Defenders of Berk 208 Review

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.

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.

Defenders of Berk 206 Review

PLOT A: "Frozen: Dreamworks Style"

After the Hofferson family name was ruined when the Frightmare killed “Fearless Finn Hofferson” 10 years ago, Astrid has sworn revenge on the Frightmare, and with its arrival coming soon she’s finally going to get that chance.

This is probably the first “Astrid-centric” episode we’ve gotten since the mighty Heather Report duo last season and while I enjoyed Heather Report a lot more than this episode, it had some good points.

First off, it was interesting to see an actual flashback in show since I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that the show wasn’t really for flashbacks. But it seems they tactfully skimped around having to pay for making a younger model for Astrid by using one of the little girl models already used in the show and re-coloring her hair. I’m pretty sure it was the same little girl that was in episode 202 wanting Fishlegs’ autograph.

But still, this episode just might have a lot more depth in backstory than anticipated. If there really is some kind of embarrassment of dishonor of the Hofferson name after Finn was killed by the frightmare, that might explain Astrid’s continual drive in the movie and so forth to be the best at everything. Because she doesn’t want to be an embarrassment or add more dishonor to her family name….?

It’s an interesting thought to chew on.

Still, irrational and impulsive Astrid is always entertaining to watch as she usually thinks things through before jumping into stuff, she had a tunnel vision goal of defeating this dragon, so it was an odd turn of events to see Hiccup be the non-impulsive voice of reason.

And the end was good as well, though I think it would’ve benefited with maybe Astrid saying something about her uncle and not Hiccup. I know he was doing her a solid, but it was “Astrid’s” episode, after all.

But, onto the Frightmare. It’s a very pretty dragon. Very nice light effects and design, if I do say so myself. And the twist—if you wanna call it a twist—that it paralyzes it’s prey before striking it is….interesting to say the least. Though a bit gruesome when you think of poor Finn being frozen while it watches a dragon hurling towards him before it brutally murders him….

Lucky for Astrid, Hiccup was there to get her out of the way.

And the other “twist” that the Frightmare comes to Berk every year because it’s following a glowing river algae ignited by the aurora felt very national geographic, but it worked…and was a perfect thing for Fishlegs to solve.

I did enjoy how they only used the characters that were necessary to this plot, and I’m continually liking Astrid, Hiccup, and Fishlegs as the main problem solving trio of the show.

The ending battle was…it was good. I wouldn’t say it blew my mind but it wasn’t bad. Just your standard good fight. I do grow tired of the dragon commands, though. Still, I get their purpose, but I think Toothless knows to roll over during a fight without Hiccup telling him to.

So, this plot was mostly just a bag of “good but not great” things here.

PLOT B: "Mission Impossible….for Snotlout"

Ruffnut and Tuffnut have a “exclusive bunker” made for taking refuge during the Frightmare’s arrival and Snotlout wants in, but he first has to complete a list of outrageous errands for the twins.

This plot is basically the definition of a comedic sideplot. This episode had a more serious tone to it with its main plot, so I suppose they wanted something lighter to balance it out, and thus we get this plot with the twins and Snotlout.

It was cute and funny, I can say that, so there was nothing wrong with the plot itself. Just how much screen time it got. It got way for much for something that was a sideplot, and it ended up using time that could’ve 

been used to flush out the A plot better.

Now the A plot was in no way rushed, so to speak, but there was more than one time in this episode where when this comedic sideplot came up I was tapping my fingers waiting for it to get back to the main point of the episode.

Comedic sideplots are perfectly fine as long as they stay on the side, and this plot started pushing too much in terms of how much screen time it got when it didn’t advance the plot whatsoever.

So…while it was good and funny and all, it needed a little less time because, again, it wasn’t the point of the episode.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

So, this episode had a lot of hype behind it and I already anticipated it wouldn’t live up to it…mainly because the hype was all Hiccstrid.

I wasn’t expecting any romance in this episode so I wasn’t disappointed or shocked like I know some of the fans were.

That aside, I do think this episode had a bit of an issue with balance between the A and B plot, but managed to still have that issue and not let the episode seemed rushed. So, I praise it on that.

It was a nice look back into Astrid’s past and motivations, and offered a lovely new dragon.

Defenders of Berk 205 Review

PLOT A: "Another one bites the Dust" (these lame titles)

Snotlout has been training day and night to ready himself for the upcoming attacks, but he’s been working Hookfang too hard in the process and the nightmare falls deathly ill.

So, all I can think of in comparison to this is episode 109 “Dragon Flower”. Which one of my complaints about that episode was the sickness factor was pretty downplayed and resulted in the actual sense of urgency not being there.

In this episode, though, it’s the exact opposite. The urgency is there and it’s in your face. And interestingly enough it sparked a question for me. Yes, Hookfang was pushed too hard and thus his flame started going out, but Fishlegs also mentioned that it happens to dragons when they get older. Maybe Hookfang’s a lot older than the other dragons? Thus pushing him too hard does result in life threatening side effects. Maybe he’s a middle aged dragon…? Which would explain his behavior as a mid-life crisis (assuming dragons have those).

But, back on topic, I do like that this episode seemed to conjure up amazing amounts of emotional depth, and I hate getting overly sappy about things that really aren’t that sappy…but this totally was. I really did get a little chest jump at some points (mostly the end). I think a lot of it had to do with Zack Pearlman’s voice acting. In a rare case I’m actually going to be sad when Jonah Hill comes back for Snotlout in the sequel cause Zack has got him down pat with the emotional stuff.

I can always trace back to how impressed I was with his VA in episode 116 when he was telling Hiccup how smug he was and yadda yadda, but this episode was laden with wonderfully delivered and almost heart-wrenching vocal moments. The “What are you waiting for, eat it!” line…man, that was great.

And, of course, the return of Spitelout being a royal piece of crap has returned! We all liked him in episode 112 and we all liked him here. He did his job of being a hard-hearted prick in contrast to Snotlout who, while tough, is clearly one of the more emotional of the group. The complications of Snotlout and Hookfang’s relationship is pretty fun to watch them go through dealing with each other’s personalities only to find that they’re exactly alike.

But seriously, seeing Hookfang and Snotlout interact here was brilliant, so many great displays of physical affection that we don’t usually get from those two. But the situation was dire and called for such, and it was delivered nicely.

And HE CRIED! We haven’t even seen Hiccup cry yet.

But while on the subject, I think one of the best moments in this episode was, oddly enough, the small interactions between Snotlout and Astrid. Usually the only interaction they have is Snotlout hitting on her or being a small-minded jerk about something and she calls him out. That’s really it. I’ve never seen these two have a conversation outside those terms. Here we have some nicely done comforting, and even when she touches his shoulder—a primo time for him to shake off his emotions and hit on her for the sake of looking like nothing’s wrong (which would’ve been in character still)—Snotlout inside backs off and asks her an honest to goodness question. I was both shocked and impressed.

So, in all terms, I really can’t find anything wrong with how this plot was handled. It had a sickness plot that was actually urgent, had a nice conflict to overcome, tied it in with Spitelout’s quote and brought it back to prove it wrong, had great emotional depth, added a lot of development to Snotlout and Hookfang’s relationship, and had some awesomely delivered lines from Snotlout.

PLOT B: "The Worm Queen"

In the hopes of curing Hookfang the group learns a bit more about Fireworms by traveling to the nest.

This was a nice way to casually slip in learning more about a dragon from last season, and the queen did look pretty cool (hot?)

I enjoyed the design and invention that they all live in a honey comb/bee hive-like cave and maintain their heat by licking the gel on the combs as well as the queen choosing to save Hookfang by…biting him…? Licking him…? What did she do again?

That was a weird choice to not show what she did but just show Hookfang’s reaction. Cause she let out her tongue so it seemed like she licked him or whacked him, but then by the reaction it was like he was bitten. 

So…I just wish they could’ve shown what she did. It’s not like it’s “graphic violence” or anything.

Either way, whatever she did, it was a nice touch to have that be how Hookfang was save. And by that time he was just a limp body (that kinda broke my heart…not gonna lie).

In terms of none of this coming into play until act three, it was evenly paced and not rushed…cause I was worried when I realized their entire journey to fireworm island would be in the third act, but they pulled off the pacing nicely as usual (for this season).

And nice fire effects…much better than last season. (Not that last season was bad, it’s just noticeably better).

And perhaps there were some scenes that went on a little too long…like the pacing was still fine, but, maybe the training scene of it showing Astrid going through chasing every person and the scene of finding the fireworms…neh Maybe having the second act not take place mostly in the academy would’ve helped…? But those are just minor nitpicks just for the sake of nitpicking though.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I hate to use words that are close to perfect but…yeah, I really didn’t have too many problems here. This episode was really nicely crafted especially since it was an emotionally charged episode in a show that usually focuses on action.

Not that this show hasn’t had emotional episodes before—and nicely done ones at that—but there was something about this episode in particular that really just worked.

I think I am seeing a pattern, though, with these episodes. More so than not, the first 5 episodes have been only A and B plot type episodes…there’s rarely a random third point/plot that needs to happen and usually the A plot is so dominant there’s barely a B plot to find now. Which is helping these episodes feel more focused.

Less is more when dealing with a plot. These episodes, for the most part, know what they’re about, where they’re going, and where they need to end, and it’s showing as the season goes on. Plus, if you’re focusing on then it’s much easier for something to be good, such as this episode is pushing an almost perfect score because it focused so heavily on the Hookfang/Snotlout plot and that was good. Unfortunately, if it was bad then that really hurts the score, but that’s not the case here!

And now comes the infamous (there’s at least two “infamous” episodes every season”) episode 206….I wonder how that’s gonna turn out? The preview looks pretty good.

Defenders of Berk 204 Review

PLOT A: "The deadly dragon with skin as white as snow"

While trapped down in the caves beneath Berk, Hiccup discovers not only the whispering deaths the Outcasts put underground, but a mysterious white dragon called the screaming death.

We all saw this plot coming…mostly because the advertisement for this season was hardly subtle about the fact that this dragon was going to be a major problem this season.

So ladies and gentlemen I give you the screaming death. Is it as big and bad as the Red Death in the movie…? Is the pudding worth the price?

…..Yeah, actually it is. I was really impressed with this new dragon as I wasn’t extremely moved by its design in the promotion poster, but seeing it move and be in action makes it at least 10 times more intimidating. It’s mean looking, creepy, but still looks like a dragon. Like they went for the mean look but it doesn’t look like they just piled on a bunch of extra stuff to make it look as scary as possible. The design just happens to work very well in its favor.

And it’s whole role seems rather interesting as well. Another “queen bee” dragon with a bunch of loyal whispering death hatchlings.  Oh, the possibilities…though hopefully not possibilities that’s just an exact rehash of the movie’s plot….

But, onto the actual plot behind the dragon, it’s good that they didn’t wait too long to have Hiccup find out that the Outcasts were planting dragons under the village, cause it would’ve been kind of lame to have him trying to figure out “who done it” for the whole first half of the season. But now that he knows, what is he gonna do? There’s a lot of “let them/it go” going on for these first few episodes…so something has to come to a boil eventually. And usually I’d be skeptical about big climatic battles as last season’s battles were rather…lackluster. But this season continually provides exciting battle after exciting battle so I’m feeling strangely optimistic that whatever battle is looming forth will deliver some solid action. Though I hope I’m not putting the prosthetic tail before the dragon here.

And speaking of said battle…it really deserves a shout out because not only did this episode do something I’ve been hoping it the show would do, but it did so very well.

As many of you know—and as I keep reminding so how could you forget?—pacing was one of my biggest complaints about last season, especially within the second act. The ending action would always be rushed to make up for the spare time the middle part of the episode, more or less, wasted. This season seems to have fixed this problem if the first four episodes are anything to judge, but this episode in particular was a shining example in how to utilize proper pacing.

How, you ask? Well, this episode was a tricky one, because the entire second half of it was nothing but a continuous battle. To do over ten minutes of nothing but battle and strategy you have to keep things moving and keep it fresh, both are extremely hard. But this episode seemed to pull it off. I think the main reason has to do with the fact that they allowed for so much time. The battle started in the middle of the second act, so they had the second half of the second act and all of the third to do nothing but battle. So it didn’t feel rushed or cut short.

This episode knew what to focus on and it was the battle, all the beginning was just set up and nicely paced set up at that. It didn’t linger too long with keeping Hiccup and Toothless underground, they found out what they needed to and then joined the fight.

But, whew, this is getting long…I liked the battle, and I didn’t even mind that the ending solution was obviously a callback to the movie with shot similarities and the whole nine yards. But I guess it’s just the right way vs. wrong way to reference the movie that makes it work (like in this episode’s case or 113’s case) or not work (*cough* 107 *cough*). But, like I said, I hope this isn’t foreshadowing that they’re going to rehash the plot of the movie as well.

And Hiccup’s doomsday senses are still tingling and we all know we haven’t seen the last of snow white dragon. Only question is…what it’s gonna do? I’m actually very exciting to find out.

So, good battle plotline. It had a tough job in being a plot that was 90% battle scenes and it was the main plot of the episode and it was only a two-plot episode so it had to carry more weight and it succeeded on all four ends.

Well done. My only slight nitpick might be that the ending conversation between Hiccup and Astrid seemed like rushed dialogue…it just felt like “oh we’re almost out of time, cut out some of the silence between the words” kind of thing. But it wasn’t episode-ruining. Just a nitpick for the sake of nitpicking. And there were just a few tiny little scenes where they slowed down the action and took too long of a pause—and almost unrealistic pause—like mostly when Astrid and Hiccup were strategizing how to defeat the screaming death…with the screaming death right behind them. Everything seemed a little too calm there, which kinda broke the tension since they did have this giant dragon still actively chasing them. Having them dodge something while trying to talk probably would’ve helped.

PLOT B: "Water we gonna do without water?" (okay that’s a lame title, sorry).

Berk’s well has dried up, leaving the village with a low water supply and no answers as to what happened.

So one of those “normal day on Berk” problems comes up. Gobber stinks, needs a bath, but oops there’s no water.

This plot was definitely just used as a reason to have Hiccup go underground to find the eggs, and the Gobber needs a bath gag was just put in for a laugh or two. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, it was just blindingly obvious.

Since this plot was just a “in the beginning and in the end” kind of thing, I can’t really say too much about it. The entire episode was really just heavily reliant on plot A. Luckily it did it’s job to deliver, but, to be honest, I feel like this “the water level is low” plot could’ve been replaced with just about any other plot that involves Hiccup somehow getting trapped underground and it still would’ve worked. So…it was pretty dispensable.

But, that doesn’t make it a bad choice, given that a choice had to be made. It just would’ve been nice to have a bit more of a seamless tie between plot A and B.

Though, once again, I did like how the flight club/academy was used effectively to help out a village problem. So, they still kept the group “doing something” with the academy before the big fight scene.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This episode was….(wait for it)….rock solid. (Couldn’t resist using that awful pun).

It was a big risk to have an episode put its supporting weight all on a ten-minute battle scene, but somehow it pulled it all together and kept the battle moving and interesting to watch. Not at any point can I say I was bored or wanting the fight to “just be over with already”, so they kept my attention on a continuous battle. Nice work.

Also, on a random note, I really enjoy watching Hiccup in so much action this season and, strangely enough, I love seeing him get thrown around (don’t know what that’s about, people do tend to have a sick obsession with liking their main characters to get hurt to a certain degree?). Now if only he’d get a scratch or two, because he had some really nasty falls in this fight, I don’t know how he didn’t dislocate his jaw or something.

But did I like this battle more than the one in the previous episode….?

Well, this one was longer and a lot more strategic so I should like it more. But there was something about the appeal of going out of the norm and having Hiccup fight off of Toothless that still makes me find the fight in 203 just a hair more entertaining despite it paling in comparison to length when put up against this fight.

Still, this episode was filled with lots of good stuff and an excellent usage of pacing techniques. I’m really liking how many of the season 1 flaws are getting fixed this season. I hope it keeps up!

Defenders of Berk 203 Review

PLOT A: “DoB: Brotherhood”

While out on a nighttime training mission on Dragon Island, Hiccup stumbles across Dagur who has been on the island for days hunting dragons. To keep him still under the impression that Berk is still killing dragons, Hiccup plays along, but he can only keep it up for so long when Dagur has his sights on killing Toothless.

I must’ve let out a thousand fangirl screams because this was the triumphant episode where Dagur returned! At last year’s comic con, they said Dagur was going to play a bigger role in season 2, and by the looks of this episode…this is completely true.

This episode set up a big, fat, juicy (yes, juicy) plot for Dagur to be in, and I’m loving every second of it.

In 115, Dagur basically stole the entire episode—that he wasn’t technically supposed to be the point of—but this episode was all about Dagur and rose to the occasionally wonderfully.

He seemed even more nuts in this episode, as apparently he spent his time between 115 and this episode trying to learn about dragons and going to dragon island to basically kill everyone he finds. And I do love the little added touch of Dagur’s complete disregard for people’s personal space. If he lived in modern times he’d definitely diagnosed with something….but in the 11^th century he’s just “deranged”, but still shows all the classic signs of being crazy…like the no personal space thing. And it’s not just Hiccup’s personal space, it’s everyone’s. (Why did he touch Fishlegs’ cheek like that, anyways?)

But, the interactions were probably my favorite part. Dagur and Hiccup had a wonderful dialogue chemistry in 115 and this episode was just as good, even better! Dagur keeps growing more and more unstable and Hiccup keeps getting more and more uncomfortable with it. Though, I have to admit, at the end of the episode it was hard to see Hiccup ditch Dagur and pretty much cast him off after Dagur did show—in his own “Dagur” way—a genuine interest in them being brothers. But Hiccup has his agenda, and Dagur’s got his…which by his line at the end of the episode of “no one hurts Hiccup but me”, I fear for the future.

But, this episode does address a rather important factor about this show’s lineup of villains. More specifically Dagur and Alvin. It was mentioned a lot after 115 that Dagur was a more intimidating villain who, even though he had only been in one episode, managed to get us more revved up and worried about what he was going to than the series’ regular villain. And I can only agree. But here’s why: we know Dagur’s motivations. We know his back story. We know Dagur.

Dagur’s only been in two episodes but we all feel more attached and able to make logical conclusions about him because the show has taken those two episodes to the fullest and given us formidable information about this villain, while still keeping him “mysterious” enough that we can always expect surprises.

Alvin, doesn’t have that….at least not yet. He almost got it when the first introduced him in 106 when they teased at a potential Alvin/Stoick dilemma but that never came into fruition. So when everyone wonders why Dagur is such a more intimidating villain, is because we know him, we feel attached to him, and definitely after this episode, we’ve seen him in action. He’s not afraid to really beat the crap out of Hiccup as he was basically doing at the end, and that scene alone provided—in my opinion—the best fight scene we’ve gotten in the whole show.

It was great to see a villain finally get up in Hiccup’s face and make him physically fight. The choreographing was great and so was the pacing so that didn’t hinder the fight whatsoever, but it was the first time we really saw Hiccup get in a physical fight someone, and I enjoyed seeing him be confident yet still look a little unsure of how to stand, how to use his weapon, and when to jump in and out of battle. He’ll get better with that over time, as long as he continues to have these battles to polish his skills.

But, yeah, Dagur’s the villain I’m looking at to mess stuff up as I’m sure he’s polishing his weapons and getting his armada ready to invade Berk…? Get Hiccup…? Steal Toothless…? All of the above? Yeah, Alvin needs to step up his game this season. But with this “screaming death” plot he might just be stepping it up.

Honestly, I really can’t find a thing wrong with this plot. The dialogue was brilliant, the buildup was great, and the ending fight didn’t disappoint whatsoever. And since this episode only had two main plots, both had to carry the weight of the episode more and this plot more than carried the entire episode and then some…

PLOT B: “Just some teenagers in the woods…alone…at night…”

The teens go on a nighttime training mission to Dragon Island, looking to polish their stealth skills as well as being to defend themselves without the aid of their dragons—leaving Tuffnut in charge of making sure the dragons stay out of the way.

So I’m sure everyone got that fanfiction vibe from this plot, mostly cause if you were around during the “early stages” of the fandom like I was then you know that there was fanfiction galore on this very subject: the teens going on missions without their dragons to learn how to protect themselves or a rite of passage hunting trip, etc. So it was cool to see it actually come up in the actual franchise.

And I did like the little touch of Astrid’s ideas always being complicated and difficult. That just seems legit to me.

But it was an interesting thing that they had Tuffnut actually using his brain in this episode. When he was picked to watch the dragons I knew it was gonna be a bunch of jokes (funny jokes) and stuff but there were some actual times where Tuffnut was doing his job, staying on task, and being active in correcting issues on his own. (But the “you can lightly massage my shoulders and neck” line…oh my gosh…TJ Miller is truly hilarious).

That’s kinda…at big step for his character, because he’s pretty brain dead most of the time.

But this plot, on the “minor nitpicks” side, did have some weird transition, cutoffs, and overall random choices in displaying characters. But it didn’t have pacing issues which I’m extremely proud of this season for having such a good three act pacing system!

Still, I can recall three times where there was just something extremely weird in one of those areas. One where Fishlegs was alone and walked past the Typhoomerang, another where Snotlout said “wait you mean…” and it just cut off and went to the next scene, and another when Astrid came into the “Dagur and Hiccup hunting” scene and basically jumped in, shushed Snotlout, and jumped out.

I could be missing something in these three scenes but they just struck me as extremely off putting because I just didn’t get them. Why were they chosen to be displayed that way…?

And just a mini-shoutout to the fact that Ruffnut is actually getting a personality—or just lines in general—in this season. The poor girl needed it because she was basically non-existent last season.

But anyways, this plot was a good lead into find Dagur and then letting him steal the show—as he always does—but offered some good character moments—especially for Tuffnut. And I’m glad that this season is still continuing with making the dragon academy’s “training” actually have a point. Last season some of the things they did had a point, but most of the time we didn’t even know what they were doing. They were just “training”…training how? At least now we know the motivation and purpose behind everything they’re doing in this season, which is always nice.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This episode was such a joy to watch! I can barely criticize it because it really did have such a good premise, pacing, and power to it.

But then, I can’t say it was all because Dagur was there—though that always helps, they just nail his character every time—but it seemed like a lot of good risks taken in this episode paid off. It didn’t stay in the comfort zone. It went the extra mile to have that good fight, to make the comic relief character have a few cerebral moments, and make a villain that we’ve only know for two episodes more interesting, relatable, and intimidating than the regular villain.

I’m glad Dagur’s going to be in plenty of episodes this season as he’s a welcomed addition to plot and always managed to bring the best out of the writing. Though I do wonder when his secret source of information will come back in, because if that has ties to Alvin then maybe Dagur can help out our “main villain”…? It just might be crazy enough to work.

Still, wonderful episode! Can’t wait until Dagur comes back!