#dtnr spoilers

[chameshida]

I would die for these two

[chibi-lucca]

Dragons: the nine realms rant

THIS WILL HAVE SPOILERS UP TO THE END OF SEASON 4.

“Do you really hate it, or are you just upset it's not Hiccup and the gang?”

me:

So a quick rant about this show. 

I am a huge fan of HTTYD, ROB, DOB, RTTE. I have consumed so much information on the HTTYD universe I could write the book of dragons. - and I’m sure others out there can too! (honestly guys, let's do it.)

Going into this new show, I was skeptical, in fact I was going into this expecting to hate it. 

I didn’t. Here’s why:

In the end of the third movie we say goodbye to the dragons, a choice that many despise. The movies and shows illustrate that people are greedy and cruel and only a few are friends to dragons. As for the real world - anyone remember the Tasmanian tiger? Or how about the number of rhinos and elephants? Wolves going extinct in Yellowstone, having to be reintroduced to the area? Humans can’t even protect the species we have on earth now, what do you think would happen if we had magical fire breathing dragons? This nine realms show give us these answers and much more.

In the beginning of this show we see very familiar drawings and characters, which means the writers are well aware who is watching. They know that this new show will draw in the generation that grew up watching Hiccup and the gang. With that, the show continues to add little easter eggs to tell us who our main character is. They also state that a real dragon is a dead dragon. Meaning the real world situations of humans being cruel to animals applies in this universe. 

To me, this shows Hiccup did the right thing. He made the correct choice. The dragons stayed safe. They were not hunted to extinction, they were protected. As someone who grew up with the OG dragon riders, it does hurt to know they are gone, but this show helped me cope with that. 

The nine realms reveals their legacy! It shows what happened after the movies and that one special. If they were leaving stuff behind, they had to be down there a lot, if not moved down! They weren’t separated forever. Not only that, we know who left behind everything. The Gronckle iron shield?! That was placed in a way to reflect light? It was made to be a beacon. But high enough up that walking wouldn’t work, and in a realm so hot you’d need dragon scale suits to get through. It was placed so only a dragon rider would see it. 

The time capsule!? My gods we all know who made that. The fact that the key is a family heirloom?! Hiccup thought so far ahead you think he could see the future. And then the cave painting!? It also had Toothless! Hiccup was down there with the dragons for so long he left a leg for fuck sake. 

Beside the easter eggs, I saw this new show as a very fun archaeological discovery of our favorite characters, our friends. To figure out what their story was by solving the puzzle like Hiccup would. Instead of being told, we're finding it alongside a descendant of the Vikings we know and love.  

This is a great new story for the next generation who didn’t grow up with Hiccup and the gang; now they have Tom and the team. It's not the same because it's not supposed to be. This is Tom’s story, with added elements of the past so no one forgets the roots. Don’t hate it just because it’s not the same characters you grew up with. It's a new story in the same world. It's Berk's legacy and the start of Tom’s story. 

Honestly I think people’s reactions to this is a good example as to why we don't deserve dragons. Learn to say goodbye. Yes, it hurts, but that's okay. It means you care. 

I am here for DTNR, along with all the new dragons. Before I end this I’ll touch on some topics I've seen floating around.

Toothless descendants are inbred?! 

Uh, I believe that's a no. For one they shoot lightning now, not balls of plasma. Which means they had to breed with another type of dragon. On top of that, who's to say there weren't furies below in the world before? They’d just never gone to the surface. There are nine caverns for the gods’ sakes, there had to be a handful of cave dwelling furies. And yeah they are all nightlights, but again, we’ve only known Toothless’s story, the nine realms are their own story. On top of that, idk if you know this, but after about 800 years, genetics don’t mean shit. So between having a handful of other furies, other dragons, and unclear lifespan, we can assume either one of two things: the genetic line is so muddled it's nonexistent, or dragons live longer than we think and we are still getting through the handful of cave furies. - also meaning Thunder is closer to Toothless’s genetic line (assuming he’s even part of it) than Tom is to Hiccup.  

 Hiccup abandoned their efforts and beliefs in showing people the truth about dragons?!

D-did we watch the same shows and movies? Is that what you got from those movies? If anything the new show just validates the third movie even more. (is that why ya’ll hate it?) They tried guys! They really did, but you saw how out of hand it got in the third movie. On top of that, the amount of people already trying to use dragons in various parts of the archipelago was just the beginning, the third movie showed leaders from all over the world. If Hiccup didn’t make that choice, dragons really would be just a myth. - they would have been hunted to extinction.

Canon cast is dead!?

I mean… death is a part of life. It's in the future. Like go through the stages of grief if you must, but this new show keeps them alive. Their legacy was keeping the dragons safe. They did, and still are, thanks to Tom and his friends. They live through Tom, and possibly Toothless through Thunder. (cue he lives in you from lion king 2) I find it nice learning about the old days while growing fond of the new.

The animation is shit?!

Well compared to the movies of fucking course it is. Now compare it to Miraculous Ladybug. -w- yeah, not so bad now huh?

If the animators had the correct time to work on it, I'm sure it would be better. It's a TV show that still has pretty good quality in animation for what it's worth, yeah it's not the BEST, but it's also not the worst.

Also look back at the ROB. That animation?! Bruh. Episode 1 had me crying.

Overall, if you hate still hate it well: 

If you like it - tell me why and let's be friends.

[queenofthearchipelago]

Saw the clip for the Nine Realms yesterday, and I will be honest, I was disappointed. The scene was a beat by beat rip off of Forbidden Friendship, especially the part where Tom swallows the fish.

I would have hoped that I would see this kid have his own bonding story with his dragon, an original one. The hand touch at the end of the scene felt so unearned. I didn't know I had this opinion, but I don't think we needed a hand touch, ever. Hiccup training Toothless was like training a wild horse, I think it would have been cool if Tom could have trained Thunder like a feral cat.

The score was okay, definitely heavily inspired by John Powell's Forbidden Friendship score. As a music person it was very interesting to listen to, and I look forward to the rest of the score.

But ending on positives here, I liked the sound recycling. The growls being exactly Toothless, I'm on board with. Also, Tom has Hiccup's exact mannerisms. And I might find that annoying later, but I think if used tastefully it could be effective.

All in all, I had fun. It was the kind of fun you have when watching something not great exactly where you go "Oh no" but you're also laughing. I will admit that might not and probably won't translate to the rest of the show. I'd be shocked if they managed to somehow do a scene by scene beat by beat modern translation if the first film.

Still hopeful and excited!

[chameshida]

Nine realms got a weirdly high number of dragon death s count....which is like just two but it's funny it happened twice

[chameshida]

What do you think of the season 5 tnr dragons?

(Vinetail, snifflehide, evolved scuttleclaw)

Oh is it confirmed to be evolved scuttleclaw? neat!

Vinetail is solid for a small dragon design. I like them and they're please to look at. I like this approach of "Animal name-liked dragon" but it's made up of the element that have nothing to do with said animal (as oppose to something like spiderwing) Vinetail is monkey-like but it doesn't take from the physical element of monkey directly. Stormcutter is the same way; owl-like but all those thing in their designs are not of owls. I like that of them.

Snifflehide is my favourite this season and definitely make it near top for the design alone (in that I still prefer feather and featherhide character vice but snifflehide definitely has a stronger design than them. I'd put it in the same top tier as yetiwing) I think the implication and similarity to snifflehunch is definitely intentional. They're both colorful dragon with similar pattern ability and name and spine shapes. I still prefer snifflehunch appearance over all but snifflehide has more going on with them for sure and I'm glad we finally have more confirmed herbivorous dragons.

I can't say much about scuttleclaw since it is an old dragon and it is still a baby. Sad we dont get to see an adult scuttleclaw when we have a chance to. I really like its new ability. It is pretty similar to my Cryptic Chaos. I'm indifferent about the added flap but they do be exist in the second movie concept art tho. I think this scuttleclaw is a more correct approach to the "annoyingly overly cute" dragon compare to bubblehorn (league better tbh)

I also want to talk about the evolved/new speed stinger too! I first saw them in the legend of the nine realms guidebook scan and thought it is the new movie quality render for the hidden world pattern and got super excited but perhaps it is for the show after all. I like it still! they are pretty! (conspiracy 2: the first picture is the main movie franchise quality redesign/rendition and nine realms use that version)

update top 10? mm

Featherhide

Gembreaker

Yetiwing

Snifflehide

Sky torcher

Snowtail

Vinetail

Flame thrower

Deadly spinner

Flood fang

[chameshida]

Am I the only one that felt like season 6 was just totally lackluster? DeathGrippers were nerfed, we only got one new species, Giant Realm was barely touched upon, Buzzsaw is still way overhyped, and the rest felt extremely filler. This just wasn't it. And honestly, I worry this show is going downhill, and I really really like this show. I'm hoping the next season(s) raise the quality more.

Most of the thing you said are true and are the thing that I've notice as well watching this season. However, It didn't effect my enjoyment much, though truth be told I watch the show for the dragons and dont have that much strong opinion on everything else just that it is a passable fun time. So it will be hard for me if me to give proper critic or definitive good bad of it.

In term of watching show only for dragons, having less new dragons or less exploration of new area is disappointing but narratively, It would be too formulatic to stick to that every season so I think it is a good thing for the show in theory. New dragons usually meant Dragon-of-the-week episodes, not to mention since this season is solely focus on the surface because the truth has gotten out and they need to resolve that, they only intruduce new area to meet the new are quota when the story doesn't really call for it.

That leave the fluff,on one hand I didn't mind much because it is in the nature of this type of show. RTTE, DOB, ROB are filled with them too, on the other, it's pretty noticable too, more so than other season. But like it's still a fun and cute self content thing that I don't mind, seeing the dragon in the "getting stuck in things" type episode is cute.

And it's not like nothing have happened before we get to the end, the thing that happened are just more low key, dealing with Sledkin, glad we got that done and over with.

[chameshida]

Those deathgrippers are DEAD

[chameshida]

Dragons: The nine realms season 3 review/thought

At first I'm considering formating this review as "The good, the bad and the ugly" But after having watching it I feels that there's too little for me to consider bad or ugly so instead this is going to be in the usual mix opinion bullet form. and my general opinion is that----

Season 3 is easily the best of the 3 season! and the closest it feels to the old series with how dragons focus it is. It's like an improve season 2 without dubious dragon designs like Bubblehorn or Spiderwing or a horrible Buzzsaw introduction episode. Of course there’re still problems and I wouldn’t say the improvement is drastic or series changing that would convinve people to like the show if they’ve already decide via first two season that the show is not their cup of tea. The plot and written is still bare-bone and only servicable but all in all It’s still the same turn your brain off dragons of the episode show I can enjoy with the open-minded. Now for the indepth points;

- There are 3 new named dragons introduced in this season and I'm very glad to say that for once, all three dragons hit and none has miss! I really love these new additions whole heartedly. Flamethrowers although I would place somewhere in the middle tier comfortably with something like Sandbuster, Grim gnasher or Shadow wing, you know, late rtte dragons (and has lame name) as like not having much to standout, I do think is one of the most, how should I say this, completed well rounded design from nine realms if I say so myself.

Deadly Spinner is weird but in the good endearing weird, my favourite kind of weird.  I like my dragon weird and eff up. They are Therizinosaurus sort of weird animal. also Bias but they reminds me of my fan dragons. I also like the face and the spine. This is kind of thing I'm talk about with Spiderwing. Spiderwing basically just a spider with wings slapping on top of it but this guy is a properly spider inspired dragons the way I like. Still sad we dont get to see animated silkspanner though. Dreamworks come on!!!

and lastly the Sky torcher is a thing of beauty! I was very surprise when the thing appear and looking this good thanks to the lack of appearance in the trailer or marketing, nice!

oh and also there are these nameless guys.

- All the returning species are a darling and was done justice and got a lot of screentime for their whole episode they appear. There're monsterous nightmare, Gronckle (fire gronckle but basically the same thing),Fireworm, Quaken and Hobgobbler who make a debut in any series ever. as well as Terrible terror and Razorwhip who are still here to stay. Fireworm is my one of my top favourite and seeing them get the episode dedicate to it make me happy.

Although why is nightmare walk like the nadder? When is fireworm having pupils?

- I have mentioned this before but I like that they avoid mentioning the old dragon species name because it would make no sense for the kid to come up with the exact same species of dragons, with the closest mention of it being "These little terrors" or "this fire breathing Nightmare". Monsterous Nightmare is more or less being dub as "Fire breather" in this era. (kids and their creative naming smh, it fits the kids character but hahaha)

- Feather and Alex are continue to cary the show. Not just for their likability but also their in-universe compitent like omg Feather make Thunder look so incompitent with all the heavy lifting she pull this season, Night fury who? she basically naping the MVP status none stop. Big bad dragon? disorientrd with her scream. Human discovering dragons? invisibility. Needing distraction or prep talk? Alex got your back. I think at this point Feather is now my third favourite dragon character after Thornado and Cloudjumper

-There're clear progression of the human discovering dragons plot, something I normally dread on the previous first two season for being the bad part of the show but this season they actually handle it pretty well because like i said, clear progression (instead of keep dancing around it). Eugene now knows. Alex moms now sorta know. Buzzsaw now knows...

- Speaking of Buzzsaw, he's still the negative spot of the show and is a very incompetent villain but looking at him as a Diet Dagur and it made sense and somewhat passable. Still pretty weak and annoying and yeah.."Diet"

- As for the scient site stuff, they're actually mostly on the side line this season and not much of a bother.

- Eugene! I like his inclusion in this season and the team!

- Jun's character is actually improving, a welcoming improvement

- There's a lot of good human-dragon interaction in this season. Particulary on the first episode between Tom and the Monsterous Nightmare, The quaken episode and the last episode with Tom and the Fault ripper arc being resolve. The quaken episdoe while i still has some issues on the ending think handle an interesting set up of D'angelo just---just---feeding Quaken's eggs to the gronckles and deal with the grieving mother. The ending is kind of a cop-out but it's still the episode I enjoy

-Majority of the jokes actually land and I found myself chuckling on various point in every episode. I plan on putting it in the review but found there's so much so I just going to bring up one of my favourite being when Buzzsaw discovered Thunder and Eugene just yoink him in the heas and put a leaf on him.

-Thunder takes a back seat????? which might consider be a problem/issue to thunder continuing to be the boring one (tm) of the show but because I have that issue with thunder the fact that this season barely focus on him actually kind of feel nice. Like he's still around but kinda being just as Tom's riden dragon. Almost similar to how Toothless in the old series doesn't have much character outside of Hiccup riden dragon either *gunshot*

- The invasive species plot in this arc make me think back about the ethnicity of Toothless' decision in Hidden world and reminds me of my own plot------pro-segregation Toothless/hj

- Sad theres nothing to come out more of the Alpha gem yet. It's one of the plot thread I'm very interesting on (again because it reminds me of my own plot)

- The musics while over-dramatic at time, do slap

- better texture and lighting? I think composition and animation still the main issue that is work against it but season 3 look much better on the eye or I might just already getting use to it.

- The ending. I'm never that BIGGGG on rtte either but I gasped and getting a little giddy.

- I 90% predict snow wraith is going to show up next season (because we know they're going to be in the game) also finger cross for desert realm desert realm desert realm

Over all pretty happy/content with this season and actually very excited for the next one. again, if you are not on board in the first place this probably still wont do it. but I'm happy. I will also be looking forward to the video game that is going to be release later this year.

Lastly, the regular new dragons rank. I will do both what I think is the best design and what dragon I feel emotionally attach to this time. There're some old dragons that move up and down on rank though to my opinion changing on them due to exposure, like Misttwister who is growing on me quite a bit. Magma breather is straight up just a good dragon with good design I took back my lukewarm opinion from the last season. Fault ripper I still have problem with how it looks generic and out of place and like melificent dragon stumbling into the wrong show but I can begin to acknowledge the merit of some of its design and I don't turn my nose when I saw it again this season. I actually like it fine. Flood fang unfortunately droping down due to lesser exposure and me begin to think it's too simple.

Best design <> Fav dragons

1. Gembreaker, Featherhide

2. Featherhide , Gembreaker

3. Flamethrower, Deadly Spinner

4. Sky torcher, Sky torcher

5. Magma breather, Magma breather

6.  Flood fang, Flood fang

7. Deadly Spinner, Flamethrower

8. Misttwister, Misttwister

9. Faultripper, Faultripper

10. Thunder, Thunder

11. Spiderwing, Spiderwing

12. Bubblehorn, Bubblehorn

[chameshida]

Soooooo, thought on TNR season 4? I loved it, but I don't like the fact that we only got 2 new species this season, neither were named onscreen, and only one got any focus.

It certainly a lower number of species but I think it's not a bad call. There're only so many time they could do monster of the week episode before it gets old. While yes I care more about new dragons than the actual story, it can be quite noticable too if every other episode is a dragons of the week, season 3 is kinda exactly like that.

So as disappointing as i am to not learning dragon name imediatally I think it's better to have some dragon just existing in the world without having it disrupted the flow of more important narative to introduce them. Kinda like httyd 2 dragons (even if i still sad those don't gets name)

[chameshida]

Oh my good look at this beauty! Might have become my favourite design from Nine realms so far

(reminds me of my fan hybrids)

[chameshida]

Nine realms season 4! Timberjack! New Mist Twister! Snow WRAITH! 3 MORE ICE DRAGONS! B A B Y N I G H T L I G H T !

The trailer does get me pretty excited! There're actually a lot of thing to talk about so I'm going to do that!

First up these guys! It looks like a slithersong nadder hybrids as well as vaguely remind me of Hushboggle. Of course I don't I'm not saying that these guys are hybrids (already got into an arguement before that no just because dragons look like a hybirds or name like a hybrids doesn't mean that they are hybrids) I think they'd be neat on either direction wheater they're original species or the first instant conformation of natural hybrids in the show

Next up, Timberjack! Timberjack is not on the list of dragon I expected to see on ice realm but upon thinking about it, it is a dragon that fit mr. axe 'em guy over here very much, and from the brief shot in the trailer it does seems to have lazzo over it so It might actually be buzzsaw's dragon

But the first thing that caught my attention more than the lazzo is the wing ridges, make me wonder if this might be the varient, the evolution or the titan. Timberjack has never made appearance on the series before and despite showing up in the sequels here and there we are never really seeing its woodcutting action. Maybe the ridges are added to make it make sense because the original wings doesn't really look like it can guilotine the tree like book of dragon said?

Snow wraith are very expected for this season the thing that gets me is that these boys are HUGEE. Are they going to go for titan angle again or the evolution will actually make them huge this time

this is my personal opinion but the fact that snow wraith is small always disappoint me and make me not liking the dragon very much. Like you see the promotion image and thinking yay big tough snow dragons!

when in reality there're like a small gremlin, like the smokebreath, no bigger than gronckle. (which isn't a hate on small dragon like smokebreath but it's just so unexpected that i am disappointed)

Speaking of big tough dragon--my beloved!

I make own post about this guy already. Really looking forward to see it. Though to add on a bit, other than reminding me of my snow wraith hybrids it does also remind me a little of foreverwing and Ironclaw

Featherhide being protective of Webmaster, nothing to comment on more but awww

and lastly the killer, baby nightlight. I'm surprise that it does look more in line with our night light more, almost as if they use the model from the movie rather than redesign it like Thunder, (maybe to avoid blacklash?) but I do see the wingtip still

oh there's also mist twister. I think wu wei is pretty underdeveloped so if he get the spotlight in this episode that'd be nice. The color is nice!

[chameshida]

Look at my baby!! look at her!!

[chameshida]

FEATHER CENTRIC EPISODE RAHHHHH