PLOT A: Trust the Hiccup, Stoick
Hiccup’s been trying to get his father to ride
a dragon for a while, but Stoick seems hesitant, and on top of that when he
finally gives in it seems like nothing Hiccup says gets through to his father.
I like how this plot is handled.
Hiccup and Stoick’s relationship is always done well done this show, but this
really has them “paling” around and doing some father/son bonding of their own.
It’s good to see Hiccup pestering his
father to perhaps give in to completely committing to the new life on Berk and
getting a dragon of his own, and how he takes his father through the same
motions that he went through with Toothless. I’m assuming he did the same with
all of the teens but we never got to really see this.
And it’s interesting how they still
bring up communicational issues between Hiccup and Stoick. Honestly, I doubt
this is ever going to go away completely because of just how different they
are, but it’s nice to know that Stoick was really listening to a certain degree
the entire episode anyways.
Overall, my favorite part of Hiccup
and Stoick’s moments were just having them constantly in each other’s company,
something we haven’t seen. There’s no impending problem or Stoick dumping all
of these “fix the dragon problem” orders on him, they’re getting through a new
experience together and even though they’re having their speed bumps, you can
tell they still love each other!
PLOT B: Being Ridden by a 400 Pound
Man
Finally being convinced that he needs a dragon
on his own, Stoick relies on riding Toothless to get his chief duties done. But
he’s a little too heavy for Toothless to be any sort of comfortable.
I think everyone said “poor Toothless”
at least once in this episode. I know I did.
I like how we all knew Toothless was
just doing Hiccup a major solid by putting up with Stoick riding him all
day,
but it does, in fact, show a certain level of familiarity between Toothless and
Stoick that we haven’t seen before. Their relationship isn’t exactly where they’re
super close, but they’re a little above tolerating each other….they’re
familiar. I think Toothless does have a certain level of respect for Stoick now
probably because he can sense the respect Hiccup has for his father.
And the fact that Toothless was hiding
from Stoick instead of just being outright and denying him access to riding him
says a lot. Toothless is a Night Fury after all…if he doesn’t want you to ride
him he definitely has the power to make that so. But instead, he hid to perhaps
avoid hurting Stoick’s feelings or even letting him down. That’s a big step for
these two!
This plot had a lot of funny moments
as well as pivotal, so I definitely liked it!
PLOT C: Stoick and Thornado “bonding”
Agreeing to lay off of flying Toothless,
Stoick and Hiccup now must find a dragon for Stoick, which, of course, has to
be a powerful and “rogue” Thunderdrum. But Stoick doesn’t seem to be gentle
enough to earn the dragon’s trust.
Stoick and Thornado was an extremely
enjoyable part of the episode, just because it’s funny to see Stoick being so enthusiastic
about having his own dragon (with spunk) yet he goes at it the way Stoick goes
at everything….head on and with his fists. The scene where he told Hiccup that Thornado
tossed him off and left, and he said Thornado “loved” his rough-housing was
extremely hilarious.
It’s nicely portrayed, that while
Stoick’s being…”Stoick” he really does want Thornado as his dragon. Their
little “we’ll watch each other’s backs” moment was cute, and even though the
whole ‘nose in the hand’ gesture was pretty rip-off-ish from Hiccup and
Toothless, it was pretty poignant.
I only wish we had seen more of their “bonding”.
Thornado and Stoick’s dynamic didn’t come in until the third act and
unfortunately it suffered from what most Riders of Berk episodes suffer from…trying
to cram too much conflict resolution into the third act.
So, all and all, while I loved their
overall dynamic and it was believable and entertaining, it felt way too rushed. Still, now that they’re “buds”
their relationship should slow down and develop a little in each episode. A
dynamic I’m thoroughly excited to see!
I wonder if Thornado will stay in the
house like Toothless….?
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Coming off of a pretty heavy plot in
episode 6 this episode slows things down, lightens it up, and gives us a chance
to breathe. No more “the dragons are being pesky”, now it’s time for Stoick to
buckle down and fully accept this new way of life.
Overall it was a fun episode with some great
character moments for both Hiccup and Stoick…and Toothless (poor, poor
Toothless). And it introduced a powerful new plot point. Stoick now has his own
dragon, and that’ll hopefully carry on throughout the entire franchise (I mean
how awkward would that be if Stoick didn’t have Thornado in the sequel?)
Still, while the plots and character
moments shined, I feel it’s hard to give this episode an “A”….because it just
felt a little too…well it suffered from the typical problem of lollygagging in
the first and second act and not even getting to the point of the episode
(Stoick/Thornado bonding) until the third act. The most important part was
extremely rushed.
And I’ve got one very awkward note to
share….the satanic boars….
Really?
REALLY?
Just….I don’t mind blood-thirsty
animals going after the wounded purple Thunderdrum, but boars with glowing red
eyes? The animal choice just made that scene sillier than what it was supposed
to be, which was creating tension.
And, of course, it can be easily
argued that this episode was too much of a rip off from the movie, which at
first, that’s what I was thinking (I still can’t warm up completely to the
complete rip off of romantic flight). But, I think it’s just a system that
Hiccup teaches people to go through when bonding with a dragon, because that
worked for him and Toothless, so that’s his method.
But still…the rushing in this episode
especially during the main focus of it definitely soured this episode just a
tad. But, hey, it did finally feature the mighty return of Dentist!Gobber.
What would've made this episode perfect? Splitting it down the middle. If they would've ended it with having then find Thornado and Stoick wanting him as his dragon, and then having a whole episode devoted to Stoick and Thornado bonding, that would've been the "magic formula".)
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