#i.....love the idea of a leaderless dragon nest on berk trying to figure out how they're gonna maintain this peaceful community

[bezzuba]

so! dragon nests / flocks! they’re probably super important for dragons because of all the mutual benefits they provide for all the individuals involved — ensured food, shelter, claimed + protected territory, reproductive partner, etc. — but if what valka said in httyd2 ( “every nest has [a] queen” ) and the implications of that statement are true, i think a dragon nest only forms / continues to exist in the presence of a leader.

i.e. dragons only come together as a flock if + when there’s someone willing to lead them.

i.e. berk’s newly-moved dragon nest post-httyd absolutely gets a new “queen” after its old one dies.

the dragons are probably too busy settling down and trying to peacefully interact with humans to really think about getting a new one pre-hiccup waking up from his coma but like. when everything is sort of resolved and they’re sort of settled in this very old environment with very new contexts, there comes that startling realisation of “oh fuck our old queen died what do we do now”. because even though their queen was the Absolute Worst and definitely had her fate coming, it was only under her ( forced ) rulership that they were able to nest together and now that she’s gone, they don’t??? need to do that anymore??

they don’t…need to share any territory or provide food for someone other than themself or offer care and protection to someone who isn’t their -mate or -ling. and it’s great because it’s so liberating to finally NOT have an obligation to do so but it’s also really. confusing?? nobody…wants to leave this island where food and shelter and many Nice™ accommodations are freely given to them, but they can’t all stay there together if they aren’t a nest / flock.

they could try being a really big troop together because that wouldn’t require the existence of any “official” leader ( queen / alpha ), but not all of them know or like each other enough for that and several distinct troops have already been established anyway.

so like. they’re at this weird impasse. they want to stay together as a nest but they can’t if nobody’s going to step up and bear the responsibility of leading it. and yeah — the position of queen is empty and totally up for grabs by any willing dragon, but nobody actually wants to take it because they know that after everything that went down with their old one, there is no way their flock-members will accept a queen who is anything less than perfect. i.e. the new queen will Die™ the moment they mess up and they will mess up because while everyone knows how to be a not bad queen ( just don’t be like their old one ), nobody actually knows how to be a good queen.

( the position of alpha / king is also empty but nobody even considers filling it because none of them have the strength or capacity to protect them all as they are right now and they know it. )

naturally, they all turn to the dragon who actually killed their old queen for guidance first. and toothless…toothless is a good person. he helps them in so many ways on so many levels but he. doesn’t love them. he likes them but he won’t give himself to an entire nest. the thought honestly kind of terrifies him. so yeah nah, toothless isn’t the one who answers their call.

it’s hiccup who does.

hiccup, who said I WANT TO HELP YOU where others said I WANT TO HURT YOU. hiccup, who continues defending them where others continue blaming them. hiccup, who works on making berk dragon-friendly posthaste. hiccup, who creates things and takes apart others so that they can live a little ( a lot ) easier. hiccup, who believes in them so much he helped end a war for them.

they don’t know what to make him at first because he fills the role of a queen pretty much perfectly but he’s also a human male so?? and they can’t make him their alpha until he proves he won’t immediately be crushed in the face of an actual one so??? like the decision is made and they’re all happy to pledge to hiccup as flock-subjects ( he probably just. leaves the house one day only for literally All the dragons to swarm him and pay obeisance to him and mark him with “this is our very good not-queen-nest-thing” scent-marks. when they can’t all reach him at the same time, they form many lines and he has to sit through an entire day of rubbing snouts and being nuzzled and “hey just wanna know if you guys are gonna let me go now? no, not now? no, we can’t no matter how much you want us to? okay okay okay, just checking” ) but what do they call him if not queen or alpha???

toothless jokingly licks a “this is my nest-not-troop-leader” mark onto hiccup at the end of the day and the term coined from that, “nest-leader”, sticks. the dragons now have an “official” nest-leader ( a really good one, too! ) and they can all stay together as a flock and it’s GREAT.

( non-berkian — “wild” — dragons won’t acknowledge the term because it’s not “official” like queen or alpha, which is why they act like hiccup is any other normal human when they encounter him. )

none of the vikings know about this, ofc. that becomes problematic whenever hiccup, who is a good nest-leader by accident, needs to be a good nest-leader on purpose; i.e. complete and fulfil his duties and responsibilities as nest-leader, which is kind of hard to do when he doesn’t actually know he’s the hecking nest-leader lmao.

this is where toothless comes in! as the acknowledged and respected half of hiccup, toothless is his consort(-brother) when it comes to leading the nest and acts as hiccup’s “representative”, so to say. he’s the one who deals with the small issues and brings any ones he can’t handle by himself to hiccup’s attention. there’s a lot more depth to both of their statuses than just that but i’m so tired rn and this post is getting too long so tl;dr:

hiccup is unwittingly made the new ruler of berk’s dragon nest post-httyd ( at least until toothless takes over post-httyd2 )

toothless helps hiccup with leadership duties and shit but he’s not the one the dragons ultimately defer to and love Very Much