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| “ | Odin help us... | „ |
| ~ Stoick upon seeing the Red Death. |
The Red Death is the main antagonist of DreamWorks’ 19th full-length animated feature How to Train Your Dragon (film), based on the original book of the same name, and the first installment of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy.
He is the sadistic, tyrannical, heartless, gluttonous and ravenous Dragon. He had enslaved the dragons to attack humans and bring food to satisfy his gluttony, but was eventually defeated when Toothless, one of his former servants, showed Stoick the Vast the way to his nest, with Stoick's son Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III teaming up with the Night Fury to stop his master in killing Stoick's crews. He is also Toothless' former master and evil counterpart, and the reason Toothless had met and befriended Hiccup in the first place.
Biography[]
The Red Death first appears when Hiccup, Toothless, and Astrid discover the Dragon's nest, feasting off what his servants feed him. After a Gronckle drops a tiny piece of fish to the Red Death, he emerges and devours the dragon. However, the Red Death spots Hiccup and his friends when he sees that Toothless has contributed nothing and has humans on his back, but they manage to escape.
The Red Death appears again when Stoick and his Vikings attack the Dragon's nest. He attacks the Vikings and destroys their ships in the process. Fortunately, Hiccup and his friends arrive and while Hiccup's friends distract the Red Death, Hiccup and Stoick save Toothless from drowning as he was caged on one of the sinking ships. Hiccup and Toothless then drive the Red Death into the clouds and conceals Toothless' form. Toothless fires several plasma blasts at the Red Death's wings but they don't have an effect on the monster dragon. Enraged, the Red Death shoots fire in all directions around himself and manages to set Toothless' prosthetic tailfin on fire. Using as much time as they had left, Hiccup and Toothless led the Red Death out of the clouds and allowed him to chase them until se attempted to deliver a fatal blow at them. However, Toothless fired a plasma blast down his throat, lighting his insides ablaze. The dragon's wings are ripped apart, causing him to hit the ground at full speed and resulting in an explosion, killing the Red Death for good.
Appearance[]
The Red Death is a gigantic, muscular, kaiju-sized dragon with a nasal horn, a large coral-shaped frill like a Triceratops, six eyes, large claws and huge jaws that are lined up with massive needle-like teeth which protrude from his mouth when he closes it. His coloration is a grayish blue with an orange underside while his body sports coral-like spines and red spikes. The Red Death's tail is equipped with an Ankylosaurus-like bludgeon that he can use as a dangerous and lethal weapon. Despite his gargantuan size, the Red Death's wings are more than large and strong enough to give him a full-powered flight.
Personality[]
Unlike the other dragons, the Red Death appears to be truly evil and monstrous. He is one of the largest and most powerful dragons of all, so he is able to easily overthrow and enslave the other dragons. The Red Death was a cruel and ornery dragon, with no mercy for his subjects or his slaves. The Red Death is very ruthless and intolerant of failure as he eats other dragons that fail to bring back enough food. The Red Death appears to be untamable, unlike the other dragons. Being one of the largest and strongest dragons, it is unknown if it has any fear, besides while plummeting to the ground, he was visibly frightened as he was unable to slow his descent. He is also extremely selfish as he cared about neither humans nor other dragons and only cared about being fed with food.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Firepower: The Red Death's methane-based flame jets are enormous and are powerful enough to take down an entire fleet of Viking ships in just one breath. The blazing torrents are able to create huge amounts of black smoke, which also makes them resemble volcanic pyroclastic flows.
- Immense durability: The Red Death's entire body is heavily armored with dense scales, horns and a coral-like frill, enabling him to perforate, pierce, and demolish enormous rock cliffs of the volcano and smaller mountains entirely. His thick hide and sheer size allow him to overcome plenty of catapults, several of Toothless' plasma blasts, and various physical blows from the rest of the riders nearly unscathed.
- Immeasurable strength: The Red Death has demonstrated immense strength due to his gargantuan size, capable of effortlessly lifting up Viking ships in his mouth and crushing them with one powerful bite, and even smashing through the volcano and numerous sea stacks of Dragon Island, showing no strain. He utilizes his many advantages to combat the few brave souls that dare stand up to him, using his clubbed tail, immense size and weight to ram and shove while using his powerful jaws and limbs to shred through foes. He also utilizes his keen senses and flight to locate and track opponents and obliterate whatever remains with his powerful, explosive fire breath.
- Immense mobility: Because he is too gigantic, the Red Death is slower compared to other dragons. However, he is able to swing his tail or swing his head to smash other dragons or objects. Even so, he showed no lack of speed during flight, as he was fast enough to catch up with Toothless in the air. However, it's quite possible that Toothless only slowed down to make the Red Death stay close, or that his tail fin mechanism wasn't allowing the Night Fury to fly at maximum speed at the time.
- Powerful senses: The Red Death primarily uses his extraordinary senses and hearing in order to track and hunt down his prey. He also does not have a blind spot, due to having six sensitive eyes, and heavily relies on scent and hearing. his sense of smell was even strong enough to swiftly detect intruders in his volcanic abode.
- Mind control: The Red Death is capable of enforcing smaller dragons to obey, even against their wills. His controlling measure is somewhat similar to the methods used by the Bewilderbeasts. Like bees, the queen howls a sub-vocal homing signals that reach miles away to call up minions. It is unknown how powerful this ability is compared to a Bewilderbeast, and so far, the Red Death has only been seen forcing other dragons to go to his nest. The Red Death is shown appearing unable to stop the Riders' dragons from attacking him, nor called upon other dragons for help. Unlike the Bewilderbeasts and kinder individuals, the Red Death can also harness fear to enslave other dragons; single stares from his six eyes is strong enough to diminish smaller dragons' self-possession completely. Commanding thousands of minions, the Red Death has acute intelligence and keen insight, to notice small events or intruders into his nest. The system to enslave and dominate smaller dragons in the areas in the first stages is unknown. The dragon, while in magma, seemed to command the minions to drop gathered foods into an exact spot; his mouth, otherwise the food would be cremated before passing through the fangs of the queen. It is also unclear whether he has traits of the Tidal Class to be able to manage respiration under thick liquids.
- Inhalation: Being a dragon of titanic size, the Red Death possesses the ability to have a massive intake in the air and "suck in" victims inside his mouth. He is strong enough to pull in even swift and maneuverable dragons such as a Deadly Nadder in mere seconds.
Film Developer Description[]
| “ | This ultimate monster, seen pursuing Toothless and Hiccup, is the most vicious. According to legend, it lives 2,000 years and, before it dies, lays 3,000 eggs. The hatchlings fight each other to the death, a process that can take up to 100 years, until only one survives. All dragons have a blind spot. Except this one. That is one reason we gave him six eyes instead of two. The other reason is that we wanted him to be just generally upsetting. This one is our Godzilla. |
„ |
| ~ Chris Sanders |
Trivia[]
- Though the Red Death is a male many people rumoured the Red Death to be female with little to no sources/citations backing them up prior to the rumours starting. The number of sources referring to the Red Death villain as male is expected to grow in future generations to come.
- The Red Death has the distinction of being the only main antagonist from the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy to be a dragon. Drago Bludvist and Grimmel the Grisly, his successors, were both humans.
- The Red Death is the first Dragon in the series to actually be somewhat evil. The second is Drago's Bewilderbeast and the third is the Deathgrippers. However, unlike Drago's Bewilderbeast who redeemed himself after his evil master Drago Bludvist's defeat, the Red Death never redeemed himself, and in the Deathgrippers' case, Grimmel drugged them with their own venom (though, it's implied that they were already dangerous before Grimmel brainwashed them).
- The Red Death's defeat is, without a doubt, one of the most violent, painful, gruesome, and agonizing deaths in the entirety of DreamWorks' history; He is blown up and torn apart from the inside once Toothless shoots a plasma blast down his throat causing his methane fuel to ignite.
- Despite being called the "Red Death", the score that accompanies the final battle is named "Battling the Green Death". This is because the Green Death was the dragon's counterpart in the original book.
External Links[]
- Red Death on the Villains Wiki
- Red Death on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Red Death on the DreamWorks Wiki
- Red Death on the How to Train Your Dragon Wiki
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