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| They do the sand dance, don't you know? |
S7E18: "Daring Done?"
9 Sep 2017
My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 7.2
Thoughts:
This is a G. M. Berrow episode, so you know what to expect, and for the most part you get it. This isn't one for those who want perfectly crafted writing, but it does have some nice world-building with the (admittedly shaky) Somnambula legend. A special note too for the visuals and even more so the music, which really is nice. Characterisation is pretty variable: A. K. Yearling not being a flawless hero is good and I rather like Pinkie Pie here, but I'm not so impressed by Rainbow Dash – you know you can fly to escape Caballeron's henchponies, girl? Talking of which, the "hah, no flying here!" thing is a bit irritating, though I don't object to it as much as some fans apparently do. But the worst thing is that (as I said in 2017) the air-vent solution to save Rainbow is absurdly out-of-nowhere, right down there at bunyip levels of eye-rollingness. The main reason I'm downgrading this from a three-star episode to a two is that it's so frustrating: it does well for the first two-thirds, but then it falls apart. So, so much more could have been done with the third act. Oh well, on we go.
Choice quote: A. K. Yearling: "They don't sell my books in southern Equestria." [Er... why not?]
New rating: ★★
Next
time around, we'll reach "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You". This is an episode which tends to split those irritated by overly convenient plot hoof-waving and those who just want to kick back and relax with the ponies. I tend to be in camp two by this point in FiM's run, so I quite liked it.
Pretty much. This is some twisted, overly convenient writing as a climax, to the point where the question of why the anti-flight spell is still in effect (what must be at least) centuries later is one of the tamer examples.
ReplyDeleteAs usual with Pillar episodes, I like the concepts and basic ideas a LOT more than the actual execution. Somnambula's legend is nice enough, though shaky (why exactly would besting the Sphinx twice make it LESS angry?), and the Egyptian aesthetic is welcome. I also like how "Laughter" (one of the harder elements to translate) is recontextualized as "Hope", in keeping with Celestia's characterization of it in "Magical Mystery Cure" as "Optimism". Quite a tidy conceptual bridge there.
Daring Do having to face consequences for her destructive saviour habits is a good idea, even though the whole "Daring Do is real" concept continues to make absolutely zero sense and should have fallen apart like a toothpick pyramid yonks ago. The episode sorta pays off on that, but it feels like the bulk of it is simply laid at the hooves of (an especially tired retread of) Doctor Caballeron, so it just devolves into an unchallenging "bad guys being bad" setup. Not enough nuance.
I wonder if this episode was simply a victim of G. M. Berrow's tendency to pitch her episodes to a much younger, simpler demographic.
Overall, I like watching this episode on superficial grounds (hey, I'm a sucker for Indiana Jones/Lara Croft/Nathan Drake pony), and there's the start of some good ideas in there. But man, this felt lacking.
"This is an episode which tends to split those irritated by overly convenient plot hoof-waving and those who just want to kick back and relax with the ponies."
Oho, guess which camp I'm in. Just change "irritated" to "fundamentally enraged by the sheer contemptuousness of such lazy writing, I mean, the FUCK, manes are immune to magic, are you actually FUCKING braindead, I don't even need to cite S1E6 Trixie versus Rarity, this is just 'kill it on sight, should never have left the meeting room, HECK, should never have been voiced by a living human being with a functional brain' stupid, I don't care if this introduced Punk Rarity, it's low-sunk Josh 'pay-bills' Haber hot garbage, what a load of complete and utter BULLSHIT, FUUUUUUUCK YOOOOUUUUU!", and there! Made it a little more accurate to my impressions.
Yeah, maybe I'll skip the next one. :/
Now that's the kind of negative comment I actually enjoy seeing. XD
DeleteDaring having to deal with the consequences of her actions and the (easily dispelled) rumors about her character were both good ideas. That's the kind of conflict a show about friendship being magic really needs more of. Also, points for the cool sphinx design.
From memory, it was a fairly divisive episode -- though I see from my 2017 comments that both iisaw and xjuggernaughtx enjoyed it a lot -- especially notable in the latter's case as he was not a Haber fan as a rule. I'm distinctly sceptical that I'll be keeping its four-star (four!) rating this time round, even so.
DeleteYep, I'm solidly in the "spending more time with ponies" camp. If inconsistencies and contradictions on this level bothered me a lot, I'd probably hate most of the later show. Inconsistencies in character and sudden-onset idiocy, are my bugbears.
DeleteThis is a G. M. Berrow episode, so you know what to expect, and for the most part you get it.
ReplyDeleteA very diplomatic yet perfectly accurate opener, my friend!
As I was watching this one again just now, I found myself thinking "there's lots of little micro annoyances in the dialogue that lack the wit the writing should have, and the pacing seems rather slow with annoyingly protracted interplays between characters". All typical day at the office stuff for a Season Seven script. But, you know, it wasn't being as bad as I remember. Daring Do is so soft-spoken and sanded down to the kinds of friendship platitudes of the Mane 6 that it doesn't quite fly when we never saw a transition to that in a prior episode, but it's something fresh and preferable to her over-abrasive self. The rapport she and Pinkie have is weird given they've never spoken to each other onscreen, but it's, again, something over the nth "brash Rainbow Dash around her more controlled palette swap".
And of course, the visual design of this episode is what I chiefly remember liking it for. Just seeing everypony in cool desert robes makes it feel like Pony Cairo, and that plus my love for desert-set pulp adventures means this scratches my itch something fierce. Even before we get to the temple, Egyptian motifs abound, and an alt-art flashback will always be a win too.
Even at its best, the episode is shying back from its potential quite a bit, and has lots of nitpicks typical of Season Seven episodes, but in those first two thirds, it is agreeable. Pity the nonsensical climax comes along to upend pretty much all of that. A very short climax at that, to the point I wonder if they purposefully extended earlier scenes so as to spend as little time on this asinine material as possible (the third act is less than six minutes, and there's no reason for the episode, on the other end, to take six minutes to even get to this desert city, given how little setup is actually needed).
Personally, my biggest gripe is how hard this backpedals on the nuance of Derring Do facing consequences for a "nah, it was all the bad guy, you get off scot free!" conclusion. This kind of pulp adventure tone of story can be shallow, or it can provide themes and depth, but it can't promise the latter then chicken out to the former.
And of course, because it doesn't stick the landing, it only serves to point out further how utterly stupid the "Daring Do is real" thing is, with this village being so isolated to the point that apparently the rest of Equestria doesn't communicate with it, given the lack of rabid book fans wanting to see where she often goes in her (they think fictional) adventures. Then you have Cabalerron describing his whole plan in public, that anti-flight spell, everything regarding that temple, and how stupid the message of Hope is as executed… too many why's roll off the episode by the end, and it sucks much of what goodwill it had built up.
Given how "first draft with so many eye-popping writing bungles you can't believe it got aired" much of Gillian Berrow's work on Pony Life and Make Your Mark would prove to be (or, if you prefer, how much Hasbro let their QA slack), it's fitting one of her later show episodes in FiM would fit into this too. Oh, and she tosses in a reference to the Derring Do chapter books she wrote, because of course she does.
Season Seven of FiM, folks, where even the simple pleasures of desert-set archaeological pulp adventures aren't allowed to be fun!
Yeah... lots of potential here that just never came together, which is a crying shame. Daring Do should have been a spin-off series in a world where she never wrote books about her adventures.
DeleteI still like this episode, even after re-watching it. Daring Doubt makes it look better than it already is, and this really should've been where the Daring Do episodes concluded. (Oh, we'll come to that when we come to it!) Both the message about not taking things at face value and the theme of not giving up when it feels like the world is against you remain as strong as ever, especially today, so I can't complain too much.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably best that anyone reading this don't probe about what I mean. Don't want to start any flame wars here...!