FlashLight. My thoughts

Grab your pitchforks and torches ladies and gentlemen, I'm about to defend Flash Sentry.

So after a 2 day MLP binge (what am i doing with my life?) and rewatching both Equestria Girls movies I had an idea about Flash Sentry. I don't hate him, and he is not a terrible character.
First I thought about what he was designed to be. Twilight's love interest in the First EQG written as a typical high school drama. I think that most of the hate stemmed from that initial idea of him. And to be honest i didn't have much hope from that. While I tried to reserve judgement until I watched the movie I did believe he was just shoehorned in for that one purpose. And after the first time I saw EQG, I was still pretty ambivalent. I could justify Twilight's sudden attraction to boys as an effect of going through the portal. Spike is a dragon who acted like a dog, why can't twilight be a pony who acts, and feels like a teenage girl?
So okay, I'm fine with him in EQG, he had some semblance of a personality, and reason to be in the story. But then I watched Rainbow Rocks and I hated him. From the very start of the movie he became a bumbling idiot looking for Twilight. And it was the bumbling that did it for me. I'd be fine, him just asking the humane 6 about Twi, why shouldn't he be curious? But his exit, that awkward "Oh look how stupid I am" crash into the wall on his way out ruined it.
Ironically after that point in the movie he seemed to get better, albeit under the siren's spell, but that gave him motives. "I want this Twilight" he says showing he is more than just arm candy. BUT, and this is a big but, it is Twilight that, on my initial viewing, turned me off of him. Twilight became the bumbling one. She literally not being able to form a coherent sentence in his presence.

On my rewatch is when I started to not hate him. When he popped up on screen I mentally screamed "Go away!" but then I asked myself why and really thought about why everything goes to shit when he comes up. What I realized was that it has nothing to do with his character, or his place in the story, but the actual execution of all his scenes. In almost all his scenes he and Twilight bump into each other, and except for the first one where Twilight was actually unable to walk properly, and they do this for comedic romantic awkwardness.
For what it's worth he is actually bearable and a worthy character in EQG because he was a part of the plot. Once you get past the fact that he is in the plot, his role is actually one that makes sense from his perspective. "Hot new girl comes to school, she's running against my bitchy ex, even better! Oh, she's in trouble let's see what I can do to help." In RR he has absolutely no place being a love interest. Another competitor under the siren's control, sure.

And then there's pony Flash Sentry. Oh boy, this is where things narratively get complicated. Twilight: "Hi, you remind my of a you from a parallel world where everyone is a weird shaved monkey". However once we establish the fact that Twilight is in love with pony Flash, that is actually okay with me. Why shouldn't our beloved characters grow and change. Love is random it does what it does. Or like in the comic (spoliers)Like how Celestia loves alternate Sombra while normal Sombra is evil, there could be that inter dimensional weirdness. But I digress

There is nothing wrong with Flash Sentry as a character, human pony or otherwise. His issue, and the reason I initially was put off by his was due solely to the writing of his scenes. His scenes are awkward and forced, and led to an unfair assessment of his character.
I like him, and now ship it.