User blog comment:Megadracosaurus/Is Drago Bludvist A Good Villain?/@comment-1044705-20140915205109

Ahh yes, this is a very divided argument, and one I've put a lot of thought into. I didn't much like Drago at first as a villain either, since I always felt like he was lacking any reason for you to be interested in him. I didn't see the whole need for Stoick's flashback to hide his face or his voice, since the reveal on his appearance wasn't supposed to be shocking or anything. He had practically no connection to Stoick or Valka aside from their conflict. Even Eret seemed like he had no good reason to be loyal to him, and it was easy to see he would switch sides.

However, a friend of mine brought up a very good point regarding why Drago was characterized as he was and why it was crucial to the second film.

In HTTYD 1, Hiccup found his courage in standing up to Stoick about dragons, and succeeded in both changing his mind and becoming close with him for the first time. Throughout the TV series, Hiccup has also accomplished many great things with dragons and proven time and time again to Berk that they need each other. And in HTTYD 2, you see that Hiccup has become more confident both as a person and in his ability to deal with dragons. Despite both his parents trying to tell him Drago cannot be changed, he pushes on, convinced that he can (this may or may not also have something to do with the fact that he gave Alvin the Treacherous a chance to redeem himself, and as a result everything ended well).

Hiccup may be smart, kind, and very capable, but he is still very naive to the full extent of evil in the world. He needed to come to that realization on his own terms, and it was a stroke of genius that Dean DeBlois decided to factor that in with the very real price that we sometimes must pay for our mistakes. It was necessary for Hiccup to be the reason that Stoick was killed, as he later says, "I'm not the peacekeeper I thought I was". And just to throw in some more psychological damage, Drago had Toothless be the one of all dragons to carry out the deed. All in all, very well done, I think.

That said, I would like for Drago to return in HTTYD 3, perhaps with more backstory to him this time. He doesn't need to be a sympathetic character, just one that gives you a reason to feel fascinated by him and have him surprise you from time to time. His role in HTTYD 2 was mostly as a catalyst to spur the character growth of Hiccup and company, but I hope that in the last film, he comes into his own as a truly remarkable villain.