End of an era: UK of Equestria is no more

UK of Equestria is not allowed to see you again

Pretty much since the start of my time in the My Little Pony fandom in spring 2012, UK of Equestria was my go-to website. A year or so later, I was taken on as a moderator there, a role which for a while was a fairly busy one. But then social media really got going, and fewer and fewer people wanted to spend their time on a traditional forum-based website with longer-form posts. I did, and indeed one of my more pointless claims to horse fame¹ is that I have the highest post count on UK of E, but increasing numbers didn't. The site became ever quieter, though it was still there for anyone who wanted it... until now.
¹ I guess that covers all claims to horse fame, really!

Technically, UK of Equestria lives on, since as the goodbye page mentions its Discord server remains active. But, in truth, that is not at all the same thing. In particular, it lacks something that especially in the early days I really liked about UK of E: it was public. Not only could anyone making a sneering "And what do you really talk about?" simply be pointed to a link, but passers-by who might be uncertain could browse quietly and have a look. Discord has plenty of points in its favour, but as it's now walled off from casual glances it's certainly not the same UK of E any more.

Indeed, I haven't even joined the UK of Equestria Discord. I'm already a member of BritBronies, the UK PonyCon server and a small server of a couple of dozen friends, and apart from the last I don't use them much except on specific occasions such as conventions. Without a specific personal link or a binding event such as UKPC, a service like Discord simply doesn't appeal to me in the way that blog/forum-style posting does. So, after more than a decade, I am finally saying goodbye to UK of Equestria for the very last time.

I feel rather as I did a few years ago when Yahoo Groups finally closed down, and the Watership Down Yahoo Group that was in fact my first ever online fan community went with it. In that case, too, I hadn't really been active there for several years, but it was still a real wrench to see it go and to lose the archive of posts that I'd made or interacted with over the years. Still, without that, leading to furry, leading to Pony, the blog you're reading right now would never have existed either.

Goodbye, UK of Equestria, and thank you. I'll miss you.

Comparing my S5 rankings with UK of Equestria's from 2015

Long ago, back when forums were more of a thing for the Pony fandom than social media was, I was a moderator and very frequent poster over on UK of Equestria.¹ One of the things I started doing about halfway through FiM's run was to handle an annual spreadsheet of people's opinions on the seasons. We asked people to rate the season from first to last (no ties permitted) with double episodes counted as one.
¹ Technically I still am a mod there, but the place is close to tumbleweed status these days, sadly.

I won't repeat the whole of S5's ranking list here, as you can read it in my original blog post. In this post I was just going to remark on one or two things that caught my eye from almost seven years later – but in truth, there isn't much in there that's dated particularly badly. Possibly "The Cutie Map" was a little on the underrated side at the time: I think that episode's reputation has grown over the years. "Appleoosa's Most Wanted" seems a bit harshly treated, too.

As for overrated episodes... again, there aren't many in there, not really. I personally wouldn't rank "Bloom & Gloom" that high, but I certainly know people who would. I'm actually weirdly proud of the fact that our silly band of forum-goers (17 voted that year) had what in retrospect still seems like a pretty solid view of what was and wasn't a good S5 episode. :)

Season 9 – the UK of Equestria rankings

For the very last time, at least in the Friendship is Magic era, the members of UK of Equestria have been giving their ranked lists of their favourite and... less favourite episodes of the season. Since there were two double-headers this season, there were 24 episodes in the list – Rainbow Roadtrip did not count as it's not officially part of the season and doesn't have an episode number.

We had 13 voters, exactly the same as for the half-time vote. As usual, I've divided the episodes into five tiers, going by their mean rankings. An episode with a mean better than fifth gets five stars, from there to 10 gets four, and so on. My own rankings are in brackets after each episode name. Here we go...

★★★★★
1. The Ending of the End (5)
2. The Last Problem (10)

★★★★
3. Frenemies (1)
4. Between Dark and Dawn (9)
5. The Big Mac Question (3)
6. Sparkle's Seven (2)
7. A Horse-Shoe In (7)
8. The Summer Sun Setback (4)
9. The Beginning of the End (6)

★★★
10. Student Counsel (15)
11. She Talks to Angel (8)
12. The Last Crusade (14)
13= Common Ground (11)
13= A Trivial Pursuit (22)
15. Dragon Dropped (19)

★★
16. Growing Up is Hard to Do (16)
17. The Last Laugh (17)
18. The Point of No Return (21)
19. Going to Seed (18)
20. Uprooted (20)
21. She's All Yak (23)
22. Daring Doubt (13)
23. Sweet and Smoky (12)

★
24. 2, 4, 6, Greaaat (24)

Number of times each episode placed first
5: The Last Problem
4: Frenemies
3: The Ending of the End
1: The Beginning of the End

Number of times each episode placed last
6: 2, 4, 6, Greaaat
2: Growing Up is Hard to Do
1: Going to Seed
1: The Last Crusade
1: The Point of No Return
1: Sweet and Smoky
1: A Trivial Pursuit

Most controversial (highest standard deviation)
1. Growing Up is Hard to Do
2. Sparkle's Seven
3. The Summer Sun Setback

Least controversial
1. The Ending of the End
2. Between Dark and Dawn
3. Daring Doubt

"The Ending of the End" was a clear victor, being the only episode that all 13 voters placed in their top seven. No other ep even had unanimous top-half placings. The fandom's doubts about the S9 epilogue were fairly firmly squashed on UK of E – although there was a small cluster of voters (including me) who placed it mid-table, it still gained enough top spots to take second position with some ease.

At the bottom, that cheerleading episode was a predictable wooden-spooner, though two people did include it in their top tens. "Sweet and Smoky" was next, to my continuing disappointment, with "Daring Doubt" ranked between 13th and 23rd by every single voter. There wasn't a noticeable gap between how the two halves of this season were received, though there was a slight skewing due to the finale and epilogue's popularity.

A notable feature of the S9 rankings was the wild variation in opinion given to some episodes. "Growing Up is Hard to Do" was ranked third by one person and dead last by another. "The Last Crusade" had almost as wide a spread, from fifth to 24th. One voter ranked "Frenemies down in 20th spot, while another had "A Trivial Pursuit" up in fifth. Even "Sparkle's Seven" received several rankings in the mid-to-low teens.

Season 9A – the UK of Equestria rankings

Since we're in the mid-season hiatus, it's also been time for the members of UK of Equestria to vote for their favourite and least favourite episodes of the first half of this final season. As in previous years, voters were required to rank all the episodes, with no ties permitted. The double-length premiere was treated as a single episode for these purposes, and Rainbow Roadtrip was not included. We had 13 voters this year, which is fewer than for 8A but more than for 7A.

I've divided the episodes into tiers on the basis of their mean rankings. One notable feature this year is that there are no one-star episodes, which I informally defined as eps with an average rating below 20. ("Sweet and Smoky" scored 19.846.) My own rankings are in brackets after the episode name; as you'll note, the one really major difference I have from the average is that I ranked "Sweet and Smoky" much higher than the average (Fluttershy bias? What Fluttershy bias?)

★★★★★
1. Frenemies (1)

★★★★
2. Between Dark and Dawn (5)
3. The Beginning of the End (2)
4. Sparkle's Seven (3)
5. Student Counsel (4)

★★★
6. The Last Crusade (7)
7. Common Ground (8)

★★
8. The Point of No Return (10)
9. Going to Seed (9)
10. She's All Yak (12)
11. Uprooted (11)
12. Sweet and Smoky (6)

Number of times each episode placed first
9: Frenemies
2: Sparkle's Seven
1: Between Dark and Dawn
1: She's All Yak

Number of times each episode placed last
4: She's All Yak
4: Sweet and Smoky
3: The Point of No Return
2: Going to Seed

Most controversial (highest standard deviation)
1. Sparkle's Seven
2. She's All Yak
3. The Last Crusade

Least controversial
1. Between Dark and Dawn
2. Frenemies
3. Uprooted

There's no doubt about UK of E's favourite episode: "Frenemies" has a clear lead over anything else, and apart from one person who placed it seventh everyone else put it in their top three. "Between Dark and Dawn" made everyone's top six, though only one voter picked it as their winner. At the other end of the table, I was really surprised (and frankly more a little disappointed) to see "Sweet and Smoky" get the wooden spoon. No fewer than seven of the 13 voters ranked it in their bottom two. (I had it in sixth spot.)

This half-season's "most controversial episode" award was also one that startled me. "Sparkle's Seven" did not get the unmixed praise on UK of E that it did in some other parts of the fandom, with four voters placing it in the bottom half. "She's All Yak" also split opinion, as did "The Last Crusade", whose controversy centred on Scootaloo's parents rather than her aunts. Meanwhile, the top two's consistent placing won them the top two spots in the "least controversial" list, too. "Uprooted" was the other ep to appear there, with all but two voters ranking it between eighth and 11th.

I get the sense that S9A has been quite well received so far – that's a British "quite", not an American one! – and that, while there's only one episode that seems set to be counted among the classics ("Frenemies") there haven't been any "Non-Compete Clause"-style disasters either. The season so far seems to be being seen as solid and better than S8, but perhaps falling a little short of the blockbuster feel that you might hope for from the very last season we'll ever see. Perhaps part two will provide that!

Season 8A – the UK of Equestria rankings

It's that time again – the mid-season hiatus, that is. This time around we had 15 lists submitted, up three on this time last year I'm pleased to say. One thing that was noticeable was how close things were in the middle of the pack, but there was a clear leader and an even clearer wooden-spooner. My own rankings are in brackets after the episode name.

★★★★★
1. "Surf and/or Turf" (1)

★★★★
2. "The Mean 6" (5)
3. "The Break Up Breakdown" (4)

★★★
4. "Molt Down" (3)
5. "School Daze" (7)
6. "Horse Play" (2)
7. "Marks for Effort" (6)
8. "The Parent Map" (9)

★★
9. "Fake It 'Til You Make It" (11)
10. "The Maud Couple" (10)
11. "Grannies Gone Wild" (8)

★
12. "Non-Compete Clause" (12)

Number of times each episode placed first
4: "Surf and/or Turf"
2: "Marks for Effort"
2: "Molt Down"
2: "The Break Up Breakdown"
1: "Fake It 'Til You Make It"
1: "Grannies Gone Wild"
1: "Horse Play"
1: "The Mean 6"
1: "The Parent Map"

Number of times each episode placed last
13: "Non-Compete Clause"
1: "Fake It 'Til You Make It"
1: "Grannies Gone Wild"

Most controversial (highest standard deviation)
1. "Fake It 'Til You Make It"
2. "Molt Down"
3. "The Break Up Breakdown"

Least controversial
1. "Non-Compete Clause"
2. "School Daze"
3. "The Maud Couple"

A notable feature of this list was the amount of disagreement: every single episode had at least two people placing it at ninth or below, and almost every single episode had at least one person placing it in the top three. (I'll get to the exception in a minute.) This may lend support to UK of E's general feeling that it was  a consistently decent half-season, but one without true standout episodes.

Although "Surf and/or Turf" was a clear winner, no fewer than nine episodes were chosen as S8A's best by at least one person. Compare this to S7A's rankings, when "A Royal Problem" ran away with the contest, being placed at the top of the class by nine out of 12 voters. Two episodes were given both first and last places: "Fake It 'Til You Make It" and "Grannies Gone Wild".

All but one episode had a standard deviation of rank between 2.640 and 3.871. The massive outlier, which scored just 0.561, was "Non-Compete Clause", by far the most consistently disliked episode since we started doing this in S4. Out of 15 people, one placed it tenth, one 11th... and everyone else last. Most didn't hate it, but all felt it was well below the standard of the half-season as a whole.

UK of Equestria's overall S7 ranking list

As we've done for the last couple of years (for S5 and for S6), we've been asking people to rank all this season's Friendship is Magic episodes. Because of having no double-episode premiere this year, members were asked to rank the episodes from 1 to 25, with the finale counting as one. We had 15 respondents, a little down on S6's 18 but still enough to get a good idea. S7 has been pretty well received overall, but what you see here is based on the overall means.

The tier boundaries were decided very simply: any episode with a mean position of five or below got a five star rating. Then any ep with an average of worse than 5th but equal to or better than 10th got four. And so on down the line, with episodes with a mean score below 20 getting a one-star rating. This year, we have eps in all five tiers, which makes my job a bit easier! It's also the first time we've had more than six episodes in the top two categories. Here's the list:

★★★★★
1. A Royal Problem
2. Shadow Play

★★★★
3. The Perfect Pear
4. Once Upon a Zeppelin
5. Parental Glideance
6. Rock Solid Friendship
7. It Isn't the Mane Thing About You
8. All Bottled Up

★★★
9. Fame and Misfortune
10. Discordant Harmony
11. A Health of Information
12. Celestial Harmony
13. Campfire Tales
14. Uncommon Bond
15. Secrets and Pies

★★
16. Hard to Say Anything
17. To Change a Changeling
18. A Flurry of Emotions
19. Marks and Recreation
20. Daring Done?
21. Triple Threat
22. Honest Apple
23. Forever Filly

★
24. Not Asking for Trouble
25. Fluttershy Leans In

Number of times each episode placed first
5: A Royal Problem
3: The Perfect Pear
3: Shadow Play
1: All Bottled Up
1: Fame and Misfortune
1: Once Upon a Zeppelin
1: Parental Glideance

Number of times each episode placed last
6: Fluttershy Leans In
4: Not Asking for Trouble
1: Fame and Misfortune
1: A Flurry of Emotions
1: Forever Filly
1: Honest Apple
1: Secrets and Pies

Most controversial (highest standard deviation)
1. Fame and Misfortune
2. Secrets and Pies
3. Hard to Say Anything

Least controversial
1. A Royal Problem
2. Fluttershy Leans In
3. To Change a Changeling

"A Royal Problem" was universally liked and widely adored: everyone placed the episode in their top nine, and 12 voters had it in the top four. In fact, it (just) displaces "Amending Fences" as the most popular episode of the past three seasons. At the other end of the table, the bottom two were widely unpopular, being more than three points adrift of the rest, and "Fluttershy Leans In" had a highest position from anyone of 17th. That wasn't even from me!

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the most controversial episode was "Fame and Misfortune", and I suspect that argument will run and run. We all know that M. A. Larson doesn't like the fact that his name is attached to it, but that doesn't stop many people (including me) from enjoying what we ended up with. "To Change a Changeling" was an unusual episode where there was near-unanimity on its middling status: out of 15 people, 13 placed it between 10th and 17th in their lists.

The general feeling among those people discussing the most recent season has been that S7 was for the most part a very good run, and certainly a step up from S6. This means that a three-star ep this time around might in fact be more popular in absolute terms than a three-star ep last year. But the rules of the poll don't allow you to make your rankings on that basis, instead requiring only relative positions to be taken into account, so bear that factor in mind.

Season 7A – the UK of Equestria rankings

As for the last few seasons, over on UK of Equestria we've recently asked people to rank season 7's episodes up to the hiatus. We chose to make the cutoff episode 11, to avoid potential problems relating to Australian spoilers. I did wonder whether anyone would bother given all the scheduling confusion, but we had 12 lists submitted, enough to get an idea.

I'll pick out a few details at the end of the post, but first here's what the UK of E folks came up with – my own rankings are in brackets:

★★★★★
1. "A Royal Problem" (1)

★★★★
2. "All Bottled Up" (4)
3. "Parental Glideance" (2)
4. "Rock Solid Friendship" (3)

★★★
5. "Celestial Advice" (5)

★★
6. "Hard to Say Anything" (9)
7. "A Flurry of Emotions" (7)
8. "Forever Filly" (10)
9. "Honest Apple" (6)

★
10. "Not Asking for Trouble" (11)
11. "Fluttershy Leans In" (8)

Number of times each episode placed first
9: "A Royal Problem"
2: "Parental Glideance"
1: "All Bottled Up"

Number of times each episode placed last
6: "Not Asking for Trouble"
3: "Fluttershy Leans In"
1: "A Flurry of Emotions"
1: "Forever Filly"
1: "Honest Apple"

Most controversial (highest standard deviation)
1. "Forever Filly"
2. "Hard to Say Anything"
3. "Not Asking for Trouble"

Least controversial
1. "Fluttershy Leans In"
2. "A Royal Problem"
3. "All Bottled Up"

It wasn't remotely close at the top of the list: "A Royal Problem" was the easiest winner since we started doing these rankings during S4, with a massive lead over the rest of the field. As well as those nine top spots, the episode garnered two seconds and a single fifth place. "All Bottled Up" had only one no. 1 ranking, but everyone placed it in their top five.

At the bottom, the highest "Fluttershy Leans In" was placed was eighth (yes, yes, I was indeed one of those...) but "Not Asking for Trouble" only avoided the wooden spoon because of a solitary fourth place. Those two trailed the rest by a considerable distance. "Forever Filly", the most divisive episode by some margin, was placed as high as second and as low as last.

UK of Equestria's favourite episodes revealed!

Over on UK of E, Eunos the Fool (I'm not being rude, that's his username!) has been running a feature for the last few weeks in which he gradually reveals the overall tallies for a vote he ran asking people to list their top 20 FiM episodes of all time. Only ten people (including me) took part, which was a bit of a shame, but it provided us with heaps to talk about as the numbers were gradually revealed.

Here's the overall top 20 (well, actually the top 22), with my own ranking for each episode in brackets:

1. The Return of Harmony (6)
2. Crusaders of the Lost Mark (4)
3= Twilight's Kingdom (11)
3= Magical Mystery Cure (18)

5. The Cutie Mark Chronicles (5)
6. Amending Fences (2)
7. Filli Vanilli (19)
8. A Canterlot Wedding (–)
9. Pinkie Pride (3)
10. Sleepless in Ponyville (7)

11. Friendship is Magic (–)
12. Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3 (–)
13. Winter Wrap Up (–)
14. Maud Pie (14)
15. A Hearth's Warming Tail (8)
16. Hurricane Fluttershy (1)
17. Rarity Investigates! (–)
18. Luna Eclipsed (–)
19. Stranger Than Fan Fiction (12)
20= Lesson Zero (13)
20= Suited for Success (16)
20= To Where and Back Again (10)

For what it's worth, the episodes I had in my top 20 which didn't make the list above were, using the same format as above:

23. Slice of Life (15)
24. The Saddle Row Review (20)
40. The Cutie Map (9)
69= Buckball Season (17)

I'll admit to being a little startled that "The Return of Harmony" won overall; right from the start I'd confidently expected "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" to take home the crown. For my own part, I feel I gave slight disservice to "Filli Vanilli", and that I really ought to have placed it on the fringes of the top ten. Still, it was a fun exercise, and if it happens again in the future I'll take part again.

UK of Equestria's overall S6 ranking list

Over on UK of Equestria, we've been supplying our personal league tables of how all the Season Six episodes compare. I did this last year, and the format is very similar. Once again, we asked people to rank them from 1 to 24, with the premiere and the finale counting as one episode each. We had 18 respondents, one more than we got for the S5 poll. What you see here is based on the overall mean score.

I did the tier boundaries nearly the same way as last year, with a mean score of below five giving a five-star rating, then up to ten giving a four-star rating, and so on. An interesting contrast with S5 is that no S6 episode had a mean worse than 20; there were three last year. However, there was a big gap to the bottom two, so I decided it would be reasonable to give them one-star ratings. The two five-star episodes had no serious challengers at the top.

★★★★★

1. To Where and Back Again
2. The Saddle Row Review

★★★★

3. Top Bolt
4. Stranger Than Fan Fiction
5. A Hearth's Warming Tail
6. Every Little Thing She Does

★★★

7. The Times They Are a Changeling
8. Gauntlet of Fire
9. Newbie Dash
10. Buckball Season
11. No Second Prances
12. The Gift of the Maud Pie
13. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks
14. On Your Marks
15. Where the Apple Lies
16. Spice Up Your Life
17. Dungeons & Discords

★★

18. 28 Pranks Later
19. P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)
20. Flutter Brutter
21. Viva Las Pegasus
22. The Crystalling

★

23. Applejack's "Day" Off
24. The Cart Before the Ponies

Number of times each episode placed first
7: The Saddle Row Review
3: A Hearth's Warming Tail
3: To Where and Back Again
1: Applejack's "Day" Off
1: Gauntlet of Fire
1: Newbie Dash
1: Stranger Than Fan Fiction
1: Top Bolt

Number of times each episode placed last
3: 28 Pranks Later
3: Applejack's "Day" Off
3: A Hearth's Warming Tail
2: No Second Prances
2: Spice Up Your Life
2: The Cart Before the Ponies
1: Dungeons & Discords
1: The Gift of the Maud Pie
1: Newbie Dash

Most controversial (highest standard deviation)
1. A Hearth's Warming Tail
2. Flutter Brutter
3. The Times They Are a Changeling

Least controversial
1. To Where and Back Again
2. The Saddle Row Review
3. The Crystalling

A special mention here has to go to "A Hearth's Warming Tail", which produced a result like nothing I've ever seen before. Apart from one person who placed it 12th, every single voter had it either in their top eight or in their bottom five. Generally speaking, the people who hated it were the same people who didn't like A Christmas Carol itself for one reason or another; not one person liked Dickens' original but hated the ponified version.

The only thing all our voters agreed on was that they enjoyed "To Where and Back Again" – the season finale wasn't placed lower than eighth by a single voter, something which I'll admit surprised me a little given the controversy about the changeling reformation. Every other episode had at least one person who deviated substantially from the consensus: even "Applejack's 'Day' Off" and "The Cart Before the Ponies" had their fans.

The UK of Equestria August flashfic contest...

...is over, as you may have worked out for yourself. So no entering now. Besides, you had to be a UK of E member, since that was kind of the point. But anyway, should anyone wish to read the seven entries we had* then they can read the relevant UK of E thread, which is publicly viewable. It was won by Metaphor, partly on account of the custard. We were deliberately not going for Fimfiction-style (let alone Writeoff-style) intense reviewing there, and inevitably there were some rough edges, but I meant what I said: that all the entries had something to recommend them. The fandom could always do with more writers. :)

* Well, eight, since one person wrote a Littlest Pet Shop crossover, realised with about an hour to go that the rules disallowed crossovers and rushed out an eligible story to replace it.

Also, it would be nice to see a few more flashfic contests around the place. When I've had time to enter a few, I've always enjoyed them even if I've never actually won one. (I've had about six second places and hon menshes, though...) I mean specifically pony-related ones, too: as I've said before, I'm not one of those high-flown people who are moving increasingly towards proper, original stuff; I just want to write about ponies! If anyone knows of an MLP-themed flashfic contest going on right now, please do point me at it!

UK of Equestria's overall S5 ranking list

Quick note: my health is not great at the moment, so don't be too startled if this blog doesn't quite keep to its usual schedule. I have this week's Ponyfic Roundup already written and scheduled, so you'll get that anyway, as well as a couple of stories I've held back for the following week. Don't necessarily expect much else, though. Right; onward!
 
Over on the UK of Equestria forums, we asked people to rank Season Five's episodes from 1-24 (counting double episodes as one). After 17 people had responded, I collated the responses and worked out a mean score. Below you can see the results.

The tiers work like this: any episode with an average rating of fifth or above gets five stars. Then down to 10th, four stars; down to 15th, three; down to 20th, two; and those episodes ranked below 20th on average suffered the dreaded one-star rating.

Just for fun, I also worked out the standard deviation, to see which episodes were the most and least controversial. The lowest SD was for "Amending Fences", which everyone had in their top nine. The highest was for "Tanks for the Memories", which garnered rankings ranging from second to dead last.

★★★★★
1. Amending Fences
2. Crusaders of the Lost Mark

★★★★
3. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?
4. Slice of Life
5. The Cutie Re-Mark
6. The Mane Attraction

★★★
7. Rarity Investigates!
8. The Cutie Map
9. Bloom & Gloom
10. Hearthbreakers
11. Castle Sweet Castle
12. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
13. Scare Master
14. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows
15. Make New Friends But Keep Discord
16. Brotherhooves Social
17. Tanks for the Memories

★★
18. Party Pooped
19. Canterlot Boutique
20. Made in Manehattan
21. The Hooffields and McColts

★
22. What About Discord?
23. Appleoosa’s Most Wanted
24. Princess Spike