Now, I'm not sure if any of you have seen it yet (I think it's been shown in the U.S already), but I'm willing for a discussion. Before I speak out my full opinions on this one, does anybody else have anything to say about this episode, besides the fact that I think this is a new writer, and it could explain to some OOC-ness of the characters (I thought Word calls his son, well, his "son" if Moordryd does something impressive to his father) and cliched, cheesy lines?

You'll have to wait one more day before I can discuss this one. It airs Sunday night 9/25 here. I'll be back... :)

I can understand Lance's, Artha's and Moordryd's fear.

Lance is scared of being alone

artha is scared of letting down his dad

Moordryd is scared of failing his father again.

i just dont get why Cain is so afried of the yellow belly newts... i thought the newt was cute looking. but i have to say i did love the look on his face when he was running away from it at the end^^

Moordryd: its just a yellow belly newt cain!

god i loved that part

I don't get any of those fears. I mean, I thought Artha's greatest fear was losing his friends, instead of letting his dad down. That's more of the fear Moordryd has, and speaking of Moordryd's fear, since when is his father mad at him for not being a winner at races? I mean, yes, I can see that, but this isn't the main reason Word looks down at Moordryd. I thought the main reason was that Moordryd can't manage to destroy the Dragon Booster, or get the black and gold dragon of legend, or whatever.

Since "Pride of a Hero", where Word says exactly the same thing to Moordryd after the race. I'm surprised they recycled the dialogue from that.

As for Artha, well, he didn't seem to put much emphasis on his friends unless they were in mortal danger, and losing his father somehow makes him closer to him, making a paradox, but a somewhat reasonable paradox. I mean, if you lost a parent you were close to, you'd want to keep his memory alive by fulfilling his/her wishes, though onerous they might be. That's just my opinion on Artha, though.

Speaking of Artha, wouldn't he notice the lack of Parmon and Lance in the stables? Or was he too caught up in his reunion with his dad? Also, I'm quite surprised at the absence of Kitt and Parmon, who used to be always in every episode until this one (I'm even more surprised that Lance mentions Parmon, implying a possibly close friendship between the two).

Yes, in terms of story development, I've taken a liking to this one, though the relationship between Word and Moordryd is still fuzzy to me. And in a sense, Lance finally gets to be one of the main stars, along with Fracshun who's shown more of his personality than ever before! :D *waves flag of Lance and Fracshun*

One more thing to note: this episode heavily relies on the context of some of the earlier episodes, such as "The Choosing Part 1 (& 2)", "All Is Not Lost" and "Pride Of A Hero" (I'll explain why I believed these episodes are related in my next post, if The Furox doesn't figure them out first ;) ) and yet still has room for new backgrounds, grandiose and subtle SFX (my favorite is the floating paper :) ) and eerie character effects.

That's all for now. :)

Oh! I haven´t see it.

I have seen until "Rules of power"
that´s because I live in South america.

What happen in that episode?

Yeah, but when is the racing thing really the biggest reason or so? I was expecting something else besides that fear from Moordryd.

About Artha saying that he might let his dad down somehow...I can and I can't really understand this. I can understand this in the things you already listed and more, and I can't understand this because it doesn't really show with Artha. Must've been a plot hole, though.

And yes, I LOVE how they finally made the dragons act. Did anybody catch Decepshun and Coershun at the end? And yeah, Lance and Fracshun finally get some better roles. The thing about this episode I like is the eerie feel. It's different, and I give points to Nerdcorps for that. :)

It's a tipical chilhood's fear, being abandoned or be alone

Most of us wants that our loved one be proud of us, and they won't feel disapointed about us.

Still in this chapter Moodryd wants his dad aproval.

Perhaps he suffer a phobia about that

In what country of south america do you live????

Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil?

OMG!

Holy Sh--, that was a good episode! As soon as it ended I had to restart it from the beginning and watch it a second time. It was that good. Really made up for last week's episode.

We have a new writer for this one, Sean Jara, and boy did he hit the ground running. This one was also directed by George Roman Samilski who also directed "Pride of the Hero," "Three Times a Hero" and several others. And the animation quality hit a new high point in my opinion. It was a real joy just watching it and I really enjoyed the story. No deus ex machina and nothing felt contrived (at least not overly so).

Putting the story itself aside for second, there were several things worth mentioning in this episode:

As Daigerus already pointed out, Lance and Fracshun get featured a good deal in this one. And Fracshun is actually behaving like he's alive and aware of what's going on around him and not just part of the background scenery. Finally! Coershun and Decepshun are "acting" for the first time in this episode as well, with Coershun getting some really extreme facial expressions in the that last 30 second end gag. Also, did you notice how Coershun was behaving just after they got trapped in the Shadow Track and the crystalline-like stuff was closing in on them? He was circling around and the animation clearly conveyed he was in a panic-stricken mode. Having the dragons actually act like they're alive and thinking has really been overdue in this series and I'm glad to see it finally appearing. This by itself made it so much more enjoyable to watch since it just adds to the believability of the whole thing.

Next tidbit: remember my Is Dragon City on Earth thread? Well, it looks like we may have an answer: they appear to not be on Earth! The planet they're on has got two moons named Drakkus and Abandon. So either they're in a galaxy far, far away, or something happened to cause the universe to beat incomprehensibly remote odds and allowed the Earth to trap another moon some time in the future. Short of divine intervention, I don't see how that could ever happen. So that tends to imply that Dragon City isn't on Earth. I wonder if the planet they're on might be called Pern by any chance... :lol:

So, how does Beau eat? Well, they show him dipping his head, big chin and all, and drinking out of a big trough in the stable at one point. So I guess that answers that question, too. :rolleyes:

I loved that little gag at the very end where Cain and Coershun were running from what they thought was a giant newt. The look of total fear on Coershun's face and the cartoon cliche gag where Coershun was running in place and not going anywhere for a moment was great. A nice little touch of comedy in an otherwise serious episode. That was a great little closer.

On the character's fears:

Lance's fear was definitely being alone.

Artha's fear I would describe more as not living up to the responsibility of being the Dragon Booster and his own self-doubt about not being able to complete his task of saving the world from the dragon-human war.

Moordryd's fear was still letting his father down and not being able to earn his father's respect. I think this came across a little weak by having Moordryd just trying to race along by himself when he was caught in his nightmare world. Also, Moordryd was the one who got the most complete speech about what the Shadow Track was about and should have had the least trouble overcoming it. This was the only thing that didn't quite fit for me. Unless they're trying to say that Moordryd's character is a little weak when it comes to dealing with this particular fear. Couldn't quite tell, though. And in the opening scene, Moordryd appears to have a fear of the Muhorta. Or at least, experiences a nightmare about it.

Cain's fear I think was being in a leadership position. In his nightmare, he clearly didn't want to be the one making the decisions and would have been much happier being a follower. I think the newt he saw in his nightmare was a sort of personification of that fear since he was alone at that point and had to decide how to deal with it on his own, which he clearly wasn't able to do.

No one's mentioned this yet, but I think they may have also showed us Beau's fear as well. He appeared to be trapped in Artha's nightmare world with him, and in one scene when Artha isn't present, we see Connor giving the amulet to Moordryd right in front of Beau who has a rather horrified look on his face. Connor was speaking directly to Beau at that point when he said "but then, maybe you chose the wrong rider to be the Dragon Booster." So it seems Beau may have some self doubt as well, or perhaps bad memories of what happened when he let Moordryd on as a rider in "Pride of the Hero." That gives Beau a bit more personality if he's got some doubts about himself.

And I imagine everyone noticed Artha's line at the end where he wonders what may have escaped with them from the Shadow Track along with that shadow that appeared to pass over his visor. Maybe setting something up for a future episode.

So, Zulay (or is it Zulee or Zuly?). They say she got out of the Shadow Track, but don't say how she got trapped in it in the first place. Nor do we know what happened to her after she got out and why she's not around now. More mysteries for the future, I guess.

Stellar episode for me. It going to be tough for me to choose between this one and "Horn of Libris" as my all time favorite now. :D

I'm going to guess dyane may be from Brazil, Chile or Venezuela? Dragon-city.org has been recording hits from those countries recently. Am I close?

More things I'd like to add:

"Eye Of the Needle" sounded like it was foreshadowing "The Leap of Lorius" for some reason, maybe because there hasn't been any actual racing for a long while. In fact, the Shadow Track isn't even a real track, yet shows glimpses of racing tracks somehow. I think the whole episode is foreshadowing for a whole lot of racing. :lol:

I like the bit where the show focused on the blue balance gear itself, showing how it works, though I'm surprised how Artha got to Lance when he wasn't there a second ago.

Also, we got to see a close up of Blarre and her pink dragon. ^_^ She even gets to snicker a bit.

Another note: why is Moordryd racing by himself? Why does he get to be the last to get out when he knows the most about the Shadow Track? Perhaps it's also his pride in possibly giving his father pride that made him unable to admit that it's even a fear to begin with. But I'm glad Lance was the first to get out. He even introduces the first vehicle that's independent yet reminiscient of dragons - the drag plane! :D

To Furox: was Artha rolling a barrel of Dragon-ade in his illusion? I was hoping you would know since you could get a close look at it.

Come to think of it, I liked the music at the start of Artha's illusion. Gives you the effect that it wasn't really real and made his memory of the Penn Stables look like a complete parody, along with the arrival of fake Connor who timed his steps to the comedic music and made Artha squeak his eye. :lol:

Also, the writers mislead us when Word asked Moordryd to capture Artha and his friends, expecting to see Parmon and Kitt, but we don't. At least he's catching on to the fact that Artha and DB are somehow related. :)

As for my previous post, I mentioned the Choosing Part 2 as well, since we saw Wyldfyr throwing off Kitt and Decepshun does the same to Moordryd in the beginning. Thought that maybe female dragons aren't used to saddling their riders well. No offense to females though, just pointing out an observation.

I think that's all I can say for this episode for now. :)

I came off a bit fuzzy in this episode, though all in all, it's okay. The Word/Moordryd relationship is still fuzzy to me in this one, though.

Is Zulay. I need more information about this person. :D

And has anybody noticed a few habits with the characters? I just noticed this after the scene in "Faster Than Fear" with Cain's nightmare. I've noticed that Artha does this arm thing (can't really explain it; kinda like pumping his fist in the air, though...), Lance throws his arms in the air a lot of times, and Moordryd...Moordryd checks his nails, in "Opposing Force" and "Faster Than Fear". :huh:

Swayy, actually. Blarre is a weapons provider, but yeah, we finally got to see more of her and less of Rancydd and that spiky haired tattoo-on-his-eye dude. :) (Though did anybody notice the frozen person that Cain tapped his finger on in the Shadow Track? I believe that looked a lot like Rancydd...)

I actually thought about whether or not that was Dragon-ade. But I couldn't really glimpse the Draconian. Dang.

The absense of Parmon and Kitt interested me; I didn't expect the writers to leave them out. I wonder if they might do that in some future episodes.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how Mortis had said to Artha, "...remember Artha, the blah blah blah..." without showing us that he had told Artha about fear and all, implying that Mortis is indeed giving Artha moral lessons and teaching him other stuff without explanation off the screen.

Unclear to me, too. From the dialogue with Artha, it seems Moordryd was afraid of losing the illusionary race he was in since would have disappointed his father. Doesn't explain why he was racing alone, though. Unless it's just a typical messed up nightmare.

It appears to say just "dragon food" on the front.

Yes! That was a great little touch. I loved it. It made the whole thing seem so dorky.


One question I had: how was Word able to monitor everyone's vital statistics while they were trapped in the Shadow Track?

And Word didn't seem the least bit concerned that Moordryd had gotten trapped in there as well. That wasn't part of his stated plan. Was he hoping Moordryd would get trapped and was testing him to see if he had what it takes to get out? Or is it as I mentioned before: that Word views Moordryd as expendable, and since his plan to trap the Dragon Booster seemed to have worked at that point, he just didn't care about Moordryd?

Yeah, and the fact that his red racing gear just came out of nowhere further gives evidence that he was clearly racing illusionarily, and Moordryd's illusion is just the most confusing, seeing as how Artha and Lance were there as well.

Sidenote: Apparently Artha is indeed stronger as DB, since he only needed a hand to take on Moordryd's staff, whereas he needed a staff and two arms to fight back as Artha earlier in the episode.

Thanks! I'm surprised the modelers had named the food generically. At least we know they come in barrels as well.

Word might not have complimented Moordryd if he didn't care about him, speaking that he had his mother's bravery. So I guess he does have some love in him, just the tough kind. <_< So I'd go with "hoping Moordryd would get trapped and was testing him to see if he had what it takes to get out".

As for the statistics, well, that's another mystery. Unless he somehow managed to convince Zulah to rig the Shadow Track with his sensors - why else would she be there in the first place?

Another sidenote: In said statistics, the highest level of fear is called "LETHAL". I guess that means that without guidance, people at that level are guaranteed to stay there forever. :(

But with the Shadow Track broken, there's no worry about fear! :D

Yeah, it might be another dangerous, dragon-like creature the show hasn't shown us yet. :ph43r:

I loved Word's expression when he said, "You have your mother's bravery", but it makes me wonder:
who is Moordryd's mom?
is Word saying he himself is not brave?
and did he expect Moosrys to remain trapped?

I guess that he isn't. Word Paynn is a guys that just cares from one person: himself

There is a logo of some sort on the front. Kind of looks lke a mountain. And they did put a lot of detail onto the back of the barrel. All sorts of labels with writing on them. Too small to make out, though. Could just be all gibberish, too. :)

That does seem to be the best explanation seeing as Word shows neither surprise nor concern when Moordryd gets trapped in there. And he does kind of show a "let's see if you can get out" attitude while watching Moordryd's vitals.

Hard to tell. But Word definitely didn't seem very concerned about that possibility. It looked like Word would have just shrugged it off if Moordryd had become trapped forever.

I was wondering that as well. Was there something in there that Word wanted and sent Zulay to get it? Did she bring back that shard of black draconium we see at the beginning of the episode? Was she involved in a plot to trap one of Word's earlier foes in there?

Also, there's the more practical problem of how would one get a signal out of a place like that so Word could monitor everyone's vitals. Whenever you've got one of these oddball places where a special portal only opens occasionally, it gets hard to believe radio waves could pass through when the portal is closed. But I'm thinking like an engineer again. ;)

That was my take on that as well. You would be permanently stuck in your nightmare at that point.

Yeah, a creature, dragon or another human foe.

Related to this question:

How did the Shadow Track come into being in the first place? It was said to be ancient, so it's been around for a long time.

Was it created for a specific purpose? Like maybe to imprison some nasty creature or person.

What was really causing everyone's nightmares? Was it just the crystalline black draconium causing everyone to hallucinate? Or was there some sinister intelligence behind the whole thing? Like some weird creature that feeds off fear (a la the original Star Trek series where they encounter the entity that was once Jack the Ripper), and this creature was purposefully generating people's worst nightmare. In Artha's nightmare, Connor was behaving as if he had a sinister purpose as opposed to being just a figment of Artha's imagination. And now since the Shadow Track has collapsed, could that thing now be loose in the world?

All sorts of interesting questions and possibilities for future episodes. One of the reasons I like this one so much. B)

Like I said earlier, the Word/Moordryd relationship seemed iffy in this episode, especially with Word calling Moordryd "son" when we all expected him to call Moordryd...well, Moordryd. (The only episode I'm not that familiar with is "Pride of the Hero" as I've only seen it once...and to be honest, I don't really want to see it again.) Word must be in the tough love then. So fathers in this show are all about the "tough love", and that includes the mentor and the diabolical villain. Huh.

I was also wondering about this. How did Word possibly get those monitors in that track, and how did he get that piece of black draconium? Unless Zulay grabbed it, screamed "I got it!", then suddenly collapsed and had a nightmare. From what I picture, Word holds it out to show Moordryd, and Moordryd, curious, reaches over and touches it, and before Word could say "Don't touch it!", Moordryd instantly falls to the ground still gripping the draconium. :)

And when somebody says "the last one to escape", doesn't that mean that Zulay actually escaped, or not?

I kind of decided that the Shadow Track was a place full of powerful black draconium that has so much power, it traps people in their mind to live in their worst nightmares. We all know that black draconium is the WEALLY EBIL STUFF :rolleyes: , so yeah. And the shadowy presence, I'm digging that. There are so many possibilities to who, or what it is...but using the ancient theory, maybe it was the soul of a dragon rider and his dragon from many centuries ago. (Okay, that sounded a bit cliche. <_< )

Next up on your guys' agenda: The Leap of Lorius. May or may not please you.

Or could be Mortis or Connor Penn caring ARtha????? well I haven't seen Faster than fear, but I just can only guess.

About the whole "Word leaving Moordryd to die" thing...

This may sound a little odd, but in some cases, if some one loses a spouse they look for and try to force out any of that lost loved one's personality or traits. Maybe Word was just trying to force Zulay's bravery out of him?

I took it to mean she actually got out, and no one else had gotten out since (until now). Word mentions Zulay's bravery, so it makes sense that she could have gotten out.

Black draconium can definitely be used to do evil things. The seeming contradiction in the show though is that so far, none of the black dragons seem to be particularly evil themselves even though they've got black draconium in their bones. Sure, Decepshun and Coershun will go along with whatever Moordryd and Cain want them to do, but it seems just about every dragon will follow their rider (except for the Prophets, of course). So far, none of the black dragons have followed a course of action on their own that seems all that evil. For example, if they were really evil, wouldn't they betray their riders at some point for their own purpose?

Just an interesting little side question.

Perhaps it's a little cliche, though they could dress it up so it's not so bad. They could make it something that initially seems evil but turns out to be good and was imprisoned in the Shadow Track by the dark forces that created it. Though I guess that plot twist is a bit of a cliche, too. ;)

Oh well, I just like the fact that they're foreshadowing something for a future episode.

Is Zulay Moordryd's mom? Where can I find that out. Is there a specific eppie?

IT seems that in this episode mention it

Yeah, "Faster than Fear" is the first place Moordryd's mother Zulay is ever mentioned. The fact that it was put in the script at all seems to be setting up for another little mystery in the story line, so I'd expect to see something more in a future episode.

Hard to tell where they're going to go with it. Both Word and Moordryd got about as emotional as we've ever seen them when the subject of Zulay came up, which seemed to pretty clearly indicate they both regret her not being around. Exactly why she isn't around is the one mystery. Another is if she's still alive somewhere or not (e.g., ran off with the Keepers crew as Pakaday joked). Word and Moordryd seemed to be mourning her a bit, though it was never said that she was dead. Given the target age group for the show, they almost never use words like "dead," "died," or "killed," so it's difficult to tell if anything was being implied or not. A third question would be what sorts of things was she involved in when she was around. For some reason, she was in the Shadow Track. Was that accidental or was she assisting Word with something? Did she routinely get involved in Word's plans?

Hopefully her part in the story line will turn out interesting.

I like to use the five W's and the H for this (even though this is starting to sound like Gr. 7 Language Arts class :P): who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Who: Zulay is Moordryd's mother and Word's wife.
What: Zulay is fearless, as Word puts it, and is probably a racer.
When: This is uncovered yet as to what happened to Zulay.
Where: This is also uncovered.
Why: Also uncovered.
How: Must I keep repeating myself? :P

Now that they've pointed out Moordryd's mother, I'd also like to add on another uncovered mystery: Artha's mom. Let's use the L.A principles once again.

Who: We don't know yet. We do know that she's Artha and Lance's mother and Connor/Mortis' wife.
What: We don't know.
When: I'm not sure.
Where: Now this is getting pointless, so I'll just skip the last two until we get more information. ;)

I want to see both Artha's mom and Zulay, or at least hear more interesting snippets of them both. When it comes to minor characters, I home down after them. (Just as I home down on the lesser paid-attention-to pairings; currently figuring out whether Vociferous and Spynn are related or not, and if not, behold: V/S. :P) Hopefully it's not going to be both are dead; that just doesn't seem that right. I prefer one left, and the other died. Zulay is probably the more predicted to have died. However, if Mortis ever mentions Zulay as ARTHA'S MOM, then I will be running in circles freaking out, then listening to him speak over and over again to see if I heard right. :lol: (Though I highly doubt it...)

Maybe we should do like Zero in HOLES and hire detectives to find those ladies!

All the fun in this serie would be ruined, the best is the we become the detectives :D

You're right! Detectives WOULD be cool! *puts everybody in a trenchcoat, a hat and gives everybody a pencil and notepad*
Me: So where were these two ladies last seen?
Random DB people: We honestly don't know. We do know...*insert random info here*
Me: Right then. *has conversation with other detectives, then grabs Word and points mag-shooter at his head* Alright, spill the beans! Where's the woman you killed?
Word: Get away from me! *hisses and slashes Detective #1's eyes*
Me: MY EYES!!!
Word: *storms off* Note to self: eliminate all crazy people while trying to start dragonhuman war.

LOL :D

I just saw it today. Unfortunately, not impressed. Artha still not dead.

Truly clumsy exposition, Word. No cookie.

Why wait till the last minute to tell your son about the plan you expect him to carry out competently? Does Moordryd have that short an attention span?

Oooh, Dead Parent Angst. Word's cold facade of ice is cracking, emotion showing beneath his frozen self like the tiny jewelled petals of a violet peeking through pale snow. (/purple prose) I can almost ignore the cliche. Almost.

Artha, you’re a prick.

“You little scavenger dragon” wins the prize for Unoriginal Insult Of The Year.

What are scavenger dragons, anyway? Is there a difference between them and normal dragons? Do the scavenger dragons need humans? Are they smaller than the other dragons? A sub-species, perhaps? Inquiring minds want to know.

Mortis is as manipulative as usual. If you tell an impressionable young man that he needs to be a legend for all those poor plebes to have someone look up to...*shivers* God, that guy's creepy. I hope he gets eaten by scavenger dragons.

“I am the King of the...oops, the Dragon Booster!” You don't think there's a problem that your whole identity hinges on being mysteriously chosen by a dragon you grew up with, Artha, do you? Or maybe a slight problem that you think of yourself as a legendary hero and therefore obviously above such common humans as this humble critiquer?

Question: did Connor and Mysterious Woman (maybe she died of the same mysterious ailment as Zulay) deliberately time the birth of their son to coincide with the latest development in the breeding project? Because I could so buy this.

Plus, why should people need a legendary figure anyway? Gods are best from a distance. We should not touch our idols; the gilt sticks to our fingers. (/Flaubert. Just wanted to sound all intellectual there.)

You know, I just can’t buy this once-a-year-when-the-moons-align Shadow Track. It’s too much on the ‘magical’ side of things for me. Two moons do not equal one localized gravity pull. I know we have a mystical amulet and a prophecy, but the armour seems high-tech and the dragon was produced by breeding.

Lance is rather ingenious.

Oooh, nice screenshot of Connor in a background of light, classic romantic shot. I see the incestfic already.

Same goes for Moordryd and Word.

Cain, of course, has a ridiculous fear. Yay for buffoon!villains.

Word can carry out brainscans inside a mysterious area that only appears once a year.

*puts logic hat on*

Possibility One: All the equipment was placed in there during previous years’ openings. Maybe that’s where all the trapped people came from. But why? What’s the deal in putting human scanning equipment in at a time when he couldn’t possibly have been planning to trap the Dragon Booster? And why such an obviously expensive and complicated plan if he was initially planning to trap someone else? And if it’s such a long-range plan, then gee, he sure took his time informing Moordryd.

Possibility Two: Word can brain-scan anyone, anywhere. Come on, Word. That’s pretty damn close to mind-reading. You’re supposed to be a smart guy. Can you think of a way which you can use this efficiently? And you know the motto, boyo. If at first you can’t fricassee, fry, fry again. Dig out those machines and reuse them. You know they’ll come in handy.

*logic hat off*

So what did happen to all those people released from the Track, anyway? “Oh, honey, sorry I’m late home, I got trapped in this mysterious cave that only opens up once every year…what do you mean that’s contrived and unrealistic? I wasn’t off with Dymondyna, promise!”

And that’s a lot of people, even if Zulay’s been gone sixteen years.

Likelihood of stumbling into it? During the right fifteen minutes of the year? With the sort of temperament that entices one into dark strange caves in the middle of the night? Almost nil.

Likelihood of knowing about it and going in anyway? Um, no, I like to hold onto that little certificate saying I’m sane, thanks. (And since Artha and Moordryd don’t know about it until they’re told, it’s obviously not commonly known.)

So does Word make a habit of luring his rivals in there or what? And if he does, why hasn’t Moordryd had to help him before?

Okay, so they all just pop out like that. Why couldn’t they before? More magic?

And the typical ending gag…sigh. I know, I know, target audience.

I thought this episode was rather good. I really enjoyed the visuals. Purple, pooly wavy things! :D And also the same area that was in 'The Stand'. Man, I love that place! It's so dark. And when they pan around down there it looks doubly cool.

Fears I thought were quite good. Even Cains, who actually seems to be afraid of having to make decisions by himself. Most other shows would go with giving them all little kiddy fears I think. Which only Lance had. But of course, he is a little kid. :D I was initially surprised that he was the first to overcome his fear. But it does actually make sense. It's a little kid type fear, one that I would expect Lance would have gotten over as he got older. So he just got pressured a bit into doing so earlier. :) Meanwhile people who are older would have more ingrained fears, based on more insubstantial things.

I was actually also impressed with Artha. Yeah, he annoyed me very much playing his stupid little video game. <_< But I think the point there was that that was NOT what he was supposed to be doing. He was supposed to be taking responsibility for Beau and for being the Dragon Booster. Which he ends up doing in the end. (With impressive visuals :D )

Word monitering everyones vitals was a little dodgy though. Perhaps he gave something to Moordryd that would transmit this stuff? But that would mean he'd have to have known Moordryd would be staying... *curses technicalities* <_<

And I love the newt! *chases newt* I want one! No one happens to have a screen cap of that, do they? :D

Yeah, the scanners confused me.
Hey, if Zulay's been dead sixteen years, then maybe she died having Moordryd! This would also explain Word's aminmosity (where the scale did that come from?) towards Moordryd.

I don't think that's the case... (Word did say she was strong anyway. :P ) Then Word would just plain hate Moordryd. You have to admit, when he gets up Moordryd for failing, he has stuffed up somewhere. I think Word just wants Moordryd to live up to being a Payyn (Oh, gosh, that sounds funny! :P ). If they did something like that I would see it as a very artificially imposed reason to angst. Which annoy me greatly.

Me, too. Loved the animation and the overall look of things, all the way down to the scrap of paper flying across the screen.

I think if Lance had been truly alone in his nightmare world, then he would have been in a world of hurt. In the end, I think his desire to help Fracshun was greater than his fear of being there alone, and that's what allowed him to get out. I thought that played nicely into the overall theme of the show of dragons and humans working together. Worked for me anyway.

I'm also glad it wasn't Artha being the first to overcome his fear. I like to see the other characters contributing something important to the story every now and then. Makes it more interesting and the stories less predictable.

Yeah, I don't care for unexplained things like that either. I think I'm going to assume that Word gave the monitoring hardware to Moordryd and he planted it in there the same time he pinned Lance and Fracshun to the wall. I wish this had been mentioned in the story though, as I find these little things noticeable. Of course, this still doesn't explain how the radio signal could get out of there. If the only way for the portal to open is when the moons are in alignment, then you'd think it would be near impossible for any type of signal to get in or out. But who knows. We don't really know the physics of the Shadow Track, do we? :)

I don't have one, but I can get you one when I get back home. If I forget, remind me in a couple of weeks.

a Paynn or a Pain?

Yup, we'll just blame messy weird shadow track physics. Works for me. :P

Thanks.

I meant Paynn as in the family name, but was making a joke about it sounding like Word wanting him to be a 'pain.' :P

HEHEHE I was doing a joke too 'casue they can be a REAL pain :rolleyes: