Ponyfic Roundup 349

Read it Later story count: 131 (-4) 

Back to the usual three stories this week. Those of you with long memories may recall that once five fics per week (if they were short) was my standard, and maybe one day I'll get back to that. It's not as if I'm running short of ponyfics, after all! For now, though, it's likely to remain three. How much I like them each time can go all over the place, and I haven't been as lucky this week as I was last; today we have:

Baby, It's Cold Outside by Captain Unstoppable
Heart Filled Picnic by Brian Sheil
Reality From Nightmares by Ashtotron35

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

My Little Repeats 84: "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils"

The dream sequences really show how far the animation has come since S1

S4E19: "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils"
Written by Dave Polsky
22 Mar 2014

My original rating: 8/10 (=★★★★)
IMDb score: 8.7

The one with red ribbon. Or cherry. Or maybe cinnamon

Thoughts: After everyone (ish) disagreeing with me over "Maud Pie", what will happen today? There's a strong case for saying S4 was Dave Polsky's best season, with solid eps including "Rarity Takes Manehattan", "Twilight Time" and now this. Actually, this episode might get my vote for Polsky's best episode full stop. Sweetie's mixed relationship with Rarity comes across well here, and you can tell she's a little closer to teenage argumentativeness than to the more childlike complaints of "Sisterhooves Social". I like her casual use of a little magic, too. The other CMC provide nice backup ("Serve Her Right!"), and the visuals are very pleasant as you'd hope to see in a Rarity episode. I like how Luna is written and shown, too. She's there to help, but that doesn't mean she's going to accept any old whining from Sweetie and she can be stern when required. The dream sequences are interesting and give us a little backstory, too. I'm still unsure how much I actually like Sapphire Shores, who (I suppose unsurprisingly) does have a hint of diva-ishness about her. Watching this ep again, it's interesting that I'd forgotten it was a Polsky one. It seems a bit more restrained than many of his efforts, and in this case I think it's all the better for it. Good character work for Sweetie in particular sees this episode sticking with a four-star verdict.

Choice quote: Sweetie Belle: "I... prefer show tunes."

New rating: ★★★★

Next up is "Leap of Faith", Applejack's key episode and one I've never been more than moderately enthused by. Perhaps that will change.

Pre-2017 Unlisted YouTube videos will become inaccessible next month

(Via EqD.) YouTube has announced that, as of 23rd July, all Unlisted videos that were uploaded before 1st January 2017 will be set to Private. In other words, they will become completely inaccessible to anyone but the uploader, regardless of whether or not you have the direct link. As far as I can see, the only exceptions will be where the channel owner personally opts out between now and then. If they don't do that, then kaboom: no more public access.

It's hardly news that, when MLP creators moved away from the fandom over the years, some of them preferred not to leave their Pony videos public for a variety of reasons. However, quite a few did set said videos to Unlisted instead of Private, thereby allowing access if you had the direct link. This often happened if the artist was okay with access from within the fandom but not with people stumbling on their old MLP videos accidentally.

Needless to say, this news has caused a bit of a stir. There are a heck of a lot of Unlisted videos in the fandom, some of them pretty big. "Flutterwonder" was Unlisted for quite a while, for example, although it's been Public again for a long time now. And a number of channels are now unattended and inactive, so the chances of their creators logging back in to opt out are very low. In under a month, those videos will be no more as far as the fandom is concerned.

Sure, archive channels exist, but those are morally ambiguous in that you don't have the same confidence that the creator is okay with fandom access that you do when they've kept a video Unlisted on their own channel. A link from an old EqD post that points to the creator's own now-Unlisted upload will also not tell you where to find the same video in an archive. Plus archives quite often overlook more obscure and/or specialised works.

Some things will be saved. Perhaps quite a lot, given this fandom's continuing size and activity levels. But quite a bit of fandom history will disappear forever on 23rd July. Regardless of YouTube's reasons for making this change (which seem to be to do with the security of Unlisted links) it's certainly going to be a rather sad day.

Ponyfic Roundup 348

Read it Later story count: 135 (-2) 

As I'd hoped, I managed to read four stories today to make up for the shortfall last time around. Yay! Admittedly they're not very long stories, but then would you really expect that of me? Here's what I've been reading this week:

For When it Rains by Vivid Syntax
What's Your Problem? by RockstarRaccoon
Just Leave Well Enough Alone by Pascoite
Relaxing on a Cloud by Admiral Biscuit

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

Generations looks interesting

Amy Mebberson is the cover artist here

EqD reports that IDW's Friendship is Magic comic series is to come to an end with issue 102 in September. I doubt most people are too astonished. What's caught my eye, though, is the five-issue miniseries that will immediately follow it: Generations. This will see "the familiar faces from Friendship is Magic must call upon the original G1 Ponies of the 1980s for help against a new witch threat erupting from the Volcano of Doom!"

I absolutely love this idea! Covers aren't always representative of the stories inside, but I really hope that we will indeed see the Mane Six meet their direct G1 inspirations, rather than just a bunch of semi-random G1 ponies. It'll be written by Casey Gilly and illustrated by Michela Cacciatore, neither of which names I know anything about. Nevertheless, if Generations gets its premise even halfway right it could get me reading the comics again.

My Little Repeats 83: "Maud Pie"

The rabbit is doubtless Angel's worse-tempered cousin

S4E18: "Maud Pie"
Written by Noelle Benvenuti
15 Mar 2014

My original rating: 8.5/10 (=★★★★)
IMDb score: 8.8

The one with Granny Smith's apple spiced muffins

Thoughts: Noelle Benvenuti's writing debut was a big hit with fans on release, and it's still a lot of fun today. I was very positive about "Maud Pie" in my 2014 review, but I was concerned it might have lost its allure slightly now the element of surprise had been lost. Really, no. Maud is still great value (props to Ingrid Nilson) and here we see Pinkie on the upswing of her yo-yoing portrayal in S4. Why can't she be written like this more often this season? Rainbow Dash is particularly good value, too. And of course, rock poetry. Who could ever forget rock poetry? On the downside, what could have been an audacious and brave moral ("Your friends' friends/family won't necessarily become your friends") was slightly downgraded to a decent, quite satisfying but more kid-cartoon-expected moral. Maud's superequine powers were perhaps a little excessive, too. I really liked the sketch method used when Pinkie was explaining Maud's backstory. Rarity's absurd hat divides opinion, but I found it (mildly) amusing rather than annoying. Boulder is brilliant, but Maud steals this show. This episode will be keeping its four-star rating.

Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "Is she even moving?"

New rating: ★★★★

Next up is "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils". I remember Sweetie's "dream" episode as being quite solid, though I wasn't quite as taken by it as some were.

Ponyfic Roundup 347

Posted early by mistake. Whoops! Oh well, might as well leave it up now.

Read it Later story count: 137 (nc) 

My apologies for the fact that there are only two fics in this week's Ponyfic Roundup. That's because one author nuked their account very recently. It's actually quite a long time since that happened to a story I was going to include in PR, whereas a while back there was a bit of a spate of nukings. Anyway, I'll try to do four stories next week, though as usual I make no promises. The two I do have for you today are:

A Lesson in Preening by Wabbajack
Second Best by DiscordedSheepcityUSA

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