Episodes
Hello, hello! … and tara, tara. Must be Strong... (geddit?) So, Pawn Heart reaches the end of the line, offering a review of the epilogue episode ‘The Last Problem’, the standard season overview and awards, and a bunch of mildly wistful musings on putting the podcast together. To all who’ve joined me, for all or part – thank you!
Published 12/03/23
Hello hello! We’re coming in to land... please ensure all loose threads are neatly tied around your waist and that you have secured any bits that may fly about and blind a kid in the overhead lockers. Will the talented trio of Nicola, Mike & J-Hab successfully bring this huge vessel in for a Photo Finish? (Any more metaphors you want to mix in there?) YES! They will. AVOID! Spoilers. LEARN! How to correctly pronounce ‘Dubuc’. (I’m talking to you, Pawn Heart.) All this and more in this...
Published 11/26/23
Hello hello! The show ties up its Ponyville affairs with an ep that tries to have Mrs Cake and eat her too [citation needed]. More references, gimmicks, references, apples, meta-humour, references and references than you can cake a Cake at. Oh, and a wedding. So that’s nice. HAPPY! Apples and/or marriage. REMEMBER! That one? STARE! Into Mayor Mare’s mangy eyeballs. All this and TENUOUS BONUS APPLE-BASED CONTENT in this week’s eeyup-tastic instalment! Email –...
Published 11/19/23
Hello hello! Season 9 methodically works its way through tickboxes and loose ends with a (sort of) final CMCs caper and a swansong to the already dubious Daring Do universe. HOOF! It to Daring Do for being given some prime real estate in the final season despite having comparatively little character. REST! Your dog for once, as Claire Corlett acts in her normal register. WALK! –en. Possibly. All this and some desperate piffle about Stalybridge in this week’s doub-tastic...
Published 11/12/23
Hello hello! At last - we can all enjoy the benefits of a salt-free meal thanks to a couple of sterling stories showing the makers still offering great character-based one off eps while also subtly moving pony pieces into place for the finale. GABBY! Gabby. It’s Gabby! … did I mention Gabby, though? BRACE! Under your desk for more crowbarred in Oppenheimer refences. I’M! Not going to miss making myself think of three of these for each episode write-up. All this and Silverstream’s Dad in...
Published 11/05/23
Hello hello! A couple of big-hitting regulars take their best writing swing this week – Michael Vogel fixes his eyes on the Equestria Series with an assured [trawls Wikipedia] bunt, while the other steels themselves for their very last time at the… place where… the baseball players… swing. Will Confalone hit a home run with his body-swapping swan song? Or will he switch brains with [more Wikipedia trawling] Mike Redmond managing the Marlins? … what’s a baseball? HAIL! The return of …Thing...
Published 10/22/23
Hello hello! The bad vibes hang about a bit longer as Pawn Heart seems to get a whole ant colony up his bum about a “Comedy Episode” ™, which rapidly snowballs into filler content. The other episode is, fortunately, rather good. CHERISH! The RD and Smoulder banter. CONTORT! Characters beyond recognition because funny or last season or whatever LISTEN! To the Extended Dance Mix of ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ by New Order rather than the album version All this and more in today’s...
Published 10/15/23
Hello hello! Pawn Heart puffs up and pads out for this "special" quinquinquagenary episode of All Plotted Out! MORE filler! BIGGER pauses! And MUSIC?! YOU GOT IT, BIG BOOTS. ... I'm sorry. Email - [email protected] Twexter - @allplottedout
Published 10/08/23
Hello hello! This week we encounter two eps that deal with their Final Season responsibilities very differently - one triumphs by using a last season arc as a springboard for character dynamics, the other... is just an excuse to shove a fan favourite character in, really. LAUGH! Because plot says so. CAPPER! It's Capper! That was Capper. QUESTION! The validity of comparing the return of Cheese Sandwich to Twin Peaks: The Return All this and ANOTHER CROWBARRED IN REFERENCE TO THE HAYS...
Published 10/01/23
Hello hello! We swing back from a relatively quiet couple of eps with a welcome dose of Haber-penned Trixie & Starlight banter, and some oddly unimportant headcanon-crushing hijinks with Scootaloo’s deadbeat – sorry, “ADVENTURE-SEEKING AND IMPORTANT” parents. SMILE! At just how much character (and how many characters) the later show has built for itself. FORCE! Use of the host’s radtacular new names for the showrunner. BE UNSATISFIED! As nothing changes for the CMCs except for...
Published 09/24/23
Hello hello! Well, they can’t all be winners – after a fairly strong start to the final season, we reach an inevitable fallow patch with a decent (if a trifle familiar) excursion to the Dragon Lands and the sadly underwhelming final script (and it is certainly a script) from an APO veteran. I’ll miss the hip hop puns - You may not. LAUGH! At those who have the confidence to be themselves – for the children’s sake. IGNORE! Your poorly elder brother. And laugh as he falls in a pit. IRONIZE!...
Published 09/17/23
Hello hello! Pawn Heart returns from the flank-end of space to bid adieu to Brian Hohlfeld, who hands in his final paper with the flawedbut typically thoughtful ‘The Taming of the Yak’, and applaud the graceful finale prep-work of ‘Frenemies’. REJECT! Difference as part of a healthy school curriculum. GUSH! Over Kathleen Barr’s voice performance. HEAR! How Pawn Heart feels about Surf and/or Turf. Again. All this and a hairy trophy in this week’s (month’s?) outcastic...
Published 09/10/23
Hello hello! So we reach the ACTUAL 200th episode, which sees the end of G.M. Berrow's rollercoaster writing journey with the show, but will her last ep hold more prose than cons, or will it bring the season to a full stop? (groan). Also, Patton is back, and this time he's brought the whole clan! MILK! That scene in the pilot episode some more cos there's still a few background assets that haven't yet been plot-plundered. SPIKE! ... Is still awesome. THINK! ...of a third one of these for...
Published 08/20/23
We at last enter the weighted body of Season 9 with the return of the Young Six (and a bunch of other stuff from previous Young Six episodes) and an instance too many cooks actually making the broth by leaning into the knowledge that there are too many cooks. EXPRESS! Yourself conceptually in a thoroughly uncommercial way. CELEBRATE! 199 episodes (?). REWRITE! A back story because the original one smelled a bit. All this and an unanticipated Zephyr Breeze cameo in this week’s...
Published 08/13/23
Hello, hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! And so, our little ponies enter the final furlong with the welcome return of a great writing partnership and the rather less welcome return of a terminally underachieving “threat”. SKATE! One-hoofed on the thin ice of another unsolicited ‘Non-Compete Clause’ prologue. DIG! A genuinely funny Jerry Maguire reference. PITY! Sombra, once more the clown prince of FiM’s rogues gallery. All this and a generous 15 mins of bonus pon-age in this...
Published 08/06/23
Hello, hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! 'TIS THE SEASON! ... well, tis A season... Pawn Heart weathers sweaty mounds of July snow to reckon with their previous assertion that 'The Hearth's Warming Club' is the best seasonal episode, before rifling at the bottom of the stocking for a trio of festive mini-eps which aired with passible proximity to Christmas for once. FABRICATE! A new hat for Applejack, to match her own fabrications about the old one. ESCAPE! From a locked room again as...
Published 07/30/23
Hello, hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! At last, we graduate from Season 8 with flying Rainbow colours (possibly), allowing Pawn Heart the chance to kick back, make awful puns, rant about “poetic logic” (whatever the flying feather that is), and have a parting shot at ‘Surf and/or Turf’. MAGNETISE! Your home by putting a bunch of disparate items close together. PROBLEMATISE! The Hall & Oates-themed awards ceremony. PRIVATISE! … they’re watching you… they see your e-‘vry move. All...
Published 07/23/23
Hello hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! This weak Season 8 (and Pawn Heart's microphone) peaks with the introduction of the Kirin, and we question the wisdom of doing a one episode Deadbeat Dad story involving a regular cast member. BLOW! A trumpet in tandem with the genuine horn section the show has brought in. MARVEL! At the trivia that an MLP writer seemingly wrote an award-winning play about cheese. PLEASE! Turn down the gain on your microphone. It would be witlessly ironic if,...
Published 07/16/23
Hello hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! This week finds Pawn Heart baffled by the reintroduction of the Pillars of Ancient Equestria and, more specifically, Rockhoof (groan), and once more babbling enthusiastically about the Young Six. SCRUTINIZE! The recruitment legislation of Equestria. REWRITE! History by telling foals Discord was just in a lovely sleep for a thousand years. OCH! Aye the noo. All this and an unrelenting "bit" where the host pretends they can't say the name Rockhoof...
Published 07/02/23
Hello hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile as Starlight & Trixie head out on the road under the guiding hand of Haber (not to be confused with the Merciless Fist of Dorgon), and submit entirely as Scootaloo is score-fixingly cute for another 22 mins. STAND AGOG! At the Trixie’s VA’s epic resume. CRINGE! At the arrival of some “fan mail”. HOOF! Rainbow in the chops for me - I’m not close enough. All this and a Christ...
Published 06/25/23
Hello hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! This week we have a fine time with two fine episodes that are, generally, fine. So Pawn Heart fills the slate by pinching a concept from another podcast! CAN THE APPROACH OF THE SHOW BE CONCISELY PRESENTED IN JUST 5 EPISODES? …WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT?! GO! On a Froggy Bottom bonding quest like it were 2010. TREAT! A friend’s addiction like a hobby or… vice versa, or … something…  but the important thing is that you enjoy it, I guess?...
Published 06/18/23
Hello hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! This week, Pawn Heart waits gormlessly under some Mistletoe as Hearth’s Warming hits during a heatwave, and is surprisingly unperturbed by the reappearance of show-stopping shysters Flim & Flam. HANG! Up your stocking on the wall (if it’s wet, because it’ll dry super fast in the Summer months). EXPLOIT! The kindness of strangers to gain a stranglehold on your feudal Kingdom. BUY! Sewing Machines… surely nothing represents the delicate threads...
Published 06/11/23
Hello hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! This week, Photos + Hair + Trees = a world-threatening plot that no one notices and Starlight aggressively turns the other cheek. GASLIGHT! Your friends by making them think you were upset with them for no particular reason. AGE! Beautifully with a reference to a traumatic Danny Boyle movie. BUCK! Pawn Heart for reaching such levels of condescension, his lectures now have their own theme tune. All this and bark-based clones of this on this...
Published 06/04/23
Hello hello! Welcome back to All Plotted Out! Season 8’s Cosy (if not Glowing) patch continues with more wings, a rare Zecora sighting and the world’s worst school principle. LAMENT! The disenfranchisement of Cheerilee and her boring, boring school. MEME! Like a pro with Starlight Glimmer. GO! To the zoo because who’s stopping you. All this and MORE WINGS in this week’s schol-tastic instalment!
Published 05/28/23