Downed Dragon: An Incredible Scene

Well, I must say that this scene might be my all time favorite. Either it or Forbidden Friendship (which are ironically so different) definitely stand out as some of my all time favorite moments of the film, moments I'll go and watch over and over again and still never really feel that I've seen everything!

I wish I could write a whole huge analysis on the scene (I've written some little ones before), but it is getting late, and I've got classes tomorrow! What I do want to point out about this scene, and what struck me so powerfully in theaters when I first watched it was the intensity! The sheer tension and power of the whole thing. The music plays into that incredibly, as does the lighting, and then the animation is just superb. When I watched this the first time, I honestly was worried, I was sucked into the moment, sucked into Hiccup's head. First I wondered if the dragon would die, then I really, really wondered how on EARTH Hiccup was going to survive when Toothless slammed him to the ground. When the scene ended, it suddenly struck me-- The movie's only been going twelve minutes, so of course they are not going to kill the main character! It didn't matter though, not in the moment, and that is the power of this scene. It put me on edge even when logic would have told me to be calm. The emotion and power and terror of the scene was so gripping that it made me forget that I was watching a movie. Toothless felt so powerful, so mind-blowingly mysterious and deadly when he had Hiccup down. I honestly felt a whole, whole lot like Hiccup in that last image when Toothless let him go! And then... don't even get me started on Hiccup and how much I admired and loved him for making that decision. This scene almost certainly was what first made me love Hiccup, and it certainly is what made me respect Toothless as the most incredible fictional creature I had ever seen!