Dragon Rider Relationships #1
So, Imma create a different post for each relationship or group of relationships I can find in the shows that I enjoy, or the relationship between a dragon rider and a non dragon rider. These are not all romantic, few of them are, but rather show the family like dynamic between the How to Train Your Dragon and Race to The Edge characters.
Number 1: Fishlegs and the Thorsten twins
I just love the family like bond between these three, almost like a father/twin children relationship. If you haven’t noticed, during battle Fishlegs tends to look out for these two the most. In one Episode-I believe ‘Edge of Disaster’ though it might’ve been ‘Wings of War Part 1′-One of the dragon flyers are going after Ruffnut and Tuffnut who are going after two other dragon flyers riding two Singtails, one red and one green, just to help you remember the scene. After Snotlout gets one flyer off of Fishlegs’ back, Fishlegs immediately goes after the twins. When one of the flyers is about to shoot them from behind, Fishlegs suddenly looks very angry and stern-an expression you don’t see unless he’s fighting for Meatlug, captive dragons (When saving them from the arena in ‘Strike Out’ he’s very angry looking as he says “Dragon fighting, I’ll show you dragon fighting”), or in the episode ‘Thor Bonecrusher’ when he gains more confidence-and says in a protective tone of voice “Oh no you don’t” before protecting the twins and shooting the flyer. He gets easily angry with them a lot of the time, but it’s almost more like a father scolding two children than an enemy getting upset with an enemy, like when Hiccup gets upset with Snotlout for something he said out of term, he scolds them but doesn’t grow to dislike them.
Another thing I love, is Fishlegs actually trained Meatlug to specifically get the twins out of serious situations. In the end of the episode ‘Follow the Leader’, and a few other times in other episodes in later seasons of the series ‘Race to The Edge’, Fishlegs will point with his ax, sword, or hand and say “Meatlug, Twins!” and she knows exactly what to do. Some people might assume Meatlug just knows the riders and knows how to save people, but every time this ‘move’ happens, she grabs Ruff and Tuff the same way protectively in either of her claws, even if Fishlegs isn’t riding her, and will always do it the second he says to even if Fishlegs is fighting elsewhere. He has taught Meatlug to get Ruffnut and Tuffnut using a specific signal, “Meatlug, Twins!” Rather than saying “Meatlug, grab Ruffnut” or “Meatlug, get them out of there.” like he might to get her to grab one of the others. This is a specific signal, like Hiccup and Toothless with their mastered hand signals, because Fishlegs prioritizes the Thorsten twins’ safety who tend to forget how to keep themselves safe in dangerous situations, sometimes seemingly more than the others do, though Hiccup is definitely the second top protector of them in my opinion. Overall, I love the almost father/teenage-child relationship between these three.
They’re not on Berk anymore where the twins can get away with all of their pranks and adventuring wherever they want (when they decided to travel the obviously dangerous Whispering Death tunnels under Berk, or when they could all come and go from Berk whenever they pleased for training exercises, something they can’t do on Dragon’s Edge because someone has to be there to guard it) so Fishlegs knows Ruffnut and Tuffnut need some sort of an authoritative or parental figure, and he’s the best man for the job as he’s always been friends with them, knows how they work. He’s a very gentle person, unless you’re messing with his twins. Considering the way Ruff and Tuff speak of their family at times, it doesn’t seem like they really have a specific guardian figure, why as Fishlegs speaks of his mom, Astrid has parents around according to ‘A Team’ when their house was destroyed, we know Hiccup has Stoick, and Snotlout talks about both a mother and a father, but the twins only really speak of aunts, uncles, and others who were killed by some freak accident or battle-even saying in ‘A Gruff Situation’ “Most Thorstens don’t even live that long so if you MAKE IT to 19, it’s a pretty big deal”-or they use the phrase ‘used to tell us’ as in not around anymore. For all we know, Fishlegs and the others could be their only real close family, so for Fishlegs to take on this almost parental role could be a life saver in some future situation, and I LIVE for it.
