The last time John saw Vriska as a pirate was right when he got these powers. So this is a new “yet same” Vriska who he knows can be ruthlessly efficient here.
The dragon is important, I know it. Maybe it hasn’t been in play yet. Maybe Tavros is going to hatch the ultimate monster-pokemon horse thing out of it to fight English. Maybe that’s why the dragon is important. I don’t know.
Do you think even she has an idea what it was supposed to do, since she never really had it planned it out? Or is she just going to tell her side of the story as to what happened?