Spoilers ahead!

After seeing How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, a question began to gnaw at me: who were the dragons? Obviously, the flying and fire-breathing reptiles were the literal dragons, but I was focusing on the dragons in the title.

It would seem that again the dragons are the flying reptiles. Hiccup trained Toothless to not steal sheep. He also trained Toothless to fire on his command and to do aerial maneuvers. The creators of the movies also compare the dragons to pets many times, such as their loyal nature or following an alpha or how Hiccup plays fetch with Toothless.

But, it was the last-ish line of the third movie that got me questioning who where the real dragons. SPOILERS!!

Hiccup says something to the effect that the dragons will stay hidden until humanity can learn to accept the dragons.

It is the humans that hunt the dragons, kill the dragons, or use the dragons as weapons. Even Hiccup (spoilers again) says that he put what he wanted before what Toothless wanted. Hiccup’s mom states that when greed is involved humans will find a way. Finally, there are three warlords trying to take over the world!

The only time that the dragons are shown as aggressors is when they are in danger. In the first movie they did raid Berk, but it was only because of the large dragon ordering them to. Once the brute was defeated (or when dragons were separated from it–like Toothless), they became kind and loving. Granted, the dragons in the training arena where not kind, but I doubt you’d be gentle if you were caged and forced to fight dragon hunters in training all day; again showing that the dragons attack when provoked.

Finally, it makes sense that the people of Berk would be the ones to start befriending the dragons. They fought the dragons not for their hides or for their power but out of defense. The dragons would invade Berk causing the Berkians to fight back. Once they learned why the dragons kept attacking their village, they learned to accept the dragons.

So, it could be that the dragon in need of training is the monstrous nature within mankind.

Joe Rover eBooks are available at many online retailers, such as Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Walmart eBooks, and more.

The first interactive story game based on my book series can be found here.