Riders of Berk
The first season that continues the story of the How to Train Your Dragon movies. Dragons are now on Berk. And Vikings have to learn to live with them. This is not something solved overnight, as Hiccup as the other teens discover. Most of the teens’ voices are back, though Ruffnut and Snotlout have new actors, as do Gobber and Stoick. Tim Conway (from the Carol Burnett Show) voices one of the villagers, Mulch and David Tennant does continue to voice Spitelout when he appears.
Since it is now a television cartoon, the animation quality is lower (and really noticeable at times). All of the episodes also echo Hiccups opening and closing narration from the movie; usually highlighting what the lesson that is to be learned (make your own call on how cheesy they are). As Hiccup lays out in the first episode How to Start a Dragon Academy, Vikings now have to learn to not battle dragons and learn to take the good with the bad. He starts with his friends riding dragons and training them. They do a little trick competition. We continue to learn that the twins get very excited about nearly dying. Astrid is the second-best rider after Hiccup.
One villager staunchly dislikes dragons being on Berk, Mildew (and he is as pleasant as his name and is constantly accompanied by a sheep…best description of him is why did they bother to spend a week digging him out of a snowbank). He’s able to stir up crowds and loudly demands that the dragons need to be put in cages, or better yet, off Berk completely. Hiccup volunteers to help solve the problem of dragons being in the Vikings’ business. It’s his chance to prove himself a man (at fifteen). Mayhem ensues and Stoick sides with the villagers and order the dragons off the island. Hiccup realizes they need to work with the dragons’ natural instincts…like using their poo as fertilizer. In response, Stoick grants Hiccup and the teens the right to use the former kill ring as a new dragon training academy.
Another consequence of no longer fighting dragons is that Gobber finds himself without much of a job. There is not as much need for weapons and he struggles to find purpose in Viking for Hire. He even tries to help Stoick out one day, but he makes a poor chief, such as naming a baby girl Magnus. Eventually, Hiccup tries to have Gobber build the other teens saddles, but they’re filled with weapons and not the most useful. However, it’s Gobber who takes on Hookfang, Snotlout’s Monstrous Nightmare, who’s going berserk. Turns out, he had a bad tooth and Gobber extracts it. He turns his attention to dragon dentistry.
It becomes dragons versus animals in Animal House; the animals on Berk, such as the chickens and yaks, are not used to the dragons being around constantly. It puts them off milk production and egg laying. Hiccup tries to show the animals that dragons aren’t so bad…it doesn’t go as well as he hopes. A big snowstorm rolls in. The teens are tasked with bringing the last animals in, but they bolt. Their dragons follow them into the snow and end up cocooning them in the wild weather, even the animals. (They had shown this protective instinct earlier in the episode when Astrid and Hiccup get stuck in an avalanche after sledding.) Trust is gained.
Terrible Twos introduces a new dragon to the teens, who are practicing evasive maneuvers (and Hookfang doesn’t like to listen to Snotlout). It’s at first equated to a flaming squirrel, but they eventually name it a Typhomerang for how it spins and fires up. Toothless dislikes the new addition to the house, particularly when Torch steals his dinner. Toothless is also the first to realize that Torch is a baby and the mother is looking for him. But Hiccup doesn’t understand what Toothless is pointing out, until he sees the parent for himself and realizes his mistake. He vows to listen to his dragon more.
We continue to see Toothless direct the other dragons on Berk. The riders go through trust exercises with their dragons and unfortunately crash into Mildew’s house in In Dragons We Trust. Stoick orders Hiccup to rebuild the roof, without Toothless. The chief explains to his son that all eyes are on Hiccup in regards to the dragons and his actions reflect on Stoick. (In other words, keep the dragons under control. Dragons, Hiccup can handle. It’s the twins and Snotlout in the mix that chaos erupts.) Overnight, dragon prints appear, seemingly Barf and Belch and they stole all the Vikings’ boots (an odd tradition [to an American] they have of leaving them outside overnight.) So Hiccup starts a night patrol, named “DUMB” for “Dragon United Monitoring Brigade” (and yes, it is a rather dumb name, and is pointed out several times in the episode) so they can prevent more dragon accidents. Except claw marks, possibly from Hookfang appear in the Great Hall. Toothless goes to investigate a noise while Hiccup defends the dragons. The armory explodes before Toothless can find his prey and he is instantly blamed, loudly by Mildew. Which makes Hiccup suspicious. But Stoick orders the dragons off the island to keep the peace. Hiccup vows to return for Toothless. While he is fixing Mildew’s roof later, he sneaks in and confirms his suspicions when he finds dragon props. Except Mildew returns (Hiccup hides) and throws the evidence into ocean.
With the armory gone, Gobber points out to Stoick that this would be an extremely bad time for an attack, namely by someone called Alvin the Treacherous (voiced by Mark Hamill; he’s got a thing for bad guys) in Alvin and the Outcasts. While the teens are searching the beach for the evidence to exonerate their dragons, Astrid and Hiccup spot an odd ship. The Outcasts have arrived. Hiccup sets off to retrieve the dragons, while the rest of the village take to the caves and woods. Fishlegs comes across Alvin, who declares he is looking for the “dragon master.” Fishlegs is tossed into the ocean for his trouble, but he comes back ashore and finds Hiccup. Astrid keeps Alvin occupied, particularly when Mildew intends to give the boy away. But Hiccup still steps out to protect his people, claiming to be the dragon master. Alvin points out that the teen is “Stoick’s little embarrassment,” but Hiccup persists in his claims and manages to get Alvin to take him to Dragon Island.
Still on Berk, Stoick and Gobber handily take on the Outcasts they come across (despite no official weapons). Stoick soon discovers why Alvin has come and worries for his son. But on Dragon Island, Hiccup finds Toothless and sneakily gets his saddle on, then corrects Alvin. He’s not a dragon master, he’s a dragon trainer. Stoick and the other teens have come as reinforcements and the teens take to the sky to launch dragon attacks against the Outcast ship. They work together to burn Alvin’s ship, but even in defeat, the Treacherous Outcast leader lets out a demented laugh, eager to get his hands on the boy again. These episodes reinforce that Vikings and dragons can trust each other, especially the duo of Toothless and Hiccup.
Hiccup attempts to sway his dad from the traditional, hard Viking way and learn to do things the dragon way in How to Pick Your Dragon. Stoick is stubborn, but Gobber manages to talk him round. Stoick agrees to ride behind Hiccup on Toothless and witness cheifing from a dragon. Now he’s eager for the idea and takes Toothless out the entire next day and exhausts the poor Night Fury. So Hiccup has to find a dragon for his father. They eventually come across a wild Thunderdrum that initially resists being trained and does not trust Stoick. When the Vikings find out that this one is protecting an injured friend, Stoick stays behind to aid the Thunderdrum, finally gaining the dragon’s trust. Stoick is slowly coming around to some of his son’s ideas.
Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Man is self-explanatory. There is a portrait being painted of the chief and his heir; a tradition going back generations. Stoick is initially fine with Hiccup not looking as brawny as some others, but when the portrait is revealed to show Hiccup as a more typical Viking and Stoick loudly praises it, Hiccups is dejected. Stoick points out that the picture is Hiccup, just bigger and stronger. A villager openly remarks that it looks like the son of a chief. The teens have found a treasure map that stumped even Gobber and Stoick back in the day. After hearing everyone’s comments and pointing out that Viking tradition is to name the runt of the litter “hiccup,” the lad decides to try his hand at the treasure map. They start finding pieces and Gobber and Stoick soon figure out what Hiccup and the teens are up to. Gobber has to spell it out to Stoick that Hiccup is upset about the painting and then points out that the younger generation has gotten further in one afternoon than the two of them got in a month.
Eventually, Hiccup and Toothless fall into a cavern after getting the last piece of the puzzle. They discover the treasure, but that cavern soon collapses, scaring his friends and father as they search for him. He chose wisely and gets out and is greeted by a large hug from his father. He admits he just wanted to prove to his father that he was his kind of Viking. Stoick assures him he already was and orders the portrait redone.
Trader Johann is introduced in Dragon Flower, with the Vikings of Berk eagerly lining up to look at his exotic items. This is how Hiccup gets squid ink, instead of his charcoal. Mildew gets a strange order, but no one follows up immediately. Until their dragons start getting ill. Gothi, the village elder who scribbles in the sand since she is mute, determines the dragons are allergic to something new on the island. [The animation quality is particularly poor in the beach scene, where everyone throws things away.] The teens eventually work out that the new flowers they’ve been seeing across the island is poisonous to their dragons. Mildew claims innocence, but he is forced to come along to retrieve the antidote from a Scauldron. As usual, the plan doesn’t go exactly as they figured (Gobber eventually has to go scream in the forest after witnessing Mildew’s bare backside), but they do get the antidote and save the dragons. Stoick does not immediately jump anymore to wishing to be rid of the dragons; he’s even worried about his own dragon.
The first half of the season ends with a two-part episode: Heather Report. Snotlout and Hookfang come across a young girl washed ashore from a shipwreck. The rest of the teens are eager to help the girl, Heather (voiced by Mae Whitman, who voiced Katara in Avatar: The Last Airbender), though Astrid is suspicious. Heather is eager to learn about dragons and asks several questions, even inquiring about their Book of Dragons. Again, Astrid doesn’t trust the newcomer and doesn’t think they should be sharing so many secrets with her. It is also possible Astrid is a bit jealous. She eventually witnesses Heather speaking to Alvin’s second-in-command, Savage, promising to get the Book of Dragons. Afterward, Hiccup can’t find the book. Heather has taken Stormfly and is off to Outcast Island. The riders go after her, Astrid even fighting the other girl on the back of Stormfly. Unfortunately, the book lands on the island.
In the second part of the episode, Heather is trying to break out of jail so she can return to Outcast Island. Turns out, Alvin is holding her parents hostage. The teens begin to prepare to go against the Outcasts. Astrid dresses up as Heather in order to fool Alvin and get the book back. She has to demonstrate what she “learned,” and eventually tries to escape. The riders follow her and Heather successfully breaks out and follows on Stormfly. Hiccup has faith that Astrid will take care of herself and goes through with the plan. They’re briefly captured, but Heather arrives just in time, giving them the diversion to get free. Of course, the episode ends happily, with Astrid and Heather putting aside their differences, and the Book of Dragons back on Berk. But Alvin wants Hiccup even more now.
Thawfest is a lighter episode, highlighting the ongoing animosity between Snotlout and Hiccup. The Thawfest games have been going on for generations and the Jorgenson clan typically wins. [Apparently, in the books, Snotlout and Hiccup are cousins and fandom has accepted this. It doesn’t quite appose canon, though it’s never explicitly brought up.] We also see the Jorgenson chant of “oi oi oi!” (it will come up through the rest of the series.) Snotlout has won the past several years in a row, but this year, they’ve added dragon events, so Hiccup has a chance. He loses at the sheep lug, log roll, and axe throwing, with Snotlout taking the honors once again. But Hiccup excels at the dragon hurdles, freestyle event, and fly and shoot portion. He’s ecstatic and gloating, but Astrid warns him that he’s being a sore winner, compared to a gracious loser. It all comes down to an obstacle course and Hiccup has been modifying Toothless’ tail to increase their speed. He falls behind in the rock-climbing portion, but soon catches up to Snotlout, who begins to panic at the pressure his father has put on him to win. And Hiccup realizes he doesn’t want to win like this, so he purposefully crashes Hiccup. Status quo remains, but Stoick passes along that he’s proud of Hiccup and Astrid even rewards him with a kiss for being the better Viking.
When Lighting Strikes is my favorite episode of this season. Hiccup explains that life on Berk with dragons has its ups and downs. He helps design metal perches for the dragons so they stop landing on houses and crushing them. Then a lightning storm hits in the village, the first in many years. Fires start and the villagers believe that Thor is angry. Mildew instead blames the dragons, per usual, though this time, he targets Toothless directly. A Night Fury is said to be the ‘unholy offspring of lightning and death itself,’ thus, that is what Thor is upset about. Hiccup talks the villagers down for a minute and suggests a statue to Thor. His friends help him out, though make it out of metal again [which makes sense on the one hand, since Hiccup is a skilled metal smith, though we in the twenty-first century have figured out what’s going on.] Unfortunately, the lightning returns and strikes the statue, firing it at the metal perches that Toothless is hoping on. Mildew works the crowd into a frenzy and Stoick tells Hiccup to hide Toothless. Stoick doesn’t believe Toothless to be a threat and will now actively protect him. However, for their safety, he does suggest his son leaves with his dragon, until everyone calms down. They try to make it off the island, but the lightning in the sky hits the metal rigging on Toothless’ tail. They crash and that allows the crowd to catch up with them and lock Toothless away.
They make preparations to ship Toothless off the island. Except now they have to deal with the chief and Gobber, joined by Bucket and Mulch. Hiccup has also worked out that the lightning is hitting the metal specifically and he’s got an idea. Not a great idea, because it’s to stand at the top of a mast with a metal spear in his hand. Lightning strikes before he can lash it, so it travels through Hiccup, sending him into the water. Toothless breaks free and rescues his friend again. This echoes the ending of the first movie, even with Hiccup waking up in his bed and Toothless waiting for him. He looks down and dryly remarks “at least I didn’t lose another one,” regarding his legs. Stoick happily hugs his son. The villagers now believe that Thor is angry at the metal, so for now they take down the perches and the statue. Well, the male riders carry the statue up to Mildew’s house (Stoick’s instructions had been a high point on the island and technically…) The villagers apologize to Toothless and life goes on. I like that Hiccup continues to prove that he will do anything for his dragon. He used his analytical mind to solve the question, though some of his ideas are still a bit on the crazy, stupid side.
We’re introduced to another dragon in What Flies Beneath when large holes start appearing around Berk and animals are dropping away. When the riders go to investigate, they hear a strange whispering before a massive dragon erupts from the ground, a Whispering Death. Toothless orders the other dragons to back off and attacks the beast himself and won’t even let Hiccup help him. That night, he leaves on his own to hunt down the Whispering Death. Hiccup of course goes after him come morning and finds more holes, even jumping into one. Yep, the home of the Whispering Death, but no Toothless. Hiccup instead wants to attempt to train the beast. Luckily, Toothless is to the rescue before the teen gets bitten. Fishlegs and Hiccup have also discovered a bite mark on the tail of the Whispering Death, which matches the teeth pattern of a Night Fury; these dragons have a past and hold a grudge.
Hiccup knows that Toothless needs to be able to fly in order to really fight the Whispering Death, but Toothless continues to push him away. So, another crazy idea, he walks off a cliff, praying that Toothless will save him. Of course the beloved black dragon does, and now they can really fire away at the Whispering Death. They realize that the enemy dragon dislikes sunlight and use that to their advantage so Toothless can pin and roar at his enemy. The dragon slinks off. Hiccup remarks in closing “I will always have Toothless’ back and he will always have mine.”
Twinsanity focuses more on Barf and Belch and the twins. The riders are working on commands, and of course, Ruffnut and Tuffnut can’t agree on which signal to give their one dragon. They get fed up and walk away from each other. To throw a wrench into the works, a contingency from the Berserker tribe is coming to Berk to sign an annual peace treaty. Since Stoick doesn’t believe that other Vikings will react well to dragons in the village, he orders the riders to hide their friends. Only, Barf and Belch are still in the village when the visitors arrive. Instead of Osvald the Agreeable, it is his son, Dagur, who know goes by the Deranged, who leads the Berserkers. Hiccup’s not pleased because Dagur usually uses the skinny teen as target practice when he’s visited in the past. Hiccup tries to get Barf and Belch away, but Dagur spots the dragon and eagerly declares they should kill it; one head for each chief. Hiccup has to find the twins. He finds out that they’re tired of sharing everything, though he urges them that other items can be replaced and duplicated, but not Barf and Belch.
Stoick stalls Dagur, and the riders arrive just in time to prevent the chief from putting an end to the visiting Berserker. The riders stage a dragon attack (using their hand signals) to drive the Berserkers away. The tribes remain at peace.
Hiccup ends up working with Snotlout in Defiant One. Snotlout dislikes having to take directions from Hiccup and attempts to go his own way in a search and rescue mission. Hiccup doubles back to help him, and they get caught in a waterspout. Hookfang goes flying and Toothless’ tail is damaged, again. They land on an island and Hiccup sets to work replacing Toothless’ tail. Snotlout is not much help, though he points out that Hiccup should be more prepared with proper provisions. He also whines about how great everyone thinks Hiccup is now; he killed the Red Death, he trained the dragons, he’s got the metal leg. When he steps in to ‘help’ with a connecting rod, he breaks it instead. Now they’re truly stuck. Hiccup eventually figures out they’re on Outcast Island…and Snotlout has left Hiccup’s satchel with the Berk crest lying around. But to get off the island, they have to sneak into the blacksmith shop. Hiccup is captured and Snotlout has to work with Toothless in order to rescue him. Alvin still wants the boy to train his dragons, though when Snotlout gets Hiccup out, he groans “how does that ninety-pound boy repeatedly defeat an entire army of blood-thirsty savages?” After this adventure, Snotlout and Hiccup begin to get along better.
Stoick sends the dragon riders out to search for Trader Johan, who is late. Apparently, there is something important aboard for Stoick. They eventually find the man adrift at sea, without his boat. It was lost to the titular Breakneck Bog. And the item aboard isn’t for Stoick, it’s for Hiccup, and further, it’s from his mother. Well, that just means that Hiccup is more determined to find it. Led by the twins and Snotlout, there is the tale that there is a fog monster within the bog that scrapes the skin from your bones. Hiccup orders Snotlout and the twins to take Johan back to Berk; he, Astrid, and Fishlegs (who is now not eager to potentially run into a fog monster) will search for the boat. They ultimately find it oddly in a tree. Along the way, Fishlegs warns the others “you don’t go towards the weird, scary sound.” Astrid points out, “yeah, we do. We always do.” But both will follow Hiccup on this important task.
There’s a strange bone shower and the noises increase. Turns out, it’s the twins and Snotlout, gleefully scaring Fishlegs and the others. Astrid then gleefully beats Tuffnut with a bone for the scare. They left Johan on a rock in the middle of the sea. But Hiccup finds the chest and is ready to leave. The boat falls out of the tree and then a strange fog rolls in. It takes the box and doesn’t behave as typical fog. That’s because they’re dragons, called Smothering Smokebreaths who steal metal to melt down to make their nests. Hiccup of course wants the chest back, so Snotlout gets to be the distraction. All the riders manage to make it out and back on Berk, Hiccup opens the chest. It’s a stuffed dragon toy his mother made him as a child. He was initially scared of it and accidentally dropped it in the water while fishing many years ago. Hiccup is now happy to have it back.
Fishlegs leads the story in Gem of a Different Color; he skips out on hand-to-hand combat (most would want to avoid Snotlout in that training. Hiccup is recommended to play dead when Astrid pins him) and ends up finding a glowing rock on his excursion. Gobber claims it to be a stone of good fortune and the villagers clamor to touch it. And Snotlout desperately wants it. Stoick lays down the law that Fishlegs found it. But Fishlegs doesn’t like all the attention, so he returns it overnight. Except he finds more glowing rocks and determines they’re dragon eggs. The eggs of an invisible dragon that spits acid; the Changewing. Unbeknownst to Fishlegs, Snotlout followed him and has nothing against taking the eggs. He auctions them off to the highest bidder, even getting a child Gustav Larsen in the deal. Fishlegs demands that Snotlout takes the eggs back; he refuses. The Changewings come to Berk to find their eggs, leaving destruction in their wake. Fishlegs gathers the courage to properly confront Snotlout and gets the last egg. Hiccup sums up the lesson: having courage isn’t the same as having no fear. It’s being afraid and pushing forward anyway.
The two-part episode We Are Family ends the season. Stoick has instructed the riders to put together a parade of dragons for their annual Bork Week celebration. Bork was the man who compiled the Book of Dragons and is Gobber’s ancestor. In order to gather all the dragons, the teens work on dragon calls. It’s then pointed out that there are no other Night Furies nearby. Hiccup’s a little sad about it, but Astrid points out that Toothless doesn’t seem to mind. Hiccup is also granted all the notes from Bork in order to continue his own study of dragons. In his reading, Hiccup finds there is a legendary Isle of Night, filled with Night Furies. So the riders set out to find Bork’s cave for the map. Snotlout hilariously gets taken by a Changewing and smacked against the pillar. And Toothless demonstrates the ability to use echolocation to find his way in the dark. On the map, Hiccup reads, Night Furies don’t get along with other dragons (bit odd, considering Toothless gets along fine with the rest of the dragon herd on Berk). So, of course, he sets out on his own. He thinks he’s found the island, but it’s soon apparent it’s a trap, set by Alvin to capture Hiccup, with Mildew’s help (he was too interested in those notes).
The second part of the episode has Hiccup breezily telling Alvin and his men that they don’t understand the dragons they have. Alvin locks up Toothless and Hiccup separately until Hiccup agrees to train their dragons. Mildew’s put in the next cage because Alvin is Treacherous. The other riders and Stoick follow Hiccup’s path and discover he was taken, determining that it was by the Outcasts. Meanwhile, both Toothless and Hiccup separately get free, Mildew even ‘helping’ Hiccup. In return, Hiccup shows Mildew how to gain a dragon’s trust. Reinforcements arrive and Hiccup’s new friend helps them out when Alvin releases the wild dragons. Hiccup does ultimately escape with Toothless, but Mildew gets left behind. And that was all part of the plan. Mildew now has tricks to teach the Outcasts.
Hiccup flies with Toothless in the parade and realizes they are each other’s family. Family is also the friends who stand by you. Sadly, we’re left with Alvin gaining the trust of a Whispering Death (of all the dragons to befriend!) and his maniacal laughter.
Overall, it’s a good continuation from the movie. Not as high of a quality, but it has its moments. Hiccup struggles to learn how to cope with being the dragon expert and melding Viking and dragon in one new way of life. Stoick in turns has to learn how to trust his son and comes around to being more supportive and even gains his own mount. The teens’ characters are further developed: Fishlegs supports Hiccup in knowledge, though is more scared than one would think for his size. Astrid is an excellent second-in-command. The twins love to goof off and Snotlout struggles a bit fitting in with a new Viking way, since he rarely wants to listen to Hiccup. We get some villains that are a credible threat to Berk: Alvin and Dagur. Mildew is annoying, but every village has that cranky old geezer who wants everything done the old way and complains about everything, constantly.
We also see Toothless take a leading role with the other dragons and also seems to love being with Hiccup. It is a kids’ cartoon, but it’s something that the whole family can watch. The narration doesn’t beat the lesson over your head too hard. Overall, well-rounded.
Next Time: Defenders of Berk
Dreamer in the Mirror 