#httyd cloudjumper

i feel like i’ve been making a bunch of small posts and reblogs defending valka so i think it’s time to just combine it all into one big rant, so here we go.

first, we need to stop acting like hiccup and valka are the same person.

the fact that hiccup is so similar and yet so different from valka is really important. a lot of people overlook that and act like he’s exactly like her and the exact opposite of stoick when it’s much more complex than that.

people blame valka for leaving but if you think about it you see that even if she stayed she would not have been able to do what hiccup did. she didn’t create peace with the dragons, she became one of them. she didn’t even believe hiccup when he told her that berk had changed because she didn’t think people could change, which actually was valid because hiccup almost left too for the same reason. astrid was the one who showed him that it was possible for people to change (see this post). valka thought that her and hiccup were just born different and that normal people just wouldn’t understand. and she’s right about that to an extent, she and hiccup are special and there isn’t anyone else that we know of that can quite understand their bond with the dragons or would’ve ever come to that realization on their own, but she’s very extreme about it. she still thought that there were clear sides to this war, and she chose the dragons’ side. hiccup was the only one who thought that humans and dragons really could coexist. he’s the bridge. he has traits from both of his parents that make him the only one who would’ve ever been able to pull that off, because valka said it herself, he has the heart of a chief and the soul of a dragon.

second, if she had come back, there was still nothing she could’ve done.

if she had come back with cloudjumper, they only would’ve treated her like they treated hiccup after his first attempt to show them how dragons really are, which would be to take her dragon away and see her as nothing but a traitor. let me remind you that the only person they saw, before her and hiccup, try to “train” a dragon was drago, and we all know how that ended. she only would’ve been leading cloudjumper to his death. she had already been trying to stop the fighting, and even stoick never listened to her, so what makes yall think her coming back would’ve made any difference?

what would she even have said? “oh hi stoick, remember the dragon that burned our house down almost causing both us and our baby to die and then carried me away to who-knows-where? well he’s actually my best friend now and i brought him back to the village putting all of our people in danger again. anyway please stop killing the dragons when they attack and let them burn our village to the ground. i think that will fix everything.” you’ve got to be joking.

(also he was completely valid for having the view of dragons that he did and not listening to either her or hiccup when they tried to tell him differently, see my stoick defense post).

she didn’t even have a plan to stop the fighting, she didn’t know enough. hiccup didn’t have any plan either until he saw the nest, and even then he didn’t even know what to do about it yet. it wasn’t until he had no other option that he saw that killing the red death was the solution. she didn’t know that the red death was the reason the dragons were attacking, and she never shows any sign of knowing by the time he finds her in httyd 2 either. her only plan was “stop killing them,” and the other berkians were right to think she was crazy for that, because why the heck would that make things better? what were they supposed to say to that? “oh wow, we never thought of that, valka! you’re right, let’s just let them kill us all and steal all of our food. great idea!” give me a break.

third, valka was right to think that her staying would’ve just made things worse for hiccup in the end, because it’s true

let’s pretend she did come back, and just didn’t tell everyone about the dragons. let’s say she pretended she just got lucky and didn’t get eaten this time, and just lived how she would’ve if she hadn’t been taken, because that’s literally what everyone seems to be saying that she should’ve done.

now she’s raising hiccup, not to be a dragon killer, but to be himself. hiccup wanted to kill dragons because he was raised to. he wanted to fit in and gain everyone’s respect. he never actually hated the dragons like everyone else did, he was afraid of them and wanted to kill them both for his own protection and for his reputation’s sake. he could’ve easily just stayed in the forge and let everyone else do the fighting like stoick and gobber wanted him to, we see this at the very beginning of the movie, but he wasn’t okay with that. he wanted to be like everyone else. however, if valka was there to encourage him to be himself and play to his strengths, he wouldn’t have wanted to change himself so much.

could this have caused him to stay out of the fight, untimely preventing him from shooting toothless down? you can be the judge of that, but i believe the answer is yes. i believe that if she was there, he would not have been so passionate about becoming a dragon killer and seeking glory. and if he hadn’t met toothless, then he would’ve never found the nest and stopped the war. so if you think about it, her presence in hiccup’s life would’ve done much more harm than good.

and finally, yall can’t blame her for stoick’s death not having has much of a visible effect on her as everyone else because she had already been mourning their relationship for the past 20 years.