Landers Never Stand Down. We Don't Know How.

okay <3 yay <3 i hold such a special place in my heart for the original httyd film and its queer themes - and just as a disclaimer, i'm not saying people's transmasc headcanons for hiccup are any less meaningful or relevant; he's one of those characters that lends themselves to trans themes in general. that being said, i'm swayed more in favour of hiccup being transfem coded by a few key moments in the film that i feel line up more accurately to that experience. the main one is that hiccup states verbatim "i just want to be one of you guys" at the beginning of the story - but rather than affirming himself by becoming another viking like the rest of his clan, taking on a dominating, masculinising role like his father, he rejects their principles and self-actualises by doing so, finding happiness and acceptance in embracing his subversiveness. he's also compared most favourably to his mother rather than his father (which the second film sort of follows through on, although it then backpedals towards the end in order to reinforce the ideal of hiccup as A Good Strong Manly Leader Like His Father, regrettably), and idolises astrid, a woman fighting to be taken seriously and secure her place in the society they both live in (and who distinctly sees hiccup as a threat to her by undermining her efforts to decouple herself from the pressure of conforming to gender essentialist ideals with his lack of conformity to typical viking ideals of masculinity and his nonviolent methods of dragon taming), as the exemplar of what he believes a viking should be. his father struggles to relate to him, lamenting that he doesn't have a son he can do typical "manly" things with like his own father did with him, a son he can indoctrinate and abuse into a violent patriarch; tells him "you're not my son" in response to his refusal to follow his call to war with the dragons, and manhandles him in his anger in ways that echo misogynistic violence (as well as hiccup and his passions being seen as clumsy and useless in general in ways that reflect how misogyny shapes people's disdain for femininity as lesser and weaker), but later embraces hiccup for who he is and not only accepts but adapts to the less performatively hypermasculine lifestyle that hiccup represents, no longer seeing it as a threat to his leadership, but a necessary and valuable transition.

also this could be nothing but he literally shields his body with the transgender flag before developing enough confidence to bond with toothless, whose lack of gendered socialisation or expectations liberates him to be himself. like. girl!!!

4 year old me: why must we do this

Fantastic old woman in the leopard print coat: "Why yes, my tooth IS real silver! Nobody ever asks me that. Do you like cats?"

What is a Hear Me Out?

They can be considered attractive in some way to you (but often not conventionally

They are someone/thing that you would not expect to be found attractive

I am 6'6" right? 198cm? Ok?

Irreparably tall (positive for me), and i gotta buy groceries too, right?

And I had a lovely cis woman about my age approach me and tell me that she liked how tall I was, and that she was envious and wears platforms often to be taller, even though she was already taller than average.

My point is your height is not the critical clocking point you think it is. People will see you as the woman you are regardless of height. Do not let it get you down ok?

And yet they craft all women differently, do they not? All shapes and sizes, all temperaments and personalities - all a bit different. Being different does not set you so far apart as you think.

And yet so many struggle to find ways to make themselves stand out somehow. I hope you can learn to let yourself be, and to stand out as who you are, as your own unique puzzle.

I know it's cheesy, but it makes me sad you would want to suppress some of who you are just to blend in more with a crowd. I know I love seeing people who are openly different in some way when we cross paths in public. I love seeing someone happily showing who they are. I hope you do too, and I hope you realize that you could be that for someone else.

BOOK COVER REDRAW of one of the most insane and gutwretching books ever written. (Art without text and full process on my insta!)

It was my first time designing a book cover and I have to say the process was painful. I started with a strong idea in mind: I wanted to portray Harrow at the exact moment she got her memories back. It had to be spectacular, dramatic, atrocious. There had to be skeletons, lots of skeletons, the castle of her House, and of course, Gideon's sword. Then came the hard part, colors. I changed the colors I think 4 times, just couldn't get them right, but in the end can say I'm quite happy with the result. During the whole process I kept looking at the original cover from @studiotommy.co (insta) trying to grasp even a small fragment of his tenique (ps. Posting this 2 days before a big tit announcement wasn't in my plans👀)

I hope I've done this book justice, because at the end, that's what it's all about.