#norbert the nutjob

[yv-sketches]

I just found out I have 999 followers? And holy vegetable-that-no-one-dares-name, that is insane.

My very first httyd book drawings were from How to cheat a dragon's curse, so here is another from book 4. It's a little messy because it took an hour, but I had to do something for the occasion.

[common-or-garden-blog]

Interesting how in the movies, Hiccup so inventive and produces all sorts of new technology.

Book Hiccup is not inventive in terms of technology (though there are other ways in which he is very inventive...)

But techonologically, it's the recurring villains who are inventive...

Norbert the Nutjob uses his inventions for exploration, and Alvin uses them to inflict pain and suffering (and to replace his body parts, of course.)

[thoughtsofananon]

Small animatic

[ebenelephant]

on the one hand it's sad the characters like nobert, eggingarde, camicazi, and the bog burglars didn't make it to screen when rtte expanded the worldbuilding, but on the other hand camicazi especially has a raw energy and cunty criminality that i don't think was destined for fandom at large.

[howtodrawyourdragon]

Hiccup tricking Norbert into telling him about the Vegetable-That-No-One-Dares-Name by pretending to be a flat-earther. The world can only be round if the potato exists, proving that America exists.

Which pisses Norbert off, who declares Hiccup must be killed.

No, wait.

Educated and then killed!

[quiet-art-kid]

A short little bit of my httyd Frankenstein au, the beginning

“Destiny wait!” Norbert called out as the little viking child ran past him, giggling. Destiny did not have a habbit of waiting, or listening to her father. In all her 11 years of life she always did exactly what she wanted and didn’t pay attention to anyone telling her otherwise.

“Relax!” She called out with a soft laugh, as she jumped over the fence wire, which marked this area off limits, like a four foot ten spring and plopped herself down in Norbert’s newest invention. 

“Get down from there this instant young lady! I mean it!” Norbert boomed, trying to catch up to her. 

Destiny stuck her tongue out. Don’t touch this, dont mess with that. She had never gotten hurt before, a bit scraped up but nothing more serious than some burned hairs and blisters, why would today be any different? It was a beautiful sunny day. Destiny had a good feeling about this. Bad things just donen’t happen on beautiful days like this, so she ignored the warnings of her father, 

“Destemona Cora Nutjob I really mean it this time! My flying machine hasn’t been tested yet!” Norbert lumbered towards her. That girl was going to be grounded for so long she’d have grandchildren the time it was over. 

Destiny giggled, her eyes shining, “That’s why I’m going to be the first person to test it.” She placed her foot to the petal, making it turn round. Despite being only a quarter of Norbert’s size the stength of her legs was just enough to lift that rickety thing into the air. Higher and higher she soared, up into the heavens, no not quite there…not yet.

Norbert was trying hard not to tear the hair from his curled moustaches.

“Wooah hoo!” Destiny shouted from high in the crisp air. It was actually working, her father’s most brilliant invention yet was working. The salty wind of the bay was whipping in her face, making her curly blond ponytail fly back. It was incredible, exhilarating  and then….crack!

One of the smaller parts near the wing snapped. Destiny’s bright eyes widened in terror, as for a split second, she was perfectly still in the air. Then, the flying the was starting to plummet downwards at a terrifying rate, faster than lightning it seemed. It started to spin violently, heating up a little, and Destiny was tossed about inside. She felt sick from the motion and impact. “MAYDAY MAYDAY! SOMEONE HELP ME!” She called out. But there was nothing anyone could do, not even Norbert. She was falling far too fast for anything nearby to cushion her. Some things aren’t improbable, they’re just impossible. 

Norbert watched in absolute horror, as Destemona Cora Nutjob, his only child, his pride and joy, smashed into the ground, her fragile body scattered in as many pieces as the now broken flying machine.

[blep-23]

God, thinking about Norbert the Nutjob.

[companion-of-the-dragonmark]

@anhttydbookfan Blustering barnacles, HBF, this is so CATCHY, I swear!! 🤩😍

I can totally see Fishlegs No-Name composing this and singing/speaking this at Hiccup's Hall.

Makes me wanna do my own now. 😂

@common-or-garden-blog Agreed, Cowell's villains are certainly unique and entertaining. And certainly evil, but not thoughtlessly so. They're still rather complex for villains in a children's series.

And certainly, Norbert is a good one. In fact, maybe I should do a ballad for him.

Consider.... Rasputin style song but about Alvin

Ithink it could work

I know Alvin was actively attempting Mass Dragon Extinction and Rasputin was, ya know

Not Doing That

But Alvin was a whore that wouldnt die and so i think for the song itself it could work

[thewolfwarriors]

When I read Norbert the Nutjob, his voice is Dr.Doofenshmirtz's 😭

[common-or-garden-blog]

THE AXE OF DOOM WILL DECIDE!!!

RIP his mustaches they were such a cool part of his design and I'm honestly mad at Toothless for biting them off.

I couldn't find great pictures for this pose so I referenced myself (a very youthful-looking woman) and the pictures are very cute and silly.

I would 100% recommend taking pictures of yourself posing in the mirror and making a fierce expression.

[fictional-at-heart]

So my brother and I have a sort of HTTYD World War II AU (it’s mainly our original characters, but Hiccup, Tuffnut, and Skulder are in there), and I just had to share a snippet we came up with tonight; we made the comment of how Hiccup and the Joneses wouldn’t smoke, but Stoick would, and Gobber? Well, he’d smoke like a fiend! He’d never be seen without a cigarette in his mouth:

Hiccup one day (sometime after the war ended), staring at Gobber:

Gobber: “What?”

Hiccup: “… how do you still have teeth? And lungs?”

Gobber: “Smokin’s good for the lungs! You know what I say: a pack a day keeps the doctor away!”

Hiccup, scoffing: “More like a pack a day calls the doctor…”

Gobber: “Oh, you’ve been spending too much time around those Jones boys.”

Stoick: “Their uncle was always the same way. Why, in the Great War-“

Hiccup, softly: “World War I…”

Stoick: “GREAT WAR, we were in the trenches one day, and every time I broke out a smoke, I’d feel his eyes on me. And sure enough, I look over and there he is. Staring at me, and I say ah! What’s it to you? And he says ‘you keep smoking them and it ain’t gonna be Germans that kill ya.’ So I told him it’s gonna be ripe old age! You know what he did? *clutches his chest and gasps* and then says ‘gonna be them smokes!”

[common-or-garden-blog]

same same

Norbert is my favorite villain

i would pay good money for a spin-off book series that focuses exclusively on what the hell happened to norbert the nutjob between books 7 and 12

[trainsdragons]

« Whomsoever removes the Arrow from this Vegetable Shall Rid Us of the Doomfang and Prove Himself Eight True Hero and Ruler of all the Viking Tribes. »

[…]

Norbert glanced at Hiccup, and then gasped in astonishment, as right in front of Norbert's eyes ... HICCUP PULLED THE ARROW OUT OF THE POTATO.

[…]

“My father's Prophecy!” screamed Norbert the Nutjob, his head in his hands. “I don't believe it.... It can't be true! You ... you revolting little Hooligan Vegetable-Burglar ... you ... are the Chosen One? ... You will lift the Curse and rid us of the Doomfang ... ?”

Hiccup nodded solemnly, thinking, nutty as a fruitcake.

— “How To Train Your Dragon: How To Cheat a Dragon’s Curse” Book 4 (by Cressida Cowell)

[jan30els]

Hiccup, Snotlout and Change

Doomsday 2024 Day 12

This is kind of a continuation of this post that I wrote for last year’s Doomsday. I had part of this written back then, but I never managed to actually finish it, until today

Hope you enjoy!

I think Hiccup and Snotlout have a very interesting relationship to change.

Hiccup is good at adapting to change. We see this many times. When circumstances are dire he can quickly come up with plans that work and throughout the books he learns to find new ways to solve problems. Even in the later books, when his life changes drastically (like when he becomes an outcast in book 9), he handles those changes pretty well.

But there’s more to it than that. Hiccup isn’t just good at adapting to change, he actively causes changes to happen. Remember how, in the first book, speaking dragonese is forbidden? After Hiccup uses it to defeat the Green Death, people don’t really seem to care too much about him speaking it.

Or how about the way his friendship with Camicazi changes the way the Bog-Burglars and Hooligans view each other? The Hooligans went from saying things like “the only good Bog-Burglar is a dead Bog-Burglar” to helping rescue Camicazi in book 8.

And of course, there is so much more. Hiccup gets the doomfang to leave Hysteria, he is the reason the library stops being illegal, he frees Furious from Beserk, which changes everything and there are probably a lot of things that I’m still missing here.

And then there’s people. I think a whole essay could be written about all the ways Hiccup changes people (and dragons). Toothless, Windwalker, Fishlegs, Camicazi, Stoick, Valhallarama, Humongous, Norbert the Nutjob, Alvin, One-Eye, Wodensfang and Furious are all examples of characters whose have character arcs that happen because of Hiccup.  

Hiccup is all about change. He causes it, both in the world and in people. He fights for it. It’s his destiny. His very existence, as a Hiccup, means change.

Snotlout is not like Hiccup.

In the earlier books, Snotlout is a very stagnant character. He’ll be mean to Hiccup and Fishlegs and do well in the Pirate Training Program and at the end of the book he loses in some way. This only starts to change around book 10, but even then, he’s mostly reacting to other characters and the way they changed.

Snotlout is incredibly resistant to change. When Snotlout was 3 years old, Hiccup was born and his life changed. He spends the next 14/15 years unable to let go of that. Hiccup represents change and Snotlout hates change, so he hates Hiccup. And he shows it. Snotlout is kind of the worst, and on some level, he is aware of that. It’s not something he likes about himself. But he doesn’t change. Because he hates change.

I think Snotlout sees Hiccup as a threat to the status quo. If Hiccup becomes chief, he will change everything, so Snotlout tries to make sure that will never happen.

And then book 9 happens. Dragons start attacking and threatening war and Hiccup is about to become king. Then the witch shows up with a way for Snotlout to stop it, to prevent Hiccup from changing the world that he loves so much. All he has to do is throw a stone, and everything will go back to the way it was.

Except that’s not what happens.

In book 10 the world has changed. The war has started, dragons are setting the world on fire and Snotlout is not in Berk anymore. Snotlout has managed to put himself in a pretty safe position. He’s not a slave. He actually managed to become chief. He finally achieved his goal. But it doesn’t really mean anything, does it? The Hooligans don’t respect him anymore, even though he was actually following Berk’s rules at the end of the last book. Only the strong can belong and people with the Slavemark are slaves. That’s what he’s always been taught, what was always important. But the people of Berk have changed, and Snotlout doesn’t like it. He feels like they betrayed both him and the world. (But he still wants their approval.)

At the end of the book, Snotlout has to choose a side. And he chooses the one that requires the least amount of change. With Hiccup, the future is unknown, but with Alvin and Excellinor, things will largely stay the same. It will still be a world where only the strong can belong. In a way, it’s safer. Snotlout knows his place in a world like that, he knows how things work. The world Hiccup promises is new, and what place would he, Hiccup’s bully, have in a world like that? So he chooses Alvin and Excellinor.

During book 11 Snotlout realizes that, not only are Alvin and Excellinor evil, but their world is not one he wants. At this point, he’s a traitor and everybody knows it. ‘He would never be trusted again. Not even Alvin and the witch trusted him. He had nowhere to go.’ I find this quote pretty interesting, because it very clearly shows that Snotlout feels stuck. He was so desperate to avoid change that now, he is in a position where he can’t change, even if he wants to, because nobody would believe in him.

Nobody except Hiccup.

Because Hiccup is all about change. He fights for it. He believes the world can change. And he believes that people can change. Even Snotlout. Even when Snotlout himself doesn’t think he can change.

Hiccup is the reason that Snotlout can change. Not because he convinces Snotlout to change, but because he’s the only one who still believes in Snotlout when he is finally ready to change.

And the funny thing is, it turns out not everything has to change. When Hiccup talks with Toothless, Snotlout himself comments that ‘nothing changes’, and Snotlout still makes fun of Hiccup, it’s just less mean and insulting and more playful and teasing. Some things change and some things don’t, and that’s okay.

When Hiccup tells the other Vikings about Snotlout’s sacrifice, Gobber yells that ‘SNOTLOUT HAS SHOWN US ALL THE WAY’. Snotlout has finally become a leader, a symbol of change.

And Hiccup? He wears Snotlout’s black star for the rest of his life. He carries Snotlout with him, with every step he takes and every decision he makes.

And that’s something that never changes.

[howtodrawyourdragon]

For some reason Norbert shouting "MY VEGETABLE! THEY'VE GOT MY VEGETABLE!" is extremely funny to me.

[common-or-garden-blog]

agreed

For the Character Ask Meme: Camicazi, Norbert, Tantrum O'Ugerly, Norbert's Papa, Grimbeard the Ghastly

Character ask meme. Yas!

Camicazi: #2. Fan Over In my heart, Camicazi is the greatest female character in anything How to Train Your Dragon. She’s a unique, unforgettable personality - refreshing, new in the world of fiction. I especially love how much she gabs when she fights, how cocky confident she is, how adventurous she is, and how great her insults are. Camicazi is a stout friend at Hiccup’s side, but she’s also got some great depth to her, too, as seen when she struggles to accept Hiccup’s own weaknesses. 

Norbert #2. Fan Over Norbert’s my favorite villain in the HTTYD books. He’s charming, amusing, quirky, inventive, and bold. You never know exactly what he’s going to do, except he’s probably going to be angry about it, and he’s going to do something simultaneously creative and quirky. I’m glad that he appeared in several books of the franchise. That fight in How to Ride a Dragon’s Storm? Iconic. One of the scenes in the books that will forever stick clear in my mind.

Norbert’s Papa #4. Meh Norbert’s Papa to me is a good device showcasing Norbert… as versus me paying attention to his papa himself

Tantrum #4. Meh Tantrum’s not my type of personality, I suppose. I don’t go looking for her in scenes. I do enjoy Fishlegs pining over her, though!

Grimbeard #2. Fan Over The historicity of Grimbeard the Ghastly does nothing to diminish his character. In fact, the way he’s written, he’s more interesting in the narrative as a historical character. We slowly uncover facts about him. First, we know the main historical stuff: he was an intimidating and powerful king. Then we learn increasingly more about his treasure. Then we learn about the humanizing aspects of him, good and bad. He unfolds into a fascinating, deep, knowable, sympathetic character.