The Intro:
The DreamWorks Dragons animated series is one, if not, my favorite animated franchise of all time. This franchise is literally what I wanted in my childhood. Well, I did kinda had it in my teenage years and I used to draw sketchbooks after sketchbooks of dragons from this franchise. I loved the franchise that much and I mean, who can blame it! The franchise has everything from amazing characters, huge lore and world-building and epic stories!
And of course, who can forget the Dragons! This series has so many kinds of Dragons and different types that it almost replicates the real world tree of life. The dragon designs and the environments they live in, is just, a chef’s kiss. I have not seen a single animated series that is as beautiful, immersive, mesmerizing, captivating and awesome in a long time. And no, the live-action is just a hollow shell of the greatness it used to be.
Details:
I am pretty sure you are all here for the dragons and who wouldn’t be. Every design has some sort of real-life inspiration or super unique designs that just makes them so real. Toothless with it’s Axolotl head and an almost dog-like behavior, Stormfly with it’s dinosaur body and bird-like reactions. There are so many qualities that make the dragons from DreamWorks so different and special from other media that features dragons.
The closest I have seen could be the DragonHeart series, (I will write something about it soon). The books on which the animated show is pretty good too and I will make a separate post about it later because it is so different from the animated version that it needs its own showcase later. I will not delve too much about the series and instead, I will keep it more dragon-focused in this one. Dragons from the animated franchise only, no live-action, or the book. Games are okay as they are part of the animated franchise.
The Dragons:
Dragons are the second most populous creatures in the Barbaric Archipelago where the story is set and there are varying kinds of dragons in this universe. They all range from wings to wingless, fire breath to ice breath, four-legged to no-legged and so much more. Now, I am not sure how many of you reading are Dragon Experts but yes, not all dragons in this universe are actually traditional dragons. Dragons that the folklore of our world describes as a reptilian creature with a long snout, fire breathing, with a pair of wings and most importantly, four legs.
Yes, the legs and wings are distinguishing factor in what makes a dragon or not but either way, both of these are fictional and to keep it simpler for the general audiences, every variation which is ‘not’ a dragon in our world sense, is still a dragon for this fictional world. With that out of the way, I am sure you might not want to know all the details first and instead how many dragons are there. Fortunately, that is what I am going to do first. I will be classifying the dragons in how it is shown in the series and give a little info about the classes and list out all the species there are in that class. If you want to know more in-depth about the dragons, just let me know in the comments.
Dragon Classification:
Dragons are classified into the Reptilia family, of course, and classified further more by the Hairy Hooligan Tribe in-universe. The classes are not based on the physical traits but instead, on their abilities and what makes them unique. So you might have 2 bipedal dragons but one lives underwater and the other is lives on land, so they would be separated into different classes while their physical traits are similar. It would be real world nightmare for our biologist with this kind of classification but you gotta start somewhere. Also, the classes can be changed for different if new traits are found that suit another class better, it is a super work-in-progress kind of classification system. Either way, let’s start off with how many classes there are and there are 7 classes. They are:
- Stoker Class
- Boulder Class
- Tracker Class
- Sharp Class
- Tidal Class
- Mystery Class
- Strike Class
There used to be a class called ‘Fear Class’ but that was dropped and changed to ‘Tracker Class’. Each classes have their own characteristics that makes it special. Now, let’s fly into the first class!
Stoker Class:
Our first class of dragons starts off with the most common type of dragon you can think of. The raging-fire breathing dragons! These dragons offensive capabilities is their offensive fire and heat. Their strength is their super hot flames and mainly it actually. They have high numbers of fire shots they can do without a break making them perfect for attack but if their internal flames ever burn out from variety of reasons from being sick to just exploding from the inside, it can prove to be fatal for the dragon. The dragons in this class includes:
- Fireworm & Fireworm Queen
- Flame Whipper
- Gobsucker
- Green Death
- Hobblegrunt
- Hobgobbler
- Monstrous Nightmare
- Night Terror
- Red Death
- Shadow Wing (Small & Large)
- Silver Phantom
- Singetail
- Terrible Terror
- Threadtail
- Typhoomerang
- Fire Fury (Rescue Riders)
- Bubblehorn (The Nine Realms)
- Flame Thrower (The Nine Realms)
- Magma Breather (The Nine Realms)
- Sky Torcher (The Nine Realms)
- Snowtail (The Nine Realms)
The dragons named in the brackets are from different shows which they first appeared. The shows also have new cast of characters and they are typically seen as spin-offs. It is not necessary for you to see them, but they are there if you want. Funny enough, Red Death was first classified as a Mystery Class but was shifted to Stoker Class. Because another dragon species like it, Green Death, is in the Stoker Class and there you go.
Boulder Class:
The Boulder Class Dragons are hard and tough like a rock or boulder. They are mainly associated with Earth element, like rocks, stones, soil, ground and even lava and volcanoes. After lava is molten rock. Speaking of which, these dragons eat rocks and stones so that they can melt it to lava and use it as lava blasts. Most Boulder Class dragons have small wings but they flap them super fast and they can fly just as fast and high as any other dragons. They are not picky eaters and they are built like a rock, perfect for defense. The dragons in this class are as follows:
- Catastrophic Quaken
- Crimson Goregutter
- Eruptodon
- Grapple Grounder
- Groncicle
- Gronckle
- Hotburple
- Screaming Death
- Sentinel (Elder Sentinel)
- Shovelhelm
- Snafflefang
- Thunderpede
- Whispering Death
- Rockspitter (Rescue Riders)
- Fault Ripper (The Nine Realms)
In the case of Snafflefang, it was classified as Stoker Class but it got shifted to Boulder Class. Let’s move on to the next dragon class.
Tracker Class:
The Tracker Class is the newest class which was discovered during the events of Race To The Edge show. Tracker Class dragons are natural born hunters as they have highly acute sense of smell and taste that allows them to hunt or track prey or enemies for miles and miles. These abilities allows them to track anything and anyone effortlessly.
One of the species, Rumblehorn, is trained by Stoick the Vast and helped him to find kidnapped Hiccup. Deadly Nadder was once a Sharp Class dragon but was soon shifted to Tracker Class after being found that they have excellent tracking abilities. This class was once known as the Fear Class but got replaced as the Vikings no longer feared the dragons. That is quite a funny reasoning I must say!! The dragons which used to be in Fear Class got booted to Mystery Class. The dragons of Tracker Class are:
- Common Rockstomper
- Deadly Nadder
- Mudraker
- Rumblehorn
- Snifflehunch
- Submaripper
- Thunderclaw
- Windgnasher
- Relentless Rainbowhorn (Rescue Riders)
- Relentless Razorwing (Rescue Riders)
- Gembreaker (The Nine Realms)
- Glass Caster (The Nine Realms)
- Snifflehide (The Nine Realms)
- Vine Tail (The Nine Realms)
Sharp Class:
The dragons in this class, well it is as it says, Sharp. They are pointy and spiky and razor sharp, well thankfully, not all the parts. Sharp Class dragons are quite prideful as well and they also fire sharp projectiles from parts of their body, mostly tails and that projectile is regenerated super quickly. Almost like they have infinite ammo. Makes me wonder about their biology. But oddly enough, they love being stroked and complimented, almost like cats and if you become too distant with them, they will become sad. They need constant love and that makes them so easy to train. The dragons of this class are:
- Devilish Dervish
- Egg Biter
- Grim Gnasher
- Hackatoo
- Raincutter
- Razorwhip
- Scuttleclaw (Evolved as well)
- Shivertooth
- Speed Stinger
- Stormcutter
- Thornridge
- Timberjack
- Windstriker
- Woodchipper (The Nine Realms)
Tidal Class:
These dragons, as what the class says, water-based dragons. Most of these dragons spend a lot of their lives underwater. And it is not like they cannot live and fly above water, they can because of their amphibian biology, but they prefer the underwater environment. Some can produce flame breaths but most use electric-based or water-based attacks. Most dragons of this class are very large than the land ones, in fact, the largest dragon species, Bewilderbeast, is from this class. While large and intimidating, they are quite calm and peaceful ocean dwellers and prefer to be left alone and when they are trained, they are extremely loyal. After all no dragons want to fight unless someone endangers their lives. The dragons from this class are:
- Bewilderbeast
- Fathomfin
- Luminous Krayfin
- Purple Death
- Ripwrecker
- Sand Wraith
- Scauldron
- Seashocker
- Shellfire
- Shockjaw
- Sliquifier
- Submaripper
- Thunderdrum
- Tide Glider
- Windwalker
- Fastfin (Rescue Riders)
- Flood Fang (The Nine Realms)
- Mist Twister (The Nine Realms)
- Octofin (The Nine Realms)
Mystery Class:
Ah yes! The Mystery Class…the mysterious group of dragons!! Okay, the only they are so mysterious is because Vikings does not have our modern day science and tech to explain they abilities they have and with much scrutiny, the dragons can all be classified into other groups but Mystery Class is great for all the misfit dragons. Their main attribute could be stealth traits and they are more feared than all the other classes. This class tends to include all the more diverse and interesting range of dragons and they exhibit rare and unique traits. This also the only class with most number of dragons and they are:
- Armorwing
- Boneknapper
- Buffalord
- Cavern Crasher
- Changewing
- Chimeragon (A science experiment of hybridizing multiple dragon species)
- Death Song
- Dramillion
- Flightmare
- Foreverwing
- Hideous Zippleback
- Hobgobbler
- Prickleboggle
- Sandbuster
- Silkspanner
- Slithersong
- Slitherwing
- Smothering Smokebreath
- Snaptrapper
- Sweet Death
- Sword Stealer
- Tormentipede
- Foreverhorn (Rescue Riders)
- Golden Dragon (Rescue Riders)
- Songwing (Rescue Riders)
- Deadly Spinner (The Nine Realms)
- Featherhide (The Nine Realms)
- Gemblaster (The Nine Realms)
- Jörmungandr (The Nine Realms)
- Spiderwing (The Nine Realms)
- Yetiwing (The Nine Realms)
Strike Class:
And finally, the class of dragons you have all been waiting for, the Strike Class dragons. The dragons of this class are probably the most rarest from this universe. They are characterized by their extreme speeds, strong bite force and superior intelligence. Some dragons also possess pinpoint accuracy and unique abilities that allow them to navigate in certain environments. The dragon species included in this class are:
- Deathgripper
- Night Fury
- Light Fury
- Skrill
- Snow Wraith
- Triple Stryke
- Woolly Howl
- Swiftwing (Rescue Riders)
Hybrid Dragons:
This is a fairly new group of dragons that was introduced from the Hidden World movie which was expanded more in the supplemental games. These dragons have abilities from both sides of the parents and they look half-an-half of their parent dragons. I am not really into it too much but it is one layer of depth in-universe. And this all happened thanks to Toothless, the Night Fury, liking a species of similar kind, the Light Fury. Now yes, there have been instances of hybrid animals in real life but that mainly happens in captivity and usually the hybrid animal is unable to produce with any other similar species of animals. I am not gonna dive too deep in this and just say it is what it is. Here are the list of hybrid dragons that have been shown plus the combination:
- Abomibumble (Gronckle + Monstrous Nightmare)
- Bonestormer (Boneknapper + Stormcutter)
- Brooding Boltstamper (Rumblehorn + Skrill)
- Chimeragon (Bewilderbeast + Sentinel +Chimeragon + several other species) (A scientific experiment)
- Cyclarion (Rumblehorn + Typhoomerang)
- Deathburple (Deadly Nadder + Hotburple)
- Deathly Galeslash (Deadly Nadder + Stormcutter)
- Dreadstrider (Flightmare + Speed Stinger)
- Frostmare (Groncicle + Flightmare)
- Ghastly Zapplejack (Hideous Zippleback + Timberjack)
- Graveknapper (Boneknapper + Screaming Death)
- Gruesome Goregripper (Crimson Goregutter + Deathgripper)
- Hoarsbrumble (Thunderdrum + Typhoomerang)
- Humbanger (Snafflefang + Whispering Death)
- Hushbogle (Snow Wraith + Whispering Death)
- Night Light (Light Fury + Night Fury)
- Ridgesnipper (Snafflefang + Razorwhip)
- Seastormer (Seashocker + Shockjaw)
- Slumberjack (Monstrous Nightmare + Timberjack)
- Thunderbottom (Gronckle + Thunderdrum)
- Skrill/Voltknapper (Boneknapper + Skrill)
- Zipplewraith (Hideous Zippleback + Snow Wraith)
Unknown Class of Dragons:
Even though a lot of dragons has appeared pretty well through shows, movies and games and more, there are some dragons which remain unidentified. Some have name drops but no actual design, like the Lycanwing, whereas some are shown but not named. The biggest contributor for dragons shown but not named is How To Train Your Dragon 2. They used a modular system where they parts and bodies of different kinds and then mixed-and-marched to create those designs. After the release of the film, many of them were being revealed with names and stuff but some fell under the radar and remain nameless to this day. It is quite unfortunate that no one will get to know these dragons even though we have seen them. Their is another dragon that appeared in live show called Stinger which is still without a class. But the strange thing is that 2 other dragons that showed up in the live show, got classified and included in the wider series, Egg Biter and Gobsucker, but sadly not the Stinger. The design is cool too.
And that is the end of this post, congratulations for reaching this far and I hope you found something informative from my post. If you would like to know more about the How To Train Your Dragon, feel free to comment below or any other dragon-related franchise you want me to talk about. I hope to see you again in my other posts and please feel free to check out more dinosaurs or other prehistoric creatures post from the Species Profile page!! You can also commission me for any kind of Anime-style Dragon Art and I have posted the links here!
