Dragons Defenders Of Berk Reviews: Episode 8 - Appetite For Destruction

Out in the middle of the ocean, a couple of flamboyant looking Nadders are chillaxing on a rock. Until one of them gets pelted with what appears to be yellow paint, scaring the shit out of them and causing them to haul ass outta there. It turns out Hiccup and Astrid are the ones throwing the paint, Hiccup says that these Nadders have to be tagged Yellow. Yellow tags mean they're from Sorrow Island. Astrid manages to tag the other Nadder before they escape. 

She continues chasing down more Nadder's and pelting them with paint sacks. She decides to be cheeky with Hiccup and tell him he's free to join in anytime. After Astrid misses what I think is the same punk ass Nadder from The Night And The Fury, Hiccup takes Astrid's invitation to pelt some bitches with paint. He chases down the punk-ass Nadder and outclasses Astrid's Pelting skills.

Taste the paint motherfucker!

Hiccup pelts the punk ass Nadder. Astrid admits that his ornate shield is pretty cool, Hiccup says he quite likes it himself (who wouldn't?). Hiccup then decides he's going to check on the Twins to see if they aren't fucking everything up. But this is the Twins we're talking about here, they're bound to fuck something up. 

And they do just that. They're supposed to be tagging with purple paint, but when Tuffnut hits Ruff by accident and refuses to apologise they get into a paint fight wasting many sacks that were supposed to be for Dragons. Hiccup  scolds them for being stupid once again, but they use some flawed logic on him once again. They say it's Hiccup's fault for trusting them with the task of tagging dragons with purple paint. Actually I take that back, that's a very sound argument. They seem to be pros at that lately, nice to see they're self-aware. 

During this, Astrid barges in and asks Hiccup if it's supposed to be one colour per Island. Hiccup confirms that it is indeed supposed to be one colour per Island. Astrid then points to two Gronckle's nearby with green and purple paint. Hiccup's confused, so he decides to send a letter to Fishlegs whose idea this all was. He does this by using 'air mail', tying the note to a Terrible Terror and sending them to wherever they need to go. Kinda like raven mail from Game Of Thrones. BTW, nice to see the Terrors from the last episode haven't been glossed over, well not completely at least. Astrid thinks this idea won't work and bets Hiccup that it'll be a total failure. The stakes being Astrid has to kiss Snotlout on the lips if it does work. 

Holy shit, it actually worked!

Yo, what was that, dawg?

Don't you even . . . .

Alright, how much are you willing to bet that your skin'll
make a nice winter coat?

Fishlegs is ecstatic that the air mail idea actually worked, then he asks Hiccup what the need for it was. Hiccup asks him about the green dragons on Crescent Island. Snotlout then calls him a dick for ruining his beauty sleep for shit so trivial, at least in his view. Hiccup and Fishlegs know that this is a pretty big deal however and are looking to investigate further. The green dragons are supposed to be from Tall Tree Island but they're on Crescent Island instead. To find out the reason for this they head out for Tall Tree island, with Snotlout ditching them along the way. So an added bonus. 

But as they're trying to find the island, all they're finding is more and more ocean. Astrid thinks they're going off course, Fishlegs tells her she don't know shit. Fishlegs doesn't go off course, but when he looks at the map for reference, the Island is nowhere to be seen. Then out of nowhere some Orange dragons appear to be fleeing. Hiccup mentions they're from Sunstone Island, Fishlegs mentions that it has pristine beaches and tons of rocks lying around for Meatlug to get fat on. 

Pristine beaches you said?

Fishlegs notes that one Island is missing and another has been literally sunk. The teens discuss what this could mean and what effects this will have on the Dragon populations of these Islands. They decide to head back to Dragon Island, which they debate whether or not it'll be there at all when they get back. As they leave, a giant shadow follows them. I believe the culprit has been revealed. 

Back at Dragon Island there's a lot of Dragons that are from other Islands that are showing up. Astrid begins to notice Red dragons now. Hiccup thinks that more Islands are bound to disappear along a line he draws on the map. He decides to go and investigate the Islands he thinks are next on the chopping block.  Astrid decides to go with him, on the hunch that islands disappearing and Dragons fleeing can't lead to anything good. 

After leaving Fishlegs on Dragons Island, Hiccup and Astrid find Boarhead island completely sunk and Thor's Rock mostly sunk. Astrid think's Fishlegs wrath of gods theory a lot more credible now. Hiccup decides to get a closer look, where they discover a giant hole in the middle of the rocks. He notices that it's awfully familiar looking, only bigger. 

I'm back bitches!!

So it appears that the Scream Death has been tunnelling beneath all those Islands and sinking them after Hiccup spells it out for us. Hiccup decides to get a closer look and thinks he can make friends with it. But the Screaming Death is in no mood for that hippy crap. It chases Hiccup and Toothless around, until Astrid pelts its eyes with paint. Being blinded, it decides to fly away, but it'll be back. 

Hiccup and Astrid take the news back to Fishlegs on Dragon Island. Fishlegs is afraid to know how big it is, Astrid tells him it's Chop Chop there's go your island big. This does nothing to help his bladder control. Hiccup confirms his theory about the imaginary line, the Screaming Death is following it and destroying any Island in its path. He thinks the Screaming Death is going to sink Dragon Island then move to sink Berk. Damn, this situation just got dire. 

Fishlegs suggests running back to Berk with their tails between their legs. Hiccup however ain't retreating, Dragon island is the only land between Berk and the Screaming Death. They have to make their stand at Dragon island. And besides, where are all those wild dragons going to go if Dragon island sinks? So Hiccup sends Sharpshot to Berk to gather some reinforcements. Which is just supposed to be Snotlout and the Twins. Uh hello? Stoick and Thornado? The other villagers with dragons that have already been established? No? Why? Budget Constraints? Fine, I'll go with that I suppose. So Sharpshot finds the Twins but they're creeped out by him. 

- Why is that Terror staring us down?
- We'll run for it on three.

Oh those lovable exceptional individuals. 

Back on Dragon Island, Hiccup thinks help isn't coming. So he decides to fight the Screaming Death with what they got, which isn't much. Fishlegs reports that the only Island left between Dragons Island and the Screaming Death is gone and the Screaming Death is moving on Dragon Island. Hiccup decides to go distract the SD to buy Astrid and Fishlegs time.

Back at Berk, Ruff and Tuff are pretending to be a statue to trick the Terrible Terror. Snotlout tells them they're stupid and asks them why they're being so stupid. They tell him that a Terrible Terror is behind him. Snotlout sees it and knows right away that its air mail. The Twins call themselves stupid. 

While that's going on, The Screaming Death is speeding it's way to Dragon island. Hiccup blasts its face then tries the follow the leader/shiny shield trick again. He thinks it works, but the Screaming Death has learned a lot since their last encounter. It knows Hiccup is a sleazy little weasel and it ain't stopping its rampage for shit. Hiccup thinks the situation just got a little trickier. 

Astrid can't see Hiccup and thinks that stupid air mail crap didn't work. Fishlegs reassures her that it'll work. He says because dragons are very . . . territorial as Astrid finsihes for him. Fishlegs then gets an idea and makes a really awkward comment that he could kiss her on the lips. This is supposed to tie in to the joke from before, the the "on the lips" part was completely unnecessary and just awkward. Anyway, Fishlegs tells Astrid to help Hiccup out but she asks what he's doing. 

Unleashing hell. 

Astrid helps out Hiccup, whose in quite a tight spot. Just as this fight starts to look hopeless, Fishlegs brings an army of wild dragons to help kick the SD's ass. The SD decides it's had enough of this shit and burrows into the Island to sink it. Hiccup heads in to force its ass back to the surface. But it turns out to be an ambush as the SD bursts it's machine gun fire breath at him. After e really cool effect where the SD emerges face first from a firestorm, the SD is brought back to the surface to get its ass handed to it by the Wilds Dragons and Berkian reinforcements. 

The battle is not over though, as the island is still sinking. But Fishlegs thinks quick on his feet and gathers the Gronckles to shoot their lava into the tunnels and stop the island from sinking. Hiccup declares Fishlegs and Meatlug the heroes of the day. 

Back at Berk, Hiccup finds some more information of the Screaming Death and he thinks that it'll most definitely be back. Dramatic music plays over a silhouette of the open ocean for dramatic effect. 

Summary

This is probably the shortest review I've written. This episode was mostly just great action and the Screaming Death being awesome. And the situation was actually very dire. This is one of those times in the series where it looked like the characters were in some real trouble and they knew it too. The only other time was in The Night And The Fury. 

While the action was great and the Screaming Death was awesome, there was a lot more unnecessary expository then usual and there was that awkward joke with kissing Astrid on the lips and he way Fishlegs delivered that one line. And also the fact there is so many Berkians like Stoick who have dragons that could have helped out with the Screaming Death. But since it's probably due to budget constraints, I'll let this one slide.

The episode was good and the tagging dragons subplot was interesting, but I would say it's not one of the strongest episodes. 

7/10