Parents WIP (Patreon)

hey

maybe don't steal that baby

One more doodle before bed. I looked at some old clips of MLP for inspiration, and it led me to a jarring observation. Daring Do is totally the bad guy.

In her last feature episode, Ahuizotl reveals himself to be a temple guardian, desperately working to preserve native artifacts. While Dr. Caballeron admits to having plundered artifacts to get rich, Daring Do says "The only reason I've been taking the artifacts is because I thought I was protecting them."

I think that's really interesting.

Caballeron is condemned as a run-of-the-mill thief (and he is), but Daring is framed as the good guy unwittingly doing a bad thing. She's not a thief like Caballeron! She was protecting the artifacts!

Protecting them by prying them right out of Ahuizotl's hands. And taking them back home, to be displayed in a museum. A museum that most certainly charges admission for ponies to see these rare wonders of the world. Said museum probably compensates Daring for providing new items. And then Daring goes home to write about her adventures robbing native temples, to the joy of her countless fans (and their eager wallets). The historical sites she's robbed are often left in destroyed shambles.

......Daring Do is a thief. She's as bad as Caballeron, if not worse, because she stole under the facade of doing good. In her final episode, she doesn't even vow to return the artifacts, she just pledges not to steal any more of them. Gosh, Miss Do, how noble.

I wondered how far Daring's oh-so-selfless attitude might extend. Certainly far enough to destroy an ancient temple to retrieve a trinket. Enough to condemn Ahuizotl as a monster. Perhaps enough to project her own equinecentric notions onto Ahuizotl's species.....enough to see Ahuizotl's child as the helpless son of a savage, in dire need of rescue by two kindhearted ponies.....maybe enough to kidnap said child. Ah, I'm sorry, "protect" said child.

Caballeron is supportive of his wife's charitable, newfound "adoption"......and hey, if along the way a few ponies want to pay a few bucks to see a living, breathing cryptid, then so be it.