The Regency Viking

Who the fuck would interrupt the chief’s wedding?

I mean, besides Drago. And Dagur. And Possibly Alvin. And maybe the Red Death’s twin sister, Strawberry Death.

Excellinor.

HTTYD3—Excellinor on the scene, bitches.  That’s what I want.

I was starting with jokes, but now it’s serious shit.

Can't see Alvin interrupting, not now he's semi-reformed and  un-Treacherous, according to the TV show. What I can see is him and Gobber getting rat-arsed drunk at the batchelor party and somehow managing to lose Hiccup. Cue a 45 minute sequence of them chasing all over the Archipelago on dragonback, retracing their drunken antics frantically trying to find the boy before Miss Hofferson chops off their bits. A sort of The Viking Hangover, you know?

It asks the age old question of what would happen if aliens decided not to invade Washington DC, or New York, but instead decided to crash on a gang-ridden, poverty stricken council estate in south London?  No US Miliatary, no grizzled heroes, no giant robots to fight them with. Just a bunch of very annoyed teenagers, a nurse, a pot farm and a Supersoaker.

And I like little tiny floaty summer dresses and I live in Scotland. You wanna swap countries?

YES

A HUNDRED TIMES YES

Young Timberjacks trying to get into the air fir the first time.

I think Eret, prior to the whirlwind transformation in HtTYD2, adopted his big-talk attitude mostly to make himself believe his own boasts. He is, deep down, a pretty chill guy. It is hard to make him actually, really dedicated to something, because despite his commanding voice and posture, he is a follower, not a leader. He adapts himself to whatever trend will benefit him most. He can do a lot of difficult things (fight, trap dragons, etc.) so he hires out his talents to powerful men (like Drago) who can pay him big and keep his livelihood afloat. In order to keep his own well being at the forefront of his actions, he talks big and wholeheartedly about his alliances and beliefs, even if he doesn’t actually believe them, because he wants himself to believe them, because he either wants to or needs to reap in the benefits. He eats his own lies as a matter of habit, and doesn’t think twice about it.

Now I know they never said this, but from the moment I saw his design, I thought that Eret was from the Northern Wanderer tribe from the books. He and his men all have that feel to their designs. And in the books at least, they are a very persecuted tribe, hunted as slaves and the like. So maybe Eret hasn’t got much family thanks to the vikings, and he basically adopted a ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ mentality by making himself a mercenary. His moral center has taken a beating from the decisions he’s made, but deep down he’s not really, really dedicated in any particular direction of life except what seems best for him. And that is a very delicate facade to keep up, so that’s why he became so eager to change in HtTYD2.

That being said, this isn’t just about Drago, it is a two way road. I think Eret had a lot of trouble adapting to his new life post-HtTYD2. Because Berk isn’t hiring him for trapping or fighting or even fishing, they just want to show him how amazing dragons are, they want to help him out. He’s never been put in that position before, so now he is truly getting to wrestle with his actual alliances and beliefs, rather than changing them depending on the mood of whether he’ll live or die. He finds it hard to lie to Hiccup because the young chief is so earnest, and can’t seem to do anything to impress Astrid’s high standards of dragon-training. He can’t do anything but be grateful to Stormfly, and respectful toward Skullcrusher. He just does not have a choice in what he chooses to present himself. For the first time in a very, very long time, his moral center is being challenged by the fact that he doesn’t have any reason to be dishonest on Berk, and that’s confusing. But, in the long run, it is, of course, better.

And it is pretty much what I was feeling about him, set out far more articulately than I could; especially the bit about the moral centre being challenged (I see a bit of Flynn Rider from Tangled in Eret, with the amusing twist that the "Rapunzel" who renews his faith in the world and sets his feet on the path to morality is in fact a twelve feet tall, highly excitable dragon who likes to play fetch. Oh Dreamworks...)

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed that. OMG YES! Can you imagine? He nearly knocks down the mead hall trying to snuggle with his mummy, and Hiccup is so mortified because he didn’t know it would be this bad and chief or not, he knows he’ll be sorry for a thousand years if he lets his mother learn he drugged the king of the dragons.

BUT CAN I JUST SAY

I NEED A BABY BEWILDERBEAST WITH VALKA RIGHT NOW. Like, I don’t think bewilderbeasts can fly, so I just have this image of a pudgy, grumpy, ground-bound baby bewilderbeast with little nubs for tusks and baby teeth riding around in Valka’s hood, trying to freeze her braids to prove that yes, he is big enough to handle himself, and no, he doesn’t need Valka to baby him all the time.

And then Valka tickle fights with him, and he giggles and flops around breathing tiny icicles everywhere.

But in the meantime, oh, I want a baby Bewilderbeast. It'd be so small and puffy and marshmallowy and squeezable.

Or while Else sits in her chill palace of ice and contemplates her abilites, Gobber sits in a corner, sarcastically pointing out that while she made 14 ice-chandeliers and three ballrooms, she forgot to include any toilets in her marvellous new home.

HE YELLED AT IT

SOME GOOD ‘OL BOOK TRAINING

Actually, I’ve had some loose theories on the powers of humans.  Of our minds and voices against dragon.  It’s like Drago said… “Power of Will”.  Humans have great will power, if nothing else. (We were kinda shorted on the physical attributes… mental is where we thrive).

Hiccup and his mama projected curiosity, gentleness, a willingness to engage, and they got those beautiful traits right back at them from the dragons. Drago projected fear, danger, a consuming will to dominate, and that’s the dragon he got. (That poor, poor alpha dragon, my heart breaks for it; raised by a man incapable of anything but hate, no wonder it lashed out)

I have just left the cinema and there were at least ten families with small children and their daddies just sitting there, staring and twitching and looking really quite traumatised.