History YMMV / HowToTrainYourDragon2

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

** The villain of a dragon film being named ''Drago'' can fall into this. How... inventive? Not helped that his name is literally "Blood Fist." The name of "Drago Bludvist" can come across as either intimidating, or fall into "You're trying too hard."

* EvilIsCool: While a BaseBreakingCharacter, many enjoyed Drago Bludvist as a [[Monster/HowToTrainYourDragon brutal, vicious antagonist]] who, in contrast to Hiccup, controls dragons through sheer force and intimidation. He wears a black cloak of dragon skin that appears to have come from a Night Fury, and his introductory scene sees him walk unflinchingly through a blast of dragon fire, completely unscathed! [[spoiler:He proves himself a real threat by [[HeroKiller killing both the good Alpha and Stoick]].]]

* EvilIsCool: While a BaseBreakingCharacter, many enjoyed Drago Bludvist as a [[Monster/HowToTrainYourDragon brutal, vicious antagonist]] who, in contrast to Hiccup, controls dragons through sheer force and intimidation. He wears a black cloak of dragon skin that appears to have come from a Night Fury, and his introductory scene sees him walk unflinchingly through a blast of dragon fire, completely unscathed!

* EvilIsCool: While a BaseBreakingCharacter, many enjoyed Drago Bludvist as a [[Monster/HowToTrainYourDragon brutal, vicious antagonist]] who, in contrast to Hiccup, controls dragons through sheer force and intimidation. He wears a cloak of dragon skin that appears to have come from a Night Fury, and his introductory scene sees him walk unflinchingly through a blast of dragon fire, completely unscathed!

* EvilIsCool: While a BaseBreakingCharacter, many enjoyed Drago Bludvist as a [[Monster/HowToTrainYourDragon brutal, vicious antagonist]] who, in contrast to Hiccup, controls dragons through sheer force and intimidation. He wears a cloak of dragon skin that appears to have come from a Night Fury, and his introductory scene sees him walking unflinchingly through a blast of dragon fire, completely unscathed!

* CompleteMonster: [[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsDragoBludvistsArmy Drago Bludvist]], a "[[AxCrazy madman without conscience or mercy]]", is the pinnacle of [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters human evil]] in the franchise and a warlord seeking to use an Alpha he abused into loyalty to enslave as many dragons--and people--as he can. When the chieftains of various Viking tribes laughed off his ability to command dragons, Drago had his dragons [[ManOnFire burn them all alive]], leaving only [[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsHiccupHorrendousHaddockIII Hiccup]]'s father Stoick to tell the tale. Years later, Drago forcibly enslaves all the dragons being kept in a safe haven by Valka by killing their Alpha, [[spoiler:before promptly hypnotizing Hiccup's own dragon Toothless into firing upon him. When Hiccup's father Stoick [[HeroicSacrifice takes the blow instead]], Drago glances back in pleasure before commanding all his enslaved dragons to ravage Berk. In other instances, Drago orders failing minions such as Krogan and Eret [[BadBoss executed for flimsy reasons]]; assassinated the noble King Stormheart and left his daughters orphans; and burned down the village of a group of pacifistic farmers who refused to join him. Drago acknowledges his thirst for power [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist comes out of its own sake]] rather than a desire to avenge his fallen family, and is ultimately one of the few villains Hiccup was never able to reason with]].

* WhatAnIdiot: Some felt that Hiccup was uncharacteristically stupid to repeatedly ignores warnings from his father and mother that Drago is a war-mongering madman who cannot be reasoned with, and still try to reason with him. His recklessness ends up [[spoiler:costing Stoick his life.]] Others argue that the fact that he convinced his bull-headed father and his entire village to change in the span of the first movie would naturally lead him to be so optimistic. The television show attempts to explain this by showing that Hiccup managed to redeem and/or talk down [[spoiler:''nearly every single villain of the show'' (Alvin, Dagur, Mala, and Viggo respectively), despite many of them seeming ''well'' past the point of any redemption.]] With that level of success, of course he'd think trying his hand with Drago would be a viable option.

* AwardSnub: Was not nominated for the Best Animated Feature BAFTA, and lost the Best Animated Feature Oscar to ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6''.

*** Which then dives straight into nightmare fuel since his style of "taming" is based on elephant taming in the real world.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped:
** Some people, unfortunately, just can't be reasoned with to gain peace. That doesn't mean that some of those same people can never change given time, evidence, and reason, however.
** While the secondary {{Aesop}} described above is fairly dark, the main {{Aesop}} -- that wise, compassionate rule by earned loyalty is stronger than forceful, abusive domination -- is unsubtle but no less necessary.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsDragoBludvistsArmy Drago Bludvist]], a "[[AxCrazy madman without conscience or mercy]]", is the pinnacle of [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters human evil]] in the franchise and a warlord seeking to use an Alpha he abused into loyalty to enslave as many dragons--and people--as he can. When the chieftains of various Viking tribes laughed off his ability to command dragons, Drago had his dragons [[ManOnFire burn them all alive]], leaving only [[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsHiccupHorrendousHaddockIII Hiccup]]'s father Stoick to tell the tale. Years later, Drago forcibly enslaves all the dragons being kept in a safe haven by Valka by killing their Alpha, before promptly hypnotizing Hiccup's own dragon Toothless into firing upon him. When Hiccup's father Stoick [[HeroicSacrifice takes the blow instead]], Drago glances back in pleasure before commanding all his enslaved dragons to ravage Berk. In other instances, Drago orders failing minions such as Krogan and Eret [[BadBoss executed for flimsy reasons]]; assassinated the noble King Stormheart and left his daughters orphans; and burned down the village of a group of pacifistic farmers who refused to join him. Drago acknowledges his thirst for power [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist comes out of its own sake]] rather than a desire to avenge his fallen family, and is ultimately one of the few villains Hiccup was never able to reason with]].

* AngstAversion:
** For fans of Hiccup and Toothless' friendship in particular, this is a ''heartbreaking'' film to watch, [[spoiler:thanks to the scene where Toothless is mind-controlled into killing Hiccup, and would have ''succeeded'' if not for his father TakingTheBullet.]]
** The continuation where [[spoiler:Toothless wakes up and tries to approach the dead Stoick, only to have Hiccup ''angrily shout for him to stay away'' does not help in the least. The scene altogether made some critics and movie reviewers compare the film to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' level of dark.]]

** Drago could have been more fleshed out. His backstory of [[spoiler:having his town, family, and arm destroyed in a dragon attack when he was a boy and then growing obsessed with both a need for revenge and eventually a hunger for power]] is a fairly interesting one, but it only gets a brief scene so that we can know why he can't be reasoned with. The creators themselves seem to be aware of this and have stated that Drago's character is actually a lot more complex than he is portrayed [[spoiler: [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xrCiPu644AI and that he will be fleshed out more in the following film.]] ]]

** Drago's Bewilderbeast is a terrifying creature to behold, but some close-ups of his face make him look amusingly like a giant ''frog''.

* NightmareRetardant: Some viewers find a lot about Drago to be narmy either thanks to his voice (which sounds like Animal from ''Series/TheMuppetShow'') and/or his screaming and flailing when commanding the dragons. Also, the sight of [[spoiler:him riding Toothless is considered either a heartbreaking sight, seeing the little dragon being dominated and ridden by such a huge man, or hilarious looking because the two nearly equal each other in size.]]

** The good Alpha had little screen time; it therefore had few opportunities to display its personality [[spoiler:before it died.]]

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: That compartment of Zippleback gas in his flaming sword? Turns out Hiccup got the idea from [[Recap/DragonsRidersOfBerkS8E8TripleCross an enemy turned ally who gave his life for him.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Drago crosses it at the part where he has his enslaved dragons kill all the chiefs who refused to go along with him, which is what convinces Stoick that he can't be reasoned with. And that's ''[[EstablishingCharacterMoment his introduction]]''!

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsDragoBludvistsArmy Drago Bludvist]], a "[[AxCrazy madman without conscience or mercy]]", is the pinnacle of [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters human evil]] in the franchise and a warlord seeking to use an Alpha he abused into loyalty to enslave as many dragons--and people--as he can. When the chieftains of various Viking tribes laughed off his ability to command dragons, Drago had his dragons [[ManOnFire burn them all alive]], leaving only [[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsHiccupHorrendousHaddockIII Hiccup]]'s father Stoick to tell the tale. Years later, Drago forcibly enslaves all the dragons being kept in a safe haven by Valka by killing their Alpha, before promptly hypnotizing Hiccup's own dragon Toothless into firing upon him. When Hiccup's father Stoick [[HeroicSacrifice takes the blow instead]], Drago glances back in pleasure before commanding all his enslaved dragons to ravage Berk. In other instances, Drago orders failing minions such as Krogan and Eret [[BadBoss executed for flimsy reasons]]; assassinated the noble King Stormheart and left his daughters orphans; and burned down the village of a group of pacifistic farmers who refused to join him. Drago acknowledges his thirst for power [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist comes out of its own sake]] rather than a desire to avenge his fallen family, and is ultimately one of the few villains Hiccup was never able to reason with]].

* CompleteMonster: [[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsDragoBludvistsArmy Drago Bludvist]] is an unfeeling [[AxCrazy madman]] who seeks to take over Berk. Having lost his village and family to dragons when he was younger, Drago subverts a FreudianExcuse by becoming exactly like the ones who he sought revenge against and using fear to dominate anyone in his path. Prior to the plot, Drago came to a chieftain's meeting and offered to drive away the dragons if they would kneel to him. When they declined, [[DisproportionateRetribution Drago responds by burning them alive]] and leaving no survivors but Stoick, Hiccup's father. In the current, Drago raises a dragon army, led by a Bewilderbeast he abused into loyalty, and attempts to execute his right-hand man for [[YouHaveFailedMe failing him]], as well as the other dragon riders he brought with him. [[spoiler:Drago enslaves the dragons living under Valka's care and kills their Alpha to assert his power. Drago even hypnotizes the loyal Toothless to fire on his own master, Hiccup, and simply scoffs when Stoick takes the blast. He then proceeds to raze Berk with his new-found army, taking no prisoners]].

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Drago Bludvist]] is an unfeeling [[AxCrazy madman]] who seeks to take over Berk. Having lost his village and family to dragons when he was younger, Drago subverts a FreudianExcuse by becoming exactly like the ones who he sought revenge against and using fear to dominate anyone in his path. Prior to the plot, Drago came to a chieftain's meeting and offered to drive away the dragons if they would kneel to him. When they declined, [[DisproportionateRetribution Drago responds by burning them alive]] and leaving no survivors but Stoick, Hiccup's father. In the current, Drago raises a dragon army, led by a Bewilderbeast he abused into loyalty, and attempts to execute his right-hand man for [[YouHaveFailedMe failing him]], as well as the other dragon riders he brought with him. [[spoiler:Drago enslaves the dragons living under Valka's care and kills their Alpha to assert his power. Drago even hypnotizes the loyal Toothless to fire on his own master, Hiccup, and simply scoffs when Stoick takes the blast. He then proceeds to raze Berk with his new-found army, taking no prisoners]].

** Drago Bludvist. Some see him as a boring character and a one note character while others think that he is an intimidating threat who serves as an excellent contrast and foil towards Hiccup.

** Very few are in denial that Drago is a total asshole. However, ''when'' he became one is an issue of contention. Some believe that had his early life been more normal, he'd have grown up to be a decent person. Others believe that he was just born bad.

* WhatAnIdiot: Hiccup here is in stark contrast to his intelligence demonstrated in the first film. He ''repeatedly'' ignores warnings from his father and mother, that Drago is a war-mongering madman who cannot be reasoned with. This doesn't dissuade the dragon rider, and his recklessness ends up [[spoiler:costing Stoick his life.]] The television show attempts to explain this by showing that Hiccup managed to redeem and/or talk down [[spoiler:''nearly every single villain of the show'' (Alvin, Dagur, Mala, and Viggo respectively), despite many of them seeming ''well'' past the point of any redemption.]] With that level of success, of course he'd think trying his hand with Drago would be a viable option. Plus, ya know, the fact that his father came to listen to him in the first film, despite Stoick's bull-headedness.

** As explained under FamilyUnfriendlyAesop some people, unfortunately, just can't be reasoned with to gain peace. That doesn't mean that some of those same people can never change given time, evidence, and reason, however.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: Some people are just so evil or crazy or rotten to the core that they cannot ever be negotiated or reasoned with, so fighting is the only option. This is an especially hard pill to swallow if you are a pacifist who thinks violence only generates more violence.