Ponyfic Roundup 128: Seven Maids with Seven Mops

And now we know that Season Seven is on the way in the spring. That seems a reasonable hiatus: short enough to keep things interesting, but long enough to allow me to write a bit! This week on PR, in celebration of the news, I'm reviewing a bunch of fics whose titles include the number seven. Sadly there are only five of them, but never mind. A good deal of variation in terms of how much I enjoyed them.

7 Minutes by P0nies
Pick Me Up At Seven by Jondor
Canterlot Seven by LightOfTriumph
The 7 Keys by dashiedash
Seven Months by Brawny Steed

★: 1 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0

Most and Least Rewatchable: Season Five

In which the CMC achieve cold fusion

Things have been pretty busy lately, what with the last four episodes of Season Six coming at such a rush, but I've managed to squeeze in enough time to write this piece. Although I will be doing one for S6, that will not appear in the near future; it may not even be this year. I will try to get it done before S7 kicks into gear in the spring, though. After all, 2017 looks like a really busy year for Pony, perhaps the busiest in G4 history!

Back to S5 now – and "Slice of Life" isn't in either list, so there.

Episode review: S6E23: "Where the Apple Lies"

"An' y'all know I never been at any of that scrumpy"

Happy Birthday to Friendship is Magic, which turns six years old today! As I've already said, I have seen (and liked) the finale, but I'll be leaving the review until after it's been shown in the US. Today, then, it's back to a normal ep. This was not shown in the UK, almost certainly on account of extensive mentions of cider. It's written by Dave Rapp, who wrote the very enjoyable "Newbie Dash" and "Flutter Brutter", so I had high hopes. Past the break, I'll waffle on as usual.

Comic mini-review: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #46

Apologies for the awful colours this time; you get the idea, though

A new two-part comic arc begins, and it's about politics. Oh joy. I mean, what could be better at a time when real-world politics is clearly going so well? Actually, though, this one is pretty good reading. Agnes Garbowska's art isn't to everyone's tastes, but it seems less out-there in this issue than in some she's done, while Ted Anderson provides a really rather witty storyline. He resists the temptation to make this a simple parody of a certain other election this autumn, and thank Celestia for that. It's not an astounding comic, but it's a very solid three – and probably not far off a four if you like your political machinations. ★★★

A fortnight till UK PonyCon!

Sitting here and digesting the implications of the Season Six finale (which isn't actually the finale thanks to scheduling), I'm also turning my attentions more and more to UK PonyCon, which will be happening just two weeks from now. The schedules are out, and now I'm trying to work out what to go to. One panel I will almost certainly attend is the one hosted by teamidris about what it's like to be a ponyfic writer with dyslexia. I know very little about this, and I'm sure I'll learn something. There's a second writing panel I may well also go to, but it's hosted by people I don't know at all, so I may wait to see the description in the conbook before making a final decision.

It still feels weird to me to be so hyped for a My Little Pony convention, when for several decades of my life I'd never been to any convention in any fandom. BUCK 2013 was my first, followed by BUCK 2014, UKPC 2014, UKPC 2015 and now this. But even though it will be a relatively small-scale event (attendance around 500), it's still making me bounce around already. I hope it can live up to last year's UKPC, which I loved pretty much from start to finish. Leeds isn't as compact as Leicester, so there'll be more walking to do between bus/train station and venue, but I'm sure I'll manage. There will, of course, be a report in due course!

Yesterday and Today

Also, there are no ad breaks after the titles in the UK. So there. :P

Since someone asked, I will be doing episode reviews here after their US showing, as usual. Part of the reason for that is that Tiny Pop's schedule is so ridiculous: 25, 26, 24... and that's all. So for E23 I'd have to watch the US version anyway, and that being so it's just easier to do the same for the others. Now, that means that the finale review will be a couple of days late, as I'll only have got back from UK PonyCon during the afternoon of Monday 24th. But it'll all work out in the end. :)

Text Review Roundup: "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)"

The animation in these maritime sequences was really nice

It amuses me (okay, I'm easily amused) that this post is timed to go out at the very moment episode 25 is scheduled to air on Tiny Pop. But anyway, what with that and Season Seven's confirmation, I almost forgot to do this week's TRR, and that would never have done. Here it is, then – a fairly mixed bag of reactions from the text-centric reviewers this time around.

ArthurCrane – equivocal ("there’s not much to the story when all is said and done")

Articles of Destroyer – mixed (rated 5.5/10; "an entertaining episode, but not a greatly written one")

Batbrony Reviews – fairly positive ("despite pacing and conflict issues, this was an enjoyable enough of an episode")

Derpy News – positive (graded A-; "another good episode even though the reason for the boat capsizing comes from nowhere")

Louder Yay – mixed (three stars; Arrplejack good, bunyip annoying)

MLEEP Reviews – moderately positive (rated 7/10; "predictable...but it is still an entertaining episode")

The Railfan Brony Blog – negative (rated 3/10; "feels like yet another sign that [FiM has] gone on far too long...")

The Super Mario Brony Blog – negative (one and a half stars; "poorly done moral, predictable and cliched storytelling")

Super Recaps – positive with reservations ("I really did like this episode and was especially into the Rashomon approach, but the ending was just a let down")

TheDragonWarlock – slightly negative (graded C+; "leaves you feeling underwhelmed")

Thrond Media Pony Corner – very negative (rated 43%; "implies nothing so much as a show which is completely and utterly out of ideas")