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- Hiccup in his first few scenes proves to be a source of duress for Stoick, who pulls him out of passing dragonfire and yells at him for being outside during a raid. Then Hiccup disobeys those orders to test his dragon-trapper, which leads to a Monstrous Nightmare nearly burning him alive. As Stoick reveals, Hiccup does this on a regular basis. What's worse is, from Stoick's annoyed reaction upon seeing the Monstrous Nightmare chasing his son, something that would give any parent a heart-attack, Stoick's getting used to this.
- Gobber points out the terrifying truth that Stoick won't always be around to protect Hiccup. His son is growing up, and always running into danger. Stopping him isn't possible. The best Stoick can do is prepare him for it.
- The part where Hiccup starts freeing the downed Night Fury from the ropes binding him. It starts with an Eye Awaken from the latter as he realizes the human is cutting the ropes, and then as soon as he's free, he jump right on top of Hiccup and stares him dead in the eye. Toothless may be intelligent, but he is no Androcles' Lion - even after being freed, he does not seek friendship with Hiccup and can easily kill him if he wanted. The music makes the scene that much scarier, providing a chilling Scare Chord when he jumps Hiccup and foreboding bagpipes that really tell you this is a terrifying beast. At the very least Toothless is grateful enough to spare the boy.
- The falling scene, especially once they pass the peak of the mountain.
- The Red Death's introduction. You hear it roar moments before its head erupts from the magma to casually swallow a Gronkle whole, visibly causing all the other dragons to shrink away in fear. And then it smells Hiccup, which causes it to start climbing up through the hive to get at him, off-handedly eating a Zippleback that didn't move in time.
- In-Universe for Stoick, when Gobber informs him that Hiccup has a way with dragons. After watching the second film, guess who else had a way with the beasts...
- Early in the movie, Stoick leads a few of the other Vikings in the tribe in three longboats to head to Helheim's Gate, which is wreathed in fog with the only thing visible being three pillars of rock. However, once the Vikings head in, we get a brief glimpse at a Monstrous Nightmare illuminated by the fire of other dragons in the mist before cutting away to the Deadly Nadder. Only one longboat returns to Berk. We don't get any explanation as to what happens to the other vikings, but we can assume most of them were killed in the skirmish.
- The Red Death, a dragon the size of a mountain, taking flight and ascending into the sky after Toothless and Hiccup. Having it emerge from the earth is terrifying enough, but seeing something that looks like the unholy spawn of Fenrir and Jörmungandr take to the air and disappear into the clouds can leave one awestruck. That's the point where the Vikings probably thought that Ragnarok has started and the world was about to break.
- It comes very close to becoming a Hero Killer twice over, nearly crushing Fishlegs underfoot before being distracted by Snotlout hitting it in the eyes. Later on it comes within millimetres of swallowing Astrid and her Nadder whole through its Vacuum Mouth, stopped only by Toothless blasting it in the face. If either of them had been even a second slower, Fishlegs and Astrid would have been killed, simple as that.
- Not to mention seeing it spew waves of fire when it can't keep track of where Hiccup and Toothless are flying. When most of the other dragons have been shooting quick bursts of fire, watching the Red Death go ballistic and unleash a continuous stream of flames through the sky (roaring in utter rage all the while) is just terrifying.
- The Red Death's design is pretty creepy. It's got More Teeth than the Osmond Family, small, rheumy-like eyes, cracked/decayed-looking skin and a mouth like that of a theropod, on top of being covered in coral-like spikes. While all the dragons in the film have lots of teeth that are proportionately very big, along with the occasional disturbing design element, the Red Death's stand out more thanks to how huge it is and the Ugly Cute designs of the other Dragons.
- While it's very difficult to argue that it didn't deserve it, the Red Death's final moments are pretty unpleasant - we see its eyes bulge in terror as it realises it's about to hit the ground while its wing membranes visibly shred/burn apart, followed by it exploding in a firestorm that nearly kills Hiccup and Toothless (and does leave the former down a leg).
- The beast is summed up by Stoick the Vast, who had been established as a Badass among Badasses, in three simple words.
- And worst of all, we know next to nothing about it. In both movies, and all 8 seasons of the TV show, we never find out anything else about the Red Death. It’s implied to be an alpha dragon but it doesn’t come from any known species, and we have no idea if there even are any other dragons like it. Even amongst mysterious dragons like the Screaming Death and the Night Fury, the Red Death is a complete anomaly. We don’t know where it came from or what it is, it just is.
- Some of the details on the various dragons in the handbook are... less than pleasant. The illustrations, crude as they are, do not help.Hiccup: Eats its victims... burns its victims... buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside-out... Kill on sight.
- As Hiccup reads further into the book, one may notice the dragon drawings moving as if they were about to pop out of the book.
- In the same scene, we get a reminder of just how horrifying Night Furies are in this world. Since we've seen Hiccup bonding with Toothless all throughout the movie, we've forgotten that his kind are considered The Dreaded in-universe. And then we see a Night Fury's description in the handbook. Well, for a given value of "description" anyway, given that there isn't even a picture of it...Hiccup: Night Fury. Speed: Unknown. Size: Unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: hide and pray it does not find you.
