User blog comment:Megadracosaurus/Someone Dies?!/@comment-26184563-20140530140645/@comment-24949049-20140530150001

There is actually a lot of evidence pointing to Stoick dying. If you piece some of the images together in order: You notice that Stoick is not present among the group flying on the Baby Dragons (which a possible reason the group are flying on the baby dragons is due to Drago's Bewilderbeast controlling their dragons. And Valka did say the Baby Dragons "listen to no one").

Another image shows Hiccup Astrid, Valka, the teens, Gobber and the villagers of Berk standing around in a circle in the center of Berk. All around them are giant ice shards (the same as the ones used by the Bewilderbeasts) but you do not see Stoick present in the image.

Not to mention you have to consider that HTTYD 2 maybe partly a kid's film, but it's been four years since the release of the first HTTYD. So the audience has matured, so it makes sense why they would add emotion to it.

And to be honest, as much as I love Stoick, I can actually see why they would possibly kill him off.

And inregards of the third film: there is more than one way for a character to appear, whether it be in a distant memory or a phantom.