A thread to discuss My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the tie-in media.
All of the usual forum rules
apply. In addition, please remember that the thread is discussing a kids' show, and it's primarily focused on the work itself, not the fanfic — in particular, we don't want to see lewdness creeping in.
Edited by Mrph1 on Aug 26th 2024 at 10:24:26 AM
You know, if I had more time and video editing skills, I'd be tempted to make a version of the movie with him edited out entirely just to show how little it changes.
She uses Firewire
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayMan, I thought we could make it to the next page without dragging that conversation over. I am so tired.
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Never!
@Sereg: I'm going to have to go with Mio on this one. Your blog post on flash basically boils down to "he has as much potential as any other character". Which is true, but doesn't change the fact that absolutely none of that is displayed in any of his appearances. You ask a lot of interesting questions, but none of them are actually answered in the movie at all. If they had decided to explore any of those things, he could've been an interesting character, but potential is useless unless it's actually realized. The reason I don't care for him is precisely because none of the questions he presents are ever addressed. Yes, there's probably some story as to why he's the only pegasus in the Crystal Guard. However, the show never tells us that story. Same with the music. It's there, but nothing's ever done with it.
Also, comparing him to the background ponies isn't a fair comparison, because they're deliberately written to fill different roles. The background ponies are just that: background characters who aren't supposed really have any sense of development. Flash, on the other hand, is supposedly one of the main characters of EQG, yet he receives almost no background, and has almost no influence on the plot. We roll with it for Lyra and Derpy because 95% of what they do is a Funny Background Event. If they were introduced as a potential love interest for an existing character, we'd expect them to actually get some more development than what we have.
And as for this:
I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Every single mane character had some sort of Establishing Character Moment in the pilot that gave a good idea of what they were like:
- Twilight: Socially awkward, has to be pressed into being social and has difficulty interacting with others.
- Pinkie Pie: Obsessed with parties, deals with difficulty by trying to laugh it off, instantly gravitates towards new acquaintances to become friends
- Applejack: Values both family and apples very highly
- Rainbow Dash: has a major tendency to brag, but has the ability to back it up, aspires to be part of the wonderbolts
- Rarity: obsessed with fashion, but also desires to make others look their best and takes time out of her own schedule to do so
- Fluttershy: Extremely shy, but has an affinity for dealing with non-ponies
I can't think of any comparable moments that Flash had, other than bumping into Twilight and showing that he's a Nice Guy.
edited 2nd Apr '14 6:51:38 AM by JapaneseTeeth
Reaction Image RepositoryFor Twilight, we needed to wait till Boast Busters
Fluttershy, Dragonshy
Rainbow Dash, Sonic Rainboom
Rarity, Suited for Success
Pinkie Pie, Party of One
Applejack, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
Just asserting this isn't providing evidence. I at least did.
Except that those clichés tend to go very differently.
Most people I've talked to for more than 15 minutes would be terrible love interests for me.
A connection to royalty
A connection to the guard
An appreciation for music
Enjoying bad dancing
Nerdiness
A rejection of social norms
I've pointed out what Flash got on my blog. Claiming otherwise doesn't magically make it not true.
Orange skin
He explicitly likes her without any makeovers
His relationship with her has nothing to do with his friends
He doesn't try to impress her, he just acts nice
He's explicitly not a jock
There's no stupid bet involved
etc.
edited 2nd Apr '14 6:59:36 AM by Sereg
I have a feel the blog compares him to Nightmare Moon Luna more than a background ponies - someone important enough with supposed shadowy interesting bits about them to speculate over.
Only nope.
The difference between Luna and Flash is that Luna is a character.
Why is she a character? Because the mystery that's in her doesn't just sit there - she acts on it. The fascination with her is a combination of the things she did and the things implied about her. Just enough shown for the rest of it to be interesting. If you do take the mystery away - her character crashes within seconds, her actions become random, inexplainable, she loses her idendity. If you take her actions away - then it raises the questions of why was the mystery attached to her in the first place if it doesn't affect anything in any way.
If you can take away the implications and it changes nothing - then the implications aren't worth shit.
Nothing about Flash Sentry affects his actions in the story. He used to date Sunset Shimmer? On screen they don't even share words. He's the only pegasus in Royal Guard? No one brings it up in the story.
Luna acts on her mystery. Flash Sentry does nothing. You can safely take every single implication about him away and it won't change anything.
Flash Sentry sucks, the only good thing that came out of him is the "Waifu Thief" meme.
Andy Price knows where it's at.
edited 2nd Apr '14 7:03:59 AM by crimsonstorm15
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
Luna and AJ seem to be his favourites.
edited 2nd Apr '14 7:06:32 AM by edvedd
Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau ProjectFor comparison, Flash Sentry has 9 lines of dialog in a 72 minute movie. Fluttershy had 12 lines of dialog in the 22 minute pilot alone.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play@Sereg: I have no issue with the character concept. My problem is that he's never developed beyond that. We get several facts about him, but we rarely see how those facts reflect his motivations or personality. So he plays guitar. That's a good starting point, but why does he do that? Is he an aspiring musician? Does he play it to pick up chicks? Is he just into it because his friends are?
And he's nice to Twilight. Again, that's a good starting place, but why does he help her? The only reason the movie gives us is "he's a nice guy like that", with a small helping of "he has a crush on her", and it never gets touched on beyond that. The main question that the movie ultimately fails to answer about him is this:
What are his motives?
Why does he do what he does? When he's nice to Twilight, why does he do so? Is he attracted to her (and if so, why?)? Does he support her to get back at Sunset Shimmer for being a bitch? How does he feel about knowing that Twilight isn't human? Or that she can't stay in his world? What does he think about the rest of the mane 6? There's no conflicting elements in his personality. He just acts nice, for seemingly little reason.
I'm not disputing that there's potential for the character. There is. What I'm saying is that the movie doesn't explore that potential. It presents the character and then barely develops him.
Also, you think AJ didn't get characterization until SSCS 6 K?! Did you skip "Applebuck Season" or something? Even if you don't like that episode, it did give her a lot of characterization concerning her motivation and work ethic.
edited 2nd Apr '14 7:17:17 AM by JapaneseTeeth
Reaction Image RepositoryFluttershy, Dragonshy
Rainbow Dash, Sonic Rainboom
Rarity, Suited for Success
Pinkie Pie, Party of One
Applejack, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
Ok then. So what did Flash Sentry get in Eq G that the others had to wait till these episodes to get? And could you perhaps explain what about these episodes makes them more character establishing then anything that happened before (especially A Js choice)?
Exactly what Luminosity is saying. He doesn't DO anything, nothing about his background, his character none of it is actually shown or acted on. none of it matters When you can just edit out every scene a character is in, or replace him with any other character and not in anyway affect the story.... yeah it's a poorly done character.
All you are seeing is potential, which given he is an utter blank slate, yeah plenty of that. But what did any of that have to do with him in the movie?
Again, yes the mane 6 were far better fleshed out, altogether in one episode, then he was in an entire movie. No you did not have 'wait' to get any character for the mane 6 they had that from the start, in everything. Yeah as they went we saw more and more aspects to their character, more facets, saw them as more complex, but from the start they were still better characterized then Flash.
What did he do, at all, that could not have been completely cut from the movie without changing anything, or that could have been done by literally any other character and still have made just as much if not more sense?
You know how we made up fanon characters for the toy-only ponies? Maybe we should make up a character for Flash.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayStill waiting for Dark.
Anyway, I propose that he was actually a spy and kept bumping into Twilight on purpose.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayOkay from the Nice Guy page
The Nice Guy can be engaging, likable or The Protagonist; all it takes is giving them a personality outside of "nice"
Sereg, what you are arguing is just this, that he could be more. But the issue, nothing in the movie actually DOES this, he never is actually given any personality beyond 'nice'. We are told things about him, but none of them matter, none of them actually ever affect what he does. All his actions, everything he does, everything we see him do, is simply him being a Nice Guy and nothing else.

ahhhhhhhhhhh
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