asphodeline-lutea

[asphodeline-lutea]

my biggest pet peeve wiht the english language is that you don’t have sin/sina

in swedish if u have two people who use the same pronoun u can always tell whos doing what bc its like ‘han tog sin väska’ (he took his[own] bag) and ‘han tog hans väska’ would be that he took the other persons bag

but in english its like if u have 2 ppl w/ the same pronoun:

“she took her bag” whose bag????WHose BAG was it her OWN bag or the other her’s bag??????????????

“he ate his donuts” were the donuts his own???? did he fucking eat someone elses donuts??? YIU DONT KNOW bc english is a bullshit language 

[asphodeline-lutea]

He wasn't intentionally being unreliable, of course, I believe that he was trying to write them as accurately as he could, though there would be some artistic processing, such as the dialogue you mentioned-- I suppose most people into fiction/novels would know that authentic real-life dialogue is hardly ever novel-worthy...

I do wonder about the perspective though, sometimes he seems to tell parts of the story that he himself did not observe or experience. One of my main hypotheses is that Wodensfang filled some gaps for him, perhaps? (With Seadragons being able to see into the past and all that)

I'm someone who really likes reading the books in the Hiccup's memoirs way, gives me a kind of comfort(?)

Is Hiccup an unreliable narrator?

I saw a post about this and I want to put in my two cents. Yesns't

See, there are two ways the httyd books can be read. As the literal story, or an "in universe" document. Reading JUST the story element, and assuming that all of it is true, is much more fun, simple, easy, and how I think most people read it, I included.

However, I do think that it is sometimes interesting to take the books in the context they are given. They are a "translation" of a story written by a person who claims he is Hiccup the Third, many decades after his adventures as a child. It isn't written as a biography; it's written as a story, and an almost fantastical one. If I were writing a memoir, even if I didn't lie, I might edit a few things for narrative or personal reasons.

A second aspect to consider is memory. I got a dog 3 years ago, but I swear I've only had him for two. These kinds of memory lapses happen, and they are part of being human. Hiccup wrote the books LONG after he experienced the events. Surely he got at least a few little bit wrong by accident. Similarly, a lot of the dialogue is most likely paraphrased instead of what was originally said, and while this isn't really bad, it does mean that a tiny bit of the nuance could be lost, or it could be slightly exaggerated. (in context of this being "real" events that have been recorded.)

Lastly, no matter what, the books are told through Hiccup's perspective. This might seem obvious, but it's a little sneaky actually. See, the books are written in third person, and the narrator seems almost omnipotent --see scenes where younger Hiccup isn't present, such as the wodensfang talking to furious--but at the end of the day it's still HICCUP telling the story, and seeing the events first hand through the eyes of a boy who is only 10-14.

So was Hiccup intentionally written as an unreliable narrator? No, I don't believe he was. There is little in the text to indicate that we are supposed to be suspicious of Hiccup's telling of the story. IS he an unreliable narrator? He might be, that's up to personal interpretation. But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, because even if the story was embellished or even flat out made up by the narrator, it's still a fictional story, same as it always was, just with another new layer. A nested narrative, if you will.

[asphodeline-lutea]

Symbolism of Metals OC Questions.

A little list of OC questions based on the symbolism of various metals throughout history. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all symbolic meanings, but rather just a small selection for entertainment, rather than educational, purposes.

Iron - Inner Power, Rage and Primal Urges.

Has your OC ever regretted something they have said or done in anger? Perhaps this has happened more than once?

Has your OC mellowed as they have got older? Or are they just as quick to anger, or as easily irritated, as they ever were?

Upon what does your OC draw to get them through situations of great adversity? Their sense of purpose? The thought of their loved ones? Sheer overwhelming rage? Or perhaps something else entirely?

Does your OC struggle to contain their baser emotions, such as lust, aggression or greed? What helps to keep these feelings in check (if anything actually does)?

Are others ever surprised by your OC's steely resolve or ability to endure hardship? Or are they generally regarded as someone with great inner reserves of willpower?

Gold - Wisdom, Wealth and Nobility.

If your OC was called upon to arbitrate between the nobility (or an equivalent social elite) and the common people, on which side of the table would they be sitting during negotiations?

Do those that know your OC consider them to be wise? Is this quality seen as distinct from intellectulism or book-learning in their case? Or do they posess both academic knowledge and the wisdom of experience?

Does your OC struggle to believe anyone is truly smart unless they are also rich?

Does your OC hold that some social groups have an inherent nobility unavailable to others? Do they perhaps believe in the idea of a "ruling class", with qualities that the lower orders could never hope to evince? Or, conversely, do they believe in the unsullied nobility of the poor, in contrast to the decadent and corrupt upper classes?

If your OC could pass on a piece of wisdom to others starting out on a similar path to their own, what would it be and where does it come from?

Lead - Sin, Death, Transformation and Toxicity.

Which experience of loss or bereavement has most affected your OC?

What is your OC's most anti-social trait? Do they acknowledge it as such? Are they even aware of it themselves?

Which sin is your OC most likely to be accused of by others? Would this be fair criticism? Or are their actions often somewhat misunderstood?

What has been the most transformative experience your OC has been through? Was it an experience of loss? The first time they ever felt loved? A traumatic or violent event? Or something else entirely?

How does your OC believe they will die? Peacefully in bed surrounded by friends and family? Or alone in the wilderness? Or fighting against overwhelming odds? Or perhaps they have a different notion altogether?

Silver - Intuition, Honesty and Wisdom.

Does your OC ever base their decisions on a "gut feeling"? Or do they always weigh up the pros and cons carefully and dispassionately?

How tactful is your OC? Are they able to frame criticism constructively and give feedback in a way that protects against potential hurt feelings? Or are they blunt, or even callous, in their attitude to the failings of others?

Does your OC believe they can assess someone's character upon first meeting them? Or are they inclined to give everyone the benefit of the doubt until they get to know them better? Or even to assume the absolute worst of people until it is conclusively proved that they are not an enemy?

Does your OC ever deliberately make themselves appear less wise or astute than they actually are? Perhaps in order to ensure that others underestimate them?

What is something that your OC would find incredibly hard to lie about? Even if they really wanted to do so...

Copper - Love, Beauty and Creativity.

Does your OC believe that they are beautiful? Is their beauty, or lack of beauty, something to which they ever give much consideration?

Does your OC enjoy creating things? Are they particularly artistic? Or do they prefer to focus upon creating things with a practical use?

Was your OC loved as a child? What difference has the experience of love and nuture during their early years made to their character as an adult?

Of all the places your OC has seen, which do they consider the most beautiful?

If your OC were to be immortalised in art, what would be their preferred medium? An epic poem? An exquisite statue? A flattering painting? Or something else entirely?

Tin - Life, Breath and Flexibility.

How quick is your OC to adjust to changing circumstances? Are they more likely to keep going with an existing approach or strategy, even though the situation has changed?

Does your OC work well with others? Even if their approach or attitude is markedly different to their own?

Does your OC believe that all life is sacred on some level? Or are some types of person more valuable than others? Can someone's deeds ever make them deserving of death? Or would your OC never consider that an appropriate sanction, no matter the circumstances?

What does your OC believe makes life worth living? Assuming that they do, in fact, believe that it is?

Has your OC's life turned out how they were expecting when they first began their journey? How well have they adjusted to any differences in this regard?

[asphodeline-lutea]

Okay but what if instead of the villian secretly being the hero's father, it's the other way around.

"I am your father, villian"

"what?! How? I thou-"

"and you are so grounded after this is over"

[asphodeline-lutea]

I just realized that Klein makes two of his long term identities wear glasses; Sherlock Moriarty and Gehrman Sparrow.

And as Zhou Mingrui he is shown wearing glasses.

Was it hard to get used to not wearing glasses as Klein Moretti because he didn't need them anymore? Did he ever instinctively go to push up his glasses and fail because he wasn't wearing any?

Is that why he chose the glabella* as the place to activate his spiritual vision, because he forgot that he didn't have fixing his glasses as an excuse to touch that area of his face?

*The glabella is the skin between your eyebrows

[asphodeline-lutea]

Armored woodlice:

1. Pseudarmadillo spinosus 2. Unknown, Armadillidiidae 3. Loreola sp. 4. Loreola sp. 5. Unknown, Armadillidiidae 6. Echinarmadillidium fruxgalli

Photos by Nicky Bay // Facebook // Website

Shared with permission; do not remove credit or re-post!

[asphodeline-lutea]

!!! I totally agree with what you said! About the ending being realistic, and the themes about war and non+human animals being mistreated etc…

I was lucky to have encountered these books at 12 yo. Changed my life, taught me about the world

Some fanarts to bring attention to the long post about the books!

Yesterday i had finished the httyd books re-reading (it's been A MONTH), and today i watched the httyd movie for like the 30th time idk (i was really keen of it as a child)

Friendship with movie Hiccup ended, now Tuffnut and Ruffnut are my best friends. They are iconic. I remember book!Tuffnut being kinda sorta a background character, like somebody amongst the Hooligan tribe. And that's the move i liked about the dreamworks version, heh

Longpost and possible spoilers under the cut

Yeah, i loved movie Hiccup and associated myself with him very much... But now, after i reread the books, refreshed my memory about The Ending (and cried my eyes out), i found the movie rather.. strange? It leaves a lotta questions, like the world building, Astrid's behaviour, poor stylistic choise of making her as skinny and wimp as Hiccup, and Stoic s attitude towards his son, like.. stop??? He is an awful warrior ok but plz quit telling everyone around how much you are ashamed of him. Plus i miss Alvin as the main antagonist. He was one of a kind, never saw anyone so persistent to living and killing your distance nephew. And i miss Fishlegs No name as he was so cute and sarcastic. Movie Fishlegs is rather cliched

Weeeeell this whole post exists just bc i love book Hiccup sm AND THE WHOLE STORY AND I LOVE THE FIRST HICCUP AND THE SECOND AND I LOVE FURIOUS AND HIS STORY AND I LOVE FISHLEGS STORY AND DEADLY SHADOW AND I ADMIRE VALHALLARAMA AND CAMICAZI AND CHINHILDA AND TANTRUM and i miss them and i want to share my love for the books with everyone around... But amongst all my friends i don't have somebody who would've read the YA fantasy book about a 10-15 yo viking boy and his tiny arrogant dragon, and i would not either if i had not became a fan at my 12-13s by absolute chance. This is insane. I love my fixations (that's the whole point of fixating) but it hurts that I can't share it, and even if i try to explain to one of my friends who are ready to listen, I can't tell why exactly would i cry for half an hour about the children's book ending where OMG the dragon died, no waaay

I really wish it were a cartoon series based on books specifically, bc that way i could show them to my friends, which is waaaay easier than making them read the books (which is impossible, i tried). But ig.... It would stay a wish forever

I wanted to tell something about the books again. Why i like them so much? But i get too emotional about them and can't muster up ANYTHING. What CAN i say??? They are good. They are perfect. Cressida Cowell made a great job. The slightest gradient between the first and the last book makes the neighbour books in the series feel alike, but the first and the last are nothing like the other. The first is really a cute local story. WHILE THE LAST IS ABOUT CHANGING THE WORLD AND WHOLE NATION. This is incredible

Myself, i like the first 4 or 6 books more. They are so funny! I read them just for fun. But when i do, i just cant stop. And as i proceed further, the world changes, and the Fate follows the main character with a knife of misfortune (i wish i could play with English words as i do in my native language lol) - or good luck! Who knows, when you survived so many terrible moments, are you extra lucky or the exact opposite?

The first books don't even have in them the main thought of the last - dragon slavery. Or do they? Now, when i think of it, i do recognise the abuse and unappropriate attitude towards dragons, like foreshadowing... It's hard to tell if Cressida planned it all from the beginning or expanded the world as the books went further and further. Anyway, the first book os nothing like the last. The last is insane

I hate the book series endings almost every time, but not in that case. No. No. No. This one is solid perfection. It is logical. It is mature. And most importantly, it is painfully realistic. That's what broke me. The realism of the ending, where the magical creatures have to vanish from the human world just to save themselves. It is common for books like that to end with death of all magical (like it dies when we grow up, blablabla and so on) and it is the story of maturing, but that is not all. It matches with our world, where all living things die away and vanish eventually, if they are not significant for human race survival... But in our case they will never ever return from some North fields or sea hollow. Abused animals have neither intelligence to speak for themselves nor some kind guy to save them. Theme of war and death is extremely actual rn too. And i was devastated when the peace was established and shortly after that Furious died 🤪🤪 amazing, thank you. It killed me when he said that he was dead for all these years, and lived again only after Hiccup III spoke to him and returned him to his right mind

This is a mess I'm sorry 😔

I remembered now that it supposed to be a post bout the movie I've just watched. Well. The movie's best part is that it brought my mother's attention to the book series,, i was obsessed with the movie therefore she gifted me the books, and i became so obsessed with them that she even yelled at me for rereading them so frequently, lol

I can't say anything about the movie. I have no thoughts. I guess i just re watched it too many times as a kid to feel anything anymore. It didn't work with the books though. Reading them again 6-7 years later the latest reread, as an adult, i figured out that they aged extremely well. I found inspiration in them. I'm lost in thoughts about them. I want them to be more popular and well-known. And i hate fucking live action movie btw if you even care 😘💅 not to think about all of the resources that could ve been put in use to make cartoonish HTTYD books real

Plz, if you came that far, reblog or comment with something thoughtful, it would be mush appreciated

I'd looove to hear everyone's opinion about the series. Plz share yours!!! I love you fellow httyd fan

[asphodeline-lutea]

Me (and several other online friends) talking to fellows who have not yet read book 11 often be like:

(SPOILERS ALERT)

[asphodeline-lutea]

Family jewels by fem!Fishlegs

And the best dad ever + cute loving and caring granny (I don't have the guts the picture her)

[asphodeline-lutea]

Reread the shark wars books again. Here's some more memes lol.

I do not apologise for this one:

[asphodeline-lutea]

Yes, I think he mentioned it in book 2, then again in book 6 “Horrendous Haddocks don’t write books”

Is Stoik a Horrendous Harddock too?

[asphodeline-lutea]

Well.. sort of?

But his name does not actually end with “Horrendous Haddock”, neither did Grimbeard, only the three Hiccups that we’ve heard of

I have always hypothesized that at the time of Hiccup the First, “Horrendous Haddock” was used as a usual surname for that line, but later it was… somehow removed from their names? So they could call themselves “Horrendous Haddocks” but it did not actually appear in their names as a surname

Is Stoik a Horrendous Harddock too?

[asphodeline-lutea]

the brothers !!

(hush I know furious was probably never small enough for that but SHUT)

[asphodeline-lutea]

a silly ode to the first mitochondria, with waaaay too many religious allusions

(the mormons put me in seminary for four years and now it's everyone's problem)

the garden was not made of trees the snake did not exist when Eve was formed inside the seas and then was set adrift

she drifted in the tidal pools prokaryote divine producing simple molecules acids and alkalines

but paradise can never last and every god must fall some swallowed by a cytoplast (entrapped by a cell wall)

what do you call the dead that rise? what name is there for this? an Eve that finds that eden lies inside of the abyss

the wall no longer trapped her in but locked the monsters out the freedom only she could win to swim, and grow, and sprout.

she tinkered with her molecules And in a twist of fate Created one of life's crown jewels Adenosine Triphosphate (1)

what was before a simple wall could bloom with organelles a garden grown from former falls a paradise in hell

a fortress swam inside the brine, a thriving little town where tiny citizens could shine and ride the ups and downs

a golgi apparatus strove to package safe proteins a lysome found a nice alcove and kept the whole cell clean

the centrioles rebuilt the walls whenever they grew weak and eve was known and loved by all as something quite unique:

the powerhouse of the first cell the mitochondria (2) the Jonah that became the whale the jesus of bacteria once eaten by a macrophage then made through death anew the founder of our current age the sprout from which we grew

(yeah, yeah - you try and use this line in a poem)

(gah. this paragraph killed the syllable counts. i was challented to fit the phrase "powerhouse of the cell" into it, and mitochondria had to fit somewhere. both of which were gonna be doozies. decided to put them back to back and break the scheme at the end.

[asphodeline-lutea]

He's holding baby dragons 🤲

I tried to include a couple specific species, like the Polar Serpent, the green guy is a poison darter, and the one on his head is a riproarer (inspired by my vague but fond memory of this post https://www.instagram.com/p/CqWnckRvB4a/?igsh=MTNwdzRtam9rdjR0aA== )

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Connor 🪲 (@k.otzy)

[asphodeline-lutea]

[asphodeline-lutea]

I tried to figure out what he looked like, in my head I mean

I think this turned out meh, but I tried :(