_minitimeTue Jun 28, 2011 11:56 am

I'm no psychologist or doctor, so I don't know the first thing about any of these disorders. I do however have some of my own theories about Pinkie's personality.

When Pinkie Pie throws parties and makes friends with everyone she meets, it doesn't seem like she's doing it for the attention. I believe that she does it because she feeds off of the happiness of others. She is the element of laughter, after all. She throws a party for Twilight because she thought she was lonely, and would be happier with lots of friends. She even throws a party for Gilda because she wants to "turn that frown upside down." When complimented on her parties, she actually deflects the attention by saying "They're always the best parties because my best friends are always there!" Maybe I just don't want to believe that Pinkie is just an attention whore, but would somepony like that forget their own birthday?

Of all the psychological conditions mentioned, the only one that I think fits Pinkie is manic depressive. My theory is that she uses the happiness of those around her to fuel her manic side, allowing it to continue nearly indefinitely. She makes others happy, which in turn makes her happy. This gives her the energy to spread more happiness, creating an endless feedback loop. In party of one, she has doubts as to whether or not she has actually succeeded in cheering up her friends, which breaks the loop and crashes her into depressive mode. This would also explain the depression of her youth, as she had no happiness to feed on.

Her crash is the show's most severe example of Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome (CMFIS). A pony fails at their special talent, or at least they believe they have, and it triggers a mental breakdown. Pinkie's way of dealing with it is denial. She creates new friends that like her parties, so that she can continue believing that she is still capable of performing her purpose in life. And then these new "friends" immediately start bad-mouthing her old friends, which is their own bizarre way of comforting her. They are basically telling her, "You didn't fail, your friends are just jerks. They are the problem, not you!" It is a desperate attempt to pull herself out of her depressive mode, but she simply can't do it on her own.

Pinkie Pie clearly has issues, but most of the time she seems more than capable of dealing with them. As long as she has the support of her friends, that is. But then again, the same could be said of any of the characters.
To Rarity: Rocky is not a fan name, it is in the episode. Also, DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO MEDICATE MY PINKIE PIE.
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