Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 3 episodes 10-13

Alright, let’s finish this series, shall we?

Between a Rock and a Hard Place 

We open with the Riders tracking a fleet of dragon hunter ships, Hiccup says there’s too many to engage, which is funny considering they’ve scuttled more ships than that before. To provide a distraction, Hiccup installs a new tail, available in stores now, so he can glide below their sight-lines, the new tail allows him to so without any wing-flap.

They capture the ships but instead of captive dragons, they just find blocks of marble. A huge migration of dragons occurs overhead, and the crew follow their trail to their source, good job it wasn’t far away. Barf and Belch get it and spiral down onto the island, their crash breaks their wing meaning they and by extension, the riders, are now stuck on the island.

They capture another group of hunters, and under interrogation, one reveals there was a second convoy but Tuffnut knocks him out before he can say where they’re headed. Astrid, Heather and Snotlout head out to see if they can find it, whilst Hiccup, Fishlegs and the Twins investigate the Island, to find out what the Hunters are up to.

They stumble upon a quarry being used to mine the marble, Catastrophic Quakens are being used the mine them, so the planned attack goes wrong and Barf and Belch take another hit. Hiccup unveils a second new tail, this one light blue, that might allow him to create a distraction.

As Astrid, Snotlout and Heather find and follow the second convoy, Hiccup puts his plan into effect and the Quakens are freed, however they’re still trained to follow vibrational commands and are ordered to attack the riders. Hiccup’s forced to low altitude by the blue tail, which was made to handle tight turns. Fishlegs tries to reason with the Quakens but it doesn’t work, and Belch takes yet another injury.

Heather, Astrid and Snotlout find that Viggo was using the marble to create a fortress, they try and attack but the marble resists dragon fire and even Windshear’s razor sharp attacks do nothing. Hiccup discovers that thanks to all the mining, the island has become unstable, Fishlegs stumbles upon one of the hammers and uses it more gently to train the Quakens as the island begins to collapse.

Once news of the base reaches them, Fishlegs has the Quakens do a demolition job. Viggo comes across this and promises to Ryker that it ends now

It’s a decent episode for Fishlegs above anyone else, showcasing his particular connection to the Quakens. The story is pretty good though it would be nice if Viggo steps things up a notch.

Rating 8/10

Family on the Edge

The team are running a target drill on the edge. They’ve found Viggo’s shipyard and plan to attack, but they only get one shot. Hiccup comes home to find Dagur in his hut, he wants a dragon to cover more ground in his search for Heather. Little does he know that Heather is in fact on the edge.

Hiccup refuses but then Dagur mentions taking a look around, which potentially could lead to him finding Heather and Hiccup changes his tune. Telling Dagur to camp out at the far side of the island, where the wild Dragons live so he can go help him train come morning. It’s evident pretty quickly that Hiccup kept the details of episode 1 to himself, and that’s come back to bite him in this episode.

Heather promises the next time she sees Dagur she’d slice him in two, she does know he’s looking for her, right? Hiccup sends her on reconnaissance to the shipping port.  Given that it’s a day’s journey, it would buy him time, and he sends Snotlout with her because why not. No, seriously, why wouldn’t you use any excuse to get rid of him.

Hiccup picked out a dragon for Dagur, a gronkle, naturally Dagur isn’t all that impressed. Still, after being shown that you can’t train a dragon by force, even a Gronkle, he relents to Hiccup and soon is able to ride it. But he tries to up the speed on low ground resulting a crash that destroys Hiccup’s prosthetic leg. Last we saw he carried spares in his satchel but apparently its at his hut now.

Unable to fly Toothless, he instead flies the Gronkle back to base to get his new leg, leaving Toothless to keep an eye on Dagur. Dagur takes him flying but he’s knocked, right into the eyes of Astrid, Snotlout and the twins. Jesus Christ, it’s such an unnecessary lie. They knew Dagur was going to come to get help looking for Heather, and Hiccup could just argue the sooner they get him a dragon, the sooner he leaves.

The bring him back to base, wanting to know what happened to Hiccup, but Hiccup is soon right behind them. Liar revealed and 8 minutes of my life wasted, Hiccup finally tells them the story from episode 1. Saying he was unsure of how he felt about it, which is why he didn’t tell them, sure, why not? You remember how when it was revealed 3 episodes ago that Dagur was looking for Heather, she said she didn’t want to see him right now? Apparently, the twins didn’t. Also, Snotlout appears to be missing now, so I think him being among the people confronting Dagur was an animation mistake.

Astrid and Hiccup are going over a convenient model of the shipyard, Astrid questions why he trusts Dagur, he’s not blind to the risks, giving him the least threatening dragon he could find, but also knows that Toothless once trusted him, so he has to try as well. They leave to see how he’s doing, knocking over one of the model ships as they head off.

With Fishlegs having taking over Dagur’s training with the Gronkle, Dagur has excelled in flying one, even provided a new move. Astrid takes over to teach him some flying manoeuvres, which we skip over as Astrid moves to making vague threats. Things are complicated further when Snotlout and Heather return that evening, with Dagur right in front of them.

Heather is of course not pleased to see him, accusing him of being a spy, despite the fact she publicly freed him from Viggo and would likely never be trusted by them again. Seeing that he wasn’t, he decides to leave, not sure why anyone objects to that to be honest but I suppose it could be under better circumstances. On his way out, he does stumble open the shipyard model and deduces immediately that it’s a trap.

Now he’s seen the plan, he can’t be let go, so they lock him up with his dragon. That’s a stupid idea that quickly bites them as Dagur escapes. They give chase but, in part thanks to his newfound Dragon training, Dagur makes it to the shipyard first, springing the trap before the others have a chance to fall into it. Of course; somehow, he manages to take on the ships on his own, supposedly dying in the process. Yeah… right.

Heather returns to her hut and finds a note from Dagur. He explains that he didn’t actually kill their father, he just took credit to attain chiefdom. It’s heartfelt enough to get her to cry. He also mentions getting Hiccup to hit Viggo’s dragon auction if he really wants to hurt Viggo.

It’s episode that wastes a lot of time with needless liar revealed crap, and then rushes through the actual dragon training as a result. Still, it has a powerful enough ending that I’m willing to forgive a lot

Rating 7/10

Last Auction Heroes

We open in a tavern where two guys who look identical to the Dragon hunters are discussing the Dragon Auction mentioned in the last episode. Trader Johann is also there, listening in. There’s a map, the guy killed to get a hold of, but Trader Johann manages to steal. Johann was running a favour for Hiccup and now they know where the auction is taking place.

Viggo and Ryker are discussing security, anticipating a ‘special guest’ coming but knowing that things could work well for them is this auction goes off without a hitch. There’s a hint of some resentment Ryker carries for Viggo but that’s for another time. What we know now is Hiccup was doing some reconnaissance and reports back that it’s pretty heavily guarded and there’s no way they’re getting in. They think since Snotlout has never been captured by Viggo he might be a great way to get in close, but he’s gonna need capital to back him up, so Hiccup goes to his father.

He wants Berk’s gold cache but his father laughs this off until Hiccup anticipates what Viggo could do once the auction is finished, including mounting a large attack on Berk. Stoick eventually relents though has a condition attached, Gobber is tagging along as Snotlout’s (going by Olgerthorpe) assistant. OK, given that this is Viggo we’re dealing with here, how long before he works it out?

Viggo is immediately suspicious that he knows him from somewhere, Gobber intervenes and gets a slap on both sides of the face for his trouble. Snotlout’s going to regret this at some point.

Johann comes to shore, trading dragons supposedly for safe passage and trading relations. The Dragons being Stormfly, Meatlug, and Barf and Belch, Viggo suspects something when he touches a loose floorboard, even more so when he drops a coin through the cracks and hears it land on the ground, meaning it isn’t storing further cargo. Well, the Riders and Toothless are down there, but he doesn’t know that yet. Viggo breaks through the wood, but sees nothing as Toothless is sheltering them with his wing. That shouldn’t work but it does, we get another near miss as the sawdust causes Tuffnut to sneeze but Hiccup stops the noise.

As Olgerthorpe and Gobber wait around, a slightly lazy Gronkle approaches, wait, is this the origin for Grumpy? Cool. Anyway, Gobber connects with him, but Ryker interrupts, he’s not at the auction because they don’t see an audience for him (not even for skin and parts?) but Viggo says he has his uses, as he can bit through a dragon-proof cage.

They’re right outside Viggo’s tent, with Olgerthorpe claiming he wants somewhere private to count his money. He eventually gets his wish, and Gobber finds a manifest explaining which Dragons are on sale and where they’re kept, Gobber stealthily gets this to Hiccup as they’re lead to the auction. Among the 15 or so bidders is a hooded character that will be of interest later, the ‘special guest’ they were referring to.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut are caught, clinging onto a dragon’s cage at the auction, I think they were trying to hide from the guards and didn’t notice they were being moved. This gets Snotlout and Gobber caught also. Fishlegs manages to find their dragons but is also quickly captured. Astrid and Heather are caught off-screen and with their lives on the line, Hiccup is forced to surrender.

Grump arrives to free the riders and as the ‘special guest’ withdraws his bid for Toothless as the gang set out to free their dragons. We get a decent looking fight between Ryker and Gobber as Hiccup frees Toothless and sets after Viggo. Viggo drops Berk’s gold into the ocean, forcing Hiccup to dive for it. Unfortunately, though they recover the chest, they find it empty, Berk’s gold is missing. Gobber offers to take the heat from Stoick for now, but we’ve not heard the last of this one, Gobber returns slaps to Snotlout.

It’s a solid episode, and sets a lot in motion for things to come.

Rating 8/10

Defenders of the Wing part 1

Putting the first of a 2-parter as a season finale, that’s cruel, you guys.

We open with the riders amping up attacks on the Dragon Hunters. They now have a dragon proof winches and chains, one of which captures Meatlug, luckily the deck is still wood, so Toothless is able to free him just in time.

Still, they didn’t come out of this unscathed, Meatlug sprained one of her wings and Astrid took an arrow to the leg for Stormfly. Hiccup receives a terror mail from Viggo, he wants to meet. And that they do, Viggo is on an island but out in the middle of a field of blue oleander (poisonous to dragons) where his men can’t cover him. He offers a truce, if Hiccup and his crew stay south of the Archipelago, his men will stay north.

Hiccup believes it’s a deception, he wants something on the southern side, likely something close to the border. They head to an Island near the border, finding a village that’s neither Viking nor hunter in origin. They land in the forest to take a look, but there are traps in the forest and they’re all quickly captured. Most of them are wearing black ninja-esque costumes (to save money) with the exception of their commander Throk and their Queen, Mala.

They believe that Hiccup’s crew are dragon hunters sent to steal their ‘great protector’ – a boulder class dragon depicted in a massive statue. They cite their own dragons, made to do their bidding, and subjected to loyalty. They’re locked up, pending a trial, which Hiccup thinks they can win, oh fool him I suspect.

As you probably expect, Mala turns Hiccup’s words against him, making him seem more guilty. Even more so given that she found the map with Viggo’s handwriting on it. They’re found guilty and sentenced to the nest. Hiccup believes he may be able to train the dragons and put an end to this, unfortunately the nest in question is of Speed Stingers, one of the few species that have resisted his training. Hiccup heads in first but his training fails, it’s only thanks to Toothless that Hiccup is saved and watching this endeavour is enough to convince Mala that they’re not dragon hunters.

We finally get answers about the Great Protector, it’s called an Eruptodon and it eats lava from the nearby volcano to protect the village. They see smoke rising from the volcano, they head to check on their great protector to find the Eruptodon gone. Viggo tricked him, using the map to lure them here to use as a diversion. And unfortunately, Mala doesn’t take the news well, drawing her blade to kill Hiccup.

This is not really a season finale episode, lending more credence to my theory that this was initially designed as 3 26-episode seasons chopped in half. Still, it introduces some strong new characters to shake things up a little

Rating 7.5/10

We will be back to the Edge, but we need to put closure on another show now, we need to continue with ReBoot