David confronts his many fears when he stumbles into a ferocious battle during an overnight Sparrow Scouts camping trip with Hilda and Frida.
Song at the end: "Don't Let Your Love Fly Away" by Oliver Nelson
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Hilda and Frida hear that Sigurd has basically trapped the Vikings in a pointless eternal fight for hundreds of years they are pretty horrified, but when they tell the Vikings themselves they find it hilarious.
- Adrenaline Makeover: After dealing with the opposing Vikings and obtaining the power of Sigurd's Amulet, David changes his look to reflect his new outlook on life. Basically, David tore off the sleeves of his Sparrow Scout uniform, and used his scarf as a headband.
- All There in the Manual: In Torgund's clan, the two female members are not mentioned by name in this episode, and in Knudsen's clan, none of the members besides Knudsen are mentioned by name. All their names are revealed however on the official character sheet.
- An Aesop: Fear isn't always bad; sometimes, it is necessary for survival.
- Bears Are Bad News: Subverted. The kids come across a bear in the woods, but David (under the influence of the amulet) easily scares it off. However, Hilda and Frida's reactions make it clear that there had been no guarantee that the encounter would have gone that way.
- Big "WHAT?!": The episode ends with David reacting this way when Hilda mentioned that he died already today.
- Bloodless Carnage: The Vikings are hacked to pieces, but their (presumably) magic weapons do not show any blood or gore, as all exposed insides glow the same color as the weapons. Which is handy, because the episode would be absurdly violent otherwise.
- Bloody Hilarious: It's not "bloody" in a literal sense, but the dismemberment and death in the vikings' battles are played rather comically, especially when Sigurd abruptly cuts David's head off the second time to put it back on straight.
- Camping Episode: The episode follows the Sparrow Scouts going on a camping trip, and includes the tropes that come with it, such as telling scary stories.
- A Day in the Limelight: For David.
- Death Amnesia: The potion that revives the Vikings also wipes their recent memories so they forget they already fought their rivals once and died. David also forgets all about his adventure after being resurrected, with falling down the cliff being the last thing he remembers.
- Death Is Cheap: Sigurd's potion can instantly revive anyone killed by magical weapons, and he seems to have plenty of it.
- David dies twice via decapitation, but is brought back to life by Sigurd.
- The Vikings are also revived every night by Sigurd, because he thinks it's funny.
- Designated Girl Fight: Zigzagged; both clans consist of 4 men and 2 women, but while during the battle two of the women of each side end up fighting each other, the other two pick male opponents instead and nobody bats an eye about it.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The song, "Don't Let Your Love Fly Away", was heard throughout most the episode. During the credits, a reprise of the song is heard and it is performed by David's voice actor, Oliver Nelson.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: Even with the knowledge there isn't a trace of blood spilled, this is still the most visceral the show has ever gotten thus far.
- Fearless Fool: Whoever owns the amulet gains its power to lose all their fear. However, no longer having fear also makes them reckless and encourages them to adopt less strategic thinking, to the point their enemies can easily win (and it is implied that the team clan without the amulet is the winner more often than not) by simply employing tactics and strategy against their opponent. Sigurd downright says that he has no reason to want the amulet back because it makes the owner into an idiot.
- Flat "What": When David awakens Hilda and Frida with his bold new attitude ready to start a potentially dangerous day, both girls stare incredulously at him and say, "Huh?" at the same time. They even have the same confused look on their faces when they say it.
- Forever War: The two clans of Vikings are locked in an eternal battle due to one of them stealing an amulet from a swamp creature who in turn constantly resurrects them for centuries.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Downplayed; David does not become completely deaf when listening to his music, but it takes a while before he hears Hilda.
- Head Turned Backwards: The first time Hilda and Frida revive David, they accidentally put his head on his body backwards. Sigurd quickly kills him again so they can fix their mistake.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Torgund wields a sword in battle, and is arguably the most heroic of the Vikings (he did save David after the latter fell off a cliff).
- I Am What I Am: At first, David is ashamed to like light rock music because everyone hates it. Later on, he gains confidence and is proud to like his favorite music.
- Inertial Impalement: Torgund gets baited into charging an enemy Viking, who then steps aside as his teammate points out a spear that Torgund runs into. It's one of the clearer demonstrations that losing all fear made him a much more reckless, and thus worse, fighter.
- It Amused Me: Sigurd nominally keeps bringing the Vikings back to life as revenge for taking the amulet, but it really wasn't something he cared about, he just thought the idea of them killing each other over and over funny.
- Lean and Mean: Subverted. Sigurd is quite tall and thin. While he instigated the Viking war as payback for his medallion stolen, he's not really that bad of a guy.
- Loss of Inhibitions: With all of his fear removed, David feels free to boast about his tastes in music. Unfortunately, he also loses most of his tact and self-preservation.
- Major Injury Underreaction: When David gets decapitated, his head falls to the ground, and he survives long enough to say “Ouch!” in a small voice.
- Off with His Head!: At the climax of the episode, David's head was decapitated by one of the opposing Vikings. He gets better by the end though.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As his side is getting severely beaten, David rushes in to avenge them. Hilda, who tends to not think straight and just fight at times of combat, holds David to stop him from getting killed so foolishly. She explains to him that fear can sometimes lead to common sense, and that he shouldn’t just blindly charge into battle with little regard for safety.
- Also shown earlier on, when she and Frida encounter David the next morning. Seeing the normally shy and fearful boy behaving in such a brash and foolish way makes the two girls immediately realize that something is clearly wrong.
- Power Glows: The Vikings' weapons glow. Interestingly enough, anyone who is injured by their weapons has their wounds glow. If this some sort of magic or purely nondiegetic means of censorship is unclear.
- Resurrection/Death Loop: Every night, one clan of Vikings kill another to claim a medallion that will remove their fear. By the next day, the medallion's original owner has resurrected the first clan, who no longer remember dying or having the medallion, and repeat the process.
- Revival Loophole: The medallion's fear-removing effect last until death, which thanks to its effect isn't a long time. Thanks to Sigurd's potion, that's not much of a problem.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Sigurd has kept both Viking clans in a Resurrection/Death Loop for "what feels like forever" over stealing his medallion. As soon as Hilda questions this, Sigurd admits he doesn't want the medallion and realizes he's wasting his time putting the Vikings through battles they won't even remember over something he doesn't even want anymore when there's no outcome or benefit for him, and decides to put and end to it.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: While under the effect of the medallion, David's Sparrow Scouts uniform loses its sleeves and he begins wearing the scarf as a headband, signifying his loss of all his fear and embracing a more stereotypically masculine persona.
- Smash to Black: Upon David yelling, "WHAT?!", when he hears Hilda sarcastically thinking he already died, the episode immediately cuts to the credits as if nothing happened.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: The amulet may have made David more brave, but he doesn't automatically gain the same combat skills as the Viking clans who have been clashing for many years, as seen when he tried joining the battle, only to get immediately decapitated.
- Swamp Monster: The swamp creature called Sigurd is a tall, green, humanoid being whose body is mostly covered in the mud from the swamp. The tie-in book "Hilda's book of Beasts and Spirits" mentions that Sigurd's race is actually made from mud and vegetation.
- Understatement: When Hilda is trying to calm a courageous and foolish David down, she asks why he's asking like this. She then adds that he's behaving, well, different. David bluntly replies that he's fearless now.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What will become of the Knudsen Clan now that they have the medallion and their rivals no longer want it? What will Torgund's clan do with the potion that can endlessly reverse death itself? How will either clan handle the fact that the world has changed significantly while they were trapped in an endless loop of being killed and revived? Since they are not seen again after this episode, all these questions remain unanswered.
