Thawfest

"Every year on Berk, we come together to test our strength and courage in the annual Thawfest Games. For some of us, it is not such a great time of year. In fact, I've lost every single time to that guy. But this year, all that could change. This year, I finally have a chance to win! Because for the first time ever, this year, the Thawfest Games will include . . . . Dragons!"

- Hiccup

Thawfest is the twelfth episode of Dragons: Riders of Berk. It aired on November 28th. It is preceded by Heather Report, Part 2 and succeeded by When Lightning Strikes.

Overview
Hiccup challenges Snotlout during the Thawfest Games, but when beating him, his victory starts going to his head.

Major Events

 * Spitelout Jorgenson is officially introduced as Snotlout's dad
 * The Thawfest Games are introduced

Plot
Berk is preparing for the annual Thawfest games, which will take place in the Academy, that will test the Riders' strength, courage and endurance. Some of the Riders feel it isn't a great time of the year, especially Hiccup. For years, Hiccup has been mocked in defeat by Snotlout in every Thawfest game whenever Hiccup loses to every game to him. But Hiccup feels confident that this year's Thawfest will finally give him the opportunity to beat Snotlout because the Thawfest has now included dragons officially for the first time into the games, adding three additional events for Thawfest.

After Gobber announces it to the Riders in the Academy, Snotlout and Hookfang arrive and Snotlout shows off all of his prior Thawfest victory medals, gloating to the Riders and especially Hiccup. Snotlout explains to them that each of his family members, the Jorgensons, have won every single Thawfest game for generations and Snotlout is confident he too can conquer the competition with his dragon, and they leave.

Hours later, while Hiccup is gearing up Toothless for the Thawfest games, Stoick comes upstairs to check on him and they have an awkward chat, but the two of them are focused on dominating the competition over the Jorgensons.

The next day, Stoick commences the Thawfest games and hundreds of Berk's spectators cheer in excitement. Bucket and Mulch, who are the score recorders of each contestant, commence the first game, the Sheep Lug, which requires the Riders to race to the finish line while carrying a sheep on their shoulders. Snotlout and Astrid make an early lead, with Hiccup falling behind, who watches behind Fishlegs and the Twins struggling to race. Snotlout comes in first place, with Astrid as second, and Hiccup tries to go for the third but is unable to lift the sheep any longer and collapses. As a result, Snotlout scores a point, with none of the other Riders gaining one. Snotlout then begins to mock Hiccup of his defeat.

The second game, the Log Roll, requires the Riders to stay on a rolling log as long as possible with the winner being the last on still on the log. In the early start, Fishlegs knocks out Astrid causing them both to fall, simultaneously the Twins also fall off. Hiccup and Snotlout remain, but Hiccup too gives in and falls down, leaving Snotlout the victor, giving him another point. Toothless helps his embarrassed Rider to stand up.

The third and last game for the Riders, Axe Throwing, requires the Riders to take an axe and accurately throw to a barrel that has a target on it. Snotlout quickly throws his axe, in a perfect shot. Astrid and Fishlegs both throw their axes at the same time causing them to collide and fail. The Twins make fun of their axes by throwing one to Stoick and the other into the crowd. Hiccup, barely managing to hold his own axe, attempts his throw which seems to glide straightly but does not have enough power for the axe to make it to the target and falls short. Snotlout then single handedly throws axes at some of the remaining targets while not looking in front, and all make a perfect shot, impressing his father and the crowd. Hiccup whisperingly calls him a show off. All three points are awarded to Snotlout, and Snotlout's father, Spitelout, mocks Stoick's son to give up the medal and avoid embarrassment by his son, but Stoick counters by saying 'why don't you take a seat..' and Spitelout is left speechless. Gobber tells Stoick to just ignore him, but it's been years and Stoick only wishes for things to change just this year.

Hiccup looks at his rankings and finds him again usually at dead last, Snotlout then begins to mock him. Hiccup responds back by saying that tomorrow's Thawfest dragon events will change everything, Snotlout replies that he can't wait for it to go in motion and they leave the Academy. Astrid then asks Hiccup why is he so caught up in defeating Snotlout, he responds that for years he finally has a chance to quiet Snotlout's gloats by beating him in the Thawfest. Astrid is convinced by his point and leaves by saying it's nice to see someone else claim the medal, but Hiccup is beginning to show his boastfulness by saying to himself for Snotlout that today's events was Snotlout's last.

The next day, Mulch announces and commences the first dragon event, the Hurdles, which requires the teens' dragons to go under a number of hurdles and make it to the end with running into any of them. Snotlout still feels confident that his dragon can dominate the event. Fishlegs and Meatlug come first, but quickly fail to make it under the first hurdle, as they can't fit through. The Twins and Barf and Belch charge in without thinking it out first, and one head goes over the hurdle with, the other going under it, and they are quickly put into a halt. Astrid and Stormfly almost make it through but they hit one of the hurdles and fail. Snotlout and Hookfang are next, and Hookfang flies straight in, the problem is, Hookfang's elevation is not properly adjusted as Snotlout's head keeps hitting the hurdles. Hiccup and Toohtless quickly show them how it's done as glide under all the hurdles and do not hit a single one, earning Hiccup his very first Thawfest point.

As a result, Hiccup cheers happily for his first victory, and at first Astrid and Fishlegs are happy for him. Hiccup then has a different mental feeling of himself, as he realizes he likes beating Snotlout and shows signs of gloating. Astrid and Fishlegs are left concerned for Hiccup. Snotlout arrives telling Hiccup to not get too overjoyed as there are still two more events. But with victory in his hands, Hiccup now mocks Snotlout and Snotlout just leaves, and Astrid is a bit disgusted by Hiccup.

Mulch commences the second event, the Free Style, which requires the Riders to come up with an eye-catching and impressive display of their dragon, in an effort to impress the judges. The Twins and Fishlegs all struggled in showing their display perfectly and are only awarded a few points by the judges. Astrid and Stormfly put up a show by doing their Balance Dance, which impresses the judges. Hiccup and Toothless however, give the judges a stunning display of a flight and astounding aerial manuevers, and the judges are utterly impressed awarding him huge points. Snotlout and Hookfang set up huge rings for their recently made-up display called the Rings of Fire. Hiccup expresses a bit of concern that if Snotlout wins this he'll be able to catch up and take home the medal. Snotlout's display requires Hookfang to fly straight into the Rings as he sets them on fire, but Hookfang breaks as he cannot risk going into the flaming rings, causing his Rider to eject and collide onto the Rings, burning his pants. The judges award him with no points. Spitelout now feels the same embarrassment and dissapointment Stoick had with his son.

After a short break, Snotlout watches as he is now the one dead last in the Thawfest dragon events and watches as Hiccup is finally catching up on him, and Hiccup is now the one mocking him by informing him of his father's anger. Snotlout responds that he still doubts that Hiccup has a shot of beating him and the two dispute. But Snotlout is left as the loser and leaves bickering, as Hiccup tells him that he is the best rider and has the best dragon and also showing him the scoreboard. Astrid arrives asking what all the commotion was about, and Hiccup tells her they he was just 'rattling cages', which Astrid has never seen Hiccup done before.

Moments later the third event is introduced, The Fly and Shoot. This event requires the Riders' dragons to shoot wooden images of enemy Outcasts that pop up but must spare the friendlies that pop up along the way. Hiccup and Toothless take down their enemies and spares citizens swiftly and are in the lead. Snotlout and Hookfang encounter their first enemy and Hookfang puts it into flames, but also hits one of the flour bags, getting powder all over Hookfang's nose, causing him to sneeze simultaneously and shooting unwanted bursts of fire, devastating the testing field as he burns anything that springs up. Consequently, Snotlout loses the final event, giving the third point to Hiccup, resulting for the first time ever, a tie.

To break the tie, the two contestants, Hiccup and Snotlout will have to participate in a special dragon event that will determine who will take home the medal. Hiccup and Snotlout then continue their dispute with each other, but Hiccup wins over Snotlout by mocking his family's reputation of the possibility of their first loss at Thawfest, and Snotlout leaves bickering again. Hiccup continues to mock him, and Astrid is disgusted by his behavior, but Hiccup still fails to realize he is so caught up in beating Snotlout. Astrid just tells him that she'd always liked the old Hiccup better, telling him that he was a gracious loser, and that she was surprised he was such a lousy winner.

Later at night in Gobber's smith, Hiccup is improving Toothless' gear as much as he can while gloating to himself that he can be a great winner, failing to realize what Astrid meant about him being a 'lousy winner'. Hiccup finishes the new gear and attaches it onto Toothless an says that it will give him a tremendous boost of agility and speed for tomorrow's final event, and then says that Snotlout has no chance now at winning the final event.

The next day, hours before the final event is commenced, Hiccup is greeted by Stoick to wish him luck for the final event,and on the other side, Spitelout greets his son and warns him that no Jorgenson has ever come close to losing the Thawfest games and hints to Snotlout that he will not tolerate it, if Snotlout becames the first Jorgenson family member to lose the Thawfest Games. Snotlout is left deeply worried but presses on.

Hours later, the final event, the Obstacle course race, which Gobber explains, requires Hiccup and Snotlout to first race through an obstacle course of Log Dodge and Cliff Climb before they can reach their dragons, who are waiting in the cliffs. There they are to mount up and race around a made flight race, to which the finish line is back at the Academy, and the first to cross the finish line is the winner. Hiccup and Snotlout prepare for their foot race, and when it starts, Snotlout buys himself some time by pushing Hiccup away in the early start. Snotlout quickly overcomes the Log Dodge and moves to the Cliff climb where two vikings throw boulders at them to thwart their advance, but Snotlout overcomes it anyway and mounts up to Hookfang and hurriedly flies away. Hiccup also overcomes the Log Dodge quickly, but struggles to climb his way up, and fortunately he manages to get a hang of it and makes it to Toothless. Now, they have to catch up to Snotlout and Hookfang by using Toothless' improvised gear.

After flying passed the marked ship, Hiccup sets Toothless' improved tail, and shoots across the sea with bullet-speed, catching up to Snotlout and Hookfang. However, as they go through a maze of sea stacks, Hiccup and Toothless are blocked by Snotlout and Hookfang in attempt to keep them behind. Hiccup and Toothless attempt to move to the side, but the two dragons briefly collide with each other. When they regain control, they find themselves heading to an intersection, and they only have seconds to decide which path to take as they will collide into the sea stack. Snotlout and Hookfang manage to take the short route while Hiccup is forced to take the longer route. Hiccup and Toothless fly overhead seeing that Snotlout and Hookfang are only meters away from the finish line, and they hurriedly attempt to close in on Snotlout.

Snotlout and Hookfang's speed, however, is no match for Hiccup and Toothless' and they are about to bypass them. However, Hiccup notices Snotlout worrying that he can't afford to lose. Hiccup suddenly has this epiphany of himself and realizes what Astrid meant before that he is only becoming Snotlout himself. Hiccup apologizes to his father to himself, and discharges Toothless' tail, forcing them to slow down and to land for a bit. The crowd thinks Hiccup and Toothless are having difficulties in flying, but Astrid and Stoick sees that they intended to do that. Meanwhile, with Hiccup and Toothless backing down, Snotlout and Hookfang make it to the finish line first.

Hiccup and Toothless follow, and the two unmount for a declaration of the winner. Hiccup comments to Snotlout on his nice flying, and Snotlout comments to Hiccup that he put on a good fight, but was not enough to beat him, and then he starts to mock Hiccup again, but Hiccup just ignores it. As Stoick announces the closing of perhaps one of the most unforgettable Thawfest games of the year, Stoick declares Snotlout the champion and the winner of this year's Thawfest and gives him the medal. Snotlout runs around cheering his name in victory and his father joins in.

￼Astrid watches Snotlout and Hiccup, then approaches Hiccup saying she saw what he did. Hiccup pretends he has no clue of what she's saying and states that he lost as usual, but Astrid tells him that she knew he threw the race, though Hiccup still denies it and says that Snotlout was just 'the Better Viking' today, but Astrid tells Hiccup that no one was a better Viking then him today and then gives him a kiss.

Hiccup watches on as Snotlout and his father rekindle their father and son relationship. Hiccup accepts his defeat and states that being a good friend is more important than winning.

"Some things never change. But I guess certain things are more important than winning - like being a good friend. Even if the friend is that guy!"

- Hiccup

Transcript
The full transcript can be found here

Trivia

 * Astrid kisses Hiccup for the first time in the TV series, and it's the last time she'll be kissing him until they become an official couple about four years later in Blindsided.
 * Also, this is the first episode of the series where we see Spitelout Jorgenson, as well as the first time in the franchise where his character is given depth beyond the bland and somewhat generic lines which he was given in the film.
 * We finally see the rivalry of Hookfang and Toothless' relationship.
 * The first axe Snotlout threw in the axe throwing competition disappears during the rest of the scene.
 * Bucket believes every day is a good day for lugging sheep.
 * According to Hiccup, Snotlout started their rivalry when they were five.
 * It is much more likely that they have fought since birth. Their rivalry only ended during the conclusion of the Berserker War.
 * The logs from Snotlout's run through the obstacle course disappear when it is Hiccup's turn.

Cast
Festiwal Roztopów (odcinek)