#Stoick's a protective Pappa

[sarnai4]

Missed Opportunity

(Spoilers ahead) I think a major missed opportunity was not having Dagur meet up with Stoick and Alvin after his turn to the good side. The potential for awkwardness/tension is so high! I mean, Stoick pretty obviously hated Dagur long before he actually became their enemy. Sure, we had the moment of him noticing that the Berserker had sent willow bark, but that was it. They even were around each other in order to pull off Hiccup's plan before the whole "Is Viggo or Ryker telling the truth" thing happened. How did they not show us their conversation? I feel like Stoick would just be in full protective dad/chief mode to let Dagur know that there's an ax with his name on it if he ever tries to come after the Riders or Berk again. I feel like it could have been funny to watch Dagur try to prove he's not out to hurt any of them while he's on the receiving end of death glares. It would be like inviting some friend over who your parents can't stand and make it very clear that they can't.

Dagur must have done something to make Stoick trust him since he sent Gustav to stay there on the island with him. Of course, an argument could be made that Stoick was fine with the annoying Viking being killed. I just wish we saw that happen. It also would've been fun to see Stoick go from, "Give me a reason 🤬" to "Please, keep this guy for a few weeks at least😫. I promise I'll forgive you if you do!"

On a more serious note, showing them actually working together as chiefs could have highlighted the difference between the relationship Berk and Berserker Island have now with Dagur vs before with Oswald. Oswald gave them peace. Dagur gave them an alliance.

The Alvin interaction would have given us the tension/drama. There's been nothing but bad blood between them and their only tie which isn't negative is that they're allies with Berk. Dagur escaped from prison while Alvin was presumably away or at least not there at the moment. I bet Alvin is still bitter about losing his prisoner and Dagur's absolutely not about to try to return. I feel like Alvin would try to test him to see if the chief will just snap. Then, Dagur would try to prove to himself and the others that he's different even when someone is trying to antagonize him.

I didn't do the first part with Stoick, but I did write a scenario about the Alvin side of things on Ao3. It's called Clean Slates if anyone is curious.