My Little Repeats 38: "Family Appreciation Day"

One of my favourite visual gags in all of S2

S2E12: "Family Appreciation Day"
Written by Cindy Morrow
7 Jan 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.0

The one with bunny costumes.

Thoughts: A slightly odd mixture of an episode, but more works than doesn't. My least favourite part is actually the extent of the details of the zap apple jamming. A lot of time and detail is spent here, and it does eventually start to feel a bit like padding. At least the character interaction is good, as you'd expect from Cindy Morrow. The big attraction of this ep comes in the last third, when we find out that Granny Smith was there at the founding of Ponyville itself; her sepia-toned reminscences are by far the best bit of the episode. Granny is even more stereotypically elderly than she usually is at this point even allowing for the fact that her strange rituals are meaningful, and it does get a little irritating. The CMC are pretty fun, though. We meet Filthy Rich, who seems a better sort than his daughter – and we get our first look at the Timberwolves, though they're easily scared off by Granny. Probably four stars for the olden-days parts, two for the zap apple stuff and three for the general bits around the edges. It's therefore another three overall, though quite a high one because of the importance of that new lore.

Choice quote: Scootaloo: "What are you, a dictionary?"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Baby Cakes", which has long held the dubious honour of being my least favourite episode in S2 – and indeed one of my least favourite in the entire pre-Twilicorn run of the show. Can it pull off a miraculous recovery this time around?

Ponyfic Roundup 293

Important bit first: as I trailed last time, I have a story by paperhearts in this week's PR. Sadly he was recently admitted to hospital with that bastard virus. So very best wishes to you, paperhearts, and I hope you're on the mend soon.

Read it Later story count: 207 (-2)

Last week, I mentioned how much I was enjoying the fine, sunny weather. Well, yesterday it rained pretty much all day and the temperature struggled to get above 7 °C. Welcome to April in England, I suppose. Three ponyfics for me to have a look at this time around, and they are:

My Beloved Student, Sunset Shimmer by Jondor
Not an Adult by Sapidus3
Hearts on the Table by paperhearts

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

Important announcement: Yay

Fluttershy Vector 35 - Flowers and Butterflies by CyanLightning
( CC by 3.0 )

It is Fluttershy Day.

That is all.

Sounds of 2013: Nos. 84 to 80

PonyFest 2.0 on Saturday was a very enjoyable occasion, even if internet iffiness meant I only caught parts of some of the fanfic panels I was interested in. And even if US-targeted scheduling (which is fair enough for a US-based con!) meant most of us over here had to miss the end as it finished about 6 am UK time. Anyway, now we're going back to the year of my first convention (BUCK 2013) and as ever the inclusion criteria are:

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

All five songs make it through the filter this time, and they are:

84: TeiThePony – Flying With The Rainbow (VIP Mix)
83: The Living Tombstone – Pinkie's Brew (remix)
82: The Living Tombstone – Neverending Strife (remix)
81: MandoPony – When I Find My Wings
80: Feather and The Combine – Pilot Light

More past the page break, as you'll already know if you've been following these posts.

PonyFest 2.0 today!

Whoops, forgot to mention this. They've really gone to town this time on both the guest list (Lena Hall, M. A. Larson, AKR etc etc) and the schedule (an entire writing track!) and the fun fuf begins at 3pm UK time! The con is Discord-based, and you can find all the info on the official website.

Just because I can

( Text link )

Judging by the comments on my review of "Hearth's Warming Eve", I seem to be just about the only person around here who actually likes "The Heart Carol". Well, I do. And the extended version even more so. I had been looking for a nice PMV of it, but I couldn't find anything that really grabbed me. I did, however, find 174UDSI's remix of the shorter, show version of the song. I find this one rather catchy as well, so there. :P

My Little Repeats 37: "Hearth's Warming Eve"

This glorious scene provided me with a ponyfic chapter title!

S2E11: "Hearth's Warming Eve"
Written by Merriwether Williams
17 Dec 2011

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.5

The one with Rarity's tree hat.

Thoughts: A festive episode premiering in December? What is this madness? I'll admit to a raised eyebrow when I saw this episode's 8.5 IMDb rating. Is it that good? For me, not quite, though it's more than decent. This is the ep that introduces the Windigoes, not much used hereafter but certainly an interesting concept. We're told that Starswirl was Clover's personal mentor, and I think it's the first time we see the Equestrian flag. The pageant approach is an interesting and unusual one, and I think it works well. All the Mane Six are fun (Spike gets a bit less to work with), though less so away from the pageant, where for example Rainbow continues her run of being rather annoying in S2. In the play, Applejack as Smart Cookie is probably my favourite with her deadpan asides to the audience. I'm amused that Princess Platinum dubs the land she finds "Unicornia" – a canon G3 place. Daniel Ingram wanted "The Heart Carol" to become a sort of brony anthem. It never quite achieved that, though I like it more than most fans seem to, and I really like the extended version. There are Hearth's Warming episodes I enjoy more than this one, but it's very watchable all the same. A highish three, and perhaps almost a four when I'm in the right mood.

Choice quote: Chancellor Puddinghead: "Can you think inside a chimney?"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Family Appreciation Day", which I had little time for initially but gradually grew warmer towards – a bit like "Look Before You Sleep" in some ways. We'll see whether that's continued.