And yet again...:)

This one was decent. Not bad and not great, but decent. Fine. Good. Middle. 3/5. Okay. Whatever other word you can come up with. Some nice humor in here, as usual, and even a bit of drama.

Moordryd rebels! At last! He's also the hero boy in this one. :P The Moordryd/Lance brotherly relationship really surprised me. I wasn't at all expecting this. It was cute, and probably at the cheesy line as well, but nonetheless, it's interesting to see Moordryd this way.

And it's the return of EvilPsychoBeau, with EvilPsychoArtha! (Sarah Frost has excellent titles for our characters. :) ) Also, I remember one of the forumers bringing up that Artha was physically strong. It now proves that he's not mentally strong, since it seems so easy for him to be controlled by gear and such.

Also a nice bit of Moordryd/Decepshun, with Decepshun acting. Did anybody notice her grin when Moordryd said that his father wants dragons should rule? I loved that, I absolutely did. :D

Oh yes...*starts chanting* I see London, I see France! I see Moordryd's underpants! (Purple with dragons on it, too. :lol: You're right, Furox, Moordryd does have odd taste.)

I'll point up other topics later. But for now, some things I noticed:

- At the beginning of the show, when Lance notices that someone is online on "Battleground Dragon", it shows a picture of Pyrrah.
- When Lance goes to attack Moordryd, his lower helmet visor is not there. Possibly a continuity error, since at the beginning of the ambush, he's got his bottom visor up.
- Beau's eyes change again, like in "Broken Bonds". From gold, to red. *sigh* Continuity error #1.
- We get to see a Hydrag up close, and they are drac.
- They actually mention the names of the crewmembers in here! :o If you ever saw the Dragon Booster TCG cards, you can see the names listed, and they mentioned Rancydd, the red-haired thief, and Blarre, the white-haired weapons provider.
- Kitt's helmet vanishes someplace with Mortis and the Dragon Temple. Continuity errow #2.
- Decepshun is too stiff when Lance is magged off and Moordryd yells at Lance! I mean, then could have at least made her blink or something! Gaaah.
- When Decepshun brakes after Moordryd yells at Lance, the shot contains Moordryd, but without his jacket. Continuity error #3.
- Which place is Precinct? The one where Kitt and Parm froze in place or the one with the last mind pod thingy? Because I don't have a clue.
- Possibly Continuity Errow #4. When Moordryd nods and smiles at Lance, his helmet seems black. Either shading, shadowing or continuity error. I'm not sure.

Funny parts:
- Moordryd getting a wedgie. :D Unlike Parm's pink boxers in "Three Times a Hero", this gag was only used briefly.
- Word on his answering machine (or VIDDMail, as it's referred too). It's right next to that screaming gag he did in "If It Ain't Broke", which is practically the same, as Moordryd is staring in disbelief at his father. :D Though I find it not really Word, as he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to be awkward when it comes to discussion (unless, of course, he had to do his VIDDMail recording at a bad time). Also, did anybody notice that he wasn't referring to the machine when he asked "Is this on?" but his CLAWS? Got a kick out of that. :lol:
-

OMG LYK THEY'RE WATCHING US!!! *screams and runs into a lamp pole* Or not. *shifty eyes* :P
-

I found this oddly amusing.

So all in all, good episode, few things I should point out later, a nice A/K moment, M/D moments, interesting perspective, and of course, M/L brotherly thing, which was cute. :)

I like it when Kitt yells to Arhta, "It's Kitt Wonn and Parmen Sean!" and Parm gets all nervous and says "Hello" in a squeky voice! I love it when he goes squeaky like that!

Yeah, I forgot to mention that with the A/K moment. Parm has a hilarious voice. :D

What A/K moment? Seems more K/P to me. :P

That's true. Even in "Fanning the Flames", Artha needed support from Beau to break free of Word's device.

I never really noticed. :blink: I should watch that part again, and yes, Word may not seem to be meant to be humorous, but he does a good job trying to be. :lol:

Same here. I think Kitt took the statue thing seriously at that time.

There was another Parmon moment here when he and Cyrano tried to ram Dragon Booster. I'm surprised Parm predicted what would happen. Was it because he had level 1 green ramming gear, underestimating himself, or being realistic with DB's powers?

Also another note: did Artha and Beau learn how dependent the dragons of the Dragon Eye Crew were on their riders? It seems like Beau is the most advanced (being the Dragon of Legends and all) and it's starting to effect the others (Wyldfyr, Fracshun and Cyrano) and make them independent. I think it's a great step where the other three responded by walking towards the gate (though the reaction was rather late) <_< .

Skylii pretty much pointed out a lot of stuff in this episode.

*sigh*

I wanna watch it

And don't forget the other really funny gag: Lance trying to butter-up Moordryd so he doesn't get left behind by telling Moordryd he has drac hair, to which Moordryd gives Lance the evil stare for a few seconds, then softens and says "Well, ... it takes a lot of gel ..." :lol: :lol: :lol:

That was my favorite gag in this episode because it was totally unexpected! The wedgie gag was good too, even though I saw it coming. Once they showed Moordryd's underwear sticking out, along with a character like Lance standing nearby, then a wedgie joke is inevitable. :D It was funny though because I didn't expect to see humor like that in an episode that's seemingly more dark.

Word and his awkward vid-mail message was great, too! And the way he was nervously re-arranging a few things on his desk while he recorded it. That was funny. Excellent animation there!

This isn't what I would call a comedy episode, but the jokes were among the best I've seen yet.

On more serious topics: Word didn't seem to show the slightest concern that Moordryd was trapped along with the Dragon Booster in act 1. Word's attitude towards Moordryd seems to be along the lines of what I mentioned elsewhere: that to Word, Moordryd is an expendable asset. Once Word had control of Artha and Beau, he couldn't care less about Moordryd.

And as I said after "Pride of the Hero" aired, it looked to me like Moordryd might help the Dragon Booster at some future point if it was in Moordryd's own self interest, which is pretty much what happened in this episode.

Also, the conflict Moordryd was feeling in this story ties in with something else I mentioned before: that Moordryd doesn't quite seem to know what he wants. He was all gung-ho for daddy's plan until Lance started pointing out the downsides of it. Then when he saw Lance frozen along with everyone else, that pushed him over the edge to oppose his father. Moordryd appeared to be a bit surprised that he could care about someone like Lance. It appeared that Moordryd was starting to realize that a lot of innocent people are going to get caught up in Word's plan.

And I liked the way the dragons were acting more alive as in other recent episodes. Nice to see some reactions on Decepshun for a change. And Wyldfyr's little part where she tries to help Kitt and Parmon was good, too. I hope we continue to see more of this kind of thing.

This was a good episode overall and I enjoyed watching it.

One question, though: why wasn't Moordryd affected and frozen by the mind pod along with everyone else?

Well, duh! It wouldn't have been a good episode if he got frozen. But seriously, I think he wasn't in the immedite area when the pod activated, or maybe beacuse Decepshun's a powerful black dragon, so the black draconium had no effect. ust throwing ideas around.

That might be part of it. Lance was unaffected for a bit as well while he was with Moordryd. So perhaps you only get frozen if you're close by one of the pods, at least until all three are activated.

Or that, too. Maybe it doesn't affect anyone who has a strong black draconium influence. If that's the case, then it implies that Moordryd has one of the strongest black draconium influences among humans (probably only second to Word) since he was the only one of his crew that was unaffected, whereas Cain and everyone else on his crew got frozen.

There are certainly plausible explanations, though I would have preferred a line of dialogue somewhere to fill this in.

I know, the whole hair thing was extremely unexpected! Hey, wait a minute, is this implying a hint that Nerdcorps and AA are stalking our boards? (According to The Many Explanations of Cartoon Fangirling: Long, white hair with get the girls. :P )

And everything else you said. The gags were great, the episode was perfectly fine, and it was really interesting to see a different side of Moordryd. :)

And those are very plausible ideas. Besides, Word said that only Down City, Precinct, and Mid City would freeze. At the time, Moordryd and Lance were still in Old City (?) when Down City was frozen. After Mid City was frozen, Moordryd and Lance were probably not in range at the time. But it seems to me that the last mind pod (in Precinct, methinks) had a very wide range, since it froze Lance and the others back in Mid City (???). And at the time, Down City was already frozen first, so when Moordryd headed back to his compound and saw everyone frozen, it was waaaay too late.

Yeah, but at the time Kitt seemed to care more for Artha, then it kinda shifted. I'm still convinced about A/K, though it needs a few more touches here and there, so currently I'm focusing on W/Z (Word/Zulay totally canon) and V/S (Vociferous/Spynn not confirmed yet) while I'm waiting for A/K developement! :P

You know, when Kitt and Parm jumped that fence, it remined me of naughty kids thrying to get out of a neighbor's yard.
Am I dreaming? For that split-second shot of WB red vison when Lance is clinging to Moordryd, it looks like Moordryd's hand is on Lance's shoulder.
Also, when everyone was unfrozen, they slumped for a second, they seemed glad that they weren't frozen anymore, but Cain and Rancid never even seemed to notice.
And why was everyone frozen in scared positions, I mean, all of them were like "AAHH!", and I would have expected more of it to look like they had just stoped in the middle of what they were doing.
I LUVED Lance's puupy-dog eyes! They were ULTIMATE CUTNESS!

True. They did slump forward a bit, but didn't seem to notice what happen. Of course, if they had noticed, it would have interrupted Cain and he wouldn't have delivered his line and we wouldn't have had the cookie gag. Better the way it is. :D

Apparently, the people outside could see the dark cloud coming and were recoiling from that. Cain and Rancyd were inside and didn't see it coming. At least, that's my best guess. ;)

Yeah, that was nicely done: Decepshun rooting for her team! Go dragons! :) She obviously likes the idea of dragons ruling.

Did you also notice that this is the first episode where Moordryd actually talks to his dragon? (At least, if my memory serves.) This is more the way it should be in the show because it seems illogical to me to have people riding intelligent dragons and not be talking to them. After all, I talk to my dog more than the average human in Dragon City talks to their dragon. :)

I went back and looked at that again: is it just me, or do the dragons on his underwear look like silhouettes of wraith dragons? It's difficult to tell, but it sort of looks like they've got the wraith gear on their heads.

Actually, I think that's just a fire ball on the screen. It does kind of look like Pyrrah's crazy hair-do, though.

I believe Beau's eyes (and Artha's, too) are supposed to be red due to the effect of the wraith gear.

I agree. It sticks out when the dragons stand like statues. Maybe it was a time and budget constraint. I thought the animation in this episode was very good overall, though.

I like this episode quite a bit. Not as powerful as "Faster than Fear," but very good. I've been betting that we'd see Moordryd oppose his father and aid the Dragon Booster at some point ever since "Pride of the Hero" aired, and it's nice to see Moordryd's character arc continuing. You hardly ever see this kind of stuff in western TV animation. I really like a show that isn't just episodic for a change.

I noticed a goof! When Lance saves Moordryd from the Hydrag, it eats Moordryd's mag-staff. But when Moordryd fights the Dragon Booster, he's using it again! Unless he grabbed one in his hideout, but I doubt it!

Holy Magna Draconis! I totally didn't notice that Moordryd is calling Lance 'stable-brat' or 'mini-brat' the entire time! You would expect somehting like 'kid' once in a while, or someting less insulting. I mean, Lance is playing little brother, and Moordryd doesn't even know the kid's name!

...he has very odd taste. :lol:

Yeah, but Beau's kept switching back and forth from red to gold. Though it kinda makes sense in a weird way; wraith eyes are usually yellow.

Hey, speaking of dragons acting and Dragon Eye dragons being dependant on their riders, did anybody remember Coershun and Rancydd's dragon exchanging glances, then taking off? Dragon acting once again. Yeah! :D

You're right, I DID wonder where he got that extra mag-staff! It's like Artha and his jakk-stick: he has a normal mag-staff when he's plain old Artha Penn, but when he's superspeshul Dragon Booster, he's got his jakk-stick! All I can say is :huh: ?

Like I said, MOORDRYD/LANCE BROTHER-NESS! ^_^

I also used the whole stable brat/mini brat concept in my DB parody "Going Nuts". Actually, when Lance was talking about his father and Moordryd's father, Moordryd calls Lance by his last name, Penn. See, it seems like everybody's calling each other by their last name if they take a disliking to each other (e.g. Kitt "What do you want with us, Paynn?" and Moordryd with the whole "Yes, but...your father is gone, Penn", and even in "Into the Fire" Mortis is like "Paynn!".), but then again, it just could be another reason.

A lot of the gags here were great. That puppy eyes/flash stick concept was also great. Oh yes, the doorbell sound effect when Artha tapped Cain's shoulder twice was also an LOL-moment. :D

...I must be extremely addicted to this episode...I typed out the whole transcript! :wacko:

Oh yeah! Absolute favorite part of episode! If you turn it up real loud when lance does puppy eyes, you can hear his teeth chatter as he clenches them!

I think that's a side effect of the camera angle and the fact that Beau's eyes are on the side of his head. They made Artha and Beau's eyes so that they weren't solid red. Instead there's a gradient to them, plus they added a yellow highlight to suggest where the pupils might be. So with Beau's eyes facing to the side and the camera looking at him from the front, sometimes all the camera sees is the yellow highlight. So I think it's just a by-product of the way the eyes were modeled and the camera angles, as opposed to an error.

Yes! It was definitely nice to see the dragons actually acting and reacting to what's happening around them finally.

And as you say, Coershun and the other dragon seemed to lose a lot of their courage once they lost their riders. Though that seemed a little odd since it was still three dragons against one at that point. But of course, the story required that Moordryd end up alone with Lance inside the trap so that Moordryd would feel compelled to rescue Lance. If there were other dragons around, it wouldn't have been so clear cut that Moordryd had to help Lance. So as far as moving the story along, I guess it was a reasonable choice.

And another nice little piece of dragon acting: when Lance says to Moordryd, "You're not so bad," Decepshun slowly turns her head towards Lance and opens her mouth slightly to gawk at him as if to say "Huh??" or "Are you out of your mind, kid??" Nice little touch. Underscores Lance's line very nicely.

And then Wyldfyr's reaction to Kitt getting knocked out of the saddle. She reacted immediately and ran over to try and help Kitt. Nice.

Altogether much better than when the dragons were standing around staring off into space most of the time in the early episodes.

Yep. All the riders appear to have an unlimited supply of staffs available to them at all times. :) The old universal constant of the cartoon world: you can pull anything you want out from behind your back. :D Along the same lines, how did Moordryd know he'd need the rappel gear that day? :P

And speaking of that scene where Lance helps Moordryd out of the hole, why did Lance have to do that? Decepshun was standing right there next to him. Why didn't she mag Moordryd and lift him out herself? I've noticed that the characters seem to forget that the dragons can do that quite often. :)

But the story, of course, required Moordryd to be indebted to Lance at this point and there probably just isn't time to incapacitate Decepshun somehow and explain it all to the audience. It's like in Star Trek: the transporter always seems to break down, requiring the crew to do some daring rescue the hard way, which otherwise would have been incredibly simple.

Yes, they were. This episode was an interesting blend of odd humor and some serious drama. Worked quite well. Plus it was a big Moordryd character arc episode, too. Can't beat that.

Well, in a fic I'm working on, Cain and Moordryd improvise on something, and use Rappel Gear to drag a dragon somewhere (not giving anything away, should post in a week on ff.net, called Datk Dead End, deals with this eppie a lot. Lance is the final man character.)

Yeah, I've always assumed that Moordryd being nice to Decepshun would go the other way too. But the animators seem to forget about her a few times in this episode!

So we haven't talked about that surprising line in this episode where Moordryd says:

"My father says that dragons should rule, that humans are weak."

This seems to contradict Word's overall plan of world domination. Word even confirms that domination is his goal at the end of act 1 when he's alone in his tower doing the evil villain monologue thing:

"And once you activate the ancient mind pod of the Dragon Eye Empire, the city, and then the world, shall be mine!"

So he's clearly not doing all this for anyone's benefit but himself. So I don't quite get why Moordryd would say Word wants dragons to rule (and why it says the same thing in the books as well, as Skylii pointed out). I didn't get the impression that Moordryd was making that line up just to annoy Lance or anything like that. Moordryd appeared to be telling the truth about what he at least thought his father wants.

The only thing I can kind of see is that Word wants the war and wants the dragons to win because he intends to be controlling the dragons, or at least, a few key dragons like Beau, who can in turn get other dragons to fall in line behind them. And then use the dragons as a sort of military force to maintain his own power.

Or is what Word saying a lie to get the cooperation of dragons like Samurox, Furox and Decepshun, and Moordryd doesn't know it? Decepshun was clearly shown as liking the idea of dragons ruling. So maybe that's supposed to be how Word gets her and the other dragons to help him.

Anyone else have any ideas on how this line about Word wanting dragons to rule fits in with everything we've seen him doing? Because it's not exactly obvious to me.

I'm gonna have to agree with you on that theory. From what I see, here's how it goes: Word feels as though dragons are being abused, but then the dragons and humans have bonded so closely, so he decides that he should try and control them by experimenting with dragon control gear, and for that, he gets expelled from the order, also breaking his friendship with Connor, as he thinks the dragon of legend needs to be brought back to restore peace between dragons and humans, but Word thinks dragons shouldn't need the help of humans or anybody else.

So Word decides to get himself to the top by creating very powerful gear, competing with the other run-of-the-mill gear companies, while he works on the second plan to help dragons rule. With a stroke of luck or by fate and destiny, he succeeds and becomes the wealthiest man in Dragon City (according to the books). Being completely obsessed with helping dragons to rule and probably getting things like insomnia (lack of sleep can cut your nerves short), he becomes insane and decides that he should rule along them, and next thing you know is that he should rule over them, as he's the only one in his opinion helping those dragons (in his own small, sick little way) to be the more elite species.

According to Mortis in "Into the Fire", Word believes that he and his dragon should rule. This should've been rephrased. What I see is that the writers are feeling as though Word is way too predictable, so they stick in something interesting and begin revolving around this new idea, making his character a bit more interesting and complex besides the Overly Predictable Villain with Supergadgets and Cool Stuff.

That quote that Moordryd just said there can be caught and entangled, as Lance did. Let me take that important little act right there and post it so that this can be easier.

Dissecting now. Not only is Moordryd a human (also check, Word's only heir to the Paynn name, Word's son, Word's precious child, who should be cared and loved for, etc, etc...), but Word's a human as well. So from what I get, Word's an obsessive madman who can maintain his sanity at a certain level without knowing he's mad. (Okay, confused myself there...)

Okay, this might tie in with my theoryt hat Abanndonn, being a powerful dragon, could be controlling Word to start the war. Dumb idea, but you never know!

Yeah, that line is mentioned in the book, though it never seemed to find its way into the dialogue on the show. The book says:

Those two sentences seem contradictory to me. If Word is really supposed to feel that dragons are abused, isn't it a little odd to be abducting dragons and controlling them himself? Seems like an odd way for someone to show respect for dragons. :) Something definitely has been lost in translation here.

I'm glad you brought that up, because Lance's last line there is interesting: Word likes dragons more than Moordryd (and quite possibly most other humans other than Zulay). That certainly seems to be the case because as soon as Word has control of Artha and Beau, he promptly turns his back on Moordryd.

Is it possible that Word is said to "like" dragons not because he thinks they're nice creatures, but because of the power they represent? After all, Word says "The dragon is power" in the opening titles. So at the very least, his desire to control them seems to include gaining control of that power for himself and thereby ruling the world. That's certainly what's been demonstrated to us in this episode and others like "Broken Bonds".

I hope this aspect of the story line becomes clearer before too much longer (after all, we're up to episode 20 here). Maybe this is all part of revelation that will come up in a future episode and that's why they're only throwing us breadcrumbs at the moment. Though I think it would be better if Word's basic motivations were made clear, or at least, didn't appear contradictory.

Something like that could always make for an interesting plot twist. There are certainly lots of stories where the king's confidant is secretly manipulating things behind his back. If they intended to go that route, I would have preferred they do more to foreshadow it. As it is, Abandonn only appears briefly in one episode, and he doesn't really do much of anything besides stand there and look mean. :)

The way the story line is going, I think it's most likely that Moordryd will end being the one to turn the tables on Word and ultimately lead to Word's downfall.

Personally I think so, Black Eyes dragons as part of old Black draconium empire is definitive needed to stop the wars or avoid the war

Sounds about right. Didn't someone say that the original Black draconium empire allied with the dragon booster? The Dragon Eyes at least seem to respect the Dragon booster, sorta anyway... And Cain seems to like Artha in his weird way. (Is it me or is Cain really weird?)

You're right, it's a little thing called respect. Cain and the Dragon Eyes don't need to like Artha; even people can respect their enemies, even though they hate 'em. This is exactly what's happening with Moordryd and Artha as Dragon Booster (not really Artha as Artha, though...), though in Moordryd's case, reluctantly respecting Dragon Booster. I'm pretty sure of all things, he doesn't want to end up alliancing with Artha yet.

Does anyone that's not on Penn Racing truly respect Artha? I mean, he's kind of just a racer with an ego problm. If he wasn't the super-oh-so-special-hero-boy, he would be the least liked character in the show!

Kwake? Pyrrah?

Pyyrah respects everybody when she's no being psyco, and Kwake, well maybe just a little. I mean, Artha did accidently insult him.

Accidentally, but after that Arthas tried to ask forgiveness, and Ig uss that Kwake could forgive him

Um, weren't there the events of "Artha the Drac" which suggest that he's gained some respect, Stu that he is? And as Artha he did get Parm's devoted service and super!racer!Kitt's attention, so I'd hardly say that characters' general reactions to him are negative. He also tends to get more friendship/respect than is really logical from characters such as Kawake, as has been mentioned.

Either way, we haven't seen anything in this universe that doesn't centre around him as Dragon Booster or as Artha Penn. Where are all those people who just don't give a damn, or who think there are more constructive solutions for societal problems than three-thousand-year-old texts?

Just a strange note:

Have anyone noticed that it was only humans that we're frozen? We didn't even see what happened to Cyrano and Wyldfyr. Also, I find it a bit strange that only the Dragon of Legends could activate the mind pods, seeing how its depression fits Beau too well. Was there a point in the war where the original Dragon Booster was controlled by the Black Draconium Empire as well?

It's highly possible that that happened.

It' seems that history is repeating and a new dragon-human war would be unleashed.

Yep, everybody knew that there would be a war after when Artha found that old recorder that belonged to the ancinet Dragon Booster in The Cromatic Dragon
"War has come to Dragon City."
Yeah, the writers tried a little too hard with that forshadowing.

Then would be more seasons of DB :D

There better be! I don't think it's gonna be good if the writers just rushed everything and blah! I'll be upset! :( :P

YPES

I seriously loved this episode!! it ruled!!beau was awsome as a wraith (again) and i finally figured out Decepshun was a girl!! <looks proud of self>
yeah. I thought i heard Moordryd call Decepshun a girl, but i wasn't sure and the wraith booster conclueded it for me! :D

Cusirous note:

In spanish, traslators don't said that Decepshun is girl or boy.

Yup... just saw this ep today. Was rather good. :) Yay for Moordryd! I found the wedgie. Parm saying 'hello' in the squeaky voice, Word's answering machine and Cain's cookie line very amusing. :D And not to forget Lance puppy-dog-eyeing Moordryd half the time.

I also liked Lance's "At least my father loved me." line. But that's just me, who likes very biting lines like that. I'm just mean. :blink:

Hmm... Word's answering machine thing... he did seem very clumsy. Perhaps Word doesn't really like having to interact with people on a level where he has to be... relatively nice... 'cause it sort of seems like that's what he's sortof trying to come across as on the thing. After all, you don't know who's calling you. ;) So far, we've just seen him talking mostly to Moordryd and anyone else he's always talked to from a position of power (as far as I can remember)... so maybe he doesn't like having to talk to people nicely. :P And that sort of ties in with what I'm thinking he may be up to with the Dragon-Human war he wants to start. What was Moordryd's line? 'My father things humans are weak and that dragons should rule.' Perhaps Word is not so much concerned with Dragons ruling, as with those who are 'strong' ruling. He doesn't seem to like weakness, this particularily shown through his annoyance at Moordryd everytime the poor guy stuffs up. So, perhaps the whole point is that dragons in the most part are stronger than humans and so they should rule, and of course, Word isn't weak, so he'd have a part in, or control that rule. Then of course there's the Wraith's, which are contolled by Word... not a hundred percent sure how they'd tie in yet... maybe he just sees using them as a means to an end... or just doesn't care about controlling a few dragons along the way...