What I thought about it: Overall, pathetic. And here is why.

1. The villainous propensity for spouting cliched lines (Word especially; his voice has far better things to be used on) and talking about their plans in detail, IN PUBLIC. Yes, I know, everyone needs an Exposition Fairy handy. But must it be so obvious? And Moordryd and Cain conveniently discussing their plans near the racetrack where Lance just happened to be? Far too coincidental, and what the heck were they doing there anyway when they should have been watching their trap?

2. Kitt. High voice, stupid person ("Parm makes my brain hurt!!1!!"; since when is idiocy supposed to be amusing or praiseworthy?), damsel in distress who did essentially NOTHING throughout the episode ("Oh, Artha, come and save me from the Dragon Eye crew. Oh, Lance, just rescue me from Moordryd/Cain, will you?"). She's spouting cliched lines and generally being the Spunky Teenage Girl (which she SHOULDN'T be, considering how fast the kids seem to grow up in Dragon City, and also considering that it seems like she's an orphan-with-the-obligatory-Dark-Past), and the cliche is grating on my nerves like a rusty cheesegrater. HATEHATEHATE.

3. Farce. This episode crossed the line between "action fantasy with some humorous moments" and "Let's just LAUGH IT UP shall we because it's only cartoons!" It broke the fourth wall (see also, Kitt's Star Wars reference) and that makes Sarah Frost very unhappy, because she is now going to find it harder to believe in this world. Cain and Moordryd reminded me of the well-used metaphor of headless chickens. I thought they were meant to be fairly...oh, I don't know...EXPERIENCED LEADERS OF A CREW? It wasn't really incompetence, since they fulfilled Word's plan, but they were made to look like complete idiots, and that is not something you want for your villains. Parm was also farcified, though not to the same extent. I mean, the guy's SUPPOSED to be a genius, and previously he's been shown to be extremely ARTICULATE. So why the sudden stupidity?

4. Villainous competence. Word seems to have cameras EVERYWHERE, and still hasn't figured out the Dragon Booster's identity, or actually managed to win about something. Erm, why? He, Moordryd, and Cain, seem to be doing everything within their power to win...and they still don't. Because Artha's just so darned SPESHUL. This is bad writing, people! Heroes are meant to STRUGGLE against COMPETENT villains who SHOW their competence by occasionally WINNING. When villains keep on losing because the hero's just too powerful, the story becomes real boring, real fast. Villains should lose because of some personality flaw, or some actual ability on the part of the hero, rather than either Sue's Uber Powers or something as cliched as the Power Of Friendship or Love or whatever it was that got our gang through the blockout dome.

5. Lance's substitiution. Shouldn't someone have NOTICED? Dragon-racing seems to be a professional SPORT. I'm sure that substituting someone qualifies as cheating, and that officials should check.

6. Child abuse. Beau dropping ten-year-old Lance on the ground so hard a cloud of smoke rises? Uh, is this funny? I see your point about Beau's sense of humour, Furox. And I don't like it at all. Am I the only one who sees some extreme moral dubiousness about the so-called Good Guys? Something that the writers seem to cheerfully brush over for the glorification of the Canon Sue? GAAAAH.

Now, I am starting to like Phistis. His little bit actually worked. Nice voice acting there. In "Fanning the Flames" he did too much Dragon Booster arse-kissing for my tastes (he's supposed to be a politician; the Dragon Booster is therefore a threat to his powers), but he sounded sincere and I like him. And Captain Faiar is pretty okay, aside from the pronounciation of his name and the groan-worthy pun. Different from how I imagined him and I'll have to go back and rewrite some fanfic, but that's fine. And I guess the animation is good.

Aside from that, though? *brandishes spork* TERRIBLE. I know, I know, kids' TV, right? But it's public domain, and that gives me a right to criticise. Besides, it's fun. All the same, jump on me if you want. :) I could use the entertainment.

This is not one of my favorities either. Apparently the writers felt it was time to lighten the mood and have a comedy episode. I hope they don't make too many more like this. Moordryd and Cain are way out of character, the "Parm losing his pants gag" is repeated too many times and goes on too long, and since Kitt can positively identify Moordryd as her kidnapper, why doesn't she just have him arrested afterwards? And whatever happened to poor Wyldfyr after Moordryd drained all his (or her) energy and kidnapped Kitt? It appears they just left him lying in the street. I suppose he'll just wander home when he wakes up, but shouldn't Kitt show some concern?

A couple of the gags made me laugh and at least the overall story arc was advanced a little by the meeting with Phistus. And Wyldfyr got to do a little acting for the first time. And I do like stories that split into multiple threads. I do hope they use that technique more in the future. But overall, this episode didn't do much for me.

Jumps away! I'm happy to debate, as long as it;s on the grounds that it's not serious and we're not going to end up on opposites sides of the board glowering in hate because of differeing opinions. (Not saying you're like that or anything, again, past experiances with fandoms I'd rather not repeat)

1. They were there most likely competing in the race, remember we were told they needed to turn up to be accepted into the next level. I'm pretty sure the Dragon Eye headquarters has more then enough people to watch one cage with one brightly dressed girl in it especially seeing it's in the middle of the open space right under spotlights.
Why were they talking about it in public? Don't know about you but i talk about everythigna nd anything in public. And they WERE in the Dragon eye crew stable, if you recall and four walls, even witha small gap under then does give the illusion of privacy- i mean Lance wouldn't've overheard them if he wasn't hanging upsidedown with his head a few feet from the gap.

2. Cliche's are the heart and soul of cartoons, a cliche is a cliche only becasue it's actually very common. What was she supposed to do? bust our herself and take on the NEXT cliche role of girlpower woman? That's JUST as annoying, you know, and considerign the amount of people wandering about the area, I don't think someone in neon pink and yellow lycra would slip past easily.

3. Actually on the contrary i thoguht it showed a great leap in character development- but then again, I've studied character development in detail for years, so it's entirely possible I'm picking up umpteen things no one else does. It's embarassing when I point them out "You see! You see how he moved like that!? that was transition between good him and evil him, you can see it in the size of his eyes compared to before, and the softer body language!" 'Uuuuh, nooo... *odd look*' "oh...ah... okay *smally and goes and hides in a box*"
"That is not something you want for your villains": No, that's not something YOU want for villians. For the common people, they DO want their villians like that, I dislike it myself quite a bit, but iunderstand that most people think it's good and nessissary. Villians are there SOLELY to a) give the hero a purpose B) get beaten every episode and c) humiliate throughly. If the villians were competant they'd win, and that's is just not done.
Parm: Ever heard of stage fright? Quite a common affliction. I can sing mezzo soprano and quite operatically infront of certain people and beautifully alone, but stick me infront of an examinor or an audience and my voice dries up. I know people who forget lines, go vibrantly red or stutter chronically. it affects people in different ways.

4. Ah, my second Favourite rant topic.
This is bad writing, people: No, it's how it's done. it's how it's always done and it's how it always will be done. Live with it or start watching forign films. it will NEVER change.
Villians can't win. Winning for a villain means killing the hero, and let's be honest, i really don't think Word or Moordryd will just let Artha go. They'll have him killed. End of series, let's go find another fandom now.
i really REALLy rather the stupid cliche love and friendship and all that mushy crap hero winning reasons then flawign the villian so they lose. I DESPISE overly flawed villians, they're stupid and useless and degrading. Villian pride has always been in their intelligence and perseverance. Granted, they always overlook something and are almost all to a man cowards, but flawign them takes away that last shred of pride and dignity. No, I'm sorry, it just has to be that way or you have no series, simple as that.

5. tch, and? They notice that extends the episode with needless complications. They don't put it in it doesn't quite have the same effect as having THREE dragon Boosters.

6. My FAVOURITE rant topic of all. To answer you- actually you've got to remember most of the people watchign ARE Lance's age, and won't think themselves children, or see it as child abuse. it's just someone falling off. Ever seen funniest Home videos? Apparently people falling off things IS today's humour.
Heor cruelty....
Okay yes, i'm trying to argue against you but I just CAN'T argue for this. it's something I rant agaisnt a lot. If a villian does it, it's terrible horrible and bad, a Hero does it, the villain deserved it, my only opposition to this is it's the way things are done nowadays for kids, as morally callousing i think it is- Examples-

Peter Pan, the new version- Shock Horror when Hook is about to Kill peter, but not a bat of an eyelid as peter and the children are chanting "Old, Alone, Done for!" to make Hook slowly decend into a crocodile's open mouth becasue being devoured whole just after facing t he reality of your miserable existance is SO humane.
*
Lion King, Horrible terrible Scar banishes Simba, and even fights back when told to leave, but it;'s prefectly okay for Simba to toss Scar off a cliff into flames to have his throat torn out by Hyenas (watch the shadow ont he wall) and WATCH (Edited from the video and DVD versions)
*
Yu-Gi-Oh! Pegasus steals Yugi's grandfather's soul and traps it in a card to get Yugi to Duellist Kingdom so he can win His Millenium Puzzle to revive his dead lover who's he's just been pining after for seven years, slowly drivcing himself insane, which is reprehensible, but it's cool that Yugi and the gang completely ignore the fact Pegasus' body guards are carrying away what appears to be his corpse at the end after he's actually released Yugi's Grandpa as he promised- Let's not even bother trying to find out who ripped out his Millenium eye, either.
*
We Will Rock you: How absolutely horrid of Khashoggi to brainwash the Boheimians after they won't tell him where the Dreamer is, but it's FUNNY when it happens to him after he fails to capture the Dreamer and the Killer Queen get's annoyed with his second failure (ignorign he didn't REALLy fail the first itme...)


I totally knew it would be Phistus when they said someone was sympathetic to their cause.
And remember, Phistus owes the Dragon Booster for giving back his job as head of the down City counil after Moodryd cheated and won it from him

Personally, i thought it was great, funny with sound effects that got me more then anything else, character developing, clear cut and somewhat more progressive too (did anyone else notice how Moordryd balled his fist when Word turned to talk to him and Cain? Anxiety much- movement like that wasn't nessissary int hat scene, and the camera was focused on small of back to floor which put me in mind it was supposed to be there...)

1. Do you talk about your criminal plans in semi-public areas? It makes no sense. Moordryd KNOWS that his father and therefore probably others are capable of watching virtually everything that goes on within the city; hence he should realise there's a huge chance of being overheard. It's the stables, a busy place just after a big event; there should be lots of staff members around, lots of chances to be overheard. Also, I'm not sure if the race was compulsory for all characters or just, say, Artha's level; because, obviously, Kitt at least missed out. (Which I will whine about if she still appears to be competing in future races anyway.) And what should Moordryd's priorities be? World domination or winning a race? Erm...I know what I'd go for. His and Cain's supervision was probably necessary, as from the Dragon Eye crew members we saw today, Moordryd's crew don't seem to be very talented people. And thus plain stupidity strikes again, all in the name of the Plot Device.

2. Yes, every character may be fitted into some cliche. No, not all characters must be ANNOYING cliches. Yes, supergirl!Kitt would be equally annoying, but existing!Kitt is also annoying. I'd prefer a well-developed character rather than going to one extreme of cliche or the other, thank you.

3. Moordryd was turned into a complete joke, and I don't like incompetence in villains. Yes, all characters deserve at least one flaw or else they're Mary-Sues, but villains actually need to be a threat. (Or else they're not villains any more. They're poor idiots who never stood a chance in the first place and deserve our pity.) Re Parm, I rather like your explanation, though I still think that his sudden burst of inarticulation was meant more for comedy value than actual IC-ness.

4. No, I don't think an ultimate victory of Word would work, but I'm sure there'd be some plot hole that would enable him to have a brief moment of victory. In the OF in one or two episodes, the villains actually won, and this worked (though of course the heroes eventually made a comeback, yadda yadda yadda). Word or Moordryd need to win at something, just to prove they're serious. Because they've been written as competent characters--Word's cameras and business acumen and gear tech, Moordryd's crew-leadership and spending time in Down City despite being born into a privileged background--and to see them fail just because of Speshul Powers breaks my heart. There's no point to having a hero at all if all the guy does is call on the Powers of the Dragon every time he needs to walk on water. Can we say, "Boring"?

My idea of a good villain, by the way, is one that has a personality flaw or two--because all characters need them--and is also extremely competent, better than the hero in at least one area. Villains also should not be cardboard-cutout evil, or think of themselves as evil (unless they're deranged psychos or immature poseurs who like wearing black). Because that doesn't make them developed characters any more. My idea of a villain is a person, who has flaws and virtues and personality, and whose abilities make hir come damn close to winning. I realise this is far from the typical cartoon villain, but I've read books involving villains who were lightyears away from the normal boring "conquer the world mwa ha ha" guy that it wasn't even funny any more.

I think there was a contradiction between your, "Villians are there SOLELY to a) give the hero a purpose B) get beaten every episode and c) humiliate throughly. If the villians were competant they'd win, and that's is just not done" and "I DESPISE overly flawed villians, they're stupid and useless and degrading," btw. Yes, I know kids' shows are SUPPOSED to be a certain way because of Cliche and Tradition and everything else Restrictive, but I don't think that counts as a valid excuse for it, or a reason not to complain about badly written villains.

5. Still a Plot Hole. Writers need to think these things through occasionally.

6. Glad to see we agree. Moral Ambiguity can be one of the most interesting topics to ever write about, there needs to be more of it around! Haven't seen most of what you cited, but I agree.

Edit: Oh yeah, and I don't like my debates getting personal either. Thanks for your lovely long reply, I like a good debate. :D Still on friendly terms, right?

Personally, I quite liked this episode. I think my family thinks I'm really strange I nearly fell off the couch laughing so many times. Parm has pink panties!!! :lol:

I don't think Kitt fell too much into the 'damsel in distress' category. She was stuck in a cage, which was locked. Unless she pulls a hair piece out of her hair and picks the lock (SUE ALERT) I don't see anyway she was going to get out. The only really cliched line I heard her say was 'Dragon Booster's going to come looking for me,' other than that it was all 'My Hero!!! *rolls eyes*'

Yes, most of the baddies were running around like headless chickens. I didn't think it was particularily out of character for Cain, he seems like the kind of guy that'd be a bit of a coward when he's not fully in control. Moordryd lost it a few times, I think he was just confused as to what was going on. I mean come on, thier systems as well are telling them Dragon Booster was everywhere.

I saw a bit of character development too. When Word walks in and Cain's going all 'Ahhh!' Moordryd looks really shamed. I don't know what that means exactly but he might be getting a little presured under daddies fist.

I didn't think they made Parm look stupider than he should have been. The making dragon booster suits idea was a obviously a bit stupid, but its something people like Parm do. They get a brilliant idea and no matter how stupid it is, they'll do it. In the securtiy office, I agree with Natalilly - stage fright.

All in all I found it extreamly funny. It's not the sort of episode they should do all the time, but is perfect to shove one in per season or something.

Well, for the best racer in Dragon City she was pretty useless in that episode. And their systems wouldn't have been telling them that the Dragon Booster was there, just that there were several intruders. I mean, the tech seems to be fairly high-level; mightn't they have NOTICED something about the relative heights? Or mightn't they have made the deduction that the Dragon Booster had friends? They KNOW he interacts with Kitt and Faiar; is it too much of a logical leap to believe he could have other allies?

Yeah, the Moordryd-resenting-Word thing seems to be developing, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with that.

I figured the systems WERE saying it was the Dragon Booster. If you look a their screens when they say the Dragon Booster is there, a little symbol pops up which looks like the thing on Beau's head. I'm not sure why they'd pick Parm and Lance up as Dragon Booster too, but Parm's smart, maybe he made the suits out of something that would give off the same energy signiture thing as Dragon Booster.

Consider comedy eps like this the 'Daffy Duff' of this fandom.

Things I noticed about Moordryd (seeing as Natalilly is busy).

He's cute when he's scared/ashamed. :P

He was ashamed. That means alot, at least to me. It means he's not just 'okay, today went badly, but we'll get you next time, Dragon Booster!!1!oneityoneone!!!!o1!!!!', he was 'Today went badly and Dad is mad, was that my last chance?'

Cain clung to him rather a lot.

Kitt.

It was Artha's fault that she got caught, he should have just told here where he was when she asked. He also said he was with Parm and Lance, who were nowhere to be seen.

She's the best racer in the city. I'm sure she's already in the top level races, or has enough points to be. Missing one lower level race won't crush her career.

Oh, come on. How is walking into an ongoing robbery when your superhero friend says he has it under control a good idea? Yes, yes, Artha-is-a-prick, but Kitt's a bit stupid too. Hey, maybe they ARE suited. :P

I'm sure the writers are building up to something in the Moordryd/Word relationship, and it's nice he has that depth, even if in this episode he was completely farcial.

'Daffy Duff' and other eps notwithstanding, at least the OF never broke the fourth wall in this manner, unless you count the 6D which we're cheerfully ignoring anyway.

On Moordryd this ep, yes he is cute when he's scared/ashamed.

I liked Moordryd already, probably is my second fav character, but right at the end he just seemed soo ashamed. I actually felt kindof sorry for him. He is a really great bad guy, he's 'evil', I would say, because its all he's ever know and all he's learned from his Dad. Which I find heaps better than "I will take over the world! Mwhahah!!!"

My guess is that Moordryd's security system is just based on motion sensors. And since his crew members all carry radios which the system could use to track their movements, it could filter them out from the display and just show intruders.

Yes, this is a good point to bring up, as this episode is continuing that aspect of the story line a bit.

There is definitely a conflict between Moordryd and Word. Starting from episode 2, Word is clearly very disappointed in Moordryd and Moordryd expresses shame at not being able to live up to his father's expectations. As we've seen the preceding episodes, Moordryd is clearly unhappy that he can't earn his father's respect (in the sense that Word doesnt appreciate him for who he is). We see Moordryd's response to this by his impatience at being ordered around by his father in "Horn of Libris" and other episodes. Moordryd doesn't like it because from past experience he knows that no matter what he does, his father isn't going to be happy with him. (Pretty classic father/son conflict stuff.) Clearly, the writers are setting up a growing tension between the two.

It's difficult to say how far they're going to take this, but as I mentioned in the other thread, it's possible they'll bring this to a full falling out between Moordryd and Word with Moordryd walking out on his father. I think Moordryd may end up with the biggest and perhaps most interesting character arc in the whole story.

Okay, sorry, but this show is targeted to 8 to 14 year olds!!!!!!! Most people around that age don't really notice all the problems!!! I do but I dont really care!! I just enjoy the show!!! (I usually just laugh at all the problems!)

I hope so, he certainly has the potential, and seems like he's a strong enough character to handle a lot of change.

I felt that the transition between 'Let's lick Word's shoes!Phistus' and 'I'll help Dragon Booster fight evil Paynn!Phistus' was a bit sudden. Last we saw of him he was trying to gain Word's favour by getting a hold of the Furox. Would someone as set in his ways really change that quickly?

OOoh! lots of fun replies! Sarah first...

1. i would if i had criminal plans, yes! And yes, i do discuss stupid things in public which gets me into trouble or looked at weird. But I'm a bigmouth and like the sound of my own voice.... Perhaps Moordryd is too ^^
Though i concede at least to wondering why they didn't whisper...
But i think Dragon city security might be a bit of a joke when it comes to the Down City crews, they never appear to do ANYTHING to actually stop the crime- this is the first eppie we've seen them.
Word's cameras, well, he is a bit of a perv... I hope he doesn't have them in the racing stable showers, but I think Moordryd might be fully aware of their placings.
As to World domination or winning a race, I would say winning a race. Look at it from Moordryd's perspective, he's been triained to race, he's quite obviously been brought up to race, his whole crew relies on him TO race, and racing would be, from what we can glean from father son activity, the only form of validation and triumph he's ever gotten. World domination is nice in theory, and Daddy does want it so, but from Moordryd keeping the bonemark, son doesn't seem to share Daddy's dreams much. If he was that keen he would have handed it over to help. I don't think in a world dominated by Word, Moordryd's lot would be much better anyway.

2. No, they don't have to be, but the range of cliches we have aren't really all that promising. i think out of the thousands maybe only about fifty or so would be decent and easy to live with cliches.

3. Hm, hard for me to argue back again, i am SO biased against the maltreatment of villians it's very hard for me to condone it. Same goes for point four...
Parm- well yeah, it probably was, but who cares twhat the motives were originally anyway?
Book villains tend to be different, anime villians too have substance at times over Western cartoons. it's paiful to admit, but anime is one up on western for good villains- and sadly there is a HUGE void between anime and Western cartoons that noone (except me, but i have to find a company that'll risk it's arse to publish my toons) has been able to bridge. it's on of those annoying "that's just how it is" things that make me want to gnaw on someone.

5. Yeah, I wish i could find a quote from John kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy's creator) about cartoon writers, pure brilliance. Basically saying that people who can't draw and don't watch cartoons should never be allowed to writer FOR cartoons. 99% of writers though, are these people, though i'm a bit suspicious about those at Nerd Corp...

6. Ah, pity, preetty much a listing of my favourite villains, (if you want to see a REALLY good one in action, read David Eddings' "Elenium" series, consisting of 'The Diamond Throne' 'The Ruby Knight' and 'The Sapphire Rose' There's a villain called Martel, one of the THE BEST villians I've ever read, he's brilliant, he doesn't always loose, he has legimate reasons for beign the way he is AND when he dies (inevitable fact of all fantasy novels) he's actually left with dignity and treated quite respectfully...)


Quite enjoying actually. I've been hated quite violently on many boards for actually disagreeing, so this is quite refreshing!

*****

hyperpsychomaniac
Parm's pink pants made me laugh- but more the little sound effect scream that happened the first time they fell down. I was patting my belly with laughter!

Kitt's bluster about the Dragon Booster, as cliched as it was, i thoguht, was just a scare tactic.

i think you're right about Moordryd's running around, fear breeds fear and Cain most certainly wasn't helping. I mean, no matter if the coast looks clear to you, if someone starts screaming and gibbering to you and hiding behind you, you ALSO would start to get a little worried, ne?

on Parm, there's a quote in one of my favourite novels that I kinda apply to Parm "So many good ideas thrown away simply becasue they won't work!' I don't think parm will take no for an answer when it comes to his ideas though... We've seen evidence of this before...

Comedy eppies keep people like me from wandering off in disgust, like Xena and Buffy, i used to like them untill they started taking every eppie seriously. then I got bored and sulky and stopped watching them. one a series is enough to keep me a happy kitten, and a few funny moments now and then scattered throguh each cartoon too.
******

LightningFlash

Eh heh, yes, Moordryd's adorable when he's scared and ashamed *pinches his cheek* he's very expressive, has anyone else noticed this? He's got more expressions then anyone else in the toon.

Yeeeees- I noticed Cain was getting a bit clingy there. Aside a screaming Sue alert going off, i thoghut it might have just been becasue Moordryd was the aurthority figure like "You're the leader! YOU deal with it!"
*****

The Furox

Not sure it'll be a falling out between them, Moordryd seems a bit too scared of Word to actually openly defy him, but I think he might get more and more rebellious as we go along, he is after all, at the difficult, rebellious teen age ;)

I watched it again and just noticed that! Fell off the couch again...

Okay, but don't abuse their intelligence. Just because the target audience isn't compose of professors doesn't mean they want to be treated like idiots.

Did you hear the wolf-whistle sound effect the second or third time his boxers fell down? :D

I managed to tape this episode onto a DVD, so I might be able to get screen captures from it. I'll have to wait until next week, because I want to put another ep on it before I finalise it.

Phistus may have finally figured out that it was Word who helped Moordryd cheat him during the jousting contest in "Opposing Force." That would give him reason to change his mind. It would have made more sense though if that episode had aired after "Fanning the Flames" so we wouldn't see him sucking up to Word in the episode right after the contest.

This is my take on it as well. Moordryd seems to be helping Word mainly for the recognition he hopes he might get from Word. If Moordryd was truly interested in going into the world domination business with his father, then I'd expect him to be more proactive in formulating the next evil plan instead of waiting for Word to assign him a task. The fact that he kept the bonemark of the Furox for himself indicates that he's got his own agenda which may not line up with his father's.

Possible for you to post them here? Pretty please?

I guess you could be right about Phistus, Furox, although you'd think the whole City would pick up that Word tell Moordryd what to do. Most racers where there when Moordryd cheated.

You are God.

I know. The story line around wraith dragons doesn't quite all hang together and it's inconsistent from episode to episode. As you pointed out, everyone at the joust saw the wraith dragon when it de-cloaked. Since it was helping Moordryd cheat, it shouldn't be much of a stretch for the folks there to figure out he's involved (especially since Artha was able to tie Moordryd's crew into the bank robbery). Everyone also saw the wraith was riderless and covered in control gear. Well, everyone in Dragon City knows Word makes most of the gear and he happens to be Moordryd's father, so it shouldn't take long for everyone to starting looking his direction as well.

There doesn't seem to be any way to draw a straight line through this sub-plot in the story. What the characters should know about wraith dragons at a given point and what they say they know and how they behave doesn't line up. It looks like another case where the writers didn't put quite enough effort into it. Unfortunately, this only gets worse in the upcoming episodes.

By the way, can anyone offer an explanation as to why the egg delivery truck at the opening of this episode had to go so fast? (Other than it's a cheap and easy way to inject a little excitement into the opening scene.) Seems like racing along at full tilt would risk breaking the eggs, not to mention the fact that shaking live eggs is a bad thing.

Re the world domination thing, I'm afraid I didn't state my point in the right terms; I should have said, "obeying Father in actually doing everything possible to make the kidnap plot work rather than buggering off to a lower-level race halfway through a plan in execution" instead of dragging Moordryd's own personal priorities in there--which, I agree, would be more pleasing his father, stealing dragons, and yes, even racing-- than the world domination thing.

Maybe the egg explanation is...more tech. Or they weren't chicken eggs, but something much harder. I mean, I think basilisk eggs are like stones, in one version of the myth anyway.
B]Furox[/B], I deeply admire your picking at the plot points.

Have we ever seen any creature other than dragons around, by the way? Any animals kept for food purposes?

Natalilly--yeah, decent characters who aren't total boring cliches are hard to write. Won't stop me from complaining about it though.

Yes, all this Sensible Discussion is lovely and fun, is it not? :D

None so far. No livestock, no pets, no birds, no insects, ...

They also haven't shown us dragon eggs or any dragons younger than Fracshun (whom I'm guessing must be about Lance's age).

The only atypical dragons we're shown are these tiny two legged dragon-like things that Moordryd launches at Artha and Beau during the race in episode 2. They're about 5" tall and proceed to eat the gear on Beau once they land on him. Weird. They look living, like tiny little dragons, but I suppose they could be cybernetic devices. Or maybe they're the Dragon City equivalent of rats and they eat draconium instead of garbage? It's never explained what they are.

In "Opposing Force," the camera pans quickly past of couple of more tiny dragon-like creatures perched on a roof top. It's dark and I can't tell if they're supposed to be the same things Moordryd used in the race or not. They don't have wings, so they aren't birds. Seem to be some kind of dragon-rat-like thing.

And of course, there's Word's super-sized dragon Abandonn. There's also the strange Muhorta which shows up in the next episode you'll see, but it's described as a type of dragon.

On the subject of food: other than candy bars and marshmallows, we haven't been shown what anyone eats (human or dragon). Cheese is mentioned once in a line of dialogue for what it's worth.

Wyldfyr has dinner at the opening of this episode, but we don't know what it is. At least, I think it's dinner. It's liquid and I wouldn't think Kitt would have to run her credit card just to get water for her dragon. I've been assuming it's a protein shake of some kind since I think it's a safe bet that dragons are carnivores. That would be the easiest thing to store and dispense in bulk at the feeding stations, so it kind of makes sense.

So far at least, Dragon City doesn't seem to be populated with anything other than humans and dragons.

OK, I can go with that: either hi-tech protecting the eggs or dragon eggs are as tough as nails (draconium shells or some such thing).

Any ideas why they would be in such a rush to get the dragon eggs to where ever they were taking them?

Why, thank you! Most people just tell me I'm crazy. :)

Oh, because of the high crime rate! Dragons seem to be quite valuable, so I'd guess stealing the eggs would be lucrative enough. Or maybe dragon eggs are a delicacy in certain parts of the city, and might be illegal to eat or at least rarely used for that (owing to the value of live dragons). Or maybe the delivery guys were just in a rush, and if we take the draconium shell hypothesis (which would be yet ANOTHER valuable enough property of eggs) they wouldn't have to worry about breaking them.

Crazy is more fun and gives one an excuse. :ph43r:

Perhaps that's just the speed limit in Dragon city. A bit silly considering how nasty it might get if you fell... But then again, I've seen some really weird speed limits on dead drops near where I live.

Or maybe they don't even HAVE a speed limit in many parts of Dragon City. I mean, Faiar's people only seem to cover the more prosperous areas of town...

maybe the hole city is one huge race track... first one home doesnt get yelled at by their mom or dad.

People where I live seem to ignore the speed limits!

Captain Faier questions why anyone would want to steal dragon eggs which implies they have little value, hence no black market potential. I think it's safe to assume that Word is stealing dragons and dragon eggs for his wraith dragon army rather obtaining them on the open market (however one does that) in order to avoid raising suspicion about why he needs so many dragons. So he's apparently the only one in Dragon City with a motive for stealing eggs. (Though given it takes on the order of 15 years for a dragon to become full grown, the usefulness of eggs to him is questionable, but I'll let this one go.)

While it was clear that the writers put the high speed delivery vehicle in just to amp-up the action in the opening, it's kind of nice to find a reasonable story reason for things:

I'm willing to go this explanation: The delivery guys were running late and they don't get paid overtime, so they wanted to get the eggs delivered so they could call it a day. Simple is usually best.

I'm guessing dragons are pretty acessable to the general public, seeing everyone, no matter what class, has one. I hardly think anyone living in down city would have extra cash lying around for large purchases- and most seem to get dragons young...

It's possible that a a dragon and human born (hatched) on the same day are 'bonded' to one another for life, that way they'd be the perfect size for one another right through.

We know that Beau and Artha are the same age, and I read a magazine article that said that Beau was always following Artha around before he chose him as the Dragon Booster. It also seems that Lance and Fracshun are the same age.

The ages of the rider and dragon do appear to line up, though the existence of places like Penn Stables that breed and raise dragons until they're grown and then offer them to others says there are other ways to acquire dragons or trade up. If Kitt, for instance, ended up being chosen in episode 1, would she have "traded in" Wyldfyr or taken both dragons home? So far they haven't really told us how this aspect of the society works.

Yes, and Artha even complains about that in a line of dialogue from episode 1. I think we're supposed to get that Beau was drawn to Artha, though it seems perhaps Beau was not consciously aware of exactly why. Or it could go back to our other discussion where Artha had to first cross the threshold to becoming a hero as he did when he chose to save Lance in the fire before Beau could in turn choose him. I'm not really sure how much the writers intended here, but it's always fun to speculate.

It's possible he has something that accelerates thier growth. Like when they feed chickens hormones to make the grow faster (am thinking about chickens and dragons too much). Of course there's no reason why Word just can't be patient and wait for them to grow up. Long term goals require planning, maybe that's what he's doing now.

perhaps he's trying to breed his OWN black and gold dragon...?

Why breed one, when you can steal one? :)

Because you're a hopeless stealer ^^