PLOT A: "Green-Eyed" Toothless
Toothless is the only one who knows finding a
baby dragon mean trouble, and tries desperately to warn Hiccup to give Torch
back…but it’s only perceived as jealousy.
I think I speak for everyone when I
say I’m glad we finally got a Toothless-central plot! And it was pretty much
the only part of this episode I enjoyed. Although I’m sure this’ll get tons of
negative reception for Hiccup’s end of the plot, I think in all seriousness
this is still in canon.
I typically don’t feel like just
because Hiccup misinterpreted Toothless and really thought that his dragon was
going crazy with jealousy that it means he’s out of character. Characters can’t
make mistakes without them being out of character? Cause last time I checked,
Hiccup was far from perfect. Should he have listened to Toothless more instead
of jumping to conclusions? Of course, but that lesson can’t be learned until he
makes the mistake the first time.
Although Hiccup and Toothless are portrayed as
the closet rider/dragon pair they’ve still got a ways to go before they can
achieve seamless communication without misinterpreting and misunderstanding
each other especially since there’s an obvious language barrier. Which is good,
because if they’re already there then where’s the progress in the rest of the
franchise, let alone the tv series?
This is definitely the best part of
the episode because not only is it showed more from Toothless’s point of view,
but for once the conflict within this main plot isn’t seriously botched up in
the third act.
The emotion in both Hiccup and
Toothless were there—Toothless was saddened and desperate to get Hiccup to
understand him while Hiccup was conflicted in what he should do when facing the
fact that Toothless might be going crazy—and it was paced out nicely. Plus, I
liked how at the ending there’s not some huge, sappy apology moment cause it
just shows how loyal Toothless is to Hiccup even without a big apology.
Toothless shows up and rescues Hiccup right on the spot and the just work
together as if nothing happened. Though Hiccup obviously learned a lesson here…trust
his dragon first before anything else. It’s something everyone thinks he should
already know but with Hiccup the “dragon nurse” wanting everyone to get along
and not having the willpower to leave a little dragon unattended he’s just
probably never had to deal with sharing attention with his dragon.
I feel like everyone learned their
lesson here and at the end of the day it was a satisfying plot that brought
both characters closer together in a non-rushed way.
PLOT B: New Dragon
Hiccup finally discovers a new dragon species,
but with it comes more than he bargained for.
Even though this is probably supposed
to be the main point of the episode, it got trumped (thankfully) by the
stronger Hiccup/Toothless plot.
Torch is…well we don’t get too much of
what he’s all about. He’s a baby that somehow got separated from his mother,
and he was obviously on a tight leash because he didn’t seem homesick the
entire episode, nor did he express an immediate need to go back to his mother
when she finally showed up. So I guess he was sick of home?
In my opinion, Torch was just a
bratty, little kid that got drunk off of freedom, got on Toothless’s nerves and
cuddled up to Hiccup because he was something new. Which is extremely funny…I
just wish it got more attention and explanation.
PLOT C: Big Mama
Torch’s mother is angered that her baby was
taken and she’s gonna go anywhere and do anything to find him.
The “conflict” of this episode, I’ve
gotta admit, was pretty weak. And it’s sad because the only reason it’s weak is
not because it lacks potential as a threat but because it got very little
screen time so it just ended up rushed (shocking!).
This seems to be the norm with Riders
of Berk episodes. They have potentially good conflicts but they’re either
misused or rushed so it turns out just being…not as threatening as it should,
especially since we all know it’s gonna work out in the end.
So I can’t really say much about Torch’s
mom. She was pissed cause her baby was missing, she stalked around in the
forest looking for him, got pissed when Torch was following Hiccup and not her,
and then got her kid back. She wasn’t really shown being a threat to the
village or anything even though it was “implied”. I would’ve much more liked if
it had shown that she was just going to come up in Berk and tear the place up
looking for her kid. Then at least something would’ve been more at stake….
FINAL THOUGHTS:
While this episode shines with Hiccup
and Toothless’s inner conflict, it’s kind of a weak introduction to a “new
dragon” plot. And still carries the “rushed third act resolution” typical to
Riders of Berk. I really can’t wait until these episodes start ending with cliffhangers,
because these “everything gets fixed in one episode” episodes aren’t really
working too well in terms of lasting impact.
Also, I thought the transitions in
this episode were extremely odd and choppy. Not typical at all for this show.
It bounced around too much and missed out on those transitional scenes that
make everything flow more smoothly. Like I would’ve loved a scene of Hiccup
telling Toothless they were going for a ride to the cove near the end of the
episode before it jumped to them just flying. Just goes to show how smooth
transitions are key.
And yes, they reused a few seconds of
Snotlout’s flying scene from episode 1. Why? I have no idea….it was weird. But
then again, they also reused that same transitional scene of dusk at the
Haddock house from episode 1, like, three or four times in this episode as
well.
Overall, I think this episode’s saving
grace his the Hiccup/Toothless plot cause without it this episode would’ve been
just average.
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