Awesome / Dragons: Riders of Berk

Season 1

How to Start a Dragon Academy

• Hiccup capping a demonstration of dragon riding acrobatics by gliding straight at a ledge, jumping off Toothless, running across the ledge, then jumping back on. When he jumps onto the ledge, he lands on his prosthetic foot, and doesn't break stride. A far cry from his stumbling at the end of the first movie.

Animal House

• Toothless and Stormfly saving Hiccup and Astrid from an avalanche, creating a pocket in the snow with their wings and then shooting fire at the top until it breaks.

Alvin and the Outcasts

• Gobber splits a tree with a thrown kitchen knife, demonstrating to the vikings that they aren't entirely helpless against the invading forces.
• Gobber outruns several Outcast soldiers despite missing a leg and preform some acrobatic keeps while running.
• Astrid gets a few:
  • Stoick trusted her with one of the few surviving axes in the village.
  • She knocks out Mildew, who was about to give up Hiccup to the Outcasts.
  • Then flinging aforementioned axe at Alvin's head when he wasn't looking. Yeah, he caught it, but she demonstrated that she was willing to take on Alvin without hesitation. Later, she also managed to take advantage of the steam the dragons create to knock Alvin about and effect an escape.
  • The fact that Alvin was able to catch said axe without even looking was a pretty sweet scene.
  • The Big Damn Heroes moment when she and Stormfly torched the arrows that had Hiccup's name on them.
• Hiccup tricks Alvin into taking him to Dragon Island, where he then saddles Toothless and demonstrates that he's not to be taken lightly.
  • He even manages to make Toothless's initial play-tackle into a distraction, making the Outcasts think he was really fighting a Night Fury when in fact he was getting Toothless's saddle. Even with Toothless there, that takes some serious guts.
• Stoick's fight with Alvin. The big guy finally has a physical match, but Alvin has the disadvantage of having tried to take Stoick's son, and gets himself anchored by the ship's mast for the trouble.
• The dragons burning Alvin's ship. Notably, the one area this show tends to fail animation-wise is when the dragons breathe fire, but this was very well done.
• Stoick letting Mildew know that he intends to let the dragons stay after all, seeing as how they saved their lives.
• Hiccup gets another for calling out Mildew.
  Hiccup: And I may not be able to prove what you did, but I will never forget it.
• A rather subtle awesome moment is that Hiccup is recognized outside of Berk for his achievements of ending the feud between Dragons and Vikings, his ability to tame them, and the battle with the Green/Red Death. "Dragon Conqueror" sounds like the most fitting Red Baron title for him. He is just too modest and prefers "Dragon Trainer" instead.
  • In addition to Red Baron, he's a full on Memetic Badass. One of Alvin's lackeys thought he was "ten feet tall and had the strength of a dozen men."
• As well as being hilarious, Hiccup dishing out snark to Alvin and his crew. These guys could kill him at any moment, and yet he's talking to them as if they were more like an annoyance. If there was any doubt that Hiccup was Badass.....
• A villainous one is Alvin's introduction. His men are struggling against an army of dragons. His response is to throw them away, flip a catapult over single-handedly, and use it to shoot down a Nightmare. He then does an Unflinching Walk back to his base as two dragons' fire-breath hits the ground behind him.

How to Pick a Dragon

• Stoick capturing the Thunderdrum by himself after it yanked him underwater and sent both of them flying through the air into the boat, Stoick excitedly yelling the whole time that he's found his perfect dragon in a hilariously badass way.
• No one can deny that Stoick and the Thunderdrum fighting off red-eyed wild boars was pure awesome. Then they team up and wipe the rest out as dragon and rider. To seal the deal, Stoik chooses it as his dragon.
  • Another one is that the same Thunderdrum had little trouble dodging Toothless's plasma attacks, which hasn't been seen before.
  • And because Stoick has a dragon of his own now, it's a subtle moment of awesome in that the chieftain himself approves 100% of dragons and a way of life with them, he is essentially sponsoring bonding with them, meaning more Vikings are likely to try learning about working with them. This also renders Mildew's viewpoints entirely moot and even outdated.
  • The episode also contains a minor one about Gobbers work as dragon dentist. After he removed a Gronkel's bad tooth he uses it to cut the strong rope which held the dragon's mouth open, showing just how sharp these things are.

Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man

• Hiccup takes on the challenge of solving an old puzzle that nearly ruined Stoick and Gobber's friendship out of frustration. Those two took a month before being stuck at the Beach stage. Hiccup? With some help of his friends (mostly physical) he solved it in a day, highlighting his talent as a Guile Hero coordinating his friends and their dragons. It also helps the puzzle was later discovered to have been created by a "Hiccup" himself. The teamwork makes it equal parts awesome and heartwarming.
  • A mild one for Thornado: Toothless was exhausted after carrying Stoick around for an entire day one episode earlier. Thornado has been carrying Stoick and Gobber for the better part of a day looking for the kids and is just fine.

Dragon Flower

• Hiccup calmly declaring he was going to go on a hunt to find a Scauldron with Stoick and Gobber, knowing the creature could kill him easily. While this shows how much of a badass he has grown to, the fact he is competent on the trip and showing himself as a capable Viking subduing the dragon without Toothless helping was just amazing to watch. It's as if he is a whole different person compared to the movies.
  • His casual reply to Stoick warning him not to get bitten: "I know, I know, I'll die within twenty-four hours, got it dad." This kid will do anything for his dragon.
  • There is also the fact that Stoick directly agrees with Hiccup's assumption of Mildew with the dragons getting ill (right after finding Thornado in the same situation). If you looked at his face during the visit and on the boat ride, it looks like he is waiting for an excuse to kick Mildew's ass or banish him.
    • And when Mildew tries to refuse to help, Stoick orders him to help "or I'll throw you overboard myself!"
    • The Scauldron is pretty badass too. Even with a proper, logical-sounding plan they couldn't milk it for venom. Thankfully, it bit Mildew.
  • Stoick also gets an Offscreen Moment of Awesome. He's gone for half the episode because he was meeting chiefs from other islands. These meetings are so dangerous he buys himself a new sword for the occasion (admittedly, as an offering to the host chief who gets mad if he's not brought a gift). Then he flies off and the merchant looks in awe and saying how amazing dragon riding is. It may have become normal for Berk but for other islands it is a breath taking feat. Now imagine the look on the face of the other chiefs when he arrives riding a Thunderdrum.
    • Doubles as an Offscreen Moment Of Funny given the chiefs of the other islands would likely have an Oh, Crap! expression seeing Stoick on a dragon. Given Stoick's good mood upon returning, he likely had few issues while there.

Heather Report, Part 1

• Astrid gets several in in episode 10. Most notably jumping from Toothless onto Stormfly and wrestling with Heather in midflight and winning!

Heather Report, Part 2

• Astrid continues leading the awesome parade, infiltrating the Outcasts and goes all Guile Hero on us. Hiccup must have been giving her private lessons on the style.
  • More impressive given it shows her development from trying to solve every problem with violence in the movie to employing social tricks and small gambits.
  • Going toe-to-toe with a Monstrous Nightmare, and beating it, thanks in part to remembering the trick she'd just learned from Snotlout. She also later manages to weaponize the dragon against Alvin by punching it in the face. Though she does apologize to it, first.
  • She's also become the first cast member to bond with more than one dragon. That in itself is badass.
  • Even happens in-universe. Alvin practically gushes at how cool it was that Astrid's Monstrous Nightmare saved her life of its own volition.
• Heather gets one. She saves Hiccup and co from the Outcasts.
• The battle between the Outcasts and the Dragon Riders of Berk was a great one to witness.
  • Especially notable since the kids didn't bring Stoick or Gobber in on the fight, and handled it on their own.

Thawfest

• Hiccup handling the obstacle part of the final race pretty well despite Snotlout's physical advantage. He dodges the rolling logs as easily as Snotlout and is only slightly behind the bigger boy; his prosthetic leg not only doesn't slow him down, he actually uses it to brake when he slides down the rock wall! Snotlout even gets one for taking a small boulder to the face and shaking it off. But the crowner is the end of the race when Hiccup intentionally loses so Snotlout can save face with his father. Sure, he came in second, but he got a full-on kiss from Astrid for it. That is a heck of a consolation prize!

When Lightning Strikes

• To prove a point he will do anything for Toothless, Hiccup decides to provide a demonstration himself that the metal is a lightning rod more than Thor being angry: By getting on top of a sail mast and holding a metal rod up. He promptly gets zapped directly on the head and falls in the ocean, but he survives and has no ill side effects despite a direct blow. Talk about determination!
• Stoick, Gobber, Bucket and Mulch willing to take on an entire mob to keep them from Toothless. Especially impressive is Mulch and Bucket, who, despite considering joining the angry mob, declare, "We stand by the chief!"
  • Also, consider: the Stoick of the movie or the first few episodes of the show would have gone for the 'banish the Night Fury' strategy as a first resort. Here, through the entirety of the episode, he says "Screw that, Toothless stays!" Character development!
• When Hiccup falls into the water, Toothless instantly breaks out of the same kind of apparatus that held him in the film, and goes after his rider.
• An easily missed one, but the kickstart for the episode's issue is that dragons would cause roofs to collapse when they landed. Hiccup's solution is a set of perches over houses, thus allowing dragons to land on high ground without compromising the integrity of the buildings themselves. In past episodes, just getting here would of been a major plot point. Now? A dragon problem comes up, Berk looks at Hiccup and asks "Okay, how do we fix this?", and Hiccup has time to make a solution. Such an unstated scene, but it shows that on simple dragon problems that Berk has become flexible and learned that adapting will take time to figure out everything instead of always leaping right to banishment.
  • Even better: after listening to Hiccup's explanation, while not believing it thanks to Mildew's counterargument, they also give him the chance to explain and actually give him a fair shake. If Mildew wasn't there, Hiccup might not have needed to get zapped to prove them wrong. And when they were proven to be wrong about Toothless, they bend over backwards trying to apologize. As Hiccup states;
  No matter how much things change around here, Vikings are still Vikings. They're not afraid to admit they're wrong. And when they do, watch out: You'll be up to your ears in pie and smoked fish.

What Flies Beneath

• Hiccup & Toothless VS the Whispering Death.
  • Even more impressive was that Toothless was mostly holding its own before he allowed Hiccup to ride on and help him fly. Combined, the Whispering Death did not stand a chance. (This may have been the only time Toothless was fighting at full power before he allowed Hiccup to help him. Other times he often held back.)

Twinsanity

• The Vikings tricking Dagur the Deranged with a fake dragon attack.
  • With nothing but HAND SIGNALS no less.
  • Don't forget Hiccup's performance, "saving" Dagur from the "vicious Night Fury". And Toothless letting Stoick pull on his tail to add to the charade.
    • Don't forget, Hiccup got to smack Dagur with a shield as part of it. That had to feel good.
    • One for the animators—they made sure in all shots of Toothless during the "attack" didn't have his artificial tail fin on, because of course Hiccup would have taken it off to preserve The Masquerade.
  • And Meatlug's "hug" command has battle applications, as Hiccup has assumed.
  • Hookfang starting the attack from outside the arena by climbing down on the chain-dome was pretty cool too.
  • And the original Moment of Awesome here goes to Fishlegs for inventing the hand signals in the first place.
  • Stoick being ready to kill Dagur and provoke war against much more powerful Berserkers to save Barf & Belch from being killed. That's a huge Character Development, considering that at the end of the first movie or first few episodes of the show he would surely slay the Zippleback for a peace treaty.

Defiant One

• Hiccup and Snotlout, on their own and with a flightless Toothless, outwit the Outcasts on their home turf after falling on it on accident. It so bad that Alvin himself is aware of how embarrassing it is that two children arrived onto their island and kicked their asses. The two acknowledging the awesome on the way back. A few moments include:
  • Snotlout going toe-to-toe with the Outcasts, who are trained adults. One of the bouts was two on one! Turns out Snotlout can be just as badass as any other Viking if he really tries.
  • Hiccup still dropping snark while surrounded by Outcasts again.
  • Snotlout arranging an ambush, on the fly, worthy of any strategist.
  • Snotlout defeats the remains of Hiccup's escort with a rod meant to fix Toothless's tail.
  • Said rod was made by Hiccup and was so well made it worked despite whacking Outcasts senseless.
  • Hiccup catching the connecting rod mid air and whacking an Outcast with it. Without blinking once.

Breakneck Bog

• Hiccup jumping off Toothless onto the ship and landing in a ninja-stance. Incredibly cool when you remember how physically clumsy he usually is/used to be!
  • And remember, he has a prosthetic leg. It doesn't slow him down at all.

Gem Of A Different Color

• Fishlegs finally getting fed up with Snotlout's crap, and scaring him into giving up the last Changewing egg. Fishlegs! Even gets lampshaded by Bucket.
  • Even better; Hiccup's end narration about what courage really is; about standing up in face of the fear. To get a baby dragon back to its mother, to help those they love...
  Hiccup: "... or to give a special someone the buttkicking they so richly deserve.
  • With that voiced over just as Fishlegs is about to take Snotlout on head on in hand-to-hand combat training.
• Fishlegs also races a trio of utterly pissed off dragons, in order to save a baby careening down a hill - with some help from the others attempting to shoot the dragons out of the way, which means there's explosions in the background as well. He even gets a slow motion shot as he reaches out and catches it - it's one of the most badass scenes in the series.
• A small one, but when Hiccup and Astrid are fighting, Hiccup actually manages to flip Astrid over him. It's not much, but that's some improvement from the village's weakest viking.
• Stoick and Gobber grabbing Logs to beat Changewings with.
• Snotlout declares that he was just going to take the "stone of good fortune" from Fishlegs. Astrid immediately gets in his face and asks him how badly he wanted it, with the clear implication she was going to clean his clock if he tried to take it from Fishlegs. Snotlout disengages saying she's lucky he won't hit girls...
  Astrid: "Yeah? So are you."

We Are a Family

• Toothless escaping from the Outcasts by refusing to eat, then casually tail-whipping the guards stupid enough to remove his muzzle.
• The Berk's crew taking Alvin's soldiers by surprise with the help of Johann and his ship was AWESOME!
• On the villainous side of things, Alvin achieves Magnificent Bastard status in the second half of the two-parter. He has Mildew act like he is another disposable pawn so he will work with Hiccup and learn the dragon bonding and taming process. All while the main cast is unaware of what just happened.
  • We can add Mildew to this one, too. Not only did he have a hand in The Plan itself, but he also played his role to perfection. He fooled absolutely everyone and now he trains dragons for Alvin.
• All the dragons minus Toothless get one at the end when they work together to free Toothless and Hiccup. Meatlug, Barf and Belch keep the Outcasts at bay with their fire while Hookfang and Stormfly dive in to grab Toothless and his rider and carry them to safety. Even Hiccup is amazed and Astrid can only say that they took their training to a whole new level!

Season 2

Live and Let Fly (Flight Club)

• Hiccup continues his ascent up the ladder of badassery levels by not only defying his dad's ban on flight, but also being the one preparing for a potential war with the Outcasts. Bonus points for having the balls to call him out on exempting him and Thornado from the ban.
• Alvin continues his Magnificent Bastard level of cunning by distracting the riders and Stoick so he can slip under Berk a ton of Whispering Death eggs. Hiccup was right to be suspicious of the easy victory.

The Iron Gronkle

• Fishlegs riding Toothlesss and keeping up with a Meatlug with Hiccup stuck to her.
• Sinking the Outcast ship by essentially doing a flyby, attracting all the Outcast's weapons and knocking it off course, then demagnetizing Meatlug and dropping all the metal right on top of the ship. Even considered such in-universe by Gobber as one for Fishlegs.

The Night and The Fury

• Hiccup facing down Dagur the Deranged in single combat, with almost no help from Toothless, and winning. Effortlessly, at that.
  • Complete with a shield throw that would have made Captain America proud.
  • Heck, all the tricks in Hiccup's shield. It has a grappling hook and can turn into a crossbow.
• Astrid dodging a full volley of spine shots from a wild Deadly Nadder. The Nadder was so embarrassed or annoyed that it just walked away.
• A villainous one for Dagur, being smart enough to bring the armada with him.

Tunnel Vision

• The Screaming Death just screams badass. Like the Red Death, it plows through everything, shrugs off every single attack, and not even falling debris injuring its wings slowed it down.
  • Also, at one point it shoots fireballs like a machine gun.
• Hiccup taking out the Screaming Death with a tactic similar to how he took out the Red Death... taking advantage of its natural traits to cause it to crash into a rock formation. Except instead of igniting its gas, he just lets it cause a landslide to cripple it.
• Stoick grabs another log to beat the Whispering Deaths with, then having a Big Damn Hero moment with Thornado saving Hiccup. Gobber also gets right up to the faces of the Whispering Deaths, smashing them with a warhammer and blocking flames with his shield.

Fright of Passage

• Hiccup and Toothless saving a paralyzed Astrid and later Fishlegs from the Flightmare.
• The plan to divert the Flightmare? Repeated airstrikes by Toothless to blow a new channel for the water to flow while Meatlug sealed the old one.
• Astrid showing off her Badass Normal credentials by facing off with the Flightmare on foot to distract it several times, keeping pace and doing some insane acrobatics.
  • And she came up with the plan to keep the Flightmare off of Toothless long enough to finish the new channel: Giving them a taste of its own light.

Worst in Show

• Hiccup demonstrates his dragon-training prowess once again, training his Terrible Terror, Sharpshot, to fire multiple fireballs at airborne targets (In the space of a single day, no less).
• The teens using their Terrible Terrors' skills against the Outcasts.

Appetite of Destruction

• To establish how powerful the Screaming Death is, it brings down no less than four islands simply by burrowing under it and also nearly sinks Dragon Island.
  • The only reason the last one was saved? The Gronckles of the various island go over their shot limits to seal the worst of the tunnels with lava, which the water then cools into hard rock.
• Hiccup and Fishlegs trained Terrible Terrors to act as messenger hawks back to Berk.
• The various dragons turned into refugees as their islands are destroyed get their revenge on the Screaming Death when Fishlegs and Astrid get them together and bring them to the Screaming Death, who proceed to Zerg Rush the thing until it leaves.
  • Special shoutout to Fishlegs for figuring it out via Fridge Brilliance in regards to territoriality.

Zippleback Down

• Tuffnut, of all people, trains a massive Typhoonmerang that's later revealed to be Torch all grown up. The tricks Tuffnut teaches him become very useful when they have to stop a forest fire. Heck even Hiccup is genuinely impressed by this.

View to a Skrill

• Hiccup faces off with Dagur, who is using the Skrill as a weapon, in two-on-two combat (Hiccup/Toothless vs Dagur/The Skrill). Yet again, Hiccup wins with logic, causing Dagur to get electrocuted with the same cables he controlled the Skrill with, then Hiccup tricks it into knocking itself out by ramming head first into an icy reflection. The twins proceed to cause an ice-in to seal it in ice yet again with a large explosion in the glacial ravine it was trapped in.
• Tuffnut bluffs his way around Outcast Island pretending to be 'Buffnut the Berserker'. As in, he fools the actual Berserkers into thinking he's one of them.
  • The poem he composed on the fly was pretty good considering he had to make it up under pressure.
• Alvin's death. He takes on Dagur and actually wins pretty well, then Dagur takes command of the Skrill and uses it to send Alvin overboard. As Alvin dives for cover, he proceeds to overcharge the water, leaving only bits of metal armor and blown up rocks behind to float back up, and the Outcasts are now under the command of the Berserkers.
• Astrid, Fishlegs, and Snotlout take on three Outcast ships and essentially remove them from the fight for the duration, leaving Hiccup and the twins to fight the Skrill in the air.
• Bucket and Mulch of all Vikings having a badass fight with the Berserkers trying to free the Skrill. Of particular note is Bucket. Who No Sells a club to the bucket, and sends a Berserker running with just a look after that.

Free Scauldy

• To save Scauldy from the incoming changewings, Ruffnut cuts off her braids in an act of selflessness to use as rope for Scauldy's wing splint.

Frozen

• Hiccup and Toothless fly out into a storm bad enough it more or less freezes the top of the ocean solid in order to rescue Trader Johan.
• Off Screen Moment Of Awesome for Stoick, who by Gobber's telling managed to put up a fight hard enough against the Speed Stingers that it preserved Berk's remaining food supplies and it took six of them to paralyze him.
• Kidnapping the Speed Stinger leader, Astrid and Stormfly are leading it across the ice to their home island. They managed to leap up and incapacitate Stormfly. Cue Toothless picking up the cage and the twins providing Astrid cover. By lighting up a circle of fire around them so the Speed Stingers would avoid them while trying to get to their leader.
  • Then they managed to catch Toothless (flying low) just enough to force him to drop it, but fail to paralyze him entirely. He's out of plasma and can't fly, Hiccup is out of Bolas for his shield and the two are holding their ground. Then Hookfang melts a gap in the ice, forcing the Speed Stingers to retreat as they cannot fly either.
  • To add more focus, Toothless ran out of plasma blasts. This is the first time on-screen this has happened, so the Speed Stingers really are tough to deal with.
  • Plus, one of them tries to sting Hiccup, but goes for the wrong leg. Finally that injury actually comes in handy.
• The king Speed Stinger wakes up while Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Toothless are trying to capture it.
  Fishlegs: He's too fast!
  Hiccup: Not for a Night Fury!
  • Toothless proceeds to keep pace with an extremely fast little dragon and force it into a cage with a little help from Stormfly in actually forcing it in.
• Speed Stingers themselves manage to take out all of Berk, forcing them to retreat into the cove that Hiccup found Toothless in. They still pursue the Vikings in there and only retreat due to the sunlight rising.
  • In fact, taking out all of Berk. This is the town that fought legions of powerful dragons from Monstrous Nightmares to Deadly Nadders and only backed off when Toothless, the Red Death, or Flightmare showed up. The Speed Stingers? Took out the whole town in a single night.
  • Also note, these little dragons are barely the size of Meatlug and half the weight with no flight or fire breath. Their only advantage is a paralyzing sting and their speed, but they pull off a Zerg Rush that would make Kerrigan do a double take.

A Tale of Two Dragons

• While forced to ride each other's dragons, Astrid and Snotlout both uncover new abilities, with Hookfang's wing clap and Stormfly's single spine shot. They later put them both to good use when Barf and Belch go berserk.
  • In addition when restraining Barf and Belch Toothless didn’t show any struggle holding them as he did previously in “Twinsanity”.

The Eel Effect

• Fishlegs and Meatlug defeating the Typhoomerang with the Gale Force Gronckle.

Cast Out, Part 1

• Snotlout causes a catapult to fire by breaking formation during a drill to practice aborting missions when under heavy fire - the heavy fire being catapults manned by Gobber and a few other villagers. That's bad. The boulder launched by the catapult fired knocks Astrid off Stormfly at over 200 feet, causing her to plummet to her death. That's horrific. Hiccup and Toothless saving her right before she hits the ground? That's awesome.
  • To say nothing of Hiccup finally having enough of Snotlout's crap and grounding him, and being just this side of kicking him out of the academy entirely. Beware the Nice Ones does not begin to describe the Tranquil Fury Hiccup was showing as he chewed him out.
• Dagur slips Dragon Root into the Academy, setting up a situation where Barf & Belch, Stormfly, and Hookfang are trying to kill each other over it. Enter Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins who proceed to dodge or otherwise withstand their dragon's attacks long enough for Meatlug to get it out of there - oh, and they had to dodge it for far longer than needed due to Dagur shutting them in.
• After a series of Adults Are Useless due to dragon matters not involving killing them being over their collective head, Dagur provides a situation where their good old warrior skills come in handy. And they then proceed to beat the shit out of Dagur's troops, Outcasts and Berserkers alike, and forcing him to retreat.
  • Note that Hiccup and the dragons were not helping them here, due to the dragon root. Berk's people did that all by themselves.
• Alvin returns. How? Saving Snotlout while he was unconscious. ''From the Screaming Death! - then managing to get Hookfang to take them to Berk. That's how you make a return, ladies and gentlemen.
• The end scene. Stoick is captured, leaving Berk's fate in Hiccup's hands as next in line. Normally, such would be a feeling of doom. Not here. Not with the music swelling up, Gobber giving a Badass Boast by proxy in regards to their new ally of convenience, Alvin, and the scene cuts with Hiccup and Toothless looking over the moon lit bay, Awesome Music swelling as Hiccup declares he's going to find his father. Dagur's going to need to pay the rent in Hel ahead of time.

Cast Out, Part 2

• Once freed, Stoick proves his martial prowess by taking out three goons in two seconds - the last one an Offhand Backhand. And he does this without a weapon.
• Toothless carrying both Hiccup and Alvin, who did a twice the size of Stoick. Toothless had previously struggled to carry Stoick in the previous season.
• Hiccup outsmarts Dagur. Not hard, sure, but they way he does it leaves even the audience suspecting that his plan failed. Nope. All According to Plan as the Whispering Deaths beneath Outcast Island pick off Dagur's mooks before coming out in a massive swarm, allowing Mildew and Alvin to free them.
• Hiccup shield bashes two mooks while trying to get to Toothless. The best defense is a good offense, indeed.
• Toothless and Hiccup are separated by a large chasm. How do they solve it? Hiccup drops into it and Toothless catches him in mid-air. They then proceed to lay down a smackdown on Dagur's men.
• As an ending to the season, Hiccup ends it with a closing narration, just like from he movies. For all season, Hiccup has done no voice overs. And now, at the end, he finally drops one before flying off into the sunset.
• What? No love for Snotlout and Hookfang delivering that awesome never-before-seen fire move that helped free the trapped Whispering Death?
  • Rather, combining it with the gale force wind capability that Astrid discovered several episodes ago and the Nightmare's natural flame. Still impressive that Snotlout was able to figure the combo out on the fly, though.
• Fishlegs and Meatlug manage to dodge the Screaming Death long enough to lure it to Outcast Island while being literal bait. They do end up in its mouth briefly, but Meatlug farts, which causes it to release them. Doubles as a CMOF.

Season 3

Eye of the Beholder, Part 1

• Dagur is back, and he opens the show by taking out a dozen guards single handedly.
• Astrid is tipped into the ocean by giant eels, three of which are coming for her. Her reaction? Draw her battle axe. Luckily, Hiccup and Toothless get her out before she gets overwhelmed.
• Hiccup and Toothless navigate the The Reaper successfully despite all the booby traps.

Imperfect Harmony

• David Tennant as Spitelout is as epic as it sounds, as rather than only a few lines across both movies, here he gets a main speaking role on the Berk Council. And boy does he do well.
• Stoick fully supporting Hiccup's expedition, not to mention namedropping Valka in the same scene.
• Hiccup + Thunderdrum vs Deathsong. Hiccup wins by a literal landslide.

Big Man on Berk

• Despite being a major Jerkass, "Thor the Bonecrusher" does some pretty badass feats.
• Meatlug going after the Scauldron to save Fishlegs, complete with Test Drive playing and with Hiccup cheering her on.

Gone Gustav Gone

• After being captured by Dagur, Gustav manages to come up with his own escape plan and communicate it to Hiccup right under Dagur's nose. He may not be ready to be a dragon rider yet, but he's well on his way there.
  • His dinner scene with Dagur is also very impressive, turning Gustav's tendency to not guess the mood into utter fearlessness of the Berserker chief to the point where he notes the fact that Hiccup has never lost to Dagur right in Dagur's face with utter nonchalance.

Crushing It

• The whole group working together to stop a tsunami, the final blow being landed by Stoick and the newly introduced Skullcrusher.
  • Before that, Stoick shows subtle Character Development by taking the time to see how the Rumblehorn's actions aren't making any sense. He comes a long way from dragon killing Viking he was in the first movie.

Have Dragon Will Travel Part 1

• Heather is back and she has a dragon. When she and her dragon take on the Berk riders they nearly come out on top.
  • And the only reason they don't is because Hiccup and Toothless just flat out outclass the two.
• Heather fighting with her new double axe against the Twins and Astrid, sure they are just playing but it really shows how much the girl has changed.
• Hiccup interrogating Johann was pretty cool.

Have Dragon Will Travel Part 2

• Heather and Astrid vs an entire Berseker ship as well as Dagur? No sweat.

Total Nightmare

• Snotlout and Hookfang goaded the Titan Wing into following them through the Dome obstacle course, trapping themselves and the Titan Wing inside the dome. The much larger Titan Wing could not navigate while inside the Dome, and Hookfang exploited that advantage to take him down.

Season 4

Night of the Hunters Part 1

• Hiccup saving Astrid from drowning at sea.
  • Astrid surviving being out at sea for about a day.
• Ryker managing to sniff out Stormfly and Astrid's location. He even knew that Stormfly was a Deadly Nadder just by sniffing!
  • He gets more awesome points for knowing about Hiccup's plan to rescue Stormfly and successfully countering it.
• Tuffnut of all people successfully capturing a Changewing long enough to get some venom.

Night of the Hunters Part 2

• Ruffnut sneaking the key from the guard when she was pretending to beg for her life.
  • Actually she was begging for Barf and Belch's life, and rather convincingly.
• Hiccup coming up with the idea to use the scales from the Screaming Death to protect from the arrow dragon roots.
  • Even more amazing? It was Snotlout who stitched the scales to Hookfang and Toothless.

Snotlout Gets The Axe

• This whole episode is Snotlout's CMOA.
  • Yes, he does start the whole by losing his family axe, but he, not Hiccup is the one to come up with the idea to get it back. How? By luring the smaller dragons to the big dragon wearing the meal. Knowing that the small dragons would take off all the metal, which included the axe, giving Snotlout a chance to seize it.
  • And when they come to the ruined wedding, it's believed it was because Snotlout was late getting the axe. And when Hiccup and Astrid attempt to cover for him, he refuses. Snotlout walks straight up to his dad, tell what happened, and for the first time, stands up to his dad.
  Snotlout: I know what you're gonna say, Dad. I messed up again. I ruined the union ceremony. And I let you down, and all the Jorgensons down. But you have no idea what I went through to get this here. I risked my life and my friends' lives fighting a gigantic torch-breathing dragon for this stupid thing. And if that's not good enough for you, then I guess I'm never going to be good enough! I said it! So, here is your stupid axe, and sorry about the ceremony.

The Zippleback Experience

• Hiccup is all kinds of awesome in this episode. After he and Toothless save Barf and Belch, the dragon tries to repay a life-debt to them. So the twins conspire to put Hiccup in danger so that Barf and Belch would save him by getting Snotlout to fight him. Hiccup refuses to fight him and walks away, but then...
  Snotlout: You see that?! The future chief is a coward! [Hiccup glares at him] You heard me. Come on, hit me! You know you want to.
  Hiccup: [storms over to him] Fine. But remember, [pokes Snotlout's chest] you wanted this.
  [Hiccup delivers one powerful punch to Snotlout's face offscreen]
  Snotlout: OW! AH! What'd you do that for?! [Dazed] Oh, hold on, I gotta take a... [passes out]
  • Watch it here.
  • Think about what Snotlout says for a moment: the future chief is a coward and not you can't be chief or cowards don't become chief. There is NO QUESTION at this point that Hiccup is going to succeed his father. In a span of 3-4 years, Hiccup has gone from the village pariah/failure to the undisputed heir.
  • What's even more impressive, Hiccup punches Snotlout with his right fist, and Hiccup is left-handed. If Hiccup could hurt and knock out Snotlout with his less-dominant hand, who knows what damage Hiccup could've caused if he punched Snotlout with his dominant hand.
  • Then later, when Hiccup is captured by Ryker and Dagur, Barf and Belch show up to save him. They cut his ropes, and he fights off Ryker's crew. As in, he stops one of the hunters from swinging his axe down on his head by blocking the guy's arm. Hiccup, the scrawny talking fishbone of a chief-in-training was able to stop a far bigger opponent with his bare hands... It's far too awesome to describe with words alone.

Edge of Disaster Part 1

• Ruffnut giving Astrid an EPIC dressing down after being insulted one too many times:
  Astrid: The two of you don't think. You don't plan. You just come up with these crazy ideas and you forge ahead, with no regard for logic, or what you're even supposed to be doing! What am I gonna do with you guys? Seriously, tell me!
  Ruffnut: Well, you could start by being kind — oh wait, you can't do that because kindness is nowhere in that scrawny little body of yours.
  Astrid: What?!
  Tuffnut: Easy, sis.
  Ruffnut: BACK up, bro! I got this.
  Astrid: Do you know what your problem is, Ruffnut?
  Ruffnut: Oh you bet I do! I got a list of problems so long I can't even keep track. Question is, do you know what your problem is, Astrid?
  Astrid: My problem? Are you serious?!
  Ruffnut: Allow me to lay it out for you, my flaxen-haired friend. You have no respect for the people around you who are just trying to help and be a part of the team. You have no respect for Fishlegs, certainly none for Snotlout, and you couldn't have less respect for the two of us! Now, you can go ahead and shame the others, you can mock this entire island of dragons if you wish, but I am not gonna stand here and listen to you insult the ENTIRE NUT FAMILY TREE!
  • Undermined massively, of course, by the fact that Astrid's insults towards them are completely accurate and was primed by them compromising the security of Dragon's Edge. Which leads to...
    • Interestingly, it seems both Astrid and Ruffnut had fair points in their argument, with both sides pointing out each other's flaws. Both Sides Have a Point, indeed.
• Effectively alone (due to Tuffnut not helping) and with an entire fleet bearing down on the Edge, Astrid manages to set up considerable fortifications, including multiple siege engines and log traps. She may not be an engineer like Hiccup, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to set up a good defense.
  • In regards to Tuffnut, turns out he was helping. Many of his seemingly bizarre activities where actually techniques and contraptions to make the enemy think all the riders were present on the island. They even worked for a while.

Edge of Disaster Part 2

• Astrid gets a chance to fight Dagur in single combat, and beats him handily. And she gets to punch him out after holding him at axe point. Likewise, the defenses she established sink two ships outright in the opening skirmish.
• This was a great episode for Tuffnut as it shows how dangerous his ideas can be against the dragon hunters.
• Heather manages to keep her cover even with Ruffnut's obliviousness almost exposing her multiple times.
• Hiccup shows another advantage of his wing suit - like Inferno, it lets him show dragons that he is like them too. It works so well that most of the pack that previously was attacking everything human in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge were ready to move in to Dragon's Edge.
• Credit to Dagur for Spotting the Thread and realizing Hiccup, Fishlegs and Snotlout weren't on the Edge.

Shock And Awe

• Fishlegs saving the Seashocker. How? By jumping into the water, on top of it, and holding its antennas together to produce the powerful ball of electricity.
• The twins (by accident) manage to Loki the Scauldrons when they spill the electric eel into the cove.

Maces & Talons

• The whole two-parter could count as a long villainous moment of awesome for Viggo.

Season 5

Enemy of My Enemy

• Dagur throughout the entire damn episode. He's undergone a Heel–Face Turn after Viggo's betrayal, and introduces the new him by taking out a whole crew of Viggo's men offscreen. Then he saves Hiccup from falling off a cliff, shows that he's found a cure for Dragon Root, demonstrates a whistle that scares away Changewings, fights off Viggo's men again, flies to Hiccup's rescue on a barely controlled Toothless, and finally escapes the island he'd been stranded on with the crew's ship. Basically, everything fans wanted to see from him becoming a good guy.

Crash Course

• After a whole episode of nothing being able to stop the Cavern Crasher, Hookfang and the Fireworm Queen combine their firepower to take away its biggest weapon.
• Tuffnut and Ruffnut being able to guide Barf and Belch to make perfect Rushmore-esque version of themselves, and later, of Snotlout.

Follow the Leader

• Fishlegs showing his true leadership capabilities against the Albino Night Terrors, culminating in a Theme Music Power-Up as he opens the trapdoor to scare them away with the sun.
• Subtle, but Hiccup shows some solid Character Development by rightfully reprimanding Fishlegs for not making sure Snotlout and the Twins weren't causing problems. While he later admitted to feeling bad about it, the moment was still impressive on his part.

Buffalord Solder

• The twins figuring out where to find the supposedly extinct Buffalord to save Astrid. And then they give Fishlegs the realization of what exactly the Buffalord's antidote was comprised of.
• Hiccup using his man-made goggles/sunglasses and magnifying glass to find the Buffalord.
  • He also demonstrates the usage of a dragon glowing gel to find the Buffalord.
• After last season ended with Viggo thoroughly outplaying Hiccup, here Hiccup gets his own back by making a deal where he gets to save Astrid while Viggo gets the Buffalord...knowing full well how badly it will take being separated from its island.

Stryke Out

• Astrid going full Guile Hero to find Hiccup, tricking a Dragon Hunter into sending a message that they've already found the location so they can follow it.
• Toothless manages to beat the Razorwhip without killing it, by dropping his own cage on it.
• Then he follows it up by defeating the Triple Stryke, the dragon so tough that it was killing the dragon fight business. The awesomeness of this is further underscored by how Hiccup regards the emergency of the situation not to be about saving Toothless' life, but saving the other dragon from Toothless. The change Toothless undergoes when he starts fighting with intent to kill is a sight to behold. He launches himself with so much power that the wood beneath him breaks apart, the stopping power of his plasma blasts seems to double, and he moves so quickly that his opponent can't hope to counter him effectively.
• The Triple Stryke is nothing to sneeze at either. Being a unique dragon that specializes in melee attacks rather than fire, it proves to be incredibly fast and hard-hitting (destroying a wagon with a single tail strike during their fight) while being able to take Toothless' attacks without looking worse for wear. It actually has Toothless on the ropes until the latter decides to fight seriously. Of course, Toothless quickly gains the upper hand when he starts fighting to kill, but it's easy to see how the Triple Stryke has been effortlessly winning all the fights its been in.
• The whole team gets together again to take down the fights, all just about as furious as we've ever seen them.

Tone Death

• At long last, Hiccup invents his flaming sword from the second film.
• Tuffnut going into Papa Wolf mode when Snotlout makes an insensitive joke about eating Chicken. The lanky Tuffnut manages to knock down and subdue the more muscular Snotlout.
• It gets her temporarily trapped in amber for the trouble, but Chicken, the Team Pet to the riders, is the first one to realize the idea to use sound (read:songs) to communicate with the baby Deathsong; and Heather is second only to expand on it when she sings it to sleep.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

• While trying to get information out of some hunters Hiccup just having to look at Snotlout and Snotlout just snaps his fingers to get Hookfang to fire up to intimidate the hunters into talking. That's some good leadership and teamwork at play when Snotlout often impedes Hiccup.
• Fishlegs gets another great Theme Music Power-Up when he trains the two captive Quakens and then instructs them how to destroy the fortress Viggo was having them build.

Family on the Edge

• Dagur not only manages to learn how to fly a dragon and bond with one within two days, he then uses these skills to outmaneuver Heather in the air, whom is likely the third best dragon rider while riding the slowest and tamest dragon (a Gronckle), then destroys the shipyard trap Viggo set for the dragon riders all by himself armed with only a couple hand knives. Whether or not he sacrificed himself is rather ambiguous.
• One for Viggo's men - they had the discipline to hide the fact that they were expecting the Dragon Riders to attack at any time despite the Riders having regularly reconnoitered the area, to the point where Hiccup was under the impression that it was defended by stealth rather than traps. The patient hunter gets the prey...
• Credit where credit is due, Dagur's new dragon friend Shattermaster, the lovable green Gronckle is a fine dragon. Hiccup later mentions that he chose Shattermaster for Dagur because, in his own words Gronckles are, "the slowest, least dangerous" of all the dragons. Shattermaster, however, later proves that with a little instruction he's as good a flyer and fighter as any of the main riders' dragons.

Last Auction Heroes

• We get Grump's origin story, with Gobber convincing him to turn against Viggo, leading him to bust the whole gang out of a cell.
• Gobber vs. Ryker, including a sweet elbow drop from the former.

Season 6

Defenders of the Wing Part 2

• Mala shows that Rank Scales with Asskicking by taking on two dragon hunters by herself. At the episode's climax, she takes out the dragon hunter manning the ballista with the help from Toothless and promptly fires from it at Viggo's ship.
• How does Hiccup get the Eruptodon away from the Edge? Have Meatlug spew her own lava.
  • And Meatlug's solution when she realized she was out of said lava? Call out to other Gronckles for help.
• Barf and Belch tipping over the Eruptodon statue to keep the lava from reaching the Defender of the Wings' home.

Gruff Around The Edges

• Ruffnut not once being fooled by her cousin Gruffnut's schemes.
  • Not only does she pretty quickly peg "Tuffnut" as actually being Gruff posing as him, she also completely accurately figures out what's going on with Gruff and what his plan is (that he owes a lot of gambling debts to the Hunters and was planning to give them Barf & Belch to pay it off). Gruff himself is rather dumbfounded by this, outright calling her the smarter twin.
  • Ruff also manages to help Tuffnut out in his fight against Gruff multiple times.
• Seeing how much Tuffnut admires and defends Gruffnut, you wonder how much it's going to take before Tuff figures out what's really going on. But in fact, when he walks in on Gruff trying to feed and steal Stormfly, he figures out what's going on rather quickly, calls his cousin out, and accurately points out that he doesn't need to bother fighting Gruff, because none of their dragons will allow some random stranger to ride off on them.
• Tuff's chicken even gets time to shine, thwarting multiple attempts by Gruffnut to steal other Riders' dragons by warning them that the "Tuffnut" who's trying to ride them is an impostor.
• Tuffnut using Hiccup's wingsuit to fight Gruffnut (including diving off of Toothless while wearing it and successfully managing to reach Barf & Belch with it). And winning the fight with Macey.

Midnight Scrum

• Hiccup dodging arrows, blow darts, and axes in the beginning.
• The dragon riders putting on a show for Berk's 300th anniversary.
• Although a dark moment, how quickly Hiccup is able to identify that he needed to drop the masked bounty hunter and then figuring out how to do so by undoing his metal peg leg shows that his quick thinking is not just limited to being a Dragon Rider.
• Ryker tries to hold a sword to Hiccup's throat. Toothless easily blasts it aside and then Stoick wades in and easily beats him.

Not Lout

• After an episode of screwing things up over his insecurity about his future role on the team, Snotlout figures out the Dragon Hunters' plan entirely on his own and saves the team by blocking several ballista shots. He tops it off by figuring out where they're really growing the dragon root.

Saving Shattermaster

• The confirmation that Dagur and Shattermaster did indeed survive the fight with the Dragon Hunters from "Family on the Edge."
• Just about everything Snotlout does during the Trials to become Mala's king. Most notably, 1) walking over a pit over lava with no more damage than his shoes being burnt through, 2) battling his way through a maze of poisonous eels, 3) fighting off three giant eels and saving Fishlegs in the process, and 4) actually attempting and being willing to take an arrow for Mala (only failing due to a technicality and through no fault of his own).

Dire Straits

• While cruel, Viggo shows a cunning understanding of siege warfare by cutting off Berk's trade supplies to starve them into submission, and for not just assuming it will work but actively guarding the source just in case the Riders interfere again.
• Although easily missed in the horror of the moment, Trader Johann manages to avoid being caught in the Supmaripper's vortex and maneuver his ship cleanly away. Puts some credit to all his tall tales, doesn't it?
• Hiccup invents a bathysphere to help a dragon chained underwater. And the twins are surprisingly able to perfectly explain why a certain kind of acid is perfect for the job.
• Although little attention is drawn to it other than seeming to be a Call-Back, but Spitelout's storehouse gave Berk the time to figure out how to reopen its trade lanes.

The Longest Day

• Confronted with a new dragon that covers all aspects, Hiccup figures out how to divide the smaller dragons to give him a chance at taking down the big one... while worn out from sleep deprivation due to the midnight sun.
• Crossing over with funny - after having put up with the antics of the riders for most of the day, the dragons quickly conspire to dump all of them into the tunnel beneath the arena to make their riders get some much needed sleep.

Gold Rush

• Hiccup pieces together a series of clues such as the depth of the wagon tracks and the details on Viggo's map to figure out that the gold was hidden in plain sight, both crippling Viggo's monetary reserves and recovering Berk's gold.
• Confronted with ships equipped with dragon-proof armor, Dagur and Heather managed to work together to use the former's new maneuver with Shattermaster to punch straight through said armor. Dagur also finally earned his own Theme Music Power-Up.

Out of the Frying Pan

• Throk and Astrid - hoping to help Mala, Hiccup, and Fishlegs - manage to repurpose the diving bell to be able to survive lava using the Great Protector's saliva. They forgot about the chain, but not bad considering that the usual thinkers weren't available.
• When it seems like Throk's going to be making a Heroic Sacrifice - the Great Protector manages to get enough strength together to help pull him out. The angle certainly shows just why the Great Protector is revered the way it is by the Defenders.
• And speaking of Visual Effects of Awesome, the final shot of the volcano's heart as the lava flows in.

Twintuition

• After the Twins successfully (if accidentally) infiltrate the Dragon Hunter base while trying to get Tuffnut's Macey back, Ruffnut gives a very on-point speech to Tuff about how they've stumbled onto something that's much bigger than just Macey, and how sometimes you need to let go of something personal to you for the sake of the greater good. Too bad Tuff doesn't listen to her right away, but it's still awesome how Ruffnut is able to keep a cool head and think surprisingly logically despite the sticky situation they've ended up in.
  • Tuffnut does eventually come to the same realization; when he overhears a guard stating that he has important schematics for a new weapon the Hunters are building, he decides to abandon his pursuit of Macey to go after the schematics instead. Shows that, for all the flak the Twins get about being complete idiots (which, to be fair, is often deserved), when it matters most, they're able to keep things in perspective and make decisions with the good of their fellow Dragon Riders in mind.
  • He also succeeds in stealing these schematics, and presents them to Hiccup at the end of the episode.
• After Ruffnut is captured and brought to Viggo, she remains a Defiant Captive despite both Grimborn brothers threatening her and Viggo pointing his sword right at her face.
• Tuff basically Storming the Castle and beating up several Hunter thugs to try to rescue Ruff after she's captured. Following by Ruff successfully persuading him to flee when it's clear he won't succeed by pointing out that he can't help her or anyone if he's captured too.
• His Big Damn Heroes moment later, when the other five Riders are trapped in a Drowning Pit and pinned in place by enemy fire. He takes down several more thugs with Macey, and then sacrifices his beloved mace without a second thought to jam the gears and temporarily stop the pit from filling with water in order to buy his friends more time.
  • He also manages to successfully avoid an angry, sword-wielding Ryker for a while, despite being unarmed himself. Once he's finally cornered, Barf & Belch get their own Big Damn Heroes moment to save him.
  • Followed by Tuff directing them to finish off the chain net that's trapping the other Riders, allowing them to escape.

Blindsided

• Surprisingly, how Astrid gets blinded. When the dragon stables catch fire, she's first to them to get all of them - even a trapped Night Terror - to safety.
• Although told to stay in cover, Astrid is not just cowering as a Damsel in Distress, and instead spends her time listening and learning, managing to recognize the distinct sound of Sleuther's attacks until she's able to warn her team mates about them before they happen.
• And to cap that off, she then manages to disorient it and then approach it using little more than two of Stormfly's spines as noisemakers.

Shell Shocked

• We've seen giant dragons before, but never before have we seen dragons with as much range as the Shellfire. In short: if Toothless is the dragon equivalent of a stealth fighter, the Shellfire is the draconic equivalent of battleship. And it's submersible on top of that!
• Although it is just an Imagine Spot of Hiccup explaining his plan, the intro is nothing short of cool as it shows more or less every single one of Berk's allies cutting through the Dragon Hunter's main base. Sadly, the real deal was not as impressive as the base had already been wrecked.
• Dagur riding Sleuther, the Triple Stryke. For those who complained that Shattermaster didn't fit Dagur's personality, here's a dragon that embodies his deranged hunger for battle.
• The Submaripper defeats Ryker and his dragon and eats him alive.
  Ryker: VIGGO!!!!!!!!! (drowns and eaten alive)
  Tuffnut: OM Thor! Submaripper! Submaripper Rama.
  Ruffnut: Hate the smell! Love the Dragon!
• Once again, Hiccup faces a Friend-or-Idol Decision. His solution? Throw the Dragon Eye into the lava. Viggo tries to save it, only to fall to his fiery demise.

Season 7

Sandbusted

• Hiccup is trapped underground by a Sandbuster, which can't stand sunlight. His solution: rig a bunch of catapults to break open holes in the ceiling to form a cage of sunbeams. And when it proves able to just seal them up again, he makes a directional sunbeam using the medallion Stoick gave to Valka as a betrothal gift.

Something Rotten on Berserker Island

• While going through a secret cave to rescue Dagur, Snotlout shows off his physical and mental skills. For the former, he is able to jump across and lad perfectly on another mountain slide and easily pick up Gustav when he couldn't make it. For the latter, he comes up with clever tricks in order to rescue Dagur — The first was Snotlout being a diversion and Gustav sneaking in to to Dagur's cell. The second (and more impressive), Snotlout ties a traitor's foot that is connected to a boulder near a well. And when he sees another traitor about to mess with his plans, Snotlout distracts, overpowers, and throws him straight towards the boulder, causing both traitors to fall in.
• Hiccup, Astrid, Heather, Fishlegs, and the twins versus the entire coup garrison. They win, with a bit of long range support from Toothless.
  • Toothless' support should be noted because he's doing it from the top of a mountain with only Inferno as a guide to what targets to shoot - and he hits them all without hitting the riders next to the target. Night Furies never miss.
• Dagur and Snotlout vs 20 of Savage's men. The two-man team win.
  • This is the culmination of a story where three men fought a thousand. A thousand BERSERKERS, and won.

Return of Thor Bonecrusher

• After being snapped back to himself in the middle of a mess caused by Thor being a bad guy this time, Fishlegs immediately sizes things up and realizes the best thing to do is keep playing along, followed by getting a chart of the raiders' positions to Hiccup so they can win the fight while freeing Alvin.
• An Offscreen Moment of Awesome — Viggo, somehow, managed to survive after throwing himself into a volcano.

The Wings of War

• Krogan is confident that his use of enslaved dragons will deter Hiccup from attacking due to an unwillingness to Shoot the Dog. Even with that major handicap, the rest of the riders still managed to hold their own and screen Berk's fleet against the Zerg Rush... then Hiccup brings in his alternative solution, which nearly wiped out the Flyers as a fighting force in one battle.

No Dragon Left Behind

• Astrid's solution to get venom from a dragon that is coated in the stuff, which also can poison dragons through skin contact? Run up to the thing and punch it in the chest before running away. It does the job.
  • Also combines with Funny (the dragon's face afterwards screams "WTF just happened?"), Nightmare Fuel and Tear Jerker (Astrid quickly succumbs to the poison's effects), and Heartwarming (as Astrid does it all in an effort to save Stormfly).

Sins of the Past

• A villainous example, but the fact that Johann was able to manipulate basically everyone for years is quite impressive.

Season 8

In Plain Sight

• Hiccup definitely gets one for easily seeing through Johann's deceptions based on several red flags and suspicious coincidences. Looks like Hiccup learned a thing or two from Viggo.
  • Better yet? It was the twins who gave him the idea.
• Hiccup’s showdown with Johann is awesome, as he manage to Al dodge all of Johann’s daggers.

Ruff Transition

• Tuffnut, of all people, inventing a numerous ways of how to care about baby Razorwhip. He really would make a great, mhm, Wingman?

Triple Cross

• Viggo Grimborn taming a Skrill. It’s exactly as awesome as it sounds.
  • Viggo and Hiccup’s plan, which involved Viggo seemingly betraying Hiccup, only to distract Krogan and Johann by blowing them up.
  • After a confrontation with some of Johann's men, Viggo stumbles onscreen... with several arrows stuck in his back. And then, despite his grievous injuries, he and the Skrill charge into battle against Johann's men to buy Hiccup time to escape. Talk about a Dying Moment of Awesome.
• How about Viggo making a replica of Hiccup's Inferno? And not only some replica - apparently it was him who had an idea of Zippleback Gas compartment first, which puts him firmly into Gadgeteer Genius domain along Hiccup.

Family Matters

• The dragon riders use the Cavern Crasher to tunnel an escape route.
• We don't see it, but the way Snotlout got rid of the Cavern Crasher was impressive enough to win even Hiccup's admiration.

Darkest Night

• Let's face it... Snotlout's Imagine Spot is both Crazy Is Cool and a Funny Moment.

The King of Dragons Part 1

• Hiccup manages to defeat Krogan in an air battle.
• Hiccup fires a ballista arrow at Krogan and Krogan manage to dodge it while being in the air.

The King of Dragons Part 2

• Astrid demonstrates her leadership skills throughout the battle showing why she is Hiccup's second-in-command.
• Once again, the Bewilderbeast. Although this one is noticeably smaller than the alphas we see in the second movie, it still radiates a sense of authority and majesty. It also, apparently, is not taking any of Johann’s shit and when the latter tries to kill Hiccup, the Bewilderbeast promptly turns him into a Johann popsicle.
  • The Bewilderbeast’s call, which summons every single dragon in the Archipelago to its aid. Including familiar faces such as Thornado, Bing, Bam and Boom, the Eruptodon, the Skrill, and even the Screaming Death. Yes. Even the dreaded Screaming Death doesn’t hesitate to answer the Bewilderbeast’s call. Needless to say, the Dragon Hunters didn’t exactly last long.
    • Special mention goes to the captive Singetails, who, up until this moment, have been taking abuse from the hunters without complaint and only escaping once freed by the Dragon Riders. This time, the Bewilderbeast's call motivates them to rebel against their captors and join in the carnage being dealt against the villains. Krogan's giant Singetail and the Titan Wing Dramillion even seem to come to some sort of truce after their battle in the previous episode.
  • The Dragon Riders also get their time to shine once the dragon wave arrives. Special mention goes to Dagur and Sleuther, which puts its triple tail to good use by playing bowling with dragon hunters, and Heather's mid-flight jump to kick one unfortunate dragon hunter out of Singetail to his doom.
• Hiccup falling off a cliff with the Bewilderbeast egg, and managing to not only hang on to the side of the cliff by stabbing his sword into it but also catch the egg between his legs. He then removes his metal leg to use as a second hand-hold/ice pick and, keeping the egg between his head and the side of the cliff, scales up the side of the cliff. Determinator, thy name is Hiccup.
• Where did the Bewilderbeast egg end up? Turns out the Wingmaidens handed it over to someone trustworthy. That someone being none other than Valka.
• Drago's cameo at the end of the episode. As scary as it is, watching Krogan reduced to a cowering wreck before Drago has him executed is incredibly satisfying.