#cloudjumper | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thecosmicmap · 4 months

Text

Strap in folks this is gonna be a long one.

So as we know Dean Deblois is the writer of HTTYD2 and 3. As a writer you have a list of rules you should follow. One such rule is “show don’t tell.”

Dean disregarded this rule and we mainly see it with Grimmel and the Night Fury genocide. In the movie he tells us “I hunted every last night fury except yours” yet Grimmel has nothing to show for it. No trophies, no night fury hide cloak, not even a claw. The most we get is a few “facts” about Night Furies that aren’t even true, or can’t be proven to be true because we’ve only ever seen one Night Fury.

“Night Furies can’t survive the cold.” Yet Hiccup tells us (in GOTNF which is canon) that winter in Berk lasts for most of the year.

“Night Furies can’t fly long distances” Yet Toothless’ wings are large and wide, which allows him to glide for long periods of time.

“Furies mate for life.” We would never know because we only see one Night Fury in the entire franchise. And if we take a look at other dragons, it seems they only see their mate during mating season.

And why would Grimmel know that if he’s trying to kill off the Night Furies forever? What’s the point in knowing their mating habits if there’s never going to be any Night Furies again? Did he just look at a Fury pair and go “yeup. They mate for life.”

Now another thing about Grimmel is that his hunting method is unreliable. One, he left his bait without any restraints. Imagine if the Light Fury woke up minutes before and just left? Boom! No more bait. What if Toothless wasn’t horny and was mad at the Light Fury for trying to kill Hiccup multiple times? Boom. He wouldn’t be trying to deal with her and the plan is ruined because the bait isn’t appealing to the target. What if Toothless didn’t smell her and never showed up?

Lots of plot conveniences. It happens in the entire movie. Dean also had to confirm that yes, Grimmel did kill all the Night Furies in an INTERVIEW because people didn’t believe that Grimmel genocide the Night Furies. And Dean only did this because he thinks Toothless is special because he’s the last Night Fury.

Now we could be here forever talking about how stupid grimmel is as a villain and how stupid it is to even entertain the thought that ONE man and his six, drugged dragons were able to commit genocide to a species of intelligent, elusive and fast dragons, but let’s just continue.

Another rule Dean disregarded is having good characterization. Or ANY characterization!

The Light Fury immediately comes to mind. Name one personality trait she has that we actually see in the movie. You can’t, can you? Because Dean actively wrote that out. There was a deleted scene of Light Fury and Toothless’ romantic flight which gave her much more personality, yet Dean wrote it out and gave us the boring one we have now.

Also, can we just talk about how she doesn’t have a name? Her name is literally “The Light Fury.” Which is the same as naming a Golden Retriever Golden Retriever.

I know Hiccup would’ve named her. Hell, anybody would’ve named her! But no, Dean decided that she didn’t need one because “how else would she be wild”?

Dean says this in an interview, “We intentionally try to keep her [The Light Fury] wild and elusive, to kind of represent something that is pure dragon, that hasn't been tainted by human beings by domestication.” Which just goes to show that Dean doesn’t know what domestication is.

(Dean also doesn’t know what a subspecies is because if he did, then he would know a Light Fury can’t possibly be a Night Fury subspecies because they have too many differences).

1. this means that Dean thinks all of the dragons that have benefited from human companionship (Toothless, Cloudjumper, Meatlug, Stormfly, etc) are tainted.

And 2, there is nothing “dragon” about the Light Fury. She has small feet (Hiccup’s head is literally bigger than her feet), small claws, a small mouth, her wings are weirdly shaped, she’s curved, she has no protective scales and her tailfin is in the shape of a heart, which would actually mess up her flight.

Many people have said this is because she’s semi-aquatic. But this is disproven by the fact that we’ve never seen her in the water and the art book.

Here’s two direct quotes: “We had to explore how the Light Fury would walk and make her feel like a female.” “We had to control all the shapes while keeping her both powerful and graceful so she didn’t fall too much into the reptilian category.”

The Light Fury is a plot device, a “agent of change” in Dean’s words.

Now while we’re on the topic of characterization, let’s talk about our main cast. We’ll start with Toothless.

Toothless is Hiccup’s best friend, who will do anything to protect him no matter the costs. He’s sassy, intelligent, curious, loyal, protective and playful.

Now take all of this, and throw it in the trash because this isn’t the toothless you’re going to see in THW. In THW Toothless’ playfulness is shot to the max, making him more like a slobbery puppy than the lethal panther he was in HTTYD1.

Toothless isn’t protective of Hiccup at all, his intelligence is below hell itself and we don’t see a lick of sass. Httyd3 Toothless is physically incapable of looking scary because his face has been deformed to to look blocky and smushed together. He lacks any aerodynamics and we can even see it in his flying. He looks like he’s struggling.

Toothless and Hiccup’s friendship is so watered down in this movie, just for the sake of romance. That’s not how it should be. Romance and friendship go hand in hand, one is not more valuable than the other.

Astrid is nothing but Hiccup’s emotional support, yet she also puts him down. “you gave him [Toothless] his freedom, what were you expecting?” This implies that the dragons are being held captive and Toothless doesn’t want to be with Hiccup.

Which he does, as we see in GOTNF. Toothless only left to get Hiccup’s helmet, then he broke the auto-tail. But why would Astrid even say that? Thats so insensitive 😭.

The twins are dumbed down (despite proving to actually being intelligent), Snotlout is flirting with a woman who’s 20 years older than him (and might be his aunt, depending if you see Hiccup and Snotlout as cousins) and Valka outright tells Hiccup that they can’t hide away from the world.

Which is true, they can’t. Because eventually they will be found. Now remember this, it’ll come back later.

Now, when writing a story it’s important to move the plot along in a way that doesn’t seemed forced. When I think of this, I think of Trollhunters: tales of Arcadia.

The protagonist (Jim) goes into the villain’s home in order to rescue his friend’s baby brother, yet he gets trapped there. His friends have to get him out of there, which allows the villain to be freed from the Darklands. This happening allows the story to move forward in a way that makes sense and isn’t forced.

Now back to HTTYD3. Let’s look at the scene where Toothless and the LF get captured. The Light Fury smells grimmel, she calls to toothless, runs towards Grimmel and gets shot.

Toothless runs over (ignoring Hiccup’s warnings) approaches Grimmel, takes forever loading a plasma blast while sloooowly walking towards Grimmel, allowing the man to shoot him and make him go night-night.

Hiccup runs over, also taking forever. And the next time we see grimmel he’s already tied up two dragons (BY HIMSELF) in these complicated straight jackets. The other dragons come around (finally) ready to attack, yet Grimmel threatens the light fury and tells Toothless to call of the dragons.

“But isn’t Toothless asleep?” I hear you ask, and to that I respond with “no, he’s not. He miraculously woke up in time to call the dragons off, despite the light fury still being knocked out cold.”

The dragons are called off and grimmel leaves on his quad-copter. The dragons follow them, even though Grimmel didn��t tell toothless to make them follow.

Do you see how forced this is? There’s many more forced plot points, but we’ll be here forever talking about it and this post is long enough already.

Next up on the broken rule list, Dean let the antagonist win. Now it’s okay for an antagonist to win, but never in the third act.

Grimmel’s ultimate goal was for dragons to disappear. Dean himself says “he does not want a world in which dragons roam free.” And what do we see at the end of HTTYD3?

The dragons disappearing into the Hidden World forever. Exactly what Grimmel wanted.

Finally, the last rule Dean broke is having a consistent plot. Now the plot of each movie is a bit different. Httyd1: Hiccup shows Vikings that while dangerous, dragons aren’t monsters. And it’s better to work together than working apart.

Httyd2: Dragons are being captured and enslaved, we need to save them and fight for our friends.

Httyd3: toothless needs to get a girlfriend. He HAS to, despite not ever showing to want one, but he’s horny right now so YES, he HAS to.

But the franchise has an overarching narrative about humans and dragons coming together. That no matter what, they will prevail because they’re working together.

Well in HTTYD3 yes, they prevail. But the dragons leave. Why, you may ask? Because no matter what they’ll always be bad humans so there’s no point fighting.

Hiccup sends the dragons to an underground glittery cave that doubles as a prison, and six years of friendship is thrown down the drain for a female Toothless met three days prior. Hiccup tells the audience that dragons will hide until humans learn how to get along (despite the many humans that already get along with them).

And that’s it. The end. No more.

“But wait!” I hear you ask, “Won’t the dragons eventually be found again?” And to that I say, “Oh, you remember!”

Because yes, the dragons will eventually be found out again. And because Hiccup gave up on fighting for change, these humans think dragons are dangerous monsters and will undoubtedly enslave/kill them.

We even see this with his own kids! Zephyr thought dragons were monsters and was ready to hurt them in order to “protect her family”. Humans of the future will no doubt act like this as well.

Humans and dragons will never learn to get along if they are never around each other. Change won’t just happen, you have to fight for it. Like the end of slavery, or the Women’s Rights Movement. Those things didn’t just happen, people had to fight for change and they had to keep fighting because if they gave up then nothing would change.

And when the dragons are inevitably found once again, it will be Hiccup’s fault when they’re either killed or enslaved.

158 notes · View notes

delicatenightfury · 1 year

Text

Glad You're Okay

2022 Month of Writing: Day 17

Pairing: Toothless x reader

Prompt: Toothless - he's the prompt

Word Count: 2,814

Author's Note: please don't steal my work! you can choose to respond to the prompt as well, but don't steal my work

y/n paused when she heard a soft cry. She glanced around briefly, waiting for the sound again. When she heard it, she quickly started in that direction. The cries kept coming, sounding more and more distressed. She started moving faster, weaving through the trees.

She rounded a larger tree and stopped short, her breath catching in her throat.

Several yards away, trapped under a net trap, was a small dragon. y/n hurried toward the dragon, slowing her steps as she came closer. She imitated a soft purr, lifting her voice just a little to catch the dragon’s attention. She smiled when it stopped and turned to look at her. Its eyes were wide, and it backed away slightly in fear.

“Hey there, sweetheart,” she said quietly, as not to startle it. “It’s all right. I’m gonna get you out of there.”

She knelt down so she was practically crawling. She needed its trust before she could help. By getting on its level, she was showing that she wasn’t a threat. She reached her hand forward, then stayed still. She turned her head away slightly, but kept the dragon in her peripheral.

Let him come to you, she thought. Let him create the first reach of trust.

The dragon was nervous, that much was clear. She could almost see the poor thing shaking under the net as it debated what to do. She took that moment to observe him.

Its scales were almost pure black. Most of its body was soft looking with no hard angles. It was hard to tell its wing shape because they were pressed closely against the dragon’s back. The more that y/n observed him, the more she realized she didn’t entirely recognize the species. She had seen many dragons, but almost none that looked like this one.

She smiled when the dragon pushed its nose through the netting and touched her hand, sniffing her. A moment later, it licked her.

“There we go,” she encouraged softly. “Now why don’t we get you out of there, yeah?”

She pushed herself up, but kept her hand extended toward the dragon. She lightly ran her hand over its head and back, offering comfort while she examined the trap. It was made of simple ropes, but the edges were weighed down with large rocks. y/n spoke quietly to the dragon, offering comforting words as she pulled out a small knife. She cut away at the ropes, making a hole big enough for the dragon to escape out of.

“There we go,” she said, backing away enough for the dragon to move.

She watched as the dragon stepped out and shook himself, stretching its wings finally. Her eyes widened when she finally recognized the dragon.

“Oh my gosh,” she breathed.

It was a baby Night Fury, maybe only a couple years old. The dragon looked up at her, its eyes wide and its head tilted to the side. Her heart melted a little when he walked toward her and rubbed his side against her leg. She knelt down and rubbed his head.

“What are you doing out here, buddy?”

She glanced around, taking in their surroundings quickly. The woods were thick, so it was hard to see. But if there was a dragon trap all the way out here, then that meant that humans were nearby.

Her heart ached again when she felt the baby nudge her hand. Mother dragons rarely left their young alone. If this dragon was by itself…

y/n shook her head and looked at the dragon baby again, who was still staring at her.

“We need to get you out of here,” she said.

y/n laughed at the baby Night Fury, who was eating a small basket of fish she had caught earlier. The dragon had been living with her for several months now and seemed to trust her a lot. He had been pretty shaken after being trapped in the net. The other dragons had also accepted him, which she was thankful for.

She lived on a secluded island where dragons came and went as they pleased. Many had been there for years and were familiar with y/n’s presence. They were always welcoming to newer dragons and several had taken to the young Night Fury. However, y/n found that most nights, the youngling would curl up near her when it was time to sleep.

She had done her best to give the youngling space, but he seemed to like to stick close to her side. So, she did her best to get him around other dragons to learn from them. And it worked for the most part. She was sure he knew most things beforehand from his mother, but y/n wanted to make sure he didn’t somehow lose those skills.

y/n looked over at a nearby Deadly Nadder. It had raised its head suddenly, tilting it and glancing around. She noticed a few other dragons do the same. She slowly stood to her feet and walked out of the cover of her shelter. Many of the dragons seemed on edge. She had sometimes seen this behavior among one or two dragons when a different species arrived, but not as a collective. She looked over at the Stormcutter that was approaching. The large dragon nudged its head into her shoulder.

“What is it?” she said.

She heard several dragons roar loudly. A warning. Her head quickly turned and saw many of the dragons start to fly away. Suddenly, a Gronckle seemed to fall from the sky. y/n’s heart dropped when she spotted the net.

“No.” She looked at the Stormcutter. “Get them out of here!”

She didn’t wait for the dragon to fly away before she ran back into her shelter. The Night Fury’s head popped up from the basket.

“Come on, little guy,” she said. “We have to get out of here.”

She grabbed her sword and threw on the little bit of armor she had fashioned for herself out of dragon scales. The Night Fury hurried after her as she ran back out. The dragons were already flying away, but several were being caught in flying traps. y/n swung her sword into a thick vine, which released a collection of rocks and tree trunks onto the area where the hunters were coming from, blocking their path for a time.

She ran to the nearest dragon and cut her free. The dragon roared slightly at her in thanks and flew away. As y/n went to help another dragon, she nearly tripped over the Night Fury. She glanced toward where the hunters were. She couldn’t see them yet but she could hear them clear enough.

y/n knelt down in front of the Night Fury. He had grown a lot since she first met him. She looked right into his eyes.

“You need to get out of here,” she said. She hoped he understood what she was saying. She always thought that she had a deep enough connection with the dragons that they understood her. “There are hunters coming.”

The Night Fury purred a little at her. He either didn’t seem to understand or didn’t want to leave. He tried taking a step toward her, but she stopped him.

“You have to go! They will kill you if they see you.”

She could hear them getting closer. Her eyes were filling with tears. She stepped forward and gently touched the dragon’s head. He buried himself into her, making the tears finally fall. She placed a soft kiss on his head before looking into his eyes again.

“You have to leave. Don’t come back here, okay? It won’t be safe.”

She stepped away from the dragon. His eyes had never looked so sad. She tried to smile at him.

“Now go,” she said. “Hurry!”

The Night Fury startled a little at her raised voice, but did as he was told. He spread his wings and took off. She could tell he was still hesitant though. He didn’t want to leave. y/n had to turn away to keep from crying more.

She hurried to activate the other mechanisms she had constructed, trying to delay the hunters a while longer. She didn’t know how far away they were or how many. All she knew was that they were after the dragons and they wouldn’t stop.

A few hunters stumbled over the small hill, finally coming into view. y/n glared at them. They were carrying weapons and were at least twice as large as her. They were going to be a challenge.

“Look!” one suddenly shouted, pointing toward the sky. “Night Fury!”

“No!” y/n shouted. She lunged at the men, and wrestled one of them for their weapon. It released and fired into the air, missing the Night Fury by a few feet. y/n knocked the men down and stunned them, disarming them as quickly as she could. She glanced back into the air to see that the Night Fury had paused. “Go!”

She grunted when one of the men slammed into her, knocking her down to the ground. She heard the Night Fury call out for her. She turned herself over enough to look at him.

“Get out of here!”

The dragon called for her one more time before flying away, disappearing into the clouds above. y/n sighed in relief. She glanced back at the men who had regained their footing. She noticed several other hunters appearing out of the woods.

“You’re gonna pay for that, girl.”

~~years later~~

Hiccup sighed happily, loving the feeling of wind blowing through his hair. It had been several weeks since he had gotten to get away from Berk and have some time away. Since the death of his father, a lot more responsibilities had fallen onto him. He was thankful he had friends that he trusted to help him with things.

Hiccup looked up as a shadow passed overhead. He smiled at the sight of his mother riding her own dragon, Cloudjumper. This was the first real outing the two of them had had. She had expressed a need to get away for a little, having not been around humans for so long, and Hiccup had offered to go with her and possibly explore.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked him, smiling gently.

“It’s nothing,” Hiccup said. “Just glad to be back in the air. Right, bud?”

Toothless grunted under him, smiling. Hiccup hummed happily. He glanced back at his mother and noticed a dark figure in the distance. It looked like another island. One he didn’t recognize.

“Look,” he said, pointing it out. “A new island. Let’s check it out!”

He steered Toothless in that direction, allowing Valka to follow behind him. The ride wasn’t long and soon, their feet touched land.

“It looks rather small,” Valka commented. “I can’t imagine that much lives here.”

Hiccup nodded.

“You’re probably right. But it looks like a good stopping point for flying though,” he said. “I wonder if there are any other dragons here.”

The small group decided to look around, entering the woods. It was relatively quiet, which wasn’t entirely unusual. Valka pulled Hiccup to a stop.

“Do you see that?” She pointed out several markings on both the nearby trees and ground that looked like claw marks. “Dragons have been in these woods.”

Hiccup smiled. He walked forward to further observe the marks, but stopped when he saw Toothless continue walking. He appeared to be observing the trees too, as well as sniffing the air.

“Toothless?” he said. “You okay, bud?” He watched as his dragon perked up. His eyes were wide and his tongue hung out of his mouth in excitement. Hiccup laughed. “What’s going on?”

Suddenly, Toothless’s head turned further into the woods. He stared intently for several seconds before hurrying forward. Hiccup stared at the dragon in shock before it registered that Toothless was leaving him behind.

“Hey, wait!” he called.

He and Valka hurried after Toothless while Cloudjumper took to the sky. Hiccup called several times for Toothless to slow down, but the dragon seemed set on something ahead of him.

They eventually caught up to Toothless, who had stopped at the edge of a hill. Below was a large clearing with rock formations, trees, and water. It almost reminded Hiccup of the small cove he had befriended Toothless in.

Toothless started moving again, stepping down the hill. Hiccup and Valka exchanged looks before following him. They watched as Toothless slowly moved around, observing the area. Hiccup wished, not for the first time, that he could know what Toothless was thinking.

Toothless lifted his head suddenly and looked around. His eyes stopped on an opening in the stone wall and he walked forward, moving faster than before. The dragon riders slowly followed, still confused as Toothless disappeared inside.

Suddenly, a roar came from above them. Hiccup and Valka looked up to find a Stormcutter coming toward them. They dashed to the side to avoid getting squashed. It roared again, spreading its wings and looking between them. Not a moment later, Cloudjumper also descended from the sky, putting himself between Valka and the other dragon. Toothless also reappeared, putting himself in front of Hiccup.

“No sudden moves, Hiccup!” Valka said. “She’s become territorial. We’ve come into her home.”

A whistle then filled the air and the Stormcutter seemed to relax. It looked between the two human-dragons pairs before turning around and walking away. Hiccup and Valka watched it leave, only to notice a human figure standing on the other side of the clearing.

“I apologize for her,” the figure, a woman, said. “We don’t get many visitors. At least not human ones.” She walked toward them slowly, obviously still wary. “You’re… dragon riders?”

“Yeah,” Hiccup said. “We live with them back home.”

The woman smiled a little. She glanced over their dragons before stopping in her tracks.

“Is that a Night Fury?”

Hiccup glanced at Toothless, who was staring at the woman.

“Uh, yeah. This is Toothless.”

She stared as Toothless then started to walk forward slowly. The man tried to call him back, but the dragon ignored him. When he tried to follow, the older woman held out her hand as a signal to wait.

y/n stood still, watching as the dragon came closer. His eyes were observant and held a curious glint to them. He slowed as he got closer, sniffing in her direction. His eyes suddenly widened and a smile broke out onto his face. y/n couldn’t contain her smile anymore. She laughed as the Night Fury pounced on her, knocking her off her feet. He licked her face and nuzzled his snout into her.

“All right! All right!” she cried happily. “You’ve gotten big! Let me up!” Toothless pulled away enough for her to allow her to sit up. He then laid on the ground and put his head in her lap. y/n grinned down at him, scratching his neck. “I’m happy to see you too.”

“Uh, I’m sorry, what exactly just happened?”

y/n looked up at the humans and smiled at them. Their confusion was amusing.

“I knew Toothless many years ago,” she said. “I saved him when he was a few years old and he stayed here for a couple months.”

“He’s nearly an adult now,” the woman said. “You’ve been here this whole time?”

y/n nodded.

“I left home when I was a teenager. I didn’t believe in killing dragons like the rest of my village. So, I spent years living among them instead.”

The two smiled at her. She assumed that they had similar stories.

“So how did you meet Toothless?”

“Found him in a trap while we were scouting for food. I got him out and he came home with us. I guess we formed an attachment because he wouldn’t leave my side most of the time.” She chuckled when Toothless nuzzled into her again. “I’m sorry, my name’s y/n.”

“Valka,” the woman said. “This is my son, Hiccup.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” She looked at Hiccup. “He’s yours, then?”

Hiccup nodded.

“We’ve been through a lot together. He’s my best friend.”

“I completely understand that. If you have the time, I’d love to hear about how you guys met.”

“As long as you’re willing to share about your life here?” Valka said with a smile. “I’ve been in a similar situation myself.”

y/n smiled back and nodded. As the two humans and the Stormcutters settled around her, she looked down at Toothless. His tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth and he looked like he was grinning.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she whispered to him.

He purred lightly against her. Even though she couldn’t understand him, she knew that he felt the same way.

#month of writing #writing prompt #how to train your dragon #httyd #toothless #toothless x reader #night fury #dragon #hiccup haddock #valka haddock #cloudjumper #angst and fluff

559 notes · View notes