this scene is sooooo important and nobody talks about it
this was the moment he first changed someone’s mind
a few hours ago he was about to give up. fly away and never look back. if she hadn’t found him right when she did then he would’ve been GONE. he thought that there was no point in even trying to show everyone the truth because he knew not a single person would believe him.
and then astrid finds out. astrid who was working the hardest out of everyone in training. astrid who is everything a viking should be, everything he ever wanted to be. and he looks her in the eye and tells her that he is choosing the dragons. up until this point he would’ve given anything to gain respect from someone like her, and at this moment he realized that he didn’t even care about that anymore. so he tells her she’s wrong, and he would not be giving up his dragon.
and she listened. hours before he would’ve never believed that anyone in that village was capable of change, and here she was, agreeing to keep his secret and asking him what he thinks they should do. ‘what do we do?’ not only is she agreeing not to turn him in, she’s also joining him. that’s the only reason he stayed. that’s the only reason he bothered trying. because she gave him hope. she proved it was possible.
this is why i’m a valka defender til the day i die, because she didn’t have an astrid. she didn’t have any evidence that change was possible. hiccup almost gave up twice, once when he tried to leave and once after they took toothless and left for the nest, and both times astrid is the one who convinces him the keep going, because she believed he was right, and that his cause is one worth fighting for.