Episode review: S8E07: "Horse Play"

Celestia has most definitely had enough of Twi's... yeah

For the second week running, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic had a new writer debuting an episode. This time it was Kaita Mpambara, who although new to this show has a reasonably extensive CV in animation. I don't remember seeing anything by him before, but then there aren't many other cartoons I watch where the writers are especially well known. After the page break, let's see how he did with "Horse Play".

UK PonyCon: VIP upgrades sell out in half an hour; amazingly, I have one! :D

Tickets went on sale for this UK PonyCon 2018 at midday on Saturday, and since I was on my way to a Worcester ponymeet at the time I dropped into the local library to buy my ticket. (I don't like doing this sort of thing on a phone; I like to have a keyboard available.) I was originally going to buy the middle-tier Supporter ticket, as I had last year, which was (and is) solid value at £45.

But then I got to thinking. I always buy the con T-shirt, which generally costs about £15. I always pay the couple of quid to upgrade from a basic to a con-specific lanyard. I sometimes buy the con tote bag. Put those together and you get... well, I don't know exactly, but more than £20. So my total expenditure on these things was likely to be £65 at a minimum whatever I did.

Now here's the thing: if you bought the £70 VIP ticket (technically a £35 ticket plus a £35 upgrade, but same result) that reserved you a goodie bag in which you got the T-shirt, the tote bag and a special lanyard. You also got a VIP-exclusive art print and button badge. Plus priority entry and seating, though I don't usually want to sit at the front so probably won't use the latter much.

So, long story short, I went VIP. This is the first time I have ever bought a top-tier ticket for a convention, and it's actually quite exciting! It's a good job I made the decision quickly, though – because you know I said that last year VIP tickets sold out in six hours? This year it took around thirty minutes. I was expecting them to be popular, but sweet Celestia that's amazing.

I suspect VIP tickets may cost more in future years, if indeed there are future VIP tickets (and UKPCs!), so this may be the only time I have a Posh Pony's Pass. I'm not too fussed about that, as I didn't feel I missed out with a Supporter-tier ticket in 2017. But still... it'll be interesting now to see how quickly the non-VIP tickets sell out. If you want to go, I'd definitely recommend buying as soon as you can!

WoodLore has gone :(

I may not have been as big a fan of WoodLore's music as some people, but I certainly liked some of his songs and respected his skill as a musician. So I was surprised and disappointed to find out (from Armosk on EqD, actually) that he deleted his channel a few weeks ago, taking all his Pony music down with it. His Bandcamp is gone, too. I'd been thinking about losses in the fandom recently, and this is another sad one.

Back in 2017, WoodLore did an April Fool video about "leaving the fandom" – but it seems that, a year later, he was serious about it, and so did the deed. The songs themselves have (mostly?) been reuploaded already, and from comments I've seen here and there, WoodLore himself isn't going to be too fussed about that. Yes, he has every right to delete his channel and his songs. I just wish he hadn't felt the need to.

Text Review Roundup: "Surf and/or Turf"

A niggling-and-sometimes-worse backache is stopping me writing as much as I should be (hence the long delay in the next chapter of The Danger Within) but at least I can get this week's TRR sorted out. We may no longer have Batbrony's thoughts (a real loss, that) and there's nothing from Rhythm Red this time either, but there are still a reasonable number of text-based reviewers out there. One newcomer this week, though he'd been doing this for a while before I noticed: Mega Sean 45.

A very well received episode overall, with not a single reviewer outright disliking it and quite a few rating it their favourite of S8 so far.

Cuddlepug – mildly positive (graded B-; "all a little bit over- simplistic and twee, but the show should be applauded for exploring a realistic challenge that many kids face")

Derpy News – positive (graded A-; "a very good episode, though some may find some aspects a bit off")

JDPrime22 – very positive (9/10; "Another great episode. Season 8 is on a winning streak!")

Louder Yay – very positive (4/5; "not perfect, but I nevertheless enjoyed it more than anything else [this season]")

Mega Sean 45 – very positive ("I found this episode very enjoyable and a nice sequel to the movie, and a great new use of the CMCs!")

MLEEP Reviews – very positive (9/10; "presents a very mature subject [and] makes for a really great episode")

Rainbine – wildly positive (10/10; "a fantastic watch from the humor to the sweet moment at the end")

ShutterflyEQD – very positive ("the cuteness and funny levels were off the charts!")

TheDragonWarlock – positive (graded B+; "[The CMC] didn't really contribute much to the resolution [but] The comedy is good, the characterizations are solid, and the song itself is great.")

Ponyfic Roundup 200: Tough at the Top?

And here we are! PR has reached its two hundredth edition. I had a number of suggestions as to how I could mark this, and I'm planning on using several of them for future editions. This week, though, I'm doing something very simple: reviewing Fimfiction's top-rated stories of under 20,000 words. (At the time of selection – the order changes from day to day.) I'm sticking to one story per author – sorry, Rambling Writer, as you're hit by this rule.

Read it Later story count: 337 (+1)

The top-rated fic of all that meets my criteria is not part of this roundup, for the simple reason that I've already read it! In fact, I've read the top three: Hoopy McGee's The Keepers of Discord (PR 138), ye olde classique by PhantomFox Sunny Skies All Day Long (PR 30) and Rune Soldier Dan's To Try for the Sun (PR 116). The next story is eligible for review today, so let's begin our journey through these six (count 'em!) highly-rated fics with that one:

The Lazy Dragon of Dragonvale by Georg
Best Hell Ever by Rambling Writer
Just Dodge! by DannyJ
Ah Ain't Got No Ack-cent! by Conner Cogwork
Twilightning by Bok
All the Mortal Remains by Cold in Gardez

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

Episode review: S8E06: "Surf and/or Turf"

Okay, no need for an actual review this week. Ten stars!

We had a new writer for Friendship is Magic this week: Brian Hohlfeld. Although new to this show, he's certainly no newbie when it comes to writing for animated series, having been heavily involved in the creation of Transformers: Rescue Bots along with a certain Nicole Dubuc. After last week's flawed but still generally pretty fun "Grannies Gone Wild", what would "Surf and/or Turf" bring us?

Text Review Roundup: "Grannies Gone Wild"

I'm a day late with TRR this week, for no other reason than that I forgot about it. Sorry! Anyway, here we go again. I've dropped Michaelsety's review this week as, sadly, his non-native English has proved beyond me to interpret. On the plus side, I've added Batbrony back in – the formal reviews seem to have gone for good, sadly, but there's a hot take in the MLP Forums ep discussion thread that will do me.

Reaction to this episode was largely positive, with Cuddlepug a notable dissenter from the consensus.

Batbrony – generally positive ("a fun, solid, entertaining episode")

Cuddlepug – extremely negative (graded D-; "As episodes of Friendship is Magic go, "Grannies Gone Wild" is among the most pointless – and the most uncomfortable.")

Derpy News – fairly positive (graded B+; "just a funny episode and a breather one")

JDPrime22 – very positive (9/10; "The comedy was great, the writing was fun [...] Fantastic episode")

Louder Yay – positive (3/5; "superior filler [...] just Fun With Colourful Talking Ponies")

MLEEP Reviews – wildly positive (10/10; "an overall very entertaining and worthwhile episode")

Rainbine – mildly positive (6/10; "a very simple episode")

Rhythm Red – positive (8/10; "a fantastic lesson, and a creative storyline")

ShutterflyEQD – positive ("I really enjoyed each of [the Golden Horseshoe Gals'] personalities")

TheDragonWarlock – positive (graded B; "a fun episode all around ... Never listen to Applejack; ever.")