Analysis Of Why The Dragons Had To Leave Berk (Part 3/3)
Because apparently a whole lot of people haven’t found peace about this yet and I’d like them to see what I can see :)
Let’s jump right in, friends :)
I am going to look at three aspects of this:
a) The context of Httyd in the book!verse and the real, historical world
b) Dean’s 15 reasons why the dragons had to leave
c) And finally, why not everything makes sense to everyone and how the way it made sense to me personally may help you to make it work for yourself. Yep. I just put the yep there because I can. And because this is the part of my analysis that I look most forward to :D
Quick note: If you find it too long to read everything, just read the sentences I highlighted in bold. Of course I would appreciate it though if you read the whole thing :) Have fun!
Moving on to the final aspect c) WHY THE OVERALL EXPLANATION DOESN’T SATISFY SOME OF US.
Quick note: I didn’t highlight anything in bold here, because I deem it important here that you read the whole thing.
c1) I dare to say that every single reason Dean gave us is solid and can stand on its own. This is because all of them are already imminent to the narrative of Httyd3 without Dean ever putting them there. He didn’t have to invent reasons - they were all logical conclusions to what had happened before in the Httyd universe, and that’s why they are so strong. It’s just that he included so many of them in the movie that each of them only received a tiny moment of emotional weight throughout the story. Those emotional moments were precious, and they worked. But the enumeration of a total of fifteen different reasons queued up ceaselessly after another makes Dean seem a little…desperate. As if he had to scrape for solid explanations, trying his best to give us fans the most worthy ending he could come up with, and struggling to squeeze even the tiniest details in there if they only enhanced the meaning and the well-foundedness and the plausibility of his story for us. I’m going to repeat this: All of the ideas were already embedded within the heart of Httyd, specifically within Hiccup’s personality, and so Dean was able to build on them. He didn’t have to grab for something far-fetched at all. It’s just that his reasons didn’t get enough screentime individually, and the audience can feel it. Subconsciously while watching the movie, and definitely consciously after thinking about it for a bit.
Some people stop here and are disappointed. But I can feel something more. What I definitely also feel while watching the movie is Dean’s love for his storyline. With all its individual reasons. He loves what he created; yes, the whole experience. He wanted to give us fans something solid so we would not only like it, but fall in love with it ourselves and therefore perfectly understand why he chose the narrative to end the way it ended. Dean wasn’t desperate. He gave it his all for us who had been sticking around these stories for almost a decade. All of the creators loved their wondrous job, and it really shows in every single minute I see on screen. And I have chosen to see and remember the deep joy and the love that went into these efforts to make everything as perfect as possible for us fans. Yep. I see the flaw is there because of love, and because it is only a small flaw - the reasons worked emotionally, after all - I see the love more than the flaw, and am therefore super satisfied with Httyd3.
c2) Toothless’ character growth was visible on screen, and Hiccup’s wasn’t. Let me explain this. What Toothless learned in Httyd3 was how to return to actual dragon behavior. A major part of this included impressing his girlfriend. Now, all of this is something we visibly see on screen. We witness him wiggle, and dance, and upset her, and win her over, in a very tangible way. Now, do you remember what Hiccup’s arc was? That’s right. Becoming his own person. It’s not something we see him actively do on screen, but it happens between the lines instead, which is very different. The only visible praise he receives as a sign that he actually completed his arc is Astrid nodding her Yes to him on their wedding day. Everything else regarding Hiccup is invisible. Talk at best, failure at worst. No wonder some of us don’t like the Light Fury in the slightest! Because we pin on her Toothless’ “easy” success while Hiccup seemingly “loses”. But Hiccup doesn’t lose. He just gains something much harder to obtain, which is independence from his best friend. And while the Light Fury helps Toothless to achieve the same thing, she clearly helps him by physically pulling and drawing him towards the Hidden World. Astrid though? Who is supposed to help Hiccup? She continues to inspire him, but she lets him figure it out on his own. She doesn’t pull Hiccup to a decision he hesitates to make for himself. So it’s hard for an audience to distinguish between Hiccup’s character growth and Toothless’ character growth and to see that the Light Fury wasn’t the “excuse for Toothless leaving Hiccup”. Point done. Â
c3) Dean’s so-called “sum of all reasons”, reason b15), is a reason far more mature than what most of the audience’s lives can take right now. Hiccup and Toothless’ separation is ultimately based on the fact that they need to prioritize the well-being of their tribes over their personal friendship right now. And that is a decision of a certain material which most of the movie’s audience will not yet have aquired in their own lives: It’s the decision of a politician, of an army general, of a boss. It’s a CEO decision. When many of us in the fandom are so young that we have barely made it out of school. We identify with Hiccup and Toothless because “yay, best buddy”. We still identify with the loss of a family member, and a broader circle of friends like the Gang because “yay, we’re having a good time and we are somewhat important to one another”. We all know the decisions that need to be made for family, friends, and eventually spouses, and therefore we are able to identify with Hiccup and Toothless to some point. But the point where they become Chiefs of two kingdoms surpasses everything we’ve ever known so far. We are an audience too young to fully understand the concept of true leadership. Probably none of us has ever had the responsibility over a thousand people or more before, and that’s why you may have a hard time to support Hiccup and Toothless’ final decision. Because you can’t know that leaders have to make different choices than followers, because you have never experienced yourself what it’s like to enter a situation where a choice like that is required. I count myself among these clueless people. All I’m seeing is “Hiccup and Toothless’ friendship” when what they’re actually doing on screen is executive leadership over thousands. What I think is cool though here, is that their story can inspire us to take influence on people in real life like them. To grow into people who actually change the world by their actions. Httyd3 has given us a small taste of how it feels to be a real leader, and now each of us can decide for themselves whether they could see themselves in a position like that or not. Which helps us to identify what our goals in life are, and what it is going to take for us to get where we want to be :) It also shows that Dean believes we are a generation who can change things at a young age. #fridays for future  - Which is a beautiful thing.
c4) The particular reason that works for my soul to be satisfied with Httyd3 isn’t actually the “sum of all reasons” like Dean presented it to be. To me b15) is just one reason among the others. What made sense to me was rather an altered, expanded version of b6), or maybe even a 16th reason: That all of what Hiccup was doing, and all that Toothless was doing, and the positions they found themselves in combined with the circumstances that happened to rain down on them was just wayyy too much to cope with altogether. I look at all of Httyd3 and go like  “it must be OVERWHELMING to them”.
The way I see it, they both needed time for themselves to grow into strong, independent Chiefs who held their lives firmly together before they could form a human-dragon alliance again. If you need more expansion on this…ahh nahhh, I’m just going to copy + paste it in here, because I’ve talked about this before. And honestly it’s the only valid reason I need.
So what do YOU need, friend? If something bugs you about Httyd3, I’ve just given you 15 very good reasons as to why it was better for the dragons to leave than to stay. My 16th reason is even a story of pure victory! I know that every head thinks with a different kind of logic, but I hope one of these points totally applies to your logic! So pick your share and be inspired and hopefully, you can now find your peace with the ending of the trilogy and enjoy it as much as I do :)
@howtodrawyourdragon @corona-the-nightcutter
