My Episode Review on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic-Daring Doubt

Bueno Dias, my friends.

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, for my 34th episode analysis, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Daring Doubt". The 21st episode in the ninth season of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" to be precise.

Here’s the rundown of it:

Having recently become a fan of the Daring Do book series after reading them herself, Fluttershy also comes upon a Daring Do book written by another author named Groom Q. Q. Martingale, which portrays the pony adventurer in an entirely different light compared to the books by A.K. Yearling (Daring Do herself).

When Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash later visit the bookstore that Martingale is autographing his books at, the two of them discover that the author is really one of Daring Do’s archenemies, Caballeron, who is once again out to tarnish Daring Do’s good name. Ironically, while Rainbow Dash is able to see through Caballeron’s scheme, Fluttershy believes that Caballeron is displaying an entirely different side to himself. Especially after he tells her that he’s an archaeologist whose museum went out of business because of Daring getting the relics before he could, despite his past actions and the fact that he’s really a thief.

Convinced that he’s a good pony, Fluttershy decides to aid Caballeron in recovering the lost Truth Talisman of Tonatiuh, much to Rainbow Dash’s shock.

Will Caballeron and Fluttershy succeed in their quest? Or will they fail?

I’d like to be honest, I didn’t originally intend on making a review on an MLP installment outside of the movies and TV specials. In fact, I really planned on analyzing “Friendship is Magic” in a TV show review separated into two parts. One part for Seasons 1-7, and the other part for Seasons 8-9.

However, after I kept thinking about the episode more and more, and as I started looking back on the times I negatively commented on this episode, something began building up inside of me. What started in my head as merely small thoughts...grew into something bigger and more constructive. So much, that I decided to make my own analysis of the episode.

So, what do I think of “Daring Doubt”?

sighs

To be honest, I found this episode to be a mediocre end for the Daring Do saga.

Before I get into why “Daring Doubt” is one of my least favorite MLP episodes, though, I’d like to point out the positives it contained.

For starters, the humor and comedic-timings revolving around the Truth Talisman and the ponies wearing it were nicely done and funny. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t help but laugh so much at the part where one of the henchponies says he wants to be an opera singer.

Along with that, Caballeron’s reformation and development throughout the episode was surprisingly well-worked. Even though he was one of the last villains I expected to have a change of heart, it was amazing to see how much of an impact Fluttershy’s kindness had on him and his lackeys. It was also interesting to see Caballeron’s henchponies be upgraded from mere minors to ponies with a sense of life and personality.

And like many episodes of the show, Fluttershy’s acts of kindness throughout were a pleasant thing to see. I admired her determination and how far she was willing to go for her friends. Plus, she sure did look cute with the hat she had on after joining Caballeron on the expedition.

I’d also like to point out that the message to “treat others with kindness no matter what” was definitely a meaningful one to live by. While the message itself has been repeated numerous times throughout the entertainment industry, I thought that it was relatively welcoming & used quite well in this episode.

In spite of these positives, though, “Daring Doubt”...was nothing but a muddled mess. Sad to say, the biggest blame for it all goes to the writing by Nicole Dubuc.

Among the many problems with “Daring Doubt” is that the other messages it gave ironically lead to largely toxic ideals & morals. Some have told me that the episode’s intentions were to teach that people should “give others the benefit of the doubt” and “listen to their side of the story”. But if that really was the case, I find that the former message was done much better in Season 3’s “Keep Calm and Flutter On”, and the episode hardly did a great job at getting the latter message across.

In terms of the latter message I mentioned, it seemed more like “Daring Doubt” was saying that we should immediately trust strangers without being cautious or thinking it over. And that it’s okay to trust a stranger without actually getting to know the individual more. These notions in question are completely immoral and wrong, and the reality of it all is that nothing good would ever come out of it. The ending of this episode only seemed to exemplify this, because by having everything turn out well for the characters in the long run, people will be left thinking that something good will always come out of befriending someone they’ve barely made much of a bond with.

Much of why I think the message was encouraging a toxic ideal comes from the narrative’s execution. As the episode progressed, the story became overly confusing. The prime reason for why is because amidst trying to prove whatever points Fluttershy and the episode were trying to make, Nicole Dubuc left behind a great many plot holes that made the story implausible and questionable. The biggest example comes from the ending, which I’ll get to momentarily.

In addition to that, Daring Do was getting painted as one of the biggest dunderheads around. I get that before she met Rainbow Dash and the rest of the Main Six, she didn’t trust anyone or think to ever talk and listen, but still…Caballeron and Ahuizotl never gave any reason for people to trust them anyway. If anything, all they’ve ever done is frequently justify why they aren’t considered trustworthy individuals at all. The whole “talking it out & listening to the other side of the story” lesson even painted Daring Do’s epic adventures as a list of mistakes and debts she made, which was a lot like saying she should never have been an adventurer to begin with or ever existed.

Not to mention the way Daring Do’s reputation was getting tainted again, especially compared to Season 7’s “Daring Done?”, felt completely mean-spirited and heartless. It was like Nicole Dubuc apparently hated Daring and didn’t care about how she was treating her. A prime example comes from the part involving her “kicking puppies”, which was a flat and cruel joke to incorporate.

Another aspect I dislike is the notion that Daring Do would fabricate aspects of her adventures. People have defended this aspect from “Daring Doubt” by saying that Daring would obviously exaggerate things simply because it’d help ensure the success of her books, and they’ll frequently use some quotes in the episode to justify the claim. But, what they’re failing to acknowledge is that every Daring Do episode before this one showed that Daring herself is a pony with integrity. She strives to keep her actual identity a secret, and she’ll use an alias in order to accomplish something, but it’s shown that everything she’s done throughout her career as an adventurer & author was never based on personal gain. It was also shown that Daring never saw any reason to lie about what happens in her own adventures, so the prospect of her doing so doesn’t sound like something she’d do at all.

Plus, despite the episode’s references to Season 4’s “Daring Don’t”, it contained a lot of contradictions with its predecessor. In fact, “Daring Doubt” had little-to-no acknowledgement of “Daring Don’t”, and the two don’t harmoniously align with each other in terms of continuity. Fluttershy’s interactions with Caballeron & Ahuizotl were definite examples. If I recall correctly, Fluttershy met the two adversaries in “Daring Don’t” and got to see firsthand what they were like outside of the books. And believe me, I studied the episode closely and made comparisons between it and this episode to know.

How could Fluttershy suddenly forget all about Caballeron, Ahuizotl, and the adventure? Or act like she hardly knew them and what happened then? Or be so careless enough as to fall for Caballeron’s lies?

And yes, I thought that Fluttershy’s heart was in the right place to be extending kindness to Caballeron and Ahuizotl, and to offer them her friendship. But even so, she was way too naive and gullible. Fluttershy is a kindhearted individual, but she would never be quick to trust someone outside of her friends or without getting to know someone new for longer periods of time. Considering Caballeron was up to no good again, I’m pretty sure she’d suspect that foul play was afoot by making comparisons between both his and Daring Do’s books instead of being easily duped by Caballeron’s treachery. In short, Fluttershy was completely out-of-character, and “Daring Doubt” featured her worst appearance to date.

Meanwhile, despite being the deuteragonist of “Daring Doubt”, Rainbow Dash never really contributed anything substantial. She did help the story move forward, and Rainbow’s know-how & fanaticism for the Daring Do saga made her seem like a natural fit. And yet, compared to the other Daring Do episodes, Rainbow’s inclusion was ultimately needless.

Outside of this, while I do commend Caballeron’s redemption for being naturally developed, I’m not a fan of it regardless. The impact of Fluttershy helping him and his henchponies was obviously genuine, but his reformation was largely inconsistent. Most of his actions after everyone entered the temple notably put into question whether he really did change, and if you look deeply at the part where he decided to team-up with Daring to co-write a new book, it was almost like he came up with that idea secretly because he saw it as a way to fulfill his greed for fame & fortune.

The biggest elephant in the room, though...was when Ahuizotl said that he was a guardian of artifacts after touching the Truth Talisman.

Everything about what he said hardly tied in with his previous appearance in “Daring Don’t” and his aforementioned intention in Season 7’s “Daring Done?”, each of which showed him to be a villain through-and-through. It was literally nothing more than an idiotic and nonsensical retcon that held no correlation with the overall continuity to begin with.

How does Ahuizotl being a guardian tie in to the fact that he tried to bring 800 years of sweltering heat onto Equestria in “Daring Don’t”? And was mentioned to be trying to cause eternal night in “Daring Done?”? If he really was supposed to be guarding the jungle’s artifacts, then why was he traveling outside of it? Wouldn’t he have known that bringing eternal night and 800 years of sweltering heat would cause more harm than good? And do more than just keep thieves away?

Even if he really was a guardian, there’s no justification behind his various actions & past behavior. None of what he did would’ve benefited him in his duties. If part of being an artifact guardian would literally include putting the world on the verge of destruction or endangering the lives of others...then I’m sorry to say he truly is a monster, is unfit to be a guardian, and has proven himself to be no better than the thieves who try to steal the artifacts. With all that said, I’m pretty sure his boss and co-workers (if he had any at all) would’ve been displeased by what he was doing.

All in all, it was like the episode was saying there’s no such thing as right and wrong, and that it’s okay to be doing bad things as long as you have a good reason for doing it, which is completely incorrect. There’s no excuse for committing acts of villainy, no matter what one says. The worst part is that it goes against everything the show was teaching before, which is that there’s such a thing as right and wrong.

And you wanna know something else?

Even though he was touching the Truth Talisman, I’ve been having a hard time buying any of what he said. I can’t exactly explain it, but something about how he acted & spoke while revealing that he was a guardian didn’t feel sincere. One reason is because Brian Drummond failed to distinguish his portrayal of Ahuizotl in his “nice moments” from the character’s villainous depiction, and he didn’t help the character’s dialogue as a “reformed individual” be convincing either. The other reason is because the execution & delivery of Ahuizotl’s scenes near the end was incredibly flat, so nothing about his scenes ever felt persuasive enough regardless of the intentions behind them being there.

In the end, “Daring Doubt” does have its positives, including top-notch animation & voice acting. But, the episode as a whole was one of the worst I ever saw. It was completely weighed down by terrible storytelling & direction, the featured characters were either misused or atrociously depicted, everything!

So, I rate “Daring Doubt” 2½ out of 5 stars.

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On the fan-side of it all, because of the gigantic amount of plot holes & continuity errors, everything about “Daring Doubt” felt like the beginning of an incomplete story that Nicole Dubuc and Hasbro were either too lazy to finish or didn’t care to complete. Until they actually do something to fix what they messed up, and since there are no references and acknowledgements in any episode after it, I refuse to count “Daring Doubt” as officially canon.

The few things that I will admit is that if it wasn’t for this episode, I would never have made “A Moment of Truth” nor be developing its sequels. The story is available on FiMFiction.net, Fanfiction.net, and Wattpad.com, and the same will be done with the sequels.

Likewise, making this review deeply inspired me to do an analysis of every other episode of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” in the future. The same with the episodes of other animated programs, if I may add.