One thing I love about Eret son of Eret is that he tries to handle all situations with confidence, and he has that adeptness…
…but the events of HTTYD 2 are so novel to him that he spends a high proportion of the movie wide-eyed.
Eret probably usually really is good at handling situations. You see evidence of it, such as in the start of the movie when he is trapping dragons as he knows best. But even in the unfamiliar, you see how he is able to escape from Drago’s men, his old allies, with a smirk. You see him take the step to save Stormfly and reach out to thank her for saving his life. You see him realign himself with the Hairy Hooligans after Drago has betrayed him. Eret does have a lot of capability and gumption on him.
But the events of How to Train Your Dragon 2 push him into novel and very uncomfortable areas. He realizes he is going to fall under Drago’s approval if he does not trap new dragons soon, and when Drago outright tries to kill him, Eret’s previous life has fallen out from under him. Eret’s relationship with Drago never appeared friendly, what with the brand on his chest, but it was a livable life, at least… until now. He is stressed to the point of breaking and shouting, knowing Drago will “have their heads” if he discovers their failure. Eret is under ENORMOUS stress, the type of pressure which can really metamorphose people.
Throw on top of that Eret’s experience with the Hooligan dragon riders. They come in and propose a completely alternate form of life. Eret initially finds the dragon riders enemies, but the more he interacts with Hiccup, the more baffled and uncertain he gets. He sees Hiccup’s genuine goodness and peacefulness. That plants a seed in his head about how life could be instead… the dragon riders have a point to their ideas. Especially when Hiccup surrenders to him, and when Hiccup chooses to try to talk peace to Drago despite the odds, Eret reacts with a bit of amazed and thoughtful shock. The cogs in his head are turning.
Stormfly saving Eret’s life and Astrid being welcoming to Eret for fighting them free of Drago’s men is the turning point for Eret. He is encouraged by Astrid when he begins doing what he never before anticipated to be doing: ride a dragon. This moment is such a critical turn-around for Eret. His world has turned around backwards, it has astonished and shocked and disoriented him, allowing Eret to grow from a dragon trapper to a dragon rider.
The fact Eret is staring so wide-eyed throughout the entire movie… it shows that he is in a period of potential growth.
Not enough is seen of Eret to appreciate just how much his life and perspective has changed. He has turned one-eighty, just like Stoick himself did in the first How to Train Your Dragon movie. In a deleted scene from early-on the HTTYD 2 plot, Eret outright tried to severe Hiccup’s “oversized head” with his sword… by the end of the movie, he is graciously accepting care over Skullcrusher, making Berk his new permanent residence.
Eret goes through such an enormous transformation in How to Train Your Dragon 2, and I would love to see what that makes him in the third movie.
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