Category: action/adventure

“Oh what, do you want an apology? Is that why you’re pouting, big babyboo?”

How to Train Your Dragon 2

This movie truly expands the world of How to Train Your Dragon.  It did come out before Race to the Edge, which was how they were able to bridge the gap so well.  For those of us who are coming off the end of RTTE, it’s a few years later, a total of five years after the events of the first movie.  The teens are settled back on Berk.  They’ve made dragon racing more elaborate (as detailed in the short we watched before RTTE, Dawn of the Dragon Racers) and the whole village has turned out to watch them.  Hiccup introduces “this is Berk” and explains some of the changes made, even more than we saw in RTTE (someone was busy once he returned).

The dynamics of the team have changed a little more.  Both Snotlout and Fishlegs are interested in Ruffnut, though she’s not showing a preference between the two and Astrid even points out to Snotlout that Ruff tried to bury him alive.  His come back?  It was only for a few hours.  Stoick cheers on Astrid in the race, remarking to Spitelout that she’s his future daughter-in-law (we witnessed their engagement in RTTE).  However, Hiccup…is nowhere to be found.  Gobber figures that Stoick chased him off.  Astrid manages to win the race as Hiccup’s voice over comments that all of his hard work has paid off, and the world got a lot bigger.

We catch up with Hiccup and Toothless shooting across the ocean.  Toothless climbs and Hiccup starts his new trick, decked out in a new flight suit and full helmet [most likely to improve aerodynamics].  Hiccup sets Toothless’ tail to glide while Hiccup falls off.  They free fall for a while, then glide on their own.  Toothless has to try to catch Hiccup when the Viking gets in a little trouble with an oncoming sea stack.  Toothless catches him, but it’s a bit of a rough landing.  We see Hiccup’s new leg, which can change which kind of foot he has.  Hiccup’s not too phased by what happened, more excited to be out doing something, finding a new land.  He and Toothless joke around and Toothless wins by collapsing on the Viking and licking him.  “You know that doesn’t wash out!”

They’re joined by Astrid and Stormfly.  The two dragons bound off to play and Astrid helps Hiccup with his map.  He reveals that he’s hiding from his dad because Stoick brought up making Hiccup chief soon.  Astrid’s excited for her boyfriend.  Hiccup is not.  He’s still figuring out who he is; Astrid has always known.  She’s a warrior; she’s like Stoick.  She leads the team when Hiccup is not there (and will make a good chieftain’s wife).  But Hiccup is not his father and he never knew his mother.  He still wants to explore more.  He wants to find more Night Furies for Toothless.  Then he spots smoke in the distance.

The couple checks the scene out and discovers a mound of ice blasts, but they’re interrupted by trappers catching Stormfly.  Hiccup has also improved his sword since RTTE and uses it to great effect.  The blade retracts, but also lights on fire.  They meet Eret, son of Eret, and his trappers, who work for someone named Drago Bludvist (briefly mentioned at the end of RTTE).  Eret thinks that the person who destroyed their fort and stole their trapped dragons works with Hiccup.  This is the first Hiccup has heard of this, but he’s not keen on the news that Drago is building a dragon army.  For now, they free Stormly and fly back to Berk.

Stoick is thrilled to begin training Hiccup as chief.  Hiccup forcibly has to stop his father and tell him about Drago.  Stoick knows Drago and instantly switches modes to defend the island.  Everyone is grounded, no one is allowed off the island.  He starts closing up the dragon pens.  Hiccup wants to go out and find Drago and keep the peace, what he sees as his duty.  Stoick disagrees.  Drago is a man without conscious or mercy.  He must prepare his son for war.  A chief protects his own.  Hiccup manages to fly out with Toothless and Astrid follows him. 

They find Eret again and Hiccup turns them in, intending to hitch a ride to Drago (also showing off how he uses Zippleback gas as a distraction).  Hiccup figures he can change Drago’s mind.  [He’s managed in the show to change so many enemies’ minds; Alvin, Dagur, Viggo.  He changed Stoick’s mind.  Hiccup believes this is his path.]  That notion gets knocked about when the rest of the team, along with Stoick and Gobber show up.  Ruffnut is instantly attracted to Eret (it’s a little creepy).  The argument between father and son starts back up.  Hiccup is trying to prevent a war.  War is what Dragon wants, Stoick answers.  He tells the young adults about a gathering of chiefs where Drago promised he alone could keep everyone safe.  The rest of the chiefs laughed him out and he shouted “see how well you do without me!” and the place erupted in dragon fire.  Stoick alone escaped.  “Men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with,” he warns his son.  Hiccup still wants to try and manages to fly off again.  Stoick orders Astrid to take the rest of the team back to Berk.  He and Gobber track down Hiccup.

Hiccup lets out some steam, but is surprised when a new dragon with a strange covered rider rises from the clouds.  The dragon has four wings and is larger than Toothless.  Other dragons come up and whisk Hiccup off of Toothless, who falls into the water.  Water dragons eventually take Toothless away, but Hiccup is yelling at the strange rider that Toothless cannot fly on his own, he’ll drown.  Hiccup is eventually let down amongst a herd of dragons, but he uses his flaming sword to calm them down, show the dragons that he’s one of them.  The other rider is intrigued, but steps in before Hiccup can touch a dragon.   Hiccup is relieved when Toothless is brought in and hugs his friend.  Hiccup wonders if this rider is possibly Drago?  Or the stranger who took Eret’s dragons?  The stranger approached Hiccup but backs up when they catch sight of a scar on Hiccup’s chin.  The stranger knows Hiccup’s name.  They take off their mask; the stranger is a woman.  “Should I know you?”  “No, you were only a babe.  But a mother never forgets.” 

Skullcrusher finds Hiccup’s helmet and gets a scent; they’re on the trail for Hiccup.  Gobber points out to Stoick that Hiccup is twenty and a Viking, off course he’s stubborn.  Stoick remarks that Hiccup’s mother could never stay still either.

Hiccup’s mother, Valka bounds away to show Hiccup something and he follows [it reminds me of the scene from the Lion King where Rafiki is showing Simba something.]  Hiccup has questions. Where has she been for twenty years?  She got carried off by a dragon, what happened?  Well, she lives in a dragon sanctuary.  She’s helped rescue and tend to hundreds of dragons.  They all live under the protection of the Alpha, the King of all dragons (a Bewilderbeast, and what the antagonists were searching for at the end of RTTE).  Valka takes a look at Toothless and remarks that he’s the last of his kind and is Hiccup’s age, which must be why they get along so well. 

She asks about Toothless’ injury and assumes it was Drago.  Now it gets awkward.  Hiccup admits he shot Toothless down, but “you got me back, right bud.  You couldn’t save all of me, could you?  You just had to make it even.  So, peg leg!”  He admits Stoick was able to change after what Hiccup did.  Valka doesn’t believe Hiccup.  In her day, Berk was a land of kill or be killed, but she couldn’t kill dragons either.  Then, one night, a dragon broke into their house while Hiccup was in his cradle.  Valka went to defend him, but found Cloudjumper being thoughtful and kind.  He was startled, which left the scratch that scarred on Hiccup’s chin.  When Stoick burst in, Cloudjumper took off with Valka, leaving a burning hut behind with Stoick and Hiccup.  Hiccup is still trying to take everything in; “it’s not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante, dragon lady.”  Hiccup meets the Alpha and finds out that all dragons listen to the Alpha; they are under his control as well as his protection.  Well, the baby dragons listen to no one.

When Stoick and Gobber don’t return with Hiccup in short order, Astrid worries they may have been captured, so she takes the team to find Eret again and once again find Drago.  In finding Eret, Stormfly plays fetch with the trapper.  He finally agrees to take the Berkians to Drago.  “Works every time,” Astrid remarks about her dragon.

Mother and son continue to bond.  They fly with the dragons and Hiccup shows Valka his map.  She draws another map for him, which prompts Toothless to draw in the snow (an echo of the first film).  Hiccup shows off his flying suit, proving to be truly like a dragon.  Until Toothless has to rescue him again.  Hiccup’s still a daredevil and is thrilled even after Toothless dumps snow on him.  Valka shows Toothless and Hiccup that there are a second set of finds on Toothless’ back that would help with tight turns.  Valka realizes, “all this time, you took after me?”  She asks to start over with her son.  He agrees.  And then wants Valka to come with him and speak reason to Drago.  She also refuses, more concerned with protecting the dragons from Drago and his men.  She will protect her own (an echo of Stoick saying a chief protects his own in regards to Vikings.)

Astrid and the team make it to Drago’s camp and are taken prisoner.  Stoick and Hiccup aren’t there, but Drago manages to bend Hookfang to his will, more through brute strength and fear than understanding like Hiccup.  He claims that he alone controls dragons.  Well, the Berkians have a surprise for him.  There’s another ‘dragon master,’ Hiccup, son of Stoick the Vast, heir to the chief of Berk.  He will come rescue them on his Night Fury and take down Drago.  He chuckles.  Now he knows he needs to attack Berk.  When Drago orders Eret to be killed, Stormfly protects him, to his astonishment.  When the young adults are about to walk the plank, Eret returns the favor and helps them get free.  They search for their dragons and Eret thanks Stormfly.

Since neither of his parents will listen to him, or try to help him, Hiccup plans to set out for Drago on his own.  He’s stopped by Stoick and Gobber who have arrived.  Well, now Hiccup has another surprise for Stoick.  He’s stunned silent when he catches sight of Valka.  She expects him to shout, demand why she stayed away from them for twenty years.  “Stop being so stoic, Stoick!”  Instead, the first words out of his mouth are “you’re as beautiful as the day I lost you.”  Who knew that Stoick could be so soft and romantic?  They kiss and all are happy with the reunion.  This is the first time in Hiccup’s memory that he’s had both of his parents present.  Stoick even sings a song to Valka, The Dancing and the Dreaming.  She joins in and they dance around.  They’re ready to be a family again.  Gobber will cook.

Their happiness is interrupted by distress from the dragons.  Drago has found the sanctuary.  Everyone mounts up.  The team escape with their dragons and start setting fire to the traps, rescuing other wild dragons.  Fishlegs and Snotlout both save Ruffnut when she falls off Barf and Belch, (they attempt to look majestic…mixed results I’d say.)  Astrid and Eret ride Stormfly together and then Hiccup bursts in.  When Astrid asks what he’s been up to, “oh, just catching up with mom,” as Cloudjumper and the Bewilderbeast emerge.  Now they know where Hiccup gets his dramatic flair.  [The music is awesome here.]

Valka ends up on the ground and goes after Drago.  Drago reveals that he too has a Bewilderbeast Alpha, that controls his dragon army.  So Bewilderbeast faces off against Bewilderbeast.  Stoick steps in to defend Valka and then faces off against Drago, in a mimic of the fight going on behind them.  Ultimately, Drago’s Bewilderbeast kills Valka’s.  Then he sets it to kill Valka.  Stoick rushes off to save his long-lost wife.  Hiccup is the next to face Drago.  Drago’s surprised by Hiccup’s size and comments that Stoick must feel shame that this is his son.  Hiccup ignores that comment and retorts that this is Drago’s effort to rule the world.  He remarks that dragons are kind and can bring people together.  Drago doesn’t believe it; he knows their cruelty; he shows Hiccup where he lost an arm and wears a prosthetic.  Hiccup theorizes that Drago needs dragons to conquer other dragons, or is it other people?  Control those who follow him and get rid of those who won’t.  Drago admits Hiccup is a “clever boy,” [but with none of the genuine admiration that Viggo had for Hiccup, even at the height of their war against each other.]  Hiccup presses that the world wants peace, and he can show Drago.

Drago has his Bewilderbeast ignore Valka and take control of Toothless.  Then orders Toothless against Hiccup.  “He who controls the Alpha, controls all,” and that true strength is strength over others.  Stoick realizes the change and runs back to his son [he’s almost lost Hiccup how many times?  He’s lived with this fear for twenty years; it’s been just the two guys.]  Toothless advances on Hiccup and Hiccup can’t get his friend to snap out of it.  Toothless prepares a blast and Stoick knocks Hiccup out of the way at the last second.

The music shifts and we all realize what occurred.  Astrid rushes to her fiancé’s side and Drago strides away.  Toothless comes back to himself and tries to nuzzle Stoick.  Hiccup brushes him away with angry words.  Valka comforts Hiccup; it wasn’t Toothless’ fault.  “Good dragons under the control of bad people do bad things.”  Drago then takes control of Toothless, who is having difficulty flying.  When Hiccup hears his friends cry, his angry vanishes and he wants to go after Toothless, but all of the dragons are flying off to follow the new Alpha to attack Berk.

Stoick is laid out in a funeral ship, Gobber speaks the farewell words to “a warrior, a chieftain, a father, a friend,” and Hiccup leads everyone (including Eret) in lighting the funeral ship alight.  Many of his friends, who we’ve seen act tough, shed tears.  Heck, I cry during this scene every time (not helped by bagpipes playing).  [And we wonder for a moment if all will be well; Stoick told Drago it takes more than a little fire to kill him.]  Hiccup addresses his father: “I’m not the chief that you wanted me to be.  And I’m not the peacekeeper I thought I was.”

Valka tells Hiccup he was born early; wee, frail, fragile.  She wondered if he’d survive, but Stoick never doubted.  “He always said you’d become the strongest of them all.”  And words of wisdom for her son: “You have the heart of a chief, and the soul of a dragon.  Only you can bring our worlds together.”  Hiccup doesn’t have to choose.  This is who he can be; who he was born to be.  Chief, like his father.  Dragon lover, like his mother.  [But with a Hiccup flair thrown in.]  [And oh, the art is beautiful here, where Hiccup stands in front of the light from the funeral pyre.]

I was so afraid of becoming my dad, mostly because I thought I never could. How, how do you become someone that great, that brave, that selfless. I guess you can only try.

His theme comes back as he turns to his friends and declares “a chief protects his own,” echoing his father’s statement earlier.  Then he tells them they’re going back.  They’re going to stop Drago.  And he’s got an idea.  A crazy one, but then all Hiccup ideas are crazy.  They ride the baby dragons to Berk; they won’t get controlled by the Alpha.  They’ll get Toothless back and kick Drago’s…that part gets cut off.

Drago arrives at Berk with his Bewilderbeast and takes control of the dragons there, then announces to the village that their chief is dead.  And Hiccup is nowhere to be seen.  But they cheer come the dawn when Hiccup rides in with the rest of the young adults.  There are ice chunks now in the village and Drago is still in front of all the people.  Hiccup sends his friends to distract the Alpha so Hiccup can get close to Toothless.  They use the sheep launcher and Fishlegs even responds to its growls with a giant horn.  They’re briefly successful, but Hiccup does get close to Toothless.  Drago warns him that the Night Fury won’t miss a second time, after noting that the lad is hard to get rid of (yeah, several people in RTTE found that out.)  Hiccup pleads, “you’re my best friend,” and understands that Toothless didn’t mean to hurt Stoick.  Toothless would never hurt Hiccup.  After several blinks, Toothless is back!  [And cue awesome music!]  He knocks Drago off and then falls without someone to control his tail.  Hiccup dives after him.  The pair right themselves before they crash and take off.

Hiccup makes sure to cover Toothless’ ears and eyes.  “You and me as one,” he tells his friend.  Astrid and the rest of the Berkians cheer Hiccup on.  They separate again so Hiccup can surprise Drago and knock him off the Bewilderbeast.  But now Toothless and Hiccup have to meet back up and they’re approaching a large dragon tail again.  But the new fins help and Toothless catches Hiccup properly.  They land and Hiccup faces Drago, but the Bewilderbeast shoots his ice at the young Viking.  Toothless jumps around him and covers him, but they’re encased.  Drago thinks he’s won.  But the ice glows blue and bursts apart.  There are bright blue spots on Toothless who roars loudly at the Bewilderbeast, still covering Hiccup.  He spreads his wings (as many animals do to appear more threatening) and challenges the Alpha, as Hiccup notes.  “To protect you,” Valka adds.  Toothless’ barrage on the Bewilderbeast breaks its hold on the other dragons, who fly around to Toothless’ side and also begin blasting the Bewilderbeast.  In the chaos, he loses part of a tusk, even while Drago shouts for him to take back control.  Hiccup joins his dragon and tells Drago that this is what it truly means to gain a dragon’s loyalty.  Drago loses his metal arm in all the firepower and the Bewilderbeast sinks back into the water.  We don’t quite see what happens to Drago, if he manages to ride with the dragon or something else happens.

The rest of the dragons, led by Cloudjumper, bow to their new Alpha, Toothless (who looks very pleased with himself).  Hiccup thanks his friend.  The moment is lightened when Toothless licks him again.  Hiccup takes the time to pass Skullcrusher to Eret; he’ll need someone to look after him.  Astrid joins her fiancé and the two share a kiss.  Gobber and Gothi come to stand next to Hiccup.  Hiccup kneels for Gothi to place a symbol on his forehead in ash.  Gobber announces to the crowd “the chief has come home!” and all cheer.

We see the village rebuilding, removing the ice, and even starting on a statue of Stoick.  The young adults are dragon racing again, with Hiccup joining in.  His narration tells us his view as chief:

Those who attacked us are relentless and crazy, but those who stopped them, oh, even more so.  We may be small in numbers, but we stand for something bigger than anything the world can pit against us.  We are the voice of peace and bit by bit, we will change this world.  You see, we have something they don’t.  Oh sure, they have armies and they have armadas, but we…we have…our dragons!

Cate Blanchett (Galadriel in Lord of the Rings and Hobbit, Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, the evil stepmother in the live action Cinderella, Marion in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, the antagonist in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and portrayed Elizabeth I in two movies amongst dozens of other roles.  She’s won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, and three SAG awards) joins the cast as Valka, and Dijmon Hounsou (he’s Korath in the MCU and appeared in Eragon) is Drago, while Kit Harington (best known as Jon Snow from Game of Thrones, I also watched him in Pompeii and Testament of Youth) is Eret.

It’s a toss-up between this and the original for my favorite movie of the franchise.  I adore the soundtrack to this movie.  I think I will definitely detail some thoughts on all of them in my wrap up blog in a few months.  I will note that we hear bagpipes more in this soundtrack than the first.  There’s still the humor we love from the first movie, but it is a little more of an adult story.  Especially with the death of Hiccup’s father.  Did not see that coming the first time around.  As noted by the fandom when Hiccup takes off his helmet at the beginning of the movie: we were Neville Longbottomed by a cartoon character (nerdy kid matured to be good looking.) 

I also dearly love the character growth shown in Race to the Edge that plays into this film.  Hiccup faced challenges during their life at the Edge; he grew as a leader.  He became a peacekeeper, always trying to show how dragons and people can live together.  His friends support him as a leader.  Astrid is unquestionably his second in command; we see that in this movie as well.  They follow her to Drago’s camp.  They follow Hiccup back to Berk.

Hiccup and Astrid are absolutely sweet in this movie.  They’re settled as a couple.  Astrid can tell most times what Hiccup is planning on doing and often follows and supports him.  She gives him wise counsel that what Hiccup’s searching for in his life isn’t out in the great beyond, it’s in his heart.  Hiccup easily wants Astrid along; he doesn’t argue when she finds him at Itchy Armpit.  He doesn’t send her away when he tries to persuade Eret to take him to Drago.  He’s not ashamed to initiate a kiss with her in front of the entire village at the end of the film.

Even in Race to the Edge, Hiccup was not keen on becoming chief of Berk anytime soon.  He didn’t want to do it when Stoick was very hurt.  He doesn’t want to do it now initially.  He’s twenty; he still likes a life of adventure (we saw that even at the beginning of RTTE).  But he will step up.  He will do what is right for his people; a chief protects his own.  And for Hiccup, that includes dragons as well as Vikings.  He is a mixture of his parents, a lover of dragons, and a leader of Vikings.  And Berk has grown to trust and follow Hiccup.  They cheer when he comes to protect them from Drago.

This movie expands Hiccup’s family dynamics, with the reemergence of his mother, who has been gone for twenty years.  The trio were blissfully happy for a few hours.  And then Drago destroyed that.  Hiccup will only ever know having one parent.  His gained a mother, but lost a father.  He lost the parent who raised him.  He lost the parent that saw him through his trials and being an awkward kid and teenager, to coming through fire (literally) to change how their village and surrounding area views dragons.  Stoick did not hesitate to protect Hiccup, leaving his long-lost wife to run after his boy.  Many antagonists that Hiccup has met along the way comment that Stoick the Vast must be disappointed with his son.  Known as the dragon master, but so skinny and unimposing.  It’s Hiccup’s heart that is great.  Hiccup remarks at the funeral that he’s scared to take over his father’s position; he knows he’s not his dad.  Some fanfic authors have explored the growing pains that Valka and Hiccup go through after the film; getting to know one another after so long apart from each other.

I do have a bittersweet memory attached to this movie.  It came out about the time a friend from faire went into hospice.  She was an incredibly sweet woman, made sure to tell me as a newbie, peasant cast member, that I don’t have to bow and wait for the royal cast members to interact if they’re not paying attention.  When I found out she had passed, I went to see this movie as something to do.  Luckily, a coworker was also at the movie the same day and I managed to not cry through the entire movie.  Still love the movie, but the funeral scene always twinges a bit more.

This film is a great addition to the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.  Drago did pose a bigger threat to Hiccup and Berk because he had the literal army, both in men and dragons, to back up his claims.  He has control of a Bewilderbeast and manages to land and attack Berk.  He’s impervious to Hiccup’s persuasion.  Hiccup has now met someone he cannot charm (well, he found a few towards the end of Race to the Edge.)  Hiccup and his riders take on a literal army in this film, far more numbers than they have before.  But they’re twenty now, not teens.  And they have Stoick and Valka to back them up for a bit, plus a Bewilderbeast on their side.  The battle still boils down to Hiccup taking on the main antagonist and this antagonist doesn’t roll over for the pride of Berk.  His Bewilderbeast kills the other.  He takes control of the other dragons, which our heroes have not encountered. 

However, good does triumph over evil.  And it is due to love.  Hiccup may have initially been angry at Toothless for the death of his father, in those first few moments.  But as soon as Toothless was in trouble, Hiccup wants to rescue his friend, his best friend.  Hiccup’s love for Toothless, and Toothless’ love in return for Hiccup bring the pair back together and together they triumph over the Alpha and Drago.  Toothless is tiny compared to the Bewilderbeast, but he doesn’t hesitate to get between his opponent and his boy.  His roar brings the other dragons to his side and then acknowledge him as their new Alpha.

Up Next: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and a few ending shorts.  After that will be a longer wrap-up of the fandom in general and my take on the music of the franchise (that may be a bit longer coming)

“You and Toothless came together for a very specific reason at a very specific time.”

Sixth and Final Season: Race to the Edge

It’s the final season of the show, so the stakes are even higher.  We have a new antagonist that was totally unexpected the first time around.  And now they’re looking for a King of Dragons.

Johann and his cronies do not find the King of Dragons on their lens; they must need more in In Plain Sight.  Krogan and Viggo differ on their methods of retrieving lenses.  Johann suggests they figure out how to persuade Hiccup to give up his lenses. 

So, meanwhile at Dragon’s Edge, Dagur stops by and discovers that of course, Hiccup has built his own Dragon Eye.  But he needs more gems to properly make it work.  That’s when Johann drops by and he’d be glad to help Hiccup acquire the appropriate gems (now we can hear the wheedling and conniving in his voice).  Just like Heather, Oswald left a Dragon Eye lens for Dagur, except his was lost years ago, though he has an idea where it is.  Snotlout goes with Dagur to retrieve that and the twins invite themselves along to the Northern Market with Johann and Hiccup.

Some Hunters try to trap Hiccup at the market and get the lenses, but Toothless rescues Hiccup.  The twins point out the irony of the trap, but Hiccup willingly goes with Johann to get the final gems, in the lair of the Sandblaster.  Except, as we’ve noticed, the twins often will speak the truth amongst their gibberish and chaos.  And Hiccup has learned to listen; he realized Johann was playing Hiccup.  Why else did the trader suggest bringing all the lenses?  Why would the Hunters ask for the lenses?  He even rattles off the clues Johann has dropped through the years, giving them just the right or wrong information as needed.

Johann has been a traitor since Breakneck Bog (all the way back in the first season of Riders of Berk); probably got annoyed by the dragons and the teens.  He desires the King of Dragons so he can become the richest man on Earth.  His tales have been stolen from real merchants that he disposed of once he sank their ships and took their cargo.  He also wants to rid the archipelago of Hiccup and his Dragon Riders.  “But you have the most annoying habit of not dying when you’re supposed to.”  [Bit harsh for a so-called children’s show.]  Johann makes a grab for Hiccup’s bag, but it doesn’t have the lenses in it.  Johann manages to escape, but Hiccup knows they’ll get another shot.  Dagur has his lens and now it’s a race: “first person to find all five lenses reveals the King of Dragons.”  “Game on,” Hiccup declares.

Unfortunately, Hiccup now has to inform his father of Johann’s treachery.  Stoick’s decisions in No Bark, All Bite, is to burn everything Johann has recently brought.  His argument is to make sure none of the food is poisoned.  Hiccup has a different opinion on how to do things, so he butts heads with Stoick.  He did invite three of the most trustworthy merchants in the archipelago to stop by and vie for Berk’s trade.  Stoick quickly dismisses them because none of them had willow bark, which they need for their medicines.  Hiccup and Stoick will go get some bark; Gobber offers to stay behind and try out all the merchants.

Flyers tail the duo and set fire to the islands where they can get the bark.  Hiccup and Stoick continue to bicker, then realize that there’s a larger plan at work.  In fact, the Hunters have invaded Berk and hold its people hostage (seems the merchants weren’t so trustworthy.)  The Riders work on escaping as Hiccup and Stoick fly back.  Stoick faces off versus Krogan, but the man manages to slink away at the end instead of fighting against more of the Riders.  Stoick tells his son that he and Berk need Hiccup, though the teen intends to return to the Edge to fight against the Hunters.  Dagur, proving to be good ally, sends the willow bark that Berk needs.

Hiccup sets up a summit at Defender of the Wing island to fill his allies in on Johann’s treachery in Chain of Command.  At Wingmaiden island, Snotlout bonds with Minden about how they’re passed over for the more important roles of authority.  Minden repeatedly tries to prove herself, but often chooses the wrong option; like moving all the guards to the other side of the island to combat a fire; it was a distraction.  She feels like she’s not longer worthy of being a Wingmaiden.  Snotlout points out that he never said she should quit, but deal with there are some people their leaders will choose over them.  “I’m an idiot, ask anyone.”

Meanwhile, at the Defenders of the Wing island, Dagur meets Mala and they end up bonding; well, the twins try to mediate between them when the two leaders bicker.  And they bond and Mala rides with Dagur when they come to help rescue Hiccup and Toothless.  Krogan once again retreats and the Riders hide their lenses on Wingmaiden island.  As they fly back to the Edge, Hiccup states that Snotlout is indeed a valuable member of the tribe, though he’ll have to fight Astrid for some of the tasks.

There is apparently a Loyal Order of Ingerman and Fishlegs is distressed to discover that his family was known for hunting Dramillion dragons.  [How is this different than any other family in Berk?  All of Berk fought dragons until Hiccup shot one down and then rode it into battle.]  Astrid goes along with Fishlegs to find the rest of the Dramillions and make sure they’re not extinct.  Nope, not extinct, but there are Hunters who train using them, so the two have to set the Dramillions free.  Meanwhile, the twins and Snotlout try their hands at educating a group of kids from Berk, which goes about as well as one can expect from Snotlout and the twins.  “How is it that three dragon riders who have gone head-to-head with Viggo Grimborn can’t handle three children from Berk?” Hiccup quips.

Fishlegs gains the trust of the Dramillions by echoing many of Hiccup’s actions: tossing his Viking helmet aside, and holding out his hand to the dragon’s nose.  The three children do emerge from the woods, having proved themselves to their new trainers and are eager to rejoin Fishlegs for more education.

Gruffnut returns in A Gruff Separation to moderate the Thorston Induction Trials for the twins, though he claims there is only one spot open in the family.  At first, neither twin will compete, but he talks them around separately.  The first challenge is to acquire Speed Stinger venom, which they’ll use in the second challenge to freeze Changewings in order to grab some of their molted skin (which works a bit like an visibility cloak.)  The twins don’t fully trust Gruff and neither does Hiccup, so he follows them through the challenges.  The third challenge is to go into a nest of Titanwing Zipplebacks and retrieve a chest.  The twins ultimately work together because Ruff won’t leave Tuff to be eaten.  Gruff takes the chest, supposedly back to Berk.  And his story gets a gaping hole in it when their aunt arrives on the Edge to administer the trails.  We find out that the chest has a lens in it, but the conclusion of the story won’t play out for a few episodes.

The relationship between Dagur and Mala goes well and in Mi Amore Wing, they announce they are getting married and ask Hiccup to be the best man.  They act very lovey-dovey and Astrid notices the differences in her relationship with Hiccup.  Hiccup quips that he’s never seen Dagur so passionate about anything, except killing me.  Astrid wears the betrothal medallion, to see if Hiccup notices.  He’s distracted by a dragon problem and doesn’t notice.  He spots a Dragon Eye lens on the Armorwing, before he notices the medallion, which does not earn him any points with Astrid.  She goes so far as to give the medallion back to Hiccup.  But, when Krogan turns up and it becomes a race to get the lens, Astrid takes Hiccup’s hand.  “I’m with you.”  “I know.”

Afterwards Hiccup tosses the lens to protect Dagur and Krogan flies off with it, Hiccup admits that he’s taken Astrid for granted.  Yes, their relationship is different from Dagur’s and Mala’s; it’s built on years of friendship.  But he couldn’t have done any of the big things; the Riders, the Edge, without Astrid.  “You’ve always been there for me, and I want to always be there for you.  I love you, Astrid Hofferson, with everything I have.  And I always will.”  He returns the medallion to Astrid and kisses her.

With Krogan and the Hunters gaining another lens, Hiccup decides it’s wise to move their lenses from Wingmaiden island as a precaution.  They arrive on the island when it’s time for a new batch of baby Razorwhips to pick their maiden who will be their protector.  One decides that Ruffnut is their person, much to Ruffnut’s annoyance.  Tuffnut is eager to help and secretly does the training tasks for his twin sister, bestowing the name “Wingnutt” on the baby dragon.  Ruff struggles to bond with the dragon and the dragon won’t go to anyone else.  She attempts to give up, but spots a Hunter ambush and goes into action with Wingnutt.  Astrid commands the Riders as Hiccup faces off with Krogan.  Ruff recues Atali, but still refuses to remain on Wingmaiden island afterwards.  She’s still a Dragon Rider and since men aren’t allowed and the island and Ruffnut won’t be separated from Tuffnut…  Wingnutt decides to stay with Atali in Ruff Transition.

Johann seals Viggo inside a cave with a Monstrous Nightmare in Triple Cross.  Next, Hiccup goes to find another lens, alone, based off a note from Stoick.  But he’s prepared when Viggo pops out; he’s learned a few things over the years.  The two adversaries face off and Viggo has his own fire sword, with a few improvements [some of those will be incorporated in Hiccup’s next sword.]  Viggo’s sword emits Zippleback gas, which gets his breathing room to ask Hiccup for help against Krogan and Johann.  He tells Hiccup that Krogan is employed by a mysterious buyer from the North [Drago], not Johann.  Viggo has come for the Skrill, who is the Singetail’s natural predator.

He’s learned from Hiccup about dragons.  The Monstrous Nightmare protected Viggo in the cave in.  And Viggo won’t hurt the Skirll; it’s a magnificent creature; he’d never torture it.  That’s something Hiccup never thought he’d hear his adversary say.

When they enact their plan, Viggo gives Hiccup to Johann, but he won’t kill Hiccup when all three men argue.  That’s Hiccup’s cue for his part of the plan to get Johann’s lenses.  It’s another trap and Viggo comes by to help Hiccup get out.  It will be Viggo’s last stand; he already has several arrow wounds.  The Skrill stands beside Viggo against the Hunters while Hiccup and Toothless escape, despite Hiccup’s protests.  He covers the Maces and Talons board at the Edge, a bit in memory of Viggo.

Astrid wants to check on Garff in Family Matters.  Hiccup tries to warn her not to; they don’t want the Hunters to find him.  But, Hiccup can’t win an argument against Astrid.  And indeed, when they find the adult Deathsong and go to free it, Garff is captured.  The Riders are forced to retreat and they wonder why the Singetails won’t leave the island.  Turns out, it’s a hatchery.  Throughout all of this, Snotlout is composing a book (which Hiccup and Astrid call a short story and a work of fiction.)  The Riders eventually come up with a plan to get all the eggs out and all the dragons to leave, and free the two Deathsongs.

Darkest Night is where the season starts wrapping up.  Stoick is patrolling at night, alone, when the Flyers attack.  He and Skullcrusher are knocked down; Stoick has to bat away fireballs with his axe.  Gobber and the A-Team rescue Stoick before it’s too late, but he’s badly hurt.  Hiccup and the other Riders rush back to Berk.  Spitelout speaks at a council meeting that it’s time they take the offensive Johann.  Snotlout agrees with his father; they need the right strategy and right leader.  Spitelout says that if Stoick can’t be chief, someone needs to step in.  That would mean Hiccup.  Hiccup’s not ready to take on even the temporary mantle of chief; he’s not ready to give up on his father getting better.

Hiccup blames himself for this mess.  If he had never left for the Edge, none of this would have happened.  His friends come by because they can’t sleep either and start theorizing what life would be like if they had stayed on Berk.  The twins figure they would have gone full Loki and chaos would rein, with Johann and Dagur still attacking, but Berk would be less prepared.  Fishlegs thinks that there would have been peace.  Snotlout bursts his bubble and loudly proclaims that he would have been the favored Viking and engaged to Astrid instead.  Hiccup puts a loud end to their storytelling.  It doesn’t matter what story they come up with.

“We trained the dragons. We left Berk. And my father is on his deathbed because of it, because of me. None of this would have happened…if I had never shot down Toothless in the first place. You know it, I know it. Berk knows it. Everyone knows it! Even he [Toothless] knows it.”

He storms off for some privacy, but Toothless finds him.  Hiccup apologizes.  Then Astrid finds him and tells him a different story.  If Hiccup had missed that shot those years ago, Stoick would have eventually made Hiccup complete his training and kill a dragon.  Hiccup mocks Stoick in the cove on why killing a beast that’s minding its own business suddenly makes you a man, when Toothless shows up.  Hiccup accidentally catches him, but still can’t bring himself to kill the Night Fury.  Toothless gets free and yells at Hiccup, but then a Screaming Death appears.  Both Hiccup and Toothless attempt to protect the other, including a wild flight.  They’re both knocked out at certain points and Stoick comes thundering up to scare off the Screaming Death.  Same as after the Red Death, Toothless kept Hiccup safe, though the young Viking still lost his leg.  So ultimately, the pair come together as they are.  As Astrid told Hiccup earlier, they came together for a reason.  Hiccup agrees, he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.  He’d ultimately still be out there fighting for dragons; all of his friends would end up right where they are.

Hiccup’s not giving up on his dad, but he has to stop Johann and the Flyers, or none of what’s happened will matter.  Then more bad news at the end of the episode; Heather brings word that the Flyers have attacked Vanaheim.

In Guardians of Vanaheim, Stoick wakes up long enough to tell Hiccup to do what he needs to do.  Luckily, Alvin and some Outcasts arrive to help keep an eye on Stoick and protect Berk.  The Riders find fires on Vanaheim and the Sentinel dragons down, seemingly dead.  There’s one Flyer left that tells them that word is on its way back to Johann.  Fishlegs remains behind when Meatlug won’t leave the Sentinels; the rest of the Riders race after the Flyers.  They’re forced to regroup and Hiccup now starts worrying about making the wrong decision; a lot is riding on what he decides.  Astrid calms him down; the young man makes a hundred decisions a day, they’re not all going to be correct.  What is important is that Hiccup keeps going after making a mistake.

Meatlug is able to wake up the Sentinels with her lava; and some help from the twins (cause they’ll take any excuse to start a big fire).  Johann doesn’t make it to Vanaheim, but he does have Gruffnut and the Dragon Eye lens.

The season ends with the two-parter King of Dragons.  Legend says that the King of Dragons uses its mind to control other dragons.  The Riders think it’s a Titanwing Dramillion based on what lenses they have.  As the Riders get ready to head out, Spitelout brings word that Stoick’s condition has worsened.  He’s not dead, but the council has called Hiccup back to Berk to be acting chief.  The teens start packing up, with Astrid keeping them in line.  Hiccup ultimately decides that he’s going after Johann; the chief doesn’t have to follow orders, well, Stoick never did.  Spitelout goes with the Riders when they find the Hunter navy.

The twins rescue Gruffnut, but he talks them and Spitelout into going back for something important.  (They ultimately leave him on a beach later.)  Turns out, the Titanwing Dramillion can cloak itself like a Changewing.  It’s a battle to try to either capture the dragon or protect it.  The Hunters get him and cart him away.  Later, the Riders find him left to die and bring him to Defenders of the Wing island for care.  There, his fire reveals the final puzzle in the Dragon Eye for the King of Dragons.  Hiccup had been thinking that the Dramillion couldn’t be the king, because the skeletons don’t match.  The final showdown will take place on Berserker Island.

Once again, when the Riders manage to surround Krogan on Berserker Island, he retreats.  Oddly, the Singetails can’t get too close to the island, something prevents them.  The king must be beneath the island, using its mind control.  Wingmaidens arrive to bolster the Riders and Astrid takes charge after she tells Hiccup to go protect the king from Krogan and Johann.  (They do have enough time for a kiss.)

The king indeed has as strange blast; ice rather than fire.  [It’s a Bewilderbeast.]  Hiccup finds an egg and tries to get it to safety, but is pinned down by Johann and Krogan.  Hiccup ends up over the cliff and starts to climb up using his fire sword and his peg leg.  Johann grabs the egg, but they all fight over it.  Toothless protects Hiccup, then Hiccup orders him after Krogan and the egg.  Now it’s just Johann and Hiccup.  Johann quips how ironic it will be that the final resting place for the champion of dragons will be in the King of Dragon’s birth nest.  A blast from the king freezes Johann and gives Hiccup a chance to climb up, made a little more difficult when his sword breaks (ice plus fire).  Hiccup never actually sees the king.

We see a whole flock of dragons; all the dragons we’ve seen in the show arrive to help defend the king of dragons.  Garff recues Astrid.  Fishlegs and Snotlout both rescue Ruffnut.  Krogan manages to get away, but Toothless has the egg.  When Krogan reports to Drago, Drago refuses to give the man another chance, he motions for him to be killed.  They’ll just have to find another king of dragons.

The Wingmaidens know of someone who can care for the egg, so they leave it in a special spot.  A mysterious figure [Valka] retrieves the egg.  Astrid and Hiccup share a kiss at Dagur and Mala’s wedding, where Snotlout and Fishlegs start vying for Ruffnut’s attention.  The Riders officially leave the Edge (though the buildings remain).  Stoick recovers, but Hiccup figures his father will try to hand the reins over soon.  They destroy both Dragon Eyes; they’re chocked full of information on dragons, but in the wrong hands, they would be very dangerous. 

“We are older, stronger, braver, and in some cases wiser… We return to Berk ready for anything, ready for anyone, ready to fight for our dragons and they are ready to fight for us.”

 This all sets up the second movie; excellent tie-in.  Though there is a question to be asked: where were all of these allies when Drago moved against Berk?  The simple answer is, these allies weren’t written into the timeline until after the second movie had come out, so they weren’t available to be used.  Also, parts of this, like the attack on Stoick, become so much more poignant after the second movie.

I liked Astrid’s story best of all in Darkest Night because it’s the most plausible.  While the twins would undoubtedly go full Loki with nothing to take up their time, their tales always descend into the absurd.  And there’s no evidence to support either Fishleg’s or Snotlout’s ideas.  Yes, Hiccup would have to prove himself to his father.  And he quickly learned once he was in dragon training that he didn’t want to kill them.  He’d figure out some way to befriend them.

It’s sweet that Dagur and Mala got together and definitely not something we could have seen coming.  Hiccup does have a point that his and Astrid’s relationship is very different than theirs; Astrid has always been Hiccup’s second in command and Snotlout has wisely learned that.  He’s still searching for his exact place and has proven on occasion to be a decent leader.

We see Hiccup get a little more ruthless.  He almost attacks the Flyer on Vanaheim, but puts his sword in the sand.  He fires an arrow directly at Krogan, only for the Singetail to bat it away.  He’s also gotten good at throwing bolas.  He’s developed skills that help with dragon riding, but don’t center completely on dragon riding.

This will play into the second movie, but Hiccup has gotten good at persuading people to the good qualities of dragons.  He persuaded his father and all of Berk.  Alvin and Dagur are now allies because they discovered they couldn’t best Hiccup and it was better to have dragons as friends than enemies.  Hiccup’s even gotten Viggo Grimborn to respect dragons and want to protect them rather than hunt and sell them.  That was something we did not expect when he was introduced.  Krogan’s proven to be more of a blunt instrument, with very little of the finesse and charm that Viggo displays.  There would be no turning him, since he delights in using dragons to attack the Riders.  And there’s no turning Johann.  He hid his disdain for years, masterfully.  Hiccup is learning what sort of people are out in the world.  Some can be reasoned with, some cannot.  There are more dragons than they ever thought of; and again, some can be reasoned with, and some cannot.

Hiccup continues to develop as a leader.  The Berk council is willing to name him acting chief when Stoick is incapacitated.  He speaks well with other leaders who are undoubtedly older than him.  He’s gained their trust as an expert on dragons.  He’s finally settled into a friendship with Dagur and stands as his best man at his wedding.

I love this show like I love the movies.  There are episodes I willingly watch over and over for how the characters act, for little scenes that pop up.  The teens get to grow into young adults and have adventures and some crazy times.  What teen hasn’t wanted a super cool clubhouse with their friends?  The show is a wonderful bridge between the first two movies and I’m now kind of eager to watch the second movie soon.  First, I will step back and work on some stories for a few weeks, but never fear, How to Train Your Dragon 2 blog will be coming.

“Whatever it is, I bet it’s the twins’ fault.”

First, my deepest apologies for the lengthy delay.  You may be aware that I managed to get distracted my new-to-me fandoms last year.  There are still some projects connected with those that I need to work on, but I am really going to try to finish the How to Train Your Dragon portion this year.  I do thank everyone who has been reading these posts in the meantime.  I am…astounded.

Anyways, on with the show!

Season Four: Race to the Edge

The second part of Defenders of the Wing opens the season with Hiccup managing to convince Mala that Viggo has used the Dragon Riders.  They were all tricked.  Mala agrees to go with Hiccup to save the Eruptadon, though she also threatens to kill him if anything goes wrong.  She starts to realize how well Hiccup and Toothless works together and marvels at their harmony in flying; it’s rather magical.  They find Viggo’s ship and attack.  But there’s no Viggo and no dragon; another misdirection.

No, Viggo is at Dragon’s Edge, with the intention of using the Eruptadon to destroy the Riders’ base going through the crust of the dormant volcano.  (Apparently a classic Maces and Talons move.)  Hiccup and Mala make it to the Edge to attack Viggo there, Mala having great fun taking out several of the Hunters.  She now understands that Hiccup and his friends are not enemies to dragons and that he recognizes the good of the many outweighs the good of the few. 

With some help from Gronkles on the island, the lava is stopped from getting to their headquarters.  The Dragon Riders and the Defenders of the Wing are now officially allies.  The village even puts up with the twins’ antics, though undoubtedly pleased when the Riders head back to the Edge.  Viggo is displeased with the outcome; he had been expecting a victory.  Hiccup keeps interfering with his plans.

We then find out that Ruffnut and Tuffnut have a cousin named Gruffnut, who comes to visit the Edge.  Tuff is excited.  Ruff sees Gruff for who he really is and is not happy of the influence he has on her twin brother.  Gruff tends to tell tall tales, that Tuff falls for.  The others make him come clean that he’s trying to take one of their dragons in order to pay off a debt.

The Riders think they’ve seen the last of Gruffnut, but he pretends to be Tuff and takes his dragon.  But Chicken knows the difference and warns the dragons.  Tuff manages to escape from being tied up by his cousin and goes with Hiccup to rescue Barf and Belch (Gruff is also now stuck with Ruffnut).  Tuff even makes use of Hiccup’s Dragon Fly suit and fights Gruff.  Gruff is sent packing and Ruff and Tuff continue to happily annoy everyone else on the island.

 Midnight Scrum is one of my favorite episodes; I oddly love my heroes in a bit of peril.  The episode opens with Hiccup running from bounty hunters.  Turns out, Viggo has put a price on his head.  But Hiccup doesn’t want to tell his father right away, partly due to the fact that a big anniversary celebration is coming up on Berk.  He doesn’t want to distract the chief.  Astrid urges Hiccup to share the burden.  That idea gets knocked on its head when Stoick tells Hiccup upon their arrival on Berk that the “needs of the many outweigh the need of the few.”  [Yes, Dragons is now quoting Star Trek.]

During the celebration, Gobber praises the youth as “some of the youngest Berkians had the guts to step up and take a stand.  The time has come to look towards the future, Hiccup and the Dragon Riders!”  They then put on a dragon show, but the stress of the bounty starts getting to Hiccup and he overreacts to some strangers.  Astrid advises him again to tell Stoick, yes he’s the chief, but he’s also your dad.

The next morning Stoick goes looking for Hiccup and cannot find him.  That’s because during the night a few bounty hunters were lucky enough to catch Hiccup unawares, knock him out, and get him on a boat.  Those two indeed got lucky, because otherwise, they’re incompetent.  Hiccup makes a break for it, but does not find his friends above deck.  Instead, it’s Savage, Alvin’s old second in command.  He’ll be glad to deliver Hiccup to Viggo.  Hiccup fights smart against Savage, but he’s saved when Throk arrives.

In the meantime, Stoick has gathered the Riders and is riding Toothless, searching for his son.  Astrid talks to him about the bounty.  Why would Hiccup not share this information with Stoick?  “He’s Hiccup.  Sometimes, his pride’s bigger than his brain.”

Throk is overpowered by a mystery cloaked man who chains Hiccup up to take him to Viggo.  But they find Ryker instead and the sack of gold is actually a sack of rocks.  The mystery man won’t release Hiccup for that.  The man must now fight the Hunters and Hiccup gets a chance to escape and use his flaming sword.  The man and Hiccup get knocked off a cliff and the man clings to Hiccup’s leg.  Hiccup is able to knock his prosthetic leg off and the man goes tumbling.  But when Hiccup slips, he’s saved…by Ryker.  “Viggo wants to kill you himself”.  [Getting a bit grim for a children’s show, though this may be geared more for teenagers and young adults.]  Stoick and Toothless have been tracking Hiccup and find him just in time.  Stoick faces off against Ryker; “you put a bounty on one of us, you get all of us.”  He knocks out Ryker, but the man wakes up in time to throw a knife at a retreating Hiccup (helped by Astrid.)  It doesn’t land because he’s knocked out by Hiccup’s leg, thrown by the mystery man, who then jumps off the cliff to remain mysterious.

On their way back to Berk, Stoick counsels his son; they are allies, peers.  The people of Berk depend on them to keep them safe.  To do that, they cannot keep secrets.

Snotlout has his own issues with his father’s teachings in Not Lout.  Snotlout is desperate to prove himself to his father, maybe not overtake Hiccup (though I’m sure Spitelout would enjoy that), but be a stand-out second.  He messes up an attack, but still tells Hiccup he wants to lead the Dragon Riders when Stoick makes Hiccup chief.  The teens are indeed looking to the future and making their own plans.  Hiccup warns Snotlout that he cannot force his way into a leadership position; everyone has their own strengths.  Snotlout should look for his.

Hiccup also shows his strength as a leader and gives Snotlout the lead on a practice mission.  He still messes up and decides to ground himself.  However, when he’s on the ground, he realizes that the mission the rest of the Riders are flying into is a trap and takes off after them.  He swoops in, messing up their plan, but revealing the trap.  Snotlout then takes charge and they accomplish a better mission.  Afterwards, Hiccup tells Snotlout that he’s proud of him and asks what Snotlout wants to do.  Snotlout decides he doesn’t want to be exactly like his dad.  But that makes him not so different after all.

The Riders return to the Defenders of the Wing island in Saving Shattermaster.  They find out that Mala and Throk were saved from Hunters by a mysterious figure.  On a fun note, it’s time for Snotlout to face a serious of trials to become Mala’s king, after he saved her life earlier.  Snotlout is not pleased with the trials, but Hiccup leaves most of the Riders there with him to keep him safe, and takes Heather to investigate whoever saved Mala and Throk.

That new mysterious man is actually Dagur (note: not the same mysterious man who kidnapped Hiccup; he had been at Viggo’s auction, so definitely not a friend).  Dagur also does not initially appear to be a friend; he seems to be with the Hunters.  Heather attacks him, and Dagur has to reveal that he’s trying to work with the Hunters because he’s trying to save his dragon, Shattermaster.  Thus, Hiccup has to remark to Heather at one point: “shall we rescue our brother?”  Heather’s not so keen.  “I’m going to kill him,” is her response.  She ends up saving him and makes her big brother be the distraction so they can get his dragon.  He tells Heather that once everything has settled, he will return and answer any of her questions.

Dire Straits is another of my favorite episodes.  The trade routes are getting disrupted to Berk, a giant whirlpool is claiming ships.  Berk needs trade in order to survive, especially since they lost their stockpile of gold to Viggo at the dragon auction.  Stoick has the Riders investigate.  It’s a Submaripper dragon, very large, and very territorial.  Hiccup makes use of his Deathsong amber goggles to investigate under the water.  There are dragon-proof chains holding the Submaripper dragon in place.  But Hiccup can’t hold his breath long enough to free him.  They have to come up with another solution.

He makes a diving cauldron and uses Deathsong amber as a lens.  Hiccup takes the risk himself, though Fishlegs is on standby.  When they make their final attempt, Viggo starts an attack to rile the Submaripper up.  The Riders don’t want to hurt the dragon, since it’s not it’s fault.  Under the water, Hiccup manages to free the dragon, but the winch to bring up the diving cauldron is damaged in the attack.  Toothless dives down to save his rider.  Hiccup tries to send Toothless away, but his friend refuses.  Hiccup admits he’d do the same.

The Submaripper helps out the one who helped him, and brings the cauldron to the surface.  Hiccup is eerily still for a minute once they get him out, but he eventually coughs up the water.  He’s weakened and can’t fly after Viggo, but the other Riders are more than pleased to do it for him.  Except they’re foiled again, because Ryker is using Seashocker dragons to escape.

Trade does return to Berk and the village is saved, thanks to Hiccup.  He still feels at fault, since it was his plan that lost Berk it’s gold and it’s his enemy who is doing this to Berk.  Stoick gives wise words to his son.  Viggo has shown his true colors now; “only a coward endangers innocent women and children as a means of intimidation.”  Bravery will triumph over cowardice.

We get a bit of a breather with The Longest Day.  It’s the time of the Midnight Sun, when Berk experiences two weeks full of days of sunlight [it is an actual phenomenon that that part of the world experiences, which, kudos to the team for putting that detail in].  Stoick is pleased because Berkians become very productive.  But that long of a time awake, makes people a little loopy, being so sleep deprived. 

Hiccup gave his Riders a very easy task for the day: wash their dragons.  Well, Fishlegs ends up paranoid, Snotlout has mood swings, Ruffnut and Tuffnut hallucinate, Heather can’t balance, and Astrid is giddy.  Hiccup, meanwhile, is on Berk with Stoick, discussing plans to deal with Viggo.  Hiccup’s first plan is “wipe the psychopath off the map, kaboom!”  Eh, kaboom is not exactly a full plan.  Okay, he wants revenge.  He wants the Dragon Eye back.  Stoick insists that Hiccup needs a plan.

The teen does manage to find a new dragon, well, one large dragon that has a squadron of smaller dragons that cling to its wings to provide firepower [reminds me a bit of guns on a warplane].  He ends up quoting Dagur while he figures out how to deal with the dragons: “trappers trap can trap the trapper.”  That’s when he knows he’s losing it.  When he returns to the Edge, he finds that the dragons have dumped their riders into a hole to get some sleep.  Toothless follows suit.

Hiccup starts trying new moves with Toothless during Gold Rush, telling himself he’ll rest when Viggo’s gone.  His plans are derailed when Dagur returns, searching for his father.  The tales that Dagur killed his father to take over the Berserker tribe were lies.  Oswald had gone on a trip and never returned.  Dagur wants his sister to join the search, and he has news for his “brother,” Dagur knows where Viggo hides his gold.  It will be the perfect strike against Viggo.

Hiccup, Astrid, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout end up captured and discover that Viggo’s new ships are metal underneath the wood, essentially making them dragon-proof.  Until Shattermaster shows up (to the theme played on bagpipes, very cool).  The Riders get free, Hiccup quickly jumping on Toothless.

Later, he realizes that the gold was hidden in Viking ruins on the island.  The hint had been there were no ruins on the map.  Heather decides to accompany Dagur on his trip to find their father, but manages to give Fishlegs a kiss before they leave.

Mala returns again in Out of the Frying Pan; the Eruptadon has laid an egg, but it needs transported to its ancient hatching site inside the volcano.  But the Eruptadon is very old and spent a lot of energy bringing about the egg.  So Hiccup volunteers to help Mala with the egg.  As does Fishlegs.  But the two, who usually work on the same wavelength, are now disagreeing.  Time is running out.  Mala tries to run off with the egg, dodging small dragons that attack her.  Fishlegs and Hiccup realize that the smaller dragons are actually guardians of the eggs and are meant to take the egg to its site.

Throk and Astrid descend into the volcano as the lava rises, hoping to rescue Mala, Hiccup, and Fishlegs.  But Meatlug can’t carry them all.  Luckily, the Eruptadon comes to their rescue.

It starts with a broken Macey in Twintuition.  Hiccup won’t fix her/it in the middle of the night.  But Tuffnut doesn’t want to fly all the way back to Berk either.  Instead, Tuff and Ruff head to the Northern Markets and encounter lots of Hunters.  And decide it’s a good idea to claim they took out Hiccup.  Through their escapades, Macey gets stolen, the twins find Viggo and discover he’s working on a Project Shellfire.  Then Viggo sees Macey and is smart enough to recognize the Gronkle Iron mace and knows that the twins are on his island.  Tuff is actually brave and goes for the project plans instead of his mace, but he gets Macey back in the end (after Viggo tries to drown the Riders.)

The Triple Stryke dragon returns in Blindsided, with Hiccup now trying to train Sleuther.  Their training is interrupted by storms rolling in (not that it was going well to begin with).  Astrid checks on the dragon pens and lightning strikes, causing a fire.  She’s knocked out in the commotion and the dragons fly off.  Hiccup rescues Astrid and they find out when Astrid wakes up that she is blinded.  Hiccup promises to stay with Astrid.  But, Astrid being Astrid, she wants to help find Stormfly and the other dragons and will not take ‘no’ as an answer.  “I’m putting my foot down,” Hiccup tells Astrid.  Two seconds later, they are both on Toothless.

Hiccup is also desperate to protect Astrid, particularly since she is vulnerable without sight at the moment.  “Of course she’s not going to hide, what was I thinking, she’s Astrid,” he grumbles.  At one point, he does get Astrid behind a rock because the Triple Stryke is all riled up now.  “You, stay,” he orders.  Astrid obeys, for now.  Then she catches on to a sound Sleuther makes before making a strike.  She uses that sound to distract Sleuther and they get all the dragons calmed down…and back with their proper owners.  Now, they have a way to train the Triple Stryke and Astrid does get her sight back.  She gives Hiccup a hug and they go sit together.

Earlier, Hiccup assured Astrid “you have me.  Okay, whatever that mean, whatever you want it mean.  I am with you.  There will always be a Hiccup and Astrid.  Always.”  And Hiccup had been ready to kiss Astrid, but it wasn’t quite the right time.  Astrid brings it up as they sit, watching the sunset.  Hiccup wanted it to be the perfect moment.  Well, now seems pretty perfect.  Indeed it does, and the two young adults share a kiss.  (So romantic!)

The two-parters Shell Shocked finishes the season.  The Riders are on Berk, preparing for Hiccup’s plan to attack the Hunters.  They’re joined by Berk’s A-Team as well as Heather and Dagur.  Hiccup and Astrid share a secret kiss; they haven’t told their friends yet.  All the dragon riders carry out Hiccup’s plan, but find the Hunters’ camp destroyed and Viggo in a hole, happy to see Hiccup.  Stoick would rather punch the man who has threatened his people and his son, but Hiccup holds him back.  Viggo says that Ryker has turned on him and betrayed him.  He plans to wipe out the Riders and their allies using Project Shellfire.  Viggo offers to give Hiccup more information if they will help him take out Ryker.

Hiccup has to act.  He brings Viggo with him and sends others to check on their allies.  Fishlegs gets to see the hatched Eruptadon baby and knows to keep the baby safe.  Viggo then manages to escape during an attack at the Edge.  Hiccup and Astrid have to learn how to balance their care for each other and being in danger.  Ryker runs up a white flag and talks to Hiccup, spinning the same story as his brother, that Viggo betrayed him.  Ryker is willing to give Hiccup the Dragon Eye in exchange for Viggo.  Now Hiccup is a bit confused on who to believe.

Meanwhile, the twins and Snotlout realize something is going on between Hiccup and Astrid.  The twins believe Hiccup is dying, but Snotlout thinks he has a gambling problem…so no one correctly guesses.  They do find out what Project Shellfire is.  It’s a ship on a dragon.  And Hiccup of course, goes after it, but it swims too fast and dives too deep.

Viggo shows back up, with the Dragon Eye, and Hiccup happily locks the man up.  Ryker uses the Shellfire to attack the Edge’s volcano, again.  Fishlegs brings the baby Eruptadon to help eat the lava.  Hiccup is a noble hero and won’t let Viggo die in a fire, hoping he’s not making the biggest mistake of his life.  Viggo, trying to be Hiccup’s friend and advisor, notes the conundrum Hiccup is in, to be in love with a girl who is his partner in battle.  It looks like Viggo is going to stab Hiccup, but the knife is dropped in the water to bring up the Submaripper, who attacks the Shellfire.  The two dragons are natural enemies.  Viggo continues to sweettalk Hiccup: “we may be adversaries, but my respect for you is beyond what I can put into words.”  [And I kind of respect Viggo, as a villain, for respecting Hiccup as a worthy adversary, for not simply dismissing him as a young kid with no brains.]

Dagur now bonds with the Triple Stryke, and Hiccup continues to call the crazy man his brother [a bit sweet.]  Ryker goes down with the ship and for a moment, we think all is well.  Until Viggo shows up with a captured Astrid, demanding Hiccup return the Dragon Eye.  Is the young man willing to “sacrifice your future, all the wonderful years ahead” for the Dragon Eye?  Hiccup throws the Eye into the volcano.  Viggo falls and Hiccup is ready to grab him, but it’s too late.  Now, it’s over.  Finally.  Definitely.

Hiccup and Astrid share a sweet moment, and then a kiss, witnessed by everyone.  Fishlegs remarks, “this changes everything,” (which is the catchphrase of the show, used in the opening).

And nope.  Not over.  The volcano erupts.  End of season.

Another season full of adventures, and the storyline is getting tighter.  There are still side excursions, but the focus is on the battle going on between Viggo and Hiccup.  Hiccup is gaining allies.  Dagur is firmly on his side, as is Heather, even if we don’t see them every episode.  There are now the Defenders of the Wing and we learn a lot about them this season.

I like how Stoick is dealing with Hiccup now.  Hiccup and Stoick are both leaders; Hiccup has proven himself as a leader of the Dragon Riders, is keeping an outpost going.  Has made allies of his own, as well as enemies.  But he’s holding those enemies at bay.  However, Hiccup is still young and needs to learn when to depend upon all his allies and recognize that he can go to his father for advice, as a leader, not simply father and son.  And Hiccup is shaping up to be a worthy heir to the chiefdom of Berk.  While he lives away from the main island, he is still worried about the people.

Viggo is ramping up his actions against Hiccup because Hiccup keeps thwarting him.  Again, he takes Hiccup as a serious threat.  Not like Alvin the first time; oh, Hiccup is small and skinny, he’s such a disappointment.  No.  Hiccup was brave enough to face a dragon and befriend it.  Hiccup has grown as a character and his opponents grow as well.  Viggo tends to come off as classy; he has multi-faceted plans, he treats this as a game of Maces and Talons (kind of like chess), and he tries to teach Hiccup lessons.  Now those lessons have bigger consequences.  Hiccup has a bounty put on him, Viggo goes after Berk.  Stoick is now involved in this fight.

Not surprised that Ryker and Viggo seem to turn on each other.  There has always been a power struggle between the two.  Ryker is the older brother, but Viggo is the one in charge, supposedly brains versus brawn.  But both want Hiccup dead.  Ryker was fine with taking Hiccup from the mysterious man because Viggo wanted to kill him.  When their plans no longer align, Ryker still attacks the Edge.

The twins still have their moments of brilliance.  Snotlout is maturing, a bit, but really just trying to figure out what his role is in the Riders.  Fishlegs becomes sweet with Heather and it’s reciprocated.  And Astrid and Hiccup finally, officially get together!

Next Time:  I have a schedule I’m going to try to keep this year, to finish the How to Train Your Dragon section by the end of the year.  But I’m also going to try to work on completely a full draft of two major stories I’m working on (all to feed into the larger fantasy series I have planned).  Hopefully, a schedule will work.  After Dragons, there will be Chronicles of Narnia, and then finish it off with Lord of the Rings.  I do actually have some further plans after that, but we will see how everything works out.

Thank you again, for hanging with this blog series, it has grown larger than I first imagined and I am simply grateful for every view I get.

“How did you get Magnus to let Jace leave?” “Traded him for Alec.”

Random Fandom – Shadowhunters:

This must be the year I distract myself, because it keeps happening; but considering it is a fandom, I will share what takes over my brain.  I swear, I am about halfway through the next season of Race to the Edge, but I decided one evening to put on The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie and remembered, hey, I like this movie.  I should re-read the book series.  Oh yeah, I remember liking these books.  Then telling myself, you’re not getting into the show.  I remember when the show premiered and had told myself then I was not watching it, which I did not.  But seeing enough things about the show on Pinterest, I decide to give it a whirl…slightly bad idea because I’ve gotten completely distracted. 

It is a bit odd to be reading the books while watching the show, which does not fully follow the books, but integrates a lot of the books in different ways.  I love sassy Jace from the books, yet Jame Campbell Bower perfectly portrays Jace in the movie, yet, Dominic Sherwood brings his own spin to the character in the show that I also love (and want to wrap into a hug…he gets a sad look on his face and I want to give him all the love).  And my brain which has not given up on developing essays and academia wants to write a paper comparing how both actors bring elements of the character to life; maybe the same aspect, but in different ways, yet they work.  And I utterly adore how Matthew Daddario and Henry Shum Jr portray Alec and Magnus; there were times I was watching simply to watch Malec (the pairing of their characters and completely canon).  I also have another set of brothers to add to my future project of brother relationships in different fandoms (Francis and Bash were also recently added…this project is going to end up being a book, lol).  And there are some wonderful videos about the two, just like Francis and Bash, often using some of the same music (oh my heart).

I will admit, it was a bit odd to see so many familiar faces in the movie that I did not know when the movie came out.  Well, I knew Aidan Turner as Luke since he’s Kili in The Hobbit and Mitchell in Being Human (the BBC version; I think an American version came out later).  And I will always see Henry VIII from Tudors when I watch Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who plays Valentine.  But Lena Headey is Jocelyn, but we know her as Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones.  Jamie Campbell Bower is Young Grindelwald in Harry Potter [opposite Toby Regbo as Young Dumbledore…we just saw him as Francis in Reign], Caius in the Twilight Saga, and King Arthur in a short-run Camelot series (that show was a bit odd and dark).   We know Jared Harris, who plays Hodge, as King George VI from The Crown and as Moriarty from Game of Shadows with Robert Downey Jr.  Dorothea is played by CCH Pounder; I’ve seen her as Loretta Wade in NCIS: New Orleans.  And we’ve seen Kevin Durand in Robin Hood with Russell Crowe.  It was further strange to see Alan Van Sprang in the show as Valentine after just watching him as Henry de Valois in Reign; he wasn’t a great father in either show.

I honestly like all three; the books, the movie, and the show.  Each has their pros and cons.  The relationship development of Magnus and Alec is wonderful in the show.  I did really enjoy Jace in the movie and Clary wasn’t quite as annoying as she gets in the books and the show.  Jace was also wonderful in the show and well developed, particularly his emotional storyline in season 3.  And I now want to get my own copies of the books and get the other series Cassandra Clare has written in the universe.  Which, a thanks to my cousin for lending me the books, and I guess I should apologize for getting you back into the series *wink. 

The show has inspired some more writing; it doesn’t quite fit into my series as well as elements of Reign.  But it is helping me develop another character.  And since it features the Seelie Court and Queen, it makes me stop and think about how similar or different my Faerie Realm will be from traditional version of the Seelie.  And how I’m going to have to properly work in a Library/Archives type institution.

I should stop saying what is Up Next, because anymore, my brain says no, let’s go on a side quest.

I Daresay the Best Live Action Adaptation

So, the new live-action How to Train Your Dragon is out.  I have seen it and I have thoughts.  It probably doesn’t need to be said, but I shall anyway: SPOILERS AHEAD!!

I tried to go in open minded, telling myself to give it an honest chance and not go in planning to hate it.  In fact, by the time I sat down in the theatre, I was excited for it.  And I feel it is an excellent adaptation.  I will say not quite as spectacular as the original animated, but much better than most live-action adaptations.  I won’t go into a lot of detail, since this was my first viewing, just the first thoughts I have.  It doesn’t have quite the humor that the animated has.  But the actors make it their own.  I enjoyed Mason Thames as Hiccup; not quite as quippy as his animated counterpart, but very real. I loved the emotions he showed and I was still impresses with Hiccup as a character while watching him; like, why does his village doubt him so much because he does these awesome things. 

They’ve changed Astrid’s character a bit, but she still stands beside Hiccup and I like that.  Gerard Butler reprised Stoick well. I liked the emotion he showed when he asks about Hiccup when he returns from looking for the dragons’ nest; “he’s gone?” and he clearly shows that Stoick is now fearful that Hiccup has died. We definitely inferred it in the animated, but I like it being shown clearer.  Nick Frost was good as Gobber; again, not as quippy and sarcastic as he is as voiced by Craig Ferguson, but we can clearly see that Gobber cares for Hiccup.  Heck, they even brought in some of the father-son dynamic from the show to Spitelout and Snotlout, which is rather impressive.  And Fishlegs’ cards make an appearance.  Valka is mentioned, by name, even, but not too much to deviate from the original, just, laying the groundwork more for the other movies.  And I will admit, I am excited to see them brought to live action now.  Please finish the trilogy.

The animatronic, lifelike Toothless is very good, though we miss some of the cute facial expressions from the animated.  Still not as fond of how the other dragons appear on screen, but they had to nail Toothless and they did.  The music is wonderful, of course.  And since I have internalized this soundtrack over the years (it is part of my soul now), I can tell there were a few additions and I swear, some themes from later films peaked in.  And they added words to the ending theme!  I will be purchasing the soundtrack.

They nailed the Test Drive scene.  It’s so iconic and loved from the original.  I was sitting straight up in my seat, watching the scene and loving every single second of it.  I wanted to cheer at the end.  Hiccup also said my favorite line: “Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile.”  (It’s my notification alert on my phone; has been for years).  Again, I wanted to cheer out loud.  The final battle was well done and they brought more emotion to Hiccup waking up and discovering his prosthetic foot, even though they didn’t add much to the actual shot.

I still have some issues with costuming choices.  The one outfit Hiccup wears definitely looks like a hoodie.  Actually, I think all of his tunics have hoods.  Which were not in the original and not period.  But they get better through the movie.  And I think his outfit overall was the best adaptation.

Overall, I give this movie two thumbs up and I encourage everyone to go see it!  I already want to see it again.  And own it.

I have also seen clips from the new Isle of Berk theme park at Universal and yes, I definitely want to go.  I want to hug Toothless!!

On the topic of Dragons, I swear, I will complete Race to the Edge.  The story inspired by Reign has grown and I want to complete it (or at least a full rough draft) before I switch back.  There will probably be a wrap-up blog of that show (once I’ve seen the last two episodes).  Then back to Dragons.  And there’s more to come with that, and a few more movies beyond.

“Hi, I’m looking for a one-legged Viking and a Night Fury. Tell me where they are!”

As promised, the actual posting:

Season Three: Race to the Edge

Enemy of My Enemy starts with Astrid catching Hiccup and Toothless sneaking out, intending to go on a recon flight alone.  She tells Hiccup it’s far too risky and points out it’s been months since the Viggo episode (bit of fourth-wall leaning there, love it).  Hiccup appears to agree and let Astrid come, but as soon as she goes to get Stormfly, he and Toothless fly off alone.  Hiccup is eager to test out Toothless’ new tail and really enjoys the flight, until they come across a ship with seemingly unconscious men.  More like a trap.  Toothless gets hit with an arrow, but Hiccup manages to get them to an island.  He has to hide his dragon and keep him safe.  Hmm, maybe Astrid had a point.

Someone is secretly helping Hiccup.  And to everyone’s surprise, it’s Dagur.  Who swears he is not there to hurt Hiccup.  We’re all a bit skeptical.  Hiccup remains calm, though weirded out and wonders if he’s in an alternate archipelago.  Turns out, Dagur went through a major learning experience, discovering he was dispensable to Viggo, then getting stranded on the island for months alone.  All that alone time has given him time to think, though he’s still got his crazy laugh.  Dagur is calmer for the most part and also wants to do right by his sister.  Heather is blood, which makes her closer to Dagur than even Hiccup (still weird).  Dagur continues to be helpful to Hiccup, with knowledge of the antidote to Dragon Root.

It’s Dagur who counsels Hiccup on seeking revenge and obsession.  It’s a dark road to go down.  Paranoia is a terrible existence, the older boy tells his ‘brother,’ and it’s not Hiccup.  However, the guards discover the young men.  Dagur protects Hiccup and Hiccup even defends himself with a mace, lifting it with ease (remember back at the beginning of the first movie and he could barely lift an axe?).  But Hiccup is still mistrustful of Dagur and when it appears that the antidote may not be working, Hiccup attacks Dagur.  They fall in front of guards again and again, Dagur tries to protect Hiccup, especially when it looks like the Hunters will brand the younger man.  Dagur manages to get free and has to leave Hiccup.  The younger man shouts after his adversary “I hate you!”

But Dagur holds to his word to help Hiccup and comes to the rescue on Toothless.  And now he understands the crazy stunts the two pull and is impressed, and queasy.  The two shake hands and go to destroy the Hunters’ ship.  They’re separated and Dagur sails off alone, eager to find Viggo himself and rid the archipelago of the man.

The Fireworm Queen arrives on the Edge, looking for Hookfang in Crash Course.  She persuades the dragons to come to Fireworm Island.  But it’s not a hunter threat, it’s a creepy new dragon that’s eager to destroy her nest.  Fishlegs pulls out his dragon cards to figure out what the new dragon is (similar to fantasy cards…I guess.  Not quite into that), calling is a Cavern Crasher.  This thing oozes mucus out of its body to allow it to squeeze through impossibly tight cracks; it’s also wicked fast.  All accurately pointed out by the twins; they do have their moments.  Hookfang and Snotlout stand with the Fireworm Queen to defend her nest while the other riders try to figure out how to get rid of the new dragon.  They dry out its mucus and it runs off.  Hiccup even praises Snotlout for his actions, this after he encourages the twins.  He’s becoming a good leader.

This gets tested a bit in Follow the Leader by Fishlegs, who was put in charge of the twins and Snotlout.  But they walk over him and he doesn’t put up much resistance, instead daydreaming (in a different animation style) of being renowned by Berk and Hiccup and named the next leader of the Dragon Riders when Hiccup starts training to be chief (by a more Scottish sounding Hiccup).  When Astrid and Hiccup return to the Edge and find things on fire due to the rambunctious riders, Hiccup expresses his disappointment in Fishlegs.  This sort of thing can’t happen out here; they’re on their own and Viggo is certainly a threat. 

So Fishlegs wanders off and discovers a new cave with some interesting finds, such as a sword and writing on the wall.  He also discovers albino Night Terrors, who seem to make him their new leader when he closes an opening that was letting too much light into a big cavern.  They like him so much they don’t want him to leave.  Meanwhile, Hiccup is feeling guilty, that maybe he was too hard on Fishlegs.  Meatlug alerts the other riders to Fishlegs’ plight.  Fishlegs helps all of them get out of the cavern, with a little help from his favorite Terror, Darkvarg.  They close up the hole, so the Night Terrors can’t get out.  Then Fishlegs and Hiccup both apologize.  Fishlegs points out that Hiccup leads by example, not fear.  Hiccup also admits he struggles with containing the twins and Snotlout as well.  The friends then eagerly geek out over Fishlegs’ discoveries.

Hiccup is working on his ‘Dragon Fly Two’ in Turn and Burn.  Toothless is not amused, even when Hiccup talks about the precarious situations that it gets his rider into that he also has to rescue him from.  Snotlout and Hookfang want to help their leader, but end up lighting Hiccup’s hut on fire.  Before Snotlout and Hiccup can truly get into an argument, Stoick arrives, to speak to Snotlout.  Spitelout is driving the chief nuts, now wanting to improve everything.  Stoick feels they are out of Spitelout’s place in the tribe, or station in life.  His relationship with Spitelout is very similar to Hiccup’s relationship with Snotlout [a lot of the fandom hold that Snotlout and Hiccup are cousins, which is inspired from the books, from what I’ve heard].  Spitelout’s main idea is an off-Berk secret cache.  Now that man hasn’t been seen in a month.  Stoick has come to get Snotlout to help look for his father.  Hiccup joins them.

The men find Spitelout’s building and dragon traps, but not Spitelout immediately.  They do discover a new dragon, a Singetail, which Spitelout appears to save them from.  Stoick and Spitelout argue and Stoick appears to have a double standard.  “Stoick is allowed to take whatever ridiculous chances he likes.  It’s the rest of us who have to stay in line.”  Hiccup tries to get everyone back on track; they can work together to drive the Singetail off and save the storehouse.  His suggestion, since it is an unconventional dragon, is to fight it unconventionally.  They soon discover the dragon can also fire from its belly.

Fed up, the chief lays down the law and both sons hesitate to follow their fathers.  Hiccup talks to his father, pointing out that Snotlout and Spitelout both just want to prove themselves to the Haddocks.  They fly back to the storehouse to find more Singetails.  Hiccup realizes that the fires the one has been setting have been a call for back up.  Spitelout agrees to give up the structure, though Stoick does save the ‘S.’

In Buffalord Solider, Astrid is checking the perimeter and comes across an abandoned ship.  It’s filled with bodies, mostly dead.  One that still has a bit of life in it scratches her arm.  She and Stormfly quickly fly back to the Edge.  Her description of the bodies reveals that they died from the Scourge of Odin, a deadly plague that “swept through the archipelago centuries ago, wiping out entire Viking villages.”  Tuffnut’s solution is moldy bread [which is technically how penicillin was discovered.]  Astrid doesn’t mention the scratch.  It’s Stormfly who gets Hiccup in the middle of the night when her rider becomes very sick.  Astrid still protests there’s anything wrong with her, until she faints into Hiccup’s arms (we love Hiccstrid!)

Everyone works together, Snotlout having flown to Berk and back with Gothi’s notes.  There is a cure for the Scourge, a solution made from the saliva of a Buffalord dragon.  Except, those were hunted to extinction during the last plague.  The twins start seeing a pattern in Dragon’s Eye notes and help discover a map to the Buffalord.  The team sets out to find the dragon, Hiccup using Flightmare Algae for tracking and Deathsong amber glasses he was working on to see in the bright sunrise.  There’s one dragon left.  Pretty calm, but when the riders try to fly him back to the Edge, it freaks out and puffs up.  Very well, they’ll get the solution and take it back.  But it evaporates too quickly.  Thanks to the twins, they also figure out that the saliva must be mixed with the herbs that the Buffalord eats.  Snotlout retrieves Astrid.

She falls into Hiccup’s arms (and we hear a quiet, slow version of Romantic Flight) and he pleads with her to hold on.  “I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”  Hiccup is prevented from getting the cure for Astrid by the arrival of Viggo, Ryker, and other Hunters.  This was all part of Viggo’s plan, to create supply and demand; Astrid just stumbled onto his test ship.  Hiccup at first refuses to let them take the Buffalord dragon, until Viggo and Ryker are willing to kill it.  Hiccup then begs for enough of the cure to save Astrid, “that’s a loss I’m not willing to take.”

Hiccup is able to cure Astrid and keeps his word that Viggo may take the dragon.  But Hiccup also knew that the dragon would not travel with Viggo.  The Hunters are forced to release the dragon, who flies back to his island and peacefully eats his herbs.  The riders give the boat a proper funeral [which echoes a scene that comes up in How to Train Your Dragon 2, so if you’ve seen that movie first (which came out before the show), this is a very poignant scene].  Astrid then tells Hiccup, “I can’t imagine a world without you either.”  The couple is well on its way to becoming an official couple.

The riders work together in A Grim Retreat to produce Gronkle Iron.  They have a production line going.  Except, they keep at it all day, which drains everyone.  Most of the riders want a vacation.   Hiccup is more concerned about having the iron for weapons and defense against Viggo.  Even Astrid counsels Hiccup that they need rest in order to perform better.  She and Fishlegs find a nice island that they can visit and pick up more sandstone even.  Stoick and Gobber arrive to keep an eye on the Edge, and babysit Tuffnutt’s pet ‘Chicken.’

The teens enjoy an afternoon of swimming.  At night however, the dragons turn feral, except Toothless.  They all have to hide from their dragons; Snotlout at one point annoying Astrid so much she tells him “if you don’t shut your piehole, I’m going to leap out and plead with them to eat us both.”  Hiccup eventually figures out there’s something in the water that’s affecting the dragons.  Tuff throws salt when he runs out of weapons against their attacking dragons, which actually causes the dragon to stop.  Tiny bugs leap out of the dragon; grimora.  They are parasites that affect dragons.  Salt drives them out, so they have to find a saltwater source.  Toothless gets infected for a second time and traps Hiccup on top of a cliff.  They both fall off, into the water, but there is a plasma blast.  Could Toothless have fired on Hiccup?  A minute later, the grimora fly out and Toothless and Hiccup burst out of the water.  Hiccup now agrees that they will take breaks as they need so he doesn’t work them too hard and have to repeat the incident.

When arriving back on the Edge, the teens find out that Stoick and Gobber both think that Chicken was eaten by the other and have found replacement chickens.  Chicken is of course fine.

Everyone is suspicious of the notes that Fishlegs keeps receiving in To Heather or Not to Heather.  They find out they’re from Heather and urge Fishlegs to have her stop at the Edge.  Everyone also wants to ask Heather to join the dragon riders permanently.  But Heather worries she has the Berserker insanity in her.  Hiccup is quick to assure her she is nothing like Dagur.  Heather also spends time with Astrid as two warrior women.  Until Heather brings up the subject of Hiccup; she feels that the two are perfect for each other and they should stop wasting time and express their feelings.

Heather and Fishlegs are rather cozy; Heather was more open in her letters to Fishlegs and readily agrees to take a tour with the young man, much to Snotlout’s dismay.  Their mood is ruined once Meathlug and Windshear start fighting.  Windshear is not used to spending so much time around other dragons, or other people being so near her rider.  Hiccup is willing to work with Heather and her dragon, again, in the hope that Heather will stay with the riders.

There is a skirmish between Hunters and Riders; Fishlegs and Heather end up switching dragons and that seems to work.  Windshear will still protect Heather, but not attack the riders’ dragons.  Heather decides to stay.  The mood is ruined when Hiccup receives a letter from Dagur, asking for his help to find his sister.  Hiccup promises that Dagur won’t find Heather.

Styke Out centers on dragon fights run by Ryker and other Hunters.  The matches have low attendance since one champion outperforms the other.  When Snotlout and Hiccup go to rescue dragons, Hiccup is trapped by a knock-out gas and ultimately taken to the dragon fights, where Toothless as a Night Fury will be a new star and drum up business.  Hiccup is also chained alongside the dragons.

Hiccup ordered Snotlout to go get help and Snotlout is very keen to get Hiccup back.  The twins decide to become Thorston and Thorston, Sleuths Extraordinaire.  What works better is using Heather’s knowledge of the Hunter organization.

Hiccup watches Toothless’ match against a Razorwhip and urges his dragon not to kill.  After winning that match, the Night Fury will face the Triple Stryke champion dragon.  Ryker finds out about the match and warns his underling, who won’t call it off, that if the Night Fury dies, he faces an unhappy Ryker and Viggo.  Ryker also wants Hiccup.  Said Viking the meantime, befriends the other dragons, though very carefully.  “Call my old fashioned but I prefer not to lose another limb.”  (Yay, the lad has some self-preservation.)  Again, Hiccup urges Toothless not to kill the Triple Stryke, though the dragons are evenly matched, and is freed by Astrid shortly afterwards.  Toothless shows the other dragon mercy and the rest of the dragons are set free.  Ryker is forced back and the other riders chase the crowd away.

The Triple Stryke, which Tuffnutt suggest be named ‘Sleuther,’ follows them back to the Edge.  All the riders are happy Hiccup is back, though Fishlegs points out that “Astrid would have killed you (Snotlout) if we hadn’t found Hiccup.”

I like that this episode focuses more on Toothless as a strategist and a glimpse what a Night Fury might be like in the wild.  Hiccup still uses his brains to help dragons, but this wasn’t a problem to be solved from the air.  It’s also a bit sweet that the riders all care so much about Hiccup that they get very angry when trying to find him.

The riders rescue a dragon egg in Tone Death.  It’s a very cute dragon when it hatches.  Until it starts screaming, and spitting amber.  It’s a baby Deathsong.  Hiccup still wants to train it.  Heather figures out the way to calm the baby, named Garff now, is to sing to it.  Commence all the different riders singing their lessons; it’s rather hilarious.  But they decide it’s best to take the baby to be with its own kind.  Things are a bit tense, hoping that the adult Deathsong will bond with a baby not its own.  Garff has to echo that dragon’s song back and forget what the riders taught it.

Hiccup is also working on a new gadget; a flaming sword using Nightmare gel he calls Inferno.  [Spoiler, this is a prototype to one he carries in the second movie.]  It’s inspired by figuring out that a lit dagger will cut through Deathsong amber.  He excitedly talks about modifications with Astrid, who comments “that will be the last we see of him for a week.”

Between a Rock and a Hard Place has the riders tracking a convoy of marble blocks.  Turns out that the Hunters are using Catastrophic Quakens to mine the marble.  Viggo is using it to create an impenetrable roof for his hide out.  But the mining has made the island unstable.  Hiccup does get to show off his different tails for Toothless, but Fishlegs is a big help.  They free the Quakens, then use them to tear down Viggo’s roof (you can hear a bit of the battle theme in the background).  Viggo is extremely displeased with Hiccup after that stunt.

When the riders return from a practice run at taking out a fleet, they find Dagur at Dragon’s Edge in Family on the Edge.  He’s come in person to ask Hiccup for a dragon so he can find Heather.  Hiccup and Toothless owe him; he saved their lives.  Hiccup points out that Dagur also tried to kill them.  Well, maybe deep inside, Dagur didn’t actually want to kill them.  Hiccup eventually relents, mainly so Dagur doesn’t go wandering around.  Dagur hugs his “brother,” and calls him “small and cuddly.”  We agree with Hiccup, that Dagur should never say that again.

Hiccup on the side has to get Heather to leave so the siblings don’t see each other.  He picks a sturdy and safe dragon for Dagur, a Gronkle.  Also not terribly dangerous and less of a threat to the riders.  Dagur still names the Gronkle ‘Shattermaster.’  Dagur is an enthusiastic student, but tries to do too much too fast.  He ends up barreling into Hiccup and breaking his prosthetic leg.  Hiccup takes Shattermaster to get a spare.  While they’re gone, the other riders find Dagur with Toothless and fear he’s done something to Hiccup.  Hiccup shows up to set them straight and admits he didn’t tell them about Dagur saving his life because he honestly doesn’t know how he feels about it.

There is still their plan attack on Viggo’s shipyard.  Astrid finds it very strange that Dagur shows up right when they’re getting ready to strike.  And unfortunately, Heather returns early and finds Dagur on the Edge.  She is not happy.  She calls Dagur a spy.  Points out that he set her adrift as a child and killed their father.  Dagur pleads that he is trying to change.  He decides to leave since the riders don’t trust him.  But he comes across Hiccup’s plans.  He guesses what Hiccup’s attack plan will be and calls the young Viking gullible.  Astrid sees them and Dagur agrees to be locked up, though he warns Hiccup that if anything happens to Heather on the mission, he’ll hold Hiccup personally responsible.

Dagur then escapes and heads out for the shipyard.  Heather races after him, intent on killing him.  Dagur starts the attack and reveals that it was indeed a trap.  He flies alone into an ashy cloud where explosions go off.  The rest of the riders have to hang back.  Hiccup wants to go save him, but Astrid stops him.  It’s too late.  Hiccup is genuinely upset that Dagur is dead.  On the Edge, Heather finds a letter her brother left for her.  He has her “tell our little brother” (that is kind of sweet) to hit Viggo’s auction and release all those dragons.  He also wants to set the record straight; he never killed their father.  He just used his disappearance so the tribe would think he was tough enough to be chief.  It starts to rain, but the letter gets wet from Heather’s tears.  All accompanied by bagpipes and mournful music.  I wanted to shed a few tears myself.

They take Dagur’s advice in Last Auction Heroes and have Trader Johan steal a map for them to the next location.  Hiccup goes to his father to ask for Berk’s cache of gold to get Snotlout into the auction.  He tells his father, “Viggo Grimborn is the most ruthless Viking we have come in contact with…. No dragon will be safe and eventually, he will set his eyes on Berk.”  Snotlout is the only rider that Viggo hasn’t seen.  He’ll still go in disguise and Gobber will go to keep an eye on the gold.  Snotlout enjoys his assignment of being a rich businessman a bit too much; he’s gleeful to order other people around.  The riders sneak in in the belly of Johan’s ship, with their dragons as the bait.

Eventually, the riders are caught, though Heather and Astrid make a kickass double team.  Viggo intends to sell Toothless, as the only Night Fury in existence.  There is a stranger at the auction, keen to buy the rare dragon.  Viggo brings Hiccup out so he can watch.  Gobber comes to the rescue, with his new dragon, Grump.  He fights Ryker to protect Hiccup.  Astrid is the one to saves him, but Viggo still gets away with their gold.  Hiccup thought they had a chance to get it back, but Viggo switched the chests.  The other riders tell Hiccup to look on the bright side, they saved the dragons.

The season ends with the first of a two-parter Defenders of the Wing.  The riders continue to rescue dragons.  But now, Viggo wants to meet.  All of the riders, even Hiccup, is aware that this can be a trap.  He lets Heather and Astrid come to the meeting spot with him, which is full of blue oleander, which is poisonous to dragons.  Viggo calls Hiccup a worthy opponent and wants to offer a truce.  They divide the map.  Everything north of the line, the Hunters will have free rein, the riders may stay to the south, and neither side will cross the line.  Viggo even signs his name to the map.  He has no desire to rule the world, unlike some [big old hint drop].  He’s a business man and all this fighting is bad for business.

After the meeting, Hiccup notices that there is an island he doesn’t recognize as Viking or Hunter just inside the line on Viggo’s side.  Hiccup is trying to work out what Viggo is thinking.  So, they need to investigate this island.  At first, all seems fine, though there is a large statue of a dragon.  Then, the riders start disappearing and getting drugged.  They eventually meet Mala, Queen of Defender of the Wing Island and her right-hand man, Throk.  (Ironically, Mala is voiced by Adelaide Kane, who plays Mary Stuart in Reign, along with Ivy Belfrey/Drizella in the last season of Once Upon a Time.)  Mala thinks that Viggo sent the riders to their island, that they are Hunters.  They’re enslaving their dragons.

But when her Defenders try to release the dragons, they don’t fly away.  Instead, Mala holds a trial and asks Hiccup questions.  Tuffnutt does not help matters when he points out things that Hiccup has done, like shooting down Toothless and crippling him.  Hiccup tries to argue that they could be allies against Viggo.  He is willing to earn their trust.  But Mala feels that the map Hiccup carries makes him guilty.  Hiccup again will do anything to save his friends and their dragons.  He bets their lives he can train a dragon in front of Mala.  Of course, there are three Speed Stingers, but Toothless comes to his rescue.  Mala trusts the dragon and releases the riders.

She explains that their island is home to a volcano and their Great Protector.  An Eruptadon eats the lava and keeps them safe.  But they find the Great Protector gone, with evidence that Hunters had attacked.  Now Mala is angry that Hiccup has led the Hunters right to their home and taken their treasured dragon.  Mala vows to kill Hiccup. 

And that is how the season ends!

I like how the storyline is advancing.  There are new challenges for the characters.  They learn to work together and everyone has a skill to bring to the group.  I of course like that Hiccup and Astrid are growing closer.  Astrid still is the voice of reason in their friendship and continues to act as his right hand.  Snotlout, while still reckless, is tempering it a bit.  He wants to be helpful.  He listens to Hiccup more.  The twins are crazy, but do we expect any different.  Stoick listens to his son as a leader and again, as the future chief.

As I commented in Season 2, Viggo is a smart opponent.  Hiccup has his victories, but he can’t easily outsmart this man.  Viggo has to work harder to counteract Hiccup.  I like that Dagur is now on Hiccup’s side.  Honestly, the boy doesn’t need that many enemies, and a Berserker is a good weapon in the arsenal; he’s got crazy ideas and enough guts to back it up.  As showcased by taking the suicide mission.

The Defenders of the Wing will be a great group to keep an eye on.

Up Next: Season Four

“I see nothing has changed.” “Yup, same story, different year.”

Dawn of the Dragon Riders

This was released as a short with the second movie, but takes place between the end of Defenders of Berk and Race to the Edge.  The riders are catching sheep and then start discussing how Dragon Racing was started [which spoilers, opens the second film].  They all wear face paint and Astrid comments to Hiccup that “red is your color,” but is speaking more to Toothless [note how Hiccup wears a red tunic in Race to the Edge].  Snotlout’s sheep catapult apparently took 32 attempts to perfect and thus he argues that he created the sport.

What really happened is that Stoick had the teens help Silent Sven gather up his sheep, and as the other riders tend to do, they made a competition out of it.  Stoick then has to go on business to Loki Island for wood for their fleet and leaves Hiccup as ‘acting chief,’ and with strict instructions to begin preparations for the annual regatta.  Hiccup remarks how the regatta comprises of boats sailing slowly across the harbor, arguing that they could start a new, exciting tradition.  Stoick holds to the regatta; their clan has been doing it for ages as a way to blow off steam instead of fighting each other.

Fishlegs is the only one really excited for the regatta.  Meanwhile, Hiccup walks in on Tuffnut planning on catching more sheep.  When he tries to put a stop to it, explaining that they need to work on the regatta, Snotlout, in all his brilliance, retorts “Who made you acting chief?”  “Stoick.”  “Well, who made Stoick chief?” and everyone gives him a look.  Hiccup asks Astrid for back up, then has to face the village when they excitedly cheer on the riders chasing sheep; one even remarking “this is better than the regatta!”  So, Hiccup allows one more race to settle everyone down, though he works on making teams and baskets, then figures they’ll all be ready for regatta work afterwards.

Snotlout crashes into Astrid and hurts her arm.  Hiccup finally talks Fishlegs into joining him when they find out that Meatlug is seasick and sinks their boat.  However, Stoick returns early.  Seeing how excited the village is, he decides to switch to dragon racing and adds some more ideas, such as the face paint to give it a warrior feel.  Astrid will be the referee and keeps an eye on the riders.  It comes to a tie breaker, involving the black sheep.  Fishlegs and Hiccup find one in the well, but Snotlout has returned with one.  Tuffnut rubs his face on the sheep, revealing it was painted, so the results are overturn to crown Hiccup and Fishlegs as the winners.

So, Tuffnut argues he invented the game, well, definitely the cheating.  Hiccup insists they all invented it to keep peace, though it was Snotlout who made the sheep launcher.

Race to the Edge: Season 1

This show was developed by Netflix (though I have them on DVD in case of no Internet connection, or Netflix ever drops it) and was actually done after the second movie, but chronologically takes place before.  It features an entirely new intro and utilizes music from the second movie.  The series starts with the two-parter Eye of the Beholder, which sets the stage three years after the showdown with Dagur (making our main characters all around eighteen). Indeed, Dagur actually ends up escaping the Outcast prison and is bent on revenge on Hiccup.

Meanwhile, Hiccup is still doing stunts with Toothless and remarks he needs his own set of wings when they end up separating and plummeting for a minute.  The narration of “this is Berk,” is back, explaining the time jump and showcasing the new parts of Berk.  The riders have moved on to new tasks; the twins pledging to cause all the chaos they can in the name of Loki.  Snotlout is a weapons’ tester, and Fishlegs is educating the children, talking about Hiccup and Toothless as the new heroes of Berk.  Astrid catches up to Hiccup, who is eager to do more exploring; except they’ve covered the area directly surrounding Berk, more than once.  Hiccup says “this can’t be all there is.”  Astrid tells Hiccup she has joined the Berk Guard, so all of his friends have moved on to new jobs.  But Hiccup still yearns to explore.  He says as much to his father that evening.

Their evening is interrupted by news from Johann that Dagur has escaped and he is more berserk than ever.  He also holds a map to Johann’s graveyard of ships, where he hides all his treasures.  He warns the Berkians of the “Reaper” ship, which is full of booby traps.  The other riders eagerly join Hiccup to head off Dagur; they plan to steal the treasures first so Dagur can’t use them to purchase a new armada.  Their way is impeded by giant eels, which chase most of the dragons off.  While they wait for them to return, they separate to gather treasure.  The twins find jewels, Fishlegs finds maps, charts, and books, and Snotlout finds a chest of blond hair [which was actually prized by Vikings.]  Hiccup heads over to the “Reaper,” determined that the most valuable items will be there.  And if the ship is that booby trapped, it must be hiding something important.  He jokes of the benefit of a metal leg when a trap springs around it and he prefers Toothless’s plan of simply blasting the door open.  They also discover a dragon skeleton aboard the ship; so this place was no friend of dragons.  Hiccup takes an object from the captain’s room because it must be dangerous to dragons and thus really cannot fall into Dagur’s hands.  A giant axe falling makes sure they rush back to the deck of the ship, only to find that Dagur has captured the other riders.

Dagur is certainly more unhinged after three years in prison, attempting to flirt with his brother.  But he’s busy with an army to build and revenge to plot.  Astrid sends Hiccup after Dagur, but Dagur was expecting that, so he arranges for the ship to be sunk, causing Hiccup to have to choose between going after Dagur and the strange new item, or saving his friends.

Part Two immediately picks up with the riders’ predicament.  And a new challenge is that the cage is made of dragon-proof metal.  And the giant eels are back.  They manage to escape and their dragons come to the recuse, so Hiccup chases after Dagur and gets the strange item back.  Gobber tries to help the teens figure out what the item is, which Hiccup has named the Dragon Eye, though Tuffnut bears the brunt of the mistakes.  While they’re at Gothi’s she recognizes a mark on the item that came from a Snow Wraith dragon.  Hiccup persuades Gothi (who may have scribbled something not kind about him, but Gobber wouldn’t translate since Hiccup is the chief’s son) to go with them to get the tooth they need to unlock the Dragon Eye, saying that didn’t she once want to see what is out there and find answers to questions not thought of yet.

The Snow Wraith attacks during snowstorms, able to sense heat signatures, which the teens do try to use to their advantage.  Luckily, when it attacks Gothi at one point, she makes to get a tooth stuck in her staff.  Hiccup is now able to unlock the Dragon Eye.  And it doesn’t do much to start, until it catches the light of a dragon’s fire, then it presents images on the wall.  “This changes everything,” Hiccup remarks (and this line is used in the new intro.)

Hiccup excitedly shows the riders his discovery in Imperfect Harmony, explaining that much of it is in a different language and the maps show areas beyond the boundaries of their archipelago.  Next, Hiccup goes to the council, pleading that he wants to explore the new areas.  Spitelout brings up that they have been at peace for several years and they shouldn’t go looking for trouble.  It’s more important to hunt for Dagur, than new dragons.  Stoick agrees that peace is important, but dragons are important to Hiccup and what would any of them do for something like that?  How far would they go to get it, what would they risk?  Besides, they couldn’t stop the boy if they tried, he might as well have their support.  The council agrees and Stoick sends his son off to find what is pulling on him.  And when he’s done, Berk will be waiting for him.  He also tells Toothless, “take care of my boy.”

The other riders again join in, shouting “into the great beyond!”  They get discouraged after a while and Hiccup encourages them by saying “nothing that’s worth anything comes easy.”  They have to fly though a bit of a storm, but the cloud covers break and they see new islands below them.  A strange sound comes to them and their dragons head down to an island.  It’s idyllic, but come morning, all the dragons are gone.  While searching, Toothless comes across the riders and quickly pulls Hiccup’s leg to follow.  The prosthetic leg.  Which comes off, but Hiccup appreciates Toothless’s enthusiasm.

A Thunderdrum comes along while Toothless and Hiccup are flying and screams at the other teens.  Hiccup comes back to chase the dragon off and tries to say he is going back up, but everyone shouts “no,” and Snotlout adds “I will take your other leg!”  So they all go together and find a pile of dragon bones, then find pieces of amber, and finally, dragons trapped in the amber.  A large shrieking dragon makes an appearance, which they name the Death Song.  Its cry draws dragons in, then it spits amber at them to trap them, then eats them later.  Toothless tries to take on the Death Song, but he’s soon trapped, as are the other riders, though Astrid pushes Hiccup out of the way.

He comes across the Thunderdrum again and manages to get it to trust him.  They return to Hiccup’s friends, where he has an idea to spread Monstrous Nightmare gel on the cocoons, then make a spark so they break open.  They also free a baby Thunderdrum, which why the adult one had stuck around.  All the dragons work together to relocate the Death Song to a cave.  The riders eagerly continue on their adventure; it’s the most fun they’ve had in years.  They will try to find an island of their own to make into a base of operations.  Into the great beyond!

That search continues in When Darkness Falls.  Apparently, they keep coming across an island full of boars and once, Snotlout even tries to use Hiccup’s leg as a weapon, though they’re rescued by their dragons in time.  Eventually, they come across a perfect looking island.  The riders start planning what their outpost is going to look like; Hiccup just wants them to set up camp for the night.  Astrid wants it defensible, Snotlout wants an “S,” Fishlegs wants it to be zen, and the twins wants a boar pit.  They sleep next to their dragons that night and Tuffnut wakes to an odd sound.  He does come across a chicken, but also a large dragon.  The rest of the riders don’t immediately believe him, mainly since he shouts “chicken roar!” to warn them along with his phrase “I am hurt, I am very much hurt!” (first appeared in the first movie).  Tuffnut goes looking for the dragon again, and Ruffnut accompanies him, ready to declare herself the winner of the “Thorston challenge” if Tuffnut is making it up.  Hiccup pleads to go with them to get away from the others arguing about the outpost.

The giant dragon indeed shows up, though they realize it’s a lot of little dragons.  The twins capture the light-colored leader.  Hiccup allows Tuffnut to name it “Smidvarg,” though they call the rest of them Night Terrors.  But Changewings soon move in and harass the other Night Terrors.  The riders figure out that the small dragons work together to look like a large version in order to scare off predators and all work together to chase off the Changewings.  The riders befriend the Night Terrors and Hiccup comes up with a single idea for the outpost, incorporating everyone’s wants.  Everyone has their own spot and then there’s a clubhouse in the center, along with a training arena and stables.  He calls it Dragon’s Edge.

The riders return to Berk at Stoick’s request to relocate a Scauldron, but the plan goes awry in Big Man on Berk.  Fishlegs is now possibly allergic to Meatlug.  Gothi determines that they should hypnotize him in order to get him over the allergy.  Snotlout takes it as an opportunity to suggest a new personality to Fishlegs.  When he wakes, he ignores Meatlug and is now all about heroics and being a super Viking named ‘Thor Bonecrusher.’  Snotlout gets a crush on him, but Fishlegs is fairly dismissive.  The other riders want Fishlegs back, but since he broke Gothi’s staff, they have to figure out another way. 

Fishlegs goes after the Scauldron, with Snotlout and Hookfang.  Meatlug ends up saving Fishlegs, but then the Scauldron chases Meatlug.  That fear snaps Thor back to Fishlegs.  The riders end up being successful in their job to relocate the dragon.  And unfortunately relocate Stoick’s new axe, which ‘Thor’ had taken.  Turns out, Fishlegs was allergic to the new wax Gobber was using on the saddles (his earwax, everyone is suitable disgusted).  Snotlout gives a kiss to Fishlegs, saying ‘Thor’ broke his heart.

Gustav Larson, now sixteen, shows up at Dragon’s Edge in Gone, Gustav, Gone, ready to join the Dragon Riders.  Hiccup is busy checking out the Dragon Eye and so the other riders pass the teen around (he also has a crush on Astrid) and he causes chaos.  He eventually comes across the Dragon Eye and thinks it’s a treasure map, taking it in order to find the treasure and prove his worth to the other riders.  Hiccup finds him before he gets killed on an unstable island and explains that the rules are different out at the Edge.  They’re far from Berk and other help, so they can’t be reckless.  And to Hiccup, Gustav has just proven he’s not responsible enough to stay at the Edge.  He’ll talk to the teen more in the morning.  But Gustav takes off and gets captured by the Berserkers.  He promises information to Dagur in return for a hot meal.  He also promises the Berserker chief the Dragon Eye and a treasure.  Hiccup arrives and trades the Eye for Gustav, but Gustav stays with Dagur, citing better treatment.  Hiccup understood what Gustav was doing and has the other riders meet him at the island in order to save Gustav and the Dragon Eye.

The episode ends well, with Hiccup promising that Gustav will be ready to join the riders, someday.  Gustav also needs to get back to Berk before his mom worries too much.  Hiccup also managed to find the treasure chest on the island they had been looking for amongst the chaos and discovers another lens for the Dragon Eye.  Meaning there are more out there.

The Dragon’s Edge census is interrupted by the Reign of Fireworms, with a possible migration of the fire starters hitting the island.  But the teens can’t focus fully on the problem because the twins discover a “namey rock;” a claim stone that Stoick and Gobber verify as authentic and states that the twins are the direct Thorston descendants of the founder of the island, making Dragon’s Edge their island.  The twins are thrilled and have ridiculous plans for the island.  Hiccup just wants to make sure it doesn’t burn down.  He figures that they should play along and let the twins try to rule and when they discover it’s harder than it looks, they’ll be begging for help.  Which they ultimately do when the island is almost engulfed in fire.  Before the others will help, Hiccup enforces that the island will be equally claimed by everyone, they’re all equal rulers. 

The Night Terrors help out by forming a Fireworm Queen and Hiccup helps lead them away from Dragon’s Edge.  And the claim stone matter is settled when Meatlug eats the rock, so everyone dances while chanting “it’s our island!”

The teens deal with a new dragon problem in Crushing It.  A Rumblehorn has been causing destruction and they haven’t managed to capture it yet.  Gobber comes to the Edge with news from Berk; Stoick is as ornery as a dragon and driving everyone crazy.  Hiccup heads back to talk to his father, and Gobber will help fortify the base.  He ultimately builds a defensive wall.  Hiccup finds Stoick by “following the sound of the angry Viking,” and even Gothi writes some choice words about the chief, which Hiccup can’t repeat.  Hiccup finds his father shining Thornado’s saddle and realizes his father is missing his dragon friend.  So he invites him back to Dragon’s Edge to help with the Rumblehorn.

They arrive after the Rumblehorn has passed through and toppled a tower onto Gobber, making the one-armed, peg-legged Viking rather loopy.  Stoick witnesses his son issue orders (like a chief in the making) and agrees that this wild dragon is fast, smart, and elusive.  He’s a worthy adversary, the chief declares and helps his son search for the beast.  They do make an attempt at capturing the dragon, but the Rumblehorn takes off, with Stoick hanging on to a rope.  Toothless catches the falling chief.

Stoick and Hiccup note that the dragon is an excellent tracker, yet also doesn’t hurt anyone.  Stoick feels that the dragon is trying to tell them something.  He manages to get back on the Rumblehorn and rides the dragon out to sea, to discover a giant wave is coming right for the base.  The teens reinforce Gobber’s wall, and the Rumblehorn helps Stoick topple a sea stack to protect everyone.  Due to how well the Rumblehorn tracks, they name the new class the Tracker class and Stoick names the dragon Skullcrusher since he’s a protector, a leader, and hard-headed; a lot like Stoick.  He’s gained a new companion and reminds his son that while he may miss Thornado, he also misses Hiccup.

It’s Fishlegs’ turn to check out the Dragon Eye and he comes across information about Dark Deep, the ancestral home of the Gronkles in Quake, Rattle, and Roll.  Hiccup agrees to go with Fishlegs in case he would need help.  When they find the rocky island, there are few Gronkles about.  They’re chased by a boulder that turns out to be a gigantic dragon: a Catastrophic Quaken.  It’s been chasing the Gronkles away, and they’ve moved to the Edge.  The teens know they can’t stay, but Hiccup isn’t sure how to get rid of the Catastrophic Quaken and maybe, that’s just the natural order of things.  Snotlout instead suggests fighting dirty and when Fishlegs doesn’t like Hiccup’s answer, he agrees to lessons from Snotlout.

He stands up to Hiccup, arguing that they do need to go back to Dark Deep.  He gets Snotlout to go with him, but Snotlout is freaked out by the size of the giant dragon.  Luckily, Hiccup and Astrid followed.  Fishlegs uses his new courage to stand up to the Catastrophic Quaken.  Turns out, the giant dragon was scared and defensive, which is why it scared off the other Gronkles.  But when they realize it just wants friends, they return.  Fishlegs is also reminded that he is not Snotlout and doesn’t have to act like the other rider.

There is a mysterious rider and dragon that have been attacking ships in the two-part Have Dragon, Will Travel.  The riders are back on Berk, stocking up on necessities when Stoick gets the news.  Hiccup insists it wasn’t them, so they go to investigate.  They figure out from the barbs its left that the dragon is a Sharp Class, like Stormfly.  They use the fire from Stormfly to discover more information and conclude that it’s a Razorwhip they’re looking for.  They do find the campsite and the mysterious rider manages to capture the other riders until Hiccup and Toothless chase them, discovering that it’s Heather.  She’s been living on her own for years and came across an injured Razorwhip that she nursed back to health and named Windshear.  Hiccup offers their help; at the very least, she should come back to their base.  Astrid likes how intense Heather has gotten and remarks that they’ve all grown up.

Hiccup also tries to talk to Heather about the ships that she and Windshear are attacking, arguing that there has to be another way.  That night, Hiccup follows Heather when she leaves.  She visits Trader Johan and Hiccup wrangles the information out of the long-winded man (even threatening trade sanctions, two words that the trader dislikes).  He finds out that Heather’s village and family were decimated and Heather has vowed revenge.  She goes after Dagur and his new dragon-proof chains wrap around her and Windshear and start pulling her in.  The episode breaks at that point.

And immediately picks right back up in the second part.  Hiccup and Toothless manage to save Heather and Windshear, though Dagur shouts something about a family reunion, since his so-called “brother” is there.  On the way back to the Edge, Hiccup once again tries to talk sense into Heather; her mission is suicide, and while she may be comfortable doing whatever it takes, is she willing to sacrifice Windshear?  Heather claims she is destined to be alone.  The parents she knew, that were killed by Berserkers, where her adoptive parents; she was separated from her birth family as a child.  She has vague memories of her father, and a horn to remember him by.  They arrive back at the Edge and Toothless manages to get the other dragons to leave Windshear alone.  Astrid takes Heather out from some girl time to compare their axes.  It’s Heather who brings up the question to Astrid whether she’s a thing with Hiccup. Astrid insists she is only friends with Hiccup.  Well, Heather notes, Hiccup is cute.  Astrid admits yeah, if you like that “unassuming, heroic, dragon rider type.”  Meanwhile, Heather admits she likes Fishlegs; Snotlout is off-putting.

While girl talk is happening, Hiccup gets a look at Heather’s horn.  It bears Stoick’s crest.  He flies back to Berk.  Meanwhile, Heather goes back to Trader Johan, with Astrid’s company, and gets information on where to find Dagur.  Heather plans to go after him again and asks for the riders’ help.  Astrid insists it must be a capture mission, not killing.  They’ll leave a map for Hiccup to find them.  Back on Berk, Hiccup explains the situation and point blank asks his father, “is Heather my sister?”  He arrives to stop Heather from killing Dagur and explains what he found out.  The horn bears Stoick’s chief seal because it was a gift to the child of another chief, Oswald the Agreeable.  Heather is Oswald’s daughter, making her Dagur’s sister [this is something Dagur had to have known; hence the “family reunion” quip].  He gets free in the confusion and while the other riders get ready to leave, he asks Heather to stay.  She eventually flies off, but Dagur seems pleased with the idea of Heather joining him one day.  Astrid asks Heather to stay, but the other girl needs to work things out.  Hiccup apologizes to Astrid; he’s sorry she’s losing a friend.  Astrid still has him though, she points out.

Hiccup shows off his latest invention in The Next Big Sting, the Dragonfly One, his own set of wings.  Useful, if he ever gets separated from Toothless in the air.  There’s an updraft at the cliff he’s standing on and figures it will help him with gliding.  He gets three tries in before he wrecks the contraption and Toothless is not wholly pleased to continually rescue his rider.  Astrid even insists he’s done.  The riders then find an injured, young Speed Stinger.  They splint its leg, then decide to take it back to the Edge to recuperate.  Snotlout is not pleased.  Fishlegs manages to work and rehabilitate the Speed Stinger, but it gets agitated when the other riders show up.  They also discover that this pack of Speed Stingers have evolved to have webbing between their toes so they can cross water (and we see the larger pack doing such).  Astrid then threatens to lock Hiccup up if his new project is “Dragonfly Two.”

Snotlout and Ruffnut decide to take the Speed Stinger back, but end up crashing, then getting surrounded by the pack.  The Speed Stinger protects them, considering them to be its new pack.  They hold off the main pack long enough and Snotlout even bonds with the Speed Stinger.  But Hiccup insists its best to let the Speed Stinger go back to its pack.  In the scuffle, Hiccup does in fact show off a new glider, using the idea of webbing.

The riders turn a new drill into a competition, as they always do, in Total Nightmare.  Toothless and Hiccup work on beating a closing dome and are successful, due to the Night Fury’s speed [accompanied by theme music].  The twins live for the drama.  Snotlout takes his turn, but Hookfang gets distracted and fights Snotlout.  He puts Hookfang in a pen overnight, but Hookfang gets out.  Snotlout finds him and discovers he’s visiting a female Monstrous Nightmare.  Fishlegs also ponders if Hookfang could be going feral, considering Hookfang won’t leave the female.

The other riders round up other Monstruous Nightmares to tempt Snotlout back to riding, but he refuses, and there are no other dragons he wants to try.  If he can’t fly Hookfang, he doesn’t want to fly any other dragon (and the other riders feel the same way).  So Snotlout quits and plans to return to Berk.  When he goes to say goodbye to Hookfang, he finds his friend injured.  He also finds eggs in the cave behind the female Monstrous Nightmare.  Worse, there’s a Titanwing Monstrous Nightmare.  Toothless manages to scare it off, but Snotlout knows that it will have to be Hookfang that beats the Titanwing in order to protect the female.  “He’s crazy!” Astrid exclaims.  “He’s Snotlout,” Hiccup retorts.  Snotlout goes to beat the dome, but purposefully loses, getting trapped with the Titanwing.  The enclosed area works to Hookfang’s advantage and they tire the Titanwing out.

Thus end the first season of adventures for the dragon riders.  I love this series.  I love seeing the characters older and taking on adult responsibilities.  This series does an excellent job of fleshing out the characters; we’re already seeing some of the other teens take center stage for an episode.  We witness Hiccup growing into a leader and Astrid becoming his second, clearly shown in Dawn of the Dragon Racers.  Snotlout is even maturing, showing that he truly cares about Hookfang and won’t ride another dragon.  The twins are as crazy as ever, with Tuffnut adopting the chicken as a pet…the chicken is not amused at Hiccup’s attempts with Dragonfly One.  I adore the humor of the series.

There’s the twist with Heather being Dagur’s sister.  That was not something I originally saw coming and the writers did well to tie back in to Riders of Berk and Defenders of Berk.  I did think for a minute, the first time watching the episode, that they were going to make Heather Hiccup’s long-lost sister, following the steps of many fanfictions.  So I’m glad they made her Dagur’s sister instead and that will be something that comes into play in later seasons.

Up Next: Season Two

“It’s a great day for lugging sheep!”

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

“We plan. We get there. All hell breaks loose.”

Deathly Hallows

The final installment of Harry Potter’s tale [we are disregarding Cursed Child because in my opinion, it was terrible.  I have seriously read better fanfiction.]  The movie was split into two parts (which became the trend for several series, like Twilight and Hunger Games, then fell out of practice); which, considering how much was packed into the last book and how difficult it would be to trim it down, makes sense.  Bill Nighy (who we know from Pirates of the Caribbean as Davy Jones) joins as the new Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour [he showed up in the book of Half-Blood Prince.]  We briefly see Michelle Fairley (we know her more as Catelyn Stark from Game of Thrones, but she was also Princess Augusta in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story) as Mrs. Granger at the start of the first part, and we finally meet on-screen the eldest Weasley child, Bill, played by Domhnall Gleeson (son of Brendan Gleeson, ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody.  But we also see Domhnall in the Star Wars sequel trilogy as General Hux.)

Part 2, we meet Kelly Macdonald (the voice of Merida in Brave; she also appeared in Goodbye Christopher Robin [depressing, I do not recommend watching], and she was Evangeline in Nanny McPhee) as Helena Ravenclaw and Ciarán Hinds (Mance Rayder in Game of Thrones, Firmin in Phantom of the Opera, and Lord Tarleton in Amazing Grace) as Aberforth Dumbledore.

The book opens with a meeting between the Death Eaters and Voldemort at Malfoy Manor, with conflicting reports on when Harry Potter will be moved.  Snape has his own sources and they differ from the infiltrated Ministry of Magic.  Voldemort declares “I shall attend to the boy in person.  There have been too many mistakes made where Harry Potter is concerned.  Some of them have been my own.  That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumph (pg. 6).”  The marriage between Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin is discussed, with Voldemort telling Bellatrix to prune her family tree.  Voldemort proceeds to then murder Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher from Hogwarts, who taught her students to get along with Muggles; Voldemort would rather subjugate them.  Charity pleads for help from Snape, but gets none.  Draco is a bit disturbed now, seeing a teacher murdered in front of him.  The Malfoys are still disgraced, and no doubt, Draco is learning that being a follower of Lord Voldemort is not as glorious as he imagined.

The film instead opens with Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour giving a speech that the Wizarding World faces dark times, and also declaring that the Ministry remains strong.  It is well delivered by Bill Nighy, though the close up really makes it in your face.  We then actually witness Hermione wiping the memory of herself from her parents and leaving home.  We barely see the Dursleys leave, then we circle back to the scene at the Malfoy Manor.  Bellatrix shows bloodlust; this certainly is no longer a story for young children.  While Voldemort gives his little lecture on his thoughts on Muggleborns, I couldn’t help but think that Voldemort is a walking hypocrite (not that we’re surprised).  He despises Muggles and the mixture of Muggles and wizards, yet he himself is the product of that mixture.  Which is why he hates it.  Recall in the book Half-Blood Prince, he figured his mother was Muggle due to dying; those with magic won’t die.  Then when he discovers that the opposite is true, he makes sure to go back and kill his Muggle relatives, then desecrate the grave and use his father’s bone in his resurrection potion.  And most of these Death Eaters don’t know the truth.

Meanwhile, Harry is getting ready to leave Privet Drive for good.  He will soon be seventeen and “of age” in the Wizarding World.  The Dursleys are being moved to a new home for their own protection; once Harry leaves Privet Drive, all protections that were there because of Lily will break and make anyone still there vulnerable.  Harry wonders to himself “what did you say to one another at the end of sixteen years’ solid dislike (pg. 36)?”  But Dudley attempts to make peace with his cousin, even asking his father why Harry isn’t coming with them.  He tells his cousin “I don’t think you’re a waste of space (pg. 40),” and they part with shaking hands.  Harry takes one last look under the stairs before the Order arrives, comprised of Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Bill, Hagrid, Arthur, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, Remus, Fleur, Kingsley Shacklebot, and Mundungus Fletcher.  Half of them will take Polyjuice Potion to look like Harry and then are assigned a protector, all in order to confuse the Death Eaters and Voldemort.  It is rather humorous in the film.  Harry dislikes the idea, but Hermione gets the hair anyway.  They’ll fly, by various means, to various safe houses.  Hagrid will take the real Harry in Sirius Black’s old bike, in an echo of how Harry first arrived at Privet Drive.

But the group is set upon as soon as they leave.  Harry refuses to fight dirty; he won’t be like the Death Eaters, and this gives him away.  Hedwig is killed in the fight [and we cry]; “the owl had been his companion, his one link with the magical world whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys (pg. 67),” and once the Death Eaters know which is the real Harry, Voldemort shows up.  Harry’s wand acts of its own accord and manages to save Harry.  He lands with a knocked about Hagrid at Tonks’ parents’ home, then takes a Portkey to the Burrow.  Everyone anxiously waits for the others to return.  George is now missing an ear, thanks to Snape.  He manages to joke with Fred he is saintlike now, because he’s holey.  Remus tells Harry off for not being more decisive in his casting, but Harry retorts he won’t blast someone just because they’re there, that’s Voldemort’s tactic.  Word also comes that Mad-Eye Moody is dead.  This makes Harry want to leave immediately; he doesn’t want anyone else dying for him, but Ron talks him round.  This has always been bigger than Harry.  Besides, they won’t last two days without Hermione.  They also have to stay for Bill and Fleur’s wedding, and Molly has gotten wind that the trio does not intend to return to Hogwarts.  They keep very quiet about the task that Dumbledore set them.  Hermione is making sure they’re prepared, even bringing along some books, to which Ron cracks “I forgot we’ll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library (pg. 95).”  She’s also modified her parents’ memories and sent them to Australia.  They’ll be safe and not know that they have a daughter.  When Harry tries to protest, she retorts “didn’t [he] realize that Ron and I know perfectly well what might happen if we come with you (pg. 97)?”

“The measure they had taken to protect their families made him realize, more than anything else could have done, that they really were going to come with him and that they knew exactly how dangerous that would be (pg. 99).”  [Not quite, as we will see.]  They make what plans they can, dodging Molly.  Harry wants to visit Godric’s Hollow, mainly for sentimental reasons, feeling that it will hold some answers.  Harry still retains a connection to Voldemort and gets glimpses of the Dark Lord asking about a man named Gregorovitch.  Harry has no idea why.  The Minister of Magic then shows up on Harry’s birthday, interrupting the festivities.  The will of Albus Dumbledore is finally reviewed and he has left items for the trio.  To Ron, his Deluminator.  To Hermione, his copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard (which has been published, along with Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [long before a movie was imagined]).  And to Harry, the Snitch he caught in his first match, as well as the sword of Godric Gryffindor.  But he can’t release the sword as it wasn’t Dumbledore’s to give away.  Harry ends up in another argument with the Minster, since he won’t become a public figure for him.

Luna Lovegood and her father, Xenophilius, attend the wedding, as does Viktor Krum.  I rather like the use of Irish music at the wedding; with all the red hair, we do rather suspect there is an Irish ancestor in the Weasley line.  It’s Krum who recognizes the symbol that Luna’s father is wearing, and names it as Grindelwald’s sign (the Dark wizard that Dumbledore defeated several decades before Tom Riddle appeared on the scene).  That clues Harry in that Gregorovitch is a wand maker; he made Viktor’s wand.  Harry ends up at a table with Ron’s great-aunt Muriel, who is discussing articles that have come out about Dumbledore’s life.  There was a touching article already run by a dear friend of Albus’s.  But Rita Skeeter promises a book soon based on the scandals of the Dumbledore family and even mentions Godric’s Hollow.  Harry starts to wonder how much he really knew about his mentor.

The wedding celebration is interrupted by news that the Ministry has fallen to the Death Eaters and the Minister of Magic is dead.  Death Eaters are on their way to the Burrow.  Guests start leaving and the trio quickly bands together and Disapperates.  In the film, Harry does try to see Ginny, but Lupin grabs him and shouts “go!”  It is vital that Harry gets away.  Hermione has everything packed in a small handbag, magically expanded inside.  They’re able to change and try to figure out their next move.  Death Eaters manage to find them and there’s a brief tussle, but they get away and head for Grimmauld Place.  Ron remarks that Harry’s the boss on this quest, though Hermione is the best at spells.  And Ron’s gotten a bit bloodthirsty now, all ready to maim the Death Eaters they’ve Stunned; maybe it was one of them that killed Mad-Eye Moody.  That idea is quickly shot down; it would draw too much attention.  Arthur sends word that the Weasleys are safe, but not to contact them; they are all being watched. 

Harry wanders the house and finds Sirius’s bedroom.  It’s been searched, but he finds a letter written to Sirius from Lily that includes a picture of baby Harry riding a toy broomstick.  They also spot Regulus’s bedroom and realize his name is Regulus Arcturus Black, making his initials R.A.B. and the same handwriting as the note in the fake locket.  Regulus was a Death Eater as a very young man and killed.  Hermione remembers another locket from their cleaning a few years ago.  They question Kreacher and find out that Mundungus Fletcher stole the locket after Sirius’ death.  The story spills out that Voldemort needed a house elf to drink the potion so he could place the locket in the cave in the first place, so Kreacher was offered.  Then Regulus had Kreacher take him to the cave later.  Regulus drank the potion and had Kreacher switch the lockets.  Kreacher was to destroy the first locket, but couldn’t manage to and Regulus was killed.  Kreacher was sworn to secrecy.  Harry starts being kinder to Kreacher and the trio are able to enjoy some comforts in Grimmauld Place.  Harry orders Kreacher to find Mundungus.  In the film, Dobby helps.  The tale continues, that Mundungus was caught by a Ministry lady, who looks like a toad and had to give her the locket.  Toad lady?  Umbridge.  So the trio start planning how to sneak into the Ministry of Magic when they are the most wanted witch and wizards in the country.

Remus stops by with some news.  The coup has been kept quiet from the public, but there have been some moves against Muggleborns.  He asks about Dumbledore’s mission and then offers to be protection for the teens.  Harry senses an ulterior motive.  In truth, Tonks has announced she is pregnant and is currently staying with her parents.  Remus feels like a big mistake has been made and fears that his child will be like him, a monster.  Harry tells Remus off and calls him a coward.  “Parents shouldn’t leave their kids – unless they’ve got to (pg. 215).”  Remus leaves.  This is completely left out of the film.  There was a brief second when the Order arrived at Privet Drive that Tonks wanted to say something, but Moody got on with the plan.

They learn that Snape is now the headmaster of Hogwarts and several Death Eaters are now teachers.  Other Death Eaters hang around outside the house, hoping to spot the teens on September 1st.  No such luck.  The plan comes together to get inside the Ministry.  They’ll use Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Ministry employees, then search for the locket around Umbridge.  Of course, it does not go according to plan and they’re forced to split up.  Harry finds Umbridge’s office and digs Mad-Eye Moody’s eye out of her door.  Hermione is forced to be her secretary in a court room, demanding where a Muggleborn witch stole her wand.  Harry sneaks into the courtroom and eventually stuns Umbridge and grabs the locket off of her.  Harry reveals himself in the movie by telling Umbridge “I must not tell lies.”  Totally warranted.  They get the Muggleborns out, but are almost caught returning to Grimmauld Place.  Hermione gets them to the woods, but Ron is Splinched and wounded.  They start camping out.

Harry sees that Voldemort has found Gregorovtich, but a thief stole what he is looking for years ago.  The trio moves locations and puts up protection spells as they go.  They take turns wearing the locket as they mull over their next steps, and soon learn the lesson that a full stomach means good spirits and an empty one leads to bickering and gloom.  Ron struggles most; expecting that Harry and Hermione will come up with plans and necessities.  [This shows the truth of teenagers trying to manage an epic quest.]  They manage to overhear one evening that Ted Tonks and classmate Dean Thomas are on the run as well as news from Hogwarts.  Ginny, Luna, and Neville all got in trouble for trying to steal the sword of Gryffindor; Snape then decided to move the sword to a vault in Gringotts.  However, the goblins who are with Ted and Dean reveal that the sword there is a fake.  The goblins also feel that Harry should be out front, fighting and rallying the resistance.

The news spurs Hermione and Harry; the real sword is somewhere and being goblin-made makes it useful to destroy Horcruxes.  But Ron doesn’t join in.  Instead, he starts arguing with Harry (not helped by the fact that he’s wearing the locket).  He figured that Harry had a plan.  Harry’s been upfront with his friends about everything he knows and tells Ron if he wants to go, go.  And Ron leaves.  Harry keeps the locket.  Hermione stays, but cries the rest of the evening.  Since he passed the protective circle, Ron won’t be able to find them again.

There is a completely new scene they added for the film which sort of divides fans; Harry dances with Hermione in order to cheer her up.  Some say the filmmakers were trying to hint at a pairing between Hermione and Harry.  Others, including myself, simply view it as a friend trying to cheer another friend up.  A little odd, but not the worst thing they’ve done in the films.

Hermione turns her attention to her copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard and notes an odd mark on different pages.  The same mark that Xenophilius wore to the wedding, Grindelwald’s mark.  She also thinks it might be time to go to Godric’s Hollow; it is Godric Gryffindor’s birthplace and could be a hiding place for the real sword.  They come to the village on Christmas Eve and walk through the cemetery.  Harry makes a point in the movie saying he won’t use Polyjuice Potion (as they do in the books) to return home.  There are the graves for Dumbledore’s mother and sister, as well as an Ignotus Peverell, with the same strange mark.  Then they find Harry’s parents’ headstones (we cry alongside the teens), then the cottage that Harry lived in as a baby, with a memorial signpost in front of it.  There’s a strange woman beckoning to them from down the lane.  Harry figures it’s Bathilda Bagshot, a celebrated wizarding historian and apparently an old friend of the Dumbledores, according to Aunt Muriel.  But it’s not truly Bathilda.  It’s a snake wearing her body [creepy] and attacks Harry.  He now sees Voldemort’s side of the attack on Halloween night.  Hermione manages to get them to escape, but Harry’s wand is broken in the process.

All of this has built up anger at Dumbledore.  “He had left them to grope in the darkness, to wrestle with unknown and undreamed-of terrors, alone and unaided (pg. 351),” with nothing explained.  They took a copy of Skeeter’s book on Dumbledore and find a picture of Gellert Grindelwald inside.  Apparently, before his reign of terror, Grindelwald was a friend of Dumbledore’s as young men.  Hermione points out that Harry’s angry at this because Dumbledore never told him himself.  “Maybe I am!” Harry finally unleashes.  “Look at what he asked from me, Hermione!  Risk your life, Harry!  And again!  And again! And don’t expect me to explain everything, just trust me blindly, trust that I know what I’m doing, trust me even though I don’t trust you!  Never the whole truth!  Never (pg. 362)!” [Very good point.]  Hermione insists that Dumbledore loved Harry; he doesn’t believe her.

They next camp out in the Forest of Dean.  That evening, Harry spies a silver-white doe and decides to follow it.  It leads him to a frozen pond, in which the sword of Gryffindor hides.  Harry feels he needs to undress before diving in to show his daring and courage [dumb move, aside from he wouldn’t want to get his clothes soaking wet and cold].  However, he’s still wearing the locket, so once he tries to kick back to the surface, the evil thing tries to drown him.  Someone pulls him out…Ron.  Harry insists Ron destroy the locket.  When it opens, it hisses to Ron “second best, always, eternally overshadowed.”  It’s a bit weirder in the film, with shadowy figures of Harry and Hermione making out and for a second, when Ron plucks up the courage and stabs the thing, you wonder who was hit.  Harry insists that Hermione is simply like a sister to him.  Hermione’s not exactly leaping for joy to see Ron waltz back in; instead, she punches him.  On the one hand, Ron does have an extra wand Harry can use now.  Ron tells Harry that it was the Deluminator that led him to Harry and informs him that Voldemort’s name is now Taboo, because only those who oppose him would say his name.  That was how the Death Eaters managed to find them that first night. 

Hermione decides they should visit Luna’s father and ask about the mark he wears.  It refers to the Deathly Hallows he informs them (after acting very odd and no sign of Luna).  Tales holds the Tale of the Three Brothers, where three wizard brothers magically build a bridge over a river and then confront Death.  Death gives them three gifts for their prowess; an unbeatable wand, a stone to recall the dead, and the final brother requests an invisibility cloak like Death’s.  The eldest brother with the wand wins a duel, but is murdered in his sleep for his boasting.  The second brother recalls his lost love, but since he can’t really be with her, he kills himself.  The youngest stays hidden until he is an old man, then greets Death and walks away with him, the cloak passed on to his son.  These three objects, legends says, if united, makes the possessor the master of Death.  The three brothers were the Peverell family: Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus.  The very grave Harry and Hermione saw in Godric’s Hollow.  The tale in the film is done in quite frankly a creepy animation and shows images not safe for small children, like blood spatter and a swinging dead body.

The trio soon figure out that Luna is not at home and her father has been stalling for time for Death Eaters to arrive.  They’ve been holding Luna hostage and he wanted to trade Harry.  But the trio escape.  Harry begins to piece together the truth of the Hallows.  Gaunt bragged he was a descendant of Peverell, with the stone set in a ring; the very same one the Dumbledore destroyed as a Horcrux.  They figure that the ring is in the Snitch, but it still won’t open, saying only I open at the close.  And Harry’s invisibility cloak is rather remarkable; it’s been in his family for years and the charm has never worn off.  And there are rumors enough of the Elder Wand.  That is what Voldemort is after and he quite possibly doesn’t know about the Deathly Hallows.  Could it come down to Hallows versus Horcruxes?  Hermione rather put the whole story behind them.

Ron introduces them to the underground wizarding radio program Potterwatch, with some familiar hosts.  They announce deaths, such as Ted Tonks and urge wizards to protect the Muggles around them.  “Every human life is worth the same and worth saving (pg. 440).”  Tonight, Remus contributes “The Boy Who Lived remains a symbol of everything for which we are fighting; the triumph of good, the power of innocence, the need to keep resisting (pg. 441),” and urges Harry, wherever he is, to follow his instincts.  Ron learned that Remus did return to Tonks.  Again, this is all left out of the film.  Unfortunately, Harry slips as says ‘Voldemort’ in their discussion and they get caught by Snatchers.  It’s a good choice in the movie to not have a soundtrack during this scene; it’s only the sounds of the characters running and the blasts of the spells they throw.  Hermione at the last second fires a hex at Harry that makes his face swell and unrecognizable.

They’re taken to Malfoy Manor and Draco is told to take a look at them.  He hesitates about identifying them, saying it could be, but not sure.  The sword catches Bellatrix’s attention; it’s supposed to be in her vault.  She keeps Hermione to torture and Ron yells for her as they hear her screams.  Well-acted, because the audience gets shivers watching the movie.  Ron and Harry are sent to the cellars where they encounter Luna, Dean, and Ollivander, along with Griphook the goblin.  Harry pulls his piece of Sirius’ mirror out and catches a blue eye in it and asks for help.  Dobby pops in, to the rescue.  He takes the others to Shell Cottage, where Ron spent his time with Bill and Fleur after he left Harry and Hermione.  Ron and Harry attack Wormtail when he enters.  Since Wormtail owes Harry for saving his life four years’ prior, the silver hand Voldemort gifted him turns on Wormtail and strangles him. That bit is left out of the film. 

Bellatrix has called for Voldemort, who is in the middle of questioning an old man, who doesn’t have what the Dark Lord wants; the wand was never his.  Ron rushes in to save Hermione; Bellatrix has carved ‘Mudblood’ into her arm.  In the film, they never get around to calling Voldemort, though Lucius was about to; he’s interrupted by Dobby dropping a chandelier on Bellatrix.  Dobby argues he wasn’t trying to kill the evil witch, only maim or seriously injure.  Harry grabs the sword and the goblin and Dobby magics them away to Shell Cottage.  But a knife that Bellatrix threw at the last moment catches the house elf and he dies in Harry’s arms.  Harry decides to dig the elf’s grave by hand.  Even though his scar burns, he’s finally mastered the pain.  “Just as Voldemort had not been able to possess Harry while Harry was consumed with grief for Sirius, so his thoughts could not penetrate Harry now, while he mourned Dobby.  Grief, it seemed, drove Voldemort out…though Dumbledore, of course, would have said that it was love (pg. 478).”  Harry buries Dobby and carves into a rock ‘Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf,’ as a headstone. 

The end of film one comes with Voldemort going to Dumbledore’s grave, opening it and taking the Elder Wand.  Nice, comforting scene to end on.  They repeat the scene at the beginning of Part Two, since there are about eight months between the releases.

Harry speaks to Griphook about the sword of Gryffindor and now wants to break into the Lestrange vault; there is a good chance that another Horcrux is kept there, since Bellatrix was so angry at the idea of someone in her vault.  He also questions Ollivander about wand ownership [this seems convoluted to me and either creates a plot hole or badly tries to patch a plot hole, I haven’t quite decided which], and the Elder Wand. Voldemort feels he will be truly invincible if he possesses the Elder Wand; that is what he’s been looking for, going through Ollivander, then Gregorovitch, then Grindelwald.  Then Dumbledore won it, hence the desecration of his tomb done by Voldemort.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione keep their plans quiet from Bill and Fleur.  It’s tricky negotiating with a goblin; Griphook wants the Gryffindor sword (Bill points out that goblins believe that ownership of a crafted item reverts back to the crafter, not down the purchasers’ line).  But the trio need the sword in order to destroy the rest of the Horcruxes, so Harry keeps mum on when exactly Griphook will get the sword.

Happy news arrives.  Tonks has given birth to a baby boy, Teddy.  Remus comes to announce it and ask Harry to be godfather.  To himself, with his crazy plan closing in, Harry thinks “he seemed set on course to become just as reckless a godfather to Teddy Lupin as Sirius Black had been to him (pg. 518).”  Again, left out of the film.  Hermione uses Polyjuice Potion to look like Bellatrix, and they had retrieved her wand, along with Draco’s when they fled Malfoy Manor.  But Gringotts is on the lookout, so Harry uses the Imperious Curse to control some goblins so they make it down to the oldest vaults, guarded by a dragon.  They manage to get in, but there is some difficulty getting out.  They’re successful in getting Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, but Griphook makes off with the sword and guards are alerted to intruders.  The trio escape on the dragon and jump off when they can.

Voldemort is angry at the break-in, and starting to wonder if Harry knows about the Horcruxes.  Preposterous.  For “surely if the boy had destroyed any of his Horcruxes, he, Lord Voldemort, would have known, would have felt it?  He, the greatest wizard of them all; he, the most powerful; he, the killer of Dumbledore and of how many other worthless, nameless men: How could Lord Voldemort not have known, if he, himself, most important and precious, had been attacked, mutilated (pg. 550)?”  [Someone’s got an ego.]  But Harry can’t know.  Nevertheless, he will keep Nagini close, and his thoughts stray to Hogwarts.  Harry sees all of this and now they know for certain where to go next.  In the film, Hermione argues that they need a plan.  Harry points out, “when have any of our plans ever actually worked?  We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose.”  (He’s got a point).   They Apperate into Hogsmeade, which sets off an alarm.  The barman from Hog’s Head pulls them in, and the blue eyes give him away.  This is Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus’s younger brother, and it’s his eye Harry saw in the mirror and who sent Dobby to them.  But Aberforth tells Harry to go home, he’ll live longer that way.  Abandon whatever fool’s errand his brother sent him on. 

However, Harry made his choice when he dug the grave for Dobby; he will continue on the dangerous path that Albus Dumbledore set him on.  The truth comes out about Ariana; the Muggle boys who tormented her for her magic made it turn wild.  Their father went after the boys and was imprisoned for it, but the family kept the secret of Ariana so she wouldn’t be taken away.  Their mother’s death was an accident, but that meant Albus had to stave off his great plans and take care of his family.  Gellert Grindelwald just fed into Albus’s ideas of using magic to rule over Muggles, ‘for the greater good,’ though they disagreed on method.  An argument broke out between the three young men and Ariana ended up in the middle of it.  Grindelwald fled and Albus never forgave himself.  There is a portrait above the fireplace in Hog’s Head of Ariana, which actually becomes a passageway into the school.  Neville emerges and fills the trio in on what’s going on in Hogwarts while they make their way into the Room of Requirement.  Neville’s bruised for standing up for what’s right and protecting others; he’s trying to give everyone hope.  His gran’s finally proud of him, saying he’s his parents’ son and she even held her own against Death Eaters sent to kidnap her in order to quiet Neville.

It is rather wonderful in the movie that the theme starts up with the reveal that Harry has returned to Hogwarts (noticeably absent from the beginning of both Deathly Hallows).  Dumbledore’s Army wants to help Harry.  They’ve proven themselves loyal to Dumbledore, they point out when Harry protests.  “We all thought that if you came back, it would mean revolution.  That we were going to overthrow Snape and the Carrows (pg. 581).”  Other members of the Order start pouring in, including Luna, Dean, Fred and George, and Ginny.  Ginny is thrilled to see Harry, who is also pleased.  Ron’s rather put out that his own sister doesn’t pay him any mind.  Seamus points out in the film that Ginny has plenty of brothers, but there’s only one Harry Potter.  In their discussion in the book, Ron points out that they could use help finding the Horcrux, they just don’t have to tell the others exactly what it is.  Hermione chimes in, “you don’t have to do everything alone, Harry (pg. 583).”  Harry decides he will trust his friends and be different than Dumbledore. 

Luna takes Harry to Ravenclaw Tower, but the Carrows were already warned that someone might come looking for something from Ravenclaw.  Harry reveals himself when one of them spits on McGonagall, even using the Cruciatus Curse.  McGonagall supports Harry’s mission; they will secure the school while Harry searches.  The plan is to get the students out.  This plan does not sit well with the current headmaster and a duel breaks out between Snape and the other Heads of Houses.  He flees and McGonagall declares that it is time for Slytherin House to declare their allegiance.  Any who stand in the way of the Order will be dealt with accordingly.  To the shock of the Weasley family, Percy arrives and shouts an apology. 

It happens a bit different in the movie.  Harry doesn’t make it to Ravenclaw Tower.  Instead, Snape calls all the students to the Great Hall and asks that anyone with information on Harry step forward.  If not, there will be dire consequences.  Harry himself steps out, claiming that the headmaster has a security problem as the Order enters.  He demands that Snape tells everyone how Dumbledore was actually killed; students start edging away.  Snape draws his wand on Harry.  Before Harry can even react, McGonagall steps in front of him and everyone hurries out of the way.  Snape even hesitates for a moment.  McGonagall starts firing spells [like a badass!]  Snape quickly flees and McGonagall shouts out the window “coward!”  A cheer erupts.

Voldemort’s voice sounds through the Great Hall, saying that if they give Harry Potter to him, they will not be harmed, indeed, they shall be rewarded.  Pansy Parkinson is the one who cries out to seize Harry, but the rest of the school protects him.  The Battle of Hogwarts begins.

McGonagall directs Neville and Seamus to blow up the bridge; she recalls that Seamus has a “particular proclivity for pyrotechnics.”  She directs other about, pointing out that they might as well use the name ‘Voldemort’ since he’s going to try to kill them either way.  She then turns and calls down the stone knights to man the boundaries, to do their duty to the school.  To Molly, she remarks “I’ve always wanted to use that spell.”

Harry has to find the ghost of Ravenclaw, Rowena’s daughter, Helena.  Luna has to shout at Harry in the film to listen to her.  She knows about the ghost and takes Harry to her.  Helena tells him how she stole the diadem from her mother and ran away.  But Rowena sent a man who once loved her to bring her back, but when she refused him, he became angry and stabbed her.  When he saw what he had done, he killed himself and became the Bloody Baron.  Helena hid in Albania, and eventually told her tale to Tom Riddle, who flattered her.  He took the diadem and hid it in Hogwarts the night of his job interview with Dumbledore.  The backstory is left out of the film, though the Grey Lady knows what Tom has done to the diadem, that he’s defiled it with Dark Magic.  Harry realizes where it is and it’s a place he would share with Tom, but Dumbledore, being more rule-abiding wouldn’t know: the Room of Requirement, where Harry hid the disastrous Potions book. 

Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione venture down to the Chamber of Secrets to get basilisk fangs.  The cup is now destroyed.  Ron then suggests they need to get the house-elves out before they’re killed and that is when the big kiss between him and Hermione happens (in the film, it’s in the Chamber).  Harry has to remind them “Oi!  There’s a war going on here (pg. 625)!”  But Draco has followed the trio with his cronies just when they find the diadem.  Draco is more cautious than Crabbe (in the film, it’s Goyle.  And in place of Goyle, it’s Blaise); he wants to know what Harry is looking for.  Crabbe just wants to kill him.  A huge magical fire erupts, killing Crabbe.  The trio manage to find broomsticks and Harry won’t let Draco die.  Ron’s not pleased and tells Harry if they die saving Draco, he’ll kill Harry.  They stab the diadem once they’re free and kick it back into the fire before the doors shut.

They come upon Percy and Fred dueling Death Eaters, including the new Minister of Magic.  Percy jokes about resigning and Fred is so pleased.  A blast hits them and Fred is dead.  Harry is shocked; how can there be a world without Fred Weasley in it?  He’s more determined than ever; there’s only the snake left.  He looks into Voldemort’s mind and finds him in the Shrieking Shack (the boat shed in the film); the Dark Lord requires Severus.  Voldemort also insists to his followers that Harry will come to the Dark Lord that night.  The trio argue who will go as they take in everyone fighting around them, including Trelawney.  Luna and some other D.A. members help them against dementors (Aberforth in the movie) and the trio manage to make it to the Shrieking Shack and hide while Severus greets his lord.  Even Severus is offering to bring Harry to Voldemort.

The problem is Voldemort feels no difference between his old wand and the Elder Wand.  The issue lies with the fact that Voldemort was not the one to kill Dumbledore; that was Snape.  So for the wand to work correctly for Voldemort, he must kill Snape.  He sets Nagini on Snape and leaves.  The teens are horrified and Harry goes to the former Potions master.  He takes the memories spilling out and then the man dies; his last words in the film are for Harry to look at him and the remark “you have your mother’s eyes.”  Again, Voldemort’s voice sounds across the grounds.  He will have his forces retreat for an hour.  Use it to bury your dead.  And to Harry, “you have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself…if you have not come to me…I will enter the fray myself…and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me (pg. 660).”  He will be in the Forbidden Forest.  This is Harry’s foible; he hates others getting hurt for him, risking their lives for him.  In the Great Hall, the Weasleys are gathered around Fred.  Harry also sees Remus and Tonks dead, leaving their infant son to Tonks’ mother.  Harry cannot face anymore [and neither can we at this point] and turns away and goes to the headmaster’s office.  He pulls out the Pensive and dumps in the memories.

We see the Prince’s Tale; how young Severus Snape met a young Lily Evans, spurned by Petunia as being a freak.  But Snape wants to show Lily the wonders of magic and teach what he already knows as a half-blood.  Apparently, Petunia even sent a letter to Dumbledore, asking to come to Hogwarts; Lily found it and Snape mocks Petunia, hurting during the argument.  Then there’s young James and Sirius in Gryffindor, where Lily is Sorted, while Snape goes to Slytherin.  Lily soon dislikes Severus’s friends; children who will go on to become Death Eaters.  Severus strongly dislikes James Potter, and even though Lily doesn’t like him yet, she points out there is a difference between humor and pranks, and just being evil.  After the disastrous OWLs incident, Snape apologizes to Lily, but she says he’s chosen his path, so they will part ways.  Years later, Snape comes to Dumbledore, begging for Lily’s life, though he doesn’t care about the deaths of her husband and child, if only Dumbledore will help him save Lily.  Dumbledore even points this out, that the man is alright with her family being killed, as long as Snape gets what he wants (this bit is left out of the film).  Finally, Snape begs for Dumbledore to hide them all.  Alas, only Harry is left, with Lily’s eyes.  Dumbledore extracts a promise from Snape that he will protect the boy once he comes to school.  Snape insists no one can know his deeds.  It was Snape that Dumbledore had heal his hand and once again, has the man promise that he will kill the headmaster instead of Draco.  He’s on borrowed time now anyways.

And there is one more thing that Harry cannot know until the time is right.  Only then will he have the strength to follow through.  The night that Voldemort went to kill the Potters, and the curse rebounded on him due to Lily’s protection, a piece of Voldemort was cast into Harry, the only other living thing in the cottage.  That is why Harry is a Parslemouth.  That is why there is a connection between their minds.  This is indeed why Harry can feel the destruction of the other Horcruxes.  And while that bit lives in Harry, Voldemort cannot truly die.  So Harry must die.  And Voldemort must be the one to do it.  “We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength (pg. 687),” Dumbledore argues.  Snape is not pleased that “you have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment (pg. 687)?”  He shows Dumbledore that his Patronus is a doe.  In the film, we see Snape cradle Lily’s body while infant Harry cries in the background.  “After all this time?” Dumbledore asks.  “Always.”  Now Harry sees that the spell that hit George was meant for a Death Eater.  He took the last page of the letter to Sirius and tore the photo so he could keep Lily.  He was the one who put the sword in the woods.

Finally, Harry has the truth.  He is not supposed to survive this battle.  Neither would live, neither would survive.  “His will to live had always been much stronger than his fear of death (pg. 692).”  This walk to his destruction requires a different kind of bravery.  He will do no good-byes, no explanation (his friends would only try to stop him).  In the film, he does stop to tell them where he’s going and gives Hermione a hug.  Ron and Hermione must be left so they can kill the snake.  On his way to the forest, he meets Neville and tells him to kill the snake, just in case.  He walks away from his home, this place that took in the abandoned boys of Tom, Severus, and Harry.  “The long game was ended, the Snitch had been caught, it was time to leave the air (pg. 698).”  With that thought, Harry pulls out the Snitch again.  I open at the close.  “I am about to die,” he whispers.  Inside is indeed the Resurrection Stone.  Turning it brings James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius.  In the movie, this is the only mention of Remus’s son.  They will stay with him until the very end; their presence gives Harry the courage he needs.

Hagrid has been captured by the Death Eaters and watches Harry reveal himself to Voldemort.  “The Boy Who Lived.  Come to die,” Voldemort remarks.  There is a green light.  And Harry oddly ends up in a very white, very bright King’s Cross.  With a small, grotesque child.  Dumbledore comes to him.  Yes, the part of Voldemort’s soul that was in Harry is now gone.  But Harry’s blood in Voldemort tethers him to life [this part is still confusing.]  Dumbledore further explains that the Peverell brothers were real, the Deathly Hallows are real.  That is why Grindelwald originally came to Godric’s Hollow.  Due to what happened, Albus learned he was not to be trusted with power.  Only Harry is worthy to truly unite the Hallows, for the right reason.  Harry also has a choice about going back.  The young man looks to the disformed creature.  Dumbledore sagely advises “do not pity the dead, Harry.  Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love (pg. 722).”  And while this is all going on inside Harry’s head, that doesn’t mean it’s not real.

Harry quietly comes back to himself on the forest floor.  Voldemort asks for someone to check that he is really dead.  It is Narcissa Malfoy who crouches next to him.  She ever so softly asks if Draco is alive and in the castle.  Harry answers yes.  So she announces that Harry is indeed dead.  Voldemort crows that no man alive can threaten him now.  He orders Hagrid to carry Harry back to the castle.  A crowd gathers outside.  McGonagall screams “No!” at seeing Harry (in the film, it’s Ginny who screams), followed by Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.  Neville breaks free of Voldemort’s call for silence.  Voldemort asks him as a pure blood to join the Death Eaters.  Neville refuses.  Voldemort calls down the Sorting Hat, declaring there will be no need for it now, for all students will be Slytherin.  That bit is left out of the movie; instead, we get an awkward hug between Draco and Voldemort after his parents insist he leave the school.  They are seen later, walking away.  A commotion creates a distraction and Harry uses it to scamper away.  Neville draws the sword of Gryffindor and slices the head off Nagini.  The battle commences again and the house elves are led by Kreacher, fighting for his master, the defender of house elves (not in the movie).  Bellatrix ends up dueling Hermione, Ginny, and Luna.  Molly steps in and shouts “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” [one of the best lines of the series.]  She dispatches Bellatrix.  Voldemort turns from his duel against Kinsley, Slughorn, and McGonagall to face the woman; Harry casts a Shield Charm.

The duel between Harry and Voldemort begins.  Harry taunts Voldemort that Snape was never the Dark Lord’s true servant.  And goads him to be a man, try for remorse.  He also points out that the Elder Wand will still not work properly for Voldemort because Snape did not truly defeat Dumbledore.  It was Draco who disarmed the headmaster that night.  And only a day ago, Harry disarmed Draco.  Voldemort fires Avada Kedavra and Harry uses Expelliarmus.  The Elder Wand flies to Harry.  Tom Riddle is finally dead, killed by his own rebounding curse.  Ron and Hermione are the first to reach him, followed shortly by Ginny, Neville, and Luna, then the Weasleys, Hagrid, and McGonagall.

It’s a bit different in the movie; the two hop around the school dueling each other.  [At one point, I tell the screen; “Dude, you’re not Darth Vader, you can’t Force-choke him.]    Harry does tell Voldemort that the Elder Wand was never Snapes, then grabs the man and tells him “Come on Tom, let’s finish this the way we started…together.”  Then there’s lots of falling and black smoke.  A green blast from Voldemort’s wand meets a red blast from Harry’s.  Ron and Hermione are trying to kill Nagini, but the snake almost ends them.  Neville, in a completely badass move, jumps in and slices the head off the snake.  Voldemort and Harry fire another blast at each other, but Harry’s red beam overpowers Voldemort’s green.  Voldemort begins to crumple and the Elder Wand sails over to Harry.  Voldemort flakes away.

Kingsley Shacklebot is quickly named the temporary Minister of Magic.  Voldemort is laid apart from the rest of the dead.  When Luna realizes that the crowd is too much for Harry, she helps him slip away.  He grabs Hermione and Ron.  He reveals what he saw about Snape and what happened in the forest.  They make their way again to the headmaster’s office.  The portraits applaud Harry, but he looks to Dumbledore.  He dropped the Resurrection Stone in the forest; he’s not sure where and he won’t go looking for it.  He’ll keep his cloak, and he doesn’t want the Elder Wand.  However, he uses it to repair his first wand.  He’ll put the wand back in Dumbledore’s tomb and if Harry dies a natural death, that will be the end of the Deathly Hallows.  After all, “I’ve had enough trouble for a lifetime (pg. 749).”

They don’t visit the headmaster’s office again in the film.  Harry instead takes his best friends outside and explains Draco and the wand.  Ron remarks that they’ll be invincible with the Elder Wand.  But Harry doesn’t want it.  He breaks it in two and tosses it away (and doesn’t fix his own wand).  The trio stands together in front of the damaged school.

We get an epilogue, entitled Nineteen Years Later, using the same music from the end of Sorcerer’s Stone (a hit of nostalgia).  Families crowd King’s Cross, including Harry’s.  He’s married to Ginny and they’ve had three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna.  Ron and Hermione have had two; Rose and Hugo.  There are other family members there, like Teddy Lupin and Vicotrie Weasley.  There’s even a grown-up Draco and his son, Scorpius.  This is Albus’s first year and he quietly asks his dad about being sorted into Slytherin.  Harry comforts his son that he was named for two headmasters, one of whom was Slytherin and was the bravest man Harry ever knew.  However, the Sorting Hat will take into account Albus’s choice.  They see their children to the train and Harry feels all is well.

Hedwig’s Theme plays over the credit and it is a bit sad to watch them go by and see the ones who are no longer with us.

One of my biggest pet peeves about this film, and the trend anymore it seems, is that dark scenes are incredibly dark, as in lighting.  [We’ll cover more of this in Lord of the Rings, in a good way.]  Game of Thrones was bad about this as well.  Yes, a scene may take place in the dark, at night, and evil things are happening, but I can’t actually see them!  All I see is a black screen and I sometimes worry that something has happened to the disc or player.  Doesn’t matter what you have going on screen, any action or character movement because you’ve made sure we don’t see it.  As it’s been pointed out on fansites, we’ve suspended our disbelief to watch this story, we’re okay with it being properly lit.

Also, the final book is jam-packed with information and not really in a good way.  I read somewhere that her publishers had her pull information from previous books, so it all got shoved in the final book and it shows.  And that may be why plot point and plot lines are well developed.  As an adult, going back and re-reading these books, there are plot holes abounding.  And since it’s jammed with new information, there is little tension.  It stalls and you wonder if they’re ever going to achieve their goal, then everything happens at the last minute, and there’s last-minute information.  Another pet peeve of mine is that Dumbledore had an entire year to help Harry out in Half-Blood Prince; he knew what was going on and how much time, and he purposefully did not completely fill Harry in.  Harry already got mad at Dumbledore posthumously once this book, yet, is completely fine with the last-minute knowledge that he has been reared to be a sacrifice nearly his entire life.  The only sure-fire way to finish off Voldemort is for Harry to die.  And he’s supposed to be fine with that.  As a dumb teen, maybe we do view it as a heroic sacrifice, and yes, heroes go into last battles with some notion that they may die, or it’s very likely.  Not that their mentor has made sure everything aligns and kept them in the dark so they will willingly walk into Death.  Not cool.

As a result of the info-dump, the final two movies plod along at points.  And doing the final two duels, between Voldemort and Nagini, all in slow-motion, at this point does not make tension mount.  To the audience, it’s ‘how much longer are they going to drag this out?’  Yes, there was enough information for two movies (which is not always the case), but the action and pacing suffered.

I am glad that the primary trio of characters survived.  Super sad that Remus and Tonks were killed off (I do not support that decision; maybe it was an excuse just to kill all the Maraduers).  Heart-wrenching that Fred is killed.  I will admit, the mark of a better writer is that they are willing to kill off important characters (Stephanie Myers didn’t do that and her ending suffered because not everything is sunshine and roses, and honestly George R.R. Martin just kills everyone off, so it goes the other way), and these deaths should mean something.  There is a cost to victory.  But some here seemed unnecessary.

One thing Rowling did well was point out that there is not always a plan with these epic quests; the hero doesn’t have all the answers.  This makes the story a little more plausible.  She also showcases characters that are flawed.  Most characters are not what they appear.  I’m not sure ultimately how I feel about Ron leaving Harry and Hermione for a while, because he’s always been Harry’s best friend and most supportive, barring that incident in Goblet of Fire.  He claims he knew what it meant to follow Harry, but once things got really tough, he leaves.  Yet, he is able to bring back useful information.  Just proves that not all characters, even good guys, are perfect.  It was nice to bring Percy back and show that he’s not just a Ministry brown-noser.

I agree with Harry that Remus should not have tried to have left Tonks once she was pregnant.  Not to simply offer his services to tag along with Harry with no clue what Harry is actually up to.  Think these things through, sir.  You married her.  You made a commitment.  You probably told Sirius off for being reckless, learn from that.  And Tonks and Remus definitely should have made a better decision regarding their son; think ahead to the worst-case scenario.  Lily and James didn’t really get a choice about leaving Harry; they tried everything to keep him safe.  And Tonks and Remus rush into the final battle.

I’ll discuss more on Dumbledore, Snape, and the epilogue in the wrap-up blog that will be coming shortly.

“There is no need to call me ‘sir,’ Professor.”

Half-Blood Prince

The main characters that are added for this volume are Professor Horace Slughorn, played by Jim Broadbent (he appeared in Game of Thrones as Archmaester Ebrose, was King William in The Young Victoria film, seen briefly as Dean Charles Stanforth in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge, and we’ll see him soon as Professor Kirke in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), and Narcissa Malfoy played by Helen McCrory (who passed away in 2021).  Also, something I didn’t know before was the actor who portrayed the eleven-year-old Tom Riddle was played by Ralph Fiennes’ nephew, more based on how he resembled Ralph, not simply because he is his nephew.

The film and book both continue the trend to be progressively darker.  People seem more miserable than usual.  The book has Fudge visit the Muggle Prime Minister to introduce the new Wizarding Prime Minister; the chapter details other visits Fudge has made to the Muggle Prime Minister, getting progressively worse, even mentioning Sirius Black and Fudge has to own up to being mistaken about Sirius; he was innocent all along and then murdered at the Ministry of Magic.  Rufus Scrimgeour (who does not actually appear in this movie) is the new Minister of Magic.  The Auror, Kingsley Shacklebot is the new secretary for the Prime Minister for his protection.  The wizarding world is now at war and that war is spilling into the Muggle world, such as a bridge collapse.  Dementors are everywhere now and though Muggles can’t see them, their presence is felt with the dour mood and perpetual fog.

That part is left out of the movie, though they show the attacks that affect the Muggles and the overall dark clouds.  The first scene actually picks up at the end of Order of the Phoenix with Dumbledore and Harry at the Ministry, with Dumbledore putting his hand on Harry’s shoulder.  The Death Eaters fly into Diagon Alley and steal away Ollivander.  Harry instead spends his summer at train stations and meeting young Muggle ladies.  Dumbledore picks him up from one such encounter to go on a mission.

Then, we’re taken to a more rundown area of the country, with Bellatrix following her sister, Narcissa Malfoy, as they seek someone out.  Severus Snape.  Wormtail is currently staying with him, but Severus quickly dismisses him so he can speak to the ladies.  Bellatrix does not trust him, accusing him of being too cozy with Dumbledore.  Snape argues that he’s kept up pretenses for his safety and he has explained all to the Dark Lord; Dumbledore has never stopped trusting Snape and therein lies his great value to the Dark Lord.  Narcissa knows she shouldn’t be seeking Severus out, but she’s fearful for Draco.  Voldemort is using the boy because of his anger with Lucius.  Severus assures the woman that he knows of the Dark Lord’s plans; he is willing to help.  He accepts to take an Unbreakable Vow to carry out the deed if Draco fails.  In the film, this occurs after the Burrow, but plays almost how it appears in the book.

There are now rumors swirling through the wizarding world that Harry Potter is the Chosen One to defeat Voldemort after the events at the Ministry.  The Ministry is now actively trying to warn the wizarding population about Dark Wizards and protection against them.  Harry is instructed that Dumbledore will retrieve him from Privet Drive and escort him to the Burrow, and the headmaster also asks for Harry’s assistance.  Harry initially doesn’t get his hopes up, so when Dumbledore actually shows up, he has to pack in a hurry.  There is some business to attend to before they leave Harry’s aunt and uncle.  First, Sirius left everything to Harry, including Grimmauld Place.  The way to test this is to call Kreacher and have Harry issue an order; when Kreacher obeys, they know that the former headquarters are safe.  Dumbledore then speaks to the Dursleys about their treatment of Harry.  “He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands (pg. 55).”  [At least Dumbledore recognizes that, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it, really?]  He asks that they allow Harry to return to their home once more before he turns seventeen, which is the age he becomes an adult in the wizarding world.  Most of this is left out of the film, with Dumbledore retrieving Harry from the Muggle train station.

Now to their task; Dumbledore would like Harry’s help persuading an old colleague to return to Hogwarts.  The house they arrive at is trashed; it looks like there was a struggle.  But Dumbledore pokes a plump chair.  Turns out it was Horace Slughorn in disguise.  The two wizards put the house back to right.  Slughorn has been on the run from Death Eaters (and possibly Dumbledore), so he keeps moving house.  Slughorn knows why Dumbledore has come to him, but he refuses.  Then Dumbledore leaves Slughorn alone with Harry.  The wizard admits that he was fond of Lily.  He’s collected students that have powerful connections.  He also comments that he knew Regulus Black and did Harry hear that the older brother, Sirius, was just killed?  Harry makes the comment that the staff at Hogwarts are safer than most with Dumbledore as headmaster.  Slughorn agrees to come back to Hogwarts.  Mission accomplished; Dumbledore warns Harry that Slughorn will try to collect him.

On their way to the Burrow, Dumbledore comments to Harry “it was cruel that you and Sirius had such a short time together.  A brutal ending to what should have been a long and happy relationship (pg. 76).”  “Sirius represented much to you that had never known before (pg. 77).”  Harry muses that he will miss having someone outside of Hogwarts to write to “who cared about what happened to him, almost like a parent (pg. 77).”  Dumbledore also comments that Harry’s desire to take as many Death Eaters as possible with him if he dies is spoken like his mother’s and father’s son and Sirius’s godson.  But, Harry can’t shut himself away.  He gives Harry permission to share with Hermione and Ron the prophecy, advising him to keep his friends close.  Dumbledore also asks Harry to attend private lessons with the headmaster this year. 

There are changes in the Weasley house.  Arthur has been promoted.  Percy still has not returned home.  Fleur Delacour is now engaged to Bill and is staying at the house.  Ginny and Molly dislike her.  Harry follows through and tells Ron and Hermione about the prophecy and is pleased they still support him.  The results of their OWL exams arrive.  Hermione has of course, passed everything.  Harry and Ron are pretty even.  Harry failed Divination and History of Magic, and he managed an Outstanding in Defense Against the Dark Arts (beating Hermione’s Exceed Expectations).  But he did not get an Outstanding in Potions, so there goes his plan to become an Auror, though he is named Quidditch Captain.  Again, this is all left out of the film.  Harry’s dropped off at the Burrow and gets various hugs from the inhabitants, though he does visually start paying more attention to Ginny.

While the Weasleys are vising Diagon Alley, the trio run into Draco Malfoy.  They then sneak out of Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes to follow him to Knockturn Alley, where he stops in Borgin and Burkes, but they don’t discover what he’s after.  The twins do show Harry around their shop, since he was the one to supply them the gold to open their shop.  They’ve even created shield line for the Ministry, based on information they learned in D.A.  Harry’s obsession with Draco begins; he figures Draco has become a Death Eater like his father.  Ron and Hermione try to get Harry to drop the subject.

On the train to Hogwarts, Luna and Neville ask if the D.A. will continue.  Harry doesn’t really see the point, since Umbridge is gone.  Girls are now fawning over Harry, but he prefers to stick with his friends and he awkwardly attends a gathering in Slughorn’s carriage.  The professor is starting to gather his influential students; he’s not impressed by Neville.  Ginny gets invited because he witnessed her Bat Bogey Hex.  Harry then sneaks into Draco’s car to overhear him bragging about a mission given to him from the Dark Lord.  And he suspects he won’t be returning to Hogwarts the next year, figuring the Dark Lord will have taken over.  When they arrive in Hogsmeade, Draco stays behind and binds Harry, then stomps on his face in retaliation for his father getting arrested.

Harry is rescued by Tonks who is part of a contingent of Aurors placed at Hogsmeade for extra protection for the school.  He notes that Tonks seems older and more serious and remembers that Sirius was her cousin.  Snape comes along and makes a crack about the shape her Patronus takes (he just can’t help himself, can he?  He insults everyone he can).  Harry has “loathed Snape from their first encounter, but Snape had placed himself forever and irrevocably beyond the possibility of Harry’s forgiveness by his attitude toward Sirius (pg. 161).”  Harry feels his remarks about Sirius safely hidden in the headquarters factored into Sirius rushing into the Ministry and he is perfectly satisfied to blame Snape because if there was anyone not sorry Sirius was dead, it’s Snape.  This is simplified in the movie to Luna finding Harry and fixing his bloody nose.  Now he looks exceptionally ordinary.  There is no direct confrontation with Snape.  Hilariously, Hemione smacks Ron “will…you…stop…eating,” and why isn’t he more concerned that his best friend is missing?  Ginny notes that he’s covered in blood, why is he always covered in blood?

A shock the students find out is that Slughorn is the new Potions professor.  Snape now teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts, the position he has most wanted.  Harry hopes that he’s gone at the end of the year, like all the teachers before him (actually, he’d like his death).  The trio also realizes that none of them plan to take Care of Magical Creatures anymore.  When passing out the schedules, McGonagall supports Neville’s desire to take Charms rather than Transfiguration and will write a note to his grandmother that she should be “proud of the grandson she’s got, rather than the one she thinks she ought to have (pg. 174).”  To Harry and Ron, she points out that they can both take Potions with their Exceed Expectations grade with Slughorn (so Harry can continue his path to being an Auror).  It’s a bit funnier in the movie, with McGonagall directing traffic in the halls and tells Harry to take Ron with him to Potions because “he looks far too happy over there.”

In their first lesson of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Snape states “the Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal.  Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster…You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible (pg. 177).”  “Defense must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo (pg. 178).”  They will work on nonverbal spells, which is a question of concentration and mind power.  Then we get the most excellent line of Harry’s: “there’s no need to call me ‘sir,’ Professor (pg. 180),” when Snape has Harry demonstrate.  (Snape is not amused).  Of course, this bit is left out of the film.

Slughorn introduces them to Amortentia, a love potion in their first lesson (is actually more of an obsession potion), alongside Felix Felicis, or liquid luck.  Since they were not planning on taking Potions, Ron and Harry have to use the school’s supplies until their own arrive.  Harry’s copy of the textbook has scribbles in the margins; in the film, the friends briefly wrestle to see who gets the newer book.  But Harry ultimately finds the notes helpful.  Hermione is not pleased, since he’s following other directions.  And this makes him top of the Potions’ class.  Slughorn points out that Lily was proficient at Potions, maybe that is where Harry gets it from.  Back in the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry finds that the front of his book is marked “Property of the Half-Blood Prince.”  Ginny points out the danger of “taking orders from something someone wrote in a book (pg. 192).”

Harry’s lessons with Dumbledore begin.  It’s time he knows information about Voldemort, though some of it is the headmaster’s hunches and guesswork.  Dumbledore hopes this information will help Harry survive.  They look at memories others have about Voldemort.  Harry finds out about Voldemort’s mother’s family, the Gaunts.  They are the last direct descendants of Salazzar Slytherin and have the locket to prove it, along with a ring with the Peverell coat of arms cut into the stone.  Voldemort’s mother, Merope, is interested in a handsome Muggle who lives in the main house in town, Tom Riddle.  Her father and brother have been in trouble with the Ministry before; they’re a “very ancient wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins (pg. 212).”  They are soon arrested and Merope is able to pursue Tom.  Dumbledore figures she fed Tom a love potion, which caused a scandal in the Muggle village when he ran off with her.  Eventually, Tom left Merope, after she was pregnant, and returned home.  Dumbledore now has possession of the ring (and a darkened, almost dead hand).  This memory was left out of the film.

In happier news, Ginny joins the Quidditch team as a Chaser and Ron manages to beat Cormac McLaggen as Keeper.  Well, Harry figures out that Hermione confounded Cormac so Ron would win.  She did it because the boy was bad mouthing Ron and Ginny and has a nasty temper.  Harry comes across the spell Levicorpus in his Potions book and recalls James using it in the memory he saw. 

Sadly, Katie Bell ends up cursed by a necklace she was to take to the castle.  Harry brings up his suspicion about Draco with McGonagall.  We do get the great scene with McGonagall and the trio in the film, with McGonagall remarking “why is it, when something happens, it is always you three?”  Ron has been asking himself the same question for six years.  [And other fandoms will occasionally steal this, like Supernatural.]  Harry then has his second lesson with Dumbledore.  The locket they saw at the Gaunts ends up at Borgin and Burkes.  But the main lesson is Dumbledore’s memory of meeting a young Tom Riddle to inform him of his place at Hogwarts.  Tom Marvolo Riddle was born at the orphanage and Merope died an hour later.  No other family ever came looking and the matron takes the time to warn Dumbledore that the boy is odd; he scares the other children.  Tom doesn’t trust Dumbledore at first, thinking he’s a doctor to examine him.  But he perks up at the mention of magic.  Already he “can make things move without touching them.  I can make animals do what I want them to, without training them.  I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me.  I can make them hurt if I want to (pg. 271).”  “I knew I was different.  I knew I was special (pg. 271).”  Dumbledore lights his wardrobe on fire to demonstrate his magic and then warns Tom that thievery is not tolerated at Hogwarts.  And further warns him that he has “been using powers in a way that is neither taught nor tolerated at our school (pg. 273).”  This was the first memory that the film showed.

Tom remarks to Dumbledore he figures his father had magic.  His mother couldn’t since she died.  Also, he can speak to snakes.  Dumbledore admits that the talent is unusual, but not unheard of.  To Harry, Dumbledore admits “Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time?  No, I had no idea that he was to grow up to be what he is (pg. 276).”  Dumbledore intended to keep an eye on young Tom.  His powers were surprisingly well-developed for so young, and he had remarkable control and able to use it consciously.  He used it against other people, to frighten, to punish, and to control.  He had obvious instincts for cruelty, secrecy, and domination, as well as contempt for anything that tied him to other people, anything that made him ordinary.  “Even then, he wished to be different, separate, notorious (pg. 277).”  Dumbledore also point out that Tom prefers to operate alone; he never had a friend and Dumbledore believes he never wanted one.

Drama goes on in relation to Slughorn’s Slug Club.  Ron’s never been invited, but Hermione has merited an invitation due to her brains.  For the Christmas party, Hermione was going to suggest she would take Ron, but since he’s so dismissive and rude, she may rethink.  Ron finds his sister kissing Dean and Harry wonders at his own feelings.  Does he feel protective just because she’s Ron’s younger sister?  But he also wants to kiss Ginny.  And what would happen if Ron and Hermione start dating?  There’s a scene in the film that shows Ron definitely thinks about Hermione, and Harry is obviously given some thought to Ginny.  Harry decides to turn his focus to Quidditch and Ron.  Ron’s problem has always been nerves.  So the morning of their first match, Hermione spies him putting something in Ron’s drink, the liquid luck.  Ron drinks and feels great and they ultimately have a great game.  Harry reveals that he faked puting something in the drink, but he timed it so Hermione saw it and said something and so Ron would think he had extra luck and confidence.  Hermione is still annoyed with Ron and that does not improve when Ron starts kissing Lavender Brown; she sets birds on Ron.  We also get a rather beautiful scene between Harry and Hermione.  Hermione knows that Harry likes Ginny, she says the way he looks at the redhead.  And is this what it feels like when he sees Ginny with Dean.  Harry affirms and lets his friend cry on his shoulder.

Harry is “once more the best friend of two people who seemed unlikely to speak to each other again….  Determined as he was to remain friends with both Ron and Hermoine, he was spending a lot of time with his mouth shut tight (pg. 304).”  And Harry’s not completely outside the couple craze that is going on in Hogwarts; there are rumors that several girls want to slip him love potions.  He needs to figure out who he’s going to take to Slughorn’s party.  In the film, Hermione warns Harry about Romilda Vane, and she’s only interested in Harry because she thinks he’s the Chosen One.  When Harry preens a little and comments that he is the Chosen One, Hermione smacks him (as she should).  She also bemoans that she didn’t think of the idea that Harry had that they should take each other.  Harry promises to take someone cool.   He settles on Luna and is a bit horrified when Hermione revealed she asked Cormac McLaggen, because it would annoy Ron.  Draco sneaks into the party and Harry follows when Snape drags the Slytherin out so he can eavesdrop on their conversation.  Draco is resisting Snape’s help and claims he had nothing to do with Katie Bell getting cursed.  Snape presses for Draco to reveal his plan to the professor, but Draco refuses.  Draco is still proud that he was the one who was chosen for his secret task.

Over Christmas at the Burrow, Remus cautions Harry’s concern, pointing out that Dumbledore trusts Snape, so thus, they should trust him if they trust Dumbledore.  The Minster of Magic stops by, bringing Percy along.  In truth, he wants to talk to Harry.  Dumbledore has been stopping him.  He asks the teen if he is the ‘Chosen One,’ and encourages Harry to stop by the Ministry.  In reality, to show he sides with the Ministry and allow people to believe he is their hero.  But Harry doesn’t approve of everything the Ministry has done and shows the Scrimgeour the scars he has of ‘I must not tell lies.’  The Ministry didn’t help when Harry needed it, so why should he be their poster boy now?  Scrimgeour remarks that Harry is Dumbledore’s man through and through.

In the film, neither the Minister nor Percy show up.  Remus and Tonks already appear to be a couple; in the book, this is not revealed until almost the end.  The film instead has the Death Eaters, led by Bellatrix Lestrange, attack the Burrow.  Harry rushes after her; she’s taunting him again with “I killed Sirius Black!”  They set a fire in front of the Burrow, which stops Remus from grabbing Harry again, though Ginny manages to dart through a slim opening.  Ginny and Harry find each other and hold off the Death Eaters until Arthur, Remus, and Tonks make it to them.  Then a blast is aimed at the house.  Everyone is out safe: Molly, the twins, and Ron.

The third lesson with Dumbledore comes after Christmas.  They’re now onto Tom Riddle’s time at Hogwarts.  He came across as polite, quiet, and thirsty for knowledge.  He also gathered a motely group, “a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty (pg. 362).”  These are the forerunners to the Death Eaters.  Dumbledore is experiencing difficulties with people willing to reveal what they know of Tom Riddle; too scared.  Dumbledore does find out that Tom was obsessed with his parentage, eventually working out that his mother was magical and meeting her brother.  He points young Tom to the Riddle Manor.  Tom murders his father and paternal grandparents, but magically pins the deed on his uncle and takes possession of the ring.  Slughorn was also one of Tom’s professors, one that Tom got close to and posed a question to one evening, asking about rare magic: Horcruxes.  But the memory has been tampered with and there is no actual information.  Dumbledore now tasks Harry with getting the real memory from Slughorn.  This is very important.  Whatever Tom learned is something Dumbledore and Harry must know.

Harry’s first attempts with Slughorn do not do well, so he has to back off and bide his time.  Hermione tries to help Harry, but the library fails her for the first time.  In between, they have Apparition lessons (also left out in the film.)  Harry eventually comes across Ron talking about Romilda Vane and notices a box of Chocolate Cauldrons emptied.  They’d been given to Harry by Romilda and Harry surmises that they had love potion in them and Ron’s now ingested it.  He goes to Slughorn for help.  Slughorn makes an antidote for the love potion, then offers a toast to Ron’s birthday using mead he planned to give Dumbledore at Christmas.  Ron is the first to down his glass, then collapses.  Slughorn hesitates.  Harry rushes to find a bezoar and shoves it down his friend’s throat.  Ron is admitted to the Hospital Wing for poisoning.  Hermione sits beside his bed, upset.  Ron murmurs her name.  Though she notes that this is the second attack that hasn’t been fatal and hasn’t reached the person it was intended for.  Arthur however comments that it was a “lucky day for the Weasleys when Ron decided to sit in your compartment on the Hogwarts Express, Harry (pg. 404);” he’s saved half the family it seems.  In the film, Lavender comes to see Ron right after the episode and calls Hermione out for being there since they haven’t spoken in weeks.  She hears Ron murmur Hermione’s name and runs out crying.  Dumbledore takes it all in and Snape looks like he’d rather be anywhere else.

Unfortunately, with Ron out of commission for a bit, that allows Cormac McLaggen to join the Quidditch team and completely annoy everyone.  He’s too busy advising everyone else how they should be playing to play his own position.  With a Beater’s bat, he manages to crack Harry’s skull.  In the Hospital Wing, Harry remarks to Madam Pomfrey, “I want to find McLaggen and kill him,” to which the witch responds “I’m afraid that would come under the heading of ‘overexertion’ (pg. 416).”  [I’ve always loved that line, such sass.]  Harry figures out to set Kreacher and Dobby to follow Draco, since he hasn’t gotten far looking for him on the map.  On the bright side, Hermione and Ron are friends again.

Dumbledore’s summary on Tom Riddle continues.  After leaving school, he got a simple job at Borgin and Burkes, contrary to everyone’s expectations.  Though he initially wanted to stay on and teach at Hogwarts, he was denied.  Dumbledore theorizes that Tom is more attached to the school than to a person.  This quietly makes Harry uncomfortable; “Hogwarts was where he had been happiest; the first and only place he had felt at home (pg. 431).”  He doesn’t want to share that with his greatest enemy.  Tom views Hogwarts as a stronghold of ancient magic and he would be able to wield great power and influence over young witches and wizards.  Dumbledore did not want Voldemort back in the school especially in a position of power, and Tom’s requested position was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

But he excelled at Borgin and Burkes.  Young Tom was unusually gifted at persuading people to part with their treasures.  One person in particular was a very rich, very old witch named Hepzibah Smith.  She showed him her greatest treasures (out of a house full of them): a golden cup that belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, of which she is a distant descendant, and a golden locket she had once bought from Burke from Slytherin.  Hepzibah died two days later, the death pinned on her house elf.  Her family eventually discovered the cup and locket and missing, but by then, Riddle had moved on from Borgin and Burkes.  “And that was the last that was seen or heard of Tom Riddle for a very long time (pg. 439).”  Dumbledore notes that this time Tom killed for gain, not revenge, and he’s acquiring objects that are steeped in Hogwarts history.

The next memory they view is again Dumbledore’s, from ten year later.  It’s a different Tom that enters Dumbledore’s office, no longer handsome, but not snakelike yet, a bit distorted.  And he no longer goes by Tom, but Dumbledore refuses to use his new title.  Tom wants to return and teach; he’s seen and done much since he left school.  “I could show and tell your students things they can gain from no other wizard (pg. 443).”  Dumbledore’s not sure about that.  Tom’s response is “Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies (pg. 443)” [and doesn’t that sound a bit like Sith mentality?]  Tom claims to “have pushed the boundaries of magic further, perhaps, than they have ever been pushed (pg. 443).”  Nor does Tom agree with Dumbledore that love is great.  Dumbledore denies his request, citing that he doesn’t believe Tom actually wants to teach, he just wants back in Hogwarts.  Tom won’t say.  Dumbledore will tell Harry his other ideas once he’s retrieved Slughorn’s memory.  But for now, suffice to say, after denying Tom Riddle the teaching post of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Dumbledore hasn’t been able to keep that teacher for longer than a year.  Again, this is all left out of the film.

Dobby reports to Harry that Draco is breaking no rules, but keen to avoid detection and has been visiting the seventh floor often.  Harry figures it’s the Room of Requirement, but he can’t manage to get in while Draco is inside, or for it to show him what Draco is up to (left out of the film for simplicity’s sake).  He also finds the spell Sectumsempra written in his book, with the note ‘for enemies.’  Harry then gets word from Hagrid that Aragog has died and Hagrid asks him to come down for the funeral.  Ron and Hermione stress that Harry needs to get the memory from Slughorn.  So they figure Harry should use Felix Felicis (he hesitates because he’s been secretly wanting to use it in order to get an opportunity to kiss Ginny, without Ron killing him).  When he takes it, he feels an urge to go to Hagrid’s.  On the way, he manages to come across Slughorn and invites him along.  (Slughorn wants the venom from the giant spider for profit.)  The film has Hagrid commenting that spiders are seriously misunderstood creatures; people are unnerved by the eyes.  Harry mimics the pincers, which is a bit funny, when I can stand to watch the scene because I’d rather not see a giant spider, alive or dead *shiver.*  After the funeral, Hagrid and Slughorn get drunk.  Hagrid drifts to sleep, leaving Slughorn to speak to Harry.  The subject of Harry’s parent’s death had already come up, so Harry admits that Lily could have lived if she had let Voldemort kill Harry.  “But you won’t help her son.  She gave me her life, but you won’t give me a memory.  I am the Chosen One.  I have to kill him.  I need that memory (pg. 489-490).”  He presses further, that Slughorn should be brave, like his mother.  Doesn’t Slughorn want to get rid of the wizard who killed Lily Evans?  Slughorn finally gives in, though he is not proud of the memory.

Harry rushes to Dumbledore with the memory.  Turns out that Horcruxes are very Dark stuff, Slughorn cautions young Tom Riddle.  But the teen wheedles the information out.  A Horcrux is “an object in which one has concealed part of their soul (pg. 497),” so that if one is attacked, they cannot die for part of their soul remains earthbound and undamaged.  He also warns that splitting one’s soul is a violation against nature, it is an act of supreme evil: murder.  But Tom pushes that wouldn’t seven be best, since it is the most powerful magical number?  Slughorn is shocked.  But Dumbledore is not.  This is the final puzzle piece.  His first clue was the diary that Harry destroyed in the Chamber of Secrets.  The ring that Marvolo Gaunt wore and that Tom claimed is another.  It is the one that Dumbledore retrieved and cursed his hand.  He also figures that Tom was searching for items from the four founders of Hogwarts, like Slytherin’s locket and Hufflepuff’s cup.  However, the only known relic of Godric Gryffindor is safe (the sword).  Dumbledore also theorizes that Voldemort’s snake, Nagini is another one; the Dark Lord keeps the snake very close.  And that Voldemort was most likely planning to make a Horcrux the night he went to kill Harry.

Dumbledore believes he is close to finding another Horcrux.  Harry wants to join him.  The headmaster acquiesces, Harry has earned the right.  They then fall into a discussion about the prophecy, since it mentions a power that the Dark Lord knows not and Dumbledore’s insistence that it is love.  Dumbledore persists.  Yes, Harry can love, “which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing.  You are still too young to understand how unusual you are, Harry (pg. 509).”  And despite Harry’s privileged insight into Voldemort’s world, he has never been seduced by the Dark Arts.  And yes, Harry will try to kill Voldemort “because you, yourself, will never rest until you’ve tried (pg. 511)!”  Take into account all the terrible deeds that Voldemort has done.  Harry thinks.  “I’d want him finished.  And I’d want to do it (pg. 512).”  Voldemort created his own worst enemy, yet Harry could choose to turn away, but Voldemort will continue to hunt him and thus, one will kill the other.  Of course, this rather important discussion and clarification is all left out of the film, though there is a brilliant bit where Dumbledore comments to Harry that he must once again, ask too much of him.  And the next scene opens with Severus telling the headmaster that he asks too much of him.

Harry later finds Draco in the bathroom, crying to Moaning Myrtle.  Hexes get thrown and Draco begins to say Crucio, but Harry shoots Sectumsempra.  He’s surprised when it magically cuts Draco several times, causing the other boy to collapse.  Snape happens to be nearby and manages to save Draco.  Harry is ordered to stay.  Harry manages to say he didn’t mean for it to happen, he didn’t know what the spell did.  Snape remarks “who would have thought you knew such Dark Magic?  Who taught you that spell (pg. 524)?”  With Legilimancy Snape sees the image of Harry’s potion book.  He demands all of Harry’s schoolbooks.  Harry rushes to hide his potion book, using Ron’s instead.  He runs to the Room of Requirement and finds an astonishing number of things (like a broken Vanishing Cabinet and a tarnished tiara), and puts the Half-Blood Prince’s book there.  Snape still gives Harry detention for every Saturday until the end of term, meaning Harry will miss the final Quidditch match.

This occurs a bit differently in the movie.  It takes place before Aragog’s funeral.  The bathroom bit is fairly accurate to the book, but Ginny helps Harry hide the book in the Room of Requirement, then gives him a gentle kiss.

News spreads and Harry faces a lecture from McGonagall.  He’s lucky he wasn’t expelled.  Hermione mentions that the book always gave her a funny feeling.  Harry argues it wasn’t.  He’s defending what he did, he wishes he hadn’t done it, he would honestly never use a spell like that, not even on Malfoy, but he still plans to get the book back.  Ginny sticks up for Harry and reminds them that Malfoy was going to use an Unforgivable Curse on Harry.  For detention, Snape has Harry copy the Marauder’s ‘criminal files.’ 

After one detention, Harry finds a party going on in the Gryffindor Common Room; the team won the Quidditch Cup.  Ginny throws her arms around Harry.  “And without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her.  After several long moments-or it might have been half an hour-or possibly several sunlit days-they broke apart (pg. 533).”  [I do love how that is written.]  Hermione’s happy for them.  Ron gives them an if-you-must look.  Harry’s pleased to have conversations occur around him about something that is making him happier than he can remember, rather than Dark Magic.  There’s a funny conversation about what kind of tattoo Harry has.  Ginny claims a Hungarian Horntail.  When Ron pipes up, she says a pygmy puff.  Hermione still mulls over the question of the Half-Blood Prince and when she brings up Eileen Prince, Harry says the person writing didn’t feel like a girl.  Why, cause girls aren’t clever, Hermione retorts.  Harry corrects her, “how can I have hung round with you for five years and not think girls are clever (pg. 538)?”  (He also stood up for her with Slughorn when he first met him, saying that one of his best friends is a Muggleborn and best of their year.)

Harry later comes across Trelawney, when she can’t get into the Room of Requirement.  She heard someone very happy, and Harry’s concerned and suggests going to Dumbledore.  In a roundabout fashion, Harry finds out that Snape was the one who overheard Trelawney give Dumbledore the prophecy that set Voldemort to Harry and his family.  When Harry gets to Dumbledore, the headmaster is ready to retrieve the next Horcrux.  Harry is ready to jump right in, despite the danger.  “Boiling with anger at Snape, his desire to do something desperate and risky had increased tenfold in the last few minutes (pg. 544).”  Harry owns up to Dumbledore, who tells Harry that Snape was very remorseful when he discovered what he’d done.  Harry doesn’t agree.  But Dumbledore will still take Harry with him on one condition, he must obey any command at once, if it is to save himself and leave the headmaster.  Harry has a few minutes to tell Ron and Hermione, and he asks them to watch Draco and Snape, get the D.A. involved if they can.  Again, all of this is left out of the film, replaced instead by Dumbledore commenting on how Harry has grown.

They go to the cave where Tom Riddle used to torment other orphans.  Dumbledore remarks that magic always leaves traces.  Inside the cave is a lake, but Dumbledore pulls up a boat [the dark water and boat is something that has a connection to Tolkien, though I can’t quite recall how.  I know it showed up in a very well-written story, but I don’t recall otherwise.]  They reach a small island in the center, with a bowl of liquid Dumbledore says he has to drink.  Harry’s job is to ensure Dumbledore continues drinking the potion, even if Dumbledore begs otherwise.  Harry offers to be the one, but the headmaster claims he is “much older, much cleverer, and much less valuable (pg. 570).”  They succeed, but when Dumbledore asks for more water at the end, Harry has to get it from the lake, which draws bodies to attack him [again, very Tolkien].  Dumbledore conjures fire and gets them back to the boat with the locket in hand.  Harry vows when they land in Hogsmeade that he’ll take care of Dumbledore.  “I’m not worried, Harry.  I am with you (pg. 578).” 

But they spot the Dark Mark above the castle and race to Hogwarts.  Harry worries he is responsible again for the death of a friend.  Dumbledore orders Harry to get Snape and not stop for anyone, but Draco enters before Harry can leave.  Harry is frozen and still beneath his Invisibility Cloak.  Draco disarms Dumbledore.  He admits there are Death Eaters in the school; they came through the Vanishing Cabinet that he fixed.  The mate is in Borgin and Burkes.  Dumbledore knows that Draco has been tasked with killing him and his first two attempts were to send a cursed necklace via Katie Bell, and poisoned mead through Slughorn.  Dumbledore also admits that Snape has been keeping an eye on Draco per the headmaster’s orders.  And yes, while there are Death Eaters in the school, so is the Order of the Phoenix.  Dumbledore doesn’t feel that Draco will kill him.  Draco feels he’s out of options, the Dark Lord will kill him and his family if he fails.  Dumbledore offers help for his family.  They’ll make it look like they died and spirit them away.

Death Eaters enter and urge Draco to finish the job.  Snape joins them.  Dumbledore pleads with Severus.  Harry sees “there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his [Snape’s] face (pg. 595).”  Snape uses the Killing Curse and Dumbledore falls off the Astronomy Tower, then Snape pulls Draco along.  Harry’s freed and starts fighting the Death Eaters.  All that’s in his mind is to get to Dumbledore and catch Snape.  He runs through the Order fighting the Death Eaters.  He catches up with Snape at Hagrid’s hut (which Snape lights on fire with Fang inside it) and calls the man a coward.  Snape shouts at Harry, then sneeringly offers him “blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter (pg. 603)!”  Harry’s in a rage; he doesn’t care if he lives or dies.  He tries Sectumsempra, but repelled by Snape, as is Levicorpus.  “You dare you my own spells against me, Potter?  It was I who invented them-I, the Half-Blood Prince!  And you’d turn my inventions on me like your filthy father, would you (pg. 604)?”  Harry shouts at the man, “kill me like you killed him, you coward” and feels no fear, only rage and contempt.  “DON’T CALL ME COWARD!” Snape roars back.  Buckbeak attacks Snape for attacking Harry.  Hagrid manages to save Fang, but Snape and Draco are gone.

This happens a little differently in the film.  Dumbledore and Harry arrive directly back to the tower and there is no major battle inside Hogwarts (that will be saved for later).  Snape is not as unhinged in the film going against Harry [once again, thanks to the brilliant performance by Alan Rickman.]  He does see Harry below Dumbledore before he joins his Death Eater friends.  Bellatrix is happy to cause destruction and she casts the Dark Mark after Dumbledore is dead.  And it’s she who lights Hagrid’s hut on fire.  And there is a beautiful scene at the base of the Astronomy Tower once Ginny comes to comfort Harry.  McGonagall is the first to raise her wand, lit only at the tip.  Slowly, the rest of the school follows suit and the light breaks apart the dark cloud.  Fans later mimic this scene in remembrance of the victims of the Orlando nightclub attack, as well as for Alan Rickman and Michael Gambon’s passing at the Wizarding World attraction in Orlando, Florida.

There is a crowd growing at the Astronomy Tower.  “Harry tried to absorb the enormous and incomprehensible truth: that never again would Dumbledore speak to him, never again could he help…(pg. 609).”  He discovers that the locket they retrieved does not have the S on the front that the one from the memory had and there is a piece of parchment inside claiming that someone else has already traded out the locket, with the initials R.A.B.  It’s Ginny who takes Harry away.  They go to the Hospital Wing, where Bill is recovering from being attacked by Fenrir Greyback.  Fleur arrives and puts Molly in her place about the wedding; she is beautiful enough for the both of them.  That relationship begins mending.  Tonks points out to Lupin that Fleur still loves Bill despite the scars.  Lupin claims it’s different between them, he’s too old, too poor, too dangerous.  Everyone else tells him he’s being ridiculous.  Dumbledore would want more love and happiness in the world.   Harry tells them what happened on top the tower and listens to Fawkes’ phoenix lament.  Neville and Luna were the only ones from the D.A. who helped.

Slughorn will take over as the Head of Slytherin House.  McGonagall asks Harry what his mission was with Dumbledore, but Harry won’t tell; Dumbledore didn’t want him to.  Hogwarts is to be Dumbledore’s final resting place.  The funeral takes place before the students return home.  Harry’s a bit numb in the following days.  Gone is his normal curiosity to solve a mystery.  There is just the task of finding each Horcrux and figuring out how to destroy them.  He rattles off the list in his head like a mantra.  Hermione uncovers that Eileen Prince was Snape’s mother.  She married a Muggle, making Snape similar to Voldemort with a pureblood mother and Muggle father, and an interest in the Dark Arts, then making a new name.  And Harry remembers that Draco was lowering his wand when the Death Eaters entered, the fear he had; he doesn’t believe that Draco would have killed Dumbledore.  “He despised Malfoy still for his infatuation with the Dark Arts, but now the tiniest drop of pity mingled with his dislike (pg. 640).”

At the funeral Harry mulls that everyone who has stood in front of him, determined to protect him, are all dead.  “He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandon forever the illusion he ought to have lost at the age of one, that the shelter of a parent’s arms meant that nothing could hurt him (pg. 645).”  He’s more alone that ever before.  Then he tells Ginny they can’t be involved.  She knows it’s a stupid, noble reason and doesn’t care.  She’s known this would happen, that Harry must hunt down Voldemort, or else he’ll never be happy.  The Minister of Magic corners Harry after the funeral, but Harry again refuses his offer and refuses to reveal Dumbledore’s secrets.  He repeats what he said back in his second year: “He [Dumbledore] will only be gone from the school when none here are loyal to him (pg. 649).”

Harry’s come to the decision that he won’t be returning to Hogwarts the next year, even if it opens.  He’ll go to the Dursleys’ as he’s supposed to, then to Godric Hollow.  Next, find the Horcruxes and kill Voldemort.  Ron says he and Hermione will be with him.  Hermione reiterates that they’ve had time to turn back if they wanted.  Ron finishes, “we’re with you whatever happens (pg. 651),” though there will be Bill and Fleur’s wedding first.

The film again streamlines the plot from the book, but they cut a lot of Voldemort’s backstory, making the character more flat.  And there’s something lost to Harry’s characterization in the film as well.  We, the readers and fans, love sarcastic Harry.  And while Harry is not as outwardly angry as in previous years, he still carries it inside.  And the budding relationship with Ginny was a bit odd in the film.  I mean, Bonnie Wright did well with what she was given and shows Ginny as very supportive of Harry so it makes the relationship plausible, but it’s also short-lived.  Tom Felton portrays Draco brilliantly, allowing us to pity a boy we were content to utterly dislike.  He’s confident at the beginning of the film and resists Snape’s questions and help.  But the stress clearly gets to him and by the end we can tell that he doesn’t want to go through with the plan, but doesn’t see a way out.

Dame Maggie Smith completed filming this movie while undergoing treatment for breast cancer [and I swear I read somewhere that Daniel Radcliffe acted as her assistant at times].  I will admit, I cried the first time I read the ending of the book and I was completely shocked that Rowling would kill such an important character.  And I still tear up in the movie, particularly now that Michael Gambon has passed.  The wands’ scene at the end gets me every time.  Overall, not my favorite part of the series.  The book is a lot of exposition, which is important, but that’s probably why it was cut from the film.

Next Time: We finish the series with the last book and the two-part movie, Deathly Hallows.  There will be a wrap-up post afterwards and then a possible break so I can work on some other writing projects for a bit, then diving back into some more of my favorites with the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.