I have a theory: since we never see Snotlout's mother, Spitelout never mentions her but Snotlout talks as if she's alive, could it be that she and Spitelout are no longer together? I know divorces were not a Viking thing, but then again neither were horned helmets... Maybe that's even the reason Gustav looks so much like Snotlout? What do you think?
Other discussion on Mrs. Jorgenson’s status.
You know, that’s a really interesting theory and one I don’t think I’ve heard before! I don’t think it’s a bad theory. XD It could work with some considerations. Personally I am more sold on the first part of your idea, that of Spitelout being separated from Snotlout’s mother, than on the idea it could potentially relate to Gustav Larson.
@dyannehs has written a really nice discussion of Viking divorce, which you can read here. Divorces certainly don’t seem to be a common Viking thing, but they could still happen. And, as you point out, it’s hardly like the HTTYD movies adhere to actual traditional Viking culture (they diverge sooo much). So it could be the case that Spitelout and Mrs. Jorgenson are no longer a couple. She’s certainly still alive since Snotlout talks about her in the present tense, but that might explain why she is never around.
One big thing to consider is that once-Mrs. Jorgenson would have had to divorce Spitelout very recently. In the first How to Train Your Dragon movie, Snotlout invites Astrid to work out in his parents’ basement - parents, plural. During the first movie, when Snotlout was around fifteen years old, his parents lived together and he lived with his parents. If the parents separated, it would have had to happen after the time of the first movie, potentially around the time when Snotlout was fifteen going on sixteen.
Still, it could explain why she’s not around. The absence of someone does not give us evidence for anything either way. It’s just an absence of knowledge, a black hole of information. But I think we all feel... weird... that Mrs. Jorgenson seems absent on matters which seem to be family-related and pertinent to Snotlout and Spitelout. In that sense, saying that Snotlout’s mother recently divorced Spitelout provides a little bit of that comfort for why she’s not around during so many important moments in Riders of Berk and Race to the Edge times.
Now if you want to add Gustav into the equation, situations get more complicated to explain. It couldn’t be the case that Gustav and Snotlout are half-brothers by their mother, given as that would have been found out right away and Gustav apparently grew up with a different family, last name Larson. If we wanted to postulate that Gustav and Snotlout have a convoluted family history with some drama involved, it would have to have been that they shared a father, Spitelout, and that a long, long, long time later, Mrs. Jorgenson would have picked up on the similarities of appearance and badgered the information out of her then-husband. It is possible. Her figuring it out about a dozen years after Gustav was born and then choosing divorce might not be as likely as her figuring it out with Gustav as an infant, though, and we know she was with Spitelout at least through the end of the first HTTYD movie.
With that finagling done, though, your idea isn’t contrary to canon and you can make it work.
It is to note none of the observations you make necessitate that Mrs. Jorgenson would be divorced or that Gustav and Snotlout are related. You can make it meld with canon but that’s because we just don’t have much evidence anywhere for anything. That’s okay, and it’s great if you like this idea and want to run with it. No reason not to, really!
If we want to think very critically about it, there are lots of possible alternate explanations that don’t posit Gustav and Snotlout as related and still make Mrs. Jorgenson a part of the Jorgenson household. The absence of evidence does not provide evidence for something else, so the fact we don’t see Mrs. Jorgenson doesn’t mean she’s not there in the Jorgenson household. The fact Gustav and Snotlout look a bit similar could be because Berk is a small island and is going to have a pretty limited genetics pool, because weird things happen and a lot of unrelated people somehow look uncannily like one another, or that they are more distantly related through some marriage further down the ancestry.
Personally I think it’s an interesting take to suggest that Mrs. Jorgenson and Spitelout aren’t together. I think that it could help us feel a lot less… weird… about the fact she’s never around and never brought up in family situations when she should be. I think that could be a decent route to go! I honestly sort of like it! I think it’s more shaky on the grounds of Gustav and Snotlout since everything would be so contorted, so I think that’s better not to postulate. Still, it’s your idea, there’s nothing wrong thinking it, and all we can do is speculate besides.
