Live and Let Fly

Live and Let Fly is the first episode of the second season of DreamWorks Dragons' now subtitled Defenders of Berk, and the twenty-first episode overall. It premiered on September 19, 2013. It is preceded by We Are Family, Part 2 and is succeeded by The Iron Gronckle.

Overview
Certain that Alvin is planning an attack on Berk, Stoick institutes flight restrictions on the dragon academy. Hiccup, certain that Alvin will be using his new-found dragon-training knowledge to bolster his attack, forms a secret Dragon Flight Club in order to train the kids to defend Berk against Alvin's dragon army.

Plot
The Riders are practicing on how to hold out brutal interrogation by Alvin, where Fishlegs is shown tied up and is being interrogated to break and reveal the Riders' profiles. He quickly fails the test when he is seemingly left alone and the lights go out in the cave, causing him to reveal every detail about the Riders. The lights go back on and Hiccup is disappointed with Fishlegs being frightened only by the dark and confess easily. Hiccup instructs him to only tell his name, where he lives, and nothing else. After that, they leave, and Fishlegs is left alone still tied up with Meatlug.

At the docks, Stoick announces a ban on all dragon flying activity for the safety of Hiccup and the Riders after Alvin captured his son. Stoick instead prefers man-made defenses, being constructed by the Vikings, against Alvin's attack if Alvin succeeds in controlling dragons, due to the past experiences he saw some of the Riders train dragons in front of him and Mildew still in his hands. Hiccup pleads his father that the best way to counter is with their dragons but Stoick is unconvinced and continues the ban.

Stoick's decision enrages most of the Riders as they find it to be unacceptable, Hiccup had nothing else to do to his stubborn father but still tries to change his mind if he still can. Moments later, Hiccup and Astrid are walking back from the Academy, and Astrid finds it difficult without flying. Toothless then runs around excited and tries to convince his Rider to go for their daily sunset lap around the island. Unfortunately, with ban still in effect, Toothless can only watch the beautiful sunset until night falls. Hiccup is seen working on his shield in Gobber's smith, while Toothless throws his anger and disappointment at him after the two didn't do their usual flight around the island. Toothless continues trying to convince his Rider to go on a flight, but Hiccup tells Toothless to calm down.

Gobber greets Hiccup where he unknowingly annoys Hiccup saying that he usually sees him flying around with Toothless but now unable to due to the ban, he then asks what is he working on. Hiccup shows him his almost specialized shield where he unleashes a bolas at Gobber, and awkwardly is impressed. Hiccup is using the shield as a backup defense if he cannot use his dragon to defend himself due to the ban, but Gobber tells him that his father is just doing his best to keep Hiccup safe, and Hiccup tells Gobber the safest place for him is on Toothless. Gobber leaves him to his work while annoying Hiccup again that it's a beautiful evening for a flight.

When Gobber leaves, Toothless again tempts Hiccup to go flying, Hiccup seems to still deny but when they see how beautiful the sky is, he finally gives in. Meanwhile, while Astrid is feeding Stormfly, they notice someone illegally flying a dragon passed them and she quickly identifies it as Hiccup and Toothless.

Astrid and Stormfly decides to follow them to see what they are up to, but struggle to chase Hiccup and seem to lose them. When Hiccup sees it to be clear they lay low near a large rock, however, Astrid and Stormfly manages to find them. Astrid asks if Hiccup is going behind his father's back again by disobeying the ban. Hiccup did technically but sees that his father's decision is wrong, and he didn't want to involve the other Riders as he thinks it's the right thing. But Astrid tells him the right thing is that they all need to fly dragons again.

The next day, Hiccup and Astrid form a Dragon Flight Club and informs the other Riders to join them but must not tell anyone else as they train their dragons surreptitiously at night, to sharpen their dragon training abilities against attacks by Alvin. Hiccup reminds and emphasizes them the no.1 rule of the club to keep it under secrecy, by saying 'there  is no dragon flight club'.

They meet at the Academy to get ready for their dragon exercises that begins at night, where they need to be ready for any type of dragon they encounter. Their first exercise, is to study about Changewings at Changewing Island. They position themselves in a safe distance when studying Changewings hunting a boar for food, but they expose themselves once the Twins create noise by saying the boar the Changewings are hunting is familiar to them and tell them to leave it alone. The Changewings attack them instead, and they attempt to flee. The Riders are overwhelmed by sudden Changewing attacks as they come out almost nowhere. They devise a counterattack by going up in the sky where the Changewings do not have anything to disguise themselves with, and they are no match for the Riders' attacks and they turn back.

The next morning, Gobber is still magnifying the mechanism of Hiccup's shield. Stoick then arrives requesting Gobber has finish the new adjustments for the saddle of Thornado, Gobber says it's finish and it will work perfect for maneuvers on Thornado but nonetheless will matter right now due to the ban. But Stoick does not recall the ban he gave, which prompts Gobber to conclude that Stoick can't resist no dragon flying also. Stoick confesses and tells Gobber to not mention anyone about him flying Thornado against his own word especially to Hiccup, as he patrols the seas for enemy activity at night, Gobber keeps his secret.

At nightfall, the Riders once again do their dragon studying, where they study the scorch mark of a Typhoomerang. Hiccup notes that the scorch mark was just formed recently and the Typhoomerang that made it might be still near, Snotlout spots the huge Typhoomerang about to charge on them and they hurriedly wrap up the studying and flees.

While flying, Tuffnut informs Hiccup that he notices his father down below flying Thornado. Hiccup tells the Riders to immediately hide in the clouds and fly there until they reach town, undetected by Stoick. However, the Twins find it hard to navigate their way and they decide to look down in an upside down form, exposing their heads and Barf and Belch's. Stoick immediately spots the strange figure and chases them, Hiccup tells the Riders to split up and head back to their homes and keep their dragons hidden, and pretend nothing happened.

All the Riders succeed to return to their homes undetected, however, Fishlegs and Meatlug arrive a little too late as Stoick catches them and requests that he come with him. Fishlegs is brought into the Great Hall, where Stoick and Gobber questions him over and over what were they doing flying and who was involved also. Fishlegs thinks he is being interrogated and recalls what Hiccup told him what to say only, his name, where he lives, and nothing else. Fishlegs succeeds in keeping his mouth shut, even the torches inside go out.

The next night, Fishlegs is freed and meets the Riders at the Academy where Hiccup asks if Fishlegs confessed. Fishlegs tells Hiccup he did not crack, Hiccup tells the Riders to lay low until his father forgets suspicion about them after last night and he delays their dragon exercises. However, Snotlout and Hookfang arrives noisily after unprecedented patrol with his dragon saying that Alvin and the Outcasts are seen near Berk and are planning an attack.

Hiccup heads home and tells his father that Alvin is about to invade Berk, this causes Stoick to conclude that they were flying their dragons, disobeying the ban. But Hiccup tells his father, that how come he is allowed to fly his dragon. Speechless, Stoick just changes the topic to proceed with the defense against Alvin's impending attack and requests the full Academy, but they are already prepared to roll and is right in front of his doorstep.

Stoick devises the counterattack and dives in on Alvin's ships, after Stoick lures them to engage their first attack, the Riders engage. Just as Alvin figured, Alvin opens up a new weapon in their cargo hole, a group of Changewings burst out of the ship and immediately heads towards Berk. The Riders must fend them off before it reaches the village, otherwise it will be difficult to fend them off due to their ability to camouflage.

They divert their route, Hiccup assigns Astrid and the others to lure them to Changewing Island and make sure they don't head back as he helps his father fight off Alvin. Hiccup and Stoick finds a remarkable advantage, they discover that when Thornado uses his blast they combine with Toothless', igniting a burst of Plasma. Overwhelmed, Alvin orders his men to retreat.

Victorious, Hiccup and Stoick head back, but Hiccup feels that Alvin should have had a better battle strategy, Stoick just tells him to be thankful he didn't tonight.

However, it is revealed that Alvin was just a diversion for the Riders for Savage, Mildew and a few Outcasts to get through underneath Berk undetected. They plan to plant hundreds of Whispering Death eggs in underground caves that lead directly to the village, all planned out by Mildew.

Meanwhile, Hiccup goes downstairs for dinner. Stoick tells Hiccup his dislike of disobeying him about the ban, but confesses that he was wrong of grounding the dragons as he only wanted to be a good and protecting father. Hiccup understands, and then Stoick asks about their Dragon Flight Club, taking interest. The first and foremost Hiccup explains about the club is it's number one rule, "There is no Dragon Flight Club".

Meanwhile, the hundreds of Whispering Death eggs planted are beginning to hatch and one egg hatches completely, and a baby Whispering Death emerges.

Quotes
Hiccup: The first thing you need to know, is that there is no Dragon Flight Club.

Hiccup: Keep your distance! Their acid is only effective at close range!

Fishlegs: Not very comforting when you're on the slowest dragon!

Hiccup: Changewings hunt like wolves. One dragon lures a single boar from the herd.

Fishlegs: While the other Changewings surround it.

Mildew: These caves lead directly under Berk. They'll never know there are Whispering Deaths right underneath their feet!

Transcript
The full transcript can be found here.

Trivia

 * Hiccup refers to several events that took place in the previous season.
 * Fishlegs is revealed to be afraid of the dark.
 * The trainers can determine the size, age and the direction a Typhoomerang headed by examining the scorch mark.
 * Hiccup and Toothless are revealed to fly around the island when it gets dark, as Toothless loves that.
 * Tuffnut still thinks that Changewing eggs are Stones of Good Fortune.
 * A Thunderdrum's sonic roar can separate a Night Fury's plasma blasts into a plasma scatter-shot.
 * Several scenes were used from this episode for the promo.
 * Stoick was reading the "Gettysburg Address" (source)
 * This is the third episode that had no narration at the beginning or the end. The others being Heather Report, Part 1", and We Are Family, Part 2.
 * The title is a reference to the 1973 James Bond movie Live and Let Die.
 * Hiccup and Astrid use the same hand signal to tell Toothless and Stormfly to sleep.

Major Events

 * This is the first appearance of the Dragon Flight Club.
 * Hiccup begins construction of his shield.
 * Bjorn Bore makes his debut.
 * The caves under Berk make their first appearance.

Characters

 * Jay Baruchel as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
 * America Ferrera as Astrid Hofferson
 * Nolan North as Stoick the Vast
 * Chris Edgerly as Gobber the Belch
 * Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs Ingerman
 * Andree Vermeulen as Ruffnut Thorston
 * T.J. Miller as Tuffnut Thorston
 * Zack Pearlman as Snotlout Jorgenson

Dragons

 * Toothless
 * Stormfly
 * Hookfang
 * Meatlug
 * Barf and Belch
 * Thornado
 * Changewings
 * Typhoomerang
 * Whispering Death (Baby)

Villains

 * Mark Hamill as Alvin the Treacherous
 * Paul Rugg as Savage
 * Stephen Root as Mildew
 * Outcasts

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