OK, "Daring Don't", the fourth episode of Season 4. Honestly, I'm kind of a bit split on this episode. Overall I think it's a solid one, but some very big plot points within it especially bothered me, so I'll cover those first in my review.

First of all, the twist that A. K. Yearling (and can I just reiterate again that that play on J.K. Rowling's name is fantastic! ) is in fact the real Daring Do, while epic on quite a few levels, also bothered me a bit, as did parts of her characterization. Firstly, this twist apparently means that every single one of her adventures that she's written about have actually happened. So you're telling me that nopony in all of Equestria, including Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, Shining Armor (former Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard and now Prince of the Crystal Empire), and the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle, was ever aware that ANY of these events that could have had disastrous ramifications across the globe EVER happened?!?! I'm sorry, I just find that hard to believe. I mean, yeah, it's epic that Daring Do is apparently a real figure in Equestria, not just a fictional character, but still, how the hay is nopony aware that she actually exists? I know that some people might say that maybe Celestia just lets her do her own thing without revealing her identity, but I can't buy that because I just feel like if Celestia really was aware of her, she'd definitely involve herself in trying to help Daring Do out and save the world from the villains Daring Do confronts. So yeah, that plot point was just a bit hard to swallow, even if it was awesome, and for the rest of the episode I was seriously waiting for it to be revealed that they'd somehow stumbled upon a film set for a Daring Do film or something, it just seemed that hard to believe that these events were actually happening!

Second, concerning Daring Do herself, I found her Batman-esque alienation in the extreme to be a bit... out of character? OK, seeing as we've never seen her before outside of "Read It and Weep", let me explain. Daring Do is obviously a send up to Indiana Jones, right? Well, here's the thing; Indiana Jones never, ever turns down help. Sure, there are some things he tries to do on his own or he tries to keep certain people he cares about from getting in harms way, but in all of the Indiana Jones films he never goes around telling every single person who tries to help him that he works alone! So, in that regard, it felt like the writers were somewhat betraying the very source material for the Daring Do character. Yes I know it was partly for plot convenience and delivering the lesson of the episode, but you're also telling me that in all her adventures Daring Do's never needed any help at all? No, she's not Batman, she's Indiana Jones, and Indiana Jones is not a dark loner, he's a charismatic, Americanized James Bond, archaeologist style, who's worked with fellow professors, loudmouthed Egyptians played by John Rhys Davies, his father, adolescent Asians, and countless love interests to save the world from Nazis, communists, and terribly stereotyped Indian cultists! So to me, the loner characterization just didn't seem to fit Daring Do, at least not the one we were introduced to in "Read It and Weep".

So those are my two complaints about Daring Do. What else did I have a big problem with? The Mane 6 for the first 3/4 of this episode, especially Rainbow Dash! For so much of this episode, it seemed like the Mane 6 had one big, giant brain fart and completely forgot that they're heroes just like Daring Do!!! They've saved Equestria countless times, but apparently they forgot that when they found out that Daring Do was real. Two things in particular ticked me off. The whole first scene with Daring Do, all the Mane 6 did was literally stand there outside her window and watch! WHAT THE BUCK GIRLS?!?! She's getting mobbed by three ponies right there (and later a fourth showed up RIGHT BESIDE THE ENTIRE GROUP), and all they did was just stand there and watch! I don't get it, why didn't they jump into action right on the spot? Yeah, plot convenience, I know, but I'm sorry, this plot convenience required the group to be way too OOC. Heck, this would've seemed OOC in Season 1 even, but here, it was just downright laughable! Sure, learning that Daring Do was real was a whole lot to take in, but these are the girls who've battled godlike figures, dangerous magical creatures and enemies, and an entire Changeling army on a regular basis!!! WHY DIDN'T THEY DO ANYTHING?!?!?! Their ineptness in that scene drove me crazy to no end, and just came off as stupid and lazy on the writers part. In fact, this would've made far more sense; Rainbow Dash, in her excitement, gets to the house ahead of the whole group, finds out Daring Do is real, and, when she tries to help her, fails and is overwhelmed, and then fills in the whole group once they show up, who then proceed to try and help Daring Do after convincing Rainbow that together, they can be of valuable service to her. Same lesson, but executed SO MUCH BETTER! Still, to the Mane 6's credit, they seemed to get over that collective brain fart after that scene, and the rest seemed raring to go and help out Daring Do once they caught up to RD, so I'll give them credit there.

Since Derpy wasn't in this episode, we decided to honor her in spirit by leaving our brains back in Ponyville!

Now, as for RD in particular, she apparently forgot that she was Rainbow Dash for most of this episode. I mean... what the buck was she doing? She kept saying she was going to help out Daring Do, but all she did was fangirl over her! Don't get me wrong, she was adorable and hilarious the entire time, but she wasn't Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash is a pony of action, a pony who always proves on a daily basis that she is the most awesome pony around. But here they made her an idiot just so they could phone-in a lesson about believing in yourself for a pony besides Fluttershy (which I get to an extent, since Fluttershy's usually been the only character who's needed to learn this lesson, but still, Rainbow Dash is the last pony who needs to learn a lesson about believing in herself!). The few times she did try to "help" Daring Do before the episode's climax, she was completely inept! She was nothing but dead weight, and my gosh was it driving me crazy!!! It's just... it's not the RD we've come to know and love in the last three seasons. I don't know, it just bugged the heck out of me and felt extremely OOC that she was incapable of doing anything to help her idol out before the climax of the episode.

OK, that said, we've got the bad out of the way. And the bad was pretty bad and, more than anything, head scratching, I want to say. BUT, there was also a lot of good in this episode, so let's cover that now. First of all, the humor was spot on yet again, in just about every department. We had Twilight and Rainbow Dash's ongoing Daring Do debates: the Mane 6's obliviousness to what they were talking about: some hilarious one-liners: Rainbow Dash and, to a lesser extent, Twilight's fangirling over Daring Do: all kinds of visual humor (Pinkie's red line, that hat Applejack was wearing at the party, Rainbow Dash's duck face (seriously one of the funniest things I've ever seen!), etc.): Ahuizotl's hilariously over-the-top personality: Daring Do's hilarious marriage proposal quip: dozens upon dozens of fandom jokes that apply to just about every fandom ever, it was all over the place and busting my gut throughout! The animation as well was simply spot on, and really captured the Indiana Jones-esque feel that you could tell they were going for here. Speaking of Indiana Jones, besides Daring Do's loner mischaracterization, I think they nailed that feel that they were going for. The music was very adventurous, Daring Do was undeniably awesome and had all kinds of slick moves, her enemies were very affectionate references to foes faced by Dr. Jones, especially that Dr. Caballeron (a very spot-on reference to Rene Belloq), and everything just felt like something out of an Indiana Jones movie (especially that rather ingenious trap that Ahuizotl put Daring Do in, loved that scene!). Rainbow Dash's fangirling, even though it got quite old after awhile, was undeniably adorable and hilarious (as was Twilight's, even though it didn't show up nearly as much), and she had some hilariously adorable faces throughout (including the return of the Rainbow-squee face, very much appreciated). The climax was probably the highlight of the episode, but there was a very healthy amount of action throughout, it just kept getting interrupted before the end by Rainbow's idiocy and fish-out-of-water position (and again, she shouldn't have been a fish-out-of-water, she's an even bigger hero than Daring Do if we're being honest, along with her friends!).

So here are my final thoughts on this episode: it was undoubtedly a very cute and very fun-filled episode with an interesting addition to the canon, some fantastic animation, gut-busting humor, sweet and slick action sequences, some wonderful shoutouts to the fandom, and a whole lot of D'AWWWtastic moments. Basically, it was a rollicking good time and just a really fun episode to watch. However, it also had some very confusing and head scratching major plot points, especially the A.K. Yearling/Daring Do twist, Daring Do's characterization, and Rainbow Dash and the rest of the Mane 6's characterization for 3/4 of the episode. These took a lot away from the episode and made the lesson feel both unnecessary and insincere. Also, it didn't really contribute anything to the season's main story arc, even less than last week's episode, and I was kind of a little disappointed it didn't, just a bit. Overall, I really liked this episode, I really did, but I wish I could like it more than I do, because what we got in the end was kind of a mess. This was an episode with all the right elements to be a great episode, but in the end those elements were poorly utilized and it was pretty sloppily executed, resulting in just a pretty above average episode rather than a phenomenal episode. By far my least favorite episode of Season 4 so far, but still a very fun and cute episode that I can't wait to rewatch as soon as possible.

Well, the pony fun's not over yet today my friends! Later tonight, on Everfree Network at 9 PM EST, we've got the premiere of Ponies the Anthology 3!!! Be there or be square everypony; this should prove to be one of the best fan projects of 2013, no joke, and just a rollicking good time in general. Hope ya'll have a great day everypony!!!