Off-topic? Ha! No such thing! :)
So this is sort of an overall off-topic post for all other random things that don't quite fit the purpose of the request post.
You know, questions you'd like answered, random other bits of fluff, discussions about how thus-and-such pairing rocks way hardcore ...
So ... *claps* Get to it! Post to your Disney-loving heart's content! ♥
You know, questions you'd like answered, random other bits of fluff, discussions about how thus-and-such pairing rocks way hardcore ...
So ... *claps* Get to it! Post to your Disney-loving heart's content! ♥
To be fair, Fishlegs and Snotlout are the only ones to fit with Viking appearance standards (which is muscles, basically), whereas everyone else is skinny and tall (Snotlout's short, though, but he's still taller than me. Thor Bless the HTTYD website and Dreamworks for including height information.)
I get the feeling that by the time HTTYD2 occurs, they've been together years (probably ~5 years, given that it takes place 5 years later), and they're practically married but not really (or practically engaged but not really). I get the feeling that Stoick's putting the pressure on them to get married, though.
I'm probably roughly the desperate OTP extent with them (hell, desperate BrOTP extent with Hiccup and Toothless), and rank them roughly within the top 5 or 10, with me being able to see similarities between other OTPs (Calhoun and Felix, for one. Kim and Ron from Kim Possible for another.)
Sorry, Gobber, I guess you can't keep control over a group of teenagers whilst talking about dragon junk, lol. And then Hiccup proceeds to show everyone how exactly to check and everyone is curious and/or grossed out. Snotlout would totally be the most grossed out about checking and touching them WHERE.
Though, I get the feeling that if dragon mating actually happens on Berk, he's probably cheering Hookfang on. When he's supposed to be taking notes on the mating habits of Monstrous Nightmares for the Book of Dragons, because Hiccup asked him to.
Meanwhile, Fishlegs and Astrid have taken perfect notes on Gronckle and Deadly Nadder mating habits. And won't stop talking about it with Hiccup later on. And both are prepared to be parent figures to their dragon's offspring. And Snotlout's like, "Teacher's pets. Ugh."
And then it occurs to one of them that wow, we're super excited about dragon sex, we're a bunch of nerds.
I sort of figure Hookfang is male, but yeah, he's got babies nearby him so he could be male or female. Snotlout would be totally surprised that he has a female dragon. Maybe it explains why Hookfang doesn't listen to him because Snotlout keeps calling Hookfang a 'him'. Well, that and Snotlout's main way of communicating with him is yelling and Hookfang probably doesn't appreciate that. I do wonder that perhaps Hookfang doesn't like that he sits like middle of his neck so close to his head and holds onto his horns. I mean, he doesn't seem to give Hiccup trouble AT ALL when Hiccup rode him in GOTNF, and Hiccup seemed to sit at the end of his neck and held onto a spike. But then again, all dragons love Hiccup.
I'd love to know how long the Night Fury was showing up to help with the raids before Hiccup shot Toothless down. Was it since the beginning of the War on Dragons? Or maybe in the last ten to fifteen years? Or something in between?
It would be awesome if Hiccup got to meet Toothless's mama. And she loves him just as much as Toothless loves him. And Hiccup's just like, "It is an honor to meet you, Ma'am." and then gushes about Toothless. I mean, Toothless gets to meet Hiccup's mama in HTTYD2 and the trailers seem to indicate that he just freakin LOVES her. But then again, THAT'S HICCUP'S MOMMY I HAVE JUST MET HER AND I LOVE HER. (Apparently Toothless is Dug now, lol.)
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Stop making me want to write this fic, omg. I don't have any excuse because it's not even Disney and I have so much freaking stuff I SHOULD be working on right now. But am not, because I fail at life and keep getting distracted by other shiny prompts.
Hookfang probably wonders why he got stuck with the stupid human, but he can't swap now because who else would look after the chump? Kinda like how cats think about their humans.
(ON THAT NOTE, I accidentally a second cat, another stray, and it is the cutest thing. askjghdh I just wanted to say that.)
Say, have you seen the Talking Kitty videos on Youtube? They're hilarious; this guy films his cat and dubs it so that it looks like the cat is talking. I have serious intentions of using HTTYD clips so we have Toothless going, "Oh, fuck off" instead.
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Hookfang totally would think Snotlout's a chump. Well, Snotlout is kind of a chump, lol. But he's a precious chump.
(Congrats on your new kitty cat!)
Oh my Thor, those videos are freaking glorious. Thank you for telling me about them, because wow, so freaking funny. And I can totally see Toothless saying stuff like "Fuck off, Hiccup, gods." I dunno if you've seen the first five minutes of HTTYD2 that Yahoo Movies has posted on Youtube (it's here if you're curious), but like, basically some of the Hiccup and Toothless interaction, like, totally that. Like, it totally feels like they're seconds away from calling each other assholes in an affectionate manner. Which is probably their friendship after five years of knowing each other.
This is why I love sequels because gosh, I get to see these characters again and see how in the intervening time they've grown and yay seeing characters again. I mean, in the roughly ten years between TS2 and TS3 for example, like everyone goes from being ostensibly coworkers to to being a family.
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Seeing Hiccup older and hotter is a little... unsettling. A little bit like what happened seeing Sulley go from a generation older than me to a few years younger. *blinks*
Now my housemate is also getting into the TV series. Watching Dagur the second time round is even more unsettling because woah, Dagur is completely Mr. McRapeyface. Like, someone must have looked at the character and gone, "Creepier... creepier... yep, there. THAT is how rapey we need him to be." What the hell.
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I personally felt a bit offput by Sulley being younger mostly because of some of his behavior is so different than he is in MI. It's like, no, Sulley please don't act like a dbag you're supposed to be a sweet ball of fluff stop it.
Maybe the unsettling bit is the change in age and how you can react to him now? Instead of calling him a precious adorable baby (as he his as a teenager), you can call him a total hottie (at 20). Yeah, it is unsettling. Like, wait a minute, I knew you when you a kid.
I completely agree about Dagur. His face plus the way he acts around Hiccup, ESPECIALLY in The Night and The Fury.... total rapey vibes. Dagur, stop touching Hiccup. Stop it now. Stop calling him your brother. That's even weirder. Stop it.
And Dagur all but says that he killed his own father, too (the term he uses is "eliminated").
He's such a scary character, which is what you want from a villain. Like, he makes Eric Cartman of South Park look like a boy scout. And that is saying something.
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Sidenote: Itchy Armpit is still more imaginative than Eel Island. Toothless should name more places.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Dagur is under the impression that Hiccup is going to kill Stoick to take over the Viking tribe. Again, the Night and the Fury episode.
He only gets rapier as the seasons go on, though, damn. Going from "little girly hands" to "pucker up [... to] kiss my boots", and then that cut off sentance that ended with the word "ramming" WHERE WERE YOU GOING WITH THAT DAGUR.
It's a little disconcerting, because he starts off as a sort of ~comedy villain~ and then turns out to be the big bad of the seasons, while Alvin and Mildew get redeemed. Unexpected.
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Hiccup naming stuff after weird stuff Toothless does, omg. Twitchy Earplates, Nasty Dragon Breath, Dragon Tailslap. I'm sure that first year or two after he met Toothless, Hiccup was weirded out/mystified by all the weird stuff Toothless does, and five years on, he's like, whatever, Toothless's weird stuff ends up being the name of places. Though, itchy armpits aren't that weird, lol.
Oh, Dagur, that's so not going to happen. Hiccup'll become the Chief when his dad is ready to step down (unless Dreamworks decides to kill Stoick in one of the sequels... I suspect they would...). Though, I got the impression from Portrait of Hiccup As A Buff Man that the Berk Chiefdom is either hereditary or whoever killed the last guy. Because there's Hamish 1 and his son Hamish 2 (who didn't become chief?), and after Hamish 1 is Hiccup's grandfather. Hiccup did your grandfather kill the Hamishes?
And not only that, he's referring to him and Toothless spending quality time ramming it up, and then is interrupted. Holy fuck. Where is he going with that, indeed. Neither Hiccup or Toothless are safe from this monster, holy crap.
I mean, in the same episode, Astrid is heard saying about Snotlout that: "I'm gonna take your helmet and shove it up your..." but like... somehow pales with Dagur's comment.
It is very disconcerting, indeed.
And following A View To A Skrill, both Mildew and Alvin are absent until Cast Out, with it being assumed that Alvin is dead by Dagur's hand (though never really said outright), and Mildew is just... missing (I was sort of hoping it'd be revealed he was killed offscreen or something). And then hey, shows up again, at the Outcast Island dragon egg farm. Which I found so unsettling and I still do. Keeping a pair of WDs captive so you could plant their babies under Berk to destroy it? Holy fuck, Alvin and Mildew.
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Lololol, as I'm typing I'm back round to the first Dagur episode again. And Hiccup is all god damn, I don't want to babysit that lunatic again.
Same episode: "Dagur! I was just thinking about you!" Probably not helping, Hiccup.
Have I said recently HOW MUCH I've ended up shipping Gobber/Stoick?? Gobber just seems to be randomly at their house, you never see one without the other, in the Eel Effect Gobber is trying to kiss Stoick... and there's the one with the yak fondue? Where Gobber's like, "You know, I was just dreaming that you and I--" and Stoick is just "STOP THAT". And Gobber made Hiccup's diapers? I'm willing to expand to Gobber/Stoick/Valka OT3.
I'm guessing the 26ft is tail to snout? Toothless is long and slinky, though, unlike the Gronckles. Pretty sure the Gronckle was 14ft with an 18ft wingspan, at least in the Heather Report part one. And 3,000lb or so? While Hookfang is about 6,000lb or something, same episode? And Astrid estimates that the Whispering Death is about 27,000lb. I do not want to think about how big the Screaming Death or the Red Death must be.
They do seem to pick the names a little randomly, though. :p Like, the Whispering Death and Screaming Death made sense, because they were related. But the Red Death looks to be a totally different class of dragon (probably Stoker Class, as compared to Boulder Class?). Then again, the movie has quite a different set-up from in the books.
Well, someone (Gobber?) comments that "You're one of few who hasn't been killed by his successor" so... yeah. Hiccup's grandfather probably killed the Hamishes.
Oh man, the Skrill. That thing was so badass. I want a Skrill. I WANT ELSA ON A SKRILL. Can that be a thing now? Like, I'm wondering if I can get Elsa from "Oh like hell I'm going on that thing" through to taming a Skrill.
(Also, Dagur is like, "A Night Fury? They do exist!" So they seem to have been around a while, but Toothless is the last/only/only one around?)
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Hiccup, come on, don't tell him that. And then in The Night and The Fury when Hiccup learns that Dagur couldn't stop thinking about him, Hiccup is like, I'm flattered. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE SNARKY, HICCUP.
I totally ship Gobber/Stoick. And OT3 Gobber/Stoick/Valka. And like you note, especially in Riders, he just seems to be randomly at the Haddock house, like practically living with them. And I just love that. Gosh, especially in When Lightning Strikes. (And he says he loves Toothless and calls Toothless 'old friend' in that episode, too, aww.) And Stoick even says in Viking For Hire that Gobber is like family and Hiccup agrees, and Hiccup thinks so highly of him ("good men... one of the best.")
Gosh, I really love Gobber and his relationship with the Haddock family. Hiccup may have been without a mother, but he had two dads. And according to spoiler information from when the first hour of HTTYD2 was shown at WonderCon, Gobber is treated as part of the family, which makes me happy because well, Gobber is part of the family. And apparently offers to do the cooking instead of Valka. And gosh, I loved that moment where apparently Gobber was dreaming about him and Stoick and yak butter. And their super awkward moment when Gobber is fucking around with Hiccup's shield (I seriously love Hiccup's shield, omg) and he accidentally reels Stoick in.
I totally want a fic where Hiccup is super supportive of his dad having a romantic relationship with Gobber.
I am totally convinced that Gobber probably changed Hiccup's diapers, too. And I am still in love with that moment in Cast Out part 2 where comes into the Haddock house to talk with Hiccup about chiefing. Like, it's so great because he's trying to comfort Hiccup (who's so weary and just having Chains of Commanding like whoa), and one of the things he does is gives Toothless a fish. Gobber taking care of the Haddocks. <3
Tail to snout certainly makes sense, given his long length and slinkiness. And even when he stands straight on all fours, he seems shorter than Hiccup. I think Fishlegs gives Meatlug's weight as around 5700 pounds. And Snotlout doesn't seem to know exactly how much Hookfang weighs. Because in Heather Report, he says 5000 pounds, but in Thawfest, when he's yelling at Hookfang, he says 6000 pounds. Probably somewhere around 5 or 6 thousand pounds. Hookfang is pretty big. Actually, Astrid's estimate of the WD was 2500lbs. And gosh, yeah, both Screaming Death and the Red Death must be even bigger than that. One Kaiju in Pacific Rim (which kinda are like the Red Death, one even had wings), for example, weighed 2500 tons (5 MILLION pounds), and there are bigger. Yikes.
I suppose they just pick whatever sounds best at the time? I mean, the kids came up with Typhoomerang for Torch. (It was better than Snotlout's ideas, at least, sit down Snotlout.)
Elsa on a Skrill would be pretty cool. They could have iced lightning or something. Is that possible, icy lightning? She'd make it possible. XD
I'd love to know how long they think that Night Furies had been attacking Berk in the raids pre-movie and if it was just Toothless. It sounded like Night Furies attacking had been happening for a while. And no one had killed one, so is it the same Night Fury (Toothless) or were Toothless's forebears also attacking at some point? It's sort of like Night Furies given how stealthy they are were sort of a legend. No one had actually seen one before Hiccup, so they weren't sure if it existed or not.
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Toothless isn't quite snake-slinky, but I wouldn't be surprised if dragons in that world have some adaptations in common with birds or pterosaurs. So something around the half a ton mark sounds right.
(I struggle with ton/tonne measurements sometimes. The UK still has this odd blend of kilos and pounds which does not help matters at all.)
I should probably stop trying to apply science to dragons. But then the series does something like have Meatlug turn sandstone into glass, which is absolutely right, before turning around and having the boneknapper dragon running about. I don't even know any more where it stands in the science-magic continuum. Though I shouldn't complain when I do stuff like A Good Woman Is Hard To Find. Science-fantasy, let's roll with it.
It did occur to me that one could probably make a good argument for HTTYD taking place in the same sort of post-apocalyptic setting as Aladdin has been said to be in. It would, at least, explain a lot of the anachronisms...
Oh, Gobber. You are such a mummy sometimes. And I am so glad to hear that he's still around a lot in the sequel. I sort-of shipped it when I watched the first one, with the whole "I can double that time" bit at the end, but the TV series just cemented it.
My housemate voices her concern about what Dagur is thinking of doing to Toothless. I was equally concerned, until I realised that if he tries anything he's just likely to get flambéd or removed genitals. Which will at least mean that he can't breed.
Oh gooood how bad of a team-up would Dagur and Hans be.
Sadly, pure water doesn't conduct electricity, and neither does pure ice. I'm not sure how impure ice would work though, struggling to research that. But if not, it just means that you've got two weapons going around together. Or we could just put Elsa on the flightmare and let all the 'Freeze!' jokes from the twins start rollllling in.
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Yeah, I can certainly see dragons having adaptations with in common with pterosaurs and birds. It makes sense. Or maybe dragons evolved from pterosaurs. I mean, birds evolved from dinosaurs. And Pterosaurs and dinosaurs did share a common ancestor. So, perhaps, the two modern-day descendents (in the HTTYD world) of that common ancestor and it’s subsequent divergent, are birds (dinosaurs) and dragons (pterosaurs).
This magic science talk just makes me think of the Thor films (there’s a whole argument where they discuss science and magic and Darcy brings up Vikings), here’s the quote. But, I can totally dig science-fantasy. Works for me. Science-fiction/fantasy. Easier than worrying about the possible magic stuff that might be happening in this series. I’m glad they took out the idea, where in one version of the film, Gothi was more of a mage who had a prophecy that Hiccup would bring balance to the Force would have to be the one to destroy Voldemort would be involved with peace between dragons and Vikings, or something like that.
In Cast Out Part 2, when Toothless and Hiccup have been captured, and Dagur stands in front of Toothless in his cage, and pulls out his sword and says “You will respect me.” and then says something about wearing him as a hat, holy fuck. Like, something about him taking out his sword and saying that he’ll make Toothless respect him is so scary. It’s very chilling. But, yeah, at least he might get eaten or burned up (or even crushed).
I really love how much of a genuine threat the villains are. I mean, in Alvin’s first appearance in Alvin and the Outcasts, he throws Fishlegs off a cliff into the water below and grabs Astrid’s hair (and the way he does it is so creepy and scary and just, wow, I believe she is in danger).
Oh God, Dagur and Hans would be the worst. Good thing they’re separated by several centuries. Unless Dagur is one of Hans’ ancestors or something. Which would be even worse. I have so many headcanons where characters from different fandoms are related. Oh cracky ideas. Keep Hans away from dragons because I’m sure he’d probably think they’re monsters to kill, too.
Ooh, the Flightmare is an excellent one, because they could work in tandem with the paralyzing mist and her ice powers. And Elsa having to deal with stupid jokes from the twins. Come on you two, stop that.
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Squinting one eye and tilting my head a bit, I'm guessing that dragons are sort of a class of creatures like 'primates' would be. Like, at about the Order level. So an extra branch of reptiles, essentially, probably a branch that survived the K/T extinction at 65mya and carried on gleefully through time.
The one thing that frustrates me is the varying number of limbs. I've ranted about this before with regards to Monsters Inc and U. Like, speed stingers or deadly nadders or even monstrous nightmares make sense, because they're still quadrupeds. And it's reasonable to lose sets of limbs, like the timberjack. But sorry, Toothless, you have six limbs and that is too many. There must have been some sort of mutation that let dragons end up with extra pairs of limbs, up to the extreme that is the Fireworm with ten limbs.
The thing that really gets me about Dagur is how much they got away with it. Like, if he was behaving like that towards Astrid, it would be blatantly rapey (and he would probably get his face caved in, because Astrid, but still) but I suppose they're sneaking it in under the double-standard with Hiccup. Whereas with Alvin, even when he was being violently threatening to Astrid, Hiccup and the others, he never struck me as sexually threatening to any of them. Even when he was manhandling 'Heather'. Which was oddly refreshing.
I can imagine Elsa seeing the Bewilderbeast and just going, "Fuck it, I can take a break now". Although fighting against a Bewilderbeast would make her useful. Just stand there and melt the blasts.
...Damn, that would be cool to see. Valka and Elsa would probably get on as well.
Okay, okay. Trying to weave together a longer-term plot for this bloody thing. A meeting is planned between Arendelle and Berk. Anna is among the delegates... she may still be a princess? (I haven't decided that yet. Arghhhh if I kill off Elsa's parents then this would be the first time she finds out.)
Anyhow, they go to the meeting, and Hiccup smuggles Elsa in as well. She sees Anna again, cute reunion, whatever. Probably even handles the fact that Anna and Hans are engaged, because she doesn't know the short engagement time. But then she finds out about her parents, and pretty much loses it, exposes herself and runs, dropping all of Arendelle/Berk into extreme cold.
Hiccup is probably like... eh, I'll put an extra pair of socks on. We get worse on the North coast.
So sorry, Kristoff, you're probably not appearing. Anna and Hiccup go to follow Elsa, eventually reach a point they can't cross (no ice staircase), and Hiccup gets Toothless instead. They're trying to persuade her to come home, and Anna says Hans's name again, and Hiccup is the one who recognises the name and is like, "I've heard of that guy. Didn't he get banished from his kingdom for trying to kill his father?!" and that's the ohshit moment that sends them running back.
And beyond that, I DON'T KNOW. But that is one idea, at least.
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And then it's sort of like with lions and tigers (part of all same classifications until you get down to species level). The species/breed thing tends to get me, because I just look at dogs and I'm like, all these different breeds of dogs are part of the same subspecies, Canis lupus familiaris and they can look wildly different appearance-wise while still being a dog (like dragons). The different types of dragons being different breeds of dragons rather than species makes more sense to me.
And plus, their official website says that the Hotburple is related to Gronckles, but a different breed of Boulder Class dragon. What. I think the class system for the different types of dragons is probably their wording for "Family" going with scientific classifications, and then the various dragons of the Boulder Class are different species. So, like Hotburples are a Subspecies of Gronckles? Like, Screaming Death is a subspecies/mutation of Whispering Death? This is so fascinating and so confusing.
Wait, how do you get six limbs with Toothless? I count four legs. Are you counting wings? He has two tailfins, those two middle fins that are just there, and then the two wings. With wings/fins, it's 6.
The only time I got sort of rapeyvibes from Alvin was probably his "I take what I want!" comment. But then again, Snotlout also says something similar in Gem of a Different Color, where he's like, "When Snotlout wants something, he takes it." But perhaps those comments are more along the lines of GREED. Perhaps why they didn't have rapeyvibes with Dagur towards Astrid was because she already is sort of dealing with sexual harassment from Snotlout like half the time they're on screen together. Stop it, Snotlout. You're supposed to be one of the good guys, stop acting like that, it's gross. Though, he definitely does not like it when Astrid pulls the same shit on him in Free Scauldy (and Ruff gets a beautiful haircut that lasts that episode). And, I think the only time I got rapeyvibes with Dagur towards Astrid was in The Flight Stuff when he gets this creepy smile when he finds out the rider is the girl, but that could be more because he knows if she's nearby, then Hiccup is nearby.
ETA: Also, it really struck me how Hiccup is literally preparing his friends for the possibility that Alvin may torture them for information (see Live and Let Fly). These are children! Like, holy fuck, that is horrifying to think about. And hell, these are child soldiers.
Ooh, Elsa and Valka getting on well, that would be cool to see. As well as Elsa just being one with the Bewilderbeast and also fighting against a Bewilderbeast. There are going to be 2 in the sequel. One is Valka's and the other is Drago's.
Oooh, meetings always work. And, hah, Hiccup just is totally chill (pun intended) about cold weather.
Ooh, yeah, no Kristoff, but his role sort of merging with Hiccup's. (Hah, so Toothless is Sven in a way. Congrats Toothless, you're also a reindeer, in addition to being wildly catlike.). Or flying back, because after all, they got a dragon.
And in response to this comment:
I even want a Night Fury! Though, I'm sure if I ever actually met Toothless (not likely, but I can dream!), I'd probably cry or something.
Hiccup is 15 in the first film, yeah. And probably mid-way through puberty at this point, but still has growth spurts to go through, I would guess (and gosh, that must be so difficult for him, especially with a prosthetic, and having to adjust it). Maybe have Elsa be 17-18? So she's right on the cusp of adulthood, and then Anna can be maybe 15, like Hiccup as well. Maybe Anna is 15 but is closer to 16. Like, she's a month away from her 16th?
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Personally, I still sort of lean towards them being different species, but I think that you can sway it either way. Like, all of Meatlug's eggs turn out to be gronckles as well, and all of the whispering death's eggs seem to be WD's, apart from the one screaming death mutation. And I just get these horrifying mental images of a Terrible Terror trying to mate with the Red Death and just humping its ankle or something. Although, to be fair, they probably would.
Sorry, when I say limbs I'm including wings. All vertebrates alive on Earth today come from the same four-limbed structure; it's just that some have adapted their limbs (from legs into wings or fins, for example) and some have lost them altogether. But the natural maximum is four, and if you want wings then you have to swap them for legs, as it were. So Toothless has four legs and two wings, which adds up to six limbs altogether. His wings actually look about level with his front legs, which would mean that he has four joints on that girdle, maybe? Or it could be two separate structures. But I am now rambling about osteology again and shut up, afterandalasia.
Astrid winding up Snotlout in Free Scauldy was hands-down one of the funniest scenes in the series for me. Because Snotlout freaks out not just at the whole ~omg let's be a couple~ thing, but at the fact that his 'flirting' (he probably thinks that it's flirting) has actually worked and that's never happened before and he has no idea what to do next. I do find it hilarious that by HTTYD2 he's apparently swapped to Ruffnut as the object of his affection (even funnier when you remember that moment in the TV series where he can't tell if Tuffnut is the guy or the girl).
But you're right, Dagur did seem to be getting his rapey on again. I think his train of thought was more that Hiccup must be nearby, because Hiccup wouldn't let any of the others go out solo, but yeah, even in context... pretty bad.
Then again, Alvin got his own moment of rapey right at the end of Cast Out Part II, when he practically leers at Dagur at says "you're mine" or something along those lines. Buuuuut it felt pretty justified by that point because Dagur and his Wall Of Stalkery (as described by my housemate) and consistent rapeyness pretty well deserved it.
Toothless is so perfect, omg. In looks and personality and everything. Like, so much of the time he's this giant pussycat, but he's inquisitive and protective and he's got a badass streak a mile wide. Of the other types of dragon, I'd probably go for the Deadly Nadder. I might have a bit of an adrenaline junkie in me, I suppose.
15yo Hiccup, 15-nearly-16 Anna and 18yo Elsa would work, yeah. I mean, in some ways Elsa would act younger than 18 because she's been so isolated, but on the other hand she basically had to look after herself from when she was 8. There are some other wildlings out there, but they're pretty rare; I guess maybe if some of them actually don't have magic, and people just thought that they did, and the ones without magic sort of banded together into little communities. Elsa would have spent some time with them, but when they found out she had magic they threw her out again. So by the time that she hit her teens and her powers really kicked in, she ended up striking out alone. So yeah, in some ways she's definitely an adult and quite capable of looking after herself physically, but she's probably younger than her age in terms of actually interacting with people. So it would take time for her to develop that, and Hiccup and later Anna would definitely be the sort who'd support her through that, because they're both sweeties.
Hans, you're definitely still a creeper for going after a fifteen year old.
But then again, depending on the era (pfft, who needs stable timelines anyway) that... might be adult. Young adult, sure, but more like eighteen or nineteen would be in our culture. In HTTYD they're prepping them to fight dragons, and Hiccup has already been apprenticed to Gobber for some years. So yeah, it's pretty nasty, but that sort of is Viking adulthood.
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I sort of figure that as a whole Sharpshot and Toothless get along MUCH better than Toothless and Torch ever did or ever will. I can picture Toothless and Sharpshot cuddling up next to each other and sleeping. I wanna know Stoick's reaction to finding out Hiccup got another dragon. Probably mildly annoyed/resigned.
Ah, I see. And given Toothless's unique structure, it certainly would be interesting to see what his skeletal structure looks like. Would give insight into his anatomy.
And when he shows up on the island, he's just like, "I don't understand women" to Hiccup. Oh, you poor baby, Snotlout. Personally, with Ruffnut's triangle-esque thing going on, I'm hoping that it ends up with a poly relationship where Ruff ends up with Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Eret (depending on his behavior through the film). That's what I want. But that probably won't happen, but I can dream.
I do love that Astrid and Snotlout have this brotp relationship that seems basically: "I'm gonna do the thing." "Don't do the thing." "I'm still gonna do it."
And then Dagur's never to be seen again with no explanation of what happened to him after Alvin grabs him and Dagur's like, "Brother!" to Hiccup. I'm kinda hoping Alvin killed him. Totally justifiable.
Oooh, I like that. Elsa being socially younger than her actual age due to her isolation. And I like that Hiccup and Anna would help her out on that level. Hiccup's a sweetie and Anna'a super suppportive.
Good point. Astrid's comment in HTTYD about "Our parent's war is about to become ours." is especially telling. I mean, in modern day USA (to use my own frame of reference), Hiccup and his friends being 14-15 years old, would be High School freshmen/9th grade, still figuring out stuff, not even applying universities yet. They'd be several years away from adulthood. However, in the world of HTTYD, they're practically on the cusp of adulthood, about to go to war, and like you said, Hiccup already is involved in a trade.
Though, Stoick does make a comment in How To Start A Dragon Academy that Hiccup is not yet a man. It kinda peeves me a bit because Stoick, your teenage son has already been in a battle/war, in which he lost part of his leg. I mean, it's a great scene/quote, but Stoick, come on now.
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Oh lord, Terrible Terrors would just hump everything. Including Snotlout, which would have Astrid laughing too hard to be of much actual help to Hiccup. And Fishlegs tries to help but gets flustered, and the twins are just trying to throw sex-crazed terrors at each other, because that's their sense of humour. But yes, I think Sharpshot & Toothless got on a looooot better than Torch, not least because they already know plenty about terrors so Hiccup isn't getting distracted by the shiny new dragon. Plus Toothless clearly new that Toothless's mother was going to come after him.
Astrid & Snotlout are funny, once they get themselves straightened out. Actually, it's A Tale of Two Dragons where they start getting their teamwork on, right? So Free Scauldy probably really was the beginning of the end for Snotlout's crush.
(To be fair, I have a character in one of my novels who is like that. Flirts with everyone, wouldn't really know what to do with himself if it worked. Also has the sense of humour of an eight-year-old and an inflatable alligator which gets involved in a lot of pranks. But that's a digression.)
I think part of Stoick's words might have just been wishful thinking... he probably doesn't want to admit that his son is basically an adult, because no parent does. And I'd guess as well that killing your first dragon was pretty much the rite of passage to adulthood, and without that they're not really sure what to do. Still not the best thing for Stoick to have said, though kinda in-character. Hiccup isn't what he expected in a son, so he's not quite sure what to do with him.
The demographics of Berk are another thing that bug me. For an isolated unit of that size to be genetically stable, you'd expect 500+ individuals (that's one of the reasons that Çatalhöyük was so important; it was the first time in human existence that a single settlement had been a viable unit), but in pre-industrial societies with high infant mortality, up to half of the population should have been 15 or under (250 kids, with a sort of pyramidal structure of age there as well). Yet somehow we only see a few small kids around, and nobody even close to Hiccup & co. in age. That's almost certainly a matter of production costs, though - it's much easier to just change the colours on a dragon to get a new one for crowd scenes! Notably, at the end of Gift of the Night Fury, the crowd seems to have a lot more kids among it, so there's that.
When Stoick and Gobber talk about "the next bunch of recruits" they don't specify a time frame, though, and I think that if you have them going through in six month batches then 6-7 at a time would actually work out. Suppose that stops you from having to wrangle too many teenagers at once as well. *snorts*
Hurstwic.org is absolutely AMAZING and my number one go-to place for Viking information right now (since I graduated, I don't have access to the academic stuff I used to). That link goes to the demographics page, which pretty much agrees with what I know generally and what I've read about Viking bone collections. There's some stuff on there about becoming adults that actually kinda shocked me, though:
"The age of majority is not clearly defined, but by the time a boy was 16 years old, he was expected to take on all the roles of an adult male in Viking society. Even younger children took on some adult responsibilities. In order to qualify to be a judge in court, a man need be only 12 years old. Although children were excused from attacks and battles and permitted to leave before a fight began, some young children initiated lethal revenge attacks. Notably, Helgi and Bergr were twelve and ten years old when they killed Þorkell Súrsson to avenge their father's death, as is told in chapter 28 of Gísla saga."
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