>>42385884
It's a pretty simple fix really. Just let AJ be right about something while the rest of the group is wrong. Imagine Honest Apple, but instead it being a one sided "Applejack needs to be less honest with her opinion because fee fees and should just be blindly supportive instead", it actually had the fashion contestants suffer consequences for not listening to her. Like the one dress that Applejack said was too long, maybe the model wearing it ends up tripping and damaging a bunch of equipment because the skirt got in the way. Or another model ends up missing the show entirely because they couldn't get all the buttons on the goth dress done up on their own. Imagine the episode has the other ponies realized "Oh, maybe Applejack actually knows what she's talking about, and we shouldn't have been so dismissive of her feedback just because we didn't like it", instead of the entire episode being a flat, one sided "Nope, Applejack just shouldn't be critical at all because it'll hurt feelings".
Applejack's problem in most episodes, is that the writers simply don't give her a way to win. FWF is a prime example. Applejack plays fair and ignores Dash's cheating in favor of being a good sport? Applejack loses, Dash wins, everyone cheers for and celebrates Dash while Applejack gets nothing for her integrity, and no one cares about Dash cheating. Applejack decided she's sick of Dash's behavior and retaliates against it after Dash starts doing it again? She still loses, gets lumped in as equally responsible for the affair as Dash is, and has to sit through a lecture on why she shouldn't put competition above friendship.
How does AJ win in this scenario? She doesn't. There are no winning moves for her. That's the biggest problem(for me) with so many AJ episodes. She's a great character, extremely admirable and virtuous, but the show and writers never let her virtue shine, no matter what she did.
AJ episodes would be so much better if the writers just let her win every once in a while.