Daring Done?

In this episode, Rainbow Dash finds out that her favorite author, A. K. Yearling is retiring. She works with Pinkie Pie to find out why. I love it as these are probably my two favorite characters, though Pinkie Pie will always be the best. This episode features the three of them going to a village where their statue of a beloved figure named Somnambula has been destroyed, thanks to Daring Do. We get this fantastic flashback where it shows why Somnambula is so important to this village. The best part is probably when we meet up with the sphinx and the riddle and challenge she puts Somnambula through.

I never thought we'd see a sphinx in this show. A sphinx is supposed to have the head of a human, but this one has the head of a pony. I guess it makes sense given the context of the show. It still isn't really a sphinx in the strictest sense. I love that purple color and evil smile. This episode also features none other than Dr. Caballeron showing up to cause mischief for Daring Do. There's this great scene where Pinkie Pie and her have to help Rainbow Dash and they actually do so by riding the air gusts on top of lava. ***1/2

The Daring Do episodes were a bit of a mixed bag, although Daring Do herself was a long way from a bad character (the opposite). "Read It and Weep" and "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" were great and high points of their respective seasons. On the other side, "Daring Don't" disappointed, though more an uneven episode than a bad one, and of its respective season it was one of the middling episodes. Was very interested to see how "Daring Done?" would fare.

On first watch and on rewatch "Daring Done?" leans towards being closer to "Daring Don't's" quality than the other two. It is hard to tell which is the better of the two, this one is even more derivative, doesn't correct most of the flaws of "Daring Don't" and lacks risk taking and originality. It does deserve some credit though for being a lot less implausible and for not having anywhere near as many gaping loose ends. So tough call.

"Daring Done?" does have a lot of good things. The animation is great, it is immensely vibrant and the attention to detail in the backgrounds is very rich. Loved how vivid the setting is and how much the visuals have advanced and become more polished since 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' first started. The music has energy and atmosphere, and placement-wise it is in harmony with the action and not at odds with it. The writing has fun and enough intrigue.

Really liked most of the character writing. Rainbow Dash has been much better written this season than in the previous season, where three episodes messed her up to the point of being temporarily put off her. Here she is both entertaining and relatable, and her loyalty to AK Yearling was appreciated. Daring Do is again a well executed character with positive and negative qualities fleshed out well. Her chemistry with Rainbow Dash was nicely done too. Somnambula has potential though there was room for character growth. The best character though was the imposingly intimidating sphinx, even when not the typical looking sphinx the personality is exactly like how they're portrayed and her scene was intriguing. The voice acting is excellent.

For all those good qualities, there are drawbacks. "Daring Done?" is very predictable, could have been more energetically paced and comes over as too safe, even the challenge was not that much of a risk. It is choppy at times and any gear changes can be abrupt, while the ending feels too neat and not that much of a surprise. The moralising was unfocused and trying to include three lessons was a mistake, with an overstuffed and under-explored feel and the three don't gel together.

It further suffers too from the presence of Pinkie Pie, who feels shoehorned in in an afterthought way and pointless (especially considering that the episode does very little with her) and is somewhat annoying. Her presence also doesn't make an awful lot of sense, due to her seeming to become a fan just like that, it would have been a lot more sense if Twilight was Rainbow Dash's companion.

Overall, above average but unexceptional. 6/10.