“ | Both: ♪Well you've got opportunity In this very community!♪ Flam: ♪He's Flim!♪ Flim: ♪He's Flam!♪ Both: ♪We're the world famous Flim Flam Brothers! Traveling salesponies nonpareil!♪ |
„ |
~ Flim and Flam introducing themselves via song. |
The Flim Flam Brothers are recurring antagonists in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and its spin-off series, Equestria Girls. They are twin unicorns and charismatic con-artists who frequently try to scam the citizens of Ponyville and beyond, often bringing them into conflict with the Mane 6. They are the (former) archenemies of Applejack.
Flim was voiced by Samuel Vincent, who also voiced Lord Betrayus in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. Flam was voiced by Scott McNeil, who also voiced Rover in the same series, as well as Waspinator in Transformers: Beast Wars, Mortum in Max Steel, The Evil Masked Figure in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Dr. Wily in Mega Man, Veigar, Sion and Hecarim in League of Legends, Ali Al-Saachez in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Antoine Thomas in Dead Rising 2, Voltar in League of Super-Evil, The Overlord, Clouse and Nadakhan in Lego Ninjago, and Tall Boy in Riverdale.
Biography[]
Season 2[]
In "The Super Cider Squeezy 6000", the brothers drive into one of the gates of Sweet Apple Acres' apple orchard on a cider-making contraption and introduce themselves through song and dance. They challenge the Apple family to a cider-making competition against their machine, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. With Ponyville's citizens faced with the dilemma of a limited quantity of manually pressed cider, they turn to the Flim Flam brothers and their automated cider production. The brothers attempt to broker a deal with the Apple Family, who will supply them with their delicious apples, and they will sell the cider under the Flim Flam brothers name. They call for a 75-25 split in profits in their favor.
The Apple Family denies the offer, which prompts Flim to state that if the Apple Family refuses to partner up with the brothers, they will run the family out of business and Ponyville. The Flim Flam brothers challenge and provoke the Apple family into a cider-making competition, and end up winning the competition.
The brothers in panic, change the setting of the machine so it no longer performs quality check what goes into their cider and make more barrels of cider. The end result of this action causes the cider to taste horrible and all the ponies refuse to drink it. Realizing no pony in Ponyville will pay for their cider, regardless that they won, the Flim Flam brothers decide to try the next town over, and beat a hasty retreat. This alludes to the fact that this is not the first time the brothers have been run out of a town because of their tactics (and most likely won't be their last either).
Season 4[]
The brothers return in the episode "Leap of Faith", this time selling a product called the "Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic", using a song number to hype it as a panacea able to cure any ailment and injury, and even restore youth, among other outrageous claims. The tonic appears to work on a crutch-wielding volunteer in the audience, who casts off his crutches after drinking it; and later on Granny Smith, who overcomes her crippling fear of swimming.
Suspicious of Flim and Flam, Applejack visits the brothers' tent that night and discovers that the volunteer pony, Silver Shill, is part of the brothers' act to promote the tonic. When confronted by Applejack, the two partially admit that their tonic is a useless mixture of apple juice and beet leaves. However, they point out that Granny Smith's blissful ignorance of the tonic's true nature is allowing her to relive her youth as an aquapony, and guile Applejack into silence by suggesting that she would be denying her grandmother that happiness if the truth is revealed.
The next day, Flim and Flam sell their entire stock of tonic to Granny Smith for her to perform at the Ponyville Swim Meet, while Applejack unwittingly approves of its apparent beneficial effects, boosting their credibility. They set up shop at the swimming competition, promoting Silver Shill to help sell their tonic. However, Applejack realizes the bad example her dishonesty is setting for others and, after stopping Granny Smith from performing a dangerous high diving stunt, reveals that the tonic is fake. The brothers try to save face by endorsing the tonic's placebo effects, but Silver Shill, inspired by Applejack's honesty, intervenes and further confirms the brothers' schemes. Defeated again, Flim and Flam hastily flee Ponyville before anyone notices their absence.
Season 5[]
Flim and Flam have a cameo in the Season 5 finale "The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2". In one of the alternate timelines created by Starlight Glimmer interfering with history, the brothers have somehow conquered Equestria, turning it into a heavily industrialized nation and clearing away the forests to feed the trees into their factories' furnaces, which in turn fill the skies with smog. This timeline, along with the others, is erased when Twilight Sparkle manages to get history back on track.
Season 6[]
In "Viva Las Pegasus", the brothers return, this time working at a hotel. When Applejack and Fluttershy arrive to solve a friendship problem, they spot Flim and Flam after their very friendly employer/boss, Gladmane, gives them a tour. Fluttershy assumes that their dilemma is the problem they need to solve, however, Applejack refuses to help them, not only because of what they did in the past, but because she claims that everyone else is better off without them together.
Fluttershy soon investigates the two and realizes that they've been fighting since they were employed and that Gladmane had them and all his other two pony acts fighting each other so they would never leave, since they couldn't get along. Applejack and Fluttershy decide to get the brothers to help them expose Gladmane's deceptive ways, and by extension, solve all the friendship problems in the hotel. They confront the brothers and tell them what's really going on, only for them to dismiss their claims, stating that Gladmane is a good friend of theirs, only to remember that Applejack is the element of honesty and that she wouldn't lie to them over a serious issue.
Furious and reunited, the brothers decide to use one of their get rich quick schemes to bring down Gladmane. They dress Fluttershy up as a very rich pony who might like to open a casino of her own, wanting to know Gladmane's secret on how he keeps his travelling ponies working for him, with Applejack and Flam planning to broadcast his answer over his casino. To their surprise, Gladmane lies about his secret, claiming that friendship is why they stay and tears off Fluttershy's wig, stating that he practically invented their con-man technique and knew they were going to trick him the whole time.
Later Applejack and Fluttershy were forced to go to his office, where he boasts about his victory, only for the two to reveal that Flim and Flam knew that he would discover their plan and boast about it, broadcasting his evil monologue over the casino while he was gloating, revealing the truth to all of the showponies. After Gladmane is out of business, Flim and Flam immediately go back to their conman ways, taking over the casino and tricking everybody into going in the theater, despite there no longer being any acts there, angering Applejack.
Season 7[]
In "A Royal Problem", Flim and Flam have a brief cameo while Celestia is in the dream realm, shown playing in a massive pile of money.
Season 8[]
In "Grannies Gone Wild", Flim and Flam's images/statues are emblazoned all over their resort.
In "Friendship University", Flim and Flam open Friendship University, a school said to teach friendship in half the time of Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship. The school does not charge tuition, but charges high prices for coursework material. Twilight and Rarity find out Flim and Flam stole half of Twilight's lesson plans (by only doing half the lessons, they will indeed finish in half the time) and will eventually leave the students high and dry and use the money to fund their resort. Their con exposed, they are forced to close down the school and refund the students.
Season 9[]
In "The Beginning of the End - Part 1", while Twilight's friends recount the villains they've taken down without the princesses' help, Applejack mentions Flim and Flam, asking if they count. In "The Ending of the End - Part 2", Flim and Flam join with the rest of Equestria to help defeat Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow, being seen using their magic to form a force-field around the Mane 6 alongside all the other unicorns.
Roles in the Comics[]
In Friends Forever Issue #9, The Flim Flam Brothers seem to be dissolved, when Granny sees Flim at Apple con selling apple peelers, she wasn't happy and asks him where his twin is, and was sure that he tried to trick her when he said he didn't talk to him since weeks. Granny walks away only to hear Flam, who was also selling apple peelers. She was sure the two were working on their tricks on ponies, but Flam tells her the same thing that he didn't talk to his twin in weeks.
Flim decides to go sit under a tree. Granny follows him, sure that he's preparing a trick with his brother, but Flim tells her that they both fell in love with a mare named Marian. The twins fought each other to win her heart, but she ended up rejecting both of them so they stopped talking to each other. Flim said that they didn't sell together for a while, and didn't want to talk to Flam anymore. After listening to both of their versions, she decides to reconnect them, but they fight again. Granny tells them about two brothers she knew who she rejected.
Flim and Flam see that they can forgive each other and hug Granny Smith before leaving for their stand and work together again. Applejack asks Granny if she has something to do with the brother's sudden happiness, and she finally admits she helped a little bit. When Apple Bloom asks her why she would help them after all the things they've done to them and other ponies, Granny Smith tells her that folks needed the same help as one another, even if they're as shady as the brothers.
In the Siege on the Crystal Empire storyline (issues #34-37), Flim and Flam are one of the many villains recruited by Radiant Hope to distract the Mane 6 while she revives King Sombra.
In the beginning of issue #34, the brothers, lamenting on their defeat by the Apple Family in Leap of Faith (or another unrelated incident, as the time in which their defeat occurred is not stated), are confronted by Radiant Hope, who promises the brothers a chance to get revenge on Applejack, to which they happily oblige. When the two enter the Crystal Fair, Applejack and Twilight are skeptical about letting them in, only for the brothers to convince them that they had become legitimate business men and are now using a lemonade making machine instead of a cider one. After Lightning Dust attacks the arts and crafts portion of the fair, the brothers allow Applejack to open their machine, where she finds dozens of Changelings that the brothers smuggled in, who signal Iron Will to steal the Crystal Heart. In the ensuing chaos, Applejack pounces on the brothers and effortlessly beats them into submission, ties them up and imprisons them in cages with all the other defeated villains.
In issue #35, the brothers are freed by the revived King Sombra and take part in systematically defeating the Mane 6, Shining Armour and Spike. During the huge battle, Flim and Flam use their conman techniques to defeat both Rarity and Pinkie Pie by tricking Pinkie into letting them use her party canon, stuffing her inside of it and firing her at Rarity, blasting them into the same cage Lightning Dust had imprisoned Fluttershy inside.
In issue #36, the brothers, Lightning Dust and Iron Will question their actions as they had not agreed to helping Radiant Hope overthrow the Crystal Empire, only for Queen Chrysalis to inform them that Hope's true plan was to revive Sombra so he could release the Umbrum, a race of evil shadow ponies that had been imprisoned under the Empire for thousands of years, as she was not aware of their intentions for Equestria. The brothers, Lightning and Iron Will ask Chrysalis to help them survive the up coming Umbrum invasion, only for her to back stab the group and leave with her Changelings. The brothers presumably leave the Empire afterwards.
Equestria Girls Universe[]
Flim and Flam's human versions appear in A Case For The Bass. In this universe, the brothers own a pawn shop that Granny Smith's human version inadvertently sold the human Applejack's bass to. When Applejack and her friends come to the shop to retrieve it, the brothers try to con Applejack out of a fortune, but when she explains the situation to them, the twins at first are skeptical about her ownership and find the evidence that proves otherwise to be circumstantial. However, once Applejack shows her talent by playing the instrument (and magically gain pony ears and a tail) the brothers are convinced by her ownership and when the gang (minus Applejack) glare daggers at the twins when they charge the instrument for ridiculous aspects, the con artists manage to get Applejack to trade for the instrument for advertising their store, but, ironically, get the last laugh (unlike their pony versions) when they make her dress up in a banana suit, much to her displeasure.
Flim and Flam's human counterparts make a cameo appearance in Roller Coaster of Friendship, when the girls arrive at their stand as Rainbow Dash plays to throw some balls of the goblets, which she wins much to their shock and disbelief that someone won meaning that no one else won their game.
Appearance[]
Flim and Flam both have the bodies of full grown unicorn stallions with green eyes, cream colored coats, and red and white manes and tails. They both wear straw boater hats with blue bands, blue/white striped vests over white shirts with sleeves rolled up, dark gray bow ties. Flam also has a mustache. Flim's cutie mark is an apple slice while Flam's is a apple with a slice cut out.
Personality[]
As their names imply, the Flim Flam Brothers are a duo of tricky con artists ready to swindle the pants out of any pony and they seem to have an eye for greed. They also seem to be extremely sly, arrogant, and manipulative, as they gloat about their victory against the Apple family and were confident enough to allow Applejack's friends assist them in producing cider as they believe that they will win the cider contest regardless, as Flam states that they aren't worried even if the entire Canterlot kingdom assists and this overconfidence leads to their downfall.
Another flaw of theirs, typical for a con artist, is that they flee from raging crowds when they discover the twins' trickery.
They do have some good in them though, as they teamed up with Applejack and Fluttershy to take down Gladmane and helped save Equestria during the final battle with the Legion of Doom. They also do care for each other and share the profits together.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Flim Flam Brothers and their song are parodies of the one scene in The Music Man, when the con men were tricking River City. The Flim Flam Brothers and the Con men both wear straw hats and bow ties, they both trick an entire town, and the part in Flim Flam Brothers song, where the ponies all chant cider, cider, cider, cider, etc. and in the music man the townsfolk were all chanting trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, etc. Also, at the end of the musical and this episode, Flim and Flam are both run out of town by the citizens of Ponyville, much like the con men were in the musical. However, in The Music Man, the lead conman decides to stay in the town. Flim is the parody of the main conman, Professor Hill and Flam is the parody of his associate, Marcellus Washburn.
- They are similar to the historical brothers, 'The Wright Brothers', with Flim as Wilbur and Flam as Orville, and they have their vocal mannerisms.