First of, when have Flash Sentry ever gotten any form of praise? Everyone hates him for no real reason. Second, don't bring up fanon/headcanon, it have absolutely no effect on his character at all. And lastly what's wrong the crush subplot?

First of, when have Flash Sentry ever gotten any form of praise? Everyone hates him for no real reason.

Flash Sentry has quite a bit of support. Look at the fanclubs online as well as one key reason for his character: him being a blank slate gives them ample opportunity to build his character through fanon and headcanon.

There are many great reasons why Flash Sentry is so despised. One is how flat he is: There's no personality beyond just being the perfect, stereotypical rebel. He's also a Gary Stu, specifically a Romantic Stu: a male character written to be the perfect image of any boy a girl would like. His whole personality is tied to the love interest angle. Fourth, he's pointless; cut the filler out, and neither movie would change.

Second, don't bring up fanon/headcanon, it have absolutely no effect on his character at all.

Normally, I wouldn't bring up headcanon or fanon. But in this case, it's a really big deal. In the canon, he's as flat as cardboard. The fanon and headcanon actually mold him into a character with dimension beyond being Walking Cardboard. If fanon can evolve him into a more likeable and three-dimensional character while not altering his background better than the actual canon, then something is wrong with the canon.

And lastly what's wrong the crush subplot?

There are two-and-a-half sections of this blog dedicated to the fatal flaws of this angle. I recommend re-reading them.

This is a very difficult thing, and I have retyped this comment numerous times, but I strongly believe that the only way to make him likable, is to revamp him. The character, at least to me, will never be interesting, because he's already too perfect, and any flaws they added onto him now would feel superficial.

If they were to revamp him, give him a nice new voice actor, and make him have a personality which really stands out like Discord, Spike, and Cheese Sandwhich. Make him actually fun to watch, and not just a love interest. 

*claps*

This is a very detailed critique.

As for improving Flash's character, I honestly wouldn't care to. After two movies, I really don't think he'll ever aspire to be anything more than walking cardboard. Besides, he was never really my biggest problem with the Equestria Girls films. 

Is criticism of some of your points allowed? 

Is criticism of some of your points allowed?

If Yamet can, then yep.

Just don't make it inflammatory.

Ok then, for the most half your entry was pretty good and was pretty much the equivalent to that of critically murdering the character (in other words good job). But I have an issue with two points you made.

You claim that this show has elements of sexism, whilst I see where you're coming from I'd have to disagree, for one thing you can't entirely blame this on the writers, they are still subject to what Hasbro as a toy company want from them and seeing as to how most (if not all) the dolls are female they can't do much about that. Not to mention the way this show tackles sexism is by instead of encouraging the stereotype but making it "cool" in the process or discouraging the stereotype this show instead teaches that a female can be anyone, this includes the stereotype (Rarity) the opposite of the stereotype (Rainbow Dash) and then the characters who are just themselves (the rest of the mane six). The reason why it's required to have all the mane six be female is that they need to show how many ways a female can be, and seeing as to how going beyond six in terms of how many main characters there are would be too difficult and confusing they have to have them all be female. 

And then you claim racism on Flash, well consider this, the whole world of pedestria is filled multicoloured human...things so I think (compared to everyone else) Flash being coloured yellow really isn't a big deal, and regarding the eye thing well in all honesty I'm not quite seeing it but here's my question to you, so what if an Asian character is shown, he didn't embrace any stereotypes so what's the issue?

Again for the most half great it's but I just think you should reconsider those two points (taking those factors into account).

There is an interesting video I think you should watch. I would like your thoughts on it:

@@theonenamedDJ, I'll be very blunt. There are some really big problems with his video.

• If Flash Sentry was a "parody," then it would've been executed far better. In both movies, Flash Sentry is treated seriously. The audience doesn't see any joke in FS's character status because neither movie plays it out to be one. They both write Flash to be very important to the story, and unlike his clumsiness, his attitude isn't played for laughs, and several scenes featuring him are dire.
• None of the writers are allowed to read fanfiction or witness anything fan-created at all. MA Larson revealed in a panel that every single writer must sign a contract saying they won't use third-party inspiration for any of their episodes. Fanfiction of any kind is third-party inspiration.
• Jerry Peet excuses Twilight's attraction for his looks because "it happens all the time." In other words, it's okay for Twilight to be out of character because this kind of stuff exists.
  
  It's not okay!
  
  Twilight Sparkle is much deeper than that, and it's extremely shallow of her to be so susceptible to only his looks. Having Twilight like him because he looks hot cheapens her character and makes him a prize instead of a character. More importantly, this show is supposed to tell people it's very shallow for someone to like someone for being them, not for contrived reasons.
  
  There's a reason why the Mane Six are so varied; depending on the circumstances, they can be complements, foils, or both. Twilight's lack of logic here goes against this ingrained root of FIM.

Well done.  I can't argue with any of your points.  Your point about the colors was interesting.  He was literally created just to be Twilight's crush, right down to his fur/skin color.  They could revamp him, but they won't.  I can only hope that he gets increasingly smaller and smaller parts in the future.

If Flash Sentry was a "parody," then it would've been executed far better. The audience doesn't see any joke in FS's character status because neither movie plays it out to be one. They both write Flash to be very important to the story, and unlike his clumsiness, his attitude isn't played for laughs, and several scenes featuring him are dire.

Just because it's a parody doesn't mean it's going to be executed well, DQ Some parodies can fall flat and fail to serve the purpose they were intended to serve, and, after watching the video posted up above, I can believe this to be the case - especially when the parody of the Gary Stu high school romance would be a tough one to execute in a setting that isn't solely comedy. Not that I am saying this is the case, but I can believe it to be after listening to the points made in the video above and comparing Flash Sentry's portrayal/screen time (or lack thereof)/development to other characters who were intended to serve a big purpose in the series, and as Twilight's implied crush, that's a big purpose in of itself, movie or not Those were extremely amatuerish writing mistakes made with his character and, considering that we're discussing people who don't come home from school or work and type this up, but instead were deemed talented enough to build careers off of it, I can't roll with it as being by accident. Either they were totally trying to destroy the quality of the movie (which is a bad idea, as that'd more than likely get them fired) or they weren't taking his character seriously and were more than likely forced to add him in there by Hasbro, a la Twilicorn.

 

 

• None of the writers are allowed to read fanfiction or witness anything fan-created at all. MA Larson revealed in a panel that every single writer must sign a contract saying they won't use third-party inspiration for any of their episodes. Fanfiction of any kind is third-party inspiration.

Furthermore, dunno if this is really the case either. While being unable 3rd party inspiration is definitely a thing, I can't say that bars them from using 3rd party inspiration for their stories entirely and being unable to use 3rd party inspiration.

Keep in mind that there's been several allusions and references to other television series, movies, and real life events in FiM. Those could be considered 3rd party inspiration just as much as fanfiction. Drawing inspiration can be one thing and blatantly ripping it off can be something entirely different, but in general "don't use 3rd party inspiration" =/= "you can't look at 3rd party inspiration." Unless it is explicitly stated that they are not allowed to look at fanworks and whatnot, then I don't think the 3rd party inspiration rule is intertwined with such. Especially since the 100th episode is going to be centered around background ponies, and they'd have no way of knowing that is an appeal to use to the audience if they didn't look at fanworks. I can't say that's necessarily the case either.

 

 

Jerry Peet excuses Twilight's attraction for his looks because "it happens all the time." In other words, it's okay for Twilight to be out of character because this kind of stuff exists.

Keep in mind that the this is a high school setting with the timeline making them high schoolers in age as well. High School romances aren't generally deep and meaningful and are generally based on a physical attraction, and I can attest for this as a high schooler myself. Furthermore, with age comes experience, as the old saying goes, and while in the FiM universe they are young adults who are no longer in school, in the EQG universe they are teenage girls. There is a big amount of growth to virtually every single person on the planet during that age gap between teenager and adult and EQG Twilight isn't old enough to have experienced it quite yet.

Lastly, crushing on a character based solely on a physical attraction doesn't automatically make the character shallow. You said it yourself right here -

 

 

• Trenderhoof… *sighs crossly* Everything about him is so unlikeable. His personality is obnoxious. He's incredibly rude. He relies on trends just to fit in. How the bloody hell did Rarity ever get the crush on him? (Her crush on Blueblood gets a pass because she didn't know his personality at all, while Simple Ways indicates she knew his personality.)

First off, Trenderhoof sucks and I'd love to take a Louisville Slugger straight upside his cranium. That's not what we're paying attention to about this point that you made, however:

 

 

(Her crush on Blueblood gets a pass because she didn't know his personality at all, while Simple Ways indicates she knew his personality.)

Rarity has proven herself to be an extremely deep and complex character, if not moreso than Twilight. She is far from being a shallow character and, even before the ample amounts of development she received, she still was far from being a shallow character, yet she gets a pass and then you immediately say this isn't the case with Twilight. I can't understand why this is the case, as Rarity has always been one to judge by inner beauty before outer beauty when it comes to the people she has in her life, and that was evident when she went off on Blueblood in that very episode that they met, because once she saw how awful he was, she wanted nothing to do with him. So this just leaves me asking "Why differentiate between the two characters so much?"

To put it bluntly, I can understand why one could assume him being a parody character after comparing and contrasting his shallow and flat character with the products the exact same writers had put out beforehand and I can't see why any of the points you just brought up rules out this potential possibility I can actually see where they'd make a parody of the trope that Flash fills, as he not only fills every negative stereotype involved with his archetype, but he turns it up to 11

Just my two cents on that matter, at least He strikes me as a poorly executed character whether he is a parody or not, but I can't see where something like that could slip quality control so badly without it being at least a little intentional

Lastly, crushing on a character based solely on a physical attraction doesn't automatically make the character shallow. You said it yourself right here -

That's not what we're paying attention to about this point that you made, however:

Yeah, that was a mistake on my end, and I apologize for that. Rarity's crush on Blueblood was definitely shallow, but unlike Twilight's crush on FS, Rarity's opinion of Blueblood was played exclusively for laughs and written as a critique of her logic. That clue is a dead giveaway when her fellow friends' reasons were shown to be BS, too. I went ahead and fixed it.

(You get no argument over Rarity being so complex. As you've seen my points, I definitely agree with the hypothesis that she's the most complex character in the show.)

I don't have much of an opinion on Flash Sentry, since i don't think about him that much, but if he indeed is a parody or a joke character... well he's not a well done joke character. It still feels like he fulfills the role of a high school romance interest and the plot kind of stops when he's around.

I just don't care and have no strong opinion about him, one way or another.

I'm not entirely convinced that Twi's crush on FS is purely based on his physical looks. Their first meeting is when Twilight escapes from the crowd of students, and rolls into his feet. He quickly offers her a hand up and an "are you okay?", before walking off to class. To my mind, it's his kindness that she notices, so when they meet again, her attraction to him is based less on the purely physical and more on a kindness he once did to her.

As for him being on hand to defend Twilight, he's shown to be very suspicious of Sunset, shadowing her as she shows her "proof" to VP Luna. Knowing their former relationship (even if the reason for him ending the relationship is left unexplained) makes this moment (potentially) justified: if anything, he's uniquely enabled to know just how devious SS can be.

I won't pretend he's not a flat character, but to say that you could leave him entirely out of the movies and have no change isn't true, as far as I can see.

And you're claiming he is asian and therefore may invoke "yellow menace"? That just seems below the belt, man. When have colours (or eyes, for that matter) ever denoted race in MLP?

And you're claiming he is asian and therefore may invoke "yellow menace"? That just seems below the belt, man. When have colours (or eyes, for that matter) ever denoted race in MLP?

It ain't below the belt one bit. The fur and skin colors of Flash Sentry are incredibly different for this reason. Pony!Flash's fur color is a bright, golden yellow; human!Flash's skin color is very dull to not invoke yellowface. Based off Flash's ethnicity, replacing his dull tan with the gold yellow will definitely create the racist connotations. Considering the immense controversy with other shows, cartoons, or movies with yellowface like Breakfast at Tiffany's, I doubt Hasbro will risk it.

Portraying skin color with stereotypes can trigger racism. Cheerilee's skin color is lighter (from dark purple to lighter pink) to not invoke the stereotypical Native look nor blackface. Big Mac's skin is pale to not trigger the racist Native stereotype.

As for him being on hand to defend Twilight, he's shown to be very suspicious of Sunset, shadowing her as she shows her "proof" to VP Luna. Knowing their former relationship (even if the reason for him ending the relationship is left unexplained) makes this moment (potentially) justified: if anything, he's uniquely enabled to know just how devious SS can be.

The fact that he noticed Sunset lying to VP Luna still doesn't change the fact how pointless he is as both a character and a point in that role. It could've been anyone else, and the outcome would still be identical.

I'm not entirely convinced that Twi's crush on FS is purely based on his physical looks.

It's quite obvious that it is. When she bumped into pony!Flash and later human!Flash the first time, it triggered no romantic response. Only when Twilight crashed into human!Flash the second time did she start to invoke the crush. When she sat on the couch rest, her cheeks turned red, and she twirled a lock of her hair. When she did that, she told the audience, "He looks dreamy."

It becomes much more obvious when she bumps into pony!Flash near the end. Flash's sheepish grin, twinkling highlights on his eyes, and inner glow around the edges of the screen invoke those implications.

It ain't below the belt one bit. The fur and skin colors of Flash Sentry are incredibly different for this reason. Pony!Flash's fur color is a bright, golden yellow; human!Flash's skin color is very dull to not invoke yellowface. Based off Flash's ethnicity, replacing his dull tan with the gold yellow will definitely create the racist connotations. Considering the immense controversy with other shows, cartoons, or movies with yellowface like Breakfast at Tiffany's, I doubt Hasbro will risk it.

 

Portraying skin color with stereotypes can trigger racism. Cheerilee's skin color is lighter (from dark purple to lighter pink) to not invoke the stereotypical Native look nor blackface. Big Mac's skin is pale to not trigger the racist Native stereotype.

Is this speculation, or do you have some kind of comment from the creators to support it? Although, I'll withdraw the "below the belt" comment.

 

The fact that he noticed Sunset lying to VP Luna still doesn't change the fact how pointless he is as both a character and a point in that role. It could've been anyone else, and the outcome would still be identical.

"Anyone else"? Certainly not Spike (incognito as a dog) and probably not any of the either students either (too scared of Sunset Shimmer to interfere). Probably only one of the HuMane Five would have fit that role in Flash's place. Not even that, since he did more than just "notice", he apparently followed SS and VP Luna to the Gym. Another student even walked past the door, oblivious, while Flash lingered in the doorway, eavedropping on the conversation. The implication is that Flash followed her because he is in a better position than anyone else to know how she thinks and what she would probably do, while HuMane Five didn't seem to have a clue. That prior relationship between FS and SS IS important, and can't just be brushed aside.

It's quite obvious that it is. When she bumped into pony!Flash and later human!Flash the first time, it triggered no romantic response. Only when Twilight crashed into human!Flash the second time did she start to invoke the crush. When she sat on the couch rest, her cheeks turned red, and she twirled a lock of her hair. When she did that, she told the audience, "He looks dreamy."

 

It becomes much more obvious when she bumps into pony!Flash near the end. Flash's sheepish grin, twinkling highlights on his eyes, and inner glow around the edges of the screen invoke those implications.

The fact that there is a level of physical attraction between them is not a point of contention. It's the idea that there is literally nothing else to the relationship that I have a problem with. Obviously, they haven't had time to get to know each other and find common interests, but they had a prior meeting before the mutual realization of "hey, that person is pretty hot and seems interested in me".  Contrast Spike and Rarity. That is an example of infatuation purely for physical looks, because he was smitten the moment he saw her, with zero interaction before it.

Is this speculation, or do you have some kind of comment from the creators to support it?

Human!Flash's skin color and why it's not the same as his pony counterpart can easily be deduced.

(Image credit.)

Tan skin for h!F. Golden yellow fur for p!F. Asian-looking face for h!F. Yellowface's vile history dates back well before any of us here were born, and Hasbro doesn't want to take such a risk of creating even the inclination.

"Anyone else"? Certainly not Spike (incognito as a dog) and probably not any of the either students either (too scared of Sunset Shimmer to interfere). Probably only one of the HuMane Five would have fit that role in Flash's place. Not even that, since he did more than just "notice", he apparently followed SS and VP Luna to the Gym. Another student even walked past the door, oblivious, while Flash lingered in the doorway, eavedropping on the conversation. The implication is that Flash followed her because he is in a better position than anyone else to know how she thinks and what she would probably do, while HuMane Five didn't seem to have a clue. That prior relationship between FS and SS IS important, and can't just be brushed aside.

Yes, anyone else. Flash Sentry could've been replaced with any one of the HuMane Five (or even Spike). Nothing would change. Someone like Spike, Dash, or even Twilight herself could've been the one to spy on SS and VP Luna. The big problem with Flash's role here is its interchangeability. An unknown background "pony" could've eavesdropped, and the impact (and outcome) would've been identical. Yes, even with Flash being her ex, the other characters would've been more appropriate.

If there was clearer subtext, then this "implication" could be easily deduced. Sunset being Flash's boyfriend makes literally no impact, and the interrogation scene actually demonstrates why. The fact isn't referenced, shown, or told again until Rainbow Rocks, and this "hint" just prior to the interrogation doesn't help. Even with him eavesdropping, Rarity's dumb statement is so disjointed from the rest of the movie, it could've been cut off entirely. You could even argue that because Flash likes Twilight, he was suspicious with Sunset's tactics right then and there. The "ex-boyfriend" stereotype this sterile world attaches him is worthless.

There's a very big difference between what they're trying to say and what they're actually saying. If this subtext actually exists, it's buried under thousands of feet in thick ice. It's overlapped by their constant bumping, Twilight's out-of-character simple-mindedness, the Cafeteria Song, and tons of really lazy writing.

If anything, the interrogation scene (even him spying) enforces his weakness as a character and how dumber the interrogation scene actually is. Instead of Flash spying, then have the Mane Six follow her to the gym. They hear her and then confront. They're presented the photos, and one of the M6 (or even Spike) could comment about them being cut and paste.

It's the idea that there is literally nothing else to the relationship that I have a problem with. Obviously, they haven't had time to get to know each other and find common interests, but they had a prior meeting before the mutual realization of "hey, that person is pretty hot and seems interested in me".

That's the big problem with this romance. It's only based on how hot he looks in Twilight's perspective. She bumped into h!F once, which didn't trigger a crush. But the next time over, she had the hots for him. There's literally no chemistry between them. Flash isn't a character. He's a Gary Stu plot device.

They had plenty of time to develop some common ground. Thirty minutes is more than enough. One hour is more than enough. Heck, five minutes is more than enough. A single line of dialogue dating back to the very beginning of the film could've established something between them. Instead, we have two movies of this contrived "romance" going nowhere.

Contrast Spike and Rarity. That is an example of infatuation purely for physical looks, because he was smitten the moment he saw her, with zero interaction before it.

You make a good point here, but there are some differences:

• The crush is unrequited. There's subtext of Rarity knowing his crush, but the feeling isn't mutual. In addition, it's seen more as cute "puppy love" because Spike's a child age-wise, while Rarity's considered an adult.
• Spike and Rarity showed very established characterizations during the pilot. Rarity had that keen eye for quality, but she also spent plenty of time helping Twilight and later sacrificed her tail to help Steven Magnet. *twirls imaginary mustache* Spike had the mind of a child, proud to be TS's assistant, and concentration on TS's checklist.

   

  This leads me to the next point.

• Both characters have grown exponentially since then, and there's solid chemistry between them. Most importantly, Spike isn't so focused on the crush angle anymore; it's still there, but it's more subtle now.

Human!Flash's skin color and why it's not the same as his pony counterpart can easily be deduced.(Image credit.)Tan skin for h!F. Golden yellow fur for p!F. Asian-looking face for h!F. Yellowface's vile history dates back well before any of us here were born, and Hasbro doesn't want to take such a risk of creating even the inclination.

The picture below is one I created using screenshots from the show and the movies, making every effort to ensure the corresponding colours were taken from pictures with the same relative levels of lighting (no dress meme here, please! ) Human colours on the left, Pony colours on the right.

If you're only looking at Flash, Cheerilee and Big MacIntosh as examples to support your hypothesis, that's cherry picking. If making them lighter is a solution to a problem, why is the solution being applied to characters where the problem doesn't even arise?It seems much more reasonable to assume that the creators chose to make the humans, as a rule, lighter than their pony counterparts, perhaps because humans don't have fur, and the lighter colours is a reflection of this, or perhaps because a pony like Big MacIntosh would look sunburnt rather than invoke redface or whatever. We've seen that ponies have pink skin under the fur ("Ponyville Confidential") but making the humans all pink would make the designs less distinct and thus even worse than you say they already are.If Flash had been designed with darker skin, that wouldn't make him an example of yellow face, because that's more than just the look. Your "How I Met Your Mother" example is also a bad one, since it's clear that the issue is more than just "looking yellow", but how the characters are portraying the stereotype with their actions as well. AND only one of the actresses was in yellow, the other was in white, and the guy just had a fu manchu moustache, so only in 1 case out of 3 is the colour of the face an issue. (Which is only apparent if you look for videos of the scene, rather than a single still image, so your link is somewhat misleading). Flash would simply seem to be an american asian high school student, which would to unlikely to even cause a murmur of offense.

Yes, anyone else. Flash Sentry could've been replaced with any one of the HuMane Five (or even Spike). Nothing would change. Someone like Spike, Dash, or even Twilight herself could've been the one to spy on SS and VP Luna. The big problem with Flash's role here is its interchangeability. An unknown background "pony" could've eavesdropped, and the impact (and outcome) would've been identical. Yes, even with Flash being her ex, the other characters would've been more appropriate.If there was clearer subtext, then this "implication" could be easily deduced. Sunset being Flash's boyfriend makes literally no impact, and the interrogation scene actually demonstrates why. The fact isn't referenced, shown, or told again until Rainbow Rocks, and this "hint" just prior to the interrogation doesn't help. Even with him eavesdropping, Rarity's dumb statement is so disjointed from the rest of the movie, it could've been cut off entirely. You could even argue that because Flash likes Twilight, he was suspicious with Sunset's tactics right then and there. The "ex-boyfriend" stereotype this sterile world attaches him is worthless.There's a very big difference between what they're trying to say and what they're actually saying. If this subtext actually exists, it's buried under thousands of feet in thick ice. It's overlapped by their constant bumping, Twilight's out-of-character simple-mindedness, the Cafeteria Song, and tons of really lazy writing.If anything, the interrogation scene (even him spying) enforces his weakness as a character and how dumber the interrogation scene actually is. Instead of Flash spying, then have the Mane Six follow her to the gym. They hear her and then confront. They're presented the photos, and one of the M6 (or even Spike) could comment about them being cut and paste.

<p>That's the big problem with this romance. It's only based on how hot he looks in Twilight's perspective. She bumped into h!F once, which didn't trigger a crush. But the next time over, she had the hots for him. There's literally no chemistry between them. Flash isn't a character. He's a Gary Stu plot device.They had plenty of time to develop some common ground. Thirty minutes is more than enough. One hour is more than enough. Heck, five minutes is more than enough. A single line of dialogue dating back to the very beginning of the film could've established something between them. Instead, we have two movies of this contrived "romance" going nowhere.You make a good point here, but there are some differences:

• The crush is unrequited. There's subtext of Rarity knowing his crush, but the feeling isn't mutual. In addition, it's seen more as cute "puppy love" because Spike's a child age-wise, while Rarity's considered an adult.
• Spike and Rarity showed very established characterizations during the pilot. Rarity had that keen eye for quality, but she also spent plenty of time helping Twilight and later sacrificed her tail to help Steven Magnet. *twirls imaginary mustache* Spike had the mind of a child, proud to be TS's assistant, and concentration on TS's checklist.This leads me to the next point.
• Both characters have grown exponentially since then, and there's solid chemistry between them. Most importantly, Spike isn't so focused on the crush angle anymore; it's still there, but it's more subtle now.

 

Instead of Flash spying, then have the Mane Six follow her to the gym. They hear her and then confront. They're presented the photos, and one of the M6 (or even Spike) could comment about them being cut and paste.

Your rewrite resolves the "framing" plot point in seconds, thus removing any emotional impact the interrogation scene provided. I prefer the version we got, thanks.

Actually, this would make it so that it's longer. All 6 of them would have to go on an adventure to find out whats happening, making it have more tension. It would also be good if it was Spike who actually put the pieces together, helping the humane 5 and Twilight out, because it would show intelligence about a character we already like, and this version would have lasted at least 5 minutes.

All your points are completely invalid. Dark Qiviut's post about the difference between Flash and Twilight and Spike and Rarity are all true, but there is also one other point I would like to make out.

Spike x Rarity was suppose to be A JOKE, clearly was A JOKE without question, and saying that it was A JOKE isn't just a clear attempt to try and excuse his character.

The major difference between Spike and Rarity in the fact that they've developed is that Spike's crush wasn't mentioned in every episode, nor were they together every episode. However, Brad is in both movies, and he mentions it at least once, and as their both movies, they should have had some development for him.

If making them lighter is a solution to a problem, why is the solution being applied to characters where the problem doesn't even arise?

There's a very big difference between the rest of the characters and the Big Three I keep mentioning. Although those characters became lighter, they're extremely subtle. When you see the human characters alone, it's all but impossible to tell the difference. Many of them were tinted just a touch. What makes Cheerilee, BM, and Flash stand out is how drastic their skin colors are. The huge change in color isn't done by accident. Design is a response to culture. Color connotations are no exception, especially if it's supposed to be skin.

or perhaps because a pony like Big MacIntosh would look sunburnt rather than invoke redface or whatever.

Big Mac's drastic color change of his skin has everything to do with the redface connotations. Over the past decade-plus, there have been complaints over how racist the redface is. To explain the three examples from my analysis.

• The first one is the Chief Wahoo logo of MLB's Clevelend Indians. Dating back to the 1940s, the Indians have used Chief Wahoo as their main trademark. Recently, there have been plenty of public complaints over it for being a racist caricature of American Indians. So far, CLE responded by keeping the name, yet dwindling the logo to secondary. The push to eliminate Chief Wahoo and the name entirely is still ongoing, even in its own passionate fanbase.
• The Washington Redskins have been a source of controversy since it first started in the mid-1930s. Dating back to their days in Boston, the former owner changed the name from "Braves" to "Redskins" "in honor" of a Native who died. However, the owner was an out racist. The Redskins were the last team to incorporate a black player because Robert F. Kennedy threatened to evict the team from then-newly built RFK Stadium if they didn't.

   

  For the past decade-plus, Native Americans and societies have been pushing to remove the logo and team name because they're marketing a racist slur both pictorially and verbally. Recently, WSH lost their trademark status of the name. The case is still ongoing.

• Why Are the Red Men Red? from Peter Pan is one of the most divisive songs in Disney history, and for good reason. It's racist. The Indians are red-faced caricatures and/or talk in very broken English. The song is about why their skin is in that color, which carries serious ramifications.

The controversy with the Indians, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, and usage of redface/Native names altogether (in sports names particularly) is a very hot topic in America. Hasbro is an American-based company, so it's their job to watch those controversies. Cleveland and Washington are spending plenty of money in various ways: the Indians for dwindling Wahoo and reviving the block C (there's a pursuit to change their name to "Spiders," the name of a club that folded around the turn of the 20th C.), the Redskins for their lawyers and lost trademark status.

If Big Mac's EQG skin was red, Hasbro would have a gigantic PR nightmare. They don't want this, hence the light pink, human-like skin.

Flash's drastic color change does come from trying to avoid racial stereotypes. If it was a small change like the ones you showed (keeping the tans, but make the human version a little lighter), then it wouldn't have been called out. But Flash's skin color isn't just a shift in chroma. The tone and overall color are very different.

To demonstrate, here's a rough photoshop of h!F in p!F's colors.

This is what I'm talking about. You have Flash's Asian ethnicity as well as the yellow skin that I photoshopped in. Even if he never spoke, seeing him like this would've invoked the racist yellowface connotations that I kept harping about. This is one reason why I linked the reception and picture from HIMYM. The racially charged personalities make them inherently offensive, but there's more than that. Even if they never spoke, the mere sight of their faces would trigger racial stereotypes.

What would make this damning is one of FIM's goals to break away from stereotypes. It's especially problematic because EQG has older kids as a base demographic. As Flash is the only character with Asian ethnicity in Pedestria, Sentry's look would trigger a blanket statement of how every Asian would look. Parents would hound on Hasbro for this.

If the color change was a coincidence? Still no excuse. Twenty years ago, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers received criticism for their choice of actors for specific ranger colors. Walter Jones (a black actor) became the black Ranger, the late Thuy Trang (a Vietnamese actress) became the yellow Ranger. That's why since they left, no black or Asian actor/actress starred as a black and yellow Ranger, respectively.

An unknown background character was walking past, oblivious, and even if he had paid attention, most of the school is still terrified of Sunset Shimmer, so he likely would not have acted on it.

Even with the person walking by obliviously, it still doesn't change one iota how it could've been anyone else responsible for de-framing Twilight. Spike, Twilight herself, one of the background characters who dares defy Sunset, or the rest of her friends. In its current execution, the role of Flash Sentry is completely interchangeable since it's so blank, bland, and pointless.

How is that more appropriate than a character with personal past history? One of the HuMane Five could fill the role, too, but don't they already do enough in the movie?

Way more important for two key reasons.

• Several years back, Sunset Shimmer framed the HuMane Five. She was solely responsible for breaking up their friendship on one of the dumbest ways a friendship can be broken up: a simple misunderstanding. It's unknown how long it's been since they stopped being friends, but from the clues, it dates back a few years.
• It would solidify their friendship together, akin to paying Twilight back. Twilight helped heal contrived wounds. Having the HuM5 rescue Twilight would help their friendship come full circle. Additionally, it would also psychologically connect the HuMane Five in Pedestria with the ReMane Five in Equestria: two sets of her friends, yet just as tight a bond.

Flash Sentry had no such history with Twilight beyond their forced conversations up to that point. He's written in that role specifically to inform the viewer "he's more than a half-dimensional love interest." Unfortunately, the "tell" part hurts his credibility. DHX tries too hard to make him important. How? By telling us he's important. It's the only time he had any direct involvement in either movie. But his dialogue and actions are so generic and his by-the-book "personality" is so stereotypical, anyone else would've objectively fulfilled the role better.

Spike is taking pains to avoid appearing as anything but an ordinary dog, so while he could do the eavesdropping, he certainly couldn't do more than just tell another character, who would actually have to go find the evidence of the cut and pasted photos.

Actually, Spike doesn't have to go around to find the cut-and-pasted evidence. In the interrogation room, Luna would hand Twilight the photos. Spike would be able to peak out because the bag's open and beside the princess. Being the big mouth he can be, Spike would make a comment about Sunset's evidence being so stupid, he's shocked she fell for it, and he flicks the cutouts. This leads me to my next point.

Your rewrite resolves the "framing" plot point in seconds, thus removing any emotional impact the interrogation scene provided.

On the contrary. The Humane Six would follow Sunset/VP Luna to the gym, and she presents the evidence. The HuMane Six interrupts them, and Sunset presents the photos. One of them (maybe Applejack or Dash, or [out of comedy convenience] Spike from eavesdropping from inside an open backpack) comments about it being one of the stupidest schemes (s)he's ever seen. They comment about it being a literal cut-and-paste, demonstrating it by feeling the paper, flicking it with a nail, glancing it over lights, etc.

Then they call her out for framing Twilight, call her out for terrorizing the school, call her out for ruining their own friendship, call her out for slandering Twilight online, and call out Luna for doing little to protect her students in CHS. On top of them, Spike calls Sunset out for trying to steal a magical crown from Equestria and starting the wild goose chase. This sets off a chain of events, including where Twilight came from, why Spike can talk, and present the differences between CHS's crown and Twilight's.

Here, the tension becomes released because Sunset has terrorized CHS for so long. Calling her out for her constant evil and VP Luna for being incompetent would send a message to the audience about how they have enough. Sunset is a longtime bully in CHS, and they stand up to her and reveal her for who she is: a runaway archmage. (Then again, neither scenario would fully matter in the long run when the rest of the film is a train wreck.)

In the original, there's literally no emotional impact whatsoever. The entire scene barely lasts a minute and relies on Gary Stu interrupting and Luna nonchalantly discharging Twilight. Scene over. Sunset gets away with it. Luna and Celestia do nothing to fix it. The movie all but acts like it never happened. Any possible tension gets zapped when he shows up. Even worse, the "tension" is so contrived because everyone's so fucking stupid. McCarthy tries to tell the viewer it's serious, but the viewer can't take it seriously because it's like every other subplot in this sorry excuse of a film: in one second, gone the next.

Last point first, Rarity and Spike's relationship has developed, but it's had 90 episodes to do so. Hard to match that with just 2 movies.

Even though the Sparity subplot has lasted more than ninety episodes, it's definitely much more natural. How?

• Once more, the unrequited love was committed by a natural child character, a common trait for kids that supposedly young. He saw her, grew a crush on her, and that was that. His character was that of a child from the very beginning, but it was never dominant, and he never had to have his character bastardized for it to work. The pilot made it clear that the unrequited crush is secondary. The rest of their characterizations are the primary focus. Several times, Spike and Rarity communicated without even the hint of Spike's crush.
• Twilight's crush on Flash Sentry is out of character because of how it had to be done. One other way to know Twilight's crush comes from being visually flustered with him is the genre of Gary Stu. Specifically, he's a Romantic Stu: a perfect portrayal of someone she wants to be with. For EQG and its gallery of stereotypes, "the hunky bad boy caricature that girls are supposed to be flustered over." Twilight Sparkle is written as an adult mare who supposedly mastered the magic of friendship and was rewarded as an alicorn for her efforts. In EQG, Twilight is degraded to that of a teen each time they crash into each other. If you have to mangle established characterizations for it to work, then the love interest angle sucks.

• Flash has characterizations, they're just all good ones and no negative ones, which makes him flat.

  Just because Flash Sentry's characterization traits can be listed doesn't make him a character. Personalities are much more than virtual checklists you see on screen or adjectives you can list. Personality is also how to take these traits and adjectives and weave them in without making the character forced, stereotypical, or flat.

   

  Flash Sentry is a plot device because he has less "personality" than mass-produced tofu. Anytime the romance angle happens, it's only because the plot says so. The Sparity subplot makes more sense because the contrivances are hidden underneath other thorough layers of characterization and better woven in. In both EQG and RR, no one even bothers to hide the forced love interest subplot. To make it worse, his whole identity is to be her love interest. He's nothing beyond it.

   

  Next one up: a single line of dialogue DID establish something. "Are you okay?" and a hand up. He shows her kindness, is the first human she ever talks to, and her eyes follow him as he walks off.

  Exchanging help doesn't establish anything for either side. Like what I wrote with the interrogation scene, his actions could be replaced by anyone else due to how generic he was. "Common ground" is more to do with what traits, challenges, goals, strengths, and conflicts they share. All of that comes after they meet. Something that the viewer can relate to without losing their intelligence. I already gave some examples in my analysis above, so I won't repeat it.

• Arctofire also mentioned this. The Sparity romance is also written to be a joke. It's comedy, and the writers don't hammer it in every episode. Both movies remind the viewer of their love interest subplot repeatedly. Even worse, DHX wants the viewer to treat it as a serious angle. How can I treat it seriously when they don't treat Twilight or Flash with any level of respect?

Flash and Twilight have no chemistry. The romance only occurs to fulfill the high-school-drama-stereotype requirements. Sure, it doesn't happen at first sight, but it nevertheless follows the stereotypes, including the "evil-bitch-has-a-man-attracted-to-the-protagonist" cliché. He can't escape the identity because without Twilight's out-of-character crush, he's nothing.

Flash isn't a character. He's a caricature. Unless there's some genuine chemistry or Hasbro drops the angle entirely, he jumps the shark and risks being devoured.

There's a very big difference between the rest of the characters and the Big Three I keep mentioning. Although those characters became lighter, they're extremely subtle. When you see the human characters alone, it's all but impossible to tell the difference. Many of them were tinted just a touch. What makes Cheerilee, BM, and Flash stand out is how drastic their skin colors are. The huge change in color isn't done by accident. Design is a response to culture. Color connotations are no exception, especially if it's supposed to be skin.

 

Big Mac's drastic color change of his skin has everything to do with the redface connotations. Over the past decade-plus, there have been complaints over how racist the redface is. To explain the three examples from my analysis.

• The first one is the Chief Wahoo logo of MLB's Clevelend Indians. Dating back to the 1940s, the Indians have used Chief Wahoo as their main trademark. Recently, there have been plenty of public complaints over it for being a racist caricature of American Indians. So far, CLE responded by keeping the name, yet dwindling the logo to secondary. The push to eliminate Chief Wahoo and the name entirely is still ongoing, even in its own passionate fanbase.
• The Washington Redskins have been a source of controversy since it first started in the mid-1930s. Dating back to their days in Boston, the former owner changed the name from "Braves" to "Redskins" "in honor" of a Native who died. However, the owner was an out racist. The Redskins were the last team to incorporate a black player because Robert F. Kennedy threatened to evict the team from then-newly built RFK Stadium if they didn't.

   

  For the past decade-plus, Native Americans and societies have been pushing to remove the logo and team name because they're marketing a racist slur both pictorially and verbally. Recently, WSH lost their trademark status of the name. The case is still ongoing.

• Why Are the Red Men Red? from Peter Pan is one of the most divisive songs in Disney history, and for good reason. It's racist. The Indians are red-faced caricatures and/or talk in very broken English. The song is about why their skin is in that color, which carries serious ramifications.

The controversy with the Indians, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, and usage of redface/Native names altogether (in sports names particularly) is a very hot topic in America. Hasbro is an American-based company, so it's their job to watch those controversies. Cleveland and Washington are spending plenty of money in various ways: the Indians for dwindling Wahoo and reviving the block C (there's a pursuit to change their name to "Spiders," the name of a club that folded around the turn of the 20th C.), the Redskins for their lawyers and lost trademark status.

 

If Big Mac's EQG skin was red, Hasbro would have a gigantic PR nightmare. They don't want this, hence the light pink, human-like skin.

 

---

 

Flash's drastic color change does come from trying to avoid racial stereotypes. If it was a small change like the ones you showed (keeping the tans, but make the human version a little lighter), then it wouldn't have been called out. But Flash's skin color isn't just a shift in chroma. The tone and overall color are very different.

 

To demonstrate, here's a rough photoshop of h!F in p!F's colors.

 

 

This is what I'm talking about. You have Flash's Asian ethnicity as well as the yellow skin that I photoshopped in. Even if he never spoke, seeing him like this would've invoked the racist yellowface connotations that I kept harping about. This is one reason why I linked the reception and picture from HIMYM. The racially charged personalities make them inherently offensive, but there's more than that. Even if they never spoke, the mere sight of their faces would trigger racial stereotypes.

 

What would make this damning is one of FIM's goals to break away from stereotypes. It's especially problematic because EQG has older kids as a base demographic. As Flash is the only character with Asian ethnicity in Pedestria, Sentry's look would trigger a blanket statement of how every Asian would look. Parents would hound on Hasbro for this.

 

If the color change was a coincidence? Still no excuse. Twenty years ago, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers received criticism for their choice of actors for specific ranger colors. Walter Jones (a black actor) became the black Ranger, the late Thuy Trang (a Vietnamese actress) became the yellow Ranger. That's why since they left, no black or Asian actor/actress starred as a black and yellow Ranger, respectively.

First, this is all still speculation on the creators motives in changing the colours of characters, and without proof, no matter how plausible it is, it remains just your own speculation.

Second, I crunched the numbers, using Paint to see how the RGB values changed. Mac and Cheerilee were altered the most, then Trixie and (in RR) Lyra, and only then Flash Sentry. So to say those 3 you always mention were changed the most is not quite correct. (Maybe KCYM values would tell a different story.)

Third, the fact that there was a change at all in characters for whom "racial connotations" don't apply still requires explanation. Saying it wasn't immediately noticeable or "extremely subtle" (false in the case of Trixie, at least, it is immediately noticeable, as much as any of the Big Three, and Lyra is close behind) doesn't negate that need for your hypothesis to address the fact that was done at all. Otherwise, why were the rest changed? Why one set of rules for some characters, and another set of rules for other characters?

Fourth, if they were so worried about the mere colour of a face causing outrage, why is it that Sunset Shimmer becomes a giant red-faced Demon, and is the villain of the story to boot?

Are you telling me Hasbro was terrified of making a human character with dark red skin, but let this go through?

Even with the person walking by obliviously, it still doesn't change one iota how it could've been anyone else responsible for de-framing Twilight. Spike, Twilight herself, one of the background characters who dares defy Sunset, or the rest of her friends. In its current execution, the role of Flash Sentry is completely interchangeable since it's so blank, bland, and pointless.

 

Way more important for two key reasons.

• Several years back, Sunset Shimmer framed the HuMane Five. She was solely responsible for breaking up their friendship on one of the dumbest ways a friendship can be broken up: a simple misunderstanding. It's unknown how long it's been since they stopped being friends, but from the clues, it dates back a few years.
• It would solidify their friendship together, akin to paying Twilight back. Twilight helped heal contrived wounds. Having the HuM5 rescue Twilight would help their friendship come full circle. Additionally, it would also psychologically connect the HuMane Five in Pedestria with the ReMane Five in Equestria: two sets of her friends, yet just as tight a bond.

Flash Sentry had no such history with Twilight beyond their forced conversations up to that point. He's written in that role specifically to inform the viewer "he's more than a half-dimensional love interest." Unfortunately, the "tell" part hurts his credibility. DHX tries too hard to make him important. How? By telling us he's important. It's the only time he had any direct involvement in either movie. But his dialogue and actions are so generic and his by-the-book "personality" is so stereotypical, anyone else would've objectively fulfilled the role better.

 

Actually, Spike doesn't have to go around to find the cut-and-pasted evidence. In the interrogation room, Luna would hand Twilight the photos. Spike would be able to peak out because the bag's open and beside the princess. Being the big mouth he can be, Spike would make a comment about Sunset's evidence being so stupid, he's shocked she fell for it, and he flicks the cutouts. This leads me to my next point.

 

On the contrary. The Humane Six would follow Sunset/VP Luna to the gym, and she presents the evidence. The HuMane Six interrupts them, and Sunset presents the photos. One of them (maybe Applejack or Dash, or [out of comedy convenience] Spike from eavesdropping from inside an open backpack) comments about it being one of the stupidest schemes (s)he's ever seen. They comment about it being a literal cut-and-paste, demonstrating it by feeling the paper, flicking it with a nail, glancing it over lights, etc.

 

Then they call her out for framing Twilight, call her out for terrorizing the school, call her out for ruining their own friendship, call her out for slandering Twilight online, and call out Luna for doing little to protect her students in CHS. On top of them, Spike calls Sunset out for trying to steal a magical crown from Equestria and starting the wild goose chase. This sets off a chain of events, including where Twilight came from, why Spike can talk, and present the differences between CHS's crown and Twilight's.

 

Here, the tension becomes released because Sunset has terrorized CHS for so long. Calling her out for her constant evil and VP Luna for being incompetent would send a message to the audience about how they have enough. Sunset is a longtime bully in CHS, and they stand up to her and reveal her for who she is: a runaway archmage. (Then again, neither scenario would fully matter in the long run when the rest of the film is a train wreck.)

 

In the original, there's literally no emotional impact whatsoever. The entire scene barely lasts a minute and relies on Gary Stu interrupting and Luna nonchalantly discharging Twilight. Scene over. Sunset gets away with it. Luna and Celestia do nothing to fix it. The movie all but acts like it never happened. Any possible tension gets zapped when he shows up. Even worse, the "tension" is so contrived because everyone's so fucking stupid. McCarthy tries to tell the viewer it's serious, but the viewer can't take it seriously because it's like every other subplot in this sorry excuse of a film: in one second, gone the next.

 

It seems to me you've not only drastically altered the film by this point, but that you've done so in a way primary palatable to you yourself. However, since you're an intelligent guy, and frequently write fanfiction, and since the movie was badly written, I'll even be willing to accept the idea that this would be an "objectively better" way for the movie to have gone.

 

Even though the Sparity subplot has lasted more than ninety episodes, it's definitely much more natural. How?

• Once more, the unrequited love was committed by a natural child character, a common trait for kids that supposedly young. He saw her, grew a crush on her, and that was that. His character was that of a child from the very beginning, but it was never dominant, and he never had to have his character bastardized for it to work. The pilot made it clear that the unrequited crush is secondary. The rest of their characterizations are the primary focus. Several times, Spike and Rarity communicated without even the hint of Spike's crush.
• Twilight's crush on Flash Sentry is out of character because of how it had to be done. One other way to know Twilight's crush comes from being visually flustered with him is the genre of Gary Stu. Specifically, he's a Romantic Stu: a perfect portrayal of someone she wants to be with. For EQG and its gallery of stereotypes, "the hunky bad boy caricature that girls are supposed to be flustered over." Twilight Sparkle is written as an adult mare who supposedly mastered the magic of friendship and was rewarded as an alicorn for her efforts. In EQG, Twilight is degraded to that of a teen each time they crash into each other. If you have to mangle established characterizations for it to work, then the love interest angle sucks.

• Just because Flash Sentry's characterization traits can be listed doesn't make him a character. Personalities are much more than virtual checklists you see on screen or adjectives you can list. Personality is also how to take these traits and adjectives and weave them in without making the character forced, stereotypical, or flat.

   

  Flash Sentry is a plot device because he has less "personality" than mass-produced tofu. Anytime the romance angle happens, it's only because the plot says so. The Sparity subplot makes more sense because the contrivances are hidden underneath other thorough layers of characterization and better woven in. In both EQG and RR, no one even bothers to hide the forced love interest subplot. To make it worse, his whole identity is to be her love interest. He's nothing beyond it.

   

  Exchanging help doesn't establish anything for either side. Like what I wrote with the interrogation scene, his actions could be replaced by anyone else due to how generic he was. "Common ground" is more to do with what traits, challenges, goals, strengths, and conflicts they share. All of that comes after they meet. Something that the viewer can relate to without losing their intelligence. I already gave some examples in my analysis above, so I won't repeat it.

• Arctofire also mentioned this. The Sparity romance is also written to be a joke. It's comedy, and the writers don't hammer it in every episode. Both movies remind the viewer of their love interest subplot repeatedly. Even worse, DHX wants the viewer to treat it as a serious angle. How can I treat it seriously when they don't treat Twilight or Flash with any level of respect?

Flash and Twilight have no chemistry. The romance only occurs to fulfill the high-school-drama-stereotype requirements. Sure, it doesn't happen at first sight, but it nevertheless follows the stereotypes, including the "evil-bitch-has-a-man-attracted-to-the-protagonist" cliché. He can't escape the identity because without Twilight's out-of-character crush, he's nothing.

 

Flash isn't a character. He's a caricature. Unless there's some genuine chemistry or Hasbro drops the angle entirely, he jumps the shark and risks being devoured.

Actually, this would make it so that it's longer. All 6 of them would have to go on an adventure to find out whats happening, making it have more tension. It also would be good if it was Spike, because it would show intelligence about a character we already like, and this version would have lasted at least 5 minutes.

 

All your points are completely invalid. Dark Qiviut's post about the difference between Flash and Twilight and Spike and Rarity are all true, but there is also one other point I would like to make out.

 

Spike x Rarity was suppose to be A JOKE, clearly was a joke without question, and saying that it's a joke isn't just a clear attempt to try and excuse his character.

 

The major difference between Spike and Rarity in the fact that they've developed is that Spike's crush wasn't mentioned in every episode, nor were they together every episode. However, Brad is in both movies, and he mentions it at least once, and as there both movies, they should have had some development.

You both make good points. A tip of the hat to you both.

Although, if I may clarify, my point in bringing up the Spike-Rarity relationship was not to compare it in its entirety to TxFS, but just to show that the first meeting of the pair in question was differently presented, and the SxR one is purely a love at first sight scenario (hence physical) whereas we at least had a prior non-romantic interaction between the two.

 

First, this is all still speculation on the creators motives in changing the colours of characters, and without proof, no matter how plausible it is, it remains just your own speculation.

 

Second, I crunched the numbers, using Paint to see how the RGB values changed. Mac and Cheerilee were altered the most, then Trixie and (in RR) Lyra, and only then Flash Sentry. So to say those 3 you always mention were changed the most is not quite correct. (Maybe KCYM values would tell a different story.)

 

Third, the fact that there was a change at all in characters for whom "racial connotations" don't apply still requires explanation. Saying it wasn't immediately noticeable or "extremely subtle" (false in the case of Trixie, at least, it is immediately noticeable, as much as any of the Big Three, and Lyra is close behind) doesn't negate that need for your hypothesis to address the fact that was done at all. Otherwise, why were the rest changed? Why one set of rules for some characters, and another set of rules for other characters?

 

Fourth, if they were so worried about the mere colour of a face causing outrage, why is it that Sunset Shimmer becomes a giant red-faced Demon, and is the villain of the story to boot?

 

Are you telling me Hasbro was terrified of making a human character with dark red skin, but let this go through?

 

Maybe they just did it with all characters so they could disguise it? I don't know, but I think this is kind of irrelevant to why Flash Sentry is bad character. For Sunset Shimmer, she's not a human being, so I think they had some leeway.

 

 

Although, if I may clarify, my point in bringing up the Spike-Rarity relationship was not to compare it in its entirety to TxFS, but just to show that the first meeting of the pair in question was differently presented, and the SxR one is purely a love at first sight scenario (hence physical) whereas we at least had a prior non-romantic interaction between the two.

You make a good point there too, but this "short character interaction not based on physical attraction" didn't go anywhere, was really short, and Twilight didn't react to it at all, meaning it didn't really have much weight to it. If she had reacted to this, saying "what a nice fellow," or something a long the lines of that, maybe I would have accepted it. But she didn't react AT ALL, and all it does is serve the constant movie ritual of them bumping into each other. I think they just did this first non blushing bump to make Twilight seem a little less flanderized, and a little less out of character, then she already was. If she had blushed the first time it would have been even dumber

I don't know, but I think this is kind of irrelevant to why Flash Sentry is bad character. For Sunset Shimmer, she's not a human being, so I think they had some leeway.

Okay. I'll admit that Flash Sentry wasn't handled as well as he could and should've been integrated into the film more seamlessly if he had to be there. He also could've been more memorable of a character even if he was a side character there and could've been an honorary member of the HuMane Six too.

But I'm sorry to say that you REALLY go overboard with this.

First. In regards to Twilight having a crush on him… so what? While I personally would've left them as just friends to quell shippers, crushing on a cute boy is hardly something Twilight is incapable of. I'm sure many have had those sorts of moments in real life (not referring to anyone specific).

Now for your claims about sexism. *sighes*

Look, when it comes to the media at large, there’s a large representation of males in fictional characters (of the straight and white variety). Almost every show out there is aimed at male audiences by default. By no means does this one show somehow "oppress" guys.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. We have a good number of well-done female characters. I love The Legend of Korra for this and I'll defend it until my last breath. Yet even those characters and their shows are often overlooked for the guys. Hell, the show wasn’t green lit until Nick was sure a female protagonist could work for male audiences.

Lastly, I don't think Flash needed to be anything more than a secondary character. My issue was that he wasn't memorable enough and didn't have much impact as a character overall. That's about it.

It just bugs me how guys, obviously not the primary target demographic, complain about male characters being shown in a less that very positive light. What do you think girls have to struggle with when it comes to many other shows?