I know you are probably very busy right now and That it has Been a While since the last time You have written a deviation drabble but what do you think would have happened if Stoick had decided to arrange a marriage between Astrid and Hiccup before starting his search for the dragons' nest at the beginning of the first movie to secure his son 's future if he doesn't survive the search? P.s: english isn't my first language so i apologise for eventual mistakes in my text
HTTYD Deviations
(yes, it has been a long, long while but a short bit of thinking on this brought me to a startling conclusion)
“You can’t stop him Stoick, you can only prepare him. I know it seems hopeless, but the truth is… you won’t always be around to protect him…”
The rest of Gobber’s words melt into the low din of the Mead Hall as his last, clear sentence rings again and again before Stoick’s mind’s eye. Hiccup wasn’t a one-and-done deal. He needed constant protection. He needed protection from himself. It was an investment. Gobber was right: Stoick wouldn’t always be around. And if he couldn’t protect Hiccup, who would? And how?
Gods knew the boy weren’t capable of protecting himself…
When Hiccup sneaks back inside—well after dusk—with his heart still erratic and out of sync with his breath, his clothes still stinking of the feral dragon’s breath, his mind unable to focus on a single, dizzying thought… it’s to a cold hearth and a dark home.
Somehow, he’s made it home before his father, and in his troubled state he only experiences a distant sense of relief from the subconscious acknowledgment. A dozen scenarios of uncomfortable (and inevitable) conversations had played in his mind for the entire trek back from the forest. All of which could be delayed while longer.
He tries to swing the door closed behind him but it stops short. A heavy hand lands on his shoulder.
Hiccup shrieks. A Very Viking short of shriek, of course.
“Son,” Stoick greets as he too steps into the house and sets about lighting the circular inglenook.
The events of that very morning rise up to both minds, and both men swallow the discomfort back. Too much has happened to each and neither is willing to drudge up old arguments at the moment.
The room flares to life. Hiccup hastily wipes pine needles from his tunic as Stoick takes off his helmet and smooths his hair.
Hiccup is almost suspicious with how long his father spends settling his Chief’s cloak on his favorite chair, patting the matted fur with thick fingers. His great beard jostles each time he opens his mouth and nothing comes out. Something is up.
“Son,” Stoick finally manages. “we need to talk.”
Orange light dances over his quiet and steady voice, and Hiccup is set on edge.
He steels himself. “Yeah, I have something to say too…”
A pause. Both men wait for the other to start.
“It’s time you—”
“I don’t want—”
They both stop again.
“Go on,” Stoick encourages.
“No, you go first,” Hiccup insists. A decision, weeks from now, he’ll continue to regret.
Stoick takes another minute gathering his words. He takes long enough that Hiccup’s ready to just declare his choice to abstain from dragon fighting altogether. But when Stoick finally speaks, the words are enough to knock Hiccup’s breath from him.
“Astrid’s a promising young lass…”
“Uh…” Hiccup has quite a few other words outside of promising to describe Astrid Hofferson. “Uh—yeah. I mean, I hadn’t noticed. Not really. I have—obviously. Not obviously, but, you know, objectively—” He manages to stop himself knowing his traitorous mouth hadn’t a conclusion on the horizon.
Stoick wets his lips. “Hiccup…you’re fifteen now. You can’t take care of yourself. Not like you should.”
Hiccup does and doesn’t appreciate the startling topic change. “Dad–”
“Let me finish, son.”
Hiccup bites his tongue, but anger makes his jaw ache with the restraint. His father takes another breath.
“I don’t get you, but I do love you. I want to secure a future for you.” Stoick pauses. Then perseveres. “That’s why I’ve arranged a marriage.”
Hiccup manages to choke on nothing but Berk’s saline air. “Y-you what?”
“I’ve just come from the Hoffersons—”
“DAD!”
“—And me and Astrid’s father have arranged a betrothal.”
Impossibly, Hiccup’s legs feel weaker than they had hours earlier having survived a Night Fury up close. He grips the railing to the loft stairs. “Wh-what? Whoa–wait! Wait, wait–”
“The Hoffersons are strong people. Good people. And she’s a strong lass. She’ll be a good chieftess, if nothing else, and she’ll protect you–”
Hiccup’s gripping his hair hard enough to cause pain he’s unable to feel.
“What is this? You can’t be serious!”
“Should I not come back—”
Hiccup can’t breathe. Now there’s two things he can’t fathom being shoved into his reality.
“Dad, stop!”
They argue into the evening and, as usual, Hiccup feels like he’s screaming into a bodiless night where no one can hear him. Not only is he to attend dragon training in the morning, but to do it with his betrothed.
The Night Fury seems a lifetime ago, and in his troubled thoughts that night not even the childish glee of being married to Astrid Hofferson could stave a growing sense of dread.
Hiccup came into the house playing out a dozen uncomfortable conversations and their outcomes. He never accounted for the thirteenth.
The most abled Vikings leave on the morn for one last Nest Hunt before a bitter winter makes it impossible. Hours later, the newest recruits Berk has to offer begin their training.
Its more brutal than Hiccup could have imagined.
Astrid had clearly been… informed. She probably got the same short notice and the same amount of sleep as Hiccup had, and it showed. She snarls at him. Makes a point of knocking him down any chance she gets. Snotlout’s crowing and Gobber’s sharper with her than usual, but Hiccup gets the message: he doesn’t belong. Not in dragon training and not with her.
It drives him to the Night Fury. To the cove. To the reckless project of getting close to a dragon.
Dragon training commences and Hiccup slowly succeeds in the most unlikely ways as he applies his learnings with Toothless to the arena. He appears breathless and happy most days; windswept and bright eyed. And nervous. Withdrawn from Berk herself.
When Hiccup starts beating Astrid in training, she’s not only bewildered and suspicious and jealous. She’s angry. Every person she overhears singing her betrothed praises earns a personal black mark.
The boy she’s going to have to marry and tolerate, for a short while, at least, is doing something… underhanded. It’s all she knows. It’s not right. It doesn’t make sense. She’s hell bent on proving what he is: a fraud. Her efforts are doubled when he humiliates her in the final exam.
A humiliation made worse—far worse—when just the evening before the returned warriors announce their betrothal. The ribbing that followed… the congratulations, the expectations of the two most “skilled” warriors uniting… it felt like a lie. A fake smile. A weak reputation.
She couldn’t stand it. She’d been willing to marry Hiccup for duty and Berk and the leap in status—that’s why she agreed when her father and the chief sat her down four weeks ago on the eve of their voyage—but this wasn’t her.
When Astrid manages to follow Hiccup straight to the dragon he had been harboring the truth is both vindicating and horrifying. Hiccup’s crying for her to wait and listen and Astrid makes a split decision on what and who she’s more loyal to: It’s Berk. It’s always been Berk.
She runs.
She’s grabbed.
She’s forced on a flight with her betrothed. She’s forced to wait and listen and gods above she’ll remember that flight with a small, fond smile until her dying day.
Because that’s the twist here…dear readers who have read this far.
HTTYD would end exactly as it did except with an obvious reason for Astrid’s cheek-kiss and fast-track romance: they were betrothed the whole time. In the back of her mind, Astrid had been steeling herself for this. Been trying to make excuses for and about Hiccup whilst wrestling with anger at him for being… him. The second she saw a glimpse of a man she could spend her life with, she jumped on it. She embraced it. She chose to support this future for Berk and chose to romance him at the same time because they were going to be married anyway.
Thank you @nerusofrin for FINALLY finding an explanation for that rush of character. Just in time for the third installment ;)
Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion (bonus points if you include a topic)
Valka is a BETTER character because she abandoned her son. That doesn’t make her a better PERSON. That doesn’t mean HTTYD 2 did a perfect job portraying the moral issues of her choice leaving her family. That doesn’t mean HTTYD 2 did a perfect job did a perfect job going into the emotional complexities family members would have reuniting with her. But it DOES make her more complex and more interesting to see on screen, and I LOVE her for it. I like Valka BECAUSE she has that shit on her. And I think that taking that away from Valka would have made her more bland to see on screen - we need that imperfect, intricate human, regardless of whether or not you like her or connect with her or can tolerate the choices she’s done.
Of course everyone has their own opinions about why they do or don’t like Valka, and those are valid! Have those opinions, all cool! I understand why people hate seeing a mother on screen who left her son. At the same time... I do find the observation fascinating: I don’t see a lot of societal fury whenever a father figure who’s abandoned his son appears in media. You’ll get fans grumpy at what the bad dad did to their favorites, but nothing like what I’ve seen against Valka. We’re used to male parents being presented that way in media, we aren’t used to female parents being presented that way in media, and ergo Valka gets more fire. This is just an observation, not a moral implication for anything, but it is... interesting... to observe.
Am i the only one who disliked the way THW handled Gobber? Considering the first two movies presented him as Stoick's right-hand man, it is a bit jarring that Valka suddenly declared that Stoick always led Berk alone. I fell like the movie once again embraced the idea that romantic love is superior to friendship, considering it seemed that the only reason why Stoick ruled alone was because unlike Hiccup he didn't have the love of his life near to him (nevermind the fact Valka abandoned him)
Oh, Gobber, what did they do to you? He comes into the plot as a big gross mouthpiece for Dean himself – a gay man loudly telling Hiccup and Astrid that they should hang up their saddles, give up their important work that they’re incredibly passionate about, and settle down into conventional, traditional marital life. I’d never even thought about the “Stoick ruled alone” bit, but you’re absolutely right. Stoick didn’t have his wife, but he was never alone for a minute before this movie came along and informed us that friends don’t count and if you think they do you’re immature and wrong.
(Also, it’s a comparatively minor thing I guess, but I hate how inconsistent he is to the point of sheer hypocrisy. One minute he’s saying “The sooner he brings back that Light Fury, the better!”, the next he’s laughing at Hiccup for being concerned that Toothless still hasn’t come back yet.)
In the end, he’s a cheap tool for Dean’s beloved cliffside goodbye ending. Just like everyone and everything else in this travesty.
I know you have already written a similar deviation, but how do you Think the events of THW would have happened if Hiccup had been the one killed by Toothless rather than Stoick in the second movie ?
So… Dead!Hiccup AU actually moves forward into THW and past its timeline:
Part I | Part II | Part III | Legacy | Toothless’ side
But lets see how well they merge:
Toothless still becomes Alpha.
Stoick is still chief. He has Valka and Astrid and Eret (at Astrid’s insistence) and Berk still hosts dragons. They do things that Hiccup would have wanted, to honor him, but they don’t lead like he leads. They free dragons—Valka spearheads that constant mission—but they don’t hoard them.
They release them from the warlords’ grip.
“If they’ve got any sense, they’ll find that Hidden World,” Stoick would rumble. Valka would rub his shoulder fondly. She never disabuses Stoick of the Hidden World theory, nor does she encourage it. She quietly hopes he’s right.
Stoick is more focused on fighting humans than saving dragons. He sees the warlords as the root of the problem. He also knows Berk doesn’t have the army or resources to take them on. His wife and the most skilled dragon fliers take the lead with saving dragons from humans, but Stoick works on negotiating alliances, old and new. If they get enough strength in allies then maybe---maybe---they could take on the warlords.
Of course, old wounds run deep. It doesn’t go well.
Astrid frowns every time she hears Stoick talk of the Hidden World. She doesn’t believe in it. She sees an endless cycle of catch and release.
Then there’s the issue of pregnancy. Astrid is pregnant in Dead Hiccup AU. She clearly wasn’t pregnant in THW... though perhaps that’s a choice she made during the year between movies. Who knows what kooky dragon oil/remedies they have for abortions? Or a flying accident. Or a training accident. Something might have gone different with Hiccup around...
... Anyway, without Hiccup, dragons are around for a much longer time, but also suffer at the hands of humans for much, much longer.
Perhaps Stoick makes some headway with alliances. First the Bogs. Then the Visithugs. Then the Meatheads. It takes years---decades---to incorporate dragons into the lives of other communities. And they can’t always be monitored. They can’t always stop the abuses that happen behind closed doors... Vikings that can’t unsee, unexpirience, what they had at the jaws and claws of dragons...
Garik does a better job of it. He always had his father’s charisma.
I just wanted to tell you that you are probably going to love how The Hidden World handles the romance between Astrid and Hiccup: not only it is shown as a really sweet and mature relationship, but it Also proves Astrid's evolution as a character from the first movie.
AHHhHHHH haha well... that may very well be true. But then my brand of “Loving Hiccstrid” hasn’t always been kosher with the fandom. Namely my need to “fix” its poor handling... which I find fun. I may just find something to criticizes. Fair warning. I’m excited by either, tbh :D
Regarding the rating of the tropes: "Even evil has loved ones" and "Depraved Bisexual".
Even Evil has Loved Ones
No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |
I feel like this should be a staple for villains. For the purpose of painting a broader picture, not for ignoring their shit actions *side-eyes snape*
Depraved Bisexual
No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |
I love depravity and bisexuals, and you’d think both would be great, but isn’t this a trope where the only way they used to get bisexuality into media was through connecting it with bad people. You know, “if I’m loose on my morals then I’m obviously loose on moral sexual identity?”. That’s a pretty negative association.
I apologise for bothering you,but i have seen your post about a New HTTYD tv series and i wanted to know more. If it isn't a problem, could you please tell me more about it or what is your source?
Honestly, I don’t remember where I had heard it. I think it was here on Tumblr somewhere. Someone had a link. Wish I could be of more help.
