Rarara thread

Mostly taking Grieffon’s advice and making a thread for my Rarity musings.
 
Post Rarity stuff.
 
But I couldn’t think of how to start it.  
But I remembered I have an old copypasta I made for use on /mlp/.  
It’s old and needs updating (you’ll see unfinished parts) but I’ll still use it.  
I think a cap was uploaded to this site tbh.
 
Rarity, a successful and self-made mare from modest means. Her dream is becoming the most renowned fashionista in all of Equestria and is driven by fame and adoration. Despite possessing the most detrimental and demanding Element of Harmony, Generosity, she has a career spun purely from her own creativity, passion and talent. Initially intended to be the Element of Inspiration, however she fulfills both Elements by not only creating works of art born from inspiration and meant to inspire others she is also openhanded with her time, resources, skills and creations. Her personality combines the extroverted traits of a sanguine with the focus of a melancholic. Allowing her to be charismatic, confident, sensitive and romantic while also disciplined and reflective.
 
Rarity’s charm as a character is how she challenges expectations while still upholding the tenants of the stereotype she is based off of. An important difference between Rarity and her stereotype is that Rarity creates value. Being obsessed with fashion and beauty is a traditional feminine interest, however Rarity uses it to draw inspiration and create her own unique designs to delight others as well as sustain her own livelihood. Concordantly, Rarity is at once a sophisticated lady, (superego) an impassioned artist (id) and a savvy businessmare (ego). This theme of unity between seemingly dissimilar identities pervades her entire character.  
This is most evident in her humor style. Melancholic humor is understated and sanguines are extroverted. She is not only a celebration of traditional feminity with her understated humor, and a parody of it with her histrionics.  
Followed by fighting.
 
As a lady, Rarity possesses a taste for the finer things in life which accounts for her desire to live a life of refinement and her aversion to uncouth elements. The artist within her views appreciation and recognition as a metric of her success, this leads not only to her love for gratifying others but also her weakness for attention. And finally the businessmare is ultimately what drives Rarity towards her dreams by maintaining the synergy between these two sides of her. As a result, Rarity is a perfectionist in every facet of her life. This trait is what propels her forward through life yet also leads her astray when presented with competing goals.
 
She is exceptionally generous, often sacrificing her own satisfaction to help others. Not only does Rarity love to gratify others and help them be beautiful. but also dreams of becoming the premier fashionista in all of Equestria and a part of high society. This desire for not only a perfect life but to help others is admirable and her character’s greatest strength. However like all desires it is a source of weakness as she struggles between realizing her own desires and giving to others. This character dynamic is represented as a conflict between her diamond cutie mark (her id) and her element of harmony (superego), a struggle for perfection in two competing areas of life (her ego). Both sides of this conflict is born of the same need that drives her character: a desire to be known, recognized and ultimately appreciated. Another example of two seemingly opposed identities in harmony Not only does this add depth to her character but also provides an arc: her life becomes more idyllic and she grows as a character. Furthermore, if Rarity was to lack a concrete dream of her own it would render her generosity meaningless and shallow because there would be no real sacrifice on her part, in this way her flaw adds to her virtues rather than detracts.
 
As previously stated, Rarity is by no means perfect. Her central flaw has taken on a myriad of forms: jealousy, anger, dishonesty, and prissiness and a particular weakness for attention rather than one dominant representation. However she also correctly identified these as flaws and that she was wrong. Oftentimes she is the first to pass judgment on her weaknesses and in every case she makes an effort to move past them in order to become a better p0ny. This makes her episodes and character more satisfying, it allows the subject matter to be varied, resulting in greater development as a character. Being an introspective perfectionist she understands her flaws and strives for self-improvement and perfection.
 
This side of Rarity is also reflected in her character on a superficial level and even then speaks volumes, her mannerisms and lifestyle are affected and cultivated. Both are a testament to her determination and self actualization. All of this was accomplished without being born with any incredible power or family legacy, the only trait she possesses that vaguely represents a power is her beauty which is potent enough to attract not only a Prince but is alluring even to those outside of the pony species. Rarity could have simply gotten by on her looks but chooses not to. Consequently the effort Rarity has put into her life adds a dimension of realism to her weaknesses, fears and strengths. She demands perfection from herself which drives her towards success but also leaves her susceptible to temptation, with an acute fear of failure and a fear of disappointing others.  
Modesty  
Using feminity as an asset rather than a crutch, willing to endanger herself or ruin her looks/reputation to help others, clever, aloof posh exterior to cover her generous heart which is vulnerable, talent is finding gems which fits with her name and she uses her talent to further her real desires, justifiable haughtiness, treats Spike like he has a schoolboy crush on a teacher: appreciative but keeps it within social boundaries, celebration of traditional feminity, loves her life and living it without being tied down to one quirk

It is time to move forward.
 
Kindly critique, is is quick and dirty so I understand it may not be clear, it is merely a conceptual framework.
 
 
By straightmaned I mean any time she goes into a depressive state, which she did in almost all of those.
 
 
Sadly I must disagree. One cannot just have interesting situations arise without a varied spectrum of responses. Without that the character does not have complex emotions or motivations. Which are required for depth.
 
A demonstration. Using Rarity, the character with the most depth and some antiquated psychology as a convenient way of ordering her personality.
 
Becoming Popular is representative of Rarity’s id. Her primary motivation, joy and fear. She wants to be acknowledged, wanted and admired but also fears being cast aside as a Jane Doe.  
This is present throughout the episode, encapsulated by this song and expanded upon by the Nightmare Rarity comic.
 
Beyond this, the song also shows us another important thing with Rarity. Simply that she is beating the Elites at their own social game.  
She shows up and through her charm and tact catches the interest of Fancy Pants at the Derby. Later she becomes a must have guest at parties, even to the extent that the Elites are desperate to have her. And during the song she becomes the toast of High Society.
 
The fact that she can do this ties into her reinventing herself at a young age (Cutie Mark Chronicles). Her success at doing this and actually outclassing the real Elites makes Rarity into something Jefferson called “Natural Aristocracy” in this area.  
Essentially, she made herself and sits of the top of this esoteric hierarchy .
 
This is also part of a theme in the episode in question: being genuine. Not being genuine led Rarity astray in this episode, obviously, however she was still more genuine than the Elites. She genuinely enjoyed the events whereas they came across as cynically bemused by them (the derby is a good example of this) but most importantly she was not afraid to stand out. In Becoming Popular she uses her clout to cause the Elites to look favorably upon things they are initially cold towards or unsure of.
 
Now Generosity. Reflective of Rarity’s Superego which governs what could be considered one’s moral functions. In Rarity’s case her generosity.  
This song does more for her generosity than simply singing about it. It also shows that Rarity holds the charitable idea that the people she helps will do something to return the kindness at some point in their own way.  
This shows that she values and believes in the generosity of others rather than simply being generous.  
Particularly when one considers that the openended nature of this belief means Rarity does not particularly care when or how the kindness is repaid, the idea of it is more important.  
Also, during this episode, Rarity does have her kindness repaid and uses the opportunity to be more generous (at the beginning by giving the tickets to her friends and tipping the Bellhop over and over).
 
Lastly there is Art of the Dress. This is her Ego, the part which reconciles the id and superego in a productive manner.  
How is obvious: she is trying to balance her own artistic decisions with catering to her friends.  
Beyond this the song shows little beyond being a show of her generosity and artistic skill.  
But it does show something. She has her dresses reflect the personality of her friends. This displays that her style has substance behind it, like any good artist. It also shows that she is not a superficial person, she looks beyond the surface.
 
That is her depth from 3 songs.

@Background Pony #76E5  
Clearly me Whatevs, ofc

Bravo, good sir!

Rarity is ugly and annoying.

@Background Pony #530F  
I fart in your general direction!

Best pony <3

@ghostfacekiller39  
oh, how good to see you. This is sort of a containment thread for my ramblings on how she is Best Pony.

@Whatevs  
Well, it’s objective fact she’s best pony. Fan Club on MLPF? Has more post than the other mane 6 fan clubs combined.
 
It’s fact. She is best pony. Best pony is Rarity. The evidence is irrefutable, and I implore anyone who dare says otherwise to engage in a match of fisticuffs with me.

I always tend to flip flop between Rarity and Apple Bloom as my favorite. But Rarity definitely has the deeper characterization.

I quite love Rarity, she’s my second favorite pony in the show. <3

New post inc. doing this to remind myself.
 
It builds on my id, ego, superego post but also includes some Audrey Hepburn action.
 
After that I discuss Holly Golightly.  

@Whatevs  
Addendum:
 
I neglected to mention an important dynamic to Rarity’s character that revolves around two of her songs in my earlier analysis. Link for posterity: http://mlpforums.com…ss-intensifies/
 
In that analysis I used her songs as the primary source of my analysis. Here I will do the same but between two of the songs like I had meant to do in the earlier post.  
Becoming Popular, the “I Want” song, and Generosity, the “I Am” song. These songs display traits that are often at odds, and this cuts right to the core of rarity as a character. The “I Want” song is clearly the Id, and “I Am” the Superego as a recap.  
In BP, she both expresses a desire to be popular but also charts her rise to popularity (which is why I find it truly baffling how people argue she was not actually good at socializing with the Elites when this song shows her charming them but that is another blog).  
This is generally seen as a bad or neutral trait, caring about one’s own elevation in such a petty manner.
 
Certainly it is almost always at odds with the ideas presented in Generosity (another blog post) where she enjoys being generous out of altruism.
 
However, this is not as hard to understand through the lens of my earlier Freudian analysis. I said her Id is simply after social acceptance and belonging (popularity), which while true ignores the role the superego plays.  
As the Nightmare Arc showed, she values not simply being popular but being accepted and valued. A reasonable position for a character whose profession and virtue revolves around giving or selling things which are then appraised and deemed valuable or not.  
Hence me referencing the Id and Superego as being two sides to the same coin in my earlier post. By being generous she is satisfying her Id as she garners validation.  
Which is representative of what Rarity as a character has always been: popular alpha girl with a heart of gold.
 
Some of the mentally subnormal may take this opportunity to claim that “if she is getting validation then she is not genuinely generous!” This concept is so laughable that the show FRIENDS made fun of it, which was brought to my attention by Roboshi of Derpibooru. The fact is that feeling good and enjoying the care of others for being a good person does not invalidate generosity. Only a generous person would feel good by being generous or value others enough to be validated by helping them. A truly selfish person would not do these things.
 
But back to the substance of this post. Unnoticed aspects to Sweet & Elite and Rarity Takes Manehattan help bring this idea together. In Sweet & Elite Rarity goes to the parties partly because she would like to and would enjoy them but what really pushes her is the Elites guilting her into doing so. They make obvious allusions to the idea that her not coming would mean the events might as well be cancelled and that they would be personally distraught by this. Rarity echoes this idea in the next scene. An example of how these two motivations are blended. As she valued being accepted by the Elites and chose to satisfy this by putting their “needs” before her own (as she wanted to work on Twilight’s dress. And while this didn’t work out it is more an issue of not knowing who to trust and be loyal to which the lesson of the episode addressed).
 
But more important are her actions during the song. At the art gallery she is the first to like the artwork, which causes the other Elites to like it as well, whereas the other Elites were indifferent. Later at the charity auction she bids on a piece no one else cares for (and probably did not care for based on their half-lidded expressions), causing them to all bid on it. Whether this was intentional on her part or not doesn’t matter. It still shows a far less snooty and more charitable way of life than the Elites. This shows a willingness to share the spoils of her social attainment with others.  
An aspect present in her character in other areas. She did it in Green Isn’t Your Color when she turned the crowd to Fluttershy’s side and it is analogous to her using her fashion skills to make others look good for example.
 
However Rarity Takes Manehattan showed it even more. She was freely generous, and through this garnered social connections which she then used to be more generous. At the beginning of the episode she shares a “thank you gift” from her fashion peer with her friends.  
And with the bellhop pony, who helps her at every opportunity he can, she repays with more gems as an additional thank you.
 
So both of these seemingly competing interests are in fact compatible with Rarity as a character.
 
This also shows what separates Rarity, and her episodes, from the other ponies. Her episodes taken as a whole are widely seen as the best of the mane 6 and this fact is corroborated by IMDB.  
Personally I attribute this to the fact that her depth of character allows her to use similar motifs and plot points as a jumping off point for completely different stories, an example of which is shown above.

Rarity is the cute type of elegant. Not that overdone pretentious mess you see in a lot of sassy girls in media. Even without make-up she does well.
 
She can be manipulative, but not in anyway that would purposely harm anyone. When ever she does hurt someone, she admit and tries to atone for her wrongdoings. Pretty rare for a character of her temperament, who are too often portrayed as shamelessly selfish characters. I also have a thing for female cultured badasses. As a sister and friend figure, she is irritating, but ultimately very caring.  

@SeraphimDawn  
Indeed!
 
New thingy  
http://mlpforums.com/blog/1599/entry-12974-nightmare-rarity-and-how-it-affects-raritys-character-on-the-whole/
 
Apparently Bronycurious is also doing a video on Nightmare Rarity, so I am glad I got these thought out there. Even if I waited much longer than I should have, but waiting to see what S4 brought had its plusses.

@Background Pony #9685  
You’re ugly and annoying.