How to Train Your Dragon LIVE from Seattle

Fantasy Fangirls

Fantasy Fangirls hosts a live deep dive into the animated film 'How to Train Your Dragon' at the Neptune Theater in Seattle, celebrating the

Key takeaways

• Hiccup's journey from outcast to hero highlights the power of empathy over violence

Main topics

• Character development of Hiccup and Toothless
• Themes of friendship and understanding across species

Notable quotes

'Justice for the sheep who get taken by the dragons.'

Conclusion

The live event in Seattle reaffirmed the enduring emotional impact of 'How to

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Fantasy Fangirls podcast, where two sisters dive deep into beloved fantasy lore, characters, themes, theories, and more! I'm Speaker 2 (0:10) Lexi, older sister and fantasy lore nerd. Speaker 1 (0:12) And I'm Nicole, younger sister and romantic at heart. And Speaker 2 (0:15) today's episode, we are diving deep into the beloved movie, How to Train Your Dragon. Which Speaker 1 (0:21) we did back in April, live in Seattle. Speaker 2 (0:24) As always, please listen closely to our spoiler warning. Today's episode is all about How to Train Your Dragon, the first movie. So spoilers for How to Train Your Dragon, the first movie, the animated one, as well as a little bit of foreshadowing sprinkled in for the other two How to Train Your Dragon movies. So Speaker 1 (0:40) if you don't know why I devote an entire part of this live show to the masterpiece song. test flight, then please go watch the movie, get the chills, sob the tears, and we will be here when you're done. Speaker 2 (0:52) Next, we at Fantasy Fangirls are adults who say adult things about adult books. In other words, friends, this podcast is rated R. This Speaker 1 (0:58) may be a kid's movie, but... It's us in front of a live audience. So you bet your sweet bippy you might as well be mindful of those little listening ears. Speaker 2 (1:07) Additionally, we'll love to see you at upcoming live events because we are going on tour this September, starting with Chicago on September 9th, where we are diving deep into my all-time favorite movie, The Princess Bride. So for instance, if you love this format here with How to Train Your Dragon and you are going to be in the Chicago area around September 9th, please go ahead, get tickets. There are still a few left for the Chicago show. Speaker 1 (1:30) Then we are going back to our Empyrean roots with Threshing Day Speculation live shows in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 24th and New York City on September 27th. Links to all of these events and more are in the show notes and on our website. Check it out for all the details. Last Speaker 2 (1:48) thing before we jump into this How to Train Your Dragon live show recording episode. If you love Fantasy Fangirls and want more events, more content, more community, and so much more, please check out Fantasy Fangirls. Club. We Speaker 1 (2:00) have six media network tiers that you can join, which includes things like access to our Bopin Discord, live Q &As, book club, early access to ad-free episodes, a welcome gift, and so, so, so much more. Speaker 2 (2:12) Join the party and learn more about all the fan club to your benefits at fantasyfangirls.com slash fan club. The link is also in the show notes. And thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us at Fantasy Fangirls, for giving us the opportunity to do these live shows with you. It means the world to us, and we're so excited to share this recording with you. Speaker 1 (2:31) And now it is time to travel with us to Seattle. Speaker 2 (2:58) Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Fantasy Fangirls Podcast, where two sisters dive deep into beloved fantasy lore, character themes, theories, and more! Hello, everybody! I'm so sorry. I'm just so overwhelmed by so many people. But my name is Lexi, and I am Speaker 1 (3:25) the fantasy lore nerd. And I am Nicole. I'm the younger sister and the romantic at heart. And Speaker 2 (3:30) we are so excited to see you in Seattle at the Neptune Theater. Oh my goodness! Speaker 1 (3:40) There's so many of you. I love it. I love it. All Speaker 2 (3:43) right. Getting myself kind of situated here, you know. Speaker 1 (3:48) Well, I know for a fact that you have been to Seattle before. I have never. No, I've been here twice. I've been here twice. Speaker 2 (3:54) Clearly it Speaker 1 (3:54) was very memorable. Speaker 2 (3:56) No, it's your city. I do love it. I've been here twice too when I was looking at colleges here and then a long time ago when I was a wee young girl Speaker 2 (4:12) We are so excited that tonight's live show is something different than we typically cover. We are doing our classic deep dive, but instead of for a book, because we don't have literally like two months just to sit here and chill, we are going to take it to a movie format instead, and we are all here to deep dive How to Train Your Dragon. Speaker 1 (4:39) In case you're new to us, hello, hi, we are fantasy fangirls. We are known for our book deep dives of the Empyrean series, Who's Listened? And our ACOTAR series, Sound of a Pine Tree. Of course, Kindred's Curse Saga, we did Tog, we did, oh yes! Speaker 2 (5:03) Oh, much more. Who's excited for September and also a little nervous? And October and, you know. And, you know, January and the rest of 2027. Speaker 2 (5:23) So like always we always need to do our due diligence with our spoiler warnings so today Spoiler spoiler spoilers for the movie how to train your dragon We will be sprinkling in a little bit here and there from the sequels But for the most part today's discussion is sticking to the original Animated version. Speaker 1 (5:42) I hate to break it to you all you had 16 years to watch this movie So, um, if you have not seen it, I already know one of you hasn't yet You're experiencing it for the first time through Fantasy Fangirls. You get to decide if that's good or bad. I like to think it's a good thing. I like to think it's chaotic. Chaotic good. We are chaotic good. We are Dungeons and Dragons chaotic Speaker 2 (6:07) good. Also, note that we at Fantasy Fangirls might be adults who usually say adult things about adult books, but today's live show is all ages. This movie's PG, so we will... Mostly me too, right Nicole? When we talk about dragons, we normally are not PG's Speaker 1 (6:27) A little different especially we're coming off the great flirts episode of the great When the moon hatched but I promise I will do my best PG 13 at least fine Speaker 1 (6:50) And now, this is Burke, and this is Fantasy Fangirls. Yeah! Speaker 2 (6:58) All right, so it sounds like a lot of you know Fantasy Fangirls, and that means that you also know, for our deep dives, Nicole always refreshes our memories with a recap. And trust me, these recaps are like no other. So, who's ready for Nicole to do us the honor of summarizing this movie? So, yay! Speaker 2 (7:23) for Nicole because guess what everybody it is story time with Vikings and Dragons. Oh my. Speaker 1 (7:30) Once upon a time on the Isle of Berk a small Viking village it is continuously raided by dragons. They fight back since wood is expensive and sheeps are also expensive but they're also dead. Justice for the sheep who get taken by the dragons. Thank you. Speaker 1 (7:50) Meet young Viking hiccup son of the chief and like all Vikings is expected to fight and kill dragons But there's one small problem. This boy's built like a wet noodle and the last guy You know, that's gonna be a theme throughout this I've Speaker 2 (8:10) been practicing. Yes. Yes, that is me after practicing Speaker 1 (8:18) hiccup he has a big brain idea and it's the only thing big about him that we know of told you Speaker 1 (8:30) Hiccup cannot throw a weapon, he will at least design one to do it for him. So next dragon raid, Hiccup sneaks out of the smithy where he works under the watchful eye of Gobber. While everyone else is focused on the dragon stealing their food, again, justice for these frickin' sheep. You are a big sheep fan down here. I love it. Speaker 1 (8:58) uses the distraction time to roll out his DIY bola-launching crossbow contraption. Try saying that five times fast. Yes, I practice this. His target is the Night Fury. They are the most elusive dragon. Dun, dun, Speaker 2 (9:13) dun. Speaker 1 (9:13) They have nothing documented on them. They're the Bigfoot of dragons. What? The Bigfoot of dragons. Speaker 1 (9:23) No viking has ever killed one. So Hiccup pulls an Alexander Hamilton and he is not throwing away his. I Speaker 2 (9:31) love you guys. Speaker 1 (9:36) Drowned in Night Fury. Downed in Night Fury, not drowned. Raise your hand if you believe Hiccup that he downed this Night Fury. Speaker 1 (9:47) He didn't! This kid trips over the ground! What are you talking about, people? So while Hiccup is off trying to find his Night Fury that he definitely shot down, his dad and boss are going to figure out what the heck to do about Hiccup's behavior. And because they come up with one solution, it is to turn him into a proper Viking and allow him to join dragon training. That way he won't be such an embarrassment! Dad of the year, stoic. Cut back! to Hiccup. He found the crash site where the dragon went down. Huzzah! Yay! You can do it too. Huzzah! Thank you. He's one step closer to becoming a real viking. He takes out his knife to carve out the heart of a dragon and he can't do it. Hiccup. Huzzah! He cuts the dragon free and the dragon pounces on him. Sorry bro. Jesus. Sorry. Did I scare you? Aaron is racing. Speaker 1 (10:53) So sorry you missed your chance, but the dragon, as he's pounced on Hiccup, does not make the kill shot. It's an awkward standoff, but I guess the mutual vibe check has been passed. So, smash cut to the first day of dragon training. Hiccup almost gets himself killed by a Gronkle. Womp, womple. I thought that was funny. Thank you. But it's okay because he knows that he can bash his shield and disorient the dragons. He will do better next time. Back with the Night Fury, Hiccup wonders why the dragon hasn't flown off yet. And that's when he notices half its tail is missing. Did I do that? Oops. Hiccup is determined to get closer to this dragon, so he decides to bring it a peace offering, a fish. It works for me too. I love sushi. Much to Hiccup's surprise, the dragon accepts the fish! Yay! But wait, where did the dragon's teeth go? And the Night Fury officially has a name! Gra- Speaker 1 (11:57) Just kidding, it's Toothless! Throwing up a temporary white flag, Toothless regurgitates part of this fish as a peace offering, and Hiccup disgustingly eats it. Speaker 2 (12:10) You know, that reminds me of my kids when they offer me cheese, like their string cheese, and it's all soggy, and they get mad if I don't eat it, and I know my husband is in this audience laughing because it happens to him too. And that's a real, yeah, see? Speaker 2 (12:25) String cheese is so specific. It is, yes. Speaker 1 (12:31) besties now, non-negotiable. And Toothless finally lets Hiccup boop his nose. Come here. Thank you. And it's one of the most beautiful cinematic moments of the 2000s. But Hiccup, excuse me, Toothless still cannot fly, so Hiccup has a plan. So he goes back to his workshop using Big Brain and crafts a tail fin. It takes some trial and a lot of error, but soon Hiccup and Toothless are shredding through the sky. training montage after spending a lot of time with Toothless and picking up on some of those cat-like qualities to the dragons. Who's the cat person? Yeah! Justice for the cats! Hiccup is, slowly they work their way up the ranks as well as Hiccup during dragon training until finally the last day of dragon training arrives and it's down to Hiccup and Astrid to fight for the honor of killing a dragon in front of the entire village like a real viking and who would have thought? Speaker 2 (13:37) Thank god. Speaker 1 (13:40) The boy who could barely hold a battle axe and almost died multiple times during training beat out the most promising peer in his class. She's a little suspicious and she's very pissed. Same girl, same. So what would any normal woman do? Follow him and destroy him. Speaker 1 (14:07) Mid destroy she discovers his secret. Oh no! We can't have her blabbing to the rest of the village and getting toothless killed now can we? No! No! No! That's right, no! So what other way do we keep her lips shut? We show her what she's been missing and we take her on her very own test flight. And I'll be gosh darn if it doesn't work like a charm. Fellas, make some noise. Yeah. Thank you. We're going to have a little secret conversation now. If you ever want a girl to have a good date. Speaker 1 (14:46) You take her on a ride on your dragon. That is not a euphemism said it works Speaker 1 (15:03) These two lovebirds are on their test flight on the dragon. A very scary thing happens. They find a dragon nest with a giant beehive queen dragon. Boys. Oh, no. Oh, no. Gentlemen, we're going to have another conversation. If you want, at the end of this date, to let her ride your dragon. Speaker 1 (15:26) Don't take her to the scary nest where a queen bee lives and ruin the moment Cool, it's day to kill a dragon and hiccup can't do it So he tells the town that dragons are just big cats However stoic only hears big dragon next victim So stoic a man of zero chill chains up toothless and sticks him on a ship as his own personal GPS signal Speaker 1 (15:55) They find the nest, they hit it with big rock go boom, and does nothing. So, except it does do one thing. It pisses off the giant queen bee dragon. Naturally. But we're going to cliffhanger that for a second because smash cut back to Burke. The teens are hatching up a plan of their own. Hiccup shows them how to train their dragons. Get it? And together they ride to the nest, just in time to save Hiccup's dad and Gobber from sacrificing themselves. Hiccup saves Toothless... You all are amazing. I love this. Hiccup saves Toothless from drowning, but the wet noodle drowns on his own, and the... Whip his dragon, so Stoic finally saves his kid, finally doing something to actually believe in his son. Which is very sweet. Speaker 2 (16:50) Yeah. We Speaker 1 (16:51) love character growth. We love that. Yes. So together, toothless and a very wet hiccup, lead the massive dragon up a... Speaker 1 (17:01) And away from the rest of the Vikings. The big dragon tries to roast them, but Toothless shows them off on his skills, so he flips over and shoots a fireball down its throat, igniting the big dragon from the inside out. But it also ignites Toothless's makeshift tail wing. So as Queen Dragon crashes into the ground, somehow killing not everyone, Hiccup... Hiccup... Hiccup falls off the saddle mid-escape and with no one to control the tail flame, Toothless does the only thing he can and he wraps himself around Hiccup and takes the brutal impact of the fall. But, and this is important. You okay? Yes, I'm good. Speaker 1 (17:51) The Vikings, the teens, the dad, the dragon, except for the big dragon, mostly in one piece. Speaker 2 (17:57) Mostly. Speaker 1 (17:58) Because Hiccup wakes up with a prosthetic leg, but Toothless already has a prosthetic tail fin, so if anything, they can just do Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. Unite! Thanks to Toothless, the Vikings see the dragons in a whole new light. They are no longer the pests, but... Speaker 2 (18:27) Y'all are fun. Thank you so much for that, Nicole. That was fantastic. All right, friends. It is time to take our own test flight where we unravel key insights. Character analysis, lore, foreshadowing, not so many theories today because, you know, it's a completed trilogy, and so much more from the movie How to Train Your Dragon. Let's obviously start with this movie's opening, right? That's a great place to start. When we're thrust right into this world, don't look at me that way, you did that at the Nuggets game last week. We're thrust right into this world with a deadly... One more time. Speaker 2 (19:10) You... Because... We're thrust. Speaker 2 (19:20) So anyway, there's deadly, dangerous dragons flying everywhere, okay? And the Vikings' motivation is to fight them. We open with a dragon attack on Berk, a Viking village that has been on this island for seven generations. Dragons here are viewed as pests that, you know, they breathe fire, they destroy structures, they take our food, they are bad, bad, bad. The sheep. Yeah, the sheep. The sheep. The justice for the sheep. And the Vikings are way too stubborn to not live here. So they fight the dragons over and over and over and over again and rebuild as needed over and over and over again. They don't believe... Because Speaker 1 (20:03) they're boys! Speaker 2 (20:14) capture and release no no no they these Vikings believe that in their rank and their worth it is directly tied to the dragons that they've killed so you got to take into account how many dragons you've done alive and the type of dragons that you slay Speaker 1 (20:32) So in the lead up to this live show like so many of you I was so excited because the how to train your dragon musical score is like So good who else? Thank you So I realized that my music theory professor from college actually wrote the book on the How to Train Your Dragon music. Literally, it's called The Music of the How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy by Dr. Eric Heine. Talk about destiny. Speaker 2 (21:00) Destiny. Speaker 1 (21:01) And using your music theater degree. Finally. I mean, you are still on a stage, so. Yeah. So because I am going to be whipping out these musical fun facts, I brought something. Speaker 1 (21:16) Thank you. Speaker 2 (21:17) It's Hayden's biggest nemesis. Our Speaker 1 (21:19) producer's biggest fear, the... Speaker 1 (21:24) Thank you. So whenever I bring out the slide whistle, it means I have a nice musical fun fact. So in this opening sequence where we're being introduced to Burke as a whole, it is almost the longest song in the score at over six minutes. John Powell, the composer, treated this opening much like an opera overture. In case it's been a minute since you visited ye olde opera, I got you. Speaker 1 (21:53) Opera overtures are like one long musical kickoff that often feel like little short, really, really short snippets of all or most of the songs in the opera. So that is exactly what is happening here. This is fun. You're acting like Professor Lexi there. Speaker 2 (22:14) Don't be in it. Speaker 1 (22:15) Okay. Speaker 1 (22:18) As we are being taken through Berk and showing the lay of the land, we're meeting the different characters, the musical elements, the themes. We are hearing those as we meet each people. So we kick it off with the Viking theme as the Vikings fight against the dragons. There's this big chorus of burly men going, ah, in the back. Ah! Speaker 1 (22:42) But then when we see Hiccup for the first time, the tune drastically changes. It's like this little jaunt through the musical keys. Speaker 2 (22:52) Place where I study music, agree? Speaker 1 (22:55) And we finally get some mixes of Hiccup's theme in that tune. Then we get this dramatic legato romantic sound at the exact same time that we're introduced to Astrid. And it happens to be the romance. theme song of the tune. And that's only some of them! This is so cool. Speaker 2 (23:14) I love it. I love how this is all very new information to me as well, and I get to learn alongside the audience, because I didn't know any of that. You're Speaker 1 (23:22) welcome. It's very cool. That's not my last one. I know it's Speaker 2 (23:25) not. I do know that. Speaker 2 (23:27) All right, so with Hiccup's entrance is the immediate setup of the theme and character arc of this movie. Hiccup is desperate for approval as he tries to prove himself. And we've got this negative view of dragons, to put it mildly. And this whole concept of Hiccup not feeling like he belongs in the society as much as he wants to. I'm sure a lot of us have felt that way as well, right? He's the chief's son. Shouldn't he be following in his father's footsteps? As Hiccup says... Quote, if I kill a dragon, my life will be infinitely better. I might even get a date. He is a teenage boy after all, yes. And he's considered, but he's considered weak. He's not dragon slayer worthy. And he's just in the way, according to everybody else. He's not supposed to be comic relief. He's trying to be a real Viking. Speaker 1 (24:17) In Berk, as part of Viking culture, you are not considered a true Viking with the in the background until you take down a dragon. But not all dragons are created equal. I like the people practicing. This makes me so happy. As Hiccup states in the opening, a natterhead, which I can only equate to as like a giant croaking chicken with working wings, that... Killing a natterhead would get Hiccup noticed. I mean, I Speaker 2 (24:49) courted my now husband with chicken wing sauce all over my face. So, same thing, right? Yes! That Speaker 1 (24:58) surprises me zero percent. Gronkles, however, those are tough nuggets. Mind you, these look like giant sort of puffer fish looking things with really, really fast wings. If Hiccup took down a puffer... Er, it's not a puffer fish. Speaker 1 (25:15) took down a gronkle that would definitely get him a girlfriend ladies would a Speaker 2 (25:21) puffer fish get him a girlfriend we love Speaker 1 (25:22) the Speaker 2 (25:23) gronkles Speaker 1 (25:23) we love them now let's say no now a zipple back that's the one with two working heads and like a serpent-like tongue here's my question ladies are we sure this is not the one that would get him a girlfriend Speaker 2 (25:42) That makes me think of a very specific book But Speaker 1 (25:48) this is this is the one that we get with the two heads It would be twice the notice as a true Viking but nothing and I mean nothing comes even close to a night fury Speaker 1 (26:06) When Hiccup says he's going to take down the Night Fury the music changes in the overture to the true Viking tune and because I have the power allow me to play it! Maybe. Speaker 1 (26:28) That's it. That's the true Viking tune. So that's right after he says, I'm going to take down a night fury. It's literally the music saying he's going to be a true Viking. I think that's so cool. Speaker 2 (26:38) That is so cool. So a few more fun facts. How to Train Your Dragon is based off of a 2003 middle grade book. Well, that's actually the Book of