UK PonyCon 2022 – Part 1: This Is How A PonyCon Walks · 5:00pm Oct 20th, 2022
That moment when an actual PonyCon keeps its family-friendly image in line (least until the after-hours events), whereas the TV-Y show somehow let a body pillow slip through.
Unlike the one prior time I went to UK PonyCon a lifetime ago three years ago, this time I had no internal battle or decision on whether to go or not. It was a lock, mostly off of not doing so last year (when COVID restrictions only made it difficult, not impossible) and regretting it rather heavily. And while I didn’t book a ticket the instant they dropped, I did so reasonably swiftly. Should have been swifter on the accommodation, but still got a reasonable price. I was even early enough on the plane tickets that I ended up paying more for the cabin bags than the actual tickets. Oh Ryanair… 
Regardless, everything was set. I was pumped for the con, I was pumped for the time away, I was pumped to meet Loganberry, hawthornbunny and the other close friends within our group (none of the rest are really on Fimfiction, mind) that I hadn’t seen in spirit in three years. And I was especially pumped that this was the first UK PonyCon to get a show voice actor as a guest, the one and only Andrea Libman (she was joined by Anneli Heed, a Swedish MLP voice actor). Ticket sales were reported two days before the con to have crossed the 800 attendance mark, not quite the 1000 of 2018 nor the 950 of 2019, but a fair cry over the 500 last year, a sure sign that things had more or less returned to normal in the world of convention attendance. All while still small and manageable enough to suit a social recluse like myself. I saw the various snapshots of New York Comic Con happening concurrently with this one, I know what big conventions can be like…! Plus, I’d just been to the Pokémon World Championships a month-and-a-half previously in London (my last real diligence with attending Pokémon events, probably), which numbered somewhere in the 10K range. Yeah, this event was just what I needed, especially coming out of a loss of appetite bug that had reared its ugly head from nowhere the prior weekend and only vanished fully on Wednesday.
About that last part…
Thursday: No Vaccine For This Phantom
I wasn’t entirely sure at first upon waking on Thursday morning whether it was just regular cravings, but by the time I went for breakfast, I was sure of it; my appetite was gone again. And it wasn’t just the early minor discomfort of when it had first reared its head; this second wind was right back into the heat of it. Barely able to eat a small breakfast slowly over the late morning, where every bite feels like it’s pushing you closer to puking, and relying on high-energy snacks throughout the day until dinner could be put down slowly (I always eat better as the day goes on anyway). The thing is, other than the side effects that come with being perpetually peckish all day, I was healthy otherwise, so there wasn’t anything to be done but just live with it. Ordinary painkillers basically had no effect, though I still took them.
It was bad enough that I internally wrestled with whether I should still go. Both for the cost I’d already shelled out (a three-day cancellation warranty on the hotel doesn’t help much the day before check-in), and for actually being able to maintain myself. Obviously that thought didn’t prevail, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. Three years is a long time, another would be even longer, and missing the event would haunt me for months, if not a whole year. Especially with Andrea Libman being here this year. But the fact remains that the thought did pop into my head, and perhaps as a result, I was filled with worry all day. Thus, the day before departure, which was supposed to be pure relaxation outside of the minimal preparation before going, was an absolutely miserable time. I simply did not have the drive or momentum to even read fanfic, and thus, spent the day snacking slowly and watching meaningless videos, basically ticking away the time. I did, at least make sure to keep plenty hydrated.
Things returned to normalcy a little in the evening, when I could run through the usual packing arrangements, but despite an early turn-in for an early flight, it was not exactly the most pleasant sleep. Mostly, I hoped that the quickness with which this had returned meant it would fade as quickly, and thus the actual con weekend would proceed mostly unimpeded. As they say, a ghost can dream.
Friday: Trottingham’s Never Been In the Show, You Say?
Leaving at 8 in the morning’s hardly ideal, even when healthy. Far less so this time, when it meant I barely had the time, or the appetite, to eat half my normal breakfast. I stocked up well on snacks, both of the healthy and energy-high variety, and was off. Knowing full well trying to eat anything for the next while wouldn’t be wise, and it would be easier to do so once more awake and hungrier, I stuck out the pleasingly quick ride to the airport, arriving almost 2 hours before the flight, and sailed through security. Only when waiting did I eat a bit, both while waiting for a gate number and then at the gate itself. I also followed up on some advice I’d been given, and bought a 7UP, shaking it up to let the fizz dispense before unsealing it, so it would go down as easily as water but with the benefits of the sugar.
As has become custom for flights and trips for me the last few years, I downloaded a handful of Ponyfic novellas to whittle away the many commutes over the next few days. The first of these kept me diverted for the flight (on time, for once!) and the first train into Birmingham city. They did their job, and as I’d had the sense to pick more upbeat, feel-good pieces, they helped my mood start to uptick a bit. It had been three years since I’d last done this, so I wasn’t super familiar with the best routes from Birmingham to Nottingham, but I quickly calculated, based on the train schedules at the time, that I’d save a wait of nearly a half hour to get a different route to Derby and then switch to Nottingham. This nearly didn’t work, with me arriving just before the second train left, but work out it did. 
A pleasant surprise awaited me upon disembarking – turns out three of my Pony friends, Ace, Zenfox (otherwise known as the train expert who kept the con server updated with all rail strike info and backups solutions for getting to the con, something that proved to be very pivotal for many people) and Fluffles, were on the same train, having come from London. And we were all staying in the same hotel too, a Premier Inn right by the local university serving as the con venue! I waited for them to pop into the nearby Tesco, and they found what they wanted: the latest MLP map with a Zipp figure. Wish we had the real thing, alas, she might have been able to clear the skies up, or at least give us a lift, because the forecasted rain was present right on cue, making our 20-minute uphill trek to the hotel an unpleasant one. Okay, I lie, there was good banter and shooting the breeze, but we did feel it necessary to stop twice under shelter to see if things would clear up, or at least dilute a bit.
Eventually, we arrived, just a little past the earliest check-in time of 3pm. This wasn’t the first time evidence of the con was present at this hotel, but it was greater than before, with custom pony figures sporting the con’s imagery as cutie marks and hundreds of themed keycard holders gifted to the hotel. There was even a custom display banner provided just for the hotel! Already I was feeling better, and while my miserable mood from yesterday was still too fresh to be forgotten, the turn-around had already begun.
I did enjoy seeing these two every time I went inside the hotel. They helped keep the mentality of a purely-for-fun holiday alive, and for a ghost for whom holidays rarely do much.
We agreed taking a little time to dry up before meeting back down at 4pm was ideal. An unusual room awaited me, as it turned out: as I’d booked the last room at my price point, I’d gotten an accessibility-friendly room. Lowered bed, strings to ring for help, all that. Not that I needed them, but it did have the benefit of not only being on the 1st floor, but also being very close to the lift and even closer to the stairs, to the degree that by the weekend’s end, I could exit the hotel in less than a minute from my room. I had enough time to unpack, dry up, and do some preparation for tomorrow before going back down. I left my Applejack plush, the one I’d gotten at this con three years ago and who had occupied a place of pride in my room since, behind to keep an eye on things. With her detachable magnetic Steston, you wouldn’t want to cross her!
With that all sorted, and the rain cleared up, forecasted to never return for the trip (which proved true), this meant it was time for something of a pre-con staple for this group – the dinner meet-up at the Roebuck, a local Wetherspoons pub. We certainly got there a lot earlier (after the odd directional mishap) than when I was last here, circa 8pm, courtesy of a later flight. Still, even by 4:30pm there were a few others there already, including Logan and Hawthorn. By no means had my appetite woes gone, and even the simple meal of chicken breast bites and chips I ordered took close to two hours to get through, given how early I started eating it. Still, as we were there for many hours, this wasn’t an issue, and neither was the white lemonade I chose as the drink, as though even the easiest option still wasn’t something I wanted to gulp down, I could sip at it slowly over the evening. My main drink remained copious amounts of water refilled by the dispenser at the coffee machine, of course. This meant I could mostly focus on the important thing; ponies, friends, and ponies.
Honestly, this evening is a bit of a muddle; to the point I can’t even swear to the order things were done. One round of No More Unicorns (an MLP derivation of No More Jockeys, where you name something, and then a category that thing is in which can’t be used anymore, and the next person continues, with someone who slips and is caught out on it being eliminated) was played, and I probably wasn’t in the best mood for it, finding it too competitive for the tone and atmosphere I desired for it. So I didn’t mind when I floundered out quickly! Otherwise, mostly just random discussion, and while the sensation would be topped many times over as the event went on, I was already feeling the benefits of a trip away just for fun, and one with ponies, and with friends. By this point, very nearly everyone was caught up on G5, and it was quite easy, when talking about parts someone present hadn’t seen, to keep it to those who hadn’t, as by that point people were often talking into different groups. But even here, the positive nature of the con made me far more accepting of unabashedly positive G5 opinions without complaint.
Perhaps it was just the mood of the night, but people began to split around 9pm, courtesy of just enough having lengthy commutes to their hotels (okay, mostly Logan situated all the way in Derby, but he wasn’t alone). I didn’t mind this, point of fact, the timing was just about perfect. That said, fully half of our group was in the Premier Inn 3 minutes from the con venue, so back we went. Not much to the evening; we split up, I did any necessary preparations, and also watched David the Hooman's first FiM reaction video, something one of my friends had made me aware of earlier (for the uninitiated, he's a musician YouTuber who reacts to songs, doing fun amateur off-the-cuff analysis of them, and Pony songs have been a part of that for over a year now; now he's reacting to full episodes on his side channel). Re-experiencing how quickly the charm of the Mane 7 captures the viewer even in that debut episode (which he left in full; others are abridged down to highlights) is something I've always liked, there's few better reminders of how well FiM can hook the viewer.
With that leaving me suitably cosy, and alarms set for the right time, I settled off to sleep. While I didn't feel unworried, it was such a marked improvement from the previous evening that, despite knowing I'd have an appetite to manage all weekend, I was looking properly forward to it again.
Oh yeah, there were art contests too. Not just customised pony figures either, though that was hefty chunk of the entries. Not pictured: the cast of Ghosts. Yes, seriously.
Saturday: This Is How a PonyCon Walks
Possibly it was just having gotten up at 7am the prior day, but I avoided (as far as I can remember) any mid-night awakenings this year (and the outside street noise was far more subdued too), though I still had the atypical experience of waking up a solid half-hour before the alarm due to personal anticipation. Happens. Still, knowing the day would be a long one, I grabbed that extra half-hour of rest before heading down at 8:30am. Knowing full well that a Full English would be well beyond me, I opted for a cheaper Continental breakfast and stuck to a simple bowl of cornflakes. It was perhaps a good thing I’d mentioned to the lady serving me why I was eating smaller and simpler, as she periodically checked on me and kept me stocked with chilled pints of water. Point of fact, the hotel staff were very accommodating to us all weekend, and beyond what’s just normally looking after guests; that morning, I especially enjoyed seeing the smiles that the pony music and plushies brought to the staff’s faces.
Here’s where I made something of a mistake. Rather than sticking purely to water, I somehow decided it would be a good idea to have a glass of orange juice alongside the cereal too. It’s normally my top drink, yet had I bothered to remember it’s slightly acidic, I might have thought otherwise. Lo and behold, after a slow breakfast that I cut short at the last few flakes, and gulping down some extra water, my routine bathroom detour had me heaving in the toilet. And subsequently parting with some-to-most of what I put down over the last hour. Joy. I will say I did feel better after doing so, but the lesson was learned about sticking to the simpler liquids (and also foods, but I knew that already).
While I did appreciate the con opening an hour later relative to the last time I was there, at 10am rather than 9am, that also meant far more people in the queue when I joined at around 9:30am (I’ll either upgrade the ticket or arrive 20 minutes earlier next time). Even when the doors opened to non-VIP ticket holders, it took a half hour alongside the half-hour I’d already waited to get in the doors, and another ten minutes to get through bag checks and get my con pass. Finally, though, the travelling and formalities, and three years of being away, were out of the way, and the con could begin!
Nothing like an opening ceremony to get you in the right mood. Don’t remember much from it, but it was a good yarn.
Truth be told, even aside from spending most of the Sunday event three years ago in the Collectible Card Game area (which naturally wasn’t a thing by now, what with the game having being officially discontinued and the fandom’s efforts to continue official-ish sets having dissipated after), my biggest regret from then was not best maximising my time, either in terms of panels or hanging with others. On the other hand, I was determined to not stress and have fun, so other than one or two events, I’d largey not planned my personal schedule this time. Whether I was with several others, or only had Applejack peeking out of my backpack, I was going to do my best just to have fun and enjoy myself, low-appetite bug be darned.
Due to me getting in late, I had minimal time before the opening ceremonies, basically just to check the plumbing and locate where the drinking fountain was, to keep stocked up on water for the weekend. Cheers to Logan for pointing it out, as well as where to pick up the con t-shirt, my one planned-in advance purchase. After opening ceremonies, I had a little time to take in the variety of stalls before the first panel, which was one I’d committed to: Ace and Zen had their transport panel, a regular from UKPonyConOnline during the pandemic (and it got an in-person test run at Griffish Isles earlier this year). Naturally, very nearly our whole group was there. I won’t lie, it’s not the most interesting stuff to me, but though not strictly related to ponies, they did a good job covering how one can handle travel anxiety, planning trips and saving money, avoiding pitfalls like using third-party websites to book as opposed simply to research, among other things. Wasn’t just restricted to their specialities of planes and trains either, they covered other transport forms too. Lastly, their cosplaying as Sunburst (Ace’s favourite pony) and the crazy ticket pony from Sounds of Silence/Growing Up Is Hard To Do (Zen loves his kirins, and this character’s something of a bridge to them) added a fun wrinkle to things.
The next while didn’t contain any panels that were must-haves for most of our group (none of us needed a Con Survival Guide, most who liked Dr. Pony’s content had seen it at recent cons, and it felt too early in the day for the casual My Little Karaoke relaxation), so we mostly split for individual interests or for wandering around. Familiar territory for me, I browsed the 60-odd stalls, seeing what the range was like. Obviously most stalls didn’t really have stuff within my interests; all stalls on legacy G1-G3 toys were an instant out (and given the con’s 2004 origins as a toy collector convention, there’s plenty of those), as were any pony toys with brushable hair. And between me not yet having optimised how to frame/display purchased prints, being more selective about materialistic purchases without a practical use or a heightened emotional connection (if anything, I need to jettson some of my possessions, or donate/sell a chunk off), I wasn’t on the obvious prowl for anything. Even for pony plushies, though I did loosely intend to get another high-quality one to join Applejack, I wasn’t seeing any that instantly grabbed me and demanded a purchase. Whether that was because the best ones got snapped up in the first hour, or the prices had gotten more exuberant in the last few years (my Sewpoke AJ cost £135 three years ago, similar plushies now went for £200-225), I’m not sure. That said, I did grab a pair of Fluttershy Power Pony figures, one regular, one in Hulk form.
In general, this was the part of the day where I most took it easy. Unlike many of the bigger American conventions, UK PonyCon isn’t chocker-block full of panels, and with many of them being casual, loose affairs, it’s expected and intended for a person to have a share of wandering time, but there is enough to ensure you don’t get bored, provided you’re open to things that might not have been your first choice. And that you’re game for some goofy silliness, of course. I had my first few goes at the Tombola, the charity raffle spinner where tickets ending in a 0 or 5 net the prize that number is assigned to. I also sat in on about 15 minutes of the OC Creation 2: How To Create Villains panel. Nothing remotely new for someone who’s been writing fiction, fanfic or otherwise, for 13 years, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still insightful. And I like seeing how they introduce such topics. I left once they got to the group activities of making up a villain, though, didn’t feel like that there and then. More of the stall wandering and several more tombola goes occupied the next half-hour, though I did also decide, after much evaluation, to get a B-grade Batannia plush, at only £17.50, after deciding the average quality difference wasn’t worth twice the price for an A-grade. Plus, I reckoned, at the time, that I wasn’t likely to get another plush. In retrospect, this wasn’t a purchase I was all that happy with by the weekend’s end – I’m no Batpony hater, but I’m not a fan either (the Seapony theme from three years prior was far more to my tastes) – and while the poseable wire wings were neat, I grew to not like the off-centre back hips. Still, though, at £17.50, I can’t really complain. It was also around this point that I first started to notice I rarely had proper mobile data inside the venue (despite having a 17GB data allowance), and while this didn’t impede much, as I had all needed info saved and available, it was something that irritated throughout the weekend.
At this point, I bumped into Hawthorn, and per my suggestion, we popped into the Let’s Talk About Equestrian History and Magic panel, as the other main thing on then, the first leg of the Cosplay Competition, didn’t intrigue me (cosplay tends to be something I admire more than enjoy, at least on the scale of watching it for a fair while). The panel had a hiccup in the runners lacking internet themselves, so it ended up being all-verbal. This was probably the event I enjoyed the least. Less for the panel itself, though given it amounted to atypical theory spitballing that tries its best to reconcile every inconsistency in canon rather than write even the worst ones off under ‘bad writing’, it probably wasn’t the best choice for my tastes. No, it was one particular person who questioned nearly everything the panelists said, refusing to let points go and making them into debates, that was what sunk the panel for me, to the point of sighs bursting to escape me by the end. Yeah, not the best choice.
Nothing to see here, just an absolute goddess of Pony Voice Acting being her usual bubbly, cheerful self before the panel's even started.
Ah, but by this point it was 3:30pm, and time for one of the most anticipated events of the whole weekend – the Voice Actor Script Reading and Q&A! Again, something that’s kind of a mainstay at US cons, but a real rarity over here. Most of us re-gathered at the main stage, and settled in for some joyful fun with the two main guests. As the panel was only an hour, the actual script reading wasn’t anything big, more a quick skit then anything, where Britannia (voiced by Laura Key, an amateur voice actor and reasonably popular Tik Tokker who’s volunteered at UK PonyCon for years now – she even had a stall this year, mostly for clearing out old stuff it appeared) was hosting a party and welcomed in four guests. Andrea Libman played Fluttershy and Pinkie, naturally, while Anneli played Izzy and Granny Smith (who she doesn’t dub, but she embodies the role perfectly). To this point, I hadn’t given MLP dubbing much thought, but on top of flawless English, it was uncanny how well Anneli embodied her characters (and given G5 dubs aren’t subject to the recasting woes, as far as I can tell, she’s pure Izzy for them – frankly, she does a better Izzy then Ana Sani). The sketch was a nice bit of light fun, and nicely light on overt meta/Brony jokes too.
Following that skit, it was Q&A time. In my infinite wisdom, after both queues had grabbed a few people, I decided to join one without having a question(s) fully prepared! Ever the silly ghost, that’s me. If you’ve ever been to an MLP VA Q&A, or watched one online, it’s a lot of the usual questions: favourite x, how much did you like doing it, what would your character do in this situation, the odd question about the process, etc. But it’s always great to hear them anyway, and it bears mentioning how bubbly and sweet and nice Andrea Libman is, whether that be answering the usual stuff, or explaining that her voice actor career started as little roles from when she was six and it wasn’t intended to be her career, at least once her voice developed. As it never did, she still wasn’t sure, so she got a Civil Engineering degree, but after that, booked another voice acting gig, and decided to roll with it for a short while until it fell through, and she’d get a real job. Which never happened, and a decade-and-a-half later, here we are. Quite a story! There was also a moment where Andrea admired that Anneli gets to act off the finished footage, whereas she acted to just a script and other actors, though as she’s done plenty of anime dubbing herself, she knew full well the difficulties it brought. Other highlights included explaining how the Ducktales cameo came about.
By the time it was my turn, my fallback questions had already been asked, so I defaulted to technical ones. Anneli had already been asked about dubbing, answering they sought to make it not feel like a dub through adapting the cadence of the translations. Thus, I started with the usual ‘lip flap difficulty’ question, but expanded on that to ask how they approached the fact that most translations from English require more words to say the same thing, and thus how do they avoid having to say everything super-quick in the allocated ‘character speaking’ window. She acknowledged it as a good question, and said one helpful trick comes down to splicing some words or syllables out to make it more informal. Apparently they also sometimes revise the dubbed script given on the spot to fit better, and I noted anime voice actors often say it’s very important for the script adapter to sound out when they’re writing, so it flows well and has a cadence that can be ‘acted’. Another agreement! In comparison, my question for Andrea was far simpler: how did she handle not getting her character voices mixed up, both in general but also within the same show. She said that’s more the director’s job then hers (and Terry Klassen is a fantastic voice director), so why I slyly asked about the handful of times Pinkie or Fluttershy bled into each other, she quipped “That’s on the Director.”
Thanks to Ace and the official UK PonyCon Twitter for most of the pictures here. Next time, in Part 2: A kooky pup quiz of wacky goofiness, Andrea's opinion on marmite, Discord running a game show, and a charity auction compelling someghost into quite the extravagant spend.
This may be a spicy take.
Are the comics canon? Who cares. This is a post on fimfiction. Is Equestria Girls canon? Again, who cares.
Personally, I love the comics, and detest EqG. Immediate counterpoint: Metalhead Fluttershy is an amazing concept I lovingly ripped straight from an EqG youtube short. I never would've thought of it if I hadn't sat down and watched the entire EqG videography. So my real gripe is, I don't think the comics have been given a fair shake.
The show- all nine seasons, the movie, and the two specials- are like... pre-built lego models, pretty neat on their own, but ripe for disassembly and reuse as we, fanfiction writers, see fit. Equestria Girls are just more bricks in the bucket, and it's the same thing for the comics. Yes, there are some truly abysmal issues- just as there are some truly abysmal EqG shorts, and some truly abysmal episodes of the main show- but even those have pieces, characters, background gags that can be plucked out and used in objectively better writing. Because that's what we're here to do.
Anyway, glad you made it there in one piece. Ryanair, oof.
I'm… not really sure what sparked this point? My frustration wasn't at the content of the opinions, just the brittle debates it descended into. They just weren't pleasant to listen to, for anyone there. And, like, I'm used to you commenting mostly because some of my horse-words sparks you to reiterate your oft-repeated preference that the shows, and all other official media, are first-and-foremost an ideas bin for you, with all other concerns secondary at best. I get that, my friend. You know me, I do like me some good, juicy world-building and lore. It's important. But it's not my only concern.
As for your point about caring whether they're Canon – I agree! And not just saying that because I too do not care for EqG (very nearly everything I do like in there exists in FiM and is better there). Don't forget, I came to this property via the 2017 movie, and first dove in with fanfiction in 2018. So, there have been TONS of great fanfics I've read that were jossed six ways to Sunday by Canon, and that's never bothered me. Ditto for the comics. I certainly can't say they're great overall (I do plan, at some point, to reread everything up to "Season 10", it and everything thereafter is fresh enough to not bother, especially as they're largely garbage), there's too many bad and weightless issues there. But there's a fair chunk I like quite a bit, or which at least amuse me enough. And canon conflicts don't bother me at all, I can enjoy arcs like Reflections all the same (reportedly, it was the most popular arc for back-orders, or at least equal with the starting Return of Queen Chrysalis arc, so it clearly worked for readers tenfold).
I'm still not sure what prompted this "the comics haven't been given a fair shake" point (or most of what you said, frankly), I didn't even mention them. You have a fair point as far as enjoying them. Personally, I have found very little in the comics actively inspiring in a "gotta make fanfiction from this" sense (and the sparse use of the MLP Comic tag here would agree with me), but by and large it's not that tone of entertainment, it's more light-on-its-feet and jokey.
That said, do remember that, as much as I value getting inspiration from the main MLP media for material here, my primary concern is how any of it works as a piece of media itself. I come from a moved-past ambition of working in animation professionally, I've spent most of the past decade doing amateur analysis of media (mostly animated films and tv shows) in one form or another. That's my primary mindset, much as yours is "okay, what here can I repurpose for the EC?" Just, you know, worth bearing in mind.
I kid, but honestly, Ryanair deserves basically no blame here. The tickets were dirt cheap, I got through the airports quick, one flight was on time and the other only 20 minutes behind. Now, if I were on a flight that set me back 200 quid each way, that'd be a different story…! But a quick hour-long trip at off-peak travel times on a Friday morning and again on a Monday afternoon in October, in an off-holiday month, they did me well. Unless it be the early flight, but I could have got a later one. Couldn't have known when I booked them how I'd be feeling at the time, could I?
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Eh, apropos of nothing, I guess. I'd written that a couple day ago, as an editor's note tucked under a future fic that won't see daylight for years. Sorry.
Well, that was fun! I'll look forward to the next part. I think it deserves a smiling Twilight, too:
Amusingly enough, the Red Arrow bus was so good that it was probably quicker than if I'd been staying in outer Nottingham! And the saving I made on hotels v Nottingham was the main reason I didn't have to watch every single penny at food time, so it all worked out.
Pro tip from this professional cheapskate: if you're going to go the "arrive earlier" route, best to arrive enough earlier that you can stand by the main building, since the roof overhangs enough to protect you from most rain.
For me it was really patchy: absolutely fine in some areas, hopeless 20 metres away. I could never get the venue's WiFi to work properly, so I just had to make the best of the inconsistent data offering.
Oh yeah, that's really irritating when it happens. I noticed someone in Ace and Zen's panel did want to weigh in on almost everything, albeit not in the argumentative way you describe for this other person, but A&Z didn't rise to it. I suspect that was panel-hosting experience talking; it was the right approach, anyway.
Yeah, I really can see now why she's been a fan favourite for so long, including outside Sweden. I noticed she was also really bubbly and enthusiastic on Twitter etc during the con. She obviously still gets a real kick out of this stuff, even after all these years.
This is a fun and nicely detailed recap! I'd forgotten quite a few of those details. ^^ It's a shame you were feeling so ill over the weekend but I'm glad you managed to have some fun :)
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Aw, thank you, my friend. When I was doing this up, I revisited my recap from the 2019 event, and found it rather appalling. Perhaps because I was too in-awe to write all that coherently, or wanted to squeeze it into one entry (this part alone is longer), it's a rushed affair with very little of the spark and wit present here.
Glad it paid off.
And on you forgetting some of these details, hey advantage of me posting this almost two weeks after the fact! Had it been just a few days later, it'd have all been fresh. So perhaps the gap actually makes this more special than it might otherwise have been, no?
Well, you know it improved as the event went on. And as I stated at the time, and reiterated here, it was manageable. Calling it ill feels like a bit of an overstatement – most of the time, it was being peckish in a manageable manner, and sticking to even simpler food and drink than usual.
And as for the real fun… hey, just wait until Part 2! That is where the fun begins.
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We do not deserve your kindness. But perhaps this Starry Rarity will go so way to eliciting the same warmth in you.
Oh, believe me, I well remember, and had I been able to eat at a normal pace, I would have been 20 minutes early and able to join you around 9:15am. I also foolishly didn't consider that the half-hour we arrived before opening time three years ago, when we just avoided the queues, wouldn't work when the place opens an hour later and "getting up early" isn't as big an ask for folks. But it all worked out anyway.
It was one of those college login Wi-Fis, which are always fiddly. Coupled with me often being wary of using public unsecured networks if I can avoid it, and I largely didn't bother myself. Anyway, I suspected it was a problem for most folk, but me being on a foreign network that was only intermittently successful at getting it outside anyway skewered my access inside the venue even more.
I remember what you mention, that was a case of a younger fan lacking a filter, I recall. Our guy was more passive-aggressive argumentative (something about his behaviour let me to believe he might have had a mental abnormality, but of course I'm not going to commit to that on mere suspicion). But yes, Ace and Zen were good at keeping their panel on-topic! I think the fact this panel ended up being verbal-only off their computer/internet troubles hindered the panelists' ability to keep it on course.
Still, that was the only event I did all weekend I could call disappointing – everything else was at least amusing, and often much better. I'd call that a win!
Dubbing is usually such a thankless task, especially in a day and age when anyone in the fandom with English as a second language watches that version of the media to better interact with fans. And most dub actors often don't speak English well enough to interact with their fans either. I think it's a combination of her being able to, and being a MLP lifer who's had many years of appearances at smaller events to build up a solid reputation. Obviously no one was going to top Andrea for either infamy or bubbly enthusiasm, but darn if she didn't do very well regardless!
I have a vague idea for a panel at my next con... now I just need to put in the work to make it. :p
Glad you were able to mostly bounce back from the sickness and enjoy!~
5694547
How much of a con-goer are you? I've naturally only read so many con reports from veterans around here that I follow, so there are still plenty of folks I'm not sure of how much they go to such things.
You don't say…
Ever run a panel before?
5694549
My first pony con was Trotcon this summer. I've been going to boardgaming cons for decades.
Never really ran a panel, but I've GM'd most of my life and that's kinda similar. Showmanship, preparation, charisma.