My Little Repeats 178: "Horse Play"

Yeah, I know, least surprising header image ever...

S8E07: "Horse Play"

28 Apr 2018

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 8.1

The one with Step! Buck! Leap! Touch!

Thoughts: Fluttershy is an alicorn princess? Five stars, next question. Ahem... this episode gets plenty of love from me for being one of the very rare Celestia-heavy eps out there. It is somewhat uneven, with some characterisation that really doesn't belong this far into the show, but it's also lots of fun. Applejack trying repeatedly to convince Twilight to be honest really tickled me for some reason. I can well believe Trixie selling dodgy back-street fireworks, though Pinkie's line about it is very clunky. Celestia herself is of course a bad actor,¹ though her (fortunately brief) anger with Twilight is real and of course in the actual crisis late on she demonstrates immense calmness and competence. The Student Six play nice little supporting roles on stage,² and Luna's late grumpiness at Tia's Sun-raising had me in stitches, brief as it was. This is far from a faultless episode, but I can forgive most of its faults as it's just so watchable. As such, though I'm nudging it down to three stars, I consider it really quite high in that band.
¹ Not in that sense. I hope.
² Though having six characters play unicorns, none of whom actually are unicorns? Tsk, I say.

Choice quote: Spike: "Now that's the best acting we've seen all day."

New rating: ★★★

The next episode on the list is "The Parent Map", which as I recall is an ep I found okay but no better, whereas I know some people greatly appreciated it. Who knows which category I will fall into on a repeat viewing?

Ponyfic Roundup 524

Read it Later story count: 91 (-1)

Words read this week: 26,034

It's been quite a busy week for me, though sadly a lot of what I was doing was boring stuff that didn't contain one single pony. Not anywhere. Can you imagine? Fortunately, Ponyfic Roundup is here today to take the edge off that dreadful situation. As is so often the case, there are five stories on the roster this week. They are:

Twilight Sparkle & The Martyr of Zephyr Mountain by PatchworkPoltergeist
Party Loyalty by forbloodysummer
Periselene by Marshal Twilight
A Foalsitter's Inspiration by Protector of Light
The Symposium by Orbiting Kettle

★: 0 | ★★: 3 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 1
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Sounds of 2015, nos. 65 to 61

Back we are again now with the next edition of "Sounds of 2015". We're more than a third of the way through the year's hits, and there have already been a few surprises and some songs which I think have been unfairly neglected in more recent times. Let's see what this week brings, and as ever I'll start by mentioning my rules for song inclusion:

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. 

Guess what, folks, it's another week when I can feature all five of the songs! This is very unlikely to be the case for the entire rest of the chart, but I'm not going to complain when it happens! Here's the track list:

65: PrinceWhateverer – Left Behind
64: SquareHead – Tricks Up My Sleeve (remix)
63: Foozogz – I'll Fly (remix)
62: Silva Hound – Diamonds
61: Ferexes – Blank Space

Next, it's time for the actual songs, and the perhaps equally terrifying prospect of Logan rambling on about them. Off we go, pop pickers...

My Little Repeats 177: "Surf and/or Turf"

Scootaloo in a world of her own. She wishes...

S8E06: "Surf and/or Turf"

21 Apr 2018

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 7.7

The one with kelp chips

Thoughts: This was, and remains, one of my favourite episodes from Season Eight. The first of Brian Hohlfeld's three Friendship is Magic writing credits, it brings together a new location for the show, an enjoyable new guest character and the CMC on a Map mission. Apple Bloom is the voice of reason as the other two Crusaders grump at each other. The ep looks lovely by Flash FiM standards, even if understandably its Seaquestria can't match the film's beauty.¹ I really like the ponies' seapony designs, both Twilight's and the CMCs'. Terramar's dilemma is a fairly transparent attempt at portraying a child of divorced/separated parents without actually mentioning that aspect, but he's likeable enough that it works fine. Okay, as with so many other problems, it could have been solved with a bit of forethought before the Crusaders ever arrived, and Twilight's presence is just slightly irrelevant given how little time she actually spends chaperoning the fillies. What I love most, though, is Scootaloo's sheer joy at swimming, the closest she can get to flying. I can't stop smiling at that segment. I really liked watching "Surf and/or Turf" again, enough that I'm certainly letting it keep its four-star rating.
¹ Yeah, that iffy animation going down the stairs early on, but that's short enough that it doesn't stick too much in the mind.

Choice quote: Sweetie Belle: "I have some serious field twirling to do."

New rating: ★★★★

Next time, it'll be "Horse Play". This is an episode that gets very mixed responses, though I quite liked it and (based on a totally unscientific quick chat at a recent Worcester meet) I'm not the only one. We'll see whether I'm still of that opinion soon.

Ponyfic Roundup 523

Read it Later story count: 92 (nc)

Words read this week: 35,469

Hello everyone, Ponyfic Roundup day once more. Not too bad a word count by my standards this week, and despite various things getting in the way I didn't have to delay publication. Yay. Another five stories on the list for this week. I don't have a lot to say before we get going, so... let's get galloping! Here's what's in PR today:

The Light Goes Out by AbsoluteAnonymous
NYC Title 24 §4-03 by Admiral Biscuit
Lightning Pest by Casketbase77
The Ponies in the Caves by SockPuppet
The Conference Call by Dafaddah

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 4 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Sounds of 2015, nos. 70 to 66

Apologies for the lack of activity on this blog over the last few days. Something else has been on my mind a fair amount (something personal, not what some of my US readers may be thinking), so Louder Yay has been a lower priority than usual. However, here we go again with another look back at the Equestrian Trot 100 music chart for the now decade-ago year 2015. The rules I use for deciding whether a song can be included remain unchanged:

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. 

We've had a couple of weeks now when I've been able to feature all five of the songs in the relevant portion of the chart. And now, we do the treble! Here's the list for this edition:

70: Archie – Back Again
69: WoodLore – Let the Magic Fill Your Soul
68: SquareHead – Let's Have a Battle (remix)
67: MiatriSs – We'll Make Our Mark (remix)
66: Aviators – Crash

Here endeth the intro section. Beyond this point beginneth the non-intro section. Thou hast been warnèd!

Ponyfic Roundup 522

Read it Later story count: 92 (-5)

Words read this week: 30,840

I did say I wanted to get that RiL story count down, didn't I? Well, mission accomplished! As you'll see in the footer, there are more from that source to come, but the overall total may not change as much as I've ended my freeze on adding new fics to the pile. I've also had a couple of review requests – as a reminder, I do accept those but the wait is likely to be long. As far as stories reaching the front of the queue this week go, the slate is as follows:

The Cat-astrophe by Samey90
Heart of Gold by TCC56
She Kills Monsters by chiko
Coronavirus by Thought Prism
The Two Doctors by Silver Needle

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

Sounds of 2015, nos. 75 to 71

The frost and ice of recent days here is now gone and we're back to the usual English Midlands winter weather of being only slightly chilly with lots of cloud. At the moment I'm okay with that as I just wanted it to warm up, but before long I'll doubtless start really yearning for some sunshing. In the meantime, I'll have to content myself with some Pony music. My inclusion criteria follow as usual. At least one of these is needed:

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. 

I'm very happy to say that, as with last week's selection, this time I can also feature all five songs. Admittedly two of them were also in the 2014 chart, but I doubt many of you will mind when you see what they are. Talking of which, here's the list:

75: TAPS – Battle
74: Sayonara Maxwell – Light of Your Cutie Mark (remix)
73: Starlight & IMShadow007 – Lonely Road
72: Vylet Pony ft. Lily Cloud – Starcrossed
71: ponyphonic – Harmony Ascendant

All right, that's quite enough of the introductory waffle. Let's get to the actual tunes!

My Little Repeats 176: Forgotten Friendship

For my original review of Forgotten Friendship, I saw the 44-minute TV edit since that's all that existed at the time! This time around, I watched the slightly extended version Hasbro uploaded to YouTube,¹ which can be a pain to find since it's listed under the alternative title Most Likely To Be Forgotten. Since almost nobody in the fandom ever uses that name to refer to either version, I'm sticking with Forgotten Friendship here.
¹ Albeit only in 720p...

"Review? What, like a behaviour review?"

Forgotten Friendship

17 Feb 2018 (original 44-minute TV edit)

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 7.3

The one with edible sunscreen

Thoughts: Well, like most Brits I don't care about high school yearbooks, but this special mostly overcomes that. Wallflower Blush isn't the most thrilling antagonist (though she does rather grow on me as time goes alone) and the Memory Stone being in CHS-world in the first place is a tad convenient, but get past that and the slightly tedious beach/photo stuff and the story clips along. Sunset Shimmer's meeting with Celestia – in Equestria, which was A Big Deal when this special came out – is memorable. She also has the toughest time, being treated after the memory spell as though her reformation didn't happen. Meanwhile Trixie surely revels in her enormously enjoyable role, and Sunset and her work nearly as well together as Trixie and Starlight do in Friendship is Magic. Convenient discovery of Clover's last page is convenient. "Invisible" is the better of the two songs, but neither are out-and-out smashes. I enjoyed this, though in truth a four is a little too generous. Nudging this down to a high three – which, let's not forget, is still a comfortably above-average score. Nick Confalone done good.

Choice quote: Sunset: "Princess Celestia has a sense of humour? Looks like I'm not the only one who's changed."

New rating: ★★★

Next time, it'll be back to Friendship is Magic and an episode that's held a place as one of my favourites from S8 ever since I first saw it: "Surf and/or Turf". I'm fairly confident I'll still like it, but I can't be absolutely sure until I actually re-view and review!

Ponyfic Roundup 521: Spotlight on The Cadenza Prophecies

Read it Later story count: 97 (+3)

Words read these three weeks: 105,861

Taking three weeks to get this review out, partly thanks to this platform not liking me for a while, has unsurprisingly led to my RiL list swelling a little bit. I really don't want it to get back into three figures, so for a few weeks I'll be prioritising stories from there and having at least four of the weekly five taken from that source, rather than grabbing two or three of them from other parts of Fimfiction as I usually do. Back to the Spotlight!

The Cadenza Prophecies by iisaw
Twilight, Tempest Shadow, OCs and Mane Six
G4 AU; Adventure; 106k words; Mar–Aug 2024; Teen (Violence)

The Storm King's invasion of Canterlot goes differently when a more callous and world-weary Twilight is present.

AU is definitely the term here: while the story opens with the attack on Canterlot we see in the 2017 film, here it doesn't succeed and once he finds that out, the Storm King is not happy. That has... implications. Tempest, meanwhile, becomes a POW on Twilight's airship – indeed, her story arc is particularly interesting. You absolutely need to have read previous instalments for this one to make any sense, as otherwise you're going to spend the whole time asking, "But why? ...who? ...where?" and so on. About Twilight's character, but not just about her. There's plenty of swashbuckling adventure (and a good thing too!) and not too much TwiLuna (see previous comment, YMMV of course). One new culture is especially intriguing, and it ain't Klugetown either, though we do go there. I'm not absolutely on board with the pacing of what happens regarding Twi's main target, and overall I do slightly prefer The Twilight Enigma, but if you've enjoyed this series thus far, I think you'll enjoy this one plenty too. A lowish four, but I'm comfortable giving it that four. More on that below the line. ★★★★

Spotlight as this is, abandon unspoileriness all ye who enter here.

Sounds of 2015, nos. 80 to 76

Good news, everyone! After being mightily obstructive for several days, Blogger is now back to normal and will let me make long posts and use formatting. That means that the Spotlight review of iisaw's The Cadenza Prophecies will be posted at some point on Wednesday as I previously trailed, and that I can first provide this week's edition of "Sounds of 2015". Well, vive to that and an éclair for both of us! Anyway, the usual reminder of my inclusion criteria:

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. 

Last week was an interesting one, with some tracks I liked more than others, but it was a full house of five included songs. This time, I can say the same again! To my mind, today's crop is a particularly fine one. Here's the list:

80: PonyFireStone – Battle of the Bands (remix)
79: Foozogz – Together
78: JoinedTheHerd – The Pony I Want To Be (JTH Remix)
77: Rarity ft. Lady Aria – Alone in the Dark
76: Wasteland Wailers – Mail It In

Here comes the choo-choo train jump break, if you happen to be on a device that recognises those things. Beyond that is the usual mixture, so off we go!

Apologies to iisaw

And to everyone else. Blogger is refusing to post anything remotely long or with any formatting or labels at all. As such I cannot post the review of The Cadenza Prophecies today. In the past when this happened it was sorted out in a day or two. Since I'm very busy for the next couple of days I think the best thing is to post the review on Wednesday all being well, since that is at least PR's normal day. Again, apologies. I can at least say that I liked the story!

Follow-up to yesterday's, and my last post on AI for some time

I made a post yesterday on the future of AI in the fandom, and it brought quite a few reactions. One of the first was from Aragón, who it seems to some extent got the wrong end of the stick and inferred that I approved of what I thought the near future would bring. I don't. His misinterpretation is my fault for not writing the post better, not his. A few other people have weighed in with their own thoughts, and I'm more than happy for other people to continue to do so if they wish.

I will make it clear, though, that for as long as it remains practically possible for me to do so, I will be refusing to review AI-generated ponyfic. The reviewing policy I set out a year and a half ago still stands: if I review a fic and later discover it was made by AI, its rating will be changed to zero. I support the Fimfiction requirement that stories are written by humans. (I think being written by ponies is also acceptable, fortunately.)

But although I expect to be writing about AI stuff again in the future, unless there's some big development that I really can't ignore I won't be writing about it again here for quite some time. You need have no fear that Louder Yay is going to turn into one of those sites where the owner spends his entire time banging on and on and on about the same subject, wondering why the world is not grasping the incontrovertible fact that He Is Right.

And now it's time to move on. Ponyfic Roundup and Sounds of 2015 updates are in the works for the coming week. Happy New Year, everycreature!