if I have to hear ONE MORE TIME, that HTTYD3 is about letting go I will slap someoneβ¦
βThe theme of HTTYD is letting go!!" SHUT UP. NO. This story was never about letting go of your friends and your convictions, letting go of your "ideals" or letting go of dragons. HTTYD AS A WHOLE WAS NEVER ABOUT LETTING GO. This theme was shoehorned in at the very last minute and it was executed in the worst way possible at that.
The thing is, HTTYD 3 tho has that βthemeβ because and only because Dean wanted it to. Itβs a theme sorely for the third movie and it became a main theme for some dumb reason only for Dean to have that ending. But it doesnβt FIT as an overall theme in HTTYD movies. Itβs annoying to hear ppl say that βyou just donβt like httyd3 cause you donβt understand the themeβ No, I understand that this new theme is DUMB and a disservice to the story. You love that theme so much? Go explore it in another place. This is NOT the story for it. This is just not the story of HTTYD Dean, itβs just not the story YOU wrote. This was just not the story that has been told for 9 years. It was never established on the previous movies that this was the core theme. Or that they had any connection about the dragons disappearing, cause it was NEVER established as a mayor plot point. Like not even a HINT OF IT throughout the franchise and hell even the first two movies.
It may be a secondary theme in other micro subplots throughout the franchise (for instance idk letting dragons leave for a while to mate, stoick letting go of thornado, letting go of your pride, your selfish ways, letting go of your enemies) but this not the MAIN theme of the entire franchise, and changing it halfway through the LAST installment out of NOWHERE to make some fake deep "message" about letting go of your best friends for dumb ass reasons like "humans bad, dragon mate cute, and there is no reform so we'll have to wait for future generations until humanity is ready for dragons, also growing up is about settling down" is beyond bonkers.
βItβs difficult to let go of your loved ones and friendsβ Yes. It is. Itβs a valuable thing to know when to let go but again, this is NOT THE STORY FOR THIS AND ITβS MOST DEFINITELY NOT SHOWN IN A HEALTHY MATTER. Itβs borderline toxic the way they do it cause in Deanβa words: dragons are pets almost but ALSO wild beasts!and Toothless needs to return to his call for the wild cause he found a cute mate! So no. Itβs NOT about friendship and letting go of your friends either, itβs about letting ur wild beast of a pet free because he found a mate, which is SUCH a misunderstanding of Toothless as a CHARACTER and his relationship with Hiccup as a whole. I hate this argument so much cause itβs NOT about βletting go of your friendsβ itβs about a cynical way to end a story because u wanted to separate ur main protagonists so bad for tear jerkers and we want to end like the books when we never cared about them in the first placeβ¦
The worst part of it, stop pretending that this is not because Dean wanted this ending so bad that he introduced new "themes" to the last movie to make it make sense cause the ONLY REASON HTTYD3 ended the way it did is because he wanted to "pay homage to the books and have the movies end the same" after ignoring them and what makes them different for almost a decade. Anything other than Dean wanting to put cheap fanservice with the "there were dragons when I was a boy" line is nothing shorter than cope. Cause that was all this was. Dean only inserted this βthemeβ as a way to make his new ending make sense. Not the other way around. Itβs sloppy writing.
Also idk how many times I have to say this but the themes of the books and the themes of the movies are completely different and the letting go at the end of the BOOKS is resolved in such a vastly unconnected way to the movies it's almost insulting to compare them. Did u even read the books?
"HTTYD3 is about growing up" I'm sorry that was HTTYD2 theme already and I think it did a fantastic job at it. Hiccup had to mature sadly the hard way to understand himself and what he needs to do as a leader. THW could've been about dealing with grief and earning TRUST to make bonds stronger. But no. Also why is growing up into your own person has to involve "letting go" of your convictions in making the world a better place? Why is growing up automatically "settling down"? Istg these people have this idea of "growing up" like it's some 8th grade report. Having a family is growing up! It shows such an armature way of storytelling that's honestly dated by this point. WHAT is growing up in this case Dean? You said it yourself, come on. You wanted Hiccup to settle down with Astrid and Toothless to do the same and inserted a bunch of stupid plot point to make that happen in the end cause thatβs your idea of growing upβ¦
"HTTYD3 IS ABOUT LOVE!" This makes me mad cause... hasn't ALL of HTTYD been about love? The only difference is that THW is about ROMANTIC love and somehow that's become a priority. Cause there is no comradery there... at least not on Toothless's part (he didnβt givrE AF about Hiccup the whole movie). "Love" has been a BROADER theme of HTTYD all along. The love between Toothless and Hiccup was SO STRONG that it literally ended a war. The love between Hiccup and Stoick was so strong that he sacrificed himself for his son and his family and that made Hiccup see within himself that he IS also as great if not greater than his father to create a united world. The love Hiccup has for Dragons AND his People equally to create a world of peaceβ¦. The "love" between the Light Fury and Toothless actually tells us nothing. Nothing about their CHARACTERS, nothing about the WORLD, Hell not even anything about NATURE itself, and most certainly nothing about the actual theme of HTTYD; which, in case it wasn't clear, is BRINGING TWO WORLDS TOGETHER to stop wars THE HARD WAY and bring peace in a world full of shallow mindedness and bigotry. Cause in the end, all of that falls apart for the sake of "love".
