Uploaded October 2012 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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What was going through Hiccup's mind that day he stood at the docks, watched his best friend bound and taken, remembered his father's harsh words, the way he tried and failed . . . yet again.
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So this song I found on a Hiccup roleplayer's playlist, and I will not hesitate to say that it's got to be the most appropriate song for Hiccup ever, to represent his thoughts as he stood on the docks with Astrid, the "epiphany scene." Everything truly matches his story. I'm just shocked how much of the movie's storyline can fit into the lyrics, too; this is really my most narrative video. It's also the VO-mania I kept telling iVishu about. I finally got the time to write out its meaning, as you can find below, though I encourage you to watch the vid first and try to figure out all the meanings with VO and lyrics and effects.

This vid actually gave me heaps of trouble making it. As you can see, YT garbled the purple glow scene at the beginning and end, and the export has this awful jitter/rending/lines thing I've yet to figure out how to prevent. It did that to my "What Would Life Be Like" vid, but not my "Marry Me" one, so... still working on that angle. I'm posting the original mov now that I saw the YT version:
docs.google.com/open?id=0Bwf3E0Ts8_4KTXVoZ3ZNSlY5bWc

Anyway, I have a couple vid requests I have to make in the near future, so hopefully you'll see more vids outta me! I hope my dear friends are doing all right!
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Interpretation
(full lyrics here: lyricsreg.com/lyrics/jason+walker/Down/)

The first clip, purple with Hiccup's VO, setting the theme and stage (the docks scene) for this set of thoughts/song.

The first stanza is Hiccup's initial phase -- trying to kill a dragon, or more importantly, to get acceptance from his village and father: "hoping that I'll find what I've been chasing."

"I shot for the sky, I'm stuck on the ground"
"So why do I try, I know I'm gonna fall down"
These lines are sometimes literal, more often symbolic. In its first mention, it's literal, but melds into symbolic, as he "falls down" by disappointing his father again.

"I thought I could fly, so why did I drown?"
Here it's symbolic, he thought he could kill a dragon, but he couldn't.

"Never know why it's coming down, down, down."
Everything is falling apart as his father now forces him into dragon training.

Instrumental interlude
Not-so-random VOs (note the "serious" framing "they'll kill Toothless") that describe the middle of the movie, Test Drive, Touch Scene, his friendship with Toothless.
Astrid's "pet dragon" VO melds into the following lyric:
"I'm not ready to let go"
as the reason behind Hiccup's "no." And then "cause then I'd never know what I could be missing" goes into b/w to show a future event that Hiccup would miss if he chose not to stand up and try to save Toothless and the other dragons.

"So when do I give up, what I've been wishing for."
My favorite line ever. It doesn't need explaining. Hiccup gives up his dearest dream for Toothless.

Kill Ring Area just a melding of the lyric and narrative, with a couple "literals" thrown in from Hiccup's past with Toothless. Of course, "down down down" as everything falls apart again. And then the disownment scene, "can't find another way around" on Hiccup not knowing what to do, and then, the one that just hits me:
"I don't want to hear the sound, of losing what I never found."
Hiccup never gained his father's respect and now he's lost even his love.
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_manrfxEzST1rq2fwd.gif
That lyric is so distinctive, and yet so utterly perfect for Hiccup's story.

Back to the purple theme, trying to bring you back into remembering this vid takes place in Hiccup's mind on the docks.

The last part of the song is a lot in b/w to show a change of time again (and because I ran out of story of Hiccup before the docks scene!): So it represents future events, with the VOs on reverb (LOVE that) to show their future status, too, and to give a hopefulness to the otherwise hopeless vid. Got to include some literals with the lyrics, too, and interspersed color scenes to remind you again that this all supposed to be taking place on the docks/epiphany scene. And the song ends on Hiccup's final word of hopelessness, with the resolution alluded to in Astrid's VO and my vain attempt to keep the screen white at the end to highlight the hope at the end of this.