Option 1: Whenever you watch the episode, comment on this post as you watch with whatever responses you feel like posting!
Option 2: Go to http://webchat.freenode.net/. Enter a nickname, then for the Channels field enter ##rabbitcube, and finally fill in the Capcha and hit Connect! We'll be watching the episode and commenting there starting at just before 10:30 a.m. EST. After the chat, I will update this post with a log of the conversation.
Here's the text of the liveblog:
<Froborr> Morning!
<@Sylocat> Morning!
<Mathbard> Beulah!
<Mathbard> Heyla!
<Mathbard> Autocorrect. Blah.
<Froborr> lol
<@Sylocat> And here... we... go.
<Froborr> Fluttershy!
<Froborr> Or not.
<Froborr> I have been Rainbow Dash SO MANY TIMES.
<Froborr> That's never been true before.
<@Sylocat> I'm surprised they haven't written any Daring Do tie-in novels
<Froborr> I KNOW!
<Froborr> I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I really like the changes to the opening.
<Froborr> I hope they follow through with that promise and focus on some non-Mane Six characters this season.
<Froborr> I think the Hub may have noticed a significant percentage of their viewers is ironic teenagers.
<@Sylocat> Apparently they are devoting some episodes to minor characters this season
<Froborr> Yay!
<@Sylocat> And a few non-ironic teenagers
<Mathbard> Only ironic teenagers?
<Froborr> The adults are more sincere.
<Froborr> And adults don't have 90s nostalgia, because they actually remember the 90s.
<Froborr> Wow, the Daring Do books are written by GRRMartin?
<Froborr> A.
<Froborr> K.
<Froborr> Yearling.
<Froborr> *facepalm*
<@Sylocat> That's how I felt waiting for Submachine 8
<@Sylocat> Calling it now: A.K. Yearling is Twilight's mom
<Froborr> Yes, I suspect if a PRINCESS wanted to find out where somebody lived, they'd be able to.
<Froborr> Oh, I hope not.
<Froborr> Lol, red lines on maps.
<Froborr> Hah!
<Froborr> Oh, Pinkie.
<@Sylocat> Hahah
<Froborr> I'm guessing slob.
<@Sylocat> A book safe!
<Froborr> Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
<Froborr> So is Daring Do basically autobiographical?
<Froborr> Wow, I beat that revelation by a whole quarter-second.
<Froborr> I wonder if the Sabrina show is as bad as the ads make it look.
<Froborr> But I don't wonder enough to actually watch it.
<Mathbard> Don't bother. It's bad.
<@Sylocat>
Remember that episode every single 90s cartoon had to do, where the
main characters meet an actor who plays an action hero on their favorite
TV show, and they have to learnthat TV shows aren't real yadda yadda
yadda?
<Froborr> Yes.
<Froborr> We appear to be seeing the inverse.
<Froborr> That or the thing that Yearling pulled out is a portal to a universe where Daring Do is real.
<@Sylocat> Ooh, maybe that's also how they get sucked into the comic book universe for the Power Ponies episode
<Froborr> Show's back!
<Froborr> You guys gonna just watch, or are you going to help?
<Froborr> (Referring to Mane Six, not you.)
<@Sylocat> we know
<Froborr> Oh no, vaguely foreign pony from Shiftystan!
<Froborr> Doctor Caballeron!?
<Froborr> I am loving the names in this one.
<@Sylocat> "Oh. Right." x6
<Froborr> Alternative theory: Yearling's books are documentation of her LARPs.
<@Sylocat> (wait, is this going to turn out to be a movie set?)
<@Sylocat> I was just thinking the same thing
<Froborr> My roommate: "Is this what it's like when non-bronies listen to bronies?"
<Froborr> Me: "No, but it is what it's like when non-Whovians listen to Whovians."
<@Sylocat> Hahah
<Froborr> So... has Yearling just not heard of Discord or Nightmare Moon or Sombra or...
<Froborr> *facepalm*
<Froborr> Rainbow Dash is being REALLY annoying.
<@Sylocat> I'm not sure the Mane Six identified themselves
<Froborr> Like, annoying the audience annoying.
<Froborr> You know that's a good point.
<Froborr> RAINBOW DASH. STOP. WATCHING. AND. HELP.
<@Sylocat> Oh, the kitten again
<Froborr> Wilhelm scream!
<Froborr> "What have I done?" Been mysteriously and suddenly incompetent for the sake of the plot, RD!
<Froborr>
I really hope this season isn't going to end up like Season 3, where
half the episodes are brilliant and the other half are total crap.
<Froborr> Oh no! RD has an arhythmia!
<Froborr>
Today's lesson: It doesn't matter whether people want your help, force
it on them anyway! Because you know better than everyone else!
<Froborr> I have to say, 800 years of summer sounds like basically the worst villain plot imagineable.
<Froborr> That's some hardcore evil.
<Froborr> Because that's what archeologists do, destroy ancient ruins.
<Mathbard> Especially if they're based on Indiana Jones.
<@Sylocat> I do miss the letters
<Froborr> Rainbow Dash's like OMIGOSH THIS IS GOING STRAIGHT ON EBAY
<Froborr> ...so... is it just me or... was that terrible?
<Froborr> Anyway, thanks for hosting Sylocat!
<Froborr> Hopefully we'll get more people next time--this was fairly short notice.
<@Sylocat> Yep
<Froborr> Later!
<@Sylocat> Later
<@Sylocat> So... RD's self-insert fanfiction is now canon
<Froborr> Yes. Yes it.
<Froborr> And we are all poorer as a result.
<@Sylocat> I dunno, I thought it was pretty fun
<Froborr> Fair enough.
<Froborr> I've gotta go, alas. I have laundry to put in the dryer.
<Froborr> Laters!
<@Sylocat> Alrighty then
Someone on Reddit speculated that this episode might have originally been written for season three, before Twilight became a princess. That would explain a few things.
ReplyDeleteHaving seen this episode again twice, I think I've finally realized why I liked it in spite of its issues... and why I actually kind of like the idea of Daring Do being real, despite its bizarre ramifications.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned in the chat, that formula episode every 90s cartoon did? "Courage of the Cosmos" for Duck Tales, "Flash the Wonder Dog" for the Rescue Rangers?
Well, that moral would have absolutely sucked for this show. It's a show about teaching girls that yes, you can go out and have adventures and save the world, so they couldn't very well have a lesson be, "Your heroes are frauds and RD is going to look silly and have her heart be broken because she was silly enough to look up to this fictional character." They more or less had to do the inverse, to teach that yes there are people in this world worth looking up to, so long as you don't forget your own worth.
No, that doesn't excuse the presentation issues, but I think it fits with the mission and message of the show, greatly.
See, I loved it, though for reasons that... well, I'll explain, with the admitted caveat that I'm being pedantic and continuity obsessed over an episode all about how annoying said nit-picking is annoying to creators who really wish we'd get off their lawns and it's incredibly unlikely that any of this was intentional on the author's part.
ReplyDeleteSo, we, the desperate magnifying glass owners who scour for background gags in the comics and/or have internet connections and let others do the work for us, already know that Twilight's mother is the author of the Daring Do books (Citation in upper left corner: http://i.imgur.com/ilF7KUm.jpg ). Needless to say, Twilight knows darn well why the book was delayed: writing is a pain in the neck. Coming up with ideas is hard, let alone editing, revising, continuity, etc. and there's nothing that makes a deadline harder to hit than someone breathing down your neck. And since she's already got her editor and publisher doing that, she doesn't need the overly excited Rainbow Dash adding to the tension. Additionally, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to figure that she's a beta reader for her mother; what sort of parent wouldn't let her daughter have a first look, and wouldn't a huge fan like Twilight be the perfect candidate for pointing out continuity errors?
We also know that Twilight has no trouble magically messing with people's minds (cite: Lesson Zero), and additionally has the full resources that being Equestrian royalty entitles her to. Mere child's play to hire a few cosplayers and distract her friend sufficiently so the real "AK Yearling" can get her writing done over the next six months. Of course Dash and the others seem shockingly ineffective; none of it is actually happening. And how better to reward her friend's patience than by talking her mom into giving Daring Do a sidekick based on Dash herself?
Likely? Hell no. But I'll love this episode forever for it's message of "Quit bugging us about when the new episodes are coming out. We're working as fast as we can! No, we don't need you to come over and do our laundry or dishes or anything. Seriously. Stop it. Find something else to do for a while. Yes, we're glad you like it. Yes, we had to move out to a shack in the woods. No, no, really. Please. Yes, soon as possible."
I'm so glad I stumbled upon your blog!
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't necessarily like the idea of Daring Do being real, I do like what this episode does with respect to the relationship between the show and its fandom.
The main issue I have with Daring Do be the real alter ego of AK Yearling is that it transforms the nature of the Daring Do books from works of imaginative fiction to exciting memoir. This in turn changes the type of book consumer Rainbow Dash is – she's no longer geeking out about an imaginary world and characters, but rather reading what amounts to a true life adventure story. While perhaps structurally similar, the audience for each book is different. True life adventure stories don't engender the type of obsessive nerddom that fiction does. Look at the argument Rainbow Dash and Twlight Sparkle have near the beginning of the episode – that sort of obsessive knowledge is primarily the realm of fans of fiction. I'd go so far as to say fandom in general only seems to exist with respect to works of fiction.
This brings me to what I did like about this episode. This episode largely deals with the interaction between the creator and their fandom, and the nature of canonicity within that relationship. I think it's beyond clever for the writers to have an episode that deals with a fan inserting themselves into a work that they enjoy and in essence changing canon. FiM is full of examples of this, and in this way I feel like this episode is kind of a nod to the fans who have helped to shape the world of FiM. This relationship between fan and author with regard to collaboratively creating canon in effect makes the world of FiM real, just as Daring Do is now real within the world of FiM.
Unrelated: Thanks for having this blog! I now have something to send to people when they ask why I love FiM!
I'm really happy you're enjoying the blog!
DeleteThat's an interesting read on the episode--not enough to make it likeable for me, but definitely makes it more interesting. Thanks!