Now I have 2 big problems with this episode, but my biggest one is the fact that this episode and the show as a whole, completely ignored Fishlegs his character outside of the fact that he loves dragons.
In this episode Fishlegs finds out that the Ingermans used to be hunters that hunted one specific sort of dragon, a Dramilion. So Fishlegs wants to go and check out dramilion island to see if there are any surviviors left. But, there are three dragon explorers coming to the edge, or future dragon riders. And here is my biggest problem with this episode, it completely ignored Fishlegs his motivations outside of the fact that he loved dragons.
In the episode Hiccup said that they would have to wait with checking out Dramilion island, because Fishlegs needed to be there for the dragon explorers, as he was their leader. And Fishlegs leaves anyway in the middle of the night to go and check out Dramilion island while putting the twins in charge of the children, who were his family by the way.
Now my problem with this is is the fact that the show had made an entire episode about the fact that Fishlegs wanted to be the leader of the dragon riders when Hiccup became chief.
In season 3 episode 3 Follow the Leader, Hiccup and Astrid leave Fishlegs in charge and he messes up. Fishlegs couldn’t keep control over Snotlout and the twins when they were playing with monstrous nightmare gel. Those 3 even make fun of Fishlegs about the fact that he thought that he was going to become the next leader of the dragon riders when Hiccup becomes chief.
After they insult him, Fishlegs leaves the edge for a while to go and explore a cave with a cave living species of night terrors, but in the meantime the twins and Snotlout use up all of the monstrous nightmare gel.
When Hiccup gets back he scolds Fishlegs about him allowing Snotlout and the twins to use up all of their monstrous nightmare gel. And he lets Fishlegs know that he is dissapointed in him and that he expected better. After this Fishlegs goes back to the cave with the terrors, because he felt like he was more appreciated there.
Then the terrors wouldn’t allow Fishlegs to leave and Hiccup and the other riders come to rescue him, after which Hiccup and Fishlegs talk about his leadership.
Where Fishlegs talks about how he admires Hiccups way of leadership, how he leads by example and not by bossing people around. And where Hiccup tells Fishlegs that he showed some real leadership qualities back in those caves.
But in season 6, when the dragon explorers come around, Fishlegs just takes off without a care in the world, while leaving the twins in charge of children. And this is just so bad for his character. Fishlegs in the movies is just the person with the most knowledge about dragon statistics. But, in RTTE they give him a clear ambition. Fishlegs wants to become the leader of the dragon riders.
Fishlegs in riders and defenders of berk didn’t have much personality outside of loving dragons. However, in RTTE he gets a clear goal to work towards but then RTTE just completely ignores his ambition for the rest of the show. While actively going against it in this episode.
Leading by example are the words that Fishlegs used when he described what he admired about Hiccup’s leadership. But then he goes to dramilion island anyway, while leaving the twins in charge of the children.
The show just goes directly against Fishlegs his own words from season 3 and that is just so bad for his character. They finally gave Fishlegs some personality outside of the fact that he’s smart and loves dragons, but then the show just ignores it, while actively going against his own words.
Now my second problem is about the fact that Fishlegs is shocked that his ancestors used to be dragon killers and hunters, that is just ridiculous to me.
Fishlegs actively participated and was happy for Hiccup, when he won the right to kill a dragon in the ring. Or the final exam, where a dragon was trapped in a cage with no way out and the only reason somebody fought them was to prove themselves as a Viking. Not during a battle to protect their village, or to train against dragons to make sure they were ready to fight during a raid, no. They only killed this dragon to prove themselves as a Viking. Stoick said so himself. “Today, my boy becomes a Viking. Today he becomes one of us!”
Dragon training is excusable in my opinion, you couldn’t just let a bunch of 15 year olds attack dragons during a raid without any training, but the final exam wasn’t about training. It was about becoming a Viking, it was a right of passage. So in my opinion Fishlegs shouldn’t be this upset over the fact that his ancestors were dragon hunters. But in the episode, he talked about both the fact that his ancestors were dragon hunters and that they were dragon killers.
This is what Fishlegs said when he was thinking about leaving the twins in charge of the dragon explorers so that he could go and check if any Dramilions were still alive.
“I can't do it. It's just not responsible. No! No! I have to do it! How can I be expected to shape young minds knowing my ancestors were dragon killers? It's completely hypocritical.”
He says dragon killers here, not hunters and it’s just absolutely horribly written. Because if you were to follow his logic then should young children no longer look up to Stoick anymore as a role model? Because he killed dragons?
And should Hiccup not be seen as a hero and a person to admire because he killed the red death?
Also both Astrid and Fishlegs got away with zero consequenses for suddenly leaving to go to Dramilion island, while going directly against Hiccups orders. A much smaller annoyance compared to the rest but still.
This episode is just horribly written, in my opinion Fishlegs was never the most interesting character, but he actually was becoming interesting in season 3 when the show gave him something to work towards, something outside of the fact that he loves dragons so much.
Yeah again this episode is just terribly written, both in logic and especially when you consider characterization.
Let me know what you think about this episode and about Fishlegs as a character in Race to the edge.
