Defenders of Berk 202 Review

PLOT A: How Fishlegs got his Groove Back

While the Groups desperately patrols the waters to make sure the Outcasts aren’t coming back, they realize Fishlegs and Meatlug have been slowing them down, so “gently” suggest that they carry on without him.

So this was another expected Fishlegs plot to come up. After last season’s “Fish-centric” episode of Fishlegs dealing with asserting himself more, and the little foreshadowing bit of him saying “not comforting when you’re on the slowest dragon” just in the previous episode, it was clear where this was heading.

In this one instance I can understand Snotlout’s outburst on the matter (though he said it very harshly), but being slowed down when you “gotta go fast” (I have officially quoted that in two reviews….ugh) is worrisome. 

In a lot of cases this one of my worries last season, that Astrid’s line pertaining to the twins of “you don’t have to bring them every time” really did make sense. Certain missions really don’t need all five of them and I think they should take that into consideration. But they were going for that whole “team work involves the whole team doing everything together every time cause….teamwork!” moral so…yeah. Maybe next time.

But, back to the plot. I can understand how that conclusion of ditching Fishlegs that particular time was drawn to, so it didn’t seem like “wow you jerks just kicking Fishy out for no reason” but it was still kinda sad to watch.

Still, as far as being another “Fishlegs learns a new social tactic” episode this one was pretty solid. It presented the point, paced it out well, was able to bring in side plots without this main point getting buried, and managed to actually have a Fishlegs plot without him spending the whole 22 minutes continuously whining about the same mistake that he made over and over…and over…(I’m looking at you 118).

As far as the apology from Hiccup went, this episode showcased another shining example of slowing things down in order to present important information. Apologies are considered “important information”, in which even in the midst of a chaotic and/or fast paced chase scene they were able to break the stride and make it feel organic and present a few moments of slow time for Hiccup to give a decent apology that felt genuine (and even managed to slip in some comedy and not have it dull the effect of the apology…very important).

Fishlegs was accepted back into his group and happy sword raises into the sunset.

What I probably liked the most about this plot was that it wasn’t about Fishlegs changing…it was about everyone else accepting Fishlegs for his faults and quirks, disadvantages and strengths alike. Which I like that kind of mix up. As far as smashing morals into the viewers face this one was subtle enough to work on a much grander level than the actual moral they were trying to stress which was “go team go!”. Sometimes accepting people for all their bumps, lumps, and elephants trunks (don’t ask) is just…I don’t know, it’s good stuff. Well done.

But what the heck was up with that berry scene….? Just…what…?

PLOT B: Pound it while it’s Hot (not to be confused with “drop it while it’s hot”)

After eating a bunch of rocks, Meatlug gets sick so Fishlegs takes her to Gobber, only to find that she vomits up a mysterious lava that’s perfect for making a lightweight and extremely strong metal the likes of which no Viking has ever seen before.

Side effects plot in a nutshell, would be this.

So here’s where the misguided plotting thing slipped in again. A few episode descriptions and even some pre-premier articles stated that this was going to be a “Fishlegs becomes the most popular guy in town” episode, and this really only got a few minutes of screen time, and, honestly, felt a tad unnecessary. It would’ve been enough to have everyone excited about the new metal, that part was fine, it was those few extra stresses of “Fishlegs is a star” that just felt rather odd and random to me, even though that was the main plot point the descriptions stressed. I don’t know what was weirder, the fact that it wasn’t very present in the plotline and it should’ve been or that it was kind of haphazardly thrown in to give that vibe…?

Where this plot did shine, though, is the Fishlegs/Gobber interactions. Gobber can easily take a pretty distant backseat in this show as the one minute advice guy or one side of the “Hiccup’s Dads” couple. So it was good to see him active in this episode outside those two roles, but mostly was just there to present Fishlegs with the support and companionship he needed when all his friends—more or less—ditched him.

Their interactions were great to watch and it was pretty—dare I say—heartwarming to end it with Gobber giving him the sword and giving him those last bits of self esteem building words. It’s been all over tumblr that there’s parallels between Gobber seeing Fishlegs as how he saw pre-movie Hiccup: dejected, alone, and needing some guidance and a way to feel important again, which I connect to on a personal level so maybe that’s why I took a lot more from this then an average person would?

Still, despite this excellent character arch, the weirdness of the imbalance in plot stressing still remains, but the light shines through pretty brightly regardless.

In the other half of the plot—where Meatlug turns into a giant magnet—I’ll give them points for originality cause I was not expecting it to go that way. The chase scene was a good way to liven up the third act and I think we can all agree that Hiccup getting stuck on Meatlug was the comedy prime of the episode (and possibly the whole series…though I did enjoy Tuffnut’s comment of “I like pound cake, I like measuring my weight in pounds” line as well).

Meatlug was just a plot puppet most of time here, though, which I would’ve liked to see a little more…character in her—especially since she has so much character—than just “dance puppet dance”, but…well that didn’t happen so, oh well. There was so much other character stuff going on here I can understand how she got the boot but, it still felt somewhat uneven at some points.

PLOT C: The Outcasts check on their Precious Little Darlings

Craftily avoiding getting caught by the patrolling group, the Outcasts return to the underground caves to check on the Whispering Deaths they planted there, only to find that one is especially bigger than the others.

Hey look, continuity between two episodes that isn’t a “part 1 and 2”! What a splendid surprise!

Not but seriously, the previous episode and this episode were technically stand alone from each other, but there were some good loop moments that made them feel very “one after the other”, this plot being one of them.

Even though it was a very short plot, simply Savage and his band of merry idiots going to check on their precious rays of swirling death, it did its job to set up that obvious storm cloud of plot that is the screaming death. It was as subtle as a flying brick, but then I guess we can blame Cartoon Network for perhaps revealing one too many plot details in their endless spillage of previews (though after last season where we got almost no previews, I can’t really complain whole-heartedly).

And the ending “battle”—I guess if you wanna call it that—never really set itself up to be taken seriously, so it wasn’t really a letdown that it wasn’t on a episode 106-type battle level.  We all knew they were gonna lose, so we just wanted to know how they were going to achieve it. Sinking the boat seems like a novel idea…..!?

But we all know they’ll be back even if they have to swim home. Who knows, maybe they’ll pick up Sven who’s been floating in the water since episode 109….?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

It’s pretty surprising to me that this episode ended up with better scoring than the first, but this one clearly took a more “character-centric” approach and really focused well on it and drove all the points home.

It did it’s job to establish Fishlegs’ going through the motions of being rejected, picking himself off the group, finding a new groove, and then deciding to go back to what he really loved after his friends simply accepted that by him being himself—flaws and all—he was useful in ways they didn’t even notice until he wasn’t there anymore.

That’s pretty good for this show as sometimes it struggles with developing characters effectively.

The side plot of the gronckle iron easily could’ve been replaced with something else but it wasn’t a waste cause it offered some good moments with Gobber and Fishlegs bonding which was very entertaining to watch. Though the whole “Fishlegs’s the star” moments could’ve been dropped with little to no effect. But at least Hiccup’s shield is shiny now.

All and all, this was a solid episode, simple yet effective. Good pacing, still activating those slow moments to give out important information, it had enough time for an effective aftermath to the problem introduced, had good comedy, and everyone was—more or less—in character. This episode had one job and, you know what, it actually did it.

But points off for Gunnar not getting his earrings. No forgiveness on that one.