Defenders of Berk 207 Review

PLOT A: Life’s a Competition

Trying to prove who’s the best dragon trainer on a “level playing field” the teens all take their own terrible terrors and attempt to train them.

I saw a few people comparing this episode to “Thawfest” from season one, and I guess that can be somewhat true on some levels. It’s got the “spirit of competition” plotline looming around, but this time it’s more of a Fishlegs vs. Snotlout plot.

Like Hiccup in Thawfest, Fishlegs seems to be a bit of a d-bag in certain areas, mostly when it comes to paying attention to his own dragon over his new one. Though I do feel like this plot had one too many things going on. It didn’t seem entirely grounded in what it was trying to tell us.

First we had the group competition, and everyone was getting pretty rivalry against each other, but then it was Fishlegs vs. Snotlout….but then it was Meatlug getting jealous of Iggy. I feel like it shouldn’t focused on one or two of these…but all three got to be a little much.

The group competition got kind of blown out of importance after they all showed what their dragons could do, but it was interesting to see that they all really did manage to train their terrors something in a day.

The Fishlegs vs. Snotlout plot is always fun to watch just because Snotlout has a interesting way of bringing the most entertainingly worst part of every character. Fishlegs is becoming less timid and more cocky as the series goes on—which is nice character development, by the way—so it wasn’t a big surprise to see him get too caught up in proving his superiority in dragon training. Though I do wish this plot got more of a finish to it…because after Meatlug got captured, the competition between them pretty much ended, I guess…?

PLOT B: Meatlug be jellin’

As Fishlegs gets too caught up in the competition of training terrors, he starts ignoring Meatlug, much to her disappointment.

So, Fishlegs goes off the deep end and poor Meatlug gets the boot. I can say I liked her reaction to the plot she was placed in a lot better than, say, 202, and I did find the “toss the sheep” joke to be both cute and funny.

I really can’t find too much wrong with this part of the story in particular other than I think it would’ve fit in better with Alvin’s plot if Meatlug had just run away and then got captured out at sea by Alvin. But in terms of the plot by itself, the cause was clear, the effect was clear, and the aftermath was clear.

PLOT C: Alvin and Company….do evil things….

Alvin, Mildew, and Savage come back to Berk to check on their whispering deaths only to find that they’ve already hatched and Berk is still in one piece. After that they explore the tunnels until they figure capturing Meatlug is a better idea.

Okay now this plot…I just can’t even….

It was really all over the place. I really can’t even tell you the point here. It seemed like it had a point when it started…Alvin, Mildew, and Savage were going to check on the whispering deaths and the eggs are hatched and Berk is still perfectly fine. Alvin gets mad about the plan seemingly not working, blah blah blah. That was fine.

But then after that…they just walk around in the tunnels…spot the training academy…spy on the kids...capture Meatlug…leave….what’s going on here?

Alvin mentioned killing dragons, so I guess he captured Meatlug to get all the riders to come find her and then he’d kill them all…? I feel like I’m missing something, like they said something extra about their plan and I just didn’t catch it. But this entire plot seemed really misguided and random.

And it didn’t really help me like Alvin any more as a villain. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, in terms of who I feel is a “threat” to the main cast I’m more interested in what Dagur and the Screaming Death are up to than Alvin…he, Mildew, and Savage definitely got some funny “three old men” moments for sure, but they are still supposed to be intimidating villains.

Just when are they going to get a plot that advances them towards something instead of just making them seem like Saturday morning comedy villains? Especially since they have a lot in their good bag to pull out. 

They could have the whole “Mildew betrayed Berk” plot rear it’s ugly head again. Or the fact that Alvin has a potential army of ruthless dragons under his control now….? When are these assets going to be used? It is almost halfway through the season by now.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So…this episode had balance issues and just general “which way are we trying to go” issues. I think it just had one too many plots going on. It probably should’ve just focused on the Fishlegs vs. Snotlout/Fishlegs ignoring Meatlug plots for the teens, and then having Alvin find Meatlug running away and capture her after he’s sailing back to Outcast island to plan another attack…? I don’t know (I’m thinking off the top of my head) but something more…point oriented would’ve helped a lot. Because this episode was all over the place in some areas.

But on a positive note, the jokes in this episode were hilarious and extremely…mature in some places. The show does split in some I suppose “adult humor” very slyly every once in a while, but this episode…it’s cup runneth over with them.

Like come on…Tuffnut saying Fishlegs finally “grew some….” We all know how that sentence was going to finish. I’m actually pretty surprised they got away with that one, to be honest. That was very close to the fence. But still hilarious.

So, this was an odd episode for me, as it really was all over the place. Some of it was good, some of it great, some of it extremely…odd. Hopefully the next one has a bit better of a directional sense.