So my controversy doesn´t mean that I hate her nor I despise her. It means that it frustrates me that AJ hasn´t been capable of getting more layers because of her attitude, unlike the rest of her family. The worst offender of this is that when it comes to discussion and universal praise, the best AJ episode that has aired so far was the one that didn´t feature her as a protagonist: The Perfect Pear.

Some of these lines could even justify the reasons why /mlp/ memes her as the "background pony". Her traits could have worked for 3 or 4 seasons but she has stayed behind in terms of rhythm in comparison to the others, nullifying her capability to shine when other characters with far less episode have shone much more (Big Mac in Brotherhooves Social). AJ is the clearest example of staying behind relatively speaking and while examples like the mane 6, Dolores, Trixie, Celestia, Chrysalis, Spike or even the Students (appearing much later) grow as characters over the episodes, she stays pretty much in the same spot. She suffers the Simpsons effect in her attitude while the others follow the flow of time.

You don´t get a sense of satisfaction whenever she gets to appear again, she doesn´t have an arc nor an evolution to keep her an eye with the subtle lines that she could drop in between the dialogues. Unlike for example Fluttershy with the dragons, from staying as the scared one of the mane 6 to facing Garble eye to eye, staying as the only pony in the middle of the Dragonlands.

In MLP, we have become used to seeing so many changes over the seasons and AJ because of the rest but she has stayed there. One could even think that she has turned to be the archetype in the end and the most plain character that you would expect over the years. Sure, that stability could be taken as a timeless advantage but others have learned lessons of honesty and humbleness after the episodes that beat her in her territory with much more entertainment during the process.

Her honesty is shown all the time but how effective is it throughout the episodes? One could judge about her subtle gestures by the time you want to analyze those details, you will have seen them for the most part in any other episode about her. This prevents me to judge an episode about her as an all time best that comes directly from her attitude as the leading force, even Granny Smith has ignored her advice several times because of the lack of fun that comes from AJ´s words.

Her character traits have turned out to be her blessing in terms of consistency but a curse when it comes to making you scream WOW! about her after so much material, ending up to general conclusions of blandness for a lot of fans. She´s solid but at the same time, she has followed the same formula all the time and while you see the others making progress at getting more layers into their lives, she had reached the final train stop in season 1 without encouraging herself at doing something new. She did her homework before asking her for any task.

I believe that I have exposed (almost) everything about her.