DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms is an animated series and sequel to the first DreamWorks Dragons series in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. It ran from December 23rd, 2021 to December 14th, 2023. It consists out of 52 episodes over 8 seasons.
Set in the modern day, the knowledge of dragons has faded to myth and legend. When a meteor opens a fissure leading deep into the Earth, Tom Kullersen (Jeremy Shada) joins his mother Olivia to research it. While exploring, he stumbles upon a cave full of dragons. Joined by his friends, he decides to protect the dragons from those who might exploit them.
This series shares a Character Sheet with the previous series.
A video game based on the show was released on September 23, 2022, named Dragons: Legend of the Nine Realms, published by Outright Games and developed by Aheartfulofgames.
There is a Recap page here.
Dragons: The Nine Realms provides examples of:
- Adaptational Intelligence: Wild dragons are usually potrayed to be as smart as the dragons of the Dragon Club usually able to seemingly understand what the characters are saying, or at least sensing the nature of their intentions, from the get-go. In contrast, in the original series "Dragons: Riders of Berk", wild dragons tended to be a lot more feral. Lampshaded by Eugene:Eugene: "You ever wonder how smart dragons are? Like, definitely smarter than dogs. Smarter than some people [...] How about dolphines, Webs? Are you guys smarter than dolphines?"
- All Animals Are Domesticated: Despite more than a millennium of separation, Thunder is about as tame as Toothless was after Hiccup showed he wasn't a threat. Downplayed, as while Thunder was curious of Tom during their first meeting, he still showed some hostility towards the boy until they began to bond, while most of the dragons are far more hostile at first.
- Jun belives it's because they are emotional creatures that can sense other creature's emotions and react accordingly.
- Androcles' Lion:
- Tom pushes a boulder off of Thunder's tail, the first bit of trust between them.
- D'Angelo tames the injured Plowhorn by showing he didn't mean any harm and pulling out a crystal shard stuck inside her shell that kept her grounded.
- Big Bad: The show has a number of them: The Fault Ripper in Season 1, the Skrill in the Season 2 finale, the Sky Torcher in the Season 3 finale, the Snow Wraith in the Season 4 finale, Buzzsaw from Season 4 to Season 7 with Sledkin joining him in Season 7 and Jörmungandr, the Apex Predator of all dragons in the final eigth season.
- Breakup Makeup Scenario: At the end of the fourth episode of Season 7, the team disbands after rising tensions throughout the episode boil over almost resulting in their home being destroyed. The rest of the season sees them slowly growing together again until they reunite in the finale each vowing to do better and to not bottle up their emotions anymore.
- Tom and Jun have another one when Jun breaks up with Tom at the end of the first episode of Season 8. Throughout the season, they are shown to clearly still have feelings for one another. In the finale, they get back together.
- Bittersweet Ending: The series finale, equally as bitter as it is sweet. In the end, the riders and dragons defeated Jörmungandr and Tom and Jun get back together. However, Rakke Town is destroyed resulting in I.C.A.R.I.S. being ended and the group splitting up. The dragons also part ways with their riders having come to same conclusion Hiccup came to 1,300 years earlier: Humans and dragons can't live together as there will always be evil people trying to misuse them.
- Chameleon Camouflage:
- Thunder has inherited the Light Fury ability to camouflage himself by flying through his own Breath Weapon, but only for a few seconds.
- Feathers is a more traditional example, able to turn invisible at will.
- Character Development: Happens from time to time but is mostly subtle. Especially Alex undergoes some major character growth during Season 1.
- Comedic Work, Serious Scene: Despite its generally light-hearted tone, depictions of characters, especially Tom, nearly dying do happen from time to time.
- And let's not forget the local lunatic with a hatchet Buzzsaw who explicitly tried to poison a captured Tom with the same poison that put Thunder in critical condition earlier, just to see how it'd affect humans.
- Continuity Cameo: The original Dragon Riders as well as Dagur are all depicted in the Book of Dragons which the Dragon Club find in the Ice Realm in season 4.
- Creative Closing Credits: The end credits of each episode show numerous sketches of moments from the season.
- Crystal Landscape: Unsurprisingly, the Crystal Realm is this.
- Distant Sequel: This takes place centuries after Hiccup's era, given that it's set in modern day. Specifically, 1,300 years according to official materials.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The way the Dragon Club and their small dragon army defeat Jörmungandr is quite reminiscent of how Toothless and Hiccup defeated Drago's Bewilderbeast in How to Train Your Dragon 2. Before taking on Jörmungandr, Thunder rose to be an Alpha and started glowing blue. He then called the dragons to his side and commanded them to attack the Apex Predator. Though unlike the Bewilderbeast, Jörmungandr is then finished off via Thunder channeling his lightning through Tom's sword shocking the Apex Predator into unconciosuness to be brought back to its prison.
- The Dragons Come Back: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World ended with dragonkind leaving humanity for the titular Hidden World. The whole premise of this series is the resurgence of dragons in the modern day.
- At the end of Season 5, the people of Project I.C.A.R.I.S. have learned of the existence of dragons. As of Season 6, more of the smaller dragons have exited the Fissure and have become a nuisance around Project I.C.A.R.I.S. the riders continually have to deal with.
- At the end of the series, however, the dragons decide to stay in the Hidden World having realized humanity still isn't ready for their return.
- Easily Forgiven: The Riders tend to not dwell on the mistakes their members make, no matter how big. Lampshaded by Eugene:Eugene: "Wait? We're forgiving him? How many free passes does this group hand out?!"
- Evolving Credits: Starting with Season 4, Eugene and Webmaster are included in the opening.
- Fantasy Metals: The Dragoncite. It glows and oxidizes when it comes in contact with dragon flames. It's theorized in-universe to be the reason behind the diversity in species and ecosystems within in the Nine Realms despite them being underground. It's also said to be sharper than a diamond.
- Red Dragoncite, a variation of normal Dragoncite, which can be found in the Dark Realm, releases gases which causes people to get angrier.
- Finale Credits: The end credits of the final episode show sketches of the characters lifes after the end of the series. These include Tom and Jun on a date stargazing, D'Angelo helping an injured rhino, Eugene taking a selfie while playing chess with Alex, the Dragon Club meeting in Alex' virtual 10th Realm and the dragons living peacefully in the Hidden World.
- Fire/Ice Duo: Wei and Wu are a two-headed dragon that individually breath fire and ice.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Eugene (Foolish Sibling) and Jun (Responsible Sibling)
- Generation Xerox: Thunder is a descendant of Toothless and, much like his ancestor, bonds with a boy and goes on adventures with him. Meanwhile Tom, the boy Thunder bonds with, is heavily implied and later confirmed to be a descendant of Hiccup and Astrid.
- Good Taming, Evil Taming: While the Dragon Riders try to befriend the dragons, Buzzsaw prefers to force them to work for him using a special whistle.
- History Repeats: The way the kids bond with their dragons takes elements from Hiccup doing the same all those centuries ago: rescuing them from being trapped, treating their injuries, and giving them food.
- Buzzsaw joins the list of antagonists in this franchise who want to capture dragons for their own purposes. The exact reason Hiccup and Toothless led the dragons into the Hidden World in the first place.
- At the end, the dragons decide to stay in the Hidden World and not reveal themself to humanity at large as humans still aren't ready to peacefully coexist with them.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: Rather than saying "love", the characters in this show say "Like like" when referring to romantic attraction.
- Knight of Cerebus: The moment Jörmungandr, the Apex Predator of all dragons is released there is a tonal shift as it immediately bites down on the Sky Torcher's neck, drags it into its former prison and presumably mauls it to death before it crashes through the gate out of the Dark Realm into the rest of the Hidden World.
- Legend Fades to Myth: The Berkians and dragons have faded over time to fantastic myths.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Fire Realm is coverd with vulcanos and a floor of lava.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The Gembreaker dragons have beetle-like shells that conceal their wings.
- Nearly Normal Animal: Like in Dragons: Riders of Berk, dragons are smart creatures which may act feral but rival humans in terms of intelligence. In this show, this is explained by dragons being extremely empathetic creatures which have strong reactions to emotions. As such, unless they are territorial like the Glass Caster or naturally aggressive like the Skrill, they are usually friendly, or at the very least harmless, creatures towards both humans and each other despite not having had contact with humans in over 1,300 years.
- Big Bad Jörmungandr stands out among the dragons in this show. While appearing more like a vicious animal bound by its natural predatory instincts to hunt and kill any dragon it crosses paths with at first, it has been shown to be able to learn, recognize and avoid traps and even formulate strategies such as when it pulled a Batman Gambit on the riders by attacking the Night Lights as a distraction for its real target, the God's Realm, the so-called "lungs" of the Hidden World were most of the Hidden World's oxygen is produced. Even the riders who already treat dragons as their equals are taken aback by Jörmungandr's cunning.
- No Flow in CGI:
- Played straight with the clothes. While most characters wear seemingly tight clothes, a few like Tom, Olivia and D'Angelo wear vests which still tend to stick to their bodies rather than following real life physics.
- Played with in regards to the hair. While most characters have short hair, buns or use a lot of hair gel to make their hair remain in place, the hair of characters like Tom, Olivia or Alex is completely unrestrained and has a tendency to flow freely.
- One Myth to Explain Them All: Jun believes the many shapes dragons come in inspired other mythical creatures such as the Bubblehorn inspiring unicorns.
- In the third episode of season 7, after visiting the Dark Realm and fighting a troll-like dragon, Tom and Jun figure out that the Hidden World forms the basis for the World Tree from Norse Mythology. As such they conclude there are still two realms left to discover.
- Our Dragons Are Different: While some have Elemental Powers, others shoot out non-elemtal attacks like soundwaves or sticky nets.
- Parent-Child Team: Before coming to Project I.C.A.R.I.S., Tom and Olivia used to be this.
- The Power of Family: You can tell Tom and Olivia mean the world to each other just by watching the first episode. It's not the last time this is shown.
- Predators Are Mean: Dragons who hunt other dragons, such as the Flame Thrower or Jörmungandr, are potrayed as bad with Jörmungandr even serving as Season 8's Big Bad.
- Ridiculously Long-lived Family Name: While Olivia's great-grandfather was the last known Haddock, since the series takes place 1,300 years after the events of the movies, it still means the name lasted for at least a thousand years.
- Shock and Awe: Tom's dragon, Thunder, a distant descendant of Toothless and his Light Fury mate, can generate and shoot electricity from his mouth, or release it in all directions as a brief EMP.
- Shoulder-Sized Dragon: A number of dragons, such as the Bubblehorns, the Hobgobbler or the Woodchipper, are small enough to be able to sit on a human's arm, head or shoulder.
- Shout-Out: During the episode "Dragon Club," Tom tells D'Angelo that the first rule of Dragon Club is to not talk about Dragon Club.
- Single Line of Descent: Tom and Olivia are the only known descendants of Hiccup's and Astrid's line.
- Sixth Ranger: Eugene, Jun’s older brother, ends up joining the dragon riding team by Season 3. He even gets his own dragon, too.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Ice Realm is a section of the Hidden World constantly covered in snow and slippery ice.
- Super-Scream: Feathers has a sonic scream that disorients others.
- Truth in Television: Played with. While there are a lot of instances where the opposite is the case, such as the Riders being fine in the Ice Realm despite not wearing winter clothes, there are also other times where it applies such as when the Riders get stuck in a cave and are slowly suffocating or when Tom dives under water deep below the surface and has almost immediately a pain in his lungs ending with him nearly drowning.
- Tunnel King: The Fault Ripper dragon is able to bore through rock like a drill by spinning and breathing flame at simultaneously, superheating the rock as it plows through it.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: In the sixth episode of season 6, Thunder gets poisoned and spends most of the episode in critical condition, nearly ending up dying. Later, after Tom gets captured by Buzzsaw, the latter voices his desire to use the same poison on Tom, just to see how the poison would affect a human. He is literal seconds away from shooting a dart drenched in said poison at Tom when his friends arrive and stop him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: While Ford and Winston came back and became recurring characters as Buzzsaw's henchmen, their third brother Dood hasn't been seen since Buzzsaw's lumber company burned down.
- Ford and Winston disappear from the show following their surrender to the riders in the thrid episode of season 8. Linda follows suit an episode later after telling the riders where Sledkin is heading to.
- Wham Episode:
- In the last two episodes of Season 2, The Razorwhip and the Skrill make their appearance and it's revealed that Hiccup or one of his descendants before Tom was exploring the Hidden World.
- In the fifth episode of Season 3, Eugene finds out about the dragons and permanently becomes the fifth member.
- In the second episode of Season 4 the Dragon Riders find the original Book of Dragons.
- The third episode of Season 5 ends with Olivia revealing that her great-grandfather was a Haddock thus confirming that they are Hiccup's descendants.
- In the sixth episode of season 6, Buzzsaw successfully steals the Book of Dragons.
- In the seventh episode of season 6, Buzzsaw attacks Project I.C.A.R.I.S. and sets the settlement alight.
- The third episode of season 7 sees Tom and Jun figuring out that the Hidden World forms the basis for the World Tree from Norse Mythology. As such they conclude there are still two realms left to discover.
- The fourth episode of Season 7 ends with the Riders disbanding after rising tension throughout the episode. The rest of the season deals with them slowly getting back to the point they become a team again.
- In the seventh episode of season 7, Thunder releases Jormungandr, the Apex Predator for all Dragon species, to save Tom from the Sky Torcher, which it does so by dragging the dragon into it's lair and, presumably, killing it given the sudden silence after a brief struggle, after which it leaves it's cage and begins rampaging through the Realms.
- World Tree: In the third episode of season 7, Tom and Jun discover that in-universe, the World Tree from Norse Mythology is based on the Hidden World thus making the Hidden World itself this.
