Review: Dragons: Defenders of Berk “The Iron Gronckle”

If you’re asking, “What’s a Gronckle,” then this could be the episode for you. After the jump, the review of the latest Dragons episode!

Spoilers Ahoy!

Hiccup and the gang are giving an Outcast ship chase, with poor Fishlegs picking up the rear. Unfortunately, it’s because of Fishlegs that they lost the ship. He decides to stay back, and patrol the shores, thinking that the group would deliberate it a little. But they all agree, and go their seperate ways. As they leave, the Outcast ship is shown, in the rocks, escaping in plain sight. Fishlegs does what most fatties do, and eat away their emotions. Not so ironically, Meatlug is doing the same. After overindulging on berries and rocks, Fishlegs and Meatlug end up back at the village, with stomach aches. Gobber helps by tickling Meatlug, which gets her to spew lava all over the shop.

So, we end up with the Outcasts, back on the coast entrance under the village. It shows that the Whispering Deaths hatched, and starting to boar up through the earth. One grew bigger than the rest, and is scaring the bejesus out of them.  Back up top, Hiccup and the gang come back, upset that they couldn’t find the Outcast ship. Gobber comes, and shows them a new sword. Initially, it is discarded as being too light, but it cut through Snotlout’s sword. This makes everyone want something made out of gronckle iron.

The weapons are flying out of Gobber’s shop, all thanks to the gronckle iron. Meatlug vomited out all of her lava, so they need to eat more.  After a bit of pressing by Gobber, Fishlegs shows him where they stocked up on rocks. Of course, Fishlegs has no idea what rocks they were, so they loaded the cart up with as many different rocks as possible. Meanwhile, at the Flight Club, Hiccup and the group didn’t catch up to the Outcast ship. He goes on to say that Fishlegs could have been useful in this mission, and everyone discounts that.

Back at the shop, Fishlegs and Meatlug aren’t producing the gronckle iron. This throws the viking mob into a fervor, before Hiccup inadvertently gets them to start cheering for Fishlegs. If one rock doesn’t work, the obvious answer is shove every one in and hope for the best. That’s the smart idea, right? Apparently not, because it makes Meatlug magnetic. All of the objects hitting her makes her scared, and she runs off.

At this point, she is scared stupid, attracting every possible metal object in her wake. Snotlout takes point to herd Meatlug away, but when Fishlegs gives the heel command, Hookfang stops instead. (I have something to say about this later.) The chase goes into the forest, where Hiccup and Toothless take to the skies. They manage to catch up, only because Meatlug ran out of running room. Hiccup’s metal leg gets pulled in and Meatlug flies off. Toothless flies off in pursuit, with Fishlegs riding. Fishlegs actually shows he’s rather competent with predicting Meatlug’s movements, and manages to get close to Hiccup. After some banter about feelings, the Outcast ship they’ve been trying to get has been found. Problem is, they are in no position to fight. In the lone moment of intelligence, Hiccup got Meatlug to descend and ride next to the ship, getting all of their weapons to fly out of their hands. Fishlegs gets Hiccup to vomit out some magma, and her Magneto powers left her. The episode ends with Gobber giving the first gronckle iron sword he made to Fishlegs for taking down the Outcast’s ship.

I’ve come to the conclusion that every character has at least a mild case of retardation. But that’s the charm.  The moronic actions and choices serve the show well.  I also have to say, Christopher Mintz-Plasse does a fantastic job as Fishlegs. He was able to carry this episode with ease. Any less would have made this episode a drag. I was glad to see very little of the Outcasts, and no Alvin at all. The little teases for the Whispering Deaths has me excited to see how things go from here on out. Something worthwhile has to come from this. For someone who has no prior knowledge of the show, the build up to the Whispering Deaths seems like it’s going to be the big bad of this season.

As for the episode, it was good, but not as good as the last episode. There was less action, but not a lot of comedy. The only real comedy came from Fishlegs, but it got rather monotonous towards the end of the episode. Thank god that Hiccup got caught. Did anyone realize that he had a metal leg? I didn’t notice until Meatlug pulled him in. I hope to see more of the other characters soon, and get to see what these guys can bring to the show.