When How To Train Your Dragon hit theaters in June, I thought that I was in for a good family movie. What I did not expect was that the film would speak directly to our world’s deep brokenness amidst seemingly endless cycles of violence. I did not expect it to lead me back to René Girard’s moving work on mimetic theory and atonement.
Based on the book series by Cressida Cowell and its 2010 animated adaptation, the film takes place in a fictional landscape where Vikings have fought dragons since time immemorial. If you are a man in this universe, you fight dragons—and if that doesn’t interest you, then you find yourself on the outside looking in on society. Enter our protagonist, Hiccup, who pioneers a new way of being in community with the dragons his community fears, ushering in a new era of prosperity and cooperation.
Overcoming generations of conflict is no easy matter, and this is where the movie is at its best. Against all odds, Hiccup befriends a dragon he calls Toothless. After one of his interactions with the dragon, Hiccup’s love interest, Astrid, accuses him of betraying his village: “They’ve killed hundreds of us!”
