Weekly Reading Report VI, 313 Magical Mystery Cure, and the future of the series

Hi again everypony

This last week was the Carnival week, which is a massive deal here in Brazil. As such, I shut myself indoors during my half-week off work, and I read like mad in a way that would made young Twilight proud. *nod* Total is 260654 words, which is the best in 4 weeks, but not that big a deal, I think. I think I'll eventually include graphs to the initial report to add even more artificial importance to these numbers. ;)

I Love Changelings hive took all my friday reading the 24kw of Hope and Changeling, by FrontSevens (cutest user icon award).
I was pleasantly surprised that the tired-and-boring premise of 'OC is suddenly a changeling' was transformed in a quite gripping action story, with several enemy groups, and a good characterization for secondary characters (even if a little awkward at first). I'm awaiting the next chapter with great anticipation, I have no idea where it's going, and I'm not even going to risk wanting any particular outcome. It sounds like a real difficult situation and I got really emotionally invested in it! Two thumbs up for that (in Pinkie Pie cardboard hands).

The Gender-Bender Awkward Scholar (hm, not rhyming enough, but it'll do for now) had tons of fun with the Lighthearted and Fun Club with all the 49kw from Giving Love a Helping Hoof, by Kroqgar.
I think the best part of full-cast of MLP having rule 63 applied is the sheer resulting number of characters with established personalities. It's fun to see them interact, and it's a very fast and easy read. I was a little irked that every character is attracted to their genderbent counterpart (a little variation would be more fun), and Celestia acts distressingly crazy, but aside form that it's just silly and fun and a really light read.

Crazy Twilight is a thing since Lesson Zero, and the 5kw from Princesses Don't Potty by CDRW are that.
I tend to view fics mixing alcohol and ponies with skepticism, but this fic does it right— a plot device and nothing more. And it builds on a rather silly relationship between Twi and Celly, each from their own end. It's pretty silly, and I laughed quite a bit by reading it. The story seems to be going nowhere, but the author says s/he's working on more. Ah well, updated or not, it has already been worth it. ;)

Crossover Takeover of the week is Sly Cooper in: Stealing Harmony by Loyal2Luna with the first 2kw (chapter two, which is four times bigger, I haven't read it yet).
Sly Cooper, the thief raccoon, in first person? I'll be honest here, I'm already interested. I never read a Sly Cooper fic. This fic got into my radar because of the cover, which, honestly, is selling enough to me. Now how good the story is? I'll get back to you next week. I enjoyed the prologue, but prologues aren't indicative now, are they?

On the finale. Oh, that much talked about finale. Did I like it? YES. Do I have a problem with Alicorn Twilight? None so far. For the, say, 3 minutes of it. Because, let's face it, everything changes, then season finale? It feels a lot more like a series finale, and that was very very awkward. What I understand is that season 4 will be different, and it has a lot of potential to drift from slice-of-life to adventure. This isn't a good thing per se, because we have seen in seasons 1, 2, and 3 that the writers do better with slice-of-life rather than adventure, but that's only because adventure is more work to write and fit in 22 minutes. I assume they'll have the resources to do a more through job with adventure episodes now, if that's the intention. There's also the problem that "learning lessons" is actually taken seriously in the series, which means that these lessons are learned. After 55 episodes, Fluttershy is less of a pushover, Twilight is less recluse, Dash and Pinkie are less insensitive, AJ is less stubborn, and Rarity is less fussy (unless she's the designated comic relief). The focus needs to change or the series will get stale.

I much appreciate the fact that risks of change have been taken as opposed to the risks of stagnation.

As for the episode itself… cool songs, my favorite is the Good Good Friend, which has been in loop in my head ever since the song leaked. I will admit that I teared up produced liquid pride during most of them. Rushed? Definitely. But rushing with songs is cool. That's how musicals are, that's what songs during episodes are for, they can communicate very quickly a state of mind and an evolution of a situation, and deliver exposition, without getting boring. I enjoyed that. The one thing that I didn't like is that it all tied up rather loosely. The cutie mark swap felt pointless, maybe Twi could've created new magic some other way, it felt like an excuse to bring the rest of the mane 5 in. Then again, she needed the rest of the mane 5 to create such magic, but it still feels forced.

Finally… I have mixed feelings about the role Celestia played in all this. It felt like a total puppet master. That's also something to be seen. She started the series as the sole ruler of all of Equestria, and now it's a triumvirate (supposedly, or maybe Twi has no sovereignty at all), with an Empire with unclear relationship of autonomy. It's getting confusing. And I don't like the fact that it'll most likely never be clarified.

That's it. :3 Byes.