Some movies have epic worldbuilding. Others have a better plot but hardly any world development. I have come across movies that have both, but one particular trilogy has built a fascinating world and shows how it has changed as the series progressed.

The How to Train Your Dragon trilogy is set in a fictional Viking world where dragons and Vikings fight with each other. After a young Viking named Hiccup meets and trains a Night Fury named Toothless, they team up to prove that dragons and Vikings can coexist.

As a long-time fan of the series, I've always been excited to see how much the world of HTTYD has changed since the last movie. As the season’s change, so does the world - let’s journey there to find out how it has changed!

Life on Berk: Before and After Dragons Moved In

"This is Berk. It's twelve days North of hopeless, and a few degrees South of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery.” - Hiccup, How To Train Your Dragon

The Isle of Berk, also known as Berk, is a small island located in the Barbaric Archipelago and has been inhabited by the Hairy Hooligan Tribe for seven generations. It's got a lot of dense woods, waterfalls, streams, and cliffs.

In the first movie, the main character Hiccup says that “it snows nine months of the year and hails the other three," which means that Berk suffers from perpetual winter most of the year. While the way Hiccup describes the weather is not directly seen, we can assume that heavy storms and snowfall hit the Isle of Berk very hard.

The island may be old, but the architecture is relatively new and well built. The image above shows the village of the Hairy Hooligan tribe that suffers from constant dragon attacks.

Because of the dragon fire, the Vikings living there have to repair their homes and buildings.

Through the acts of Hiccup and the other Dragon riders in HTTYD1, Berk became a place where dragons and Vikings could coexist.

When the dragons came to live in Berk, structures were constructed to meet their needs. These structures, such as the Dragon Stables, which was designed to house the numerous dragons on Berk, are a significant example of how Berk changed after the events of the first movie.

It seems like dragons have a nice home on Berk. There are feeding stations, a dragon wash, and even more amenities.

There's also dragon racing! Wow!

Life for Vikings and dragons on Berk is definitely better, with all the facilities that dragons can enjoy, and plenty of Vikings caring for and training them.

Dragon Utopia and the Hidden World

Berk has improved a lot over the series, becoming more than a home for dragons and Vikings - by the third movie, it has become a Dragon Utopia!

Hiccup has fulfilled his great dream of creating a happy home where dragons can live peacefully. He and the riders also bring new dragons to the island.

The more dragons who come to Berk, the more overcrowded it gets. It's not necessarily the problem of dragons living there. It's the problem of how big some of them are and how much space they take up.

Having so many dragons on a small island could pose a problem, so to solve it the series introduces the Hidden World.

It's a gateway to the world of dragons, where they all come from and live in secret from the outside world. Apparently, it's located at the edge of the earth, a place with coral and bright, shiny crystals hanging from massive cave ceilings. It is really a beautiful place for dragons to live in and raise their families there.

We’ve travelled so far, we've seen so much. Will you return to the world of HTTYD again someday?

Seeing the world of How to Train Your Dragon changing as the series progressed showed me how my world can change over time, and how change can affect the people living there. I think it’s a very cool tip to have, readers!

Watch the movies if you're interested in finding out more about the worldbuilding. If you want to know about the books that inspired them check out author Cressida Cowell's website!

Ashley Lalonde

Ashley Lalonde is a student at Algonquin College. In her spare time, she enjoys watching Asian dramas, playing video games, and writing her own fanfiction and original stories.