It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #117 · 7:51pm Jun 14th, 2023
So a new Indiana Jones movie came out just recently, and that's as good an excuse as any to bring the focus on to our own local version - Daring Do!
That's it. That's the pitch.
It's been a hell of a day, what can I say. They're not all gonna be cunning and artful openings.
Fortunately, the stories are!
On the lead is A Figment of Her Imagination by PaulAsaran.
First up is one you need a little timeline context to understand: in 2013, AK Yearling didn't exist yet. The episode showing her off (and making Daring Do a real pony) wouldn't happen until December of that year. This story got published about a week later, but was conceived prior - creating that wonderful juxtaposition of a story being rendered as an alt-u in the time before release.
In it, Twilight tests out a new spell designed to extract a character from a book - the intent is to do deeper literary analysis by interacting directly with the character and meet them. With Rainbow Dash involved, extracting Daring Do is the only obvious choice. Unfortunately, Daring doesn't exactly react well to being told she isn't real, nor is she given much breathing room by her adoring #1 fan. Things get worse when she's told the spell's only going to run for so long before she, well, disappears.
And it's that end bit that makes this story stand out for me: the ethics of it. While she's just a magically animated mannequin (as Twilight roughly puts it) Daring is also a thinking, sentient being. I'll fully admit that it's an area I enjoy reading - 'what is human' is an old staple of scifi and a great hook. This one does it well, particularly once you bring in Daring's relationship with Fluttershy and the surprise appearance of AK Yearling in chapter 4.
This late in the fandom's lifecycle, it's fascinating to look back and see the Season 2 and 3 versions of characters were like - both in what's changed and what's carried along. This one's a wonderful glimpse into early hothead Rainbow Dash and ultra-meek Fluttershy.
But it's the ending that's stuck with me the most since I first read this: the last conversation between her and Fluttershy's really made an impact. It's got that great Roy Batty in Blade Runner vibe and is exactly the sort of scene I want out of a 'what is human' story. A little overwrought, but it should be overwrought.
Next up, we hop over to Carabas and Treasures.
This Daring Do is different: because this Daring Do is eight and a half. Yup, what we've got here is the story of Daring's very first adventure as she accompanies her dad on an archaeological dig. She delves into her first ruin, faces her first evil rival, wears her Mom's pith helmet, and tries to live up to her fairly new cutie mark.
As I've said before: if the pitch of 'filly Daring Do explores her first ruin' doesn't instantly jump out at you as a must read, I'm not sure what I can say that will do this story justice.
It's adorable and thrilling in just the right balance: Daring's a cute and precocious child who's every parent's worst nightmare. She's intelligent, driven, and full of that childish confidence that makes a kid stand atop the jungle gym and go "I can totally make this jump." The ruin she goes into has plenty of traps and mysteries and a rather polite ghost (plus some less friendly ones) - it's an adventure that would actually fit well even with an adult Daring, but as a filly she's extra-challenged by it and her inexperience both helps and hinders along the way.
Her dad Gallivant is wonderful as well: he's a journal writer rather than an adventurer, trying to balance being a proper archaeologist with being the single parent of Daring Do. Doting but firm, loving but constantly exasperated by his daughter's lack of self-preservation. He's just the perfect father figure for an adventure like this, striking the right balance between helpful (but not too helpful), fretting, and brave. You can see both where Daring gets it from and where the difference between them lies - real quality stuff there.
All of it is tied together, of course, with the usual Carabas flair of writing. A+ stuff.
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This has to be a first, mate – both of us covering the same story in the same week!
Why, if you didn't have a themed timing alibi, I'd be mighty suspicious…
Suffice to say I was a lot cooler on A Figment of Her Imagination than you, though I do agree all the unique angles are present in the story – it's just very compressed and leaves a lot of the depth, flow, and threads that seem to be key on the table. The overwrought character parts are charmingly so, but with a little roughness in the writing, it's not enough to prevent this story for being one I admire more in concept than in practice – and one where, unlike yourself, the last scene didn't moved me much at all but felt rather unearned. Still, it wasn't a washout, just a disappointment, and getting a snapshot of that borderline-Daring-Do-is-real point in the fandom was interesting (even if the story would have been better off just ignoring that angle, honestly).
Also, I'm someone who actually likes Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and yet the new Indiana Jones looks so awful that the only reason I have for seeing it is to get the last original John Williams score for a film in cinemas… and then he retracted his decision to retire from composing new scores after this. Between looking muddled, tired, visually ugly to a degree the digital filters on Kingdom seem quaint, and feeling in every artifice like a movie existing purely because once Ford can no longer play the character, the franchise is gone gone, there's just nothing here. The mixed-leaning-negative early word-of-mouth only solidifies this view in my mind.
Carabas stories are always a treat. I've taken a few notes of Daring characterization from that one in particular.
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I actually hesitated a bit when I saw you do it at the start of this week - but at the same time, I thought it'd be interesting to have both so close in comparison.
I'll agree that there are parts of A Figment that are a bit rough, but to me that's part of the charm. It's very early fandom like that and I think it makes it feel more... real? Legitimate? I do agree with you that I would've loved to see it be longer, though. It could easily have doubled in size and I think it would've still worked.
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And agreed. They very rarely disappoint. When I do eventually get around to including Daring in a story (I haven't as of yet), I'll also probably be drawing from this one in elements.
Much obliged for the review, and that you thought so well of Treasures.
Kid heroes are great for this sort of thing as protagonists - confident enough to be proactive and kick a plot into motion, and insufficiently justified in that confidence so that all sorts of fun complications and drama come up as they go.
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My only complaint about Treasures is that I totally want Legends to continue.