Hello & welcome back to Dragon Week. Today, I'll be taking a look at an episode of American Dragon: Jake Long. Now this may seem odd that I am doing a season 1 review when I said that season 2 is a bit better but I feel that this episode is important as it sets up events that would come up later in the show. With that out of the way, let's go.
Episode Title
Dragon Summit
There really isn't too much to say here about the episode title. It does relate to the story as Jake, Grandpa and Fu Dog have to go to the Dragon Summit but I'll get into that a bit more when I touch on the plot. It's simple but for what it is, I like it.
The Plot
The plot of this episode is important to the series as it reveals a lot. We start out with our main three taking a magical elevator to the Island of Draco, where The Dragon Council presides. The Dragon Council has set up three tests for Jake and if Jake were to fail at least two, his Grandpa, Lao Shi would be removed as Jake's Dragon Master. The test included Test of Judgement in Fire, Test in Wisdom of Battle and Test of Courage In Flight. Now alongside these tests, wen Jake first arrives, he seems to draw the ire of Fred Nerk, the Australian Dragon and they start to prank each other and this gets in the way. This seems to set up a bit of a rivalry between the two and it culminates in Jake's third and final test, Courage In Flight, where Jake gets to choose his opponent to fly against and he chooses Fred. They seem to take turns being in the lead and this is when we get our first glimpse of The Dark Dragon. He's considered the number one threat to the magical community and he until this point in the series had only been defeated by one person, Lao Shi. That's why Lao Shi wanted to train Jake because he feared The Dark Dragon would one today return and he did indeed return as we see him as he takes Fred and Jake goes after him and had been watching Jake an studying him so that he can have him join the side of evil but that doesn't happen. Jake defeats him barely and at the end, we find out that one of the Dragon Council members, Chang has been working as a double agent for The Dark Dragon. It's revealed at the end of the episode that Dark Dragon plans to enslave the Dragon community. All in all, this was a decent episode that had a lot of good set up for things that would come up later in the series and though we only got a glimpse of The Dark Dragon, it was clear that he was someone that shouldn't be messed with.
Characters
For this review, I'll be breaking it down into Important, Supporting, & Villains. So let's go.
Important Characters
Jake Long voiced by Dante Basco
As I said yesterday on the Top 6, when talking about Jake. He can be a bit cocky and overconfident in his skills as the American Dragon and that does come into play here as it finally catches up to him at the Dragon Summit and at first, Jake didn't take the tests seriously because he doesn't realize the consequences and instead focuses on his rivalry with Fred Nerk. Which causes him to fail his first test. The Test of Judgement In Fire.
Though after Grandpa gets on Jake, he starts to take the tests seriously and during his duel with Fred, that's when he comes into contact with The Dark Dragon and while there interaction was minimal at best, it was a neat moment to be sure and the build up earlier in the episode when it was revealed that The Dark Dragon is the number one threat to the magical community was a nice touch. Again, it was only a small moment for The Dark Dragon's first appearance, it worked rather well. For Jake, however I thought this was a good episode as it made him realize that he needed to take his responsibilities as the American Dragon a bit more seriously because of threats such as The Dark Dragon.
Grandpa Lao Shi voiced by Keone Young
As stated above Lao Shi is Jake's grandfather and his Dragon Master. That entails training Jake as the American Dragon but as stated earlier in the review that is on the line and unlike Jake, who doesn't take things seriously, Grandpa does but that also is revealed why in this episode because he had fought The Dark Dragon in the past and defeated him and while The Dragon Council believed The Dark Dragon to gone forever, Lao Shi believed differently. Which as stated prior turned out to be true.
The Dragon Council - Voices Unlisted
The Dragon Council are crucial to this episode in that they are ones providing the tests for Jake and other than have the powers to remove one's Dragon Master, they also have the power to remove one's Dragon powers. Now not too much is revealed about them in this episode and I believe that this episode was their first appearance.
Fred Nerk - Voice Unlisted
Now I can't recall and the American Dragon Wiki isn't very helpful here either but I do believe that this was Fred's only episode. Which is ashame because I think he would've been a good recurring character and rival character for Jake as the way they butted heads in the episode was entertaining and at the end, when he and Jake had to work together was a nice coming together for the two of them.
Supporting Character
Fu Dog voiced by John DiMaggio
Fu Dog was perhaps the least important character in the episode. He did still play a role in that he helped Jake get back at Fred and that's about it, really.
Villains
Chang voiced by Lauren Tom
As stated earlier Chang was working as double agent for The Dark Dragon. No one knew this at the time of this episode. Throughout the entire episode, she was shown to be a very serious and uptight member of the Dragon Council but I believe that part of that came from her using it as a cover.
The Dark Dragon voiced by Clancy Brown
In all honesty, the highlight of this episode for me was The Dark Dragon. It really felt like his presence was looming and he didn't come out of nowhere. I also appreciate the fact that even though it was shown that he was powerful, we only got a taste of what was to come with him. I also think that he showed that even he is not someone to be messed with and later on in the series, we got to see his full poetnial as a villain.
My Final Thoughts
All in all, this was a decent episode that on it's own may not look to be anything important but in reality there is a lot of important set up for the future of this series and it also gave the lead character a good moment to shine and reflect on his past actions and what it meant to be the American Dragon. This is a really fun episode in my opinion. If you haven't seen the show though, I don't suggest starting with this episode. Your best bet for that would actually be start with the first episode as both seasons have an ongoing story arc and past events are brought up in this episode. Join me next time as I take a look at...
Pete's Dragon
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