An episode a day

[Rares]

I can't agree with this enough. Early-AJ was a much more sympathetic and realistic portrayal of her, imho.

I think if you want to talk about directions of characters, Applejack unfortunately I think was stuck as one of the ones most writers have no idea what to actually do to make her look good. Early episodes of course make her look more like a hardworking, albeit stubborn, pony, I feel like recent episodes just put emphasis on "stubborn". Applejack's Day Off, Carts Before the Ponies, Honest Apple, all really lousy episodes that end up putting a really bad light on her one way or the other.

So the question is, why did she act like that when she was acting way different when Gilda was being a meanie earlier.

I'm a bit confused, I'm not sure what you mean? Like you said, she just wanted to try to do what she could to make Gilda feel welcomed, the implication is there but it seemed like she was just trying to make her feel welcome and was genuinely confused at being accused. Can you elaborate?