< How to Train Your Dragon (animation)

How to Train Your Dragon (animation)/Headscratchers


Fridge Logic from "How to Train Your Dragon":

  • Why is The Green Death's murder presented as heroic? The message of the film is that by seeing the dragons as evil because they try to preserve themselves, are dangerous, and look scary is wrong. So what about the Green Death meant that it had to be killed? Sure, it was forcing the dragons to bring it food, but that was its only method of self-preservation. Would you rather it ate the dragons? The fact is, The Green Death was no more evil than any other dragon, and by presenting Hiccup's murder of it as just and heroic, the movie was going against its own message. If the fact that the Green Death was just trying to survive as well had been brought up, it would have tainted the moral waters. The Green Death just can't be supported along with the village. So what do you do with it? But in ignoring this and saying "it's evil because it looks scary, attacks when provoked, and is trying to get food", the movie flipflopped completely on its message. Am I the only one a little bothered by this?
    • The Green Death was a cannibalistic, amoral eating machine. The difference between it and the other dragons is that it doesn't care who or what it hurts or kills as long as it gets fed. The other dragons kill and steal out of self-defense and to placate the Green Death that rules them tyrannically with the constant threat of death-they don't attack each other or anything else that is friendly. There was no proof whatsoever that the Green Death had any redeemable qualities. Had it lived, it would have gone on eating everything in sight that had a pulse.
    • Further, the Green Death had some way of dominating the dragons nearby, presumably by it's crooning "song" which was heard when the Vikings were coming up on Dragon Island. They'd have probably abandoned their lair to it otherwise! It's why I originally referred to it as a sort of Eldritch Abomination from the dragons' perspective; it had an unnatural hold on most of them and drove them to do unnatural things.. "Evil" may be too strong a word, but amoral it certainly was, and more or less was the common enemy of both the Vikings AND the dragons. With it gone, the highly social dragons reverted to more normal behavior, and readily integrated into the Viking village with a bribe of lots of free food and a safe roost.
    • But the other strong message of the movie has been solving conflicts without combat. The hero is the only one who can't fight, the vikings kill innocents by fighting and not trying to understand the problem and the only way things turn out right is when it's realised that violence isn't the answer. And then they use violence and it's heroic.
    • But there was no other way out, because trying to reason with the Green Death would have been useless. We saw enough of her evilness and selfishness in the dragon's den scene, IMHO. The heroic part is that they still chose to fight, despite such a powerful adversary, because even if they could have communicated, there's no way the GD would have released her little slaves, and would have still attacked everyone and everything. Plus, even if left alone, would have still searched for another place to conquer and more dragons to enslave and send to pillage other villages.
    • I actually took the message to be "question what you know", in which case defeating the Green Death is the payoff. The older Vikings kept on blaming the smaller dragons for the resource competition they are engaged in, as those are the ones that are constantly stealing their food. What they didn't realize (and what Hiccup discovered) was that the real competition was not dragons vs. Vikings, but The Green Death vs. Vikings. In order to end the raiding problem, they needed to stop The Green Death, not the smaller dragons. It's basically Taking a Third Option that doesn't necessitate the genocide of either species.
    • Consider it this way:The Green Dragon was unnaturally controlling the other dragons and making them do things they would not normally do. If a human were to do that to other humans he (or she) would be considered a despot, and it would be justified to destroy them. So basically, the Green Death was Dragon Stalin.
    • Another thing to consider is that in the book Hiccup did try to reason with the Green Death and in response the dragon told him that he was going to eat Hiccup, the vikings, and the dragons regardless. The reasoning the dragon gave was that he had nothing against Hiccup or his loved ones personally, he was just hungry. So long as that dragon was hungry it was going to eat everyone and thus there was no amount of reasoning that would have helped Hiccup.
    • But all of this ignores the fact of how massive the Green Death was. The thing seems to be built as a dragon-eater; instead of eating dragons, however, it just collected part of their food. If you think about it, this method is the lesser of two evils. Dragons are shown to be sapient, and one could see it as more of a tragedy if they die as opposed to the lesser-intelligent creatures such as sheep and fish. Seeing how massive the Green Death was, it seems unlikely that it would have been able to find enough animals on its own to sustain itself, but it could make do with the other dragons offering it part of their kill. The Green Death may not be nice, but following this logic, its only other options were to either feed on dragons or lay down and starve to death.
  • If dragons aren't fireproof inside, how do they breath fire? The one that ignites the gas after breathing it may have some excuse, but the one that sets itself on fire?
    • Hiccup confused "fireproof" with "explosionproof". Dragon-fire is normally shot off in a controlled burn. If it backfires and gets ignited all at once...it can wreak havoc on the dragon. A modern comparison would be burning gasoline in the spark plugs of an engine versus throwing a lit match into the engine's fuel tank.
    • Beware Squick in this reply. Humans digest food with stomach acid, but the only part of us that is immune to said acid is the stomach. Throw up enough and your throat and teeth will decay and get raw. Dragons may operate on the opposite principle. They carry the fuel in their belly or a related organ, and ignite it outside or in the mouth. Thus their mouth and scales are fireproof, but their stomach isn't.
      • Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'heartburn' doesn't it?
      • Humans normally have stomach acid in their stomachs, not spraying through their throats. Dragons normally have it spraying through their throats.
    • Some of it is simply that certain dragons are vulnerable to backfiring. The Green Death has a Zippleback-like breath weapon; it breathes flammable gas, ignites it with its own version of a Thor's Thimble, and uses pure lung power to turn it into a blowtorch. Prematurely igniting it caused the blowout that caused the Green Death to, literally, go down in flames.
    • They don't: they spit it, their saliva is flammable. Really, "breath weapon" is a misconstrued concept.
    • The poster above is correct. Think of their fire-breathing system like a flamethrower - the fire isn't actually created until the gas is near the mouth, a more fireproof area.
  • Anything that flies needs to be precisely constructed. How did Hiccup manage to build a (mostly) working tail fin for Toothless based on a rough sketch he drew at a distance? Considering these people don't have any flight technology, he shouldn't have any idea how to create a properly functioning tail fin without at least a close examination of the still-present fin...
    • This is likely going to require Bellisario's Maxim, but there are a few attenuating factors. The vikings do kill a lot of dragons, so he's likely seen plenty of (dead) dragon wings and tail fins, not to mention live ones during attacks. The book on dragons he reads near the beginning has various detailed sketches, so he may have cribbed some of those. The quick construction I attribute to him being a Gadgeteer Genius or Wrench Wench (uh, wrench guy mensch). It fits his character and established by the ballista that knocked Toothless out. Still, it did take him several tries to get the thing working right.
    • I imagine that the fin is somewhat a drag on Toothless' abilities. Granted, flight machines have to be well-built, but an intelligent flying machine (a dragon) can probably compensate for a lot in that regard.
    • Wasn't there a sequence with him building and rebuilding the tailfin?
      • Absolutely. The tailfin and fight mechanism went through several versions; dragon and rider only gradually learned to work together, and as they did Hiccup modified the gear based on how Toothless responded. By the time of the battle with the Green Death, they worked together nearly flawlessly, to the point that Toothless could still make shift at keeping airborne with the tailfin all but burned off.
  • At the end of the film, Hiccup awakens from a healing coma that has apparently lasted long enough for the Vikings to build dragon eyries all over the village and learn to ride their new pets and for his presumably crushed and amputated leg to have healed to the point where he can bear the pain of walking on the stump. Fine. But he still has his minor scrapes and burns! His leg is mostly healed but his face is still a mess? What gives?
    • While he was saying goodnight his dad dropped a lantern on his head by accident...no one says they have to be burns and scrapes from the fight after all. Just my WMG on that.
      • Perhaps this is what comes of leaving an agitated, semi-sentient creature with teeth, fangs, and abrasive scales completely unsupervised with its unconscious and injured master? Claws...not a standard nursemaid feature.
    • If you look closely right after Stoik finds him and in the closeups after he wakes up, you'll see some faint scars along Hiccup's mouth and jaw that weren't there earlier in the movie. The above troper is probably right; Toothless was actively trying to wake Hiccup and even managed to step on him when he finalld did, so it wouldn't be surprising that he accidently gave him a few minor injuries in the process.
      • It's easier to just write this one off as a continuity error. The little scrapes probably are to just indicate that Hiccup is waking up not too far past the battle; shorthand for "time elapsed, but not months in a coma."
      • Actually, Hiccup does have those minor scrapes/burns visible after Toothless saves him from the fireball. In any case, it looks like those eyries and feeding stations were previously anti-dragon emplacements that the vikings just quickly refurbished for the dragons. Building this wouldn't take too long with the collective efforts of every viking and the fact that it would be pretty simple. Also, riding other dragons doesn't seem to be as complex as riding Toothless, mostly because you don't have to manually operate a prosthetic tail fin for proper flight. From what we see when Hiccup trains his peers to ride dragons, all it takes is some understanding and careful movements.
      • Also, Hiccup comments in the beginning how there are lots of new buildings even though the village is old because they have to keep rebuilding after dragon attacks, so the vikings are probably pretty good at construction things so it wouldn't take them long to adapt their village into a dragon friendly place
  • You know what bugs me? The way that Astrid became The Chick after she met Toothless. Before that, she was the epitome of what a Berk Viking should be, girl or otherwise, and even after that she at least managed to save Hiccup by smacking a burning dragon with a thrown hammer during the arena ritual, but other than that all she did, combat-wise, was cling on to Hiccup's back and almost get inhaled into the Green Death's maw while all her much less skilled classmates were busy dragon riding and getting their own CMOAs. It woulda been nice to see her show some of the muscle we know she had in the final battle.
    • I think she became a chick, not the chick. She's The Lancer, and we've already seen plenty of her. Given that certain quarters are already crying about what they call a Romantic Plot Tumor, I'm glad they don't have more ammunition.
    • Watch the film again and you'll see that Astrid is directing Berk's new flying corps while Hiccup is busy trying to free Toothless. In short, Astrid has already show how powerful she is with personal combat and the climax shows her how powerful she is as a combat leader. Yes, she almost got killed when the Green Death took personal notice of her, but she's new to this kind of combat and she's smart enough to defer to Hiccup who is definitely practiced in this field.
    • Look closely, after Snotlout got bucked she was the only one left in the fight. The twins were still trying to calm their Zipple enough to turn it around and everyone else was on the beach. She did _something_ to get the Red Death's attention enough to get it to turn around. She was definitely in the fight. While at the same time keeping an eye out for Hiccup and the twins. I'd gladly have her on my side any day.
    • Stoutlout mezzed, Astrid tanked, Hiccup nuked.
  • Toothless, for the most part, acted like a realistic animal. He got a bad case of Green-Eyed Monster when Astrid entered the picture, and proceeded to try as hard as any wild horse to throw her off! When Astrid finally gives up and cries 'uncle', he suddenly loses the attitude, straightens up and flies right. Why?
    • It's his way of saying "I'm the Big Bad here, and you WILL respect me and my trainer." And since Toothless can at least understand human emotions - if not comprehend human speech - when he hears Astrid's pleading voice he understands he's made his point.
    • Because, in essence, Toothless is NOT a realistic animal. Besides the whole "breathing fire" thing, he was just playing with her, and intended no actual harm.
      • Well, he * acted* in a realistic manner. The research put into his behavior is a good part of what makes him an appealing character. Makes sense, though; once he worked his grumpiness out of his system he warmed to her pretty quickly.
      • You can say that he was establishing dominance over Astrid. Once he was satisfied with Astrid apologizing and knowing she would never attack Hiccup again, he then took her on the rest of the trip to endear himself to her.
        • Bingo. Acting dominant didn't impress Toothless at all. (Neither did Hiccup's sarcasm for that matter). But when she showed fear, he recognized it immediately and gentled down. Perhaps he remembered what it was like to be afraid, himself?
        • You ever introduced a particularly skittish cat to someone new? I've seen them act almost exactly like Toothless.
    • He switches to the smooth ride the second she apologizes. I'm forced to conclude he knows what "I'm sorry" means.
      • Toothless does seem to understand human speech. Notice how he flings Hiccup off his tail when he (Hiccup) yells "I did it!"; the dragon's facial expression that moment is something of "what, I'm doing nothing here or what?". Also, at the finale, Toothless doesn't reveal he rescued Hiccup until after Stoik says "I'm so sorry". So yes, Toothless expressions during certain dialogues imply that he understands human speech, which explains why he smooths the ride when Astrid apologizes.
      • I think it's less that Toothless literally understands human speech and it's more like - as with dogs and cats and other domesticated animals - he can understand the tone of voice. He doesn't need to understand what the words mean, just hearing the tone is enough for him to know that Astrid has had her anger broken.
      • That whole sequence is what made me fall completely in love with Toothless. I love how he communicates non-verbally and completely understands everything. If he could talk he'd be Tall, Dark and Snarky personified. But if you look at that scene it does seem like he's asserting dominance. Look at how Astrid came in. Completely aggressive, Ax-weilding warrior chick. Hiccup tries to stop her and first thing she does? wrestles him to the ground and then hits him while he's down. So she's already asserted her dominance over Hiccup... So Toothless starts asserting his. Or on another level, Toothless just watched his human get knocked around and then he's expected to cart her around like everything's ok? Hell no. Cue apology for her aggressive and demanding nature and he instantly calms down.
    • I'd argue that Toothless has human-level intelligence. Even considering that he understands people dropping their weapons, his grasp of language, his tool use, and the fact that he understood Hiccup's drawing of him and tried to reciprocate, there are a few things that really stand out. First, when Hiccup first shows him the saddle, he instantly runs away; how does he know what the saddle is for? Second, when he catches Astrid after she falls off her dragon, he turns her right side up so he can drop her without losing too much speed. Third, what's with his behavior after Hiccup puts on his prosthetic for the first time? He notices Hiccup strapping something to his tail, looks annoyed, shifts his weight a little, flaps his remaining stabilizer around, goes O_O, and slowly and disbelievingly tries flying to the opposite side of the canyon. He'd obviously given up on escaping by then, so why did he think he suddenly had a chance? Fourth, when he and Hiccup first meet, he gives Hiccup half a fish right after Hiccup says "I don't have any more".
  • At the end, everyone's riding around on dragons with ease, no problems whatsoever. Who taught them? Hiccup's the only one who's done it more than twice, so he'd be the only one with any real experience to teach them. Granted, he was probably knocked out for awhile, but I doubt he was out for months or even weeks, or any amount of time for the others to get good at it without help.
    • The other dragons don't need a complicated artificial tailfin in order to fly.
    • Well golly I don't think the other five teenagers that Hiccup taught were knocked out too.
      • You mean the ones that have been on dragons a grand total of once in their lives?
    • Toothless and the other dragons who've had riders are around. At the most basic level, riding a dragon is just a matter of holding on. They may not be as capable as Hiccup, but they won't die.
    • Wasn't Hiccup keeping notes of everything he was learning from Toothless? While we don't know how long he was out, it could have been long enough for his notes to have been found and used by the other villagers.
      • Confirmed. In the scene where he's absentmindedly rolling a pencil on his desk and papa suddenly barges in, he has to scramble to put away a bunch of papers without attracting Stoic's attention to them. And that's probably not all of them either.
    • It seems like dragons are pretty intelligent on their own, and considering that Hiccup had to learn to manage Toothless' missing tail fin while other Vikings probably have healthy dragons, they probably managed to work it out with each other fairly quickly. After all, dragon-riding seems to be fairly easy so long as the dragon's cooperative and the rider has a way to steer. The other kids didn't seem to have all that much trouble, after all.
  • Why did Toothless needed to soar out of the canyon anyway? He could have used WAIR, or otherwise just made a quick upwards flight like a pheasant, not requiring the tail fin at all!
    • I attribute this to Toothless being weakened by his other injuries, and thus not strong enough to fly for essentially any time at all. After Hiccup feeds him and he heals up, he can fly a bit even without the prosthetic fin.
    • He is clearly panicking, and when determined later in the movie climbs out without flying at all. Also, many kinds of real life birds can't do either of those things you mentioned.
      • Not only panicking, but the injured tail is throwing off his flight balance. Toothless would be smart enough to get out on his own once he calmed down and adjusted to his injury.
  • How is Toothless able to take full control when he tries to scare Astrid? I think he can still control most of his flight since it's only one half of a tail fin, but Hiccup has his cheat sheet to put the fin in the right positions, and he accidentally crashed into rocks during the test flight. And when the saddle was still being worked out, Hiccup pulled on a string that made Toothless veer off to the side and his face shows he wasn't expecting that to happen. So how is it that Hiccup can't stop Toothless flying all over the place and splashing them in the ocean, even just a bit?
    • Hiccup is controlling one small part of a large creature that has *many* times his muscle strength. If Toothless determines not to cooperate, there's not much he can do about it.
    • He was trying, but was limited in what he could do. (The dives into the ocean might have been him trying to land Toothless, but the dragon simply popping right back up again).
    • You seem to be forgetting that, in this scene, they are over the ocean. If you were in that situation and had the choice between hanging on and not plummeting into the freezing (presumably) Norwegian Sea versus trying to fight him and probably ending up in the drink, which would you choose? It's already shown earlier in the film that Hiccup is adept at keeping Toothless aloft, so it was likely survival instinct that kept him from just letting himself, Astrid, and Toothless fall into the ocean.
    • On the DVD commentary, the producers pointed out that this "whole thing would break down" because Hiccup and Toothless should be totally at odds. Their advice? Don't think too deeply about that. *Awkward beat.* And now, for a completely different topic...
    • The way that I explain it in my head (besides just handwaving it as the producers do) at it is that Hiccup didn't want Toothless to be doing what he was doing, but went along with it so that they didn't crash- Hiccup's surprisingly calm throughout this scene and is fairly experienced riding Toothless at this point, so he probably had enough of a grip on the situation to realize fighting the dragon would have ended REALLY badly for everyone.
    • It is also possible Hiccup was acting and not thinking. As he and Toothless has been flying for a while, he was probably making adjustments without thinking, consider how he passed through the rocks after losing the cheat sheet - acting, trusting his instincts. This was drilled into both Hiccup and Toothless as they needed each other to fly. So he wasn't thinking on his foot, rather trying to calm Toothless by words. After-all, crashing into the sea is a wonderful way to impress Astrid from not talking.
  • So did Chris Sanders contribute any character design to the film besides Toothless? Because it looks like the Night Fury was the only character modeled off of Sander's usual style.
    • The Green Death also had his signature round, chubby style.
    • Sanders came in about a year before release to take over the project and most of the characters had been designed and modeled by then. They just redesigned Toothless and the Viking Teens as part of Sander's new vision for the story.
  • In general the CG is amazing, even down to arm hair on the hero Vikings. But when it comes to the water, they just didn't quite get it to work right.
    • Fluids in general and water in particular are the perennial nightmare of CG animators.
    • As are particles, flames, and hair.
      • Seeing how they did all of those so well, I can forgive the not-quite-perfect water. Three out of four is pretty darn impressive in this business.
  • Why is there only one Green Death? My best guess is that it's some kind of queen, but this would mean that there's a lot of these dragon nests, and they're not something rare.
    • Large predators like tigers and bears in RL have territories that are measured in square miles. Imagine what kind of territory a predator of THAT size would have.
    • It might be like some kinds of animals that are loners: After all, do you think two of those things would live together comfortably? They probably round out their territory in some personal way.
    • It could also be a prehistoric holdover. Considering that the dragons are all terrified of it and glad to see the end of it, it seems like they find it as unnatural as humans do, which I doubt would happen with a dragon queen. Maybe they used to be more common in prehistory, when there were dinosaurs and such to hunt, and then they started dying off as the huge prey animals went extinct. A few(or just that one) may have realized they could use their song to get lots of little prey from the smaller dragons.
    • Word of God (and the original author) states that once every couple of centuries, a large clutch of Maximus dragons are hatched and released. They spend the next couple of centuries killing each other off, growing larger and larger, until only two are left. They mate, lay their clutch, die, and the whole cycle starts all over again. If the Green Death was one of the final survivors, Hiccup might have actually broken the cycle.
    • A relevant real-world creature to look up? Cuckoos. Study up on brood parasitism and the Green Death starts looking like a pretty good fit - especially with whatever mind-control song it apparently uses to control the (significantly more intelligent than your average bird) dragons.
  • Why do night furies have retracting teeth? How can that possibly come in handy?
    • Seeing as how their breath weapon is some kind of super-high-speed flaming sonic boom, the most powerful of any dragon, I suppose the less their teeth are in the way, the better.
    • Night furies shoot a flaming, explosive ball of plasma out of their mouths. Not exactly something you'd want getting stuck in your teeth at the wrong moment.
      • Not only could your teeth melt, but if they destabilize the plasma ball it could blow up in your face. At which point the radiant heat likely flash-fries your eyeballs...
      • As much as I like this explanation, the animators didn't think of it. I freeze framed through each time Toothless shoots his fireball and we can see his mouth, and in all instances his teeth are visible and unsheathed.
    • According to That Other Wiki, the retractable fangs are for catching fish.
  • How was Hiccup able to carry and aim that ballista of his on his own? Wasn't he supposed to be weak, not superhumanly strong?
    • He didn't carry it. It had wheels. He rolled it like a wheelbarrow. Also, the actual ballista part was set up on a pivot, so that he didn't need to turn the whole thing to aim it.
    • Note that at one point we see him lift (what seems to be) a hammer head about the size of his own head with no problem. It's possible he's just considered weak by the Vikings' standards.
      • If you mean the scene where he replaces one of Gobber's hands, he visibly strains to lift it. In other scenes, being tossed a simple sword or axe throws him off balance.
  • Why did the "avert your eyes and don't look directly at them" thing calm Toothless down? It makes sense when it works on horses--they're prey animals, and anything with forward-facing eyes like that looks like a predator to them. But Night Furies are no doubt at the very apex of the food chain; even if they eat mostly fish, they probably have very little to fear from anything else. Why would they be afraid of the "predator look?" Would that mean other dragons ought to frighten them?
    • Probably a dominance thing. Toothless did not feel comfortable at first unless he was in a dominant position (witness how quickly he gentled down once Astrid got scared and apologized). And also, keep in mind, that to Toothless, Hiccup WAS an armed predator, until he proved otherwise.
    • A lot of real life predator animals, such as many dogs and cats, both domestic and wild, will take looking directly in their eyes as a challenge. I've personally come across many cats who will attack your face if you look them in the eyes too long.
    • As an addition, Toothless is not "afraid" of Hiccup, else Hiccup would have pulled back a stump when he tried to touch the skittish dragon (or worse!). There exists a sliding scale of social acceptance between mortal enemy and heterosexual life partners -- Toothless has clearly accepted Hiccup as harmless enough, but isn't ready yet to shack up and let a silly human touch him. Submission as an analog to the human concept of trust is certainly plausible enough. Note that Toothless doesn't quite immediately reciprocate and indeed hesitates slightly before putting his head on Hiccup's hand.
      • Also, being an apex predator only means that you're not another predator's primary food source. Humans are an apex (if not THE apex) predator, but that doesn't stop every other animal from potentially gouging, trampling, mauling or clawing us to death if it feels necessary to do so and is within its power. Dragons do have enemies, like say some pesky Vikings, and the island scene with Toothless and the flock of Terrible Terrors demonstrate that staring at another dragon is part of a dominance display which tends to end poorly for one party.
    • Another theory is that, as Hiccup said, the Vikings have killed thousands of dragons, meaning that the dragons know the Vikings are a force to be feared. Hiccup looking Toothless in the eyes was likely seen as a challenge, whereas when he lowered his eyes, Toothless interpreted that as submission.
  • Why does the harness never work? Hiccup specifically designed it to prevent him from falling off, but it never stops him from doing so, and one time it even worked TOO well, preventing him from getting off. It seem like a crucial part that he really ignores.
    • To be fair it fails the same way every time where it unhooks from a sudden deceleration, which is where the gaps in the anchors are facing. For horizontal pitching and backward motion, the harness seems to be much more efficacious, as the Toothless hissy-fit with Astrid seems to show. But, yes, you'd think Hiccup would have modified the design after that little incident with the cheat sheet.
    • Clearly, what Hiccup actually needs is a Carabiner, but employing some Bayesian analysis on the fact that he doesn't have one indicates that they're beyond the Viking's technical ability to manufacture.
      • Their toolmaking abilities are up to the task. It's just that nobody's thought of them yet, and Viking society doesn't exactly foster lots of inventiveness.
  • The whole "Sleeping Upside Down" bit. That was once in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment. We see him making a little nest for himself with his breath weapon and sleep on the ground several other times. So what's the deal here?
    • Toothless is raised a good deal off the ground; what with the exasperated look as he leaves the frame from the last shot I just assumed it's a way for him to get some sleep without some nosy, annoying Viking kid poking at him.
    • Further, Toothless's hanging upside down thing was obviously based off of a bat. But bats sleep upside down by hanging by their feet and locking the joints in their feet automatically. Toothless is sleeping by slinging his tail over it. Unless his tail has got some fancy natural mechanisms here, he would have to flex his tail around the branch and hold it there. Such a task would cause soreness and cramps, and he would have to let go within minutes. He would never be able to sleep.
      • Rule of Funny? Rule of Cute? Who knows, maybe he does have some "fancy natural mechanisms".
    • Toothless was hanging onto the tree like that not to sleep, but get a good look at what is wrong with his tail. right after he is seen hanging upside down like that is zooms into a closeup of Toothless staring at his half-tail
      • Except that's where you'd be wrong. Watch the scene again. It is rather obvious that he was sleeping and there are much easier ways for him to look at his tail.
      • No I'm pretty certain he wasn't sleeping. During the 5 second scene where they zoom in on toothless doing this his eyes are Wide Open
      • He was sleeping. If you look closely, Toothless is just opening his eyes from sleep and looking around for Hiccup, not his tail. Besides, why in the world would he go all the way up to a tree and hang upside down just to look at his own tail? He's already shown that he's flexible enough to just turn around and look.
        • To the OP: My theory is that Toothless prefers to sleep on a circle of nicely charred ground. But when there's an irritating Viking poking and pestering him, he'll hang upside-down as a way to try and get away from the distraction.
  • So Toothless gets hit by a device that wholly immobilizes him while he's flying at high speed, causing him to fall out the sky hard enough to break one ancient tree in two, turn another mature tree into a broken stump, and gouge a furrow in earth where he slid unceremoniously to a halt. Most objects, nevermind living creatures, would likely get turned into a fine paste after such highly kinetic displays of physics. Toothless, aside from a suspiciously specific injury to the tail, looks like he hasn't suffered anything more than a trifling cut where the rope dug into the skin. His bones are clearly made of phlebotium.
    • Well, yeah. He's a dragon. He got smacked into rocks with barely a headshake, and he survived a headlong crash into a ball of fire as well, and though injured both times, he recovered and healed pretty quickly. Dragons are just really durable -- though that durability isn't infinite. When Hiccup was about to splat himself and Toothless on the rocks after a high-speed stall, Toothless was flat-out terrified. THAT impact would have probably killed him.
    • Don't things like tail fins have bones or cartilage? Fictional creature or not, that injury has got to hurt. Also, hitting the trees reduced his speed. Notice how the rut isn't nearly as wide as Toothless is?
      • Bones in birds are generally hollow and designed for endurance and easy flight, compared to a hard, dense, heavy bone.
  • During the Forbidden Friendship sequence, toothless sits down. Not like a dog does, on all fours, but sits down on his hind legs. Even the creators commented on how they had to break the 3d model to get it to do this without weird consequences. The question is "Why?" Animals, especially tetrapods to my knowledge don't do that. You could point to Toothless' high capacity for mimicry, but Hiccup wasn't sitting like that, he never sits like that. At the time Hiccup was backed up on a rock. So whats the deal?
    • Rule of Cute
    • He's seen walking on his hind legs (when he goes to find himself a drawing stick), so it's not hard to think of him going from standing to sitting on his hind legs. And he *is* modeled after cats, which can be seen 'sitting' on their hind legs.
    • He isn't a tetrapod. He's a hexapod. Goodness knows how their bodies work. As for why, I'll go with he's trying his best to mimic Hiccup's posture without actually flopping over on his back. The fact that he's trying to get Hiccup to mimic him and eat the fish, and later tries to mimic Hiccup again with his smile would point to this.
  • How is it that Hiccup is constantly a source scorn but Fishleg who is obviously more pathetic then he is is left alone?. sure I get that he's the chief's son but seriously.
    • In Viking society, a nerd with decent muscles may be snickered at, but he/she will still be One Of Us. But a nerd WITHOUT muscles will be a pariah, chieftain's son or not. Fishlegs is the former, Hiccup is the latter.
    • Fishlegs isn't. He's clearly got more muscle mass than Hiccup, and that is something that the Vikings appreciate. The fact that he's just a nerd underneath is just something that they can overlook. Hiccup on the other hand has none of the mindset or the muscle.
      • His fascination with obscure rules and facts can be annoying at times, but he's good enough at his job that his teammates are willing to overlook that. Kind of like Doug Flutie.
    • Also, judging from the opening scene from the movie, Fishlegs (along with the other kids) put out fires and supply aid during dragon raids. Hiccup on the other hand has caused more damage to the town than the dragons. Gobber even claims that Hiccup has left plenty of marks, all in the wrong places.
      • This. While Fishlegs may be pathetic, he's a harmless kind of pathetic. Hiccup, on the other hand, tends to destroy the village in his attempts to prove himself.
  • If the purpose of a Night Fury's tail fin is to act as a rudder, why is it horizontal instead of vertical?
    • An airplane's tail fin is rigid. A dragon's tail fin can swivel and do double duty.
    • It doesn't act as a rudder, it acts as a stabilizer. And by changing the area and angle of the stabilizer, it can also act as a rudder.
    • No animal has a rudder. Even a whale's dorsal fin isn't a rudder (it's a keel). More advanced airplanes don't have rudders either (Flying Wings, for example). So I honestly want to know what leads you to believe that your posit is true (that the tail fin acts as a rudder), leading to your query (why is it horizontal)? Is there something in the book, Word of God, or wiki that makes this claim?
      • From a watching of the movie, the intention of the tail fin seemed to be for steering. Thus why I referred to it as a rudder.
  • Why is Toothless the only Night Fury in the movie? I don't recall seeing any in the Nest's group dragon shots. Is he the Last of His Kind or something?
    • That's one possibility. Here are two more: the Berk vikings only think they have more than one Night Furry, it has always been Toothless. Second theory fits with this too: only one Night Fury per region.
    • Alternatively, Night Furies are exceptional at resisting the influence of the G.Death, and thus do not serve it and do not roost on it's island (hence why Toothless was mostly beyond it's control).
    • It might simply be a matter of function. Toothless is unlike every other dragon that ever appears to attack Berk. According to Hiccup's exposition, the Night Fury "never shows itself", "never steals food", and "never misses." From the way everyone cowers, apparently there's never been any Night Fury actually shot down, either. The way Toothless acts in the attack on Berk is not as a gatherer like the others, he's close-air support, blowing up the best defenses so that the other dragons can focus on stealing food and fighting the worse defenses, and he's good enough to only get shot by Hiccup, which was suggested as a lucky break.
    • Tear Jerker theory: Same troper as the first response. Toothless is the only Night Fury who learned this. He had to because the Green Death ate his family.
  • If nobody believes Gobber's claim that the Boneknapper exists in the tie-in short, why is there an entry for that particular dragon in the tome that Hiccup reads in the movie?
    • Gobber was in charge of teaching the dragon fighting class. Who's to say he wasn't in charge of keeping the dragon tomes up to date too, in which case he could write whatever he wanted.
    • Then where does Fishlegs get his 'According to legend ...' stuff, if not from the book?
  • At the beginning of the movie in the forge scene Gobber has a pair of tongs on his "tool-hand". How the heck does he use them?
    • My only guess is that he pulls them open with his free hand, and they close via a strong spring.
      • I saw a chemistry teacher with a prosthetic that did just that. He used it to pick up and carry test tubes.
  • In the short "The Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon", when they all go to the island to look for the titular dragon... Why did they take boats instead of riding their dragons? It would've been faster, there would've been less of a chance of them getting stranded, and they could've used the dragons for protection in case any other creature tried to attack them.
    • Fridge Brilliance: The entire village had just become friends with dragons. Would you want to take them on a hunting trip of one of their own (even if it's a "pure evil" one)?
      • This wouldn't work, seeing as how the dragons were very willing to assist the vikings in taking down the Red/Green Death.
      • That doesn't wash. It's one thing to help your former enemies take down a creature that's enslaved you for your entire life. But to help them go attack one that's never done anything to you?
    • Fridge Logic: Then why not just take Toothless? He can only properly fly when Hiccup is riding him and he's already shown to be very protective of him. It would only make sense for Toothless to tag along in order to protect his handicapped rider.
      • All the kids and Gobber would probably break Toothless' back.
    • They had to travel further over open water than their dragons could reasonably fly without rest, and it wasn't feasible to carry a bunch of large, heavy creatures AND enough food to keep said creatures fed with them in a boat. Alternately, the village elders were wary of becoming too reliant on these newfangled dragon-riders, and wanted to (subtly) make sure the younger generation didn't become too detached from the way of life that had served them well for hundreds of year - both using boats as a method of transportation and hunting dragons. Maybe Gobber was in on it, maybe everyone else just humored his desire to go on a wild goose chase because they figured it would do those whippersnappers some good to get back in touch with their roots.
      • Not true. The distance between the nest and Birk seems to be a rather large one and the dragons made that trip just fine (with humans and such on less). No only that, but Toothless flies nearly all day when they pick up Astrid with no real problems there either. Not only that, they had no provisions on the ship (unless you count the sheep) so taking provisions with them for a much shorter journey makes no sense whatsoever. You alternate explanation is also complete BS. Their old ways were about hunting and killing dragons who they were now living peacefully with. There is no logical explanation for that. To top it all off, one said Vikings was Hiccup. The first Rider? The one tried who had tried and failed to fit in with the standard Viking culture many times? Really, it's like taking a sailboat across the Atlantic instead of a jet airplane because the former is how out ancestors did it.
    • Gobber didn't have a dragon he could ride and none of the teen's dragons were strong enough to carry both their rider and a Gobber sized human.Gobber's the one who's leading them and the dragons fly faster then a ship can sail and the boat is to small to take them along.
  • Why do all the adult Vikings have Scottish accents while their children sound Canadian?
    • It's how the kids are talkin' in the hood, yo.
    • The accent comes with puberty.
    • Helps to separate the two generations.
      • Not only that, but the Vikings weren't Scottish. They pushed the Celts all over Europe and the Celts do get their red hair from the Vikings, but the Vikings were from Norway, Sweden, etc...the other side of Europe. Why do any of the Vikings have Scottish accents at all?
      • The Vikings populated areas near Scotland and had trade going on with the Scots. Since Berk is about right off the coast of northwest Scotland it is entirely possible that they traded with the Scots a lot and maybe even had some living with them. As such, it isn't hard to believe that they had Scottish accents after about 300 years.
      • Yeah, Scandinavia is not "the other side of Europe" from Scotland. It's "slightly further north" from Scotland. The Vikings were firmly settled in Orkney and Shetland, and even as far south as Yorkshire. In the eleventh century, the Jarl of Orkney was was a vassal of both the King of Norway and of the King of Scotland, since parts of the islands belonged to both countries. The most famous Jarl was Thorfinn the Mighty, who was definitely a Viking, but was also the King of Scotland's son-in-law. We aren't told what his accent was like, but I'd bet he sounded Scottish when he spoke Norse, and Scandinavian when he spoke Gaelic.
      • Of course the real answer is very simple and more of a Real Life Writes the Plot sort of deal: Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson are Scottish, while Jay Baruchel is Canadian. Apparently it was more important to the filmmakers to have the actors give good performances rather than quibble about an accent. And anyone who's seen enough of Butler and Ferguson's work knows that neither of them can do other accents very well.
  • When Stoik first discovers Hiccup's alliance with Toothless (after the fight with the Nightmare in the arena), he mutters about how "he should have seen the signs". Is dragon sympathy in Berk something that happens often enough that it has visible signs?
    • Either that or he was making reference to something else like Hiccup's fighting skills being faked (which probably wouldn't be that hard to notice).
    • He could also have wondered about the long hours his son spends away from the camp. Far longer than to just "stroke his own dragon" and the fact he went from zero to hero on the viking scale, or possibly a negative number to top of the class with a person who was already superbly competent.
  • So, you've got this village with people being terrorized by dragons. At one time, however, you find someone who can actually tame one. Like, tame you worst enemy and make it into a harmless pet. What do you do? Why, you get angry and lock him up and subsequently launch an all-out war against all dragons! Makes more sense than, for instance, training an army of dragons or something, right?
    • This has more to do with tradition and blindness than anything else, really. After all, the vikings had been fighting the dragons for about three hundred years by the time of the movie. After thinking of something as your mortal enemy that can never be redeemed for so long, it would take them save your collective asses while be ridden by one of your own to get them to accept that. Even then, it would be begrudgingly for many of them and it would take some time for everyone to completely accept them. The fact that we don't know exactly how much time there is between the fight against the Red Death and the ending of the movie helps this. Two more things support this. First, Hiccup never really got to show much since Stoik interrupted and made the Monstrous Nightmare attack him. Second, how would you react if one of your own denounced you entire lifestyle in front of everyone? Especially if that person was your own son. You would more than likely be furious. That anger would blind you to what is going on so whatever happens (like, a Night Furry obviously protecting you) wouldn't matter.
    • And Stoik probably wasn't the only adult who felt all dragons must die. It would take something big to prove they aren't the enemy, otherwise there would be some who still doubt the claims. The fact the seasoned warriors saw their set of skills fail completely against the Green Death, but those who followed Hiccup's way, the way one finds after renouncing parts of their traditions, not only held their own against the Green Death but bested it was a moving sight. It showed them a union of Dragons and Vikings would be far stronger than either group alone.
  • When Toothless saves Hiccup from the Monstrous Nightmare, why didn't Hiccup just jump on Toothless's back and fly through the hole Toothless made when he entered the ring, instead of trying to make him leave alone?
    • It wasn't in the script, Hiccup wasn't thinking clearly, or that hole wasn't big enough for both of them (especially since people started to flood through that hole). Take your pick. I'd personally go with the latter.
      • He could easily enlarge the hole at will, or just make another one. Alternate script: Furious at his son's 'betrayal', Stoic promptly orders the all-out assault before more of the tribe 'join the enemy'. Hiccup watches in dismay and sneaks back to meet Astrid after the fleet is out of sight. It would be perfectly legit, but there'd be no awesome double rescue on the sinking burning ship.
    • But you can clearly see the hole he made in one shot when the Vikings are jumping into the ring. No Vikings were around there, and it was very large.
      • Hmm... Hiccup wasn't worried about his own safety, only Toothless'. In that regard, he was only thinking about getting Toothless out of there, not himself. For that reason, it probably didn't occur to do that. Really, they were being stormed by Vikings and Hiccup was just attacked by a Monstrous Nightmare. In times times of great duress, especially when the life of you or a loved one is possibly at stake, the untrained body will either react on instinct or your mind will simply blank out (I speak from experience on this one). In this case, Hiccup's instinct was to get Toothless out of there and what does anyone do when you want someone to move quickly? You push them. In short: At that time, Hiccup wasn't thinking, he was reacting on instinct. If you were put into the same situation (without this knowledge) you probably would have done the same. It is (probably) only in hindsight that you'd be able to see the best course of action. I hope this answers your question.
  • Toothless's little fingers are all nail, right? So how is he able to bend them?
    • Magic? Um... Maybe they aren't and he was not-nail part? I'll watch the movie again and pay closer attention to that scene but I don't there's a satisfactory explanation for this one.
    • I always assumed the claws were made of a strong cartilage-like substance. You know, it bends but doesn't brake.
  • Seriously, what is with the Scottish accents? Vikings aren't from Scotland, they're from Scandinavia - and the movie is clearly set in Scandinavia, what with Hiccup's comments about the weather and the Northern Lights showing up in one scene. So why do all the Vikings talk with Scottish accents?
    • That's an easy one. According to the author of the books, Berk is located near Hebrides (which is a Scottish island). Given such, they probably have heavy trades going on with the Scots and it isn't impossible that their culture has mixed with that of the Scots. Given that Vikings have lived on Berk Island for ~300 years it isn't that much of a stretch to say that they have a Gaelic accent (this is especially true if some Scots settled in Berk which would further promote not only a mixture of culture but for the Vikings that lived there to shift from a Scandinavian accent to a Gaelic one).
    • The Vikings tended to adapt to the culture and language of the places they colonised very quickly - they were speaking Old Irish within less than a century of their first raids. The parts of Scotland that were invaded remained Gaelic-speaking, which would suggest that the Vikings adopted the native language. Possibly a case of Fridge Brilliance. (Also, the Hebrides is an archipelago, not just one island).
  • So Toothless and Hiccup exploded the Red Death by firing into its mouth, right? So why didn't that kill the Terror that was antagonizing Toothless over his fish?
    • The Terror didn't hit the ground at terminal velocity, and there's also a slight difference of scale between the two dragons. Compare the explosions of a firecracker and a 10,000-pound bomb and you'll understand.
    • It didn't. The Red Death hit the ground rather hard. This compressed the gasses inside it to the point where the creatures body could not contain them. This rapid build in pressure caused the gasses inside the creature to be released. The gasses inside the creature mixed with the air until the fire from the creatures mouth (caused by Toothless) ignited it, thus creating the explosion and fireball. Simple science.
  • What on earth happened to that fish between Toothless swallowing it and regurgitating it? He clearly gulped it down whole, but when it came back up it was split cleanly in half. Does Toothless have a second set of teeth in his stomach?
    • He does bite it in half. You can see it when he tilts his head back.
  • Where are all the other dragon species that Hiccup read about in the Dragon Manual? There seems to be dozens, maybe even hundreds, but we only ever see the Gronckle, Nadder, Zippleback, Night Fury, Nightmare, and Terror in the movie. It would make sense that these are the common local species, and that the others are "exotic" species that are only ever encountered if you venture far from Berk...but when the dragons started swarming in response to the Red Death (which seems to be able to call dragons to the nest from pretty far away), we still only see six different species (including Toothless) comprising that entire huge swarm. The other species don't even get cameos. What's the deal? Are these the only dragons susceptible to the Red Death's control? Did the vikings hunt the other species to extinction?
    • I got the impression Hiccup had scrolled to the "Mystery class", the kind that like Toothless are rare and dangerous. They probably never heeded the call, and it seemed like a lot of them were This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman type monsters, like the one that spit scalding water.
    • Couple possibilities. One is that, like the above post says, they could just be very rare dragons. Another possibility is that they don't really live in the general area, and the information on them was collected by traveling vikings.
    • This gets even more strange in the Book of Dragons short because not only does it reiterate some of the dragons not seen in the movie or the other two shorts, but the teens also give taming tips, dos and don'ts, for the dragons! Apparently they can be found around Berk without much difficulty.
  • The fact that the Green/Red Death can fly. Nothing that obviously heavy could ever get off the ground in real life. How did it possibly fly?
    • None of the dragons should be able to fly, except maybe the Terrible Terrors and even they are probably pushing the limit.
    • Maybe the gasses that allow them to breath fire are lighter than air?
      • So how do they fly when they're "out of juice"?
        • Maybe the dragons always have some extra amount of gas in them that allows them to fly, even if they are "out of juice." They might be contained in a different part of the body or something.
  • Is it just me or has anyone actually seen the green death's wings in any scene before hiccup suddenly announces that "that thing has wings!" did they just tack them onto it after that scene?
    • Yes. It's like the Toothless cameo when they show the Dreamworks logo; very hard to see unless you know where to look.
    • Yes, the wings are there, just folded up.
  • So, the winner of the training gets to kill their first dragon in front of everyone. That's ok. They are supposed to be learning. But why pit the winner against the Monstrous Nightmare? Even if Astrid came out on top, I have a hard time seeing how she'd have killed that thing solo.
    • By the end of dragon training they're probably supposed to have learned enough to be able to defeat a Monstrous Nightmare. We didn't necessarily see the entire sequence on-screen; if this troper remembers correctly it was a training montage.
  • When the training ends, the winner gets to kill his first dragon. But several of the training missions involve taking out dragons. Hiccup probably was the only one who could do so without killing the dragon (and even more probably the only one to bother). So this "kill your first dragon" thing just seems weird.
    • I don't recall them saying they get to kill their first dragon. Unless I'm forgetting something, they just get to kill a Monstrous Nightmare (supposedly one of the hardest non-Night Fury dragon to kill) in front of the village.
    • Gobber's clear it will be their first. They don't kill the dragons during training, just drive them off.
      • And the only teen we ever see openly attempting to kill one of the dragons is Astrid, of course.
      • Astrid is the only teen we see trying to kill a dragon and not failing horribly. The other teens are simply trying to drive the dragons off, and Snotlout doesn't hesitate to go smack the Green Death in the eyeballs when he gets the chance.
  • How does Hiccup use his prosthetic leg/foot (if his leg was amputated below the knee I guess it is technically a prosthetic foot) to maneuver Toothless' prosthetic tail-fin? I understand that he could use his body weight to simply have his foot push down the pedal by leaning but I don't understand how he could handle more intricate moves if he can't physically manipulate a fake foot. Couldn't he simply have the pedal on the right side with his still flesh and bone right leg?
    • This troper recalls the attachment locking in to the new harness. So it would act like a lever and adjust the tail's position. This would allow Hiccup to maintain the same type of control his old leg had before the accident. As for why not switch to the other side, I would consider two reasons. First his muscle-memory would need to be retaught. He learned over a period of weeks how to move that leg to fly without thinking about it. It would only take a short time to relearn with the new prosthetic. Second, moving it to the other side would require a new type of harness. Now Gobber is a good smithy, but it is very likely he did not create the second tail-fin from scratch as he never made anything that unique before and had access to Hiccup's designs to take from.
      • Oh, OK that makes sense. If I am assuming correctly then this means the foot can still pivot from side to side because the foot is inserted into the wooden base on the stump and not one singular thin metal piece. From there if it is locked in place on the harness then Hiccup can just move his leg and the foot will have no other choice but to move like a lever and still allow him to do more intricate moves. However it still would be important to learn how to use the right leg because it is still possible for his left prosthetic leg to fail. For example what is Hiccup going to do if the prosthetic leg ever falls off from all the high speed G Forces he would be exposed to riding Toothless or if the leg is locked in place and he needs to make an emergency jump off of Toothless? He would be out of luck.
        • I believe the foot wasn't just a peg-leg type of prosthetic. It had a bend on it, seen in this fan art. Then he inserts the bent part into a lock of some sort on the new harness, keeping himself locked in.
        • After having watched the movie 10 times (yes the movie is that good, and yes I have kept count) I have noticed that Hiccup does in fact have a right pedal which if you pay attention during the final battle with the Green/Red Death emphasis is put on Hiccup using his right foot to manipulate the tail-fin. Beyond muscle memory you have to consider that Hiccup being left-handed would most likely have a dominant left foot as well and using his right foot on a consistent basis would be awkward for him to adjust to. Alternatively maybe he needs a pedal on both sides just in case one fails and that there really is no problem with him using either foot. Or perhaps Hiccup uses his left prosthetic foot as a symbolic gesture to show how him and Toothless now match and lean on each other as best friends to help each other out. Any of these interpretations seem valid.
      • Aside from controlling how far in or out the artificial tail fin is, he'd also have to control it's pitch in order to ascend and descend. His right foot probably controls that mechanism since it wouldn't be as complex as the other one. Also, I do believe Hiccup is left handed so there's that and the fact that having the most complex part of the system be as close as possible to what it controls makes sense.
      • Also, (this from an engineer) The pedals appear to be linked underneath Toothless, and looks like a variant of the lever-shifter on a bike. One foot tightens it, the other foot loosens it.
  • How is it that all the abuse that Toothless goes through that you never see him suffer any noticeable wounds on his body (aside from the obvious missing left tail fin)? Is it because bruises, burns. mud, and blood doesn't show up very well on his black scales and skin? The alternative of him being nigh-invulnerable/extremely durable shouldn't mean that he doesn't get even so much as a scratch on him from all the crashes, fights, and flames he gets exposed to during the movie, he should at least have at least a single scar or something like that.
    • The scales of a dragon (their 'skin') are tough to the point of insanity. It's the other parts of their anatomy that are more easily damaged; a lot of old dragon-killing tales have the hero go for the eyes or a literal down-the-throat shot.
    • Dragons are generally very tough creatures, even in worlds lacking of magic and mysticism. It seems that the HTTYD dragons have this trait, except around their wings and tails, as Gobber noted in one lesson. So for all the major falls, as long as Toothless landed on his main body he probably was left with at worse a bruise. But when he couldn't control his landing after Hiccup first shot him down, his tail was probably flailing and ended up either hitting a tree or rock at a bad angle or landed on part of it before rolling off and thus lost part of it.
    • Either that, or it's the fact that this is a PG movie. Showing the full extent of his injuries (including how much blood he probably would have lost from losing a tail fin) would probably bump the rating to PG-13 or R.
  • How can you determine a dragon's gender by just taking a passing glance at them, wouldn't you need to put your hand into their slit to see if there is a penis in there similar to what you would do for reptiles in general? I am not saying that we should turn Toothless into a girl on such a basis, but it seems odd to me that Hiccup just assumed that his friend was a boy without making sure. Maybe it would be just too awkward to even bother trying?
    • It's often possible to determine sex by other physical characteristics - coloring, size, and things like horns/antlers/etc. But I do concede that we don't have much for reference in Toothless' case.
    • While the sexual organs are hidden inside, like real-world reptiles, it is possible there are other physical differences. In some species of animals, the males are the flashier ones to use in attracting mates and being distractions should a predator come. So maybe each species of dragon has something it considers hot and sexy on the other sex to justify mating. All this said, you still have a point that we don't know Toothless' sex as we don't have another Night Fury to judge by.
      • Also, it's fairly common for someone to assume an animal whose sex they can't readily identify is the same sex as they are. I know if I see a random dog on the street, I'm pretty much always going to automatically think of it as a male unless there's something extremely obvious, like it's wearing a big pink bow or something. If Astrid had found Toothless instead, she'd probably have assumed it was a girl.
        Alternatively, maybe the citizens of Berk have a kind of Female Feline, Male Mutt thing going with dragons and assume all the dragons they see are male by default.
    • Perhaps the Night Furies are an all-male species while there's an all-female species that they breed with. Or maybe they can breed with any female dragon to produce Night Fury eggs.
    • Though I think if Toothless was a girl, being called by male pronouns and such would drive her to correct Hiccup (like nipping him when he calls her 'him' or whatever).
      • That is if Toothless has enough of a grasp of human language that he/she can deduce the meaning of what Hiccup is saying throughout the movie rather than responding to his words based on what emotions Toothless senses from Hiccup. For example Toothless seemed to only listen to Hiccup's pleas to stop fighting the Vikings when Hiccup cried out in desperation to not kill his father Stoick. Besides regardless of whether Toothless is male or female (I personally lean towards male but that is aside the point) Toothless doesn't care about gender roles/labels as he/she simply views Hiccup as a friend, gender shouldn't change that unless you are one of those Toothless/Hiccup shippers.
        • Word of God should help. The director makes several references to Toothless being a male in the commentaries for the movie and the Toothless from the book was a male so the movie Toothless might as well follow suit. Though of course the movie itself never deals with questioning Toothless' gender so at the very least they have left it open enough that they could logically change their minds and make Toothless female in the sequel. Anyway Toothless' friendship with Hiccup should be the focus not whether it is male or female.
        • In the Gift of the Night Fury Christmas short, the dragons leave to lay and hatch their eggs. Toothless seems to be the only male dragon in Berk.
          • Not true. The movie doesn't actually state ALL of them are female, and a lot of dragons are seen in pairs next to single nests.
  • Over the course of the movie Fishlegs makes several statistical phrases about the dragons and their abilities that sound somewhat like what you would hear from the popular game Dungeons and Dragons. Were they trying to go for a It Will Never Catch On plot where Fishlegs will make a reference to what it would be like if they made a game about fighting dragons and exploring dungeons and no one ends up paying him any mind? That certainly has potential for quite a bit of humor in the sequel.
    • They're quotes from the Dragon Manual. If you look on the movie and books' wiki, you'll notice that the dragons from have stats.
      • Yeah but those stats in the Dragon Manual we see Hiccup read were written in another language, it wouldn't exactly be easy for a guy like myself who only knows English to realize that Fishlegs was quoting from the book. Well anyway thanks for clearing things up, I was honestly opening Fishlegs being a nerd was making a reference to Dungeons and Dragons. Though I guess it would be kind of strange for that idea to come almost a thousand years early when board games weren't even in existence.
    • It's a joke that works on two levels - on the surface, Fishlegs is quoting stats from the Dragon Manual. But to the viewers, it's clear that he's Wrong Genre Savy and thinks he's in Dungeons and Dragons.
  • I probably wasn't paying enough attention to their mouths but I didn't notice any teeth in the mouths of the Terrible Terrors. I know their design is based off the Toothless in the book (who actually didn't have teeth in comparison to the Night Fury Toothless who has retractable teeth), but somehow they are able to make Tuffnut's (that is the boy twin's name right?) nose bleed, rip apart a fish, and get into a tug-of-war over one of Toothless' fish without having any teeth. How is this possible?
    • You don't need teeth if you can bite hard enough.
    • It is very possible their mouths are like a bird's beak, so they are strong enough to break skin.
  • During the first major bonding scene between Hiccup and Toothless, the one where Hiccup feeds him fish for the first time, Toothless sees Hiccup draw himself in the dirt with a stick and then grabs a tree to draw something as well. What exactly was Toothless trying to draw? I have thought of 3 possibilities: 1) It might have been a fish. 2) It might have been Hiccup as a gesture of kindness for him drawing Toothless. 3) Or perhaps it was a maze intended to make Hiccup dance around in circles and find his way to Toothless as a bonding exercise. However this is just me guessing, I really wish I knew what Toothless' intention was.
    • I think Toothless had two intentions in mind. The obvious one was training Hiccup 'keep off', by making very obvious angry/peaceful gestures when he stepped on the line. There's any number of uses he could put this to, like drawing a line around himself when he wanted to be left alone. The second? He thought of a sneaky way to get Hiccup up close without him realizing what he was doing. While it's obvious that Toothless is no dummy, that would easily put him on the level of humans for intelligence and problem-solving abilities if true.
    • Hard to say. You could always subscribe to To Soar into the Sunset's explanation and say that he was trying to draw Hiccup but eventually gave up and "drew" his thoughts.
      • I love To Soar into the Sunset so far one of my favorite interpretations of the How to Train Your Dragon story. However I would say that without a Word of God on the matter what Toothless was trying to draw is most certainly up to your imagination. I prefer the idea that Toothless being inexperienced with drawing tried to draw Hiccup but what happened was that the lines turned into a makeshift maze for Hiccup to dance through to get to Toothless. Regardless the purpose was obviously for Hiccup to bond with Toothless, you know sort of like how two children playing with each other respect each others' toys.
    • I figured he just tried to draw Hiccup, but he's not too good. He's still proud of it, and doesn't want Hiccup to mess it up by stepping on it.
    • The maze was intended to train Hiccup, to get him to respect the boundaries Toothless created. By not stepping on it, Hiccup showed Toothless respect and kindness towards Toothless' work. Once Hiccup passed over without touching a line, it garnered him enough respect that Toothless would let Hiccup touch him. The audio commentary on the scene compared it to being trained by one's cat.
    • Word of God. There you go.
  • Is it possible that dragons are distantly related to dinosaurs? A few real life creatures like certain birds and reptiles like crocodiles are viewed as being distantly related to the dinosaurs of old through millions of years of evolution, but dragons being rather large (with the exception of a few like the Terrible Terrors) flying reptiles should be more closely related than any of the real life examples. The Green/Red Death in particular given its giant size looks pretty indistinguishable from a real dinosaur, almost like a T-Rex (among a mix-match of a few others if you use your imagination) with wings.
    • No clue. I highly doubt any of the creators thought about the evolution of dragons in their works (and that's assuming they believe the in the theory of evolution in the first place).
  • What happened to the Green Death's body? The explosion that Toothless ignited by firing a blast inside its mouth may have been big but it shouldn't have totally disintegrated its body, a more realistic sight would have been charred pieces of its flesh and blood raining down on the Vikings. I mean if Toothless could survive the flames of that explosion at least a charred corpse of the Green Death should have remained.
    • Considering how this was meant to be for kids, thus permitting friendly violence towards others, familial issues, Aesops about looking beyond first impressions, seeing the remains of the Green Death falling on Stoic as he has that moving Character Development at the end would have been weird, if not Nightmare Fuel. And it is possible there was a huge body left over, we just never saw it as it could have been Nightmare Fuel added to the already nightmarish Green Death.
      • Your mileage may vary but personally I would be laughing my ass off if I saw chunks of flesh raining down on the Vikings. It could be made funny if one of the Vikings looked at each other and noted that they all needed a bath after all this.
        • True. Now I'm reminded of the end of Tremors 2.
  • I know that dragons being fire-breathing, flying reptiles are very unlike anything else in nature and would be hard to domesticate but I find it hard to believe that not a single human tried to bond with a dragon before Hiccup became friends with Toothless. For example in real life I am sure that wolves weren't easy for our ancestors to domesticate but through trial and error they became our companions and evolved into dogs. I find it hard to believe that in 300 years of being on the island of Berk not a single human conducted trial and error bonding with a dragon, the dragons that Hiccup faces in his training seem very curious and playful around humans only attacking once provoked, Hiccup should not have been the only one who noticed how docile they can be if you be nice to them. I liked the way the book handled things in that there are SOME domesticated dragons but others that are very wild and near-impossible to control, just like in real life we have domesticated dogs and wild dogs out in nature.
    • There is a difference between domestication and breaking the spirit of the animal. We have no clue what was done to make sure the training dragons stayed there. But also keep in mind, even if they weren't broken, their actions were always on the deadly side, it is just the trainees were watched by an experienced fighter who knew a lot of things about the dragons and how they behaved when met with violence. Look at Snotlout near the end, his first reaction when the Monstrous Nightmare was coming towards him was to grab a weapon. I would guess that no Viking ever considered approaching a dragon without some weapon on them for fear of their own safety, never realizing they were sabotaging any attempt to befriend the beast.
    • Another theory would be that the dragons outside the training were all under the subtle influence of the Green Death and couldn't fight it. It was only when Toothless was away from the island for a long time was he able to get the song out of his system, but the moment he got in range, he was hooked until his desire to protect Hiccup made him flee.
  • The term generation that they use in the movie, are they referring to the 40 years equals a generation model from the Bible? If that is the case then 7 generations would be 280 years not 300 years. Or does this mean that it has been 300 years but they are waiting until 20 more years passes until they call it 8 generations?
  • Okay, people have been saying that Gobber's story is made up, and the Bone Knapper Dragon does not exist, only turns out it's actually real, so what about the hammerhead yak and the hammerhead whale?
    • I am pretty sure that we can reasonably assume that if the Bone knapper Dragon exists like Gobber says then the hammerhead yak and whale exist too. Honestly dragons in general should be unlike any other creature in nature and they don't seem flabbergasted that they exist so I find it weird for them not to believe in supernatural whales and yaks and a type of dragon that steals bones. Hell Stoic showed less disbelief about the Red Death, a dragon almost the size of a mountain, than he did the Boneknapper! What is wrong with these people?
    • But...a hammerhead yak riding a hammerhead whale, out of a crack that Thor himself opened?
      • Thor is a god of Norse Mythology, he can make happen whatever he wants to happen.
      • Okay, reasonable enough, but how did the hammerhead yak burst forth from deep within the burning volcano?
    • The Hammerhead Yak is a volcano GOD!!! That's about all I got.
      • I think this is the point where people reeeeeeally begins to doubt his stories.
    • Given the size of the mug that Gobber wears to dinner, I think it's safe to assume that some of his memories might be exagerated a mite.
  • Can someone explain to me why the fact that the twins are named Ruffnut and Tuffnut is funny?
    • Why must they be funny names? In a land where Hiccup is scary enough to scare away goblins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut might be seen as equally scary. Or perhaps a reminder of the rough and tough night they were conceived on.
    • No, I mean IRL everyone seems to treat their names as Getting Crap Past the Radar. What gives? I don't get it.
      • They're twins, and both their names end in -nut, as in testicle.
  • Why is it that all the things Hiccup learns about Toothless hold true in regards to all the dragon breeds? Why do all of them have the same fear of eels, the same weak points when it comes to scratching and the same reaction to that catnip-type-grass? They're all different species, shouldn't there be some differences between them?
    • Well speaking from a dog person, I have found on my various breeds of dogs I have had all share similar spots they like to be scratched or food they like to eat. The fear of eels might not be fear of the thing per se but a dislike of the pungent smell smoked eels have. Dragons seem to have a keen sense of smell and dislike things that are too powerful. As for the spot, as I said with dogs, they have spots that get them wagging their tail and feet. Note that when Hiccup did it against the Nadder, he had to search for it and find it. He didn't know the exact location but did know it existed. As for the grass, I thought of it how any dog would be interested in blood-soaked food regardless of their heritage.
      • For the grass, the better example would be cats: The grass is possibly based off catnip, and despite differences between species a whole chunk of cats looooooove their catnip.
    • Variations in size, weight, and other cosmetic characteristics aside, dragons are anatomically identical. They all share the same diet, basic design, and internal structure. What Hiccup learns from Toothless would surely apply to most dragons.
  • Right, so um... Why does Horrorcow speak Norse?
  • Why does everyone forget the books even exist? The only page that even has any entries for the book series are the LITERATURE page, which was made FOR the books. Is there something I'm missing here, because this entire page has nothing but headscratchers from the film and the one above me for the books.
    • Adaption Displacement is in full effect. More people were exposed to the movie (and its DVD short films) than they were the books, I'm not ashamed to say that I am one of the fans that watched the movie first and then came to love the books afterward, and as a result they may have more to say about the movie. The two versions of How to Train Your Dragon have a lot in common but there are some serious plot deviations as the books go along that it becomes its own entity. However remember that the movie version is still a fledgling as it hasn't even had its second movie come out yet and there is a plan for a cartoon show about it, so there is a way to close that mythology gap given time. Still a separate page for the books and the movie continuity might not be unwarranted.
  • Why do the Vikings have such pronounced beards and horned helmets? Those would be awful in melee combat. Long beards give the enemy something to tug onto and the horns on the helmets are another thing they could yank at (unless the helmets are loose, which would defeat the purpose of having a helmet to begin with). Are we to assume that the Vikings are just that badass that they don't need to worry about an enemy ever getting the chance to do that?
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