That escalated quickly

.

@cheezedoodle  
No, what I see is a very irritating trend which seems to be sticking with the show and is the one thing i’m seriously growing to dislike about MLP. All it would take would be just to treat her in a manner more like the other characters and I would have no complaints about the show.
 
Though, fair enough if you don’t want to take this any further. Thank you for at least trying to convince me otherwise, even if it didn’t work.

@Background Pony #405E  
Sorry, I’m said all I care to on this subject and I’m not going to address your points, but I think you’re just seeing what you want to see and ignoring all evidence to the contrary.
 
If you seriously think buckball season “made a mockery” of AJ, you’re just seeing sinister motivations in the writers where there are none.

@cheezedoodle  
Okay, except for a few problems - The whole adult in the room approach seems to have been completely supplanted by Twilight, and I can’t think of the last time her advice actually improved a situation or calmed things down. In fact, the last few times she was in the spotlight, that same attitude was presented only as a weakness, focusing upon her overprotective nature or overbearing qualities. In Appleoosa’s Most Wanted she was practically the antagonist and made things worse with her actions (and even her one-time victory in such a show was regarded as so minor it took place off-screen) and in The Cart Before The Ponies presents her as completely deaf to the will/wishes of others. The same goes for her stubbornness and pride. Sure, they COULD be qualities, but I can’t think of an episode where they actually helped the conclusion significantly, but a hundred others where it made life infinitely more difficult for herself or the others.
 
You say here that she’s set for life unlike the rest of the cast and she’s exactly where she wants to be. Okay, fine, but that’s not excuse for just using it as a reason to keep screwing her over, continually presenting her in the wrong or just having her screw up at every other opportunity. Even if she wants to just say on the farm, perhaps there could be an episode or two showing her improving what she has or boosting life there. Just as the others keep getting better or moving on with their lives, perhaps the writers could show her doing something to help the farm, like creating a way to prevent it getting blown up/her destroying it every season or so. Perhaps even one focusing upon the aspect you claim, where it’s a keystone in Ponyville or something which helps put it on the map, as that seems to be forgotten if not willingly ignored nine times out of ten. Perhaps rather than just leaving it to offhand mentions of “oh, yeah, she’s important to the town” they might actually show it.
 
What’s more, i’m going to have to seriously dispute your point about this being just the same as the others. In most of the others’ episodes where they succeed, they tend to do it on their lonesome. Just to bring up Sonic Rainboom and Dragonshy again, in each of them Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn’t need any other member of the group to help them overcome their failings and press onward. No, they just did it themselves. If the series treated them as it did Applejack, the group would talk them into accepting their failings and move on without any kind of victory.  
Just to further dispute this point: Hurricane Fluttershy had the titular character overcoming most of her failings on her own with minimal help, Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? was the same with Luna save for some minor encouragement, the outcome of Magic Duel was entirely down to Twilight’s efforts, Wonderbolts Academy was basically “RAINBOW DASH SAVES EVERYONE!!!” and Stare Master was another Fluttershy victory without any assistance. Those episodes? I chose them at random from a full list of all those made so far, but when I actively seek out and list of Applejack focused ones, I just end up with episode after episode of her failing. I’m sorry, I want to agree with you on the character and I agree she’s a fantastic character, but the show is not giving her any moments to shine. At all.
 
The sad thing was I was seriously considering your words and wondering if I was wrong, until we get to the latest episode. One which not only makes a complete and utter mockery of Applejack’s abilities, but makes her all but completely irreverent and seems to just be there to show how much better the other characters are at things she’s supposed to be skilled at.
 
After all, Applejack has known about buckball for years apparently and is shown repeatedly practicing her skills. So, not only do the writers decide she shouldn’t compete and Pinkie should take her place, but Pinkie can completely eclipse her without even trying, and despite the fact they shouldn’t even have a similar skill-set. The only thing Applejack accomplished in the entire episode was almost completely ruining their chances of winning and mentioning buckball to the others. At least Rainbow Dash has an excuse of not knowing about the sport and lacking experience in it, whereas Applejack is just utterly trounced over and over again.
 
I’m sorry, i’m trying to enter this with the mindset of hoping to the best but the more I stop to look at this, the more i’m honestly thinking the writers are leaving her in to make the others look better. It would certainly explain why every time they compete or there’s any conflict, she comes off infinitely worse than the others. Expecting her to be treated equally to the others honestly shouldn’t be too much to ask by this point, especially after six years of piling failure after failure upon her whereas the others keep improving.

@Background Pony #F938  
So, Baked Bads: The Prequel?
 
 
^{(ignore caption, couldn’t find clear version)}

May i remind you that the “entire Apple family” can also mean her comically extended family that we saw in the first episode and in “Raise This Barn” ?

@Background Pony #41E9  
Never get your hopes up for stuff like that in this show. I go into every new episode with hardly any expectations. Works wonders for keeping me invested in it.

My two cents:
 
I have feeling that this episode may go the route where we will get a snapshot of the Apples (with poor AJ bearing the burden of causing conflict for sake of lesson again) during AJ fillyhood. We will get some longed for Apple parent designs, names, characterization, and that’s cool stuff. But then the episode will trudge on with the lesson (which, for me, sounds unthrilling and pointless) and not explain about where parents are.
 
I wish/hope that the writers would just do it. Yes, they have all said offscreen that they are dead, but no, it has not been explicitly stated in show. At best it was “heavily implied”. That’s what I do when I am afraid of just coming out and saying it. You know, just do it and be done with it. Closure.
 
Of course I know that the episode is yet to come and that I could be wrong in so many ways. And that is what I am waiting for, to have my expectations wrecked like fresh meat and to be totally blown away. Fingers crossed.🙏

Aj`s parents appear = everyone flips there shit

I’ll say, if Apple Bloom is not around, and her parents are also not around, it would raise unfortunate implications.

@Ciaran  
Mmm. I’m just saying that you can take the evidence as they’re dead…or that they’re not physically present, for some unknown reason. Her parents could technically show up alive and well at some point and it wouldn’t be violating anything we’ve seen yet in the show.
 
Is it a big deal to me one or the other? Not really, other than some personally ruined headcanon for some people. I just want to know more about her parents anyway.

@Background Pony #405E  

 
Uh, I’m not seeing it. IMO AJ is usually the “adult in the room” who has her act together and doles out wisdom to the others as needed. She was basically set for life, having already achieved her (humble) goals by the time the show started, unlike the rest of the mane 6. Most of those failings you mentioned were situations where she had to rely on her friends for help, just like the rest of the mane 6 do in their episodes (problems in the show seldom are resolved without help from others). Ponyville is pretty much nothing without Sweet Apple Acres, and AJ is the core (so to speak) of the farm. She’s probably the second or third most important pony in town after Twilight and Mayor Mare, and this fact is brought up frequently in the show as SAA is always involved in town affairs.
 
Since she’s essentially got nowhere to go (plotwise) but down, her stubbornness and pride are focused on as simultaneously her biggest strengths, but also as liabilities because she sometimes can’t see the obvious problem she’s overlooking, or refuses to acknowledge it as a problem.
 
Finally, I can’t believe you aren’t crediting AJ with solving Mane Attraction’s problem. Twilight just gave the assist in some evidence capture. Coloratura even credits AJ right in the episode, for helping her to see things right and be true to herself.

@ArrJaySketch  

 
Most of us thought that was the show saying they were dead anyway.  
Especially when you can combine it with a yeah a little facts from Apple Family Reunion where it was said that every Pony was coming but we still didn’t see them

@ArrJaySketch  

 
How big of a flag are you asking them to wave? Seems like they’ve been nothing but clear on the subject.
 

It’s interesting to note that while Lauren and other show staff have stated that AJ’s parents are dead, in the show itself it’s just said that they’re not here.
 
I won’t lie if AJ’s parents do turn up, anyway. You know, I’d like the show to talk at all about AJ’s parents one way or the other.

@pwingbrony  
Well, in that episode’s case, the entire focus seems to follow the other family characters with only occasional moments of Applejack reacting or making the occasional decision until the very end. The rest of it has others taking up far more screen time by comparison, and it’s supposed to be an episode about her.
 
The reason I focused upon the first season so much in that introduction is that it was what helped establish her character and set the tone for what was to follow. Problem was, every single episode about her or involving her trying to solve something was a failure episode. She had no moment like Sonic Rainboom or Dragonshy to overcome her failings and prove she had a place in the group, overcoming something none of the others could. Instead, she just kept having episode after episode where the writers would run to the others for help or screw up so badly they would need others to fix things for her. At best, we end up with one episode in season two where she talks some sense into Rarity so she could have a glory moment instead.
 
The closest comparison I can think of in this sort of treatment is Ultra Magnus from Transformers Prime. It’s made clear the character is skilled and the character is competent, but the writers despise the guy so much they actively refused to let him win any fight and repeatedly maimed him until he was in a lesser standing than everyone else.
 
It’s frustrating because the character is supposed to be good, and the show even treats her as if she should be an equal to the others, but every single damn moment which follows her just treats AJ as if it’s only natural for her to be failing at everything.

I still insist that it is not possible that this is the cause of death of the parents of AJ, although they say the whole family is no sign that finally they will appear.
 
In addition, everyone should remember that MLP is a show for children, and do not think seriously going to use the content of someone dying in a show like this, even the villains here do not die.

Wait? Filly Aj episode?

I’d be satisfied if they at least show the parents, that’s enough. Even if they don’t speak, really. Only show them so we can know who they are and that’s it.
 
It’d be heaven if they actually explain something about’em.

the story of how… her parents…  

@Background Pony Number 17  
Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily mind if we didn’t learn much of anything about the parents, either. But, it’s still an enticing subject.

@pwingbrony  
Personally I’d rather keep the identities and fate of AJ’s parents a mystery. We don’t really need to know who they are and what became of them; the only relevant fact is they’re not around. Watching AJ cope with that unstated fact–while keeping it unstated–is actually a major part of her character.

@Background Pony #405E  
I think you are just over exaggerating a lot of those points. I understand what it’s like to feel overly negative about something you care about. But, I just don’t see Applejack as getting THAT bad of a rep. I don’t know how “Leap of Faith” shoves her aside, for example. I was saying that that episode might’ve been a stretch because she does somewhat screw up in that one. But, it is more of an honest mistake that she quickly makes up for.
 
She isn’t focused on much. That’s all I can say.