#HTTYD3 talk

[thereweredragonshere]

I want to hit Dean DeBlois over the head with a gift of the night fury shaped frying pan

[tillythemenace]

how do you think THW should've been like? or the ending of HTTYD?

Well for starters no Hidden World, no Light Fury and NO Grimmel. I think HTTYD3 should’ve focused on Hiccup and Toothless’s growth, their world and actually BUILDING that new world they said they would. Yes expanding on their world and its conflicts and actually changing the world.

-If they were gonna make a point of the threats they’re facing maybe KEEP USING DRAGO? Like they were supposed to. Like where did his armada go? Maybe they did scatter, if u wanna explore other warlods maybe have them work together and actually challenge Hiccup. INTERACT with him.

-I like that Hiccup continued to raid dragon hunters and free dragons, keep that and expand on that. Again, make Hiccup actually interact with Warlords, challenge their viewpoints, show his power,and establish order in a much organic way instead of straight up RUNNING AWAY FROM EVERYTHING. Stupid ass migration pisses me off. Make Berk a base yes, but like in RTTE (which YES I WILL GIVE MERIT on the world building stuff), have some allies or maybe have Hiccup have examples of ppl that HAVE changed like Eret as his starting point. No overpopulation problem cause that’s stupid in the first place since dragons have different habitats, they have different islands, Berk being overpopulated is a problem created sorely for this movie and I hate it cause logically it makes NO SENSE for them to put them all in one place. The only dragons that live of Berk should’ve been the ones that bonded with their vikings. Yes they would be a lot but as HTTYD2 SHOWED US, it was never a problem cause they adapted in an organic way.

-Toothless’s arc about “needing” a mate is not necessary. I think if they wanted to explore his character more, they should’ve written him AND HICCUP (since ya know… “friendship of a lifetime 🙄) as more mature and struggling with the issues left in the second movie, like the trauma (surprised they completely went over it like nothing affected them) of losing stoick, like ACTUALLY, would’ve liked to see them actually explore other islands, yes recuing dragons and Toothless actually acting like an alpha, Berk’s “overpopulation” idea would he scratched, GRIMMEL and his stupid dragon killer ass also not existing. If u want to keep exploring maybe give a much more believable reason for Night Furies disappearing? Maybe they didn’t disappear and maybe if u wanna connect with the books, have them disperse or hiding somewhere for a believable reason instead of “one dude killed them all with no explanation for no compelling reason other than he’s a baddy”.

Start with NOT making Toothless a horny dog and sad because he’s the only one left (he never cared before about that) and maybe if u wanna challenge his and Hiccups relationship, make him discover his species or family or flock of Night Furies and have a conflict of interest between that and him being an Alpha in Berk.

-If they wanna tackle the “dragons are wild creatures” theme (which again unnecessary given the previous 2 movies and series), then Toothless can be a Hiccup parallel in that regard and bring wild Dragons that hate humans into this and Hiccup’s cause, bringing their world together like they were supposed to. THAT would give Toothless FAR more agency and character than him “choosing” a mate over Hiccup ever will. There NO NEED AT ALL to separate them, that was SORELY Dean’s decision because he wanted so badly to connect the books to the movies for no other reason other than cheap tear-jerks. Like it was NEVER a point of the movies to end with “dragons disappearing at the end” until THAT ONE LAST SCENE in THW…

-Don’t make Berk isolated, cause to me that was a huge as mistake. The series do such a great job at portraying the Archipelago, its conflicts, how Hiccup handles those in this new world he’s trying to build, how he made enemies and believable allies. In the third movie that could’ve all been brought together in a nice bow. (Not necessarily saying address the shows alltogether if u dont want to) but make a STATEMENT about the Archipelago’s position in this world. Cause in HTTYD3 everything seems so isolated, disperse, there’s no sense of world, no setting. Hiccup’s map is obsolete cause there are no PLACES to actually go. We don’t even know where Grimmel and the warlords ARE or where they came from. Unlike HTTYD2, we get a sense of emptiness in the world. I think the series at least gives us a sense of world building that THW lacks.

-Change the themes altogether, HTTYD was ALWAYS about bringing worlds together, not romantic love. It was about sacrifice, maybe up the stakes a lil bit? Show what actual war looks like, like in HTTYD2, maybe have some casualties but don’t make those weaken Hiccup’s resolve, cause if his DAD’S DEATH didn’t make him stop, then nothing will. Him and Toothless were relentless and they should’ve stayed that way.

-Give VALKA something to do instead of being a glorified vigilante (which could’ve been literally ANYONE ELSE in that role and nothing would’ve changed), Have HER help Hiccup, she believes in his cause, she told him he was the one to bring their world together, she came BACK TO BERK cause that was the future of humanity.

-Give the whole ass cast more time with their bonded dragons, have them be examples, have Astrid be the one that comes up with plans and war tactics, have her support Hiccup as chieftess, bring the people together.

Well I guess that would end been my ideal HTTYD3… have it actually conclude the whole franchise like it was supposed to instead of gaslighting me into thinking Hiccup was always wrong for having “dangerous thoughts” about peace…….. like god what the actual hell…

[neytui]

I'm constantly fighting the cringy urge to self insert myself on httyd at least once

But today I dreamt about it and I'm still excited, like come on

[bio-on-the-side]

i rewatched the wild robot at my local cinema today and i feel like i've been conditioned to go crazy at this movie since watching httyd for the first time in 2010. the cinematic score, the great character design and animation but especially the story beats and the heart. i love all the parallels and i love every point where the stories diverge and become something totally unique

[cure-whimsy]

does anyone have like. full-body references of ruffnut's viking outfit from httyd3

I only have her dragon armour, and a waist-up shot of her viking outfit

[circusclownsam]

The transition from a lush orange forest to a dead decaying forest is absolutely beautiful.

I will always love HTTYD2. Also love how Astrid gives hiccup a “what the fuck, shut up” look when he’s mocking Eret while he’s talking about drago.

[tillythemenace]

Not to mention it's a painfully bad message that borderlines on toxic the: "let go of friends because he found a partner now".

You mean to tell me that romantic love is always the endgoal? That platonic and romantic love HAVE to remain separate? that Friendships are inherently inferior to romance? That you should abandon everything because nuclear family and hetero romance is the best thing you can have? It bothers me on a deep level that THIS is the TRUE subtext of this movie and Dean tried to hide it all with "humans bad, war is inevitable, we can't change so Dragons hidden is better"

I started smelling smoke as soon as I saw the Light Fury because it became painfully aware about what they were gonna do. You see a love interest and you immediately think it HAS to be the end all be all of your life. And for a franchise like HOW TO TRAIN YOU MF DRAGON, the fact that they chose THAT message to end the whole franchise with felt so disjointed and out of nowhere.

Then it all became "Heteronormativity The Movie" For some reason I still cannot understand. If Dean wanted to end the movies like the books did (a HORRIBLE decision as a whole to begin with), he chose the WORST possible reason to "separate" Hiccup and Toothless. He wrote them to be the worst possible things they could be, Dumb and a PET.

Not to mention the fact that the message of "with love comes loss" is and NEVER WAS a theme of this franchise. Not only is it not true, if you wanna talk about SACRIFICE which is NOT the same as just letting go of someone you love because they found a partner, then maybe they could've learned AS A CULTURE to let go of some things but to GROW WITH the dragons. So that they BOTH integrate with each other and made the world better because it was NOT EASY. Hiccup sacrificed SO MUCH to get where he is now, that was THE POINT of trying to change the world, it's NOT EASY, THAT is the loss Hiccup and the others had over "LOVE", but no. Apparently Dean thought it was a great idea to actually mean ROMANTIC love and the "loss" is to let go of friends just because, and dont give me that crap about being at war ok Hiccup and the rest have won every single fight they have fought, only to "let go" so easily at the end.

I get that THW was going for a sobering message of "sometimes you have to let people go" and "some friends can't stay forever", but it was hilariously unsuccessful.

It's still baffling to me, the amount of raving reviews calling it "the perfect ending".

Apart from the wild thematic inconsistencies, and the endless flaws with Hiccup's logic of "oh, yeah, I know that things have never before been this good for dragons, I know that Berk is living proof that even the most stubborn people can change their minds on dragons, I know that dragons thrive on companionship and love their humans, I know that good people exist, I know that I'm the instigator of a huge revolutionary period, butttttt..... because bad humans exist I'll lock away the entirety of the draconic population in a glorified underground cage, in the hopes that one day humans will stop being bad and learn to cooperate with the creatures that they question, or even forget, the existence of a measly decade after their disappearance. Magically.", this message plainly didn't fit.

Not just in a thematic context. I mean that it literally doesn't fit in this situation, and it doesn't fit the characters.

It doesn't even fit reality, because you have to let go of people for reasons. Some friends can't stay forever, for reasons.

Valid ones. Reasons like, you grew apart, you don't have shared interests anymore, they betrayed you in an unforgivable way, they're not good for you, they're not good to you, they died, etc etc.

And one of this happened? At any stage? The one thing you could, albeit pointlessly, argue is that they grew apart. That they outgrew each other.

Only that...they didn't? Did I miss something? Because Toothless flying away for, what, a day to spend some time with his love interest, is not outgrowing. Toothless finding romance does not mean that he and Hiccup grew apart.

And this isn't just about the Light Fury. I'm not discussing whether or not she's a good character (she isn't), and I'm not discussing whether or not she deserves Toothless (Ha, you're funny). Even if she were the absolute best, most perfect match for Toothless and a compelling character, it still wouldn't even remotely mean that he and Hiccup grew apart.

In fact, if you grow so far apart from your best friend that you can say goodbye to them forever, just because you found a new partner, then I really don't know what to tell you. (Except that you're probably not a good friend.)

Hiccup realizing that Toothless doesn't make him who he is, and doesn't define him, that he doesn't need Toothless in order to be someone, or even that he doesn't need Toothless at all, doesn't mean that he outgrew him. Not even slightly.

I mean, come on, I don't need the vast majority of people in my life. Arguably, I might not even need any of the people in my life. This doesn't mean I don't want them there.

This doesn't mean that I won't fight for them to stay right here, by my side.

Oh, look, how's that for a change? How about a movie where your friends refuse to leave you? Because that's what I want, and that's what How To Train Your Dragon deserved.

That's what Hiccup, and the rest of the Berkians, deserved. And that's what fit. That's what thematically fit, what fit reality, or at least the httyd reality, and what fit the characters themselves.

This movie treated the dragons as mindless pets, whereas in every other step of the way, they were treated as people.

Toothless isn't a just slobbery puppy.

Toothless is intelligent, curious, kind, understanding, funny, snarky and sarcastic, graceful, elusive, protective, loving, wary, and fucking loyal (plus much more).

I can't think of a character that has demonstrated as much loyalty and protectiveness as this guy.

And yet he was barely any of the aforementioned things in thw. He became unrecognizable.

All the dragons became unrecognizable, for no justifiable reason.

The final message shouldn't have been that your friends sometimes have to leave you, and that you have to let them go.

(The humans left the dragons just as much as the dragons left the humans btw)

It should've been that they'll fight tooth and nail to stay, even when the going gets tough, even when priorities shift, even when you tell them to go.

No matter how passionately you insist that caring for you is rotten work.

It's not to them.

[tillythemenace]

The way I can now live with the inconsistencies in RTTE rather than in HTTYD3………. Who knew I would accept RTTE as more canon that the majority of THAT mess of a movie. How did I ever think it was as bad 😩

Like upon rewatch? HTTYD3 was so much worse holy hell……….

I’m so SORRY RTTE for giving you so much shit back in the day. You were definitely not perfect but by GOD you were the treasure we need after THAT….

[cure-whimsy]

does anyone have any good refs of the gang's viking outfits from the hidden world?

I can't find any good renders of anyone besides astrid and hiccup, I can only find renders of everyone's dragon armour, which isn't what I'm looking for

[neytui]

Happy Leap Year + Happy Year of The Dragon + Happy Birthday Hiccup!!! 🎉✨

I know this is not confirmed on the movies or anything, but I guess it's the closest I can get to Hiccup's birthday so I'll take it.

I'll also take the chance to talk a lil about my feelings below, pardon meee

I've been liking httyd since it first came out, I remember being a kid and not understanding half what what's going on with the movie but there where dragons so I couldn't give a shit. I don't remeber my first time watching httyd2 but I fucking wish I did, the only one I remember watching for the first time is httyd3 cuz I went to the cinema and cried a fucking toooon, also got the only official merch I had and it's a pop corn bowl hell yeah.

Anyways, even when I have loved it my whole life, there have only been few times I've got hyperfixated on it, I think this is like the fourth/fifth time or smth, but it's the first time making content and posting :) and I didn't imagine there would be people out there who could care about it. I'm here to thank all that people, all of you thank you for liking my stuff and for reblogging with all that funny and caring tags, I read all of them, sometimes take some pictures of them bc of how much of an impact they made me feel, I wish there were a easy way to answer to them :') Httyd means a lot to me and I genuinely think it has formed some of me as a person through the years. I could write about it all day but this is getting so loNG IM SORRY, one day I could write more about it maybe, but till then, letting you know I care about this way too much and thank you so much for the support, love y'all ❤ Happy Birthday Hiccup

[hijacksecrets]

On my second watch through of Race to the Edge, and man, could you imagine if we'd gotten a villain like Viggo instead of Drago in HTTYD2? Like, instead of this big dumb brute who just wants power (that essentially is no different than the other types of vikings that Hiccup deals with every day), if Hiccup actually had an intellectual opponent who gave him a run for his money (and hell, maybe even some moral challenges?)

(don't talk to me about Grimmel, i know technically he was like that but Hiccup had 0 braincells in httyd3 and just overall this household is a zero httyd3 tolerance household, thank you. Also Viggo has way more charisma than Grimmel)

RTTE has its faults but overall the good moments in the show are REALLY good, and I love how they did Viggo - I just wish he were in something with a higher budget T0T

[tillythemenace]

If you’re familiar with Schaffrillas, what are your thoughts on his take about HTTYD 2 being the weakest one and that 3 was stronger?

It pissed me off tbh.

VERY long post ahead.

That logic only works when you're looking from the End to the beginning, but even then you need to really try hard to see how it makes sense. If you consider the actual finale first, then the middle would make no sense. And Schaff said it himself, that with THW ending in mind, then the rest doesn't make sense, but that's not how things work. Cause the ending of THW DOESN'T make sense to the rest of the franchise. Dean clearly didn't know how to connect the 3 movies and totally retconned so much stuff to try and justify previous events. Some examples:

-Stoick knowing about the HW and being obsessed with it, and never mentioning it, plus going after the NEST instead of the supposed HW that contains all dragons. You'd think if you wanna permanent solution for ur Dragon problem on Berk, you'd go to the actual sourse huh??

-Grimmel EXISTING. Just him existing makes no sense. Cause him being THE known Night Fury Killer was never mentioned and therefor, him knowing Stoick also doesnt make sense sine in HTTYD1 NO ONE knew anything about Night Furies, You'd think that Grimmel being this famous person with SO MUCH INFO on Night Furies, wouldn't share that knowledge? specially since he was famous? People would ASK him to deal with Night Furies in their own islands, again another retcon that pisses me off.

-Dragons being treated as pets instead of sentient beings that have their own culture, habits, traditions and rituals. And therefore it gaslights u into thinking that the first movie was bad actually since Hiccup "chained" Toothless to him and it was not his own choice because of their bond, and THEREFOR they NEED to get separated

More examples in this post (and these are just within THW)

If you see the franchise THAT way you MAY be able to justify things but that's not how I view things.

Like I love Schaff and all his reviews but this one in particular genuinely shocked me... cause how can u justify SO MANY inconsistencies?? When it's CLEAR to me that Dean didn't have an actual plan for the third movie after the 2nd. Yes, he KNEW it was gonna be a trilogy but mf lied his ass off when he said "Drago was gonna come back, everything will make sense and HTTYD2 is the bridge for 1-3" cause no? HTTYD3 and 2 seem to not be connected at ALL but in a few instances: Their designs and Valka just being there instead of Stoick. Cause thematically, tonally, narratively? they couldn't be more apart. Again with that logic then yeah I see why Schaff would say HTTYD2 is not necessary. It's a dumb way to look at things but ok...

Now I'll pick apart some key critiques he had:

Most if his critiques are to me passable cause they're not really critiques, it's some things about the pacing and Valka appearing which fine I guess but dude if you have a problem with THOSE HOW are u not pissed off at all the rectons and pacing of the third one?? cause in WHAT WORLD is THW better at that??' Also saying Valka doesn't have an important presence in the story is just straight up WRONG. like HUH????! She's literally Hiccup's HALF, how his inner conflict about who he is, dragon protector or chief, which DOES get resolved at the end. not to mention if you're pissed about how she "didn't have presence in HTTYD2"!?!? LIKE YOU KNOW WHERE SHE DOESN'T HAVE PRESENCE LIKE AT ALL??? EVEN LESS??' IN HTTYD3!!!!!!!!!!!! She's legit BARELY THERE, all that she was in the second one is absolutely GONE -_____- We don't see Stoick's impact on her or how she reintegrated herself in society, how much has changed since she left, etc

Then he talks about Stoick's death and his character which again, HTTYD3 fails to mention or give any sort of impact so like MANY ppl that were HOPING to see that in the third movie, taking it out on HTTYD2 when they gave us THE most impactful scene in the franchise (yes even more than the "separation") is blaming it on the wrong thing..... And again, saying BOTH their parents aren't important to the story in HTTYD2 is just blatantly wrong. When they BOTH were supposed to represents the WORLDS Hiccup was supposed to unite. Vikings and Dragons, like thematically? that was done perfectly. And THW just ruined it all.

HTTYD3 was supposed to give us closure.. to give TOOTHLESS closure, if ANYTHING was gonna test Toothless and Hiccup's friendship in the third one was the aftermath of Stoick's death. But it wasn't. It's never mentioned it again, it didn't put a SINGLE stain in their relationship, it was just forgotten. We also don't see Hiccup's struggle with this failure AND his determination to keep going, it happens IN the second one a little briefly (again pacing issues that could be overlooked) but that's NOT on HTTYD2, it's on TWH 's FAILURE to address it cause THAT was supposed to be Dean's plan, he said it was going to make sense at the end but it didn't. We could've explored ALL that in the TWH to make it seamless but they just didn't...

Like it seems like most of his criticisms of the Second movie rely mostly on the fact that the consequences of events never got addressed but at this point, it was already on stone that it was gonna be a trilogy and those things (like Drago) WERE going to be addressed. By that point we all knew it was gonna be a trilogy, I for one, thought that it's ok if somethings don't get resolved cause we will have a third movie to make it all make sense, so imagine my disappointment when it didn't happen.

Also Schaff saying he doesn't like the secondary cast in the second one... like boy have u seen them in the third one??? you have to be kidding me...

Also saying Toothless is not a character in HTTYD2 is downright hilarious when you think just because Toothless's romance is the focus of the third movie, that he has any characterization at all... Toothless having more "focus" on the Third one is not good when his whole character is butchered to ultimately be the one that represents how the thematic narrative of the whole franchise went into flames...

Schaff says "the third movie establishes him (Toothless) as his own being and examines what he wants out of live independent of Hiccup" and THAT to me is fundamentally misunderstanding this whole franchise and Toothless as a whole. That there. Because Toothless was ALWAYS his own being and I think the first one AND the second movie established that more than any other. THW STRIPS Toothless of his individuality, not GIVES it to him. It legit makes him a SLAVE of his own instincts to legit forget about Hiccup and resent him out of NO WHERE to be with his supposed mate. "What he wants out of life"??? he HAS chosen Hiccup over and over and OVER again, WDYM what he wants out of life? He WANTS this life. He went AGAINST his instincts for Hiccup, he became the ALPHA to protect Hiccup. That's as HIGH in life as you could get as a dragon imo. like??? He wants a mate? cool give him one, that doesn't mean he has to separate himself from Hiccup forever because AGAIN - and I cannot emphasize this enough- HICCUP WAS NOT KEEPING TOOTHLESS IN CHAINS, HE WAS FREE AND HE STILL CHOSE HIM. JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE OTHER DRAGON AND THE BOND THEY MADE WITH THEIR HUMANS. Ugh Missed with that one big time.

And Drago? He had more parallels with Hiccup and Grimmel ever will. Sorry not sorry I have tons of posts on why that's the case. His actions had MORE impact in the story than Grimmel and YES I count Stoick's death to be more impactful and better done than "the separation", it had SO MUCH MORE weight and if you're gonna have a villain that threatens Hiccup, Both Drago and Grimmel don't hold a CANDLE to Viggo anyways. Scraff says " Drago is the reason Hiccup doesn't TRY to change Grimmel's mind in the third one and ultimate let's dragons go cause he learned his lesson" makes me so mad cause no? that's not the reason, It's because the NARRATIVE PUSHED HICCUP TO DO IT, cause they spend the whole ass movie gaslighting him into thinking he was keeping Toothless and all dragons in chains! THAT'S WHY! not Drago! Not HTTYD2!.....

The sad part is... HTTYD2 NOW is the weakest of the franchise because it has to live under HTTYD3's shadow... the FINALE, the LAST INSTALLMENT. It has to live with the fact that given how HTTYD as a whole ended, it DOES become somewhat obsolete (and the first movie too tbh and that is an actual hate crime). Stoick was not mentioned but in passing, his death had no tangible impact on Hiccup OR TOOTHLESS, his death had no impact on Valka beyond sad faces, his legacy was based on a RETCON. His presence is forgotten and how everyone acts in the THW is SO contradictory to EVERYTHING, that ppl started to just accept it, when, if you have a brain, it makes no sense. HTTYD2 becomes obsolete because its MESSAGES become obsolete thanks to the gaslighting of HTTYD3. But that's NOT HTTYD2's fault. It's the writing of HTTYD3. Cause it undoes EVERYTHING. So if you DO take into consideration HTTYD3 as CANON, and the whole trilogy as one big story, then yeah HTTYD2 becomes the weakest. IF that's the way you choose to look at things... like Schaff... which again I DO NOT agree with. Cause FUCK httyd3 and how it ruined everything.

Sighs... Sorry if I went on a rant it's not against you anon or Schaff, just letting out my frustrations with the third one :'V

[astridhoff03]

Top 7 Hiccstrid Moments from httyd3 & Homecoming 🤗❤️

Also you have to watch Cinema Therapy, they analyzed Hiccstrids Releationship trough out the Trilogy and the most interesting is when Astrid gives Hiccup a talk before the battle.

[tillythemenace]

All this.

The way the shows do some concepts better than the third movie itself is insane…

It’s so painful now, going back and rewatching a lot of the television series episodes after HTTYD 3 came out, but so far in my experience, “We Are Family” parts 1 and 2 take the cake in just how much it hurts to rewatch with the third movie in mind.

More under the “Keep Reading” due to length and HTTYD 3 criticism.

Keep reading

[thereweredragonshere]

I'm obsessed with your art and would like to politely devour it like I'm a starving man 🤭

Also, I would love to see Valka in your fabulous style‼️

This woman.

This god damn woman and her absurdly high cheekbones.

Valka. Valka Haddock. Listen. You are an amazing character, your appearance perfectly encapsulates your personality and life experience (NOT talking about httyd3 Valka they BUTCHERED her) and I love almost everything about you. Except your cheekbones. On their own, they’re fine. But when you bring attempting to draw you for like, the first time in a few months.

VALKA.

WHAT THE FUCK.

WHEN I TELL YOU I SPENT A SOLID FORTY MINUTES CONSTANTLY DELETING AND REDRAWING A FUCKING HEAD BASE FOR HER I MEAN IT. I. MEAN. IT. THIS WOMAN AND HER FACIAL STRUCTURE, YOU TRIANGULAR FUCK (affectionate). TELL ME WHY THE WAY YOUR SKULL IS FORMED MADE ME FORGET HOW TO DRAW??? TELL ME WHY I WAS SAT IN FRONT OF MY PC, GOOGLE OPEN WITH PICTURES OF VALKA, FUCKING SWEATING MY ASS OFF SCRIBBLING ONTO THE STUPID PRO CREATE CANVAS BECAUSE I WAS UNABLE TO COMPREHEND HOW YOUR JAW IS SO FUCKING POINTED. GIRL YOU COULD SLICE SOMEONE OPEN WITH THAT CHIN.

Genuinely think I had several mental breakdowns trying to draw her and I very nearly gave up but boom. Final results. But I did end up giving her only moderately high cheekbones because oh my god my brain is fried.

Hiccup Haddock that you for not inheriting those stupid fucking genes🙏

[menthol--crush]

Everyone in the HTTYD fandom knows that THW is bad.

This is how I would have written the third movie.

So, in the second movie, we end with Hiccup as chief and Toothless as the alpha. I am gonna start my changes here.

Hiccup does indeed become chief, but Toothless does not become the alpha. The 'alpha' is a concept made by the Bewilderbeast being able to control dragons, something that is apparently a thing with the super big dragons (like the Red Death). Toothless is a cool guy but he just doesn't have that capability.

Instead, it's implied at the end of HTTYD2 that the alpha thing ends once Toothless defeats the Bewilderbeast, and the dragons under its control are now free to go and live as they were meant to.

So. Opening on HTTYD3, Hiccup is chief but still struggling with his wanderlust. We see him dealing with the mundane every day issues of being chief; settling disputes, distributing food, keeping track of the sheep and other Berk exports. He is obviously frustrated and antsy, wishing he could just up and leave like he could before he was chief.

Gobber is advising him, Valka is doing her best to do so as well, and Astrid is trying to help him see why he can't just go off and explore. Hiccup feels like he's lost part of himself.

Meanwhile, Toothless is feeling the wanderlust as well. He's unable to fly without Hiccup; Astrid flies with him on occasion, but they never go very far and it's never long enough, since she has her own dragon and isn't keen to leave home behind due to Hiccup struggling.

The other riders are feeling a similar restlessness, though a bit less intense than Hiccup. They're young and the world seems so much bigger and easier to get to once you can fly on a dragon, but none of them are able to get away from their obligations at home.

There would be a very sweet scene similar to the one in THW where Hiccup and Astrid talk on the cliff; Hiccup is ready for marriage, but Astrid isn't quite as ready. They talk about how much there is to do in Berk, how stressful running the village is, and how much easier life was before all this responsibility.

Eventually, Berk gets word (via Eret) of some foreign boats approaching from the south. It's a fleet of five or so ships, they don't necessarily look like war ships, but they're so different from Viking ships that it's hard to tell.

Hiccup jumps on this as a reason to get back out; he gathers the riders and they go out to scope out the situation, putting Gobber and Eret in charge while they're gone.

While flying south, Hiccup feels alive for the first time since becoming chief. He and Toothless are doing loops and drives and other crazy tricks while the others struggle to stay on path as this behavior makes Hiccup hard to follow lol

Anyway, they fly for most of the day, eventually stopping on an island to let their dragons rest and figure out where they need to go.

There's dissent among the riders as Hiccup doesn't appear to be taking this scouting mission seriously, just using it as an excuse to get away from his responsibility since he clearly doesn't like being chief. Hiccup's leadership is called into question, and Hiccup of course defends himself, saying that he wasn't ready to be chief but wasn't given much of a choice.

Their in-fighting is interrupted when they hear loud, distant booms. Hiccup goes up on Toothless to check it out, with Astrid following after telling off the other riders.

In the distance to the south they can see smoke coming from the mainland, implied to be Scotland if Berk is in the Faroe Islands as many have theorized.

Putting their squabble aside, the riders head south.

They find the ships; they're clearly pirate ships, and they're clearly trapping dragons.

Being this far south gives us the opportunity to see new dragons; I'm envisioning one that looks like a griffin with colorful feathers, a big one that gives off cow vibes, and a small furry one.

Seeing this, the riders decide that they don't have the firepower to go up against the pirates right now. Hiccup has to be physically stopped from diving into battle; Astrid has to cut him and Toothless off, reminding Hiccup that he has to think of all the people in Berk that depend on him. It's not just about his own safety anymore.

They head back and formulate a plan; with what they hear from Eret, who has been tracking the pirates, and what they saw themselves, they figure that the pirates are heading towards Berk, that they've likely heard about Hiccup and Toothless taking down a Red Death and a Bewilderbeast. If they're capturing dragons, they'll find plenty in the archipelago.

Hiccup is torn. He wants to protect his village, he wants to protect his people, but he took what Astrid said to heart and knows he can't just run into battle on his own, or even just with the riders.

After some deliberation with Astrid, Gobber, Eret, Valka, and the elder residents of Berk, they all decide that it's been too long since these Vikings have been to war. They've gotten complacent, used to a pastoral life, and the word of impending threat has riled everyone up.

It's decided that Hiccup (with help from Gobber) will lead the Vikings into battle against the pirates. Hiccup addresses the village, tells them what's going on, and says that this will be the first time Vikings will go to battle on dragons. The people of Berk are fully roused by the speech, and they get ready to go to battle.

After getting kitted out with armor and weapons, Hiccup leads the Vikings out to meet the pirates.

Their assumption was right; it's been a few days, and the pirates are spotted heading toward Berk. The pirates spot them approaching, mistaking them for a large migration of wild dragons, and we see the captain direct her ships to target them.

We get a good look at the pirate captain; she's an adult woman, Mediterranean in appearance. I'll call her Niobe.

Battle ensues, and the pirates use captured dragons against the Berkians. Hiccup wasn't prepared for this; he doesn't want to harm the dragons, but they can't get through the captured dragons to get to the ships. At some point, Niobe identifies Hiccup as the leader, and recognizes his Night Fury, and orders him shot down and brought to her.

Seeing the attacks centralize on Hiccup, Astrid, the riders, Gobber, and Valka try to draw fire away from him but are unsuccessful. Hiccup sees what's happening, and knows that if he doesn't do something, someone is going to get killed trying to keep him from going down. So he allows himself and Toothless to get captured.

The Berkians fall back to the island the riders rested at earlier, panicked at Hiccup being captured, but Astrid rallies the troops. They'll go after Hiccup.

Meanwhile, Hiccup meets Niobe, who isn't evil for the sake of evil, but still a villain. She captures dragons to sell across Europe for their fireproof skin, their strong bones, for entertainment, etc. She admits that she thought Night Furies were extinct, she's never seen one in person before.

Hiccup tries to reason with her, offers her gold or whatever else to let all the dragons go. Niobe laughs at this; there's no amount of gold Hiccup could offer that would recoup their losses if they let every dragon go free. Hiccup is taken below deck, seperated from Toothless.

While below deck, Hiccup meets people captured from different places, all of them speaking different languages. He does his best to rally them and the crew for mutiny.

Toothless is frantic without Hiccup in his sight; the pirates debate just killing him now and making a decent profit from Night Fury leather, especially when they notice his tailfin. They underestimate Toothless, since they don't know much about Night Furies, and Toothless breaks out.

While this is going on, the Berkians head out for another attack.

The attack is successful, with Astrid leading it, and Hiccup gets loose and starts setting dragons free. Every freed dragon joins the fight on Berk's side.

Finally, Hiccup and Toothless reunite and are back up in the air. Niobe is furious. The battle eventually ends with all five pirate ships sinking, and a few survivors fleeing on dinghies to the mainland. Niobe is among them.

Hiccup stops the Berkians and the wild dragons from attacking them; instead of sinking them, he calls out for them to spread the word that those who come to these waters with the intent of capturing dragons or attacking Berk will be met with Berk's army, and they'll fail just like Niobe has.

Battle won, they go back to Berk. Hiccup appoints Astrid as his general, and they finally decide it's time to get married.

The battle has awoken the deep-seated need to discover new lands in their Viking blood, and the Berkians excitedly begin planning to head south again (since, historically, Vikings did make their way to Scotland and Ireland and even the North American continent).

Having so many dragons in one place is clearly a siren call to poachers like Niobe, so they still set their dragons free, but they don't go hide in a magic cave for thousands of years. They come and go as they please. Hiccup does end up giving Toothless the automatic tailfin, and it's still bittersweet, but dragons are still coming and going. They're just not full time residents.

Hiccup vows to his people that he will remain focused on Berk's wellbeing. He starts plans for longboats, to set out into the world.

There's still a time jump to adult Hiccup with his two kids, and they meet Toothless again, who brings his own Night Fury kids. Hiccup is overjoyed at the implication that there ARE other Night Furies, or at least a species close enough for Toothless to breed with. Berk is thriving, the Berkians are discovering new lands, and the dragons still come around but are not kept like pets.

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In this, I wanted to address the main issues I had with THW.

1. Hiccup not being much of a leader. He was solely obsessed with hoarding dragons, and didn't even think about how bringing hundreds of dragons to Berk would effect his people. This isn't at all in character for Hiccup; he does love dragons, but he wouldn't do something as stupid as stretch Berk's resources paper-thin to accommodate every dragon he's ever rescued.

2. Toothless. I don't know why they thought Toothless needed a romance storyline. I do like that he got to have a mate and have little Furies, but the 'dragon romance' felt really unnecessary to the plot. Like why did they do that.

3. Hiccup expands his view on the world with each film. In 1, he goes from following the expected path of being a dragon killer to sympathizing with dragons. In 2, he goes from being a reckless kid to being an adult. In THW, he didn't really grow as a person. He was clinging to Toothless, and to this suddenly very important magic cave story. Instead, I had him go from being hesitant to take on the responsibility of being chief to naturally falling into a leadership role in his own way.

4. Sending the dragons away. THW destroyed the message of the first two movies, that you should always stand up for what you believe, that there is ALWAYS a way to achieve your goals, that friendship will prevail. Instead, I had the dragons go free as the Vikings want to do Viking things like explore and discover and maybe a little conquering? 😅😁 The dragons are still around, but they live in their natural state as part of the ecosystem. THW went to the opposite side as the beginning of 1; they started out killing dragons, wanting to wipe them out. They ended in THW with sending them away. Both are bad.

5. I wanted more chiefly behavior from Hiccup. I wanted Astrid to be his second in command, not just his moral support. I wanted to see Hiccup falter a bit on being chief but find his footing by the end.

6. The theme of this as I've written it is Hiccup realizing his strengths, his leadership style, and becoming more confident as chief. He goes from relying almost entirely on Gobber and Valka in the beginning to trusting his own instincts. It completes his arc of coming of age and becoming an adult.

7. I don't know why they felt the need to get rid of dragons. Like I do get the idea of 'this could've been what happened! It could've been real!' But we know it's not. I don't see any reason to not have dragons stick around. I also see PLENTY of reasons why every dragon suddenly disappearing would be detrimental to the ecosystem, the food chain, and how it completely destroys the whole point of HTTYD1&2. They even had to invent an overpopulation problem to justify getting rid of them. Instead, I had them go back to being more or less wild, but still friendly to Berk.