100 Inspirational Characters---- #1. Rarity

[ashkiryn]

Because there are few things in this universe that I love more than this sort of thing. Basically, a friend of mine brought this challenge to my attention, I think it sounds awesome, so I'm going to give it a shot myself. My friend's doing it on Supernatural (AND I'M LOVING IT FOREVER, because I still know so few people who have seen the show D: (I think I know...4 people who have? And 3 of those 4 haven't seen as much of it as I have)), and I was initially going to do something with a focus on female characters, but I've noticed that already seems to be a common topic. Plus, while I do think more focus needs to be put on women and female characters, I still kind of feel that it's a tad sexist to leave the boys out. So, I've compromised. My 100 Things Blogging Challenge is going to be on Inspirational Characters, male and female---this way, no one's left out, and I figure this is a good topic, because I've noticed that a great many characters who make my inspirational list haven't been put onto other people's. So, here we are, and off we go! :)

So, first of all, in case some of the readers of this post don't know me that well, I'm AshKiryn here on LJ, but I'm more well known to my online friends as Kiryn. I'm keeping this challenge public, but I'm open to friend requests; in case if you want to get to know me better, most of my other posts tend to be visible only to my friends. And I'm starting this off with a confession: yes. I am a 'pegasister', and I love the newest revival of My Little Pony, which is Friendship is Magic.

I'm not really all that embarrassed by this, despite the fact that I'm now 21 years old, and my younger sister, Lys, continuously makes fun of me for being a fan of the show (but she still bought me a Fluttershy T-shirt for my birthday on Saturday, so I guess I still love her :P). Now, I don't think she makes fun of me because I'm an adult that's watching a cartoon (and if that is why she does it, then she's a hypocrite). No, it's because of this stigma that's attached to My Little Pony specifically, and really all things that could be classified as shows for little girls.

Because, sure, Lys and I watched some of the old My Little Pony shows and movies when we were little kids, and had a few of the pony dolls that we played with---just like how we used to have Barbies and Bratz dolls and the Care Bear stuffed animals (my favorite was Cheer Bear, for the record). We also watched Pokemon and collected those cards and the Yu Gi Oh cards, played with our neighbors' Hot Wheels cars and tracks, and were obsessed with The Lion King and 101 Dalmatians. We were, in short, little kids. But it seems to me that, for some reason, My Little Pony in particular is like cotton candy: sweet and sugary and good when you're a little kid with no real taste buds, but with hardly any substance, and that becomes something that makes you sick when you get older (at least, that's my relationship with cotton candy---blech). And for the most part, that's probably a fair assessment---I really don't remember all that much about the older versions of My Little Pony, and I honestly don't care enough to go trawl through the Internet to find out.

But I think Friendship is Magic is different.

Sure, it's still quite cheesy, and sometimes a bit heavy-handed with explaining the life lessons the characters are learning, and it's not afraid to poke fun at itself, and it's still essentially My Little Pony. But what I think sets Friendship is Magic apart from any of its predecessors is that the characters, and consequently the story, have been written far more realistically in the hands of Lauren Faust (and I sincerely give her so much credit for doing this, even if I don't care to be a fan of the other cartoons that she's worked on). What Faust does so well is that she starts the characters off as stereotypes, and then through their friendships, slowly evolve them and defy expectations by making them into nuanced, complex characters that aren't always perfect, that aren't even really always friends with each other. Faust shows the audience that it's okay to get mad at your friends and to disagree with them, and to be radically different from them, even to the point that you wonder why they're even friends in the first place, but that you can still love them anyway, faults and all. This show is really about learning to be true to yourself, and to love who you are, messy, flawed, imperfect, and still growing and experiencing life, really, as you are, and that you'll make your true friends that way. And I think that's a really empowering, kick ass message to be sending to little girls in particular, but also really to everyone.

Which brings me back to my actual topic---inspirational characters. Because while I think that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as a whole is an inspiring and empowering show, there's really one character that makes the show for me, and that I think is the most empowering of all the characters:




Yes. This is Rarity.

Now, if Lys was mind-boggled by the fact that I watched and loved Friendship is Magic to begin with, it was nothing to how bewildered she was when she found out that Rarity was my favorite pony/character on the show. (At this point, she had spent a few days with a friend of hers, who made her watch a couple of the episodes (specifically, "Bridle Gossip"), so that she knew a little bit about a few of the ponies.)

And Lys isn't the only one to have had this reaction---most other people don't really understand my love for Rarity, or why she's my favorite. And I can understand that, really---most people prefer Twilight Sparkle, who's really the main character of the show, and is the anti-social bookworm who has to learn how to make friends (heaven knows that I can relate to Twilight), and Rainbow Dash is probably the most popular character on the show, who's brash, tomboyish, and the athlete (even Lys admitted to liking Rainbow). I've observed most bronies tend to favor sweet Fluttershy, or else people like Applejack, who's the other tomboy, and is honest, down-to-earth (no pun intended), hard working, and devoted to her family, and then still others favor Pinkie Pie, who's almost endlessly cheerful, bouncy, and fun, and whose greatest joy in life is putting smiles on people's faces and breaking the fourth wall.

And then, there's Rarity. She's the fashion diva, prone to dramatics, can't even stand getting the slightest bit of dirt on her, ranges from neurotically OCD to organized chaos, if she's in her creative zone, and her biggest shortcomings are vanity and occasional fits of selfishness. Just look at her. She's practically type-casted from the beginning to be that one really annoying damsel in distress that you have to break your neck to try and save, and that never ends up contributing anything, right?

Wrong.

Does Rarity get kidnapped? Yes, she does (specifically in the episodes "A Dog and a Pony Show" and "The Secret of My Excess"). Is she physically weak, unlike Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie? Yes, she is. Does she hate dirt and getting her mane messed up? Yes, she does. Is she the girliest girly girl to have ever been a girly girl? Yes, she is. Is she a helpless damsel in distress? No. No, she is not.

"A Dog and a Pony Show" is what cemented my love for Rarity. In that episode, she gets kidnapped by the Diamond Dogs, who drag her underground, whereupon they tell her that she is their captive and they want her to use her magic to find them gems, to dig them up, and to drag a cart around. While Spike gets the rest of the Mane Six organized in a rescue attempt, does Rarity try to break free or physically try to fight them off? Nope.

Instead, Rarity does something even more amazing. She plays to her strengths; she uses her wits to manipulate her captors, and she ends up driving them batshit fucking insane. To the point where, at the end of the episode when the 'rescue party' shows up, the Diamond Dogs are begging them to get Rarity away from them, and Rarity ends up taking all of their gems with her. And do you want to know how she did this? First, she complained. Then whined. And then cried. Basically, she annoyed the pants off them, emotionally manipulated them, and then freaked them the hell out. All by doing quintessential "girly" things.

Speaking as someone who is physically disabled, do you have any idea how much of a fucking empowering and amazing message that is to send out? That just because you're ladylike and girly, it doesn't mean that you can't take care of yourself, that you should play to your own strengths, and that being physically weak doesn't have to be a bad thing?! And in general, in an age where it seems that being a tomboy is the cooler thing to be, that it's okay to be yourself, even if that means that you're a gigantic frilly frou-frou ruffles and lace girl?

It's seriously awesome.

In the second instance of her kidnapping, Rarity's being held in the paw of a gigantic dragon that's destroying Ponyville. But does she let that faze her? Hell no. For fuck's sake, she scolds him and yells at him, even though she's at his mercy and he could crush her to death. Dude. Rarity is fierce.

There's so much more about her character in general that I also think is empowering. For example, she owns a boutique, loveloveloves fashion, and makes all of the clothes and outfits in her shop. But the way Faust has her come off is that this is simply Rarity's form of creative expression, her artwork, that just so happens to be clothes and fashion. And that's awesome, especially when you think about it, because she's a successful businesswoman, and unlike Applejack, who's apple farm has been in her family for generations, she had to work from the ground up.

And as I stated before, Rarity's flawed. She can become quite vain, though her heart is always in the right place, and she comes back down to earth before too long and is repentant (and nor is she the only character that suffers from this: Rainbow Dash in particular can suffer from this, and even Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight to certain extents get hit with it). And as far as her bouts of selfishness goes, I think Rarity's just quite realistic in that sense. See, each main character gets an Element of Harmony, and Rarity's is Generousity, which oftentimes has her struggling to please everybody around her, with her own desires teeter-tottering that balance. So, yes, she struggles between being selfish and a doormat in a lot of episodes---but really, aren't most people like that?

There's a reason why I started off with Rarity on this list of Inspirational Characters----it's because I think she's the most empowering of all recent fictional characters, and is especially refreshing in the wake of the horrible influences of 'heroines' like Bella Swan. I love Friendship is Magic, and that it's a show full of empowering female characters, and I love Rarity so much, and she's become one of my most favorite characters of all time, and I will defend her with my dying breath.

Comments

[raberbagirl.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to break myself of some bad habits, like starting new projects without finishing old ones first...letting go of this challenge was a big step for me. ^^

Lol, ok; I'll try to make it to episode 19 when I can. :)

O.O Really? Because I looked at the URL of the picture and it was some wikia site, but I can't believe a site like LJ would so blatantly endorse direct linking.... I'll have to look into this. Because if I can link to pics without having to steal bandwidth, that would be fantastic. Maybe I can post those AkuSai cut-and-paste screenshots I made that have been refusing to let me turn them into decent avatars. 8D

I hope you finish~! ^^