Stranger Danger Fanwank [episode spoilers!] · 5:00pm Jul 30th, 2016
Oh god, we're doing this again, aren't we? @_@ I haven't even watched the show during the hiatus. This is yet another reason why mid-season breaks are fucking stupid. Getting back into the show always feels like a chore.
I did go back and rewatch Spice Up Your Life, at least. I think I was right in saying that things don't pick up until they actually find the Tasty Treat, but damned if this isn't one of the funnest episodes in recent memory. :D Goddamn do I love Saffron Masala. And that song! I was so looking forward to seeing them again and I was not disappointed.
Speaking of disappointment and looking forward to things, I was not looking forward to this week's episode at all! :D No better way to come back from a hiatus than a months-long buildup of expectations of severe cringe! Thankfully, I was also not disappointed!
Okay, so, from the moment I first heard about this episode -- the moment I saw the title -- I had a bad feeling. "Fuck's sake," I said, emptying my elephant rifle into the maw of yet another mutant zombie crocodile, "they need to stop pandering to the fans!" And then I found out Rainbow Dash was going to a Daring Do convention: it got worse. And then I found out she would be arguing with a 'true fan' named Quibble Pants: it got worse.
And then I watched the episode and it got way, way better. :D I've never been happier to be wrong.
While not the bestest episode evar u guize, this is at least as good as Daring Don't, which I always liked, and treated all the fan-related stuff in a relatable, non-cringey way. Quibble Pants was not the unwashed manchild I was expecting (though I did notice a congoer who distinctly looked unwashed). The con itself felt like a real-world fan convention, and I appreciated a lot of what they showed. (Though did you notice how the entire thing was just vendors' room?)
Most importantly, the message came across well. I did find myself cringing throughout the episode at just about everything QP did (seriously, who the fuck hates their child enough to name him Quibble Pants? Wait, sudden headcanon: he's a distant, black sheep relative of Fancy Pants. Okay, moving on). Most especially, when either his unbearable know-it-all canon knowledge ended up making him right, or when he shut up Rainbow with an "I am talking now!" I didn't want him to be right, or be the one who saved them, but in hindsight? The whole point of this episode was "there is more than one way to be a fan" and "fans should get along with each other", shades of, respectively, something Lauren Faust said and something the Steven Crewniverse keeps trying to tell people on Tumblr, to little effect.
And I like that. Rainbow helped them do stuff. Quibble helped them do stuff. (Together, they're a better Daring Do than Daring???) Caballeron got made fun of quite a bit. Actually, the fact that he and his henchponies had no idea how to deal with QP's lack of belief in their existence was hilarious. Some fantastic faces in this episode. Dare I forget the monster. That thing was like 80% mouth, I love it to death. :D (Also, them ancient Aztec alicorns!)
So yeah, this was a good episode with a good message. Maybe my wish that the cringe-inducing titles presage actually good episodes will come true! (I'm looking at you, Dungeons and Discord!)
(Also, true story, that mock title I used for the journal was not actually what I had meant to type, but I am leaving it there!)
A Hearth's Warming Tail
Gauntlet of Fire
No Second Prances
Spice Up Your Life
Stranger Than Fan Fiction
Flutter Brutter
The Crystalling
Applejack's "Day" Off
The Saddle Row Review
On Your Marks
The Gift of the Maud Pie
Newbie Dash
Luna's Future
Say Goodbye to the Holiday
Seeds of the Past
Hearth's Warming Eve Is Here Once Again
It's Gonna Work
Pinkie's Present
Can I Do It on My Own
Out on My Own
Having just gone to my first con(bronycon) this episode really hit the mark. Also Derpy is best dollar store cosplay
Yeah, this got uncomfortably meta at times, but it was quite fun overall.
4122314
Caballeron + Box Gundam = epic win. Though I may be a bit biased.
One of my favorite bits was the henchpony that walked up to Caballeron near the beginning with what I think was one of the body pillows.
Fanboy Dafaddah speaks: This episode resolves a question I've harbor red ever since the Daring Don't episode. the puzzle orientation of the first series of Daring Do books explains how Twilight got hooked into an adventures series in the first place!
Fanfic author Dafaddah chortles and rubs hands together: so much new world building material to play with!
Body pillows of a bound Daring Do. 'Nuff said.
By their powers combined, they are Daring Done Better.
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In the early parts, I was afraid it was going to be a huge meta-commentary about how most fans are wrong. Having a character who denounces later canon was just the thing for that. Except that it's not about that at all, and basing this episode around Daring Do -- a character who's episode many fans detest in a similar fashion -- was clever by itself.
That crocodile thing was based on a real Aztec monster, according to Twitter.
Yeah, fun episode, and Patton Oswalt did a fine job. And the con looked like a fusion of a fandom con vendor's hall with one of those trade conferences
Also, Community gives me hope that tv shows can do proper D&D episodes, so who knows, maybe we will get something good, despite it being a Discord episode.
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I would have expected nothing less!
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A Discord and Spike episode, don't forget. Here's hoping it flips around the end of the suck meter back into awesome territory.
4123483 Oh god, I didn't know about that...
Yes, the Ahuizotl.
Often confused with the ruler Ahuitzotl.
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Yeah, I do appreciate that aspect of it, especially since I hate fun and still don't really care for Daring's inclusion as a real thing. Doesn't change the fact this was one of the most fun episodes of the season so far, though. :V
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Yeah, the adventucation booth in particular reminded me of some of the booths at a health care IT conference I went to last year.
Community and, though it was its own independent thing rather than part of a larger series, I'd add The Gamers.
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I really feel like this was a response to the fan backlash after Daring Don't, and they somehow pulled it off in a way that doesn't make you feel like a jerk for feeling a certain way.
My dread of what it might have been severely enhanced my enjoyment of what it actually was.
*That awkward moment when you realized Rainbow just bonded more with a one-shot character than she has, like, anyone else aside from maybe Applejack in 6 seasons of episodes.*
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Obviously, she's way cooler than her friends. :V
4125020 Onscreen. This episode starts with a scene of how Twi and Dash have bonded over Daring Do, and there might be some other adventure books by now. Knowing Twi she sure tried to introduce Dash to something else by now. There may also be flying, though that's vague and implied. Fluttershy is clearly an old friend, though being Dash of course she takes her for granted sometimes, and this really true of everyone. Best on how Rarity acted right before the best young flyers competition there was clearly some kind of bonding experience there, even if it seems rather one sided. AJ is obviously all over the place, one full episode and parts of countless more. Pinkie is mostly offscreen, even in the episode that showed thier bonding experience, but the pranking montage did give you some idea. While Dash is obviously not even going to try to hide her feelings, no matter how impolite, her being annoyed with Pinkie in no way means she bonded with Quibble more.
4125125 While the actual result was cringe inducing, the reason I was smiling the whole time Dash decided doing impressions of her friends would impress the Wonderbolts is it made something clear. Namely no matter how dumb an idea, she actually thinks her friends are cool, in their own way at least.
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Um.
I think it is very obvious that is what I was talking about.
4126671 It isn't, but I am willing to accept that I may be at least close to the only one this isn't obvious to, if not literally the only one. However more to the point there is more than enough onscreen post bonding scenes that is seems somehow unfair, even as a joke and it's also likely I might be overly sensitive about this.