whump,angst, And Fandoms Blog

(spoilers for rtte)

actually being able to see characters deaths and wounds

more depth into snotlout and spitelouts relationship- it’s clearly not a healthy one

more depth into hiccstrid and other couples

specifically, queer couples and characters- we know gobber and snotlout are gay/bi respectively, but we never get more info on that subject

actual blood and wounds

let!!! them!!! say!!!!! fuck!!!!!

more clarification on which dragon fire hurts which dragons, and which ones don’t

blood!!

ruff and tuff clearly have things to say that are not age appropriate, let them say it

could go more in depth with the scarier side of the dragons

show the effects of characters getting wounded!!!!

just. everything about dagur.

could go more in depth with fishlegs’s anxiety?

on that note, all of the gang’s mental health- hiccup clearly overworks and blames himself for everything, astrid has obvious anger issues and pent up rage, snotlout pretends to think he’s better than everyone else to mask his cripplingly low self esteem, fishlegs 100% has anxiety or some kind of panic disorder, ruff is already canonically frustrated with being “a woman in a man’s world” and doesn’t feel appreciated enough, and tuff doesn’t seem to value his own well being very much- not to mention that he literally has hallucinations sometimes

and dagur definitely has something that causes him to be in a constant state of mania

gustav and his parents- he said his mother only notices he’s gone after the third day????

at least one person on berk has (consensually) fucked a dragon. give me some background on that.

at least half of the riders cursing like sailors

being able to show sicknesses better- the time astrid caught the scourge of odin, the time astrid got deathly poisoned, plus the time astrid went blind (astrid sure does get beat up a lot damn)

just give me all the things we couldn’t have as kids!!!! blood!!! gore!!!!!!! death!!!!!!! cursing!!!!!! gays!!!!!!!!! abusive relationships!!!!!!!!! kissing that doesn’t look awkward and forced!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! monster fuckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes! I would love to do this! The similarities between dragon and rider excite me to tears because they are all completely perfect for each other.

Hiccup and Toothless

Let’s face it. This duo would need a novel to cover all their similarities. Possibly three novels.

Hiccup and Toothless are probably the most notably similar in terms of their life stories. They parallel one another even before they meet. Hiccup and Toothless both are social outcasts and peculiarities for their respective species (a non-dragon fighting Viking and the single seen Night Fury), then find one another and form a bond with an enemy they had good reason to kill. They try to kill each other, in fact, over the course of their relationship with one another - Hiccup by holding a knife up to Toothless and Toothless by shooting a plasma blast. Hiccup and Toothless both give each other their worst physical injury; there is no small similarity between a missing left leg and a missing tail fin. Yet at the same time, they fill each others’ lives and find happiness.

And I am not even done. Nowhere close. Both Hiccup and Toothless are without family members. Toothless saves Hiccup falling; Hiccup saves Toothless falling. Hiccup saves Toothless from drowning in water; Toothless saves Hiccup from suffocating in ice. Hiccup and Toothless grow to become the chief and alpha of their tribe, surprisingly young leaders for who they are, but filling in gaps from the war deaths of their predecessors. Their leadership is foreshadowed before they come to this point; Toothless takes intelligent initiative far more than any of the other dragons, and Hiccup’s voice is the most frequent to suggest ideas in the Dragon Academy, and almost always heeded.

Personality-wise, Hiccup and Toothless certainly are not the same individual, but they do contain notable parallels. Hiccup and Toothless are both top notch at their skills, seen especially in the television series. Toothless is the fastest dragon and most intelligent, just like Hiccup is an enviable dragon rider and very intelligent in his own right. They work together very well, both proficient at fighting, and thus incredible to watch fly together. They both are very resourceful with their environment; Toothless’ wide use of plasma blasts from moving objects to shooting down obstacles to echolocation is just as handy a toolbox as Hiccup’s creative construction of elements in the forge.

And this is the tip of the iceberg.

Snotlout and Hookfang

Hookfang is the next thing to Snotlout in human form. Again, there are personality differences, but this amazing dysfunctional pair certainly share a lot in common.

Design-wise, both Snotlout and Hookfang are the most prototypical of their kind. Snotlout is the meaty, buff, weapons-centered Viking celebrated on Berk in the early days. Likewise, Hookfang has the most standard of the dragon designs, as even the art book itself acknowledges.

But there’s more than just design at here. To cite the first art book, “the Monstrous Nightmare is… considered the most violent, stubborn, and tenacious. In battle, it’s the first to arrive and the last to leave.”

Are we SURE we are not talking about Snotlout here? He is a rather stubborn, violent, and tenacious individual himself, and undoubtedly is the sort of individual who would hold on fighting in battle beyond reason. He considers himself a warrior and at least tries to show that off. “Thawfest” shows he has the great physical capability that the other Vikings cannot match just like Hookfang is a Monstrous Nightmare, which only the best Vikings fought back in Berk’s old war days.

The thing is, both Snotlout and Hookfang screw up more often than they successfully exhibit their great warrior skills. Hookfang will make mistakes all the time, such as making situations worse when trying to rescue Snotlout from the Changewings in “We Are Family Part 1” or burning up the dummies he is supposed to be recognizing in both “Thawfest” and “Best in Show.” Snotlout likewise frequently fumbles and finds himself missing his throw when trying to hit a Nadder in HTTYD 1, among other such incidences. Let’s think of all the times his rump has been roasted by his own dragon.

Snotlout and Hookfang’s temperament similarities still keep on going. They are not good at demonstrating affection. Snotlout puffs up himself and tries to hide when he cries, even acting outwardly incapable of understanding the concept of a broken heart. Hookfang, on his own part, is more likely to walk away with a flick of his tail than give his rider a cuddle. And they always treat each other with that rough dysfunctionality, Snotlout shouting at his stupid stubborn dragon to do something, his dragon unyieldingly flying away and paying no heed to the Viking.

Yet despite this, both are very much capable of affection. “Viking for Hire” shows Hookfang excitedly caressing the Jorgensen boy with his snout, and “Race to Fireworm Island” is all about how much boy and dragon are willing to do for one another. That’s the part where Snotlout returns Hookfang’s “hug”.

These two are completely one hundred percent made for each other. Snotlout’s dragon in the books might be a pretentious female dragon named Fireworm, but it’s simple canon that he takes a Monstrous Nightmare. And the Monstrous Nightmare in both books and movies is considered to be a dragon of high status. It’s the hardest to fight in the movies and it’s the hunting dragon reserved for the chief in the books. And Snotlout and Hookfang are the prototype Vikings until Hiccup and Toothless swoop in and unintentionally take over the spotlight themselves.

Astrid and Stormfly

The Deadly Nadder is a nimble, dexterous dragon, just like Astrid is. It is very intelligent, just like Astrid is. It also is thorny, just like Astrid is. I mean, come on. Look at those designs. Stormfly and Astrid both have spikes all over them. The early sketches shown in the art book show Astrid was always intended to hop onto a Deadly Nadder, and thus their physical designs and abilities parallel each other nicely.

I think it goes deeper than that, though, based upon the description of the Nadder in the art book. “This skilled flier has an explosive temper that makes it a daunting airborne opponent but if you stand right in front of its nose you’ll be in its blind spot and it won’t be able to see you” (p. 40).

I feel this is a good characterization of Astrid, too. She has her own blindspots regarding Hiccup and the dragons within the first half of HTTYD 1, not to mention she is nothing short of a short-tempered gymnast, too. And despite the frightening temperament of both, Astrid and Stormfly alike are actually rather sweet and affectionate individuals.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut and Barf and Belch

Barf and Belch are two separate heads but connected together as one dragon, just as Ruffnut and Tuffnut are two individuals but “stuck with each other since birth”. The two twins and the double Zippleback heads might appear the same at first look, too, but each has their own uniqueness. Ruffnut and Tuffnut have distinct personality differences just like Barf expels green gas while Belch lights it. But all those heads can make for extreme dysfunction at times, too, especially since not one of those heads in the entire crowd is incredibly bright. Don’t get me wrong - all of them DO have intelligence and demonstrate it well - but they also have tendencies to overlook obvious details.

Fishlegs and Meatlug

Fishlegs originally was supposed to ride the Hideous Zippleback rather than a Gronckle in the movies, more closely paralleling the three-headed dragon book!Fishlegs befriends. However, this does not mean Fishlegs and Meatlug are unsuited for one another. On the contrary, I find this one of the pairs with the most obvious chemistry, and not just because they are always physically demonstrating their affection to each other.

Fishlegs and Meatlug have both been designed to be husky, the Gronckle taking on the appearance of “boulders” and Fishleg’s shape being all about squares. I feel like they belong in those photsets of owners that look too much like their pets. Beyond that, both of these characters are a “gem of a different color,” meant to be unique and divergent from the others. Fishlegs is the oddball dragon geek of the bunch, while Meatlug is “the most atypical-looking dragon in the line-up” (p. 36). And they both struggle with being unappreciated by the others for their actually very impressive skills. Meatlug might be the slowest flier and Fishlegs not much competition in the Dragon Training ring, but both have abilities that the other dragons and riders cannot at all do.

Personality-wise, Fishlegs and Meatlug are the sweethearts of the human and dragon worlds, respectively. They are also the most timid, most reluctant to enter danger, and most friendly. Odin, they have even developed the same habits. “The Iron Gronckle” shows the two of them stress eating together to handle their similar emotions of feeling unwanted by the rest of the gang.

Stoick and Skullcrusher

Enormous, imposing, stoic giants these two are. Not much is seen of Skullcrusher, but he has that same larger-than-life, thick, intimidating appearance and presence that his rider has. However, at the same time, that does not mean either are without heart. We see Stoick act in full love at the end of HTTYD 2, and Skullcrusher himself is shown to be a friendly dragon himself when he shoves his nose toward Eret and sniffs the ex-dragon trapper curiously.

I would actually talk more about Stoick and Thornado’s similarities because we know about that relationship in greater detail. I touch on their endearingly parallel personalities a bit here.

Valka and Cloudjumper

Both Valka and her dragon are simultaneously regal and quirky. For Valka is an admirable queen, a highly-skilled dragon vigilante who deserves respect. But she is very cumbersome around people, to, even walking around on all fours at one point. Cloudjumper as well holds himself up with a prideful posture, yet does more than his dumb share of activities - especially around Toothless. Beyond that, both Valka and Cloudjumper are very intelligent and imposing individuals to encounter.

And both are unique in a crowd. Just like Hiccup and Toothless are separated off with Hiccup being an outcast and Toothless the only Night Fury, so also are Valka the outcasted Viking woman and the only Stormcutter seen onscreen. 

Lastly, design-wise, you can see they are similar. Valka intentionally made her armor to look like a dragon, and the spikes and flares on places like her boots mirror the patterns of Cloudjumper.

Gobber and Grump

the "milkman" is a common figure in stories depicting a woman's infidelity and adulterous affair.

this implies that the ability to provide milk would both decrease the likelihood of a man abandoning his wife and children, as it would eliminate the need for leaving to get milk AND would secure that man's marriage, as his wife would have no need to seek milk from an extraneous source.

therefore, all men should produce milk, through various means such as:

- being a cow

- being an almond

- being a woman

- being a coconut

- being in the omegaverse

- being an oat

(list is exemplary and not finite)

Equiping an armor tutorial

Something about mentors learning from their students just as much as they teach them.

Meanwhile, Peter cannot stand needlessly pricks. They send his senses into overdrive searching for the danger that’s invaded, not caring that the danger is helping him. The panic and adrenaline without anything to focus them on hurt worse than the unmedicated procedure.

But Tony couldn’t stand for Peter bearing the pain without relief, so he found something to help. Usually he’d build something to help, but this time he already had something useful made.

His own nightmare goggles. He made them long ago after waking up in a panic yet again, searching for a danger that’s only existed in his dreams. He’d learned that the sudden jerk from dream to reality was the most painful part, so he built goggles. They can (somehow) identify the nightmare he’s having, and they identify when he wakes up. When he wakes up, he’s wearing goggles that show him the nightmare being rectified. They help the transition from danger to safe be more smooth. He can later watch over the footage of what the goggles showed him so that he can work through the latest trauma.

He gives the nightmare goggles to Peter, calibrated to show him those dangers his body can sense internally but can do nothing about. The goggles show him something dangerous but calming, something that doesn’t invalidate the spider-sense but also doesn’t panic him. The goggles help give his brain and senses something to focus on. Something to work toward, so that he can bear the needles and benefit from their relief.

But Tony forgot something, forgot something important. He forgot to stop the goggles recording.

So when Tony goes to check his OWN nightmare logs, he’s sees Peter’s. He sees what the goggles identified as a calming scenario. He finds out that Peter’s imagined relief involved Peter’s own heartbeat slowing to a crawl.

Tony’s own nightmares involve Peter dying alone, but that same scene calms Peter.