I started watching the How to Train Your Dragon movies again and have even gotten into the series this time around (childhood nostalgia 🩷) and dammit if Toothless and Hiccup’s beautiful relationship doesn’t make me cry like a baby!
I was also reminded of how heartbreaking the ending of THW was and started digging into post-epilogue information. Because my fragile little heart couldn’t take the idea that Hiccup and Toothless didn’t visit post-epilogue.
Besides the fact that all previous HTTYD movies, shorts, and series established how deep and unbreakable their bond was, so it wouldn’t be logical for them to have this emotional reunion and that be “the end” - I mean, why would they introduce their families to one another just to go “Yeah, I know that was amazing - sorry, peace out” - but from a logical standpoint, Toothless’s tail prosthetic is going to need maintenance. They don’t make prosthetics today that last a *human* lifetime, so it wouldn’t make sense to assume that Toothless’s would last potentially hundreds of years with Viking technology. Sure, it’s fireproof now, but there’s still gears, mechanical elements, etc. that will be exposed to all kinds of environments and wear and tear. Hiccup is constantly remaking and improving Toothless’s tail fins throughout the series and movies.
Hiccup even mentions in the epilogue “How’s the tail holding up? Need any oil, some fine-tuning?” If that thing breaks, Toothless, as alpha and protector of not only his family, but the Hidden World, is screwed. A downed dragon is a dead dragon.
I love that with the release of the holiday special “HTTYD: Homecoming”, we see that even a decade after they parted ways, they still miss each other. Toothless drawing Hiccup in the sand, then Berk, then himself, and drawing a line from himself to Hiccup - it was beautiful. And so in-character for their relationship 🩷 And Hiccup building a mechanical Toothless costume that breathes fire and is so hard to function in that he falls off a cliff and Toothless saves him? Oh my heart ATE IT UP!
Toothless never saw bearded Hiccup, but he could hear and smell him, and was licking and cuddling that suit 🥺 Oh the “almost” of it all killed me, but it had to make sense with the epilogue. Toothless seeing Hiccup’s daughter and going goo-goo over her immediately melted my heart. His eyes were shining!
I’m glad that Hiccup saw Toothless and family flying away, and called out, so he knew they were indeed there. Then Astrid saying “maybe it’s our turn to visit them”. Oh I just love all of the implications!
Then “Snoggletog Log” - Toothless and his whole family in Hiccup and Astrid’s house for the holidays? SIGN ME TF UP! I’d like to think this was the Snoggletog after the epilogue. I think there’s evidence for this too, if you look at the size of Toothless’s babies. When Hiccup goes to carry off a sleeping baby, from head to tail, it looks longer than they did in “Homecoming”.
Then comes the newest piece of media - “Dragons: The Nine Realms”. I haven’t watched it because the animation looks horrifically baby-ish, but I did try to see what was mentioned about Hiccup/Toothless/etc. They found a cave painting in the Hidden World of Toothless with Hiccup and his family (inside the cave where the Night Lights, Toothless’s descendants, stay) and they also found Hiccup’s artificial leg, a working desk, books, etc. So at some point, our boys came back together and explored the Hidden World (can we get content on this please??)
There’s even a story in the book that Hiccup wrote about he and Toothless (and likely the other dragon riders, because that cage was huge) working together to build a cage and trap this enormous apex predator Snake-like creature - which was eating dragons whole. Apparently it’s the whole reason dragons are afraid of eels. The lock mechanism could only be unlocked by a fury with retractable teeth. Hiccup even used his mom’s staff to lure it into the cage. I loved this detail. Then the book illustration shows us a close-up of a bearded Hiccup and Toothless touching noses, and then their silhouettes watching the cage from far away. Also, all of Hiccup’s artifacts having a Night Fury on them? My heart!
There are mixed opinions on what’s “canon” and what’s not - in my opinion, if DreamWorks released it and said it’s in the HTTYD universe, then it’s canon (they own the ip). “Homecoming” and the HTTYD 3 epilogue strongly hinted at Hiccup and Toothless returning to each others’ lives in some capacity, even if it’s only occasional visits. It lines up much more with their relationship than the alternative (I’m looking at you, Dean - I fully believe he just wanted everyone to be as sad as humanly possible even though the character behaviors he’d established thus far didn’t align with the ending he was determined to have).
A lot of people feel that way, and it cracks me up that DreamWorks appears to agree. Everything they’ve released after HTTYD 3 is encouraging the idea of a post-epilogue relationship between the families. Then 9 Realms releases and we get official confirmation that Toothless and Hiccup kept having adventures, and being in each others’ lives, and it just made my little heart glow. Because THAT aligns with the “we are stronger together, our love can endure anything” message that all HTTYD content was about (until the end of THW🙄).
I’m so glad they came back together. It just makes sense for the characters and the strong relationship they built between them. I’d really love a movie or series explaining why Hiccup had to go down to the Hidden World again - did Toothless come ask for his help? How soon was this after the epilogue? How long did they stay down there, who was with them, and what all did they have to do? Did Hiccup and Toothless stay together until the end? I have a headcanon of them exploring Valhalla together 😭