Dragons Riders Of Berk Reviews: Episode 13 - When Lightning Strikes

So last episode we saw a bit of the Vikings culture. We saw they're own little version of the Olympics, and now we get to see a little bit more of their culture. We get to see more of their religion in this episode. An episode tackling religion? This oughta be interesting. 

Another peaceful day on Berk (it of course won't remain like that for long, but if it didn't there would be no drama). Hiccup explains that living with dragons has its ups and downs, nothing we don't know already.  Two dragons are chillaxing on the roofs of a couple houses. But they're fat asses cause the houses to collapse beneath their weight. Hiccup continues saying that when things go wrong, panicking and crying "Redrum" is not the way to go. You need to keep a level head, not an easy thing with not-so-level headed Vikings.   

Hiccup is seen designing what appears to be a glorified bird perch. And we find out that it is indeed a glorified bird perch. Except it's not for birds, it's for the dragons so they're fat asses don't cause roof's to collapse. Astrid tries to get Stormfly to sit on the perch, but Stormfly's like, "What the fuck is shit man!".  Astrid reassures her, and Stormfly lands. She seems to like it. Success! But the twins feel used, they didn't know they were building perches so dragons wouldn't destroy shit. 

Hiccup continues his narration, saying Vikings can be very reasonable in their own decapitating way.  But when a problem is caused by something they don't understand, they lose all sense of reason. Sounds like every human alive really. 

Hiccup, Gobber, and Stoick are celebrating their success with the perches. Stoick and Gobber are about to make a toast. But Stoick looks disgusted as he looks into his cup. He says they should move the perch over the well. 

Don't drink that!

Hiccup has big plans after this. He's thinking about building airfields, stables for them in the caves, waterslides on the cliffsides, pits for them to shit in, a dragon massage parlor, and last but not least, a dragon themed amusement park. Hiccup's got big plans alright. Stoick tells Hiccup to tone down a bit, since Berk is still for people. Gobber supports that, saying Vikings come before Dragons. Toothless is like, "Whatchyou talkin' about Gobba?". And Gobber's like, "I said Vikings before Dragons Bitch! Whatcha gonna do bout it, Bitch!". 

But Toothless' response will have to wait, as thunder can be heard outside. Toothless does what I do everytime there's a thunderstorm; run and hide somewhere the thunder can't get him. The dynamic trio goes out to investigate. Lightning is striking in the town. Stoick says there's never been lightning strikes this bad in Berk before. Which I question, surely there must have been at least one storm like this. 

And apparently there was. Gobber recalls the only other time a storm like this happened. When some sneaky, slippery thief named Yergen Barnstadt drifted into town. Yergen stole things from widows and old men. What a dick. Then he got struck by lightning when he was trying to fix his ship's mast for his escape. By the time he got struck, the entire Berk fleet was on fire. They tied him to a mast and shipped him off to be buttraped by pirates. 

The thunderstorm gets worse, and many houses are set on fire. Everyone scrambles to control the situation. The dragons are a big help, putting out the fires with buckets. Toothless panics, and runs off somewhere. The Twins are just watching gleefully as they're village burns to the ground. Hiccup tries to find Toothless, and finds him sitting on one of the perches. Lightning continually strikes right at him. Now the perches are of course metal, which attracts electricity. But the Vikings don't know that. Mildew immediately takes note of this and decides to use this to his advantage. He convinces the town that Thor is angry with them because they let Toothless live among them. He calls for Toothless to be banished. Mildew has basically become a Viking Pat Robertson. 

As evil? Or only slightly less evil?

Mildew continues his delusional rant, claiming Thor is angry with them because of Toothless. He uses the lightning striking Toothless as evidence. Hiccup realises that this is insanity and calls Mildew out on his bullshit. Mildew reminds the village of Yergen Barnstadt. This gets the village worried, since that was the last time there was a huge lightning storm.  Stoick doesn't buy it. He tells Mildew to shut his whore mouth, and says that Thor may be angry, but it ain't because of Toothless. Mildew demands to know why Thor is angry if not because of Toothless. Stoick isn't a delusional fanatic and doesn't presume to know the mind of a god, but they will find a way to sooth his anger. 

The teens are trying to figure out how to make Thor happy. Ruffnut suggests sacrificing Tuffnut. Fishlegs suggests doing some weird, primitive, voodoo shtick. Astrid mentions she had an aunt who was cursed by Odin. She had to sail to the end of the Earth, but she kept coming back from the opposite direction. Silly Vikings, they don't know the Earth is round. 

Snotlout says if he was Thor, he would want a giant statue of himself. Astrid vomits when Snotlout kisses his muscles. This gives Hiccup an idea. The statue, not Astrid throwing up. 
The teens get to work on a statue of Thor.  The teens show their incompetence in Statue building, making his knee bend the wrong way, making tights, the works. And we also get a Wizard of Oz reference. 

The teens finish the statue, and the town waits in anticipation for the Statue to be revealed. Let me guess, it's gonna be all wrong? You know that thing comedy shows like to do alot when something is supposed to be perfect but the characters are so incompetent that it looks all wrong? Are we getting one of those?

Oh, shit, never mind.

The town is impressed, Stoick especially. Stoick believes that the Statue will get the town off Thor's shit list. But Mildew is not convinced. He thinks the statue is not enough to appease the god of thunder while they allow a night fury in their midst. At this point, I'm not sure whether Mildew actually believes what he's saying, or whether he's just using this as someone like Pat Robertson would use it, for his own selfish gain. 

Events are unfortunately proving Mildew right in the town's eyes. Despite building a giant statue of Thor, the next lightning storm is even worse than the last one. Gobber is very confused by this (we the audience of course know this is just a natural occurrence and the metal perches). Stoick tells Hiccup that the statue was a gallant effort, by the way I love the praise Stoick gives Hiccup here, but that obviously was not what Thor wanted. 

What the Fuck Gobber?

Toothless seems to be in some real shit right now. Mildew's got the very superstitious town believing Thor is mad at them for allowing Toothless to live with them, and now even Gobber seems to be buying into it. Hiccup promises Toothless he'll protect him, no matter what some asshole's think. 

Elsewhere, Fishlegs is hiding underneath his bed from the storm. Ruffnut and Tuffnut are on a roof and revelling in all the destruction. Tuffnut comments that no one blows shit up like Thor. 

The rest of the town go over to see the statue. They're confused as to why Thor is still angry with them. Then lightning strikes the statue, which redirects straight into a house.  Which to the already worried and very superstitious Vikings doesn't look like anything but the wrath of a pissed off god. 

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Thor is pissed
with these folks.

This is all the evidence the town needs, and all the evidence Mildew needs to rile them up into an angry mob bent on throwing Toothless off the island, or better yet put his head on a spike. 

Stoick and Hiccup are with Toothless in their home. Hiccup asks Stoick if he thinks Thor is angry because of Toothless. Stoick of course doesn't think this, but the angry mob right outside their door thinks otherwise. Stoick tells Hiccup to take Toothless somewhere he won't be stuffed and mounted on Mildew's wall. He's also gonna try to reason with them. I guess Stoick doesn't know you can't reason with madness. Hiccup and Toothless run off into the woods. 

Mildew demands that Stoick give up Toothless to his mob, but Stoick isn't one to surrender to anybody, Mildew least of all. He tries bullshitting them saying he's already sent Toothless off the Island. But since the Lightning doesn't stop, Mildew takes it as Thor saying, "The dragon's still on the Island my loyal minions. Find that overgrown iguana and bring me its head!".  Astrid suggests to Hiccup that he should hide in the cove. But Hiccup's no fool, they'd find him there. He decides to leave, and not come back until those fanatics realise that the storms aren't happening because of Toothless. After a tearful goodbye, Hiccup leaves. Astrid is confronted by Mildew. Astrid tells the old fuck that he got what he wanted. But Mildew is either not convinced, or he wants to personally oversee Toothless' banishment/beheading.

I ain't quitting until I have Toothless AND Hiccup's
asses on my dinnerplate!

Hiccup and Toothless are flying around the Island. Everywhere they go they can see Mildew's mob hunting them. They take to the clouds to avoid being spotted. But up there they get struck by lightning and crash into the woods. Mildew and the mob spot them falling from the sky. 

Hiccup inspects Toothless' tail, where the lightning struck. Hiccup then begins to figure out what we figured out 20 minutes ago. The lightning is striking the town because of the metal perches. But this revelation comes far too late, as the mob captures Toothless and drag him off to be thrown off the island. Mildew tells Hiccup to stop resisting, and to say his last goodbye's. You wrinkly old fuck. 

Mildew takes Toothless to the docks, but Stoick and Gobber intervene. Stoick tells Mildew to fuck off with his dragon hate. The dragons are part of their lives now and there's no changing that. Mildew says that Toothless isn't part of their lives, not anymore. It appears Mildew knows he can't get rid of all the dragons, so he's content with at least getting rid of Toothless. And this storm of course provided the perfect excuse for him. Stoick sees right through Mildew and demands Mildew let him go.  Mildew is quick to remind him of Barnstadt, and for the first time refers to Toothless by name. 

Hiccup is desperate to free his best friend. He grabs a spear from the armoury. 

I've got a special delivery for Mildew's ass!

No he's not going to shove a spear up Mildew's ass, though that would be pretty awesome (and also what the twins think he's gonna do at first). He's gonna use the spear to show the town that metal attracts lightning, causing all the chaos. 

Stoick meanwhile has his hands full trying to keep the mob away from Toothless. It's just him, Gobber, Bucket and Mulch against dozens of angry dissenters. But Stoick is a badass who farts in the face of death, so the odds don't phase him one bit. But Hiccup intervenes and shows the town what he's discovered about lightning and metal. Mildew thinks Hiccup is the one who is secreting verbal diarrhoea. This is starting to sound like an internet religious debate. Though a lot less obnoxious. 

To prove his point once and for all,  Hiccup ascends to the top of a ship's mast, and plans to plant the spear there to attract lightning. It starts off well enough, but then lightning strikes while Hiccup's holding it. Hiccup falls into the water, Toothless breaks out of his constraints and dives in after him. He manages to bring Hiccup back onto the docks. We of course know Hiccup isn't going to die though. 

Hiccup wakes up the next morning, Toothless at his side. He checks his feet. He jokingly points out he hasn't lost his other foot. Stoick and Gobber come in to inform Hiccup that everyone knows that Toothless wasn't the cause of all their woes. They are also getting rid of the awesome Thor statue. Stoick says that they should take it to one of the high points on the Islands and leave it there. Snotlout and Tuffnut are on the job.

That'll do, pig. that'll do. 

Summary

This is probably the best episode yet. It was by far the most dramatic episode yet, as it dealt with the Vikings' ignorance of the world around them and their religion. When they don't understand something, they attribute it to a god's wrath and Mildew uses Toothless as a scapegoat. This is a pretty mature theme for the series, the dangers of ignorance and superstition. 

This episode could have easily been a lame rehash of the banish the dragons plots from episodes 1, 5 & 6. And it kinda was, but it's not because the dragons are causing trouble. It's because they think their god is angry with them and because Mildew was claiming it was because of Toothless. Events just so happen to prove him right in their eyes. And besides, it was only Toothess they were trying to get rid of this time. We also see that Stoick is firmly on Hiccup's side, now that he has a dragon of his own. So it's progression alright. 

This episode was the best yet. The pacing was great, the drama was great, Mildew was actually kinda intimidating in a creepy fanatical sort of way, and there was great comedy as usual and it was a great focus on Hiccup and Toothless' relationship. Also a nice little bit on Stoick and Hiccup's relationship. 

10/10