History Fridge / HowToTrainYourDragon

** [[CompletelyMissingthePoint There sren't.]] Imagin the bio-electricity powering this beast up like an ornithopter, it's receiving energy from the lava. The Red Death is very possibly even maintaining inside itself a small fission reaction.

** Grimbeard's "second-best sword" came into play when Hiccup refused to let [[spoiler: Alvin cut him down]] in the cave under the ocean, and showed off his ability as a SouthPaw.

* Most of the FridgeBrilliance is acknowledged in the series itself:
** As Valhallarama points out in her ShutUpHannibal speech to [[spoiler: the witch and Alvin]] in Book 10, Hiccup came across the Lost Things when he was in the middle of noble acts, displaying kingly behavior.
*** He obtained Toothless, "the dragon with no teeth," by giving his first dragon to Fishlegs and running back to seize one. Hiccup could have let his best friend fend for himself but chose not to.
*** Grimbeard's "second-best sword" came into play when Hiccup refused to let [[spoiler: Alvin cut him down]] in the cave under the ocean, and showed off his ability as a SouthPaw.
*** He demands the Roman shield as a promise of peace from the Roman consul after employing [[BadassAdorable Ziggerastica]] to assist in a strong deception, preventing an invasion of the Viking lands as well as a LetsYouAndHimFight scenario between the Hooligans and Bog Burglars. Hiccup also makes the Roman consul swear to stop eating dragons. Hiccup not only prevents a fight, but also sees worth in every creature, big and small.
*** The Quest for the Potato brings THREE Lost things: the key that opens all locks, the ticking thing and the arrow from a foreign land. Hiccup engages on the quest to save his friend Fishlegs's life, demonstrates LoopholeAbuse during the Trial of the Axe, and afterward [[spoiler: uses the arrow to plant more potatoes, curing Vorpentitis everywhere.]]
*** On the Lava Lout Islands, Hiccup obtains the heart stone after using it to signal Humongous for help, rather than cede the Fire Stone to Alvin during their duel. He demonstrates courage, determination and resourcefulness under great duress.
*** The Hooligans end up taking the throne after they survive a sneak ambush from Ug the Uglithug and Hiccup manages to rescue the unfortunate fiances, including himself, Humongous and Fishlegs, from the Beast on Berserk; taking the throne from Ug assesses that his methods of disposing of fiances for his daughter are wrong, and Hiccup shows his respect for human life. He also rescues Camicazi while he's at it, and becomes determined to accept his potential destiny as King of the Wilderwest, even though he doesn't want to be king.
*** Hiccup receives the crown from the Wodensfang because he stops to listen to the tale, and to reason with the Wodensfang's ([[KnightInSourArmor reasonable]]) bitterness about how the dragon's attempts to aid Hiccup I led to all dragons eventually getting enslaved.
*** The Dragon's Jewel is probably the hardest Lost Thing to obtain, considering it was buried in the middle of the Amber Slavelands and [[spoiler: guarded by a murderous dragon that drags its prey into the sand]]. Hiccup not only makes the hard choice of taking the Jewel, but also saves Fishlegs's life while he's at it. The whole reason he came to the Slavelands was to rescue his father and Fishlegs from slavery.

* One for the books. So Hiccup is a master swordsman, and he is left handed. As everyone who fenced or did any kind of swordplay in his life against a leftie knows, it's harder to win against them because their sword comes at you in unusual angles. So it could be that his talent with a sword doesn't come from sheer skill with it, but more from the fact that his opponents aren't used to his fighting style.

* One moral of the series is "The best is not always the most obvious," and Toothless and Fireworm, Snotlout's dragon, show this. When they just need to how off or impress the tribe publicly Fireworm always appears to be the best, and she is the obvious choice for being the best, but when their masters are in danger it is Toothless who is the best dragon. When real danger comes Fireworm often screams "desert" and uselessly flees.

* Stoick's jealousy of Humongous makes more sense when Humongous reveals that [[spoiler:they both courted Valhallarama, and Stoick won her by stealing the Fire Stone.]]

* Why did Valhallarama a long time ago refuse to rescue Hiccup when he was kidnapped? Because the last time she waited for a distress signal, [[spoiler:she thought she was too late to save her love, Humongous. [[SarcasmMode Thanks, Alvin]].]] Not wanting to go through that trauma again, and wanting Hiccup to be a better hero than [spoiler: Humongous was]], she sternly orders him to rescue himself. Hiccup didn't understand, only believing his mother didn't care as much as his father did.

** Book One features the Green Death swallowing Hiccup alive; if not for Toothless's CrowningMomentOfAwesome, Hiccup would've been a dead hero. It goes FromBadToWorse from here on out.

** Ruffnut and Tuffnut and Barch and Belch: twins that work closely together, always arguing, mischievous, and can't work well without each other.

* If you think about it, the dragons [[spoiler: were indirectly protecting the Vikings from the Green Death. Of the dragons had not stole the food from the Vikings to feed the Green Death, the beast most likely would've attacked the village.....killing all of them.]]

* The scene where Hiccup and Toothless are taking Astrid for a ride, and the Aurora comes out. This troper could not stop thinking of the Rainbow Bridge, and how much the Lights must have looked like that to them. A truly powerful moment.
** To clarify: in traditional Norse mythology, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifrost Rainbow Bridge]] was considered a path between Midgard, the earth, to Asgard- the realm of the gods. Once one realizes the religious significance this must have to the teenagers, Astrid's reaction makes much more sense.

** Actually, the only reason dragons were raiding Birk was because of the Green Death. Once ''that'' threat was eliminated, they reverted to their actual, more docile personality.

* The boneknapper. It's been chasing Goober for years. Years when it hasn't had a full set of armour. Years without a roar. It wasn't mean, it was just, [[YouNeedToGetLaid frustrated.]]

* The BadassPacifist entry allowed me to realize this. So Astrid at first dismissed Hiccup as a scrawny weakling cuz he kinda is a scrawny weakling, but immediately after her dragon flight seems to have fallen for him. I figured that it wasn't only the romantic flight, but the fact that it was a romantic flight on the ''back of the most terrifying dragon ever'' that the dude she's dismissed actually ''tamed and rode.'' She realized how much more of a badass he is compared to the vikings she looked up to/aspired to be and admired it.

* One moral of the series is "The best is not always the most obvious," and Toothless and Fireworm, Snotlout's dragon, show this. When they just need to how off or impress the tribe publically Fireworm always appears to be the best, and she is the obvious choice for being the best, but when their masters are in danger it is Toothless who is the best dragon. When real danger comes Fireworm often screams "desert" and uselessly flees.

* TheReveal that [[spoiler:Fishlegs is Alvin's son, and thus Hiccup's distant cousin]], explains how Hiccup was able to obtain the Lost Things; Fishlegs provided the impetus or the motivation in most of the situations: if Fishlegs hadn't forgotten to get a dragon, Hiccup wouldn't have given him Horrowcow and gone back for Toothless. If Fishlegs hadn't gone berserk at the wrong time on two separate occasions, Hiccup wouldn't have discovered Endeavor in the underwater cave or obtained the Roman shield. Hiccup fetched the potato to save his best friend's life, and the Running Away Suitcase ends up buying enough time for Hiccup to get help from Humongous. The list goes on and on. As Hiccup puts it, "YOU are important to me!"

** [[spoiler: Stoic mentions banishing himself after merely debating the rules with himself. It seems odd until it is revealed in Book 9 that he previously broke a major rule to keep Hiccup alive a decade before the series even began, and Hiccup is a constant reminder that he should be banished by Hooligan Law.]]

* [[spoiler: In the first book Toothless becomes way more capable of hunting when he goes in seawater, foreshadowing that he is a Sea Dragonus Giganticus Maximus.]]

* Gobber (and one of the other tropers) mentioned that a downed dragon is a dead dragon. When Hiccup tells Astrid about why he didn't kill Toothless, he says it's because he looked as frightened as Hiccup was. Before that, he also points out to his father that the dragons have killed hundreds of Vikings and the Vikings have killed thousands of dragons. Most Vikings, excluding [[BadAss Stoick]], need a weapon when fighting a dragon or they'll be killed. This means when Hiccup dropped his knife and released Toothless or during the fish offering: he was totally defenseless. The brilliance is: Hiccup released Toothless because he was scared shitless and ''[[NotSoDifferent Toothless spared Hiccup because he was also scared shitless.]]''

** To clarify: in traditional Norse mythology, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifr%C3%B6st Rainbow Bridge]] was considered a path between Midgard, the earth, to Asgard- the realm of the gods. Once one realizes the religious significance this must have to the teenagers, Astrid's reaction makes much more sense.

* An explanation of why the dragons [[spoiler: were so willing to work with the Berkians]] at the end: as mentioned on the Awesome/HowToTrainYourDragon2 page, the Vikings collectively posed enough of a threat to the Red Death that they were considered challengers. Hiccup and Toothless defeated the Red Death, so the other dragons would automatically consider the Vikings their new "Alphas".

* How did Hiccup [[spoiler:lose his foot? He looks like he has both while falling into the fire...which means ''[[FridgeHorror Toothless must've torn it off in rescuing him]]?!'']]
** Or crushed under Toothless' weight. Thank God for the GoryDiscretionShot

[[/folder]]

*** True, its normal for one to be ''slightly'' bigger, as in ones a D cup and ones a C. One being a B cup and ones a DD cup...not so much. That said it's likely that the helmets where just made of the ''metal'' from her breastplate, and not the acctual, to proportion, well, cups. Still weird, but not the weirdest.

* ''Film/HowToTrainYourDragon'': Sure, Night Furies are incredibly rare. Toothless is the only Night Fury seen in the movie... yet he doesn't look like he's a very old dragon, so his parents would hypothetically still be alive... except we never see them. Taking that into consideration, along with the facts that he seems to have been around the area for a long time--if not his entire life, and that the [[BigBad Red Death]] actually ''ate'' two dragons on-screen...

** The [[HowToTrainYourDragon2 sequel]] shows us exactly how it works via the Bewilderbeasts. It seems that they and Red Deaths possess similar abilities. With Valka unintentionally implying that the Red Death was a queen like dragon. Not a true Alpha but a strong enough to be consider one.

* I went to see ''[[Film/HowToTrainYourDragon How To Train Your Dragon]]'', having been a fan of the original books, and thouroughly enjoyed it, despite both being rather different. The first time around, I didn't really think about the [[ChekhovsGun Checkhov's Gun]] used during [[spoiler:the battle with the Red Death]] (of [[spoiler:dragons being internally combustible]]) that much. It was only upon seeing the film for a second time, and reading the original book again that I realised - [[spoiler:both movie-version and book-version of the Green Death die in a very similar way! They both attempt to breathe fire, but it backfires (not literally) on them, causing them to explode]]! - @/{{KingSonnDeeDoo}}

* Hiccup smiles at Toothless and Toothless smiles back. Great. It's a good thing that Night Furies don't consider a smile to be challenging them to a fight like some animals (e.g. gorillas) do.