My problems:

1. Kitt. She did NOTHING in this episode. Sidekick overload, anyone? I'm sorry, but having both Lance and Kitt as baggage is too much. ONE useless-but-loyal-and-brave sidekick is enough. It would be better if Kitt had a plot arc of her own, or any OTHER reason to be around as, "Generally useless sidekick and love interest who tries to be witteh and fails dismally and is obviously the Token Spunky Girl Because Otherwise The Feminists Will Be On Our Case". Or even--try this on for size--if ANY other character had an interest other than Artha. I mean, surely there must be something else going on in the city? Surely the cast's LIVES aren't fixated on Artha? I mean, it's all "Good Guys LOVE him" (and they MUST either be hormonal or related to bother with this annoying cocky speshul-teenager-with-a-destiny) and "Bad Guys HATE him. That's why they're BAD, duh!"

Parm, now Parm is a plot device on legs. Ah well. At least he has more relevance to the story than fecking-Spunky-Girl-Generic. Sorry, but even if I do call myself a feminist, I can't STAND Kitt. Strong female characters actually, you know, need to, like, be INVOLVED in the story? Have a role more than LoveInterest? Are a bit more interesting than yet another Teenager-With-An-Attitude?

2. Mortis. Firstly, what kind of PARENT allows his ten-year-old son to get into LIFE-AND-DEATH situations on a REGULAR BASIS? All right, I can see that he's manipulating Artha to become a hero by abandoning him. (Which is STILL wildly unethical. I mean, if the guy's got all this knowledge of history and what's going on, then why doesn't he DO something? Or even--get this--use his power as the Dragon Priest to enter politics and preach pacifism? He'd have to be a pretty good speaker.) He's still a terrible parent. And he doesn't 'pay for it' in canon.

And that conversation? Mortis goes from encouraging the kids to believe in their friendship--meaning, of course, that they'll have to go after Artha--and only THEN starts to talk about the dangers. I can't STAND the guy. He's as manipulative as all hell, and he's set up as the Perfect Mentor Figure. This might work if they actually delved into it in canon, rather than just using him as the Ultimate Font Of Infallible Wisdom. Because he's pulling the strings of at least four LIVES here, one of whom is a child by any standards, and he doesn't so much as blink at the utter, utter, rabidly unethical, horrible implications of it all.

3. Invisible wraiths. Why did they turn visible before attacking Artha that first time? Rather stupid, eh? Plot hole. It looked good on screen, but there was no good reason behind it.

4. Double standards. Excuse me, but you do NOT get to laugh about abandoning ANYONE to a vampire dragon. ESPECIALLY if said dragon is not only a vampire but also insane, and just possibly giving it two wraith dragons, a giant dragon, and one of the smartest (supposedly) men in Dragon City MIGHT cause it to gain dangerous power?

5. Stewardd. Boring. Look, I've SEEN the standard scavenger-type character before. Can we get a little less cliched here, please.

6. Word. Obviously we can't. Never mind. "Conquer the world Mwa ha ha?" Puh-leez. What kind of SANE person carries on like this? They had the chance to develop him into a SMART villain. A villain who really believed that to start a dragon-human war would end up with a better world (with him on top of the heap, of course). And we haven't even got, in canon, any reasons why a dragon-human war would benefit him personally. I mean, sure, he's the rich gear-manufacturer and so he'd probably win any war, but, what do gears do? GEARS. CONTROL. DRAGONS. Ergo, a dragon-human war would involve his gears being rendered INACTIVE for many dragons and therefore involve a net LOSS for him. Also, if he's so damned powerful, why doesn't he just organise a coup? He has the money, and his son's got a voice on the Down City Council. I believe someone wrote before, "why doesn't he just give out special gears to lots of racers and turn their dragons into wraith dragons"? He could just use THAT army to conquer the world. Easy, without all the harassment of a war.

7. Artha. Okay, I might have ranted on this before, but the Speshul-Teenager-With-A-Destiny continues to get on my nerves. He's far too cocky and utterly overdependent on his powers. PLEASE, show us that he actually deserves these powers? Gaaaah. This reminds me of just why I loathe teenage protagonists. He's like every Gary-Stu cliche come to life.

My good points.

All right, all right, the Moordryd/Cain bit at the beginning was kinda cool. And the Muhorta, despite the stupid name, was good. And the animation's pretty.

I'm sure I would of enjoyed it... if I had SEEN it

*kicks new Sunbeam Griller*

Its because of that damn thing that I didn't

......

Any one want to type out the script for me?

I liked the Vamp dragon. Very, very cool.

Yeah. The silence says enough, I think.

Yeah I thought it was pretty good. I liked the place where Artha ended up. They made it look very dismal, hardly any colour and even the characters looked dim. Vampire dragon - with tentacles and several rows of teeth :blink: - very cool.

I am however mildly annoyed at the moral aspect. They made pretty sure they stated that yes, its much better if they work together, however I would have prefered if they'd tried showing it a bit more. It seemed to me that when Parm, Kitt and Lance finally got there that they didn't really do much to help aside from standing there. If they wanted to get this point across perhaps they should have made them actually do something to help that Artha couldn't have done with out. As it was they had the funny little Stewardd helping him, which although they probably did so that they could introduce him as a future ally, it wouldv'e been better if Lance, Parm or Kitt had helped.

On the wraith dragons it did seem a little silly to have them slightly visible. I can maybe understand it when they wanted you to know they were there, but when they were running with the dust cloud following them it was fairly obvious. It would've looked cooler IMO if you'd just been able to see thier shapes framed by the dust.

Lance pushing Kitt and Parm down the hole - halarious. Plus Parm and Lance accusing each other of stealing thier chocolate. Though why chocolate seems to be what they pack for rations I don't know... maybe they've found a way to make it healthy?

O and it seems Artha's finally decided to worry about his Dad! Took him long enough!

Ok, I did really like the episode, very good.

Yay! Although, one dream (involving, once again, Connor and Dragon Priests. Helooooo, people?) doesn't suddenly make him the perfect son.

Oh, and Abandonn was pretty darn cool, too. Cooler than Beau, who is beginning to grate.

Imagine a kid at school doing what Beau does. He'd be the top bully. Hitting, tripping, stealing 'candy' (It's CHOCOLATE!), throwing people over walls.

Sheesh!

This episode always seemed like it was out of sequence with the rest. It just doesn't seem to fit as episode 9.

First, Artha and Beau are both pretty freaked out as soon as they fall down the pipe. At this point in the story line they've taken care of both the Furox and Libris, both pretty good sized challenges. They should have more confidence in their abilities by episode 9. They just shouldn't be that scared right away. Also, I don't see why Artha would freak out by the projected images of the wraith dragons on the walls just before they fell down the hole. He already knew there was a sign there. Plus there wasn't the need to startle him plot-wise at that point (other than they wanted to introduce the jack boxes, but that could have been done some other way). Just open the trap door as soon as Beau steps on it. It seems to be a case of the writers being lazy: they apparently wanted to remind the audience about wraith dragons (or introduce them for people who may have missed the earlier episodes about them) but this wasn't a very well thought out way to do it. It would have been infinitely better story-wise if after Moordryd and Cain led Artha down the dead end street, for Word to have sent two or three real wraith dragons in after them to force them down to the end of the street and over the trap door. I think that would have worked a lot better. They could have then had those wraiths dive into the pipe after them to continue the pursuit at the other end. (Of course, they would have had to substitute something else for the jack boxes that Stewardd modifies to resolve the ending, but it shouldn't be hard to think of something else there.)

Second, the writers also messed up what Artha knows about wraith dragons. He recognizes the two wraith dragons but says he doesn't know who's responsible for all this. Only Word controls wraith dragons and Artha knows this from previous episodes, so this is a big writing hole.

To me, it looks like this story idea was originally intended early in the series, like around episode 3-4, and for one reason or another, they moved it later. For example, Kitt, Parm, and Lance have little to do and they're not really needed in the story except to help deliver some dialogue for plot exposition purposes (someone to talk to Mortis so the audience can find out about what the Muhorta is). Kitt's not really needed at all in the story and could have been left out completely, which would have made more sense if this was episode 3 or 4. Having small roles for Lance and Parm would have made more sense in that time frame as well. Artha and Beau being so scared about being alone and isolated works better. Artha having a nightmare about his father would fit better. Similarly, all the screen time spent on the "bonding scenes" between Beau and Artha would have fit better earlier in the series since they were just starting to work together at that point. (Though I got a nice laugh from the animation at one point in the cave scene where Artha is talking to Beau and the intensity of Beau's smile increases as Artha goes on. I couldn't believe how much the animator could distort the region around Beau's eyes. I wouldn't have thought there'd be that much ability to stretch the character model that far. Clearly the modeler who created Beau planned ahead and put a huge degree of control in his face. Makes me wonder how far the model can actually be stretched.)

In an event, my guess is that this was supposed to be an early episode but they then decided that it was too soon to introduce Stewardd and moved it later. Kitt was then added to the story even though she had nothing to do and they didn't bother cleaning up the other aspects of the story to make it fit it's new location better. (Either that or it's just plain poor writing.)

If it's any consolation, this about the weakest episode I've seen in the series. I like the next four a lot better.

You're right, it does make sense that it was an earlier. They still could have left Kitt out instead of using her as a pretty decoration, IMO. It would've fit better if they'd left it back there, too.

I'm going to blame this on 'first series confusion', and hope it doesn't continue into the next one.

I only liked two parts of this episode, one was where lance pushed kitt and parm down the hole and at the end when Artha jumped into Kitt's arms when beau scared him^^

See? Artha/Kitt, canon OTP, so blatantly obvious it's nauseating. No chemistry, though I have to admit in terms of mental ability they probably deserve each other.

I just had immense issues witht he very little of Moordryd we saw. *Points and laughs at herself for being a fangirl*

Have yet to re-watch, and what I saw was interrupted, but I'm fairly sure he was calm and confident and in control of the situation. After 'Three Times A Hero', that's good to see, if a little jumpy plot-wise.

I like Cain and Moordryd's relationship. (You don't have to take that statement too far if you don't want to.) It's so rare to have Evil Antagonists actually having friends rather than minions, and it's great that Cain gets sarcastic to Moordryd and Moordryd doesn't really mind and they're friends and partners and...aww. That particular relationship isn't the usual Evil Overlord/Minions thing, and I like seeing villains like Cain who have their reasons.

Yes. In fact, we haven't seen Moordryd rubbish any of his crew. He seems to be a decent sort of leader, and should be respected for that, at least.

Yes, he seems a lot nicer to underlings than Word. Poor little w00bie.

He's also pretty nice to his dragon, which also surprised me, most antagonists are rather stupidly nasty to their big evil bitey beasties. Only time I've really SEEN any interaction between moordryd and Decepshion, but he spoke to him and doesn't seem to force him to do anything. Might be a reflection of that you are youre dragon thingy

Oh, did anyone else notice Word's steed has the same shape face as Moordryd's?

Having Word done in by his own plan didn't bother me here. I thought they made it pretty clear that the Muhorta was a non-lethal vampire that would just let you go once it's had its fill in hopes that it would get to feed on you again once you regain your strength (basically just like real vampire bats). The Muhorta is basically no different than Moordryd's energy draining whip, just stronger and more difficult to break free from. There wasn't any mention of it becoming dangerous if overfed, so I'm going to assume it would just be fat and lazy for awhile after draining Abandonn.

The thing that did disappoint me about the ending was that the writers missed an good opportunity to have Artha do something a little more heroic. In my opinion, they should have had him release the wraith dragons from Word's control. The dragons Word made into wraiths are innocent of their actions and deserve to be freed if Artha is able. As long as the writers are making up things like Stewardd's modified jack boxes that can tune into the cloaking pattern of the gear, why not also let Stewardd's device jack into Word's control gear and allow Artha to have an off switch? It's certainly logical enough in context. It would only have taken an extra line of dialogue to explain this, then a little animation to show Artha pushing one of the other buttons and then showing the control gear popping off the wraiths. Story-wise this would have been nice since not only would Artha be seen doing something to save someone else, but Word would have been down two wraith dragons and one could imagine the grateful dragons telling their buddies about it back home and the writers could have worked in some dragon support for the Dragon Booster in a future episode based on that. It's too bad the writers didn't think of this when they were so close. It would have nicely rounded out the ending for me.

Oooh yes, that's an excellent idea.

I admit I missed the point about the Muhorta not being deadly, but I think that if draining Beau and Artha was going to enable it to wreak massive havoc, surely draining two wraiths, Abandonn, and Word would enable it to wreak SOME havoc and prove some danger to people?

I could be mistaken, but I didn't pick up anything about the Muhorta wreaking havoc or doing anything after feeding. My read was that it was the kind of creature that just sits in its lair (like a trap door spider) and waits for someone to wander by.

Of course, there's the plot hole as to why Stewardd didn't warn Artha about the Muhorta back in the cave. Surely Stewardd would have known it was there and they were awfully close by its lair at that point. But then of course, the whole ending doesn't work.

Really? I thought that the plan was that the Muhorta drain Artha and Beau and use that energy to go after the whole city and wreak enough havoc for Word to start his war. Might have misheard, though.

Off topic for a moment.

What about those Wraith Dragons? They should be portrayed as victims, not enemies. Humans under mind-control are often pitied, and aren't dragons supposed to be equally intelligent? Shouldn't Artha want to be saving dragons just as much as people? Or even Beau, who seems to have no sympathy at all for his fellow dragons (and very little for humans, for that matter).

If it's a dragon human war they are trying to prevent, then I would imagine it involves the dragons to an equal extent. Yet the dragons really aren't used as possible allies, or even as enemies unless controled by Word. Why try to prevent a war between to parties, when only one is doing anything about starting it?

Re the Muhorta, Artha wasn't aware that it wouldn't harm Word/become uber powerful and destroy the City, as he knew nothing about it. He, especially as the show's hero, was far to willing to leave human and dragon lives at the risk of a unknown threat and possible new danger. Especially as a dragon as large as Abandonn would quite obviously provide a large amount of energy for the Muhorta.

I think the whole point of getting Artha and Beau down there was to drain Beau's energy so he was weak enough for Word to capture.

And yes, Artha probably shoud've freed the wraith dragons.

LightningFlash, I agree with you on the subject of the wraith dragons. It goes back to a problem we've discussed before, I think--the dragons truly aren't more than pretty horses to most characters.

And you're right about Artha. Stupid little Gary-Stu whose mistakes and general nastiness never get picked up by the writers... *mutter*

I don't think the writers planned out the wraith dragon thing enough. To me, it looks they added them to story line as a deus ex machina device they can pull out anytime they need Word to have an edge in a story. They're there for example so Moordryd can win a joust against Phistus or win the Horn of Libris challenge that he otherwise couldn't do. As such, they appear to me to have been introduced as a cheap way to move the story along when they need to.

It's a bit unsatisfying in a few ways. First, right after "Opposing Force," Parmon should have gone back to his workshop and built a high powered, long range version of the jamming device he rigged in that episode. But that story point seems to have been lost. The writers could have plugged this hole by having Word announce in "The Stand" that he modified his gear to be jam-proof, but they didn't think to do that either.

Secondly, as myself and others have pointed out, Artha should be sympathetic to the wraith dragons and do what he can to free them. Beau in particular should be sympathetic after "The Stand." Another disconnected story point.

I think it's safe to say that no one under 12 is thinking along these lines, which unfortunately is why they don't get addressed.

On the Muhorta: according to Mortis, Word wants to use the Muhorta to weaken Beau enough so that he can capture him. Word's plan is just that and he's not going to do anything with the Muhorta after that. Word just wants Beau in this episode. As for leaving Word to the Muhorta, I'm willing to accept that Parmon filled Artha in about the Muhorta during the final commercial break. The group made their way back to the pipe during that interval, so time has past and they had time to discuss things. The fact that Artha says Word will be pretty tired afterwards indicates the Muhorta is non-lethal just like Moordryd's energy draining whip and both Word and Abandonn will just have a hangover for a while and then recover. Mortis never warned of any negative consequences if the Muhorta feeds on too much energy, so I'm willing to assume there are none. My take on the events anyway.

It's a pity Moordryd can't seem to win anything on his own skills, really. Poor little incompetent minion.

Thanks for the Muhorta info, I think I'll just settle for your interpretation of events and the properties of the vamp-dragon.

If Word got Beau, what would've happened then? Beau has uber-powers and is bonded to Artha. I'm pretty sure he'd be able to shake off any controlling gear of Word's. (Just KILL the hero already. Please. It's not that hard. Oh, no, wait. This hero's Speshul With A Destiny. It's impossible to defeat him, because he can pull magik prophecies and power of friendship and everything else out of (his arse) the writers' imaginations. You've got to feel sorry for the villains.)

You know, the Muhorta seems to be yet another ingredient of the three-thousand-year-old past that appears to be so much more interesting than any more recent events. Much as I encourage a respect for history, why don't these writers just set the thing in there and have done with it...because nothing else seems to have happened in Dragon City in the past three thousand years, and presumably the original Dragon Booster would've been a more interesting Adult Protagonist.

Ooh, shiny plotbunny.

Agree with you there. You know some of you guys were saying how when Artha became Dragon Booster his eyes were orange, while other times they were blue and that half way through they seemed to fix on blue? Well I'm postive I saw his eyes orange in a few scenes of this ep. I think its therefore safe to asume that this was supposed to be an earlier episode. We can rest assurred the writing isn't that bad!

You are definitely correct about Artha's eyes in this episode. His eyes stay orange the entire time we see him in Dragon Booster mode. Next week, you'll see his eye color switch with virtually every scene change. Then later in "Chromatic Dragon," his eyes will stay blue the whole time. Go figure.

Word never states his exact plan for Beau, so we can speculate. One would guess he'd try his control gear. Word doesn't know that the black and gold dragon has a strong enough will to break free. All Word knows from "The Stand" is that he somehow lost control of Artha's red and blue dragon. For all Word knows, it could have been due to interference, malfunction, or something else. So he wouldn't know not to bother trying it since he didn't know he actually had the black and gold dragon the first time around. Or perhaps he's got a much more powerful version waiting for the black and gold dragon and he just used his regular version on Artha's red and blue dragon not knowing they are one in the same.

Even so, from the Stand he should know that his control gear isn't 100% reliable. It doesn't state in canon that he's improved it or anything, so I think this is more an example of villainous stupidity. Dear me, when will these villains learn that, unless in exceptional circumstances, it is far more efficent to kill the hero straight away? I know that if I was in Word's place, I wouldn't trust my control gear against a dragon of legend. Villainous overconfidence, yes (which is a FAR overused flaw), but you don't rise to having a huge business empire by taking stupid risks...

I could quite easily accept that Word would just as soon kill Beau (and/or the Dragon Booster) at this point as he would want to capture and control him. Word is ruthless and either way his plan can move forward.

Given that they're pretty much not allowed to use the word "kill" or have anyone directly plotting a murder in an animated TV show (though they can get away using the word "destroy" on occasion), I don't know if we'd be allowed to see this angle in the story line even though it fits logically.

Really? We've had quite a few attempted and actual murders/manslaughters in the other fandom and two very dramatic death scenes, though you're right about the word "destroy" being used instead of "kill". I think Word shoud definitely be concentrated on destroying the Dragon Booster rather than trying to control him, because the former is far less risky, and it's a pity he's forced to act stupidly on occasion by the demands of the plot. I think all villains and writers should at least have a working knowledge of the Evil Overlord's Guide.

Ace Lighting had live action in it, which instantly moves it out of the pure children to the "young teenager" which is a load of dog doo, and we all know it, but the people who write these things haven't figured it out yet.kiddies get all SCARED of death in cartoons, it upsets and scars them for life. Of course we won't point out the Lion King, first Disney movie to ever portray an open murder (bambi doesn't quite qualify...) Is still one of the biggest selling animated features ever.

We see a character pinned to a wall as she's blasted for a good long time, killed by her own sword. This show is aimed at about the same age group as Dragon Booster, yet death isn't hedged around.

Makes things realer, and, yes, funner. (Except that it's my fave that get's destroyed the most. <_< )

Yes. The characters DO have a nasty habit of coming back from the dead, but as well as "killed with her own sword" we have the equally melodramatic "dies in the arms of her True Love", which counts as fairly violent stuff in my book. (One of the reasons why I enjoy it.) And let's not get into the clear rape-metaphor or tentaclegroping or other violence... It has its faults too, but unlike DB, the villains actually have REASONS for doing the James-Bond thing and not killing the heroes at once.

But it's not the age group, it's the medium!

Take Yu Gi Oh- Same age group for both manga and anime. I own both.
In the anime the villain of the first arc traps three souls in cards and uses one them to lure good guys to his island.

Another is the soul of his business rival, who he sends his suits to capture, and the other is the rival's little brother.

All the wants is to get Yugi's magical thingy and use rival's technology to ressurect his dead fiance- no age mentioned.

He got a magical eye thingy when a mysterious dude stabs out his real eye with it (no blood n the US cut) which you see in a flashback.

Yami is this mild mannered spirit (he takes over Yugi during duels) who wins card games for Yugi and protects the magic thingy.

At the end, another evil dude steals the villain's magic eye thing, rendering him comatose. (Or just "mysteriously ill" in the US cut)



Then compare the Manga.
Soul trapping difference is just in the medium, he traps one in a video tape.

The business rival difference is the guy's braindead after a duel with Yami Yugi, but regains his mind early in the arc, but has assasins follwoing him send by villain- rather then just people who want to capture him

His fiance is no longer a fiance but a long time lover and died when they were seventeen. After which he goes mad and starts drinking to excess (Which is shown in the toon but never explained. it looks like he's just fond of wine)

his magic eye thing is the same, just with heaps of blood. he also has scars at the corner of his eye

Yami is this homicidal maniac who seems to subject everyone who defies and insults his friends to these terrible tortures he creates in their brain, and kills at least two people a manga.

At the end- rather then just going into a coma, he rather graphically bleeds to death.




My point is DB is a cartoon, AL is a live action. yes it has animated features, but essentially the animation is supposed to mimic live action filming anyway. different mediums have different levels of acceptable

I know that's how it is, though I believe anime is a lot more violent than Western cartoons.

Age is a big factor here in determining what a show can get away with. Animated series like South Park and Duckman (both twisted satirical comedies if you haven't seen them) that are solely aimed at adults can show graphic murder, blood and can include foul language and "adult situations" as they like to call it. Shows like this are on later at night and have a warning label in front that says "intended for mature audiences 17 and older."

Adult aimed western cartoons are usually just seen as novelties, so such things are looked past most of the time.

I don't know if Artha saves the wraith's or not, but I have to assume he went back for the Vid Jacks off of his Jack Stick because you see them on his Stick in later episodes. I don't remeber them having more then the two they got from that episode on the wall.

Yes, he should have. Silly Artha.

That would make a good concept for a DB PS2/Xbox/GameCube game. As a side-quest, you rescue wraith dragons.
(Yes, I AM fully aware that rips off Pokemon Colosseum.)

Muohorta=great. So far the most unique looking dragon so far. Yes, Abandonn is big, but what does he have on a glowing pink dragon? With tentacles?! They seriously have to bring it back in all its crimson four eyed fury. And show us a body.

What, introduce Abandonn and leave him out of the rest of the episodes?! They can't do such a thing! :(

What did Muhorta do to Word, after Dragon Booster and Beau turned invisible with the new improved Jakk Stick? Word screamed, and I am wondering what happened after that. The next we saw of Word and his dragon, Abandon, was in Return of Drakkus Part 1. Word donned his Drakkus suit, and Artha did not recongise him.