The How to Train Your Dragon franchaise comprises of two halves with very different stories, themes and dragons. Both franchaises involve a Viking boy called Hiccup taming a dragon called Toothless in a fantastical version of Iron Age Scandanavia (called the Barbaric Archipelago or Wilderwest), but character names and designs and major plot arcs are different between the two stories.
Book Franchaise (Cressida Cowell)[]
The How to Train Your Dragon books by Cressida Cowell follow a young boy (Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third) and his disobediant small green dragon (Toothless) on their adventures through the Barbaric Archepelago. They are joined by Hiccup's friends Fishlegs and Camicazi, as well as their dragons, Horrorcow and Stormfly. The books start as episodic adventures and eventually follow Hiccup's quest to become King of the Wilderwest to unite dragons and humans as tensions rise between the two species.
Novel Series[]
- How to Train Your Dragon (2003)
- How to Be a Pirate (2004)
- How to Speak Dragonese (2005)
- How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse (2006)
- How to Twist a Dragon's Tail (2007)
- A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (2007)
- How to Ride a Dragon's Storm (2008)
- How to Break a Dragon's Heart (2009)
- How to Steal a Dragon's Sword (2011)
- How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel (2012)
- How to Betray a Dragon's Hero (2013)
- How to Fight a Dragon's Fury (2015)
Spinoff Books[]
- Hiccup: The Viking Who Was Seasick
- How to Train Your Viking
- The (In)Complete Book of Dragons
Further Information[]
- (need to add some wiki pages: list of dragons in the book franchaise, book Hiccup, book Toothless, all the book dragon species etc. This note was added in August 2021, I plan to return and edit soon)
Film Franchaise (Dreamworks)[]
The How to Train Your Dragon films by Dreamworks are about a boy (Hiccup) and his bond with the majestic Night Fury (Toothless) as Hiccup unites humans and dragons after hundreds of years of conflict. By his side is his partner Astrid and her dragon Stormfly. Hiccup must learn his place in the world as son of the chief, and one day becomes chief himself, leading his people into a world full of peace and dragons.
Film Series[]
- How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
- How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
- How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World (2019)
- How to Train Your Dragon: Live Action (set to be released in 2025)
Television Series[]
- Dreamwork's Dragons: Riders of Berk (20 episodes, 2012 - 2013)
- Dreamwork's Dragons: Defenders of Berk (20 episodes, 2013-2014)
- Dreamwork's Dragons: Race to the Edge (6 seasons, 13 episodes each, 2015-2018)
- Dreamwork's Dragons: The Nine Realms (8 seasons, 52 episodes, 2021-2023)
Short Films[]
- Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010)
- Book of Dragons (2011)
- Gift of the Night Fury (2011)
- Dawn of the Dragon Racers (2014)
- How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming (2019)
Comics and Graphic Novels[]
- How to Train Your Dragon: Burning Midnight (2016)
- Dreamworks Dragons (2014-2020)
- The Serpent's Heir (2017)
- Dragonvine (2018)
Video Games[]
- How to Train Your Dragon: Flight of the Night Fury (2010)
- How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
- Super Star Kartz (2011)
- Dragons: TapDragonDrop (2012)
- Dragons: Wild Skies (2012)
- School of Dragons (2013)
- Dragons: Rise of Berk (2014)
- Dragons Adventure: World Explorer (2014)
- DreamWorks Press: Dragons (2014)
- How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
- Dragons: Titan Uprising (2019)
- Dragons: Dawn of New Riders (2019)
Further Information[]
- List of dragons in the film franchaise
- Hiccup (Main character in the films)
- Toothless, Hiccup's dragon, a Night Fury
- Astrid, Hiccup's love interest
- Stormfly, Astrid's dragon, a Deadly Nadder
- The Red Death, the antagonist dragon in the first film
- The Bewilderbeasts, important dragons in the second film
- The Light Fury, Toothless's wild counterpart in the third film
- Stoik, Hiccup's Father
- Valka. Hiccup's Mother, and her dragon Cloudjumper the Stormcutter
Differences and Similarities[]
The film franchaise is based on the book franchaise, and in early drafts the films were going to be a straightforward adaptation of the books. Upon designing the Night Fury (based on a panther), the creators decided that the design was too cool to ignore, and the Night Fury became the centrepiece for the plot, replacing the original design for Toothless. The original design for Toothless does make a cameo in the first film as a Terrible Terror, and it could be said that Terrible Terrors are the film franchaise version of Common-or-Garden dragons. Other dragons from the first book are translated to the screen: the gronkle (book/film), the monstrous nightmare (book/film) and the Red Death (renamed from Green Death: the Green Death was a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus). The main differences between book and film dragon designs is that the dragons in the books were smaller (dog sized) and could not be ridden, and the dragons in the films are not capable of speech.
There are some other nods to the books: Snotlout gets a Monstrous Nightmare and names her Hookfang (based on the name of Stoik's monstrous nightmare from the books) - the name 'Fireworm' (Snotlout's book dragon) is used for a species of dragon in the film franchaise. Deadly Nadders are a species which are mentioned frequently in the books but very rarely described, so the films designed their own version of the nadders. Stormfly, who in the books was a Mood Dragon, is now a Deadly Nadder, but the colour-changing properties of the Mood Dragon are found in the Hobblegrunt. Fishleg's Basic Brown dragon is replaced with a Gronkle called Meatlug. Character names such as Alvin the Tretcherous are found in the spinoff series.
In the books, the dragons are capable of speaking Dragonese, and are 'domesticated' from the start: throughout the books, Hiccup helps liberate dragons and accidentally causes a war between humans and dragons by liberating Furious (a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus). In the films, dragons are intelligent and empathetic animals, capable of reason and deep emotion, and start off as wild animals, which are tamed by Hiccup, bringing peace between dragons and humans. Although the two story arcs have near-opposite trajectories, both stories end the same.