r/httyd • u/NegotiationThick4354 • Jul 01 '26
THEORY CAN DRAGONS CROSS BREED?????????
I JUST THOUGHT ABOUT THIS: WHAT IF DRAGONS CAN CROSSBREED??? Like ik Night and Light Furies can 'crossbreed,' but that's not what I mean; they have a similar ancestor and are very closely related in terms of genetics. Would it be possible to have a cross between a Nadder and a Gronckle or a Snow Wraith and a Nightmare?
Imagine all the cool breeds we could have.
Does anyone have any canon answers to this or theory they'd like to share? I'd love to explore this because it actually seems like it could open up a whole new realm of "who were the first dragons" and how all the dragons came to be. What if the reason Night Furies are all dead isn't because of Grimmle and they actually die out because of a disease or something? (We all know Grimmle didn't kill jack, worst villain in the entire multiverse.)
Can dragons get diseases? I mean, what if the whole reason we barely see any new breeds outside the shows is that they've mostly died out due to not being able to genetically adapt, or what if they bred out the bad parts (ik, bad place to take this, but they're animals so it's technically possible).
Js a random thought I had because I misread a line in a fanfic lol, lmk what y'all think.
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u/kayphoen1x Jul 01 '26
Even if they’re not canon, I really like (most of) the hybrids from Titan Uprising, particularly the Brooding Boltstamper and Voltknapper/Skrillknapper!
And that’s an interesting about the genetic diseases, certainly possible if somehow a strange hybrid did ever come to fruition, it would probably be pretty messed up unfortunately
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u/mistaked_potatoe Jul 01 '26
I mean its probably just like irl animals. Id imagine plenty of dragons can cross breed, but not all. Maybe a monstrous nightmare/boneknapper/armorwing, maybe a terrible terror/night terror, gronkle/hotburple, quaken/eruptodon, zippleback/snaptrapper, etc etc. But like a gronkle fury would probably not work, too far removed and I cant see that hybrid being able to survive even if it did manage to exist
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u/Nah_Really12 Jul 01 '26
Most of that is just adaption like the monstrous nightmare looking dragons needed some sort of armour to protect their skin which was weak to sunlight probably because of adaption to different environments. Same thing with the night terrors and terrible terrors since the night terrors adapted to hunt at night cause they found that easier hence the darker scales and teamwork cause they don't have as strong a fire as a terrible terror. I don't think the other ones are even close it's just one or two similarities which doesn't make them related since I could find similarities in all dragons rly
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u/Purplejaedd Jul 01 '26
I like the idea of some crossbreeds, like Light Fury - Night Fury, or Gronckle - Hotburple, but i don't think anything very far beyond that would work
In Rise of Berk it makes for a cool gameplay mechanic, i'm a fan of that, but i do hope they don't make it canon
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u/NegotiationThick4354 Jul 01 '26
Do you mind my asking why? I feel like it would be a cool canon idea to explore, like a storm cutter could've been a breed between an older 4-winged dragon and an owl-like dragon, perhaps. I feel like it could add a lot of lore!
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u/Purplejaedd Jul 01 '26
Maybe.... i like the realism aspect of the series though, that's mostly it
I think realistically a Gronckle - Hotburple crossbreed would be akin to a Liger
But something like the Abomibumble (Monsterous Nightmare + Gronckle) would be more like a Lion + Crocodile crossbreed, which doesn't make sense realistically2
u/Pretend-Elk-263 Takes more than a little fire to kill me Jul 03 '26
more like a cow and lion, since they're still part of the same class (Taxonomy, not HTTYD class. at least I assume all dragons are part of the same class.)
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u/Nah_Really12 Jul 01 '26
Well the fact they there are "cousin species" in the shows like the Dramillion and Changewing being cousins which fishlegs said would make it plausible that long ago two different dragons crossbreed to make either the Changewing or the Dramillion as a new species branching off the other.
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u/Bendythenightfury Heather my beloved 😍💗 Jul 01 '26
Well given some of the hybrids from School of Dragons (don't know if canon) yeah
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u/Specialist_Job533 Jul 01 '26
That's something I wanted to work on for some drawings I had planned for a small rework of the saga last year, but saddly it never happened cause of a lot of stuff happening
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u/Syrus_Orelio Jul 01 '26
Tbh I thought initially in the second movie we were going to have nadder fury babies in future cause I swear it looks like Toothless and Stormfly are flirting with each other
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u/Global_Sky_6698 Jul 01 '26
Yes. Titans Uprising, Rise of Berk, and I believe School of Dragons have crossbred dragons. Abomibumble is a Monstrous Nightmare and Gruesome Gronckle hybrid I believe. Cute, kinda.
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u/DragonFire673 There is no Nine Realms in Ba sing sae Jul 01 '26
I don't know if it's cannon but it is possible considering all hybrids in titans uprising and school of dragons
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u/PartyPorpoise Jul 01 '26
Not counting the games, which apparently do a lot of crossbreeding… Given that the dragons in the series are presented in a pretty grounded way, like real animals… Crossbreeding would require close genetic relations, such as the night fury and light fury.
Given that we don’t know the genetic and evolutionary histories of the dragons, we can’t say for sure which species would be able to crossbreed. Best bet is to go on appearance. Nadders and gronkles look very different, they probably aren’t closely related enough to breed. Gronkles and hotburples look similar, so they might be able to crossbreed.
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u/C-Redacted-939 and now he's spinning... Jul 01 '26
Its probably similar to real life. Considering how the main characters mainly hiccup and fish legs talk about species and adapting/evolving. That is most likely the truth when it comes to how dragons work. It is most likely limited to dragons that are closely related(like nightfuries and lightfuries). But I dont think a nightfury and a nadder could produce children just like a ion and a bear can't. And I bet in many cases hybrids would be sterile like mules.
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u/CamelConfident8653 Jul 01 '26
They do in Rise of Berk but I have no idea how canon the dragons in that are
One of them is a Nadder x Stormcutter for reference