It's a beautiful morning in Berk, the sun is shining, the sky is a wanderful red, and everything is peac. . .
A horn blows right the fuck out of nowhere! Fishlegs realises this means 'Screaming Death Ya'll! Every man for himself!' and jumps right out of bed to get the hell out of Dodge. He tries to wake Meatlug up, but he can't wake her lazy ass up. The Twins are sleeping upside down like a bat, Tuffnut wanders if the horn is for breakfast. Ruffnut reminds him the horn is for the Screaming Death, Tuffnut thinks that's totally awesome.
Astrid is already on Stormfly and is flying somewhere, Snotlout cuts her off and nearly causes her to crash. She calls him a stupid asshole shithead and asks why he would do something so dickish? Snotlout says he's on his way to the Great Hall, but Astrid claims she's on her way to the Great Hall. Snotlout claims that Hiccup assigned him to the Great Hall, Astrid tells him that Hiccup gave her the Great Hall the day before. Snotlout however doesn't give a shit what Hiccup says, it all goes through Snotlout's ear and out the other like a Wind Tunnel. There ain't no brains to be found in there.
Snotlout decides on a compromise, whoever gets there first gets to guard it. He of course assumes it'll be him by default, Astrid reluctantly agrees to that. At least until Snotlout throws a fish at her face putting lives at risk. Astrid chases him down and they both crash into the Great Hall. Hiccup predicts he's going to get an earful from his Stoick for this.
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| How is it that a Screaming Death Attack Drill nearly destroyed the entire village? |
Stoick is pissed, he gave Hiccup permission to run his Screaming Death Attack drill. But Snotlout fucked it all up and Hiccup's getting all the blame for it. Hiccup apologises for everything getting so screwed, but that shit ain't going to unburn Silent Sven's chest hair dammit! So Stoick comes up with a diabolical punishment for Hiccup and his band of rejects.
They have to clean out Mildew's cabbage field, the cabbages smell like shit and since Mildew is a traitorous swine, somebody's gotta clear the smelly, shitty cabbages to make way for a new batch. Hiccup pairs Astrid up with Snotlout, which is the worst thing he could possibly do, and sets them to clearing boulders. Snotlout thinks that's only a job for a man. Astrid agrees, she asks Hiccup if she can take Fishlegs instead. Snotlout pulls out his usual 'can't you see my inherent manliness!' card and says he and Hookfang are 5,000 pounds of boulder crushing power. Astrid tells him not to slow her down.
The teens start to work on moving boulders out of the field, Hiccup and Toothless decides to be show-off's by launching boulders into the air and blasting during the fall. Barf and Belch are pulling rocks from the dirt and the Twins join in, why should Barf and Belch have all the fun after all? Fishlegs tells Meatlug that the boulders are for catapulting, not for eating. Hiccup thinks all is going well, until Stormfly and Hookfang decide to start shit with each other.
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| - I'm gonna kick your ass! - Come at me, Bro! |
Hiccup and Toothless shoot a plasma blast to break up this senseless confrontation, but Hookfang and Stormfly are out for each other's throats and no attempt at peacemaking is gonna make them stop. Toothless gets a whiff of something then lashes out at both Hookfang and Stormfly. Hiccup tries to control Toothless, they went in there to break shit up, not exacerbate it! With a three-way battle on their hands, the trio manages to coerce their dragons into flying away to the middle of the field.
Astrid and Snotlout get into a heated argument over what just happened. Snotlout claims that he and Hookfang were just minding their own business when Stormfly freaked out in them. Astrid claims the exact same thing, only the positions were reversed of course. She says that Snotlout and his 'Snotmare' attacked her and Stormfly for no reason. Although Snotlout actually likes the term 'Snotmare', he asks her when he's ever started a fight just for the sake of starting a fight?
Snotlout's question is met with blank stares from Astrid and Hiccup, Snotlout is about to rephrase his question but Hiccup just wants to know if they can work together. They give each other pissed off looks and Hiccup thinks that'll do. When Snotlout and Astrid leave the field, Fishlegs tells Hiccup that what just happened it pretty weird.
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| Fishlegs, I don't know if you know this, but Astrid and Snotlout beating each other is a very common occurrence. |
Fishlegs does not deny that Astrid beating Snotlout isn't out of the question, but he finds it odd that Stormfly and Hookfang suddenly decided they couldn't stand each other's presence either. Hiccup does find that a bit odd, but he doesn't lose sleep over it. The ear full he'll get from Stoick is what he'll lose sleep over.
Back at the house, Stoick asks Hiccup how the hard day's work went. Hiccup says that it went stupendously, everyone worked hard till they're back broke, they accomplished alot, and there was no confrontations what-so-ever, not even an inkling of one. Everything moved along like a well oiled catapult. Stoick is impressed, except for the part he heard about from anonymous sources that Snotlout and Astrid attempted to turn the catapult on each other. Stoick is well informed.
Hiccup immediately brushes off Stoick's accusation as Astrid and Snotlout having a minor disagreement, they'll probably forget about it in the morning.
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| I refuse to work with that shithead!! |
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| I refuse to with that crazy bitch! |
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| Forgotten it, have they? |
Hiccup tries his absolute best to cover up what Stoick just witnessed, claiming that everything is right as rain. Stoick goes along it, physiologically torturing Hiccup. Hiccup can't stand it anymore and snaps, spilling the beans on how Astrid and Snotlout are constantly at each other's throats and they're a gigantic thorn in his balls. Stoick asks Hiccup if that made him feel better, Hiccup admits that it made him feel a bit better.
Stoick gives Hiccup three options on how to deal with Vikings who refuse to get along. Option number one, give axes to them and let them fight to the death. Hiccup's looking for something a little less violent however, so he asks what the second option is. The second option is giving them both Maces and letting them duel to the death, and even more violent option than the last one.
Hiccup isn't so keen on learning what the third option is. Stoick, shockingly, suggests a very devious plan that has a 50/50 chance of working. He suggests that Hiccup trick Astrid and Snotlout into working together. Hiccup does this by putting them both on opposite ends of the large sand pile in the middle of the field.
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| What the fuck are you doing here?! |
Snotlout and Astrid immediately realise they've been tricked by that pesky option 3. Astrid decides to go along with it and prove that she' not the problem by working with Snotlout. Snotlout does likewise, and Hiccup and Fishlegs can hardly believe that actually worked. Hiccup takes pride in his deception, saying that he even added his own Hiccup spin to it as all good leaders should.
As he continues his rambling on good leadership, Fishlegs suggests he take a look to his right. Hookfang and Stormfly are at it again and this time they flung their riders from their saddles.
At the academy, Hiccup decides that Hookfang and Stromfly are out of control, but the thinks he knows why. He thinks the dragons picked up on their masters' animosity towards each other, so basically they saw their riders beating the shit out of each other so they decided to also beat each other,
Hiccup tells them both to man up, cause this is happening whether they like it or not. Hiccup tells them they can have the day off to get to know their dragons.
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| Do we get the day off now?! |
Hiccup denies the twins request for a day off and Snotlout and Astrid take each other's dragons for a ride, and it goes shockingly well. Snotlout praises Stormfly's speed and Stormfly evens fucks with him like Hookfang does. Astrid thinks Hookfang's destructive power is totally awesome and Hookfang rather likes Astrid.
Then they both discover things that their dragons can do that their respective owner's never knew about. Astrid discovers that Hookfang can use his wings to blow down trees during a sudden stop. Snotlout discovers that Stormfly can strike a bullseye with one of her spines when he taps the back of her head. When they try it again , Stormfly makes a bullseye right into her last bullseye.
When they both get back in the evening, Hiccup asks how it went. They both only let on that it was good, not great but it as alright. Neither of them are willing to admit that they had a great time. They both feel bad when they have to leave however, and Hiccup sees right through them. He tells Toothless it's baby steps in the right direction.
In the morning, Fishlegs flies down to the field and investigates, 'cause he ain't convinced that Stormfly and Hookfang hate each other for no reason. As he investigates, Meatlug finds a spot and digs, Fishlegs looks in.
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| Holy shit, I knew it! |
At the academy, Astrid and Snotlout are sneaking around, but accidentally bump into each other. They demand to know why the other is there, but the chicken in Snotlout's hands and the fish in Astrid's reveals why. They're both their to feed each others dragons. They decide not to tell anyone about this bit of awkwardness and head on in. What they find is a completely trashed Academy with Stormfly and Hookfang nowhere to be found.
When the others come and see the scene of the carnage for themselves, the Twins tell Astrid they're very disappointed in her. They may have done a lot of stupid shit in their lives, or rather they're whole lives may have been nothing but a continuous stream of stupid shit, but the one thing they've never done is lose a whole dragon. As Astrid yells obscenities at the Twins, Hiccup suggests they spread out and look all over the Island for the dragons. Fishlegs shows up and renders that completely unnecessary, he already knows where they are.
And indeed, they are where he thought they would be. At the field trying to wrip each other apart. The Teens drop Astrid and Snotlout in to defuse the situation. Fishlegs explains that he knows why they're tearing each other apart. Turns out there's a dragon root buried in the field, a dragon root is kinda like Dragon nip, only it makes the dragons want to tear some motherfuckers a new asshole instead of making them calm.
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| There any shit like that for people? |
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| It's called Cocaine. |
On the ground, Astrid and Snotlout try to get their dragon's attention, but to no avail. They're intent on ending this, violently. Astrid suggests they do something stupid and reckless, she had Snotlout at 'stupid'. They stand between their dragons and tell them that if they want to kick the shit out of each other, they'll have to go through their masters. It may have been a stupid, reckless idea but it paid off. They manage to bring their dragons under control.
With that taken care of, now all they need to do is get rid of that damned root. Fishlegs says that Meatlug didn't go nuts, so she obviously isn't affected by the root. So he's the obvious choice for removing it. It goes well until the twins are dumb enough to fly Barf and Belch too close to it. Barf and Belch go nuts and start attacking everyone and everything, the Twins making no attempt to stop it since they think it's totally awesome.
With Barf and Belch out of control and attacking indiscriminately and the Twins doing nothing about it like assholes, Snotlout and Astrid realise they have to do something to help. But they of course can't bring their dragons into it or else they'll get coc-ed up again. Astrid has another stupid, reckless, and crazy idea. They switch dragons like before, in hopes that they won't attack their riders while they're on the other dragon.
Using the cool moves they both discovered, they manage to subdue Barf and Blech and cut the Dragon root free so Fishlegs and Meatlug can bring out to sea. Barf and Belch attempt to chase them down.
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| Oh come on man, just a whiff! |
Fishlegs and Meatlug drop the Dragon Root into the sea (to surely cause some shenanigans down there), Hiccup points out to Snotlout and Astrid that they kicked ass together. They make mutual praise for what they can do with each other's dragons and switch back to their own. Snotlout tells Hookfang they can get rid of the girl smell later.
Back at the field, Astrid and Snotlout are working quite well together, even asking each other how they did those moves. Stoick tells Hiccup that even though option 3 ain't as fun as options 2 & 3, it sure goes down like a treat. Whatever that means.
Summary
Astrid and Snotlout switching dragons made a real fun episode. I can't say there anything exceptional about this episode, it's another great episode. It's also a great episode for Astrid and Snotlout. It was funny seeing Astrid and Snotlout switch dragons and actually grow attached to them. The abilities they discovered was also a nice bonus.
The moments with Hiccup and Stoick and the three options was hilarious, and this episode was another where Hiccup's leadership is tested, with awesome results.
So yeah, there's nothing exceptional about the episode from the rest of the series, but it was a great character episode for Snotlout, Astrid and Hiccup.
8/10
This was a fun episode in my opinion too. Of course things go down in a couple more episodes. I look forward to how you review the Eel Effect. I think you'll like that one.
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