Hello and welcome to another fantastically pointless article of Random Dialectics, where we take a dive into the world of technicalities… for no particular reason! Since some requests were made; today, we are going to take a closer look at our favorite party pony, Pinkie Pie. This article interlocks with the previous one I wrote about Rarity, but will be done in a different fashion. However, due to the nature of the next few lines, we will disregard Pinkie’s fourth wall breaks and her defiance of the laws of physics. As instead, we will focus on her mental state. So let the fun begin!
“Fun… fun… fun… fun… fun…” Okay, now for real! :D
The first problem that one may encounter when attempting to analyze this pink pony’s character is that – unlike Rarity - it’s quite difficult to grasp. The lines are not as clear and well established and tend to remain in the blurry distance, as Pinkie herself is more complex and unpredictable than the subject of the previous article.
However, there are a couple of things that may function as an anchor in the whirling sea of Pinkie Pie’s mind. And that phrase was not a mere poetic metaphor, I used it on purpose, you’ll see. But first, let’s do a quick recap on the most common critics of her character! Many people claim that Pinkie’s:
1. Annoying
2. Obnoxious
3. Hyperactive
4. Childish/immature
5. Dumb
6. A space occupier
7. Lacks any kind of common sense whatsoever
I’m sure there are plenty more where that come from, but when criticizing her, haters stop right there at the first stage. Maybe I’m the only one who has this “perversion” of analyzing the mental state of magical cartoon mini horses, but hey… it’s fun to do! So as I was saying, most people fail to look for the reasons behind Pinkie’s behavior and why she acts the way she does.
Now, before you start your hate war on me, let me say in advance, that this is strictly my own theory, based on my own observations. But I believe the root cause of Pinkie Pie’s actions and behavior is a fine cocktail of mental disorders. Plural. She shows symptoms of more than one. Let’s go through the obvious ones, shall we?
1. Craving for attention
Similarly to Rares, Pinkie thrives when being in the center of attention. She’s always willing to go to extremes to gain said attention by screaming in excitement, using various, eye catching items from balloons through confetti and vividly colored, silly outfits to party canons. Furthermore, she’s consistently uses physical presence to draw attention to herself. Pinkie utilizes everything around her to make herself noticed, even if it lasts only for a few seconds. But unlike Rarity, she cannot endure solitude and repudiation for longer periods of time. We have seen what happened in the episode “Party of One”. Since she was being neglected by her friends, she retreated to an imaginary world and surrounded herself with inanimate objects she gave different personalities to. For anyone who studied psychology, it was a rather disturbing scene.
2. Emotional fluctuations
I think this doesn’t really need a further explanation. Pinkie displays rapidly shifting and shallow expressions of emotions. She’s a pony living in the moment, driven by her instincts, therefore her attention span regarding any given matter is rather short. Including emotions. We have seen her swiftly changing from crying to being excited and indifferent many-many times.
3. False sense of intimacy in relationships
This one is a no-brainer as well. Do you remember Cranky Doodle Donkey? Pinkie considers everyone to be her close personal friend, even though that is highly impossible. And she continues to harass people that do not fall in line and enable her shenanigans. Plus, she has no idea about the concept of personal space.
4. Excessively impressionistic speech style
Do I need to unfold that more? It’s one of her most apparent traits. She talks rapidly, trying to gather as much detail into just one sentence as possible but often fails. Usually she’s the one to step in and explain something to another character who’s not familiar with the situation (view 1st. point).
5. Possible split personality (?)
Again, I have to refer to “Party of One”. In that episode, Pinkie’s paranoid delusions led to her transformation into a completely different pony. Her cute mark story seems to confirm that, since she admits in “Cutie Mark Chronicles” that she used to be someone else. Perhaps the Pinkie we see is merely a persona, created as a defense mechanism due to a traumatic experience in childhood. But even I’m not sure about this one, it seems a little too farfetched, yet possible, since we see that she acts a bit differently when no one’s around her.
Now why did we just go through all that? Well, the above mentioned five points are clear symptoms of Histrionic personality disorder. But, it’s not over yet! Because we still haven’t answered the “why” question fully. So here comes the good part!
The answer to all, why Pinkie’s being so “Pinkie”, her behavior, her actions, her personality disorder… I believe they are caused by another mental state: Pinkie Pie has savant syndrome! It is a well-known fact that savant syndrome is a form of autism. It can come in many different forms and stages and often accompanied by other disorders as well. However, it is also known that even though savant people lack social skills (or even if they have some, it’s usually distorted) or the ability to express themselves properly (refer to the episode “Filli Vanilli” where how she deepens Fluttershy’s fears unintentionally), they show tremendous, outstanding expertise in one or more other aspects of life, that is way beyond the average individual’s mental capabilities. I’ve heard of a savant guy once, who was able to draw the exact areal map of London after being taken to a 20 minute helicopter flight above the city! And look the memory capacity of Pinkie! She can remember everyone’s birthday, their preferences and dislikes, all the cake orders and how to make them, etc.
Pinkie Pie is not annoying or immature and certainly not dumb! She’s just misunderstood, because she’s a savant genius! Despite the fact that many things about her remain a mystery, she’s a deep, well established character with many flaws. But that’s what makes her likable. She’s one of the characters I enjoy most in the show and if you look at her from this perspective, you might find her relatable as well! Not to mention she’s cute and adorable as hell! Trust me, she will grow on you! :3
And that concludes our little analysis of Pinkie Pie, I hope you enjoyed it! Whose gizzards should we rip out next? Do you want hear about Twi’s OCD, or Fluttershy’s Schizoid personality disorder and chronic phobias? What about Dashie’s Paranoid personality disorder?
Let me know what you think below in the comment section! See you next time in Random Dialectics!
