A battle with a witch leaves an unexpected mark as Hiccup is turned into a cat-sized Night Fury fledgling. At first, it's mostly fun and games as Hiccup throws himself into discovering what it's like to be dragon on the inside. But as time ticks by without a cure, the consequences of Berk's absent heir start to make themselves known. Additionally, a dangerous foe is rising in the north, and he may be connected to what happened to Hiccup.
A Recipe for Disaster takes place after the first How to Train Your Dragon movie. It is noted for its tonal shift as it begins as a comedic Slice of Life and becomes a serious retelling of How to Train Your Dragon 2. It can be found here
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This work provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Drago physically abuses his Bewilderbeast onscreen and given the poor dragon's mental problems, it's hard to believe there isn't emotional abuse happening as well.
- Action Girl: Astrid takes Hiccup's place as leader, though not without resistance from Snotlout.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Snotlout and Astrid have more of a rivalry here. It seems to be born from Snotlout's misplaced jealously over Hiccup usurping his place as the preferred heir.
- Attack Its Weak Point: In the climatic battle, Hiccup takes down a brainwashed Toothless by destroying the artificial tail fin.
- Badass Adorable: Hiccup is an enthusiastic and aggressively friendly dragon the size of a large cat. But although he isn't as powerful as Toothless, he's still a Night Fury with human-level intelligence.
- Berserk Button: Drago's Bewilderbeast flies into a tantrum whenever he's told Valka's Bewilderbeast is a better alpha or that he's a slave to his master.
- Big Bad: Drago Bludvist. While he doesn't appear until the last arc, he's revealed to be the patron behind Eret and the witch who cursed Hiccup in the first chapter.
- Big Brother Instinct: Cloudjumper to Hiccup, to the point of Hiccup finding it a bit overbearing. Justified in that Cloudjumper doesn't understand that Hiccup isn't really a baby dragon.
- Big Brother Mentor: Toothless to Hiccup.
- Big Damn Heroes: Valka and her Bewilderbeast save Hiccup and Snotlout from the dragon trappers.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Hiccup occasionally thinks about his dragon body this way, especially about his tail which he cannot consciously control.
- Hiccup discovers that Night Fury jaws lack side-to-side grinding movement, forcing them to swallow food whole.
- Body Language: In contrast to most stories in this genre, dragons do not have a spoken language and mostly communicate through this.
- Bullying a Dragon: An inverted case as the perpetrator is Hiccup. Not only is he constantly getting into verbal spats with Drago's Bewilderbeast, but at one point he bites Drago himself.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The first part of the story is light-hearted and focuses on Hiccup's shenanigans as he learns to be a dragon. At the end of the Chief Gathering though, things get serious as the plot of the second movie starts coming into play.
- Chekhov's Gun: Hiccup is turned into a baby dragon, which means he cannot be controlled by a Bewilderbeast.
- Dramatic Irony: Before she realizes the dragon named Hiccup is actually her son, Valka makes several comments on him behaving unusually for a dragon and asks Snotlout about Hiccup and Stoick.
- Demoted to Extra: Eret only appears in a few scenes. Additionally, since he never directly interacts with the Hooligans, he does not undergo a Heel–Face Turn.
- Cuteness Proximity: As a Night Fury, Hiccup uses his adorableness to sway a couple of characters into siding with him. Even Stoick isn't immune to him.
- Death by Adaptation: Valka, Skullcrusher and Drago Bludvist.
- The Dog Bites Back: Drago is killed by the Bewilderbeast he abused.
- Enemy Mine: Despite their recent war with Berk, the Lava Lout and Berserk tribes join the coalition against Drago.
- Foreshadowing: Dragon trappers appear in one of the early chapters, foreshadowing Eret and Drago's appearance later on.
- The Good King: Valka's Bewilderbeast. He's very fair and patient with Hiccup despite knowing he's lying. He's also very nurturing and protective of his flock as seen when he allies with the viking tribes to rescue them from Drago.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Despite his remorse, Snotlout is banished from Berk for his part for betraying Berk to the Dragon Trappers.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Part of Drago's master plan is to overcharge the spell affecting Hiccup. What Drago doesn't realize is that the side-effects of this plan allows Hiccup to reach his Alpha mode.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Hiccup needs to learn his basic dragon skills from scratch, including flying, breathing fire and eating.
- It Can Think: The Meathead Chieftain is shocked when he realizes Valka's Bewilderbeast is sentient and capable of communication.
- Might Makes Right: Drago's Bewilderbeast is obsessed with being the alpha dog and believes the strongest dragon should be in charge.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Hiccup is generally in control of himself, but there are instances where his instincts influence his actions.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Hiccup is unaware of the Bewilderbeast's mind control and ends up leading Toothless and Skullcrusher into Drago's clutches.
- No Name Given: Neither Valka's or Drago's Bewilderbeast is ever named, instead being referred to as the king and tyrant respectively. It's implied that Hiccup's dragon instincts are influencing him to think this way.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: As a fledgling, Hiccup should be relatively low on the power scale as a dragon. However, his human-level intelligence and leadership skills make him a incredibly dangerous opponent.
- Not Quite Back to Normal: After he's cured, Hiccup retains the ability to make dragon sounds.
- Papa Wolf: Toothless and Stoick towards Hiccup. Valka's Bewilderbeast also displays this tendency towards his flock.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Valka's Bewilderbeast. He figures out fairly quickly that Hiccup is not what he seems, but allows him to explain himself before making any decisions.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Stoick is a very active ruler. The Chief Gathering shows that he is actively campaigning for the other tribes to stop dragon hunting, and he's quick to act when he finds out Valka is alive. He also organizes a coalition between Berk, Valka's Bewilderbeast and every other viking tribe to take down Drago Bludvist.
- Signature Scent: Hiccup describes Toothless as having a sharp, cold scent laced with metal, Gobber as smelling like the forge, and Astrid smelling like flowers.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Played with. Hiccup is never in real danger when learning to fly, but Toothless's preferred teaching methods are literally tossing him off a building or dumping him off his back mid-flight.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Stoick
- Taking You with Me: Valka's dying Bewilderbeast attempts this against Drago's Bewilderbeast by bringing down a rockfall on their heads.
- The Unintelligible: Hiccup's transformation has modified his vocal chords so that anything he tries to say in Norse comes as out gibberish. Simultaneously, because he's really a human, he doesn't know how to speak Dragon and can't communicate with them either.
- Took a Level in Badass: Hiccup. Turning into a dragon has robbed him of his ability to invent and communicate, forcing him to rely more and more on his new form's physical capabilities.
- The Chief Gathering reveals that many people in the other viking tribes also think this about Hiccup. Specifically, it's his fire-sword that impressed them.
- A more literal example occurs when Hiccup hits his Alpha Mode.
- We Can Rule Together: Drago's Bewilderbeast recognizes Night Furies as an alpha species of dragon and tries to convince Hiccup to team up with him and Drago to rule over dragons and vikings. Interestingly, there's no indication he ever tried extending this offer to Toothless.
