#which also requires me rewatching the HTTYD shows

[drkineildwicks]

Writing update - 4/2/2025

Happy Liberation Day! :D

Also there was no way I was doing this yesterday none of you would have believed any of it X'D

Moving on! Spent all of March adding at least 100 words a day to the following:

The Glowing Tide

Ghost's Reign

Live and Learn 2

Shadows and Ash

Snips and Scars

One day I wrote up 11 1/2 pages and seven of those were for Snips and Scars

Which, by the way, I'm working to upload to AO3 as well, that'll probably take a few months

Y'all know I announced that Ghost's Reign would come back tomorrow (April 3rd)--well it comes back with a good sixteen chapters ready to go, we're good for weekly updates until the middle of July

And with Shadows and Ash and Snips and Scars both having at least a month's worth of updates, that's this month we're eating good with the live fics

Live and Learn 2 is coming along fine, technically we got three chapters finished and are down to eight episodes left, still plugging away there

The Glowing Tide is what's really coming along nicely--still plugging away at the same pace LaL2 is, but we're about halfway through Part III there. Hopefully, keeping the same pace, we'll start posting that one May 2nd

So! For April I'm still going to work on Live and Learn 2, Shadows and Ash, and The Glowing Tide with the 100 words per day--I'd like to get those three finished before summer at least. I'd also like to get the next entry to the DS/PotC crossover going (need to get my old PS2 working or get an emulator for it OTL) so we might be tacking that one on as well.

In the meantime--I really recommend doing the 100 words a day it makes such a difference and it does add up (like come on, guys, that's a minimum 3K to your fics each month!)

Anywho! *back to writing*

[lucica-stuff]

Dragon Hierarchy

So, the last few weeks I've been pretty sucked in by the HTTYD fandom. I've always been a fan, but this time it's gotten really bad 😅.

And rewatching the movies/shows, reading the many fanfics on ao3 and writing my own stuff for it (that I'm probably never gonna post), made me think of something. How are dragon hierarchies structured?

Since there doesn't seem to be much information canon-wise about it, I've made up my own headcanons. And I'm interested in further discussions.

1. King

Or as we know it, The Alpha. The highest position in the dragons' hierarchy. We know that the Bewilderbeast is the 'The King of Dragons'. According to fandom.wiki, the dragons under his care are called 'Primals'. Every dragon, including Queens, falls under his jurisdiction.

They are described as providers, protectors and, as we know, possess the unique abilty to manipulate other dragons' minds, which is why they naturally become alphas in the hierarchy (keep in mind that this doesn't need to be the case e.g. Toothless). The position can only be earned through challange, but due to the Bewilderbeasts behavior and personality traits, such challanges are not likely to happen. A dragon can only become King/Alpha if they have won the challange against a Bewilderbeast, although they don't get the species-specific abilities.

Furthermore, since Bewilderbeasts are actually described as a rather reclusive type of dragon, they don't take much part in their nest's daily life. Exception to this could include: providing food/shelter and settling disputes. But otherwise, they don't do much.

2. Queen

They rule over a nest of dragons. Like the King, their job is to protect the dragons within their nest, but in comparision to the King their main job is to nurture. Their job is to take care of the nest's inhabitants. I would like to call them 'Life Givers', so you can better picture what I'm trying to get at.

The Queen of a nest is usually the strongest and most nurturing dragon, who has proven that they are able to provide the best (e.g. the Fireworm Queen). They are either appointed or become the Queens by nature. Queens are usually female because of their natural instincs to nurture their nest and take on the role of 'Mother to All', but a male dragon can also become Queen if they have proven themselves (this does not mean that they are a King).

I would like to point out that the Red Death is an exception of this, not the rule. I believe that the Red Death (as a species) has similiar abilities to the Bewilderbeast or the Death Song, but in contrast to the Bewilderbeast, they don't have the ability to manipulate/command other dragons. The Red Death from httyd1, used fear to abuse her abilities and position as Queen to get the dragons within her nest to do her bidding.

3. Nest

Which is ruled either by a King or a Queen, consists of a flock (or many flocks) of dragons. These nests are made up of different dragon species, where either a pack/herd of dragons join or a solitary dragon joins for survival benefits.

Nests may be formed for the benefit of many different species.

4. Herds/Packs

Some dragons are not suited for solitary life, which is why they form packs or herds. It's for survival as well as socialazing.

Packs or herds may appoint a dragon as their leader, but it's not required. Furthermore, they may also decide to join a nest to gain benefits.

5. Solitary Dragons

Some examples to which dragon species form packs or herds.

Herds: Thunderdrums, Smothering Smokebreaths, Terrible Terrors, Gronkles, Razorwhips

Packs: Changewings, Night Terrors, Dramillions, Speed Stingers

As we know - mostly from the shows/series - that some dragons far more enjoy a more solitary kind of life.

However, they may decide to join a nest or form a flock with other dragons. A good example for this is the Monstrous Nightmare or the Hideous Zippleback, which we have seen either lives solitarily or joins other dragons for survival advantages. This depends on how social their species is.

Boneknapper Dragon/Armorwing

Typhoomerang

Death Song

Skrill

Cavern Crasher

Thank you for reading! ❤️

[revive-the-fandom]

I'm trying to research ships for RTTE/HTTYD and it's starting to piss me off.

Drago's ships, his visuals & his army were designed with the idea that he comes from another part of the world, most specifically an unspecified asian or slavic culture though they also state that there were north african and mediterranean influences (I'm getting this from the art book btw)

first of all, Drago is said to have come from another part of the world, possibly somewhere in the southern hemisphere (although they kind of jump back and forth with the southern hemisphere / asian / mediterranean idea), so why were there basically no exotic dragons with him?

secondly, his original design was so clearly recycled to create Ryker and possibly Krogan:

as were his ships:

thirdly, PLEASE BE MORE SPECIFIC THAN 'Slavic and Asiatic influences' WHAT KIND OF BOAT IS THAT?????

They seem to be a type of Catamaran, which was (this is all from wiki btw) invented by the Austronesian peoples (after some basic research it seems this group originates in the pacific & indian ocean but I may be wrong) so it supports Drago coming from the southern hemisphere, and also the Asiatic influences in his visuals.

After a shit ton of research all I can come up with is that they are a fantasy adaptation of Māori waka (canoes, which seem to be the ones seen in Moana), a Drua (Fijian), or a Kalia (Tonga) or any traditional boat/ship/canoe that falls under the multihull design...

BUT THEN WHY DO THE DRAGON HUNTERS HAVE THESE SHIPS

I'm pretty sure the Dragon Hunter's were supposed to be off in the North, either on other islands in the archipelago or nearer a country like Norway or Iceland. I'm not sure if they were expanding their business empire or if they were searching specifically for the dragon eye? I'm convinced they said it in the show but all I found so far was this reference:

those quotes kind of imply that the reason the riders didn't see any hunters until s2 was because they were away in the North, looking for the dragon eye, and that they did find The Reaper and the missing Dragon Eye. At some point I'll rewatch and check but for now just correct me!

anyway, this implies that they should have more traditional viking ships? of which there are a few to chose from (again, very basic research going on here, please correct me):

The Snekkar was designed for speed and for transporting troops to invade/fight on land. The Dreki is very similar to the Snekkar, execpt with more stability. They were prefered for traversing rivers. The Byrding was used for deep-sea travel (crossing the ocean between Norway and Iceland). Knarr's were cargo ships and were essential to exploration. These are essentially what Berk uses already, (Longships).

The Dragon Hunters need much bigger ships.

Berkians are seen using longships to:

travel between islands,

trade,

fish

and invade (they seem to have bows, crossbows, bolas. Their biggest transportable weapon are catapults, but only sometimes and they seem to manage fine with the longships).

The Dragon Hunters are using their ships for:

extensive travel in rough waters/storms(living quaters are necessary),

transporting large animals (mostly Dragons) which requires large cages made from heavy material (tho possibly gronckle iron which is lightweight, but it looks different so probably a heavier metal),

and hunting (they have catapults, grappling chains, and ballistae which are all large weapons which need a decent amount of space to operate)

these requirements translate into a need for larger ships with bigger storage, capacity and hull space. Traditional viking ships seem to have transported around 20 - 40 men per boat but they had very little freeboard (meaning the water was very close to the deck) and no cabins for the crew to sleep, so they'd have to be at sea for only a few weeks.

what I'm saying is that a European style ship would make for a more distinct style here. Viggo is voiced by Alfred Molina who is english, and definately sounds it. Ryker is voiced by JB Blanc who is French-British. If their Dragon Hunter's were European themed it wouldn't exactly be out of place, especially when it's known that vikings invaded Britain as early as the 9th century.

This got off track but basically, if rtte had a bigger budget and a more diverse style/design then having european style ships would better distinguish the Dragon Hunters from Drago's army, so long as they were adapted to fit the style of httyd (making the worldbuilding more fun!).

If we're being time period accurate then your main options are going to be a Cog and a Hulk. Both are mentioned some time around the 10th century but neither are particularly impressive looking, especially compared to the Oseberg.

HOWEVER

since Drago's ships were blown way out of proportion compared to their real life inspiration, I vote that ships from later eras should also be allowed since they were essentially in the same family as the cog and the hulk in appearance if nothing else. So your typical frigate, brig, schooner, and sloop should all be viable especially considering the size of Drago's flagship.

For refence on crew sizes:

your typical viking ship will have 20 - 40 crewmen, larger longships could carry around 70 - 80 crewmen.

your typical cog would have 5 - 6 crewmen

your typical schooner would have 16 crewmen, your typical brig would have 22 crewmen, your typical frigate would have 300 crewmen

some fun ships i found while searching

Oseberg, had enough room for 30 rowers, one of the better preserved findings from the viking era, my dad went to visit it and says it's awesome

USS Constellation, 1854, sloop of war, had about 286 crewmen

Mary Rose, 1511, carrack-type warship, had about 415 crewmen

Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship, 1710, frigate, had about 300 crewmen, about 30 - 40 guns (15 - 20 guns on each side)

Vasa, so fucking big it sailed like half a mile then tipped over and sank

[professorspork]

Frozen 2: first impressions

Hello friends! As you know, Frozen was a HUGE part of my fandom life ~back in the day.~ So of course I saw the sequel opening night and of course I have thoughts after ruminating on it for 24 hours. I’m sure there will be many things I forget or don’t cover--after all, I’ve only seen it the once. And I make no guarantees that my thoughts are coherent or consistent. (If I contradict myself, I contradict myself-- I am large, I contain multitudes.) I’m also sure my opinions will evolve upon rewatch. Lord knows they did last time.

Is that enough disclaimer yet? OKAY. Some of my thoughts are negative! Some are positive! It’s a grab bag! Here we go!

Spoilers under the cut, pals.

IN SHORT: As an expansion on the world and the characters I adore, I pretty much loved it! As an extension of uh Big Capitalism and what it means in terms of real world ramifications... I have questions/comments/concerns!

IN LONG: I think I’ll start with what didn’t work for me and work my way around to fangirling at the end.

the meh

I feel like... part of it is that Disney has just gotten worse and power-grabbier in way more blatant ways in the last few years, and part of it is that I’m ever-more cognizant of these things. And the fine line they want to walk of “We can tell stories about progressive concepts! Princesses are woke now, actually!” without taking a single financial risk when it comes to alienating foreign markets, homophobes abroad or Nazis domestically is just a fundamentally untenable position to be in. You don’t get to retcon Elsa and Anna as being somehow less white than they clearly are and then try to tell a story about reparations in which no one actually gets reparations. You don’t get to get points for that. It’s in some ways admirable to want to try, but all you do when you’re coming at it from the position of being Disney when you tell this story is show the cracks in it.

I can see how, on a purely storytelling level, having Papa King Arendelle Agnarr be of Arendelle and Iduna be of the Northuldra and having their daughters be the bridge between the two communities is a really tempting, tidy, tie-a-bow-on-it narrative. And I also see how creating the backstory of the war and the mist neatly explains the absence of indigenous faces in the first film. But like... come on. Introducing an indigenous group like the Northuldra and then declaring that Elsa and Anna are a part of it is insulting. There’s no other way to say it. It just feels gross. I’m glad that Disney consulted with the Sámi on the movie, and I acknowledge that both real-life Sámi folks and the onscreen Northuldra come in a broad variety of skin tones and phenotypes. But even with the most generous possible reading of the choice-- that it’s well-intentioned, albeit misguided-- falls flat for me. It feels like Disney trying to have their cake and eat it too. And I don’t really see any way around that. It just... gives me tremendous pause, and it’s so core to so many of the things the movie chooses to be that it’s really disquieting and disappointing.

But then again, Disney being racist isn’t exactly news, and there’s still plenty of flaws to tackle even when we put this (massive) issue aside.

This movie is... weirdly allergic to stakes? It’s not like I wanted Elsa to stay dead, or that I expected Olaf to (more on that in a minute). But Anna’s decision to go full Thor Ragnarok and, as @theseerasures​ jokingly put it to me last night, “throw the first brick at Stonewall” and destroy Arendelle felt right. It felt appropriate to the story they were telling, and it would have had the film put its money where its mouth is re: how atoning for the sins of our forebears requires massive systemic change. So having Elsa charge to the rescue on her water-type Rapidash extremely queer steed daemon Gay Horse and save the city felt cheap. (Also, side note: is Arendelle really just... that one seaside port town and nothing else? Are there only like fifty people in Arendelle?) The citizens had already been taken to safety. The society would live on; they’d all get to rebuild. What was the point of saving the castle, just for saving the castle’s sake? To what end? I don’t see how that’s more inspiring or reassuring or worth it than watching the sisters lead their people from the ground up and starting anew. I don’t understand what they thought was worth protecting, when, again, all of the people were safe. Stories need stakes in order to have meaning! HTTYD has impact because Hiccup loses his leg in his attempt to save his dragon and his people. You know? You don’t get to just... keep everything the way it is and call that restorative justice, and the film clearly wants us to. And I don’t understand why. The only reason that makes any sense at all to me is that they thought it would scare little kids, but like. THIS COMPANY HAS PORTRAYED WAY MORE TRAUMATIZING THINGS THAN THAT. MANY TIMES.

Point in fact: Olaf’s death! Genuinely disturbing! Sad! For the most part I really liked the way it was handled, but it also felt very. Y’know. “Mister Stark, I don’t feel so good.” This is perhaps my most uncharitable nitpick, so I’ll keep it brief, but having Olaf drift away Snap-style just felt like an extremely synergistic, Disney+ nod at Infinity War instead of an organic decision. Which maybe isn’t fair, because it makes more sense for Olaf to become a flurry than for the Snap to make people dust! But nevertheless, the weird wink-and-a-nudge feeling of it totally pulled me out of what should have been an extremely poignant moment. Elsa’s revelation during “Show Yourself” felt similar--like. Not to take away from your moment, Elsa, but the call isn’t out there at all, it’s inside me was already covered by this larger canon, and in a more elegant and eloquent manner.

Which--tbh, the music overall was a bit of a letdown (though “Into the Unknown” slaps and a boyband of five joshes “Lost in the Woods” was perhaps the best sequence in the whole movie). I respect that they clearly wanted to give everyone a solo this time around in a deliberate way, but the songs felt perfunctory for the most part--describing moments instead of advancing them. This film was such a departure from how Disney normally makes sequels (mostly in a good way, actually) and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have looked like to make a version of this movie where no one sang at all. It didn’t feel cohesive.

And, though it would kill me to get rid of “Lost in the Woods” because it’s perfect... I kinda wish Anna and Kristoff had gotten engaged at the end of act 1, as I think they pretty clearly did in the first draft of this script. Their relationship drama felt like a hat on top of a hat, and they could still have addressed their codependency/insecurities while being engaged. Leaving the proposal for the end just made it an anticlimax after everyone’s been brought back from the literal dead. And it maybe would have left them with more options than having Kristoff just vanish from the narrative for the entire back half of the second act.

Also Honeymaren should have had at least two more scenes. I can’t justify this on a narrative level; the movie didn’t actually need more of her. But like. If you’re going to go out of your way to keep Elsa carefully single, and even give KRISTOFF a new boyfriend, I feel like the least you can do is let us get to know the obvious throw-us-a-bone offering a little bit better. Like. Literally. the actual least you can do.

anyway. all of that said.

the yay!

I can’t tell you how gratifying it was to me, personally to open with a flashback of the girls that demonstrates as clear as day that Elsa is an ace lesbian and Anna is bi and polyamorous. Thank you, snow action figures.

And like. Overall the way the movie tackled the sisters and their relationship was pure *chef’s kiss.* (And I think for me, the strength in this particular bullet point probably outweighs all of my complaints and concerns from above, in the end. At least from an “I still derive enjoyment from this flawed thing” standpoint, though perhaps not from an “I’d recommend this to anyone without caveats” standpoint.) THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH. THEY WERE SO THEMSELVES. I do think part of the fear of any sequel where there’s been a significant amount of time since the last one and you were so emotionally invested in it the first go-around is like... what if everyone feels OOC? What if what I saw wasn’t what was really in them after all? What if they feel like strangers? What if they let me down? And there was none of that, even for a second, with this movie. Their parallel journeys were character-appropriate and impactful. Elsa finally gets the freedom she’s always been looking for. Anna finally gets the responsibility she’s always been ready for. Anna, the caretaker, is positioned to take care of everyone. Elsa, the lesbian, runs away to the forest to hang out with beautiful powerful women. Elsa, the force of nature, is finally allowed to commune with it. The scene at their parents’ ship truly anchors the whole movie in the best possible way. And also, like... this movie showed how fucking weird Elsa is, and I feel so vindicated. SHE’S SUCH A DORK. I can’t believe I never realized that Elsa would totally choose Charmander as her starter, and the way she talked to the fire salamander was literally the most charming thing I have ever seen. “They’re staring at us, aren’t they?” GOSH. [IMDb says the salamander’s name is Bruni, and I’m very sad they never spoke it aloud.] [Someone do a rotoscope of the Tangled short where Pascal and Max almost ruin Rapunzel and Eugene’s wedding by losing the rings but it’s Bruni and Sven at Kristoff and Anna’s wedding, thank]

Anyway. All of that goes double for Olaf, because I really wasn’t sure they could pull off the miracle of him not being annoying twice. And they did! Olaf’s grappling with his burgeoning maturity was adorable and profound in equal measure, and his plot reenactments were sublime. And when he realized to Anna for the first time that he was feeling angry, that he was capable of feeling angry... what a tremendous moment. (Actually, I’ll extend what I said about the boat scene to include the Earth Giants river sequence in total, because. Again. Wow.)

And I have to say... as much as I am given real pause by their execution of the concept, “you just do the next right thing” is such beautiful (*cough* Jewish *cough*) praxis. I love that. In the broader Disney Revival canon of Tiana’s work ethic and Rapunzel’s abuse narrative and how Wreck-It Ralph talked about PTSD and all of the myriad things the first Frozen did, I might love “the next right thing” most of all. What a simple, powerful, evocative message. It’s so lovely. A perfect gem.

Also worth acknowledging that the animation was straight-up stunning. Which I expected, generally, but the water droplets in the ship? The way Elsa just loses it sobbing when she sees her mother’s face in the ice? The tender, shattered way Anna pulls Olaf in closer to her as he fades? W.O.W. And, y’know, while I stand by what I said above about stakes, I will say that the moment we first see that Elsa is experiencing cold, that Elsa is freezing? Genuinely--and please forgive the pun--genuinely chilling.

I love Gail the Gale. I love Mattias and Yelana and Ryder and Honeymaren. But mostly I just... loved the dialogue and these characters and that I got to spend a little more time with them. And I’m sure I’ll do so at least two more times before it leaves theaters.

... apparently this is over 2k words now so that seems as good a place to leave it as any. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.