episode S07:E18 - Daring Done

[Justin_Case001 4,883]

12 hours ago, Truffles said:

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

  Yeah, well, that was bad, too,  but I don't know, it just didn't irritate me as much.

[Meeps 297]

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

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.

I agree with everything you said here. I must say that I've never absolutely been head over heels for any Daring Do episode (despite liking her as a character), but this one just felt forced to me... like the creators decided it was time for another Daring Do episode and just scrambled to make it happen. 

I'm not sure what Pinkie contributed to this episode, except to keep things from getting too serious. The leap of faith made by she and Daring just screamed Deus ex Machina to me, and the fact that Daring was so ready to throw in the towel over not only the damages she'd caused, but also the accusation of many on things she had never done, strikes me as extremely strange. It seemed out of character to me, I'd expect her to investigate to get down to the bottom of things. Also, I know I'm not allowed to point out any copy/paste ponies in this series, but dang. That red-haired Grand Pear was killing me!

Overall, not a bad episode, but a solid 6 or 7 in my mind.

[MangoFoalix 24,951]

On 9/17/2017 at 10:06 PM, Meeps said:

I agree with everything you said here. I must say that I've never absolutely been head over heels for any Daring Do episode (despite liking her as a character), but this one just felt forced to me... like the creators decided it was time for another Daring Do episode and just scrambled to make it happen. 

I'm not sure what Pinkie contributed to this episode, except to keep things from getting too serious. The leap of faith made by she and Daring just screamed Deus ex Machina to me, and the fact that Daring was so ready to throw in the towel over not only the damages she'd caused, but also the accusation of many on things she had never done, strikes me as extremely strange. It seemed out of character to me, I'd expect her to investigate to get down to the bottom of things. Also, I know I'm not allowed to point out any copy/paste ponies in this series, but dang. That red-haired Grand Pear was killing me!

Overall, not a bad episode, but a solid 6 or 7 in my mind.

Having Rainbow Dash be a damsel in distress for a portion of the episode somewhat was out oc characters for her. I don't know if the show staff are trying to be experimental with the way the write episodes but I just felt like that it didn't fit her at all. Sonambula and the Sphinx are incredibly cute characters for me though.

[Sh Pie 65]

This was a great Daring Do focus episode that I forgot to watch last week. The last 3 were kind of unremarkable, meh or mediocre to me but this one was pretty enjoyable with the adventure and exploration theme. When AK said southern Equestria and there was a pyramid, I was thinking Aztec vibes but I guess it's a pseudo Egyptian culture instead. Perhaps the staff wanted to promote the upcoming release of Assassin's Creed Origins, set in Egypt 49 BC.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were a dependable duo and this could've easily been a Cutie Map episode sending them to AK's house to solve her friendship problem. Caballeron used her collateral damage to Somnambula's property to slander her name and ruin the citizens' perceptions of her while giving him the perfect opportunity to steal their glowpaz and throw more wood on the Daring Do flame, figuratively speaking.

The part where he abducted Rainbow Dash in the square, mere yards away from her friends, was where his plan went wrong. If he were a little smarter, he could've just lured her in to an alley or something and ambushed her.

The moral of hope is nice. Hope is the polar opposite of despair and gives ponies the courage to keep trying their best even when the odds are against them. Pinkie was a good choice for this rescue since optimism is a prominent element of her character. In retrospect, she could've used her Pinkie Sense to know they would survive the fall.

Overall, an amazing episode with few flaws. Would make a nice Daring Do book someday now that AK is coming out of her short retirement.

[Soaring Symphony 372]

 

 

 

 

You know the writers are running out of ideas when canon characters look like bad OCs.  This guy is literally a recolor of Grandpear.

 

Also, that scene where they have to cross the gap using air vents reminds me of a section in the Stone Tower Temple in Majora's Mask where you have to do the exact same thing as Duku Link.

 

Btw, the Legend of Nabula reminds me of that weird scene from The Prince of Egypt.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2017 by Soaring Symphony

[Hierok 11,831]

On 15-9-2017 at 8:10 AM, 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. 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.

Pinke! Where is the fourth wall breaking rescue, but no... She had to fart in order to fly over the liquid. 

Edited September 27, 2017 by Hierok

[Will Guide 21,360]

In case it hasn't been pointed out already, the villain mentioned the Temple had a spell that prevents Pegasi from using their wings. If such a safety measure can exist in that temple, then perhaps all the other Temples Daring Do have been to could have the same spell. That's very likely the reason we don't see her just simply fly across most obstacles. There! One less thing to complain about!

[ImpctR 155]

Wow, some can write whole books about what was wrong with this episode, because the length of text I saw was worth a booklet. Has school never taught of writing things with some word limit? ofc there is no word limit here. I am glad I am not that much of a fan to take the show so seriously.

Why the episode worked for me? I don't know, perhaps watching it once, not taking the show so seriously... the good scenes this episode (the ponified Egypt, the scenes, the legend of Somnanbula)  had overshadowed the bad things and I didn't notice them until  I read through the posts.

 

While some of the remarks are good and are better off read by the writers and editors (like RD's easy capture, when characters do completely stupid things disconnected from episodes to fit the current plot) but I facepalm when I see some remarks and comparisons with reality. As a game designer I sometimes have to think of stories. Although they are not as long and continuous as when thinking about several season show, I still try to think of a believable and logical story and some form of realism. But at the same time, especially if the theme would be fantasy. thinking of 'Caballeron could have been held into custody for ruining those inn rooms, (only forgot saying the F B I ponies had to come)' and whatever other relations to real life world ... are ABSURD! Makes me think Fame and Misfortune was very needed, just for that small but very vocal crowd. So some of the reviews are an overkill, unnecessary rant mixed with few valid points.

[Pastel 7,630]

Good episode, I liked the story about Somnanbula. There's just one thing that felt very weird, it's how Pinkie Pie wasn't too stressed when Rainbow Dash was about to take a bath of acid:

Also, I know it's a show for kids, but it was way too obvious the veiled pony was Caballeron.

[BlinkZ 1,151]

"Parspitire hype drama" hahah is that a meta joke snuck in?

Rainbow Dash you have wings..ugh you idiot! why you let them capture you witout a fight.

ONly guy dressed in full cloth head ot tial and your not quesitioning why? oh come on

Also,, how did he put Rainbow into the trap inthe first place! if thier no way across when Daring shows up..then how the hell did htey put Dash int the trap to begin with

[SparklingSquirrels 21,341]

Finally getting caught up on the episodes...

I started to get annoyed at how much RD was yelling in this episode. I mean yeah, it's understandable why she's upset, but it started to feel too repetitive after awhile. Still, as usual I liked the world building, and plus I didn't feel like Pinkie was too bad this time  

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."  

[Skytower 71]

I just saw KP's review of this episode (

and something occurred to me.  We've seen Equestria have books and newspapers and comics, but have we ever seen a radio or a tv?  Maybe one of the reasons Daring Do can be known for real in one section of the land and thought of as just fiction in another section is that they don't have the type of mass media we have in our world.  If you don't read it, you don't know about it.  Would this explain why when Twilight first talked about Starswirl no know one seemed to know about him? 

[FizzyGreen 909]

I think it was really really great! Everything about the episode was pretty good. Except... well... the leap of faith thing. That was absolute bs.

It should've been like:

DD: This is impossible! There is no way!

P: There is! If we wait for Rainbow Dash to get low enough so we can jump down on her, we can safe her!

DD: Are you crazy? We could never jump like that! Also, who says we have enough time to untie her, or that the tower doesn't break?!?

P: Well, we just gotta take a leap of faith!

 

Then it would've been a 5/5

What we got now is basically "Be suicidal and ignore risks because no matter what you do it'll be fine", no it won't!

But of course, it always needs to be ruined

 

4/5

€dit:

I really love how dash is true to her element and not giving up. It seemed a little bit too ambitious but i mean, she IS Loyalty.

So that was very good. Without rainbow dash being that loyal this whole thing would've failed.

 

 

Also, how was Rainbow Dash captured that easily?

 

Flaws flaws flaws...

Edited November 14, 2017 by FizzyGreen

[TBD 17,254]

I thought it was kinda of a bored..there are some parts where I was  like really?  Like the part when RD was kidnapped..cmon now, RD can easily escape from them. 

[Nye 1,652]

This is by far my favorite Daring Do episode. I really liked her redemption.

[iPonyLover27th 17]

Personally, the episode was pretty good until the end of Somnambula's legend.  Daring Do wanting to retire isn't so far fecched; if one adventure caused many collateral damages, who knows how many others her adventures might have caused without she noticing, and how many others she would've cause if she wasn't going to stop now. Similarly, Dash wasn't being inconsiderate of the town usances and traditions, she was just being unaware of what the statue represented for the ponies there; she changed attitude after learning about Somnambula's story. 

Toward the end of the episode however it feels like things were made in a rush; Caballeros kidnapping Dash without being sure that Daring and Pinkie were far off was stupid, Pinkie's trust of hope by leap of faith was ill advised (having hope doesn't imply not checking your surrounding and how many chances you have) and it wasn't specified that the Sphynx's curse was directed to all pregasi inside the pyramid, not just Somnambula. This is hardly the first episode in the series to feeling rushed in how it concludes its story, I guess some writers have an hard time finding the perfect balance between the three acts structure. 

In the end, I give it a 3/5.

(Oh, and Dash screaming for help made sense in that situation; her wings are her biggest strength and not being able to use them has a crippling effect on her. Plus, she's not above pleading her biggest hero for help :P) 

[danparkerstudios 26]

Well, I thought this was a good episode.

Also, for the slime, I was hoping it would be acid. That would have made things more intense.

[iPonyLover27th 17]

6 hours ago, danparkerstudios said:

Well, I thought this was a good episode.

Also, for the slime, I was hoping it would be acid. That would have made things more intense.

Well, worked the same way for me, so I guess it was acid slime xD

[Allen 1,387]

Daring Do did not do anything wrong in that village! I did not want her to be retiring from making future of her own stories and novels which Rainbow Dash is concerned about as what she saw in the Ponyville Chronicle given by Pinkie Pie! It was Dr. Caballeron and his gang who made it wrong for her by breaking the Somnambula statue, Daring Do didn't do that but Dr. Cabelleron and his gang did that.

As what I see about Somnambula's story, solving the Sphinx's riddle is her dare mission to save Prince Hisan by walking across the bridge whilst being blindfolded and without the use of wings (as there is no flying inside the pyramid as a pegasus pony). Her story is an excellent story! I would like to solve his riddle when I first meetup with the Sphinx in Egypt to dare to take the double-bladed medieval axe from inside the pyramid as what they hold in there as a treasure.

Dr. Caballeron captured Rainbow Dash in the pyramid, so Pinkie Pie and Daring Do have to find a way to save her by pursuing Dr. Caballeron, she was held in that pyramid tied up blindfolded by him in the same way as Prince Hisan that was held in there by the Sphinx but not blindfolded. Just like in that story, do not use wings to fly inside the pyramid as what the Sphinx said in Somnambula's dare mission. When taking a leap of faith over the slime pond, they both get to Rainbow Dash just in time before she takes a bath at the green slime with the use of steam jets to jump across the slime.

Nearly at the ending part of this episode, Dr. Caballeron and his gang disappointed the villagers by stealing the glow pairs (glowpaz) from them which that was beneficial for them in the history of Somnambula, Daring Do stopped him and his gang from stealing that from them in the village. And at the ending part that is an epilogue and conclusion of this episode, Daring Do/A.K. Yearling is in happiness with the Somnambula statue that is back in place where it was supposed to be.

Therefore, I enjoy this episode and rate this episode as excellent!

Edited March 23, 2018 by Allen
minor fix

[Kevin Tang 2,426]

I thought A.K Yearling is retiring for other reasons 

Also, HOW convenient that there are some sort of smoke machine on the green thing to help them reach RD. Guess the writer can't let RD die.

[CypherHoof 26,483]

22 minutes ago, Kevin_Tang said:

I thought A.K Yearling is retiring for other reasons 

Also, HOW convenient that there are some sort of smoke machine on the green thing to help them reach RD. Guess the writer can't let RD die.

Wouldn't be truly a Daring Do adventure without such an artifice

[Senko 459]

Wait . . . the ponyverse equivilent of Egypt is in Southern Equestia? I always thought Equestria was a sort of North American analogue given a lot of the town names (Canterlot - Camalot - England notwithstanding) but Egypts well over in NORTH Africa. Which means South Equestria is North Africa and Equestria is North America. This is very confusing couldn't they have gone with some kind of South America ruler instead of calling him a Pharoh?

[bigbertha 414]

This episode is really annoying. Rainbow Dash is by far the worst part, yelling through the entire episode. Her voice doesn't usually grate on my ears, but her voice was grating in this episode. Aside from her, the story is a mess, like how did neither Rainbow nor A.K realize that the veiled pony was Caballeron. He didn't even change his appearance aside from putting on a cloak, and why did Pinkie willingly jump into a pot of acid? If she saw and knew that the steam would help her across, than she should have mentioned that to Daring Do instead of just saying to have hope. Those aren't even all of the story problems. There are so many other contrivances and plot holes that other people have mentioned. 

Somnambula's legend was okay, but it doesn't make up for what a mess the rest of the episode is.

Score: 1/10

Edited July 30, 2018 by bigbertha

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

For a Daring Do episode I enjoyed this one, seeing a new location was really cool and I loved Daring Do trying to hide herself from everyone in the town so she wouldn't get chased out. Rainbow Dash to be honest was somewhat annoying in this episode, and I find it odd no one recognized Caballeron even with the cloak on. I did enjoy seeing the introduction to Somnambula though. 9/10

[qwerE 96]

The story was so unrealistic and made no sense near the end, but I actually liked this episode! I definitely think it could have been so much better, but somehow the nonsense didn't bother me a lot. Pinky jumping into a deadly pit did seem reckless, and Caballeron was extremrly stupid as to reveal his plans to everypony- too stupid to make sense. Otherwise, the episode was entertaining.