Iâm rewatching Dragons: Riders-Defenders of Berk/Race to the Edge (the tv to streaming series for How to Train Your Dragon) and knowing the twist with Trader Johann in Race to the Edge, I really wouldnât be surprised if it happened because of the way he was treated by the Berkians.
The showâs been over for years now, but if anyone wants to watch it online somewhere and doesnât want spoilers, donât read under the cut.
(This is him, by the way. For those that are curious or donât know)
The twist I refer to is Johann being revealed as a twist villain. The events of Riders/Defenders of Berk donât support this twist at all if he was already one, except maybe the episode âSmoke Gets in Your Eyesâ where a bunch of Smothering Smokebreath dragons get onto Berk through Johann carrying scrap metal from their home habitat which the Berkians trade for.
But that was only one event that could have supported him being a villain the whole time. But I donât think he was, because I learned a bit ago that Race to the Edge was meant to end on the episode where Viggo jumps into the volcano to get his hands on the Dragon Eye (a tool in that series that they use to learn more about dragons from previously documented study by who invented the thing, and which the villains want so they can track down the location of the King of Dragons: the Bewilderbeast)
Viggo was meant to be the Big Bad and that was meant to be his final moments. But the show was so popular with fans they kept it going even after that, having Viggo survive and later have a redemption ending in death cliche happen to him. (Donât get me wrong, loved the redemption. But killing off the character right after his redemption is so lazyâŚit only made sense here because Viggo would have been too powerful an ally to the Riders if he had lived. The show would have ended way too easily.)
Anyway, after that, Johann was revealed to be working with the villains and that brings me back to my point. Trader Johan being a villain was such a strange twist. Not anger-inducing or shockingâŚjust strange. It seemed like something they just wrote in last-minute. Which they most likely did.
That asideâŚas I was saying, I really donât blame him for turning sides though. The way the Riders treated him in the earlier episodes, he was perfectly justified to switch alliances. lol I say this as a joke, but Iâm also serious. Maybe if they were nicer to him he would have remained loyal to them.
Think about it: The man spends most of his time on a boat alone at sea, no one to talk to. He stops at markets to get more goods to trade for, but most of his time is spent slowly sailing from island to island since he never took up dragon riding. Every time he came to Berk, most of the kids then proceed to be nuisances and pests. The adults are more respectful, yes, but they werenât big on chatting and were straight to the point.
So yeah, I donât blame Johann for joining the villains (thatâs how I see it. Him having been one all along is just too farfetched from a narrative standpoint and a planning one. You have to give more hints than they do for it to be believed as being planned all along.) The riders didnât do anything (except for Hiccup) to make him think dragon riding is better or more profitable.
Though if he had warmed to it, I could see a scauldron being a good sea companion for him. It could pull his boat along much faster if he likes that more, and it would be good protection from other ocean dragons.
âŚthis just turned into a ârandom thoughts about Trader Johannâ post. lol Iâll stop here, but I might come back to this last point about the scauldronâŚ
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Ngl Trader Johan was one of my favorite characters The How to train your dragon series introduced, every appearance was a delight and 14 year old me would have been absolutely devastated at the twist.
I've been hooked to the movies/this show ever since the first movie and later on when seeing the first episode of dragons: riders of berk and couldn't wait even more for the third movie.
Although will be 9 years since the first movie came out when the third one will be aired the chemistry is still there. Httyd series and films will always have me hooked. That's probably why I spent so many hours playing the games based of httyd and writing+reading fanfiction in the same universe.
I can't wait for How to train your dragon 3 and I know I will cry much more than I did for the second movie and just watching the series makes me miss Stoik already. Or still... whatever.
I hope someone might share the excitement about it and don't be shy to talk to me about it if you want to.
Anyone else kinda see the trader johan thing coming since the beginning but were still disappointed upon the reveal, but mostly because it was too trope-y?
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I was thinking about possible ways Stalka might have met today and after thinking about her episode in RoB I had a crazy though: what is Val and Johann were siblings? I mean, both look and sound (Johann for his accent, Valka for her singing voice) different from the typical Vikings of Berk, and Johann doesn't seem to have a problem with dragons. Johann is also warm and affectionate towards Hiccup and Stoick, who is just as welcoming to him. What do you think? Possible reality or only in an AU?
I'm already in love with what's sort of developed for me, in the way that they both grew up on Berk and came to truly see each other at some point (a more paced and less intense version of what happened to Hiccup and Astrid)
But this is a really, really cool theory! Â I can't see the resemblances that well between Valka and Johan, but I like the way it sort of aligns with Gobber and Johan having an old relationship and it being this cooky "Stoick, look, we're dating siblings!" sort of thing. XD
What if Gobber likes Spitelout? (OK I will shut up now).
Lol!
I honestly already have this whole stupid mini-headcanon that Gobber and Trader Johan sorta had a thing.  It was a while back, and Johan was this young, exotic traveller and Gobber was this older, powerful Vikingâand they both enjoyed drinking together and telling wild tales long into the night, like they were trying to out-story each other.
They would only see one another when Johan was in town, but they enjoyed that time together.  Gobber would get the occasional discount, Johan would get free repairsâŚ
And then things went sour at one point or another. Â They still trade, and itâs been years since all of that so can interact comfortably enough, but their relationship was never the same.
Any thoughts on Johann calling Hiccup "Master Hiccup" in Frozen?
YES! I HAVE A HEADCANON THING IN MY DRAFTS BUT NOW I WILL FINISH IT HEREâTHANKS FOR THE PUSH!
~TRADER JOHAN HEADCANON~
Johan was born into Thralldom. He was always an independent child, but also of the lowest class. He worked his way out of that statusâfirst onto a fisherman ship and then later onto Berk. Â He was in the habit of referring to his employers as âmasterâ.
Babysitting was just one of the many odd jobs Johan took on as he built his entrepreneurship.
Berk is one of the tribes that doesnât keep slaves, but when Johan got his job as Hiccupâs babysitter (with a crappy pic to go with it), he hadnât broken that habit.  Hiccup was of a higher birth was well.Â
So he grew up calling Hiccup âthe young masterâ Â :) (stoick was the old master ;))
