Can we talk about how Viggo "lost" in episode 5? To some, it's probably not a crucial win for Hiccup, but the thought that Viggo has access to the dragon eye and he couldn't foresee the Buffalord's abilities puts this up for questioning. Also, don't blame me, but it was satisfying to see him "lose" just once.
Viggo losing in Buffalord Soldier is interesting for me in two respects. First, it’s what you mentioned: that even with the Dragon Eye, he could not foresee how the creature would act upon being forced from its island. Second, that this is the start of Viggo perceiving Hiccup as something slightly serious, something that he needs to deal with. Viggo’s loss in Buffalord Soldier paves way to further problems between dragon hunters and dragon riders paves way to Viggo treating Hiccup far more seriously in Last Auction Heroes and, especially, Defenders of the Wing Part 1.
It seems odd, at first watch, that Viggo cannot predict how the Buffalord would respond upon being taken away from its home island. The Dragon Eye has thus far proven to be an incredibly thorough, detailed devise. It seems like the Dragon Eye would provide all information it knows about the Buffalord.
Now, I feel like it’s important to cite relevant information that gives us a timeline about the Buffalord, the Scourge of Odin, and the Dragon Eye. Depending upon when the Dragon Eye was written in relation to the last Scourge of Odin, we can make some guesses about what information was and was not included in the Dragon Eye record. The timeline can help us fill in some details and understanding about what happened in this episode.
So, first, we know that the last Scourge of Odin took place an incredibly long time ago. In fact, it took place centuries ago. This would have been so long ago that Hairy Hooligans had not yet settled on Berk.
Hiccup: There hasn’t been a single case of the Scourge for centuries.
During this Scourge centuries ago, Vikings hunted the dragons to (near) extinction, as mentioned several times:
Hiccup: Fishlegs, look! In Gothi’s notes there’s a cure for the Scourge of Odin. A green solution made from the saliva of a Buffalord dragon. What? What is it?Fishlegs: Well it’s just…Astrid: There aren’t anymore Buffalord. They were all hunted to extinction during the Scourge’s last outbreak.
Hiccup: Now, these dragons were supposedly hunted to extinction. So if there are any left, they will have developed a wariness towards humans.
We also know the Dragon Eye contains some notes about the Buffalord.
Fishlegs: I spent the last few hours combing through my Dragon Eye research and found some old notes. I didn’t think much of them at first, but…Hiccup: The Buffalord! But nothing on its location. There’s really not much about it here at all.Fishlegs: It’s big, has ram-like horns and lives on the plains. That’s something. I’ll keep looking.Tuffnut: What’s this stuff?Fishlegs: That’s nothing. Just some Dragon Eye tracings. No useful information. Just archaic dots and slashes.Hiccup: What? Wait, you guys see something?Tuffnut: Yeah. These make a map.
This is important. The Dragon Eye contains a map of the Buffalord’s whereabouts - whereabouts which are current with present-day habitation. Given as the Buffalord was hunted to near extinction, one can imagine that the creature used to have a much larger habitation range. The Buffalord, like many other dragons, probably lived across many islands in the Barbaric Archipelago.
There’s good reason to believe the Buffalord once had a wider habitation range. First, the Hairy Hooligans of Berk know about the Scourge of Odin. They don’t have to research it, but immediately remember details down to how long the disease lasted. Furthermore, Gothi, despite being born long after the scourge would have taken place… has notes on how it would have been cured. This suggests that the Hairy Hooligans, wherever they lived before Berk, would have been victims of the scourge themselves. The reason Hiccup and his company know about this scourge is because their tribe, and likely other tribes with whom their ancestors were acquainted, fell victim to the disease.
During this time, their ancestors, the ancient Hairy Hooligans, would have been among the people groups hunting the Buffalord to extinction. That’s how this information got into Gothi’s notes: the Hooligans hunted the Buffalord.
Now, the Hooligans might not have lived on Berk at that time, but they probably lived in a near-ish area to where they are now. It’s actually not too close to where Hiccup and his companions locate the present-day Buffalord.
You see Hiccup’s finger move and point at an island right before he and his friends land on the Buffalord’s island. This would presumably be the location that they are headed, which allows us fans to pinpoint where the Buffalord lives.
The maps throughout the DreamWorks Dragons franchise are painfully, painfully inconsistent with one another, but if we look at this map and try to match it with the online RTTE map, we can make a guess.
In the first map Hiccup is using from “Buffalord Soldier,” you can see to his hand’s left an island with a large spewing volcano. That sort of looks like Dragon Island, present on the online RTTE map. This means that Hiccup and his companions are going to an island that is far north of Berk, further than Dragon Island, and a location that the Hairy Hooligans might not have been familiar with. Especially considering as the islands Hiccup and his companions mostly interact with in Riders and Defenders of Berk times are to the east and south… rather than the west and north… suggests this is an area that is not oft explored by the Hairy Hooligans.
In short, the Buffalord currently lives in a location the Hairy Hooligans probably aren’t familiar with.
Now I can finally explain why this is important, and how this relates to Viggo’s knowledge in “Buffalord Soldier”:
The Hairy Hooligans probably hunted the Buffalord, but they would not have hunted the Buffalord in the island it currently lives. The Dragon Eye provides a map to where the Buffalord currently lives. Therefore, the Dragon Eye was created after the Scourge of Odin when Buffalords were nearly extinct. Because the Dragon Eye is a more recent invention, that affects what information its records include.
The creators of the Dragon Eye might have been able to observe the Buffalord and learn a lot about it, but it also could be the case that, because the dragon is so rare, they did not learn as much as they could. Fishlegs certainly doesn’t seem to have much information on them (he doesn’t seem to know the creatures are vegetarian until he sees their dung), but that could be explained away by the fact Fishlegs doesn’t have all the Dragon Eye’s information. But… even more importantly, since the creators of the Dragon Eye seem to revere dragons, they would not try to take the Buffalord away from its habitat. Hunters who wanted to save themselves from the Scourge of Odin would have probably taken the dragon away from its habitat. A civilization of people who lived well after the Scourge and revered the dragon with peaceful intentions would not take it away, and would consequently not learn this information.
The fact of the matter is…
The reason why Viggo didn’t know the Buffalord would react as it did on his ship… is because I am very, very, very sure the Dragon Eye did not include this information. The creators of the Dragon Eye didn’t know about it.
Viggo is someone who would have read all the information he had before him. But the Dragon Eye did not seem to include this information - and that makes sense, given the timeline I’ve tried to reconstruct.
This means that Hiccup and his companions beat Viggo because they gained more experience on the fly than was available within the Dragon Eye itself. That is interesting! It shows how valuable first-hand experience can be, and how this plays into the dragon riders’ successes in many situations.
Now the second reason why Viggo losing to Hiccup and his companions is interesting (I’ll be more brief on this one) is that this is the start of Viggo seeing Hiccup as a threat. At the end of Maces and Talons Part 2, Viggo finds Hiccup laughable, an opponent not as interesting as he would have hoped. In a way, Viggo concludes that Hiccup is a lesser opponent. But events throughout S3 start to show Viggo otherwise. “Buffalord Soldier” is the first time that Viggo loses to Hiccup - albeit in a small way - but this leads to further events. Then there’s destruction of his construction in “Between a Rock and a Hard Place.” Viggo doesn’t ignore Hiccup anymore… but starts to see that Hiccup needs to be dealt with. That’s why he deals with Hiccup through the trap in “Family on the Edge.” That’s why he’s smug capturing the gang in “Last Auction Heroes.” And that’s why he actually pays Hiccup some attention with his treaty in “Defenders of the Wing Part 1.” Starting with “Buffalord Soldier,” Hiccup demonstrates that his dragon riders are something Viggo needs to pay attention to.