Prince Blueblood vs Flash Sentry

[ManaMinori 4,145]

I’ve seen these ponies get a lot, and I mean a LOT of hate from the fans; for the reasons of being waifu thieves and flat characters, to just plain dicks. Clearly, these two are on complete opposites of the spectrum, and I have to wonder- are these character redeemable? Is there something the fans aren’t (or choose not to) seeing in these characters that make them GOOD ponies?

 

Starting off with Blueblood. Many criticize him for being a pompous asshole to Rarity in “Best Night Ever”. However- I say that his behavior is merely a result of his upbringing. He’s not chivalrous, but maybe he wasn’t groomed to be that way. Given his status as Sunbutt and Luna’s distant adopted nephew, and a prince, he’s used to having ponies waiting hoof and hoof on him, obviously, and getting his way. Chivalry is a foreign concept to him because he’s likely not in any position to consider a mare who isn’t someone with royal connections to be worth his time to be chivalrous to. That, or he’s in a royal position so low on the totem pole in the Unicorn royal house that stemmed from Princess Platinum that he’s not been groomed for courtship and marriage.

He’s seen in future episodes, such as “Sweet and Elite” in the “Becoming Popular” song that Rarity sings. Interestingly enough he shows up not once, but twice during the course of that song. And it appears that he’s a complete gentlestallion. He waits on Rarity and her posse as she walks down the red carpet, all the while having a look of admiration on his muzzle. Then again, he’s seen with Rarity as she breaks a bottle against an airship. So clearly any bad blood between them has been buried with the hatchet, if Rarity considers him worth her time to spend in his company.

 

Then there’s Flash Sentry- the complete opposite of Blueblood. There’s his pony character that exists within Equestria, and his human character that lives in the human world of Equestria Girls. But most the hate that he gets comes from his human character.

 

First let’s look at his human character: People seem to hate this guy just for being a generic “nice guy/ goody two-shoes” to a fault. Unlike Blueblood, he’s chivalrous- holding doors open for Twilight, politely asking her to dance, helpful- helping her off the floor when she first enters the human world, bailing her out from Sunset Shimmer’s schemes by providing evidence to debunk Luna’s case against Twilight, a bit dorky and clumsy- showing nervousness around the Humane6 when asking about Twilight returning, and smacking into walls and doors. He’s clearly well off, as he’s seen with a fancy car and also a bit of a bad boy who dresses like a rebel and plays the guitar. But fact of the matter is, he has a sense of right and wrong, and is willing to help when the opportunity arises. And he genuinely cares about others- as shown by his first lines of dialogue “Whoa! You ok?” On top of that, he knows how to take initiative when need me- as it was HIM who broke up with Sunset Shimmer, regardless of what repercussions he may have faced while SS was still queen Bitch. It also shows that in spite of being the most popular guy in school, he didn’t have anyone to go to the Fall Formal with (and you think he would’ve had girls crawling over each other for him, given his status). Its even seen that in spite of his popular status at the school, he’s willing to act like a complete goof and dance like Twilight is, which would surely get people talking, and diminish his popularity.

 

His pony character has a lot of depth to him as well- perhaps even moreso than human Flash. He first makes an appearance in Eqg in the pony world as a NEW member of the Crystal Empire’s Royal Guard. And while the royal guard, in all instances, are shown to be incompetent buffoons, its clear that Flash Sentry is not. You’d associate determination and civility with a soldier, and that’s exactly what Flash has, even as a pony- though it’s mostly offscreen, given his all too brief movie/ episode appearances. First off, in the EQG movie, Sunset Shimmer knows exactly who Twilight is, when she’s going to be at the castle, what room she’s in, what her crown and element look like, in order to pull off her heist with a replica of it. How would she have all this information, if she had been in the human world the entire time? The answer is obvious- she had help from the inside, and who else but a royal guard to know when all this information as to the whereabouts of a Princess and when, to be able to leak it (probably through manipulation) to others? There’s a high probability the mirror was involved and Flash went through it to give such information to help SS stay up to date. There’s also the fact that in spite being a newbie guard, he still manages to catch the eye of Twilight.

 

By the time he’s seen again in “Three’s a Crowd”, Flash is part of Cadance’s royal escort, which does more than imply that he’s moved up in rank as a guard. When he shows up again, he’s the announcer for royalty. Clearly this shows him as a successful stallion to be given such positions, right out of the gate. Let’s not forget that the Empire is a relatively peaceful place- to the point where it drives Cadance to boredom- so there aren’t very many opportunities for Flash to prove himself.

 

But these are only just my thoughts. What do you guys think? Does Blueblood Have actual character? Is he redeemable, since its shown that Rarity has been willing to be in his presence after what happened at the Gala? Is Flash (human and pony) redeemable? Do they have more character than what the people who wish to disembowel him initially thought? If not, then can fans give them both characters and qualities like they did for the far flatter background characters that have become the “secondary six”?  

[Megas 27,786]

People hate Blueblood because he's a huge prick

 

People hate Flash because he doesn't have much character, and serves as a generic love interest

 

Between the two I still think Blueblood deserves most of the hate he gets

[ManaMinori 4,145]

People hate Blueblood because he's a huge prick

 

People hate Flash because he doesn't have much character, and serves as a generic love interest

 

Between the two I still think Blueblood deserves most of the hate he gets

I do believe that I gave multiple reasons for proving otherwise- that Blueblood at least can be tolerated by Rarity now, and that Flash (both human and pony) do in fact have character. And I didn't mention it in my op, but  somehow, everyone seems to forget that it was Twilight who started getting all blushy blushy goo-goo eyes for Flash, first (and being superficial, liking him just off his looks, alone, because CLEARLY if he doesn't have a personality like fans say he does, then what the hell else could she have fallen for?) So the fault is entirely Twilight's. 

[Ganondorf8 11,391]

At least in Legend of Everfree, Flash Sentry was given some actual character development and an actual purpose even though he ended up having to essentially give up on his means of being part of the Equestria Girls series. I can see Flash getting some more development in the future though what it might be remains to be seen. Prince Blueblood on the other hand is a character who has next to no redeeming qualities and comes off as a stereotypical royal who views everyone else with contempt. Granted, his role in Friends Forever #26 showed that his attitude is useful regarding negotiations but it's small compared to his other actions.

[ManaMinori 4,145]

At least in Legend of Everfree, Flash Sentry was given some actual character development and an actual purpose even though he ended up having to essentially give up on his means of being part of the Equestria Girls series. I can see Flash getting some more development in the future though what it might be remains to be seen. Prince Blueblood on the other hand is a character who has next to no redeeming qualities and comes off as a stereotypical royal who views everyone else with contempt. Granted, his role in Friends Forever #26 showed that his attitude is useful regarding negotiations but it's small compared to his other actions.

the problem with FF is that they had to dumb down Shining to make BB look good. I didn't much care for that. 

Wait, are you saying that FS (human) didn't have character until LoE? In spite of the tidbits we saw in the 3 other movies? (and what about Pony Flash?)

[Ganondorf8 11,391]

the problem with FF is that they had to dumb down Shining to make BB look good. I didn't much care for that. 

Wait, are you saying that FS (human) didn't have character until LoE? In spite of the tidbits we saw in the 3 other movies? (and what about Pony Flash?)

 

He was barely in Friendship Games--much to my annoyance--while in Rainbow Rocks he was given slight character development--he became nervous and clumsy--to offset the stereotypical jock archetype he had in the first movie. In my eyes, Flash became so much more in Legend of Everfree and received more development there than in the other movies combined. As for the pony version, he was only seen in two scenes and for that he barely has any character other than being a part of the Crystal Empire Royal Guard.

[cmarston1 5,959]

Their characters could always be worse. Just look at Marble Pie.

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Their characters could always be worse. Just look at Marble Pie.

I think , as pointed out in the op, there are positives in the characters, more seen in Flash than Blueblood, imo, but not to be mistaken for them being complete lost causes. People just don't see them unless willing to. And sadly, most are not.

[ChocolateCrane 156]

Blue Blood was designed as a token asshole character and the writers threw him out once they were done with him. I can understand why people don't like this guy since he is meant to be hated. Flash Sentry, on the other hand, is not a bad character. He was introduced as a generic love interest for human Twilight. BIG DEAL. He has gotten so much more complex and interesting since his debut,. I honestly cannot conceive how people still dislike him. This is coming from someone who has an (almost) waifu-tier obsession with Twilight, for fucks sakes. Personally, I would LOVE to see Twilight x Flash become a reality in the canon universe of the show. People who are opposed to this are perfectly entitled to their own perspective, but why hate on Flash for that reason?

 

We are talking cartoon characters here people. News Flash (lol) they don't exist! You can still fantasize to your heart's content about your precious Twi- Twi <3