Ranking the Daring Do Episodes (From Worst to Best), Version 2 · 1:58pm Sep 23rd, 2019
First of all, think of this as an extremely late birthday president for Chiara Zanni who voices Daring Do (her birthday was July 19). Now onto the list proper, there's probably not too much to really say since Daring Do only got one more episode (bumping her total up to 5) but considering where to place it was tricky. In the end I'm fairly confident of my decision to place it where it is, but you may disagree and that's okay. Here's the first version, from March.
5. Read It and Weep (Season 2, Episode 16)
Why it stayed on the bottom: As far as Daring Do episodes go this one remains her weakest, simply because at the time she was just a one off fictional character. She served her role well enough for the episode, her character felt like a mix of Indiana Jones and Laura Croft from the Tomb Raider franchise. But the real focus was on Rainbow Dash and her trying to keep her newfound love of reading a secret.
4. Daring Don't (Season 4, Episode 4)
Why it moved down: We finally got to see Daring Do as a real character, something that a few people still take issue with even though fanfics exploring this concept were done all the way back in Season 2 and probably inspired this episode. There's enough wiggle room for us to believe Daring is real and the threats she faces are real. But all things considered Daring is kind of a jerk in this episode. It's a little understandable why given her "I work alone" attitude, but there are times when she come across as condescending toward Rainbow Dash for no real reason. She does get better toward the end when she admits that sometimes it's okay to ask for help, but she never really apologizes to Rainbow Dash for making her doubt herself even after we learn Daring planned to get caught. If not for Rainbow's friends, Daring likely wouldn't have succeeded (she would've gotten out of the death trap but would've been unable to steal the rings without Ahuizotl noticing until it was too late).
3. Daring Doubt (Season 9, Episode 21)
Why it's in the middle: Even if Daring Do felt like kind of an afterthought here, I do like some of the ideas they tried to explore here. There's some room to believe that maybe Caballeron wasn't always so bad, we don't know how the team up offer with Daring Do went and given what we saw of her in "Daring Don't" it's possible she was cold to him even when he may have legitimately wanted to help. And the idea that Daring, even if she has good intentions, is stealing the artifacts from their resting place. It's a shame that the episode ends on such a questionable note, I might like to see how she would help Caballeron adjust to being her partner, or even coming to terms with Ahuizotl becoming an author too. Plus, there's the little detail of her revealing herself in front of a filly. Does she think nopony's gonna believe the filly since ponies thought that as A. K. Yearling she was being bribed by Daring Do?
2. Stranger Than Fanfiction (Season 6, Episode 14 in production order/13 in airdate)
Why it stayed the same: The top two haven't changed, so there's really not much to say either way on them. While this is a Daring Do episode, her role only really comes into play late into the episode. The majority of it is spent on Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants, including them being kidnapped by Dr. Caballeron and having to trek their way through the jungle on their own. Daring seems surprisingly okay with another pony knowing her secret, and I know I keep bringing this up but are we absolutely sure she isn't related to either Rainbow Dash or Quibble Pants at all? There is also a bit of a nagging question as to how she caught up to Rainbow and Quibble, was she tipped off about them being kidnapped and followed their trail?
1. Daring Done? (Season 7, Episode 17 in production order/18 in airdate)
Why it stayed on the top: As flawed as this episode was, for Daring Do it was a really good outing. Daring had always seemed confident and in control of the situation prior to this episode, so seeing her in a vulnerable state was an interesting and welcome change. It really shows how being a hero isn't always about fame and glory, there will always be those who find reason to complain about what you do. And sometimes being a hero means going without thanks. In a way, Daring Do's struggle here reminds me of the mental speech Peter Parker gives to himself at the end of the third episode of The Spectacular Spider Man when he considers the possibility of drinking a potion to take away his spider powers. Particularly the part where he says "So what if nobody threw me a parade? Spidey stays because Spidey's needed." I'm still kind of bummed that we never saw Daring Do and Somnambula team up at all, or even saw a brief scene of Somnambula visiting Daring Do to thank her for protecting her village. Oh well, that's a minor detail and it doesn't change how great this episode was for Daring Do. Had it been her final episode it would've been a good enough send-off for her.
And there you have it.
For me it goes:
Stranger Than Fanfiction
Daring Doubt
Daring Don't
Read It and Weep
Daring Done
So, it looks like this'll be the last updated Episode Ranking list we'll get until the series finale comes out on TV.
5125838 Not quite, there are going to be a few more. Shining Armor and Cadence are going to get updated at least.
5125967
Now that I think about it, there's also Spike, the CMC and Big Macintosh.
After some consideration, I think Daring Doubt is the worst Daring Do episode for just how much it ret-cons her previous episodes all for the sake of putting Fluttershy in the right and making her the one who ends up saving the day. Basically, this episode feels like it was shilling Fluttershy in a similar vein to how you feel about Starlight getting shilled in certain episodes of her own.
5129875 I don't think you can call it shilling since Fluttershy was unbelievably naive to believe Caballeron's sob story. I think it was more turning her into a mouth piece and Rainbow Dash into a strawman over the subject of redemption.
5129911
Okay, that was a poor choice of words. But you get my point. Fluttershy single-handedly brought the episode down with how much its story had to bend the show's continuity backwards just to put her in the right and make her the one who saves the day. I agree that Daring Done? would've been a better final outing for Daring Do as despite that episode's flaws, at least it didn't go out of its way to glorify Pinkie Pie at the expense of Daring's character.
Honestly, for me, “Daring Doubt” is always going to be the worst of the Daring Do episodes.