Text Review Roundup: "Celestial Advice" and "All Bottled Up"

In the end there were 18 entries for the inaugural Flashfic 150 non-prize contest. I'm pretty satisfied with that, given that I had no idea whether I'd have any interest at all. Now I have to judge them! I'll announce the winner on Tuesday.

This may be the most terrifying thing in either episode

It really has been a long time since I did a TRR post. The last one was for Legend of Everfree back in early November, so I hope I can remember how to do them! For those new to all this, my aim is to summarise the opinions of text-based reviewers other than those who write on Fimfiction. This is a smallish group and one that tends to get a bit sidelined, with Equestria Daily only really interested in video reviews and Fimfiction bloggers concentrating on other Fimf posts. If you know any other regular show reviewers, please do let me know!

I'm going to cover both opening episodes here, which isn't ideal but is really unavoidable given the calendar. If the reviewer covered both eps in one post, click on their name/title to go to their full review. If they split them, click on each episode's abbreviation instead. This is a rather ugly way of doing TRR, but unless there's another back-to-back airing like this it will be a one-off.

ArthurCrane – CA: broadly positive ("above average"); ABU: mixed (likes Starlight; doesn't like Trixie)

Batbrony Reviews – CA: positive ("important and needed [for Tia]"); ABU: very positive ("hilarious")

Cuddlepug – both episodes: negative (graded D; "little ... justification for why people should still be watching")

Derpy News – CA: extremely positive (graded A; "refreshing change of pace"); ABU: very positive (graded A; "another fun episode")

Louder Yay – CA: fairly positive (three stars; "a reasonable start"). ABU: a bit more positive ("top-end" three stars; "pretty funny")

MLEEP Reviews – CA: extremely positive (9.5/10; "truly radiant"); ABU: negative (5.5/10; "great on paper, shitty in execution")

One Man's Pony Ramblings – both episodes: rather negative ("45 minutes of blah" but points for Tia in CA, Trixie in ABU... and Carrot Top)

Super Recaps – CA: broadly positive ("perfectly fine"); ABU: broadly very positive (Star/Trix fantastic; Mane Six subplot blander)

TheDragonWarlock – CA: mixed (graded B-; "repetitive"); ABU: rather negative (graded C-; "pretty weak ... lousy song")

Thrond Media Pony Corner – CA: rather negative (50%; "lightweight" but credit for Tia); ABU: negative (38%; "obnoxious ... shortage of jokes" but moral and ending are good)