episode S07:E18 - Daring Done

[Batbrony 15,994]

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' 

 

[Thrond 3,258]

This one wore me out. I can take all the narrative and character issues, but does it have to be so noisy and expository? The dialogue in this is just dreadful, and then it has a contrived story and weak characterization on top of that, and I might have been more willing to forgive the cliched moral if it hadn't originally hinted at something more interesting. I don't wanna be the guy who complains about an episode for not being what I want it to be, but can you imagine if this was actually about Daring Do leaving a trail of destruction in her wake? That's actually an interesting idea for a story!

Anyway: Full review on my blog.

Additional thoughts:

The blindfolds are pretty clearly symbolic of stuff getting in the way of being hopeful, but as I said, I just don't find that theme interesting at all. Suppose it's nice for small children watching.

Seriously, the name "Somnambula" bugs me to no end. What does anything in this episode have to do with sleepwalking? Blindfolds are not the same as sleep! 

 

[Ganondox 899]

8 hours ago, Jeric said:

Except this is where Apple Bloom gets the idea for the the camp that is an entire episode in and of itself. They just made a continuity or logic blunder. 

Or this episode is the non-canon one.

8 hours ago, Truffles said:

One of the things I wanted to mention earlier was whether Celestia would have allowed the village to go on cursed by eternal night and get swallowed up. As ruler of Equestria, would she have tried to reverse the curse or is she powerless to do so? There is some history for the latter because of what happened with the Crystal Empire. But Sombra's magic is very powerful and it seems like a simple curse just doesn't compare.

Also, looks like we found Grand Pear's long lost brother in the old storyteller. 

This one of the reasons I can't take the Daring Do stories as canon, they are too melodramatic and don't make much sense with the rest of the universe. In this episode in particular the addition of that backstory just clutters whatever the moral was supposed to be with Daring Do wrecking stuff, notice how it's only brought up in the first half. The other interpretation I consider is that while Daring Do's stories are loosely based on real adventures, she severely embellishes them, which solves most the problems, including the one in this episode. 

Edited September 10, 2017 by Ganondox

[Ganondox 899]

57 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

 

Seriously, the name "Somnambula" bugs me to no end. What does anything in this episode have to do with sleepwalking? Blindfolds are not the same as sleep! 

 

Somnambula is the name of a G1 villain, they used it as a subtle homage, and the blindfold-sleepwalking parallel is pretty clever as in both cases you walk without knowing where you are going. The original parallel was with a trance. 

[Jeric 46,837]

35 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

Or this episode is the non-canon one.

I bet it gets referenced in S07E25 or S07E26 like the Season 4 Keys were. One of the interesting things about this season is that many episodes are linked. Rainbow will likely mention her adventure in Somnambula when that element needs a reminder in the finale. 

[Ganondox 899]

Just now, Jeric said:

I bet it gets referenced in S07E25 or S07E26 like the Season 4 Keys were. One of the interesting things about this season is that many episodes are linked. Rainbow will likely mention her adventure in Somnambula when that element needs a reminder in the finale. 

Probably, but I'll find some excuse to ram my fingers into my ears and go "lalalala".

[Jeric 46,837]

1 minute ago, Ganondox said:

Somnambula is the name of a G1 villain, they used it as a subtle homage, and the blindfold-sleepwalking parallel is pretty clever as in both cases you walk without knowing where you are going. The original parallel was with a trance. 

Agreed. Sleepwalking ... blind walking. That was clever. The lore part was really well done. 

[Thrond 3,258]

3 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

Somnambula is the name of a G1 villain, they used it as a subtle homage, and the blindfold-sleepwalking parallel is pretty clever as in both cases you walk without knowing where you are going. The original parallel was with a trance. 

But then, what's the point of referencing sleep in the first place? Could they not have found a blindfold-related pun? Having a reference just for its own sake seems kinda tacky to me. 

[Jeric 46,837]

1 minute ago, AlexanderThrond said:

But then, what's the point of referencing sleep in the first place? Could they not have found a blindfold-related pun? Having a reference just for its own sake seems kinda tacky to me. 

Oooh oooh ... How about Radiant Hope? The fandom/comic conundrum that would cause might actually tear a fabric in spacetime! It's not like they cared about continuity this episode anyway. 

[Thrond 3,258]

Just now, Jeric said:

Oooh oooh ... How about Radiant Hope? The fandom/comic conundrum that would cause might actually tear a fabric in spacetime! It's not like they cared about continuity this episode anyway. 

I can't say I'm familiar with Radiant Hope. 

[Jeric 46,837]

Just now, AlexanderThrond said:

I can't say I'm familiar with Radiant Hope. 

Comic character that is intimately connected to Sombra and his redemption arc in the comics. 

[Sonic5421 423]

Another episode that references the Legends of Magic comics, and the next entry with seeing A.K. Yearling/Daring Do again.

I have to admit, Dr. Caballeron's plan was clever. He tried to break Daring's spirit with lies and misinformation to discredit her among the people of Somnambula, and when he felt the time was right, kidnap Rainbow Dash to keep hostage in the Sphinx's pyramid to perish, knowing that Daring would be too doubtful of herself to try and attempt to rescue her.

Too bad he did not count on Pinkie Pie being there to help out with restoring Daring's hope and faith in herself so they were able to rescue Rainbow and expose Caballeron as the real thief who stole Somnambula's offerings to the statue of said pony, foiling him again so he was forced to take his henchponies and escape to vow revenge again, while Daring made amends with the ponies of Somnambula to ensure her reputation was restored fully among everyone she helped.

Also, loved the Egyptian theme for Somnambula herself and the Sphinx.

This episode gets a 9/10 from me as my score.

[PacificGreen 1,163]

I enjoyed the episode.

I feel like it was sorta poking fun at the trope of good guys causing destruction wherever they go, even if they're chasing the bad guy. And the episode did a good job of addressing that often-overlooked trope. I was at first a little disappointed by the end, since it seemed like they had forgotten it, but I'm glad they finally had that montage of Daring making reparations for all the destruction she caused. 

There may have been other downer moments in the episode, but I think the one that stuck out to me most was the slime pit scene. It just felt very anti-climactic, and the whole idea of just taking a leap of faith into the slime was a bit cheesy (even though it worked in the end). That didn't really damper my enjoyment of the episode, though, so it was still great!

[Victoria Sponge 1,014]

I'm not too keen on the whole legends thing since I never read those comics. This episode was much better than Campfire Tails though. The legend part was short and sweet and outside of it we had an exciting story with an interesting plot, a bit of action and a great Egyptian themed setting.

Edited September 10, 2017 by Battenberg

[Jon the VGNerd 842]

The episode feels like a mixed bag to me. The Sphinx is pretty interesting and would love to see it more like a real thing, just like when Ahuizotl turned out to be real.

[Music Chart Fan 818]

Overall, this episode had potential, and there are some good elements here, but I have too many issues with the execution to really like it. To start with some positives, having action adventure episodes, as it seems this one was intended to be, can be good for giving the show variety. The idea that local ponies are upset by the inadvertent or neglectful damage that Daring Do's adventures cause, with one of her enemies trying to exploit that, is an interesting concept. I found Somnambula's legend here more compelling than Rockhoof's or Flash Magnus's legends from "Campfire Tales". (It might help that Somnambula, and even the sphinx, are rather cute characters.) While the moral lessons of the episode are kind of muddled, I do appreciate the statement that believing that you're fighting for something good doesn't absolve you from taking responsibility for your actions. And it's nice to see Daring Do finally make things right and pay for the damages that the residents of Somnambula incurred.

However, I didn't like that Rainbow, Pinkie, and even A.K. Yearling repeatedly deny, ignore, and dismiss the grievances that residents of Somnambula have against Daring Do, even after A.K. admitted that the stories about the destruction from her adventure are true. A.K. does pay for the damages at the VERY end of the episode, but only after the issue is repeatedly dodged over the course of the prior 21 minutes. Daring Do fails to do anything proactive after finding out about the damages from her adventures, even as Rainbow's and Pinkie's actions are unhelpful and even counterproductive. It doesn't really reflect well on Daring Do that she never realized that her adventures were causing damage, and that her first reaction to finding this out is to retire, rather than fixing the problems her adventure caused. And there are several other plot contrivances that pile up over the course of the episode, including some particularly prevalent ones with how Rainbow is captured and transported to the pyramid outside of town, and how Pinkie's and Daring Do's "leaps of faith" land them on miraculous vents that enable them to save Rainbow and foil Caballeron's plan.

In contrast to the previous few episodes, there's a lot to talk about here, so I'll try to divide this post into sections. 

---

First, I'll address Rainbow's and Pinkie's actions to try to clear Daring Do's name and convince her not to give up on adventuring.

To start off, at A.K.'s house, Rainbow's first reaction (with Pinkie going along) to the stories about the destruction Daring Do leaves behind is to assert that none of them are true. But my first reaction would be to ask "Well, what happened?". How much truth is there to the accusations? I would guess that there's some reason for the local residents to be accusing Daring Do of these things, even if it's just a misunderstanding or something. And when A.K. admits that the stories are true, Rainbow declares to A.K. that "for every one pony who's upset, there must be at least a hundred that know you're a hero!". But is that really the case? Do the general readers of the Daring Do series actually know that Daring Do's adventures are real (notwithstanding potential recent revelations from the Friendship Journal)? Pinkie also argues that if the three of them go to Somnambula, A.K. can be told in person just how much she's appreciated. But what warrants Pinkie's apparent complete confidence in that happening? What's the evidence that the residents of Somnambula appreciate Daring Do, especially when A.K. just said that they don't read her books down there? Finally, Rainbow again declares that the articles are "a heap of rotten apple cores", even though A.K. herself already admitted that they're true. Again, what basis does Rainbow have to declare otherwise?

When Rainbow, Pinkie, and A.K. get to Somnambula, Rainbow's and Pinkie's unhelpful and even counterproductive behavior continues. Rainbow and Pinkie insist over and over, with no apparent doubt or uncertainty, that the residents of Somnambula (and ponies in general) actually really appreciate Daring Do, while never citing any evidence for it. Rainbow even tells Pinkie that, as A.K.'s friend, Rainbow has to make sure that A.K. believes that ponies appreciate her. But if they actually don't, and there's no evidence that they do, then how is getting A.K. to believe something that isn't true going to help? And Rainbow is so busy asserting that the truth is the opposite of what the residents of Somnambula say that she apparently fails to acknowledge that the residents have legitimate grievances against Daring Do (and/or the villains she was pursuing, but more on that in the next section). It seems like one way that Rainbow and Pinkie could convince the residents to think more highly of Daring Do would be to tell them that Daring Do will make things right after the unfortunate incidental damage they incurred while Daring Do was saving their town, but the two of them never make such a case.

Another crisis that Rainbow and Pinkie (and A.K.) could handle better would be Caballeron's telling the residents of Somnambula that Daring Do is stealing everyone's glowpaz. Rainbow and Pinkie could ask for the evidence that that's happening. Has anyone other than Caballeron corroborated his accusations, or even seen Daring Do (i.e., not just A.K. Yearling in her usual disguise) around? Is there any law enforcement or private investigators or whatnot who could actually look into proving whether Daring Do committed mass theft? Does Equestria abide by "innocent until proven guilty"? Asking for the evidence and advocating for an official investigation seem like things that Rainbow and Pinkie could do in an effort to clear Daring Do's name, or at least get the residents to suspend judgment for the time being, rather than simply asserting that Daring Do wouldn't do that.

Finally, after the telling of the legend of Somnambula, Rainbow's argument that Daring Do - like Somnambula - was working to save their town seems at least a little more compelling and tangible than Rainbow's statements up to that point. However, if the residents were to ask for proof, it might be difficult to come up with convincing evidence (other than taking Daring Do's word for it) that Daring Do actually averted a catastrophe that would have been caused by some ancient magic attached to some ancient relics. How would the residents know that the catastrophe would actually have happened, rather than it just being a fictional legend that some ancient ponies believed without knowing any better? I guess that's another problem with the way that Daring Do's adventures play out (more on that below).

---

Next, I'll address the damages that Daring Do's adventures cause, and A.K. Yearling's reaction to finding out that ponies are upset by them.

For the whole first half of the episode, A.K. fails to do anything proactive about the legitimate grievances that residents of Somnambula have against Daring Do, or even about the sullying of her name by Caballeron. When A.K. finds out (apparently for the first time) that ponies are upset about the destruction her adventures leave behind, rather than making a plan to redress the damage and apologize, A.K. is planning just to retire, perhaps in part so as not to have to deal with those problems. After that, A.K.'s behavior in the first half of the episode becomes "be reluctantly convinced to go with Rainbow's and Pinkie's plan, then run away at the first sign of significant adversity", rinse and repeat. And again, after Rainbow and Pinkie fail to accomplish anything, A.K. takes no proactive steps to come up with a better plan. Might we think that Daring Do would be willing to face and take on a challenge, rather than just slinking away from it?

And as the episode goes on, it seems that multiple occasions pass by where A.K./Daring Do could resolve to compensate residents of Somnambula for the damages they incurred from Daring Do's adventure, but she doesn't do so. For example, prior to Rainbow's and Pinkie's plan to "explain to everypony how wrong they all are", A.K. might suggest that Rainbow announce that Daring Do will set things right with the residents of Somnambula if Daring Do harmed them. Or when Daring Do confronts Caballeron, and he tells her that "with the destruction you leave in your wake, it didn't take too much to convince ponies you were a villain!", I could envision Daring Do retorting something like "You're wrong, Caballeron, because I'll make things right with anypony I harmed, unlike you and the other villains I fight against!". But those things don't happen. At least after Caballeron runs off, Pinkie says that "all you gotta do is make it right" when "something bad happens that you didn't intend". And FINALLY, in literally the last 15 seconds of the episode, Daring Do pays to replace the apple cart, the damage done to the inn, and the statue. I'm glad that Daring Do did that, and that we saw it happen, but it's distracting how that lesson seems to be dodged repeatedly for the whole episode until the very end.

Additionally, the damages highlighted in this episode illustrate a problem with Daring Do's approach to her adventures. Daring Do IS directly responsible for not paying her bill at the inn, and could be directly responsible (depending on what exactly happened) for the damage to the apple cart and even the statue. However, it was henchmen of Ahuizotl (presumably) who destroyed half of the inn's rooms looking for Daring Do, and I could imagine (without knowing for sure) that the large Somnambula statue was destroyed in the course of Ahuizotl trying to obtain ancient relics or activate ancient magic, which would essentially put him at fault. So when Daring Do apparently lets the bad guys continue to get away at the end of her adventures, that also enables them to get away from responsibility for the property damage and trauma that they caused. If the villains were actually detained, then they could probably be charged and convicted of causing those damages, and forced to pay restitution to the victims. In the absence of that, it's good that A.K. paid for a new statue and paid the innkeeper for the damage incurred, but it would probably be more just for the direct perpetrators of those damages to pay for them. I wonder if Daring Do's working with law enforcement (or even private security or something) would help to bring that about.

Another conundrum to consider would be what Daring Do will do about the potential for these damages to occur on future adventures. Some such damages are probably unavoidable, although Daring Do might use strategies to try to minimize the damage - for example, attempting to confront villains away from innocent bystanders if possible. However, in some cases, Daring Do could be more upfront about the reasonably predictable risks that she's causing others to take on. For example, if Daring Do goes to check out a room at the inn, she could tell the innkeeper that she might be pursued by violent goons (in the course of stopping the villains from causing a catastrophe or whatnot), and ask if the innkeeper is able and willing to defend herself and her property if such goons come by. And Daring Do could offer to pay some multiple of the normal rate for taking on that risk, plus ensure that any damages would also be paid for, along with paying upfront or working out a definite payment plan in case Daring Do does have to slip away quickly.

---

Now I'll give a few observations I had about the legend of Somnambula.

We're told that Prince Hisan, son of the pharaoh, "was so moved by [Somnambula's] compassion that he decreed nopony would go hungry again". Yes, he was so powerful that the laws of scarcity and economics bent to his whim.

It seems unusually charitable for the pharaoh to ask for volunteers to save his son, the prince, rather than simply ordering the soldiers of his army to do so.

The legend says that the sphinx cast a powerful spell that prevented Somnambula from flying, and the depiction appears to show the spell acting on Somnambula's wings specifically. So the legend, as told, doesn't seem to indicate that the sphinx's spell was cast on the general area inside the pyramid, affecting anyone inside, or that it would last many years after the sphinx had departed and the events of the day were over.

When the sphinx tells Somnambula that she must walk to the prince across a deep chasm while blindfolded, that doesn't strike me as a particularly difficult challenge, at least as it's portrayed. It's a relatively short distance on a straight path across what looks to be a reasonably stable bridge, and Somnambula was able to see it ahead of time. If Somnambula takes her time, feels to make sure she isn't approaching the edge of the bridge, and lowers her center of gravity by crouching or crawling if necessary, it seems like she could steadily make her way across without too much issue. Somnambula wouldn't even really need to be guided by the sound of the prince's voice, since she saw the path she would need to take. Furthermore, the bridge is within feeling distance of the edge of the floor, so Somnambula wouldn't even need to take a "leap of faith" to get on the bridge in the first place. I guess the sphinx may not have been as smart as she thought she was in coming up with a challenge for Somnambula to complete.

It also seems unusually charitable for the sphinx to actually abide by the terms of the agreement with Somnambula, and simply leave without a fight when Somnambula completes the second challenge. If the sphinx breaks her agreement with Somnambula, what would the village be able to do about it? If the sphinx was presumably using the threat of overwhelming force or magic to get them to give her most of their crops, then couldn't the sphinx just continue to do that? I suppose the pharaoh could send his army to attack the sphinx, but then, if the army wasn't willing to confront the sphinx just to solve her riddle, then how willing or effective would they be in actually attacking the sphinx?

---

In this last big section, I'll talk about Rainbow's capture and rescue.

Of course, Dr. Caballeron has to do the dramatic reveal and explanation of his plans in the public square, while A.K., Pinkie, and even other witnesses are still around to see and hear it. And as Caballeron's henchmen approach, we see Rainbow with a determined look on her face, but then in the next shot, she's tied up and blindfolded, with no indication of how that could have happened. Plus, Caballeron says that he can't have Rainbow telling Daring Do her plan, and yet none of them think to gag Rainbow to prevent her from yelling to A.K., Pinkie, or others within earshot. In fact, none of them even react as Rainbow starts screaming for help - they don't try to shut her up or anything as they lead her off. That makes me wonder if that was part of their plan - to make it known that they had captured Rainbow in order to lead Daring Do to the pyramid outside of town. However, if that were the case, wouldn't they want to move quickly and try to get a head start so as not to be stopped and confronted by Daring Do or anyone else before reaching the pyramid? Maybe they were counting on Daring Do hesitating after having her spirit broken (and the other residents perhaps succumbing to the bystander effect), but that's still a pretty precarious plan - Daring Do and everyone else has to hesitate enough not to stop them immediately, but Daring Do still has to care enough to see where they go and ultimately pursue them to the pyramid outside of town.

Caballeron says that the shame of losing Rainbow to the slime will cause Daring Do to give up, if his previous plan didn't. But how does he know that's what will happen, as opposed to Daring Do becoming determined to avenge Rainbow and bring Caballeron to justice? Plus, I don't know how much of this Caballeron is aware of, but Rainbow Dash is one of the Elements of Harmony, a member of the Wonderbolts, and a friend of all of the ruling princesses. So if Rainbow dies, even if Daring Do were to feel like giving up, all the rest of the aforementioned ponies and all of the resources they command would be motivated to find Caballeron and bring him to justice. It seems that Caballeron, if his plan were to succeed, would be getting himself in way over his head. (But then, couldn't all of them still be motivated to capture Caballeron anyway, since he tried to get Rainbow killed, even if he didn't succeed? That feeds into my earlier point about Daring Do just letting the villains get away at the end of her adventures.)

Now we get to the method by which Daring Do and Pinkie save Rainbow - a bunch of convenient vents that happen to be placed and spaced out well enough to lead across the slime to where Rainbow is, and happen to blast air (I'm assuming, since steam would, you know, hurt A LOT) with just enough force (not too little, not too much), surface area, direction, frequency, etc. to allow Daring Do and Pinkie to jump across to Rainbow. This strikes me as a particularly cheap deus ex machina, especially since the episode seems to be playing this situation straight, with Rainbow apparently being in serious danger. There's no hint of the existence or the eventual use of these vents prior to their miraculously saving the day. We don't see these vents at all in wide shots of the slime, not even when we get a shot showing the slime below and in front of Daring Do as she leaps into the pit. None of the characters point out or say anything about the vents, nor is there any indication that Pinkie or Daring Do see them or are aiming toward them when they jump into the pit.

But since there's no indication that Pinkie or Daring Do intend to jump toward the vents, Pinkie and Daring Do's behavior is stupid in other ways. If Pinkie is just trying to jump all the way to where Rainbow is, why doesn't she get a running start, and try to jump from any of the other sides of the pit, which appear to have a shorter distance to span? Why does Daring Do cover her eyes as she jumps after Pinkie? What does Daring Do think she'll accomplish by doing that? This whole thing is on par with Pinkie's insistence that Twilight take a "leap of faith" to escape the hydra back in "Feeling Pinkie Keen". I wrote about that episode here (the formatting is a little wonky, since it's an old post), but in both cases, only a cheap deus ex machina intervened to stop characters from, in all likelihood, dying. And one other issue with how this situation was resolved is that it breaks immersion and entertainment. As I was watching this part of the episode, I was thinking about how Daring Do and Pinkie might get across the chasm to save Rainbow - maybe Daring Do carries a rope that could be used to swing across, maybe the two of them could use a fallen pillar as a bridge, etc. But (to me, at least) any sense of excitement or accomplishment that could come from figuring out a solution alongside Daring Do and Pinkie is dashed when the solution used comes out of nowhere, with no way that it could be predicted or figured out.

---

Finally, here are a few more of my miscellaneous observations:

Is the "paperboy" selling the newspaper at the beginning supposed to be a kid? He really doesn't sound like one.

Is A.K. Yearling just moping at home in the dark? The inside of her house is black when Rainbow and Pinkie are trying to look through the windows.

Hey Pinkie, maybe don't just go rooting through A.K.'s stuff without permission? She only invited you in, she didn't invite you to rummage through her belongings.

Hey Rainbow, way to respect A.K.'s personal space by literally grabbing and shaking her by the collar while demanding to know why she's quitting and moving away.

I'm surprised that A.K. Yearling's newspaper of choice in which to announce her retirement is the Ponyville Chronicle. I would expect that to be a small town newspaper, not widely distributed or read in most of Equestria, and not even necessarily close to where she lives.

Gee, Rainbow, might you consider having at least a little cultural sensitivity before calling it a "crummy old statue"? Rainbow already had it mentioned to her that the statue was "priceless" and "sacred".

Is there any point to Caballeron sealing the top of the pyramid after his gloating to Daring Do? After all, she and Rainbow can't fly out, and the path that Daring Do and Pinkie took doesn't appear to have been blocked off, so Caballeron doesn't seem to be trying to trap all of them inside the pyramid.

Finally, calling the material at the bottom of the pit "green slime" reminds me of those old Nickelodeon game shows and between-show segments. It almost makes Rainbow's situation seem less dangerous, although the "bubbling" descriptor implies that the slime is hot, it's glowing as though it's radioactive or acidic, and the characters could still drown in it regardless.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,497]

Everything until AFTER the Sphynx backstory was quite good, especially the story itself. Loved the style they used for most of it and I enjoyed the voice of the pony explaining it. Everything was fine until after that point, then the pacing kinda went bonkers. Everything zoomed by to the end. The crowd of ponies was so easily lead by Cabaleron that it was comical, RD was captured without putting up an ounce of struggle, Pinkie and Daring were able to hop across convenient jets that I don't exactly remember in the story (unless my memory is being really bad right now) and Cabaleron explains entirely how he was a dick in front of the crowd but still thinks he can trick them. The last montage of Daring randomly fixing everything was also the definition of rushing it.

So I am sorta torn on this one. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were fine here, seeing a new location is always good and like I said, the story was pleasant. That last act was really weird feeling though. I guess my final verdict would be: Decent. A bit above average, but underwhelming considering it was a Daring Do episode. There was not much of a sense of adventure in this one.

[Thaliel 116]

AK is old pone, that explains the grey mane XD

[Thrond 3,258]

I think RD getting captured here is different from the Changeling activity in "To Where and Back Again." There, we never see how the mane six and princesses got captured, so we can imagine how sneaky the changeling tactics were and how much of a fight there was. Here, we see how it goes down, so there's no ambiguity.

On another note, if the legends are supposed to be this season's finale arc, then I'm a little disappointed, and worried that the finale will be completely personal. While I liked Somnambula the place, the legend isn't that much more original or complex than the ones in "Campfire Tales." 

[ImpctR 155]

Daring Doooby Doooo!

 

Awesome episode, 5/5 ! And for a new writer who wrote less interesting episodes with not much happening like 'Fluttershy Leans In' this was sure a nice one. If it has less adventure than other Daring Do episodes I do not find it any less interesting, I cant find anything too wrong with the episode. I have yet to see why so mixed choices for it.

 

At first, the combo looked boring to me RD and Pinkie. But then when I saw that they are going to Egypt, I mean the Egyptian themed ponies, it was awesome. One prob that I can find is it started too rushed but having to fit in the adventure in less than 22 minutes, I dont blame. But yes, this Season 7 revealed another interesting place existing in Equestria after the Japanese themed ponies, the Southern Equestria's version of Egypt. This is a nice world and maybe previous episodes were featuring Mayan/Aztec tombs? This is more interesting than the other places of Daring Do.

This yellow-red pony at the far is a knockoff of Grand Pear from 'The perfect Pear'

The map showing their travel path is great, I am no expert at it, it is good if it is consistent with the lore.

 

Disney's Arab nights reference?

As was already posted above, I totally love the view here, reminds me of all cartoons I have watched with Egypt like Asterix series in their going to Egypt. Some of the ponies in the mythology must have been the Egyptian gods or Cleopatra, I sure did not remember who was who but I liked the mythology, it was interesting enough for me and reversed - where the princess has to save the prince, good that it is not the common opposite.

 

The interaction and reasoning was good to me - someone may ask why should Daring Do stop if she was hated in one region only? If that region is a big place for her to protect the relics and the disinfo and blackmailing at her continued, it sounded plausible she would want to stop. I was expecting she might reveal the writer and the Indianna Johnes are the same pony but it didnt happen.

 

Yes the capture and saving was rushed but there was no time to do that as well. The ending suggested Caballeron might return, perhaps in some team villain case? The show is missing those, well Twi's Kingdom was the only one, needs more of it. Overall, another great and pleasing episode, dont think it needed much more.

Edited September 10, 2017 by ImpctR

[Truffles 2,033]

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 2:15 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

Finally, Rainbow again declares that the articles are "a heap of rotten apple cores", even though A.K. herself already admitted that they're true. Again, what basis does Rainbow have to declare otherwise?

Blind fanaticism? I can believe she's such a fan of Daring Do that she would ignore the statement and prove her wrong.

 

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 2:15 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

Does Equestria abide by "innocent until proven guilty"?

Well, from "Rarity Investigates," they might not. <_< Though that was military where the rules might be different.

 

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 2:15 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

When the sphinx tells Somnambula that she must walk to the prince across a deep chasm while blindfolded, that doesn't strike me as a particularly difficult challenge, at least as it's portrayed. It's a relatively short distance on a straight path across what looks to be a reasonably stable bridge, and Somnambula was able to see it ahead of time.

One possibility is the secret of the pyramid (the vents) was lost to legend, and the bridge being in the story is inaccurate. Admittedly, the vents seem like a more memorable way to tell the story, so I don't know if that's a good explanation. The myth would have worked better if it simply stated how Sonambula got across was still a mystery, other than "she had hope."

[Music Chart Fan 818]

1 hour ago, Truffles said:

Well, from "Rarity Investigates," they might not. <_< Though that was military where the rules might be different.

Good catch! And now that you mention it, I remember writing about the injustice of that incident in my post on that episode, as well.

1 hour ago, Truffles said:

One possibility is the secret of the pyramid (the vents) was lost to legend, and the bridge being in the story is inaccurate. Admittedly, the vents seem like a more memorable way to tell the story, so I don't know if that's a good explanation. The myth would have worked better if it simply stated how Sonambula got across was still a mystery, other than "she had hope."

I hadn't noticed this before, but the actual words of the legend as told by the apple cart owner never specifically mention a bridge across the chasm (although, interestingly, Daring Do later tells Pinkie "There was a bridge in the story, and there's no bridge here"). The legend does say, however, that the sphinx asked Somnambula to "walk to the prince across a deep chasm...blindfolded!", which I suppose would imply that she walked on something.

But yeah, the precise details of Somnambula's challenge may not necessarily have been as they were depicted. The illustration we see has the sphinx stand aside and allow Somnambula to see where to go before being blindfolded, and after Somnambula is blindfolded, she's pushed to the edge of the pit, just behind the bridge. If, say, the sphinx continued to stand and block the view to the prince as she blinded Somnambula, then told Somnambula to walk to the prince, that would have increased the challenge, and the line about being "guided by the sound of the prince's voice" would make more sense. Also, if the bridge were situated a bit further down, not within reaching distance of the edge of the pit, then Somnambula's taking a "leap of faith" would have had more meaning. Ultimately, though, I still liked the legend.

[Brainstorm 4,096]

I liked the moral in this episode and glad that Daring Do learned about being responsible to the ponies around her, even though she's saving the day.

RainbowDash got a third adventure with A.K. Yearling/Daring Do.

[Justin_Case001 4,860]

Oh, merciful Celestia, here we go again: another Daring Do adventure. Y'know, I don't think I'm ever going to get over DD being real. I always hated that decision. I liked it better as a fictional universe within the fictional FIM universe. Because of that, I'm pre-soured on every DD adventure episode. But it is what it is. Disregarding my dislike of that aspect, the episode...wasn't all bad...

I liked the premise. I loved Egyptland. I really love world building, and I really like the recent attempts to diversify the world with various ethnic regions and ponies. I liked the theme they were building up throughout the episode—hero accountability...like, wow, that's pretty mature! Cool. And...that's about all the good I have to say, really.

Let's see... I always think the travel stuff is pretty goofy; y'know, like how they take a train, for what seems like hours, to get to Canterlot, which can be seen from Ponyville, but RD and Pinkie can run to AK's cottage on the outskirts of Equestria, in like 20 minutes or whatever. And they can walk to Egyptland in southern Equestria in an afternoon, but they need to take a multi-day train to f*cking Appaloosa, which is like right f*ckin next door to Ponyville by comparison. Right. But I can let that stuff slide. Cartoons have always been like that. It's video game logic, really. It's like how you can walk across Skyrim in half an hour, and you never need food or rest. That's how FIM works.

Where the episode took a dive for me was the temple rescue. Everything was fine until then.  Not perfect, but okay.  But the temple rescue was horrible. Firstly, the spell to prevent pegasi from using their wings was ridiculous. The whole temple is literally, permanently imbued with some ward to paralyze pegasi wings? Really? That was probably the most pathetic convenient plot device in the history of the show. But the main problem, what really upset me, was Pinkie “leap of faith”. Let me explain something: in my opinion, a leap of faith is an action taken in the face uncertainty when you have at least some kind of evidence that things will work out, some reason to believe, often another person saying, “trust me”. It's like the falling backwards and having your partner catch you thing. A great example was AJ telling Twi to let go on the cliff in the pilot. Twi assumed she'd fall to her death, AJ said, “trust me, you'll be fine,” so Twi took a leap of faith, trusted in this stranger, and let go. (Of course, ironically, it would have taken AJ less time to say, “those two pegasi behind you will catch you,” than what she actually said. Beside the point.) The point is, a leap of faith requires some kind of reason to believe. Even a bad reason can constitute some kind of reason. Even if you just have some silly, ancient scripture that says, “She who jumps into boiling slime will be fine,” at least that is some kind of reason. What Pinkie did was simply suicide. She had no reason whatsoever to think she'd be okay. She f*cking jumped off a cliff into a pool of boiling slime. (Why slime? Wtf? Why not, y'know, f*cking LAVA? Whatever.) She had no evidence, not even one shred of a reason to think she'd be safe. You could argue that she could see the steam vents, but I don't buy it. If she knew the vents were there, she would have said so, and not proclaimed it to be faith. After all, if a person has a legitimate reason for doing or believing anything, they will point to that first before invoking faith. We always gravitate towards reasons if we have them. Faith is an excuse to believe things when reasons fail. Now, don't get me wrong, having faith in other people to come through for you is great. I mean, that's kind of one of the most important games in town, but having faith in other people is still based on reasons—such as established trust, or a basic trust that most people are inherently good and want to help you, which is based on things we've learned about the human race throughout our lives. REASONS. Pinkie had nothing. She saw a pit of death and just hopped in. If you saw your friend across a chasm of boiling slime, would you just jump and assume you'll be fine? What was she thinking?! What the hell did she expect would happen?! (Oh, and I'll just gloss over the fact that those steam vents would have badly scalded them.) Pinkie's jump was probably the single stupidest thing I've ever seen any character on this show do. It wasn't a clever demonstration of never losing hope like Salamandernebula, or whatever the f*ck her name was. It was just abysmally stupid. This isn't teaching kids to have the good kind of faith; it's teaching kids to jump off a cliff and assume they'll be fine. I know, I know, we're suppose to take it a metaphor, but it's still ridiculous. I'm sorry for getting so worked up about this, but I don't see any other way to interpret this. If anyone can point out something I'm missing, please do, by all means.

Pinkie attempted suicide. That's it. Plain and simple. Case closed. Stupidest scene in the show. It sucked. I'm done.

[Truffles 2,033]

9 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

Where the episode took a dive for me was the temple rescue. Everything was fine until then.  Not perfect, but okay.  But the temple rescue was horrible.

And here I thought it'd be the helpless Rainbow Dash scene that would push your buttons.