Fixing "Brad", Going Forward, part one · 12:39am Aug 17th, 2013
I watched the Equestria Girls movie, and while there are some minor details that I'd change in the name of covering plot-holes and keeping characterizations consistent, I enjoyed the movie as a whole. As you may have guessed from the title, this post will be about one of the most controversial parts of the movie, Twilight Sparkle's relationship with Flash Sentry.
First off, I can see why fans would dislike this aspect; it has all the hallmarks of a shoehorned-in demand from corporate hoping to cash in on the teen female romance market, by forcing a well established, well developed, strong willed, self-directed female character that has never shown the SLIGHTEST interest in romance into falling head-over-hooves in love with Generic Male Lead Teen Heartthrob (sub-type: Guitarist) #629748 with no character development what so ever.
Or in short, the kind of "TV for girls" crap exemplified by earlier generations of My Little Pony, the sort of crap Lauren Faust wanted to get away from.
In actuality, that isn't what happened in Equestria Girls... mostly because it's clear that this romance sub-plot was given an EXTREMELY low priority by the creators of the movie; Twilight spends most of her time with her friends, and they talk about Flash... maybe twice in total. Twilight and Flash bump into each other a few times, blushing awkwardly. Flash helps clear her name when she gets in trouble, and they share a victory dance before Twilight Sparkle returns to Equestria.
And that, (aside from recognizing Flash Sentry's pony reflection) is all that happens between the two. There's potential for a relationship, but the movie didn't do anything with it in the time available. It's entirely possible that future seasons will treat the movie like it never happened, and forget that "Brad" ever existed...
But I got to thinking...
And decided that Flash Sentry, given more screen time, maybe a few episodes devoted to fleshing out the bare bones we have of his character, could be someone really interesting, someone we'd like to see Twilight Sparkle getting involved with. How, you ask? Read on in my next post. Part Two Part Three
