Review: Dragons: Defenders of Berk “Zippleback Down”

Spoilers!

The episode starts with Gobber going over dragon traps. He is going over how to clear the traps, so they can get the ones out in the wild out. Hiccup has no confidence in Ruff and Tuff, because they have done nothing to show they were paying attention. They take offense, and run off to start working on the traps. Tuff was the first to get caught, and Ruff tries leave to get Hiccup. She tries to fly, but you need two people to fly a Zippleback. Hiccup is clearing a trap, and almost sets a   forest fire due to the wind and drought. He goes back to tell his father that these are the conditions for a forest fire. Ruff is walking toward Berk, but gets attacked by baby dragons throwing apples. Meanwhile, Tuff, Belch, and Barf are about to get attacked by a wild Typhoomerang.

Belch and Barf attack the Typhoomerang, but to no avail. So, they use their attack, and miss. However, a stray ember flies off, and catches a patch of the forest on fire. Meanwhile, Tuff has a rather comical showdown with the wild dragon, thinking he knows the dragon. Back at camp, Hiccup is getting worried, because the twins haven’t come back. So, he goes out to find them. Back at Tuff’s, he is starting to train the wild Typhoomerang, in a weird, but rather funny way. Ruff is still in the woods, and sees the massive plume of smoke. She decides to literally retrace her steps back to Tuff. Hiccup makes it to the twins just in time to come face to face with the Typhoomerang.

Hiccup realizes he knows the dragon as well. So does the dragon, who gives Hiccup a dragon hug, if that’s even a thing. Hiccup thinks back, and it turns out to be Torch, a dragon he took care of before. He was a cute, wee little dragon.  The fire comes closer, and Hiccup just uses Torch as a Dragon aircraft carrier, grabs Tuff, and flies off. They land, and they decide to clear the trees ahead of the fire, essentially fighting fire with fire. They all flap their wings, directing the fire. Torch spins the fire into putting itself out. They make it back to Berk, Torch flies off, and all ends well for gang. Well, except for Ruff and Tuff. Gobber refused to let anyone help Tuff get out of the trap. Ruff, however, tries to help, but just gets herself get caught along with Tuff.

This episode, while light on the spectacular animation that this series is getting known for, was still very good. The one beautiful scene happens at the end, when Torch spins the fire to put it out. The scene, with the fire and smoke, really looked phenomenal. The guys behind the animation really need raises. As for the episode itself, it was fairly straight forward. Not that it’s a bad thing or anything, it was just something that you could figure out within the first 5 minutes. For as long as I’ve been watching Dragons, this is the first one that’s done this. Hopefully, the show goes back to normal when the show comes back after Thanksgiving. One side note, I love how they made Tuff seem like the underdog, especially after getting caught in the trap. He was able to somewhat train the Typhoomerang, and almost coordinated Belch and Barf to get him out. Ruff and Tuff are slowly becoming my favorite characters of the show.