Why TwiJack Needs More Love (and Writers) · 3:30pm Oct 15th, 2013
So this is…sort of a writingcraft blog, I guess. Normally for that I talk about some aspect of writing, but today I’m talking about a specific ship. TwiJack, to be exact, and why it’s awesome.
You might be wondering why I’m writing this for TwiJack, when I never really did this for TwiDash. Fair, but let’s do a quick little compare and contrast between TwiDash and TwiJack:
TwiDash: The largest group devoted to a single ship, with 1362 members, bigger than the next closest (TwiLuna) by 63 members, with 417 stories in the ‘all stories’ folder.
TwiJack: Sitting halfway down the fifth page of all groups with 196 members, with 54 total stories, three of which are separated as friendshipping.
Okay, so it’s not like TwiJack’s ignored or anything. The highest rated romance story that ships mane six x mane six is Yours Truly, which is TwiJack (it’s the sixth highest rated romance currently, and is behind a Sparity, two OC x changeling fics in the same continuity, a TaviScratch, and a RariBlood). It’s not a completely passed over ship, but it is an unassuming ship. It sits somewhere in the middle of possible mane six x mane six pairings, for those that rank such things. On the shipping survey bookplayer ran earlier in the year, it ranked 34th out of 110 ships. Rarely a passion, rarely hated.
Why? Because it’s boring.
That’s what I usually hear anyway, and I’ve been guilty of that thought in the past. It’s easy to see why, for a number of reasons. A lot of folks aren’t terribly keen on Applejack, first and foremost. Even though she’s clearly awesome:
She’s dependable and no-nonsense, a perfect straight man to wacky hijinks, relatably flawed, and best of all (in my opinion) a strong and sure of herself woman, who is unquestionably feminine, while not exhibiting ‘traditionally girly’ traits. She’s a role model worth looking up to, not only by the target demographic of preteen girls, but adults as well. Rainbow Dash has a great share of the ‘unique and intriguing role models for girls’ that the show has, but Applejack’s brand of ‘tomboy’ is different. Applejack simply doesn’t care about girly things. She values hard work, honesty, bravery, dedication, and history.
I can hear it already. “But bats, everything you just listed is boring.” Okay, the show clearly has no idea what to do with Applejack when she’s on her own. For a reason why, I think it really comes down to the show’s target. Squeezing a lesson about family and work out of AJ is easy by playing to her stubborn streak, and with a simple plot like that it’s easy to hang visual gags and hijinks on the skeleton to pad out a 22 minute episode. Add that to the fact that Applejack is at a slightly more mature point in her life than the others, and there’s not much room for ‘character growth’ like there is for some of the others, and you’re left with a lot of ‘safe’ episodes when she’s the focus.
But let’s be fair here. When it comes to appreciating the characters in the show, only part of it is actual show content. We’re all fans here, but the show is written for children, and those seams show sometimes. Episodes have lessons about friendship most of the time, delivered at and for children, and sometimes those lessons are muddled, uninteresting, or repetitious. They don’t use Applejack very well, but that’s not unique to her; there are examples of poor utilizations for all the characters, as a focus or an aside. It’s just the nature of the format.
And this is fanfiction. Fanfiction is all about going in directions the show doesn’t go in, telling more complicated, more mature, and more subtle stories than they’d tell in 22 minutes on Sunday morning. Applejack is ‘older’ in maturity than some of the other characters, which for some means there’s less room for her to grow and thus has less that can be done with her. That might be true for the show. It’s not true for fanfiction, especially romance stories.
Applejack has her shit together. She’s living the life she wants to live, is generally successful at it, has a grasp on who she is, and knows what she wants.
A part of it might simply be an age thing. Not to imply that not liking her is immature or anything, but I’m at a different point in my life at twenty-seven than I was at seventeen, and where I might have thought of Applejack as less of a peer and more of an authority figure then, she’s a peer for me now. I can’t say I’ve got everything figured out and am living my dream life, but the point she’s at in her life is one I can identify with more strongly than I can the other characters. Twilight is the closest to me in personality, but Applejack is the closest in ‘age,’ and that connection makes her compelling to me.
And even if you don’t identify with her in that way, that level of maturity is without a doubt something desirable in a romantic partner, which makes the whole job of shipping her that much easier. It really doesn’t matter which character you’re talking about shipping her with, because all of them have a pretty front and center reason for considering a relationship with her: Applejack is stable. If someone is weighing the pros and cons of pursuing a relationship with her, that right there is appealing in and of itself.
So maybe you don’t agree with me that Applejack isn’t boring, but hopefully you can see why she’s at least a strong character, with not only something to offer a story (even if that something is just a perfect sounding board to give everyone else set-ups for awesome lines), but something to offer a romantic partner.
I’m a ship writer, so I don’t expect anyone here to need me to argue the point of shipping characters, so let’s launch into TwiJack itself. And to start that, let’s talk about what I’m looking for in a ship, because what I’m looking for isn’t necessarily the same as what others are looking for, and it helps to be on the same page.
I’m not going to talk about love. Anyone can say in a story how character A loves character B. Infatuatons aren’t really under discussion, either; I’m sporting a huge crush on Justin Timberlake, but I don’t pretend that means anything, and there have been a number of people I’ve had passing to serious infatuations with since I was eight, but I only married one of them. And it wasn’t because she liked me back, though that certainly helped smooth the courting process out a lot.
What makes a ship work, in my opinion, is all the stuff that would make a character consider acting on such a feeling. What the two see in each other, where they identify with each other, where they respect each other, the ways they can help and support each other. This is informed by a combination of a lot of things, like core values, general personalities, hobbies, habits, and past interactions. I have, in the past, gone into a high amount of detail discussing TwiDash, since it’s one of those ships that some folks ask, ‘What’s the deal with this ship?’
So, let’s do a quick one for TwiJack. If you’re already on board for TwiJack, feel free to skip ahead.
Twilight and Applejack think the same way. They’re both rooted in common sense and practicality over flights of fancy, they both are driven and hard-working, and they’re both more at home doing simple things than they are putting on airs. Applejack rejected the life in Manehattan in her youth, which she felt was her putting on a façade, in exchange for the bare honesty of home. Twilight, for all her Canterlot upbringing, princesshood, and exposure to Celestia, has never really been shown to care for it at all. At the start, she was always more focused on her studies, values a plain and simple style over frilliness, and would much rather sit around talking with her mentor than shake hooves with Very Important Ponies.
When confronted with problems, both of them are problem-solvers rather than commiserators. They want to fix things for others, out of a desire for peace and prosperity in their fellows, out of a desire to feel valued (see Twilight’s crisis in Winter Wrap Up and Applejack’s crisis in The Last Roundup for examples of either putting stock in themselves by what they can do for others), and out of simply thinking that way. They’re a pair that puzzles things apart, using common sense first and foremost for rooting out what’s bothering those around them and trying to help.
They come from different lives and have different interests, but that’s hardly a death knell for a ship; if it was, TwiDash would fall for the same reason. I know not everyone reading this necessarily likes TwiDash, or has read any of mine, but that’s not really relevant. Plenty of real life examples exist of two partners not having similar focuses on careers or hobbies, but connecting for other reasons. Applejack might not know anything about magic, but it’s clear she respects Twilight’s knowledge of it, relies on Twilight’s expertise at times, and respects Twilight’s work ethic and devotion. The same could be said for Twilight and farming. These are characters that can connect, see the passion in each other, be reminded of their own passions, and want to spur each other on to loftier heights if for no other reason than seeing the joy in their partner succeeding and feeling vindicated for having a hoof in it.
And from the things that have drawn the characters together, I look at what the relationship does to the characters. One of the biggest appeals for TwiDash to me is how they complement each other’s foibles, and how those foibles get softened over time as they’re together. They’re left better off having gotten together than they were separately. And the same holds true for TwiJack: Twilight is the one who can crack through Applejack’s stubbornness and get her to not take the world on her shoulders, as well as offering an excuse to join in on a shared leisure activity (Dash isn’t the only character who likes reading). She’s one who can get AJ to unwind, which is what AJ needs. And Twilight, who is prone to occasional freak-outs and crises, needs someone level-headed who can talk her down.
So what does TwiJack look like, with the two of them together? They’re both so down-to-earth most of the time, and rooted in such similar core values and life outlooks, that any fights they have would be most likely hammered out over coffee. They’d be supportive and nurturing of each other, while being independent and driven separately. Two alpha-women that can rely on each other when they need it, leave each other alone when they need space, work out problems quietly, and be mildly surprised when fifty years have passed and they’re sitting together on the porch hoof in hoof, wondering where all the time went when they were just living life together.
Booooring. There’s nothing exciting when there’s no drama. They’re every boringly married couple you’ve ever met, who sit around agreeing with each other on practically everything and talking about how they’re gonna be filing their taxes in four months (just as soon as they both get their W2s).
Except not at all, because there’s another trait the two of them have in common.
They’re both badasses.
Twilight Sparkle was a unicorn so powerfully magical, she rewrote reality and got a snazzy pair of wings out of the deal. Applejack is strong as hell, tough as nails, won’t shy away from a fight when it’s important, and fears very little. Rainbow Dash is the other ‘heavy’ of the mane six, but she’s prone to laziness, lapses in judgment (kicking an irritated dragon in the face might be awesome, but not really a sought after quality in a pony when things are to the wire), and a desire to look cool and receive praise over working smart. Twilight already sort of defaults Applejack to second-in-command, and if she were going to pick someone with which to journey into monster-infested jungle, it’s going to be Applejack.
TwiJack is tailor made for adventure stories: two strong and brave, level-headed heroines with the power to back themselves up, who can rely on each other. All that boring stuff that makes them adorable but not necessarily exciting in a slice of life setting becomes an asset to survival when the conflict is coming from outside. They don’t need the interpersonal drama when staring down a pack of starved timber wolves, or questing to a long-forgotten tomb. Their similar ways of thinking and planning, comfortable reliance on each other, and ease at settling disagreements becomes an asset, as the perils ramp up and their mutual trust grows stronger and deeper.
They are might and magic, and they will kick the ass of anyone stupid or foolhardy enough to get in their way.
They are also overwhelmingly minable for story seeds. Their different societal stations as a princess and a farmer is like a fairy-tale, and twists on fairy-tale conventions could lead to quest adventures, as Applejack seeks station necessary among royal laws to court a princess, or Twilight’s duties require the aid of a ‘knight.’ And Applejack’s insular family is often an obstacle in AJ shipfics, but with Twilight as a newcomer outsider to the town, that fairy-tale feeling rears its head again and Twilight can be the one questing to show worthiness.
Whatever the reason the two of them would have for tearing a swath of destruction through enemy forces, bypassing dangers, and outsmarting traps, the two of them would face it headlong, and they would do it together.
And that’s why TwiJack is awesome, and totally not boring, and why you should consider loving the pairing, too. For such an under-represented ship, both in fans and in stories, there is so much potential there, and I can only write so fast.
Spread the word. TwiJack needs its time in the sun.
Whoa, you make a strong point, bats! I'll think about it
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I do REALLY hope that doesn't mean you will abandon TwiDash and focus on TwiJack instead
Never really tried TwiJack and still have your "Room for One More" in read later, I might just read it all tonight since you appear to so strongly recommend it
When you really think about it, Bats. Any ship can have merit or worth, like the way you described (very good might I add) Twijack.
At the end of the day it comes down to the reader in question. Argue all you want till the cows come home, they won't budge.
I personally don't mind me a good Twijack. I also think you're right about Applejack. Minus Pinkie and the CMC being my favourite, Applejack and Rarity are second on my list.
You never know what could be a good ship. Heck, I'm currently doing a Colgate x Rose one. But, depending on the quality of work, and the reader, any fic can be a good ship.
1422336
Y'all are getting at least three more TwiDash novels out of me (a sequel to Spellbound Fireflies, a novel in the Twilight Holmes continuity, and a sequel to Coming Back if I ever manage to finish it), so don't fret that I'm 'jumping ships.' I'm not really an OTP guy and I write where the ideas take me. TwiDash is, in a lot of ways, very similar to TwiJack: Dash is also rather practical, and as I said, she's the third badass. There's plenty to mine from that pairing, too (or I wouldn't have written so many damn TwiDash stories already).
TwiJack's just, like, a twentieth the size of TwiDash, when in all reasonability it shouldn't be.
Bats this is beautiful and didn't you say somewhere that you had a TwiJack you wanted to write but it was gonna be a long'un so you haven't started it yet and it's gonna be Adventure Romance isn't it bATS ITS GONNA BE ADVENTURE ROMANCE TWIJACK ISN'T IT
*breathes*
But yeah, this was a really cool and true blog post. It outlines cleanly all the reasons I like and dislike TwiJack. I like it because they have a good number of natural meshes, are capable of being good foils, and basically are one of the few Mane Six ships that I could actually see turning into a life-long stable relationship (sadly, PinkieShy doesn't fall into that category...). Of course, then you run into the problem of how they can "be mildly surprised when fifty years have passed and they’re sitting together on the porch hoof in hoof, wondering where all the time went when they were just living life together." Because while beautiful, that doesn't exactly have all the drama of many Slice of Life shipfics. But then you brought up the excellent and extremely exciting point that everyone should just write badass Adventure Romance stories, which is extremelyextremelyextremelyokaypleasedothiseauthorsyes.
Also bats I thought you knew we don't talk about Yours Truly because it's too fantastic (yes that is my excuse)
Any case, good blog post. I already ship like all the Mane Six/Mane Six ships (and really hard, too..), but perhaps this will bring some non-believers into the light.
(Now we crackshippers just need to crawl from the walls and convince you that stuff like Twilgiht/Sunset Shimmer is a good idea... And then you'll write long blog posts about that... And then people will realize that it's a good idea... And then it will be written! >:DD)
I mean.
*coughs*
Um.
1422352
Actually, my planned TwiJack novel isn't much of an adventure at all. The premise is also rather out there and I'm expecting little love or interest in it, actually. But I think it's interesting, and it'll hopefully entertain all twenty people who'll agree with me.
As for crack pairings...eh. I said what I look for in shipping, and blank slate A x rough caricature personality C, or Twilight x antagonist from something I haven't seen (but have heard is like Trixie, only with less development) aren't appealing or compelling to me. I write fanfiction about MLP because I like the characters. If I have an idea for a story that isn't going to utilize those characters, why not leave ponies out of the equation and write some original fiction?
1422359
Ah, well.
Oh, you have a viewpoint of crack shipping much different from mine...
...tell me, what do you think of CelestiPie?
1422366
Those are at least characters with defined personalities.
I have personal squick associated with mortal/immortal romance stories, so no thanks, but I do like the notion of friendshipping them to a stronger degree. Pinkie's few interactions with Celestia show she has extremely little in the way of self-consciousness boundaries concerning the fact that Celestia is royalty (her scarfing down food Celestia was about to eat springs to mind), and Celestia almost always strikes me as being trapped in a 'dignitary mask,' while being much more playful and impish in private. I'd imagine they'd be able to make each other laugh very well.
1422372
Indeed, indeed. 'Tis a pairing that needs more love, whether romantically or just as friends. Because it's great. It's like my secret OTP.
(Though I did not know this until I read Cloud Skies's Twice As Bright.)
I do love TwiJack. I've always loved TwiJack.
It's not that people don't like it, it's that people don't write it. Even the fans of Applejack write Twidash.
I mean... *gestures vaguely towards Bats' stories page*
I still think Twidash is the one ship to rule them all, but I certainly do like me some good Twijack, uncommon though it seems to be. I haven't considered writing anything about them, but . . . perhaps that should change.
I give you a big sloppy kiss from Jake R
Rarity x Rainbow Dash is also underappreciated, imo! Superficially they've got the 'opposites attract' dynamic that people seem to like so much; but they're alike in their ambition, their drive to Make It Big and Be Famous, and to look good doing so.
Posting to both blogs,
Blah blah blah, made for adventure, blah blah blah, oh wait pretty much no one does adventure.
Blah blah.
...
... I'm working on it...
I'm just not convinced it won't suck is all. I haven't written fiction in... uh... what decade is this?
I read it all, 'cause: bats. Not that I agree though, and this really forms the unanswered sticking point.
Everything mentioned as "awesome" about AJ is easily surpassed by RD. Stable? RD is the element of loyalty. She may be flighty, hasty, and awesome, but she's also loyal and devoted to her friends. She'd easily be devoted to her Twilight. And like AJ, she too has a stable job, a home, and so on. She brings that stability without being boring about it. AJ and Twi would squabble over the exemptions on the tax form, while RD would just leave that to Twi and trust her judgement on it, while focusing on the passion.
Throw in the adventure stuff, and every positive thing you could say about AJ, RD brings to the table too. Again, LOYALTY. She might favor more bold actions, but she's also displayed plenty of willingness to learn and rely on her friends. She also brings wings. When you're out in the wilderness, trekking through woods, swamps, mountains, caves, and who knows what the ability to fly is excessively handy. I've been playing games like D&D for over two decades, and flight is so unbelievably useful it far outweights whatever slight advantage in strength AJ might offer over RD's considerable physical traits. Even the show admits to this. AJ is only competitive when RD's wings are tied. Otherwise it is simply no contest.
About the only setting I could see AJ being an asset in over RD might be some kind of zombie survival setting. Even then, flying Twi up to the clouds would be a much safer setup than anything AJ could provide, but at least the farmer could feed them through the siege.
Additional thoughts: as far as anything AJ brings to the table in terms of stability, only Pinky Stands out as lacking it on the surface. Even then, she's also from a farming background, holds a stable job as a baker, and would provide far more livelihood to the relationship. In contrast, if you wanted competition for boring, I'd nominate Fluttershy as being stable and boring.
Kinda makes me wanna try it but sadly, I ain't no good at the adventury actiony thing. I'm the feelsy sad dialogue writer. I can set a scene, write out epic dialogue and show you whats happening with a smidge of tell but when you add action I fall on my face. Would love to test yer twijack theory though. It's an under appreciated ship that I do find quote enjoyable when done well, the appletree comes to mind, and would like to see more of it. Then again I will devour any worthwhile story so how much is my opinion worth on the matter. Hmmmmm, maybe I can do a twijack reminiscy one shot to avoid having to focus to much on adventure,. *wanders off mumbling to himself*
1422540
You seem to be under the impression that I don't think Dash is awesome, that Applejack is better than Dash, or that TwiDash doesn't work wonderfully for adventure stories (or AppleDash for that matter) which I'm not. What I am saying is that Applejack is awesome. Dash is awesome, too, but they're different, and TwiJack is very different than TwiDash. Yes, Dash is loyal and that's something that would play its part in an adventure story (it's not like I'm not writing a TwiDash adventure story or anything), but for all her loyalty, she's self-centered and myopic a lot of the time; that's not a bad thing necessarily, and it leads to Dash having a lot of great lines whenever she's featured in a story.
But I'm not arguing against these things. I'm arguing for TwiJack, which is an under-represented ship that looks, feels, and reads differently than TwiDash. It's an understated and quiet pairing a lot of the time, but it has so much potential that's hardly ever realized. And it's not boring.
That's what this is about. Not 'abandon ship; I refute TwiDash,' just 'Applejack is awesome and TwiJack needs more love.'
1422630
I don't fear you're jumping ship or abandoning. I used a lot of TwiDash examples because you did.
I guess the summary of what I was trying to convey is that everything you list as a reason to use AJ is equally valid for using RD, but RD simply does it cooler. About 2... yeah, nevermind.
I'd even go so far as to argue that if you took any TwiJack story and replaced AJ with RD in it, you'd end up with a better story. In fact, you could probably do the same with just about any story featuring AJ. Unless it is specifically central to Sweet Apple Acres, the Apple family, or something along those lines, it would take very little adjustment to the details to fit RD in and make a much more exciting and interesting story.
Princess Celestia tasks Twilight and one friend to go solve problem X. Twilight brings AJ, stuff happens. Some expected details: AJ makes arrangements at the farm for things to not go all to shit in her absence, while Twilight has spike watch the Library. Considering how vital AJ is to the farm, the Apple family probably has to hire like three or four ponies full time for however long the pair is off adventuring. Replace that with RD, and she just has Cloud Kicker, Blossomforth, or some other random background pegasus manage in her absence (and likely do a better job with the paperwork side of things).
The duo travels. AJ (or RD) are more physically hardy and set a grueling pace, and have to slow down for the more sedentary Twilight.
It would be an interesting discussion perhaps to find any single element of a TwiJack story that you could not feasibly write RD instead and make it on par or better.
All that brings the question not which is the better ship, or which to stick with... but why would someone want to read the TwiJack? you already have a talented author: bats. You already have an excellent plot (presumably), so the story already "exists" waiting for your chisel to knock away the stone it is encased in by writing it. It's already on the canvas, waiting to leap out to be seen by your audience. Which color paint will you use though? Will you use AJ color or RD color?
I just saw this on Tchernobog's blog, I am very glad to have read it. I have always felt very apathetic about AJ, and this finally helped me understand exactly why that is.
My fundamental problem with her is exactly that stability.
This is not about maturity because I am at more or less the same point in my life as she is, it is a fundamentally different mindset that I have because I am an engineer. Engineering is not just a job, career, or college major, it is a mindset. It is fundamentally accepting the fact that nothing can ever be perfect and seeing that as room for improvement, not something to accept passively. It is constantly looking at devices, processes, and everything else around you, seeing what the flaws are, and figuring out how to improve upon them.
This is fundamentally contradictory to how AJ thinks and acts because her goal is stability, not progress. She would rather maintain what already is than take a risk on something new whereas I am constantly thinking, experimenting, tinkering, and accepting that I will screw things up sometimes because ideas to improve things do not always work out.
That said, I do respect her because I accept that that kind of stability is necessary, it is just more of an abstract thing because people who want to sustaining a stable system are fundamentally not able to follow the way I think because of the different mindset no matter their intelligence.
This also applies to some extent to Twilight which is a big part of why I have never really latched onto her like I have with Rarity and especially Rainbow Dash who are always out trying to improve things even if it does blow up in their faces. This seems contradictory at first given that Twilight is the most technical of the mane 6, but it is really more about mindset than subject.
Thanks again, and I am off to see what you have written to see if there is anything I want to follow you for besides your blog posts.
~D48
1422672
Why use AJ instead of Dash? They're...not the same characters. At all. The way Twilight and Applejack interact is different than the way Twilight and Dash interact. The way they approach problems together is different, the way they talk, what they talk about...if anything, it would be easier to make the argument that TwiDash and AppleDash can be an either/or switch out, because Applejack has much more in common with Twilight than she does with Dash.
Dash's loyalty and dependability is rooted in something much different than Applejack's. Dash is sloppy and myopic, and she cycles between dependable and completely unreliable. She's flashy and bold, cocky and attention-seeking, wanting to take action first and ask questions later, distrustful of outsiders, runs her mouth off, and doesn't think things through.
Sure, most base plot lines for action stories would work well enough as a TwiDash (or AppleDash for that matter), but they'd be different stories. Romance at its core is about character interaction, and the way TwiJack feels is very different than TwiDash. The action will read differently in a TwiJack adventure than a TwiDash, and there are positives and negatives to either choice. You mentioned how having wings would make Dash an asset in an adventure story. What if having wings, and thus the ability to scope out the lay of the land, made things too easy for the plot of the story? Those extra inconveniences can be the difference between a good adventure plot and a great one.
Why would you use AJ over Dash? Because the story you're wanting to tell is one more suited for Applejack. The characters really aren't interchangeable, because for the romance plot, 99% of it boils down to character interaction. A plot structure might work with either TwiDash or TwiJack as the ships, but the end result will be two completely different stories, that read differently and have different emotional resonances between the characters.
Which one is the better story has to do with the intention of the story, and for some plots, TwiJack's just gonna work better.
1422672
I'm sorry, but Dash is not stable.
Yes, she has a home and a job, but that job is one she plans on leaving someday, she hopes. Which is up in the air (no pun intended); she might be a Wonderbolt, she might be a weather pony, she might find something totally different to do. From this point in canon, Dash could go a lot of directions.
Applejack is a farmer, who will most likely be a farmer until she dies. She's a known entity, a pony who's with her knows where her home is, for better or worse. This can be a big benefit, or it can cause problems, but if there are problems with it it's not going to be because anypony was surprised.
Dash is in the process of growing up, but she's not there yet, there are aspects of her personality that can vary wildly and aren't set in stone. Twilight would never quite be sure which Dash she was going to get in any situation. She might get Wonderbolt's Academy style responsibility and restraint, or Crystal Empire level aggression, or even Sonic Rainboom level nerves.
Applejack is Applejack, just as she seems. Give her a job and she does it until you tell her to stop doing it. Again, she's a known entity, Twilight could easily predict how Applejack will react. This is useful if you're making plans, and also if things don't go as planned and Twilight has to know without a conversation what the pony with her is doing.
In terms of strictly adventure, Rainbow Dash can fly, which is useful, but her speed and personality makes her likely to split the party at inopportune moments. AJ is, once again, more stable-- she's fast and strong, but much less likely to fly off after a foe and leave Twilight with no back-up.
She's also less likely to start trouble in the first place, and sometimes the best way to win a fight is to avoid starting it. AJ is better at diplomacy than Dash -- maybe not as good as Rarity, but she understands the concept, which Dash doesn't (see Crystal Empire and Keep Calm and Flutter On.) Having muscle who is more likely to smooth things over than get in a fight is something Twilight might look for.
Applejack is also more logical and a good backup planner. If Twilight did find herself in a sticky situation, she could count on AJ to do the logical thing to get her out. Dash might get her out, but it probably wouldn't be by doing the logical thing.
So, while Twilight could bring Rainbow Dash on an adventure, to a pony as careful and analytical as Twilight, AJ is actually the more responsible choice. She might have to give up some advantages, like Dash's flight, but she'd be in a better position in a lot of ways that would matter to Twilight.
1422540 While I do agree with you overall, there is an important difference between Rainbow and AJ which ties back into my earlier post. While Rainbow is loyal to a fault, she is inherently not stable. She is constantly striving to progress and improve while AJ is happy with a stable life as a farmer and family member. AJ will probably happily stay on the farm until the day she dies, but Rainbow is constantly trying to improve so she can become a Wonderbolt, and she will not stop once she gets there.
The big functional difference here is that AJ will always deliver with 100%, but she will not try anything crazy to do more while Rainbow is willing to take risks to deliver 120% at the risk of crashing and burning.
1422673
This really is a good point of view that I completely get behind.
As we saw in S1E11, Winter Wrapup, AJ was opposed to the use of magic. Sure, when Twi did use it she messed up, but had it been more accepted (so she didn't have to hide it) and had she a bit more experience with her magic (she was still a bit clumsy with it at that point) things would have been vastly improved. Spike repeatedly was baffled that Ponyville didn't use magic. This angle on AJ forms the basis of why the Apples are often seen as stubborn, traditional, and anti-progress. This is antithetical to Twilights scientific and progress-oriented mindset.
In Applebucking Season we see Twilight harvesting whole rows of trees at once with her magic. I think that would create some conflicts that couldn't simply be argued over coffee. Twilight would outright make AJ obsolete. Given an interest in agriculture, Twilight could learn everything AJ has honed over her life, experiment with some magic, and render AJ's entire way of life pointless.
If anything I think there would be a distinct lack of stability in the relationship. It's obvious even from bat's blog that "send them on an adventure" is the best way to tell a TwiJack story, and it shows a fundamental issue. Twilight on the farm is boring at best, disastrous at worst. AJ is in her element on the farm, and getting her off the farm is necessary for any remotely interesting things to happen.
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The two are interchangeable in terms of plot. you are correct that which pony you plug into which hole does change the end story, and that is the point. The story that results from the TwiDash configuration ends up superior by being more interesting, in my opinion. This is mostly relevant to the adventure stories, wherein the conflict is external, not the romance/internal plots. The romance/internal plots are already self-defeated by the boring AJ.
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RD is stable in that she is actually predictable as well. She isn't secret or subtle with her goals. Her life is in motion while AJ's is standing still, but both are stable. The differences of execution between her and AJ form the interest and impetus to stories, because RD brings energy.
Twilight is a smart pony. She's used to dealing with multiple variables. The stability of RD is that she is expected to act certain ways, but will do so with her friends being considered over herself. Twilight might not be able to predict where RD is at a given moment, or where she'll be ten years from now, but you can rely on her being there for Twilight/friends whatever or wherever she ends up living or doing.
With AJ, the variables are simple. Where is AJ today so I can go meet her? Farm or market. Where will AJ be tomorrow? Same. Ten years from now? Same. It's certainly stable, to the point of stagnation. Is AJ more stable than RD? Sure. But both characters bring stability with them. As I said, even Pinkie Pie brings stability.
In the end, it's still more about how interesting the story would be. I'm sure bats can write an interesting TwiJack story; he wrote a FlutterDash that is on my favorites list after all. I'm sure he could write a gripping Tom x Bloomburg tale for the matter. I just don't see much love being sent AJ's way because she is a boring character, and nothing in this blog really changes that. She'll fit in a pony-shaped hole in a story, but she won't bring much entertainment.
Can you give me an example of a story that you think fits the bill?
1422837
An existing story, or a potential story?
I like Twijack alot, especially the Twijack shipping pics. <3
Fics, well...most Twijack fics I've seen and read were after a while... boring. :/
Either that or very short and not exciting enough. Some got nice romance developement but somehow, which is funny, AJ's family very often kept getting IN THE WAY.
I woul have liked aTwijack fic in which other ponies whisper behind their backs how a "farmer pony" even dares to think to date a princess, maybe even have some gossip rag rip AJ a new one, etc. I would have liked a Twijack fic in which Twi loses both her horn and wings and AJ helps her to adapt to the life of an earth pony and they fall in love with each other. I would have liked to read a Twijack fic in which AJ is the princess and Twi the Knight or Mage or wahtever who courts her - make Aj the "girly" but nononsense woman and Twi the "manly" and more "assertive" part of the couple.
But more Twijack's fics just seems to be...there. There's often no goal, no cause driving them, no drama/tension, not grand heights and deep falls, it's just feels in many Twijack fics so-so.
Probably I haven't read them all, which is a given with over 500+ fics waiting in my read later list, more than half of them Twidash fics. <_<
Maybe I should write a Twijack fic myself but I just never am sure I get her accent down right. :/
What's written in the transcriptions of the episodes and what AJ says in the same episodes are pretty different to my eyes/ears and it's hard for me to get her speech done right. I'm never too happy whenever I write some AJ speech, I always have the feeling to have wronged her accent, which isn't the main part of her, but is a part of her nonetheless. And I don't get it done right. :c
1422838 Existing
Fan-gasm. nuff said.
And now I really, really wanna read an awesome TwiJack adventure story.
Woot! Someone else gets it! Applejack has always been my favorite. Strange, considering I'm not really at a point in my life where she's very relatable, but perhaps I'm just idolizing her a little. She is pretty praiseworthy, considering how solid and stable she manages to be in a world significantly more turbulent than our own. I think some see her as boring simply because she's the only one of the mane six you could plonk down in a non-magical, non-fantasy setting without changing anything about her. I just take that as further proof of her all round badassery.
This is an interesting post, but I have to disagree with you on one fundamental point:
I have to say that while this describes AJ well, Twilight is NOT rooted in common sense. Twilight is a professional student, dedicated to learning new and different ways of doing things and discovering how and why things work. This is as almost as contradictory to AJ's down to earth, get it done approach as Dash's "I'll get to it when I get to it" attitude.
Twilight could never live on the Apple Farm. With her love of tradition, AJ would never let her change how they do things. And she would never leave farm and family to be with Twi.
Not to mention the Apple family stubborn streak vs. the Sparkle "Lesson Zero" syndrome. If they should butt heads over something, I see AJ calmly asserting her position as Twilight grows more and more frantic trying to understand why her marefriend simply won't understand her.
I'm not saying that the ship is not feasible, but it is certainly volatile. Sure, Applejack could be the rock that supports Twilight; but she could also be the boulder that crushes her spirit.
Maybe there is a god. I think we can all agree there needs to be more Adventure TwiJack fics out there. Thank ye for spreading the message.
I have absolutely no problem with the ship.
But I still feel like it's fundamentally boring. I won't reiterate why (you already explained it well) but the solution you offer is: don't write a romance story.
Romance is a fairly specific genre; and an adventure story with a romantic subplot is not part of that genre. So based on what you said, don't write TwiJack romance stories.
The flip side of the coin would be your desire to see more TwiJack adventure stories: okay I'd read the heck out of that. Twilight's relationship to AJ is a fairly good version of an officer's relationship to their NCO: a Captain and a Sargent.
But I'm not sure any such story would be enhanced by making that relationship romantic. If the adventure itself is exciting, needless snuggletime isn't going to make it better, and is likely to make the story worse even if executed well. I'm assuming they're adventuring together: constantly saving each other's lives will create an intense intimacy without any sexual tension. c.f. Frodo and Sam's relationship.
I might be wrong, and if I am I'd like to know how.
I like Applejack. She's a fun character. The writers sometimes have a bit of trouble with focusing on her (in fact, not a single Applejack-centric episode is rated a 5 or a 4 on my list) and she has amongst the fewest focus episodes of any main character, but she does well in a supporting role.
I think she isn't very many people's favorite character for the reasons above, though.
I think there's a larger problem here, which is related to this issue. I think the real problem is the lack of a spark between them. There just isn't anything there. It isn't that they aren't good friends, it is that the idea that they are anything more is, well...
Yeah, they're both dependable, solid ponies. But what is there about Applejack that excites Twilight (besides possibly physical attraction, anyway)? Where is the grand romance? Being a solid person in real life is a major plus, but I know plenty of stable people who aren't attractive to me in any way.
You're forgetting something:
The mane six are closer to 17 than they are to 27; my guess about their ages is that they are, in the present, somewhere in the realm of 18-20, and given that Rainbow Dash won Best Young Flier two years ago (probably implying she was under the age of 18 at that point) there's a good chance that they are 18 years old, plus or minus a year on a pony-by-pony basis.
So while stability may be very attractive to YOU, do you think it is as quite attractive to them? Doubly so given that, assuming you say that Applejack is never leaving the farm, being in a relationship with Applejack would tie them down? Maybe that's attractive to Fluttershy, but to someone like Rainbow Dash, Twilight, or Rarity, that's a negative.
This is beside the point that, quite frankly, this is a story. Stories aren't about what IS, but what people dream about. Most people want nice, stable, happy lives where they are never at risk of death or serious injury. They want to work, go home, and have a nice evening at home, and sometimes go on vacation to Disneyworld with their kids, or go on a romantic cruise without the kids, or whatever.
Stories aren't about that, though. Stories have action, mystery, excitement. People love reading about World War II, but people don't want to BE in World War II; being a soldier sucked, but watching a movie about being a soldier is fun. So it is with romance; people want interesting romantic partners in games and books, not realistic ones.
People have the hots for Sean Connery and Harrison Ford for a reason.
Let's face reality here: the real reason TwiJack isn't a hugely popular ship is that nothing involving anyone other than Rainbow Dash is a popular Mane 6 x Mane 6 ship. RariJack is the most popular mane six ship that doesn't involve Rainbow Dash, and (according to the shipping chart) has a whopping 97 stories, as compared to 162 for Pinkie Dash, 242 for FlutterDash, 253 for TwiDash, and 276 for AppleDash. Twinkie and TwiShy are in the 70s, and Flarity and FlutterDash are in the 50s, and TwiJack is in the 40s.
I mean, my pre-fandom expectation was that the most popular ships would be AppleDash, RariJack, FlutterDash, and Flarity. TwiDash being popular doesn't surprise me, but the lack of popularity of Rarijack and Flarity really did surprise me.
I disagree. There are some superficial similarities, which you pointed out, but, well, they have very different definitions of "practicality". Applejack believes in "practicality" in the hard work sense; something is tough, you just have to buckle down, grit your teeth, and get through it with hard work. Twilight believes in practicality in the engineer sort of way; while she is happy to work hard, she doesn't believe in hard work, just doing what needs to be done. If she has an issue, she'll try to come up with some solution, frequently magical in nature. Pick a bunch of apple trees? I've got a spell for that! You know as well as I do that if Spike wasn't around the library to clean up, there would be a bunch of mops walking around with buckets.
Applejack is happy to get Twilight's help from time to time, but Twilight would see the farm like she sees everything, as a problem to be solved. Applejack tends to do a cycle of work, over and over again, while Twilight is utterly the opposite, being very much about novelty. She comes up with new spells and new solutions. Applejack complains about being tired or sore after doing something on the farm, and Twilight would probably try and come up with some magical solution for it.
I could easily see this being very weird for Applejack.
Anyway, as for the rest of it...
On the face of it, they seem like they would work well as an adventuring couple, though I think that's true of most of the cast members. Combining shipping with adventure is very common, after all; many adventure stories have an element of romance to them.
There is one huge problem with it, though: Twilight is hilariously overpowered. The show gets away with the fact that Twilight is a ridiculously powerful magic user becuase it doesn't focus on adventure; there are few adventure episodes, and all of the villains are so powerful that they need to use ancient magical artifacts to beat them. But at this point in the show, we've seen her pick up a fifty foot tall monster with her magic, teleport out of dangerous situations, and mow down changelings with her magic. She can erect force fields and circumvent all kinds of obstacles with her telekinesis. And she can fly now to boot. But Twilight is hideously broken as far as being an adventurer goes; the only real obstacles to her are hideously powerful enemies against whom the only chance is to use magical artifacts, and puzzles (which she is the best at solving in the group anyway by virtue of her being The Smart One; only Pinkie can really compete on that front). There are things that Applejack can do, but... well, she isn't Twilight, and is going to be overshadowed by the lady with full caster levels.
I do agree that Applejack seeking social station is an interesting story, though I'm not sure that those fairy tale feelings really work too well with the actual show, given that the show isn't really very fairy-tale-ish, as the people involved are very... normal, really, apart from Celestia.
Though Celestia is totally the RPG king who has your character go save the kingdom with this halibut.
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I'll let bats handle the rest of this, but I wanted to answer this one. What is there about Applejack that excites Twilight?
...Whatever it is about this dress.
1423428
I like simple, practical clothing. Does that mean I want to marry Applejack?
1423500
Do you tend to jump up and down and clap your hands when you get a new sweater? Because if so, then yes, I think you might like a partner who's equally interested in the simple and practical.
Also, I don't even know what you look like but I find that mental image amusing.
1423512
Over a new sweater? No. I try not to jump up and down and giggle too much. I don't think I ever have over gifts...
Though I have over some other things. Usually thoughts, actually.
*is a giant dork*
Then again, this might suggest that romantically speaking, TwiJack is better implemented as a subplot, plot-driver, or secondary focus of a story rather than the actual main event - interesting, but ultimately taking a backseat to the action.
I have to say the closest and maybe the only thing to a Twijack adventure that i have read is
eh ill just have to live with it for now 
Forbidden Fruit by Vargras
and you have no idea how much i have been wanting more adventure twijack shipfics
so little love for Twijack makes me cry
I think a reason for it's little attention, despite great matching, is that it's not as fluffy as other ships. This is mainly because AJ is tough. Tough and fluff don't mix very well.
Of course, there is a great level of quality coming from the pairing, but fluff stories can be simpler and shorter; overall, much easier reads. TwiDash is an example of a very fluffy ship, that's why it's so easy to read and write. Most readers would opt for the 5k simple-premise fic than the 20k dramatic one. (I like to read fluff, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love a good long drama- a la Coming Back or TWBHW. They both happen to be TwiDash, but the same is true for TwiJack.)
If the readers were a lot more involved/dedicated, I think it's safe to say that we'd get a lot more TwiJack around here. When you really get into it, it's a ship worth sailing. *insert apology for bad pun
*
1422955
There isn't really much in the way of existing adventure-driven stories with TwiJack in them. Not a lot of TwiJack stories, period, Yours Truly (which is great) has some nice adventurey sort of elements, but the story structure as letters over an extended period of time doesn't make it much of an adventure.
1423052
While Twilight is basically a professional student, every approach she's ever taken in the show to solving a problem (that didn't involve her flying off the deep-end into neuroses) involved a common sense approach to fixing it. Even her reliance on looking in books for answers that shouldn't be there if you really think about it (such as in Look Before You Sleep) is based on a simplistic idea of 'why solve a problem yourself if someone else has already accounted for a solution first?'
As for butting heads over tradition, that has happened a grand total of once, and it was tied into something extremely traditional and sentimental to the town. Applejack is otherwise progressive and open to new things.
And for butting heads, if Applejack was generically stubborn, sure, but her stubbornness is shown to be tied into one specific thing: the threat of personal failure. If she feels like doing otherwise would be letting herself, her family, or the town down, she's going to fight tooth and nail against it. Otherwise, she is incredibly open and receptive to others. Applejack loves helping people. If Applejack is being stubborn, it's over something going on with her, while Twilight is the one trying to break through and help her out, not over a fight that Twilight is getting upset over.
Also: I disagree that Twilight wouldn't be able to live on the farm. I think if she had access to books, a place to read them, and could get in touch with her friends, Twilight would be happy living anywhere.
1423286
Question: Do you enjoy my 'romance' stories? Because with extremely few exceptions, they are all driven by external conflict, rather than internal. You can do internal conflict for TwiDash, or TwiJack, but I find both of them so often driven by practicality that any legit drama is hindered by their natures. External conflict doesn't have to be adventure, though, and can be comedically based, slice of life, societal pressure-driven, etc., though adventure is a good way to do it, and fitting for TwiJack.
Keep in mind that there are lots of stories with adventure and romance that are entertaining. LotR is an epic adventure, so yeah, romance might not be fitting, but pairing adventure and romance is very common. Think The Princess Bride, any Disney princess movie, or The Hunger Games.
1423331
Character ages are left open to fan interpretation entirely by design. Applejack and Twilight both act older than the others most of the time, so it makes perfect sense to me for them to have a more mature romance than the others. The show has fantasy elements, but it also has slice of life elements, and a simple romance about two characters connecting (whether there's a 'spark' or not, which is really left up to the writer to develop) fits well with slice of life. And for adventure stories, that spark is thrown into heaping gobs of action bringing them closer, anyway.
For their approaches, you're confusing 'physical sedation' with 'lack of driven work ethic.' Twilight absolutely, 100% believes in working hard, it's just her mind instead of her body. They've been shown in the show to utterly respect what the other one does (See Crystal Empire for Applejack putting complete faith in Twilight's method of puzzling out solutions, and see Super Speedy Cider Squeezy for Twilight throwing in 100% behind AJ). Sure, Twilight might want to try novel solutions around the farm, and it might be weird for Applejack, but if it comes to contention, well...Applejack would talk to Twilight about it and they'd hash it out over coffee. It's not gonna sink a relationship.
Twilight is over-powered, but an adventure story is structured differently than the show and can put her limitations front and center. Magic is often shown to exhaust her (not all the time, but c'mon, kids show, and it does sometimes with things like Boast Busters, so it's a reasonable extrapolation to make as a writer), so even if she can do a lot of really flashy stuff, if the threats keep coming she's gonna be running on fumes.
As for fairy tale not matching the flavor of the show, more serious adventure doesn't either...and neither does romance. Genre bending is common in fanfiction.
1423637
I'd say TwiJack has way more room to be fluffy, honestly. I mean...any reason for TwiJack not being fluffy could be applied to TwiDash and carry more weight: Dash actively rejects cutesy things as being not cool, while AJ doesn't care about that. She's plenty sentimental and endearing with Apple Bloom, I imagine it much higher with a girlfriend who would appreciate such gestures and find them sweet. AppleDash ain't really fluffy, I'll give you that, but TwiJack is the almost the same fluff level as FlutterPie.
This has caught my interest Consider it done. Come on my army of followers, let's get this ship popular!
1423811 I haven't read all of your stories, so making a broad generalization about them would be inappropriate. I did read the TwiDash Project a while back, and found it hilarious.
But here's the thing: even in romance episodes/stories/chapters/haikus where the conflict is driven by outside forces, the 'true' conflict is often within the relationship. If Twi and Dash need to get the MacGuffin from the thing in the place, the dramatic tension comes from the different approaches they have to solving the puzzle of the tomb of stuff. They would argue about pace of travel and whether to pick the lock or smash in the door. Both ways of doing things have their merits (as Twi would overthink and Dash would underthink), but there's a conflict (not a ship-sinker, but a conflict) within the relationship that's being brought out by the adventure. This is, at least, an interesting subplot if well written.
With Twi and AJ, working together, especially if what they're working on matters, is a given. They just do what needs to be done. Ergo, in a TwiJack adventure, the relationship isn't a subplot, it's just an aspect of characterization. For the tomb of stuff, they would talk through each challenge briefly and decide (mutually, but if they can't agree Twi's orders go) on a plan of action that is then carried out as efficiently as possible. The traps and puzzles would need to be a lot harder to throw those two off their game. There isn't a conflict within the relationship; it just works. Now this could still be an interesting, even exciting story, as an adventure. But I don't see a romantic subplot so much as a romantic characterization, and I can't quite see how that relationship would add to more the story for being romantic rather that of an officer and their sergeant.
1423999
Combine the two story types. Make half the characterization of them working together them discovering little things about each other that they identify with and appreciate, so the action is doing double duty as advancing the adventure plot and serving as a catalyst to them growing ever closer together, until something climactic throws them into each other's hooves in a big, flashy display of sloppy horse kisses (
).
But yeah, if they're already in a relationship, it's definitely a different sort of story than a romance, and I can see stories about them already in a relationship as needing to be handled carefully and actually involve some meaningful conflict between them to be satisfying.
1423811 Huh. I never thought of it that way. Heck, her relationship with AB in the show is pretty fluffy already.