Riders of Berk so far... What do you think?

[toothless11]

We're having another hiatus...who knows why, actually.

Berk I agree with everything you said there Especially Toothless needing to be more of a best friend. In the show he just seems like a "pet"...an animal that Hiccup controls sometimes (not always) when in the movie it is stated that they ARE best friends. I hope they can do something about that In one of the future episodes

[Berk]

True. Well, generally speaking these episodes are prepared well enough in advance that they wouldn't be working on them so close to their airing dates.

Although Christmas brings me to an interesting point...

CN should really be showing Gift of the Night Fury as a holiday special. I'll have to work on poking them about that for next Christmas.
________

Right. Well, yes. Toothless is an exceptionally independent dragon. I believe I read somewhere that inspiration from him was actually drawn from a cat (which I have to admit, I recognized immediately. Toothless is very cat-like in many parts of the movies). I am hoping that they do begin to recognize him more as a significant character rather than just a powerful beast for Hiccup to ride. Not to say that he isn't a powerful beast for Hiccup to ride, but it's important to stress that he's much more.

You have to stress that for a lot of things, really, to make a truly remarkable product.

[toothless11]

^So we don't get horrible results like in episode 8 and 9

Yeah I agree they should...Maybe it could confuse people who havent seen it though. It seems like GoTNF isn't cannon...So who knows if theyd air it or not. I say they should.

[Berk]

(I edited my above post because I saw your Toothless comments).

GotNF not canon? I see no reason why it shouldn't be. There's nothing which explicitly contradicts it being so. I'm not quite so sure how it would confuse people either. It may be out of chronology with the Riders of Berk series, sure, but a lot of shows do random "Christmas" episodes.

[toothless11]

Oh...just read it. I totally agree with you.

Well...we're not absolutely sure if it is or not. But there's stuff in it that gives us doubts. Can't mention those because i have to go now... Night

[Berk]

Mention it next time you log on then (although maybe in the GoTNF section). You shall not leave me hanging.

[toothless11]

Ehh I'll post it here since its related to the series anyway

Some of the reasons are:

-Baby dragons don't appear and arent even mentioned.
-In GoTNF, dragons are really smart (like in the movie) and they and the Vikings help eachother where as in the series the villagers hate them. They can't just say "well, things changed and they became like that".
-Toothless' new tailfin in GoTNF has some weird and strange gears on them. So does his tail in the series (I think they're even the exact same ones). Though he still needs Hiccup's help to fly.
-In GoTNF, Hookfang's a female(?). His gender was never mentioned...But we all thought he was a girl since he had children wit him...Unless he was just their father with them alone (the mom left somewhere.)
-Fishlegs didn't know Meatlug's a female.

Those are some...Can't remember if there are any others right now. I think I remember there was another one that made it almost obvious that something wasn't right... I have to go to school soon though D:

[sthefano]

Don't forget that in GoTNF Toothless was sleeping outside!
LOL
But, I those kinds of problems aren't an issue IMO. The real problem is that some episodes are really, uhm, incoherent. I didn't like Heather Report - Hiccup was a jerk, Stormfly just sold herself for some chicken and Stoick didn't even show up, even with the importance of everything that was happening. On the other hand I liked the thawfest episode, a lot. Lets say that the show was getting increasingly better, topping with Alvin and the Outcasts, followed by a really good "How to pick your dragon", then, well... Toothless11 said it all already, it went down really fast...

BTW, does anyone have any idea if the show was well received by the general audience? I live in Brazil, this show doesn't air here and I don't know anyone that knows about it. I know that when I see the live streaming with CF, there's always about 50 people watching it.

[barracuda]

Dec 10, 2012 15:29:02 GMT -5 @sthefano said:

Don't forget that in GoTNF Toothless was sleeping outside!
LOL

Talking about sleep... is it bothering just me that this obviously nocturnal animal is always seen sleeping at night in the series? Usually seems to be a shallow sleep, but still... just a few scenes where he's taking a nap during the day can't be that hard.

And I have the impression that RoB is more non-canon than GotNF, simply because the episodes are linked together too loosely to make sense as a whole.

[toothless11]

@stefano Well he appeared outside every morning...Maybe he went out by his own? And the best way to wake Hiccup up was by making noise on his roof XD

I agree...with episode 8, I really liked the father/son moments between Stoick and Hiccup. But a treasure hunt? There are TONS of shows where characters do that. That idea has been used to death already
And the animation quality was HORRIBLE, IMO. Same with Episode 9. The dragons healed very quickly (on the same night that they were given the antidote, to be exact). That's just too unrealistic...the quality was probably even worse than 8.
Heather report was pretty good...Though I do agree with what you said there. Stormily was too OOC, and probably stupid when in the movie dragons clearly aren't...
Thwarted was pretty good, and funny. Love the expressions on Toothless. It's about time they did that. Most of the time he just blankly stares in one direction with no expression at all...LAME.
When lightning strikes was probably my favorite up until now. They did really great on it
and I don't know...

barracuda Heh, so true! I've wondered about that myself a couple of times XD That's pretty strange...There has to be an actual reason behind that. Not just story reasons or whatever XD But I agree...They could just pose the model and leave him still throughout the scene. They're not animating him. So it shouldn't be hard at all XD I think that The dragons should be with the teens most ofthe time...I mean I've wondered. In scenes when only they're there, where are the dragons? I expected Toothless to be with Hiccup almost all the time, since they're best friends and probably the strongest friendship out of all of them. They should at least have them In the background doing something, or accompanying their riders.

I agree...GoTNF, like I've said, kept Many and probably all aspects and things established in the movie. It should be cannon instead. Though some stuff from the series should, as well.

[sthefano]

Dec 10, 2012 18:38:02 GMT -5 toothless11 said:

I agree...GoTNF, like I've said, kept Many and probably all aspects and things established in the movie. It should be cannon instead. Though some stuff from the series should, as well.

I couldn't agree more with the both of you

[toothless11]

Thanks GoTNF will probably always, be better than any of the episodes in the series. To me at least. There are some episodes in which the story is great though...But those I'm not sure if they're as good as Gift.

[Berk]

Hm... personally, I do think GoTNF is canon, as well as the series, although there are, as there always are, plot holes. We just have to deal. Obviously, the series is going to be of lesser quality than the movie. They don't have the same budget or time for animation, stuff has to fit into a half hour, the people making it aren't exactly the same as those making the movie. At the same time though, I, for one, am purely glad that we have it at all.

However, even though the series may not be as good as the movie, the series should still be good.

Both dragons and humans can be said to be out of character. In addition to the obvious Hiccup and Toothless, the other one I've noticed a lot is Astrid. Even in GoTNF (although for much of this OOC I attribute it to Astrid opening up to more than just fierce determination and drive for combat glory). In Heather Report especially it just seemed she was a little... off. Very loud and such. I'm not quite sure. In my own personal viewpoint, Hiccup, Toothless and Astrid are the absolute core of the story, and as such I'm most focused on them (and their relations) being done right.

I think. I think that they need to go... deeper. The flying and the dragons and the vikingness and all of it are fun. Of course there are some cliches (treasure hunts may not be entirely original but it seems just so much a Viking thing to do, plus they themselves have never used it) but those need to be sometimes embraced. But there is so much more to HTTYD. Those deeper feelings and friendships and motives you get when Toothless and Hiccup lock leg and wing and soar through the clouds, or when Stoick looks at his son with admiration, or when Astrid gives Hiccup a little punch and then pulls him in for a kiss.

There is so much potential in the world of Berk, and just so much you want to see and embrace. There's a lot to be told, both in the adventures and in the everyday life of the people of Berk and their dragons. And I think the series (as well as the upcoming movie) has a lot of potential to tell those stories.

For Stormfly in Heather Report (is that a bad pun?) I'm not sure whether to think that she was stupid (probable considering the series) or incredibly smart. One one hand, you could say that she was easily bought by chicken (never seen a chicken on Berk, but they have to be there somewhere..). On the other hand... you could also argue that she was able to sense that Heather really was good and had good intentions even when the humans couldn't, and as a result was more willing to help her.


Sthefano, I can't claim I know how the general audience recieves it with a great degree of accuracy, but from what I hear the critics think it's good, and younger kids, who don't worry about the fine nuances of the stories like we do, seem to like it.


I think I really should start my "Contacting the Creators" thread. I have a feeling it's something we could use.

[toothless11]

Yeah I agree with everything you said...You mentioned some good points there XD I too think it should deeper as well, and have the series more "darker" as they said it would be. Which is why i loved the newest episode, because it did just that

And can't wait to see that thread XD

[Berk]

Well, yeah. My own personal opinion is that they need a mix. They do need some dark points. But... okay. I'm going to need to reference the movie as a prime example again. There were some parts in the movie which were definately "dark". There were some parts that were comedic. Some parts that were inspirational... I think we need to balance it. The show having a 30 minute limit, we may see episodes which dominate in one trait (When Lightning Strikes being mostly dark, for instance), but all episodes should as exceptional as the movie as possible.