And yet more delays :(

The manifold glories of the year we call 2020 have struck again. Twice. Not only do I feel rather unwell today (no, it's not the dreaded lurgy) but some other stuff has come up that can't be delayed. Nothing horrendous, just home maintenance stuff, but it's time consuming and needs attention straight away. As a result:

There will be no Ponyfic Roundup this Wednesday. Drifting Down the Lazy River will now be reviewed on 7th October. No other fics will be reviewed until DDtLR has been.

My apologies to everyone, but especially to Georg. He's waited a very long time for this review and I'm sorry he's going to have to wait another week.

My Little Repeats 53: "The Crystal Empire, part 1"

The shadows in this early scene were really remarked upon back then

S3E01: "The Crystal Empire, part 1"
Written by Meghan McCarthy
10 Nov 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDb score: 8.4

The one with Pinkie's Fluttershy costume

Thoughts: Here we go with Season 3! This is a premiere that's had a slightly indifferent reception in some quarters, but which seems to have been rehabilitated a bit in the fandom in recent years. It certainly has its good points: for one, it's visually pretty lush, and I remember the feeling that it was a step up from S2 in that regard being noted at the time. Sombra's first appearance is genuinely frightening, especially given he manages to cripple Shining's horn, and the flashback to him overseeing his chained slaves is quite shudder-inducing too. At this point you really do have hope he'll be one of the best villains ever. Shame it doesn't quite work out that way. Dark magic gets the first of only a very few outings in FiM, and it's quite a shock to see Celestia wield it. A couple of songs, neither in the very top tier overall but both pretty decent. Spike gets to sing for the first time, too! There are certainly a few weak points here, such as Twilight just happening to fail to notice a very obvious missing page. Celestia's vagueness about Twi's test and Luna's unexplained frowns are a little annoying, too. Still, overall it's good entertainment, with not merely Pinkie but Rarity providing many of the laughs, and the cliffhanger at the end is pretty nail-biting as these things go. I don't think it does quite enough for a four, especially as it's a little disjointed, but I certainly place it in the upper reaches of the threes.

Choice quote: Cadance: "One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance."

New rating: ★★★

Next up is, of course, "The Crystal Empire, part 2". We'll see how Sombra's plans work out (or not) and whether I still think the episode was something of a missed opportunity.

Ponyfic Roundup 313

Read it Later story count: 188 (+1)

Well, if real life isn't coming back for six months, then made-up life will have to fill in the gap. That at least is nothing to fear in the wonderful world of ponyfic! Three more stories under the somewhat battered magnifying glass this week:

Empty Nest by The Descendant
Future Considerations by Chris
Mise en Abyme by Slavoj Zizek

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

Sounds of 2013, Nos. 24 to 20

After rather a long break, it's time to return to Everfree Radio's 2013 list of the fans' favourite 100 tracks. The usual refresher on the criteria for inclusion – to get in, a song has to satisfy at least one of the following rules:

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. The run of skipless instalments has been broken, but oh well.

24: skipped
23: Replacer and &I feat. Feather – Until the Sun
22: David Larsen ft. MandoPony – Double Rainboom
21: DJ Pon-3 – Vinylicious
20: Forest Rain – A Summer in the Stars

As ever, there are YouTube embeds of the featured songs after the break, along with a few details about each one.

Griffish Isles 2020 cancelled; GI 2021 scheduled for November

Twitter thread here announcing the news.

Officially this is being called a postponement, and I understand why the Griffish Isles people have used that term – but in the everyday world away from careful contractual language it's a cancellation. Though frankly one pretty much everybody I know was expecting. GI 2020 had been scheduled for October, and the situation in the UK is such that a convention in October is very much in "not happening" territory.

The Twitter thread does state that GI's new venue "could have accommodated us within government social distancing rules" – though I must admit I'm at a loss as to how any indoor gathering of several hundred people would have been permitted in Manchester. Maybe they were planning on having it all in the hotel car park with one person per alternate space! Okay, not a serious suggestion.

GI have said that they're now going for the weekend of 21st and 22nd November 2021 for their con. The May date used in previous years isn't practical as UK PonyCon 2021 will be then... if that can go ahead, which of course is itself up in the air right now. (For what it's worth, I think UKPC is a possible if a lot of things go right in the next few months, but it's well short of being a surefire bet.)

The dates GI have chosen is roughly the time the now-no-more BronyScot convention used to happen, so people in the UK are used to doing cons in November. The venue has agreed to the new date, as have the guests. So we'll see how it goes. I enjoyed my half-day at GI in 2019, so I may be open to attending this. If and only if, of course, I consider that it's sensible for me to do so. 

One other point: unlike many other conventions, Griffish Isles have chosen not to do an online version of their event. There isn't really a reason given for this beyond "we are interested in providing an in person event" – which is a bit of a non-answer really, as they're not mutually exclusive. But as I said the other day, maybe the online con field is a bit saturated by now anyway.

This blog isn't really the place for me to go into detail about my views on the wider health, societal and political issues connected with Covid-19, but I think it's fair to say that November 2021 is so far off right now that nobody but a fool would claim certainty about what that date will bring. It'll be great if the con can go ahead in recognisable form. I do have hope that it will. But as ever, time will tell.

PonyFest 4.0 today!

 The fourth iteration of the original MLP online convention happens today. It's sticking with its usual one-day format, and to be honest there aren't a huge number of things on the schedule that really grab me this time around. No unmissable musical acts, only a couple of panels... to be honest, I may well not take so much interest in most future online cons, with the big exception of UK PonyConline in October. I think I've almost had enough of them now.

However, there's no doubt that real-world developments here in the UK recently mean that many people could badly do with a distraction and a trip to Equestria. As such, I think I will still pop into PonyFest for a bit of fuf from time to time. For anyone considering attending, head to ponyfest.horse for the schedule, the vendor list and the various other things you expect of an online con. Things kick off at 3pm UK time.

Ponyfic Roundup 312

Read it Later story count: 187 (-3)

I want Blogger to keep letting me use the old editing interface, but if it would stop giving me the option to "revert back" to that it would be appreciated. Department of Redundancy Department again. Anyway, I'm back up to three stories this week, which these days is probably something to cheer at. Unless you don't like PR, in which case why are you reading this? Anyway:

Killing Time by Prak
Loving the Nightmare by Penalt
But, I Don't Want To Become A Wonderbolt! by Deep

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

Looking forward to rewatching Season 3 of FiM

 

( YouTube text link if you can't see the video )

Yes, this is why that Network Musical Ensemble song hit the fandom!

All being well, I will shortly start the next chapter of "My Little Repeats" as I rewatch S3. This, of course, is the first season where I got to experience the hype and the build-up as it happened – see video above! I remember having huge expectations for the S3 premiere, along with much of the fandom... and being disappointed, along with much of the fandom. That may – may – change this time around, since I now know what comes later.

One thing that thankfully won't be happening alongside the season now is a seemingly interminable fandom-spanning argument. Not that one, anyway. Twilicorn was, I think, the most miserably wearying row that I experienced in the entire run of Friendship is Magic. It seems almost quaint in 2020 that people were so exercised about whether a picture of Twilight with wings was real that some left the fandom over it, but that's the way it was.

S3 is also of course the only half-length season. I can remember many people predicting that 65 episodes would be all we'd get, I think because that was some magic number in terms of syndication on US television. (Come to think of it, even the idea that TV is the be-all and end-all also seems almost quaint today.) That brevity does hurt the season a little, I think, though perhaps not as much as most of us felt it did back in 2013. Having a one-part finale definitely did hurt, though.

That finale provided another long-running, though generally less heated, argument: did the episode work? I generally come down on the side of yes, but not as well as it could have done. Being the first of several musical eps gave it a different texture. The season doesn't have an awful lot of other obvious highlights, though: "Sleepless in Ponyville" is really S3's only cast-iron classic. Though maybe I'll change my mind about that as well! As always, we shall see.

Ponyfic Roundup 311

Read it Later story count: 190 (nc)

This week has been a bit of a struggle at times, for reasons that have nothing to do with ponies or the fandom. I have managed to feel in the right frame of mind for enough time to get two stories read, so at least there is a (minimal) Ponyfic Roundup for you! Here's what I've got:

The Carnivore's Prayer by Cold in Gardez
Teacher, Instructor, Dash! by HapHazred

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

More meta stuff

Ponyfic Roundup will be on Friday this week. That's because I've had a rather off few days and so haven't felt in the mood to read. Nothing startling, just another bout of 2020 fatigue. Hopefully it'll sweeten the pill a little if I say that I plan for the final PR of September (30th) to see my first Spotlight review for some considerable time.

This will be Georg's story Drifting Down the Lazy River, which I chose from my shortlist partly because it's a sequel to a fic I've already read, partly because it looked interesting and partly because... well, partly because I wanted to read it. Not sure there's any better reason than that, really! Before then, expect regular PRs on the 16th and 23rd.

My Little Repeats: Reflections on Season 2

It's taken me far too long to get through S2; in fact, I posted my "Reflections" post about S1 back in February! Admittedly, world events since then have been somewhat distracting, and look like remaining so for some time to come, but I still seem to have taken an age. Anyway, I'm here now, so let's get cracking.

I'd been looking forward to Season 2, and indeed it proved to be a generally entertaining experience. As it happens, my mean star rating of 3.38 was the same as it was for S1. There's list of each episode's rating beyond the cut. Perhaps I was slightly generous to "Ponyville Confidential" and slightly harsh on "Dragon Quest", but that balances out. I think on the whole S2 was about as good as I'd remembered it being.

Come with me past the cut for more waffling!

People getting excited that the "Elements" song series will be completed

Which is certainly good to hear. Not entirely sure why this is considered news though, since Re:Make / Acoustic Brony said during their set at UK PonyCon last year that they intended to finish the set. Above is embedded their performance of "Honesty", though I imagine this will be a bit different in its final form, and after the song it's stated very clearly that they intend to do "Magic" as well. This is why you need to pay attention to happenings outside the US, fandom. ;)

Ponyfic Roundup 310

Read it Later story count: 190 (-3)

For those of you interested in the longer fics I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I expect to have the first one reviewed this month. I won't yet give away which fic it is, except to say that it's one that's been on my radar for quite some time. This week, I'm looking at these three:

Yours Truly by Thanqol
If My Heart Was A Compass by Astrarian
A Feather in Her Cap by GaryOak

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