im shallowly and foolishly obsessed with gw2 because they hit my niche fantasy experience of getting to freely move around monstrously huge dragons while also having a smaller pet dragon you are bonded to that you can use to fly around it and maybe also land on it walk around on its back. they just let me do this and i went nuts for 3 unending months for reasons even i dont understand

I watched Race to the Edge in the beginning as what you would call a spur of the moment. I wasn’t immersed in the HTTYD fandom by then. I did love the movies, I practically knew the first one by heart, especially the “Excuse me barmaid,” bit, but I wasn’t as thoroughly obsessed. It was 2015, I was still recovering from Heroes of Olympus. My dad had finally gotten us Netflix and my sisters and I were trying to devour as many shows as we could. One day I was browsing through the various queues, and I saw something titled DreamWorks Dragons.

Dragon’s Race to the Edge

I had seen stuff like this before, DreamWorks doing their spinoff shows for other channels. Usually a stretched plot line of what happened after the ending scenes of their movies. I didn’t know what to expect, but needless to say I was skeptical. I had seen a bit of the shows. I knew for a fact that they hardly ever got the original voice actors to do their characters. So imagine my reaction, when I saw that in the cast they listed Jay Baruchel and America Ferrera. I clicked on the first episode. Could it be, they had actually gotten the original voice actors to do an alternate show? I was introduce to the same universe, different animation, but I was quickly given the information of a three years later. Hiccup had gotten taller, changed his outfit, he talked about some battle with the Berserkers.

I immediately got psyched about the show. The fact that the voice actors came to voice their characters, that the show was to provide an in-between for the five years that spanned between Movie 1 and Movie 2. I remember how much I annoyed my family as I raved about it, the questions that ran through my head. 

As the seasons continued, I lost track. I didn’t watch as obsessively. That didn’t happen until after I read the How to Train Your Dragon books and my school life slowed down. I didn’t actually watch one of the DreamWorks TV trailers until Season 6 came out. 

Tonight, I wanted to work on a separate post. But I had to do a little research first. Before I would shift to finding the actual episodes on another site, I consulted YouTube to see if someone had posted a clip of what I was looking for. My efforts were fruitless. No one had posted the clips of what I needed. However, while I was on the site I figured I would watch the trailers, maybe the season I needed would have some hints in the process. First fact I came down to: The only season of Race to the Edge that didn’t get a trailer was Season 3. 

Which I got to say, bummed me out. A lot happened in that season that blew your mind. A Grim Retreat with mind-controlling tiny dragons, the Triple Stryke that looks similar to a Pokemon, the fact that Dagur began his redemption arc. 

I watched every single trailer in order, wondering in the back of my mind why I had never done it before. I noticed that Seasons 1 & 2 actually had a narrator, and they mainly talked about our “heroes” Hiccup and Toothless. Yet never making a mention of Viggo who made a surprise appearance at the end of Season 2. I felt like the missing Season 3 trailer was similar to leaving out a puzzle piece. Jumping to Season 4 with no hints as to what occurred to Season 3. Leaving you to wonder why Viggo was vowing the end of the Dragon Riders, why Hiccup was running from a horde of men from different tribes, why Snotlout was worried about dying. Leaving you to wonder, what led to that point?

As I watched the trailers for Seasons 4, 5, & 6, I noticed that you entered a stark contrast. There was no longer a narrator. It wasn’t just about Hiccup and Toothless. You could see more conflict, the tension starting to grow thicker. There was hardly any light-hearted humor, there were explosions, lava, the Riders fighting harshly against the Dragon Hunters. As each season was presented, there was signs of an escalation, leading to a final showdown. It wasn’t just about the Dragon Eye anymore and discovering new species. It was villains who attacked the Edge and nearly destroyed it, villains who came to show their true colors, and once again, more examples of Hiccup’s near death experiences. 

Say, you were someone who only watched the trailers. Yet because you didn’t have Netflix or know any websites on where to watch it, you learned about this span of five years through the simple trailers. There was a lot to piece together. If you had seen Riders of Berk on Cartoon Network, you would recognize the previous characters, you’d have seen how the Riders truly grew up. You’d see the growing conflict and new villains. How exploration had led to a home on another island than Berk, and these villains were left to be defeated while each Rider endured their own hardship. 

I may have said this before, but the Season 6 trailer was indeed one to tie it off. See the final battle, Hiccup’s battle speech as he motivated the Riders to take action. The one glimpse of seeing Hiccup’s sword clash with Viggo’s. Hear Krogan administer a threat as Hiccup was sealed in a cage of fire and blasted off Toothless. I have to say that out of all five trailers, Season 6 was one that truly drove HTTYD fans to watch the magnificent and anxiety-inducing show. 

You were pulled in. Watch these trailers, and you’ll want to devour the backstory generously given to us by DreamWorks. See how all this turmoil, the Rider’s time of independence, led to what we saw in HTTYD 2.