#returning to my roots as a dragon doodler

[little-pondhead]

in my humble opinion, dorathea should look more badass

also this turned into perspective practice by accident?? didn't want her to be a floating neck i guess

[yv-sketches]

A long unnecessary post about the Wizards of Once movie

WARNING: MAJOR WIZARDS OF ONCE and TWICE MAGIC SPOILERS

Please do not click read more unless you’ve read it. This is not a cool theory or analysis post. It’s not very fancy either, I came up with this a few days ago while trying to fall asleep. It is just me wondering how in the world Dreamworks will pull off the movie. 

AKA: I’m pointing out all the plotholes that could show up in said movie.

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There are 3 main character plotlines.

Xar does not have magic.

Wish has magic that works on iron and multiple lives.

The relationship between them and their parents.

The conclusion to these depends entirely on what Cressida will write. 20 bucks that the parents and children will reconcile. Other than that, I have no idea where these will go.

There are also two main story plotlines:

The warrior and wizard tribes are enemies.

The witches have returned.

Now the conclusion to these plotlines should obviously be that the wizards and warriors will work together to get rid of the witches. (Unless there will be a grand plot twist, because I, and httydbooks-doodler as well, do not believe one species is completely evil)

The thing is, that’s quite a lot for one movie. Unlike a series, a movie, especially a first movie, should work as a standalone. Httyd 1 is a solid movie, the two sequels and series are not super necessary to understand httyd 1.

Once (TWOO book 1. My mom calls them Once and Twice because that’s easier, and I caught on) however, is a far cry from that. The warriors and wizards are still enemies. The kingwitch is alive, there are more witches out there and the two main characters split up. You cannot end a movie like that.

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And that does not include all the subplots, like the Encanzorax (yes that’s what I call the ship now) plot, Bodkin’s crush on Wish, that one wizard that wants to overthrow Encanzo, Caliburn’s previous lives, the fact that Wish has multiple lives, Sychorax’s room full of decapitated heads, the mysterious sword. Encanzo’s black fingernail/backstory, whatever happened to the Sweet Track, all those creatures in Gormincrag that are not really treated, the witchsmeller who is headed for the capital... ect ect ect.

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They could of course shove Once and Twice together and end with the party at the end of Twice. It would be a pretty solid ending. The witches have been defeated and wizards abd warriors CAN get along, even if it’s just for one night. However, I think that is a very, very, VERY bad idea character wise.

In Once, Encanzo is introduced as this wise, regal wizard king who is frustrated by his sons but also loves them. Sychorax is the scary, clever and tricky warrior queen with lots of secrets. The first half of Twice bends these characterisations a little. Encanzo wants to get Xar out of prison and sasses the Drood commander in a way that Xar would be proud of. Sychorax does care about the wizards, she hired the Witchsmeller to save both tribes from the witches (Not that that was such a great idea) and goes along with the “Help the wizard boy is kidnapping me!” scheme, even though she knows very well that Wish is being a bit of a traitor.

And then comes the story. The story deconstructs EV-E-RY-THING we know about these two. Encanzo was a clever and tricky young man, just like Xar, who saved his sprite even though it got him in danger, just like Xar, and who was not afraid of Sychorax shooting a freaking arrow at him. Sychorax was a nice person, just like Wish, who apparently has horrible, truly evil cousins. She did not care that Tor was a wizard, just like Wish happily befriends Xar, and did the ‘right’ thing (preventing the witches’ return) even if it meant getting rid of ger love.

To introduce, establish and then deconstruct these characters in the span of 1 movie is nearly impossible, especially because these are secondary characters whose story is not one of the main plotlines.

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Another thing about movies is the tendency to make the main characters cool and appealing. After all, movies are watched by a whole lot of people.

The thing about httyd was: the main characters were a ragtag bunch of misfits. The TWOO characters even more so. Hiccup and Camicazi were very competent, just underestimated.

Xar on the other hand is a magic-less boy with a magical creature squad that doesn’t function optimally, who hides his frustration and sadness behind a huge ego.

Wish is a tiny little thing with a lot of magic that she cannot use yet, severe dyslexia and self esteem issues.

Bodkin is a bookworm pressured by his family to be a Household Defender who faints in violent situations. As bonus: all of them feel like they fail their parents.

Httyd 1 Hiccup was very close to the original, but in all derative and sequel works he has cool armour, a flaming sword, wings and a group of friends.

With mixed writing, Xar could easily become insufferable. He’s already annoying, but in the book we can read his thoughts and feelings and can conclude that he is a good person in the end. If they want a cool girl character (which I feel is a bit of a trend) Wish could become an Astrid. I like Astrid, but it doesn’t suit Wish. Not. At. All. Bodkin could become the comic relief one and his crush on Wish could be like that scene in httyd 1 where Hiccup stares at Astrid with heart eyes.

( I think would have been better left out. Hiccup and Astrid meet during dragon training, Astrid gets suspicious when Hiccup nails it every time, romantic flight happens, Toothless is their secret, they become friends and eventually fall in love. Same result, just without the ‘the girl the main character likes conveniently falls in love with him’)

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Furthermore, movies usually have three parts. I’m pretty sure there are official charts for that, but here’s my blueprint:

Setting up the story and characters (movie Hiccup not being very viking-y and freeing the dragon he just shot down)

Building up suspense (Hiccup building that new tail fin, acing dragon class and finding the nest)

Everything goes wrong and then everything turns out fine. (The kill ring, Stoick takes Toothless, Hiccup defeats the Red death.)

Once, by comparison is kind of a mess. We introduce Xar and Wish and they meet. (Setting up story and characters) They travel to the wizard encampment. Scary scene where Wish kills a witch (The suspense) Squeezjoos gets hurt. (Everything goes wrong) They travel to the warrior fort. Xar gets thrown in the dungeon and then outwits Sychorax. (The suspense 2) The Kingwitch escapes (Everything goes wrong 2) They defeat the kingwitch (Everything turns out fine ??? )

Parts 2 and 3 happen twice, which tends not work very well on the big screen. And everything is not even fine at the end. I’m pretty sure that roots out a close adaptation.

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Then there is the main plot. The plot of a movie has to wrap itself up in 100 minutes or so. Httyd’s long plot of ‘Humans can be forgetful and cruel and tend to repeat mistakes, and the efforts of one kind boy are not enough to change the way a society thinks about and acts towards dragons and fellow humans alike.’ (Man that was a crappy description) was changed into “Dragons steal from humans because they have to and the humans do not understand that and fight back.” because the book plot simply doesn’t fit in those 100 minutes. Not even in a triology. The same goes for TWOO, just look at the long list of subplots listed somewhere above. Even if you get rid of all the minor ones, the 5 main plots are already a lot.

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So the only option is: dramatically change the plot, just like with httyd. Which is not a huge problem. Dreamworks has good writers and directors. It happened once, I’m pretty sure it could happend twice. (Pun very much intended.)

Maybe we’ll have two fandoms again? A book and a movie fandom, who knows? (If that means there will be two awesome, albeit different, series and two fandoms that get along well, I’m game.)

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The thing about that is: The main factions in TWOO are both humans. In the httyd movies dragons are animal-like and do not speak or think compex thoughts. They could apply the same logic on the witches and make them nightmarish creatures, but not on the wizards and warriors. The httyd movie dragons are controlled by the Red death/Drago’s bewilderbeast/evil dudes working for the tv series villain. Their actions have a direct cause, and destroying said cause turns the dragons back into the peaceful, quirky creatures they are.

The warriors and wizards on the other hand are both human. They think and feel and remember. And there is no way Wish and Xar (both seen as odd by their respective tribes) can convince their ENTIRE cultures to accept each other. Encanzo and Sychorax refused to change at the end of book 2, and it will take a long long while for Xar and Wish to turn that around. All the insults wizards and warriors exchange give a good idea just how bad the tribes think the others are.

“Wizards are barbarians, sleeping under the stars in the company of animals and practising chaos and disorder.”

“Warriors are turnips in tin cans who destroy the forest, steal land and decorate themselves with useless warrior jewelry.”

These tribes are not going to change in 1 movie.

Not in a realistic way.

Not even with a very different plot.