Flesh is to dust as eat is to bite

That being said, I haven't watched the full live-action movie myself. I followed it's development, saw the trailers, read interviews and articles - I probably will eventually watch it just 'cause, but for now I just haven't bothered. I share the sentiment that the movie is a shallow cashgrab to follow a trend that was always mid at best, horrible at worst.

Aside from story details being changed and some dialogue I don't care for, my main issue is the visuals. The colors, the outfits, the movement and design of the dragons (ngl the Monstrous Nightmare is my biggest grievance because it's my favourite dragon in the franchise. It's not necessarily the worst of the bunch, but again it's so generic, and the thing that bothers me is how skinny and gangly it is, just a worm with wings </3. How does my boy fly with no chest muscles to move those wings) - everything that is the world we're presented on-screen. It's all either bad or just generic. The original Httyd movie is one of my all time favorite movies and one of the main contributors to that is the visual masterpiece that it is.

So anyway, Toothless. There was never going to be an easy way to redesign one of the most iconic and beloved characters in the world, so I don't want to be too harsh. (In general, I mean no ill will towards the artists and animators who worked on this project) However as the habit has been, unfortunately this design falls in the same direction as Httyd 3 (even Httyd 2 Toothless in some aspects, these comparisons are a common topic) does. Aside from obvious, commonly covered "cat -> dog" traits, everything about the design favors a sort of "show don't tell" type of approach if that makes sense. Exaggerated, cartoonish expressions, very saturated and large eyes, it's very far-removed from the Toothless I personally prefer, which is the original one. He was more reserved, more eerie. You had to pay attention to his movements and expressions to understand what he was feeling, but it still wasn't complicated to do so. Both are valid ways to design a character, but in Toothless' case, the latter suits his character better in my opinion.

The designs of him I most prefer besides the og, and the ones who keep his characteristics the best are in my opinion the Gift of the Night fury, Riders/Defenders of Berk and Race to the Edge models (with the shows' design maybe being a little light in color and eyes being a touch too dull, but anyway). Oh, and special shoutout to the new Toothless animatronic at Epic Universe's Isle of Berk, love that little guy! /lh

After all that exposition, here's FINALLY the part about these edits xD I wouldn't call these "redesigns", these were made for fun, as a design practice to see how he would look with traits more akin to the Toothless I prefer. Nothing fancy, just gave him his blue hue, made his eyes smaller and adjusted the color, plus added his scars and markings and some other minor adjustments.