I’ve seen HTTYD3 once more, and now that I have time to digest I can conclude:
It was a good movie. A really good movie.
There’s so much to look at. So many details that I want to see it again and again just to see every interaction in the Mead Hall or admire how varied they’ve allowed the Berkian bodies to grow. But, most importantly:
The ending was absolutely justified. The problem (pentalogy!), if anything, was the execution; the decision in the way the story was told, not the story itself.
The movies are one telling of the HTTYD. There are the books, there’s the TV show, and there’s the movies: they’re all sibling stories. The movies are great in that they give nods to both in fun subtle ways... and in not-so-subtle ways. Such as concluding the way the source material had: where the dragons retreat into the seas, fading into nothing more than legends, waiting for a time when they could return live in peace with humans. It keeps that hope alive that such a time could still exist; that we’re capable of better.
The HTTYD movies are about how dragons and humans once occupied the same world, and how there was war. Constant war. Even when dragons are taken from the equation, war will continue. Because... well, humans.
The HTTYD movies are about how the war between dragons and humans came to an end. The most peaceful sort of end humans were capable of. Spoiler alert: it’s not a compromise.
The HTTYD movies---not just the third---are rife with examples of improbable peace. War with dragons was a way of life. An entire and widespread culture built around killing and controlling. The implied network of dragon hunting, and trapping, and utilizing for conquering is laid on thick. It’s a lucrative business to the point of ornate Warlords. Warlords who ran in deep with people like Drago and Grimmel and countless others.
Hell, Grimmel knew Stoick. Stoick was remembered in these circles as a Great Dragon Hunter. He probably still was to many. It had been barely half a decade since Hiccup defeated a nearby Queen and freed a hive of dragons that had been targeting his village in particular. The war had been going on for centuries before that, and even then I doubt that was the only Queen.
All through HTTYD2, Stoick did his best to keep Hiccup from venturing too far, from spreading his ideals to other villages, because Stoick knew better. Stoick worked with men like this before; he used to be one of them. Some were in it for the money or fame, and others, like Stoick himself, were in it for heroics and protection. Believing that dragons needed to be eliminated or cut off for the good of humanity.
And there were so many who had been hurt by dragons, who had seen the worst of dragons, that they’d never recover. They’d spend their entire lives waiting for the other boot to drop, so to speak.
Now, with Stoick gone, and his world-traveled vigilante mother in his ear, Hiccup was more focused on desperately saving dragons from an increasingly bleak future.
Hiccup knew, from the start of THW, that all he could do at this point was save dragons before he could even think of bringing about peace between them and humans. That Berk was an exception, no the rule. He was aware, again, from the start, that he was making Berk a bigger and bigger target, and that he needed a safe haven for the dragons. Quick.
Was there an unnecessary romantic undertone? Yes. They overplayed that hand in scenes where it would have been better to push the very real (and well acknowledged) threat to dragon survival. The Light Fury would have been willing to stay on Berk. Hiccup and Toothless certainly would have preferred to stay together. Toothless didn’t leave for her. Not. At. All. Again, they squished so much in too little time and didn’t emphasize the right points in the bigger picture, instead, it felt, they aimed to appeal the masses where they could.
Toothless was an Alpha, who could summon and herd dragons into the safety of the Hidden World. Hiccup was a chief who took it upon himself to protect dragons from his end, just as Toothless would do the same on his side, even if that meant keeping humans and dragons separate. It was heartbreaking, but it was right. There was no victory in sight should he do what he wished for and simply hide away with the creatures he’d come to love. The noblest thing he could do was let go.
The war between humans and dragons ended not though classic heroics, or elimination, or domination. It ended with the palm of a child and the nose of a dragon. From a leap of faith. From trust. From compassion. From love.
Because Hiccup chose to trust a Night Fury, and a Night Fury chose to trust a human. Because they worked together to unite their worlds, and came to care about one another, and the wellbeing of each other’s species. They loved each other enough to say goodbye, so that someday, somewhere down the line, they might meet again in peaceful times.
Neither Hiccup nor Toothless would have reached their full potential without the other. They never would have become kings or chiefs. They never would have risen to positions to stop a war.
That’s the story of HTTYD that the movies tell. And it’s fucking beautiful.
Anyway, I’ll have more to say on this, I’m sure, but till all be at: HTTYD3 talk // Recs Rants Rambles
