Dragon Rider Relationships #1
So, Imma create a different post for each relationship or group of relationships I can find in the shows that I enjoy, or the relationship between a dragon rider and a non dragon rider. These are not all romantic, few of them are, but rather show the family like dynamic between the How to Train Your Dragon and Race to The Edge characters.
Number 1: Fishlegs and the Thorsten twins
I just love the family like bond between these three, almost like a father/twin children relationship. If you havenāt noticed, during battle Fishlegs tends to look out for these two the most. In one Episode-I believeĀ āEdge of Disasterā though it mightāve beenĀ āWings of War Part 1ā²-One of the dragon flyers are going after Ruffnut and Tuffnut who are going after two other dragon flyers riding two Singtails, one red and one green, just to help you remember the scene. After Snotlout gets one flyer off of Fishlegsā back, Fishlegs immediately goes after the twins. When one of the flyers is about to shoot them from behind, Fishlegs suddenly looks very angry and stern-an expression you donāt see unless heās fighting for Meatlug, captive dragons (When saving them from the arena in āStrike Outā heās very angry looking as he says āDragon fighting, Iāll show you dragon fightingā), or in the episodeĀ āThor Bonecrusherā when he gains more confidence-and says in a protective tone of voiceĀ āOh no you donātā before protecting the twins and shooting the flyer. He gets easily angry with them a lot of the time, but itās almost more like a father scolding two children than an enemy getting upset with an enemy, like when Hiccup gets upset with Snotlout for something he said out of term, he scolds them but doesnāt grow to dislike them.
Another thing I love, is Fishlegs actually trained Meatlug to specifically get the twins out of serious situations. In the end of the episodeĀ āFollow the Leaderā, and a few other times in other episodes in later seasons of the seriesĀ āRace to The Edgeā, Fishlegs will point with his ax, sword, or hand and sayĀ āMeatlug, Twins!ā and she knows exactly what to do. Some people might assume Meatlug just knows the riders and knows how to save people, but every time thisĀ āmoveā happens, she grabs Ruff and Tuff the same way protectively in either of her claws, even if Fishlegs isnāt riding her, and will always do it the second he says to even if Fishlegs is fighting elsewhere. He has taught Meatlug to get Ruffnut and Tuffnut using a specific signal,Ā āMeatlug, Twins!ā Rather than sayingĀ āMeatlug, grab Ruffnutā orĀ āMeatlug, get them out of there.ā like he might to get her to grab one of the others. This is a specific signal, like Hiccup and Toothless with their mastered hand signals, because Fishlegs prioritizes the Thorsten twinsā safety who tend to forget how to keep themselves safe in dangerous situations, sometimes seemingly more than the others do, though Hiccup is definitely the second top protector of them in my opinion. Overall, I love the almost father/teenage-child relationship between these three.Ā
Theyāre not on Berk anymore where the twins can get away with all of their pranks and adventuring wherever they want (when they decided to travel the obviously dangerous Whispering Death tunnels under Berk, or when they could all come and go from Berk whenever they pleased for training exercises, something they canāt do on Dragonās Edge because someone has to be there to guard it) so Fishlegs knows Ruffnut and Tuffnut need some sort of an authoritative or parental figure, and heās the best man for the job as heās always been friends with them, knows how they work. Heās a very gentle person, unless youāre messing with his twins. Considering the way Ruff and Tuff speak of their family at times, it doesnāt seem like they really have a specific guardian figure, why as Fishlegs speaks of his mom, Astrid has parents around according toĀ āA Teamā when their house was destroyed, we know Hiccup has Stoick, and Snotlout talks about both a mother and a father, but the twins only really speak of aunts, uncles, and others who were killed by some freak accident or battle-even saying in āA Gruff Situationā āMost Thorstens donāt even live that long so if you MAKE IT to 19, itās a pretty big dealā-or they use the phraseĀ āused to tell usā as in not around anymore. For all we know, Fishlegs and the others could be their only real close family, so for Fishlegs to take on this almost parental role could be a life saver in some future situation, and I LIVE for it.