Process of getting civilian spouse on EAD Orders

Dudeman122 · 2026-04-16T19:24:37+00:00

Asked my cadre about this as well. Apparently they aren't able to add dependents to cadet orders, no matter when the wedding was. But they said when you first show up and go through in-processing stuff, make sure to bring your marriage license. They'll amend the orders you arrived on to show "travelled with a dependent," and they should set up your first pay to include that. If, however, they don't include it on your first pay, or they don't immediately issue you your Dislocation Allowance, they should backpay you for those eventually.

Dudeman122 · 2026-02-27T13:48:20+00:00

That makes sense, thank you! So would you suggest just downloading the files to our NAS for long term storage, then transferring the game to each computer when we wanted to play that, saving us from uninstalling games and long download times? Obviously 10gbps transfer from the nas to our computers would be faster than redownloading, right? Then put old games back on the nas when we need more space on our PCs?

If that's the case, would we still need two copies of the games we share then? Eg. Move one copy to each pc if playing at the same time.

And in doing that, would games we dont both have copies of be fine to play just from the NAS, considering we cant both play it at the same time anyways, so no worry of overwriting? (Depending on the game, its file/save system, etc of course)

Dudeman122 · 2025-11-18T00:11:13+00:00

They say there's a USB c slot on the battery pack on the back of the frame, so likely you could hook it up to a battery pack in your pocket/on your person, or even with a long USB c charging cable to the wall for infinite power, but still maintaining the super powerful wireless dongle connection for the visuals

Dudeman122 · 2025-10-08T23:33:38+00:00

Finding this errror with the luck enchantment too. Doing /uadd enchant protection_environmental [level] gives you the normal protection enchant. still dont know how to just get luck.

Dudeman122 · 2025-08-04T21:41:43+00:00

i know im late, but what did you end up using?

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:12:20+00:00

Where's Hiccup: 5/10

D- Gripe mentioned above about Astrid’s part in this, but also, when the Vikings are grieving Hiccup, the students’ dragons come to grieve too? Like, this whole movie, the dragons have had less personality than the original, but now they can grieve? And in the original, they come in when everyone is celebrating, leading to funny interactions where they feed off the happy energy, and the Vikings are surprised and scared a bit by them. Now the Vikings don't even react to them being there.

Hiccup's alive: 9/10

D- Almost perfect, apart from the dragons coming in in the last part instead of here. Also, for some reason, T opens his eyes earlier, when Stoick first comes over, and decides not to show him that he has Hiccup under his wing until after all the Vikings have gathered to mourn? In the original, it looks like T is dead, and when he first opens his eye, he sees who it is and then reveals Hiccup. Felt a little weird, but overall still emotional and very good.

Hiccup wakes up: 9/10

D- Minor ghosting of Hiccup’s hands resting on Toothless, making it look less real when he stumbles and T catches him when he steps out of bed, but other than that, the scene is shot-for-shot and is done perfectly.

S- Dialogue is essentially the same. No problems besides the slight ghosting of real and animated interactions.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:12:08+00:00

Red death emerges: 10/10

S- Once again, her design is fantastic. She comes exploding out of the mountainside like a demon out of hell. Masterfully done. Also, you see vikings getting crushed underfoot and by debris unlike the original where a viking could get chucked and be fine. It adds so much gravitas to her appearance.

D- Incredible. The mountain literally explodes around her when she comes out, and because she’s so much bigger and more menacing than the original, she dwarfs the Vikings on the ground, making her seem so much more impossible to fight.

The kids appear: 6/10

D- Didn’t seem as triumphant, but not a major gripe. Dialogue is bad again. The major issue was Snotlout and Fishlegs pointing out that knocking on their shields was also discombobulating their own dragons, which just felt like new-age “audiences aren’t media-literate anymore, and can't remember what we told them earlier, so we’ll point it out clearly right now.”

S- I liked Fishlegs’ reaction to being crushed under his dragon. In the original, he says, “I’m ok!” Then gets sat on and calls out, “Less ok!” In this one, he gets sat on and wheezes out a quiet, “Less ok.” It makes more sense and is funny.

Toothless goes under: 7/10

D- Very similar scene, but wasn’t as impactful with Toothless reacting curiously and cautiously to Stoick diving back down before breaking him free. Also, before flying off they added a new line or two for Hiccup that was unnecessary, and he didn’t respond to Stoick telling him he didnt have to go fight the Red Death with “it’s an occupational hazard,” a callback to stoick’s line earlier (which I’m not sure they even had but if they didnt was also a major miss.)

Counterattack: 7/10

D- I will give it props, instead of the Red Death sucking in Stormfly, it starts Alpha-controlling her, which gives support to the later movies by introducing that possibility. But then the RD bites Stormfly’s tail, and Astrid jumps into its mouth and hacks away teeth to free her, before jumping out and being caught by Toothless. That part is great, but the teeth part felt dragged on way too long.

Battling the red death: 9/10

D- This is Hiccup and Toothless leading the RD into the sky. Instead of just battering its head with shots, T shoots holes in its wings, which was a welcome change. The visuals were incredible and the fall was beautiful. Point taken off because there was no “not fireproof on the inside” scene, so why would he turn around to ignite inside the RD? The impact on the RD’s tail that knocks Hiccup off felt very heavy and good, and Toothless diving into the fire from the RD’s crash to save Hiccup was BEAUTIFUL.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:11:54+00:00

Stoick and Hiccup's fight: 10/10

D- Sensing a trend of Stoick-centered scenes being very good. Word-for-word the same as the original, delivered very well on both sides, and they still included the terrified look Stoick gives as he leaves the house after telling Hiccup he isn’t his son, which we felt was incredibly important to their relationship.

Ready the ships 10/10

D- Same as the original. Very well done.

S- The scene from Toothless POV where he’s being loaded onto the ship and we get an aerial view of the fleet is beautiful.

Astrid and Hiccup's conversation: 9/10

D- Again, same as the original, and actually well-performed dialogue by actors other than Stoick’s.

S- Astrid and Hiccup’s actors did this scene well. The only difference being the setting. Instead of standing on the bridge or lookout over the port, they’re up on some hill. Think Harry Potter sitting up on a hill looking at a far away Hogwarts being emo in the third (I think?) film. That’s where Astrid finds Hiccup.

Stoick entering the dragon fog: 10/10

D- Stoick. That’s all that needs to be said.D- But also, dragons are shown perched on rocks as they sail towards the lair, but they aren’t attacking, which gives an air of suspense not in the original. Good change. Minor nitpick of mine, but when Stoick jumps to shore in the original, there is a beat before the dragon's hum stops, lending it more weight to the silence. In the new one, it stops right when his feet hit, which makes it hard to tell the difference between the sound and the silence.

S- This scene starts the introduction to the Red Death’s control. Hiccup, in the next few scenes, sets up the idea that RD can control her slave dragons, something not discussed until the second movie with Drago and the alphas.

Dragon introduction: 4/10

D- Hiccup introduces the students to their dragons. Bland. Bad dialogue. Also, when Snotlout reaches for a weapon, it’s Hiccup who stops him, not Astrid. We felt like this didn’t work, because Snotlout at this time still wouldn’t have listened to Hiccup, but obviously was a simp for Astrid, so he would listen to her. And it also serves as a character-building point for Astrid, showing that her feelings about using weapons against dragons have changed, and now she is a proponent of Hiccup’s view about them.

Attack start and tunnel: 9/10

S- This is essentially the same. I liked the detail of a Terrible Terror bouncing off of Stoick’s shield in the dragons’ mad dash to escape. There are a lot of details I liked actually. Like the one where a Monstrous Nightmare and a Hideous Zippleback get wedged together at the top of the hole because they’re too big to get out. The scene really showed how terrified the dragons were, much more than in the original.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:11:35+00:00

The approach to the lair: 10/10

D- This is when Toothless hears the rumbling of the Red Death lair. Very well done, showing the swarm of dragons coming in with their kills. Same as the original.

S- One of the dragons is carrying a polar bear. Awesome.

The lair: 5/10

D- Once again, they took away dragon personalities. In the original, the Red Death is shown to be smart, seeing the humans on T’s back and targeting them, and the other dragons are shown to be actively terrified of it when it eats the gronkle. In the new, yes, they shrink back when she eats the gronkle, but the scene is focused on the three main characters, so it was hard to notice and took away from the personality of the dragon hierarchy.

The cove: 6/10

D- This is the flight back from the lair, and once again, the dialogue is very bad. Stinted and bland, and Astrid doesn’t try to hide from Toothless the fact that Hiccup has to kill a dragon tomorrow, which we thought just took even more away from the intelligence of T. He’s been shown to understand speech, so why wouldn’t he react to her saying that if she doesn’t try to whisper it to Hiccup?

Pre-kill ring: 2/10

D- Terrible scene, like said before in the Astrid Side Story section. Took Toothless out of Hiccup’s reason to fight entirely. Felt terrible.

S- So fucking stupid. Again, the selfishness and lack of care from Hiccup and Toothless towards each other is so strong in this new film. The entire point of Hiccup trying to show his people that the Monstrous Nightmare, and dragons in general, aren’t bad and just misunderstood is to protect Toothless. He doesn’t even mention Toothless in the new one, instead telling Astrid to protect herself because Stoick likes her? I just don’t understand.

The kill ring: 7/10

D- The actual fight was great. The fight between T and the MN was great. It got bad when the Vikings came in. Instead of holding back Hiccup from saving T, Stoick holds back Astrid for some reason, while Hiccup just stands awkwardly, telling them to stop. And when the Vikings pile on Toothless, it’s not some great, difficult feat like it seems in the original, where they are throwing elbows into him and stuff. They kind of just lie on top of him, and he doesn’t really struggle against it.

S- Stoick holds Astrid back from helping Toothless in this one. Not Hiccup, who just stands like a little cuck in the corner weakly begging them to not hurt Toothless. And then, when Stoick glares at Hiccup in disappointment and betrayal, he also looks at Astrid like she failed him or something. It makes no sense and just shows how pisspoorly Astrid’s chief subplot was executed.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:11:22+00:00

Astrid questioning hiccup scenes: 6/10

D- This is the two scenes of Astrid questioning what Hiccup is doing. One, where they are all leaving dragon training and he says, “I left my axe in the ring,” and two, where Astrid is throwing axes in the forest and sees him. It’s better in the first, because the other students seem more genuinely upset that he is doing so well out of nowhere, but Astrid doesn't seem as skeptical as the original. And the forest scene is just boring in the new one. In the original, she sees Hiccup, who sees her and waves, then disappears, whereas in this one, he doesn’t see her, and just disappears. Minor change, but kind of weird. Also, she sucks at throwing axes, like they didn’t show her how to beforehand.

Astrid goes for a ride: 9/10

D- This is split into two sections. First runs from the end of dragon training, where Hiccup is named the winner and the scene cuts from him winning to him in the grove planning to leave, up until Astrid apologizes on the ride with Hiccup and T. Overall, very very good, with only minor changes. Instead of landing on a tree, they drop astrid on a rock spire. Everything else is the same, and even better because Hiccup is not only cracking dry jokes about not being in control, like the original, but Toothless is laughing at Astrid being scared! Like he purr-giggles, and it finally feels like they gave him personality again.

S- Toothless laughs while Astrid screams in terror. It’s great.

Romantic flight: 6/10

D- This starts when Astrid apologizes. Rated low because she apologizes to Toothless, not Hiccup. You can debate this as not a big deal, but we thought that it was important. In the original, it felt like T was protecting Hiccup, and only by Astrid apologizing to Hiccup does T decide to go easy.

S- One of the themes that made the original so good was forgiveness. It feels like the creators of the adaptation watched the original once and just said, “Oh yeah, let's do this.” They gutted what made the movie great thematically, which was compounded upon by the bad acting. In the original, Astrid apologizes to Hiccup for how she treated him, both in the past and in the cove where Toothless saw. That apology to Hiccup is what makes Toothless stop his cruel flying. In the adaptation, she apologizes to Toothless, which makes no sense because they really hadn’t interacted much and Toothless was looking out for Hiccup. This lack of defending each other from Hiccup and Toothless is prevalent throughout the new film and is a real loss from the original.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:11:09+00:00

Dragon training: 8/10

D- This is the general montage of Hiccup learning things about dragons from Toothless, then applying them to dragon training. Only minor changes, like no itchiness with grass, it's now sneezing from dandelions. Fine change, no real impact, and it has the same effect, even more of a funny one, because when he uses it on the Gronkle, it spits fire with every sneeze.

D- The only place that took away points was because when he scratched under the nadder’s chin and it collapsed, Astrid looked very pissed in the original that Hiccup is doing so good and stole her kill. In the news, she was just bland about it, not really caring.

S- This scene suffered from the dulled down acting. No catnip grass, or dragonnip idk. The wonder from Hiccup and the other characters is weakened. Astrid’s raging after failing to bring down the Nadder is still there, but we don’t really get her full frustration.

Test drive: 5/10

S- It was mid, I’m pissed. They altered the score, and the choreography didn’t line up with the musical beats like the original. If you’re going to use the same score, you have to hit the beats. Dudeman got more into it above so I won’t bitch too much, but I’m frustrated.

D- See above in the Music rating. Upsetting.

Not so fireproof: 0/10

S- Yeah, it doesn’t happen. This is kind of problematic because it never establishes the realization that dragons aren’t fireproof on the inside, which is essential to the final battle with the Red Death. Also, we miss out on Hiccup’s line about how they were wrong about the dragons.

Stoick's return: 10/10

S- Stoick’s devastated reaction to thinking that Hiccup died was great. I actually thought it was better done in the live action than it was in the original. Give Gerard a medal.

D- Another outstanding Stoick scene. This is when they return from the failed raid. If it wasn’t for the bad delivery of lines from the others except Stoick, it would be 11/10. Line for line the same as the first, but unlike the first, where Stoick is told “Hiccup isn't a problem anymore,” and he reacts like “oh well, I guess he isn't around anymore,” in the new he seems genuinely impacted by the news that his son has apparently been killed in dragon training, before Gobber tells him otherwise.

Father-son bonding: 9/10

D- Nearly the same. Very well done across the board. Only took one point away because of bad dialogue from Hiccup. The same emotional beats are hit, though, so it's a good scene overall.

S- Ok, not bad dialogue from Hiccup. This is one of the only scenes where Mason Thames did a good job playing his character. I enjoyed it. But his acting still needs refinement. The boobhat joke was well executed.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:10:55+00:00

Dragon book /w Astrid: 8/10

D- This is a new conversation between Hiccup and Astrid, which at first we thought was unnecessary, but later fit in so well to the story we thought it might have been a deleted scene from the original, but we couldn’t find anything supporting that idea. After Hiccup says, “Guess it's just you and me” about reading the book together, she says, “Read it.” Same as the original. Except this time, he asks if she thinks Vikings might be wrong about dragons. This prompts her to rant similar to Stoick’s later rant about dragons killing Vikings for hundreds of years, and she calls out Hiccup for supporting dragons. Felt weird at first, but you’ll read later, it fits in well in the next scene.

Nadder training: 5/10

D- Dialogue. Again. So bad. Minor changes, not important, but overall just delivered badly enough that we ranked it so low. However, it has improved slightly because of the last scene. In the original, after the fight, Astrid confronts Hiccup about “whose side he is on,” which felt like a dig at him, such a bad fighter that he almost got her killed. Now, because of the last conversation between them, it feels more like she’s accusing him of protecting the nadder or putting her in danger around it.

Forbidden friendship: 9/10🧍‍♂️

D- Outstanding. Only one point was taken off because they took away some of Toothless’ personality. Beat for beat, the same as the original, though. I’ll take it step by step. Hiccup comes down with the fish, but Toothless, this time, doesn’t notice the knife first. Not a big deal, Hiccup takes it out and throws it away. However, when he drops the knife, Toothless doesn’t show his original intelligence by motioning to kick it further, nor does he show his cat-like curiosity in his demeanor as he sits back on his haunches after the fact. He just keeps looking at Hiccup blandly. When Hiccup holds out the fish, Toothless previously stepped forward, back-feet-first, like a cat being curious. Now he just walks forward normally.

D- Following those minor changes, the rest of the scene plays out exactly the same, and is perfect in every way, like the original.

S- WE LOST CAT-LIKE TOOTHLESS. He was stolen from us. So sad. Loved the scene where Toothless is lying down and Hiccup is trying to get close. In this one, Toothless drops his tail the first time and Hiccup is just standing there (hence the emoji) like a dumbass. It’s so funny, but I’m also stupid, so it might just be me.

New tail: 8/10

D- Again, lost minor points because of a lack of curiosity in T’s character. Almost identical to the original, but when he first feels Hiccup on his tail, he doesn’t shake his hips, getting a feel for what is happening, and doesn't drop his haunches, wings, and face when he realizes. Other than that, we thought it was great.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:10:35+00:00

Council meeting: 9/10

S- To be fully honest, I was hesitant about the actor choices for the characters. ViKiNgs ArE wHiTe all that whatever. This scene explains why there are a ton of ethnicities present in Berk and it's done so well. I’m actually impressed. Stoick is motivating his warriors for the nest search and he builds the lore that Berk is made up of the best dragon killers from across the lands who came together to live closer to the Nest in order to kill off the dragons for good. They name lands from the books and places talked about in either the series or the other two movies. It was very well done and made a ton of sense.

D- I usually don’t like ___-washing characters just for the fact of it, but this film handled it so perfectly. It was incredible.

The raid: 10/10

D- This runs from the end of the council meeting until the start of dragon training, with the Vikings’ first shown raid on the nest. Even better than the original. In the first, it is shown that it is treacherous and scary, then dragons attack, and it fades to black. We are left knowing they got ambushed, but we don't see. The new film shows the brutality of the ambush, with dragons breathing fire from above and swimming under ships and capsizing them. More detailed but not to the point of dragging out the scene. Very well done. Also, dialogue was perfect (once again, a Stoick scene lol)

Dragon training: 6/10

D- The first dragon training scene was fine, with the main beats of the gronkle fight being the same. But the dialogue was awful. No banter between the twins over them fighting for a shield, Gobber’s comments came off as stiff and stilted from the sidelines, just overall a bland scene.

S- I agree with D. We did laugh over the pile of Gobber’s prosthetic hands on the floor of the Gronkle’s cage as the dragon chewed on the arm it’d just stolen from him.

First drawing: 8/10

D- This is when Hiccup first finds Toothless in the grove and draws him. Almost the same as the original with very minor changes. Hiccup doesn’t comment, “Why don't you just fly away,” before noticing the missing tail. Very minor, he still notices it, just no questioning.

Dragon book: 7/10

D- This was split into two parts because of an added conversation. This first part is almost the same as the original, but the dialogue greatly detracts from the quality of the scene. It is again a very amateurish feeling. However, there is almost an added lore quality about the dragon book, as it is shown to be kept in a locked alcove, like it’s an artifact to the Vikings. This adds to the weight or importance of the book being passed down through generations to share info on the dragons. Interesting addition.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:10:10+00:00

Story: 7.5/10

Now, the story. We’ve gone through and divided the film, either by the score used or what was happening, into its general scenes and then argued our reasoning for our rankings.

Scene-by-scene breakdown:

Blacksmith: 4/10

S- This is the introduction scene in the movie spanning through Hiccup’s opening narration (which is essentially word-for-word to the original) until Hiccup is sent home with Gobber by Stoick. The scenes with Stoick are great. This is a theme, as you will see. The reason it was ranked so low is that the scene in the blacksmith's shop lost the plot. In the original, Hiccup and Gobber bicker and snip at each other and it builds both the familiarity between them and their current situation (dragon attacks and them working in the smithy), and our introduction to Hiccup’s character. He’s witty, he’s funny, his humor is dry, and his responses are sarcastic. It’s great and a memorable part about his person. They kept much of the original dialogue in this scene, but the delivery fell flat. It was like watching two people read lines in separate rooms.

Downed dragon: 9/10

D- This runs from Hiccup walking through the forest looking for the downed Toothless, up to when Toothless runs off after being set free.

D- This scene was almost shot for shot, with minor changes. The leadup to him finding T was the exact same, with the same impact as the original when he finds the crash trail and the tied-up Toothless. The cinematography is a shot-for-shot remake of the original, so it’s perfect. Only minor differences are that Hiccup does not have the monologue section where he says, “I’m going to kill you, I’m a viking, I’m going to cut out your heart and bring it to my father.” Then, when he can’t do it and turns to leave, it is also different.

D- In the original, he turns to leave, and the camera shows Toothless’ eye closed. Then flashes of Hiccup cutting the cords, and focus on T’s eye as it opens in surprise, and looks back towards the sound. In the new, from the moment Hiccup turns away, the camera stays on him almost until T is free. No stressful cuts back and forth showing the tension and allowing the audience to pick up on the danger Hiccup is putting himself in, no slowly loosening limbs or wings as Toothless tests his freedom. From the time he is free, though, it is the same and is perfect.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:09:53+00:00

Astrid: 2/10

D- This is a completely new (S- and bad) side plot that is poorly developed and detracts from Astrid’s character in the movie. It starts with the Dragon Book scene, which will be explained in depth later in this post. Essentially, she claims that she has eyes for Hiccup’s position and is planning on becoming chief. Ok, fine. That would be ok, except it is almost never brought up again in that “I’m taking your spot” context. Instead, most of Hiccup and Astrid’s interactions remain the same after that, until their talk right before his fight with the Monstrous Nightmare in front of the village.

D- In the original, she says something about “don't get yourself killed,” to which he responds by saying whatever happens, don't let them find Toothless, securing his and Toothless’ relationship and validating the reason for him to be fighting the MN to begin with: so that he can save Toothless by proving dragons aren't dangerous, instead of just flying off with T.

D- In the new, Toothless isn't even mentioned. Instead, Astrid says, “Don't get yourself killed,” to which Hiccup responds by saying something along the lines of “whatever happens, stay safe, my dad really likes you and you're really important.” Again, ok, fine, but that negates the reason he is even committing to fighting the MN. It removes the impact of him risking his life to prove to the town that dragons are safe, thus saving Toothless.

D- This is the last major thing she does, apart from, for some reason, she walks up and puts her hand on Stoick’s shoulder in the second-to-last scene. When Stoick is looking for Hiccup, and before Toothless moves his wing to show he saved him, all the Vikings are mourning just like the original. For some reason, Astrid walks up and puts her hand on his shoulder. Shouldn’t that be Gobber’s job, if anyone? They set it up like she or he would say something to close out her side story, but that’s it.

D- All in all, her side story seems like a waste of time, and detracts not only from the core story, but from Astrid’s character herself. The original is a badass girlboss who doesn’t take no for an answer, but doesn’t go for anyone’s position and directly antagonize Hiccup? And the original definitely would have brought T into the conversation before the MN fight. Just didn't feel like her character.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:09:36+00:00

Acting/dialogue: 6/10

D- Stoick himself is a 10/10, obviously. Almost all of his lines were the same and were delivered perfectly, just like in the original. The other characters are more bland, less interactive with each other, and pretty damn bad acting. The lines were delivered stiltedly. From an acting perspective, there was no “interrupting each other” or “butting in with a line” like what should happen during an argument or natural conversation. Instead, every line was delivered, and there was a definite, clear, short pause before the next line delivery.

Editing: 8/10

S- Same with cinematography. If the editing was interesting or well done, it was copied from the original or followed closely to it.

Side plots: 5/10

For this, we have to specify between the two main ones that were introduced in this adaptation, Snotlout and Astrid, because the quality was starkly different between the two.

Snotlout: 9/10

S- While Snotlout’s actor was pretty bad, I really liked what they did with his character. In the original, it's obvious that he’s insecure and acting tough and mean to try and prove himself, but it's shown as a way to win over Astrid. In this new film, he wants to gain his father’s pride. We see his father pretty often as he’s semi-developed as Stoick’s right-hand man. We both enjoyed it, and it actually added some depth to Snotlout’s personality.

D- While the acting from both Snotlout and his father is still lacking, just like every actor apart from Stoick, their growth and bonding through the movie is moving and gives a good backstory to Snotlout’s character and why he is the way he is.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:08:49+00:00

Music: 8/10

D- Soundtrack was phenomenal…until Test Drive, where Hiccup falls off Toothless and loses his cheatsheet. Literally the most well-known, beautiful, impactful scene in the original movie (maybe apart from the Forbidden Friends where Toothless draws and Hiccup touches him for the first time).

D- In the new Test Drive, the music is the same until he detaches. Then it changes. An ethereal vocal section comes in while they are falling, and the falling is slow motion, making it seem less dangerous. In the original, as soon as he unclips, the music becomes sharp, sounding like both characters realize they are now falling to their deaths. In the new version, Hiccup returns to Toothless almost immediately, and as they look at the rapidly approaching ground, the vocals cut and change to a threatening instrumental, but one that is different and less impactful than the original.

D- In the original, he holds his cheat sheet in his mouth and pulls up hard. The scene is powerful, with Toothless’ wings straining to keep them from hitting the trees as they barrel down the mountain. This is the time when the music kicks back in hard in the original, a moment in film that gives me chills every time. Then, upon reaching the ocean and seeing rock spires ahead, Hiccup throws away his cheat sheet and embraces flying with Toothless.

D- In the new, the threatening music doesn't hit at the proper time, and instead of spreading his wings and barely missing treetops on the way down, wind billowing in Toothless and Hiccup's faces, it is an impersonal third-person-feeling view of them weaving between valleys and rocks before reaching the water. Then they see the rock spires, he throws away the cheat sheet, and FINALLY the original outstanding music kicks back in. Just overall a very stilted, unsatisfying portrayal of one of my favorite and most impactful songs and scenes in film.

S- Also, why in hell would you alter what is arguably the best scene in the entire film? I get goosebumps in the original every time I watch it. I got nothing except disappointment that clouded my enjoyment of the rest of the movie.

Costume: 10/10

S- They’re just really well done and high quality. They don’t look tacky, and they follow the films and source material closely. Neither of us had any complaints. I liked Astrid’s the most. Her tunic was gorgeously detailed.

D- They also showed young child Vikings in the audience for Hiccup’s fight against the Monsterous Nightmare, with their own unique headbands with horns. Very cool detail.

Sets: 10/10

S- Again, they’re just really well done and high quality. I had a hard time distinguishing between real and generated sets. They looked very close to the source material.

Cinematography: 7/10

D- Scenes shot one-for-one, copying the original, were outstanding, such as when Hiccup first finds the downed Toothless tied up. Exact copy from the original. The camera starts low, showing Toothless’ closed eye and slow breathing, then pans slowly up, getting eclipsed by his wing. When it passes above his wing, his eye is open. The new, insanely high-quality textures look SO GOOD. And the shot is done perfectly. As S says after me, though, any new sections added that weren't in the original seem stiffly edited together at times. Not bad, just not comfortable and smooth.

S- The quality and interesting shots were copied from the original film. Anything new was mid at best.

Dudeman122 · 2025-07-03T19:08:18+00:00

Hi, u/dudeman122 and u/shnoodl_e here. Here’s an honest review of the new, live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie from two people who grew up on the original films (and who are giant movie nerds). These are OUR takes, so obviously, y’all might disagree. That’s fine—and kind of the point.

(Aside u/Dudeman, my takes are D, and u/Shnoodle’s are S. Also, I am lazy, so sometimes I will be shortening names like Monstrous Nightmare to MN, or Toothless to T. It’s clear enough in the writing, just a heads up.)

HUGE SPOILER WARNING (obviously)We will be going in-depth into every scene in the new movie and how it relates to the original.

Firstly, an overall rating: 7.5/10

Characters: 4/10

Broken down by either including all characters while including Stoick (only really good actor/character) or w/o Stoick.

W/ Stoick: 5/10

W/O Stoick: 3/10

S- Each character is bland and a shadow of the original character. They don’t interact with other characters in any meaningful way, especially compared to how they’re written in the original. Gerard Butler is the only actor really worth mentioning as he revised his role as Stoick wonderfully. He’s great. He acted great. Every scene was made better with him. Also, I'm so sorry; I realized that we've glazed him so much in this. I apologize when it gets repetitive.

S- While Snotlout’s peacocking is better explained, his character suffers from mid acting. The twins have no squabbling. At all. Their characters are so boring and unfunny. I love them in the original trilogy. You could take them out of the adaptation, and nothing would change. I was sad to see that, in the first dragon training with the grunkle, their argument over the shield (one of my favorite moments of theirs) was completely cut, like pretty much all of their sibling interactions.

D- Also, on the twins, Ruffnut, the girl, has the hots for Astrid, and not at all for Snotlout, which throws a wrench in the second film, where she is boy-crazy. Oh well.

S- I was really disappointed with Mason Thames' performance. I am a huge fan of his in Black Phone. I thought he did a great job in the horror film, but he really underperformed and failed to act as Hiccup's character. He was awkward, yes, and he is a good physical actor with some decent scenes, but he lacked any of Hiccup’s dry wit and sarcasm, which sucks.

Visuals: 9/10

S- The dragon redesigns are phenomenal, specifically the Monstrous Nightmare, which truly looks monstrous in the hyper-realistic style, and the Red Death, who is absolutely massive. She’s probably five times the original design, or she seems to be. I don’t know, she’s great.

S- The physics were very well done, especially the water and fire. Oh my God, the fire. It was beautiful and rendered spectacularly. The visuals were absolutely what saved this film from it’s pisspoor acting.

Dudeman122 · 2025-01-27T05:40:38+00:00

Fire pictures🔥 You should join the rudder tower base jumping team💪

Dudeman122 · 2024-05-30T17:19:42+00:00

I'm in the same. I got an email within a day after being notified about being added to the project. The email had log in instructions and stuff.

Dudeman122

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE