| “ | This Hiccup guy seems to be the greatest dragon rider ever, and I'm related to him. We both are! | ” |
| — Tom telling Olivia about their ancestor |
"Barrel of Vine Tails" is the third episode of the fifth season of Dragons: The Nine Realms.
Synopsis[]
| “ | A mischievous new breed of dragons steal the Book of Dragons and the Riders have to figure out how to get it back. | ” |
| — Hulu |
Plot[]
While the dragon club, except for Tom, feed their dragons, D'Angelo reveals his grandparents sent him a care package of snacks. While he willingly shares most of the snacks, he refuses to share his grandmother's haystacks, despite the other's efforts, and Eugene resolves to steal one for himself. Tom arrives and reveals he has discovered the key to understanding his connection to Thunder and the hidden world. He explains he figured out that since his family's Viking helmet had the key to the container holding the book of dragons, he must be descended from the author. While he knows who his ancestor looked like from the illustration in the King's Realm, all he knows about his name is that the word 'hiccup' was used to describe him. He also found a passage mentioning his ancestor's resting place is somewhere in the Nature Realm where there would be a gravestone with his ancestor's name on it.
The dragon club enters the Nature Realm and Tom begins searching for stones sharing the design shown in the book to find the gravestone. After Eugene fails to snag on of D'Angelo's haystacks, Alex finds a clearing with some stones that the group investigates. They fail to find the gravestone among the rocks and during the search. Suddenly, a pack of dragons called Vine Tails steal D'Angelo's haystacks, Alex's tablet, and the book of dragons. The dragon club goes after their stolen possessions, but the Vine Tails agility and intelligence makes them hard to catch. Eugene gets back D'Angelo's haystacks, but D'Angelo takes them back before he can eat any, and Wu and Wei help Alex recover her tablet. Plowhorn takes back the book of dragons, but the Vine Tails steal it back by forming a chain that's so strong, that not even she and Thunder working together can stop them from getting the book back.
The group follows the Vinetails into patch of vines and D'Angelo unwillingly is made to lure them with his haystacks. While trying to lure the Vine Tails, the vines on the ground wrap around dragon club's dragons and the group discovers they are trapped by carnivorous plants that feed on dragons. As the plants slowly pull the dragons toward their carnivorous mouths, the dragon riders jump to safe ground to find a way to help them. Suddenly, the Vine Tails drop the book of dragons and climb on the captured dragons to reach a fruit tree that the carnivorous plants surround. The group realizes that the Vine Tails took their things to lure them into the vines so they could jump across the dragons and get to the tree full of their food safely. D'Angelo explains some animals understand basic bartering and manipulation, but Tom is more concerned about the plants. The dragons attack the plant's mouths, but they are resistant to their blasts and resume slowly pulling them in.
The group tries to pull Plowhorn out with a vine, but the plant's pull is too strong to pull free from. With the dragon's getting closer to being eaten, Tom takes drastic action and steals Alex's tablet. He climbs to the tree and offers to trade the book and the tablet to the Vine Tails if they help free the captured dragons. The Vine Tails accept the trade and form a chain to pull Thunder free. Thunder, Tom, and the Vine Tails work together to free all the dragons. Afterward, the dragon club helps make a safe path of rocks through the carnivorous plants so the Vine Tails can reach the fruit tree safely and they don't need to trick dragons anymore. In gratitude, the Vine Tails return the book and tablet, but the dragon club is too tired after the day's events to keep looking for the gravestone. When Eugene sits down to take a rest, he accidentally discovers the gravestone described in the book, which is actually the base of a tree. Tom realizes the book wasn't talking about a final resting place, it was a place his ancestor came to rest and relax. Jun finds a word carved in the tree, but when Tom translates it, all it says is 'haddock', which they think refers to the fish. Despite not finding any answers, the other encourage Tom to keep finding answers and D'Angelo finally shares his haystacks with his friends.
When Tom returns home, he shows his mom the book of dragons and explains his search for the author's name. When Tom explains all he managed to find was the word 'haddock', Olivia reveals her great-grandfather's family name was Haddock. With this information, Tom realizes the author's name was Hiccup Haddock and reveals to Olivia they are descended from "the greatest dragon rider ever". As a result, Tom asks his mother to share more information about their ancestors.
Characters[]
Humans[]
- Tom Kullersen voiced by Jeremy Shada
- Jun Wong voiced by Ashley Liao
- D'Angelo Baker voiced by Marcus Scribner
- Alexandra Gonzalez voiced by Aimee Garcia
- Eugene Wong voiced by Vincent Tong
- Olivia Kullersen voiced by Julia Stiles
- Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (mentioned)
Dragons[]
Dragon Species[]
- Night Light
- Mist Twister
- Gembreaker
- Featherhide
- Deadly Spinner
- Vine Tail
- Terrible Terror
- Sky Torcher (mentioned)
Locations[]
- Kullersen Fissure
- ICARIS
- Tom's Dome
- General Store (mentioned)
- Hidden World
- King's Realm (mentioned)
- Nature Realm
- Hiccup's Relaxing Tree
Objects[]
- Saddles
- Book of Dragons
- Tom's Viking Helmet (mentioned)
- Alex's Tablet
Flora and Fauna[]
Trivia[]
- The discovery of runes carved in a tree in this episode is an inconsistency since no humans were suppose to have ever entered the Hidden World after the events of the third film.
- The title of the episode could be a reference to the toy game "Barrel of Monkeys".
- The Vine Tail's monkey-like stance and ability to link together to form a chain could be a nod to the game's objective of creating a monkey chain.
- When Eugene finds moss on a rock and claims that looks like "Abraham Lincoln or that Colonel chicken guy" it's most likely a reference to Colonel Sanders who is both the founder and face of the fast food franchise "Kentucky Fried Chicken".
