For hundreds, even thousands of years, dragons have haunted humanity. From the cunning Fafnir of Scandinavia, the serpentine Hydra from Greek mythology, to Smaug from The Hobbit, myths and stories about these vaguely reptilian monsters of great strength are found almost everywhere in the world. Even today, they are a fairly popular part of fantasy media. One of the most successful of these franchises is How to Train Your Dragon. Based off of the 2003-2015 series of novels, How to Train Your Dragon’s focus is, of course, the dragons themselves. Varying widely in body shape, size, and abilities, they are among the unique takes on these ancient monsters in the modern age. In anticipation of the upcoming 2025 remake, and without further ado, here is an analysis of all the dragons encountered in the first film.

The Terrible Terror

The Terrible Terror as it appears in the film

The design of Toothless in the books

The smallest and weakest dragon seen in the film, the Terrible Terror is classified as a stoker dragon; a family characterized for their immense firepower-literally and figuratively. Despite its diminutive proportions, the Terrible Terror is surprisingly tenacious, spewing blasts of propane based fire as it skitters with a lizard-like gait.

A curious tidbit is that the terrible terror was the original design of toothless in the film. Indeed, with its small size, lizard-like appearance, and green colouration, it is far closer to the design of book toothless than his counterpart in the film.

The Deadly Nadder

Active and bird-like in demeanor and build, the Deadly Nadder is a medium sized tracker class dragon, noted for their dogged persistence and keen senses. Its flames are like a blast of fireworks, but the Nadder’s most distinctive feature are the many rows of yellow and blue venomous spines lining its tail.  These can be raised, rattled, and released towards any unfortunate attacker of the dragon. Interestingly, the Nadder is said to have the hottest fire of any dragon in the film.

The Gronckle

 Bulkier than the beasts mentioned before, and vaguely bulldog-like in appearance, the Gronckle is a member of the boulder class of dragon, generally known for their small wings and robust proportions. Primarily brown in colour, the  Gronckle is relatively sluggish when undisturbed, and is covered in knobby, yellow scales, which form a club at the end of its tail. When it flies, its small, hummingbird-like wings provide a surprising degree of mobility, allowing it to fly backwards, sideways, or even hover. Part of the Gronckle’s diet consists of rocks, and during battle, it can use these to form devastating blasts of explosive lava, a contrast to most dragons; as they use a  flammable gas for their fire.

The Hideous Zippleback

2 headed and 2 tailed, the hideous Zippleback is a mystery class dragon, an enigma due to its unusual appearance and adaptations. The 2nd longest dragon known so far, it is lizard-like in shape, green body held aloft by relatively short wings. Short legged, the Zippleback prefers to spend most of its time on the ground, 2 heads either able to search for food on their own, or to “zip” together using the spines covering its body, hence its name. Each head has a distinct personality and consciousness, and are well coordinated with each other’s movements. One head of the dragon breathes flammable gas, whilst the other head ignites it, and its long neck allows for considerable ranged attacks.

The Monstrous Nightmare

The 2nd stoker class dragon mentioned here,-and the first seen in the film-the monstrous nightmare is characterized by its auburn and black patterning, underbite full of jagged teeth, and it’s crawling, lizard-like form.  Tenacious and fast, perhaps its most notable trait is ability to light itself on fire. This is allowed by its fire being liquid-based as opposed to being gas-based like most other dragons. It is among the most dangerous dragons encountered to this point, and only the strongest vikings are allowed to take on this beast. 

The Night Fury

The Night Fury as it appears in the film.

Concept art of the Night Fury by Nicolas Marlet

My rendition of the Night Fury concept art.

A rarely seen strike class dragon, the Night Fury is built for speed. With winglets lining its tail for increased lift, and black scales for camouflage into the night sky, these dragons can zip about at high speeds. Their signature attack is a divebomb, where they descend at rapid speeds like that of a falcon, subsequently spewing a plasma-based fire at their opponent. In the film, only one individual of these dragons is seen,-Toothless- which forms a bond with Hiccup after he damages its tail fin, thereby grounding it without further assistance.

 Toothless stylistically differs from the rest of the dragons in the film (and even more so from his book counterpart) due to his sleek, streamlined appearance, with a head loosely resembling an axolotl. Earlier concepts had the Night Fury as more traditionally reptilian and spiky, but in order to make Toothless more expressive and emphasize his intelligence, influences of big cats and other mammals were introduced, rendering the final design substantially different from its earlier incarnations.

The Red Death

The Red Death as it appears in the film

The Green Death, featured on the cover of the first How to Train Your Dragon book.

Easily the largest and strongest dragon in the film, its teeth are swords, claws spears, tail a thunderbolt, wings a hurricane, and its breath-an explosive blast of napalm- death. Its jaws resemble that of vintage dinosaur depictions, adorned with a frill. Its coral-like appearance and murky blue colours alludes to its aquatic nature. 

 The Red Death is very loosely based off the Green Death from the first book,(interestingly enough, the soundtrack lists the climactic battle theme against the red death as “Battling The Green Death”) which is a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus, an enormous serpentine dragon that lives in the ocean. In the film, the Red Death is capable of controlling the other dragons in the film, and is the source of the main conflict in the film, as the dragons are attacking the isle of Berk to get more food for the Red Death.  Effectively impossible to defeat in a physical confrontation, the dragon is defeated by Toothless prematurely igniting the flammable gas in its jaws, causing it to explode from the inside out.