#valklout

Yeah, I can see why that would bother you. I’ve seen others express similar sentiments, uncomfortable with Snotlout seeming to hit on a woman twice his age - a woman who’s in fact the mother of one of his friends. And, if you integrate in book canon, you add him hitting on a woman who married his uncle.

So it’s certainly not going to be humor for everyone, and we can make constructive criticism about its inclusion in THW. Given as Snotlout also had that one-sided “rivalry” with Eret (which, while incorporated with Valka, could also be counted as a separate thing), I don’t think the writers necessarily were in a dearth of ideas for handling Snotlout. They could have easily written Snotlout “versus” Eret as a rivalry without romantic subtext. And, if they wanted other gags, it’s not like they couldn’t have looked to ROB/DOB/RTTE for inspiration - his shpeel with Hookfang’s disobedience wouldn’t have been hard to slip in, if they’d wanted. Given as we got Snotlout’s butt getting caught on fire, they did look at gags from the tv series. Heck… they could’ve just gone with the butt on fire thing! I suspect that lots of ideas were available to them and they were conscious of what they could do with Snotlout. They chose this, perhaps in theme with lots of THW being about romance.

For me personally, the Snotlout and Valka stuff doesn’t bother me. I found it entertaining and… honestly… extremely in character for Snotlout. 

First, Snotlout is someone who craves approval and validation. He struggles to receive Spitelout’s appreciation throughout the television series; he constantly tries to catch Astrid’s attention in HTTYD and the early series; he gets jealous of Hiccup in ROB and RTTE because of how peers respect him. Heck, in the book series, Snotlout’s jealousy of Hiccup is the pinnacle driving point of his character development. Snotlout wanting to receive Valka’s approval in THW is that old insecurity pulling at him again. Whatever he actually feels to Valka, romantic or not, he’s craving validation. 

They play it as humor because they’re putting Snotlout into what’s intended to be a ridiculous circumstance - and because it’s a ridiculous circumstance, I think it works. There’s no sense Snotlout will make a real move on Valka aside from this pandering, and Valka’s responses are that of a mature woman throwing him a few tolerating niceities here and there but not being interested or responding to what we could call his romantic undertone. He doesn’t say or do anything that I found crossing a line. Honestly, he’s being obsequious, but not disgusting. He was worse with Astrid. Especially in ROB/DOB, he had points where he was slightly harassing and misogynistic. Here it’s a somewhat pathetic puppy wanting attention, and I can laugh at that myself.

Second, Snotlout has a history throughout the DreamWorks franchise of hitting on everyone attractive and available - be it Mala, the Wingmaidens, Astrid, Ruffnut, Heather, or Thor Bonecrusher. Sometimes he’s intentionally trying to hit on someone and overdoes it (Astrid) and sometimes he’s unaware he’s sapping on them (TB). In the case of Valka, it comes across as the latter, where he might not be fully aware of how hard he’s hitting, and he might not even be intending it as romantic - though everyone else can see his obsequious actions and laugh at it for coming across as it does. He’s gone through literally everyone else, and lots of people are taken… the next attempt is to kiss up to Valka.

As far as the age gap is concerned… it’s of course weird because she’s Hiccup’s mother. It’s also something people can feel “creepy” because of how distantly-aged relationships can go. For instance, women can feel threatened by old, predatory men - it’s a real, disturbing societal issue. I’ve had to maneuver out of shit like that myself. One-sided attraction with an age gap can be terrifying. Also, romantic relationships with a large age gap can be toxic, in which the older individual controls the younger and takes advantage of the maturity difference. I don’t deny there can be problematic elements in age gaps. 

At the same time, I don’t like to reduce the concept of age gap = automatically creepy. I do know several married couples with extremely large age gaps who work as strong, mature, happy, healthy mutuals. Their relationships are balanced. It’s a pure and good romance. One of the couples I respect most in my childhood church, as both of them were wise individuals… I think the wife was 20 years older than her husband. That was a POWER couple. There’s nothing inherently wrong with an age gap in a relationship, be it platonic or otherwise - it’s just that there can be more dangers when you go certain routes. Ergo, it can be a sensitive topic, especially when played for laughs in film. But for me, seeing an age gap doesn’t ping my radar as “automatically creepy” because I know that age =/= bad relationship.

For people who’ve had bad experiences in this realm, though, I could especially understand this as feeling uncomfortable, and I see this with sensitivity. Again, it’s not a bad thing to question its inclusion in the film. I liked it, but we can talk things like representation, sensitivity, etc. - and make sure we’re thinking about everyone as we do so.