REVIEW: Rainbow Dash and The Daring Do Double Dare · 9:11am Sep 26th, 2016

I still don't have GlimGlam book. Finished reading Princess Cadance book, but I don't feel like reviewing it just yet. As further irrational punishment, Discord book has been pushed forward to the previous week!

This Rainbow Dash book is a weird book, so I'm going to review it in a weird way. The next part below the break is going to seem completely unrelated. And it is. But trust me on this. I'd never leave Ponyville hanging.

Before you read any more, I recommend watching this older Korean movie, Joint Security Area.

.... Do you still trust me? Forgive the cringy English acting early on, it's an amazing film. If you can spare 2 hours in the near future, stop this blog right here until you check it out. You can come back and read this post later, even days later, I'm not going anywhere!

You don't have to watch it if you reaaaally don't want to, or you don't have time, or for some reason you're super excited about my opinions on a pony book and can't wait . ORRRR if you don't trust me, and want to see where this is leading before trying it out. That's fine too, just warning that there'll be (minor) spoilers about it when it comes up.

ok, here we go!

Rainbow Dash and The Daring Do Double Dare
by G. M. Berrow

first edition: January 2014 (a month after 'Daring Don't' aired)

This book was more fun than I remembered. It starts with a quick progression of cute slice-o-life scenes. Rainbow Dash is first in line for the midnight release of the NEW Daring Do novel. The next day, she's already finished reading it and has to gush about it to Twilight, who doesn't want to hear spoilers because she'd rather read it slowly and savor the experience. Twilight and Fluttershy think up the idea of starting a Daring Do book club, so Rainbow can unleash her burning desire to geek out over a book with others who've also finished reading.

The book club has some chatter, then gets derailed by a pony named Wild Fire. She's skeptical that the stunts in the story are realistic, and this starts an argument with some other ponies. Rainbow is offended, though she restrains herself from admitting she's met the real Daring Do, but she wants to prove that Daring's stunts are not unrealistic. She'll take on anypony's challenge. Thus begins the double dare.

Calling herself Daring Dash, she becomes a town spectacle as everypony lines up with their own dangerous challenges. She basks in the attention, though her friends are worried that she'll go too far and get herself hurt.

Hey, this already feels like a weird mix of old and new episodes. You probably already noticed the fandom celebration and arguing that would appear in 'Stranger Than Fan-Fiction.' There's also a hint of that same Rainbow Dash from the old episode...... er........ the one. You know....? I'm scared to even speak its name, because many fans seem seriously traumatized by it and will explode in fury if I even try to discuss it objectively.

Anyway, her friends aren't that bitter yet, and Applejack gives her own challenge. She's the only one in the world who knows Rainbow's secret kryptonite: super spicy chili peppers. This backfires. Rainbow's scared but goes through with it anyway.

As soon as Rainbow Dash bit into the pepper, all sorts of weird things started to happen. First, she felt like her mouth was on fire. Then, she could have sworn she saw Daring Do herself in the crowd. Finally, her ears began to feel hot and she heard the booming laughter of Ahuizotl telling her she could never defeat him. It was kind of awesome, in a way.

(skip to 2:00)

After that weird hallucination (as far as we know), and plenty of cider to wash away the pain, her friends try a little heart-to-heart. She doesn't need to prove herself anymore, and she willingly put herself in an uncomfortable zone by eating that pepper she hates. But to Dash, that pepper felt like she pushed the limits of her courage, and now she's more confident than ever! She's ready to keep going for more.

I gotta say, this is kinda interesting!

JINX! Here is where the story goes bizarro.

The next day, she seems to have a hangover from the pepper and/or ego rush, and she strains to remember that everything she did wasn't just a dream. Zecora dramatically shows up with a QUEST for the bravest pony to save Ponyville. Something about a bad guy in the Everfree, and she lost the ancient key to a vault full of treasure, but opening that vault releases evil unstoppable ghosts.

Wat.

It's gone full adventure mode now, and Rainbow's friends give her unusual supplies that she'll need, since she insists on doing this quest alone. Naturally, those odd items ironically turn out to be useful along the way, but there's strong hints that Rainbow's friends are following after her secretly. Keeping an eye on her, or assisting her, or something mysterious. At the ruins, the bad guy is revealed to be a large male zebra named Braze, whose stripes are red & orange & yellow. Spoooooky. And he captured the 5 friends and is holding them hostage!

All this time I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's some kind of elaborate act, right? A prank? A Daring Do Adventu-Cation?

No, it was.... legit. No subterfuge. The whole adventure was real.

Dash defeats the zebra before he can unlock the treasure. Her friends are rescued. To be honest, I was hoping the ghosts would get unleashed. I'd like to see what they would do, and then Rainbow Dash would need to solve this mess somehow. I suspect writing adventure is not G.M. Berrow's strong point.

Remember how the Fluttershy book changed focus and moral halfway through? This one completely changed genres. And I have no idea why. WHAT A TWIST!

The whole time, I expected these two halves would be connected somehow. At the end, Rainbow says she learned a lesson about how bravery is being able to accept help from your friends even if you think you don't need it. Hey, that's not the original problem! Besides, that moral's stolen from 'Applebuck Season'

I can think of a few episodes that manage to transition into another genre smoothly, like the race at the end of 'May the Best Pet Win!' Or how about 'A Canterlot Wedding', which manages to do a very similar sharp turn, but doesn't suffer from mood whiplash. Very unexpected at the time, but it works because it grew out of the wedding plot.

So... did you watch Joint Security Area?

If you haven't, you're predicting something about its plot right now, aren't you? Don't worry, it's not a major spoiler. and I'll hide anything too revealing here, because I'm pretty sure most of you didn't watch it!

It really has nothing to do with pony dares or forest adventures at all, I just wanted to share it because I liked it. and it's topical because it's a fascinating example of that genre shift performed so well. I just had to be sneaky and recommend it up-front, in case you wanted to go in with no expectations, like I did. There's a detailed plot summary on that page I linked to, but it's misleading in all the right ways, so it didn't matter if you read that or not.

J.S.A. seems to me like a strong example where the genre shift actually becomes part of the story's message itself. The first act is this cold, impartial look at the conflict and its politics. The witnesses tell completely different stories from each other, yet the evidence doesn't agree with either one. It appears like a Rashomon-style mystery, but it's more like an Orwellian war where neither side wants the truth, as long as they both get leverage to point fingers at each other. Then the tension hits the peak, when Private Nam would rather commit suicide than confess what he knows, and there's no doubt at all that something huge is going on here.

Instead of moving on, it goes back in time. Meanwhile back at the ranch, we see what really happened from a personal viewpoint. And.... the truth is so much simpler.

But it only makes sense from this intimate perspective, and there's no way it can fit into the bigger picture investigation we had earlier. This is how the outside world views the Korean border conflict, full of paradoxical politics and cover-ups, but this is how it might look on an individual level, when you get to know these real people.

It was made in 2000, so maybe attitudes have changed since then. I wouldn't know.

Here's another movie recommendation. Watch Fresh, a 1994 film directed by Boaz Yakin. You'll have to find this one on your own, but it's worth it.

It's about a 12 year old kid working as a drug runner in the hood. He plays chess against his father, and dreams of a better future for himself and his drug-addicted sister. It's amazing too.

extra teaser: Even if you're expecting another twist, you might not notice it happening until it's too late.

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