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.

My Little Repeats 3: "The Ticket Master"

Enough G4.5 speculation for the moment. Let's get back to the show that's the reason most of us are in the MLP fandom in the first place.

The sort of expression we got so much less of from later-series Twi

S1E03: "The Ticket Master"
Written by Amy Keating Rogers and Lauren Faust
29 Oct 2010

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.2

The one with oatmeal.

Thoughts: This episode started out as an 11-minute script in the Show Bible, then was expanded with AKR's help to 22 for broadcast. (Thanks to Mike Cartoon Pony for that.) Anyway, it's a pretty stupid setup, really: why would Celestia send Twilight just two tickets in the first place? For the Grand Galloping Gala, no less, which first appears here. Early Instalment Weirdness applies: Spike doesn't want any of that "girly, frilly, frou-frou nonsense" and there's some odd levitation right at the end. Still, Fluttershy singing the theme tune (the start of the then-unreleased extended version, at that!) is adorable. Two rather forgettable little Pinkie ditties, too. We get our first sight of Prince Blueblood in Rarity's vision, though (perhaps thankfully!) we learn nothing of his character just yet. This episode does contain a favourite early scene of mine, though: when Twi is picking the petals off the flower, her stomach rumbles... and she eats the petals. A nice reminder that in S1, these were very much horses; see also the restaurant having piles of hay instead of chairs. The Benny Hill-esque chase scene is actually quite funny, and it ends with Twilight first teleportation – awkwardly, and apparently not even knowing it would happen! Overall, though? It does feel a little stretched at 22 minutes, and the plot is all a bit obvious. I think a high two-star rating is about right.

Choice quote: Rarity: "Twilight! It's raining." Twi: "No. Really?"

New rating: ★★

Next up is "Applebuck Season", which many fans cite as their first hunch that things were really going to come together on this show.

So then, Pony Life

( Text link )

Well, this came almost out of nowhere, apart from a couple of very vague hints in the last few days. My Little Pony: Pony Life is on the way for 2020! According to the Hasbro press release quoted on EqD, the new character designs (also shown in the EqD post) are chibi-inspired, while the show "looks at the funny side of friendship". The series will centre on Sugarcube Corner and will feature mysterious potions. The recently-redesigned toys are associated with the new series, and they will apparently be available in "select retailers" in December, at least in North America.

Okay, before I go any further, I want to mention that I have never watched Teen Titans Go! Why am I saying this? Because about every third comment I've seen thus far about Pony Life has included a TTG reference, usually unfavourable, and I'm getting just a bit frustrated with seeing it mentioned again and again and again. It means nothing to me and in all honesty, it's already boring me. Other cartoons exist, and I'd be much more interested if anyone had some thoughts about other shows that Pony Life may have taken some inspiration from.

Pony Life is very clearly not G5. That shouldn't even need saying, but apparently it does. The Mane Six and Spike are still present (and voiced by the same VAs), the world is apparently the same, and so on. I think there is a case for calling this G4.5, since it's based on a significantly redesigned toyline and it's a different approach for the series. Whether that will stick I don't know, since all we've seen so far are a few still drawings and this trailer – most of which features the toys rather than the cartoons.

The choice of music for the video is interesting: Lizzo's "Good as Hell". I'm fairly sure Friendship is Magic would never have used the word "hell" in a trailer, especially repeatedly as this song does. Whether that's a deliberate hint of a change in direction, who knows? The song is the clean edit, unsurprisingly: for example, the line "Walk your fine self out the door" is actually "Walk your fine ass out the door" in Lizzo's original. Amusingly, the relevant word is at exactly the same point we see a close-up of Applejack's flank. Coincidence? Yeah, sure it is.

So, will I watch Pony Life? Well, yes – at least at first. It's not going to replace FiM in my affections, I'm certain of that, but then FiM was a once-in-a-blue-moon show for me. But as some cute, funny stuff to fill the gap between now and the movie in autumn 2021, I think it could be fine. If they start filling it with toilet humour or something, then I'll switch off, but I will at least give it a fair chance. And even if it's appalling, My Little Pony has survived all kinds of stuff since the 1980s. It will survive this. I'd like it to do a little more and actually be entertaining, of course!

Edit: an interesting point made by Inkan1969 on EqD: in the pictures released there, the title card shows the ponies with coloured outlines. Every other picture, and the video, shows them with black outlines. Now I've had it pointed out, I can't unsee it. (For what it's worth, I think black outlines work better, perhaps because they remind me of what most of the IDW comic artists used.)

Ponyfic Roundup 272

Read it Later story count: 232 (nc)

Here we go again! Another three stories this week, two slightly longer than I usually review here and one very short one.

Stuck by Callisto
The Best and The Worst by Firesight
Maybe Tomorrow by Baal Bunny

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

My Little Repeats 2: "Friendship is Magic, part 2"

Shall we? Oh, go on, let's do it, for old time's sake... "You know. For kids!"

Something I noticed in the comments last time was the number of people – even those who liked part 1 – who felt it was rather formulaic. It felt fresher to me, which I suspect has a lot to do with my general non-watching of modern animation. Anyway, time to end the cliff-hanger! Just be thankful you've only had to wait two days for it – back in 2010, the notion of running a Pony two-parter in a single slot lay well in the future: viewers had to wait for twelve days before they saw episode two. Yes, that's right: ep 1 went out on a Sunday, but ep 2 appeared on a Friday. Indeed, Friday would remain FiM day for the rest of S1.

S1E02: "Friendship is Magic, part 2"
Written by Lauren Faust
22 Oct 2010

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.7

The one with Twilight forgetting how libraries work.

Thoughts: I like the foreshadowing of each of the ReMane Five's Elements, even though with hindsight it's pretty obvious. The Everfree Forest is a much spookier place than it becomes even later in S1, and I miss that – until this episode, none of the ponies had ever been inside before. The manticore shows the dangers pretty well, even if Rarity does kick him in the face! (But Twi wasn't allowed to hit Tirek years later? Hmm.) We get our first song – not a great one, but it's cute in its place. Steven Magnet appears, though he'd have to wait 98 episodes for his pirate-upload name to become canon. The Shadowbolts sequence is nice, showing just how susceptible to flattery early-series Rainbow can be. And of course there's the dramatic final confrontation and the return of (S1-style) Luna. Interesting that Twilight refers to her friends as "the spirits of the Elements of Harmony", not dependent on the physical artefacts. I suppose that also applies after the Tree's destruction so many years later! Also our first sight of Celestia and the first utterance (albeit with significance unexplained) of "cutie mark". And, right at the end, Pinkie's first fourth-wall moment. A fine episode. Not hugely representative of most of the season, but even so.

Choice quote: Twilight (sarkily) to Dash: "Yes, Rainbow. I was there."

New rating: ★★★★

Next up is "The Ticket Master", which my admittedly rusty memory doesn't recall being all that great. We shall see!

Sounds of 2012: Nos. 43 to 39

Since I don't want to do two "My Little Repeats" posts on successive days, I need to put something else up today. "Sounds of 2012" would seem to fit the bill nicely. We're getting well into the upper half of the Everfree Radio listeners' selections now, and there are a couple of fairly well-known songs featured in this post. A quick reminder of when I'll feature a song – Rule 1 is by far the most common:

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

43: Sim Gretina – Colgate Brushie Song (Inspector Brushie Remix)
42: Bronyfied – My Little Metal Medley
41: Bronyfied – Flower of the Season (ft. Aviators)
40: The Living Tombstone – Dubstep Dishwasher
39: Replacer – Let Your Mane Down (d.notive cover)

I have YouTube links, download info where offered and some brief information about each song beyond the cut.

My Little Repeats 1: "Friendship is Magic, part 1"

I wonder how many of FiM's first viewers spotted this clever foreshadowing shot?

Welcome to My Little Repeats, everypony! Today, of course, we start off with the episode that started it all more than nine years ago. This episode is sometimes referred to as "Mare in the Moon", but I'm going to stick with the more common name here. As you'll see, I'm not joining double episodes together – so there'll be a thrilling cliff-hanger wait before you find out what I think of part two. Off we go!

S1E01: "Friendship is Magic, part 1"
Written by Lauren Faust
10 Oct 2010

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.6

The one with the Rain-blow-dry.

Thoughts: The very first thing we see is the book opening – it would finally close over 220 epsodes later. The very first voice is Nicole Oliver's, and quickly we're into the storybook-style opening and the dramatic story of Nightmare Moon's banishment. Then it's back to Flash animation in its S1 form, which these days looks a bit sparse but still quite nice. Meeting the Mane Six is pretty fun throughout, and long-running concepts like Sparity and the Wonderbolts are efficiently introduced. "Ten seconds flat" also shows nice attention to detail. Mind you, Ashleigh Ball's voices for Applejack (especially) and Rainbow aren't quite there yet. Twilight's snarky personality is a joy to revisit, but her sometimes thoughtless treatment of Spike is less so, as is the dragon's partial illiteracy – thankfully swiftly forgotten. Nightmare Moon makes a fine villain in the short time she has on screen, and (despite an anachronistic CMC shot) the final scene works very well. All in all, a very promising beginning!

Choice quote: Twilight to Spike: "Focus, Casanova."

New rating: ★★★★

Next up is "Friendship is Magic, part 2" [You don't say? —Ed.], which I'm looking forward to very much as the series' first big adventure!