PLOT A: Chomp Chomp, there goes your
island
While trying to keep tabs on the dragon’s
migration habits, Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs investigate the mysterious
flocking of all the dragons back to dragon island only to find that the
Screaming Death has returned and is sinking all the islands.
Aaaaand the Screaming Death is back!
I’m pretty excited about this, as I loved her in episode 204.
But, first and foremost, the group is
trying to keep tabs on the migration habits of dragons…I gotta admit, at first
when I saw the teens “tagging” the dragons I got a bit worried, but if it’s for
purposes such as studying migration—cause that’s pretty useful to know—then I
suppose it’s fine. And it’s just paint. And it offered some hilarious moments
between Fishlegs and Astrid about the color correction.
That being said, this plot did give us
some excellent character interaction
moments between Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs.
It’s very clear—even last season—that
these three were the “main of the main”. As in out of the six kids these three
are most likely to take the lead in advancing the plot (as I mentioned in 206’s
review), and I’m always happy to see fewer characters being focused on in
advancing episodes such as these. As I mentioned a lot about last season,
having all the teens together during every problem-solving adventure wasn’t
necessary and in some ways hurt the story because there were too many people to
keep tabs on.
But, with these three, the show has
taken some careful time to push the friendship to a more comfortable level and
this episode shines in showing the almost effortless chemistry between all of
three of them. Well done.
Though, while on the subject of
communication, I can say that while a good 75% of the communication between the
three was wonderful, the other 25% was rather annoying. Why? Well…because it
was all a bunch of in-your-face explaining.
One thing I really loved about the movie was its “show-don’t-tell” nature. Which
seems kind of obvious for a movie, right? WRONG!
This episode proved that, even when something is almost all visual…things
still aren’t shown and not told. Or, more accurately, things are shown and then
also unnecessarily told.
Go back to the scene in the movie
where Hiccup realized Toothless is missing half of his tail and erases the tail
fin in his drawing. In the commentary the directors said that they could’ve
easily had Hiccup mutter to himself “oh, his tail is missing.” But, having
Hiccup erase the tail was a perfect visual moment that connected with Hiccup’s
perception and the audience’s perception without saying a word.
Now, let’s look at a scene in this
episode, say…when the screaming death…screams and Hiccup says that the scream
disorients the dragons. Well…we already knew that—it was only 4 episodes
ago—that and it felt more like he was saying that to the viewer and not Astrid. There were many moments like that where
Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs were “communicating” but it felt more like they
were just spitting out facts to the viewer so they wouldn’t be confused…when,
chances are, they got the point rather easily.
And there are other ways to tell
information about dragons than just long sentences of facts in the guise of
conversation. This episode had a lot of that and it was a problem last season
as well so…I’m not too sure it’s going to be fixed any time soon.
But, onto the meat and potatoes of the
plot: the screaming death.
Since most of its screen time was
during the ending battle, I can say that…it was a little lack luster, but then
comparing it to the other episode feature the screaming death—episode 204—where
the ending battle was literally the entire second half of the episode…it’s a
hard comparison. It fell a little flat for me, though, especially since the
fight scenes this season have been rather superb most of the time.
And the “Fishlegs is the hero of the
day” thing…neh. I felt like it could’ve gone without mention as it didn’t seem
like a “fish-centric” episode where that really needed that to be pointed out.
Overall this plot’s bright spots were
definitely in the chemistry between Fishlegs, Astrid, and Hiccup putting their
heads together and solving a problem…though I would’ve hoped for a more
exciting face-off with the screaming death and a lot less explaining pretending
to be dialogue.
PLOT B: Insert some “airmail” joke
from tumblr here
Hiccup and Fishlegs create a new way to
communicate long distance, but the twins don’t seem to get the memo.
So, this is a good example of a side
plot in its proper place. As I mentioned, Fishlegs, Astrid, and Hiccup were the
main problem solving focus here while the others were just chilling on Berk.
The tie over of having airmail so that we could go back to the island and see
what the twins and Snotlout were up to was pretty clever…as well as just the
idea in general.
It had a carrier pigeon feel to it,
and I hope the airmail sticks because that’s a rather good means of
Viking-communication.
Though, in a bit unrelated to this
plot, I do wonder why Hiccup seems so put off by asking his father for help.
This is like, what, the third time he’s brushed off getting help from his
father to solve the problem on his own? Last season it was all about him being
impulsive and not wanting help from anyone…now it seems he just doesn’t help
from his father?
I could easily say it’s because he’s
trying to prove himself…but I just hope that little facet about him is going somewhere. And not just in the
franchise but in this actual season…
I know they’re waiting for the sequel
to flush out more of his imperfections but having a show where there’s nothing
but build up and no mention of resolution of said build up is…neh.
But, back to the B plot here. The
twins are always funny, but I liked how their plot didn’t fight for attention
to the A plot like it did in 206. It was a nice side note to return to for a
minute or two before heading back into the A plot. So…nicely crafted there.
And Snotlout’s “see you back on Berk
suckas!”…golden.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This episode was definitely back to
the good stuff…as it seems the episodes got a tad off track in quality for little bit.
But I can say that I do actually want
the Screaming Death’s next appearance to not end with her leaving and Hiccup
staring off to the horizon saying “it’ll be back”. They’ve done it twice
already, I think that’s enough.
What is the
Screaming Death going to do exactly…? Who knows, but I’m still pretty excited
to find out!
So…good characterization, good plot
balance, decent fight…but perhaps just less explanation within the dialogue.
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