Sunday, May 2, 2021

Netflix Retrospective: Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 6 Episodes 7-13

Note: I'm falling behind schedule, so here's a double helping of Dragons

We’re about halfway through the final season of Dragons: Race to the Edge, the season faltered in the last 3 episodes, will it be able to make up lost ground?


Ruff Transition

The group are heading to Wingmaiden Island to relocate the Dragon Eye Lenses, as they suspect Johann knows where they are. I mean, you did literally show him them so…

The Wingmaidens look slightly different, as their razorwhips have departed back to the flock, the ceremony, known as the Great Transition, has new baby razorwhips bond with the Wingmaidens. The riders are invited as honoured guests for the ceremony. The baby razorwhip that was supposed to go to Atali ends up heading for Ruffnut instead, they end up calling it Wingnut.

Unable to rid herself of it, Ruffnut must train to become a Wingmaiden. Unfortunately, she’s not exactly the mothering type, apparently Tuffnut is better at it as he secretly helps her out. Ruffnut heads to talk to Atali an essentially confesses that it was Tuffnut who was doing it the whole time, so thankfully they’re not going down the liar revealed route. Atali actually offers some words of encouragement.

Still, the final exercise is the most daunting of all, a leap of faith. Ruffnut wanting confidence, asks Hiccup to help her out and they glide together. Luckily Tuffnut came along since Toothless can’t fly on his own. Still, a chance encounter with a seagull and Tuffnut being an idiot, results in them all crashing into the Wingmaidens as they complete their leap.

After that debacle, Ruffnut gives Wingnut back to Atali. The others all graduate to the ‘next level’ as Ruffnut and Tuffnut watch from above, also spotting a Dragon Hunter ship docking on the island. The usual crowd of about 3 or 4 Dragon Hunters rush the island. Unfortunately, support arrives with the flyers making everything worse. Still, Hiccup has the lenses and Krogan is ready to fight for it.

Barf and Belch support Atali, with Wingnut re-bonding to Ruffnut in the process. With the Wingmaiden’s support, they manage to turn the tide against the fliers and force Krogan to retreat. But there’s still an issue, Wingnut can’t leave the island and its siblings, Ruffnut won’t leave hers and Tuffnut can’t stay on the Island because of their ‘no men allowed’ policy. Wingnut makes the decision to bond with Atali instead, making the choice simpler.

For what’s essentially a filler, episode, it’s a much stronger one than its predecessors.

Rating 7.5/10

Triple Cross

Oh, hey, Viggo, almost forgot you were in this season since you haven’t been seen in 6 episodes. The fliers and Viggo’s ship are heading to a cave where the final Dragon Eye Lens is to be found. I only know that they found 2, but that’s neither here nor there.

They come out empty handed, except Viggo who doesn’t come at all as Johann orders the cave sealed. Viggo is trapped with a Monstrous Nightmare. Hiccup and Astrid are having a moment interrupted by the twins wanting to set a record for their dragon.

They get a message from ‘Stoick’ telling Hiccup he’s found a dragon eye lens and to come alone, Astrid thinks its suspect but Hiccup decides to let it play out. He suspected a trap too and seeing a maces and talons piece pretty much confirms that it’s Viggo. He disarms Toothless with a bolas, and reveals he created a copy of Hiccup’s flaming sword, with zippleback gas in the bottom, something Hiccup would later incorporate into his own sword.

After realising he can’t get Hiccup’s attention this way he frees Toothless and drops his sword. Still, Hiccup isn’t exactly willing to trust Viggo but Viggo is cunning and has another way. He cooks a fish, and Toothless eats it; he tells Hiccup that the fish has Red Oliander in it, which will cause Toothless to suffer a slow death without an antidote, an antidote only in Johann’s possession.

The plan it to infiltrate the base and steal the Dragon Eye and lenses, without them Johann is useless to Krogan and they’ll destroy each other. He also reveals that Krogan doesn’t work for Johann, but from a mysterious buyer from the North, 😉 😉

Their first stop is with the one dragon who can neutralise a Singetail, the Skrill. And Viggo is clever, using a Bezerker dagger to lure the Dragon in to bond with it. The dragon makes a beeline for the base and lays waste to its defences. But Johann manages to down it with a well-placed shot. Johann and Krogan begin to search the cave, they’re spotted, prompting Viggo to captured Hiccup and Toothless and present them to Johann and Krogan.

He loudly says how they have 4 lenses and only need one more for Hiccup to hear, and Johann could tell this was part of a larger gambit. But Viggo is not unprepared, and uses his sword to escape. He’d hidden the key to cage lock and shackles in Hiccup’s leg, allowing him to escape with Toothless. But it turns out that Johann already saw this coming and they Dragon Eye and lenses are nowhere to be found. Hiccup thinks he’s been double-crossed until it’s revealed that Red Oliander is actually harmless.

He was saved from the collapse by a monstrous nightmare and all his battles with Hiccup have deepened his respect for Dragons. Unfortunately, we see that whilst he may have freed the Skrill, it came at a price, his back is riddled with arrows and he’s not gonna make it. With the Hunters on their way, Viggo and the Skrill stay behind to cover Hiccup’s escape but Hiccup is still captured in his escape. Still, Hiccup is not unprepared as the B-plot actually does what a B-plot should do and enhance the A-plot as the twins rescue Hiccup and get their record in the process.

This is easily the strongest episode this season, and a good way to both further increase the stakes and say goodbye to Viggo, easily the show’s strongest antagonist.

Rating 8.5/10

Family Matters

As the season draws to a close, it’s time to clear up some loose ends. We found out last season that Krogan was using a Deathsong to lure in their Singetails. Time for that injustice to be rectified.

We open with the fliers conducting another raid on a Hunter ship. To save Hiccup and Astrid, Fishlegs knocks down a tree on one of the fliers, pinning the Singetail. Whilst freeing him they notice Deathsong amber. Thinking the Hunters may have found Garff, the twins Astrid and Hiccup head to investigate, whilst Fishlegs heads back to the edge with the unconscious dragon. Snotlout heads after Hiccup as he begins pondering his book-related subplot of the episode.

Garff is OK, leading them to suspect the adult. Astrid wants to bring Garff along, Hiccup doesn’t and so they compromise, Garff comes along. They use information from the dragon eye to narrow down the likely location of the dragon to one island, Hiccup loses the argument to bring Garff alone again and he, Astrid, Snotlout, the twins and Garff head to the island. Garff hears his mothere’s call and goes in for the rescue, and gets himself caught.

The others decide they need a solid plan or more support, they fall back. They come up with the idea of freeing the captured singetails using the nightmare gel. They also place ear plugs in their own dragons so they’re immune to the Deathsong. The guards are so incompetent, they don’t notice the huge puddles of gel they’ve been laying.

The singetails are freed and they begin their attack, but the singetails don’t fly away in fact, they group towards the Death Song and force the others to retreat into a cave, the hunters covering the exit so they can’t escape. Fishlegs heals the other Singetail and it flies to the island, entering another cave. It’s there that Fishlegs discovers a cavern full of eggs. This island is a hatchery, which is why the Singetails didn’t leave.

Fishlegs comes up with a plan, getting a cavern crasher to burrow another exit. He uses one of the eggs to lure a cavern crasher to the island to tunnel a new exit. Snolout takes command of the egg as the others make their attack runs, destroying the camp and freeing the death song. Mother and Son reunite and Snolout’s book gets commendation.

It’s nice to see this particular loose end tied up before the end.

Rating 7/10

We begin the end run now, as we conclude Dragons: Race to the Edge with its final 4 episodes

Darkest Night

Stoick is out on a patrol, and is ambushed by Dragon flyers, Stoick is forced to ground and only barely surviveds the landing. Skullcrusher is injured and Stoick is down too, his rescue only comes when the B-team arrive.

Hiccup arrives at Berk to find his father comatose. Discussion among the Berkians is a response to this, but even with the Riders and the backups, they won’t make a dent in the flyers ranks, they need  a plan, and a leader to carry it out. If not Stoick, then whom?

The Natural choice is Hiccup… apparently but he’s reluctant to leave his father’s side.

Hiccup’s feeling dejected, feeling if he hadn’t left for the edge, his father might not be in this position. So true, but then so many things would’ve played out differently. This story contains a series of tales of what might have been. Starting off with the twins.

Their version of events has their pranking going out of control, eventually having the entire of Berk going to war against each other, rather than against the twins for some reason. In their fighting, the Flyers, now of course including Dagur make short work of them.

Fishlegs is next. His version is a serenity where they’ve all made peace with everyone… how does this cheer up Hiccup again, I think the twins had a better idea. Snotlout ends the story by having Viggo and co betray them and attack.

Snotlout’s is next, and in this version he’s a weapons inventor who’s created… something out of 90’s comic-book, one of the bad ones. Gobber loves the weapon and Snotlout has a statue of himself and of Hookfang created, and most unlikely of all, Astrid finds him attractive.

Hiccup has had enough of this game and now is feeling further dejected, his shooting down of Toothless started it all, and lead here. Now this is Astrid’s turn to tell a story of what might have been. Snotlout’s now attained a higher level of Status than Hiccup has, and Stoick has had enough and sends Hiccup out to kill his first Dragon.

He heads to the lake from the first film and sees Toothless, he successfully captures him but unable to go through with killing him, rescues him. A whispering Death appears and attacks, and Toothless saves Hiccup from it. They begin to fly together, which Hiccup enjoys but the enjoyment is short-lived as the Whispering Death shoots them down, damaging Toothless’ tail. Hiccup is injured protecting Toothless, and Toothless tries to return the favour again

Stoick and Gobber see and head off after them, chasing off the Whispering Death, they see that Toothless saved Hiccup and he gets his peg-leg. Stoick ends the war against the dragons and Snotlout’s status is ended. So this time, Hiccup gets everything without any of the work he put into it before.

Still the moral here is clear, there was no real getting around how things happened, the details might be different but the result would be the same. It’s enough to cheer Hiccup up a bit and convince him that he needs to make a larger stand against the flyers. And just in time, Heather returns to tell them that Vanaheim has been attacked.

These kinds of short stories to showcase development are not uncommon and this show isn’t as lazy as to make it a clip show. It starts and ends with some pretty important things happening as we count down to the end. I think it’s pretty solid

Rating 7/10

Guardians of Vanaheim

Heather believes she may have been followed, she’s pretty banged up and in no shape to go out again, and evidently there are a few since Heather’s no slouch in a fight. Hiccup doesn’t want to leave his father but knows he can’t stand by.

The Riders are soon en-route and they bump into Alvin, he and the rest of the outcasts are gonna provide Berk with a little extra support, which Hiccup is grateful for. The arrive at Vanaheim and find the sentinel guardians all defeated. But one of the hunters/flyers is downed too, so they have someone to interrogate.

He tells them that they thought the skull here might belong to the King of Dragons, and flyers have been sent to inform Krogan. Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout head off to stop them, but Meatlug won’t move and the twins get to stay with the prisoner. Hiccup decides that since the fliers won’t cut through the deadly storm, they should and get ahead. Meanwhile it seems Meatlug is creating a final resting place for the Sentinels. Or perhaps not as the Dragons begin coming back to life.

The twins and Fishlegs begin searching Oswald’s hut to find what he knew about the guardians, in doing another lens presents itself to the Prisoner, who frees himself and grabs it. The Prisoner then falls into a something and the lens ends up back with Fishlegs and the twins. Unfortunately, it’s not so much luck for Hiccup and the others, they do get ahead but are quickly overwhelmed.

Hiccup has an idea, inspired by how Lightning seems to be attracted to metal. They use metal bolas to tie up the Flyers and let the lightning knock them off. Fishlegs’ research reveals the Dragons to be in hibernation that can be accelerated through heat, which is why Meatlug was surrounding them in Lava. With Barf and Belch lighting their flame, the Sentinels are brought back

It seems the riders have found the 5th and final lens, but it seems Johann has managed to procure no. 5 for his team too, the one in the ship with Gruffnut from earlier this season.

It’s a fairly bog-standard episode, it’s not one of my favourites

Rating 7/10

King of Dragons part 1

And so, here we go, the riders are back on the Edge for some reason, and finding out about the King of Dragons. It says that it’s a Titanwing Dramillion, like the ones Fishlegs rescued in the dumb plotline from earlier in the season. But before they head to Dramillion Island, Hiccup gets bad news from Berk. His father has gotten worse and Gothi isn’t hopeful he’ll survive, despite his death date being set in stone as not in this series. Hiccup has been voted acting chief.

The Hunters have deployed a massive fleet of ships for the task of finding the King of Dragons, there’s certainly an inclination that both Johann and Krogan plan on double-crossing each other they moment they have it. Hiccup prepares, needing to get to the King of Dragons before Krogan and company. Spitelout agrees to come along with them, yay…

They arrive but the Hunters are already there in force, Snotlout and the twins are tasked with dealing with the ships, whilst the others head to stop the Dragon Flyers. The twins spot Gruffnut and reluctantly rescue him, but he reveals there’s something they may need and they elect to stay on the ship to search for it.

Krogan is knocked off his dragon and pinned down but the Dramillions ends up attacking all of them. Protecting their master, the Titanwing, massive and able to cloak itself. Unfortunately, they are outgunned with the sheer number of Singetails, they hit it with a Dragonroot arrow and it’s forced to ground.

Snotlout and co are trapped, meaning they’re unable to stop, the group using a Harpoon to down the Titanwing and capture it. And with the choice between going after Krogan or saving the twins and Snotlout, there’s really no choice at all. Was nice knowing… was largely intolerable knowing you, now where’s Krogan? Of course they rescue them.

On their way back to the edge the find that the hunters have dumped the Dramillion, they take it to Mala to heal. Fishlegs suspects that he’s not the King of Dragons, I mean he’s about 1/20th the size to start with. In it’s sleep, it produces its own fire, and through the Dragon Eye, they see that the King of Dragons is on Bezerker Island, it was likely the reason for the no fly zone in that episode.

Dagur and Heather prepare to face the oncoming army.

You almost had me fooled, but it’s a great start to the finale

Rating 8/10

King of Dragons part 2

The first attack run is foiled by some clever strategy from the Dagur and the aforementioned no fly zone, also, the riders got there ahead of them. Krogan falls back as everyone compares notes. But that’s enough time for the fleet to re-engage, now from both sides, and they don’t have dragons to support them either. But the Wingmaidens do because, to quoth a certain Hiccup Haddock

“They’re babies, they don’t listen to anyone”

Hiccup sent a terror mail ahead of time. Hiccup’s job to end the fight is to find the King of Dragons before Krogan and Johann do. Astrid takes command of the other riders to defend. Krogan, Johann and a few hunters are exploring the cavern and come across the King of Dragons, it terrifies everyone.

Tiny spears and arrows jack diddly against it, and it seals itself off. Toothless and Hiccup end up separated by a cavern collapse as Hiccup comes across an egg, unfortunately for him, Krogan and Johann have too. A fight ensues and physical fights are not a strong point for low budget CG animation. Still, it’s serviceable. Hiccup is knocked off a cliff, holding onto the egg as well, he uses his leg and sword as pick-axes to clamber to the top, where Johann is waiting for him. Toothless saves Hiccup but in the process the egg ends up in Krogan’s hands. Toothless is instructed to go after him.

The Beliderbeast strikes Johann down, but Hiccup’s sword breaks and he’s left dangling over the edge. The King lets out a roar and just about every Dragon from the show responds and it’s a hell of a shot. This aid gives them the edge they need against the dragon fliers and the Hunter ships.

Ruff is knocked off, and both Fishlegs and Snotlout catch her, setting up for that subplot in How to Train Your Dragon 2. The singetails begin resisting their fliers. Krogan’s exit is blocked by Toothless as he knocks Krogan down and recovers the Egg. Krogan is brought to Drago Bludvist and is ordered executed

“No-one fails me twice” guess Eret caught him in a good mood or something, since he managed to. Drago promises to find another King. We get a bit of closure as the Wingmaidens leave the Edge for Mala, Dagur and Mala get married. Stoick recovers a bit easily. And Hiccup decides to destroy both the Dragon Eyes, the group leave the edge for the last time and head back to Berk.

It’s a really strong conclusion, bringing together pretty much everything and setting the stage for How to Train Your Dragon 2 in a way that feels natural.

Rating 8/10

We’ve now reached the end, there have been highs and lows to this show, largely the same ones the films had, but the show had the advantage of further expanding the lore, building up more interesting and complex villains and allowing some level of character growth without interfering with the films. Since I won’t be covering Riders or Defenders of Berk, or the specials, this is where I leave the franchise behind. It was a good run.

No comments:

Post a Comment