#ive done this composition a million times but its just so fun to do...

[umahumahumah]

pov he "accidentally" killed your kid

[starjasmines]

i resonate deeply with your post about radio breakup music, tho i'd go even further and say i'm very much done with music about love in general. i've vowed to purge my playlists of it and have delved into more and more obscure musics as the time goes, tho more often than not relying on mostly instrumental stuff. i think best case scenario you just make your own at this point. anyway, this is a lead up to a question - if you were a music writer person (assuming you aren't, haven't read much of your blog admittedly), what would you write about?

ive had a whirlwind few days sorry i keep meaning to answer this ask. under readmore bc i wrote a fair bit.

i kind of agree that im done with songs about love, i don't like to think about it but i don't necessarily mind it. i just can't really relate at all to songs about love/romance/exes or even get myself to care that much, and if a song's main draw is its lyrics then that won't capture me. if it's good in other ways then i don't mind. you can like a song for a million different reasons after all. but if it really bothers you then you do you.

ok if i was a songwriter i'd probably write about made up stories and made up people... ive always written a lot of short stories and i think a lot of those could transfer well to music, considering how many of them are based around a core power struggle or piece of imagery. i struggle with longer writing because i like to keep things short and vivid. so i've always thought my writing would probably be better put to music. i actually kind of want to write a short story with a companion music piece someday i think that'd be really fun. i also used to write poetry although i stopped that and i just got too embarrassed to ever look at it again. but maybe for the sake of songwriting i'd start again. i enjoy wordplay and sounds and all the little details of language a lot... theres a reason i studied linguistics in university. ive also always been into the idea of writing music, i used to try to write songs as a kid (they were bad). when i was taking lessons in music theory and singing, i used to imagine the process of writing some of my favorite compositions and i could not wrap my head around it tbh. it's one of my goals to eventually make music . but yeah to answer what subject matter i'd write about it'd just be little fictional stories probably. my life is not interesting enough to write about. long answer but it's something i think about a LOT.

[kingofthewilderwest]

it kinda bugs me how they cant make httyd3 longer just so they can emphasize the story in a deeper meaning, like your post abt it being disproportionate. httyd3 had a LOT more plot than httyd2 and we can already see how it has to cramp so much and why that makes D2's pace felt pretty fast. the structure of the story is actually well planned.. perfect, to be exact! but the execution like putting pauses, necessary humor, longer dialogue, is whats needed to make it um, understandable? im not sure..

this isnt meant to judge the movie as bad though! but its a question ive been asking why they cant do it longer, for that sake. is it the budget? was Dean really certain the script is okay? or is it meant to be like this so people can interpret the movie their way? (oof that one is confusing).. i dont know, i want to ask about your thoughts on that >

From this.

It’s an interesting conversation for sure! I believe that THW doesn’t have to be longer to be extremely successful in the ideas it needs to convey! The core ideas being:

Toothless cannot be a wild dragon and strong alpha leader with humans. Other dragons probably deserve the respect of needing wild dragon needs, too.

Humans like Grimmel are extremely dangerous to dragons and will continue to arise, so dragons need to go to an area separate from humans to live in optimal peace.

Hiccup and Toothless’ powerful friendship will separate (insofar as physical location) due to the first two points

I know you’re not the only person I’ve talked to who wanted a longer time because you feel like certain elements were cramped, needed more breathing room, or that dangerous plot points didn’t get enough sense of weight. More time would presumably give that flow and sense of scale and danger. Now, it’s true that more time would give us more content to develop these things. That said, I believe solutions aren’t always “add more.” Creating good art isn’t about adding new things; it’s about knowing when to take away or alter, and how to make every second of your creation count optimally.

I remember when I was doing my music composition degree, my instructors hammered into me what would make a good final piece: the editing process of deleting measures - even measures that were really good! - because they didn’t fit what the final product needed. It’s painful to delete, but ultimately, it’s freeing; instead of making a music piece more cluttered to put all possible good ideas in, I can make it less cluttered, more manageable, more beautiful, more meaningful, and more effective to audiences. A better overall piece isn’t putting in every good idea I have; it’s leaving the piece with the beautiful ideas it needs.

I suggest The Hidden World doesn’t need added materials so much as it needs refining what’s already there.

Budget, production green lighting, and carefulness to the script all seem to have been done. HTTYD 3 was given a longer production time than originally planned. They pushed back the date exactly so they could make their best product. Interviews with people like DeBlois and Spielberg (who read several definitions of the script) talk about how much the script was transformed and bettered through its drafts. They did enough tweaking and care to rework the script. As for budget, the movie was 129 million USD, which sure was the cheapest of the HTTYD trilogy to create, but it’s about on par with what DreamWorks has spent on other movies like Home and Trolls - it’s not like there was skimping - and it’s all about making your money count, which I think this glorious, top notch animation quality film effectively did. So from what I’ve heard, I think production ran fine and we can’t question THW there.

I think most of THW’s problems can be solved simply by tweaking how scenes go down, taking a few small elements out, and adding a few small elements in. It doesn’t need time changes; it needs internal modifications to what’s already there. What I propose wouldn’t change much of the movie’s length - though maybe I we could add 5-8 minutes for things like a longer climax.

1. To Feel Less “Cluttered” or “Rushed”

The movie didn’t feel rushed to me or too cluttered, but it’s cluttered. You’re right. In addition to creating less clutter, my suggested tweaks will clear up time THW can spend elsewhere, streamline THW into fewer palatable essential ideas, and give a slight tone makeover that will add more sense of danger and conflict that THW needs.

Fewer humor side gags with minor characters (and less time spent on them). The gang’s antics are fun additions, yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re central to what the plot needs. Spending too much time with them adds clutter and takes away from plot-central, tone-central material. There’s a huge gaggle of gags in THW, more than any movie needs in a less-than-two-hour-long run time. Do we need all these to give THW its comic relief? Don’t get me wrong - I loved the humor - but time needs to be prioritized, and the movie will be improved once “less is more.”

Less time with Tuffnut’s pep talks. This goes with my first point. This comedic gag was lengthy in particular. It’s in part because it connects to the idea of Hiccstrid marrying, which THW does make more central in its themes. However, I also propose:

Spend less time (or delete) the will-they won’t-they marry Hiccstrid plot. THW intends to parallel Hiccup and Toothless maturing into adulthood, including their romantic connections. However, a will-they won’t-they marry subplot in Hiccstrid isn’t needed to create that parallel. Not to mention: it can be uncomfortable to have this undertone of romance as “required” adulthood maturation, and the fact that Hiccstrid are so close and intimate makes it feel “off” that they’re so uncomfortable talking about marriage. Spend less time here, simply make fans aware they’re going to marry in the future but not today, and return to the main relationships THW needs to pay attention to: that of Hicctooth and Nightlight. 

2. To Make Grimmel a Greater Sense of Threat

One of the central points is that Grimmel is extremely dangerous and represents one of many humans that’ll continue to be a threat to dragons. While Grimmel can be overcome, Hiccup will need to interact with Grimmel in such a way he can understand that dragons and humans cannot coexist in today’s civilization without continuing to risk danger, and that it’s best for everyone to live happily in two separate civilizations. It’s not being defeated by the enemy’s oppression, but taking a brilliant countermeasure to give humans and dragons both a better existence.

Making Grimmel feel like a greater sense of threat, and helping audience members understand what Grimmel represents overarchingly of humanity’s current antagonistic state, will help us and Hiccup process why a separation is best. This can be done by:

Show Grimmel’s impact on human society. All we’d have to do is change what his base looks like: it could be located in an area taken over from another human civilization, showing his army’s power and place in this world over humans.

Greater weight placed on Berk’s exodus. The Hooligans lost their home, but it’s played too lightly. It’s not written optimally as an emotionally impacting or destabilizing moment, which decreases the sense of threat Grimmel has. Instead of having the Hooligans excited to find New Berk, show them grieving. They can butt against Hiccup’s ideas of finding the Hidden World, but instead in a way where they’re frustrated at his naive solution and hurt at what they left behind. This isn’t adding time to THW; this is tweaking phraseology and presenting an event differently.

Change how Berk is abandoned. To make the attack feel more dire, threatening, either: 1. Have the Hooligans more reluctant and grumpy to leave in the town meeting, and not play the leaving scene so lightly, or 2. Have Grimmel chase them out of Berk so they have to flee then and there. This might even reduce time! 

Show Grimmel’s power over dragons. We could have a few-second-long flashback of him standing over a field of dead Night Fury bodies, or have his place cloaked in dragon skins or skulls. 

Show Grimmel’s power as a warlord. Grimmel acts in almost a solo fashion, despite cooperating with warlords and having an army. It doesn’t give us a good sense of scale. Show his interactions better with the whole of his forces to make him feel more dangerous, and for humanity as a whole to feel more like a threat against dragons. For example, in the scenes where he’s trying to trap the dragon riders, show him commanding more people.

Show Grimmel’s impact on the dragon (and/or human worlds) through landscape. What if, as the Hairy Hooligans try to find a new place to stay, they fly over several islands that have been destroyed by Grimmel’s forces? Either human civilizations, or homes once havens to dragons, with characters making comment they “hope” people got away. And what if, when Grimmel takes their dragons near the end of THW, it’s again through more violence and a raid and fire and destruction? 

Conversations more clearly talk about Grimmel’s dangers over dragons and humans, and how he’s one of many people that’ll arise. This idea is embedded in THW dialogue, but not clearly enough to fully grasp its weight, especially not in the sense we see characters grasp this. Have Hiccup and Astrid and Valka or something talk about how widely destructive Grimmel is, how even once he’s gone another man like him will take his place, and that while they may continue to fight and win for human and dragonkind, it’s ultimately not the right move to make for everyone to live safest and alive. A conversation laying this out makes a world of difference in our understanding of what dangers are going down and why we need to come to the solution THW concludes with. Again, this isn’t adding time; it’s changing phraseology. 

Add a few minutes to the climax. Make the final fight with Grimmel obviously the final fight, the threat bigger, the action more intense.

Perhaps show that Berk’s done good work changing the world by their choices. Even though Berk ultimately decides to let the dragons go, they are meant to be the voice of peace that changes their world. The good guys can’t resign to letting themselves live under the thumb of bad guys’ choices. Show that they’ve made a difference - Grimmel and his armies are gone and the world is regrowing (no more torched landscape, if we add that element in) - but that it’s still going to help their world by letting dragons go, too… for this generation, at least.

3. To Make Hiccup and Toothless’ Parting Jive Better

Hiccup and Toothless separate out of need - they can’t live in the same place for the better of both their kinds. However, since the movie spends so much time on Toothless chasing after the Light Fury, we don’t get that full sense of need. I propose:

Open THW with a clear Hicctooth sappy bonding moment. We need things like “Forbidden Friendship” and “Where No One Goes” to feel the power of Hicctooth’s love. Give us that starting sense in THW of how close they are before adding in the complications. It can even be done by tweaking how the opening fight scene goes down.

Show dragons profiting by living with humans, but it also being Complicated with their wild side. We need to acknowledge that the relationship between humans and dragons has done the dragons good, too! Otherwise it might feel incongruous with the rest of the franchise.

Show dragons being unfit in the urban area through their own restlessness. The movie tries to show this with Moosie Boi being too big for Berk, and Berk being so crowded with dragons Gobber finds the soup unsanitary. But if we see Stormfly restless and want to leave for the Hidden World, too, wouldn’t this say something more about where dragons are pulled to and belong?

Less time spent on Toothless investigating the Night Fury. You can’t cut this down too much or we’ll feel like rushing, but since THW focuses so much on just Toothless and the Light Fury’s connection rather than an overarching problem for dragons, it’s hard to feel the full-scale issues of the problem. Making it just him and her feels more like a hook up love story than “dragons and humans are incompatible for their needs.”

Change Toothless’ body language. Show more emotional division in Toothless about his conflicting options. Show him hesitant to leave Hiccup and the two interact over that. Show him lonely away from his kind when with Hooligans. Show him feeling that loneliness met - that deep emotional need of being with his own species - when he’d thought was lost to him (rather than focusing on it being a romantic hookup interest). This doesn’t take more time; it tweaks what was already given on screen.

Change Toothless’ emotions with the Light Fury to feel more like loneliness being met than horny boi practicing kissing with a rock. This does a better job of showing that Toothless has a deep need that needs to be met as a wild animal and as a social draconic species.

Change conversations Hiccup has with humans about Toothless’ struggle. Maybe have Hiccup processing less with people and more by himself or with Toothless. Don’t write the conversations with people be about “Toothless has a girlfriend” and “of course he left.” Discuss instead how Night Furies are social creatures and Toothless hasn’t been with his kind in six years - that’s a huge hole in his heart being filled. Validate the deep connection Hiccup and Toothless have, while simultaneously acknowledging the struggle of this moment now. The movie shows that the Light Fury can never be domesticated, so I think that’s fine, but maybe one line from Astrid saying, “I don’t think she’ll come to live with us,” would be enough to help other audience members pick that up too.

More time spent on all dragons being in danger, and Toothless as an alpha unable to protect them with Hairy Hooligans. The story doesn’t show Toothless being much of an alpha - intentional - until he reaches the Hidden World and it clicks. But I suggest it’d be more effective to pull this out more than having an issue with Moose Boi taking up too much space in Berk, and Berk being so crowded Gobber has a dragon in his soup.

Put more of a deal on Toothless being an alpha. You can say that Toothless didn’t understand or use his role as alpha when with humans, but I think showing more sense of conflict, and of an alpha needing to be wild to protect his own, would be useful. Make this an issue for all dragons. The alpha status being used as a blackmail device against Toothless to keep the Light Fury alive could be replaced with us seeing the full species of dragonkind being unable to be protected by an alpha apart from his own people. More needs to be done than dragons bowing to him in one scene to understand what the alpha does for his society.

Show Toothless with more Light Furies. The Light Fury being his singular focus is great. But what about, in the Hidden World, Hiccup and Astrid watch Toothless interacting with a whole group of Night Furies, and he’s clearly in a situation that was Made For Him?

THW already has great content in there - Toothless and the Light Fury interacting, Hiccup crying when he realizes Toothless is fit in the Hidden World, Hiccup freaking out and Astrid comforting him when he feels a low, and Hiccup and Toothless parting ways touchingly at the end.

With these proposed tweaks, we get Toothless and Hiccup’s relationship being addressed deeply from the angle of both friends. We understand what both Toothless and Hiccup emotionally feel, and palatably sense how both love the other. We get a sense that Toothless is attracted to the Light Fury and might want to mate, but that she’s also calling him into a wild life and reminding him that he’s been alone, separated from his kind. We get a sense that it’s not just Toothless, but all dragons who might be called back to the Hidden World. We get a sense that it’s not just Toothless, but his whole role as alpha affecting the entirety of dragonkind.

And once we add in a greater sense of Grimmel being dangerous, and that more humans like him will continue to rise up, we can understand why Berk would release all their dragons. It’s not that dragons hate living with humans - THW can make that clear - and it’s not that dragons haven’t been profited by living with humans. But in the current call, the current situation, it’s best to go to the Hidden World.

I’m mostly tweaking how scenes go down, changing lines and reactions rather than adding material. Feel free to propose a longer movie! For me, THW already has enough space to share its message. Maybe it needed to be a few minutes longer, but I suppose my own sense is that they had enough time to budget in this material, make a smooth-flowing movie with all the material they needed to present, and come away with an astounding storyline.

Like you, this isn’t meant to judge the movie as bad! It isn’t bad! It’s downright wonderful in many aspects. I’m so happy I’ve seen it and can scream over it! Simply, if I were in charge of tweaking the script, these are the first alterations I’d make, and I think it would make THW even better.

[realmonstersrp]

❛ there’s something soft in me— / we killed it and it’s rotting.

INTRODUCING YUE WENYAN, OUR NEWEST STUDENT WITH THE POWER OF ROT INDUCEMENT.

WELCOME TO GUMI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL FOR THE POWERED.

WHO ARE THEY?

PERSONALITY

(+) meticulous, protective, loyal (–) sarcastic, detached, blunt

BACKGROUND

i. the city never sleeps. it’s sprawling, never-ending, and yue wenyan is just an ant among millions, looking for a way out.

ii. his mother leaves when he’s ten years old. she seems almost half-mad on that fated day; a whirlwind that tears through the closet and leaves destruction in the form of scattered clothing and broken memories. in a hushed tone, she talks of a rich businessman who promises her the world and more, of a man who has the midas touch and can give her everything his father can’t. she packs her bags in a rush, racing against the clock as if time is running out. he doesn’t understand why she’s in such a hurry until she’s actually gone, and then all he’s left with is the cloying stench of her perfume.

iii. this is not a fairy tale, nor does he get his own happy ending. the art of falling apart is one his father knows well. it’s subtle at first and then becomes apparent all at once: bottles of alcohol are his new best friend, and it’s a ghost he can’t seem to shake no matter how much wen pleads and begs. it becomes routine for him then to silently pick up the mess left on the coffee table every single day before he leaves for school, to hide the evidence in his neighbor’s recycling bin as an attempt to retain a semblance of normalcy in his now silent household. the truth hurts. his father is an alcoholic and the world threatens to swallow him whole.

iv. he’s going to die here; he just knows it. hong kong is stifling, and he feels like he can’t breathe. he is insignificant, just like his father says on a good day- a speck on a piece of paper that hardly takes up any space. he’s scared, terrified even that he will turn out just like his father. still stricken by grief and drinking until he’s black out drunk, only to repeat the process all over again the next day. he needs out. anywhere but here.

v. even though he is still just a mere speck, wen is slowly starting to realize he has the potential to grow. driven by sheer desperation and something called hope, he starts working his ass off and begins to excel. the speck starts to get a little bigger. a little bolder. suddenly he’s dreaming of a future and saving up money with no particular destination in mind. he doesn’t know where he wants to go yet exactly, but his grades are stellar and his teachers reassure him that he’s bound to go somewhere as long as he puts his mind to it. he has a part time job that feels like a fresh breath of air. he’s happy, for once. then his father ruins it all.

vi. this is the first time his father has ever tried to lay a hand on him; he’s drunk and swaying on his feet, blocking the path from where wen can lock himself into his bedroom and wait until he’s safe. filthy words spew out of his father’s mouth, accusatory and angry all at once. he raises his hands instinctively to block the upcoming fist that’s aimed straight towards his face.

vii. things are different now. he’s sixteen years old, and he has powers he can’t even comprehend. the black mark on his father’s knuckles are an ugly reminder to what he can do now. he knows how his father feels about mutants- his wife ran off with one after all.his words are still harsh and crass, but he doesn’t try to touch wen anymore. not after the incident.

viii. wen plans to put as much distance between his father and himself as possible, and the 2,062 kilometers from hong kong to incheon, south korea is perfect. gumi international university for the powered is his only ticket out of here; they offer him a full ride and he accepts. he packs the few personal belongings he has before boarding the plane, and he tries not to look back.

ix. the alpha team are rowdy and loud and everything he despises, but the camaraderie among them is something he secretly desires. he never intended to join a legacy, but they take him in under their wing his first year abroad to show him what it’s like to have fun. it’s absolute hell, but he comes to love it, slowly, but surely.

x. he doesn’t know if this is home yet. but he wants it to be.

WHAT CAN THEY DO?

ROT INDUCEMENT is the ability to cause anything that he comes into contact with to decay and rot, eventually disintegrating into nothingness. it operates on two principles: the composition of the object and what it is made out of, as well as how long contact is maintained with said object. a direct relationship exists. for example, the longer he touches something, the more accelerated the rotting process is. certain objects are also faster to disintegrate than others; while it may take him only up to a minute to turn a small houseplant into dust, inorganic material requires a little more effort. it involves the full touch of his hands, but it does not work on himself. he often has bandaids wrapped around his fingers as a precaution, lest his power accidentally gets out of control. 

WEAKNESSES

he cannot undo the damage done by his power, so any objects he has touched can never be reverted back to their former state. however, different states of matter such as gases and liquids are unaffected- it only works on solid objects. this means that other people will similarly be affected by his touch, which can then spread to the rest of their body. as a result, he avoids having to make contact with other people, and in the games focuses on using the terrain to his advantage and trapping people, rather than directly using his power and doing something he will regret. as said before, it works best on organic material, so objects made out of steel may not rot as well or as fast due to its composition. his power may also leave him susceptible to attack, since he must maintain full contact in order to speed up the process and cannot defend himself. nor is there a defensive aspect to his power. fatigue levels generally depend on the surface area of the object he’s decaying, but a general time limit clocks in at about three hours.  

DID YOU KNOW?

he watches mindless slasher flicks to help fall asleep.