#VALKA ERET OH MY GOODNESS!!!

[ziggityzigg]

I saw a funny actor au so i figure i should try it with httyd.

—- Httyd3

*Snotlout tryna stay steady on the barrel*

Director: “You good?”

S: “Shut up i got this.”

*Snotlout ends up falling and everyone laughs*

—- Httyd2

*Hiccup getting ready for his shout*

H: “FUCK!”

“OH SHIT WAIT-“

*Valka laughs offscreen*

Director: “Cut-“

—- httyd2

Eret: “With two gooder dragon riders sneaking into our-“ *Eret slips off Stormfly.*

A: “You okay?”

H: “Oh, my gods.”

E: “I’M FINE.”

[10blue10]

The Hidden World Themes

(Rediscovered this on my computer and decided to dust it off and post it here on Tumblr XD)

The intended themes of HTTYD: THW, as far as I can tell, are about maturing, letting go, accepting change and standing on your own. These are all good themes and I agree with them in theory. The problem is the way they were handled. I’m sorry, but if the themes have gotten mixed up with implications about segregation and ‘otherness’, romantic vs platonic relationships being portrayed as a binary or one better than the other, and looking for a quick fix solution to avoid problems rather than face and solve them…then something has gone very wrong. I’m sure many of you may insist that Dean didn’t intend for these implications to be in the movie, but they are there regardless. If anything, the fact that Dean apparently didn’t notice or dismissed these issues with his script makes him more culpable, not less. Furthermore, does a franchise based on the premise ‘Vikings who ride dragons’ really need to be realistic? I’m not expecting a play by play of how history would change, but when you put dragons, or any supernatural element, in the ‘real world’, that changes things by definition. ‘Realism’ means addressing typically ignored consequences, not ‘copying’ reality (I recommend Overly Sarcastic Productions ‘Trope Talk: Realism’ for a more comprehensive exploration). That’s what reality TV is for. As I was saying…

Theme One – Coming of Age Dean wanted HTTYD to be Hiccup’s coming of age story, but he also projects onto Hiccup, and therein lies the biggest problem with the movie (and really the franchise as a whole). It revolves entirely around Hiccup, to the point that the other characters feel like NPCs, and Dean is simply ‘playing’ as Hiccup. Snotlout, the twins and even Fishlegs are all portrayed as being way more immature, irresponsible and ignorant than Hiccup ever was, but their complete lack of development is used for ‘comic relief’ (and I use the phrase very loosely). They don’t actually matter, because this is The Hiccup Show, aka The Dean Show.

What gets me is the fact that the movie seems to equate ‘coming of age’ with “get married”. Right from the start Hiccup is told he should marry Astrid, and then at the end when he sends the dragons away he’s rewarded for this ‘mature’ decision by… marrying Astrid. Something that was going to happen anyway, because of course it was. There was no way the franchise wouldn’t end with a Hiccstrid wedding scene. Let’s give the ‘coming of age’ arc to Snotlout instead, shall we? After all, he’s had development before regarding his dad Spitelout, so we can run with that. Instead of flirting with Valka (eww), we can have him be overly competitive towards Eret, to the point it’s affecting missions. Snotlout blames Eret for leaving Ruffnut behind, and Eret asks what Snotlouts’ problem with him is. To which Snotlout responds that he’s jealous, because Eret is tall, strong, handsome (wait what?), talented… even Spitelout likes him more! So Eret tells Spitelout that if he really said he prefers a complete stranger over his own son, he’s a shit dad, and then he punches Spitelout in the face. Because who among us hasn’t wanted to see Spitelout get punched in the face? Seeing this would give Snotlout the courage to stand up to his dad later in the movie. / Theme Two – With Love Comes Loss Oh boy. I get it; Dean was going for a classic ‘if you love them, let them go’ message and used this flashback scene to foreshadow/parallel it. But Stoick and Hiccup’s situations are completely different! 1) Stoick thought Valka was dead. It’s not like she decided to go and live with dragons, and he respected her decision to do so. They were separated by something outside of his control and he had to come to terms with that. 2) Stoick didn’t expect the other men on Berk to give up their wives because he’d lost his. Now then, who shall we give the ‘with love comes loss’ arc to? How about Valka and Gobber, who are also mourning Stoick. Perhaps they both unintentionally put pressure on Hiccup to be like his dad, trying to vicariously have Stoick with them through his son, if that makes sense. We could replace the flashback with a scene of them worried about Hiccup. One thing leads to another and they realise that they’ve been so focused on wanting Stoick back in some way that they haven’t just mourned and reminisced together. / Theme Three – Embracing Change “Look at you, embracing change. I’m proud of you” – says Astrid, to… I’m sorry, who? Hiccup? As in Hiccup ‘changed the whole of Berk’ Haddock? Hiccup ‘first Viking to ride a dragon’ Haddock? What the fuck? This line is stupid and makes no sense. Actually a lot of Astrid’s lines are stupid and make no sense, but I won’t get into that. The point is, Hiccup is the last person who needs to learn to ‘embrace change’. In fact, let’s just cut this theme entirely. There’s such a thing as having too many themes crammed into one story. / Theme Four – Stand/Fly on Your Own

Now for the theme that even the marketing played up. Hiccup thinks he’s nothing without Toothless, so he needs to let Toothless go. That’s the only way for him to stand on his own… or is it? Yes, in real life circumstances change, friends and even families drift apart, and people should be able to ‘stand on their own’ as independent individuals, absolutely – but we do this all the time without having to cut off ties to those we care about. There are hundreds of people in healthy, balanced relationships who still have friends beyond their significant other. ‘If you love them, let them go’ is a nice sentiment, but to me it applies better to unhealthy, imbalanced relationships i.e.: a parent who can’t deal with their child growing up, or an ex-lover struggling to accept that their partner has moved on.

As a real world example, if someone is dependent on another (often a romantic partner) for self-worth, the solution would not be to have them cut ties with their source of affirmation. It would be better to help them find self-worth within themselves, so they can ‘stand on their own’, without having to rely on another person’s approval or support…but that other person can still be there. So let’s address the Buffalord in the room; Hiccup’s apparent dependency on Toothless. For the sake of argument, we’ll assume he is too reliant on his best friend as a source of self-worth. The issue that needs addressing isn’t his reliance on Toothless, it’s his lack of self-worth without the dragons. Sending the dragons away didn’t need to be the ‘solution’ to this problem. He and Toothless had an equal, healthy partnership, shown through their matched missing limbs, similar personalities, and the way they treat each other.

HTTYD1 gives us a perfectly valid reason for why Hiccup would associate his self-worth with Toothless and the dragons. After all, if it weren’t for training Toothless, he would have stayed an outcast in his own tribe. People tell him “You’re nothing without your dragon”, but these people are usually the villains. As in the ones he has no good reason to listen to. If he believes them on some level, then that means neither he, Stoick, Gobber or Astrid ever addressed the issues that led to his lack of self-esteem and his need for an emotional crutch (which ends up being Astrid). That is the real problem, not his friendship with Toothless. If we want to give Hiccup an arc about ‘standing on his own’, let’s pick up where the second movie left off and have him still be torn between his duties as chief and what he actually wants to do with his life. At the end he understands that he doesn’t need Toothless or the dragons to define himself with, but he wants to keep studying and rescuing the dragons regardless. He chooses his own path rather than trying to follow in his father’s footsteps, thus culminating the arc of individualism/self worth that started in the first movie. I’ve also come up with a parallel negative arc for Grimmel that can tie into this ‘rewrite’, but that can be it’s own post, since this one is long enough as it is. So, how would you guys improve on the themes in THW?

[spacenintendogs]

I’ll be asking about the dragons off the coast au.

What inspired you to make this au?/what made you make it different from every other modern au. (Small dragons was a great idea)

What does Valka/Eret do in this Au?:)

Whose all not included? (Any villains/side characters, ect.)

howdy!!

i was inspired by modern aus by ppl in the past mainly from when i was a teenager!! funkytoes/funkytoesart, siggyshrieks/sigtryggr, perpez/rikez, daglout, edge-of-bizarre, soplezhuj, & yenich are my main inspirations! some these blogs do not exist anymore but old reblogged posts can be found! obv any blog that still exists i will link directly!!

this is going to be LONG so please bare with me!

the answers to your questions about eret and valka & then other character inclusions/exclusions will be after the list of my inspirations!!

example of rikez/perpez's work! they're my main inspiration for the dragons being small!!!!!! the idea also isn't unique, it's been done before in the past but rikez/perpez's works are SO amazing!!! they are also where i got the idea for having the legendary dragons keep their leviathan sizes!! i miss their blog so much.

funkytoes/funkytoesart is the inspiration for the sanctuary aspect!! the dragons are their full sizes in their au but i LOVE the whole vibe of it all!! so so so good!!!! their blogs are still active and you can scroll through their httyd art at your leisure!!! highly reccomend esp if you're a hiccstrid fan!!! @/funkytoesart (remove the /)

sigtryggr/siggyshrieks is one of my biggest inspos for overall vibes and the feelings i want this au to create. this art means so much to me. they still make art, but not for httyd as they've gone professional and deleted all of their httyd art from their blogs. their blog is currently @/celialowenthal (remove the /)

edge-of-bizarre's modern au called north of nowhere is also a huge inspiration to me!!!! have been since they first appeared in the fanbase and i was a kid who lurked without having a tumblr acc!! pls pls pls check out their au!! absolutely stellar

daglout's modern au is also incredible and includes versions with regular animals as well as the dragons being dragons!! he also has an au where everything happens in florida and it's fucking incredible like. pls just scroll through his modern au and florida au tags!!

so much of my au is an amalgamation of what i've seen over the past 14 years in terms of being in the fanbase (lurking and otherwise) and just. trying to combine my favorite reoccuring aspects, like the dragons being dragons and being small, from different ones and the uniqueness that makes mine different is just?? i think the stories i'm telling with the setting and that's also what separates everyone else from each other!!! different character interpretations/even different favorites leads to different stories abt how everything connects!!!

one of my biggest inspirations is definitely soplezhuj in terms of how the characters are and basic things like general direction of where they go/what they do (like snotlout being a biker guy!) their art was everything to me back in 2015/2016 and i still have it saved to my phone. i miss their blog every day.

EDIT: OH MY GOD I DIDN'T ADD @yenich!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYTHING THEY DO FOR THEIR MODERN AU IS INCREDIBLE PLS GIVE THEM LOVE!!!!!!!! absolutely STELLAR!!!!!!!!

what do valka & eret do in this au?

valka is alive and well, however she is a mostly absent mother as her conservation work with dragons has her traveling the world and she considers it to be more important than anything else in her life, at the expense of her relationships with stoick & hiccup. hiccup looks up to her SO much tho & he yearns to be like her & help her with her work. she doesn't NOT love stoick & hiccup but her priorities are elsewhere & she maybe shouldn't have started a family but alas. hiccup & stoick will visit her wherever she is during summers. she doesn't come home too often but once stoick dies she decides to be in hiccup's life full time & has to come to terms with the fact she does not know her son at all & was a terrible mother. i'm actually very excited for her arc :) cloudjumper is her buddy btw!!! also she was the one who originally started the hidden world sanctuary in berk!! but once she started traveling it became too much & that's why it's not in use until hiccup gets it going again! she's also connected to drago! they're former partners in conservation work & they had a BAD disagreement!! (drago is going to be more fleshed out for this au. he's not gonna be straight bad guy villain!!)

eret, on the other hand, is a poacher :) after the red death, berk becomes a destination spot for tourists esp with the sanctuary & the stories of the potential last night fury in existence being there draws a lot of attention. he goes & visits, pretending to be a tourist, & gets a tour to help scout for the group he's a part of. there's like, a whole heist planned & everything, which isn't new for the gang given who they deal with before :) through his scouting tho, he befriends astrid & learns a lot abt dragons & becomes attached to stormfly (obv!!) & then skullcrusher (much to stoick's chagrin lol) & does decide to side with the gang & admits his (now former) job. :) he becomes the tidal class dragon guy (not quite an expert yet but he's on his way!!) & splits the tracker class dragon duties with astrid to help take off her work load

who's all not included?

characters from the comics except for bayana!!! i love bayana and he deserves his time!! i haven't talked abt him yet bc i'm figuring out his storyline but i want him to be one of the volunteers & help with the mystery class dragons specifically and therefore works with the twins!!! but yea, other than bayana, no comic characters like king mikkel or the scalie bad guy dude from the serpent's heir (caldur i think lol)

characters that will be there but i haven't figured out yet are viggo, ryker, krogan, etc!! it's me trying to have everything connect in such short time spans & it's a lot LOL

i've figured out basic ideas for alvin & drago!!! they're connected to stoick and valka, respectively :) but i'm basically like this rn lol:

but tbh any character is fair game!! even book characters like camicazi!! altho idk if i'll put like, humongously hotshot the hero or big boobied bertha in for major roles!! (omg i could have tantrum o'uglery as someone fishlegs crushes on..... that'd be iconic) i'm even including my oc ermintrude for a side story & have @artinandwritin's oc siri be in my snotstrid fic!!! it's all depending on my mood & if the ideas strike me!!!

thank u for asking!!!!

[piareia]

The Fire Tides Chapter 2: Flaming the Fractures

I know Richard stated that Astrid narrates the story at the beginning instead of Hiccup and I fell in love with their choice to do that. But I found it hard for me to switch between the two in one chapter, especially since I can’t exactly 'write' the cover page of the comic ‘This is my story’ with Astrid’s face. That’s why I’ve decided to just stick to Hiccup for this chapter - everything else pretty much follows the plot. This chapter is more of a light-hearted one, tried to lighten things up after the last chapter.

“This is Berk. It storms twice a month and rains the other three. We don’t get much sun this time of the year but we often like to think of rain as a blessing from Thor himself - almost as if he’s gifting us with the growth of our farms! Especially since we’ve been working so hard to rebuild the island. I mean, with the help of all of our dragons of course.”

“Hey Hiccup, who are you talking to?” Tuffnut looked at him doe-eyed, stroking a grown-up Chicklet with a raised eyebrow.

“To the new people living here, Tuff! That’s twice you’ve interrupted me with that same question.” Hiccup let out a defeated sigh.  

“Yes, I did! I did interrupt you! But have you ever thought about customer service? Hiccup, my frail, ailing leader, you have so much yet to learn. The Berk tours are proficiently done yes, but questions are an everlasting part of the human mind. We must embrace our inner thoughts, our inner feelings, our-”

“Moving on!” Hiccup soared past him, signalling the new villagers to keep walking and new dragons to keep flying, “As you can see, more homes are being rebuilt. We figured its best to keep them up high, especially as it will suit the new dragons too. That’s why I’ve requested more wooden stilts for the foundations.”

“Oh! And feeding stations are being multiplied. As well as the shower pulleys!” Hiccup smiled at Astrid as he watched her hammer the scrap metal into place.

So much had happened since Drago, it was hard to believe that they were able to reestablish themselves in such a short amount of time. Things were still in construction, things still needed to be cleaned up (the twins really didn’t understand Hiccup’s ‘no’ to digging another boar pit!) but so far, with the amount of effort everyone was putting in, everything was going according to Hiccup’s plan.

He gazed at his father’s statue. It rained a little just an hour ago, so the sentinel looked shiny and glazed, almost as if it had been polished by the gods above. The legacy of his father was too masterful for anyone to even come remotely close and this giant structure reminded everyone, old and new, of one thing: there will never be another chief like Stoick the Vast. Hiccup sighed, slowly getting lost in thought.

“Ahem.”

His eyes fluttered and he looked to the left to see Eret and Skullcrusher.

“Hate to break the tour, Chief,” he scratched Skullcrusher’s head, “But we have a meeting to go to?”

“Oh, right.” Hiccup suddenly remembered and laughed, “Yep, with all the design plans, the new additions, the training schemes - that meeting flew right out of my head!”

“Well that’s why I’m here, Chief!” Eret remarked with a playful tone.

Hiccup gave an apologetic look to the new villagers and their dragons, “Sorry guys but the tour will have to end here. Please feel free to have a look around and get used to the place.”

By noon, Hiccup, Valka and the riders were all boarded on the Foreverwing – he decided to leave Gobber in charge, since he helped create majority of the design plans and knew them off by heart. Seeing as all of the trees and foliage made it difficult for them to have a full distinct view of what was in front of them, they all stood close to the Foreverwing’s head in order to keep a good eye on any incoming dangers.

Impatiently, Snotlout started stamping his feet, “Oi! You overgrown bird’s nest! If you don’t start to move in the next minute, I will cut off as many of these trees and use your brain as a drum for me to -”

The Foreverwing grunted and lazily nudged Snotlout’s body upwards, sending him flying to the very trees he wished to threaten him with.

“Aargh!”

Hiccup clutched onto Astrid’s hand as the Foreverwing began to move. The two stood in front of the sun in a close embrace, closing their eyes to the warmth of the soft rays and the occasional drifts of the calm breeze. However, he didn’t know whether the Foreverwing took a harsh jostle or nearly fell asleep again, but somehow, her hand slipped out of his.

“Seems like the gods are reassessing whether you should be with me!” Hiccup chuckled, grabbing hold of her waist tightly.

“Oh really? Well, I’d have to say it’s the other way around.” Astrid laughed as she played with Hiccup’s hands.

“You always have to one up me, don’t you?”

“I guess it’s only fair since you’ve one upped me too many times in the past!” she smirked, giving him a quick consoling peck on the cheek as they gazed at the floating clouds.

And that's Chapter 2 done! Hope you guys enjoyed it, a very huge contrast between this and the last chapter I know! Tried to include some foreshadowing about the overpopulation issue and Hiccup and Astrid getting separated after the maelstrom. Currently working on Chapter 3 (the meeting between the chiefs), so be prepared for the reunion between Hiccup and Dagur/ Eret and his Father/ Fishlegs and Heather hehe! :)

[dragonmasterhiccup]

Eret stumbled back as Toothless came running at him, eyes wide with shock.

Though he quickly regained his composure, and without asking questions, he nodded curtly, looking up at Hiccup with determination. “Aye-aye Chief, I’m on it!” And with that, he was jogging towards Astrid’s hut, alerting her to the situation.

Danny had been minding her own business, washing one of the Zipplebacks in the stables, when Hiccup came speeding in on Toothless.

She flinched, dropping the brush, turning around and staring up at Hiccup wide-eyed.

She didn’t take long to react, immediately mounting onto Toothless’ saddle, her hands resting on either of Hiccups shoulders, waiting for him to take off. “Hiccup, what’s going on?! Is everything okay?”

Something was most definitely wrong, Hiccup rarely acted with such urgency unless something was seriously off.

———

Eret had rounded up the majority of the council, excluding Fishlegs and Spitelout. Fishlegs had been gone on leave, going to check on the Dramillions, and Spitelout… was no one where to be found…

Eret, Astrid, Valka, and Snotlout all sat in Hiccups hut, anxiously waiting for him to return.

“So does ANYBODY know what this is about? Anybody at all?!” Snotlout snapped. “And WHERE is my dad? He’s a council member too y’know.”

“I couldn’t find Spitelout fast enough, he was no where to be seen,” Eret retorted.

“Well, the last time I saw him, he got mad and went to find Hiccup, I must’ve said something to tick him off.”

As soon as she was holding on, they took off, heading towards the beach. "It's Spitelout, he knows, and he's on a rampage. You need to hide, it's not safe...there's a cave on the beach, it's well hidden, no one else knows about it, aside from me. You should be safe there until I know what plan to use."

He turned back, his face full of sorrow. "This...it's all my fault. I should have acted on it sooner. I'm so sorry, Danny. I'm going to fix this, I promise!"

-----------------------

At the mention of Spitelout, Astrid and Valka exchanged a look, both having a sneaking suspicion of what this was all about.

Astrid raised an eyebrow at Snotlout. "What did you say, Snotlout?"

Then, Hiccup and Toothless came in. The young chief was visibly worried. "Oh, good, you're all here...well, most of you, actually this...this is fine. We have a problem."

"You all remember Danny? And....who her father was? It's Spitelout, he found out, and....he's on a war path. He's looking to...to imprison or even execute her, because he sees her as an enemy, and he sees me as....well, let's not get into that." He ran a hand through his hair, pacing as he spoke.

He further explained why he hadn't said anything sooner, since he didn't know how the people would react, and Spitelout was out there right now stirring up strife, spreading the news far and wide.

Finally staying in place, his hands fell at his sides. "She's hidden now, in a safe place, but...I...I don't know how to fix this."

He certainly couldn't tell the whole story...how she'd shot a dragon with an arrow out of fear, attempted to steal a boat and leave, he especially couldn't mention the time one of her friends had come, trying to kill Hiccup. But she had come through in that moment, saving his life.

Of course, no one, except those who were there, knew that his life had hung in the balance so recently.

Astrid spoke up first. "Well, she's not a Bludvist anymore. That might calm down the people."

Valka chimed in. "That may be true, but who knows how well they'll react to her being a Haddock now?"

"That should show that she's loyal, wouldn't it? There's a thing to be said about names, especially chosen names." Astrid looked to Hiccup as she stood alongside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We'll figure this out, Hiccup."

His gaze was down on the floor.

Valka spoke up again. "Perhaps...we had the girl speak for herself? She is genuinely happy to be here, that might help the people see the truth."

Hiccup shook his head. "Until we can guarantee that she won't be imprisoned, or banished, or killed....I can't take that chance of putting her in front of an angry crowd."

[artinandwritin]

Okay okay okay I wanna hear all about that next gen thing bc that is crazy dude how did that even happen omg

OH YES alright! This is gonna be another full-on Mona-rants-moment so strap in bestie!

I don’t know exactly when I started thinking about a HTTYD next gen, but it must’ve been somewhere around 2014, after I had watched both movies almost right after each other. Gotta confess, before watching HTTYD1 on a vacation to Germany as a little 10-almost-11-year-old, I thought it was a horror movie. Oops. I thought the same about Shrek, but now I unapologetically adore both of them.

So as little kids, me and my twin brother (let the record state, he’s younger than me. By four minutes. It’s a real thing) were absolutely obsessed with HTTYD. So much, that we would roleplay as dragons and – wheeze – HiccStrid’s potential twin kids. Oh, yeah, we were deep into it. We were so deep. We played out adventures and pretended to fly on our pretend dragons, whom we named Fly Fly and Toe Toe and they were, you are allowed to laugh, the kids of Toothless and a Whispering Death. My brother’s favorite dragons were the Whispering Deaths, and we were great at biology. Nope.

After that whole shabang, we went to middle/high school, my brother grew past his Dragons-phase, I stayed right where I was cuz ofc I did, and after meeting some new friends who were just as much into HTTYD as I was (one of them was the friend who gave my the nickname Mona and helped me with Of Thrones and Heirs!), we kinda created a new next gen based of what we thought was cool lmao. I couldn’t find a lot of information on that on my laptop, since most of it was handwritten or only spoken to each other – and tbh, I’m not really feeling up to checking my chats about it with one of those friends cuz I’m not friends with them anymore. But that’s okay, we have a lot more information for what came next!

I developed the next gen a bit on my own, I remember, still with some influences from the friends I had created the last version with. And for this one I still got a lot of details, so let me grab them for ya.

In this next gen, HiccStrid had five kids. Yeah, they be being busy. Zephyr and Nuffink got added a bit later, after I had seen THW, before that they only had the oc children I created as a lil 14-year-old. They had, in order, Zephyr Stormfly (20 y.o.), Nuffink Toothless (18 y.o.), Alischa Valka (14 y.o., aka, the main character), Stoick Finn (13 y.o.) and Lunette Ansfrid (3 y.o.). Oh yeah, that’s a mouthful.

Next to HiccStrid, back then I also shipped Heather and Fishlegs. Not sure if I still do now, but back then they had the following kids; Helen Windshear (19 y.o., she was Zephyr’s best friend), Fay Heather (16 y.o.), Veena Astrid (16 y.o., she and her twin sister were created by my friend I think), Beril/Hugo Oswald (13 y.o., not sure which of the two names. All I know is that he was Stoick’s bestie).

To the more… complicated part, young me put some drama into this next gen by making a divorce plot. So what I thought was cool (and because I didn’t really like Snotlout back then. Very stupid, he’s the kingest of kings), was the idea that Snotlout and Ruffnut had a son right after THW after a one-night-stand (Thorvald Hookfang, 21 y.o., all I know is that he had a huge crush on Zephyr). After that, they tried to make things work, but they didn’t, and they did a divorce thing. After that, Ruff went with Eret and had twins, Audun Eret (19 y.o., he’s the guy I wrote down as the Gustav of the next gen lmao) and Hialti Ruffnut (19 y.o., I don’t think she had a very good life). Meanwhile, Snotlout had a daughter with Minden, Ylva (13 y.o., she had a crush on Stoick).

Tuffnut had two kids with some chick, Annika Macey (19 y.o., she and Nuffink were in love or something) and Kjell Lloyd (19 y.o., I don’t know shit about him).

For the rest, I only had kids for Dagur and Mala cuz oh yeah they were a thing. Don’t think I really shipped them, but they were fun to include. Their kids were Ingrid Heather (16 y.o., I literally don’t know anything about her), Oswald Dagur (5 y.o.) and Siri Mala (3 y.o., the first Siri! I don’t know anything about her).

So that was that next gen. Alischa was the main character, she later got a whole fledged out story involving Grimmel’s grandkid, Arcum (who she got a crush on ofc, I basically redid the whole “enemies to lovers” thing I loved doing in Of Thrones and Heirs), while trying to prove herself to her overprotective dad Hiccup, finding the Hidden World and the Night Lights in the process. She bonded with Toothless’ daughter, Safire, which would’ve been pretty cute.

That whole thing was pushed aside in favor of Siri in December 2019, unfortunately. While I did try to recreate the next gen several times (I am still figuring out what the actual fuck I wanna do with ships in the original cast and who would have kids and who wouldn’t. All I know is HiccStrid has Zephyr and Nuffink cuz that’s canon and Tuffnut is aroace and the cool uncle. For the rest… man, I don’t know. I love FishLout, I love RuffLegs, I love the idea of Minden and Snotlout, I wanna see Snotlout with a daughter, etc etc. I just don’t know anything lmao), things never really stuck, as I was in the height of creating Siri’s story, and in addition, Niv’s story. Now I primarily wanna think about the next gen cuz I wanna give gussiri’s kids some friends pff

Like, at some point I tried to change up the entire next gen; I paired up Tuffnut and Heather (some weird idea from the friend I’m no longer friends with. I don’t know why), they had four whole kids (Dagny, Kyll, and Lloyd, who were triplets born in 1018, and Oswald Loki Chicken Sverd, yes, who was born in 1028). It was a weird move. I also cut down on Dagur and Mala’s kids, giving them only a daughter, named Hedvig, born in 1022. Zephyr (1018) and Nuffink (1021) still existed, but they no longer had any siblings. Lloyd and Zephyr were in love and it was very cute, and Hedvig and Nuffink had a thing going on.

Next to that, I removed the whole thing with Snotlout, Ruff, Eret and Minden, now Snotlout and Minden only had twins (Vidar and Ylva, born in 1021, Vidar wanted to become a wingmaiden). Eret and Ruff had a son named Sol (1023), which is very weird now, considering one of my best friends is named Sol lmao. Fishlegs had a son from a one-night-stand (Kjott, 1019), and the only reason for that is because the friend I’m no longer friends with didn’t like Fishlegs for his “disgusting” relationship with Meatlug. Glad I’m finally allowing to love this precious boy instead of being forced to go along with their opinions.

At this point, Sunniva and Helene didn’t exist as GusSiri kids, rather being replaced by a daughter named Funnet (1025) and a son named Agnarr (1028, Aggie and Oswald had a cute thing together). Niv did exist! I created him and he never changed, he’s just too much of a baby boy for that.

So yeah, that’s how it all shifted and turned over the years! I hope I can point my vision on trying to point down some good characters to be- WAIT A FUCKING SECOND

OH MY GOD I JUST FORGOT THAT I LITERALLY HAVE A DOCUMENT WITH MORE NEXT GEN STUFF THAT IS FAIRLY RECENT AND INCORPORATES INTO SOME STUFF FROM STARCHASER

FUCK LEMME LOOK INTO THIS REAL QUICK

Okay so turns out this is from 2021 and luckily for all of us it’s short and to the point so let’s get cracking. HiccStrid only had Zephyr Valka (1018) and Nuffink Stoick (1021), Snotlout had Vidar and Ylva (both 1019, idk who their other parent is), Dagur and Mala had Hedvig (1017), Ruffnut and Fishlegs had Reider Fishlegs (1018), Saga Meatlug (1023), Amund Tuffnut (1025), and Steinar Barf (1028). For the rest, nothing, and honestly, better, I don’t really wanna keep track of so many kids lmao. I’m not a daycare (read: has created a new oc last week)

Anyways, I think that’s all for now! Thank you so much for being so appreciated, I really appreciate it bestie <333 you’re amazing!!

[frustrated-writer-skyeknight]

How to Train Your Dragon 2 Plotbunnies

When Jack and Hiccup went off on their own, they encountered they encountered the hoard of dragons without the masked figure. In that encounter, it was a bit rough and Jack got knocked unconscious when a large dragon tail smacked him to the walls. That was when Hiccup pulled out his fire sword to keep them away from Jack.

The masked figured finally showed up at that moment.

Jack regained consciousness half an hour later. Hiccup was glad he was okay, and excited to introduce him to his mother. Jack thought he was dreaming up until the point Toothless pounced on him, showing his own relief that he was fine by licking him.

Jack doesn’t like to grow his hair too long, even with it being the preferred style for Vikings and Berkians. However, he does grow it a bit just so Hiccup has something to pull when they do bed room things.

When it comes to the relationship between Jack and Hiccup, (Officially making it Aster now because I just love him and Jack’s relationship) it’s surprisingly Stoick who plays good cop while Aster goes bad cop.

Aster is actually super protective of Jack, even as he tries not to be obvious about it.

Hiccup and Jack take turns (if you know, you know)

Jamie lives in Berk and is seen with Jack when Jack isn’t with Hiccup. If Hiccup didn’t know he was courting Astrid, he would still be extremely wary when Jack and Jamie are having a good time together.

As it is, he is only slightly wary.

Jack still majors as a medic on the battlefield, but he makes sure to keep up with enough combat techniques to back up a reckless Hiccup. Even with Toothless, they’re not foolproof.

Especially not with Hiccup’s experiments on flight suits.

Toothless and Jack are so done with Hiccup’s clumsy falls with his flight suits.

Jack finally gets over his aquaphobia when he had to dive down partially frozen river to rescue Hiccup.

Valka and Jack get along swimmingly. Jack helps her relearn how to cook.

Aster and Gobber often make bets with each other on who the winners will be in dragon races or other such competitions. Their choices are usually between Hiccup or Astrid. If on the off chance that neither of the two wins, they check who wins the bet according to the next best placement between the two.

Hiccup and Jack enjoy their time with Valka and the many dragons.

Hiccup and Valka bonded over the dragons.

Jack and Valka bonded over cooking, in Valka's case re-learning the basics.

Jamie finds out that Eret is his brother, but he doesn't like the circumstances of their reunion. He needed Eret to prove he wasn't just using this to betray them later on.

Dialgoue/Interactions

[Astrid and Stormfly fly toward them. Astrid stands on Stormfly's back, keeping her balance.]

Jamie: Get 'em, Astrid!

Tuffnut: It's MY glory!

Ruffnut: Always ruining EVERYTHING!

Tuffnut: NO SHEEP, NO GLORY!

[Astrid leaps off of Stormfly, runs up Belch's spindly neck, and plucks the Black Sheep from the Twins' hands.]

Astrid: Gotcha! Ha-ha!

[She tumbles through the air onto Stormfly, sticking a perfect landing, the Black Sheep in hand.]

Tuffnut: Whoa!

Ruffnut: Astrid!

Stoick: Well played! Ha, ha, ha!

Jamie: (To the crowd) That's my girl!

Fishlegs: Whoo-hoo!

[Back to Astrid on Stormfly, eyeing the fast-approaching finish line, unaware as Fishlegs suddenly rams Meatlug into Stormfly, sending Astrid off-course. She recovers and sees Snotlout flying headlong toward her, war hammer cocked, aiming at Astrid.]

Snotlout: Uh, excuse me!

Astrid: Stormfly!

[Snotlout hurls his hammer. Astrid ducks and rolls Stormfly out of the way. The hammer catches Fishlegs in the face with a CLANG. The crowd collectively winces.]

Crowd: Oh!

[Astrid and Stormfly recover from their roll, loop over the water, and they blast past the finish line, dunking the Black Sheep into their basket! ASTRID WINS!]

Stoick: That's thirteen! Astrid takes the game!

❄️🐉

[Hiccup and Jack goes off flying while the race transpired. After another bad landing from Hiccup testing his flight suit, they settle down in an island they've never been to before.]

Hiccup: So what should we name it?

[Toothless chews at his armpit]

Hiccup: "Itchy Armpit" it is. 

Jack: You should work on your naming skills, Hic.

[Jack gives Hiccup a moment to finish including the addition of the new island they discovered on his journal before diverting the topic elsewhere.]

Jack: So, quick question to interrupt your mapping. *he says this while casually twirling his staff* I love flying with you and Toothless and all.

Jack: But any reason in particular you dragged me from Aster’s Trading post to go all the way out here?

Jack: Instead of, I don’t know… The race you’ve been preparing for weeks now?

Jack: I’m open with options that doesn’t involve clothes.

Hiccup: *Rolls his eyes as he answers curtly* Avoiding dad.

Jack: *In deadpan* Oh no. Pretending now I wasn't there during the conversation, tell me about it.

[Hiccup proceeds to explain things and gestures wildly as he rants. Jack doesn’t interrupt or anything, but he does mirror Hiccup’s actions playfully while his mouth mimes the words his boyfriend speaks. Hiccup finally notices at one point and tugs Jack down on his lap.]

Jack: I like where this is going...

Hiccup: Could you— *he tries not to smile but come on this is Jack we’re talking about. Finally, he clears his throat* Jackson Overland, this is serious.

Jack: Okay, okay. I’ll behave.

[Hiccup finally continues. And gets to the part of Stoick wanting to make Hiccup chief soon.]

Jack: Sounds about right.

Jack: He’s the chief. You’re his son, the next in line.

Jack: What, did you except that you’d take over Gobber’s blacksmithing business?

Hiccup: That's— Well, I kinda hoped…

Jack: Hiccup…

Hiccup: It’s just… I’m not ready.

Hiccup: And I know we had this talk before too, yeah, “Oooh~ I rather be Jackson Overland, the next chief’s sweetheart” and not just meh~ “Jackson Overland, the Blacksmith’s sweetheart”.

Jack: *snorting and hitting him lightly on the head with the safe end of his staff* A flattering impression, Hic.

Hiccup: But... I'm scared I might mess it up.

Jack: And that’s okay.

Hiccup: Last I checked, it's not really 'okay' to mess up.

Jack: Which has never stopped us before, if you don't recall. The whole feud with dragons and you Vikings ended because of our "messing tradition up" and that worked out well enough. In the end, we manage to make it work.

Jack: Kidding aside, You’ll get to that point where you'll accept the role wholeheartedly, and you'll know just what to do when you're made chief. You have it in you, Hic.

Hiccup: How could you know that?

Jack: Well, you have your dad's stubborness, for one thing.

Jack: And also, it's because I believe in you.

[Hiccup smiles softly and starts to lean in for a kiss. Then a strange explosion erupted somewhere farther North of them. A strange explosion… of Ice.]

❄️🐉

[Hiccup and Jack go in close to inspect the area where they saw the ice explosion]

Hiccup: It's... Ice?

Jack: *steadily stands up as Toothless hovers near the tall spiky icicles, and reached out to touch it* Definitely is, brr. *shakes the cold from his hands* But it doesn't seem like a naturally former glacier.

Hiccup: Yeah, I wonder what caused it...

[Suddenly, a blast was heard and Toothless dodges before Jack and Hiccup realizes a net was headed towards them. Jack loses balance and starts to fall...]

Jack: Hiccup!

[Toothless dives to rescue Jack, and the moment of relief Hiccup felt at the success of the dragon doing so was gone when he spots three cages filled with dragons and immediately maneuvers Toothless towards them.]

Hiccup: Oookay... This is a problem.

Jack: Less talking, more moving. *Moves to start picking on the locks* let's hurry before the ones who did this shows up...

[Suddenly, a voice yells from a distance...]

Eret: Stop right there!

Jack: and says something as cliché as that...

❄️🐉

[As the rest of his crew yells complains and curses to Hiccup, Jack, Astrid, and Jamie's departure, Eret picks up the pendant Jamie unknowingly left behind...]

Eret: This is... *His eyes widened as he looks towards the fleeing group* Jamie?

❄️🐉

[Hiccup and Jack arrive on their Toothless.]

Stoick: Haha! There he is! *To Gobber, proving his point* Huh? The pride of Berk!

Aster: And his beau, in which both decided to finally show up for work. *Shoves Jack a crate he needs brought to his stall*

Gobber: Yay. *waves his prosthetic hand with sarcastic enthusiasm.* 

Hiccup: Sorry. Got held up.

Jack: *Shrugging* Yeah, and you know the rules, I am where he's at.

Aster: Not a rule if it's self made, showpony.

Jack: My next rule is that it is.

❄️🐉

[Hiccup just introduces his mother to Jack. Jack observes the large dragon utopia beheld in front of him and the woman standing beside Hiccup said to be his boyfriend's dead mother. ]

Jack: Am I dead or dreaming?

[Toothless excitedly pounces and licks Jack after seeing him awake from his previous unconscious state]

Hiccup: So, what's the verdict?

Jack: Decidedly not dead or dreaming, but in desperate need of a bath now.

Hiccup: You know that it doesn't really wash out completely even then.

Jack: Hope springs eternal.

Jack: Toothless. Down boy. *expression is an odd mixture of a grimace and amusement* I'm okay, you're still getting more grilled Icelandic cod from me in the future, relax.

❄️🐉

[Astrid and Jamie along with the others abduct Eret to question him about the possible whereabouts of Jack and Hiccup. Before that though, Jamie saw Eret wearing his pendant...]

Jamie: Hey, that's mine!

Eret: So it's true. It really is yours.

Jamie: Yes, it's mine and you better give me it back or... *Jamie is interrupted by a hug from Eret* Uh, what?

Astrid: Okay, what's happening here?

Ruffnut: Beats me, but Jamie, can we switch?

Jamie: *Pushes Eret away* Okay, let's have some boundaries here now. What's that for? And I said give me that back. *He snatches the pendant from Eret's neck*

Eret: Jamie, don't you remember? It's me; I'm your brother!

Jamie:

Jamie: Again...

Everyone: What?!

❄️🐉

[Valka goes into the closest thing she has for a kitchen and sees Jack preparing food...]

Jack: Ah, sorry for using it without permission. It's a bit passed lunch, so I decided to start on it. Much as I like the dragons, you could say it's not on the same level as Hiccup, or yourself.

Jack: I do enjoy listening to him talk about it, though.

Valka: Oh, no. It's fine. By the looks of it, you're managing better than me. I lost a little of the... home-cooking touch, after all this years.

Valka: So, you're dating my son.

Jack: I... Yes. *blushing* I hope that isn't a problem for you, madam.

Valka: Not at all. Considering all this time, it's more suitable for you to be someone special to him, compared to calling myself his mother.

Jack:

Jack: Running the risk of over stepping, I don't think you should worry about that too much. If I'm being honest, seeing you two interact in the last couple hours, it seems like there's more you in him than the chief.

Jack: Though, the stubbornness, he definitely got from Stoick... Er, just don't tell him I said that.

Valka: *chuckles* I don't think I could even if I wanted to.

Jack: Right... Sorry.

Valka: Now allow me to run the risk of over stepping... I'm curious, as his mother of course... What do you like the most about Hiccup?

Jack: Oh, that's... Well... *makes vague gestures with his hands* He's funny, and I like fun, so that's one. But I wouldn't say it's the most... He's also caring, obviously different from the others but in a good way just... It's just all of him. He's not really Hic with all his good parts.

Valka: *chuckling* good answer. Here, maybe you can show me how you're making that.

[The two continues to work on the food. After a while, they hear Hiccup scream for a moment before it sounded muffled. The two shared a look, before rushing out, Jack grabbing his staff on his way out, only to see that Stoick and Gobber have arrived.]

❄️🐉

[idontmeantosoundrudebut]

I've never really posted any of my fan art on here before so here is a collection of some of my HTTYD art haha lol

This is the first drawing I did after rewatching HTTYD 2 and I wanted to give Ruffnut a makeover so that bitch did get one! I gave her Zippleback shoulder armour things and I really think they missed an opportunity but hey, if everyone was a genius then I would be out of a job (bitch you got no job now the fuck you talking about)

Next up is a character design! As you Pagans may already know, I am abso-fucking-lutely besotted with our smol Snotlout and in my writings which are currently on hold due to my favourite seasonal festivity, um, uh Seasonal Depression :) this is Halla, Snotlout's Mother and because Hiccup and Snotlout are cousins in the majority of my AUs, she is also Valka's older sister. This idea came to me because Valka has beautiful blue eyes and well, our favourite bastard also has beautiful blue eyes. Halla is HEAVILY inspired by the Vikings character Lagatha, so she is obviously a great nearly legendary shield-maiden, and though my backstory for her isn't complete, I assume she takes little to no shit from assholes and most likely divorced Spitelout. (Because, by the Gods, he is THE Asshole™)

But he didn't always used to be an asshole. Haha lol bruh

Here we see a young Spitelout simping over a young Halla, who looks rather unimpressed at whatever bullshit he's throwing at her. Also IM simping over the young Stoick I drew because damn, I'd let him tie me up if he was looking at me like that

Um, Chile✨👁️👄👁️✨ anyways so-

Now here are my designs of the Riders parents when they were younger! I am rather poor at character designing and I am only capable at drawing heads and shoulders constantly (I ain't about no knees, toes or torsos)

So first is Siggy and Nuffnut. Now I've internally redesigned Siggy to be a complete replica of Floki from Vikings because I love him soo much and I just want to write about a character with that personality and humour. I haven't drawn her new style but I will soon, she looks too sane rn. But Nuffnut I like a lot. In all of my AU he dies when the twins are around twelvish I guess, probably in battle or something or other, which is why I think Tuffnut would lock his hair and get piercings to pay tribute to his dad.

Next on the roster is Fishback and Heidi. Fishback is like the opposite to Fishlegs besides their curiosity for knowledge and dragons, and Fishlegs gets his tenderness and all that stuff from his mother. That's really I got for these two.

Then Iric and Eira. Iric cannot cook and has a love for axes that is near obsessive, also the headband he's wearing is the one Astrid wears haha lol bruh. Eira is also a shield-maiden and Astrid is like her carbon copy, except Eira has brown eyes haha lol bruh.

And finally I did Spitelout and Halla. Really, Halla is just Berk's Baddie Bitch and Spitelout is just simp that got lucky.

I didn't do Stoick and Valka because fuck you that's why sorry I'm just really lazy bitch sack me haha lol bruh.

Now this is where you see my obsession over a certain smol man called Snotlout. Ee yikes. He's crying a lot because I am still really over Race to Fireworm island and y'all know the drill that if you have a favourite character, that bitch has got to suffer because you have to use someone to vent on bitch haha lol bruh. Theres two drawings on the same page that contradict each other where it's Spitelout being a good father at the bottom and being an abusive cunt at the top. I both am obsessed over redemption and revenge and I still can't choose which one Spitelout deserves. (Bitch probably revenge but okay)

Also for all the goes out there I did do some Eretlout because that shit is slept on. Hope you like haha lol bruh. Snotlout does give me bratty bottom vibes and is definitely a touch-starved bitch. Eret is also HENCH and Jesus, imagine that voice in the bedroom like oh lord im a boutta bust! Smol touch-starved bitch and Tol British-boi hunk. Proper nice proper bargain

I also gave RTTE Snotlout a redesign. Gave him scars, an emo-fringe and a little pony-tail thing. Haha lol Bruh

My favourite two are definitely Snotlout enjoying a nice flight with hiccup and toothless in back ground. And of course, the angriest picture I've ever drawn- SHEESH boo you mad! Betta be yo daddy you screaming at and I ain't talking about Eret. 👁️👄👁️

And there it is, my shitty fan art page haha lol bruh bye

[rosesnvines]

Scary Stories

It was a lovely autumn night around a fire, the group, a blend of Vikings and Scots, were swapping scary stories. Gobber was particularly engaging in his story about the Boneknapper dragon. 

“So there I was, all alone, stranded on an island full of bones. I had heard of the Boneknapper, but had never seen one before. Was I to be next in its hunt for the perfect bone to finish its armor? But I couldn’t hide forever, I had to get off that island. So, with only a torch and my broom, I set out to find some means of escape. Little did I know I was being watched.” His audience gasped. 

Eret leaned towards Hiccup. “This is way better than the stories he told us about the Boneknapper.” 

Astrid snorted. “Guess reality is stranger than fiction.” 

“Sh,” said Hiccup. “Let him finish. If they like it, all the better.” He nodded at the Scots. One Scot in particular, the princess no less, seemed really intent on the story, listening with interest. She had been interested in hearing all about the dragons, asking a lot of questions. Her curiosity impressed, and interested, Hiccup. He hadn’t met someone so eager to learn, not since Fishlegs, nor someone so eager to get her own dragon. Her fiery red curls cascaded past her shoulders, looking wild and free, while her blue eyes reminded Hiccup of the big blue sky. He wished she would look his way, just once. He was feeling a little lonely with Eret and Astrid getting all cuddly next to him. But her attention was on Gobber. 

“So I searched all night long, hoping to find some way of escape, but all I could find were bones. Can’t put to sea in a boat of bones, trust me, I actually tried it.” 

“Of course you did,” mumbled Snotlout. 

“Sh!” said Hiccup and Valka at the same time. Snotlout put up his hands and grinned nervously. 

“So I had to come up with a different plan, I decided to try and use the Boneknapper itself to fly me off the island. But, how could I do that without becoming another bone on its armor?” The youngest members of the Scottish group, the triplet brothers of Merida, gasped and leaned in, excited to hear what came next. “So I went and found myself the largest pile of bones I could and waited. The Boneknapper finally came, all skeletal and silent.” He paused, wriggling his fingers. His audience gasped. “He didn’t notice me as he went digging through the bones, so I took my chance and found a spot to hang on to.” Gobber chuckled. “Guess I should have worried too too much, that Boneknapper had a couple of blind spots, and I had found one of them.” 

“But, how did you know it was its blind spot?” asked a Scotsman. Hiccup knows it was one of the three young lords who was seeking the princess’s hand, but he couldn’t remember which one. Their names all began with young, Young MacIntosh, Young McGuffin, and, oh yeah, it was actually Wee Dingwall. Ruffnut was flirting with Young MacIntosh, who was enjoying the attention. 

“Well, for one thing, I was able to ride it off the island without it noticing me. And for another, I saw the remains of a guy who apparently tried the same tactic, and failed.” The group gasped. 

“Well,” said Chief Fergus, rising from his seat. “No offence, but that wasn’t quite scary.” 

Gobber huffed. “Then care to share something that’s scarier than a Boneknapper?” 

“Oh, yes, my children will know this story by heart. The story of the demon bear, Mordu.” The triplets gasped and dashed behind Merida and their mother, but they peeked out from behind Merida’s and Elinor’s backs with huge grins. “The legend goes that Mordu wanted to rule over all of Scotland, and went to war with his brothers and the other clan chiefs. But Mordu became rather blood-thirsty. If anyone so much as dared to say anything against him, even as a joke, he would have them killed. His own men began to turn on him. He hid to bide his time. A witch gave him a potion as a way to put a stop to his blood-lust, and he turned into a bear. I mean, you would think that since a bear eats honey, fish, and berries that would work, right? But no, the plan backfired, and Mordu used his bear strength to kill many of his men. His brothers managed to banish him, to never be allowed back in the castle. Now Mordu roams the woods at night, seeking for another victim to kill in his maddening desire to rule all of Scotland.” 

“Th-these w-woods?” asked Fishlegs, a squeak coming out at the end of his sentence. 

“Aye,” said Fergus with a nod. He walked around the circle. “And there’s a way to call for him too, should you ever want to meet him. Just simply call out, ‘Mordu, Mordu, I’ve found a traitor for you’. And then Mordu will come up behind you and RAWR!” Fergus let out a loud roar right behind Fishlegs. Everyone jumped and screamed. Fergus burst out laughing, followed by the other clan chiefs. Merida was giggling. 

“Ok, Ok, that was pretty good,” said Hiccup, chuckling nervously. 

The triplets nearly fell over laughing while Merida pointed at them. “You should have seen your faces!” 

“Yeah, Ok, ha ha, yeah,” said Hiccup. 

“How do you guys come up with stories like this?” asked Valka. The Scots stopped laughing and became dead serious. 

“Oh lass, Mordu’s real.” Fergus propped his peg leg on one of the logs. “It’s how I got this beauty. I fought Mordu myself. I barely made it out with my life!” 

Merida bobbed her head. “It was pretty scary.” 

“It was, and I’d rather you not try something so foolish again,” said Elinor. 

“What? I was only protecting you and Merida, my dear.” 

“W-wait, M-Mordu’s r-real?” whimpered Fishlegs. 

“As real as your own dragons,” said Fergus. 

Hiccup stood up and chuckled nervously. “Well, since we do have our dragons, we should be perfectly safe. And it looks like that fire needs some more wood. I’m going to go get some.” 

“But, Hiccup! Mordu’s out there!” said Fishlegs. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll have Toothless with me.” Hiccup turned to his dragon. “Right bud?” Toothless nodded. 

Fergus chuckled. “I think getting lost should be your biggest worry rather than Mordu. We haven’t seen him in years.” He turned to his daughter. “Merida, why don’t you go with the lad?” 

“Oh no, there’s no need to . . .”

Merida bounced up, chuckling softly. “Oh, you wee lamb, you’ll definitely get lost. Come on.” She walked past the stuttering Hiccup. 

Hiccup sighed. “Oh fine.” Even though, deep down, he was glad it was her. The three walked deep into the forest. There was a thick silence, Hiccup thought it was so thick that it would suffocate him. They began picking up a few sticks before Hiccup decided to try and break the silence. “So, um, ah, Mordu is real, huh? You and your mother saw him?” 

“As clear as I see you and your dragon right now,” replied Merida. 

“You really think your dad scared him off?” 

“I certainly hope so, I mean, we haven’t seen him in years. Dad’s the Bear King now because of it.” 

“Right, all the bears on your flags and whatnot.” 

“And you’re the Dragon Master, hence why all the dragons on your flags and whatnot,” said Merida with a smirk. 

Hiccup chuckled. “Yeah, that’s right.” A moment of silence. “So, um, have you, have you decided on which of the clan heirs you’re going to marry?” 

“Well, I don’t think it’s going to be Young MacIntosh, you can thank your friend for that.” 

Hiccup ran his fingers through his hair. “Oh, sorry about that.” 

“Don’t be, I really want you to thank her.” 

“Oh, oh!” said Hiccup, suddenly realizing what Merida was getting at. She didn’t quite like the Young MacIntosh. “So, what about Young McGuffin and Wee Dingwall?” 

“Hmm,” said Merida, wrinkling her nose, “if I really had to choose, I guess Young McGuffin. Wee Dingwall’s really not my type. He’s a nice lad, but I don’t love him.” 

“But you don’t exactly love Young McGuffin either.” 

“Mm, no, not really.” Merida huffed. “But I could I guess.” 

“What would happen if someone else came in?” 

Merida glanced at Hiccup, blinking in confusion. “Someone else?” 

“Yeah, you know, what if, um, someone else presented himself as a suitor?” 

“Well, it would depend on who that is, there’s really no one else around our age.” 

Him squeezed his eyes shut. “Me, Merida, I’m talking about me.” He opened his eyes, Merida had turned to look at him in shock. 

“Y-you’re presenting yourself as a suitor?” 

“Y-yeah, why not? I’m a chief’s son, well, I am the chief now, but I’m just as good as any of the others. W-well, I mean, I’m not as good-looking as Young MacIntosh, or as Scottish as Wee Dingwall, or, or as interesting as Young McGuffin . . .” 

“Yes!” 

Hiccup blinked. “Wait, what?” 

“I said yes, you silly Viking! Yes!” 

“W-wait, really?” 

“I’m not going to repeat myself, Hiccup.” 

Hiccup chuckled nervously. “Sorry, I was just so worried that you were going to say no that . . . um, what’s that?” Merida turned as Toothless edged closer towards them, a soft growling emanating from his throat. A little blue light had appeared, it looked like a face was in it. 

Merida gasped. “Why, that’s a will o’ wisp! Legends say they can lead you to your destiny!” 

“Oh, Ok, this really seems like a spooky night now. Tales of skeleton dragons and demon bears, and now ghostly lights? Is there anything else that’s scary you Scots are hiding from us?” Merida shot him a look before walking closer towards the will o’ wisp. As soon as she got close enough to touch it, it disappeared with a soft sigh before a whole line of them appeared. Hiccup grabbed Merida’s arm before she took another step. “You’re sure you want to follow them?” he asked. 

“Why not? There must be something we need to find,” said Merida with a shrug. 

“But we really should be heading back to the camp. Can’t we follow them another time?” The closest wisp seemed to urge them forward. The others behind it frantically echoed its movements. 

“No, we should follow, I think something’s wrong.” 

“Yeah, we’re following a bunch of ghost lights,” muttered Hiccup. 

Merida groaned and grabbed his hand. “Come on.” They followed the will o’ wisps for a few feet before they stopped. 

“Ok, now what?” asked Hiccup. They were standing in a small clearing between the trees. Merida stepped closer, noticing something on a branch. 

“Ach, what is this? I can barely . . .” She jumped as something ignited behind her and a warm glow filled the grove. She turned, Hiccup had ignited his sword. He grinned sheepishly at her. “Oh, uh, thanks.” 

“No problem.” 

She turned back to the thing on the branch and plucked it off. She scrutinized it in the light of Hiccup’s sword. She gasped. “This is bear fur.” 

Hiccup peered at the dark fur. “How can you tell?” 

“I’ve played enough with my dad’s fur coat to know how bear fur feels and looks.” 

Hiccup blinked. “Ok, so we’ve found what used to be a resting spot for a bear.” 

“But why isn’t it here? Bears sleep at night too. Unless . . . unless it’s Mordu!” 

Hiccup flailed his left hand, the one not holding the flaming sword. “Hold on, hold on, you can’t just expect me to believe that you find some bear fur and think it’s this demon bear?” 

“But the will o’ wisps? They had to have brought us here, to warn us!” Merida grabbed Hiccup’s hand and began pulling him towards the camp. “Come one, we have to warn the others!” 

“But how can you be so sure that, that . . .” Hiccup gulped as a large form rose from the shadows, right in front of them. “That’s him, isn’t it?” The bear had broken arrows and weapon hilts sticking out of its fur and scars all over its body. One eye was white. It certainly looked like a demon bear. 

“Y-yup,” said Merida. The bear roared. The two screamed. “Run!” Merida pulled Hiccup through the woods, the two dashing back towards the camp. The bear was hot on their heels.

“Aah! Toothless!” Toothless let out a roar and rammed into Mordu. Merida and Hiccup kept on running. 

“What took you so long? And where’s the firewood?” asked Fergus when the two burst into the camp. 

“Mordu! We saw . . . Mordu!” Merida said between gasps of air. 

“What?” the group cried out. 

Fergus quickly picked up his sword. “Where is he?” 

“Toothless is fighting him!” said Hiccup. At that moment, Toothless crashed into the camp, snarling. He quickly righted himself. Mordu stepped into the fire’s glow, the light danced maniacally on his face as he roared, his one good eye turned red. Toothless roared in reply, staying between Mordu and the group. 

“Everybody, back to the castle!” shouted Fergus. Everyone ran pell mell out of the clearing, screaming, towards the castle. Fergus pushed Merida and Hiccup towards that way when they didn’t move. “You heard me, move!” 

“I’m not leaving Toothless!” shouted Hiccup. 

“He stands a better chance against that bear than the rest of us!”

“He stands a better chance if he’s not alone!” retorted Hiccup. He swung his fiery sword. “And no offence, Chief Fergus, but Mordu hasn’t dealt with a fiery sword yet.” 

“I’d rather you not try your luck, lad.”  

“It hasn’t failed me yet,” said Hiccup, walking towards Toothless. 

“Hiccup!” called out Merida. Mordu glanced at Merida and Fergus before glancing at Hiccup. 

Hiccup blinked. “Uh, what’s with that look?” Mordu growled before charging at Hiccup. 

“Hiccup!” screamed Merida. Hiccup yelled and swung his sword, the flames singeing the bear’s fur. The bear took a step back then charged again, this time Toothless jumped him. The two rolled around the clearing, snarling at each other all while clawing and biting at each other. Mordu swung at Toothless, sending him rolling on the ground. Mordu turned towards Hiccup and charged again. Fergus shouted a war cry before charging Mordu. Merida let loose a couple of arrows, but the bear didn’t seem to notice. Fergus’s sword broke upon impact. 

“Is there nothing that can take him down?” asked Hiccup. 

“Well your sword didn’t seem to have a problem,” said Merida, dashing to stand by Hiccup before letting loose a couple more arrows. 

“But he didn’t have a problem with it either!” said Hiccup as Fergus joined them while Toothless and Mordu locked in fierce battle again. 

“Why don’t you have your dragon shoot him with a fireball?” asked Fergus. 

“And risk burning down the whole forest?” 

“Oh, right,” mumbled Fergus, glancing around at the wildfire just waiting to happen. 

“Well we need to do something soon!” said Merida. A roar answered. 

Hiccup glanced up and whooped. “Mom! Cloudjumper!” Valka and her large dragon descended on the dueling animals. Cloudjumpeer picked up Mordu. Toothless untangled himself from the bear’s claws and fell to the ground. He quickly righted himself. “Actually, I think now is a good time. Toothless, fire!” Toothless opened his mouth and shot a fireball straight into Mordu’s chest. The bear seemed to shiver and went limp. There was a moment of anxious silence as they waited to see if the bear would move again. He didn’t. “Mom, drop him!” Toothless quickly moved out of the way as Cloudjumper let go of the bear. It hit the ground with a huge thump. Hiccup stepped cautiously towards the mound of fur. 

“Careful, lad,” warned Fergus. Merida raised her bow. Hiccup touched the bear, but a blue light left the form. 

“Why, that’s a will o’ wisp!” whispered Merida. The light revealed the face of a man. He nodded before it faded away. 

“I, I think that was Mordu when he was a man,” said Hiccup, turning to Fergus and Merida. 

“I think so too,” said Fergus. “But you do know what this means, right?” 

“What?” asked Hiccup slowly. 

“A party! You and your dragon defeated the demon bear!” shouted Fergus, picking up Hiccup and swinging him around. He put Hiccup down and began walking back to the castle. “This is going to be one awesome alliance!” 

“Good to know!” shouted Valka with a chuckle before following on Cloudjumper.

Hiccup shook his head. “Whoa, wow, glad we made such a good impression.” 

 “Well, there’s only been one other person who faced Mordu and survived, and that was my dad. You’re quite the hero.” 

Hiccup ran his fingers through his hair. “Uh, yeah, great, um . . .” 

Merida chuckled before kissing his cheek. “It will certainly give you quite the leg up on the other suitors.” 

Hiccup blushed. “Well, that’s good to know.” Toothless chortled. “Oh be quiet, you useless reptile.” 

Merida laughed as she wrapped her arm around Hiccup’s. “Come on. Can’t have the hero’s party without the hero. And you can announce your intention to be one of my suitors then too. Best time to do it.” 

“Oh good to know,” said Hiccup as they walked back to the castle, Toothless walking behind them, feeling quite proud of himself.

[shipmistress9]

Someone already asked Astrid, so I’ll go with Eret (as a character ask), please.

Hmm, I like this ask. Thank you! ^^ 

Again, this will mainly be about the Eret in my head and not necessarily about the canon character others may see. ^^”

Why I like them

Eret is a truly good man. He’s strong and would never hesitate to use that strength to protect those who need it. He’s kind-hearted. He’s a big teddy bear who gives the best hugs. 

He has great humour; he’s not as sarcastic as Hiccup, but sarcastic enough, cocky in an endearing way. But he’s also silly and up for every joke, no matter how stupid. 

He’s passionate and dedicated to those he loves. He has a big heart, his love not limited to one person. 

He’s understanding, listens to other people’s problems and tries his best to support them, never being belittling. 

He’s competitive, always up for a game or a dare. 

And, well, he’s handsome. Nuff said. ^^

Why I don’t

As with Astrid, there’s nothing I don’t like about the character in my head. I am a little dissatisfied with his unexplained absence in Homecoming, though I do hope that means he eventually returned to his tribe to teach them how to train dragons. 

Favorite episode (scene if movie)

Difficult to choose. I can’d decide between the moment he finally picked his side and freed himself, Astrid, and the other riders before they got thrown into the icy water, the moment Hiccup joined the fight at Valka’s sanctuary and he and Astrid talked to him, and the moment Stormfly saved him from the arrows and his stunned look. 

Favorite season/movie

I really like Eret as a dragon rider in full armour. But all in all, I liked him in HTTYD2 best. 

Favorite line

That would be ”Grimmel the Grisly, famous back where I'm from. The smartest dragon hunter I ever met. Well, next to me of course.” I just love his cockyness at this point, and that he’s not trying to deny his past. He was a trapper, that’s a fact. But what matters is that he changed.

Favorite outfit

His dragon armour in THW

OTP

I like him as part of my OT3 with Hiccup and Astrid and depending on the setting I also like him with Hiccup alone. Sometimes with Astrid, too. But my OTP for him is with Dagur. They’re very alike and would make such a fantastic pair. 

Brotp

Eret & Astrid when they’re not in a relationship. Eret & Stormfly in HTTYD2. 

Head Canon

He likes to sing. Under the shower, when he’s doing work around the house/village, whenever it hits him. He’s not a remarkably good singer and sometimes he just humms or whistles some tune or random melody. But it brings him joy. 

Unpopular opinion

Depending on who you ask (and when, a few years ago it was particularly bad) just liking him was an unpopular opinion, so I’ll just stick with that. I like him lots! 

A wish

I wish we’d seen some instance where he and Dagur met. I don’t consider RTTE to be in the same verse as HTTYD2/3, so that’s complicating things. But yeah, I would have loved to see how they interact. 

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

A total no-go and thankfully nothing that ever happened in any canon: Eret being used as a wedge to create unnecessary jealousy between Hiccup and Astrid or even being the cause for one cheating on the other. 

5 words to best describe them

Loyal. Cocky. Kind-hearted. Brave. Understanding.

My nickname for them

Not particularly my nickname but more of what I headcanon Hiccup’s nickname for him to be when they’re in a relationship. That would be Ret.

____

Yep, that was fun. Thank you! ^^ 💜

[10blue10]

Erets Rant

“You’re right, bud. It’s time. Go. Lead them to the Hidden World,” Hiccup told Toothless. “You’ll be safe there. Safer than you could ever be with me.”

“Bullshit,” said Eret. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Or seeing, for that matter. Once again, everyone was just blindly doing what Hiccup wanted.

“What?”

“You heard me. Bullshit. What makes you think he won’t be safe up here? On this insanely tall island that only dragons can reach the top of?” he demanded. “And what do you mean, lead them to the Hidden World? Who’s ‘them’ exactly?”

“The other dragons.”

“What, the wild ones?”

“No… Eret, the world just isn’t ready for dragons. You saw that armada! It’s better if we let them go; they’ll all be safe in the Hidden World, away from hunters. Toothless is the King of Dragons; he has to go and be their leader.”

Eret scoffed a mocking laugh. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. That’s your argument? I’m pretty sure we just watched your precious ‘king of dragons’ order this entire flock into cages, just to save his sparkly new girlfriend.”

They both flinched. “He didn’t have a choice! Grimmel was gonna kill her”-

“Of course he wasn’t gonna kill her. She was his only bargaining chip. And even if he was, that doesn’t make your dragon a good leader! What the hell happened to ‘the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few’?” Eret glared. “I’m just gonna fucking say it. Toothless is a terrible Alpha.”

Everyone gasped. Eret pushed on. “He wasn’t trying to keep the flock under control back on Berk, then he ditched ‘em all to chase after her,” he jabbed his thumb at the Light Fury, who hissed, “and when he comes back he orders all our dragons to please walk into the cages. Grimmel never even told him to!”

Astrid snapped “you’re out of line. How dare you speak to your chief like that?”

Your chief. Something in Eret broke free. He’d already lost a lot of respect for Hiccup; in that moment, he lost respect for Astrid as well. “He’s not my chief. Even if he were, I wouldn’t listen to him. He’s as bad a leader as his dragon.”

More shocked gasps. For a bunch of Vikings, these people sure were sensitive. “Hiccup is a great chief!” Astrid protested. “He’s one of the best we’ve ever”-

“Would a great chief cram his village full of dragons?” Eret sneered. “Would a halfway decent chief do that, risking injury and food shortage? Or force his entire tribe to abandon their home and chase a myth, or force them to give up their scaly friends - why, because there’ll always be bad people out there?”

Hiccup snapped “if you’d warned us about Grimmel sooner, we could have been better prepared. Maybe next time don’t wait until the last bloody minute!”

“Oh, no, don’t you dare try to pin your shortcomings on me. I admit, I could have mentioned Grimmel earlier - but everything I just mentioned, that was all your doing.” He poked the younger man in the chest. “If you think I’m gonna let you strand me on this gods-forsaken rock, I’ve got news for you. I’m taking Skullcrusher and I’m going home. To my actual home, and my actual tribe.”

“Fine! Go! See if I care,” Hiccup scowled. “But you’re not taking Skullcrusher. He belongs with his own - hey!” Eret was already climbing into the saddle.

Well, since he was leaving forever, might as well burn a few more bridges. “Bye, everyone! Gobber, I feel sorry for the next bloke you start creeping on. Valka, have fun getting hit on by Snotlout. Fishlegs… you’re the only one I still like. Good job.” He waved to their shocked faces as Skullcrusher took off.

[peachdoxie]

I'm really happy for your three way fight analysis post for HTTYD 3, because I see a lot of people be like "oh, Hiccup just gave up on peace" when it's not that? It's that keeping the dragons and fighting every threat that comes until there is peace isn't what's best for the dragons, at least not in this moment. Maybe it will be someday, but for now Hiccup needs to let the dragons go because that's what's best for them NOW.

For reference, that's this post anon is referring to.

The end of How to Train Your Dragon centers on a concept that I rarely see in the fiction I consume but is one I really like, and that's the concept of the hero yielding the fight to someone better able to win it.

Hiccup realized that he and the Berkians were fighting a losing battle. The warlords were far more powerful and had more resources to enslave dragons that the Berkians had to rescue them, even with the help of Toothless the Alpha. Hiccup had already been thinking along these lines during the meeting after Grimmel's attack:

Grimmel is just a sign of the times. Our enemies are getting smarter, more determined. We're not just overcrowded. We are exposed, and vulnerable. Short of full-blown war and risking everyone we love, I don't... I don't see a way of staying here any longer.

In particular: "Short of full-blown war and risking everyone we love...."

What Hiccup wanted most was to avoid a war with other humans. He grew up in the middle of a war between dragons and humans, and that was one of survival, not domination: "They raid us because they have to! If they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves." The Berkians' response was primarily defensive, with Stoick's attempts at offense literally blowing up in his face. Even then, Stoick's offensive attacks were more about driving the dragons away than annihilating them. (I wrote about this more here.)

But Hiccup learned first-hand how devastating a war with a person who wants war is when Drago used Toothless to try and kill him and Stoick pushed Hiccup out of the way. There was no good outcome for any of the Berkians. Stoick died. Toothless was forced to kill him. Hiccup watched both happen and was powerless to stop it. Not to mention how much of Berk was destroyed when Drago attacked it.

And a year later, things haven't improved. In fact, they've gotten worse. Grimmel shows that, as Hiccup explained. He was able to get past their scouts and install a large trap for Toothless, leaving the Light Fury there as bait. He broke into Hiccup's house to threaten him, and even if Hiccup anticipated that, he didn't anticipate the Deathgrippers on the roof and how much they'd damage Berk (an attack eerily similar to Drago's attack on the gathering of Chieftains from Stoick's flashback).

The only solution Hiccup had was to leave:

Hiccup: If we want to live in peace with our dragons, we need a better plan.

Gobber: So, what are you saying, Chief?

Hiccup: I'm saying we have to disappear. Off the map. Take the dragons to a place where no one will find them.

That's it. Leave Berk and hope they can find the Hidden World. Staying and fighting would risk war.

But even before Hiccup saw how inhospitable the Hidden World would be to humans, it wasn't shaping out to be a feasible idea to move everyone there. The Vikings liked New Berk a lot, as evidenced by the party they threw:

Gobber: Don't say I thought you were a little off your raw for this but it isn't half bad.

Hiccup: This is supposed to be a temporary solution.

Eret: It's unanimous. Everyone agrees we've definitely traded up. Well done, Chief.

Hiccup, really, was the only person convinced that moving everyone to the Hidden World was the best solution. Very few Berkian Vikings had heard of the place, let alone believed it existed. Even Astrid, Hiccup's most staunch supporter, doubted his plan.

And as he learned, they were right. The Hidden World isn't a place that humans can easily live in. It's a world of dragons.

Hiccup knew this even before Grimmel kidnapped Toothless and the Light Fury from New Berk: "You belong there, with her. We don't." It's important to note that, before he says this to Toothless, he glances up at the buildings the Berkians had started to put up. They're happy there and are already getting settled. Uprooting them again would be immensely unpopular, even if the Hidden World could support humans.

Of course, Grimmel finds them. The warlords bring an armada. Even though New Berk is "defensible" and "hidden," the Berkians aren't safe there. They're not safe anywhere.

This brings me back to the concept of yielding the fight to someone else better able to win it. Hiccup realized that he and the Vikings were fighting a losing battle. Continuing to fight risks a new war that would be even more deadly than the one between Berkian Vikings and dragons. I think that Toothless falling from the sky, unconscious from Grimmel's dart, was when it really hit Hiccup that this wasn't something he could continue to fight. It was the first time in the entire trilogy when Hiccup was completely powerless to save Toothless. 

Even in HTTYD 2, during Toothless Lost and Stoick Saves Hiccup, Hiccup wasn't nearly as powerless as he was during As Long As He's Safe. Yes, Toothless fell from the sky into the ice, but he was conscious, and Hiccup could at least yell at Valka about going back for Toothless (even though he'd already been rescued). When Drago takes Toothless, even though the dragon is being mind controlled, he's at least not at risk of dying immediately. But when Toothless is falling from the sky, unconscious, he would die if he hit the water.

In the context I'm talking about, yielding is not the same as giving up, or conceding defeat, or fighting on until you're at your last breath and letting someone else save you. It's making an active choice to yield the fight to someone else because you know it's the only way to succeed as best you can. Hiccup's only option to save Toothless was to yield the rescue to the Light Fury. And as I wrote about in my three-way fight analysis, it's mirrored a short while later, when Hiccup's only option to save the dragons is to yield their safety to the seclusion of the Hidden World. 

Personally, I find this immensely satisfying, though I'm aware not everyone does. So often, I'm bombarded with stories about characters never giving up and fighting on until they either win or are forced to give up. There's something to be said for perseverance, but I think it is also an incredibly dangerous way to think and act. Knowing when to yield and realize that continuing towards a certain goal or dream is an incredibly valuable skill to have. I've watched too many people I know, and read/watched too many stories in fiction, continue on a path when it's damaging them more than the end goal will benefit them.

Quite frankly, the only time I've seen this concept of learning when to yield a battle to someone/something else explicitly part of a character's arc is in the Last Olympian, the final book in the original Percy Jackson series, and coincidentally the book-equivalent of the HTTYD films in how much it impacted my life (which is a lot). Percy was advised to yield Pandora's Box to someone better equipped to protect it instead of fighting for it (and against the temptation to open it) himself. And at the conclusion, the "single choice [to] end his days" that Percy was prophesied to make was about choosing to let Luke end the fight with Kronos instead of making it his fight, as you'd expect the hero to do. 

I've been enamored with this concept since 2009 and wished for more of it in my media, and found it lacking. And yet, in the artistry of fate, I found it in the conclusion of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. It's a very similar execution of the concept, though less explicit than in PJO. Despite it being Hiccup's goal to live in peace with the dragons, and despite the fact that he's the hero of the story and thus expected by common narrative conventions to win at all costs, he chooses not to continue the fight because he knows he can't win it. (I talk about this more at length in this post.)

The end of HTTYD 3 is laden with irony. We expect Hiccup to fight until he wins or die trying, as part of common narrative expectations. And it's set up in the repeated emphasis of how stubborn Hiccup is, throughout all three films:

"We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues." (Hiccup, HTTYD)

"Every bit the boar-headed, stubborn Viking you ever were!" (Gobber, HTTYD)

"Boar-headed! Just like his mother!" (Stoick, HTTYD 2)

"You know what he's like. He won't give up, Gobber. And if Hiccup finds Drago, before we find him…" (Stoick, HTTYD 2. Stoick's tone greatly contrasts that of the previous line, here expressing serious concern about Hiccup's stubbornness, for the first time showing that stubbornness can go too far.)

"You are the bravest, most stubborn, most determined... knucklehead I know. Toothless didn't give you that, Hiccup." (Astrid, HTTYD 3)

So the end of HTTYD 3, with Hiccup not continuing with his stubborn determination to bring peace between Vikings and dragons, is heavily ironic, and I think a lot of people dislike that, either because they wanted to have a happy ending (not unreasonable) or because they see it as Hiccup being out of character instead of Hiccup undergoing character development in an unexpected way.

In addition to personally really liking the concept of yielding and knowing when to stop following a certain path because it's how you started, I also agree entirely with you that it's not Hiccup "giving up" on peace (if I hadn't already made that very clear). And ultimately, while "peace" is what Hiccup has been fighting for, especially in HTTYD 2, "peace" isn't really what matters to Hiccup. I talk about this at length in this post, but to summarize: what matters the most to Hiccup is that Toothless and the other dragons are safe and free. He mentions both of these things in his goodbye to Toothless:

Go on, bud. Lead them to the Hidden World. You'll be safe there. Safer than you could ever be with me. It's okay. I love you too. And I want you to be free. Our world doesn't deserve you... yet.

The title of the music track at this moment, "As Long As He's Safe," emphasizes this, as does Hiccup's willingness to literally die in order to let Toothless live. The cinematography of the scene really enforces that Hiccup's primary concern was about making sure Toothless was safe, which I've written about here. By being okay with letting the dragons go to the Hidden World, even if it meant leaving the Vikings behind, it shows that Hiccup ultimately didn't care about peace between the Vikings and dragons. He cared most about letting the dragons live in safety and freedom, without threat to their lives or autonomy.

It's for this reason that I don't like to say that Hiccup didn't "win" at the end of HTTYD 3. Sure, he didn't achieve his goal of peace between Vikings and dragons, and so in that way he lost to Grimmel and the warlords (even though they didn't win either). Instead, Hiccup and the Berkians won in the way that they were able to succeed in what matters most to them, and that's the well-being of the dragons. And because this is what matters most to Hiccup, I don't see his actions at the end of the film as out of character.

It makes me think of the line in the original film, when Hiccup says to Stoick,

Dad. It's not what you think you're up against. It's like nothing you've ever seen. Dad, please! I promise you that you can't win this one! For once in your life would you please just listen to me?!

I don't count this as foreshadowing, nor am I sure of how much of a parallel it's meant to be, but the same thing happened to Hiccup as he told his dad. He learned he couldn't win this fight. Luckily, he listened to that fact and didn't engage in a futile battle from which there would be no way to win. No Hiccup ex machina to save them. The only way to come close to winning was to not continue the fight.

All in all, do I think that HTTYD 2 and HTTYD 3 are a little too subtle in how they show these themes? Perhaps. Do I think that people went into the final film anticipating a different ending, though a combination of conventional Hollywood narratives and an expectation of how an animated "kids" movie is "supposed" to end? Absolutely. Will I be talking about this in my PhD dissertation? Almost certainly. 

Am I aware that not everyone agrees with my views in HTTYD 3? Yes. Do I think that I'm biased in my opinion about HTTYD 3 because of my own personal preferences, my skill in literary and cinematic analysis, and the fact that I've watched all of these films multiple times and have spent years analyzing them so I know these films more in depth than the vast majority of the world? Certainly. 

Do I also think that the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy is an incredibly well-crafted masterpiece of literature of the highest degree? Yes. And do I think that Dean DeBlois should have been nominated for and won all the major awards for best screenplay for HTTYD 3? Also yes, and I will be forever pissed off that he wasn't.

[hiccup-is-left-handed]

HTTYD3 Positivity!!!!

ok criticism's over it's love time

HOW IS THIS MOVIE SO PRETTY

seriously httyd2 came out like a week ago hOW IS THIS MOVIE SUCH A STEP UP IN ANIMATION QUALITY

LIKE SERIOUSLY A COUPLE OF THOSE SHOTS LOOKED PHOTOREALISTIC WITHOUT BEING THAT HYPERREALISTIC CG STUFF HOW

DREAMWORKS TELL ME YOUR SECRETS

astrid is. so beautiful???????? especially at the end???? motherhood looks so good on her???? she is flawless??????

TUFFNUT THORSTON SAID GREAT THINGS AND I LOVED EVERY THING HE SAID

"the world is actually round" like oh my gods is that classic tuff or what

the light fury is so sweet!!! a darling!!! sweetheart!!! beacon of soft confusion and joy!!!! don’t know what you’re doing???? neither does she!!!! but she loves you anyway!!!!

did y’all know toothless was gonna harness the power of thor to become the night itself????? cos i did not know toothless was gonna harness the power of thor to become the night itself. lit

gobber+dragon tribbles

valka and eret watching with intense amusement as her son and his friends absolutely fail to pull off a super suave stealth rescue

valka and eret in general

“ok so i was thinking we should stay together. here’s the tactical reason why” “hey i was thinking we should stay together. y’know, just because” “good plan”

seeing snotlout at the high table with astrid, valka, eret, and fishlegs was very good, very good indeed

ruff’s monologue @ grimmel

i know i have Opinions about the dragon romance but seeing Hictooth both be Disaster Males supported by their elegant lady friends who also regularly kick their asses is so great, so so great

i did NOT expect baby!hiccup to talk during the flashback sequences and when he did i almost lost it, @kingofthewilderwest and @nonposter can confirm

speaking of which, those flashbacks killed me. they added so much gentle depth to stoick as a father and a man. really makes me want to go back and watch the first film again, knowing what kind of relationship they’ve lost

valka and astrid’s relationship is good. i was hoping they would bond over supporting/rolling their eyes at hiccup

nuffink??? nuffink. hiccup “itchy armpit” haddock was clearly involved in naming his children

“hey astrid, you got a name for this one?” [sleepy mumble] “nothing” [hiccup’s eyes light up] “nuffink, incredible--”

THE REVERSES;LKFJDSLKJ HSAND;SLAKFJDLSAKJ THINGA;LASDLKFJA;SDLFJKSK

the hidden world was so incredibly beautiful and the choice to only show it to us for five minutes was absolutely the right one

FIREWYRMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

epilogue.

people ( @inhonoredglory was that you?) have already explored the symbolism of grimmel systematically ripping away everything that connected hiccup to toothless so im not gonna do much more than bring it up--wait

waitwaitwaaaaaaait wait wait

none of the other riders’ suits were damaged at all were they

the other riders still have tangible remnants of their dragons and how much they and hiccup loved them

everyone except hiccup

why

ow

im in pain now

there were dragons when i was a boy

[dragonmasterhiccup]

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay, you do have a point…”

“Oh, believe me, I know! I will make sure to fulfill my duties to the fullest! I will save your child from your boringness, swear on my life!” She couldn’t hold back her laughter, and by the end, she bursted out laughing so hard that her face was turning red.

“Ha-ha, I’m not actually calling you sir, that’s way too respectful for me.” She laughed as well, sarcastically. “You better be, because that is also not happening, ever.”

“Mhm! I’ll get them to you in a few days, I just need some time to sort it out by color.”

“I’m totally going to beat you!”

———

Danny, in fact, did not win the Maces and Talons match, Hiccup once again outsmarting her. Though the matches had recently been getting closer, Danny steadily picking up tactics and strategies.

Once the match was over was when Astrid and Zephyr had returned, and Danny greeted them happily.

Sadly, it had gotten pretty late, meaning that Danny needed to head home soon after. So, after saying her goodbyes, which for her now included tight hugs for everyone in the family, she was on her way home, back to where her mother was waiting for her.

———

It had started like any other night; hugging her mom good night, saying her now nightly ‘I love you’ and heading to sleep, not a care in the world.

Until around midnight, when a group of viscous dragon hunters had unknowingly infiltrated Berk, seeking out the young teen once again. It seemed she’d never be able to escape this.

They had come in with dragons of their own, ones being controlled by a shiny purple liquid that made them unable to resist any commands they were given. Deathgripper venom.

See, these hunters worked for a man named Grimmel the Grisly, the infamous ‘Night Fury Killer,’ who after finding out that Stoick’s son had ‘tamed’ the last living one, had set out a mission to hunt it.

Though he knew he couldn’t do it by himself; Berk sure did gain a reputation of being… resistant, so he did what he needed to do, hire workers, people who would work for him for imaginary ‘pay,’ pay that they would only be received after the job was finished.

It was going… bad, to say the least for the first few months, until on a raid they had spotted Danielle, whom most thought was dead. That on its own was something, but after hearing Hiccup refer to her as his ‘sister,’ that was another thing entirely.

The girl had grown important to him, no one knew why, nor did they really care, they just knew that she was known as a sister to Hiccup Haddock, and that was all they needed.

The attack had been planned for weeks.

First, they would sneak in at night to appear less suspicious on the off chance that they were caught.

Then, after locating the girl, they were to capture her and burned wherever she was staying. Berk had tracking dragons, and if her scent had been burned off, then they wouldn’t be able to track her, simple as that.

Danny woke with a start as she found numerous hunters holding her back, and she screamed loudly. “Mom! Mom, help! M—“ She had been cut off by a cloth being placed over her nose and mouth, casing her to pass out within seconds, the hunters finishing what they needed to do, using their dragons to light the hut on fire…

———

Eret, whose hut was near Valka’s, woke up to the smell of smoke, and he immediately rushed to the source, bucket of water in hand.

Throwing the bucket on the hut [which did next to nothing], he looked at Valka with wide eyes. “Valka, are you okay?! What happened? And where’s Danielle?!”

"I'm counting on it!"

------------------

The Maces and Talons match went really well, and Hiccup was quite proud of the strides she'd made in strategic planning. He was also very proud of how well she took the loss, knowing in the past, that was not the case.

As she was giving hugs goodbye, he decided to try to not only spend more time with her, but to also play Maces and Talons with her more often.

-----------------

Valka's eyes shot open, hearing Danny's screams. She immediately got up, running across the hut towards her daughter.

"Danny? Danielle! Dan--"

But someone had known this would happen, because she had been taken by surprise, feeling a sudden pain on the back of her head, causing her to crumple to the ground.

-------------

She woke with a start a few minutes later, coughing from the smoke shed inhaled.

She scrambled to her feet, racing through the hut for any signs of Danny, finding none.

By the time she made it outside, the hut was almost completely engulfed in fire, Valka struggling to catch her breath.

"Eret! I'll be fine," she coughed again, "but Danielle-- they took her, we must follow them, get her back!"

She went to call for Cloudjumper, but her breath hitched in her throat, bringing on another coughing fit.

--------------------

A heavy, urgent knock on the door woke Hiccup up from a sound sleep.

Astrid stirred next to him, but he laid a hand on her shoulder and she woke up as well.

They exchanged a worried glance before Hiccup went to put his prosthetic back on, and Astrid went to check on Zephyr, who started to cry from being woken up to the loud noise.

Toothless was at Hiccup's side as well, sensing the urgency of the situation.

Hiccup stumbled towards the door, Astrid with Zephyr close behind him, as the knocking continued, and he opened it, fearing the worst.

------

"What?!"

[artinandwritin]

My view on the HTTYD Next Generation (Zephyr, Nuffink and OCs)

Since How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World hit theaters a few months ago and since I cried at the end, here is my view on the next generation.

The Haddock Family (Hiccup and Astrid):

We obviously already got their two adorable kids, but I personally think Hiccup and Astrid leave it on two. Since I have thought of the next gen since before we knew about Zeph and Nuff, I had already thought of three kids. When they got canon kids, I couldn’t do anything but re-arrange what I had.

Of course, their first-born child is Zephyr Stormfly Haddock. According to the art-book, she takes after her father the most, up to a nervous personality. I could see her, after her teens, as a mature, responsible leader-to-be, taking her job very serious, since she is the first female Chief.

The second is Nuffink Toothless Haddock, probably the trouble-maker of the family. As he is described, he takes more after Astrid, so I can see him as one with a fire within, but gentle and with a heart of gold. He would probably become a warrior, like his mother.

As for the next gen ocs, the first one is Hiccstrid’s third child and second daughter, Alischa “Liz” Valka Haddock. She has, overall, more parts of Hiccup’s character with Astrid’s temper and their combined stubborness. She is, like her mother, someone who needs a voice of reason in her life.

The fourth child is a boy named Stoick Finn Haddock II and he is the emotional teenager of the family. He is grumpy, hates the world and doesn’t give a damn about what happens in the village, since the only things he cares about are books.

Toothless and Light Fury Family:

Of course we already know they have three hatchlings and everyone gives them different names, so here are my options about their names. However, they can change once we get the real names:

The first litter consists of the canon-but-not-named Night Lights:

The first one, the more black one with blue eyes, I call Eclipse and is a female. Zephyr would be her rider and she would be more like her mother, the Light Fury - very distant of humans. However, once she gets to know them, she would love them like her father.

The white one, Lunar, is called after her mother, but is nothing like her. She is enthusiastic about everything she sees and wants to learn everything possible. She absolutely loves humans, and especially Nuffink. They would probably be friends for life.

The youngest one of the trio, the black one with green eyes, is Solar. He is named after the position of the sun in the sky, ruling over the lands. He is very wary of humans, especially since he is chosen by the Dragons to take over the role of Alpha after his father steps back.

Now for the second litter, considering of ocs:

The oldest of the two is called Safire and looks almost identical to her father, despite her having several white spots and more swift wings and fins. Her rider is Liz Haddock and in the fanfic I’m writing, they play the main rolls. Safire is more like her mother, but without being wary about humans.

The rest of the following characters are all ocs.

The Ingerman Family (Fishlegs and Heather):

The first one, Helena Windshear Ingerman, is the new apprentice in the forge and Zephyr’s best friend. She is the ultimate mom-friend, always worried and nervous about what her friends (and siblings) are doing, but also pretty smart and capable of letting things go.

Then you have the twins, Fay Heather Ingerman and Veena Astrid Ingerman. Where Veena is outgoing and hyperactive, Fay is more calm and collected. She is someone who thinks too much, while her sister is more the person to jump right into something.

The youngest, Hugo Oswald Ingerman, is the smartest kid you will ever meet. He is Stoick’s best friend and often comes with good advice for the emo teen to get him out of his issues. However, he has a great interest with everything that comes with Dragons and weapons.

The Broken Family (Snotlout and Ruffnut, Ruffnut and Eret, Snotlout and Minden):

Here’s where things get complicated, but I’ll explain it.

Around a year to two years before Zephyr was born, Snotlout and Ruffnut were in the like-not-like situation and from that, Thorvald Hookfang Jorgenson was born. However, Ruffnut was also in love with Fishlegs, but since she just had a son with another man and saw her crush already moving on to Heather, she decided to let it slide and care for her baby.

Things didn’t work out for Ruff and Snotlout and they parted ways very quickly. Half a year after Thorvald’s birth, they decided to share their son and went to life in different houses. Five months later, Ruff had a drunk night with Eret and from that, Audun Eret Thorston and Hialti Ruffnut Thorston were born. Eret, trying to be a good father, still cared for them, but he didn’t want a relationship with Ruff. However, they remained good friends and Ruffnut decided she was happy.

In the meantime, Snotlout married Minden. They had, in the year Stoick II was born, a daughter, Ylva Minden Jorgenson. However, when the Wingmaidens were attacked, Minden left to help. She was never seen again and Snotlout assumed she had died, leaving him to care for a small child and his son.

Thorvald is nothing like his parents. He is kind and caring, loving nothing more than to see others happy. He is engaged to Zephyr, and they are as much in love as Zephyr’s parents are.

Audun is cocky. He appreciates his own voice and appearance more then the well-being of even his family. He has spend years to take Zephyr away from his half-brother - succeeded for a while - and definately deserved it when Nuffink and Liz fought him for cheating on their sister.

Hialti is very nervous, although she loves attention. At the prill age of seventeen, she got pregnant by a man who loved her, but died in an accident. She gave birth to her son, Stian, at eighteen and never got over her lost love.

Ylva is shy and very emotional. She cries at the most subtle sentences - especially if they involve her mother. She has a crush on Stoick and brings the best out of him - but he doesn’t see it.

The Thorston Family (Tuffnut and Aine (oc)):

Tuffnut met, sometime after The Hidden World, a woman named Aine and they quickly fell in love. From that came their twins - since twins run in the family.

Annika Masey Thorston is the oldest of the two and Nuffink’s admiror. She stumbles over her words with ease, blushes very quickly, but has great humor and has her father’s smarts.

Kjell Lloyd Thorston the the second of the twins and loves to get in trouble. He is, what they call, an idiot, but a sweet one. He cares a lot about his friends - especially Fay - and is always up for a joke.

The Berserker Family (Dagur and Mala):

The oldest and so the heir of the Berserkers is called Ingrid Heather Berserker. She is a year younger than Nuffink - her parents decided to first combine the Berserkers and Defenders of the Wing properly. Ingrid is more strict like her mother, but also a little bit crazy and adventure-loving like Dagur.

Oh God this went on for longer then I expected.

If anyone has questions about the characters or backstories, since I didn’t explain everything here, or about the fanfiction I’m writing, send them! I’ll be happy to answer!

[kingofthewilderwest]

Just out of curiosity, how can you rank the characters’s screen time in THW?

Alright, I’m just going to rate the main-ish cast for this. And haha, this is definitely going to be my personal subjective rating, which I have no doubt will be highly different than how most people would rate the characters’ screen time.

12. GobberHe’s there for a few small moments of comic relief, but not much else. 

11. FishlegsFishlegs didn’t have too notable of a role to me in THW. We saw him help trick Grimmel as a fake Toothless, and we had the ongoing gag of him bringing a baby to the battlefield. For me, that wasn’t as notable as the other character running gags.

10. EretEret didn’t have too much to do in the plot, but I appreciated the moments his serious disposition and voice of (relative) experience was added to the situation. I like that he mentioned he knew of Grimmel, that he participated in the Hairy Hooligan meeting discussing if they move to another location, and other small moments like that - they show Eret’s contributing to the Hairy Hooligan Tribe now as a grafted-in member. It’s also amusing to me that Eret finds Snotlout’s ridiculous shenanigans inconsequential and… well… ridiculous.

9. ValkaValka’s another character who flied fairly under the radar. Though she and Eret were the big new characters in HTTYD 2, both of them were fairly nondescript in their roles in THW. Of course, Valka had some good moments, such as sighing at the raiding party failures, and encouraging Astrid to talk to Hiccup when Hiccup is at a low. I appreciate that Valka knows she isn’t the person to get involved; she may be Hiccup’s mother, but she’s been gone twenty years, and the real person who should pep talk Hiccup is the woman who’ll obviously marry him. So I’m fine with the fact that Valka was “toned down”, and her little moments I think were a respectful balance between her being involved in Berk life, but her not being some sort of Integral Advisor (which she wouldn’t be).

8. SnotloutWhat a dork. While I think the gag between him, Eret, and Valka could’ve been removed and we focus just on him setting fire to his own butt, I will admit that Snotlout’s personality was great to see on screen, and I laughed at bit at him. He added personality flavor to the film in ways that were memorable. Of course, this dumbass is one of my favorites in the HTTYD franchise, so I’m biased. XD

7. Toothless and 6. Light FuryYes, I’m putting the Light Fury ahead of Toothless, and I know that’s going to feel ODD to lots of people. I’ll be honest: some of the scenes with Toothless bothered me a bit. Him slobbering, horny, over the Light Fury. Him being able to actually draw. Him acting (what felt to me) too much like a cutesie pet dog. It’s not my personal thing, and I prefer a more wild-like dragon. Which is why I found the Light Fury refreshing - she’s got some dorky moments to her, some grace, and lots of wild dragonness to her. But Toothless and the Light Fury have to be in the middle of the pack because they’re integral to the film, and I like, can’t NOT appreciate the “Save him” moment of the film. DAMN that was fucking good.

5. AstridNot a fan of the should-we-get-married subplot, but I love how present Astrid was in this film! I love that she continued to be a support for Hiccup, both encouraging him to move forward to great things, and providing him a voice of reason when he needs to turn a different direction. 

4. GrimmelGrimmel is a delightfully juicy personality. His moment where he barges into Hiccup’s house? Ohohohohohoh what a GREAT villain moment. He has to be ranked up here for that one moment alone!

3. TuffnutAdmittedly, THW had a lot of congested ongoing jokes that could’ve been narrowed down to fewer. Not every character in Hiccup’s gang needed an ongoing gag. But Tuffnut was delightfully Tuffnut, spewing all sorts of ridiculous nonsense to Hiccup. Regardless of whether or not his dialogue was “needed” for the plot of the film, there’s no denying I LOVED having me ridiculous Tuff speeches on screen!

2. RuffnutOh my gosh her scene with Grimmel. Need I say more?

1. HiccupHiccup was shown to undergo MANY complex emotions. I loved seeing Hiccup emotionally struggling and fighting what he knew he had to do. I loved seeing Hiccup in denial, I loved seeing Hiccup be naively optimistic, I loved seeing Hiccup being extremely distressed, I mean like, there’s infinite things to analyze here about how nuanced he was written, handling these situations.

And again. “Save him.” BEST moment in the film. SO good.