thinking about how valka's story doesn't make sense again,
like, so iirc valka was taken from berk when hiccup was a baby, during a raid by the dragons under the control of the red death, by cloudjumper who is a dragon and should have then fed her to the red death
but instead of being fed to the red death she was taken to the bewilderbeast????
My main opinions on Valka when I really boil them down come to this:
Super cool character concept, love the dragon lady thing she’s got going on, there’s so many aspects to her character that truly make her interesting to me
Awful mother who was forgiven for 20 years of abandonment way too easily. Would love to have seen a more complicated mother-son relationship take place
Canon in httyd 2 can’t seem to decide if she’s brave or a coward
Valka sat on the floor of the cavern that served as her home looking at the scene in front of her with a small smile.
Her smile was a bittersweet one though.
It had been two month now since her raid on that dragon hunters' base and that she had rescued that young man (even if they had been too late).
Once they had arrived back at the Sanctuary, Valka had Cloudjumper brought the young man to the hot springs so she could properly cleaned him up because, even if he stayed unresponsive, the older woman had wanted to give him back as much as dignity as she could. For he hadn't deserved to be treat the way like he had been. As if he had been a mere toy, an object, to be use and discard afterwards.
So she had cleaned him up thoroughly but gently, only hesitating a little before doing his intimate parts but, like every time since she had freed him, he just stared ahead.
When she had finished with the rest of the body, she had started to clean his head and face. Usually she would have start there but, with how his lower body had been abused, she had preferred to begin there.
So she had been slowly cleaning his head when she had spotted something on the right side of his chin.
A small but peculiar scar.
Valka will never forget the cry of anguish she had let out (and causing quite the panic among the dragons who heard her). Or how she taken him in her arms and cradled him tightly, apologising again and again. And how he had stayed completely apathetic all the while.
For it hadn't been any boy in her arms.
No, it was her baby boy.
The one she had left behind and had thought, during all those years, had been safe on their tiny island, away from all this madness.
Except that, by some irony from the Norms, her son, her little Hiccup had unknowingly followed in her footsteps only to pay a heavy price for it.
After a moment, she had dried her tears and had finished to clean him and dry him up before dressing him in basic but comfortable clothes and put him to bed.
Valka had stayed with him until he fall asleep (which had taken some time) and, while doing so, she had made herself a promise.
Initially, she had simply planned to make him comfortable, just enough for him to live on at least but...
Knowing who the young man truly was had ignited a fire in her.
She needed to try to bring him back.
So she had.
Everything she never had the chance to teach him when he had been a baby: how to eat, how to take a bath, how to relieve himself on his own, all the little things, she taught him again.
And while a part of her had been happy at this opportunity to do what she never got to share with him, it has also been extremely painful to do it.
Because her baby boy, her Hiccup, wasn't a baby anymore. He was a twenty years old grown man.
If anything, he should have been the one doing all of this with his own child right now. Except he will never be able to now.
It had been slow process but her efforts had paid off.
Hers and the dragons.
Valka still remembered the small smile that had sneaked in on his face as the dragons had came to greet him when she had taken him to see the main part of the Sanctuary and, how it had become wider, at the hatchlings' antics.
But he never talked or laughed or, even uttered the simplest sound.
Then there had been that one night.
She had been restless and having a hard time falling asleep so she had gotten up to drink a little and, when she had made a way back, she had caught a glimpse of him hiding further away.
"Hey there Sweetheart. You can come don't worry." She had said half bending down to reassure him which worked as Hiccup stepped out of his hiding place and came closer. Her heart broke at his tear-strained face quickly guessing why he was awake or had came to her room.
"You had a nightmare didn't you ?" A small nod. "Do you... Do you want to stay with me ?" Another more hesitant nod but she smiled. "Come on then." She said holding out her hand which Hiccup took before she led him to her bed and once settled, he buried himself into her side.
After that, Hiccup had taken to sleep with her most of the time which had seemed to help. She had also made him a dragon toy like the one he had when he had been a baby, though she had let him choose which species it would be. She had been quite surprised when, instead of picking one of the Sanctuary's dragons, he had given her a drawing of the dragon he had wanted including it's name.
(It had clearly indicated a connection between the two but, considering the conditions she found Hiccup in, she hadn't dared to think or ask about the poor creature's fate.)
Said toy was currently on the ground next to Hiccup who was lying down on his stomach, his legs dangling in the air, and drawing away to his heart's content.
And that was why her smile was bittersweet.
While Hiccup had recovered a little, his behaviour was more like that of a five-year child than of a twenty years old man.
Valka didn't know for sure what was the reason beyond it.
Maybe his mind had latched onto her show of motherly affection and had created an innocent and childlike persona to protect him from the horrors he had went through, said horrors only slipping through during his nightmares while he was sleeping.
It was the main reason she still hadn't told him who she truly was.
She didn't want to destroy the fragile balance they had managed to build. And part of her was afraid of learning of what else she may discover, of what other cruel things might have been done to it.
She still remembered clearly her old tribe's stance on dragons or those who sympathises with them. No had she forgotten her son's missing left leg. The scarring on the stump hinted that the injury was several years old which meant they had been cruel enough to inflict such pain on a child.
But maybe, one day, she would. If he got better.
(If he even got better.)
Valka felt a small tug on her arm and she focused back to see her son in front of her shyly offering her his drawing.
Smiling she took it only to gasp at its' content.
It was a simple drawing of her, Hiccup and Cloudjumper but it was what he had written above which attract her attention.
Me & Mummy & Cloudjumper
Me & Mummy
She looked back at him and saw he looked downcast, most likely thinking he had upset her somewhat.
Her heart swelling with joy and love, she cupped his head gently and gave him a wide smile.
"I love it Sweetheart."
She watched him smile in turn, clearly relieved and he snuggled into her arms with her hugging him back.
Maybe it wasn't important if she didn't tell him the end.
Warnings: References to non-con, nudity and dehumanisation
Valka was speeding through the tunnels of the hunter's base trying to keep with the angry dragon in front of her while not thinking of the mess, for the lack of a better word, outside.
To be fair, taking over the Hunters' base had quite easy.
Even if one of their leaders had appeared to be one of Drago's lieutenants, they clearly hadn't expected her, or the King of her nest, to attack them and thus, they hadn't opposed much resistance.
And now, she was chasing after the reason they were here in the first place.
Five days ago, a Skrill of all dragons had turned up at the Sanctuary heavily exhausted and injured. It had taken four days before the Strike Class dragon was strong enough to tell them what happened to her and why she needed their help.
To be honest, Valka had a hard time believing at first.
Another human, but also another viking, seeing dragons for the sentients and gentle creatures for who they truly were ? It had seemed far-fetched. But Skrills were Strike Class dragons. And Strike Class were the most intelligent dragons to be known thus making them the hardest dragons to bond with and to get the loyalty of.
Valka heard a whine coming from the Skrill ahead of her and she quickened her pace until she arrived in a massive cavern only to freeze at the entrance.
She didn't even notice her staff slipping out of her hand as she could nothing but stared at the sight in front of her.
In the twenty years she had been freeing dragons, Valka had seen countless of the poor creatures trapped in such contraceptions. But never. Oh Thor never would she have imagined seeing a human trapped into one.
She heard the Skrill whined again and went to the dragon's side while removing her helmet at the same time. The dragon was nuzzling her head with the head of the young man trapped.
Fearing the worst, Valka put some her fingers on his neck and she sighed in relief when she found a heartbeat. It was faint but it was there.
Carefully, she lifted his head and let out an actual growl when she saw the disgusting muzzle they had forced him to wear. But what upset her the most was his eyes.
There was no light, no glint, no life in them.
He was just staring ahead as if there was no one, or nothing, there. That when it dawned on her.
They were too late.
Those monsters had broken him and there was no going back. Nothing to save anymore.
The Skrill cried mournfully, having come to the same conclusion as her.
Valka raised a hand and gently stroke the young man's auburn hair.
"Oh sweetheart ! I'm so sorry for what they did to you. But it's over now. You are safe."
Valka knew there wasn't much hope for the young man (in a cruel way death would probably be kinder) but that didn't mean she was simply going to abandoned him.
Gently, she loosened the muzzle before removing it and then moved to unfasten the many chains and buckles tying the young man down.
When she reached his legs, Valka tried very hard not to stare at how his legs (well his one leg and half since his left left had been clearly chopped off below the knee) had been spread out as much as possible, as well as all the dried blood and sperm on his lower body and below it. All of them, obvious signs of the continuous abuse the poor boy (for he still was a boy) had suffered.
During all of it, the young man never moved once or said anything. Even now she was done and he wasn't restrained in any form, he stayed still.
Valka removed her cape and drafted it around the young man's body in an effort to give him back a little bit of dignity. He had been deprived enough of it in the last five days as it was.
Then, she tenderly picked him up and gathered him in her arms (and yet there was no reaction).
As she made her way back outside where Cloudjumper, the King and the rest of the dragons who came to help were waiting, the Skrill following her with her staff in her mouth, her mind drifted back to the choice she had made all those years ago.
Valka had often wondered if she had made the correct one by staying away from her old home.
She had never thought of it as the right choice as, in her mind, neither choice had been right since, no matter what decision she would made there will be sorrow and grief anyway.
And she had rationalised that, had she gone back to Berk, there would be higher risk of something going wrong and someone getting hurt.
But, as she gazed at the small and unmoving form in her arms. That of a young man who had barely had the chance to grow and truly live and enjoy life before it was ripped away from him...
She was starting to believe she may have made the right one after all.
Soon, she was outside and she watched as her long-time friend came close only to croon sadly when he noticed the shape in her arms and the condition of the young man. A sentiment that was echo by all the other dragons, even the King, when they realised their rescue was unsuccessful.
Carefully, Valka moved the young man to Cloudjumper's back before joining him and cradled him into her arms once more.
Her dragon gave her a look she didn't understand before taking flight, the others trailing behind.
As they made their way back home, Valka cradled him closer, stroking his hair gently while whispering in his ear.
"I don't know if you can hear me little one but I am taking you somewhere where you will be safe. Somewhere among the dragons you love so much. Away from the cruelty of men. Who punish you for daring to think differently than them.
I don't know if you will ever recover from what they did to you but knows that, where we are going, the dragons will take care of you as one of their own.
The movie version, Valka, who got kidnapped by dragons and just...didn't come back. Our queen, our icon, our Mother of Dragons.
Then we got the book version.
Vallhallarama The Mighty, who is off questing 85% of the time. She, wife of Stoick The Vast Oh Hear His Name And Tremble Ugh Ugh (yes, that's how his name is written in the book).
And yes, her name is actually Vallhallarama. And yes, her armor does look like that.
I don't remember the color of her hair (if the book says it at all) but here's my interpretation.
