Dragons: Riders of Berk

So, having just watched Joss Whedon's Angel for the first time not that long ago (it was up second in my post bar exam viewing schedule), I was looking for another show that had a badass bookworm. I completely loved Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in Angel (Okay, more like was in love with. I have no idea what people see in Angel when you've got tall, dark and adorkable sitting around being ten times more sexy), who was a badass bookworm much like Rupert Giles before him. Dragons: Riders of Berk, which is a cartoon network show that is a spin off of/takes place right after How to Train Your Dragon, one of my all time favorite movies (indeed, it's supposed to bridge the gap between How to Train Your Dragon and the movie sequel coming out in 2014, which has an awesome trailer that you should check out). Like How to Train Your Dragon, Dragons: Riders of Berk stars Hiccup, a beanpole viking who is just as much an adorkable badass bookworm as Wesley was. Perfect.

Be aware that that this review will have some minor spoilers for Dragons: Riders of Berk and will simply assume that you've seen How to Train Your Dragon, so if you haven't and don't want to know how it turns out, I'm going to suggest coming back to this post later (please?).

So, my overall verdict on Dragons: Riders of Berk? It was good, but nowhere near as good as How to Train Your Dragon. While the series had some very good high points, it suffered a little bit from some unintentional squickiness, inconsistency, some repetitiveness and being aimed at children. That last one is, I think, the cause of the occasional repetitiveness and the true downfall of the show, partially because while the original movie was very much aimed at children, it didn't suffer from it the way that Dragons: Riders of Berk occasionally does. Somewhat delightfully, it does have a very Pokemon feel without the idiot protagonist or the uncomfortable contradiction between the whole you-should-love-your-pokemon message and the fact that while preaching this they're essentially cockfighting with them.

Dragons: Riders of Berk starts out with a premise I like a lot: yes, things have worked out for the better now that the dragons and the vikings are friends, but the fact of the matter is that dragons are wild animals (and more specifically, large, if friendly, predators) and that can make them tough to live with. It is, perhaps, an obvious place to go if one is going to be making a TV show set right after a movie wherein the protagonist shows his fellows that dragons are really not their enemies and can, in fact, be the most awesome pets known to man, but I do think it's a problem that most shows, especially ones where the dragons are as nice as cute as they are in this, would just hand wave or ignore entirely. The problem with this early plotline is, however, the formulaic and repetitive way in which it's handled. Until (spoiler!) Hiccup's dad gets his own dragon (awesomely named Thornado) in the sixth episode, we get the same exact story (basically) back to back to back to back: the dragons cause some sort of problem (usually involving destruction), people complain and the resident curmudgeon, Mildew, starts to stir up the residents of Berk against the dragons---because apparently they've all forgotten exactly how often they had to rebuild their entire houses before the dragons were their friends---Hiccup is tasked with controlling the dragons, but fails in his first attempt because, dammit, he's new at this. Ire at the problem caused by the dragons then rises, and Stoic then says, for the good of the village, "sorry, but those dragons have to go." Cue Hiccup fixing the problem and the dragons getting to stay. YAY!

Seriously, it's exactly that same plotline for the first four out of five episodes. Luckily, though, right as I was getting really tired of it, they do give Stoic a dragon and the next time Mildew manages to stir the village against the dragons, the dynamic has changed and Stoic isn't okay with getting rid of the dragons---and after that we never see anything even resembling that plot line again.

The show is at its best when it focuses on its characters and the relationships between them. How to Pick Your Dragon, for instance, the aforementioned episode in which Stoic acquires his dragon, is the first episode to really start doing this, breaking away from the aforementioned formulaic dragons-causing-problems episodes. Because of this, it really stands out as an episode as being very good, both of its own right because it focuses on the differences/relationship between Hiccup and his father (one of the strengths of the movie as well) and because it's being compared to those lesser, more formulaic episodes. After this, the show starts to focus more on these types of episodes (in addition to adventure storylines and progressing the overall storyline) and it really benefits from making this the emotional center as opposed to the threat of losing the dragons. Relationships were the center of the movie and the show does well when it follows suit. The best episodes of this show are the ones that focus on these relationships.

Another great delight of this series is the fact that Mark Hamill voices the biggest of the villains, Alvin the Outcast. I found this out because I thought that old Alvin sometimes sounded a hell of a lot like the joker and was delighted to find out that that was actually just because Mark Hamill was the one doing the voice acting. Mark Hamill as the Joker, and indeed Mark Hamill as a villain in general=awesome. Enough said.

Other than the repetitiveness of some of the earlier episodes, there were a few other things that bothered me enough that I feel like they deserve a mention here: the squicky accidental twincest vibe that exists between Ruffnut and Tuffnut, their hitting of the reset button regarding Astrid and Hiccup and the inconsistency sometimes seen in the show.

Given that this is a kid's show, I am pretty sure that the whole twincest vibe between Ruffnut and Tuffnut is accidental, but it's actually very strong. When I started mentioning it to Fathead, he immediately knew exactly what I was talking about, even though I'd only mentioned the words "uncomfortable" and "Ruffnut and Tuffnut." His reaction? "Oh, good, it's not just me."

On the show, the twins have this whole too kinky to torture thing going on where they beat the crap out of one another then talk about how they like it. It gives their whole relationship the air of belligerent sexual tension. This is sealed by the fact that when we get an episode that focuses on the twins, Twinsanity, it's ended with a held gaze between the two.

Dragons: Riders of Berk, you're doing twins wrong.

On the other end of the relationship scale, as mentioned above, they've basically hit the reset button in regard to Astrid and Hiccup, in an annoying attempt to give us some romantic tension. At the end of the movie, we're given the pretty clear implication that both Astrid and Hiccup are interested in one another, have expressed that interest and are going to be a thing. In Dragons: Riders of Berk, they're in that just friends but obviously interested in one another phase, which does nothing for the show. I'm serious, absolutely nothing. There was no point to it and they basically are just ignoring continuity that's already in place. It's probably stupid to be so upset about it but it but color me unhappy.

Finally, the show is occasionally very inconsistent in a way that is bothersome and speaks of poor writing. How many dragons live in Berk exactly? We have no idea. It varies from episode to episode. When the plot calls for it, it's just the dragons that the kids have. At other times, we see way more dragons who need to be removed. Even worse than that inconsistency is the fact that they once managed to casually forget that Toothless can't fly without Hiccup. Given that this is a huge plot point even within the show itself (and, of course, within the movie), I find the fact that they just forgot about it, especially since they really didn't have to, completely unacceptable.

So, I am looking forward to seeing the next season of this show, which will be starting this fall. That said, I am ten times more excited about the new movie coming out next year (have you watched the trailer for that yet? You should!).