#i really only have so many issues with thw bc the other 2 movies are so good. i REALLY love all of the httyd media preceding thw

[heliianth]

hi Helii i dunno if you already made a post about this, but I'm curious if u thought of a different plot and ending for httyd 3 cause recently i've been thinking about that a lot and i like to hear people's opinions about the movie!

hi nonnie !! ive made 2 posts abt my opinion of httyd3 (ein) (zwei) but since then ive read things like directors commentaries and excerpts from the art book so theyre not Very complete (but still representative—i just give some of the people who worked on it too much leeway LMAO)

honestly i havent thought of a different plot or ending that much, mainly because there are a Lot of things that bug me about the movie and changing all of them would kinda make the fixed version™ almost unrecognizable, but i can give u some quickfire easy decisions i think wouldve made the movie better

replace the Light Fury with a pack of Night Furies that escaped to THW. i dont understand the fascination with making Toothless the last NF because the "propogation of the species" genetically cant happen if he is, despite what Dreamworks REALLY wants u to believe by having Nightlights be a thing 1300 years later. every single NL u see after the 3rd movie is horrifically inbred !!

scrap New Berk. the "Old Berk" location was so important to its people that they defended it from dragons for 400 years, they wouldn't just pick up and move. also, the overcrowding problem is a non-issue because there's so much room on that island to expand onto and Hiccup is not that much of a dumbass*

show Toothless struggling with leaving Hiccup to chase the LF (or NFs)—maybe he tries to drag him along and theres something that forces them to separate for Hiccup's safety

in that vein ^ there are like 3 total scenes where Hiccup and Toothless are together and that really cheapens the emotional followthrough so... have them be friends again. the 2nd movie, the first time we see them goofing off and chatting alone with each other, showing the audience how strong their bond is and what their dynamic is like. i dont remember if the 3rd movie has Anything like that

speaking of which LOSE THE "dragons are wild animals" POINT. this is a major inspiration for the movie so its one of the things that would change the Whole Story but Dean needs to make up his fucking mind over whether the dragons are gentle, intelligent, sapient creatures who know how to perfectly understand human speech and body language or wild, dangerous animals who need to be "free" from humans (the former is how dragons have been treated by every piece of httyd media until the third movie and the latter contradicts everything, is less interesting, and destroys the previous themes entirely so guess which i prefer)

adding on, stop treating Hiccup like garbage. he didn't find Toothless when he was a baby dragon and nursed him back to health before keeping him and thats all Toothless has ever known. Toothless had spent 15 years prior to befriending Hiccup being a dangerous. wild dragon and blowing up Berk. He's been "free" almost twice as long as he's been friends with Hiccup. LAY OFF, his concerns about Toothless are valid.

i've talked about this before but Hiccup is a terrible chief in this movie and the role shouldve gone to someone better qualified, like Astrid. unlike what some of the directors would have u believe, it IS mature to recognize ur bad at something and hand it off to someone who is more competent (especially if its a job like leadership) bc usually sticking to it gets u Fired. *he makes dumbass decisions so the villain can look smart and this is literally the only reason why he makes them i promise u

same point: Toothless is also a bad alpha in this movie. the premise of a single dragon ruling over all other dragons in the world is Really Bad in of itself, but we don't see Toothless do anything like what Valka's Bewilderbeast did in httyd2—sure he's smaller, but give us a few scenes of him being kind and patient with his people. don't have him order everyone into cages because his girlfriend might get hurt

REDEEM THE DEATHGRIPPERS none of them did anything wrong

treat the side characters with some modicum of respect. this movie does absolutely jackshit with Valka other than make Snotlout have a creepy crush on her and everyone has caught brainworms to make Hiccup and Astrid look competent in comparison.

do not. focus on Hiccup and Astrid's relationship as much as u did. u already failed to deliver a "call to the wild" story in Toothless and the LF, the audience does not need more ammo to get "romance is more important than friendship" out of your movie. having Astrid's role completely reduced to "supportive girlfriend" and "Hiccup's True support", along with how Valka was treated (god that goodbye scene with her and Cloudjumper makes me so sad and angry and NOT for the reasons the writers want) and the LF's design being Like That on PURPOSE (also every single model being airbrushed for Prettyness reasons) kind of shows what Some People making the movie think of women

even discounting ALL of these ^ gripes, of which i have More, trust me (i didnt even get into my problems with Grimmel because honestly i do not remember enough of that twat to properly articulate my issues w him), i would be happy if the end went 1 of 2 ways:

Berk moves inside or near THW in order to keep being the defenders of the dragons, and the LF growing closer to Hiccup is representative of the hidden world dragons growing closer to Berk, illustrating that yes, coexistence is possible and good and benefits them both

the dragons gradually leave on a case-by-case basis, but Toothless never leaves Hiccup, and Hiccup grows old always waiting for him to visit. Hiccup writes a memoir of his experiences with dragons to hopefully educate the younger generation when they decide to come back. this mirrors the books' ending far better and gives the dragons the agency they deserve

i do not think there is a world where every dragon on earth leaves to THW and is simultaneously a good ending which portrays the right themes. Dean's fascination with "there were dragons when i was a boy" kneecapped the entire plot. you do not write stories starting from how you want them to end, especially if they're stories based off a beloved franchise with already established dynamics and themes. the Reason why so many plot elements are so contrived, why so much character development is lost, why httyd's theme of tolerance, cooperation, and the power of love is hamstrung, is because they Really Wanted an end where there are no dragons and they were Completely willing to do anything to get there (also Dreamworks is shit to its artists but whats new)

anyway. NONNIE. if u ever end up thinking More about an alternative version of httyd3 tell me!!!! i'd love to hear YOUR ideas and if u cannot tell talking abt this is so fun and engaging for me so i will listen !!!!! i love u for talking to me have a good day <3 <3 <3 <3

#i just woke up AHJgdg hi!!!!! #long post #i really only have so many issues with thw bc the other 2 movies are so good. i REALLY love all of the httyd media preceding thw #like they set such high standards #so in comparison thw is such a . let down. like the animation is pretty good and the lighting is gorgeous but its got no substance #nothing to indicate they put as much time and care into it as the other movies or even tv shows #thus. my now 3 essays talking abt why i dont like it #LMFAO #httyd

[gaylactic-fire]

Why do you hate httyd 3 so much? Also is it a thing that’s generally hated by people in the fandom?

Oh anon ANON. I could talk about this for days on end bc honestly I have so many opinions. But I’ll boil it down as best I can w bullet points.

(Also in terms of the fandom it’s kinda hard to tell?? Httyd 3 is very divisive. I’ve seen its avid fans and its avid haters. Overall I’d say the fandom seems to lean more on negative but please don’t take my word on that.)

Anyway, salt:

- Ultimately, HTTYD 3 basically dumped a steaming turd over the morals and messages that the first two movies. 1 was all about being able to change the world through kindness and having an open mind. 2 said “No actually, you can’t change the minds of some people, but you can still fight for what you believe in and you CAN win”. But 3 said “Actually humans are terrible and the world can’t be changed so the dragons should just hide away for the rest of their lives”. And just???? How was a franchise that was all about overcoming challenges and foes reduced to having such a pitiful and bleak ending???

- The idea perpetuated in the film that platonic love is lesser to romantic love. This film reeked of heteronormative themes and pushed the idea that settling down and having children with a spouse is the ultimate “happy ending”. (Which is especially untrue for Hiccup if he wasn’t OOC) Not only is the theme overdone to death, but the whole idea that romantic love is superior to friendship is so gross in of itself. Romantic love is wonderful, yes, but teach kids that it’s not the be all and end all. Teach kids that friendship and family are absolutely just as important. And the HTTYD franchise was doing a PERFECT job at that until the third movie.

-The Light Fury. God what can I say about her that hasn’t been said already? Her design itself doesn’t irk me as much as some other people, but it’s the thought process behind her design that gets me mad. They literally stated in the artbook that they didn’t even want her to look reptilian because she had to be ✨sexy✨ and ✨feminine✨ enough to get Toothless panting like a horny dog. It’s a load of misogynistic design choices at play. Also not to mention she has as much personality as a pile of dirt. She pretty much exists solely to please Toothless and is barely given any development or screen time of her own.

- One of the biggest mysteries of the entire franchise: what happened to the night furies? Was answered in one of the most underwhelming and shitty ways possible. We waited years for an answer only for Grimmel to be like “I killed them all lol”. No flashbacks. Barely any explanations. Just some guy claiming to have wiped an entire species off the earth, conveniently bar one. It was a major let down. Especially considering that if Grimmel wasn’t bullshitting, Toothless really will be the last of his kind, which is very heartbreaking.

- The ending is extremely frustrating and dumb. There was literally no reason for the dragons to leave to THW. The film tired to hammer home this message that they deserved to be “free” which I COULD get behind but the thing is....the dragons literally were extremely happy and content with their lives. They loved having riders. Dragon riding was never portrayed as abusive or cruel. It’s like the filmmakers saw real world issues regarding animal captivity and decided “Hey let’s try tackle this in our film even though it makes no sense with how we’ve portrayed the relationship between dragons and humans”. There was also the point that the dragons would be “safe” in THW, but really?? Would they?? They act as if they weren’t able to defeat Grimmel‘s army and they had no other choice but to send the dragons away for their own protection but they??? Literally defeated him??? Onscreen???? And it’s not like this was new territory for them. Half of Race To The Edge dealt with dragon hunters (and Viggo was honestly more intimidating than Grimmel.) Also!!! At the very end where Toothless doesn’t recognize Hiccup? God that was absolutely heartbreaking. A whole six years of friendship erased and forgotten. It states on the wiki that between Toothless leaving and that scene the two had absolutely NO CONTACT. Why??? This is never explained at all??? Yeah sure Hiccup and Toothless are best friends but let’s not attempt to make any contact for like 10 years. And for all Hiccup knew, that tailfin could’ve faltered and Toothless could’ve been dead because of it. It’s just so, so bad an ending and it makes me very, very mad.

Then of course there’s more stuff I could touch on, like the bastardization of Toothless’ character and how a lot of the great female characters like Valka are just completely swept aside. But I’d be here all night if I went over everything that ticked me off.

I hope this cleared things up anon. And honestly thank you for asking me bc sometimes raging on THW is therapeutic lol.

#fires posts #ramblings #long post #salty fire #anti thw #anti httyd 3 #httyd 3 criticism #for clarification tho #1 & 2 are my absolute favorite movies #so there’s a reason I’m so passionately critical of the third #httyd is still wonderful bar thw #and maybe homecoming #but I didn’t watch that one