Dragons: The Nine Realms Makes The Original How To Train Your Dragon Tragic - Screen Rant

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The set-up for Dreamworks' new animated series Dragons: The Nine Realms makes the original How to Train Your Dragon saga seem significantly more tragic. Although the original films, which proved a hit with both critics and audiences and are widely recognized as one of the best franchises of the last decade, were generally positive and celebratory in nature, the upcoming spin-off casts them in a very different light. In fact, although details around the new show's plot are sketchy, it's clear from the premise that the complex bond between humans and dragons that the first three movies establish in many ways marks the high point of the relationship.

According to the official logline from the new series, Dragons: The Nine Realms takes place 1300 years after the original trilogy. In this contemporary setting, dragons have passed into myth, until a huge fissure opens up in the earth's surface exposing them to the modern world. It falls upon a group of misfits to discover the truth about the dragons and maintain the secret of where they have been hiding since the days of Hiccup and Toothless.

On the surface, the new premise appears to share several similarities with the original story – revolving around a ragtag group who develop a close bond with dragons in the face of a skeptical society. However, this apparent link also belies a tragic fact at the heart of the new show – namely, that despite Hiccup's best efforts to bring dragons and humans together, humanity ultimately still forgot about them and even forced them to go into hiding for their own protection. This amplifies a further tragedy inherent in the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy – that no matter how hard someone tries, society naturally reverts to fear and suspicion of the unknown.

The central message of the original film is that despite fear and suspicion, it is possible that humans and dragons can live together in harmony. The very fact that, at the start of Dragons: The Nine Realms, all the dragons appear to have been forced into hiding shows that this heartwarming idea was always fundamentally flawed. In fact, it even raises questions over whether Hiccup's dream of bringing humans and dragons together was ever possible, given people's capacity for destruction and susceptibility to suspicion. Beyond this, however, the narrative device of the fissure in the earth calls into question the How to Train Your Dragon series' emotional finale, in which dragons are implied to live free on the secret island known as the Hidden World. Although the third film suggests that this ensures their survival, the set-up for the spin-off series shows that even this new home wasn't safe from the humans who were determined to hunt them down.

On the face of it, the prospect of seeing how humans and dragons might co-exist in a modern setting is an intriguing twist for the saga. However, although this represents a welcome shake-up for the How to Train Your Dragon saga, it's impossible to ignore the implications that this has for the wider story. Dragons: The Nine Realms may well also end on a positive note, but it's clear that its very existence indicates a dark backstory.

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Thomas Lethbridge (104 Articles Published)

After an eclectic career incorporating scuba diving, cheffing and teaching, Tommy eventually found his calling as a writer. With an early focus on food, he now specialises in all aspects of entertainment. Despite being a Lord of the Rings and Alien obsessive, his real passion is for truly terrible movies. He loves anything with a 0% Rotten Tomatoes rating and rarely passes up an opportunity to watch The Room. Tommy is based in London and joined the Screen Rant team in 2021.