Daring Didn't Like It · 8:18am Dec 9th, 2013
Actually, the title is misleading. I liked almost everything in the episode, except the fact that it was an episode. (My favorite moment: Rainbow Dash out-nerding Twilight Sparkle in a Daring Do fan argument. Pure gold!) It was, for me at least, much less than the sum of its parts.
I find that an Equestria, where there is room for a long-running series of books about a fictional adventurer Daring Do, fighting fictional villains over fictional artifacts in fictional locations, feels more fully realized than an Equestria where Daring Do is real on the same level as the Mane Six.
I also find that having Rainbow Dash fall in love with a series of books, to the point of totally geeking out over them and writing fanfiction of them ('cause you all know she totally does that) is both more fun, and adds more breadth to her character, than having Rainbow Dash be a huge fan of the real-life adventurer Daring Do. We already have Dash being a fan of the very real Wonderbolts; this does not add anything to her character, and arguably takes away from the moral of Read It and Weep, one of the best episodes of S2.
Finally, I find it hurts my suspension of disbelief that Daring Do and everything about her can be real, and that this comes as a complete surprise to Twilight Sparkle. She is a Daring Do fan and an obsessive researcher of arcane and odd lore, with the run of Canterlot's archives and a personal relationship with the Princesses of Equestria even before her ascension. I can't believe that her favorite books are real, and that she had no idea of it.
Thus, I find myself in the weird situation of having quite enjoyed the episode, but also wishing that the show will completely ignore everything about it. As far as my personal take of Equestria is concerned, Daring Don't is going to occupy the same place as the IDW pony comics: fun and enjoyable, but not really canonical.
I explained it to myself as the remoteness of the location. After all, this was apparently taking place in the Aztec civilization, or at least somewhere where Tenochtitlan and other non-horse-puns are acceptable place names. News travels fast within Equestria, but international events don't seem to get nearly as much attention. It would also explain why Daring Do didn't think the Bearers of Harmony (one of them an alicorn) couldn't be trusted.
Of course, Celestia would've probably noticed eight hundred years of unrelenting heat being directed somewhere...
Yeah, you're right, the implications on the world at large of this episode is kind of greater than the content of the episode itself.
I don't care much for canon since s3, so I'm not that bothered by it.
Awesome episode but it won't really work as headcanon for me so it's not.
See it as official fanfic if it helps, as it was obviously made by fans of the show. That just happens to be employed to make it.
It reminds me of something they did in TMNT, in the 80's show Michelangelo meet his favorite comicbook hero Flyman(?) and wound up rescuing him. Then in 00's version they did it again only they kept rolling with it, turns out alot of the comics were based on retired Golden Age heroes. Doesn't explain why no one knows the modern ones exist
, but then things escalate to everybody fighting Space triceratops stealing portions of New York and the reason is never brought up again.
Anyway I just chalk it up to Daring living in the pony equivalence of South America and the fact that wide spread information isn't available to everyone in Equestria. No one knew who or what the changelings were til they hit the wedding.
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Unfortunately, if you follow the red line travel gag, you end up in the Equestrian equivalent of Pacific Northwest, complete with large conifer forests. I'm increasingly convinced that the whole thing is a fanfic Dash wrote to cope with the latest Daring Do novel being pushed back.
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...maybe Pinkie had the map upside down?
Yeah, I don't even know. Maybe that "unrelenting heat" was simply turning up whatever magic allowed for an Amazon in Alberta.
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"we're not in Equestria anymore"