All this week, I've been thinking a lot about last week's episode Tanks For The Memories. I thought it was great. It dealt with the important issue of grief, had what is now my new favorite song (I'll Fly), and kept well within its continuity with elements like the Running Of The Leaves from Fall Weather Friends and Fluttershy giving tough love when needed from It Ain't Easy Bein Breezies.

But the one thing that really got me thinking was when it was mentioned that Applejack "cries on the inside" so before the next episode airs tomorrow and everyone starts talking about that, I wanted to bring up a source of puzzlement regarding that.

Now I know that there are many people who do a very good job of keeping their emotions in check and not letting others see them. Applejack, from what I've seen since the beginning, is definitely the most levelheaded of the Mane 6 not typically letting her emotions get the better of her, except for rare occasions when her stubbornness and pride are involved but that's still normal. As such I've tried to reflect that in my writing. The only times where I've actually had her crying is once when a character was about to die, one time when she got choked up remembering some characters who have long since passed, and once in a flashback when she was a filly and got news that the aforementioned characters were dead. This I thought was still keeping with the Applejack I knew. I figured that the only occasion where she might get emotional is when another's death is involved.

But here's where I have a bit of confusion. In Tanks For The Memories, the central plot is about the change of the seasons from Fall to Winter and how Tank needs to hibernate during that period. A lot of people have pointed this out as being a symbolic metaphor for dealing with the death of someone close to you and the grieving process that goes along with it. Hell, even in a lot of great literature (particularly Shakespeare) Winter is symbolic of death while Spring is symbolic of birth and life.

So if this is to be believed and Applejack is still keeping her emotions in check, does that mean that the subject of death doesn't even phase her anymore compared to the other ponies? I've just been thinking this over for the majority of the week and am still confused.

4328077 It might just be that she's really capable of putting on a mask. Not to mention, Pinkie Pie and Rarity only started crying after Fluttershy started crying.

4328186 I've honestly come very close to crying every time Fluttershy starts.

This is a reference to Applejack's parents being dead and the fact that although you don't see it she does in fact still grieve for them or "cry on the inside" as Pinkie Pie put it. As someone who has lost loved ones before I have done plenty of crying both on the inside and out and can say that once you lose a loved one things can get better over time but you never completely "get over it". With that said it was a good reference but one that was misused here big time.

I keep hearing about Tanks for the Memories being an allegory for death but it is a rather crappy one. Yes Rainbow Dash is upset about Tank hibernating because she will miss him but a hibernation which is temporary is not the same thing. If she had to give Tank away for some reason or he was seriously ill and there was a chance he could have died than that would be a bit different. But with hibernation being temporary there was no sense of permanence which made the reference misplaced and the episode itself highly unbelievable to the point of making it the worst episode of this season so far and one of the worst of the entire series.

4328077
I haven't seen the episode yet (I only see 'em on Netflix), which is a shame because this sounds like one of Pinkie's finer moments. Escpecially after being one of season four's more effective villains...

But, back to the subject, Pinkie didn't say that AJ doesn't cry. She says that AJ does cry -- in her own way. She just doesn't show grief visibly. I guess that was a very subtle nod to AJ having lost her parents and being more used to handling grief because of it.

Cowgirls don't cry…
Ride, baby, ride…
Lessons in life
are gonna show you in time.
Soon enough
you gonna know why.
It's gonna hurt
every now and then,
If you fall
get back on again,
Cowgirls don't cry.

I guess y'all just gotta listen to some Brooks & Dunn and really listen to them lyrics. She's an apple-buckin' cowgirl, she gotta be tough to raise her family without her parents! Do you really think she'll cry over some small issue? (Not trying' to sound cold, but, hey, just being honest and real.)