#dragons analysis

[shadowheartwolf2]

The fandom’s hatred for Vhagar makes absolutely no sense and it’s mostly just double standards. They completely ignore how the dragon-rider bond actually works. The dragons don’t care about spoken words; they reflect their rider’s deepest, most primal emotions.

Aemond carried years of trauma, bullying (the pink dread pig incident), and the loss of his eye. The moment he saw Luke at Storm's End, his suppressed hatred and thirst for revenge suffocated his common sense. Vhagar didn't hear Aemond yelling "No, Vhagar! Serve me!"—she felt the overwhelming dark malice radiating from him. To her, Luke was a mortal enemy. When a terrified Arrax snapped and blew fire into Vhagar's face, her 180 years of war instincts kicked in. In her ancient mind, a challenge is an all-out fight to the death. Aemond's subconscious hatred combined with Vhagar's battlefield reflexes created a monster he couldn't control. It was a tragedy, not a cold-blooded murder by a "evil" dragon.

Rook’s Rest was not a defenseless hunt; it was a voluntary, open military engagement.Rhaenys flew into battle with the explicit intent to burn the Green army to ashes. Vhagar and Sunfyre intervened to protect their forces.In a dragon war, there is no second place. If Vhagar hadn't killed Meleys, Meleys would have killed her. Vhagar won simply because she was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. Using the element of surprise and brute force is completely legitimate in war.

People are only mad because Rhaenys was a beloved, badass character and her death hurt. If Meleys had ripped Vhagar’s throat out in the exact same brutal fashion, the fandom would be cheering and making edits celebrating the victory. We loved Vhagar when she was with Laena because Laena was peaceful, so Vhagar flew playfully alongside Caraxes and mourned her rider with heartbreaking grief. Vhagar isn't evil; she is a dragon tied to a deeply traumatized, angry young man. She is the last living remnant of Aegon’s Conquest.

[queenofthearchipelago]

It's so sad and fascinating how people talk about Spitelout's character now versus when the show was coming out.

When the seasons were still new and being released, we talked about Spitelout as a man who made many mistakes. He had a son whom he gave very bad advice to many times. He failed to see how much his son looked up to him and so he didn't see how he almost abused that loyalty. He had a bit of a thirst for power and taught it to his son, despite his son having something better than leverage, Snotlout had genuine friendship with the men who had power over him.

Spitelout failed in so many ways. He made so many mistakes. And they were all so incredibly understandable. Crazy, but understandable.

Because we knew that Spitelout grew up in a war torn world where he adopted philosophies for life that were harmful as a way to cope. And when that war torn world disappeared, he didn't know how to change his parenting style to better suit it. And so Snotlout had to deal with living in a better world, with peace with dragons and friends who love him and balance that with his father's Old World advice and healing from it. And we did watch and sympathize with Snotlout as he struggled to do that.

He struggled, but he loved his father. Snotlout, in the end, understood Spitelout in all these ways. That's why the end of Snotlout's arc with his father is literally just showing us that Snotlout can hear his father's bad advice, ignore it because he knows better, and just keep loving him as best he can.

But now? Now I'm seeing the fandom talk of Spitelout like he's Evil incarnate. Like he was just like that for No Reason. It takes such depth out of a good character. Not good as in a character who is a morally good example. But good as in extremely, consistently complex.

Spitelout is the character in this franchise who never truly healed. There was much he couldn't unlearn and yes it caused hurt. He struggled to change his philosophies. But you know what he did do?

He stopped killing the dragons.

Spitelout, for all his failings, was better than Mildew. Mildew who was forever bitter and hateful of the dragons. He was better than Alvin, who held a grudge for decades and was still willing to kill for them. Better than Dagur, who loves the power and the sport of it so much that he didn't care that there was a better world to live in. Better than Viggo, who wanted to corrupt the concept of training the dragons to build an empire built up on their deaths.

Spitelout failed so MUCH, and yet he was better. He loved his son as best as he could, as best as he knew how. And he saw Hiccup and Stoick structure Berk into a better world and he allowed it. He never stood in the way and he WANTED that better world. Fought for it side by side with his son.

And Snotlout knew all of this, understood it, and, in the unconditionally complex way that only a son can, loved his father.

[shadowheartwolf2]

I’ve seen some people arguing that we shouldn't complain about Viserion and Rhaegal’s deaths if we accept Vermax’s, because "they were all just killed by ballistas/projectiles anyway." ​Let’s clear this up once and for all, because the execution, the scaling, and the realism between these scenes are lightyears apart. Here is why Vermax’s death actually made narrative and physical sense, while GoT completely botched the other two.

​First of all, Viserion and Rhaegal were massive, thick-scaled dragons. Vermax in Season 3 was still relatively young and small. Vermax was roughly the size of Drogon back in Season 5 during the Daznak’s Pit fight. Remember how Drogon was seriously injured just by regular, hand-thrown spears from the Sons of the Harpy? If regular spears can hurt a dragon of that size, it is 100% realistic that a massive, mechanically powered ballista bolt would do devastating damage to Vermax. He simply didn't have the heavy, armor-like scales that older dragons possess yet.

The circumstances of the shots are completely different. Vermax was flying incredibly low, right into the danger zone. On top of that, he was completely distracted and caught off guard (partially due to the chaos/Sheepstealer), meaning he couldn’t maneuver or react in time. He was an easy, close-range target. Viserion and Rhaegal were flying at bird’s-eye view—insanely high up in the clouds. Yet, the Night King threw an ice spear with the precision of a railgun, and Euron Greyjoy shot Rhaegal from miles away from a rocking boat, through a mountain, with 100% accuracy. It felt cheap because it was mathematically ridiculous.

​When Bronn shoots Drogon with Qyburn’s massive Scorpion ballista, Drogon is already huge and heavily armored. The bolt pierces him, causing immense pain and forcing him to land because he can no longer fly properly. He doesn't die. He survives the hit because a dragon of that size shouldn't just drop dead from one projectile. ​So if a massive Drogon was grounded but survived, how did Rhaegal (who was a similar size) get instantly "one-shot killed" from miles away? It makes zero sense. Meanwhile, Vermax being grounded by a ballista fits perfectly with how Drogon reacted in Season 7—except Vermax was way smaller, making the crash far more fatal.

Drogon wasn't even far away. He was flying straight towards Bronn and the Scorpion, closing the distance himself in a direct line of sight. It makes perfect aerodynamic sense that Bronn could line up a shot and hit a massive target flying directly at him.

The way the dragons reacted to getting hit is what makes Vermax’s death so much more grounded. Rhaegal was sniped out of the sky and died instantly in the air. Viserion died the exact second he hit the water. It was written as an instant "one-shot kill" to shock the audience.

Vermax, however, didn't die from the impact of the bolt itself. The shot severely injured him, destroying his ability to fly. His death was a tragic sequence of physics: he lost control, crashed, and ultimately, his official cause of death was drowning/suffocation.

Vermax’s death worked because it respected the dragon's actual size, vulnerability, and the laws of gravity. Viserion and Rhaegal were treated like giant clay pigeons just to move the plot along.

[queenofthearchipelago]

Rtte is a really interesting time if you think about it in terms of how that was the only chapter of Hiccup's life where he was a leader in war. Like yes, the Drago thing happened, and that lasted like two days. And the Grimmel thing happened and that wasn't really a war and it lasted like a week. Rtte was Hiccup against Viggo and Krogan and Johann and it lasted several months. Like, in terms of Hiccup's whole life that we knew about, Hiccup was a peaceable and understanding leader. And it's further interesting to see the difference in how Stoick was chief, a man who had to fight a war nearly the entire time, and Hiccup, who picked his battles wisely and ultimately spent most of his time as a leader in peace.

And this is partly why Homecoming is so precious to me, where Hiccup is a soft leader. Like at first viewing I was like this is a bit odd but then I think of how Hiccup hasn't seen a battle for ten years at that point, and the time I was with him that I cherished the most were those years on the edge, where he was leading a war against dragon hunting.

And it's further interesting to rewatch rtte and think about which bits of Hiccup's relationships with the other riders and members of Berk are permanent. As in, Hiccup during rtte was strong and capable, and his friends respect him and there are whole episodes dedicated to each of them wanting to prove themselves to Hiccup and gain his respect. Rtte spent the time to develop each character with Hiccup so we knew what each relationship was like. And I love thinking about how that's stable for Hiccup. Like in Homecoming he's gonna be soft because he doesn't need to be stronger, because it's peacetime. His friends will remember the rtte years, and they will remember all that Hiccup went through and they will know that they owe their lives to this man who never left them behind when it got hard. And they will respect him ten years later just as they did in rtte. And I think that's so beautiful. I realize Homecoming was short and there wasn't much to go on, but Hiccup never once received actual disrespect (I realize the Stoick thing is a thing, and I have different thoughts on that) but it was just regular dragon rider banter and fun.

I'm so happy Hiccup's happy and I love rewatching the hardest battles and thinking about how it was there that Hiccup built these relationships that will last him a lifetime, so far beyond earning their love and respect that everyone tries to earn his instead.

Ah, I rant and I don't know if I make sense, but I hit post anyway.

[queenofthearchipelago]

When Toothless didn't recognize Hiccup in the epilogue I was thrown for a bit but then Toothless remembered him and then I remembered

"I looked at him, and I saw myself"

There is no world in which Toothless would not recognize Hiccup because there is no world in which that dragon would not have recognized himself.

A soul that reflects his own.