S06:E13 - Stranger Than Fan Fiction

[FanOfManyShows 396]

The only thing I didn't like, was the intro. I felt like the intro could've been done better, but I guess there is no easy way to introduce a fan who doesn't know Daring Do is real to Daring Do, unless you're Rainbow Dash, cause then it is way easier.

 

I loved the comedy every bit of it. I originally had no idea what people were talking about when saying that Patton Oswalt played Quibble Pants, my brother was the first to mention it to me, aside from that Patton Oswalt did a very good job as Quibble Pants.

 

I was very surprised by the end credit bit, and it is the first time (and I hope not the last) that they had somepony talk during the credits for that long I had a bit of nostalgia from it, don't know why. 

 

Also here's a fun fact that you probably knew but I just found out, Quibble means a slight objection or criticism, or it can mean argue or raise questions about a trivial matter, very interesting...

[KatieBelle 302]

So this was rather fan-servicey I suppose?

 

Besides the body pillow reference that I refuse to acknowledge, there were the references to cosplayers and conventions in general that kids wouldn't really get?

 

I really enjoyed it, though. And I love how quibble acted. "I just refuse to acknowledge them."... pretty realistic fan behavior *cough* equestria girls *cough* xD

 

Great moral, too. ^.^

[Vlazamal 338]

So this was rather fan-servicey I suppose?

 

Besides the body pillow reference that I refuse to acknowledge, there were the references to cosplayers and conventions in general that kids wouldn't really get?

 

I really enjoyed it, though. And I love how quibble acted. "I just refuse to acknowledge them."... pretty realistic fan behavior *cough* equestria girls *cough* xD

 

Great moral, too. ^.^

 

Yeah, this whole episode was centered around service to the fans.  That made it so great! 

 

If ya think EG haters are bad, you should check out the Halo fandom... 

[AmethystDawn 69]

Does anybody else feel that this episode was aimed straight at the fandom? Right from when I first read the description, I felt that it had inspiration from the bronycons. You know, there being a convention for a fandom within the show. And the ending moral seemed like it was supposed to unite the bronies more, or something like that. That's just my opinion though.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I really enjoyed this episode, I loved seeing conventions and comic cons referenced and seeing all the crazy cosplays too. Rainbow Dash was both hilarious and awesome in this episode and I loved seeing her make up with Quibble Pants even though they disagreed a lot. Quibble Pants is a fantastic supporting character and I loved his mannerisms and how he interacted with everypony. Patton Oswalt really did a fantastic job voicing him, I loved seeing Daring Do again and hope to see Quibble Pants and her again soon. Definitely a 10/10 episode all the way!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[heavens-champion 1,905]

I noticed Quibble Pants disregarding the Daring Do books after the "first trilogy". Coincidence, or a reference to those fans who liked the first three seasons of Friendship is Magic? Nah, can't be a coincidence.

[Daring_Do 552]

I noticed Quibble Pants disregarding the Daring Do books after the "first trilogy". Coincidence, or a reference to those fans who liked the first three seasons of Friendship is Magic? Nah, can't be a coincidence.

Think that's referring to Star Wars, not to bronies.

[heavens-champion 1,905]

Think that's referring to Star Wars, not to bronies.

Oh. Yes, there has been a lot of negativity towards the Star Wars prequels. Mostly around Jar Jar Binks.

WE GET IT, ALREADY! JAR JAR BINKS IS THE WORST CHARACTER EVER!

But we're getting off topic.

Edited August 3, 2016 by heavens-champion

[Compeador 101]

This is episode is really cool!

 

It really showed something we'll do in the convention, and the part Quibble and RD were debating probably shows what will happen if we bring the online theory debat to the real life  :-o

 

 

When your work is boring and you just saw someone is arguing like kids, and you don't have to clean up the mess (poor daring-con cleaning staff)

 

 

Daring Do body pillow! What if somepony is selling Celestia/Luna body pillow on summer sun celebration?Nightmare Night, I doubt they will get out of stock in a minute 

 

 

Twilight Sparkle: I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash. I just keep thinking about how much fun you're gonna have at the Daring Do convention. I wish Princess Celestia didn't need my help with the friendship summit in Griffonstone.

 

Same here, twi, I missed last convention near my place due to my busy school study 

 

Wow, friendship summit in Griffonstone? So Gilda really spread the friendship in griffonstone successfully and reubult it?

Edited August 3, 2016 by Compeador

[Sonic5421 423]

You might enjoy the real life Daring Do books, written by G.M. Berrow.

 

I have not read the real-life Daring Do books myself yet, but I do know that they are very good books from the positive reviews I've heard on them.

[weesh 690]

Think that's referring to Star Wars, not to bronies.

I think it has much broader meaning than that.

For instance, I've been arrogantly telling people this for years:

"Scrubs is a great show...its too bad that there were only 3 seasons"

it's the sort of statement that can apply to you whatever your grievances.

 

I found it to be humbling, since I've been that way so many times without realizing it.

[PoisonClaw 8,164]

It only occurs to me now why it might have taken me so long to finally watch thIs episode: it takes the idea from Daring Don't that Daring Do is real and all her books are non-fiction (which I found absurd) and runs with it. Getting onto Quibble Pants himself, first thing I thought of was the Animaniacs "Please, Please, Please, Get A Life Foundation." Now granted, I'm the pot calling the kettle black here, but even I'm not pedantic enough to argue the differences between a "score of arrows" and a "barrage of arrows."

 

Ah, I remember when I encountered my first dakimakura at a convention. Good times, good times... 

 

It's a good thing I watched Patton Oswalt's comedy special before this episode, cause now his rant is even funnier cause it sounds so much like a Star Wars fan ranting about movies 1-3 and I know that Patton is a huge Star Wars nerd. 

 

Still, despite my initial gripes, I can still admit that this was an enjoyable episode once it really got going. i was so waiting for a moment where someone says Daring Do's or Caballeron cosplay is unrealistic, even though Quibble kinda does that when he insults Caballeorn's accent. Patton Oswalt certainly stole the show on this one, and it makes me smile thinking he may very well have watched this episode with his daughter and she went, "Look, daddy! It's you!" 

[Sonic5421 423]

I just hope the Griffons fixed up the Griffonstone Library before she went. Not sure if she could handle seeing a library in ruins after what happened to the Golden Oak Library.

 

Agreed, but since the Griffonstone Library was just a bad case of old age and disrepair, I'm sure seeing it would not affect Twilight that much.

 

[Redhatbrony 59]

Finally

I have fnished my Review now.

My first convetion visit sets me wy off track for my reviewing.

So sorry for my delay...

https://youtu.be/Q2MSd_KUZHk

[cider float 2,537]

Damn Quibble Pants is definitely the first male pony character that was pretty interesting. I thought at the end Quibble Pants was going to say we are both halves of Daring Do or something like that and then they would date.

 

Anyways this is a shipping that seems close enough to canon. 

Edited August 4, 2016 by cider float

[Persona22 205]

I wonder how A.K. Yearling copes with all the porn fanfiction and porn fanart that feature Daring Do having sex with Ahuizotl...

 

You know, because Daring Do actually exists... and she is her... and nobody knows about it... except herself, the mane 6, and her arch enemies...

[takai 1,060]

A really enjoyable episode with loads of references. So many references in fact, that I think this blew the 100th episode out of the water. Daring Do dakimakura, chibi funkos,figures and so on were terrific. Still can't believe they said "cosplay" in an MLP episode.

 

Patton Oswald was a lot of fun to hear, despite his character being kind of a jackass.

 

For some reason, I found Dash pretty sexy this episode, especially when she saved Quibble Pants. I always find Daring Do sexy though.

 

I think this was a really solid start to the second half of the season.

[Sh Pie 65]

I'm glad that the early hiatus is finally over. This was an enjoyable Rainbow Dash focus episode and the return of Daring Do/A.K. was welcome. The new character, Quibble Pants, was humorous with his snarky comments and melodramatic overreactions. His strong opinion of post-first trilogy Daring Do books is similar to real life sequels to books, television, movies and video games having a tendency to be lame or at least comparatively mediocre. EG Friendship Games is unpopular among a significant percentage of the brony fanbase so this concept should be familiar to some of us.

 

Quibble's monologue during the end credits was an unconventional and humorous way to close the episode. The fourth wall breaking was brilliant. I hope to see more of this snarky stallion in the future.

[Lil Pip 775]

Good episode at first I didn't think I was gonna like Quibble but then he was just funny once the conflict started. If they just got along the whole time it'd be too conceited for me- I'm glad they made him as such. Also what goes through an 8 year old's mind when they see that body pillow?

[Shigekino 41]

amazing episode despite the side a bit childish of the bad guys, but  its been fun to revisit an episode centered on RainbowDash and Daring Do

[Sonic5421 423]

I'm glad that the early hiatus is finally over. This was an enjoyable Rainbow Dash focus episode and the return of Daring Do/A.K. was welcome. The new character, Quibble Pants, was humorous with his snarky comments and melodramatic overreactions. His strong opinion of post-first trilogy Daring Do books is similar to real life sequels to books, television, movies and video games having a tendency to be lame or at least comparatively mediocre. EG Friendship Games is unpopular among a significant percentage of the brony fanbase so this concept should be familiar to some of us.

 

Quibble's monologue during the end credits was an unconventional and humorous way to close the episode. The fourth wall breaking was brilliant. I hope to see more of this snarky stallion in the future.

 

Glad you enjoyed the episode, and I agree with that last part. I do hope we see Quibble Pants again in the future if the writers decide to have him in another episode.

[Justin_Case001 4,881]

Sorry my review is uncharacteristically late.

 

 

So....impassioned fans getting into heated debates and arguing over whether the franchise has jumped the shark or not.  ...nope, I just don't see how this is relatable at all.  Where do they come up with this stuff?

 

 

 

This episode was pretty amazing.  The literally painted a starkly accurate portrait of the entire brony fandom (and every fandom, ever, really.)  Without directly referencing anything, and rather elegantly, I might add, they acknowledged and summed up the entire fandom while simultaneously poking fun at us.  I absolutely loved it.  The convention, Quibble (with Oswalt's brilliant performance), the fan debates--all that stuff was brilliant.

 

What I didn't care for, and never will, is Daring Do being real.  But she already is, and it's not like they can take it back.

 

I hate DD being real for three key reasons:

 

• It is incongruous with the established FIM universe.

Equestria has been portrayed largely as a fantasy world with elements from Tolkien, Elder Scrolls, and ancient Greek mythology.  The Mayan temples and Egyptian ruins of DD feel very out of place.  It's not that those things couldn't exist in this universe, but they shouldn't be in Equestria.  If DD had to be real, her world should have been far from Equestria.  And there's also the issue with nopony ever noticing any of it.  Take the temple in this episode for instance: it was suspiciously close to the convention.  We're suppose to believe that no one ever noticed it or investigated it except Daring and her enemies?  And keep in mind, this is a world with pegasi that are flying overhead.  How could it go so unnoticed?  As a side note, I've always felt that Manehattan is an incongruous anachronism in this world as well.  1950's Manhattan doesn't belong here.  I've never complained about it because every Manehattan episode is always so good.  But if I had been in charge, I would have kept FIM a strict Tolkienesque fantasy lore.

 

• It spoils the fun of the DD fandom

One thing I always loved about DD, pre Daring Don't, was the fun and relatability of a fandom withing the show.  The franchise within the franchise, so to speak.  It was fun to see the ponies fangirling over DD the way we get excited over them.  Making it real kind of killed this fantasy.  Also, consider this: besides DD (pre Daring Don't), has there ever been another fictional franchise or world in the FIM universe?  Power Ponies is borderlined, but even they were sorta real.  It would seem that the ponies' world is so full of excitement that they have no need for escapism.  It was fun to see the ponies being fans of a fictional franchise like we are.

 

• It cheapened the message of reading

Many may disagree, but I feel that DD being real served to cheapen the message of the joy and power of reading.  Books are the only truly open-ended media form.  With no limits or ratings or control whatsoever, books are the only thing that can take you literally anywhere.  Making DD real spoiled this a bit.  It's not the imaginative world it once was.  Now they can just go on DD adventures for real.  It diminishes the need and value of the books.  Of course they still love the books, but it's just not the same.  Books are meant to take you to places you couldn't go in real life.  Now the ponies can go there in real life.  It's not that it's sending a bad message, it just unintentionally cheapens the magic of reading.

 

That was my airing of grievances.  But since DD has already been made real, they couldn't well forget about that.  To maintain continuity now, they sort of had to include her again at some point.  (Though I was secretly hoping that Daring Don't would be left as B-canon like EG.)  But since they basically had no choice at this point, I'm actually extremely pleased with how they executed it.  Like Daring Don't, this episode was brilliantly done with great characterization, albeit with a lore decision that I hate.  I've concluded that this is usually preferably to the opposite--a great premise with good lore that is executed horribly with bad characterization, like Rainbow Falls.

 

What is so delicious about Stranger Than Fanfiction is the fact that I'm sitting here picking it apart, over-analyzing, dissecting the lore, and quibbling over every decision that don't like.  It's like irony inception.  Irony within irony within irony.  I jumped onto the forums to do exactly what the writers were poking fun at us about.  I love it.  I guess for most part, I'm more like Quibble when it comes to this show.  I really do love a lot of the later stuff, and I think the show is still strong, but if I had it my way, it would be a strict fantasy lore, the Sisters would be the only alicorns in the world, Twilight would have been promoted to princess in the series finale, but not an alicorn, Flurry Heart and Zephyr Breeze wouldn't exist, and the DD universe wouldn't be real.  And, actually, in my FIM, alicorn transformation wouldn't even be a thing.  I think it's rather cheapening.  So, again, the irony.  They've got us pegged.

 

The last thing I really need to address, which is ironically the most important, is the cold open with Twilight.  Here's the thing; the episode was good, but it was the wrong episode.  As soon as Twilight mentioned the friendship summit in Griffinstone, I realized that that is what they should have focused on.  I feel like this show has a tendency to focus on the wrong things, and often brush aside the bigger, lore expanding stories.  One of the biggest complaints of Princess Twilicorn is that she hasn't had enough clear royal duties, and she seemed to be made a princess for no reason.  Think about it--Celestia promotes her, and then....what?  What did Tia have in mind?  Twilight asked her straight up, and Tia's response was essentially, "I dunno, you'll figure it out."  Then Twilight gets her contrived castle and she's like, "Oh, I must be the Princess of Friendship, and I'm meant to spread it across Equestria with the aid of this map that Celestia had nothing to do with creating," and then Tia's like, "...yeah, sure, whatever.  Works for me."  Okay, so why did Celestia actually promote her then?!  Accompanying Celestia to a friendship summit in foreign lands is exactly the kind of duties that would have made sense for Tia to have in mind, and an episode of that would have been exactly the kind of thing to massively improve that storyline.  It would be a chance to explore Celestia and Twilight's relationship and have some desperately needed Tia spotlight time.  In that episode, we'd surely see some conflict that would result in some real emotions and depth from Celestia for once.  It would also serve to further develop Griffinstone.  But instead, the best potential episode of the season was swept aside and didn't exist in favor of Fanfiction, which was good but unnecessary.  Now, what they should have done, and what I was hoping they would do, was a Games Ponies Play/Just for Sidekicks deal where the very next episode is the same cold open as Fanfiction, but instead follows Twilight this time.  Unfortunately, as I'm writing this after The Cart Before the Ponies, I already know that that train has sailed.  I'm sure the friendship summit was just a passing mention, and will never be anything more, which is an absolute tragedy.

 

Episode high points:

 

• Use of the world "cosplay".  I did a fangasm.
• Last Crusade parody: "Go between 'em, are you crazy?!"

[Thrond 3,263]

<p>

 

The last thing I really need to address, which is ironically the most important, is the cold open with Twilight. Here's the thing; the episode was good, but it was the wrong episode. As soon as Twilight mentioned the friendship summit in Griffinstone, I realized that that is what they should have focused on. I feel like this show has a tendency to focus on the wrong things, and often brush aside the bigger, lore expanding stories. One of the biggest complaints of Princess Twilicorn is that she hasn't had enough clear royal duties, and she seemed to be made a princess for no reason. Think about it--Celestia promotes her, and then....what? What did Tia have in mind? Twilight asked her straight up, and Tia's response was essentially, "I dunno, you'll figure it out." Then Twilight gets her contrived castle and she's like, "Oh, I must be the Princess of Friendship, and I'm meant to spread it across Equestria with the aid of this map that Celestia had nothing to do with creating," and then Tia's like, "...yeah, sure, whatever. Works for me." Okay, so why did Celestia actually promote her then?! Accompanying Celestia to a friendship summit in foreign lands is exactly the kind of duties that would have made sense for Tia to have in mind, and an episode of that would have been exactly the kind of thing to massively improve that storyline. It would be a chance to explore Celestia and Twilight's relationship and have some desperately needed Tia spotlight time. In that episode, we'd surely see some conflict that would result in some real emotions and depth from Celestia for once. It would also serve to further develop Griffinstone. But instead, the best potential episode of the season was swept aside and didn't exist in favor of Fanfiction, which was good but unnecessary. Now, what they should have done, and what I was hoping they would do, was a Games Ponies Play/Just for Sidekicks deal where the very next episode is the same cold open as Fanfiction, but instead follows Twilight this time. Unfortunately, as I'm writing this after The Cart Before the Ponies, I already know that that train has sailed. I'm sure the friendship summit was just a passing mention, and will never be anything more, which is an absolute tragedy.

A few things.

 

1. To start on a positive note, I think this Griffonstone summit might have been able to address what I see as Twilight's unhealthily rising self-expectations. The show keeps hinting that being a Princess has done no good for her tendency to expect too much of herself, but it seems like nothing will be done with that.

 

2. I dunno about calling that the "right" episode, or the "best possible" episode, however. The lore kinda isn't the show's main focus, it probably never will be, and possibly even never should be. As much as I'd like a serialized, dramatic plot, it's still Friendship is Magic, and I think the down-to-earth storylines are one of the show's defining features. We can't exactly have in-depth serious drama, so the slice-of-life format sets the show apart, and I suspect a diplomatic summit might big the episode down, especially given that episodes are only 22 minutes long. I also have to wonder of the minutiae of diplomacy would be appropriate for the target audience.

 

3. We all assume Celestia made Twilight a princess, but that's never explicitly stated, and there's just as much of a suggestion that Twilight became an Alicorn of her own free will and became a princess sort of just because. If Celestia did that to her, then it seems Twilight didn't have much consent or input into the raising of her status, and that discomforts me quite a bit, especially considering how much she has struggled with it.

[LittleCutiePie 113]

THAT WAS SO SUPER AWESOME COOL! 

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

Well, that was certainly a far better showing than Daring Don't. Rainbow Dash actually acted like herself. And I actually really liked how snarky Quibble Pants could be, even if his refusal to recognize reality was a tad grating. Plus, cons are now canon. Poor Twilight, those Princess duties preventing her from attending. A nice little bit of reality ensuing, that. Overall, 4/5. Daring Don't still sucks flank, though.