So I finally got around to watching the latest season of the
“How to Train Your Dragon” tv show on Netflix. (If you don’t know what I’m
talking about, go look this up now because it’s amazing!) Sure the animation
and the writing is nowhere near as good as the movies, but the animation’s not
bad and it features the characters we know and love. It’s also so much funnier
than the movies, and since the movies span a lot of time with not a lot of
room, you get a more in depth look at the characters this way.
For instance, are you wondering how Gobber got his dragon
that’s in the second film? Or for that matter, why he would pick such a lazy
looking dragon? That’s shown this season. It’s a great glimpse into what
everyone is up to in between the two films currently out.
There were some ups and downs this season. I thought that
the Dagur storyline was really good and was going to go great places… Until
they cut that short. I wasn’t very happy with the way that it was resolved, it
just seemed a little too convenient for everyone involved.
And then there’s the Heather arc that just keeps going.
Personally, I don’t see why the characters like Heather, other than the fact
that she’s another female who can relate to Astrid more. There isn’t anything
wrong with that, but having a character hanging around that we aren’t given a
reason to like is just plain weird. She just seems to be used whenever the
writers want there to be another spy in the gang’s camp and then discarded and
then they try to build her up again. Honestly, if you’re going to make her a
big player in this series (which seems like where they’re going with this) then
she deserves a better background and more convincing motivations! Granted, this
season was better than others, no betrayal or anything, but I’ll be more
confident that this is a character headed in a good direction if they keep it
up next season.
In the past, the Netflix show has been a lot better about
its portrayals of the female characters than the earlier Cartoon Network show,
especially Astrid. Like I said, I’m not super into Heather, and Ruffnut mostly
just plays off Tuffnut (I said “plays off” she hardly gets any of her own
jokes). Astrid this season left a little to be desired. She is a major player
in the gang, often second in command to Hiccup, but more often than not she’s
just that. We don’t see any other side of her. There was that one episode where
she sets up the auxiliary fighters back on Berk, but other than that it’s just
Astrid doing work, or getting hurt and insisting that she’s fine. And then
there was an episode where Astrid gets this rare disease (I’ll just let book
fans know, it’s not cured by the vegetable that doesn’t exist aka the potato, I
know I was disappointed too) and Hiccup has to save her. Alternatively, when
any of the rest of the gang gets in trouble, they manage to think their way out
of it. Humph.
Having said all that, Heather and Astrid together are often
shown to be the strong, dependable backup for the rest of the crew, especially
Fishlegs and Snotlout. They’re the ones who save Fishlegs and the twins at the
dragon auction, so I’m hoping that with these two ladies together there will be
more of a feminist slant to the show.
The rest of that aside, this show is hilarious. Tuffnut and
Ruffnut (mostly Tuffnut) have some great lines, and the chicken is still here
and very much present. While the writing plot-wise isn’t top notch, the humor
is spot-on with plenty of puns and really clever recurring jokes. I’m kind of
ok watching it just for that.
And then there’s the ending. Again, not the most
well-written, but it’s such a cliffhanger, in more ways than one. And there is
a good idea behind it. You barely see the villain in the final episode, but
everything starts unraveling as the episode progresses, making it like a
mystery novel in that regard. I can’t wait until next season!
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