#Yes i believe brave takes place in the same world as httyd

[myheadcannons]

The Brave and the Dragon

A How to Train Your Dragon Au

Starts right in the middle of the second movie after Hiccup gets in an argument with Stoick and flys away.

∞ Valka isn’t the one to find Hiccup. As he flys, he runs into Drago instead of his mother.

∞ Drago manages to catch Hiccup and Toothless. Hiccup battles with Drago in an attempt to escape. He’s badly injured and Drago starts to set course to Berk planning to take the island.

∞ Hiccup manages to escape with Toothless injured and mortally wounded. Toothless flys him out of there as fast as he possibly can. They leave right before Astrid and the gang make their attack on the approaching boat. 

∞ Toothless flys them to an island on the outside of the map they’ve drawn up. He lays Hiccup down and watches over the knocked out boy.

∞ The two hide in a cave next to the beach. Toothless brings Hiccup fish he gathers and cooks them so his rider can eat them. Hiccup fades in and out of consciousness for the first 3 days. He’s able to stay awake for more than 2 hours on the 4th day.

∞ On the 5th day, these people pop out of the woods. They’re friendly but cautious of Toothless. The group help Hiccup up on his dragon careful not to move him too much as to not aggravate his wounds. They take the two to their boat that sits on the shore and set sail.

∞ They arrive at their intended destination 2 days later. The crew of the large boat managed to keep infection out of Hiccup’s wounds and he’s feeling better. (He tried to fly away with Toothless once or twice wanting to get back to Berk and Astrid but they stop him not wanting him to injure himself more.)

∞ They take him to a person they call the clan’s “Doctor” a word Hiccup is unfamiliar with. He learns that it’s these people’s version of a healer. 

∞ Hiccup is forced to stay in a bed and with the doctor for 3 days. They stitch up his wounds and prevent infection. Soon enough Hiccup is healthy enough to walk with a cane to help him

∞ It’s at this point they take Hiccup to their clan’s leader. The man reminds Hiccup of his own father. Large with red hair. The leaders also missing a leg. He boasts that he lost it to a demon bear.

∞The king and his family offer Hiccup shelter and allow him a place with them till he’s healed. He tries to refuse, saying he needs to get back to Berk but they don’t let him turn down their offer stating that he needs the rest. He reluctantly agrees.

∞ He gets close with the king’s daughter, Merida, working to help her wrangle up her 3 brothers. He takes her on dragon rides atop Toothless, helps clean her horse’s stall, and tries to learn archery from her while he teaches her sword fighting. She becomes his sister.

∞ He stays with the clan for 6 months. He’s preparing to leave when the kingdom is attacked. In an action of thanks, he agrees to stay and help them in the war. Learning strategy and battle tactics without difficulty. It’s a long and brutal war but eventually, they win. It takes 2 years though. He never stops thinking of Astrid through them.

∞ When the war is finally over the clan is victorious. The clan celebrates. Hiccup knows he can finally leave now. He gets Toothless ready and is set to leave without a goodbye when Merida stops him. She’s now a full blooded soldier (though her mother still disapproves). She insists she go with the boy she’s come to see as her brother. Hiccup caves in and lets her come.

∞ The two don’t encounter any dragons until their 7th day of flying. Hiccup has no clue which way north Berk is and if Drago’s even there, so the trio had been using the stars to navigate themselves to Berk. The dragon they spot is a terrible terror and it’s on its own. It’s scared as if it was badly injured once and when it flies it’s not the smooth flying, it’s choppy and fully of effort. 

∞ The terror flys past Toothless without so much of a glance at the larger dragon. It flies like it’s running away from something.

∞ Hiccup and Merida have to stop often, they didn’t bring a lot with them in the first place so they have to hunt for their own food, though with Merida’s archery skills and Toothless with Hiccup it’s not that hard. Hiccup managed to bring the new helmet and gear he’d crafted back at the clan though, along with a backup bow and sword. 

∞ It takes 2 more weeks after they saw the Terror when they find Berk. It’s dark with not a single light in the village on. Hiccup doesn’t like it at all. He doesn’t dare take Toothless close to the village in fear of what’s happening. Berk isn’t how he left it. 

∞ He forces Toothless to fly to the back of the island and land in Black Heart Bay. As soon as they land and slide of Toothless there’s a rustling of leaves. An arrow flys past Merida’s head. Before Toothless can jump on one of their attackers a chain net is thrown over the beast. 3 hooded figures emerge from the forest line armed with crossbows. Merida and Hiccup are forced to surrender but Hiccup refuses to take off his helmet in fear that if these are Drago’s men they’ll recognize him. 

∞ The figures force Merida and Hiccup to follow them to a hidden town/camp in the mountain. Toothless is forced away from Hiccup and Merida into a dungeon below the camp. 

∞ Hiccup and Merida are brought before the council which is supposedly made up of the greatest Vikings in the rebellion. It’s made of a council of 5 people, but there are six chairs. The middlemost one is left open as if in tribute. The council members all wear masks. 

∞ When Hiccup and Merida are brought before the council the supposed leader orders Hiccup to take off his helmet. Hiccup hesitates before unclipping his helmet and pulling it off letting his shaggy hair fall.

∞ The Council falls silent for a moment before one of the larger ones start yelling at Hiccup that he’s a ghost, an imposter sent by Drago. Before Hiccup can defend himself a loud roar. Suddenly the doors to the room burst open, Toothless in the door frame angerly growling.

∞ Hiccup runs over to the dragon Merida behind him as he works to calm his best friend down. The council members are silent. Merida rests a hand on Toothless’s back to help keep him calm as Hiccup turns to look at the council, fury, and strength gleaming in his eyes.

∞ The one who appears to be the leader walks up towards Hiccup, their eyes not daring to unlock with Hiccup’s as they approach. They stop in front of Hiccup and say nothing. Hiccup looks down on them. He can now notice the blond hair that pokes out from the sides of their mask. It’s like a punch in the gut when he realizes who this is.

∞He brings his hands up to the corner of the mask. They don’t refude the action as Hiccup slowly pulls the mask off their face. 

∞ It’s Astrid. She’s looking at him with so much pain and hope in her eyes as her eyes look into his.

∞ Before anyone can blink the two are kissing like there’s no tomorrow. 

To be Continued.........

[inhonoredglory]

"Not only is the friendship beneficial for both of them (they were each alone and they fulfilled themselves in each other), it was beneficial for the entire world. If anything, they owe it to the archipelago and the future of dragons and humans to stay together." I loved this! did you mean it?! could you elaborate on it pleeease? thanks!

So this is in response to this post and the reply by @kingofthewilderwest, referencing why Hiccup and Toothless had to separate and the implied selfishness on the part of Hiccup for hanging onto the friendship. Specifically, this is in response to a quote from Haddock’s reply:

“Can we actually call Hiccup’s relationship to Toothless through the years a selfish holding on? When so much of Hicctooth’s relationship has been sacrifice for one another, through and through and through?”

Hiccup and Toothless’ friendship is such a deep one precisely because it made both of them stronger and braver and better than they were before: Hiccup found his place in the world, found his confidence, found love and respect among his friends and family, found his identity and his mission in the world. Hiccup became brave and selfless enough to lose the love of his father in order to prove that dragons were not killers. He became a warrior in order to save his dragon and his tribe and father.

Toothless, through Hiccup’s confidence in him, found courage to fight the tyrant that had kept his fellow dragons under control. He saved his dragonkind, not only by doing this, but by proving that dragons are the loyal, wonderful creatures Hiccup believed them to be. Toothless became selfless enough not to look out for his own self-preservation, but to put himself in harm’s way in order to save Hiccup from the Kill Ring. His saving Hiccup from the fire proved to Stoick that dragons can love, and indeed, love deeply.

And it was these, the acts of both Hiccup and Toothless, that brought peace to the 300-year-war that raged on Berk against dragons. Thousands of lives, dragon and human, were saved by the simple but powerful expression of love between two individuals. (And when you think about it, that’s a really remarkable achievement.)

In the second film, we get the same theme: Hiccup and Toothless have created a world where humans and dragons live together. Drago believes that dragons can simply be controlled by wielding power over them and by taking command of the dragon alpha. It’s a pragmatic equation built on the belief that dragons have no love and no loyalty in them. He’s out to make a dragon army and to decimate tribes across the archipelago, using dragons as his henchmen. But what stops him? What stops this tyrant from destroying the world? The fact that Toothless is independent of the Alpha, he has free will, he has loyalty, he has choice. He is not beholden to the will of the Alpha, or by extension, Drago. Dragons cannot be used, they cannot be forced to do that which they hate.

Granted, it was hard for Toothless to evade the control of the Alpha, which shows how strong the biological drive is to listen to the Alpha’s command. But because Toothless’ love for Hiccup is so strong, it can and will overpower his other, deep biological instincts. In the final battle of the second film, it is again Toothless’ absolute trust in Hiccup that allows him to evade the Alpha’s hive mind, and his absolute ferocity in having Hiccup hurt again under his watch that empowered him to take on the Alpha and upturn the natural order of the species. It was Toothless’ command of the dragons that allowed them all the strength to fight the Bewilderbeast and protect not only their own free will but the lives of the Berkians (and by extension, all the peoples under threat by Drago).

In both films and in the series, we see again and again how association and comradeship with dragons makes for a better world: from the Riders (the next generation who will live loving dragons for who they are and what they can do), to Eret (changing his worldview entirely), to Mala (who gives dragons the respect they deserve as incredible, powerful beings), to the Wingmaidens (who have a symbiotic relationship to their dragons and their wellbeing). Hiccup’s message of how humans and dragons should work together has never created a worse world.

Even in the third film, it is Hiccup and Toothless’ absolute and undying love for one another that takes down the enemy that symbolizes the world: Hiccup, because of his love for Toothless, sacrificed himself to kill Grimmel, to save Toothless. Hiccup and the other riders continually saved dragons from trapper cages because they worked together with their dragons to fight them. The riders take down the enemy armada by joining forces with dragons. It is Hiccup’s association with Toothless and with dragons that allows Hiccup to innovate creatively to create a world that tries to accommodate both species––an unheard of notion among Vikings that is relevant to the very core of what tolerance means.

Hiccup and Toothless have only ever made each other’s lives better. They have both only ever made the world a better place. They have symbolized peace and equality to people everywhere, they have fought as one to defeat foes who believed only subordination or murder was possible between the species.

Hiccup, as a mediator between the human and dragon species, is in the perfect position to negotiate between the species, to understand what humans need to understand about dragons, and what dragons need to ally with humans. Hiccup is capable of talking to leaders and chiefs on the archipelago, showing them the power and splendor of the dragons by his side. Toothless is the leader capable of defending and leading dragonkind away from control by a dominating foe or a challenger Alpha. Because their enemies underestimate the bond between two individuals and the two species, Hiccup and Toothless have the advantage of them and have continually taken victory from them through the sheer expression of their love and belief in one another.

What makes Hiccup and Toothless special in the history of the world is how they are the individual representation of a larger goal. It’s a psychological fact that tolerance for foreign groups and immigrants increases by the sheer presence of those groups. Keeping dragons and humans together in some form keeps that existence alive in the world, allowing Hiccup and Toothless to develop their joint leadership into something that guides the entire world into peace and understanding. By putting a halt to that association, by giving in to the divide of the species believed by the world, Hiccup is essentially formalizing the idea that his efforts at peace are not enough, that his and Toothless’ association cannot help create a better world anymore. And while this is an admirable, humble realization (and one I would have loved to see better developed in THW), it really doesn’t come across that way in the HTTYD narrative. In the narrative, we see how much their friendship helps defeat vast armies and tyrannical foes, and how their bond has created a utopia where both species live (albeit somewhat uncomfortably, but really.. not irrecoverably).

So, I guess what I’m saying is that the love between Hiccup and Toothless has only ever been selfless and giving. And more than that, it has continually shown to be the catalyst of major societal and political change in their world. By their both becoming leaders to their respective groups, they are in the perfect position to further enact real change in the larger world, by preaching tolerance by example and demonstrating that a mutually-beneficial dragon-human alliance is more powerful than humans or dragons alone.

I’d like to note that in the books, Hiccup and the dragons remained together and at peace for most of Hiccup’s life because the dragons trusted Hiccup to be a friend of dragons, and to lead the archipelago in that friendly alliance. The separation happened towards the end of Hiccup’s life because, while dragons could trust Hiccup to lead the humans in friendship with dragons, they could not always trust who came after Hiccup. That is the difference in thematic I think is missing from the narrative in THW: that, yes, there are humans who will always be evil towards dragons, but it is Hiccup and his tribe who can be forces for change in their world right now, before they pass on to the next generation.