PLOT A: “Little Miss Innocent comes to
Berk”
Snotlout and the teens discover a girl washed
up on Thor’s Beach in a shipwreck and take her back home to Berk when she
claims her parents were captured by pirates and her home was under siege.
Meanwhile, due to her arrival, all the boys seem to be enamored with her…even
Hiccup!
So, as stated a while back, this was
expected to be a “Mary Sue comes to Berk” episode, and it kind of was….only
Heather ended up being more a villain than just the cute girl. I liked how all
the boys just salivated at Heather’s arrival, especially since the only two
girls their age seem to be Astrid and Ruffnut. Especially for guys like
Tuffnut, who one of the girls is his sister and Astrid is obviously only
interested in Hiccup, that was pretty exciting for him. But I liked how even
Fishlegs liked her as well! It was very entertaining to see him flirt!
As an overall character, I liked
Heather, she obviously has ulterior motives from day one, but was good at
playing the innocent role, and even had a few moments with Hiccup that made us
realize that she was pretty normal, such as the scene with her and Hiccup in
the forge.
But, the side glares, manipulation,
sneakiness, and sly smiles were hard to overlook after a while. She knew she
could get by fooling the boys by just batting her eyes and playing innocently
confused, but as soon as she was up against Astrid we saw her devious side.
Which, might be her personality as a whole, even if she is being blackmailed,
you can’t just magically turn manipulative and cunning…that’s imbedded already.
So, I’d say Heather is turning out to
be a well rounded “villain” with evil intentions yet not motivations. Inner
turmoil is pretty attractive in a character conflict.
PLOT B: “Green-Eyed Astrid?”
Everyone seems okay with Heather’s arrival,
except Astrid. What starts off as jealousy over her closeness to Hiccup turns
into suspicions when Astrid thinks Heather is a spy.
The plot we all saw coming. Another
girl moves in on Astrid’s territory as Hiccup’s #1 and she’s not too pleased.
We could spend all day saying that Astrid felt more betrayed than jealous over
Heather and Hiccup, but bottom line is the “he’s giving a private lesson” line
was definitely out of pure “get away from my man” jealously rather than
suspicion.
But moving on more towards the bulk of
the plot. Astrid obviously wasn’t buying Heather’s innocent routine. She was
new, she was a stranger with a questionable back story, and it’s just Astrid’s
nature to question her until she’s proven trustworthy. Her actions of anger probably
stemmed out from a lot of feelings of frustration, fear, and, yes, jealousy
because of the way Hiccup was treating Heather over her.
And, yes, I do believe that Hiccup did
develop and little crush on Heather. Why wouldn’t he? She’s cute, easily
impressed by him, knows a little about saddle making, was seemingly nice, and
had the allure of that “wounded bird that needs care” to her. Hiccup was pretty
blind-sided by whatever desire a teenage boy gets without realizing it, and I’m
sure Astrid noticed it before he did.
But, back to Astrid, I loved how she was
portrayed, they staged out her levels of jealousy to suspicion to just a hint
of madness perfectly and there was plenty of emotion and sympathy evoking
moments each time she confronted Hiccup, trying to get him to believe her.
I also noticed how they left her and
Hiccup’s conflict pretty open ended at the end…there was no clear apology and
no clear forgiveness on either part, so perhaps they’re saving that for the
next episode? I hope so!
PLOT C: “Alvin wants the Book of
Dragons (Cause apparently he can read)”
Alvin has sent Heather over a spy to find out
about the dragons on Berk, and soon finds out that the Book of Dragons is what
he needs to accomplish his goal.
The icing on the cake to act three of
this episode….where we find out that Heather is working for Alvin. Though it
seems like blackmail, it still is what it is. Heather’s working for Alvin and
was almost successful in personality delivering the book of dragons to him.
Not much to say about this plot since
it was pretty…well, “C plot”, but the set up was there that it’ll definitely be
a more “B plot” type situation in the next episode, if not the “A plot”.
Let’s see what happens when Alvin has
dragon knowledge. And does he really have Heather’s parents? Is he going to
attack Berk again? So many unanswered questions!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
As you can all tell, I liked this
episode. It had everything I like about TV shows in it. Good characterization,
conflict, and a good overlapping plot that leaves a good cliffhanger.
The pace was pretty good, the third
act action scene didn’t seem rushed at all, and I really loved the girl fight
we were all hoping for between Astrid and Heather! Though, I can make a small
compliant that perhaps the second act going through Heather asking about all
the dragons slowed the pace down a tad, but not so much that it ruined the
pace, so to say. Still, it felt a little filler.
So, between the complex introduction
to a decent side character/villain in Heather, Astrid’s wonderfully handled
main plot (and finally giving an episode from Astrid’s point of view!), and a
promising Alvin conflict, I can’t find any reason not to give this episode an
A+!
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