My Little Repeats: Reflections on Season 7

The Fresh Princess of Friendship

By Season 7 of Friendship is Magic, Discovery Family was finally doing interesting things with its pre-season trailers. "The Fresh Princess of Friendship" was not in fact the first S7 promo – that was this rather more conventional 30-second spot – but I'd be willing to bet it's the one most of us remember.

At long last, over a bloomin' year after I began on this season, I've made it to the end. S7 was generally more popular with fans than S6, and there's a fair case to be made that the first half especially was the last time most people were on the same page when it came to opinions of the show. Not all, but most. Of course, you'll want to see my rating compares, and so here you go:

1. Season 4: 3.42
2= Season 1: 3.38
2= Season 2: 3.38
4. Season 5: 3.27
5. Season 6: 3.23
6. Season 7: 2.96
7. Season 3: 2.92

Well now, were you expecting that? I'm not sure I was. I would have guessed that the season would come in with a rating of around 3.2 or 3.3, yet instead it ends up significantly below S6 and not a million miles ahead of the wooden-spooning S3. There turns out to be a fairly clear reason for that, which we'll see in a moment. Past the break for that and a few more details.

UK PonyCon schedule is out!

Yesterday, I posted briefly about the UK PonyCon concert line-up and said I wasn't personally that excited by it. This is not the feeling I have when looking at the UKPC schedule, which has just been released – although without lots of details about each event as yet. I'm seriously hyped after seeing this so far.

From a quick scan, it looks really good, and it's very nice on this 20th anniversary of UK PonyCon – now the world's longest running MLP convention! – that there are some non-G4 events sprinkled through the programme. Slightly to my surprise, I can't see any specifically G5 panels, but G1 and G3 are certainly represented.

It may have been corrected by the time you read this, but there was one error in the schedule initially released: there is a panel on The World's Biggest Tea Party on Sunday afternoon which was accidentally omitted from the timetable. Since Sunday is so much quieter a day, I'm almost tempted to attend that one myself.

Since I will after all be able to go to the whole UKPC weekend this year (though that was in doubt for quite some while) I will be able to take part in Archer's Pub Quiz again. I adore that and I was very sad to miss it last year owing to having to go home earlier than hoped on Saturday evening due to train strikes.

Naturally the VA script reading/Q&A is going to be a highlight with Ashleigh Ball in attendance this year. But as anyone who's ever been to a convention will know all too well, plans usually change quite a bit over the course of the event, so all I'll say on that for now is that I am looking forward greatly to three weeks' time.

UK PonyCon reveals music lineup

Fresh from the official UK PonyCon blog, here's the list for this year's Saturday evening concert. Each performer gets 45 minutes:

Coltastrophe¹
Pagan Pegasus
Blackened Blue
PrinceWhateverer
BassPon3
¹ Making their UKPC debuts.

So, what do I think? To be honest, somewhat mixed feelings. I'm pleased to see newcomers to UKPC (I think) in Coltastrophe, and Pagan Pegasus in particular is an act I tend to really like. On the other hand, it's quite a samey lineup in terms of genres. Pagan does mix things up – witness electro-swing, drum'n'bass and dubstep in one song – but otherwise it's basically the usual hard rock fest with a DJ to end.

I obviously appreciate that there's only so much a UK-based convention can do, and also that acts like Blackened Blue are both good at their job and really popular. What I personally like is not necessarily what's sensible to choose for a con. But I really wish we had say an acoustic set or someone like EileMonty (yes, I know she herself no longer does Pony stuff) to provide something completely different from the loudness around her.

So... this year, I think I've finally reached the point, for the first time since the concerts began in 2018, at which it is going to be a secondary consideration. It'll be a thing to attend if there's nothing else that interests me more, rather than a big centrepiece of the con. Again, for me. But this is my blog and so my thoughts are what you get. If you want your thoughts, start your own blog! Or comment on this one, obviously...

Ponyfic Roundup 506

Read it Later story count: 94 (nc)

Words read this week: 8,000

With the Paralympics over, I now have time to read more ponyfic again. A very low weekly word count nevertheless, but there's a good reason for that. Today I set out on the long road that will be reviewing all 46 recognised fics in the Thousand Words Contest III. As I've already mentioned, I'll be covering them at a slower pace than I have done in the past, with non-contest PRs between. First, it's the turn of the eight Hono(u)rable Mentions. These are as follows:

It's Time To D-D-D-Duel by D-20
The Royal Snitting Room by gloamish
In Darkness, a Light by Pascoite
Heavy Things by Pascoite
A Fall, Unnoticed by Not That Anon
You Were My First (Snatch and Grab) by RedHoodie21
The Cake Job by GeodesicDragon
Click! by marmalado

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 5 | ★★★★: 2 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Sounds of 2014, nos. 15 to 11

Here we are again with another "Sounds of 2014" – and this time, it's the last instalment before we reach the top ten! By this point, we're looking at songs that were really, really popular all those years ago, and in many/most cases actually released for the first time in 2014. Here's the usual run-down of the criteria a song needs at least one of to be featured here:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the/an original 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. 

Here's this week's list:

15: The L-Train et al – Moonrise
14: Aski Meskin & The Living Tombstone – Manehatten
13: 4EverfreeBrony ft. Faux Snyder & Emily Jones – Here on the Moon
12: SlyphStorm ft. 4EverfreeBrony & Midnight Melody – Soldiers of the Night
11: Black Gryph0n & Baasik – Quest (This Can't Be All)

I'm sure you know by now what happens past the jump break, so let's get to it!

My Little Repeats 170: "Shadow Play, part 2"

Feel the wave of sound as it crashes down

S7E26: "Shadow Play, part 2"

28 Oct 2017

My original rating: ★★★★★ (for both parts)
IMDb score: 8.5

The one with Mister TheBearded

Thoughts: The first episode of this two-parter got docked not one but two stars since my delighted 2017 review. This one, I'm afraid, is going the same way. I think I was wowed by... well, everything first time out, as were a lot of people, but now the shine has worn off a bit. The fact that little was done with the Pillars after this doesn't help. Mind you, grumpy Star Swirl is good fun to watch, except for Twilight I guess. The origin story for the Elements of Harmony is... okay, I guess. I like Starlight being the voice of compassion and redemption for the Pony of Shadows. It's fun to have the map again, silly as it is. I had actually forgotten the Sirens' part in Stygian's backstory, and I still like that aspect. And look, we did get the ponies using the Elements one more time. That's worth a bit on its own. So... three stars again. Not as good as I once thought, a bit jumbled in parts yes, but I still had fun. That's still a decent three-star rating.

Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "Oh, we've saved the world, beardo. And we can do it again."

New rating: ★★★

And here we are, finally, at the end of Season 7! I published the "Celestial Advice" rewatch on 31st July 2023, so the season as a whole has taken more than 13 months. Two episodes per month on average, a far cry from the pace of two per week I kept up in the early days of this series! I hope to get through S8 and S9 considerably faster than I managed with S7.

Before too long, I will post the usual post-season stats and thoughts about the season. Then it will be on to the changes that S8 brought. I know not all of you will be staying with me for that, certainly not for every episode, so to you I say thank you for coming along on the ride this far. For those who are staying, let's see what we can find!

A little more on my "free and online only" review policy

I mentioned in my intro to Ponyfic Roundup 504 that I was making a decision only to review fics in their free, online forms. I am hereby formalising that decision. From now on, I will not review (or indeed read for review) any ponyfic that is not available without charge to everyone. This is partly because I do not want to review any ponyfic that would cost readers here in the UK more to read than it would cost readers in the USA, or wherever the author hails from.

For example, this policy will exclude from consideration:

• Fics only available in physical form
• Fics only available to Patreon supporters or similar
• Fics only available to attendees of conventions, meets, etc
  

In all these cases, the same policy will apply if a story has seen substantial extensions or revisions to the text, and the new version is only available under any of the conditions listed above. "Substantial" means something more than just spelling and grammar corrections. "To the text" means that I won't exclude fics just because their physical/enhanced form includes illustrations or other design features, as long as those things are not necessary to properly enjoy the story.

In the specific case of a fic being published first under one of those conditions but later made available free with the same text on Fimfiction (or a similar site), those will be eligible for review – but not until after they have been published there. Simply expressing an intent to do so at some later date, especially if that date is left vague, is not enough. If authors wish to restrict their fics' circulation, that is of course absolutely their right. It is my right not to be interested in reviewing such fics.

I am not entirely excluding from consideration fics published in other places than Fimfiction, although those will be much less likely to be reviewed. It's only if they're restricted in availability as covered above that they lose their eligibility.

Ponyfic Roundup 505: Spotlight on Twidark

Read it Later story count: 94 (-1)

Words read this week: 47,512

In case the author or anyone else wonders why I'm reviewing such an ancient fic: it's been on my Read it Later list for so long (literally years) that it was time either to drop this or to give it a chance. Since it's not ridiculously long, since I really enjoyed a more recent Isseus fic – Tough Little Pony (PR 212) – and since I found the question posed in the longdesc interesting (see below) I chose to give this a chance. 12-year-old fics have a decidedly mixed record with me, but let's see how this one does.

Twidark by Isseus
Twilight, Spike, Celestia, Mane Six and CMCs
G4; Dark/Comedy/Horror/Slice of Life; 48k words; Jun–Jul 2012; Teen

Twilight goes darkside.

Not a terribly informative shortdesc, so I'll quote the last part of the longdesc: "Are there limits to what Twilight's magic can do, and what lies beyond those limits?" A question that caught my eye and got me to read this fic. Those mixed-up genre tags are in fact not misleading: this really is quite the mixed-up story. Deliberately, I think, since its central point is Twilight's descent into mental anguish after she discovers darkly magical Necroponicon book, and how this impacts on her closest friends. This isn't handled in the unremittingly grim way that some authors do, and there's plenty of gentler fun around the edges, especially with the CMC early on – but be warned that ponies do get hurt here, and not only Twilight. There are some odd sidelines at times, one about a rock band being almost Douglas Adams length, and they do make the experience a little rough. Still, Twidark has enough capacity to surprise just when you think it's settled into predictability that it shades into the threes. ★★★

Naturally, this is a Spotlight and so if you head on into the dark, you will probably be eaten by a grue spoiler.

Sounds of 2014, nos. 20 to 16

We really are getting to the sharp end of the 2014 Equestrian Trot 100 chart now! Only a few more editions of "Sounds of 2014" to go before we find out who made the top spot. Since I'm deliberately not looking ahead, even I don't know at this point! Anyway, for the moment, let's get back to the usual quick summary of the criteria songs need to fulfil to be included here. Any one of these is sufficient:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the/an original 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. 

As it happens, I can feature all five songs anyway, so vive to that and an éclair for both of us! Here's the list:

20: YourEnigma ft. Lady Aria – I'll Come Running
19: 4EverfreeBrony ft. Chi-Chi – Chant of Immortality
18: 4EverfreeBrony ft. Chi-Chi & Relative1Pitch – Chant of Mirth
17: Glaze – I'm an Asshunter, Gimme That Booty
16: Black Gryph0n & Baasik – Set in Stone

Come with me to the casb—er, past the jump break and there'll be the usual embedded YouTube videos and thankfully brief rambling from yours truly.

My Little Repeats 169: "Shadow Play, part 1"

I love that the runic inscription says "Pony Rocks"

S7E25: "Shadow Play, part 1"

28 Oct 2017

My original rating: ★★★★★ (for both parts)
IMDb score: 8.4

The one with Star Swirl's bad hornwriting

Thoughts: As you'll have noted, I loved this finale first time round. Perhaps inevitably, this first episode has lost a bit of its shine since 2017. Part of that's because the show rarely made the Pillars all that compelling. This was the first episode with a writing credit for Nicole Dubuc,¹ which won't help it in some viewers' minds, either. Nevertheless, I still like this episode. Rainbow is such a good Spike buddy, especially. Starlight being the voice of reason when it comes to magic is a fun reversal of her norm. She works well with Twilight and Sunburst, too. I like the storybook-style opening. The setup at the end is exciting – if only it had been a full cliffhanger, but oh well. There are irritations, for example Applejack suddenly acquiring Maud-level strength when it comes to rock control. Things ramble a bit and could have been tighter with a tad less exposition. But overall, though not the amazing experience I felt it was back in the day, this is still a pretty enjoyable and very watchable first half. Top-end three seems a better rating now.
¹ On Discovery Family. For its earlier Treehouse (Canada) showing, Haber got sole credit.

Choice quote: Rarity: "Darling, your diorama!"

New rating: ★★★

It's been a much longer ride than I'd have liked, but next time out I shall finally be reaching the end of S7! I wonder how this half of the finale will hold up? Only one way to find out...