PLOT A: Fishlegs rides the Crazy Train….I mean,
Fishlegs finds his Bravery
Fishlegs is tired of being pushed around by
Snotlout, and when he feels he’s to blame for the separation of un-hatched changewings
eggs from their mother’s, he’ll do ANYTHING to get them back to their rightful
place.
This was quite an interesting plot in
description. With Fishlegs’ skittish and over nervous personality it was pretty
much impossible to avoid him learning to stand up for himself in one of these
episodes.
In this episode, Fishlegs was
protective of un-hatched baby dragons, wanting nothing more than to get them
back to their mothers after realizing he took an egg himself. And—with Fishlegs
being so obsessed with dragons—this was kind of the perfect way to avoid being
too predictable but still being in character.
Most “side characters find their
bravery” episodes are when the count is down, the main character is in some
kind of peril, and usually the “scared sidekick” finally steps up and saves the
day. Luckily, this episode wasn’t that “textbook standard” bravery episode. Hiccup,
the main character, wasn’t down for the count, he was helpful, but it was still
not too odd that it was more about Fishlegs. I like that he stepped up and took
responsibility all on his own just because it was something he so heavily
believed in.
So…I liked this plot. It was
reasonable and did its job. I also like that they had Fishlegs go completely
crazy for a few minutes (another callback to the book series). He wasn’t just
the justified noble guy…he went crazy and scared the crap out of even Snotlout.
It was funny when Mulch said “it’s
always the quiet ones to snap the loudest”…and Fishlegs’ rant did go down the
list of his pinned up annoyances, especially when he said “you can mock my
impressive dragon knowledge”.
It did run a bit on the overkill or
corny side once or twice sometimes in the lines and lines delivery, but hey…can’t
be perfect.
So…Solid plot that did its job is
solid…
PLOT B: Good luck Sucks Rocks
The eggs Fishlegs found are said to be “good
luck stones” and of course everyone wants them…especially Snotlout, who can
launch his “get rich quick” scheme as soon as he finds a huge stash.
Very rarely can the reactions of the
other characters make a functional plot…but in this case it kind of does.
Despite this being a Fishlegs episode, Snotlout played a big role as well….
I did initially have some slight
problems with Snotlout, though.
It’s no surprise that he’s still a
huge jerk…but some of the stuff he said just seemed so…soulless and petty and I
know he’s at least a tad better than that, especially after the crack in the
surface of his character growth in episode 116. But when you analyze a
character like Snotlout you realize that he’s just an opportunist…and an
insecure on at that, so his actions to fit to a certain degree.
Still….He was pretty much the Mildew
of the episode—in which he was that annoying character you just wanna slap
cause they’re just…ugh…go home!
I’m not really sure how much of a lesson
he learned in this episode. He backed off when Fishlegs went berserk on him
(Fishlegs must have learned that from watching Dagur), but at the ending he
seemed pretty fired up. At this point I would like to see Snotlout’s attitude
improving just a hair…a drastic change would be unrealistic, but some subtle differences
in choices of actions over the rest of the show would be a treat.
Maybe it’ll
start next season…?
Luckily—or unluckily—his rather
inhuman negligence was softened a bit to watch by Gustav! He’s so adorable, and
the first child to speak on the show (or the franchise…) since the little girl
in episode 106 who wanted her Lamby back.
Gustav seems to be at that
impressionable age where he sees the big and “cool” Viking in Snotlout and
wants to copy him and repeat what he says. He should probably get a better role
model though….But seeing as how his own mother
sold him for a good luck stone, I can see why his role model choices are
questionable.
But, for every questionable character
move….there’s a good one. And I love how this show has subtly built up the
friendship between Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs and continued to show it. In
the later episodes, it’s very easy to catch that the group of six is broke up
into two sub-groups within one. Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Snotlout…and Fishlegs,
Hiccup, and Astrid.
Fishlegs, Hiccup, and Astrid seem to
know that, out of the group, they can rely on each other. This was proven in
the last episode as well, when Hiccup only choose Astrid and Fishlegs to go
with him…and now Fishlegs choose Hiccup and Astrid to go with him to return the
dragon eggs, as well as they’re constantly the only ones who went to console
him. Nice development there. Very nice! That kind of subtle development is the
kind Snotlout needs….
PLOT C: Changewings…….That’s about it.
A group of wild changewings are angered and
come raging through Berk to retrieve the eggs Snotlout has taken from them.
Changewings seemed to be the number
two dragon everyone wanted to see. (What’s number two? The Skrill, of course.)
But I can say that this plot seemed a little too much like a callback to
episode 104 (Terrible Twos). As in,
angry mother dragon is a threat cause they want their baby. Only this time—and thankfully
because it makes for a difference—the mothers actually came to Berk and messed
stuff up…not just in the forest.
I applaud “new dragon” episodes like
109, 114, and 117 for they break the norm when it comes to “threatening dragons”,
but this one seemed a tad redundant to me despite the fact that the dragons
were awesome (but this plot get’s “cool” points cause…they were awesome!).
Also…the biggest “oops” moment in this
episode (and perhaps the season) was the fact that there was said to be no
picture of a changewing in the Book of Dragons….yet in the movie there’s
clearly a picture. Someone who hasn’t watched the movie, obviously, won’t catch
that. Still….that was just…nope. There’s really nothing I can say to excuse it.
That was an “um…did you watch the movie?” moment, for sure. But then, it’s not
really surprising that this show leans more towards the “convenient” than that
practical sometimes.
Forgetfulness and redundancy aside, like
I said, changewings are cool!!! It was the best to see the final act where the
changewing chaos was occurring, because it’s funny to fight something you can’t
see. And extra points for the funny Tuffnut “forbidden friendship (with a rock)”
moment. Classic Tuffnut comedy can make anything better!
So…the dragons are cool…but the plot
can be worked on to be a bit more spicy.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
So this episode had some innovative
stuff, some questionable stuff, some good stuff, and some stuff with some spots
of mildew on it…
It was a bit of a mixed bag….but had
enough of that “underdog” likability to the plot and ending that saved it from getting
a weird grade.
Animation was good as well….even if
Hiccup’s hair did that weird growing and shrinking every other scene thing
again.
Though the pacing was kind of iffy as
well. It pulled a first half of the season move and presented a good first act
set up…lollygagged around in the second act…and then kind of rushed through the
third act to make up for time. So, that weakened it a bit.
Although I would like to mention—in favor—that
the second half of the season impresses me with how much they callback to past
events, both in the movie in the show (ironically since this same episode also
made a big mistake as well in that same area). But, nonetheless, having Ruffnut
mention Tuffnut’s run in with fireworms in episode 108 was a nice touch.
Because I remember in the first half of the season it almost seemed like each
previous episodes never happened…cause it was never brought up again.
And…who liked Hiccup’s two seconds of
fighting skills before Astrid kicked his butt? I know I enjoyed it. (Of course
that might just be because I’m a *gasp* Hiccstrid shipper!)
But still…as far as episodes used to develop
a minor character go…this one was pretty solid. It had some speed bumps, but it
was a fun ride….and we all know we clapped for Fishlegs so don’t even deny it.
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