”Hiccup!” I cry longingly. “Hiccup! Come back to me, Hiccup….”
”Don’t worry!” he calls. “I will come back. I promise…”
”He said something I have never forgotten, though it seemed a little strange to me at the time. He said: ‘History is a set of repeating circles, like the tides. The wind does blow through the ruins of Tomorrow. But it is more of a question of two steps forward, one step back. Humans and dragons make the same mistakes, again and again, but things do get better over time.’” - Hiccup III
The complete picture is much bigger and can be read top to bottom like a scroll! I can’t fit it on tumblr, so check it out at my DA here please!
A timeline of the three Hiccups from the How to Train Your Dragon books by Cressida Cowell
I sketched this out before How to Betray a Dragon’s Hero was released. There are a few things that the new book directly contradicts that I had already finalized. If you’ve read it, you probably know the spoilers, but just in case I won’t detail them on this post.
I drew inspiration from the movie designs for a lot of this, namely the designs of the giant Seadragons (Furious, Merciless) The three eyes and coral helms are movie flair. It’s what I pictured when I first read about Furious, so it’s what I drew. Again, spoilers came after….
I could not figure out the color of the dragons. There are a LOT of dragons and some colors were never stated, others stated three different ways in cover art or book text or extras and recolors. I picked my own colors as I saw fit and kept what I could to the book: all I know for sure is that Toothless is green, and similarly that Hiccup III has red hair and Hiccup II has blonde hair, blue eyes. I kept Hiccup I similar in looks to movie!Hiccup because their stories are very similar. Etc. There’s a TON of creative licence here, it’s by no means correct.
I personally like to think of the Hiccup boys as reincarnations. I may be wrong. But even if it’s stated that I am…that’s just how I think. They have too much in common, not just in actions but down to using the exact same words in the exact same situations. And I think there’s something really beautiful in imagining Hiccup the II in his new life, meeting the wreck his brother has become and trying to reason with him…Wodensfang having to face his mistakes and regrets directly to the incarnation of his beloved Hiccup I…the irony of Hiccup II in a sense being able to hear his father’s apology in his next life….etc. I find it fascinating and sweet…maybe I just want a happy ending for the poor babies. They have to go through a lot.
Anyway, reincarnation was what I had in mind when I drew this. I tried to make it all loop together, as if their lives were starting over directly in the mess of their previous life, picking up from the end of one circle into the next. One step forward, two steps back, crossing lines in certain sections, reliving others, fixing some mistakes and doing others all over again.
Scenes from top to bottom with spoilers listed:
(dragons hunt humans era)
-Hiccup I rescues Wodensfang from death
-Hiccup I stitches up his wounds
-Hiccup I fights off Merciless with the dragon jewel
(dragons and humans at peace era)
-Hiccup I dies, leaving Wodensfang to be enslaved
(humans enslave dragons era)
-Hiccup II and Furious are kidnapped from their adopted dragon family and brought to Grimbeard
-Grimbeard raises Hiccup II
-Grimbeard kills Hiccup II thinking that he has betrayed him
-Grimbeard sets fire to Tomorrow in repentance
-Hiccup III befriends Toothless
-Hiccup III finds Wodensfang guarding Hiccup II’s intended crown
-Furious attacks Hiccup III
(dragons hunt humans era, revisited)
-Hiccup III at crossroads is both a slave and a King.
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