Batbrony

Here's what I adored about that Sweetie Belle bit... we got to see her inner "Rarity-freakout" coming out! Seriously, how many Rarity freakouts have we seen that were just like that?

Anddddddddddddd suddenly the CMC have their very own Starlight Glimmer! With just a pinch of Lord of the Flies while we're at it... well... that ain't good.

THUNDERLANE FTW!!! MORE BITS ABOUT THUNDERLANE BEING A WONDERBOLT FTW!!! HAIKU PONY FTW!!! CIRCLE PAINTING FTW!!!

Good morning, everypony! First of all, apologies for not getting a review up yet of last week's episode; this week was crazy, especially on Wednesday and Thursday when my girlfriend and I were looking around at apartments in the Ann Arbor area. I hope to get up reviews of both last week's episode as well as today's today for your viewing pleasure. For now, though, let's get ready to enjoy what will hopefully prove to be another splendid episode of Season 7 of MLP! Ohhhhhhhh, so they're going to Camp Friendship where Applejack and Coloratura went to day camp years ago? That's awesome, and a very good callback indeed!

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, that episode was AMAZING!!! I can't remember the last time Fluttershy got into such a desperate situation (at least on her own), the writing and pacing were fantastic, Twilight was a great supporting character here, Cat Tail was a fun new addition to the cast, and Mage Meadowbrook's story was fantastic (plus I have to add she has a pretty cute design as well, as do most of these bayou ponies). Great episode all around, can't wait to review it! But for now, if you'll excuse me everypony, I am off to (hopefully) sell my old car. Later everypony!!!

OH NO, SICK BUTTER PONY!!!! NOW SHE'S GONNA START GETTING GOOD AT RHYMING WHEN THE SYMPTOMS GET WORSE!!! Also, I know we've all joked for years that Zecora should just not rhyme at some point, but if I'm being totally honest... I WAS COMPLETELY FREAKED OUT WHEN SHE DIDN'T RHYME!!! Spooky shit, man, spooky shit!

Goodness gracious me, this is already one of Fluttershy's best episodes in some time! When she sets her mind to something, my goodness that little filly is capable of doing pretty much anything! Also, HOLY SHIT, that disease is terrifying!!! IT TURNS PONIES INTO THE TREES THAT DROP THOSE FLOWER PODS??? MY GOSH, THAT'S AWFUL!!!

Oh no, sick zebra! *checks on Zecora* Oh, don't worry everypony, her rhyming ability is still intact! Wait ... DAMN IT!!! IT'S STILL INTACT!!!

Good morning everypony! Very excited for yet another episode featuring Zecora, and two in a row at that, what luck! While last week's episode was very good in its own right, I'm really hoping that this morning's episode proves to be truly exceptional, and based on some early word of mouth I've heard from friends, it sounds like it's just that indeed!

As should be VERY evident in this thread, the fandom artist community pretty much exploded after this episode Good evening everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! First of all, apologies for getting this review out so late. Just been having trouble making time for it over the last few days on account of a whole lot of exciting real life stuff that's been happening. But that will be saved for another day, for now, onto the episode itself! Without further ado, this is "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You." So first things first, I just have to say that this was an odd duck of an episode. Like, not a bad one, far from it. In fact in execution this is a perfectly good episode, and in tone very much in the same vein as predecessors from Season 1 or Season 2 of the show. But that said, what did stand out to me as apparent was the fact that this was a Season 7 subject in an episode executed like a Season 1 or Season 2 episode, and that threw me for a bit of a loop. Unlike last week's episode, this is not so much a bad or disappointing thing as simply an odd thing to ponder. I cannot help but find myself asking "What if this episode had been executed differently?" and in fact will do just that at the end of the review. But for now, let's delve into what we got here. To start, Rarity kicks ass here, and I don't just say that because of the end. This was undoubtedly a Season 7 Rarity performance; while the character has never been completely self-obsessed or shallow I cannot help but think that if this episode had debuted in Season 1, she would have displayed far less grace or restraint in how she handled things than she did here. Instead, we got a Rarity who, while more than understandably upset at her predicament, did not come across as particularly shallow at any point; if anything, we actually readily understood how being unable to fix such a situation could truly devastate her without it feeling forced. Rarity doesn't just put a premium on maintaining good looks to make herself feel better, she does it to make an impression on ponies both in her own dealings as well as when she's lending a helping hoof to them, as evidenced by the opening scene of this episode where she's going around town lending assistance to various businesses and establishments. This does have a practical effect in that, well, without sounding too shallow, if there's one thing folks love more than practical-minded people, it's practical-minded people who look radiant. Politicians like John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, etc. all had good looks and distinct images, and this applies to business as well. A great example that comes to mind is who will folks always associate as the face of Apple, Jobs or Wozniak? Jobs of course, and not just because he was the better PR guy and knew how to connect to what customers wanted, but because eventually he developed a distinct image that, while not Hollywood-handsome, was its own kind of handsome within the Silicon Valley world. Point is, Rarity looking good isn't just something that she shallowly does to make herself feel better; at this point, it's simply a part of who she is and how she carries herself about, and there's nothing really wrong with that. She doesn't think she's better than other ponies because of it, she doesn't really even flaunt it, she just enjoys looking fabulous and using that part of herself to help others try to realize their own potential to be fabulous in their own ways. When you're just having one of "those" days This makes her reaction to losing most of her mane more than believable, even if some of her bits during her most panicky moments are hilarious. She doesn't just focus on getting it back (even if that is her top priority), she really does try to go about her business as well but just finds at first that she can't. She also doesn't blame Zecora or Pinkie Pie, and tries to have as much of a stiff upper lip as she can. Let's also consider that this isn't just something Rarity would freak out about; she may freak out more than most would, but evidently losing one's mane or tail is something that most ponies dread and understand magic can't fix easily, if at all. Even her sadness is, eventually, oddly subdued; normally we'd expect to see Rarity having a grand and fabulously over-the-top display of drama when she's especially feeling low, but here her lowest point is Rarity just... well, not being Rarity. She truly feels at that moment like she's not her true self, and can't even muster the ability to lament her current state as grandly as she normally would. That was a nice, subtle touch and Tabitha St. Germain's handling of the subdued, restrained Rarity in that moment was very effective. The ending of course was fantastic, and Rarity rocking the punk look all over town was as unexpected as it was delightful to watch, especially when she kept acting like herself again, it contrasted the punk image so wonderfully! And her learning to always believe that she was always fabulous no matter what she looked like, so long as she still behaved fabulously and channeled that into everything she did, was a great lesson for both herself as well as those who may be most affected by this episode, and a nice continuation of part of the lesson from Rarity's own legend of Mistmane which she recounted just a few episodes ago. So all in all, I really have no complaints about Rarity's performance here or how she was written; I still enjoyed her turn in "Campfire Tales" more personally, and for me that's still her highlight of the season, but this was a splendid turn for her all the same. Zecora coming back (in the first of back-to-back appearances, how about that!) was a welcome return, and unlike Daring Do's performance last week, Zecora's appearance here was not, thankfully, botched. I was honestly a little disappointed we didn't get to see her just shoot the shit some more with Pinkie Pie and Rarity when she started talking about manes and how tricky they are to handle with magic, but that was mostly because an unfortunate truth about Zecora is that she's usually there for the purpose of plot devices more than anything else. Most of what she says is either exposition about something that will be critical to the plot, or words of wisdom tied into the lesson learned. Make no mistake, I still enjoy her as a character and think she was used well here, but it is something I've noticed about her over time, and really it's a big reason we should see more of her, so that she's not just being used in such formulaic and predictable ways. Also, I can't help but think she should have taken a little bit more of the blame here for what happened to Rarity; she may not have gotten the bottles mixed up, but she is partially responsible in that she had no labels for two VERY different potions that look exactly the same. Overall, however, it was just nice seeing Ponyville's resident zebra once more, and I'm sure it'll be even better seeing her in this week's upcoming episode! Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, kind of annoyed me here. Her performance was nowhere near "MMMMystery on the Friendship Express" levels of bad or anything, but the best way I can put it is that they wrote her unnecessarily stupid here for the purposes of the plot. This is not the first time this has ever happened to Pinkie Pie as her over-the-top nature is often exploited by the show to create some kind of foil or plot device that gets everything else rolling, and many times it too has come off as lazy writing for this character. Pinkie may hardly be the brightest member of the Mane 6, but some of the shit she was doing in this episode seemed to be stuff that a five year old could figure out. Her spraying of that ridiculously sticky silly string EVERYWHERE in sight felt like something she'd impulsively do in a bad MLP fanfiction, not an actual episode; her repeated suggestion to simply use any cupcakes she salvaged from the silly string rather than bake new ones came off as both lazy and inconsiderate to the Cakes or their customers (even if it was a funny gag at certain points); and she seems to have spent at least an entire afternoon, if not one or multiple days even, simply trying to clean Sugarcube Corner up with the wrong potion, and you're telling me that in all of that time she never realized that this might be shampoo and not a magical cleaner??? All in all, hardly Pinkie's worst showing, but not exactly a flattering one either. She did, however, admittedly look rather adorable at the end of the episode after the shampoo debacle The rest of the Mane 6, on the other hand, were phenomenal, especially at the end. Twilight and Starlight (honorary fill-in for Spike here as far as I'm concerned) did admittedly get off to a bit of a rough start, mostly in that they, once again, couldn't resist messing with the laws of nature by trying to do something with their magic which, not a second before, they had said they shouldn't when they tried to assist Rarity with her mane through their magic. Now look, I get that they were just trying to be good friends, but (1) they've both made this mistake enough times with often near disastrous consequences that they should know better by this point, and (2) Twilight's first attempt in particular was a really shitty thing of her to do. They're trying to help their friend get her mane back, or some semblance of it, and what does she do? Why steal another pony's mane of course, much to that poor bucking crystal pony stallion's horror! I don't even get how the writers thought they could play this for laughs when they literally just gave this guy the same exact problem that Rarity was contending with the entire time, except I doubt he has a group of friends that includes a bucking Equestrian princess to help him try to get over such a dilemma. That'd be like doing a high school drama episode where, in order to help a friend who was anorexic, her friends tried somehow "passing" her anorexia onto someone else. Not a solid solution guys, not at all! At least the rest of their magical attempts weren't harmful to anyone else, and it was fantastic hearing them at least say no to attempting using time travel to fix things, but still, it was kind of ridiculous that those two made as many attempts as they did when they were so sure to start out that it wouldn't work. Besides that, however, Rarity's friends were great. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack in particular tried their best to come through, first in trying to come up with whatever kind of wigs they could (in all honesty Applejack's was probably the most likely to work, even if Rainbow's looked the prettiest, but dear Lord Flutters I don't know why you thought Harry the Bear's green plant wig would work at all... even if it was hilarious and adorable seeing Harry working on it), and second in trying to bolster Rarity's spirits and help her regain her confidence to channel her inner fabulosity no matter what she looked like. Applejack in particular had some very personal lines of encouragement and support, a nice dose of Rarijack and reminder of how close those two in particular are in a season where we haven't seen a whole lot of it outside of this and one other episode. Probably her best line was when she hearkened back all the way to their very first adventure, reminding Rarity of when she did her first major act of generosity among her friends in giving up her tail to Steven Magnet; this was not only a critical element of Rarity's own nature to remind her of, but also highlighted how close these two are in showing how much of an impression this memory in particular must have left on Applejack. In the end, their support and friendship was exactly what Rarity needed in order to regain her confidence. Ponyville itself was very much alive in this episode, again in a way reminiscent of Seasons 1 and 2. The Flower Sisters, Roseluck, Daisy, and Lily, in particular had great showings and even showed shades of character growth; while they came close to panicking like they were so wont to do in early seasons, they ultimately kept their cool (with some assistance from Rarity) and did some smashing business with their flower sales while they were at it. They also treated Rarity the least different of any other business associates around Ponyville after her mane fiasco, simply unable to help her when they couldn't see her mane, which felt like a far more natural reaction than the other two. Speaking of which, fan pony salesman and Davenport, the owner of Quills and Sofas, were not nearly as charming. Fan pony store owner was relatively harmless, but he came off as a really inept business owner seeing as he was hurting his own business... simply because he had all of the fans in his store going at once, which made it hard for any pony to even enter his store. Pretty stupid move on his part, plus his later comments about "non-fabulous" ponies seemed a bit... superficial, at least how he delivered them. Davenport, however, was far worse in that he wasn't just stupid for not having wider variety in his sofas to start out, but was also a complete jackass! Dude made a business arrangement with Rarity, a very simple one at that; she gave him VERY sound business advice that helped him improve his sales, and in return all she wanted was a custom-made chaise lounge. Hell, as far as we know she was even going to pay for it in bits as well, so the fact that he was willing to break that agreement just for a few more bits is dickish beyond all belief. If I was Rarity, I wouldn't do business with a guy like that ever again! How can you really trust a guy like that in any type of business arrangement if he's willing to straight up break his word when it comes to his own business?! Aside from that, we had some fun appearances from Filthy Rich, Caramel (who may or may not now be a father of a filly via Sassaflash, who he was dating back in Season 2), Granny Smith and Grand Pear (who could be spotted in multiple scenes selling apple and pear products at a shared stand in the Ponyville Market), Apple Bloom conversing with Burnt Oak (again, another great bit of continuity from "The Perfect Pear," even if it would have been cooler seeing Big Mac talk to him), Big Mac and Sugar Belle taking a romantic walk at Sweet Apple Acres (something which I missed in my first viewing, though to be fair they showed it sooooooo briefly that it really is easy for anyone to miss), and Derpy at both the beginning and end, including rocking the ONLY one of the Rarity-inspired punk manes that looked as fabulous as hers did! Seeing so many different faces from Ponyville showing up in notable roles here was great, and something that is far too rare at this point in the show. Mannnnnnnn, the Flower Sisters are SO CUTE!!! As you can see, all of the elements we had in this episode easily add up to a good, perfectly likable episode. So you're probably wondering in what way I think it possibly could have been better? Well, odd as it may sound, I really do think this episode, by virtue of its subject alone, could have been far more daring if it wanted to. Allow me to explain. The elephant in the room with the subject of an episode like this is twofold. Rarity lost something which she believed is fundamental to achieving her own identity. Not in a superficial way (mostly), but this is a character who loves being fabulous and sharing that side of herself with others in any way she can, so it's easy to understand why this situation would be so personally distressful for her. Obviously, this episode can easily be relatable for two groups of people: (1) more generally speaking, anyone who has lost due to unfortunate circumstances something about themselves they consider to be a defining trait, or (2) more specifically, people who have lost their hair, especially due to a medical condition of some kind. That's a pretty heavy real world parallel for any MLP ep, and there's no way the writers weren't aware of it. So how could they have pushed the envelope just a bit more with this one? In just a few little ways, really. For starters, even though Rarity's mane eventually grew back, we didn't need to see that at the end of the episode; it needlessly minimized what she'd gone through, as well as the triumph of how she'd just rectified her situation as best as she could. Going even further, she didn't even necessarily need to fix her mane at all; as awesome as the punk mane was, I couldn't help but wonder (1) why it didn't occur to her to do that in the first place, and (2) how she had enough hair to do that? For her it was a wonderful fix, but in real world parallels, lots of people can't always do such a fun solution as Rarity did. Some may have no hair to spare at all (though of course wigs are always an option), and for others the lack of hair may even be the least of their problems. So what could have happened instead? Well, I say, what if the Mane 6 hadn't been able to really help Rarity? What if no one at first could, and she herself couldn't simply fix it by going with a different mane style? What if eventually, she came across somepony who in many ways had it even rougher than she did? This could either have been somepony with some kind of medical condition, or if the writers wanted to be less serious, a character like Derpy who has been the town klutz for years and has had to always live with that. In either case, she could have simply talked with this pony, asking in awe how they've managed to stay positive or their chipper selves despite their struggles and challenges in life. Their answer? They never let whatever bad conditions or circumstances they had in their lives define who they were. They always stay true to themselves and never, ever let any limitations they face keep them from remaining who they are, for their own sake as well as for the sake of those they love. Doing it doesn't mean it's easy, just worthwhile. Such an example would have been inspiring to somepony like Rarity, and led her to concluding the same thing she did in the episode as it is, simply in more dramatic fashion as the result of a far more serious experience. Now again, I must reiterate that this episode did not disappoint me. Executed as it was, it was a very good episode. But I still strongly believe that it could have been more if it wanted to be, and can't help but regret that we'll never get to see what it could have been if treated just a tad more seriously, even if what we got all around was good itself. That's all I've got for you everypony, until next time this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit* Let's close this thread with, what else, a shitload of Punk Rarity pics!!! I won't lie, if this had happened, it would have easily been the most metal thing ever!!!

Huh... not a bad episode, not even a meh one, but I'm going to have to think VERY hard about how people with hair problems of their own, especially because of medical related issues, might respond to this episode, or how it might resonate with them. Certainly was loads of fun, but would it make a positive impact on people who share the problem that Rarity had? That is an interesting question indeed. My review should be up later today or this weekend everypony, until then have a fabulous day, one and all! Also, Derpy be looking FABULOUS at the end of that episode, ya'll!!!

Holy shit, Twilight and Starlight, do you guys just love breaking your own rules when it comes to magical taboos? Every single time you say, "It's not a good idea to try doing (blank) with magic," if somepony just goes "Pretty pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!" ya'll go just like that "OK FINE!!!" Seriously, YOU STOLE A POOR CRYSTAL PONY'S MANE, THAT'S AWFUL!!! What is wrong with you two??? We should consider ourselves bucking lucky you guys DIDN'T try any time travel even when Rarity suggested it!

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Also, is it just me, or is this a very Season One-ish/Two-ish kind of episode so far? Like, not in a bad way, it just seems like this is a very slice of life-ish episode so far. Also, very nice to see both Zecora and the Everfree Forest again, man I hadn't realized how much I missed seeing both of those!

Good morning, everypony, who's ready for some new MLP?! Because I sure know I am, and goodness gracious let's hope this is an improvement over last week's disappointment. It was sad enough seeing Daring Do wasted in a terribly meh episode, and we get Zecora in the show these days about as much as we get her, so let's hope that she isn't wasted either on a meh or bad episode. Rarity and Zecora should hopefully prove to be an enjoyable and unique duo together, so here's hoping for a splendid episode all around! HOLY CHEESE! Continuity galore already! We've got Granny Smith and Grand Pear selling, presumably, apple and pear wares together, Apple Bloom talking some more with Burnt Oak, the Flower Sisters this close to a panic attack, andddddddddd a quick little Derpy cameo, YAY!!!

Good afternoon everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! I'm sure you're all wondering why I'm posting my review of this latest episode so early. Well, while I normally always wait to write a review until after an episode has officially aired on Saturdays, I felt I had to make an exception this week since my girlfriend is briefly visiting me today and Saturday. If I waited, that'd leave me only Saturday evening and Sunday to catch up on this new episode and write my review on it, which is just more work and stress than I need. So without further ado, let's dive into "Daring Done?"! So, how did this episode leave me feeling? Welllllllllllllllllll, something like this... Very, very, very, very, VERY disappointed... That moment you need both Peyton Manning and a dog that looks just like him to sum up how disappointed you are Now do not mistake me, this episode is nowhere NEAR one of my least favorite ever in the entire show. Compared to a dumpster fire like "Hard to Say Anything," it's a bucking masterpiece. On its own this is just a very 'meh' episode, not that good, but not that bad either. HOWEVER, I still found myself disliking it more than most 'meh' episodes in this show, about as much as I would dislike an actually bad episode of the show. Why? Because like I said, it's an incredibly disappointing showing all the same. There was real potential here and some great ideas for what should have been at least a good, if not great, episode. It's nowhere near as infuriating in its disappointment as "Hard to Say Anything" was for blowing such a massive change in show canon with Big Mac getting into a relationship and all, but it is disappointing in these respects, which I will go through in detail. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!!! BTW, most of the pics in this review will probably be from the Somnambula segment, simply because that's really the only part of this episode I loved through and through Disappointing Factor #1: We Don't Get Many Daring Do Episodes One of the most charming aspects about MLP at this point in its run is that there is a wide bevvy of beloved supporting characters in it. These come in two varieties: (1) supporting characters who we see with a pretty steady degree of regularity, such as Cheerilee, Big Mac, the Cakes, the Princesses, etc., and (2) supporting characters who only appear on special occasions, even less so if they have celebrity VAs. A.K. Yearling/Daring Do is definitely the latter, but she shows up far more than beloved supporting characters like Cheese Sandwich or Countess Coloratura because her voice actress, Chiara Zanni, isn't a celebrity voice actor like those VAs are. This means she's become what I'd like to refer as a "special staple" on the show; she's not a regular main or supporting character, but she is a well-enough established element of the world that gets referenced so often, or flat out shows up enough, that she can be considered in her own way to be a staple of the show. While her appearances are still special occasions, you'd like for them to leave something of an impact on the show as well, even if they don't leave the biggest of impacts. Normally this has been the case, to varying extents. Here, however, everything was handled so poorly that not really anyone came out looking better for it, including Daring Do. Plot points were forced and contrived to the point that I couldn't help but think that Daring Do could have probably figured out most of the problems she was facing on her own, especially considering what solutions she chose to come up with at the end. The idea of Daring's exploits having unintended consequences that make life harder for others is not a bad one, in fact it's a fairly well-explored theme in the superhero genre in general, but it was handled badly here for a number of reasons that I will get into later, including the fact that Daring simply couldn't figure out for most of the episode how to fix things (like I said, given what she figured out she should do, this shouldn't have been that hard to figure out). She created an existential crisis for herself when she really didn't have to, and her lack of resolute behavior made it come off as though she didn't have a handle on anything that was going on. Anytime the incredibly EASILY swayed crowd in Somnambula turned against her, she got sad, anytime they said something nice about her, she got happy; it's like the entire direction of her life, whether or not she retired, was hinging moment-by-moment on whether or not these ponies were in a good mood around her or when talking about her, it was ridiculous. Perhaps worst of all, however, was that absolutely NONE of the exploits Daring Do got up to here, even rescuing Rainbow Dash from a bucking pyramid, came off as epic or adventurous. It all felt watered down somehow, like a wilted flower, and for a character who has always excellently channeled the spirit of Indiana Jones, who in just her last appearance embarked on this amazingly fun and exciting adventure with Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants that involved puzzles, temple traps, and a giant bucking crocodile monster, for any of her adventures to come off as lame and empty of adventure is the biggest sin of all. By far this was the worst Daring Do episode to date, and seeing as this is a supporting character who only appears on special occasions, it is all the more disappointing because of that. Disappointing Factor #2: Wasting a Cool Setting with a Great Background So @Jeric and I were at first convinced that this ENTIRE setting was being ambiguously referred to as "southern Equestria" which really doesn't make sense for one bucking town to be called that, but when I consulted the MLP Wiki entry on this episode, I realized the town is called Somnambula. However, while that name makes sense, I'm not sure they actually said the name once in the episode (although I could be wrong); the only time I recall them even suggesting it was called that was when the one villager said that Somnambula was the town's namesake, but again, I may be wrong and may have to rewatch it again. Either way, at least it's not called southern Equestria, that name is bucking generic as hell, though I have no idea what Somnambula itself is supposed to refer to considering it is drawn from the word "somnambulism" which is just the scientific term for sleepwalking, and there wasn't one bucking thing in this whole episode even close to that. Back to the issue at hand, this actually is a pretty cool setting, both visually and in its background. The idea of an Egyptian pony society (while a bit confusing considering all of these ponies in Equestria share the same country) is not a bad one in the slightest - though I will point out this was a missed opportunity to return to Saddle Arabia instead, I REALLY wanna see the Saddle Arabians again - and their looks, while a bit confusing given that they are clearly modern ponies in their garb but for some reason had ancient Egyptian eye paint, were pretty cool. Jeric even pointed out to me that one of the Somnambulans was wearing specifically an Egyptian hijab, not just a generic one, meaning somebody did their research in coming up with that look, and I give props for that attention to detail. Say what I will about this episode, the Egyptian hijab is a very cool detail all in all! I mean look at this, look at the bucking colors and gorgeous visuals in this one shot alone! AND ALL OF THIS GOT WASTED ON A THOROUGHLY MEH EPISODE?! For shame!!! Even cooler is the town's background, which is easily the best part of this whole episode. Somnambula has a really great story around her (with some cool alternative animation at parts), and a unique personality to boot from what we saw; she seemed to have this very kind, hopeful demeanor, even resonating what I would call a natural nobility even though it seemed she wasn't an actual noble herself, or at least not part of the royal family. She was smart but also clearly brave, and didn't seem to rely too much on her brains or her brawn, but a healthy balance of all sorts of commendable qualities. The Sphinx itself was a bucking cool villain in its design, and my only gripe with both of them is that, for some reason, the show makers didn't bother to get either of them voice actors, and I think that's quite the missed opportunity; both of these characters could have sounded very unique, but instead all we got was the random village pony reading their lines, it was kind of annoying and distracting. But like I said, her whole backstory about rescuing Prince Hisan and saving her land from the Sphinx was awesome and honestly I wouldn't have complained if it was longer, and Somnambula is another great addition to the growing members of the Legends of Magic. D'awwwwwwwwwww, who's a cute ancient Egyptian pony??? YOU ARE! YES, YOU ARE!!! The problem is that, ultimately, this cool setting and background all came to nothing. The city itself felt minuscule, largely because it seemed they didn't utilize nearly as much of it as they could have, and considering this thing was right next to multiple pyramids, that's a bucking shame. We're talking about the first time ever we've gotten to see MLP's version of Indiana Jones in an EGYPTIAN-type setting... guys... in case you forgot, Raiders of the Lost Ark is still easily the best and most beloved Indiana Jones movie ever, and most of that takes place in Egypt!!! There are so many great Indiana Jones callbacks they could have done here, but instead most of the episode was spent with the main crew dawdling about listening to ponies waffle between praising Daring Do or bitching about her, hearing an awesome story that had no impact on the present events, and then embarking on a really stupid and underwhelming adventure inside a, if I'm being honest, really boring pyramid, and that's saying something considering it was a perfectly awesome setting in Somnambula's own backstory! Hell, even the stakes are lame! What do Daring Do, Rainbow, and Pinkie ultimately stop Dr. Caballeron from doing? Stealing a bunch of glowing topaz! Like, I know it has huge meaning to the townsponies, but c'mon, all they did was stop them from carrying a giant ass sack out of town, that's it! We didn't even get any kind of epic chase, they just confronted them like Scooby Doo and the gang would confront a monster about to get unmasked. While this setting had great potential, especially considering it does have a pretty awesome background, overall everything about how it was actually used was simply underwhelming and not particularly fun or exhilarating. Disappointing Factor #3: Bad Editing and Bad Pacing Wowwwwwwwwwww, was this episode ever a hot mess in the editing and pacing department! The biggest problem probably stems from the fact that we wasted five minutes of the episode opening up in Ponyville and then at A.K. Yearling's house (speaking of which, where the buck is it exactly that they got to it so quickly AND apparently A.K. Yearling for some reason gave this exclusive interview to, of all papers, the bucking Ponyville Chronicle? I thought she was a recluse living somewhere in northern Equestria, what the buck is she giving an exclusive interview to the town paper of one of Equestria's most podunk little towns when she should be telling this to, oh IDK, a paper in like Manehattan or something?!); I'll expand on this point about the opening later in the review, but from there it was all downhill. We didn't seem to get nearly enough exposure to the town of Somnambula itself, most likely as a result of those wasted opening five minutes, which in turn made the setting feel too small and confined; some scenes lasted too long or seemed to drag, others didn't seem to develop enough; and finally, as a result of the bad editing and pacing, laughably stupid things would occur, like Dr. Caballeron kidnapping Rainbow Dash when Pinkie Pie and Daring Do were LITERALLY 20 FEET AWAY!!! Oh yeah, we're gonna tear that bit of stupidity apart later. Point is, everything about the pacing and editing in this episode (except, oddly enough, for Somnambula's story) felt off somehow, like it just wasn't right. It's not the worst I've ever seen in the show, but it is plenty of testament to how something seemingly as small or simple as getting the editing and pacing wrong in an episode can screw the whole pooch. Disappointing Factor #4: Plot Contrivances and Poor Continuity Good gravy, are there a shitload of plot contrivances and poor continuity in this episode! This is one of those cases where the plot contrivances and bad continuity honestly just get worse the longer the episode goes on, so I'm just going to list them off down below one by one. *deep breath* Let's begin! (1) The aforementioned "where the buck does A.K. Yearling live" plot point. We see Pinkie and RD read about her retiring in the paper, and then cut to them running to her house, with no sense of how far they just traveled! Not only is this a poor transition, but it, compounded with the fact that A.K. spoke to the Ponyville Chronicle, makes it impossible to determine just how far she does live from Ponyville, or even where exactly in Equestria she lives. (2) A.K. Yearling's inability to confront a very solvable problem. The fact that her actions as Daring Do are disrupting others lives in harmful ways is not a bad plot point, nor is her feeling bad about it bad; however, A.K. suffers an existential crisis from this fact that almost leads her to retire as Daring Do for good, when there are far better options available to her for confronting it which aren't all that hard to figure out, namely, using her considerable resources accrued from her Daring Do novel sales and royalties to pay for damages and costs she incurs in her adventuring! Given that this is exactly what she does at the end, the fact that she couldn't figure out she should do it before on her own is even more infuriating and stupid for it. (3) The "A.K. Yearling is Daring Do and vice versa" plot point is finally falling apart as a result of some really shitty continuity in this episode. It was always an awkward situation, but I was able to believe that most ponies didn't know Daring Do was real because I always figured her adventures took her to far away lands outside of Equestria. I still thought it would make more sense if she acted like she was just reporting on the REAL adventures of Daring Do, not pretending to be a novelist, but that theory held up well enough. Well that all went out the window because of this episode, because Somnambula is a town in Equestria itself, meaning Daring Do does indeed adventure in Equestria. Even worse is the fact that A.K. Yearling tells Rainbow and Pinkie that southern Equestrian (and we have no idea how much of Equestria that's supposed to cover) don't know about her books since they're not sold there, so they don't know who A.K. Yearling is and that Daring Do is a popular fictional character. What this essentially means is that while ponies in "southern Equestria" know that Daring Do is real but don't know about the books about her written by A.K. Yearling, vice versa, in "northern Equestria" (again, no idea how much of Equestria that is supposed to cover) ponies don't know that Daring Do is real and think she's just a fictional character because of A.K. Yearling's books. This is a terribly stupid plot point resulting from really bad continuity more than anything else, and it makes every pony in Equestria look like idiots. I know they don't have the Internet, but this country is probably the most developed nation in its setting and is pretty well-interconnected by this point, so communication isn't that primitive. So you're telling me that in all these years, no northern Equestrians have ever told southern Equestrians about the Daring Do novels and, vice versa, no southern Equestrians have ever told northern Equestrians that Daring Do is real? Nope, can't buy that, it's too big of a leap in logic. (4) The ponies of Somnambula are far too ridiculously easy to sway. Every single time both Rainbow Dash and Caballeron bring up a point for and against Daring Do, they agree with whoever's speaking, it's bucking annoying. I know it might be a joke about mob behavior, but if it is it isn't particularly executed that well or cleverly. On top of that, you're telling me that absolutely NONE of these ponies could recall seeing Ahuizotl on Daring's previous adventure there? The biggest reason I find that hard to believe is because he and Daring were responsible for the destruction of Somnambula's statue, which sits right in the middle of the whole bucking town, and not a single pony saw him at any point when that happened? That's a HUGE stretch right there. (5) Nopony recognizes Caballeron when he's hiding under nothing but a cloak. I know that A.K. Yearling's disguise when she's not Daring Do is fairly simple, but it at least has multiple pieces of clothing (hat, cloak, very big glasses) and is convincing enough considering how much of her it conceals. Caballeron, however, wears nothing but a cloak and his INCREDIBLY distinct five-o'-clock shadow is still visible even when he has it on. You're telling me that RD, Pinkie, and bucking Daring Do, his archnemesis, didn't at any point recognize him under that? (6) Rainbow Dash gets captured in the absolutely stupidest way possible... BECAUSE SHE FORGETS THAT SHE CAN FLY!!! It doesn't help that the abduction wasn't even particularly well handled considering (1) his henchmen just pop up out of nowhere and (2) THEY'RE STANDING 20 BUCKING FEET AWAY FROM DARING DO AND PINKIE PIE WHEN THEY ABDUCT RAINBOW, but for obvious reasons, the most egregious bit of forced plot in all of this stupidity is Rainbow forgetting that not only she can just fly away from them, but she just so happens to be a little thing called, oh, THE FASTEST FLYER IN ALL OF EQUESTRIA!!!!!!! There's really no getting around or justifying this one, it was just stupidity for the sake of moving the plot forward. Rainbow Dash: She... just didn't feel like trying that day (7) The pyramid rescue is a bucking joke and completely undermines the message of "having hope." Having hope does, admittedly, sometimes mean you have to take a leap of faith in certain things, BUT that's not all that it means. Hope is so much more than just about taking a leap of faith, and holding onto it does much more for someone than convince them to take chances. On top of that, this show has done the "you have to take a leap of faith" lesson before all the way back in Season 1's "Feeling Pinkie Keen," and frankly it was much better handled there. Here, they jumped down into a slime pit to their doom without any plan or reason to think this would work whatsoever and got BUCKING LUCKY!!! What did they find at the bottom, you may ask? Oh, just these bizarre contraptions that, for some unknown reason, blow puffs of air that are strong enough to float them across the gap! What? Don't you know those are super common in ancient deathtrap temples?! This plot device is one of the worst, most forced deus ex machinas I have seen in some time, and in fact it's so bad that it even ruins the Somnambula story to a certain extent. For starters, why would they even make these? What purpose were they actually supposed to serve? As far as I could tell, the bridge was supposed to be the only way across the pit, but because they have these in there, there's essentially no threat if one fell off the bridge or it wasn't there. Why would someone build a deathtrap slime pit if it wasn't supposed to be, ya know, an actual deathtrap??? Second, they shouldn't have needed to take a leap of faith at all if those were down there. I don't know how they could have possibly missed those devices considering they were clearly poking out of the slime below, so Pinkie and Daring should have been able to determine that they could just use those. Finally, while this doesn't have to do with the devices themselves, why was that "no flight" spell still in the pyramid? It really shouldn't have been after all of those years considering I was under the impression that the Sphinx just put that spell on Somnambula alone in that particular moment. To make matters worse, why did Dr. Caballeron tell Daring Do that the spell was there at all? He could have let her try to fly to save Rainbow and fall to her doom instead, problem solved! Overall, this whole climax was just one giant clusterbuck of stupidity and some of the biggest plot contrivances I've ever seen in this show. Disappointing Factor #5: Bad Character Writing and Utilization This point applies largely to the main characters. I've already detailed how A.K. Yearling/Daring Do clearly shouldn't have been so troubled by the unintended consequences of her actions that she simply decided the best thing would be for her to retire; she's been doing this for years, and she's a very different character than Rainbow Dash is. Whereas Rainbow Dash has always been impulsive, Daring seems like she's a healthier balance of adventurous, but also thoughtful and considerate. The very fact that these reports bothered her so much are proof of that. She's a successful novelist at that, and her adventuring requires a great amount of intelligence (not that Rainbow Dash isn't smart, but Daring Do seems like she's about as book smart as she is street smart), so she should have been able to conclude on her own that a sound way to fix the trouble she'd caused would have been simply paying for the damages and costs she'd incurred. Beyond that, she just wasn't particularly engaging to watch in general; she spent most of the episode moping, and the little actual adventuring she did wasn't really exciting at all. Always a shame to see such a good supporting character wasted here like Daring was. Pinkie Pie was fine for what she contributed, heck, she seemed to be acting of sounder mind here than Rainbow Dash was and offered some solid advice to Daring Do. Her presence was a tad confusing but I'll get into that later. Dr. Caballeron did unnecessarily stupid things like tell Daring Do that she couldn't fly inside the pyramid, or kidnap Rainbow Dash when Daring Do was standing 20 feet away; he may be traditionally an over-the-top villain, but he's still been competent enough in the past. However, by far the absolutely worst character here was none other than Rainbow Dash, both in her writing and very utilization. Rainbow may be impulsive, but she also loves solving a mystery, ESPECIALLY if Daring Do is involved. A dilemma like the one Daring faced required talking to ponies face-to-face and figuring out what their problems were, and what they needed to fix in order for them to be cool with Daring again. What does she spend most of the episode doing? Ignoring what the ponies of Somnambula are mad about and just loudly insisting that they should love Daring Do because she's "so awesome and cool!" It gets so bad that she straight up insults their own culture and belittles the statue of Somnambula as being crummy when she doesn't even know anything about why it means so much to them! I forgive this point only a little bit since she does seem to understand why they care about it so much after they've explained the story of Somnambula to her, but still, as a historian myself I know what a culturally insensitive thing it is to simply belittle another person's culture, especially when you don't know thing one about it. Rainbow Dash was acting like an idiotic Daring Do fangirl here, doing nothing but cheerleading for Daring Do for most of the episode in the most superficial of ways, which really isn't the kind of support Daring Do needed. She needed real friends who were ready to support her but also give her good advice and figure out how to address some truly genuine concerns. But instead she got Fangirl Dash, and considering just a few episodes ago we got an entire episode in "Fame and Misfortune" where the writers specifically called out and condemned the worst type of fanboy behavior in all kinds of nerdy fandoms, RD's behavior here feels hypocritical and in many ways makes "Fame and Misfortune" worse. Another point that makes "Fame and Misfortune" worse is simply the fact that RD's outing Daring Do as being A.K. Yearling in their journal wasn't what caused A.K. Yearling to retire; @Jeric and I both agreed that if that'd been the case it would have been a cool bit of continuity from that episode, but instead it's now clear that the show is simply ignoring that ever even happened, which makes "Fame and Misfortune" even less consequential to the show's continuity and canon than it already was. The worst part about RD, besides her poor writing in general (let's not forget while we're at it her forgetting how to fly, I mean, seriously) was that she didn't even have to be in this episode. She didn't really help Daring figure out to never stop having hope even if she made mistakes, that was mostly Pinkie and the story of Somnambula, and Somnambula wasn't even her Legends of Magic analogue, we already got that in Flash Magnus just a couple of episodes ago. So why did they include Rainbow Dash here? Simple, because it was a Daring Do episode and for some reason the writers feel like Rainbow is the only one of the Mane 6 who absolutely MUST be involved in any Daring Do episode. Frankly, that's a policy that I disagree with and I'll go into more details about that in the next section. But Daring Do is not some mirror image of Rainbow Dash, there's a ton more to her than that, so I don't see why other members of the Mane 6 can't just as easily adventure with her as well. Unfortunately, DHX clearly doesn't see it that way, and as a result RD just felt out of place in this story the whole time; she didn't really contribute anything, she only made matters worse for Daring, and the writers were forced to make her behave very stupidly in order to set up a very forced climax. Overall, this episode simply would have been far better if Rainbow Dash wasn't here at all, and if the show insisted she had to be, then she should have at least been acting far smarter and more considerate than she was here. OK, at first glance she may look like a terrifying, tyrannical pony Sphinx, BUT... ...I bet in reality she's just a cute widdle giant bird-cat pony who wants some belly rubs! What the Episode Could Have and Should Have Been As you can see, while the overall product we got in this episode was simply 'meh,' all of the meh elements in this episode make for a very unlikable product, far more unlikable than it should be. The worst part of this entire episode, as I said earlier, is that this could have at the very least been a good, if not great episode; the pieces were all there, they just simply didn't come together. A few changes, some minor, some major, would have given us something far better than we got, and so below I'm going to detail what direction I truly believe this episode should have taken instead. First of all, Rainbow Dash simply shouldn't have been the main character here. In fact, you don't even need to start it in Ponyville. The whole episode should have started in Somnambula so that we didn't waste five minutes outside of this setting itself, allowing the characters more time to explore this setting. Pinkie Pie could possibly still be there, but other candidates for supporting Mane 6 character could include Rarity (who would be well equipped to help with this dilemma) or Twilight (who really should be able to go on an adventure of her own with Daring Do, especially considering she's been a fan of hers far longer than Rainbow Dash has been). That said, the only pony who absolutely should have been there of the Mane 6, whether another Mane 6 member was accompanying her or not, is Fluttershy. For starters, it seems like she'd be better equipped to deal with this sort of problem; she's kind, considerate, and very much capable of listening to others but still offering helpful advice after she has heard their concerns. She could have been traveling to Somnambula for her own personal reasons, possibly to see some type of exotic creature, and while there she could overhear how much the locals didn't like Daring Do. After running into A.K. Yearling, she could explain to Fluttershy why the locals don't like her; Fluttershy would listen, be very supportive since she knows how to be kind and considerate to those struggling with some kind of personal dilemma, but also be in a prime position to help Daring confront this. They'd start going around, with Fluttershy asking others to explain why exactly they don't like Daring Do; she wouldn't impulsively shout them down any time they raised a concern, but patiently and quietly listen, possibly offering some gentle counterpoints now and then. She'd probably even be able to advise Daring on how to fix this situation after hearing their concerns. Secondly, Fluttershy just seems to be a far closer analogue to Somnambula than Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash are. After carefully thinking about it I'm pretty sure that Somnambula is supposed to be Pinkie's analogue from the Legends of Magic as opposed to Rainbow's, considering Flash Magnus is clearly hers, but frankly it's hard to see the connection in Pinkie's case too. I think it's supposed to stem from Somnambula spreading hope to others being comparable to how Pinkie, when she puts smiles on the faces of others, spreads hope to them, but to be honest that's not enough of a connection for me. While it's obvious that Mage Meadowbrook, a healer, will probably be Fluttershy's analogue, I think she clearly has far more in common with Somnambula than Pinkie Pie does. Somnambula may have been good at spreading hope to others in ways similar to how Pinkie does, but she also seemed somewhat quiet, reserved, thoughtful, and had this very natural nobility and grace to her demeanor and how she carried herself; watching her story play out, I was far more reminded about Fluttershy's character arc than I was Pinkie's. Fluttershy gives hope to others too in her kind, considerate behavior, and is usually very thoughtful in her actions. Hell, she has a very similar natural grace to how she carries herself just as Somnambula does, which ponies like Rarity and Photo Finish have pointed out in the past. Overall, it just felt like, after watching this, that Fluttershy would have been far more comparable to Somnambula than Pinkie Pie is supposed to be. Finally, having Fluttershy here would have gotten extra brownie points from me for simply being unique. As I said earlier, why should we have this rule that Rainbow Dash MUST show up in any Daring Do episode? Daring Do is beloved by ponies all over Equestria, whether or not they know she's real, and this includes multiple members of the Mane 6, all of whom have technically adventured with her at least once and are thus friends of hers just like Rainbow Dash is. RD contributed virtually nothing to the plot here and was downright unbearable at times, but having Daring go on an adventure with another member of the Mane 6 (or even a couple, like Fluttershy and Rarity or Fluttershy and Twilight) would have mixed things up a bit, giving this episode a distinct, unique element distinguishing it from all other Daring Do episodes. It's a shame the writers didn't consider this and instead went with the easier, lazier, more predictable route of giving Rainbow Dash the spotlight in another Daring Do episode, even though she really didn't deserve it here and only distracted from both the main problem as well as Pinkie Pie, who did far more to help Daring Do solve her personal dilemma than RD did at all. Other elements that could have been different as a result of these changes are (1) the town of Somnambula could have been more thoroughly explored if the episode had started there from the very beginning, (2) more adventurous elements could have and should have been added, including actual callbacks to Indiana Jones, particularly Raiders of the Lost Ark, (3) plot points wouldn't have necessarily felt so forced or contrived if characters had simply been approaching them more smartly and subtly, (4) with more time in Somnambula, Somnambula's own story could have been expanded upon to a certain extent, and (5) both Daring and the townsponies should have been gradually convinced that things weren't as bad as they thought and that there were good ways they could both resolve the problems they were facing and come to appreciate each other more. All of these new elements would have most likely resulted in a far better episode, one which was at the very least good, if not great, in its premise and execution. Unfortunately, that's not what we got. While most meh episodes in this show are simply forgettable, this one left a particularly bad taste in my mouth simply because of how much of its potential it failed to realize. It's hardly one of my least favorite episodes of the show ever, but it is one of the biggest disappointments the show's ever had, at least for me. With so much unrealized potential, this is a real shame, but it thankfully doesn't take away from the great things that this season has already done and will continue to do I'm sure. That's all I've got for you today, everypony, until next time this is Batbrony signing off! I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit* Huh... apparently the word of today for this episode is 'kinky'