Character Analysis: Flash Sentry · 2:40pm May 8th, 2015
"..."
"..."
"...psst! Miner!"
Hm? What? Oh. Right! He has none. The end.
"Miner..."
What? Fine, here's the long version.
Flash Sentry was designed to be Twilight's boyfriend, and that's it. His interests are playing the guitar, apparently, even through his pony alternate, who mirrors his personality, shows no interest in guitars at all...
His pony version is a guard, which in Equestrian society, must mean he once dreamed to be a guard, but human Flash shows no sort of interest of doing anything like that, whether law enforcement or military.
His only purpose in the first movie, despite being a named character, other than for googly eye moments, was to then pick up the guitar he apparently has interest in, and rock out for Twilight's song. Something which any extra could have done more than easily.
His only purpose in the second movie, despite being a named character, other than googly eye moments was to say the line and I quote, "There's the girl we all love to hate," and that's it. He said nothing else during the whole movie, unless it was related to Twilight. And that one line, by far, would have been better suited to an unnamed extra (even though those don't seem to exist in this fandom).
Admittedly, with the latter, we do get some bitter ex-boyfriend bite to it. Except he broke up with her. So why the bitterness? Well, if he had a proper character, then I would say it because he harbors some feeling for her. But this can't possibly be true, because Flash Sentry was designed to be Twilight's boyfriend, and that's it.
Flash Sentry was designed to be Twilight's boyfriend, and that's it.
Flash Sentry was designed to be Twilight's boyfriend, and that's it.
I will gladly retract this statement, this blog post, and all hate for the boy, if this can be proven otherwise.
Until then, and in conclusion:
So what? Big Mac was designed to be Applejack's brother, and as of the point in the show that he'd had as much screen time as Flash has had that was all the development he'd had either. Didn't stop you from using him as a character in your stories and developing him much deeper as a character.
You could make the same argument about nearly every other side or background character (or even some enemies, think about how much in-show development Sombra got), and so what. People hold Flash to a completely unfair standard compared to every other character in the show.
All this pointless hate for the poor boy makes the fandom a worse place.
3054767
Big Mac isn't being forced into the spotlight.
Not to mention Mac's character quirk of speaking in one-word responses. This gives him some implied or, at the very least, fake character.
Sentry is just blah written over and over again.
As a background character, he's fine. He just needs to stay there.
3054886 Flash is only relevant in the first place if you are watching the EQG movies. He's not in the spotlight in the show in the slightest, so if it feels that way to you it's kind of a self-inflicted problem.
Not at first, in his very first speaking episode he had multiple lines of multi-word dialogue. It was only as his character was developed over time that that quirk was emphasized so heavily. Flash has just as much going for him so far if you don't handwave it away because of reasons.
Fanfiction is where characters that haven't gotten much canon development go to become more interesting. It's literally happened in your stories with guys like Soarin and Thunderlane and Sombra. Hell, nearly every male character in the show.
So you dislike him because he has no interesting characteristics in your analysis, and as a result you want him to stay that way. Would it be so bad to run out of reasons to dislike him?
3054933
But I have such a delicious cycle going here.
As for you EqG comment, that's where he's introduced. If we cannot judge him here, where can we? Big Mac was a face to name when we first see him, he fulfills his duty fine.
The problem came when they then took Flash Sentry, and tried to push too much onto him at once. They wanted us to like this guy, but gave us no reason to other than he's a rocker that likes Twilight. If he grew into an interesting character, fine. I might have even liked him if that had happened. Instead they tried to say "Hey! Here's a guy! You should like him!" shoved him down our throats, and then acted surprised when we spat him back out for air.
To continue the analogy, I still have a bad taste in my mouth, and I'm rather fond of breathing.
3054954 Would you even give him a chance if they did expand on his character? You've already taken multiple aspects of the development he's already received (royal guard status on the pony side, his interest and skill in music on the other) and declared as unimportant since they aren't shared. Why not instead view them as details that describe what is essentially the same character and work from there?
How do we know that pony Flash isn't musical? We've only ever seen him on duty, he'd hardly be carrying an instrument around then. And for human Flash, it's reasonably safe to assume he'd be similarly interested in military service once he's, you know, not in high school. (Admittedly, junior ROTC programs exist, but they're not at every single high school.)
3054983
Yes, actually.
Because suddenly he's not generic rocker boy. He'll actually, good lord, have an aspect to him that's not "I'm Twilight's guy!"
My issue on the disconnect isn't that they're different, but there isn't consistency (and yes, there is a difference). Currently, Flash is in the guard so that he can interact with Princesses and has a reason to be around when important stuff goes down, while be a rocker on the other side so that he can be...I dunno, a rocker? Point is, rather than picking a consistent characteristic (i.e. he wants to go into ROTC, or he plays guitar on Saturday nights to his company for entertainment) he's been made into an all around, man-isn't-this-convenient-that-I'm-just-everywhere grey.
If they had made it consistent, then that would provide these two together into an actual colorful character.
However, as I said, right now he's just blah written all over.
I like writing with flash. He's a blank slate, and that makes him extremely easy to paint. As a canon side character, I despise him. simply because of the reasons you've mentioned above. I agree with your opinion 100%.
I'm ArchAngelGundam, and I approve this message.