My Review of MLP: FIM season 9 episode 21–Daring Doubt · 1:41am May 19th, 2021
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! I welcome you all to my review of season 9 episode 21: Daring Doubt! Quite surprisingly, this is one of the episodes that is most notoriously known for blatantly defying continuity and canon from the previous Daring Do episodes and supposedly giving the character herself a very bad send-off. How bad is this episode you may ask? Is this episode as horrible as many Bronies make it out to be? Well, let’s find out as we delve right into this final Daring Do episode!
The episode starts with dialogue between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy as they read some new books published by a new author by the name of Groom Q. Q. Martingale. Huh, nice to know Fluttershy is now a new fan of the comic series. So as Fluttershy shows her those new entries, since Rainbow has never seen those before, it reveals a whole new perspective about Daring Do, speaks negatively about her, and reveals the fact that she is actually a real pony. To be honest, it was actually kinda cool that Nicole Dubuc allowed Caballeron to tell the story from his perspective.
That’s why it’s important to hear all sides of the story including a villain’s perspective. In that way, there will be no bias of any sort once a story is told from both sides. The only thing the reader must be careful about is to discern which side is telling the truth and who is giving a faulty perspective. However, I have a huge problem with the end result of that:
They villainized Daring Do as the one in the wrong whereas Caballeron himself was just someone trying to do something decent or some crap. That’s one of the things I actually hate about this episode: they make her look bad while paint Caballeron as a victim of some sort. Is that what you were going for, Nicole? I don’t even like Daring Do that much, but I still hate how she did her dirty like that.
Angered by the way the new author spoke of her idol, Rainbow decides to look for him and interrogate him while bringing Fluttershy with her. However, upon arrival, she discovers that Martingale is actually Caballeron in disguise. Meanwhile, A.K. Yearling is under hot water by angry fans who have read the new books.
It is amazing how one negative perspective of Daring Do’s adventure could spark an entire controversy/debate like an oil for the flames. It’s really funny how they immediately buy that shit without even trying to have a civil discussion with A.K. Yearling if any of those things were true or not. They will believe anything they read or hear without question. Again, I must ask this question: how high or low are the ponies’ I.Q.?
Later, Fluttershy finally meets with Caballeron himself and hears for herself his side of the story of his adventures against Daring Do. To be completely fair, I fail to see how this would make any sense for Fluttershy to not be suspicious in the slightest as she is talking with him. She literally recalled the guy’s past attempt to sell an ancient artifact to the highest bidder (Daring Don’t), yet she was gullible enough to believe his innocence and actually join him?
Fluttershy, I love you, babe, but why the hell are you this stupid? You saw how crafty and greedy he was when he fought Daring Do from the episode Daring Don’t, but you act like this is the first time you’re seeing him in person. Yeah, this is the first time they’ve talked together but not the first time she’s seen him in action. Don’t you think it’s dangerous to teach kids watching this episode to trust strangers without even a second thought just because they claim to be the good guy or that they’re not that bad?
I know that Fluttershy’s element is kindness, but that should not be an excuse for her to be so gullible and idiotic in trusting Caballeron so quickly. It’s no wonder Rainbow was so shocked and angered to see her side with him.
As Rainbow relays the bad news to Yearling, the latter willingly agrees to help and rapidly dresses up as Daring Do... right in front of a filly. Great job, dumb fuck, you just revealed your secret identity to a little kid who could tell her parents you’re actually real.
Anyway, Fluttershy goes with Caballeron and his henchponies to a temple where the truth talisman is being held. During this adventure, Fluttershy actually demonstrates her kindness to her new “friends” by being caring to them. Although Caballeron pretends to be nice to his own men, he eventually is touched by her kindness. Speaking of which, I actually liked the fact Nicole gave the henchponies distinct personalities and some lines of dialogue. It literally made them stand out more as actual characters.
Meanwhile, as Rainbow and Daring attempt to enter inside the temple, they are briefly apprehended by the infamous Ahuizotl himself. Realizing what they were after, he seeks to stop them from reaching the truth talisman. They escape his clutches and fly right in.
They eventually all meet up again and grab hold of the truth teller. With it, Caballeron reveals his honest intentions and actually stated how he found Fluttershy’s company very enjoyable. Then we have a brief fight scene with Ahuizotl until we meet the most appalling factor that spat right in the face of character consistency.
The big guy reveals through the truth device that he was actually a guardian this whole time and only wanted to keep his treasure away from thieves lest he gets in trouble with other guardian creatures.
Huh??? 😂 Like, what? I am confusion?? Didn’t you proclaim that you were going to show the whole world your true power and that you were going to subject your entire jungle to sweltering heat for 800 years? Daring Don’t, anyone? How exactly is that a “guardian” thing to do? Doesn’t that make you a paranoid, gatekeeping lunatic in the long run?
And why was Caballeron surprised of Daring Do’s identity as A.K. Yearling? He and his henchponies saw her reveal herself as Daring Do in her own home in Daring Don’t. You know her secret identity, so why the overreaction?
You all know the ending: everypony made peace with each other, the secondary villains get reformed out of nowhere, Daring and Caballeron work together as authors, and Ahuizotl becomes a story teller at the end. By Primus, that was most definitely a mediocre way to conclude Daring Do’s character arc.
Overall, this episode had its great potential completely wasted with a poorly developed retcon, butchered character development, a half-baked moral, and is such a huge defiance to established canon and continuity of previous Daring Do episodes. While the main message itself “Everyone deserves kindness and to be heard out” is a great lesson, it still resulted in regressing its characters. This gets a straight up D.
Peace.
There's two sides to every story.
This might be something unusual coming from me, but for sure though: Caballeron and Ahuizotl should NOT have reformed in this episode!
I mean it's saying something given their actions in the appearances they have made with the latter debuting back in Season 2 and the former debuting back in Season 4.
Am I right on that or what, Mr. J? :D
5521254
Except that only one is telling the actual truth and only one is correct.
I don’t believe there’s such a thing as more than one side of a story.
5521277
True.
Yep. You pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one, and it’s exactly what I think of the episode as a whole too.
Suddenly, I couldn’t help but theorize something:
What if the Caballeron featured in this particular episode was an imposter? And he and his henchponies were somehow taken out of the picture before any of this happened?
5521467
I want to believe that, but we have to unfortunately accept what we got. Good theory though.
5521472
That’s kinda a reason as to why I want to pitch my own follow-ups to this episode to Hasbro and Entertainment One in the first place. The former expected every person around the world to accept what the episode gave us, yet they never took into account that there are things about it that don’t make sense.
The whole thing felt like the beginning of an incomplete story anyway, so why shouldn’t it be expanded on?
5521509
I agree. It just shows how they can care less about consistency and wanted to end the series as soon as possible without logic or quality. It’s a part of the reason why I stopped liking this show.
5521515
It certainly seems like Seasons 8 & 9 in particular haven’t been the most consistent with continuity or canonicity, that’s for sure. Sometimes, with the exceptions of episodes like “Sounds of Silence” and “Common Ground” (which I consider as prequels to the film and both seasons), I like to classify the 2017 movie as the real conclusion to the show.
5521522
Indeed.
5521467
Heh.... taking a leaf out of my book in regards to my theory of the Royal Sisters and their actions throughout Season 9 I assume? :3
I will explain what it is when you eventually reply to my comment.
5521793
Mind explaining?
Did I forget to mention that I openly consider this episode the very worst of Season 9? Even more so than “The Ending of the End” and “The Last Problem”?
5521983
Oh, yes, you did multiple times.
5521960
Here it is. :)
What if the royal sisters we saw throughout of Season 9 were in fact fakes and the real ones were kidnapped, thus the fakers ended up tricking Twilight and her friends saying they were going to retire from ruling and pass it down to Twilight Sparkle only? In my opinion, the real Celestia and Luna would never want that at all, especially the latter given her whole Nightmare Moon stint.
It's still a work in progress theory mind, but if anyone wants to expand upon it.... be my guest.