"With patience, any dragon can be trained."
— Hiccup
The second follow-up to DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon, this short features Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, and Gobber as they explain the history of Bork the Bold and all the data he compiled on the dragons he encountered in his lifetime.
Tropes from this short include:
- Accordion Man: Bork gets cut to ribbons by a Timberjack, and walks away making accordion noises.
- Anachronism Stew:
- The Snaptrapper is said to smell like chocolate. Cacao is a New World plant that the Vikings did not have access to.
- Likewise with the corn Bork and his lady friend are eating (not to mention, popcorn comes from a different variety of corn as the kind we eat on the cob).
- Gobber calls the Snaptrapper the "Venus flytrap of dragons". The Venus flytrap is also endemic to the New World.
- Art Shift: The flashbacks to Bork's life are shown in a 2D cartoon style.
- Ash Face: Happens very frequently to Bork as the dragons he encounters show their displeasure.
- Bait-and-Switch: When introducing the Strike Class, Hiccup starts with a description that's accompanied by Toothless fulfilling all the traits of the Strike Class... then Hiccup goes on to talk about the Skrill. The recycled clip of Toothless shows him reacting in shock.
- Blatant Lies: Gobber talks about how subduing a Bonekapper requires being mightier than one. Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs laugh in response, so Gobber reluctantly admits that the Bonekapper turns docile once it has what it wants.
- Born Unlucky: Bork the Bold was once known as Bork the Very, Very Unfortunate, thanks to his many attempts at making a living going wrong, usually because of (but not always) the dragons he ran afoul of.
- Call-Back: The familiar dragon species from the movie, as well as the Boneknapper from the previous short, are explained more in depth than they were before.
- The Chew Toy: Bork gets knocked around, burned, and eaten many times during his segments. By the time he starts teaching the kids about the dragons, he's bandaged up almost everywhere.
- Continuity Snarl: A Changewing is shown burning Bork with fire breath. Seconds later, Gobber establishes that Changewings have acid breath instead.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The Fear Class would be merged with the Mystery Class in all subsequent material.
- Deadly Nadder spines are said to be poisonous, which never comes up again.
- Eaten Alive: Bork falls for a Snaptrapper's trap, and subsequently gets eaten by one head. A different head coughs him up later, and a third head hacks up his helmet.
- Framing Device: A new recruit comes to the dragon training academy for lessons, so Hiccup, Astrid, Gobber, and Fishlegs give them a crash course in dragons.
- Hero of Another Story: Bork was Gobber's Famous Ancestor, who got his name by being brave enough to learn about and record all the information on dragons that he could.
- Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: Bork falling into a hole in the ice results in him coming back up in a block of ice.
- Multipurpose Tongue: A Monstrous Nightmare is shown in a Bork segment stealing his dinner by wrapping its tongue around his food.
- Popcorn on the Cob: Bork tries fending off a Monstrous Nightmare by whacking it with corn cobs. The Nightmare responds by setting itself alight, immolating Bork and popping the corn cobs in his hands.
