Things are not going well for Hiccup at all. I can't help but think of Harry Potter as these books go on. At some point, Harry is the 'number one undesirable' and Hiccup is very much in the same boat at the start of this book. There's a war and a rebellion. I can feel the maturity levels go up with each book. As much as I love the movies, I wish these books had better adaptations because this book would have been amazing on screen.