So I Just Watched Equestria Girls... · 7:44am Sep 7th, 2013
...and it's exactly what I feared it would be. Yes, I know, I'm somewhat behind the times as it was released some time ago, but I was skeptical of it to begin with and felt little compulsion to set it as a priority. When the first trailer came out and there was that brief scene in which Twilight hugged that guy, now known to me as Flash Sentry, I won't lie; I freaked out. I was frightened for what that may hold for the show (okay, and maybe a little jealous: sue me), but in time I calmed down, told myself I might be jumping to conclusions, and decided to give the movie a shot. I did, and it feels like I was shot back.
I've no problem with a canonical romance. For those who watch Adventure Time, I think that most all the fans love the addition of the Flame Princess as a recurrent topic of romance that actually goes somewhere, and I am not opposed to the idea of canonical romance in the show. However, there was in my mind the condition that said romance would have to be thoughtfully executed and properly thought out, and what was presented in Equestria Girls was shallow and pointless. Flash Sentry appeared to me as nothing more than a juvenile cliché of high school "cool," and Twilight's instant attraction to him was repeatedly shown to be, or so it seemed to me, based solely upon his physical appearance (which is really bucking strange given that she is a pony). I found myself either cringing, raging, or both every time he showed his smug, suave smile and spoke in what the producers imagined to be dulcet tones, and while he may receive more development in season four, they have canonized a love interest for Twilight, and that literally derails my entire series of fan fiction.
It's irksome on so many levels to think that "Tears in the Snow," with all its gaping plot holes, contrived drama, and poorly explained transitions, had more development and heart than Flash Sentry. Granted, he wasn't the primary focus of the story, but it only takes a small little nuance to add depth of character, a single act to really show what lies within, and Flash Sentry showed only the ability to overlook Twilight's awkwardness and an affinity for being directly in her path (something that any male can, and will, do for a female he has any fragment of interest in). While Cerulean's back story is, to be sure, too horrific to be child appropriate and thus couldn't be seen in the show, even without that tragedy he still would make for a far more interesting potential love interest. Am I raging that he wasn't used? No, that would be unbelievably stupid. All I wanted was a pony that I could actually find likable, somepony that had a depth of character beyond slightly clumsy (Cerulean has that in spades) and having that rock band swag that knocks the ladies out (Cerulean was "pretty" enough for that, too). Flash Sentry was an utter disappointment to me, and the movie left me simultaneously thrilled (because it was more ponies) and furious (because moronic boy toy).
Lastly, while nothing between Twilight and Flash has actually "happened" in Equestria, the ending makes it blatantly obvious that things are going to move that direction, and that completely obsoletes my stories. It's disheartening, frustrating, and I'm torn between wanting to do nothing but write just to flip Hasbro the bird, or throw my hands up and call it quits. I'm honestly not sure which I'm going to do at this point. Maybe my frustration will fuel my creativity, or maybe I'll just throw in the towel and start my own novel series so I can make sure things happen the way they are supposed to. I don't know... It just feels pointless to write a romance for a character that is now unofficially officially taken. Regardless of what I choose, I sincerely hope that Flash Sentry gets some fleshing out, and that there is more to their romance than "OMG he's so hot."
tl:dr *facehoof*
I hope this helps.
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I mean, even if it was canon, you'd still have to somehow make Twilight an alicorn princess. Besides, I personally think your Equestria is better than the canon one. Don't give in just because they did something stupid to sell more toys. Equestria Girls happened, Twilight learned from it, and that should be the last we see of it.
But like I said, don't throw in the towel on what must be one of the best series of stories in this fandom.
go with flip the bird in my opinion.
right now they haven't done anything yet and besides you're an awesome author. you cured my OC phobia because your characters have believable flaws
Don't let Flash get you down. Your universe may not be canon, but who's is these days? You have your own, very interesting and captivating spin on Equestria and the ponies within. Don't let some shit ploy for merch by Hasbro make you quit something you've invested so much time and effort into. Your stories are what made me get an account here, and for that matter, are what solidified my interest in becoming a Pegasister, many other people would probably say the same, and even more would say that your stories are too amazing to just be stopped by a half-rate movie of all things. Just keep trucking, friend, who needs canon when your universe is better than canon?
if you leave I will miss you (in the end it is your dissension) but you should know that I have loved your work from tears to cmc and was worried that when you announced that you would be restarting the universe that you created something would happen in the show that would cause you to just quit writing.
I don't know where I am going with this but I'm just saying that all fanfiction is by definition an A U of the source material. If you do decide that it is not worth it to continue than no one can stop you but you will be missed.
Here's a few words from me:
Continue with your story. Canon is only there for reference if you need it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Your blog has left me just as torn as your opinion of the movie, but in my case I'm torn between positives.
On one hand, I would love to see you continue your stories on here. One of the greatest accomplishments and challenges of any writer is the task of creating their own world for their characters to inhabit, adn you've done that wonderfully. Your incarnation of Ponyville, not to mention to ponies that live their, is absolutely fantastic. Just because it's not canon doesn't detract from the fact that you should be proud of what you've created, and it certainly doesn't keep the thousands of people that have read your work from hoping that you'll continue it.
But on the other hand, the thought of seeing what you could create with your own world, in your own novel series......I won't deny, I would look forward to that just as much. You just gotta make sure you tell use your pen name when you get published so we can keep following you.
Personally, I say 'Meh.' to the canon. AU or not, your series is nice to read and that's all that matters to me.
My advice is to not care about that mess and do your thing as you please. Your romantic/character developments are fun to see and I (among others, I'm sure) am at least a little anxious to see what your next 'Ceruverse' stories are gonna be like.
Seriously, if I were you, I'd make like an old man and say 'Ech.' to that.
Just so that you know, it has been said by many people, including Lauren Faust if I'm correct, that Flash Sentry will not be reappearing in the actual series. He was just simply a filler in the movie. That's why the romance was terrible, it's not going anywhere and it was only there to make the movie longer. So, once again, it's not canon and you can continue to write romance stories on here with Twilight. :)
Let me put in my two bits worth here. First I don't care if your stories match up with the TV show or not. They are just that, “your stories” some of the best stories I have found on this site are not canon. I have three I am working on that aren’t, I will stick an AU label on them and keep going.
Your stories have well thought out characters, excellent back story set up, and compare favorably with stories I have read from so called professional writers. For you to quit would be a loss to this site and fanfic in general.
I think that most of us are fans of the world of Equesteria as it was originally portrayed.
Should the powers that be change that world for their own ends does not mean that we have to walk away from the way we want to portray it. All of this does not change the fact that the decision is yours,
and I will support that. This does not mean that I would like it but its not my life or stories.
OK, nuff said. I like your stories and look forward to more of them.
B.D.
It was a kid's movie, not an adult movie. I really don't see why you're upset that there was little character development, I thought that was to be expected.
1333503
I don't think that's a suitable explanation for lazy writing. There are a lot of kids movies with great character development (Toy Story, many Disney movies, arguably Harry Potter). The fact that it's marketed to a younger audience shouldn't be thrown around as a reason for why the writing was terrible. If a company says "Oh, we're only marketing for young kids so we don't have to fill in these gaping plot holes and weak structure because they won't question it so long as their favorite characters are there", then they're pretty much shooting themselves in the foot in regards to any other demographic.
... D'awn, bop Ceru, will ya? He isn't thinking clearly.
Ceru, your stories only follow canon before... what, the end of season two? (Sans adding Discord and Shining Armour and Cadance.) Why should we give a damn that she had an unofficial official love interest in one movie when she isn't even an alicorn? When Dash can now do a Sonic Rainboom whenever she wants to, and doesn't need to train per se for it?
You're over-analyzing things, brah. I mean, I DO understand the disheartening part. I do! Stuff has happened to me in the past that made me go, "Well... Why should i give a damn NOW?"
tl;dr, Wishes an D'awn, boppify teh Ceru! (Gently, though. We don't want to damage him like last time and make him lose his memory, right?)
1333511 Maybe the writers didn't want to expand to much on Flash Sentry's character because they wanted to leave that to the fanfiction writers. The possibly could have done it on purpose.
Personally, I like Flash Sentry because there is so much to work with in regards to fic writing. If you don't want to ship Twilight with Flash, there are many ways to circumvent this problem, like breakups, or AU.
Since the movie was a pretty blatant cash in, I think it was just lazy writing though :P.
1333581
That's fair enough, but it's the exact same reason others didn't particularly like Flash Sentry: he's a blank slate. He's not a terrible character and he's not a good character; in the context of the universe, he's just BORING.
Besides, I don't even think you'd need an AU to ship Twilight with other characters. Canon isn't a rigid, you-must-follow-this-strictly-or-you-fail system. It's good for guiding the plot based on events that have happened prior, but there's no reason a story needs to stay true to it unconditionally.
1333304 Also I believe she said brad/flash sentry won't be in season 4.
1333610 Yeah, that was the one I was really looking for, but couldn't find it.
1333579 Sorry, Dawn can't hear you. She's closed off her book fort and is currently making her way through her treasure of cupcakes.
1333655 I'm pretty sure she isn't, and I'm pretty sure she CAN hear me, seeing as how she an Wshes had a sleepover last night. Ate lotsa muffins, an had waffles for breakfast! (Wishes an D'awn argue as to which is better, so they have their favourites depending on who goes to whose house. (Wishes thinks that Waffles and Muffins are superior, while D'awn thinks that Pannycaeks an Cupcakes are betterer, since they have the word 'cake' right in them. Personally, I agree with Wishes about muffins, but D'awn about Pancakes.)
1333673 Fine, I'll just take Kaye and have waffles, muffins, pannycaeks, cupcakes, and chocolate cookies!! Yes, that means Oreos!!
You keep nasty chips!
...wait, wrong thing!!! You can keep the other two!
1333684 Nup. Kaye is spending the weekend at Cryssy's place. Sorreh. (Crystal's.)
1333704 Fine, looks like it's just me, Sky, Flame (I'm not expecting you to know who they are), and Luna then. I'll just make sure the door's locked before pouring maple syrup on her wings again....
1333486 You are correct. I'm pretty sure they even said that the entire movie (or at least most of the things in it) can be considered non-canon, and won't be used in season 4.
I can't agree or disagree I haven't watched the movie. While I will admitt to not "liking" Flash Sentry I don't necisarily hate him. He's in between on my part.
But, yes I will say your stories do have a lot more heart.
1333718 ... Whelp, I guess I'll find out once I finish my homeywark. Fair enough?
1333747 Depends if you want to read something that is a load of shit and needs to be heavily edited, but yeah, if you really want to...
Just keep writing to flip off Hasbro. Look to the show and all its aspects as a tool kit, rather than an unalterable foundation.
Oh don't be so dramatic. First of all initial attraction is nearly always based on physical appearance. That's normal and if anyone ever told you otherwise they're lying or stupid. Secondly, your stories have been AU since day one and you know it.
1333861 That argument rather loses its purpose when you consider that she, a pony, found instantaneous attraction to him, a human. Cross-species physical attraction at a glance? I still cry foul. Yes, physical appearance is, almost always, the very first thing that causes someone to catch your eye, but it shouldn't be what keeps them there (in my opinion), and as much as Twilight has been shown to look deeper than appearances, that side of her seemed entirely absent during the movie, which makes painful sense because Flash was empty and poorly constructed. It's not so much a matter of drama but of my analytical mind being tormented by the inaccuracies.
Oh, and as for my stories being AU - that is technically true, but they didn't directly oppose canon until season three started, and I still considered them to be highly grounded in the canon. Twilight's coronation is easy to work into the series, the episode with Dash and Scootaloo works well to confirm the kinship they display in my series, and a number of other things that happened may have happened differently, but the core of the events didn't contradict who I drew the characters to be.
This did. If my frustration makes me dramatic, then a Rarity I shall be for the present.
Continue writing, I say
for your stories are grand,
don't stop yet,
More, your fans demand
-Eclipse
1333998 I really, really, really don't care about Flash Sentry. Or anything they did with him. Good or bad. He's literally irrelevant until he does things. And since he's a male character that's pretty unlikely.
Also, canon is irrelevant. Completely, utterly irrelevant. I'm reading a story where Arthas Menethil, after dying in World of Warcraft, woke up as a Pony and founds himself a new Paladin order on Equestria. Who. Cares?
1333998 The argument that he is a human and she is a pony is less relevant for this, for one, equestria has several different species, and its shown that cross species relationships aren't frowned upon with spikes crush on rarity(only reason that can even be considered "frowned" upon is spike's age) and human and pony facial structures are very similar(on purpose for the show) so it is very conceivable that Twilight could get a crush on a good looking human pretty quickly (plus part of it might have been the new human hormones she was experiencing)
TBH I couldn't care less whether or not Twilight and Flash get in a relationship, as long as he actually DOES stuff
But anyways, what were your thoughts on EQG minus the Flash thing?
1333998
Physical attraction is partially biological. If she has a human body, it is not impossible for her to be attracted to a human male. That said, there was absolutely no reason for him to have been in the movie, and it would have improved it had he not been in it.
If you are writing something that will take longer to finish than it will take an episode to come out, then you have to be prepared for your work to be directly contradicted by canon before you finish it. Is it likely that a single episode will directly contradict your work? No. Is it likely that after a couple of seasons your work will be directly contradicted? Yes.
From the moment that you wrote a fanfic that shipped one of the main characters with an OC, then you really need to be prepared for you work to be directly contradicted by canon. Sure, it didn't seem likely that the series was going to include romance, but if it ever did, there was absolutely no possibility that it wouldn't contradict your fanfic.
I can understand a certain amount of disappointment and frustration when a moment actually happens that does directly contradict your fanfic, but I can't really understand thinking about cancelling a fanfic because of it.
I can't really comment on the whole Flash Sentry thing because I haven't watched Equestria Girls yet. That said, I would point out that it's obvious that your work would be better than theirs, largely because, whatever else, MLP:FiM is still just Hasbro's twenty-minute toy commercial marketed to little girls. The fact that it makes up for that with sharp writing and high overall quality does not change that original fact. Yes, there's going to be the occasional fumble in the writing (cough...Mare Do Well...cough), and since the story is and will remained focused on the Mane Six, it's highly unlikely that any secondary characters aside from Celestia and Luna are going to receive much in the way of meaningful development, since their primary purpose is to hang around to promote the latest toy in the line and then move on to make room for the next one.
That said, the main reason we write fanfics is because we can take our stories, the characters, and Equestria itself in directions that the show could never go, both because of it's primary demographic and its narrow focus. You could even say that characters like Flash Sentry, who are pretty flat and one-note are a blessing as I've read a few stories that have made an effort to develop him into an interesting character or even one that Twilight could conceivably fall for. Even fandom favorites like Trixie (pompous showoff) and Discord (crazed random menace) are pretty flat characters when you look at them, but that only means that we have the opportunity to build them into more than that. Long story short, I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep doin' what you're doin' and have fun. That's what writing fanfiction is all about after all.
Oh, and it's good to see you're still kicking around.
Didn't Meghan McCarthy comment on Twitter that we will not be seeing Flash Sentry in Season 4? It's like she was saying that Hasbro execs told them that they needed a high-school love interest for Twilight in the film, she said, "Okay," and then proceeded to make the most flat stock character ever for it to be just so that she could later say, "Well, this Flash Sentry guy doesn't interest me at all now. He's not going to show up later," then clap her hands free of the dust, and walk away.
I just watched the movie about a week ago and i actually liked it, except for flash. he was meh...
please don't stop writing your equestria stories! they are one of the series that got me off my lazy butt to actually make an account on here, so i can let the author know how much i appreciate their work.
Dud, it's a high school romance. What did you really expect?
Isnt it a given that all fanfics will eventually be contradicted by the show? I can only imagine what fic writers are going to do when scoots learns to fly in season 4. But if it bothers you that much, just add a foot note saying that Flash was sent to the North pole to guard penguins and was never heard from again.