#and its after his fight with heather where he cant help her when she needs him because of dd stuff just

[thefightinfoggy]

From Daredevil (1964) #149. Pencils by Carmine Infantino, Inks/Colors by Klaus Janson.

(edit: now has alt id)

[childhoodgrave]

whats dtl about ifff ud like 2 talk abt it i see cute sprites & decide i wanna know things.. hehe the top hat n cape guy gif is in sync w my music hehe

IM SO GLAD U ASKED this game is probsbly my favorite game ever its been a special interest if mine since i was 7 and i dont think its a GOOD game per se bt i love it a lot and it impacted me a lot as a little kid w a mild interest in art :)

so basically the game is a little 2d adventure platformer where u get to draw and design the character u play as. its p clunky and the way ur character moves looks rlly silly bt again this game was released in like 2010 on the ds so its ok .. the game also gave u templates to go off of and use too just in case u didnt want to design a character from scratch

the story of the first game is abt this world that was drawn into existence by “the creator” in the book of life. u hav this little sequence where u get to draw the world, and the forrests and the creatures tht wld inhabit it. the creatures tht inhabit the world are callec raposa and they r little fox creature w funny ears :)

like this guy (his name is zsasha and hes a thief but hes like a bad one who ends up returning all of the stuff he steals and also watching over a little orphan girl who he basically adopts LOL)

in the universe if the game the “creator” eventually went silent and the raposa lost hope in them ever returning. the world was slowly shrouded in darkness and gradually all of the raposa inhabiting this little village were either lost or left on purpose bc it was slowly falling apart. the game starts when one of the remaining raposa, mari, prays to u, the creator, to come back and help restore her village, saying that everyone else has lost hope but she still believes you can return to her. u can answer, and either say that u will help or you wont, but either way u end up agreeing to help her and she goes to tell her dad, the mayor, abt it. you create a “hero” to be the vessel you will speak thru, and thats the character u end up designing and playing as. the game is abt going to various areas from the village and rescuing all of the raposa that are lost there, as well as restoring the village to what it used to be and drawing in bits of the landscape, like the sun and plants and stuff.

the villain of the story is a guy named wilfre, who was another villager in the town who ended up drawing in the book of life bc he wanted to create things the way the creator had. he ended up making these big inky monsters and got consumed by them, and when u meet him at the beginning of the game he tears up a bunch of pages in the book of life which get scattered across the land and you have to collect them in order to restore the village.

so u basically just go around saving villagers, collecting pages of the book of life, and redrawing bits of the town that were lost to wilfres shadows. eventually wilfre ends up like, killing maris dad (the mayor) and then after youve restored a majority of the village you enter his realm and kill him!! yay :)

throughout the game you also meet these two weird npcs called heather and mike. heather is a little raposa girl who has half of her face covered in shadows, and shes mostly mute. shes found early on in the game and is taken care of by another one of the main characters named jowee

mike is a character u end up rescuing later on in the game, hes p confused and doesnt know how he got where he is, and hes also different from the other raposa bc he doesnt have ears like they do and kind of just looks like a normal human (even tho none of the raposa know what that is and they just think he looks rlly weird)

in the first game heather is shown to take a liking to mike but it isnt explained why and she doesnt talk to its left unexplained

so yah the first game ends with you, the hero, defeating wilfre. mari takes on the role of her father and becomes mayor of the town, and all of the raposa (+ mike) live happily in the town youve restored. the hero goes dormant because theyre no longer needed and u get a scene at the end of the game w them sitting by the ghost of maris father.

the SECOND game takes place a while after the first game, in which wilfre returns and captures heather at the beginning of the game. he also kidnaps a bunch of the other villagers and transports them somewhere else, and he drains the color out of the village the raposa were in. they end up fleeing on a giant turtle with an abandoned town on its back that appears while the color is draining from the village. inside mari and jowee find another mannequin similar to the one the creator had drawn the hero on in the first game. they pray to the creator for help and thats when u draw the hero u get to play as for that game!! the hero doesnt seem to remember mari and jowee or any of the events of the first game, but they agree to help them rescue heather and all of the villagers wilfre stole.

jowee also has like, this magic pendant that belonged to heather that he found after wilfre took her, which seems to be leading them to where heather is. they use that to navigate the turtle thru the ocean to a bunch of other islands on the world. the second game is basically about traveling to different islands and helping them restore the color thats been drained out of them by wilfre. you also meet these two characters, salem

who is a villain in the first island u travel to, and sock

who is a villager on the first island u visit who ends up befriending jowee and traveling with them while they try to save heather.

so ur doing all of that but THEN, halfway thru the game mari is shown to be talking to wilfre, and then she dissapears. jowee assumes wilfre has captured her too, but shes later seen on the turtle again, and rips out a bunch of pages in the book of life the way wilfre did in the first game, and then wilfre appears to take her away and says that shes working with him now. jowee is heartbroken but resolves to get her back as well as heather

THEN, sock, jowees friend from the first island whos been tagging along and helping out, is ALSO revealed to be wilfre in disguise and he betrays jowee and steals heathers pendent, leaving jowee with basically no means of finding heather and wikfre and mari by extension.

so eventually they do end up finding where wilfre is and mari is like “jowee you dont understand wilfre has shown me the truth of our world and who the creator is and thats why im helping him” and jowee is like “i cant believe yoy are helping him how could you i cant believe you bla bla bla” and so wilfre is like “FINE ill show you the TRUTH of this world” and takes jowee and then the hero is kind of left ln their own for a bit to like wander around the world and try to keep rescuing ppl and such. and eventually jowee comes back and is like shaken up but kind of vague abt what wilfre showed him, but he still decides to side with the hero and the creator and eventually mari is convinced by him to join them again as well

so u fight wilfre again and EVENTUALLY wilfre reveals that if you defeat him basically the entire world will dissapear and thats what hes been trying to avoid by fucking w things and messing with the book of life. so all of the raposa have a bunch existential crisis abt them ceasing to exist if they go thru with this but then they decide to to it anyway bc the alternative is just as bad blah blah and u go and kill wilfre and he does this when he dies which is cool

[the gif was fuckjng broken im sorry but like look up his sprites and youll fjnd it 💔]

and now heather is back!! and her and mari and jowee are all talking about mike and how important he is and meanwhile mike has no clue whats going on and is kind of freaked out by all of this, but theyre all like “mike you need to wake up” as theyre all fading out of existence and shit around him and eventually him and heather are the only ones left and they dissapear too

and THATS when you get the ending and find out it was all like a dream mike was having while he was in a coma after a car crash anx this plays while the credits role lol https://youtu.be/Kur0qaYM1jM

^ they ended up releasing different versions oft he game w a less dark (but still w the whole ‘it was all a dream twist’) and thats it!!

there was also another game released for the wii that like gave wilfre a girlfriend kind of but i never played it to completion bc it used the wii remotes motion controls to like draw and shit and it was rly janky and hard so i never finished it and most ppl did the same. i kind of rlly want to try playing it again tho bc it was a p cute looking game even if the controls were fucked up

AND YEA thats drawn to life its a weird silly little series tht i was obsessed w when i was a kid and it still holds a special place in my heart :) i basicaly just spoiled the entire series i guess but if u have a ds or a 3ds (bc the game is backwards complatible ! ) id still suggest like getting a cartidge off ebay or something and playing it bc its honestly a rlly sweet and beautiful looking game and i think a lot of it still homds up even if the controls r rlly janky now

[chcngclingsarchive]

➰ ( NATALIA DYER, CISFEMALE, SHE/HER) *✧.:°░｡ —- is that GRACE SAINT-JAMES?! you know them, right? they are the TWENTY ONE year old FAERIE !! they’re known for being ARDENT & GENIAL - but i’d be careful if i were you because they’re also MEEK & NAIVE.

yes its me again, ur trash bag trash baby elle. as if i didn’t have enough kids already, i’ve picked up this actual crushed petal so here we gooooooooo here’s the story of grace 

history

adriel (there’s only one person who knows this is her actual name !!) is the daughter of the seelie queen. the queen kept her pregnancy hidden bc its actually quite hard for seelies to get pregnant and she didn’t want anyone knowing, thinking this was an opportunity for attack etc.

but adriel was a sickly fey child and so was basically an embarrassment and the queen was convinced she was going to die anyway so did as is custom and swapped her with a human child to help the fey bloodline progress

the baby, briefly named heather, was with these human parents until she was about 18 months old. the human parents died in a car accident and with no living relatives, baby heather was put into the system

baby heather, finally renamed grace, was adopted by a devout christian group, raised as part of a very close knit community that was solely focused on the church. they had very traditional, conservative, orthodox views on the bible (picture almost amish, mennonite kinda views but hadn’t chucked modern tech completely to the wayside)

she lived an incredibly sheltered life in the tiny village in the south, only knew people from the church community, was taught to be quiet, modest, ‘seen but not heard’ etc. 

she was always told she was going to marry a boy from the church group, a few months after her 18th birthday the wedding would happen

buT THEN HE CAME INTO TOWN

he pretended to be a travelling preacher, he’d been robbed and was in desperate need of help. the church took him in and soon everyone was falling under his spell. he stayed to work with them, charmed them, and grace fell entirely in love with him

they slept together (makING HER UNPURE FOR HER MARRIAGE *GASP*) and he basically tricked most of the town into giving up their life savings before getting the fuCK OUT 

grace was flat out heart broken and her community was in tatters. and then she found out...ding ding ding SHE WAS PREGNANT

her community and family kicked her out for shaming them and basically being a harlot and whatnot

she moved from town to town, kept the baby, tried to work, had to live on the streets at some points (seriously girl had it tough and she is not a tough cookie)

but it was all fine because she was going to have this beautiful baby to make everything ok....except when she gave birth, the baby had wINGS. luckily (talk about deus ex machina) one of the nurses helping her was a warlock. they realised that she had no idea what she or her baby were. they glamoured the baby and explained the truth to grace; why she had always had an affinity for nature, what her baby was, why she was the onLY ONE WHO HAD NOTICED THE CHARMING PREACHER DUDES POINTY EARS

the warlock put her in contact with Adriana and grace has been under addy's care ever since.she’s signed up to this bond because she needs to learn abt shadowworld, had nowhere else to go, and maybe?? she && her baby can have a home with the seelie court?? (at least until she realises seelies are manipulative s.o.b’s)

personality

iS THE MOST TIMID FLOWER

so soft, so naive, so kind, pls be gentle she breaks easily

literally believes in the good in everyone. believes anyone can change, believes they just need the right guidance.

KINDNESS FIRST

could not hurt a fly or argue to save her life it’s pathetic really

loves nature & flowers wow, can make flowers grow with her sMILE i mean technically not but she is really good at getting plants/flowers to grow. with actual training who knows?? maybe actually a half decent seelie??

has never understood why she cant lie but is still terrible at “misappropriating the truth” like a lot of seelies do - like she cannot deceive for shit

just wants to raise her little butterfly winged baby faith (yep shes that corny) in a nice world where they don’t have to fight for scraps and everything is ok

actually still quite focused on religion, prays a lot, but has never been preachy, would not shove down your throat, just likes her quiet contemplation and prayer

literally quiet as a mouse, is she even there? who knows?

wanted connections

the FREAKING SEELIE QUEEN PLS HER REAL MOM

THE SEELIE LORD WHO KNOCKED HER UP - yep you got that one right, would love love love the lord who probably realised she was a changeling but ?? not of THAT BLOODLINE to now find out that they are a father. is he still a douchebag ?? was he ever a douchebag ?? LETS PLOT IT OUT

[minatoiskyuubismate]

Snow way out-the dagurized version

The next episode I worked over. I changed Heather with Dagur.

Snow way out.

I did the episodes not always in the row like in the original. And some were left out.

 It was time to test the new Gronkle Iron armour that Hiccup and Fishlegs had designed for Toothless. The Nightfury looked extreme unconfortable while in flight and scratched from time to time at the armour, grumbling.

“I know, bud.” said Hiccup who was heading with his dragon over the bay straight at the dragon base. “Wearing metal on bare skin can be…itchy. I know how this feels, trust me.”

The Hooligan looked at his peg leg, scratching it too absently.

“But we need to say focused. Okay, lets go! Simulating attack-go!”

Toothless picked up his speed but still scratched at the armour plates. “I know. Its heavy. Just-NET!“

The Nightfury dodged the net that sailed towards them.

“Hooks!”

Three grappling Hooks on chains sailed towards them, Toothless was able to avoid them too.

“Well done!-Arrows!”

Hiccup pulled up and the wind pressure let the armour plates shake. And it began to fall apart. Toothless flew through the arrows dodging them all - but lost the chest and belly plates in the process.

“Uh-oh, not good.” Hiccup murmured. The next moment an Arrow hit Toothless straight in the chest. But it had no dangerous tip on it, only a bladder with orange paint who left a mark on the Nightfurys underside. Toothless growled in annoyance and Hiccup sighed.

The Jorgenson on the ballista cheered.

“Snotlout, Snotlout, oi, oi,oi!”

“Good shot, Snotlout!” he called. ”You got us.”

“Not yet, cous´.”

A second arrow hit Hiccup right into the chest and left an orange mark on his vest too. Hiccup glared at Snotlout. “Not again..”

The Jorgenson laughed but was quickly knocked off the ballista by Toothless plasma blast.

“Bud! What have I said? No plasma blast shooting at our teammates! And no shooting directly on living things! Only if necessary!” Hiccup told the Nightfury who pulled a face. “You know what happened with Snotlout two days ago?”

An earlier plasma hit had caused burns on Snotlouts back. It seemed the plasma blasts of the Nightfury had increased in power and he was not able to control it yet properly.

 Later that evening Fishlegs retrieved the armour pieces and began to work out what went wrong.

“Sigh! I really thought, we had it this time.” he moaned.

“But it lasted longer than the last one.“ Hiccup said. “And another problem is Toothless does not like wearing it.”

“Yeah, it lasted, but not long enough.” said Tuffnut. Then he raised an eyebrow at Fishlegs. “Wait, unless you wanted Hiccup to get shot down. – Could it be that you wanted to kill Hiccup?”

“I am not trying to kill Hiccup!” Fishlegs answered.

Hiccup groaned and rolled his eyes.

“Enough of this. What´s next?” he asked.

“I think we have to go thinner. That should it make more lighter and flexible.”

“But it won ´t make it Snotlout-proof. Nothing can. It’s a good thing that I am on your side.” the Jorgenson chuckled, but suddenly he was slammed to the floor by Stormfly who just had arrived with Astrid on her back.

“Aoww! My burns!” Snotlout jowled.

“Astrid!” Hiccup growled and helped his cousin back to his legs. He shot her and Stormfly an angry glare.

“What?! Whats with him?” the shieldmaden asked.

“A small accident during our last testing session for the armor. So be a bit more careful with him!”

“Okay..” she huffed.

„So you are back from Berk already?“

Astrid shook her head. Never made it there. I ran into Trader Johann along the way and he had picked up some interesting news. Hiccup, we need to talk.”

 And so, Moments later at the clubhouse.

“Johann told me that he had seen Ryker, Dagur and the Dragon Hunters in the Northern Markets buying all the winter gear the could get their hands on.” Astrid explained.

“Why would they buy winter gear in summer?” Snotlout asked.

“Hello! That’s when you get the best prices!” said Ruffnut.

“Ruff is an excellent shopper.” Tuffnut nodded.

“No one is surprised by that.” Snotlout said.

“Where were the Dragon Hunters going that they would need so much winter gear in this time of the year?” Hiccup pondered. “Astrid, did Johann hear anything else?”

„They needed the gear right away. And they were after something rare. A bone or claw…”

Hiccups eyes widened. „A snowwraith tooth! For the Dragon Eye!“ he exclaimed.

“Well, good luck with that, Dragon hunters.“ said Tuffnut dismissively “ You and Dagur barely got out of there alive, you told us.”

“The Dragon Eye used to belong to the Hunters.” Hiccup said holding out the Dragon Eye. “They must know that they need a Snow Wraith tooth to make it work.”

“Who cares? All it means that they arent´t crossing our paths.” said Snotlout.

“But if they get their own key, the will be coming for us next.” said Hiccup.

“Please don’t tell me you want to prevent the Hunters from catching a Snow Wraith.” Astrid said.

“We cant let that happen! Get a good night sleep, everyone. We leave for Glacier Island at first light.” Hiccup ordered and send his comrades to their huts.

 The next moring they headed straight towards Glacier Island, home of the Snow Wraiths.

“So we are really going to protect a dragon, that the last time tried to kill you and Dagurs men, from the Dragon Hunters, the Hunters, who every time when they spot us, trying us to kill?” said Tuffnut.

“And don’t forget Heather and Dagur and their dragons. They like to kill us too.” Ruffnut added.

“The Berserker siblings won´t be a problem.” Hiccup said.

“Why would they not be a problem?” Fishlegs frowned.

“Well…we outnumber them, right?-Look, Berserker siblings or not-all we have to do is to find the Snow Wraith first and relocate him to an island where the Hunters won´t find him.”

“Uh, that sounds like and extremely dangerous plan.” Fishlegs whimpered.

“I didn’t think so.” said Hiccup as they finally reached the island. “Come, lets head over to where I and Dagur found the Snow Wraith last time.”

“You mean, he found you and Dagur.” Snotlout corrected.

“That’s one way of putting it.” said Hiccup as he leaded his friends to the spot where he and Dagur encountered the last time the dangerous Dragon.

Soon they landed where Hiccup and Dagur confronted the Snow Wraith the last time. They was already a snowstorm blowing tearing on their clothes. Hiccup pulled out his fur cloak Dagur gave him and wrapped it over his lanky form.

“Toothless, use your sonar call.” Hiccup said and the Nightfury roared into the snow storm trying to locate the white dragon.

“Anything out there, bud?”

Toothless just shook his head.

 While the others set up the camp, Hiccup and Astrid were on their dragons, searching the environment, but it was near impossible with all this whirling snow.

“You see anything down there?” Hiccup asked.

“I can barely see you half the time!” Astrid said. “If they are hunters down there we can´t locate them.”

“Maybe we should split up. Cover more Ground.” Hiccup suggested, as another stormwave blew over them.

“No! We stay together. Its safer! -Hiccup? Hiccup!”

But she could find no trace of her friend.

“Just great!” Astrid sighed.

 When she returned to the others they had set up camp. Snotlout was trying to warm himself by a fire he made.

“Wow. You got the tent up fast.” said Astrid as she dismounted Stormfly.

“I had to! It was the only way to keep out of that Thorston sandwich, how they call it.” said the Jorgenson gesturing to the shivering twins who were now hugging Fishlegs. He shuddered at the feeling how they had clinged to him like two klutes earlier.

“Where is Hiccup?” Fishlegs asked.

“We got separated in the storm.” answered Astrid.

“Heh, he ditched you?” grinned Snotlout.

“What? No! Why would he do that?” Astrid grumbled and gave him a half-hearted hit on his right arm.

“OW! - Don’t worry. My cousin can take care of himself. And don’t forget, Toothless is with him. So no need to worry.” Jorgenson said and rubbed his arm.

 Meanwhile, Hiccup was still flying around, looking for Dragon Hunters. Then Toothless warbled and he looked down to see someone had lit a fire below them.

“Yeah, bud. I saw it too. Let´s go in another way.”

They flew towards a glacier and quietly made their way towards the fire. Hiccup soon discovered the hooded figure. It was Dagur, who was shielded from the cold by Shattermaster. The Hooligan took his shield from his back.

“Well, well, “brother”, said Hiccup with narrowed eyes. “Surprised to see us?”

“Surprised?” Dagur answered and cackled a short laugh. Then he got up and turned to the Hoolingan and the Nightfury, a dagger in the hand. Shattermaster turned too and growled low. “Not really, brother. I have listened to you stomp through the snow for the past moments.”

Dagur pulled back his hood and the two of them looked at each others eyes, while their dragons stood ready snarling at each other. Hiccup held his shield up, Dagur his dagger, both going into a fighting stance.

Suddenly Dagurs frown turned into a wide grin.

“What took you so long, little one?” he smiled and put the dagger away.

Hiccup hung his shield at Toothless saddle and went to Dagur, who gave Hiccup a welcome embrace, which the Hooligan returned. Shattermaster and Toothless stopped snarling and relaxed.

“Astrid isn’t the easiest to sneak away from.” Hiccup answered.

“Yeah, but I told Rykie I´m out scouting and he let me go without a doubt.” said Dagur as they made their way towards the fire. Shattermaster and Toothless roared at one another and joined them.

“So you got my terror mail?” Hiccup asked.

“Aye. Ryker didn’t notice it. So Trader Johann did inform Astrid of Rykers plan? I saw him sneaking around at the northern markets, when we collected our winter equipment. He is defiantly not only a trader, but a spy too. And Rykie doesn’t trust anyone, but so far all is in the green area.”

“Where is Heather?”

“Send her on a special mission. I dont want her and her dragon to get into the crossfire if things get nasty here. You know, what a Snow Wraith is capable of.”

„Good. That should keep her out of danger. Now fill me in, brother.“

The Berserker pulled the smaller male closer and laid an arm around him, when he noticed the slight shivering of him. Hiccup leaned in older mans warmth and listened to his report. After his explanation Dagur pulled out a map and showed it to the Hooligan.

“We have been here for two days, searching pretty methodically. According to Rykie, the Snow Wraith digs itself an ice cave to hibernate during the summer months. These guys are not big fans of the sun and warmth.”

“Hey, we diddnt know that. That explains why the hunters rushed to get out here, probably to get a tooth from a hibernating Snow Wraith. Would make the whole thing easier.”

“Exactly, brother.”

„Too bad we dont know where the cave is.“

“But I think I might know. Shattermaster and I spotted a cave on a plateau about halfway up that mountain.” said Dagur and pointed at a mountain close by. “You find a way to get your Friends to check it out. In the meanwhile, I will tell Rykie I diddnt find anything and try to keep him as far away as possible.”

Hiccup looked to the mountain and then at his feet at once.

“What bothers you, brother?”

“We should tell the others what we are doing, this doesn´t feel right.” said Hiccup uncomfortably.

“But we agreed to keep it secret that Heather and I are spying out the plans of the Hunters.”

“I never lied to Astrid before.” murmured Hiccup and hung his head.

“But this is the best way to take the Dragon Hunters down, from the inside.”

“Hiccup, if we told your comrades that I and my sister were spying on the hunters, we both know that especially your girlfriend wants to put Heather out of there. But she wold never agree leaving me alone with them. She fears I could do something stupid and ruin all.” Dagur chuckled.

„I get that, but-„

„We are this close getting to Viggo! We cant quit now, brother.” the Berserker said and balled his fists.

“I really hope you´re right, because if any of the Riders got hurt or you or Heather got hurt, because I held something back-“

“Nothing will go wrong, brother. Trust me and Heather.” Dagur said und gave Hiccups right arm a reassuring squeeze.

 An hour later Hiccup returned to the Riders and lead them straight over towards the Snow Wraith cave.

“So when I spotted the cave from above, it got me thinking, “ he said. “Last time I and Dagur were here, the Snow Wraith was on us right away. Why not this time? Maybe because its hiding out or do some sort of hibernating in that cave.”

“Hey, that’s an interesting Theory, Hiccup.” said Fishlegs.

“I agree.” said Astrid. “I am just wondering how it was you came all the way out here when the rest of us were scouting in the opposite direction.”

“I must have gotten lost.” said Hiccup, not looking her in the eyes. Please don’t let her notice that I am lying, he thought.

“Lost?” Astrid raised an eyebrow.

“Fine. I got carried away, okay? You know how I am, when it comes to the safety of dragons.”

“Yes, I do. But you can just go off on your own like that. We are a team. And you are our leader.”

“I know. Sorry.”

 Meanwhile, Dagur was back at the Dragon Hunters camp trying to divert them away from the mountain.

“I think we should concentrate on the costal areas.” said the Berserker looking at a map.

“We had for the mountain.” said Ryker.

“I told you, I have already searched up there. I diddnt see a thing.”

“You often oversee things. Especially from the air.” Ryker corrected. “I do things the old fashioned way. With my boots on the ground.”

Dagur ignored the insult of the Grimborn and said: “But I really-“

“We heading for the mountain! Have you a problem with that, Da-gur?”

The Berserker knew that he can´t persuade him otherwise and if he did he may end up blowing up his cover.

“No. Of course not.” he said and gestured towards the mountain. “After you, Rykie.”

Ryker shot Dagur a death glare for calling him that then turned to his men.

“Move out!” he ordered and walked away.

 Meanwhile, the riders were about halfway towards the mountain.

“There it is.” Hiccup said and pointed. Everyone turned and found the cave right at the side of the mountain. “Let´s go and check it out.”

They made their way over to the cave and at once Hiccup and Fishlegs found claw marks in the ice.

“Look at these. I would say, we found the right cave.” the Hooligan said.

“That’s a territory marking.” Fishlegs nodded and looked down into the cave.

“All right. Lets take it slowly and quietly. Snotlout, get the Nightmare gel out.” Hiccup said and the Jorgenson started to rummage in his saddle bag. Then they made their way into the cave.

 Unbeknownst to them, the Hunters were making their own way towards the cave carrying cages on sleighs with them.

Ryker kame to a stop when he saw footprints in the snow.

“Dragon Riders.” he growled, as he looked at the cave in front of him.

“Shit, he knows now that my little brother and his gang are here!” Dagur thought who rode on Shattermasters back, while the Gronkle trudged through the snow. “Not good. Not very good.”

 The Riders were making their way through the cave unaware that the Hunters were outside. Suddenly Toothless heard the sound of metal clanking outside the cave and stopped.

“Whats wrong, bud?” asked Hiccup. The nightfury growled low.

Then all of them heard the metallic sound. Astrid looked up to Hiccup. “Was that-“

“Behind us!” Hiccup yelled.

They turned and saw Hunters outside firing arrows at them. With a quick plasma blast Toothless was able to destroy the arrows to splinters.

“Everybody down!” Hiccup shouted.

“Spine Shot!” Astrid yelled as Stormfly tossed several of her spikes at the Hunters who fled from the cave entrance and took cover. Ryker got up and glared at Dagur.

“Hey! Can´t you control your beast? It gave us away!”

“Shattermaster is a heavy dragon walking on ice. He is gonna make noise. But the metal of the cages were also creaking when they were moved.” Dagur answered and pointed at the cages on the sleighs.

“You keep your fat stone-eater quiet! Or I will.” Ryker warned. Then he turned to his men. “Go!”

Three of his men entered the cave again and they heard noises coming from inside. Then a huge explosion was heard and two of his men hurried outside carrying the third with them.

“Damn Zipper!” Ryker cursed. Dagur used all his willpower not to laugh.

 In the cave, Tuffnut was looking at his helmet which had an arrow wedged in it.

“Hey! Who shot at my helmet?” he growled. Then he turned to Hiccup. “And who shot on Hiccups shoulder pads?“

Astrid and Fishlegs gasped, when the saw Hiccup raising with two arrows sticking in his right shoulder pad.

“Hiccup! You are hit!” Astrid said worried.

„Dont worry. Its only sticking in my shoulder pad. I am still unharmed. Now you see for what these things are good for.” he said, pulled the arrows out of his protectors and tossed them aside.

“They get slowly better with their aiming.” Ruffnut grinned and head butted with her brother.

“Will you keep it down, will you?” Hiccup hissed. “If we wake up the Snow Wraith, things will get a lot trickier!”

„What do you think Rykers next move is?“ asked Astrid.

“Surrender?” Ruffnut suggested.

„I doubt he will do that.“ answered Fishlegs and pointed to the cave entrance. All riders turned and saw Ryker entering the cave.

“Dragon Riders! Send out your leader to talk!” he yelled.

“Oh Thor! Must he yell so loud?” Fishlegs whimpered. “He will wake the Snow Wraith!“

„It´s gotta be a trap! I should go out. See what the game is.” said Astrid.

“Hiccup Haddock! Let´s talk this out, like real men!” Ryker continued and shoved his sword into the icy floor.

“I don’t like this!” Fishlegs said.

„If there is one chance to sever this without bloodshed, I have to try.” said Hiccup and took his shield from his back. Toothless wanted to come with him, but Hiccup stopped him. “No, bud. If this is a trap, I need you to get me out of it.”

 Hiccup made his way over to Ryker and saw the amused look on his face.

“Tch! You are still a runt -and don’t look like much.” he said.

“And you look like a psycho!” growled Hiccup.

“Right said, little one.” Dagur thought who listened to the conversation of the two.

Ryker laughed and Hiccup placed his shield down on his prostetic leg.

“What do you want, Ryker?” Hiccup asked.

“The Dragon Eye.”

“Forget it!”

„It belongs to us, the Hunters! You stole it from our ship, you little thief! And I will have it back.”

“I am not a thief! I found it! And the Ship was deserted!“ Hiccup growled and narrowed his eyes. „ And you won´t have it back today!“

„Oh no? Look around,“ Ryker said, gesturing to the ice cave. “We are in front of you. The Snow Wraith is behind you. One time offer. Hand over the Dragon Eye and you and your gang are free to go.”

Hiccup began to touch over himself.

“Well…sorry. I must have left it in my other pants.” he smirked. Ryker growled.

“In that case, surrender and you will meet the same fate as your dragons.” he said.

Unbeknownst to Hiccup, one of Rykers men was making his way closer without being seen by him.

“Okay, this is my offer, “the Hooligan said. “Leave now and you and your men won´t have to find out what it means to loose again a fight.”

Ryker sighed.

“You really have the Dragon Eye with you?” he asked.

“I would be an Idiot if I had brought it here.”

“And-you are not coming out?”

“Not any time soon.”

“Don’t say I diddnt give you a chance!” said Ryker and bent down to pick up his sword. In this moment the hidden Hunter took aim at Hiccup and was about to fire his arrow. Dagur looked worried around and spotted a burning lantern on a crate to the right. He gave Shattermasters side a light bump with his right heel and the Gronkle made a step back, turning his mace tail to the right, knocking the lantern from the crate in the process. This caused the entire front cave to lit up and blinded the archer. It also casts his shadow across the cave wall and the riders saw it instantly.

“A trap! I should have know it!” Hiccup growled. „You never play fair!“

Ryker ducked just as the archer let his arrow fly. Hiccup tossed his shield who rested on the tip of his peg leg up and into his hands. Just in the right moment, the arrow was blocked and fell into the snow. Then he saw more Hunters running past Ryker and shot arrows at him.

The counterattack followed at once. Dragonfire destroyed the arrows, before they can land a hit. Toothless plasma blast knocked the Hunters back and to the entrance of the cave.

 Ryker angrily approached Dagur and grabbed his arm.

“I saw that! You did that on purpose!” he snarled.

“So sorry! Shattermaster was getting a bit nervous when things thicken up! Then it´s difficult to held him totally still! But it was good that he knocked the Lantern down! How many times do I and Heather have to tell you that Hiccup is more valuable to us alive than dead! He can control the dragons like no one else! You see what I can do with Shattermaster! We have learned it, because we once gained his trust and we spied out how he is doing it! He is a real dragon conquerer!” Dagur shot back and released his arm.

Ryker rubbed his chin.

„Maybe you´re right, Dagur. Maybe this runt can be helpful to us. -Shoot the cave entrance down.”

“What?” the Berserker gasped.

“Have your animal shoot the cave!” Ryler repeated and pointed to the entrance.

“Why?”

“Just do it!”

Dagur let Shattermaster turn to the cave. He knew that if he diddn´t do what Ryker said, his cover will be blown. “Shattermaster, Lava-Blast!”

The Gronkle blasted the cave celling with his fire attack and at once the whole cave entrance collapsed.

 Inside, Toothless had shielded Hiccup from the falling down ice blocks with his wings. Then he opened his mouth to produce a glow that lit the entire cave and the Riders saw that the entrance had been blocked by a mountain of solid ice blocks.

“Is everyone all right?” Hiccup asked looking at the others. He got positive answers from them. Then Hookfang ignites himself for more light.

“Why would Ryker seal himself from the key?” Snotlout asked.

“He wasn´t sealing himself out, he was sealing us in.” said Hiccup. “Ryker thinks we will fight the Snow Wraith for him and he will deal with whoever survives.”

“Oh, great! But we were not gonna do that, right?”

„We dont have much choice. Even if we try to melt the ice with our dragons, we very well might cause another cave breakdown, not to mention the Dragon Hunters we will have to deal outside.” said Astrid.

“The plan hasn´t changed.” said Hiccup, as they mounted their dragons. “We grabbed the Snow Wraith and get it away from Ryker.

“Oh that’s all? Great!” Snotlout scoffed.

 They flew deeper into the cave untill they reaced a cavern. They stopped outside and dismounted.

“I choose being positive we can do this. You told us you and Dagur defeated the Snow Wraith before. And this time he won´t have a blizzard to hide in.” Fishlegs said.

When they entered the cavern, they stopped in their tracks.

“Well-I would not be so sure.” Hiccup said.

In front of them, there wasn´t only one Snow Wraith sleeping, there were three.

“Just great! And now?” Snotlout hissed.

“Well, at least they are still asleep and the wont wake up-“ Tuffnut said loud and suddenly one of the white Dragons stirred. Ruffnut quickly clapped her brothers mouth shut with her hand.

“You are the worst positive thinker ever!” she grumbled.

“Shhh!” Fishlegs hissed.

 Meanwhile, Ryker hat led his men away from the cave and was searching across the mountain as he was looking for something. Then he looked at the ground as if he sensed something beneath it. He looked at the hunters.

“Here.” he said, then pointing at another location at the ground. ”And here.

At once, his men began to chisel the ground. Dagur was still confused about what Ryker was doing, but he knew it wasn´t good.

“Hey, you want me to tell, what you are doing?” he asked.

“No.” Ryker answered and walked away.

 Meanwhile, the Riders are remaining very quiet so that they diddn´t wake up the Snow Wraiths. But one of them was sniffing at the air.

“If we don’t move maybe it won´t notice us.” Tuffnut said, again a little too loud.

“Tuffnut!” Hiccup hissed.

 The next moment the Snow Wraith awoke from the sound and snarled at the intruders!

“Just great! What now?” Astrid asked.

„Maybe I can put him back to sleep.“ Hiccup answered, took his shield, ran past Tuffnut and plucked the arrow out of his helmed. Then he rushed towards the Snow Wraith, switched his shield in crossbow mode and fired the arrow-but the white dragon took off and avoided it.

“Dragondung! I missed!“ Hiccup cursed and switched his shield back.

The enraged roar oft he Snow Wraith woke the other two and the riders mounted their dragons, prepairing for battle.

The first whit dragon fired at Astrid and Snotlout, who took off just before the blast hit the ground. Then the three Wraiths dived into a hole in the ice bottom.

“They are getting away!” Fishlegs said.

„Maybe they tunneled all the way out.” said Hiccup.

“And at the end of one of these tunnels can the Hunters set a trap.”

“You are right, Fishlegs.”

Suddenly they heard the Snow Wraiths roaring inside the tunnel and it sounded like there were in pain.

“I hate it when I am right!” Fishlegs whimpered.

“Lets go!” Hiccup yelled.

 Hiccup and Toothless flew into the hole and down through the tunnels. The other riders followed suit, but it was a complete maze, so they all split up in different directions. A few time they almost collided with each other.

“Look out!” Snotlout yelled almost crashing into Fishlegs. Immerman quickly backed into the tunnel and waited till the Jorgenson passed the junction. Then he steered Meatlug out again-only to collide with the twin´s Zippleback and get tangled between their necks.

“Hey! Two heads give the right-of way!” said Tuffnut.

“Why always me?” whimpered Fishlegs.

 Soon all Riders met up at a cavern where all tunnels met and began arguing. They silenced when they heard a roar coming down from one of the tunnels and recognized it as a Snow Wraith distress call.

“Follow me!” Hiccup ordered and steered Toothless into the said tunnel.

They soon found themselves back outside the tunnel system and the entire area was covered with the remains of dragon hunting equipment.

“Ryker knew about the burrowing the whole time. He used us to chase the Snow Wraits out! Then he captured them.” Hiccup said.

“Looks like they are heading back along the south side of the glacier.” said Astrid and pointed to the footprints they were left in the snow.

“That’s were their ships are! But they will not gonna get there!” Hiccup growled.

 After they rounded the glacier, they saw Ryker and his Hunters making their way towards the ship with the Snow Wraiths in cages and nets. And if that wasn´t bad enough, the snowstorm had led up meaning that they diddn´t had any cover.

“Great time for the snow to led up.” Astrid muttered.

“Okay, we cant get too close. We need to stay out of range of their arrows.” said Fishlegs. Hiccup scanned the area trying to come up with a plan and then he saw the ice plate right about the heads of the passing Hunters.

“Maybe we don’t need to stay out of range. Ruff, Tuff, see that ice plate up there?” asked Hiccup. “We need an avalanche.”

“Yeah, I knew you would say it! Avalanche, will be served!” Ruffnut yelled happy.

“Ice-cold!” Tuffnut grinned. Then they flew above the ice sheet and Barf spewed his green gas on top of it and then Belch ignited it. The result was an avalanche right on top of the Dragon Hunters. All of them ran for cover exept for Ryker who sidestepped to avoid getting hit by a chunk of ice. Then he looked up and saw the Dragon Riders.

“Damn Zipper!” he growled.

 “You guys get the Snow Wraiths out of here!” Hiccup ordered looking at his friends. “I will deal with Ryker!”

“No! I will! I still have some payback to do for him letting you nearly drowning in the sea when he captured Toothless!” Astrid suddenly said and went after the Leader of the Hunters.

“Astrid! No!-Dragondung! Just great!-Okay, lets grab the Wraiths!” Hiccup growled.

At once they dived down straight towards the scattered Hunters and grabbed the cages and the Net with the captured white Dragons, before they could react, flying them to safety.

Ryker looked up and saw Astrid flying towards him.

“Ryker! Looks like you are in the tough spot this time!” the Shieldmaiden said.

“The girl on the Nadder! Missed you to catch the last time, but this time, I will!” Ryker growled and pulled a bow.

But then out of nowhere Dagur appeared riding on Shattermaster and grabbed Ryker, pulling him behind him on the Gronkles back.

“Dagur?”

“Sorry, my fierce walkyrie, we gotta go.” said the Berserker as the flew away.

“You think, you can getting away from Stormfly on a Gronkle? Come on, girl! Let´s get them!”

Astrid chased after them around the glacier.

“Cant this thing go faster?” Ryker yelled.

“Usually he is not carrying this much weight!” Dagur snapped. “Come on, bud! Give all you have!”

“Excuses!” Ryker muttered and pulled an arrow out of his quiver. He then fired at Astrid, but Stormfly doged it and all the others he fired. Then Rykers quiver was empty.

“Good work, girl! Now its our turn!” Astrid said with a serious voice. “This blast is for Hiccup, you nearly let die in the Ocean!”

Stormfly got ready to breath her fire, but then out of nowhere Hiccup appeared right in front of them.

“Hiccup! Look out!” Astrid yelled as they passed him.

“Astrid! No! Hiccup yelled as Astrid wanted to let Stormfly open fire. “Dagur is with us!”

Astrid pulled Stormfly up making her miss and giving them an opportunity to escape. She then turned to Hiccup and looked at him.

“What did you just say?”

“Dagur and Heather are spying for the Dragon Hunters. They never changed the sides.” Hiccup repeated and looked at her guilty. He knew he would have a lot of explaining to do.

 Later that night, back on the edge, in the clubhouse.

Hiccup began to explain everything.

“Heather pretended to join Dagur to get close to him to avenge her family. When she found out, about his alliance with the Dragon Hunters, she decided to get closer to him to found out more. What she diddn´t knew, Dagur was there as a spy too, after the Hunters were on Berserker Island, trying to win him to join them. So Dagur went with them and he met his sister at Rykers Ship.” Hiccup said.

“But when Ryker captured us on his ship, you and Dagur were fighting all the time.” Ruffnut frowned.

“That’s what we wanted people to think. That Dagur has again changed the sides. But he hasn’t.”

“Dagur and Heather are not evil?” Snotlout blinked.

“Oh, I knew Heather was good at heart.” sighed Fishlegs.

“Same goes for Dagur.” nodded Hiccup. “I must hide it, not that someone accidently blow their cover.”

“And you kept this from us!” Astrid said angrily.

“I am sorry guys, but Dagur insisted that I keep it a secret.” said Hiccup. He then looked at Astrid who turned her back to him. “Astrid, I am sorry.”

“We supposed to be a team. And you are our leader, Hiccup!” she said.

“I know, Astrid. I should have told you. I wanted to. I really did.”

“But you diddn´t.”

“But without Dagur and Heather, the Dragon Hunters would have keyed to the Dragon Eye right now and those Snow Wraiths would not be safely hidden on another island.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you would let me take him and Ryker down.” said Astrid. “We could have captured the head of the Dragon Hunters!”

“Astrid, Ryker isn’t the head of the Dragon Hunters.” said Hiccup and everyone is staring at him. “According to Dagur the real leader is someone named Viggo Grimborn.”

“Awesome name. Scary, but awesome.” mentioned Ruffnut.

“He lives in the shadows. Everyone is afraid of him, even Ryker. Dagur or Heather hadn´t met him yet, but they are our best shot at drawing him out.”

Astrid leaned against the doorway looking at the night sky. Then she looked back at Hiccup. “Well, I hope, they know what they are doing. For all our sake.” she said.

 Later that night, Hiccup went to his chest, where he hid the picture shield he got from Dagur and took it out again. Then he hung it back on his place at the wall in his hut. Now that the secret was out, he don’t need to hide it any more.

“Dagur….Heather… please stay safe.” he murmured.

 to be continued…

Next episode:

From Zippleback experience to Loki day. (special)

[burgermiester]

Why Brom is the best Armored Unit in Radiant Dawn

First off, “best armored unit” is not the most auspicious title.  Its pretty rare for a Fire Emblem game to have worthwhile armor knights.  As a general rule, mounted units and fliers reach the enemies first and get the bulk of the kills/exp/functionality, unarmored foot units come next and get the scraps, and armor knights are left with the crumbs.  Radiant Dawn is not an exception in this regard, for the most part.  At least in Radiant Dawn there do exist chapters where your armor knights are useful because of “scenario” style chapters and occasional limited units to choose from. So instead of comparing the armors to each other in terms of stats and raw number of chapters they are available in, I think its more important to look at how many chapters they are in where they can contribute meaningfully and how much they do contribute, starting with the man of the hour:

Brom:

Brom has part 2.  I could probably stop typing right here but I dont know when to quit so I will continue.  2-1 has only Brom, Nephenee, and Heather.  Heather cant do much to most of the enemies on any difficulty, Nephenee cant really touch the enemy armors, including the boss, and on hard I dont even think she can do enough damage to feasibly take him on so that makes Brom your only option for the boss, and the best option to take on most enemies. That right there would be enough for me to call Brom the best armor in the game, because being the best unit in one chapter (and on hard being the only unit capable of beating the chapter)>being available but not worth using in a dozen others.  But it doesnt end there, in 2-2 hes one of the most capable and certainly tankiest fighters and you will probably have him leading the march through the dark cave, and you especially will on the turns where Mordecai is untransformed.  Lucia can get more kills but you have to be a bit cautious since a few lances or lucky other hits will put her down.  Brom gets to actually be a tank and do it well in the situation where it makes the most sense to have a tank (in cramped fog of war.)  Last, hes got 2-E.  Now, theres lots of ways to cheese this map as well as take it head-on, but even the cheesy strats involve blocking one of the two sides with Brom.  So hes not as crucial as in the other two chapters, but he still is absolutely contributing.  

Meg:

Poor Meg.  Shes got horrible bases, growths that clash with her class caps, and is stuck in the dawn brigade where shes competing with too many other growth units with too few exp to spread between them.  The chapters where youd want an armor, 3-6, 3-12 and 3-13, dont really beg for you to train her since Nolan, Jill and even Aran if you are dying for a tank all get you through those chapters more easily (and shell probably not have the defense to really tank 3-6).  I probably didnt even need to write this part, we all know ultimately unimpressive Meg’s combat capabilities are, even if it can be a lot of fun to use her for novelty’s sake.  

Tauroneo:

Brom has 3 chapters he can really contribute in, while Tauroneo has only 2*, yet one of those chapters is 3-13, which for many is the hardest chapter in the game.   That being said, like most defense chapters its very easy to beat it cheaply, so its hard for me to rate Tauroneo all that highly just for this chapter.  But even if you are cheesing it you will probably want to use Tauroneo, so I would consider him contributing as much in 3-13 as Brom in 2-E, even if thats perhaps a bit too generous considering other units can be trained up to plug important gaps whereas Brom is in a more preset role so hes always going to be necessary for a gap or 2.  In his only other chapter, 3-12, he unfortunately starts far on the left when youd want him on the right, and it takes a few turns for him to join the fight, although when hes there he kicks ass. But in any case, 3-12 can be beaten pretty much entirely by the ally units so any contributions are not that impressive.

*he can also contribute in the first map of 1-6, but you really want to be training Nolan and Jill and any other DB baby in part 1 so its a bit of a waste to let him get these easy kills, especially when its not that hard to beat the chapter without him.

Gatrie:

Finally, we have Gatrie.  Hes the guy that I have little doubt gamefaqs guides and tierers in general will call the best armor knight in the game.  And before I get to the real meat of Gatrie’s usefulness by my standards, I feel I must make a brief aside to address the general idea of usefulness and why Gatrie is cited as better than Brom, which is to say raw availability, bases and growths and starting level, and usable weapons/rank.  Brom actually has one chapter of availability more than Gatrie, but for the most part they are nearly the same.  Brom joins at level 2 and Gatrie 10, but in my experience using both sensibly and not giving either of them favoritism or anti-favoritism by the time they are in a party together Brom is close to level 10 and Gatrie to 13-15, so its not a big difference there, and if you look at their average stats on SF youll see its really not a big difference in stats at those levels, or indeed at any level. The only important stats Gatrie excels over Brom in is speed and strength, and its only by a point or two, so they are both doubling or not doubling or getting doubled by pretty much the exact same enemies.   And in actual damage Brom will be outperforming Gatrie because hes using axes, which more than make up for the couple points of str to outperform Gatrie with his weaker lances.  When taking all that into account I dont see either of them being significantly better than the other in a statoff, and since I still am saying that “how useful are they in the chapters where its worth using them?” is much more important than “how useful would they be if I forced myself to use them?” lets put this aside and go back to where Gatrie is uniquely useful.

So what does Gatrie do that only Gatrie can do? Well, hes got 2 chapters, 3-P and 3-1.  In 3-1 Gatrie is fantastic.  Its a small fog of war map with chokepoints and a time limit.  Gatrie excels at heading up the left path through the grass towards the boss, especially with Shinon at his back shooting from behind and through the fence, giving the enemies the old thunder and lightning maneuver while the more mobile members of the GM sweep around to clear out the rest of the map.  Its a bit like Brom’s contributions in 2-2 but I would say slightly better.  In 2-2 Brom is great, but you could potentially take the dark very slowly with just Lucia or any other character of your choosing if you desired, but in 3-1 theres a time limit so its all hands on deck, everyone has to help and Gatrie has a convenient spot he excels at.  Sadly, 3-P is not nearly as good for Gatrie.  Its textbook armor knight curse map design.  The enemies are all on one path, your more mobile units, in this case everyone else, will reach and kill enemies before Gatrie arrives.  He might as well not even exist.  

And speaking of might as well not even existing; the rest of the game.  From 3-3 onward Brom and Gatrie have identical availability, and its really not worth using either of them.  Just like 3-P, time and time again the poor armors just cant reach fighting before its over.  3-5 is a defense chapter where either of them might contribute but in the entire series 3-5 is perhaps the easiest defense chapter to play offensively, so thats not really an opportunity for them to be useful.  Plenty of chapters have reinforcements from behind that they could potentially fight, but to the question “why not instead of using armors just keep training all high movement units who can either finish chapters before reinforcements become an issue or run back and kill reinforcements and return to the main fight quickly” there is no objective answer in favor of armor knights.  If you were to ask yourself “I am determined to use one of the armor knights in every single chapter despite the fact that using no armor knight would be a better choice, so which one should I choose?” The answer might be Gatrie or it might be too close to call.  If you were to ask yourself the much more practical question “which units should I use?” the answer in regards to this subject at least, is, “however many deployment slots you have, Brom and Gatrie are equally unworthy of filling them.”  There are always better units to choose from than either of them.  They are comrades in obsolescence.

The Very Short Version:

When it comes to a class thats overall not worth using like Armors in a game with as strange of a structure as Radiant Dawn, comparing their usefulness is about looking at where each of them is actually worth using and how well they perform.  Meg has nothing, Tauroneo has two chapters where hes good, Gatrie has one chapter where hes great, and Brom has one chapter where hes good, one where hes great, and one where hes indispensable.