Throughout cinematic history and particularly in animated movies, there’s been no shortage of lovable outcasts. As we’ve seen through characters like Moana’s titular heroine and Brave’s Merida, these rule-breaking adventure seekers are often cemented as rebels since birth. Moana is called to the sea her people fear, and Merida is determined to remain an unmarried free spirit. However, what we learn from a movie like 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon is that not every outcast sets out to be one.

Gawky and inquisitive Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is introduced as a firm believer in the centuries-old Viking principle that dragons need to be slaughtered, and he desperately wants to fit in with his axe-wielding peers. However, once Hiccup befriends a dragon and learns that they’re actually curious and gentle creatures, he begins to question his perceptions of both his community and of himself. Although he begins the story yearning to be like his people and make his family proud, Hiccup eventually accepts being an outcast from his clan in order to do what he knows is right.

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Image via Dreamworks

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At the start of the movie, we learn that Hiccup is the only son of Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), the chieftain of Berk who can smash rocks with a headbutt and take down 50-foot dragons with a swift punch to the jaw. Although the scrawny teen stands in stark contrast to his formidable father, having grown up watching dragons swoop in to terrorize the village and steal their livestock, Hiccup eagerly awaits the day he gets to kill the beasts himself. He thinks he shares his father’s bloodlust until he’s confronted with it head-on. One night, Hiccup takes down an elusive Night Fury with a homemade net launcher and later heads to the forest to cement his first kill. Once he arrives and sees the frightened creature he’s trapped, he can’t bring himself to finish the job. As he tries to muster the will to stab the dragon to death, he even cries out "I am a Viking!" showing how killing a dragon isn't just something he feels he has to do, but an integral part of becoming who he thinks he is supposed to be. He eventually relents and sets the dragon free, and in return it screams a warning cry at Hiccup and then takes off, offering a parallel where both characters have the chance to kill their rival and instead show them mercy. Through this interaction, we see how Hiccup is torn between his sense of duty to his community, and his newfound empathy for a creature that he's been taught to detest.

The following day as Hiccup ponders why the dragon spared his life, he goes into the forest and finds the Night Fury grounded in a cove. The two slowly begin to build a trust, then a friendship, and Hiccup dubs his new pal Toothless as he realizes that everything he thought he knew about dragons is wrong. When Hiccup realizes that Toothless is unable to fly because the net ripped off one of his tail fins, Hiccup uses his inventive blacksmith skills to fashion a new tail. He melts a sword and pries the bolts out of his shield, showing how he’s rejecting the old Viking way. By turning his weapons into a tool to help Toothless rather than harm him, we can see a literal manifestation of Hiccup’s emotional evolution.

As his friendship with Toothless develops, Hiccup gains valuable insight into dragon behavior, such as how different herbs soothe them or how petting a certain pressure point can subdue them completely. He uses these tricks to help him in his dragon-fighting classes, and they allow him to take down dragons without actually hurting them. This brings him great success in his training and earns him the admiration of his friends. What makes him an outcast to the Vikings is also what makes them respect him —unbeknownst to them, of course.

Later in the movie after a dragon-taming gone wrong, Hiccup comes clean about his relationship with Toothless, but still struggles to convince his friends and his father that they’re wrong about dragons. In the end, through his courage, persistence, and a perilous battle with a behemoth killer dragon, Hiccup proves successful in his efforts and the citizens of Berk realize that dragons can be loyal and worthy companions. He is finally able to fully embrace what makes him different, and we see that his refusal to conform to his people's ideology is in fact what saves them.

how to train your dragon
Image via Dreamworks

When we get characters who are innately opposed to the environments in which they grow up, it makes for interesting conflicts. However, by making Hiccup a reluctant outcast rather than a willing one, the writers of How to Train Your Dragon added an extra layer of complexity as Hiccup not only has to wrestle between who he is and who he wants to be, but with who he truly thought he was. To the roaring sound of bagpipes and in flashes of blinding fire, we watch as the young Viking comes into his own, seeing that his strength lies not in a Viking-esque physique, but in his compassion and his willingness to stand up for the dragons no matter what it costs him.