#the witch excellinor

[savebatsfromscratch]

No.14 Dragonbreath

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50826493

Words: 1,059

Cws: Threat of drowning, frozen water, torture

Notes: The part before the “I’ll Never Give Up Fighting, You Witch,” scene, I guess, never leaves my head. This isn’t fully accurate to it, of course, I was just making stuff up on vague memories. I highly recommend the original book over this fic, this is just a pale imitation of an incredible series.

Prompt: No. 14: “Feed me poison, fill me ‘till I drown.” Flare | Water Inhalation | “Just hold on.”

Hiccup didn’t even try to wriggle in his bonds. He didn’t need to try to get out to know that he couldn’t, especially not with half his body too sore to move. And, as a cruel bonus, the only unchained people in the room were Alvin’s Men who would gladly kill him if he got a chance to escape. Based on the hatred glowing in their eyes, if the dragon rebellion was not about to come to a close, it could have been all they had been training to do these past months.

All he could do was hope that Plan B was going to work. This hope, however, was pretty weak given how little time had gone into planning this mission, let ALONE Plan B.

That, at least, was evident in the position he found himself in.

It was clear that he had not thought about what he was getting himself into for nearly long enough, let alone a way out if something like this happened. 

But he was here, and she was here, and none of the promised King's Lost Things were here, and Hiccup was wrapped like a little present in thick metal chains that he doubted even Alivn himself could have broken out of. 

Hiccup was totally trapped, and his only hope at escape lay in the messily put together Plan B. He couldn't talk his way out of this, Alvin was already trying to argue why they should kill him immediately. He couldn't fight his way out, even if he wasn't chained up, his fighting arm was limp as crushed Nanodragon at his side. ...and Hiccup wasn't very good at much else, was he.

“Alvin my dear,“ the witch's awful whisper barely held back excitement as she scuttled around the room, ”Aren't you excited to see him drown?“

”I am, mother,“ muttered Alvin, nervously fiddling with his sword attachment, ”I just think we should kill him now to get it over with, you know how he is...“

”Pish posh,“ the witch cackled, ”he's just a BOY, and a very young one at that...“ she made a face at Hiccup, “it shouldn't take very long to break him,”

She galloped towards Hiccup, and he had to try very hard not to squirm away from her metal fingernails, even though he knew he could not be poisoned by them. 

“We're going to dunk you in that cold water there,” the witch purred, gesturing to a trapdoor that opened into the frigid winter ocean, “and when we pull you out, you're going to tell us the location of your mother's base, right?”

Hiccup could already imagine the pain of the frozen ocean, having fallen in once as a young child, but he tried not to let his terror show on his face as he shook his head no.

The witch's expression soured, and she scuttled backwards back to Alvin. Clearly, she thought that Hiccup was going to break, and, to be completely honest, Hiccup wasn't so sure he could disagree with her.

The chain began to pull him towards the hatch, slowly and painfully as Hiccup tried to fight his rising panic. So long as Plan B was getting followed through on, this whole thing should be survivable. (But, as he had realized before, the likelihood of that happening was one to zero, even with the months that he had spent perfecting his team's communication and collaboration skills.)

He wanted nothing more than to dig his fingers into the wooden floor of the boat, but the chains kept his arms in place. 

He looked up at the rows and rows of Dragonmarkers in the cages, each holding a solemn dull to their eyes, as if they had all already decided that he would break. The witch was right after all, he was just a BOY, and a particularly young one at that, what could he possibly do against the freezing, Winterflesher filled, waters of the archipelago?

He wasn't really all that impressive to look at, after all.

Hiccup was only a couple of feet away from the edge now, but his mind stretched milliseconds into minutes as he tried to look brave. If Plan B didn't work...

He glanced back at the opening and watched as a Winterflesher leaped a few inches out of the water, its shining white teeth glowing like little daggers in its mouth. 

Hiccup swallowed and did his best to square his shoulders.

If Plan B didn't work, he was going to have more to worry about than drowning or freezing to death. He'd seen Winterfleshers tear apart a fully grown deer in seconds before, and, as far as anyone in that room could tell, Hiccup was more comparable to a baby deer than an adult. There was no way he could stand a chance against those things.

One more foot.

One more inch.

Just a little more...

Hiccup felt himself tipping over into the hatch, and he only just managed to swallow in a breath before he hit the water.

The shock of it took a beat to hit him, and for that brief moment, all he could process was the incredible darkness of the water that surrounded him. 

And then the cold hit.

It took all of the strength he had not to let out his meager supply of air right then. (And even with his efforts, he managed to inhale a little through his nose anyway.)

It hurt so bad.

The ocean was so cold it almost felt like swimming in a pool of molten lava, and trust him, he'd gotten pretty close to that experience a couple of times.

He squeezed his eyes shut as salt began to burn them. (Or maybe it was so he didn't see the Winterfleshers that were getting over their surprise that someone had been thrown into the middle of them.)

He braced for the feeling of their teeth on his unprotected skin, but so far, nothing was happening.

He braced a little harder, but nothing happened.

Hiccup felt the brush of a familiar dragon on his side, and his frozen body seemed to warm up in relief. Plan B was a go. So, as Hiccup hung limp in the water, he opened his mouth to that dragonbreath that was filling his lungs. So long as he survived the cold, he could do this.

[krikunjayvoice]

Many people know that movies and TV series have a book source. And I wanted to adapt this lady. The witch Excelinor. According to the book, she was a decrepit old woman, the mother of Alvin the Treacherous and the wife Algarick Ogglebert (Viggo's book prototype).

I really like her trick with poisonous nails and pets crows. A witch is a witch.

In the series, she could be an evil ex-wife and one of the antagonists. I just remember Viggo's claw scar on his neck and he could say it was a Monstrous Nightmare, and it wouldn't be a lie :"D

[panicked-herb]

[thoughtsofananon]

They would do this, right?

[jackshiccup]

for all of alvin and excellinor's evil wickedness, their dynamic as a mother and son villain duo is just so hilarious bc it's like disappointed mother trying her best to ensure son's success vs. irritated son who hates overbearing mother who meddles (see exhibit a)

[misterrttegrimborn]

[just-a-very-random-side-blog]

I curse you with young, hot excellinor.

[quiet-art-kid]

don't blame me. blame toast, this is their fault

[krattgirl124]

I’ve been rereading the httyd books for the first time since I was in 6th grade (I’m in college now) and that scene where Hiccup gets scratched by Excellinor and just walking it off despite her poisoned nails will always be badass, no matter what.

[casthesixteenth]

'Poor little meow meow' has me choking on laughter

Ya'll that man stopped being hot so insanely fast. In 2 he started as hot, but through the strangulor, the sharkworms, and the shit with the exterminators I'm pretty sure he stopped being hot in total by end of book 5 with barely any page time (most of book 2, latter half of 3, none of 4, act 3 of 5)

He was such a pathetic bastard it really does make you sad for him and like OP said, Excellinor is the actual worst, imagine being raised by that, no wonder he's so fucking pathetic (remember though, his pathetic essence also cones from being destroyed time and time again by hiccup and his own hubris)

Fuck I love these books

alvin the treacherous is so fucking funny cuz he is genuinely the worst man you will ever meet and the story never once gives him the time of day to suggest otherwise but he's also fate's personal punching bag and as it turns out his mother is genuinely the worst woman you will ever meet so he's fucked but you can't really blame him for being that way plus he's canonically hot so i thank god every day that they never adapted the books faithfully or else we'd never hear the end of his poor little meow meowness

[asphodeline-lutea]

I think that quite a number of people who read the httyd books didn’t get a good hold of Book 11’s entire plot, but this book actually has maybe the most intricate plots (or so I think!), with a large portion of them hidden underwater, away from the reader’s direct view, and I have never read any analysis done about this part, so here are some Very Important things I found while doing my Book 11 analyses —

Excellinor planned for Snotlout to find Hiccup and trick him into coming to the war bunker, better if with the last Lost Thing — Toothless, and then force Hiccup to tell her the whereabouts of the Dragonmarkers’ Hideout in front of all the captured Dragonmarkers.

Excellinor sent Spydragons to catch one of Hiccup’s friends during the start of her plan, to force him to come, in case he didn’t trust Snotlout enough, or had realized that the latter was lying.

In fact, Hiccup knew that Snotlout was lying and was going to betray them, that this was part of Excellinor’s plan, possibly soon after they rescued Snotlout. So he chose to turn her plan on itself, by letting Toothless be taken away to the other Things’ hiding place, then using the Hogfly to track Toothless down, thus finding all the Things.

But of course Hiccup didn’t know of the torture that the witch had in mind for him… and he still had to come up with a plan to rescue Camicazi. During the “torture scene”, when Hiccup said “There is nothing you can do to me, that will make me change my mind”, he was actually hinting at the witch to “torture” Camicazi instead, while he knew that Windwalker underwater will rescue her. Then, during Camicazi’s “torture”, he pretended to give in, then pretended to not be able to talk or point, getting the witch to unchain him so he could escape.

It seems that Snotlout did think of stealing the Things and trying to become King when he agreed to play the part in Excellinor’s plan, but he may be looking for an opportunity to do so rather than having a complete plan. This, however, was completely destroyed after Excellinor “dispatched” him with her words in Chapter 10.

After releasing the Dragonmarkers (I’m not sure the exact reason why Snotlout did this, but I think he was not going to stick to the Alvinsmens’ side after what just happened, and releasing these people would cause some chaos, which might be useful for his later actions), Snotlout silently follows Hiccup to the ship on his Hurricane. He intended to defeat Hiccup in what would not be a fair swordfight (more on this later I promise), but I don’t think he wanted to actually kill Hiccup or take the things. Nor did he plan to reveal his pain and despair at having Turned his Back on himself — that was sort of out of control for him. (Like… you know what you get when you suppress certain emotions for too long? Not good) I’d say that he more or less knew/felt Hiccup’s attitude and feelings towards him, and to him this was confusing and irritating (this is Very Complicated, I will write more posts on this later), so he was going to scream it out at Hiccup.

When Snotlout flew out on Windwalker’s back towards the Alvinsmen, he not only knew that he was going to die (hinted in Book 11, stated/mentioned that he was “facing certain death” in Book 12), but also actually planned for himself to die, in order for his plan to work, to make the Alvinsmen believe that Hiccup had been killed, and therefore protect Hiccup until he reaches Tomorrow.

The plans of different characters are interlocked with each other, forming the plot of this book, and a huge portion of it is hidden under the surface, but visible if you look closely enough. This is truly the work of a great writer and storyteller.

[companion-of-the-dragonmark]

Is Heather Based on a Book Character? (HTTYD)

Hello, my fellow Dragonmarkers! Today, we'll be talking about another character from the movie/TV franchise and the Books:

Could Heather be loosely based on a character from the books? 

(Warning: Spoiler Alert to those who haven't read the books at all, but consider this an opportunity to see if the books are worth reading, eh? ;-) )

Now, I might be 100% wrong on my theory, but I'm still going to present it, and leave to you, my audience, to determine whether or not this is plausible.

Unlike other characters in the movie/t.v. show whom many fans think are similar to certain book characters (cough, cough, Astrid, cough), Heather might possibly have more in common with her other half, Barbara the Barbarian: a minor character that we see only in the last book of the series, How to Fight a Dragon's Fury.

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My Theory | How Heather and Barbara Are Similar:

What makes me think that Heather and Barbara are connected, if somewhat loosely?

Well, let me give you a few reasons:

1) She's a daughter of a Chieftain. 

Both girls are daughters (or Princesses, as they're called in the books) of Chieftains — albeit Heather's the daughter of the late Chieftain of the Berserker Tribe, while Barbara is the daughter of the Chieftain of the Barbarian Tribe. They both have a level head on their shoulders and their equipment and even their dragons look somewhat similar, if loosely so.

They are also good leaders who lead their warriors well, and both of their fathers dote on them.

Both are superb fighters, being daughters of Chieftains. They are also intelligent, fierce, brave, kind, compassionate, and love their dragons dearly. 

2) Both seem to be brunettes (though Barbara's hair and eye color is never mentioned).

3) Barbara, like Heather, seems to not have a mother, though it's unclear whether the mother died or if she was just not mentioned. The HTTYD books only have a few mothers who are mentioned and shown: Bertha (Camicazi's mother), Valhallarama (Hiccup's mother), Termagant (Fishlegs' mother), Excellinor the Witch (Alvin the Treacherous's mother), and Chin-hilda (Hiccup the Second's mother). Oddly, women are sorely lacking in the books. Maybe it's just because of the Viking culture in her books. In Viking culture, women weren't often mentioned except in folklore and sagas.

4) Both are staunch supporters and allies of their respective Hiccup the Thirds. Heather is a trustworthy ally who's often shown alongside Hiccup and the Dragon Riders in Race to the Edge along with Dagur. 

She's always seen with the others around the Hearth giving suggestions and advice. Before she reconciled with Dagur, and when she lived with the Dragon Riders, she often flew with Hiccup and/or Astrid, and was usually the one to go with Hiccup and Astrid when he left to talk to someone — whether a villain or one of their allies.

She and Barbara have the utmost respect for their respective Hiccups and would gladly die for them if need be.

Barbara only nominated Alvin the Treacherous to be King of the Wilderwest, despite knowing the kind of person he was and having fought against him, and being Hiccup's follower, out of practical sense and battle fatigue, for the Vikings of the Wilderwest were close to extinction under the claws of the Dragons' Red-Rage Rebellion led by Furious, and she and everyone else had been fighting the dragons for two years at this point and were war-weary (even Vikings need a break from war once and a while). Only when evidence began to pop up that Hiccup is the Rightful Heir did she have hope again. 

She was also one of the Vikings who knelt before Hiccup to swear their swords for his service as their King. And when Hiccup was going to duel Furious, Barbara offered to lend him her cat to take into battle — whether as a weapon, a lucky charm, or both. 

And when Hiccup was in danger — and when Alvin incited the battle once again by breaking the Rules of Single Combat by entering the Ring when Hiccup and Furious were engaged so that he could steal the Dragon Jewel and kill Hiccup the Third for good — she flew on her dragon along with her comrades to enter the fray and showed great courage and bravery.

5) Both Heather and Barbara own battle horns.

Heather was given her horn as a gift from Hiccup's father Stoick when she was born. Perhaps Barbara did likewise, or her own father had given her it when she was older. As I've said, she's a minor character so not much is known about her at all; she's only shown in one book — the last one, and only in the middle of the last one. 

Heather uses her own to call Windshear to her if they ever get separated. It's also possible that she uses it to call to any allies that are close to her. Barbara seems to use her horn similarly.

In fact, in How to Fight a Dragon's Fury, it says in Page 241 that: "...She brought out her foghorn and blew on it several times, making such a loud noise that the cat's fur stood up like the quills on a sea urchin and she immediately bounced back onto Barbara's shoulder."

So she seems to use it for her pet cat (I believe it was mentioned that the Barbarian Tribe used cats into battle. No clue why, but they do).

Another reference in Page 450 — well after this point, close to the end of the story — when the Second Dragon-Human War was ended and the Vikings were celebrating the new peace and the return of the Kingdom of the Wilderwest. Unfortunately, being Vikings, their celebrating eventually moved into fighting and arguing, and Hiccup eventually asks Barbara for her horn in order to break it up.

Hiccup says: " 'In the meantime, I know what will stop them from arguing... Barbara," said Hiccup now, 'could I borrow your foghorn?' King Hiccup stood up on his Stone, and blew the foghorn as hard as he could. The thrilling sound of the foghorn, when blown at full blast, was so magnetically loud that it hit the ears like an electric shock..."

We actually see this when Heather blows her horn to call Windshear to her in Edge of Disaster Part 2 in Season 2 of RTTE. The sound is high-pitched and loud.

Yet another — and final — reference is in Page 455-456, where, as the Vikings are singing songs during the Feast, Hiccup asks Barbara if she'd like her horn back, to which she replied that "he'd better keep it, as she thought that he was going to need it." (Vikings being Vikings, after all). Heather doesn't do this, but I was basically showing where the horn came from.

Now, it could be that this is just a coincidence, and that this doesn't make Heather loosely based on Barbara the Barbarian. It could be that the horn is just a little reference from the books like the eyepiece (telescope) you see Hiccup and other characters use throughout the Dragons series.

6) Both girls are love interests of their respective Fishlegs characters.

That's right. I'm getting to the JUICY stuff now! lol 😎🍿

Now Fishlegs in the movie franchise is vastly (pun not intended) different from Fishlegs in the books. Fishlegs in the books is small and skinny like Hiccup and has asthma, eczema, a squint, a limp, and numerous allergies, including one to reptiles. He wears glasses. And has red hair. And his dragon is a Deadly Shadow, a dragon not unsimilar to the Snaptrapper dragon — much cooler than a Gronkle, as the Deadly Shadow is a faster flyer, deadlier, and is a Stealth Dragon.

Fishlegs in the movies is... beefier than Fishlegs in the books. He also doesn't really have any allergies aside from Gobber's earwax (which they only did for comedy effect and the episode actually referenced Fishlegs' allergy to reptiles in the books, though Fishlegs seems to have gotten over that allergy as the books wore on). He doesn't have glasses, having perfect vision. He doesn't limp, he's strong, and doesn't squint. And he doesn't have asthma. And it seems like he can swim just fine, whereas in the books Fishlegs was a terrible swimmer and was only able to swim when he saw that Hiccup was in danger. He also has blond hair, not red. And he's a nerd when it comes to dragons, whereas Fishlegs in the books is an up-and-coming poet and bard with only the general knowledge of dragons.

Basically, he's a WIMP.

Fishlegs in the books is also an orphan, unlike in the movie, and also, unlike Movie Fishlegs, Fishlegs in the books also turns out to be royalty, being the son of Termagant, daughter of a Murderous Chieftain, and Alvin the Treacherous, making him the third cousin (according to the HTTYD wiki) of Hiccup and Snotlout. In the movie, Alvin is of no relation to Stoick, Hiccup, Snotlout, and Fishlegs at all, and Fishlegs is of no relation, in turn, to Hiccup. In the books, Fishlegs is also part Berserker on his mother's side, whereas Fishlegs has no such lineage.

One last thing: Fishlegs in the books was love-struck whenever Barbara was around, and couldn't form a coherent sentence together nor could think straight, often fainting. Fishlegs in the films and series never show any of that when with Heather. However, Fishlegs's secret letters to Heather could actually be a reference from the books where Fishlegs writes a secret love letter to Barbara the Barbarian against Hiccup's wishes.

In other words, he's a SIMP. 😂

(Heathlegs by NightOwl374 on Tumblr — though the account isn't around anymore and you can only find these on Pinterest)

Now, there are those who hope that someday Fishlegs and Barbara get together (personally, I don't) like how Fishlegs and Heather do in RTTE. 

Another thing that the girls have in common is that both are older than their male counterparts — she is about a year or so (give or take a few months) older than Fishlegs, while Barbara is said, according to Camicazi, to be at least three years older than Fishlegs.

Two noticeable differences are, however, that 1) Fishlegs and Heather were a couple at one point, whereas with Fishlegs and Barbara, it was a one-sided attraction on Fishlegs' part and probably wouldn't be a thing regardless; and 2) both Barbara and Fishlegs were royalty, whereas only Heather is royalty and Fishlegs is just your average Joe (or IS HE? 😏).

But Fishlegs and Heather's relationship could've been a very loose reference to the possibility — and hope — of Fishlegs' infatuation with Barbara the Barbarian in the end of How to Fight a Dragon's Fury (come on, Cressida! Make us a sequel series!), and wanting Fishlegs to at least GET THE GIRL for once! lol 😂

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Conclusion:

Anyway, this is all that I have for you concerning this. What do you guys think? Do you think that Heather could be loosely inspired by Barbara from the books? Or do you think that I'm making mountains out of ant-hills and that these are just a bunch of coincidences! Tell me what you guys think! 😏

Thank you everyone for reading this article! I hope you guys enjoyed reading it! Until next time, my fellow Dragonmarkers! Have a great weekend!

Long Live the Wilderwest!

— Companion of the Dragonmark

[httydfirefly]

HTTYD Characters as TMA Avatars

So I made this list (with input) of what different HTTYD book characters would be avatars of and thought I'd share:

Hiccup the Third - The Eye Fishlegs No-Name - The Lonely Camicazi - The Spiral Snotlout - The Hunt The Windwalker - The Vast The Wodensfang - The Eye/Vast The Dragon Furious - The Desolation Toothless - The Stranger Alvin the Treacherous - The Hunt The Witch Excellinor - The Web Humoungosly Hotshot the Hero - The Stranger/Hunt Stoick the Vast - The Buried Valhallarama - The Hunt Hiccup the First - The Web Hiccup the Second - The Extinction

Anyone have any thoughts?

[rebornofstars]

Silly Game Time: Who are some of your favorite magician characters? And what do you like about them?

They can be of any class or variety of magic-user (wizard, witch, sorcerer, warlock, healer, druid, etc.), of any race or species, so long as using magic is *primarily* their thing in the story. Not just something they do occasionally, but something that is a major element of their role and their identity.

OOH!

i really want to say kvothe from rothfuss' the name of the wind, but he's literally a musician. im breaking the rules. im not gonna take him off the list though

pug/milamber from feist's magician

nakor, also from fiest

gandalf hehehe. and radagast

howl of howl's moving castle fame! love both the book and the movie!

mary poppins... does she count... i feel like she should count...

excellinor the witch. awful woman.

[peronica]

Another, smaller, reference in Dragons: The Nine Realms and the How to Train Your Dragon book series...

In season 6, episode 5 “Sledkin Stakeout” the gang can’t figure out how Sledkin keeps getting to the Hidden World without being seen by security cameras. Turns out, she has a tunnel through her living room floor taking her directly to the Hidden World.

In book 9 How to Steal a Dragon’s Sword, Excellinor the Witch is staying in a hut with a tunnel through the fireplace leading to a cavern system which contains The King’s Lost Things: The Crown. These caves are filled with different kinds of dragons.

It might be a stretch to take this as intentionally planned, but a wins a wins, right?

[misterrttegrimborn]