Louder Yay: August 2020

Monday, 31 August 2020

Sounds of 2013, Nos. 29 to 25

Today we're returning to Everfree Radio's Top 100 tracks of 2013, as voted for by fans at the time. The usual reminder of the criteria I use to decide whether a track is featured:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

Here are this week's five songs. Again, there are no skips this week!

29: Sherclop Pones – It'll Be OK
28: The Living Tombstone – Rainbow Factory (remix)
27: FIMFlamPhilosophy – Sinking Ships
26: Awkward Marina – Sombra's Door
25: Coconeru and Steven, A.D. – Tavi and Scratch (A Tropical Octav3)

After the break, we'll get right on with the YouTube embeds and semi-random wibblings that you surely expect from me by now.

My Little Repeats 52: "A Canterlot Wedding, part 2"

This was really quite shocking the first time I saw it

S2E26: "A Canterlot Wedding, part 2"
Written by Meghan McCarthy
21 Apr 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDb score: 9.3

The one with the mine cart ride

Thoughts: This was the first time the season finale was broadcast all in one go, meaning that the cliffhanger from part 1 was resolved almost immediately. A slight shame if you ask me. Still, what an episode this is, and what a ride. We have Chrysalis, in my view the best villain the show ever had, and one we now know never got reformed. Quite brave really to have someone who's effectively a succubus in a kids' show. Her reveal scene is breathtaking, and I really like her voice here – the distortion was sadly removed at Hasbro's behest for later episodes. We get our first real fight scene, something that was a huge talking point in 2012. We get "This Day Aria", one of the finest songs of its kind in any cartoon, up there with many of Disney's. The Elements of Harmony are a diversion this time and don't actually matter in the end, which I didn't see coming. Yes, the love-drenched resolution is a bit silly and a bit sappy, and Twilight's laser spell became overused later in the series, but right now I don't really care. Plus we get custom end credits music, with a reprise of the theme from "The Return of Harmony". I always liked it when they did that, and it's a real shame Hasbro vetoed its return for the S9 epilogue. Still, this episode is a triumph. It's exciting, it's moving and it's supremely watchable. It's also, as you'll long since have realised, another five-star episode.

Choice quote: Pinkie Pie: "Meh. I've seen better."

New rating: ★★★★★

Next, I'll make a post looking back at my S2 rewatches and reflecting on what I've seen, along the lines of the one I did for S1.

Friday, 28 August 2020

Fluttershy says hello

Those of you on UK of Equestria may already have seen this photo, but I'm posting it here as well. Why? Because I've been lazy and haven't got my rewatch review of S2E26 done in time. So here's some Pony content of a sort. The other day I had a quick trip to Worcester and took Flutters along with me for company. Here she is by the River Severn, with Worcester Cathedral at top left.

You'll note that this is Rainbow Power (remember that?) Fluttershy. From memory, I think she was in one of those odd three-packs of blind bag figures, along with some unlikely combination along the lines of Derpy and Thunderlane. Those two are probably in a box somewhere, but I do take a travel 'Shy quite often. I even managed not to lose her on the train! :P

Wednesday, 26 August 2020

Ponyfic Roundup 309

Read it Later story count: 193 (nc)

I met two friends, both fandom members, last Thursday. Separately, and one meeting was only for a few minutes as they were working, but it was the first time I'd seen any friends in the flesh for more than five months. It actually felt quite odd, though in a very pleasant way. Anyway, three more stories for me to look at today, which are:

Scald by Casca
Wasting Time by Pascoite
Sketchwork by Casketbase77

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

My Little Repeats 51: "A Canterlot Wedding, part 1"

"Anyone, and I mean anyone, who quotes Friendship is Witchcraft at me is going to regret it."

S2E25: "A Canterlot Wedding, part 1"
Written by Meghan McCarthy
21 Apr 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDb score: 9.0

The one with Pinkie sneezing confetti

Thoughts: This was my first watched-as-aired episode after joining the fandom, and I remember plenty of people whinging that a wedding episode meant a reversion to G3-ness – especially since a Miss America was co-hosting The Hub's coverage. Didn't work out quite like that! Anyway, this is where the break was finally and decisively made with Lauren Faust's plans, with the appearance of a third alicorn in Cadance. Strange now to think how controversial that was in the fandom at the time. Twi's "Oh yeah, I have a brother" bit was mild by comparison, as was the continuing diminution of the sonic rainboom's specialness. I loved this ep, though, especially the way Twilight's belief in Cadance's evilness – which turns out to be right, but for the wrong reasons – leads to her being shunned by her brother, and her best friends, and Princess Celestia. Watch Twi's face after "You have a lot to think about" and you can see her heart breaking. There are so many great touches here: Spike's brony act with the cake figurines, the talking sandwich spell, the introduction of "Twily", the "ladybugs awake" cuteness, Shining Armor and "Cadance" having their muttered argument, you name it. Lyra even got her first speaking line – that was quite a big deal in the fandom at the time. Add to that an excellent cliffhanger, with Twilight not only in great peril but seemingly without anyone left on her side to help her, and part two couldn't come soon enough for most of us. This episode isn't perfect, but you can't take your eyes off it – and it still works wonderfully even though we know what's coming next. I still love this ep. If there's such a thing as a low-end five, this is it.

Choice quote: Applejack: "Why the long face, sugar cube?" Yep, they went there...

New rating: ★★★★★

Next up is "A Canterlot Wedding, part 2, startling as this may seem. I remember adoring it. Will I adore it again? Join me, some time or other, probably same channel.

Sunday, 23 August 2020

Sounds of 2013, Nos. 34 to 30

Off we go again! Remember, these tracks come from Everfree Radio's Top 100 tracks of 2013, as voted for by fans at the time. I don't include everything, as to get in a track will have to satisfy at least one of the following criteria:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

Five more songs this week, and happily enough there are no skips! :D

34: SlyphStorm ft. Amadhia Dreamsong – SoulSinger
33: TAPS ft. Feather – Sound Barrier
32: TwentyTen – Moving On
31: PrinceWhateverer ft. P1K, Scrambles and ISMBOF – Not Letting Go
30: Sim Gretina – A True True Friend (remix)

I expect you know this by now, but just in case: you'll get YouTube embeds and some waffle from me after the break.

Reviews of longer fics will return soon! I hope...

I've had a couple of queries recently about when/whether I might get back to reviewing longer fics, perhaps returning to doing the odd Spotlight post. This does remain on the agenda, and now life in the UK is a bit (a bit) less stressful than it was earlier in the year it may actually happen. Time to give you a sneak preview.

So, here are the next ten 30k-plus-word fics that I hope (no more than that) to feature in Ponyfic Roundup over the next mumble mumble period of time. They're listed in alphabetical order, though it's most unlikely I will read them all in that order. Their word counts are in brackets after the author name:

Contraptionology! by Skywriter (134k)
Drifting Down the Lazy River by Georg (99k)
Fluttershy's Bad "Hare" Day by Pegasus Rescue Brigade (59k)
Friendship is Optimal: Always Say No by Defoloce (109k)
Nine Days Down by JoeShogun (144k)

Oversaturation by FanOfMostEverything (37k)
Romance Reports by SleeplessBrony (185k)
Synchronicity by Sev (86k)
Twilight Sparkle of the Royal Guard by King of Beggars (80k)
A White Mare by RandomBlank (39k)

I do not guarantee that I'll get to your personal favourite, or indeed any of these fics, any time soon. I do not guarantee that I won't just throw my hooves in the air and continue to review 2k-word one-shots for the rest of time. I do not guarantee anything much. But hay, it could happen. Only on ~~The Hub~~ Ponyfic Roundup.

Wednesday, 19 August 2020

Ponyfic Roundup 308

Read it Later story count: 193 (-4)

Nothing much to report today, so I'll get straight on with the list of fics. Three again this week, and they are:

Symphonies Rock by Soap Box
Daring Do Bakes a Cake by Lucky Dreams
Anxiety by Bad_Seed_72

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

A straw in the wind?

I notice that NordicFuzzCon 2021, a Swedish furry convention scheduled for next February, will not take place as planned. Although this isn't a Pony convention, it is the first one I've personally noticed in a reasonably similar fandom to be called off that was scheduled for next year. The organisers say in the linked announcement that they are keeping their options open as to what to do, since "[t]he world is too unpredictable for us to be able to make any promises or to give any dates at this time".

This suggests to me that right now, in August, time is already running short for cons in the early months of next year. I suspect some organisers are already deep into negotiations with venues about postponements. I wish I could be more optimistic about this, but I suspect that the resumption of large fandom gatherings may well be further off than any of us would like to think. (I think some kind of MLP con did happen in China recently, but I'm essentially talking about Europe and North America here.)

Pandemics are generally long hauls. This one doesn't look like it's going to be very different in that regard, and I would not be especially surprised if there were no more than a handful of full-scale Pony conventions in 2021. I would absolutely love to be proved wrong on this one. As ever, we'll see.

Saturday, 15 August 2020

My Little Reviews 50: "MMMystery on the Friendship Express"

But what have you done with the real conductor, Fluttershy...?

S2E24: "MMMystery on the Friendship Express"
Written by Amy Keating Rogers
7 Apr 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDb score: 7.9

The one with alliteration. Lots of alliteration.

Thoughts: First things first: I find it pretty poor that three of Pinkie Pie's best friends can't be trusted to respect a valuable item Pinkie is responsible for. (Ironic that in "A Friend In Deed" it was Pinkie who disrespected another character's valuable possessions...) I'm not impressed at all, and even being played for laughs doesn't entirely overcome that. It's a real shame, as there's a lot to like in this episode. The whodunit is nicely written, with a fun Poirot tinge, and if you look very carefully you can pick up several clues yourself before Twilight reveals her findings. The Sherlock Holmes costumes are amusing, too. I like that Applejack, the only other baker in the Mane Six, is entirely innocent – though I'm told a deleted scene did have her guilty too. Of course, the Three Bakers do succumb to temptation with the other desserts. And then there are the three little homages to various filmic styles – all of them nicely produced and very amusing. We meet our first non-Gilda griffon, too. This would be quite a highly rated episode if only it weren't for Rainbow, Fluttershy and Rarity behaving so badly. I realise this may seem a bit petty, but it does leave a sour taste in my mouth (yes, I know the cynicism in "Ponyville Confidential" didn't. Go figure) and so I have to penalise it; the best I can do for it is a low-end three. It might even have been a two without so many fun touches.

Choice quote: Pinkie Pie: "Huh? Who turned out the Moon?"

New rating: ★★★ (just)

Next up is "A Canterlot Wedding, part 1", the very first episode I ever watched as it aired! I've always liked the S2 finale very much, so I'm hoping I still will.

Friday, 14 August 2020

What future for MLP's social fandom?

As the months of the pandemic drag on and on, many of us are missing our in-person social interactions with other fans more and more. In my case, the last time I met any other ponyfan in person was when I attended our final Worcester ponymeet, five months ago today. I suspect that at the time many of us quietly hoped it would only be a few months before the meets could restart. Sadly, it now looks like being a good deal longer than that. I don't think there's any realistic chance at all of restarting in September, a hope some of us perhaps entertained in early summer.

It's a lonely time for many of us. So how long will it be before we can all meet up again in something like the old way? Well, who knows? That depends on all kinds of things, and since discussion of those can stray into the realms of politics I'll try to avoid some aspects here. But the fact remains that for a lot of people – by no means all, but a lot – being with friends who share our love for and enjoyment of MLP has been a highlight of our time in the fandom, and something we're missing very badly. What happens next?

Lots of musing on this after the page break.

Ponyfic Roundup 307

Read it Later story count: 197 (+2)

I'm still wrestling with the poorly designed nature of New Blogger, but I hope I've at least got it to the point where individual posts can be reasonably easily read. I know the various links at the bottom are still an utter mess, but I'm really not sure how to change that without dramatically altering the entire look of the blog. I'll keep plugging on, but for now here are three ponyfics to consider:

Broken Roads by Not_A_Hat
Friendship is Optimal: Broken Bird by Eakin
Batch-22 by The Plebeian

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Sounds of 2013: Nos. 39 to 35

Right, I've switched back to Blogger's legacy interface for now. I'm sorry if it's still a mess in places for you readers, but at least I can edit without a headache now. Until the end of the month, anyway. Then everything goes to Tartarus whether I like it or not. A quick reminder of my inclusion criteria:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

Five songs listened to this time around, and happily they all qualify for inclusion! Yay for that.

39: Poni1Kenobi – Fade to Grey
38: Dawn Somewhere – Tubby Wubby Pony Waifu
37: Andrew Huang – Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows
36: mslkarishipper – Luna's Reply
35: Aviators – Open Your Eyes

More info about these songs, including those all-important embedded YouTube videos, will magically appear if you click past the page break.

My Little Repeats 49: "Ponyville Confidential"

This is me trying to get Blogger's appallingly designed new editing interface to behave

S2E23: "Ponyville Confidential"
Written by M. A. Larson
31 Mar 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDb score: 8.1

The one with Spike's disgusting cucumber-eating habits

Thoughts: This time we have an amusing slice of Ponyville life, though it does require a bit of disbelief-suspension that a normally conscientious teacher like Cheerilee would appoint Diamond Tiara as the school newspaper editor. And not do any checking up, given DT's foibles. Still, the whole CMC/Gabby Gums thing is fun, and it generally manages to stay the right side of the line in terms of cynicism ("Fame and Misfortune" years later was perhaps another matter). I like that several revelations from the Foal Free Press, such as the Mayor's pink mane, were remembered in later episodes. I would have thought "Ponyville: The Early Years" would be very popular in a local paper, though! Although this is a Crusaders episode at heart, Rarity rather steals quite a few of the scenes she's in; it's clear Tabitha St. Germain was having a wonderful time! Featherweight doesn't really have a great deal of presence, as I suppose his name would suggest, but I do like the way that Diamond's instruction to "document everything" comes back to bite her in the end. The section where the CMC are being shunned is a little harsh perhaps, especially Twilight's forcefield, though Big Mac getting to talk for once is a nice touch. Good pacing, as you'd expect from a Larson episode. I'm going to be generous and shade this episode just over the line into the fours, partly because Rarity's supporting role is just so much fun.

Choice quote: Rarity: "I'll destroy her!"

New rating: ★★★★

Next up is "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", which has long resided firmly in the lower echelons of Pinkie episodes for me. Maybe I'll have softened towards it. As ever, wait and see!

Wednesday, 5 August 2020

Ponyfic Roundup 306

Read it Later story count: 195 (nc)

I've been extremely tired for much of the last week (just tired, don't worry) but the reason for the mere two stories this time is that occasional curse: someone deleting/unpublishing their story before I got around to reviewing the fic in question. Ah well. Anyway, the mighty two tales remaining are:

Friendship is Wet by shortskirtsandexplosions
Rarity and the Nuckelavee by TheDriderPony

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Sounds of 2013: Nos. 44 to 40

It's Everfree Radio Top 100 time again! These, of course, are the tracks that listeners at the time rated as their favourites of 2013. When deciding whether to include a song, I take account of the following four criteria:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

Here we go with this week's list. Of the five songs I wanted to talk about this time, I can happily feature all five!

44: Synthis – Broken Wings
43: Sim Gretina feat. EileMonty – Again
42: donglekumquat – Hoofdachest
41: The Living Tombstone, EileMonty and Sim Gretina – Wings
40: Sim Gretina feat. Nowacking – When the Bass Drops

As always, come past the break for YouTube embeds of the songs featured here and my usual rambling words about them.

Louder Yay