Flim Flam Brothers (Friendship is Magic)
The Flim Flam Brothers are many things, salesponies, educators, hoteliers, and even invaders of foreign nations (for real!) Truly they are brothers of endless talents and the drive to push their honest, trustworthy business into any field you can imagine. After all, do you think they would lie to you? Well, whatever the case, this smooth-talking duo has clashed against the Mane Six on several occasions.
History
Behind the scenes
Etymology
Flimflam can mean numerous things, but has two major definitions, 'nonsensical or insincere talk' and 'swindle (somepony) with a confidence game', both of which sum up the brothers in a single sentence.
Conception
According to M.A. Larson in The Elements of Harmony, "I particularly enjoyed writing Flim and Flam. They are villains, but they are designed to be charming and disorienting. They speak very quickly. They finish each other's sentences. They're in constant motion. Everything they do is designed to dazzle and confuse people, so they can shake your hand while they're stealing your wallet. You can see their charm in action when the song ends and Apple Bloom is 100 percent ready to take their deal. This is the reaction the brothers are used to. In the midst of the song, one of the brothers confuses Applejack enough that she agrees to give them some apples for their demonstration. And when you're writing characters like that, their energy and optimism infuses the actual writing. I wrote that episode very quickly because their dialogue flew through my head as fast as it appears on-screen."
"Disappearance"
Although the Flim Flam brothers are some of the more recurring villains in the Mane Six's rogues gallery, a fan asked comic writer Jeremy Whitley about their lack of appearances, to which he replied "I'd actually like to do a ff with LD and IW. I stand by Flim and Flam as unrepentant opportunists"[1]
Possible surname
The Collector Cards series refers to Flim as 'Flim Skim'.[2] Several fans, fansites and other communities took this to assume this was the surname of the Flim Flam Brothers. However, as Flam did not get a toy in that series, this is not able to be confirmed as a true surname and may simply be the obscure second word in Flim's name, which would not be unheard of in this franchise. Another card from this series named Trixie 'Trixie Lulamoon', which was canonized, admittedly for another continuity[3] meaning the name itself may be somewhat 'canon'.
See also
- Silver Shill (paid-off to advertise their products)
