Wednesday 30 November 2022

Ponyfic Roundup 419

Read it Later story count: 91 (-4)

It's finally getting colder here. I've been wearing my winter coat for the first time in many months, and today I even put on a thin pair of gloves. It's not that cold (as I type it's just over five degrees) but after a very mild earlier autumn it's still a minor shock to the system. With heating costs here now outstripping the budgets of many small countries, it's good to snuggle up with a bit of escapist equine literature. This week, I'm looking at four stories. I bet you're shocked, aren't you?

Queen of Clubs by horizon
Don't Look Back in Anger by Super Trampoline
No sugarcube to you by TheValdetiosi
Am I Senna? by Apple Lauda

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

Tuesday 29 November 2022

My Little Repeats 128: Flutter Brutter

"Zephyr, what does that manestyle say about who you are?"

S6E11: "Flutter Brutter"

4 Jun 2016

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.9

The one with G3 Rainbow's cutie mark (on the curtains)

Thoughts: Fluttershy's family are finally introduced here, rendering non-canon-compliant all those fics about how pegasi don't have close familial bonds. Given Zephyr Breeze, some may respond "Shame". Still, this is Fluttershy's ep. She's excellent in it, demonstrating character development and a slightly steelier edge since her early days but without having lost her inherent kindness. This is a 'Shy who feels like she should at this point in the series, and indeed this is among my favourites of her episodes in later FiM. The episode is quite American in a "You've been 18 for fourteen seconds, why aren't you in your own house yet?" way, but let's be honest: Zephyr is so annoying that our sympathy for him is always likely to be a bit limited. (Especially when he's trying to hit on Rainbow, though that does lead to a fun misunderstanding from the Shy parents at the end. Poor Dash.) Perhaps Zephyr's personality is a bit over-the-top even for a cartoon, but fortunately the action keeps moving so we don't get bogged down. The song is a pretty good one, if not world-class, and there's even a fun background Zelda reference. I think "Flutter Brutter" is worthy of keeping its high three-star rating.

Choice quote: Zephyr Breeze: "Turns out the animal communication thing isn't genetic."

New rating:

Next time, I'll be rewatching "Spice Up Your Life", which I moderately enjoyed, but not quite as much as some of the fandom did.

Friday 25 November 2022

Officially uploaded FiM episode list

Updated 2nd March 2024: added "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" and "Pinkie Pride"

Since Hasbro has been uploading Friendship is Magic episodes to YouTube in a pretty haphazard way, here is a linked list of everything that I've found so far. I would be very happy to hear of any I've missed, although I am only interested in full-length episodes uploaded, cleanly and in full, by an official source, most likely the "My Little Pony Official" YouTube account.

Bear in mind that some video titles are misleading, even on the official account. For example, this one's might lead you to believe it was "Lesson Zero". It isn't. It's one scene from that episode, followed by a bunch of other scenes from unconnected episodes. For the purposes of this post, all I want is the actual episodes, as seen in the lists below.

So far, this is what I've managed to dig up. It's a start, at least! Edit: I've also added the four EqG films. Not FiM of course, but they're the only EqG content to be added that wasn't free from the start like the shorts and specials were. So it seemed a little churlish to leave the movies out. :P

Note: in some cases the YouTube channel uses production order for episode numbering. I have stuck to the familiar air-date ordering.

FiM Season 1

S1E01 Friendship is Magic, part 1
S1E02 Friendship is Magic, part 2
S1E03 The Ticket Master
S1E04 Applebuck Season
S1E05 Griffon the Brush Off
S1E06 Boast Busters
S1E07 Dragonshy
S1E08 Look Before You Sleep
S1E09 Bridle Gossip
S1E10 Swarm of the Century
S1E11 Winter Wrap Up
S1E12 Call of the Cutie
S1E13 Fall Weather Friends
S1E14 Suited for Success
S1E15 Feeling Pinkie Keen

FiM Season 2

S2E01/02 The Return of Harmony, parts 1 & 2 (combined)
S2E03 Lesson Zero
S2E04 Luna Eclipsed
S2E05 Sisterhooves Social
S2E06 The Cutie Pox
S2E07 May the Best Pet Win!
S2E08 The Mysterious Mare Do Well
S2E09 Sweet and Elite
S2E10 Secret of My Excess
S2E11 Hearth's Warming Eve
S2E12 Family Appreciation Day
S2E13 Baby Cakes
S2E14 The Last Roundup
S2E15 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
S2E16 Read It and Weep
S2E17 Hearts and Hooves Day
S2E18 A Friend in Deed
S2E19 Putting Your Hoof Down
S2E20 It's About Time
S2E21 Dragon Quest
S2E22 Hurricane Fluttershy
S2E23 Ponyville Confidential
S2E24 MMMystery on the Friendship Express
S2E25/26 A Canterlot Wedding, parts 1 & 2 (combined)

FiM Season 3

S3E01 The Crystal Empire, part 1
S3E02 The Crystal Empire, part 2
S3E03 Too Many Pinkie Pies
S3E04 One Bad Apple
S3E05 Magic Duel
S3E06 Sleepless in Ponyville
S3E07 Wonderbolts Academy
S3E08 Apple Family Reunion
S3E09 Spike at Your Service
S3E10 Keep Calm and Flutter On
S3E11 Just for Sidekicks
S3E12 Games Ponies Play
S3E13 Magical Mystery Cure

FiM Season 4

S4E01/02 Princess Twilight Sparkle, parts 1 & 2 (combined)
S4E03 Castle Mane-ia
S4E04 Daring Don't
S4E05 Flight to the Finish
S4E06 Power Ponies
S4E07 Bats!
S4E08 Rarity Takes Manehattan
S4E09 Pinkie Apple Pie
S4E10 Rainbow Falls
S4E11 Three's a Crowd
S4E12 Pinkie Pride
S4E25/26 Twilight's Kingdom, parts 1 & 2 (combined)

FiM Season 5

S5E01/02 The Cutie Map, parts 1 & 2 (combined)
S5E20 Hearthbreakers

FiM Season 6

S6E08 A Hearth's Warming Tail

Equestria Girls

EQG1 Equestria Girls
EQG2 Rainbow Rocks
EQG3 Friendship Games
EQG4 Legend of Everfree
Note: films 1 and 4 are the second feature in a video; the link for each starts in the right place

Wednesday 23 November 2022

Ponyfic Roundup 418

Read it Later story count: 95 (+5)

A bit of a boost to the RiL tally this week, partly because of a few contest entries being added and partly because of a couple of stories that were well reviewed elsewhere. As far as my reviewing goes, it's time for another set of four short stories. As a sneak preview, I'll be reading a longer fic over the Hearth's Warming break, but you'll have to wait and see to find out which longer fic. Not Project Horizons, I think I can disclose that much! Here we go:

Tirek Season by TheDriderPony
Adagio Dazzle, Fanfiction Author by Majin Syeekoh
Feared Abandonment by TheEvilCookie
Misty Needs a Hug by EileenSaysHi

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

Monday 21 November 2022

"Winter Wishday" is out today!

For those with Netflix or with... other means to acquire the special, "Winter Wishday" has now been released. I'm not sure whether or not it officially counts as the first episode of Chapter 3, or whether it's meant as a standalone special, but either way it's out there. I will be watching it, but not for a little while as I have a lot of other stuff to catch up on. Not least the little reviews of Chapter 2 episodes, which I hope to begin on by this weekend.

Sunday 20 November 2022

My Little Repeats 127: "Applejack's 'Day' Off"

"Er, Twilight? I think Troubleshoes has already made this act his own"

S6E10: "Applejack's 'Day' Off"

28 May 2016

My original rating: ★★
IMDb score: 6.3

The one with Rarity pronouncing "schedule" the British way

Thoughts: This was written by the Fox brothers, with Neal Dusedau in addition for story duties. Let's be honest, that's not the most inspiring FiM team. And look at that IMDb score. Not great, is it? Even allowing for IMDb-ishness, that's not the sign of a popular episode. It wasn't particularly popular with me either, as my 2016 review score shows. What I remembered, and indeed said back then, was that I wasn't actively repulsed by it but that it just wasn't all that interesting to me. This is still the case: the 22 minutes really do not fly by. Now, a lower-key, small-town feel isn't a bad thing in itself, of course. But I'm afraid this one just feels dull. It also doesn't help that for some of the routines Applejack with eg the pig-feeding, her having stuck to them all this time without thinking about it requires her to be frankly rather stupid. And AJ is not rather stupid, nor even always set in her ways. Indeed, when she fixes the spa machinery her intelligence is there for all to see. Twilight and Spike don't do a whole lot that's actually interesting in this episode, at least not until fixing the farm irrigation system at the end. Rarity has a decent showing in this episode and is probably the most entertaining character pretty much throughout, though Rainbow's pretence that she doesn't like spa pampering is amusing, or at least would be if the one joke didn't go on quite so long. (Her Tank slippers get a point, though!) So yeah, I'll stick with the two-star rating here. This isn't offensive, it's just not very interesting.

Choice quote: Rarity: "An hour of spa perfection? I can work with that."

New rating:

Next time, I'll be rewatching "Flutter Brutter", an episode which many people disliked (largely because they disliked a certain character in it...) but which I rather enjoyed.

Friday 18 November 2022

Hello from Group C

That probably doesn't make a lot of sense. Look, if you've known me any length of time then that won't surprise you! But what I mean is that the ponyfic part of the fandom, at least, nowadays sometimes seems to me to consist substantially of: A) people who just take everything lightly and take the view of: whatever, because hay, colourful talking ponies; and B) people who are really, really invested and will post highly researched deep dives about Rarity's character evolution or whatever, sometimes running to thousands of words. There is of course nothing wrong with either of these positions. But neither of them are mine.

I mean, obviously the very fact that I've had a blog going for almost a decade and written over 400 Ponyfic Roundups excludes me from Group A above. Clearly all that, not to mention my episode reviews (next FiM rewatch coming this weekend, honest!) means I couldn't really fit into that box. But I'm clearly not in Group B either. Every so often I'll read a blog that goes to enormous lengths to list every single continuity error in the show or something, and I have to admit that my immediate reaction will be: "You know what? I'm not sure I honestly care enough to worry about every tiny note there."

So I'm in Group C. That's made up of people for whom yes, reasonable levels of consistency in writing and characterisation and continuity and so on are important, and so for example suddenly having the internet or something in a canon-universe fic will in all probability make the ride bumpy, as will that bloody bunyip in "P.P.O.V." But on the other hoof, I can let sometimes things slide if they're entertaining. And here's the thing: I know I'm doing it, but I'm not inclined to care so much about it that it undermines the enjoyment I'm already getting.

Post-reformation Starlight Glimmer is a good example. Sure, she unbalances the, er, balance of the Mane Six¹ (as indeed did Twilight's ascension years before). Sure, she was arguably more interesting as a villain. But although I don't always like Reformed!Starlight, I am very firmly in the camp that enjoys her appearances more often than not. Right up to late Season 9, yes. And that's Group C in a nutshell: we're not blind to problems and inconsistencies and sometimes they annoy us, but we quite often feel that Pony being fun is actually more important. I'm quite comfortable with where I sit on this.
¹ Though in one way she rebalances it, as the seven central ponies again include two of each main tribe (plus one alicorn)

Wednesday 16 November 2022

Ponyfic Roundup 417

Read it Later story count: 90 (-3)

Another week with various things annoying me, another week with ponyfic providing a welcome refuge from the world. (Okay, that's overdoing it: some things are fine.) And you know what? Another week with me managing to read and review four stories! I'd better not tempt fate, so whisper the next part, but so far I've been keeping up with the four-a-week pace a little more easily than I thought I might. Today's quartet, then:

The Summit by The Lunar Samurai
PROTOTY by shortskirtsandexplosions
A Lesson in Regicide by MayhemMoth
Cracked Cog in the Idyllic Machine by jmj

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

Monday 14 November 2022

Fics on Equestrian (de?)colonialism that aren't too American?

I'm just curious as a reader here; this isn't really something I'm planning to write about. But... has anyone here read a good fic dealing with some analogue of colonialism in a specifically Equestrian context? I ask because although I have seen one or two dealing with the subject, from memory (it was a long time ago) they dealt with the issue in a pretty American way, and as a British guy that doesn't really resonate with me so much. Besides, the Equestrian government feels a little more Commonwealth than USA.

MLP canon does not seem especially helpful here. "Over a Barrel" exists but has well-worn problems and in any case is obviously very American indeed in inspiration. The Crystal Empire's name is interesting, but for the most part it is just a name as it's basically a city-state with a bit of snowy hinterland. Slavery has existed (eg Sombra's reign), but again that's not quite what I'm after. And I definitely don't want a "Bravehoof" type of story; that's exactly the kind of "Twitter history" I'm trying to avoid.

I'm struggling a bit to get my point across, so apologies, but basically something that has space for the complexities – in real-world terms, Ireland isn't Bermuda isn't India isn't Anguilla, just because they are or were all British.¹ I'm asking a lot here, I know. It would take a very fine writer to get the tone spot on. GhostOfHeraclitus springs to mind, but I don't think he covered this and in any case he's not been around for several years now. If you do know of any fics along these lines, I'd love to hear about them!
¹Simplified I know: eg I'm aware that European colonisation in India didn't actually end when Britain departed

Thursday 10 November 2022

My Little Repeats 126: "The Saddle Row Review"

"What do they mean, 'Final Demand'?"

S6E09: "The Saddle Row Review"

21 May 2016

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 8.7

The one with glow-in-the-dark teeth

Thoughts: Back to a non-musical episode, but a very popular one and deservedly so. Arguably Nick Confalone's peak for MLP writing, though some might make a case for Forgotten Friendship, "The Saddle Row Review" is a lot of fun despite being set in Manehattan, which by this time was getting too much attention for my liking. Very much a Mane Six ep (no Starlight or Spike), it's full of great dialogue and is one of the most amusing episodes of this era of the show. It even has a rare example of "Here is a meme for you" actually working, with the fandom producing a variety of remixes of Twilight's "Sweep" song. Plaid Stripes is less irritating to me than she was first time around, but her "I am Foreign-Accented Dodgy Landlord" father is more so; I guess they cancel out. Saying "DJ Pon-3" out in full three times is annoying as all hay, though, and the raccoons aren't as interesting as the episode thinks they are. Nor will I ever think "Miss Pommel" sounds right, and I'm sure DHX hated to have to lose "Coco". Still, there are so many fun bits: the Pinkie clone, Pinkie (again) pushing the bill over, "You're not writing this down, are you?", the J. Jonah Jameson guy, "NO SPOILERS!", and so on and so on. The unusual structure works, and all in all this is a very entertaining episode. I'm very happy for it to keep its (strong) four-star rating.

Choice quote: Plaid Stripes: "All our clothes will be made of spoons!"

New rating:

Next time, it'll be "Applejack's 'Day' Off", a much less popular episode than this one overall, though it does have its fans. I wasn't really one of them in 2016. Let's see if I've warmed to it.

Wednesday 9 November 2022

Ponyfic Roundup 416

Read it Later story count: 93 (nc)

Little things have been frustrating me quite a bit recently, so I'm glad I've been able to escape into the wide world of Equestria from time to time. Happily I did manage to get the hoped-for four stories read, so this edition of PR is as long as usual. With just as much of Logan waffling as usual, so bad luck! Anyway, this time we have:

An open spot by Verzeih Turncoat
When Ponies Fly by Lets Do This
To Me, the Roaring Ghost by locke_jaw
The Trial of Faux Pas by Wise Cracker

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

Saturday 5 November 2022

UK PonyCon 2022: Final thoughts

 I'll finally be getting back to my FiM rewatch in the next few days. I want to do something about Make Your Mark too, though FiM will take priority at first. Anyway...

UK PonyCon 2022 was a very good con. A very good con. I have not changed from my view that my friend was right when calling it a "solid 9/10", and since there are always little things that might have been different I think that's about as good as it gets. Here's a final summary post about what I liked and what I didn't. The pluses, I'm glad to say, very much outweigh the minuses.

The innovation (for UKPC) of having show guests was a triumph. Both Andrea Libman and Anneli Heed were excellent and really added something. How on earth the convention can match that next year I have no idea! Maybe third time lucky with Kelly Sheridan, maybe not. It'll be a long time until we know. But this year's convention, the Guests of Honour were superb. Even when eating custard creams.

As I've mentioned in passing already, it was nice to get back to a fully normal con, with the musicians back and the Covid restrictions gone. This meant a late finish on Saturday, and in an ideal world I think 10pm would have been easier than 11pm for those of us not staying across the road, but I was definitely pleased the 10am start was kept. That extra hour in the morning means you actually have time for breakfast!

One of the few small disappointments that did make a practical difference: no water cooler this year. Quite a few people mentioned this, and I really hope it's possible to bring it back next year. Yes, water bottles were allowed to be brought in, but the presence of the water cooler in 2021 was a major plus and I'd definitely like to see it return. Hydration is really important.

I've said this for several years now, but personally I'm rather sad at the noticeable decline in families attending since my first UK PonyCon. I have to accept that we G4 people are partly to blame, since it was us who drove the large increase in demand that led to on-the-door sales disappearing from 2015 onwards. But despite the welcome continuing substantial non-G4 presence, UKPC does feel a little less unique than it once did.

Nottingham has gone up in my estimation, possibly because I didn't have to spend much time in it at night. Staying out of town worked brilliantly and I'd consider doing it again. Well, assuming the convention doesn't move. I strongly suspect its roving days are over for good now, and though it's a slight shame I can't deny that the NTU building is an extremely convenient venue, and the committee clearly have good relations with the place.

A few little thoughts... I wonder if the huge 2019-style tombola will ever return? That was so much fun. Great as the concert was, perhaps there could be less very loud music next time. It's probably an enormous pain rights-wise, but another film showing (Rainbow Rocks, say) would be brilliant. The con book was the best I've seen from any UK convention. And in the end, UK PonyCon remains a great event which deserves continuing success.

Wednesday 2 November 2022

Ponyfic Roundup 415

Read it Later story count: 93 (+2)

That RiL list count has crept up slightly over the last couple of weeks, perhaps unsurprisingly given that up until today I've only reviewed one fic since before UK PonyCon. I should be making a little more of a dent in it now, though, as right up until 20th December when my Hearth's Warming break begins I hope to be reviewing four stories each and every week. Here are today's fics:

Imaginary by TheSlorg
Only Memories by Super_Sonic_Rainboom
Fluttershy's a Carnivore by Silver-Brony
The Origin of a Species by MasterThief

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

Tuesday 1 November 2022

A year on from the return to conventions, are we back to normal now?

This one gets the "musing" tag as I'm not making any attempt to write a serious piece full of references and evidence. It's just a case of a few thoughts. Anyway: UK PonyCon 2021 was the first in-person Pony convention in this country for two years, and I think (I stand to be corrected!) the first in Europe as a whole since Hearth's Warming Con in the Netherlands closed on 1st March 2020. Certainly we weren't at all sure what it was going to be like. Fortunately the answer was: really very good indeed!

However, it still wasn't like UKPC had been up until 2019. There were vaccine status checks at the door, for a start. Masks, while not required, were fairly common on the first day especially. There was no music concert. Some stuff was rearranged to allow for social distancing. And so on and so forth. I remember wondering whether mass singing would be allowed – fortunately it was, since that allowed us a memorable singalong of "Danger, Danger". (It was also the first European con of the G5 era!)

For UK PonyCon 2022, much of the extra stuff wasn't there. Masks weren't absent entirely, but at a guess I'd say use was down below 5% of attendees. There were no vaccine or test mandates, merely a note on the con's website telling people not to attend if they had Covid, and a reminder in the con book to "wash your hooves with water and soap". (Good advice anyway!) Live music was back on Saturday evening, as was the bar selling pony-themed cocktails. Attendance was back to not that far off 2019 levels.

Did people still do a test before attending? Yeah, at least some of us did. But I think we've largely reached the point at which Covid has become just another one of the lovely collection of grottiness that goes into the bucket marked "con crud". (In any case, there's some reason to believe it'll be good bad old flu that's the bigger deal in Europe this winter.) When I attended UKPC in 2021 there was still quite a discernible jumpiness about Covid specifically. At UKPC 2022 that feeling was pretty much absent.

It's interesting that this change doesn't seem to have taken place in North America. Looking up a few of the major US MLP cons' websites recently, they showed various combinations of masks, vaccines and testing still mandated. One convention's Covid policy (for 2022) ran to more than 3,000 words. That would be unheard of in Europe now. I'm not here to be judgemental on this. But it's maybe worth noting that anyone crossing the Atlantic (in either direction) for a Pony con may find the attitude and setup regarding Covid quite different from what they're used to at home.

So... I supposethe answer to my subject line question is probably: in Europe, yes, or pretty close to. In America, not just yet.