no, no, no, Hiccup was gonna start that war whether he wanted to or not, it was his destiny and was foretold from the time of his birth, which, according to Fate, was never supposed to happen! It was going to be started by some Hiccup or other, and this Hiccup just happened to be the unlucky one.
And on the contrary, dragons and humans were not “at peace,” as you say. The majority of dragons were enslaved by humankind. The only ones that weren’t were too huge and/or vicious and/or primordial. Chief among them being The Terror of Odin (or something along those lines) which even Hiccup knew next to nothing about because it was so terrifying.
“Domestic” dragons were only with their masters because it was an easy way for food. Most dragons understood Dragonese and not Norse, which just made it easier for humans to call them beasts. Dragons in that world are actual people, whereas dragons in the movie verse are animals. Wonderful, amazing, beautiful animals, but still animals.
In the books, Hiccup himself says, and this will stay with me until my dying day, “some dragons really are monsters.” This is a KEY difference between book and movie Hiccup. As much as I really do love movie Hiccup, he will never understand that some things just aren’t to be meddled with. Book Hiccup saw and understood that dragons were not animals, they were not savages, they were a vast and uncontrollable species that had no place for humans in their lives. Human and dragons rarely ever had mutual symbiotic relationships in the books, Hiccup and Toothless as well as Hiccup II and Furious being exceptions. Humans, to dragons, were parasites, and simply because humans were violent and brutal did the dragons fear them on occasion.
AND another thing: even though the Vikings were the only humans to even try to have good relations with dragons (the Romans ate them and made clothes and accessories with their skin), Hiccup was the only one to truly understand why the dragons had to go into hiding. Few humans are ever gifted with such an understanding of what true honor is, and we as a species don’t have it. We never had it. That is why Hiccup (book Hiccup) perpetuated the myth that dragons were make-believe after the dragons went into hiding, and wrote the books to tell the humans of the future that the dragons wouldn’t come back unless we were worthy of them.
Now I will admit that book Hiccup does indeed have his faults. He cares, but he cares too much, just like movie Hiccup. He believes that humans are subordinate to dragonkind, whereas movie Hiccup wants humans and dragons to live in harmony.
And actually? In the books, the humans and the dragons have always been at each others throats. When Hiccup I was a child, no more than ten, the Dragon Merciless sent a dragon assassin to kill the boy. Did Hiccup I die? No he did not. He took care of the wounded dragon assassin when a human trap took him out, and that is how Hiccup I ended the First Dragon War. Hiccup I had the right idea: he had dragon riders, dragons and humans living in harmony, and he made laws that made dragons equal to humans.
After he died, that changed. The dragons slowly became slaves over the years, and finally, King Speedfast (who eventually changed his name to Grimbeard) was sullen and angry and made laws that banned Dragonese, he banned the studying of dragons, all because his dragon advisor made him angry. (This advisor later told the story to Hiccup and Snotlout, hoping to change Snotlout from the wicked little traitor he was into a hero. He succeeded, by the way.)
When Grimbeard’s wife gave birth to Hiccup II, he was named a runt, and Grimbeard abandoned him on a mountain. He was raised by a dragon couple, and eventually found and brought back to his father. His brothers hated him, for he was suddenly a favorite, and so they plotted their revenge. Hiccup II wanted to bring his brother, the Dragon Furious, along with a party of peaceful dragons who wanted to sign a peace treaty. But his human brothers told their father that Hiccup II was coming to kill him. Grimbeard killed his son, chained Furious deep in Berserker Island, and with his kingdom split into 100 warring tribes once more, sailed into the West, never to be seen again.
Then we have Hiccup III. Proclaimed a runt at birth, and Stoick broke the law by keeping him. The dragons were going to go back to war eventually (whether they wanted to or not, Toothless himself tore up a shoe thinking that it was a human child due to the Red Rage imposed on dragons by Furious). It is pointless to argue that it was Hiccup’s fault, because if we’re going to be pointing fingers, point at Fishlegs, who wrote the love letter that got Hiccup chained up on Berserker Island in the first place. Or blame Stoick, for keeping his only child. Or blame Alvin the Treacherous, for changing Fate in the first place by preventing Hotshot the Hero from marrying Valhallarama, thus causing Hiccup’s existence by having Valhallarama marry Stoick instead. Or blame Grimbeard, who set up the whole game for one of his descendants to become the Viking King in his place.
But you cannot blame Hiccup. Hiccup was a game piece in a grand game played by Fate, by the gods, who knows. Hiccup was not an instigator, he was a tool. A tool to save the dragons, perhaps, but also a tool to show his own people the error of their ways. That is all I have to say on the matter. Do with it what you wish.
snowghoul
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
prguitarman
baratheonpilled
