Many people have probably seen the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies, but I’ll assume much fewer have read the books it was meant to be based on. I however, have. They are not the same and I absolutely despise the comparison. Naming a bunch of the characters the same thing, but fundamentally changing all the characters and the narrative, does not make it similar. For example, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is the son of Stoick, the chief of the vikings on the isle of Berk. That remains true, there is also Snotlout, Fishlegs and Tuffnut, they all exist in both. However, the movie creates a twin named Ruffnut for Tuffnut, and Astrid is suddenly a character. She doesn’t exist in the books, but Hiccup has a friend from the bog-burglar vikings named Camicazi who doesn’t exist in the movies. Apparently they are meant to be related because they’re a blonde female viking, plus they both have a dragon named Stormfly.

Hiccup always has an ornery dragon friend named Toothless, but an endangered night fury wasn’t from the books. In the books he is a common garden dragon, and he is a severe narcissist that only helps if there is something to benefit him (probably fish). He also speaks, and teaches Hiccup dragonese. Because of this, Hiccup has encounters with other dragons in the series where he surprises them by being able to speak with them. One such encounter was with the king of the nano-dragons, Ziggerastica. Tiny dragons being eaten as snacks by the Romans was not a thing.