My weekly inktober had dragon as a prompt

We're often so focused on Toothless' stealth that we miss out on just how good a hideous zippleback is at being stealthy, whether it's Barf and Belch or a random one.

In the first movie, the stealth and sneakiness was introduced to be among the main qualities of this dragon during the arena training Gobber was conducting and I recall Fishlegs mentioning "Plus eleven stealth times two" when he got to the Hideous Zippleback.

Now, in the cartoon series, this very fact is shown quite clearly without ever outright mentioning it.

Notice how most of the time Barf and Belch are out of sight and we can sort of hear them chittering and growling but it's impossible to discern where their sounds are coming from. Because the spot we expect the sound to be coming from is often empty. This will take careful notice in the rewatches.

The more obvious cases which are easy to recall I am listing below:

First from very first movie. You all remember the arena scene and just how sneaky those two are. Besides that, remember the Dragon's Nest scene when Toothless was caught into the call while flying Hiccup and Astrid? There was a Zippleback that flew right next to them, it looked at them too and I remember it was the least easy to notice because it hadn't shown up loudly like the monstrous nightmares and nadder and wasn't heard as loudly like the gronckles . The rest of the acclimating dragons were pretty easy to hear and sense, not that zippleback till it quite literally flew next to them (there was another in the bg on their right side which was even more silent).

In the Twinsanity episode, all dragons were herded off the island to keep them hidden and safe while the Berserkers were visiting. Except Barf and Belch who were roaming free and out of supervision. But they were so good at hiding that despite running around all over the village, Dagur or his entarouge didn't even notice the dragon, they were good at not being noticed. Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless managed to keep the dragon out of Dagur's attention completely until they barged into the Great Hall themselves.

Then later, in episode 4 of DoB, I remember Tuffnut accidentally waking a wild zippleback. But that dragon was so silent that Tuffnut at first confused it for Barf and Belch. And then later confused his own dragon for a wild zippleback.

Then in A View to a Skrill pt.2, when Hiccup went out searching for tha twins and ended up on Outcast Island where he found that Alvin and Dagur had the Skrill, he didn't even notice that the twins were right next to him. Including Barf and Belch. Nobody saw these four till the outright jumped into the script.

Next, The Zippleback Experience. This entire episode is incredible in displaying the Zippleback's stealth. Barf and Belch were shadowing Hiccup and Toothless the entire episode without revealing themselves till last moment of each shenanigan. They managed to fill up his hut with fish with no one the visor, were always there but unseen, and managed to tail Hiccup while remaining hidden from him and then also followed him to rescue him when he got caught, again while remaining hidden from the kidnappers. All with the stealth skills attributed to it's species.

Hookfang's movements are loud, Stormfly spines getting raised amd her squawks are distinct and reveal her movements, Meatlugs hovering can be heard from anywhere. Even Toothless has his signature night fury screech when he dives and that lovely plasma load-up sound, even while night fury is among the stealthiest of dragons. Barf and Belch however? They make no noise in their movement unless they wanna explode stuff. Their heads are always slithering but you cannot hear them. And even when you do hear their light dragon sounds when they speak, it's impossible to pinpoint their location.

There's probably more such little moments scattered throughout but these are the ones I could recall at the top of my head.

Just a little doodle I made in like just under an hour,,, i think? That's what it felt like, at least. Went straight in with inking I have no patience for graphite, amen