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Akiniwazisaga: A Light Rises in a Dark World
Reviews | Lorehaven Review Team on Apr 16, 2021

58. How Did We Enjoy the Heroic Majesty of ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’?
Podcast | Fantastical Truth on Apr 13, 2021

How Reading Epic Fantasy Helps Me Be Brave
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All the Queen’s Sons
Reviews | Lorehaven Review Team on Apr 9, 2021

Implicit Magic in Fantasy Fiction Can Stir Our Longing for Transcendent Myth
Articles | Elijah David on Apr 7, 2021

57. How Do Stories Help Us Imagine Suffering and the Hope of Resurrection? | Epic Resurrection, part 4
Podcast | Fantastical Truth on Apr 6, 2021

The PRISM Conspiracy
Reviews | Lorehaven Review Team on Apr 2, 2021

To Help Kids Learn Pop Culture Engagement, Parents Must Work Together
Articles | Jason Joyner on Mar 31, 2021

56. Which Biblical Qualities Empower Strong Female Characters? | with Elisabeth Wheatley
Podcast | Fantastical Truth on Mar 30, 2021

Why We Long for Movies to Match Their Books
Articles | L.G. McCary on Mar 25, 2021

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Aelafas, Peco Gaskovski
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The Father's Tree, Crystal Jencks
The Mermaid's Sister, Carrie Anne Noble
The Watcher, Sara Davison
Etania's Worth, M. H. Elrich
Cinderella Spell, Laurie Lee
When Desperate Measures Are All You Have Left, J. C. Morrows
Fractures, James C. Joyner
Torch, R. J. Anderson
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The Xerxes Factor, Anna Zogg
The Paradise Protocol, Anna Zogg
The Awakened, Richard Spillman
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Akiniwazisaga: A Light Rises in a Dark World
“M. D. Boncher’s fantasy novel Akiniwazisaga: A Light Rises in a Dark World is a fascinating blend of history, religion, and sinister folklore.”
—Lorehaven on Apr 16, 2021

All the Queen’s Sons
“All The Queen’s Sons from Elizabeth Kipps will delight both young and old fans of level-headed girls, charming princes, and lovely lands.”
—Lorehaven on Apr 9, 2021

The PRISM Conspiracy
“Mary Schlegel’s gentle sci-fi The PRISM Conspiracy offers an attractive blend of possibility and sweet romance.”
—Lorehaven on Apr 2, 2021

Songflight
“Songflight by Michelle M. Bruhn tells the gripping story of dragon singer Alísa, and is best for lovers of fantasy and dragons.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 19, 2021

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58. How Did We Enjoy the Heroic Majesty of ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’?
Fantastical Truth, Apr 13, 2021

57. How Do Stories Help Us Imagine Suffering and the Hope of Resurrection? | Epic Resurrection, part 4
Fantastical Truth, Apr 6, 2021

56. Which Biblical Qualities Empower Strong Female Characters? | with Elisabeth Wheatley
Fantastical Truth, Mar 30, 2021

55. Should Christians Embrace Cultural and Digital Enclaves? | with Austin Gunderson
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Parker J. Cole, Mar 31

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‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Shows Man’s Good Stewardship

In the How to Train Your Dragon series, man must reconcile with and actively train wild creation.
E. Stephen Burnett on Feb 25, 2019 | 1 comment

Half a lifetime ago, I would have been nervous about How to Train Your Dragon.12

I would have thought: Why does this story attempt to show that “evil” creatures aren’t always evil? Or what we think is good isn’t always good? Why do they show mankind as bad and nature as good? Isn’t this story trying to subvert traditional concepts of right and wrong?

Some stories do attempt this.3

But thanks to Biblical theology, I no longer have that objection to all such stories. That’s because I believe that in the real world, we often find a third party between pure good and worst evil. If our view of the True Story includes only God (good) and man (bad), we’ll be confused when stories explore how this third party—the creation itself—plays in the story.

How to Train Your Dragon: bad humans versus good dragons?

If you go into How to Train Your Dragon or its two sequels, expecting binary categories of right and wrong (man is good/bad, dragons are good/bad), you will be confused.

Is the story’s “bad guys” the humans, such as the Vikings?

An older Hiccup, from How to Train Your Dragon’s 2014 sequel.

That doesn’t make sense. If this series wants to say “humans are bad,” why does this story also want us to love these heroes, especially spunky dragon-trainer Hiccup?

Is the story’s “good guys” the dragons? If so, why does the first film show that wild dragons are genuinely dangerous?

And why would the second film and third films show human villains who manipulate or abuse dragons? As opposed to our heroic Vikings who befriend and train them?

In any case, the first film’s victory comes after estranged father Stoick and son Hiccup both admit their human wrongs and reconcile. Near the end, Hiccup even rides his new dragon Toothless into a spectacular battle against a gargantuan, fire-breathing, traditionally evil dragon.

In the first How to Train Your Dragon film, man and creation must reconcile. By the story’s end, Vikings and dragons have learned to work together and find redemption. Yet man has not simply become “at one with nature,” as if wild nature is superior. Instead man has stopped sinning against nature and become a better nature-steward. The meaning is right there in the title: it’s not “how to be trained by your dragon,” but “how to train your dragon.”

Even in How to Train Your Dragon 2, when we find that a heroine has been living wild with dragons, the story doesn’t leave her there. Without a thought, she is invited to rejoin civilization and take her place in a dragon-training society.

Echoes of groaning Earth

I don’t know the intentions of the How to Train Your Dragon creators. But I do know their subversions of traditional “villains” like evil dragons need not be seen as attacks on biblical morality. In fact, they echo the biblical truth of creation’s redemption:

  1. Mankind sins against God (Genesis 3). It’s man’s fault.
  2. God curses the ground (Genesis 3: 17–19). But it’s not creation’s fault.
  3. Ever since, mankind has had a love/hate relationship with creation.
  4. Jesus Christ comes to redeem His children.
  5. And someday even “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

Until that day, “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22). Groaning creation lashes back at mankind. Dragons in ignorance or fear blast our homes and even kill us. But just these stories end in hope—with the fearful dragons now friendly and tamed—so Jesus Christ will make his redeemed world where man’s and creation’s groaning turns to singing.

And in that day, perhaps for real, the dragons will return.

  1. This article remixes my original 2014 article at Speculative Faith, Dragons, Maleficent, and Echoes of Groaning Earth. I’ve added a few elements to reflect the second and third films, especially the trilogy’s newest conclusion, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. ↩
  2. The ongoing Weaker Brothers Shouldn’t Boss Christians series will continue tomorrow. ↩
  3. If stories do try to subvert right and wrong, a disciplined Christian can see them for what they are. Such a wise Christian can even subvert the subversion, by showing how the evil-thing-isn’t-really-evil stories still show that something is absolute evil. Even “subversive” stories must show absolute evil in some way. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett

E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi and fantasy as well as nonfiction, such as The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ (coauthored with Ted Turnau and Jared Moore, from New Growth Press). Stephen explores biblical truth and fantastic stories as publisher of Lorehaven.com and cohost of the Fantastical Truth podcast. He and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area, help with foster parenting, and serve as members of Southern Hills Baptist Church.

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  1. Speculative Faith | Four Reasons I Loved 'How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World' says:
    February 26, 2019 at 6:30 am

    […] ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Shows Man’s Good Stewardship | E. Stephen Burnett, Feb 25 […]

    Reply

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