PLOT A: Being a Hiccup
Hiccup and Stoick are finally participating in
the traditional picture of the chief and his son that’ll hang in the Great Hall
for generations! But, when the picture is revealed, Stoick has asked that
changes be made to Hiccup’s appearance….that is, him being buffer.
Now distraught and still feeling like his
father doesn’t accept him, Hiccup goes to great measures to try and prove
himself.
As I mentioned in the review of the
last episode, I feel like Hiccup and Stoick will always have slight problems in
how the perceive each other’s actions and words.
You could see the pride in Stoick’s
face at the beginning of the episode in which Hiccup and him are posing for the
picture as well as Hiccup’s because he feels it’s a good moment for the two of
them. But I’ve got to hand it to the animator’s and director for giving Hiccup
such an emotionally hurt look when he saw his picture as a “buff man”. It was
heart breaking to see him back away slowly and slip back into feeling inadequate.
So, once again, Hiccup is off to prove
himself…but this plot for Hiccup proving himself has a lot deeper meaning then
in, say, episode 3 or even episode 1. Hiccup’s reasoning and actions are all
defined by him having a need to be Stoick’s “kind of Viking” while still maintaining
his own personality. And it was great to have a shout out to the book series in
explaining the origins of Hiccup’s name of being a “runt of the litter”.
And as for Stoick, he once again got
another kick in the teeth that the things he does and says have consequences
and—like in the movie-could lead to him potentially losing his son forever. I
like how this episode mirrored the movie so much in that fact, in which Stoick
is saying things to make Hiccup feel belittled in the Viking society, so Hiccup
tries to prove himself and finds out along the way that being who he truly is solves
the problem better in the end. But, he almost dies in the process and Stoick,
once again, fears that he’s lost his son.
Overall, I think the entire mood of
the episode can be summed up in that one hug at the end, which is probably one
of my favorite moments in the series so far. You can tell how much Stoick was
worried, just as clearly as he was in the movie, that he had lost his son
again, and Hiccup was just beaming that his father was giving him some
affection! It was great! The happiness and love between them was so well portrayed
while still being in character, which is particularly hard for Stoick since he
didn’t even want to hold hands in the previous episode.
And the ending moment of the new painting
being revealed, and Stoick is still proud….beautiful!
Hiccup and Stoick’s relationship is
turning out to be one of the best and most consistent from the movie in this
series, and it’s only getting better!
PLOT B: Indiana Hiccup!
Wanting to prove to his father that he can do
something not even “Stoick the Vast” could accomplish, Hiccup and the other
teens go off in search of Hamish II’s famous treasure.
This was a great side plot as to what
Hiccup was going to do to prove himself. With the issue of the dragons being “pesky”
finally out of the way, it’s nice to see a real adventure in an episode!
Of course it mostly had Hiccup solving
everything and Snotlout being cocky, as per the usual, but it had some great
moments for Fishlegs and Astrid as well!
The plot of the treasure seemed to
ring back to the second book in the “How to Train Your Dragon” book series: “How
to Be a Pirate”, which I know a lot of books fans were glad to see.
Still, this treasure hunt had some
pretty adventurous moments, especially in the caves. And the mechanisms of the treasure
hunt—while not entirely logical—are great and watch.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the
teens go on a real journey with their dragons, which I think we’ve all been
waiting for since the series started.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I honestly couldn’t find anything that
I didn’t like about this episode. It had a nice change of pace with an
adventurous plot, it wasn’t rushed, and the character moments were some of the
best in the series for almost everyone!
I didn’t expect less, though, from
director John Sanford. He’s proving to be my favorite director so far because
episodes that shinned in the series such as episodes 2 and 5 were both directed
by him and had stunning characterization!
I’d also like to mention how much I
loved the moment between Astrid and Fishlegs…when Hiccup fell in the caves and
Astrid was being rash in staying behind for him. When Fishlegs got all calm and
serious and was able to get Astrid to do what he said was chilling! Such a
great moment to see Fishlegs stepping up and showing control while Astrid was
feeling lost and scared. I hope to see more that dynamic between them in future
episodes!
With a flawlessly portrayed
Hiccup/Stoick plot, a great adventure that called back to the book series, and
amazing characterization, I don’t see why I shouldn’t give this episode an A+.
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