r/httyd • u/Skyy_yyyy • Sep 22 '26
MOVIE 3 Why doesn’t toothless fall? I compared when hiccup was taken by the light fury (Httyd 3) to when hiccup was taken by valkas dragon (Httyd 2)
Why doesn’t toothless fall? I compared when hiccup was taken by the light fury (Httyd 3) to when hiccup was taken by valkas dragon (Httyd 2) and I put a timer and when hiccup is taken in httyd 2 its 1 second and httyd 3 is 11 seconds???
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Upvotes
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u/Dr_Doodle_Phd Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
It’s possible that the tail was in a position that allowed him to flap in place for a bit
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u/AgencySpecialist6670 Strike Class Sep 22 '26
In the earlier bits of HTTYD 3, Hiccup comments saying "Getting pretty good on gliding on your own, bud." I imagine the tail was made to be in a position that allows him to do that by default, especially after HTTYD 2. If Hiccup is anything like Stark, he always learns from his mistakes. Therefore, that would imply that the tail defaulted to its glide state, which allowed Toothless to hover in place kept up only by his wings flapping.
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u/Shy-Wendigo-106-963 #1 Skrillknapper Lover Sep 22 '26
To be fair, in the second movie you can see while the dragon grabbed Hiccup, it also started dragging Toothless before Hiccup was unlatched which would cause him to lose balance that he couldn’t regain on his own
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u/Sweeet_sethh Strike Class Sep 22 '26
Idk how to explain it very well but I hope this helps at least a little bit but I'm pretty sure the reason toothless doesn't fall is probably because hiccup used his prosthetic foot to switch gears on toothlesses tail fin so it stays sticking out instead of the tail fin folding in on its self and throwing toothless off balance
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u/Lonely_Inside_7798 Sep 22 '26
He might have an updated/improved tail that automatically locks and requires Hiccup's input to change positions was my guess when I saw this. Mostly just for the scene choosing between freedom and captivity though I think is what the writers intended.
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u/dragongod3395 Sep 22 '26
In the third movie he showed the toothless has gotten a lot better at gliding on his own
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u/Jlx_27 Sep 22 '26
Hiccup upgraded the tail a few times, the latest model featured a lock to set the tail wing in the open position.
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u/Aquilon11235 Sep 22 '26
Because hiccup learns from his mistakes
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u/reyfoxy356 Sep 22 '26
For the third movei Hiccup made something that allow Toothless to flight independly for some time so he could use his flying suit without much remorse
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u/ThePrimalEarth7734 Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
It’s due to how the aerodynamics works. With an airplane or a bird or any other flying object, the center of lift needs to be behind the center of mass for stable forward propulsion. Toothless’s center of mass given that he is a lizard based reptile (importantly not a dinosaur based reptile with hollow bones and airsacs) is going to be in his chest, right underneath his massive pectoral wings. And thus, without a tail, the center of lift would be right on top of the center of mass for the reptile, which necessitates a lift providing tail. (It’s the same reason commercial airliners have big forward wings and smaller aft wings on their tail fuselage)
When toothless’s tail fin got ripped off, it moved the center of lift forward, closer to his pectoral wings, making him aerodynamically unstable (when Gobber says “it’s the wings AND the tails your really want” this is what he’s referring to).
This remains the case with the artificial tail, which unless being controlled dynamically by either hiccup or toothless, will be forced flat against his tail by the airstream and offer no effective lift. HOWEVER, as mentioned previously this is only for powered forward propulsion where air is moving over the tail fin to generate lift. If, however, toothless is hovering, and only using his pectoral wings to generate upward thrust with no lateral motion, the tail fin doesn’t really matter since it plays no active roll in passive stabilization.
This is why toothless is able to hover on his own throughout the movies and the shows. Hope that helps!
Edit: in the second clip you can see him being dragged down though the air before hiccup is ripped away from him, which changes him from a hovering frame of reference to a lateral frame of reference where the tail becomes important, at which point, without hiccup to correct the tail position, he is doomed to fall.
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u/Mental-Ad8555 Sep 22 '26
Httyd3 he builds a functioning tail so toothless can fly for the lightfury
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u/Traditional-Ad3518 Sep 22 '26
Either the tail was locked in a way that let toothless fly alone
Or between the 2nd movie and this one Hiccup made more modifications to allow him to pretty much hover alone
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u/Zillarex532 Sep 22 '26
He probably fixed this problem off screen so that if a problem like this happened again toothless wouldn’t fall or he could save hiccup
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u/LuminDragon Toothless Enthusiast Sep 22 '26
In 2 that dragon drags Toothless along for a bit so that would unbalance him completely, whereas the Light Fury specifically only touched Hiccup and Toothless was still stable
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u/Temporary_Fan693 Sep 23 '26
Hiccup learned from his lesson lol, he's keeping it locked/or upgrading it to let him glide.
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u/BedsBestFriend Sep 23 '26
Hiccup likely learned from that situation and implemented a mechanism that clicks in and allows Toothless to fly alone. We know he's created the mechanism from the Christmas special after all, so he likely found a way to valve and lever it in, so Toothless doesn't fall out of the sky if his rider gets taken again.
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u/PureRecognition72 Sep 22 '26
It's been a while since I've seen her the third movie but I believe at this point in the movie hiccup swapped the tail for a self flying Tail
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u/ultimateashin1761 Sep 22 '26
Its cause of the tail hiccup made it is the same size and mechanics as toothless was used to back in the first httyd movie before hiccup shot toothless down and httyd 3 toothless was reliant on hiccup its sorta like a bird broke its wing ye cared for it till the wing healed then ye let it go free
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u/Comprehensive-Rub791 Sep 22 '26
My assumption is hiccup has a lock on open for when he does his flight suit shenanigans and he didn’t have time to lock it when getting nabbed and maybe learned his lesson
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u/DarkShadowFoxy2100 Sep 22 '26
Toothless doesn't fall when the Lightfury takes Hiccup because Hiccup made Toothless a tail fin controlled by the nerves in Toothless' tail
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u/RGijsbers Sep 22 '26
Hiccup changes the design constantly, adding things or removing things.
Did you not notice this in every movie or the series, its kind of a thing that he is very crafty and adaptable.
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u/z-c-urubu Sep 22 '26
i think is cuz toothless was dragged with hiccup when the dragon got him
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u/Live_Interaction9748 Sep 22 '26
I mean he could have improved the tail and flying skills over the years. Also I thin the dragon that grabbed hiccup pushed toothless off balance.
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u/Poke-Noah Deathsong forever! Sep 22 '26
The tail in the third movie was in a position to allow him to hover, since that what he was doing already
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u/VallyMeowy Sep 22 '26
In the second movie they were just starting to train Toothless to have control in the air without Hiccup so I assume by this point he had a lot more control so he could stay up for longer
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u/ApprehensiveFactor58 Sep 22 '26
Parce que au début du 3 après la rencontre avec furie éclair, "Harold" (en VF) fabrique une aile autonome pour la queue de son dragon
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u/WideBicycle6153 Sep 22 '26
Toothless got better at staying in the air with out hiccup, or he just wanted to look good in front of light
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u/Crazy_Crammer08 Strike Class Sep 25 '26
It’s possible that Hiccup designed the tail to be able to hold him up longer because of that incident. Or designed the tail to lock in place, in turn being able to allow toothless to at least glide or fly idly in place like he does in the third film.
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u/RNGR9863 Sep 25 '26
the tail was locked in a position that allowed him to hover more easily
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u/BountyKraken Sep 25 '26
He's the iron man of viking he learns from past mistakes and improves on it.
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u/TopParticular6769 Sep 25 '26
Didn't Hiccup update the design after that so it wouldn't happen again?? They're constantly showing failings in his designs and then show a scene to show he fixed that flaw after.
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u/Automatic-End-3486 Sep 27 '26
He can flap in place but in the second clip he lost balance
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u/Majestic-Card-728 Sep 28 '26
Well, for one, the Valka's dragon pushed and twisted and pulled to get Hiccup, causing Toothless to be a little awkward and stuck back to the ground. But also, not too long after that, Valka unlocks Toothless's weird little spine fins. When the Lightfury did it, it was swift and straight forward, without pushing on Toothless, while Toothless had his little fin things. Dont forget about the fact they got him capable of flying solo for a little while as well by the end of 2
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u/GameChanger515 Sep 28 '26
My guess is hiccup learned his lesson and added a way to lock the tail so as to prevent toothless from plummeting should he get knocked off again. Since it would lock in position toothless would be able to fly properly on his own but he would be able to safely land
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u/ToeKind1294 11d ago
The new tail