This show is fun and enjoyable…if I haven’t watched How to Train Your Dragon recently.
Characters
The main protagonists in this show are, to use a label, the Berk Dragon Riders: Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut. An additional “Dragon Rider” comes in late in Season 3–Heather–and she showed up before. It takes place in the world of the movie version of How to Train Your Dragon. The basic characters and setting ideas are promising. However, the portrayal of the characters and some of the setting is not true to the original movie, and therefore can’t be considered completely quality.
The characters are not portrayed as they are in the first movie, and henceforth not as lovable to a viewer dedicated to that movie. Hiccup, for example, was a runt in the first How to Train Your Dragon–looked down upon by all in every possible expertise except for befriending and riding dragons. Not even a dragon expert! Just the “first to ride one.” In Race to the Edge, Hiccup is the leader of the group and everybody does whatever he says without question. Everybody respects him, sometimes adores him, including dragons. He is the only one without faults, and if he does mess up it always looks like an intelligent mistake. He is even more knowledgable than Fishlegs about dragons. This is not right! It is sickening to watch him tell all the others what to do and them obeying, and even worse to see him never. Mess. Up. And. Always. Be. Better. Than. Everyone. Else. It would be okay if he was better than everyone else and nobody acknowledged it, but the fact that he has the respect and love of the group is unpalatable.
Astrid is the second coolest of the group. News flash: she should be the coolest! She is a much better warrior than Hiccup–so why does Hiccup get to take out Dragon Hunters and Dagur without being captured, and she doesn’t?! When she is alone, we occasionally see glimpses of her true coolness. But then she makes a dumb mistake that Hiccup should have been making. For example, she took a joyride on Stormfly one day and looked really cool (and a better rider than Hiccup, FACE IT), but then she got marooned on a log in the middle of the ocean and Stormfly was captured! She is also made to be stricter than she actually is; in the first movie, she was dedicated to Viking tradition, but not so dedicated that she would boss around other people and look down on them if they weren’t as devoted, as happens in the episode when she gets stuck on Dragon’s Edge with Ruff and Tuff! Also, since when were she and Hiccup not a thing? Did you see the first movie, O Clueless TV Show Writers? They kissed! Twice! On her call! Also, why is it that Astrid’s dragon is always the one being taken away? Do they think that Nadders are dumb or something?
Fishlegs is pretty much the same as he was in the first movie. I have no complaints except that he should be smarter than Hiccup about dragons.
Snotlout was never that dumb…he was just a perfect viking. And he always showed up Hiccup in every physically possible way. It’s unfair that Hiccup (and everybody) is always picking on him and that he makes mistakes just to show Hiccup up. This shouldn’t be happening because he shouldn’t need to work to show Hiccup up.
Ruff and Tuff are the two that I actually approve of the changes of. They are dumb, which is okay and necessary for a group that large. They are also crazy and have awesome ideas! In How to Train Your Dragon, they were kind of just the sarcastic kind of comic relief. When they are clueless, they become real people in a way, and you start rooting for them. That brings up another complaint: why did the writers just assume that we don’t like them on the Thorstonton one when they made Meatlug eat the claim stone? That wasn’t funny. I liked it when Hiccup was a stable–orry, table boy!
Heather is also somewhat improved…although before, when she wasn’t all warrior-like, it was fun to see her work out her problems using only her smarts; she didn’t have anything else. I also don’t like that they’re kind of stereotyping the girls as calculating, tactical warriors (except Ruffnut). The sad part is that she obviously didn’t actually turn to the bad side. I was really hoping (though I knew it was in vain) that she had, but then she joined the “Dragon Riders” (anyone else have my problem with that? A dragon rider is literally anyone who rides a dragon. Not just those in the company of Hiccup the Butt. Gustav is a dragon rider!), decided she liked Fishlegs, and crushed my dreams of her being a real traitor. One thing I’m wondering for Season 4, or whatever the final season is: How are they gonna get rid of Heather? Do they kill her (mwahaha)? She doesn’t show up in How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Fishlegs starts liking Ruffnut.
Well, I can sometimes stand watching this, but at other times it gets so frustratingly sickening that I have to pause the Netflix screen and pretend I’m shooting multiple arrows at Hiccup’s inflated head. If you have only seen the first How to Train Your Dragon movie, please don’t see this. If you have never seen any How to Train Your Dragon movies, see the first one only! It is really good, even though it doesn’t follow the storyline of the books. If you have seen both movies and not this, go ahead and watch this as well as Riders of Berk and Defenders of Berk. (They are not available on Netflix, so you might have to buy them…) It is fun to see them doing something other than the stuff in the movies.
Unofficial Movie Reviews 
Fishlegs us WAY different! In the show he is all calm, zen, nerdy, geeky, and scared when action comes around. In the movie, he was geeky, always exited, and he was exited during action! Drastic differences! Seriously! But despite that, this is a very good post, thank you for making such content!
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