So, I decided to look at the background Light Furies in the Hidden World and point out how they differ from the main Light Fury and theorize what that might mean for the canon Light Fury species.
First up, the one that flies up and then falls back when Toothless and the main LF are about to swoop down.
Right off the bat we can notice some differences here...most notably the pointier tail fins. The wings also look to less smooth, and this Light Fury also seems to have longer ear plates. While some have said that these differences are down to motion blur and/or the angle, I really don't think they are, especially the pointier tail fins.
A lot of people seem to theorize that this is a male Light Fury, and that Light Furies (and possibly Night Furies) display sexual dimorphism...which would suck, because I mean, having females have heart shaped tails, weirdly smooth wings, and smaller sensory organs (because yeah, ear plates actually have uses, they aren't just there for display). Please no. Even though I hated the idea I still agreed at first that this was probably intended to be a male Light Fury considering some of the reasoning behind the main Light Fury's design, and I was pretty annoyed...but then...I remembered...
BUFF LIGHT FURY
Yeah, remember that other Light Fury that everyone thought was a male that was in the second trailer? I finally decided to go look at more screencaps of it now that the actual movie is out, and those extra few seconds that weren't in the trailer really help show just how much larger its ear plates are compared to the main Light Fury's and how its head/face isn't as rounded and does't seem to be as smooshed in...
Anyway, if you go by the "male Light Furies have pointier tail fins and wings" then it's a female!
Look at this buff queen!!! I remember when the first trailer came out and I was like "yeah idc what anyone says that's a mother with her adolescent offspring", and y'all it makes me so happy to feel like that might have been the intention...but, if I'm being completely honest with myself it's probably more likely that it's supposed to be a male Light Fury even if it is beside a younger Light Fury. Especially considering that in things released around the time of the first movie, there are bulkier dragons with different features that certainly seem like they're intended to be males, such as this Nadder from GotNF:
HOWEVER, with all that in mind, I'd like to present another theory I feel might be at least somewhat true, and makes me much happier than the alternatives: That there's some variation within Light Furies and other species such as Deadly Nadders, and that traits like longer ear plates, pointier tail fins, less smooth wings, etc. for Light Furies, or having an underbite, longer spines, etc. for Nadders are not due to sexual dimorphism. This helps explain why a lot of the male Nadders and Gronckles we've seen look the exact same as the females, why Fishlegs originally thought Meatlug was a male (even though I imagine Berk didn't know that much about dragons when GotNF happened, I still think a few months had to have passed at the very least, and have you seen one of those buffer/bigger Gronckles? lol), and the differences between the Light Furies.
anyway who's gonna make an OC that’s a buff female light fury with pointier wings and tail fins
i know i am
i gotta share some httyd 3 thoughts bc tbh i’ve been trying to ignore some of the criticism bc it’s still fresh in my mind and i like to watch it a few more times before being like “okay this and this worked but this and this didn’t” and w/e
BUT
i have, a theory? analysis? whatever.
anyway, the third movie takes place one year after the second, correct?
so, what i got out of hiccup and his actions was that, he was still grieving over stoick’s death.
why i think he was still grieving was that, he’s still new at being chief. his orders and plans affect his whole village. valka stated it out later in the film, but hiccup’s been trying to be like stoick in his leadership.
then there’s hiccup saving dragons from trappers and bringing them back to berk. even though there’s enough dragons there already. and it was getting harder and harder for the villagers to even move around because of the many dragons. gobber was right saying this was no way for them to live.
in a way, i think hiccup was kind of hoarding the dragons. he doesn’t mean to, at the very least. he’s trying to do what’s right. a lot of animal hoarders in reality think the same mentality. “it’s not safe for them out there so they should stay here with me.”
then there was also hiccup’s obsession to find the hidden world. the same place stoick was trying to find since hiccup was a child. in the first film, it was the nest, to bring stoick some kind of closure. but when hiccup was a child, it was the hidden world. why? well, in the second flashback we saw, stoick was still grieving over valka’s “death”. stoick’s always been a “go big or go home” kind of guy, and losing the love of his life took a pretty big toll on him.
stoick thought by finding the hidden world and “plugging it close” will help him get over the lost of his wife.
hiccup thought by finding the hidden world and staying there along side with toothless and the rest of his village will help him get over the lost of his father.
“love is lost.” is what stoick said to hiccup when he was a kid. and the big guy’s right.
hiccup didn’t get to properly say good-bye to stoick, but he got to say good-bye to toothless and made sure to let toothless know he was loved.
It’s taking me a couple of days to come to terms with how the final movie wrapped things up. I think I needed to think for myself, read some criticisms and compare it to the books while slowly putting my thoughts into place. I’ve put it under “read more” because it’s long. If you wanna read and discuss it with me, I would be very excited because I haven’t had anyone to discuss this movie with yet. I also wanna know what other people think about it. So grab a snack and here we go! (Clearly spoilers👇👇👇both from the movies but also from the books) (There’s a tiny conclusion at the end if you don’t wanna read everything)
After all these years of wondering, theorizing and discussion we’ve finally reached the last movie. I can honestly say that I've never gone to the cinema that excited before. I cried, laughed and loved every second. I, as many others, have known about the outcome of the movie for quite some time. Not how it would happen or to what extent, but we knew - the dragons would disappear.
This happens in the books; Hiccup talks to dragon Furious and he accepts Hiccup as a friend of dragons. The dragon trusts him and understands that as long as Hiccup is in charge, dragons will be safe. Hiccup promises the dragon Furious that if humans haven’t changed their ways about dragons when he’s an old man, he will help them hide. This is what happens; over the course of Hiccup’s life dragons and humans live in harmony but more and more dragons disappear into the ocean and some stay while other flies back once in a while. Toothless (a green tiny dragon in the books) eventually stays away longer periods of times. Hiccup reflects in the epilogue that he’s waiting for Toothless to come back for the last time before he’s gone for good (Hiccup is an old man during this and Toothless has started to slowly forget). This is a beautiful written and bittersweet ending to the books; it grips your heart makes (at least my eyes) tear up just thinking about it. Hiccup wins the war in the books. He never gives up, he convinces Dragon Furious that he will make dragons and humans live in peace and they do. But Hiccup still makes sure that the dragons are safe before he dies because they can’t trust the people that comes after him to be as accepting.
This is why most of us expected a smilar ending in the movies. Especially since the trailer showed Hiccup saying “There were dragons when I was a boy-” which is the first line of the first book and the first line in the final book. In the movie, Toothless is drawn to this Hidden world. Hiccup sees that that’s where he belongs and it’s a place where Hiccup can’t follow. I read a criticism that said that Hiccup lost the war in the movie. That he gave up and stopped fighting. In the second movie he says:
“Bit by bit, we will change this world.”
What happened with him wanting to keep fighting for a world where dragons and humans can live together? Why did he just... give up? Why did Toothless agree to fly away? After all these years? In the books, they live together because dragons trusts Hiccup and know what they will be safe as long as he’s there. But in the movie nothing like this happens. So what happened and why?
I had a similar criticism when I watched it, a tiny part of my brain wondered what he was doing and why he didn’t keep fighting? Did he give up?
No.
Hiccup never gives up.
Hiccup is the opposite of giving up. He will fight for his dragons until the end of time. The difference between the books and the movies is that Hiccup can speak to dragons and they can speak to him. ( called Dragonese) Therefore, Hiccup and dragon Furious can share thoughts, ideas and struggles with each other. But because the movie chose to remove that, the verbal conversation between Hiccup and Toothless are one sided. Toothless is dragon, a wild animal. Even though Hiccup has trained him he’s still a wild dragon who probably have instincts to soar free. Hiccup can’t discuss this with Toothless the way he does with Furious. Hiccup can only see and read his body language. Which is why Hiccup have to be the way to release him and not the opposite.
There’s also another difference from the books. Furious is scared for his sake and the other dragons. He’s afraid for their safety. Toothless doesn’t show that (maybe if Hiccup could understand him they would discuss it) but even if he did, he would never leave Hiccup unless Hiccup set him free. I think we’ve seen enough of their relationship to know that these two would die for each other. Toothless is as loyal as it gets and always have Hiccup’s back. Therefore, Hiccup needs to be the one to let Toothless find his own way. Just like Hiccup says: “You’ve looked after us long enough.” Hiccup and Toothless found each other when they both needed each other. They protected, grew and learned from each other when they were both alone in the world. But just like that; they both grew up. Hiccup had his duties, he became Chief and Toothless found his calling- he’s alpha dragon. He’s suppose to look after all dragons and protect them. They both grew up and now have a duty for their “people”. Their bond will always be there, as we see in the epilogue.
So did Hiccup give up? In Race to the edge, Stoick tells Hiccup that it doesn’t matter if he loses the battle as long as he wins the war. Which is ironic since I just read a critique that that’s exactly what Hiccup did. But I don’t think he lost the war but he didn’t win it either, because the war didn’t end. Because there’s no winners or losers in an ending where two best friends have to separate. Stoick tells Hiccup that with love comes lost - you can’t have one without the other. Hiccup have defeated so many enemies throughout his life - many of them wanted dragons for themselves to use against other humans. He could change the mind of some of them (Viggo, Dagur, Stoick, Berk in general) but there was always a price to be paid because it didn’t happen without loss. I think that Hiccup at the end of HTTYD3 understood that he can’t keep fighting these violent battles because there will always be loss (The leg and his dad comes to mind). Someone (people or dragon) will always get hurt, even though they might win at the end. Which is a prince older Hiccup isn’t ready to pay anymore. He loves Toothless too much to see him or any other dragon get hurt because of them. His fear also comes from the fact that he doesn’t think he could be anything without Toothless but that’s clearly not the case. Just like Astrid tells him:
“You are the bravest, most stubborn, most determined knucklehead I know. Toothless didn’t give you that, he just made it easier.”
Which is why it was so liberating to see him releasing Toothless, not because he wanted too, but because it was the right thing to do. Toothless deserved to find his place in the world with someone he loves just as much as Hiccup. And Hiccup have every opportunity to continue to fight for a peaceful world - and I'm sure he did. I’m sure he had tons of adventures after Toothless. I’m sure he built fantastic inventions and made voyages across the oceans; a bit slower than at the back of a dragon but I'm sure he never stopped moving forward.
If the movie would have ended like the book, we wouldn’t be able to see a sweet good bye scene between them. Because there would have been an epilogue with older Hiccup after a big fight scene and then Toothless would leave? It would probably ruin the flow of the movie so from that perspective; their good bye scene worked better being placed there - even though it hurts.
(TL; DR) So in conclusion; I don’t think Hiccup lost a war but he didn’t win it either, because the war never ended. The most important thing is that he never stopped fighting for a better world and he never forgot his best friend - just like Toothless never forgot him.
A little Night Light (or should I say, Dusk Fury because Night Light is such a silly species name) analysis
Okay, so after looking at toys, artwork, promo images, and actual screencaps I believe I can safely say that all the Night Lights look the same except for their coloration. They all have the same head shape (seems like it could very well be more like Toothless'), the same number of ear plates (same as Toothless, yes even the blue-eyed one, it’s just really hard to see), the same ear plate shapes (also seems to be more like Toothless'), they all have tail fins and base fins that are like the Light Fury's but are pointier like Toothless', they all have wings like Toothless', they have fins on the backs of their legs like the Light Fury, they have head spines, dorsal fins, and spines along the sides of their tail like Toothless, and they all have visible patches of scales on their heads/legs like Toothless.
Conclusion: Either they are all males, or female Night Furies look basically the same as male Night Furies (unlike Light Furies where it seems like males have longer ear plates and pointier wings/tail fins which i really dislike) and they take after Night Furies when it comes to that. Since there's no way to tell which of the Night Lights are male and which are female until DW tells us, have fun making your own headcanons about them! I like to think the mostly black one w/ white markings (and a little bit of blue) and green eyes is female, the mostly white one w/ black and blue markings is also female, and the mostly black one w/ white markings and blue eyes is male.
While I'm not the biggest fan of the Night Lights (I still think they look like they were mostly made to sell toys lol) they have grown on me a bit, partly due to this, it just makes me happy that they seem to mostly take after Toothless/Night Furies and that the females look basically the same as the males and have a normal head shape and aren't missing important sensory organs or interesting details. :)
(Also here’s a pic that shows off the blue-eyed Night Light’s ear plates pretty well in case anyone wanted proof of them having the same number of ear plates as Toothless/the other Night Lights.)
It just occured to me when I remember the scene : Hiccup saw the Vikings already made some house foundations on the New Berk after they got back from the Hidden World (after Love is Loss flashback).
So this is my interpretation:
When Hiccup saw Toothless with the rest of the dragons from THW, his heartbroken expression told us that he realized that Toothless belonged there.
When they are chased out of THW, it told us that humans are not welcome.
The flashback was Hiccup mulling and accepting the possibility of his and Toothless' separation.
(Well, I guess many of us already knew those three things.)
When Hiccup saw the house foundations, that means:
1. Berkians were fast settling to the next best real place as a home.
2. Even human with the best intentions still have no place in THW, because humans' necessity ultimately disturbs the nature and the ecosystem that the dragons already have there.
