So I was bored at work and thinking about what could lead a man to be as vile as Alvin. Of course, he might have always been this way. Maybe he was a cruel and vicious person since he was a child, but the httyd books seem to like doing parallels a lot, so I wondered, what if Alvin was a boy a lot like Hiccup when he was very, very young? Smallish, soft, kind, and polite.
I think that would have gotten beaten out of him by living with the Outcasts, his horrible mother, and possibly the Outcast version of the Pirate Training Program.
From what it seems, every tribe has a version of the Pirate Training Program to train their youth. The Outcast Tribe is so violent and sadistic that its people were outcast from normal Viking society—a society where murder is justifiable, stealing is good fun, and slavery is simply a part of life. That gives you an idea of just how brutal the Outcast Tribe is. If you've been outcast by your tribe, you've pretty much already proven yourself. However, if you were born into the tribe, you would still need to prove yourself, as they don't seem like the kind of people to go easy on anyone.
I really can't theorize on what the Outcast initiation or training might look like, but the sky's the limit. Whatever dead-dove-do-not-eat, dark, grim, bloody scenario you can think of, I really wouldn't put anything past these people. All-out war. Maybe Alvin had friends who were kinder and weaker than the others, and he had to watch them get torn to absolute pieces. Maybe he even had to torture or kill them himself as part of the initiation into the tribe. Maybe cannibalism was involved. Why not? They already do it.
Then, in order to cope with what he's done, he adopts the persona of Alvin the Treacherous. Sometimes it can feel easier to just be a "bad person" rather than a person who did a bad thing, because then you have someone else to blame. It's not HIS fault he does what he does--he's evil; destiny made him evil; the Treacherous blood made him evil.
The more he sinks into this mustache-twirling, conniving villain, the easier all the hurt becomes to swallow. After years of pretending not to care, pretending to like violence to keep himself sane, eventually he starts to not care and enjoy it for real.
This could be part of the reason he hates Hiccup so much. Firstly, Hiccup would remind Alvin of a part of his past he tried to bury. Secondly, when they first meet, Alvin might be jealous of Hiccup's life, the life he desperatly wanted but never had. Sure, Hiccup gets bullied, but he has friends who aren't dead, a family who genuinely loves him, and a teacher who's--to a degree--actually concerned about his survival.
His hatred of Hiccup would only grow the more hardships Hiccup faces because, whereas Alvin's trials made him cruel, Hiccup only seemed to become kinder and more selfless as a result. Hiccup keeps winning without having to become monstrous, forcing Alvin to consider that maybe it didn't HAVE to be the way it was. Maybe it COULD have been better. Maybe he COULD have been better.
None of this excuses Alvin's actions, but it did give me some interesting perspective. As much as I do love Alvin being a simple, theatrical cartoon villain, it's fun, it is still interesting to consider alternative angles. The worst people in the world are still people, and I think that's the tragedy.
I'm really feeling Hiccup's "there were dragons when I was a boy" speech from the httyd books as someone who's been coming into adulthood in recent years. So much has physically, literally changed in the world since I was a kid. What tales of childhood might I tell when (if) I make it to 80?
"there were blue skies when I was a girl."
"there was enough food when I was a girl, even though it wasn't distributed."
"there were more types of bees than we could have ever hoped to know when I was a girl."
"there was coral when I was a girl."
"there was still time to reverse our trajectory when I was a girl. We could have still made different choices."
I don't want it to be any of these. But I'm scared. I'm so scared. I'm scared of looking back over my lifetime and seeing decades of loss; organisms and concepts that will only exist for the future generations in stories. Animals that could fade into legend and experiences so foreign and far removed as to be fantastical. Will our children or children's children wonder how we could ever take something so incredible as the american beech as anything other than wondrous? How will they mourn the slow drowning of their ancestral homelands? Will the devastation of unnatural disasters-- the fires and hurricanes and heat waves and droughts and floods just be weather to them? Will a time where those events were exceptional be more strange to them? Will they resent us, all of us, for not doing everything we could to ensure that they didn't inherit a maimed planet? How much magic and beauty and life and wonder will only be seen in retrospect?
If I have kids, I don't want this for them. I don't want frogs to occupy the same space as dinosaurs. And I'm trying. I'm fighting for a world where they won't. But I'm so scared and sometimes - most of the time - I have no idea what to do. And there's so much that's still worth fighting for. There's so much that we can save. And yet the fear that we won't, that we've already missed the boat, eats me alive.
I saw a post recently about the original httyd storyboards from when they followed the books more closely and thought I'd compile a list of the ones I know of in case anyone wants to see them or add to the list!
Forgive me, it is still 4 days before the official release and my brain is soup from being burnt out at work but I'm bursting to talk with anybody about the setup done in this book!!
My takeaways are the last few paragraphs (minus the very last long one under the ~squigglys~ which is sort of semi-unrelated babbling), as this is written reminiscent of a live read? And if you haven't already read this book yet,
DO NOT KEEP READING!! MAJOR SPOILERS
otherwise please come overanalyze this book with me!
First off, and extremely average day at school unfortunately for our boys. And the much anticipated boarding of spooky ship that I've been wondering about since I preordered this book in January.
I will tell you what though, Hiccup's previously unseen and never-before-mentioned Aunt Gladioli handcuffed to a small nervous man was not on my bingo card 🤣 and she is a BEAST.
'I LOVE her,' whispered Camicazi, with bright eyes, doing a little dance of delight... 'I love her, I love her, I LOVE her!'
I love her too, and I love how much Camicazi immediately loves and looks up to her 🥹🥹🥹
Stoick leaving a "gon fishin" note 😂💀 And another glimpse at the Haddock family tree! Since I think both books have had the family tree for us to reference i'm wondering if it will continue to be pretty prominent
Not much on King Thundermore. He is a King of the East, and I feel like that could be prominent based on that one short story
Hmmm another seemingly random assortment of specific and possibly destiny significant items you say? And Hiccups sword is made of the same metal you say? Hmmmmmmm
Hiccup hiding his library books on dragons from stoick under the bed 🥹 I'm glad he's using the library they worked so hard to have open, and I love that he's smuggling books on dragons into the house under stoicks nose
Fishlegs!! Fishlegs!! FISHLEGS!! We finally get to see Fishleg's home!! (I always thought it was strange that fishlegs was apparently literally raised by a dragon and it was only mentioned a couple times and never again?? And he doesn't speak dragonese either?) OH my gosh this is so cute, I love Mogger, I love all the babies rushing to hug Uncle Fishuggs, I love this snippet of his life coming home and hugging his family and preparing for the next adventure. This was too cute and I'm freaking out
The adventure was pretty bland? It's not the highlight of this book and I don't think it's meant to be. Weird windwalker fake out death tho?? It just sort of happened and then he was fine? It's sort of like, 'And then windwalker fell! Oh no! But then he was okay, and everyone was happy!' There is a big beautiful drawing of Camicazi catching hiccup by the hand, maybe the importance of this is to show she has his back or something? This book sort of feels like its written more like a kids book then usual somehow.
'Now that's true love, right there. One lettuce meets another lettuce, and what do you get? ...SALAD.' -Aunt Gladioli
Also Hiccup makes a promise to the flamestrike and my instant thought "a little early to start making kingly promises?" And now I'm wondering if that is the point? Hiccup gets into shenanigans and makes promises that he will fix it, and he fully intends to, but what happens when he makes promises he can't keep? How many promises will he make?
She's so iconic, I love her.
Aunt Gladioli, eyes twinkling, put her hand on Camicazi's shoulder. 'Take some advice from me, Camicazi. If you want to be a Woman of the Wind, it's a grand old life... But everyone isn't always going to like you for it. And that's just fine, as long as you follow your heart.'
First of all, based. Second, it seems this scene is the setup. We have King Thundermore and Petal, who are very in love and a salad, and we have Gladioli, an adventurous solitary 'Woman of the Wind'. And the prominence of "love is a bad business" returning as well at the ending toast "to love!" I feel cements it to me that this is going to be the arc of the story. We have two very different life tracks seemingly for Camicazi, and which will she choose?
Camicazi seems to really look up to Aunt Gladioli, and she took what Gladioli said to heart and is aspiring to be a future Woman of the Wind, even doing the last mission alone. If she does develop a crush at the end of book 12, would that make Hiccup her "enemy" to her self image of being a Woman of the Winds? And how would she react and how would she handle it?
If I'm being honest I've really been hoping my theory that "she will be your enemy one day" from the last book was just something cheeky. Like they aren't literally enemies, but "shell be your enemy one day...she will always leave her socks on the bathroom floor" type stuff. I'm still hoping for it.
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I'm not sure if anyone else feels this also, but I feel this book was written more like a childrens book then usual. I'm also an adult reading a childrens book so take that with an actual single grain of salt. I'm not entirely sure how to articulate what I'm saying, it just reads a lot more for young-uns then usual, where the writing is very simple and straight forward. There is not as much detail or depth. And our gang sort of feels like caricatures of themselves. Even in the og httyd book one I feel like there was more depth, like how real the bullying felt, how my heart sank to my shoes when the test goes horribly wrong and everyone is exiled, how real and relatable the feelings were when hiccup is walking to talk to the dragon for the first time and he's terrified but its somehow easier when you have no choice, etc. This series in general is more art heavy and the books themselves are works of art. I love how much artwork we get now, and we are spoiled rotten. We get so much detail and shading too. I love it so much, her artwork is a big part of what makes these books so special and its so peak in this one. I have been feeling though that these books 'need more WORDS'. I wish these books were longer, I know they are kids books and probably just the right size, but I wish I had more 😭😭 i want both worlds!!
** one afterthought, I wonder if the books are written younger because camicazi is younger and this is a camicazi storyline and perspective? The og books are written by an older hiccup, and have his voice, but this series doesn't say its written by him, so it could be camicazis voice. Less detail-oriented and more big picture and to-the-point? With literal big pictures?
Anyway this is the end, thank you to any who stuck it out and read all of this! Please share your thoughts on the new book! 🙏
Sometimes I hate writing fics because what if these characters I really love and obsess over are not at all actually like how I write them and I'm completely mischaracterising them for my own selfish and corruptive means does anyone else feel this way like I think about them too much to the point I begin unjustified extrapolation from the original material and the end result is just incorrect
Thoughts on Hiccup being "The last great Viking Hero"
When I first read that Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the last king of the Wilderwest and the last great Viking hero, I always thought that meant the Wilderwest fell apart after his death, unable to endure without a Hiccup at the helm, but that is admittedly a very pessimistic take.
Right now, I have a slightly more hopeful point of view. What if Hiccup was the last great Viking hero, not because no one else could ever be as great a hero as him, but because no one ever needed to be?
Despite the awesomeness of daring quests and clever plans, underneath it all, it were the suffering people who needed Hiccup. It is never wise to rest the fate of society on one person. Hiccup was an exception to this rule, though he chose to be the exception. He really was that fantastical good king who is wise, fair, and just. But a good king does not necessarily mean a good bloodline. Grimbeard the Ghastly hailed from Hiccup the First’s lineage, and yet the two could not be further apart. Hiccup knows that he cannot control what his descendants become.
I think that during his life, Hiccup phased out the monarchy, as he did with the dragons, in favor of a more republic/democratic system, where instead of there being one glorious hero tasked with saving everyone, problems were solved collectively, with each person doing their own small part.
This solution lacks the romance of the epic tales of heroes of old (which might explain the slightly wistful tone of the books)
Robin Hood peacefully filling out forms for state-provided aid to feed the poor and helping pass legislation that limits taxation on low-income individuals just does not hit the same as Robin Hood bravely robbing the greedy rich and challenging evil sheriffs to sword fights. Still, it is a much more realistic solution.
I don't think that this means that there weren't people who would step up in times of crisis. I think there were definitely heroes after Hiccup, but none to the degree that Hiccup had to be
It's really fun to think about how different putting movie!Hiccup and book!Hiccup into each other's universe would be because one of them will have an easier time adapting and thriving.
Movie!Hiccup almost dies in his first few hours there since he is trying to use hisverse logic to befriend the dragons, which the dragons at best see as insulting/condescending and at worst dehumanizing (does this word still apply if they ain't human?). After several near-death experiences, he realizes that the dragons here are different and are more intelligent. He adjusts accordingly, although I think he would also struggle with how much more brutal/cruel Viking society is here (runts and stuff like that).
Book!Hiccup would treat the dragons very well and gain their trust quickly (can he still communicate with them using Dragonese?). And the Vikings there aren’t as harsh as they are in his world; also, he wouldn't be the only skinny/not buff Viking, and he's a great swordfighter, so he'd be more appreciated.
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