Leaked Episode - "Daring Done" · 10:50pm Sep 3rd, 2017

In case people haven't heard, Hasbro appears to have accidentally leaked next week's episode and now it's poppin' up all over YouTube. I considered waiting until next week to watch it (like I'm sure many are doing), but when I found out it was "Daring Done," that wasn't happening.

So I watched it.

And I loved it.

Spoilers below.

I hardly blog about new episodes as they come out. There are plenty of forums for that all over the website and even more spoiler chats in various discord servers and skype channels (if people still use that?) for people to discuss them. Today I'm making an exception.

Daring Do is my favourite side-character. There are a lot of amazing characters, but I've always loved Daring Do. She's had hardly any screen-time over the course of seven seasons, but there are bits and pieces of her character that have resonated with me so much that I can't help but unfairly adore her.

Note: this isn't going to be an in-depth breakdown or review of the episode. As I said before, there are plenty of places for that to happen and plenty of people who go to great lengths to discuss and break down every episode of the show that airs. So what is this, you might ask? What's the point of this blog? Mostly me wigging out. Will any of you care for that? Maybe. Probably not. Am I still going on? Yes. Yes I am.

If you've watched the episode, then you'll know that Daring Do has announced her retirement after having her spirit broken. Ponies she's thought she's helped hate her and blame her for the destruction she leaves in the wake of her adventures, and it crushes her. Yes, it turns out that a certain (kind of dashing?) villain eggs on the ponies of Sonnebula into hating Daring Do, but the point stands, she's had her spirit broken.

And I think that's why I love her character so much.

When we first met Daring Do, she was a grouchy hermit. She lives far away from anypony else and only a select few know where she lives. She worked alone, lived alone, and was alone. She didn't think she needed anyone else. Since then and since meeting Rainbow Dash, we've seen her open herself up into someone who genuinely cares. In "Stranger Than Fanfiction", gone is the growly mare who just tolerated Rainbow's persistence.

In her place we have a mare who, after rescuing Rainbow Dash, scolded her (in the most worried of voices) for going off and having an adventure without her. She's let others in, has friends, and cares for them. It's a very small group of ponies that she's let in and we see now in "Daring Done" that she's still very much a recluse. She still lives far away from other ponies and, when the ponies of Sonnebula lifted her up and cheered her name, she lapped up the praise for only a second before saying "Okay, okay, that's enough."

But the point is she's let herself openly care. I believe she's always cared about chasing down relics and stopping bad guys, but since meeting Rainbow she's let herself care more about ponies. She cares that the ponies she thought she was helping hated her and was crushed by the knowledge that she, in some ways, hurt as much as she helped. I don't know if Caballeron could have broken her spirit like he did here before she met Rainbow Dash.

BUT ALSO CAN WE PLEASE APPRECIATE HOW CUTE SHE AND RAINBOW DASH ARE THROUGHOUT THIS WHOLE EPISODE?

These are gyazo links so they'll probably break soon-ish. I'll maybe snag better ones from derpibooru later.

My god Rainbow's smile and Daring's smile MY HEART.

If I wasn't already working on a DaringDash story, I'd for sure be brainstorming something now.

So yes, I adored this episode. I adore Daring Do. I don't know if anyone will read this or care, but it felt like something I needed to get out there.

Also omg Sonnebula. I love her and might need to write another story featuring her.