| “ | Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight. | ” |
| — Hiccup reading from Book of Dragons. |
The Changewing is a Mystery Class dragon that has large wings on its back, horns on its face and an antennae-like appendage on top of each of its eyes. This gives the Changewing an unique appearance. This dragon appeared in "Gem of a Different Color". It also had a cameo in the film, along with a section in Book of Dragons.
Dragon Appearance and Behaviors
Changewings nests in large, tall forests in packs. They group together for common goals, or in other words, they are team players, and will stop at almost nothing to remain in possession of their eggs. Also, Changewings are very curious creatures, and like to mimic everything that they see.
A Changewing's egg has gem-like qualities and are green in base, but its aura glows in multiple colors. Some Vikings will mistake these for "Stones of Good Fortune".
Changewings are known to be very cooperative and work together to accomplish their goals. Multiple Changewings help one another acquire one of their eggs, and do not rest or leave until all of their eggs have been found.
The way a Changewing pack works, is very much like how a Lion pride works. The females do most of the hunting and fighting, as well as defending their territory. Males have not been seen in the series yet.
History
How to Train Your Dragon (film)
It made a cameo appearance in the film when Hiccup was looking through the Book of Dragons.
In the Book of Dragons
In the Book of Dragons special, they are listed as one of the Mystery Class dragons, and it is confirmed that not only can Changewings spit acid, but change colors and hypnotize as well. It is also shown that Changewings are very curious dragons. They are seen in a 2D animation where one burns Bork the Bold while he is making a campfire. The Mystery Class symbol resembles one.
Dragons: Riders/Defenders of Berk
The Changewings were found on a island. Fishlegs, on his own "secret" island, finds a strange glowing gem while with his beloved dragon, Meatlug. Taking it back to Berk, Gobber identifies it as a "Stone of Good Fortune, (as Gobber gets "Stones of Good Fortune" and Changewing dragon eggs mixed up) causing the citizens to swarm Fishlegs, offering him valuable trades. Overwhelmed, Fishlegs, after refusing to give it to Snotlout, asks Hiccup to help him return it, so that Fishlegs can forget all about it.
They, excluding Snotlout, who is secretly trailing, take it to the island, where they find many of them, and Hiccup realizes that they are truly dragon eggs. Fishlegs returns it, realizing that it must've fallen from its nest and that he had seperated it from its mother. When they attempt to leave, the Changewings trail them, invisible, trying to attack them using their acid. They escape, but Snotlout enters undetected and steals many of the eggs. The next day, Snotlout auctions them off, and the gang tries to convince him something terrible will happen if the eggs remain here. He ignores them and declares a "No returns" policy. The Changewings gradually show up, getting their eggs back, but destroying the village in the process. Stoick and Gobber try to fend them off, but realize that it would be impossible to attack things they can't see.
Hiccup and the gang scramble to return the eggs, and they end up with giving them all back, but the Changewings don't leave. Fishlegs realizes Snotlout has kept one and confronts him, displaying anger and strength that scares Snotlout into giving it back. Fishlegs then nervously tries to find them, and the Changewings surround Fishlegs and reclaim their egg from him. Afterwards they roar and terrify the unfortunate Viking but leave him completely unharmed. Hiccup later claimed they would need to find one so they could train it, possibly infering they will later appear again.[1]
A Wild Changewing was found where it hid an entrance to Bork's cave and "held Snotlout hostage" until Hiccup freed him.[2] The Outcasts had one kept in a cage on their island.[3] The outcast then used a herd of wild changewings during a fight with Stoick's and Hiccup's dragon riders to distract them.[4]
In Free Scauldy, while searching for the Screaming Death, Hiccup, Fishlegs and the twins discovered a Scauldron that had been washed ashore on Changewing Island and been trapped by one wing under a pile of rocks. Despite the threat posed by the Changewings, their dragons refused to leave the Scauldron to die of dehydration, forcing Ruffnut to tame the dragon - which she named Scauldy - so that the others could remove the rocks and fashion a splint for the damaged wing.
Abilities
With two of their well-known abilities, Changewings are possibly one of the most dangerous and effective hunters to Vikings.
They usually hunt like a pack of wolves according to Hiccup, or a pride of lions as most seen to be females. One dragon lead a single victim from its herd, and the rest surrounds it.[4]
The Changewing's most noticeable attribute is the ability to change the colors and textures of its scales to that of its surroundings to shown to be the most stealthiest dragon of the world, creating an invisible-like effect for passing their victims easily also passing such as vikings, animals, and can pass possible of all dragons.
Unlike most other dragons, the Changewing can launch concentrated streams of acid at victims. This acid can burn through most, if not all, materials in seconds.
Another known feature of this dragon is the unseen ability of hypnotism, only seen in the 2D animation in Book of Dragons so far. As shown by a green Changewing possible males have this ability.
They do shown to have the strength to hold young Vikings with no sign of struggle by their claws.
They even shown some of their intelligence as they can work as team to achieve to get their eggs from enemy's. Also getting more of their pack that will be enough to get rid of trespassers off their island to defend their territory.
In the 2D animation of Book of Dragons, the Changewing is seen breathing fire. Whether they can breath fire is unknown.
They acrobatic and speed is shown to be great. As they shown to be able to prehensile tail to grip also being a flexible body. They even shown to have good reflex to doge some attacks in time.
They even great climbers that can climb on any type of surface.
See Fire Types.
Weakness
The Changewing's skin is vulnerable to attack, as it is softer due to its color-changing properties. Won't be able to hide if their nothing in their area such as the sky.
Appearances
- How to Train Your Dragon (film) (Mentioned)
- Book of Dragons (Mentioned)
- Gem of a Different Color (First appearance)
- We Are Family Part I (Wild Changewing)
- We Are Family Part II (Outcast Changewing)
- Live and Let Fly (Pack of wild Changewings and Outcast Changewings)
- Free Scauldy (Pack of wild Changewings)
Notable Changewings
- Changewing that Bork met (see Book of Dragons)
- Group of Changewings[1]
- Wild Changewing[2]
- Outcast Changewing[3]
- Wild Skies Changewing
- Three wild Changewings and three Outcast Changewings[5]
- Group of Changewings[6]
Trivia
- The Changewing is one of the mystery dragons in Wild Skies along with the Smothering Smokebreath.
- Strangely, according to Book of Dragons, the Changewing breathes acid instead of fire while the special shows one burning Bork the Bold. It could be that their fire is greatly reduced compared to other dragons.
- It is shown that the Book of Dragons doesn't contain a picture of the Changewing[1], but in the movie, there was a picture of the Changewing in the same book.
- The Changewing's facial appearance is similar to that of the Diplocaulus, an extinct, prehistoric amphibian from the Permian period.
- The Changewing appears to be similar in size with the Monstrous Nightmare.
- In the end of the episode of Gem of a Different Color, it was hinted that the Changewing could possibly be trained in the later seasons.
- The Changewing's ability to mimic its surrounding in the episode of Gem of a Different Color, is different from what's shown in Book of Dragons. Its color mimicry in Gem of a Different Colour is fixed on every part of its body while in Book of Dragons, Changewings mimic different colors for different parts of its body, even if it's not in contact with Changewings body making it truly invisible with a little distortion.
- Changewings are red in the animation, but in the Book of Dragons, the one was a greenish-blue. The Book of Dragons on the Cartoon Network website has an icon of a green Changewing. This could mean that female Changewings are red and males are green. Or it could be a production goof. Or it could simply be that Changewings can be either red or green.
- In Rise of Berk, the babies are green and turn red when they are aging.
- In Rise of Berk, when turn into Titan Changewing they are mix of green and red.
- Changewings are similar to RainWings from the Wings of Fire book series. Both can change color, have "Wing" in their name, and spit acid.
- A Changewing's ability to hypnotize is most likely based on the books, where dragons have a hypnotic gaze.
- While Changewings in the animated short, Book of Dragons, camouflage themselves in a chameleon-like way by changing color, in Riders of Berk they disappear completely. In Wild Skies they disappear almost completely, however a faint outline of the dragon is still visible.
- Changewings are also very caring, as seen when one was playing with Snotlout.
- In Book of Dragons, it was said that Changewings display mimicking behavior and love to copy whatever they see. These dragons never show this behavior in the TV Series, most likely because they were defending their territories when the riders encountered them.
- The Changewing is the first dragon species that can change its color, with the second being the Hobblegrunt.
- Changewings were the first dragons to try make every one on Berk abandon their homes.
Notes & Refences
Gallery
