Monday, August 12, 2013

Pinkie Pie vs. Mabel Pines - Character Comparisons

 This was originally posted on two different forums, before I decided to post it here...  if anyone actually comes here...  but for those who do, whether by chance or because they actually care what I have to say, I'll be posting these on this blog, since I'm actually rather proud of these.

Originally, this was just going to be a topic about me talking about Pinkie Pie from the hit animated series, Hasbro's latest incarnation of My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic,  and Mabel Pines from the new Disney Channel original animated series, Gravity Falls, and about their similarities and differences, but then I decided that I'm going to make a series out of this.  I'm going to compare characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to characters from my other favorite TV series, Gravity Falls.  It would help if anyone out there had some knowledge on both Friendship is Magic and Gravity Falls to understand what I'm getting at with some of them, so you can brush up on a bit of them on their official websites.  Here's the one on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic:

http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/videos

And here's the one on Disney's official website:

http://disneychannel.disney.com/gravity-falls

...But anyway, I want this to be a mostly fun thought experiment, seeing how similar certain characters can be and how they can't be.  So with that in mind let's get rolling after the break!



So, Pinkie Pie and Mabel Pines...  You know, originally, this was meant to be kind of a take-down of Pinkie's character, and using Mabel as a positive example of what she should be but a.) I don't want to piss Pinkie fans off b.) I don't want to come off as harsh in this comparisons and c.) I'm getting ahead of myself by saying that.  So let's start with a general overview of each character.

Pinkamena Diane Pie, aka Pinkie Pie, is one of the main characters of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  She is a close friend of the main character, Twilight Sparkle, and loves to party above all else!  She also loves making other ponies smile, and wants everypony to have a good time (though it may take a while for her to realize what having a good time means to other individuals).  She also is very quirky, spouting out random nonsense and gibberish from time to time, confusing her friends in the process, and also has a pet baby alligator.  She also has some hidden depths, as is show to revert into a crazy, depressing state if she were to realize her friends don't like her...  All in all, though, a very happy-go-lucky pony!

Mabel Pines is one of the main characters of Gravity Falls.  She's the twin sister (though older by 5 minutes) of the main character, "Dipper" Pines, and always looks on the bright side of things.  She has a very fun-loving personality, and while she can get on her brother's and great uncle's nerves sometimes, she's adored by her family.  She is INCREDIBLY quirky, wearing a different sweater every day, usually ones she made herself, does cooky things such as wear nachos as earrings, and also has a pet pig.  Sometimes she doubts herself, or feels bad whenever she thinks she's not as endearing as she seems, but has the support of her brother and friends to cheer her up!  All-in-all, a very silly girl.

So, as you can probably tell, these two already have a lot in common.

Here's how I'm going to break it down: I'm going to list a few of their similarities, then their differences, then possibly add a few extra notes before letting people discuss what they think, and even add some of their own insight if they know about these two as well.

So, first off, similarities:

-They're both impossibly cheery!  They always tend to see the bright side of things, and also try to cheer up others in their own unique way...  emphasis on "their own unique way".
-They both have rather strange quirks about them.  Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch said he based Mabel on his own twin sister, who acted pretty much the way Mabel acted back when she was her age.  Former showrunner of Friendship is Magic, Lauren Faust, has said that she wanted Pinkie Pie to be a unique kind of free spirit, though I might be paraphrasing that, since I can't remember her exact words...  Could explain why Pinkie acts so weirdly all the time.
-Both have had an episode where they questioned themselves and how they act.  With Pinkie, it's a toss-up between Party of One and A Friend in Deed, where one has her think that her parties aren't fun and her friends don't like them anymore (which later turns out wasn't true), and the other has Pinkie realize that her normal friend-making habits aren't making Cranky Doodle Donkey her friend, but rather upsetting him and making him hate her.  With Mabel, it's in the episode Irrational Treasure, where Mabel's quirkiness is called out by local bitch Pacifica Northwest to the entire town, who proceeds to laugh at her.  By the end, she realizes that her quirkiness has it's uses and that she should be proud of who she is.
-Both have a unique pet that one wouldn't normally consider a pet: Pinkie Pie has a baby alligator named Gummy and Mabel has a pet pig named Waddles.
-Both of them love being with their friends.  Although in Mabel's case, she didn't get consistent friends until Double Dipper, after which she hangs out with them a lot, and even get involved in some of her and Dipper's adventures!
-Both love partying, although in the case of Mabel, she's only partied once in the episode Double Dipper, and shown to be an extreme partier.  Other times, her partying is reduced to what she and her friends do at sleepovers...  which can get a little crazy.
-Both are currently residing in a place that isn't their family's home.  In Pinkie's case, she lives withe Cakes in the place that she works, Sugarcube Corner.  In Mabel's case, she is currently visiting her great-uncle Stan and living there for the summer.

Hmm...  That's all the similarities I can think of.  Let's move on to the differences!  Setting aside that one is a pink pony and the other is a 12-year-old girl...

-We've seen Pinkie's family, and that she has a mother, father, and two sisters.  Mabel, though, we've only seen her twin brother and her great uncle, her parent shave never been fully seen on-screen yet.
-Pinkie is shown to be an extreme eater of sorts.  Mabel hasn't really been shown eating anything unusual.
-Mabel is in a bit of a "boy craze" where she's trying to find a boyfriend or is sometimes seen fawning over boys.  Pinkie has shown no such interest.
-Pinkie has a thing for balloons ans streamers.  Mabel has a thing for "the sparkly things in life".
-Pinkie Pie tend to run at the mouth with nonsense, while Mabel, while she can talk a fair game, doesn't talk nearly as much as Pinkie.
-While Mabel is a big quirky, she does at least have a grasp on reality and knows when to get serious about something (even though one episode focused on her quirkiness succeeding where being serious failed, all other situations where her family and friends are in trouble show her showing a surprising amount of competence).  Pinkie, while coming through on a crisis every so often, such as at the end of Swarm of the Century and brief examples such as It's About Time, seems to have her brain exist on an alternate plane of existence and is so far removed from the reality that she's anything she says is beyond comprehension.  Sometimes she seems so nonchalant about what's going on or what her friends are doing that she ends up hurting more then helping.

That last one seems a little too harsh, so I'll stop there...  Here are some other tidbits that didn't really fit into this comparison.

-Alex Hirsch's twin sister, Ariel, always wanted a pet pig when she was younger, which is why Mabel has one.
-Pinkie Pie was originally supposed to be Surprise, a G1 Pegasus pony, and was supposed to have these "sugar rush" bursts whenever she ate large amounts of sugar.  A running gag would be that Mr. and Mrs. Cake would routinely have to buy a new door to Sugarcube Corner because of this.

Okay, I think that's all I wanted to get out there...  What do y'all think?  Have anything to add?  Please comment on what you think!

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