#daring-do

Battered from the brawl with Mordus, the party takes a short rest before exploring the tomb proper. If and Vera examine the sarcophagus, finding bones, a copper sword, and a silver Drow necklace, of which none are taken. On Mordus' body, they find a damaged heavy vest, some gold, and more of the glassy green crystal. The last Crystal Golem containing Paladin Kira's soul is destroyed, freeing her from the construct prison and leaving the Rulebreaker greatsword for a somber Evelyn to wield. Finally, If retrieves Liberatus' Crown with no issue, captivated by the magnificent diamond set in the center. Exiting the hallway they entered from, they find themselves back in the chamber of eleven knights at the start of the trials. Lightbearer Mun enters shortly afterwards, leading them back into Pinnacle proper and discover only a few hours have passed in the real world. The party is briefly intercepted by Judgement Xelios, who informs them that Margaret's Boar-Ding House will reopen the next day, and that Isilka and Syldor Avarente's funerals are scheduled in the evening. Back at the Dove Tower, Lord Gilean waits nervously for the party to return with good news. He is invited to sit in with Lightbearer Mun and Sunstriker Amon as they discuss events: finding the tomb, defeating Mordus, and obtaining the Crown. The divinity of the Crown brings serious ethical issues, and the party briefly discusses where it should go. Lightbearer Mun suggests leaving it in the tomb, while Lord Gilean insists that he deliver it to the Grand Cleric to aid his people. During this time, Sunstriker Amon uses Speak with the Dead to interrogate Mordus' severed head, but gleans little new information. It is eventually decided that Lord Gilean will return the Crown in a few days time, with no major objections from the party. They depart, leaving Lord Gilean and Sunstriker Amon to work out the details. Lightbearer Mun leads Evelyn to a guest room where Battlemage Velissa tends to Father Isaac, whose soul has returned to his body for a near-full recovery. Ignis seeks Judgement Xelios, and ponders the nature of confidence and life before being directed to Tide-Breaker Temple of Kord for further training. If checks up on their twin pet tads and researches more about the creatures, learning of their natural attractiveness to wild predators. Vera returns to the Asylum of the Adrift and meets the charming Gnomish Guide Oophelia, who speaks with her regarding the Ritual of Change over a lunch date. Vera, If, and Evelyn then head to Pinnacle's temple of the Raven Queen for the Avarente funeral: the Black Palace. They discover the obsidian walls sequester an enormous graveyard where all the city's dead are interred. They pay respects to the slain Avarente family, whose bodies have been expertly mended in an open-casket service. A priestess of the Raven Queen (known as a Sympathy) leads the three women below to Neville Melbourne, the young necromancer they saved in Limmern, now himself a Sympathy. They are also introduced to Ridwan Zi're Al-Bhatar, a handsome Vengeance of the Raven Queen whom Neville is apprenticed under. Meanwhile, Ignis heads to Tide-Breaker Temple in District Kord, where he sees a copper Dragonborn spar using his fighting style. Entering the temple and introducing himself to head priest Honor Mycelius, the Dragonborn is revealed as Umbrasyl, an old friend from Draconia. Despite the reveal of her lowborn status (her father being a bronze Dragonborn), Ignis assures her of his loyal friendship with a strong embrace. The two speak about their lives since parting, and Umbrasyl reveals that she is in Pangaea to continue her training after the death of her father, Master Katargyan. The two spar for old times sake: Ignis loses but gains happiness knowing his friends stand beside him. With an extremely long adventure behind them, the party settles in for a well-deserved night at the Matheson Bed & Breakfast. Unfortunately, they are roused by fervent knocking in the early morning from “The Mage Slayer” Juno Cytheria, also assigned to investigate the Avarente murders. She provides a list of the progeny of Baron Tymorus van Osternburg to the group, where one name stands out among the others: Icthyarborous Fel, the Half-Elven Sorcerer and previous ally who swore vengeance on the children of his bastard father...

@percival-de-rolo as Vera, Halfling Cleric and Wayfarer of Avandra @kremdelakreme as If, Rougish Elven beauty and Palm of the Wristblades @softbutchhiccup as Ignis, Human Monk of the Bronzeheart Monestary in Draconia @dantealicheery as Evelyn, Human Paladin and Sister Enlightened of Ioun @inpaperclad as The Dungeon Master + @lionsquartz & @frillylittlecakes as awesome fans :D

...the more it upsets me.

First off, a slight tangent. I've seen other people mention that they didn't like the fact that Daring-Do is real, either (which means that I finally have an opinion that I'm not alone in having), but I have noticed a disturbing trend. So many of these arguments, in their explanation of why they're upset that Daring-Do is real, include the phrase, "It makes sense that Daring-Do looks like a recolor of Rainbow Dash since she's the one reading them." To which I say...

SHE'S ON THE COVER OF THE BOOK!

It's been almost two years, and I'm still having to explain this to people! When you have something so very, very wrong in your argument, it makes your entire argument look bad, no matter how good your other points are.

All right, now that that's out of the way, let's get back to the episode.

First off, why is everyone fixated on this face?

It's like the animators got together and said, "How can we ensure that a facial expression will become a meme? Make it as bizarre as possible!" And you all fell for it! It's a really stupid face! I don't think it even makes sense in context because I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean! And neither does anyone else!

Gah, okay, whatever. Back to Daring-Do.

I have to say, I've never had my own headcanon for who writes the Daring-Do books, so that's not really swaying my opinion here. I've seen various fan works that illustrate that the author of the books is Fluttershy, Twilight, Twilight's mom, Celestia, Luna, and even Daring-Do herself. Even the strangest explanations have been well-founded, so I've always left it open to the fans' interpretations. I've even entertained the idea myself of Daring-Do being real just to see what would happen if she and Rainbow Dash ever met. But this...

...this was not the right way to do it.

First off, the story was beyond boring. Ahuizotl stole the ring from and captured Daring-Do, and Daring-Do made an incredibly easy escape and stole the ring back. That's it. That's all that happened. I really don't get everyone's praises that this was "packed with action!" Packed with action, sure, but it was incredibly bland action.

And why was no one surprised that Daring-Do was real? Was this common knowledge? The only thing they didn't know was who wrote the books, but when they saw that A. K. Yearling was really Daring-Do, their reaction was "Daring-Do is the author?!" and not "Daring-Do is real?!" Did everyone already know that Daring-Do was real? Kind of weird that they never mentioned that before, don't you think?

Probably the most uncomfortable part of this episode for me was that Daring-Do is...a bitch. There's really no other way to put this. She's a bitch. I can understand perhaps starting off that way, since her "I work alone" speech does actually make sense (you never know who to trust), but she was a bitch throughout the episode. She didn't warm up to Rainbow Dash at all, EXCEPT AT THE VERY END, when she smiled and hugged her. This came out of nowhere, since the last thing she said to Rainbow was something mean, but then it's all okay because they hugged! Geez, even the minor characters can't get good character development!

The letter...oh, excuse me, diary entry...at the end was pretty messed up, too (by the way, note that the diary entries are exactly the same as the letters to Celestia were, raising the question of why they even bothered changing it). Like I said in my last post, the episode just went along the standard "meet, doom, and save your heroes" plotline, and the lesson at the end reflects that. Rainbow Dash has already had two episodes dealing with her self-esteem ("Sonic Rainboom", which went deeper than most kids' shows do in showing that Rainbow Dash's confidence on the surface did not always translate into actual self-confidence, which didn't even end up being the lesson, which made it a bit more subtle and thus far more appreciated, and "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", which just said, "Let's make Rainbow Dash an asshole, and then all her friends will have to be even bigger assholes to compensate! Hooray!"), so throwing in a third one as generic as this only serves to demonstrate that there was a good reason they stopped writing letters to Celestia: the writers ran out of ideas for friendship lessons (which makes you wonder how long this diary will last). And yes, the lesson should have been, "Don't be a creepy stalker." People always say that Rainbow Dash doesn't remember the lessons she's learned, and I always try to defend her, but when the writers completely miss the point of their own episode, it makes my job way more difficult. In fact, with all of the terrible episodes from the end of Season 2 onward, I mostly just try to pretend they never happened.

The writer was Dave Polsky, who doesn't have a very good track record with the episodes he writes ("Spike at Your Service" being by far the worst of them), so I guess that could be a factor in why this episode wasn't very good.

The more I think about this episode, the more I'm really starting to hate it. I might have to move this episode into the "loss" category after all because this is the first episode this season that has been in my head constantly (and not in a good way) since I saw it. I think this episode loses extra points because it had such potential going in that these writers should have known they could never have achieved.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really hope we never see Daring-Do again.

Revised season score: 1-3. *sigh*

rule one: post the rules

rule two: answer the 11 questions the tagger asked you then make 11 new ones

rule three: tag 11 people and link them to this post

rule four: let them know you’ve tagged them.

Questions I got:

1. Do you like Waffles? why yes

2. Do you like Pancakes? mmhmmm

3. Do you like French Toast? DOO DOO DOO DOO CAN'T WAIT TO GET ANOTHER BITE

4. If a dog or a cat followed you home would you keep it? Yes??!?!?!

5. Worst Book you have ever read? I've read a lot of books where the first time through I'm like "yeahhh! this is awesome!!" and then I look back on it or read it again and I realize it sucks. I've probably also developed terribly high standards that are only going to get worse. I read a lot of YA romances that glorified "sexy dude getting all up in female main character's face & unrelentingly coming on to her" (I think Meg Cabot's Mediator series did that? I only read one of the books :P). And it's one of those things that is super fun to read, but in retrospect, it's a bad idea to date a guy who can't take no for an answer.

I also know Beautiful Creatures, Twilight etc., House of Night, and most other current YA novels are really bad. 

6. Favorite Cake? Cheesecake. Hands down.

7. You find yourself in a Haunted House, can only have three companions who aren’t supernatural or have any knowledge of the occult, who do you choose? Most people I know are into supernatural stuff. The ones who aren't would just freak out the whole time. I fit in both categories, so, I guess we're screwed.

8. What are you wearing right now? Fugly pajamas

9. Other than be on the internet, what do you do? Write, look for a job, make food, jog-walk

10. Favorite color of hair? Unnatural colors, especially pink and purple.

11. Thoughts about Feminism? It's awesome but it's a huge learning process. Inersectionality and a willingness to 'fess up to your own biases is crucial. I'm still finding my happy medium between listening to others and responding when people attack other people for no reason.