Episode Re-Review: Daring Doubt · 6:50pm October 19th
After all that, "Tell Your Tale" of course ends on a filler episode rather than something that resolves the lingering plot threads, though it could be because the cancellation was so abrupt that they had no time to plan for it. Time well tell if we get a G6 or what it might involve. Meanwhile, Hasbro is adding more and more episodes of FiM to their official YouTube channel, with their most recent addition being "Rainbow Roadtrip". And leaked concept art seems to imply it was originally planned to be the grand finale for FiM: Twilight going on one last friendship adventure with her friends before taking the throne, which sounds infinitely better than the plot we actually got. Anyway, Season 9's second half was in dire need of redemption after "A Horse Shoe-In" completely messed up. There were no more new writers to debut, it's all veterans from here on out. So was writing this episode? None other than Nicole Dubac, whose writing track record for Season 9 included the insulting rehash that was "Uprooted", and then a CMC episode in the form of "The Last Crusade", which was marred by controversy over Scootaloo's aunts and canonical parents. Doesn't exactly speak well for her, especially given that she inexplicably left "Sounds of Silence" after writing the song for it, and still no word exists on why she only wrote half of "School Raze" and "The Ending of the End". But hey, it was a Daring Do episode, uncharted territory for her. Daring Do's last two outings had pretty good for her, so did this episode succeed where others in Season 9 did not when it came to sending off the character of focus on a high note? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Fluttershy visiting Rainbow Dash, having just now gotten into the Daring Do book series because of Rainbow's recommendations. All is well, until Fluttershy mentions a new book that Rainbow hasn't heard of yet, and that's because it's penned by a different author: Q. Q. Martingale. The books alledges that Daring Do is in fact a terrible pony, who among other things disturbs spider nests and kicks puppies. And Fluttershy, despite having already met Daring Do, believes this, a very bad sign for how her character will be handled throughout this episode.
Rainbow Dash is naturally shocked by this and decides to go see this Q. Q. Martingale at a book signing, which is taking place in the same city Daring Do is posing as A. K. Yearling for a book signing of her own. However, everypony present has read Q. Q. Martingale's book, which even claimed Daring Do was real all along. Yet ponies don't acknowledge this claim, even though they treat everything else in the book as fact. If you're going to be skeptical enough to believe a fictional character is real, why would you magically believe they're not the hero or who they say they are when it's penned by someone you've never heard of before?
A. K. of course denies all the allegations, and complains that the ponies showed up to her book signing just to heckle and harrass her. Yet she doesn't want to go confront Q. Q. Martingale, instead asking Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to do it for her. They agree, and Rainbow immediately notices how Q. Q. looks a lot like Dr. Caballeron. She naturally suspects Caballeron is posing as an author, and is writing a smear campaign against Daring Do. Fluttershy seems to think that's far fetched, despite having met Caballeron (albeit indirectly) back in "Daring Don't", almost as if this episode wishes to pretend that episode doesn't exist.
Rainbow decides not to wait for pleasntries, and confronts Q. Q. about being Dr. Caballeron. Q. Q. then sends all the ponies attending his book signing away, and reveals privately that yes he is indeed Dr. Caballeron, and yes he's writing his book to make Daring Do look bad. He claims that Daring Do gets things wrong in her books, mistaking the color of flowers for example, but Rainbow Dash defends Daring Do and flies away. Fluttershy, however, listens as Caballeron claims to be misunderstood. He says that he never meant to oppose Daring Do at all, he wanted all those ancient artifacts and relics for his own museum. And when he points out that Daring Do disturbs spiders, Fluttershy believes him immediately and decides to join him on a quest into the same basin from "Daring Don't". Even Rainbow Dash is shocked by this!
Unable to convince Fluttershy not to trust Caballeron, Rainbow Dash insteads goes back to A. K. and openly states that Q. Q. Martingale is Dr. Caballeron. A. K. publicly discuses this implication with Rainbow (after previously admitting to kicking a puppy once by accident), and upon realizing Caballeron needs a pegasus' wings to retrieve this artifact known as a truth talisman, she takes off her A. K. disguise publicly, completely negating the purpose of a secret identity.
So Fluttershy sets off with Dr. Caballeron's posse, effortlessly charming the jungle cats and displaying kindness towards his men, even when Caballeron repeatedly yells at them or abandons them as soon as danger rears its ugly head. She even lures away some fliders that have gathered near the temple entrance with a flute, as opposed to say a wind waker or an ocarina.
Meanwhile, Daring Do tells Rainbow Dash why she hasn't gone off the truth talisman herself, saying that it's too dangerous to take by herself, and confident that since only a pegasus' wings could reach it that would mean it was out of Caballeron's reach. Then she and Rainbow Dash are captured and hogtied by Ahuizotl, still voiced by Brian Drummond. He accuses them of having subdued his jungle cats, but Daring says that it wasn't her, and she and Rainbow ultimately manage to break free of the ropes and slip away, even as Ahuizotl chases after them.
Fluttershy, meanwhile, reaches the room where the truth talisman lurks. And Dr. Caballeron claims that he can't risk Fluttershy's safety to retrieve it, but Fluttershy insits on going after it anyways. She retrieves it, just as Rainbow Dash and Daring Do show up and warn her not to give the talisman to Caballeron. Fluttershy does so, but now the talisman is revealed to conveniently force whoever wears it or touches it to tell the truth. Not surprisingly, Caballeron says that he was indeed just using Fluttershy to get the talisman, though he confesses that he and his men have been warming up to her kindness. Yet Fluttershy barely reacts to what should've been obvious: She was tricked.
Ahuzitol then shows up, and sics a bunch of gargoyles on everyone.
As a result, Daring Do and Caballeron are forced to work together, the two even sharing their knowledge of past encounters with supposedly similar threats. Dr. Caballeron is also manipulated into revealing he has this rare gemstone he somehow stole from Daring Do and held onto until now. Fed up with the truth talisman forcing him to be truthful, Caballeron ditches it, and it ultimately ends up on one of his henchponies, who ultimately expresses that he wants to give up being an adventurer and become an opera star. Eventually, however, everyone ends up trapped in a narrow corridor, with Ahuizotl wating just outside for them. Yet Fluttershy decides, completely on a whim and with no evidence to support her, to give the truth talisman to Ahuizotl and ask him if he really means to be bad. Ahuizotl says he doesn't, he's apparently been trying to protect the basin all along, and he's about to get into trouble with these never before mentioned guardians because he's supposedly let so many treasures be pilliged.
Caballeron's "reformation" was already a stretch, but Ahuziotl's is a complete contradiction of everything we knew about him before. He never once mentioned these guardians or "protecting" the basin's treasures. Yes, supposedly this could put a new spin on his plan to subject the valley to an unbreakable eight hundred year heat wave, making the valley so hot that ponies wouldn't be able to enter it. But remember how in "Daring Done" it was revealed that if Daring hadn't thwarted Ahuizotl in her then most recent adventure that Somnambula's village would've sunk beneath the sands? Assuming Ahuizotl was doing that just to "protect" the basin, that means he either didn't know about sinking the village, or didn't care, even though the ponies living there certainly never did anything to him and would not have deserved such a punishment. And that's to say nothing of how he was willing to hurt Rainbow Dash just for siding with Daring Do, something Caballeron also expressed no qualms about. What, is it a case of "Punish the innocent along with the guilty"? Do the ends justify the means?
Yet this claim is treated as fact because the truth talisman apparently can never be wrong, it will always force someone to tell the truth no matter what. And there is no way it can be manipulated, not even by someone who might believe the lies they tell (which is why lie detector tests are not amessible evidence of guilt or innocence, they can be easily manipulated or give false positive or negative results).
So in exchange for Caballeron and Daring Do both promising to leave the basin and its treasures alone (Caballeron admitting he just wanted to steal them for profit, whilst Daring Do thought she was just protecting the treasures), Ahuziotl lets everyone go. And despite not having any reason to do so, Daring Do reveals that she is in fact A. K. Yearling, something Dr. Caballeron never actually suspected (he knew Daring Do was real but apparently never deduced that A. K. Yearling was a disguise). Then, Daring Do and Caballeron team up for a new book, only for them to be completely upstaged by Ahuizotl, who is now the author of his own book series where he claims to be the hero. So Daring Do's reputation is supposedly still in shambles, with no indication that Caballeron printed a retraction of his accusations (not even potentially under threat of a lawsuit).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Quite honestly, I have no idea what was going through Nicole Dubac's head when she wrote this episode. It completely contradicts everything known prior about Daring Do's two greatest villains, suggesting they weren't really evil, just misunderstood. And it ignores all the evidence that would prove otherwise, even stuff Fluttershy herself would be a witness to. As if the unwanted redemption of Garble wasn't bad enough, we now have two more unwanted redemptions, even though they would go on to not reform the Legion of Doom, all the while letting Discord get off scot free for using them in the first place. Was this to cover their bases for the Legion of Doom's fate, to justify it by saying that they weren't going to reform every villain, or that not every villain could change? That seems like the only way you could ever think of this idea in the first place. Who in their right mind wanted to see Dr. Caballeron and Ahuizotl reform? Nobody, that's who. Yet Nicole went ahead and reformed them anyway because she wanted to.
And for Daring Do's final episode, she does very little. She's really just reacting to whatever comes her way, she displays very little foresight, and the explanation for why she never took the truth talisman for herself feels like a flimsy justification. Heck, the episode ends with her reputation supposedly still in shambles, whereas "Daring Done" ended with her reaffirming why she wanted to be a hero yet also realizing that she was still responsible for the damage she inadvertently caused. Why, after all of that, would you want to end her story by having her be upstaged by someone just now claiming to be the hero despite all evidence to the contrary?
As for Fluttershy, she ends up looking completely niave, disregarding what she's seen before and the friend she's known since childhood in favor of someone claiming to be misunderstood. And then on a whim, she decides to trust someone else she doesn't really know all that well just because. This isn't giving someone the benefit of the doubt, this is just blindly trusting someone. It's as bad as Charlie Brown believing Lucy everytime she says she won't pull the football away, only to of course do so. Contrast that to "Keep Calm and Flutter On" where she revealed that she was well aware of Discord's bad behavior, and her giving him space to be himself was so as to earn his trust. And when Discord bragged about using her to avoid being turned to stone again, Fluttershy snapped and walked away. That Fluttershy is completely absent here.
Here, Fluttershy sides with Caballeron just because he claims Daring Do disturbs spiders, That's as bad as Fluttershy not wanting to let Applejack do anything to the invading vampire fruit bats in "Bats!", even when she has no way to control them or make them obey her. It feels like they turned Fluttershy into a PETA advocate, the animal rights group who think Pokemon encourages animal abuse even though the games often provide incentives for you to treat the Pokemon well (including the many evolutions that can only be obtained through high friendship). About the only one who does look good here is Rainbow Dash, who has every reason to believe Daring Do over Caballeron and Ahuizotl because she's been with Daring Do on her adventures, and has seen for herself how cruel Caballeron and Ahuizotl can be. So naturally, I'm going to believe her when she says that Caballeron and Ahuizotl cannot be the good guys. I get what they might have been trying to go for, here: There are often two sides to every story, and almost everyone likes to think they're the hero of their own story no matter what. Caballeron's reformation is a stretch, but at least it is possible that, given how cold Daring Do was back in "Daring Don't", that Caballeron did originally want to work with her and she turned him down. Ahuizotl, though, his reformation is a complete contradiction of everything he's ever said or done before. Yet because this truth talisman is apparently infailable, it is a dues-ex-machina that must compel its wielder to tell the truth no matter what, Ahuziotl's story is apparently true. The only way I could see this working is if you made Ahuizotl into a fallen angel kind of character: He used to be with the good guys (the guardians), but was cast out because of his own acts and thus turned to the dark side. Otherwise, it simply isn't compatible with his character before. I will say this is at least a better final showing for Rainbow Dash than "2, 4, 6, Greaaat". But neither is truly anywhere close to being the good send-off for her that "Common Ground" was. Like Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Spike, and Trixie before her, Rainbow Dash goes out on a low note rather than a high note.
This episode ultimately gets a borderline D+/C-. Did we really need an episode as insulting as this? It's really saying something when Nicole Dubac's only truly best work was either her teaming up directly with Haber and Vogel for "Shadow Play", or her sticking to her own continuity (and even then it's not entirely her own continuity since the books that gave us Scootaloo's aunts were a collab between Nicole Dubac and Michael Vogel that was published under a pen name). Whereas whenever she was working with any other continuity, she completely screwed up and made every character look bad. It seems like she was only ever good at writing the CMC, every other character was someone she just could not comprehend (aside from maybe Rainbow Dash). I can only assume she got so much favorable treatment in the last two seasons because she was a friend of Josh and Michael. But sadly, they learned the hard way why they say never to work with friends. Mind you, I'm not saying this to be mean to Nicole, good people can make bad art and vice versa. But as a writer, her talents sadly just don't measure up to the high standards that many other writers of seasons prior had, or even the standards that Haber and Vogel had despite a few stumbles.
Well, there's only one episode left to re-review, then one last Equestria Girls special, and a look back at "A New Generation" in light of G5's abrupt cancellation. And the last episode from FiM to cover that I skipped over back in 2021 is "Growing Up is Hard to Do", an episode originally planned for Season 4 that was shelved over apparent difficulties and disagreements about what it wanted to do: Age up the CMC.
Even though it's not my favorite Daring Do episode, i still like it more than Daring Done.
The scene where Dash gets captured in that episode is far more egregious to me than any moment in this
5810762 Dash getting captured is a problem, but claiming Ahuizotl and Caballeron are just misunderstood despite all we've seen them do is far worse. You can't just selectively rewrite continuity like that. That's what G5 did, and it really didn't work out for them.
5810771
I actually have an easier time accepting Ahuizotl, since we don't really know for sure how much of Quest for the Sapphire Stone actually happened and how much was Daring embellishing, and the events of Daring Don't centered specifically on the valley being subject to heat, which would have been a deterrent to further thefts
Now I wonder if anyone other than Twilight, Celestia, and Luna managed to have a good last focus episode?
Where's the actual source on Rainbow Roadtrip being considered as a finale? I know it was initially conceived as a potential sequel to the 2017 movie, but no source claims it was gonna be the finale.
5810778 Like I said, it's only based on leaked concept art, which was shown recently in a video exploring G5's failures. One of the sketches shows Twilight sitting in her throne room alone, in tears, while behind her is a picture of her friends in the shape of a heart. It's likely that was an early draft after the decision not to have it be a direct sequel to the 2017 movie.
5810776 What about how it was stated in "Daring Done" that if he hadn't been stopped Somnambula's village would've sunk beneath the sands? And what about him using Rainbow Dash as to bait to force Daring Do's surrender, or him twice leaving her in a death trap?
5810781
Fair enough on those
The best way to describe this episode is what Josh Scorcher said in his Rainbow Falls review:
Voice of Reason wasn't kidding when he said this episode was so bad that it completely ruined the previous Daring Do episodes for him, especially his then favorite episode at the time Stranger Than Fan Fiction. BTW, if you're wondering what his favorite episode is now, I can't tell you because he never said what it is. I think he meant to reveal it in his (more or less cancelled) BEST of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic video with Thespio.
Anyway, if this isn't Fluttershy's worst outing in the entire series, then it's definitely in the Bottom 3. Seriously, the Hero of Tomorrow thought she was naive to the point of being stupid in Part 1 of The Cutie Map during his Season 5 reaction video? That Fluttershy was a genius compared to the one in this episode! Not to mention her being able to reform not one but both of Daring Do's archenemies is just overkill. You know, Twilight dismissing the royal committee's help in Between Dark and Dawn may have been stupid as well, but at least that episode didn't end up saying she was right to so.
I stand by what I've said before. A Trivial Pursuit and Dragon Dropped were better send-offs to Twilight's over the top freak-outs and Spike's crush on Rarity, respectively, than this episode was to the Daring Do saga. It honestly feels like Nicole Dubac hated the Daring Do episodes, and purposefully wrote all of these contradictions just to spite anyone who actually did like them. Really, the only positive things I can say about it are Rainbow Dash being much more likable here than in 2, 4, 6, Greaaat and the fact that unlike Daring Done you can actually skip this one and it won't affect the season finale in any way.
Alright, you know the drill by now. First and last speaking lines of Daring Do and her former antagonists.
Ahuizotl
Daring Do
Dr. Caballeron
Again, I wonder when reading reviews of FIM episodes after the movie...
There any point in watching those seasons? Even just as a completion goal?
5810796 There are good episodes in Seasons 8 and 9, more so in Season 9 than Season 8. Season 9 is actually my third favorite season overall, behind only Seasons 5 and 7.
If I said it once, I’ll say it again:
“Daring Doubt” is quite honestly the worst episode of the entire 9th season. Or, at least, one of the season’s worst.
Among many things, it was the one time I found myself hating Fluttershy. Her naivety, the way everything constantly kept going in her favor, and the fact that she blindly put her trust in both Caballeron and Ahuizotl, were nothing short of infuriating, because when you look at it from a realistic perspective…it felt like the episode was saying that it’s okay to blindly put your trust in strangers without fear of ever getting stabbed in the back afterwards! And to blindly your trust in individuals who were confirmed guilty of several terrible things in the past!
And like you said, the whole “Ahuizotl being a relic guardian” thing completely contradicts Ahuizotl’s confirmed portrayal in “Daring Don’t”, and the mention of him trying to destroy the city of Somnambula in “Daring Done?”. At no point was there any implication that he wanted to protect ancient relics in the former episode, and the latter one confirms all-the-more that he wants to use relics for destructive purposes. Also, when you consider the fact that Daring Do is shown to be a purely honest and good-hearted pony, it really makes the idea of her embellishing anything in her books highly unlikely. The idea of Daring even doing that would also be out-of-character for her.
What really doesn’t help the matter is that the episode was ultimately given no follow-up or reference of any kind. Neither Caballeron or Ahuizotl ever showed up for Twilight’s coronation in “The Last Problem”, only Daring Do did; and, its events weren’t mentioned or depicted in the “Friendship is Forever” miniseries either. So really, what place would the episode ever have in FiM’s continuity in the long run other than to serve as a headache-inducer?
5810797
I'm confused, if season 9 is in the top 3 best seasons, how come there aren't a lot of good episodes in the second half outside of the series finale three parter? Not to mention a lot of characters like Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, Spike, the CMC, Discord, Starlight, and Trixie not getting good send offs for their final focus episodes.
5810815 It's a lot like Season 7 and Season 5: When it hits, it really hits!
5810814 I honestly hate to say it, but I think I have to agree with 5810784 in that this was intended as a middle finger to anyone who ever cared about Daring Do and the Daring Do episodes, that it was an act done purely out of spite for whatever reason. Given that Nicole had no qualms making Twilight sink to an all time low in "Marks for Effort" or reward Discord for acting like a spoiled brat in "A Matter of Principals", I guess it's not entirely out of the question that she wanted to make Daring Do look bad and make Fluttershy look good for no reason other than because.
5810814
I do wonder then, how could Fluttershy have been better in this episode?
5810828 Make her as self aware as she was in "Keep Calm and Flutter On", and not have her niavely trust Caballeron and Ahuizotl for starters.
5810821
5810784
I agree.
These very revelations were also among the reasons for why I’ve often been formulating follow-ups for “Daring Doubt” where everything Fluttershy did in the story ultimately bites at her flank in the long run, mainly on the grounds that the episode felt like an incomplete story that no one bothered to finish anyway. One of the sad realities of the world we live in is that there are people who’ll take advantage of the kindness another extends to them; and while there are some who are inspired by the kindness someone gives them to turn over a new leaf, there are others who’ll actually repay that kindness by ultimately using it for their own nefarious purposes, with no regrets whatsoever.
Because nothing like that ever happened with Fluttershy, I was often fascinated by the idea of her being put through a situation where her acts of kindness unwittingly further another’s wicked agendas and are repaid with cruelty in the long run. And a situation where someone who gains her friendship is ultimately revealed to be a villain. Ahuizotl, despite the Truth Talisman, was the very character whom I thought would be perfect for that role. I even considered giving Fluttershy a double whammy by having Caballeron revert back to his old ways.
What do you think?
5810830
By that logic, should there also be a story where Rainbow Dash's loyalty bites her in the flank? Same for Rarity's generosity biting her in the flank and Applejack's honesty biting her in the flank?
We do nearly get that moment with Fluttershy in the season 4 finale when Discord betrayed everyone initially?
5810833
I can’t remember if that was ever done with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, but I’m pretty sure it happened with Rarity in Season 4’s “Rarity Takes Manehattan”. When Suri Polomare asked Rarity if she could “borrow” some of the latter’s fabric for her own line, it turned out that she used Rarity’s generous spirit for her own nefarious purposes: To steal someone else’s ideas and present them as her own.
I think that’s an entirely different story. It’s true that Discord betrayed Fluttershy by siding with Tirek, but after he was betrayed by Tirek in turn, he genuinely regretted his actions and wanted to make up for all he did.
5810836
Kind of. He still thought he was entitled to a reward at the end when he complained about not getting a throne of his own, even though he was directly responsible for things getting so bad in the first place. It's still leagues above his actions in "A Matter of Principals" or "The Ending of the End", however.
5810840
My guess is that this was likely done to both imply & show that Discord still had a long way to go in terms of self-improvement & character growth.