Would you expand on transfem hiccup from Httyd 👀
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!!!
