EP110 "Heather Report Part 1"

[buckmana]

Oddly, I couldn't find this thread, so I hope it's okay that I create it.

Discussion thread for Heather Report part 1.


I am confused by one thing in the episode though.

When Hiccup goes after the falling Book of Dragons, this doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

In the opening scene of the movie, we see that Toothless is quite adept at destroying catapults.

In Hiccup's position, I would have let the book fall (or sent Stormfly to get it) while Toothless destroyed the Outcast capapults.

You can't fire flaming rocks into the air if your catapult is a pile of burning lumber.


I'm also wondering that the point of the Curious Astrid scene is.

Shortly after they rescue Heather and are preparing to take her back to Berk, Astrid hears a creak inside the wrecked boat and goes back to look inside.

I was expecting something more to come of that, like maybe she'd find something that didn't quite add up, hinting at what is really going to happen at the end of the episode.

[sannom]

May 18, 2013 14:35:36 GMT -5 buckmana said:

In the opening scene of the movie, we see that Toothless is quite adept at destroying catapults.

In Hiccup's position, I would have let the book fall (or sent Stormfly to get it) while Toothless destroyed the Outcast capapults.

You can't fire flaming rocks into the air if your catapult is a pile of burning lumber.

In the opening scene of the movie, Toothless is attacking from the safety of the night's sky which makes him nearly invisible, and the vikings have more pressing business (namely fending off the other dragons) than trying to shoot him down.

In that episode, they're attacking in broad daylight, they have no element of surprise, there are only four dragons with him (less if you take into account that Hookfang was busy with something else) and the Outcasts are pretty good shots. Dive bombing could have worked, but he would have needed more time to get into position.

[buckmana]

I always thought Toothless' basic tactic would work regardless of whether it was night or day.

Basically, he approaches at speed from a horizontal approach vector, fires off a blast that obliterates the catapult and then is gone before he can be targeted.

And once he's out of range, he turns to come back and do it again.

Even if you can see Toothless, you can't turn a catapult fast enough to aim it at him before he's gone.