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crazykillercanine · 23 hours ago

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guys check out what i can do with just one stone

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crazykillercanine · 2 days ago

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Can you do an analysis on the eels of HTTYD? Like why dragons fear them, some of the types, etc?

Sure! Let’s talk eels!

The How to Train Your Dragon wiki article on eels has some good starter material, including identifying the different types of eels and their properties. What I talk about below will notably overlap with the article.

Types of Eels

There are at least four different species of eels, possssssibly five, that make an appearance in How to Train Your Dragon.

The black and yellow eel seen above is the first specimen to which audience members are introduced. This is probably the smallest of all the eels seen in HTTYD. I also presume it is the safest, being as the Vikings have caught it no problem to eat, and there have been no extraordinary encounters with eels of this type. It has been smoked, and Hiccup makes comment about not much liking eel either, meaning that it is part of the Hairy Hooligan diet. This probably means that these eels live in shallower waters closer to Berk shores than some of the other species we see; this would allow the Hooligans to catch it decently often enough in their fishing nets.

We see more eels in “Animal House,” although they have slightly different colorations and markings than the yellow and black eel above.

They have speckled backs and solid colored underbellies, unlike the striped eel see in HTTYD. These guys may or may not be a different species, but I imagine they also are pretty common near Berk’s shores and relatively benign. Hiccup is able to hold up two of these live eels without getting zapped or harmed in any way. (Please see my note later about “Total Nightmare,” though).

This is the same species of eel that Torch eats in “The Terrible Twos.” These eels must be pretty common, then!

The next very distinct species of eel is the one from Eel Island, specifically called “Bloodvein eels.”

These eels, unlike all the others, are red in coloration. They are probably about the same length as the yellow and black guys, but they are thicker. They also have a very interesting property that is rare to most species of eels: they are aggressive.

It is true that Hiccup tries to catch one eel in “The Eel Effect” and thus instigates an attack, but once he falls into the water, the eels come after him in a most shocking manner. They try to wrap around his throat and arms multiple times, causing him to sink. And when Hiccup sinks, all the other eels in the waters swim straight down after him. These guys are very intentionally attacking him and trying to kill him underwater. Most eels do not show themselves to humans, but these guys are Eel Island are ready to make Hiccup prey!

Eels in these waters would be far from human contact. They have also become incredibly prolific, suggesting they do not have too many natural predators, or at least not enough of them in the area to control their populations. These eels are the literal “big fish in the pond,” making them more likely to be upfront and aggressive. They have not had contact with humans netting them, so what they see in Hiccup is not a threat but an opportunity to eat. They will be less shy and more ready to attack.

Granted, because there are so many, they might not all have enough to eat, and eels are also more likely to try to attack bigger things when starving. These eels aren’t even in the depths of the ocean as most of their kind tend to be - they are up near the surface!

All this goes to say how interesting and unique Eel Island is and its Bloodvein eel inhabitants.

Now Race to the Edge is awesome in that it shows us one or maybe two more types of eels, the giant screaming eels and then the electric eels.

Let’s look at the big guys first. I think this picture below captures exactly how enormous they are. This eel has to be at least doubly as long as Hiccup, making it over twelve feet long.

These yellow, black, and grey eels appear to live in deeper waters than the other species we have seen. The Hooligans have never seen the like of them anywhere close to home. What is most immediately notable about these eels, of course, is their size. Several of them together are large enough to capsize a decently sized ship.

And they do it intentionally. These eels are apparently hunting together, working as a group to pull down the ship and attack the Hairy Hooligans. The Bloodvein eels appear to be sort of working together as a group to attack Hiccup in “The Eel Effect,” but it is quite apparent that these giant eels are working together. This makes them intelligent and rather social animals.

These guys are frightening and aggressive just like the Bloodvein eels. They even take aggression to a whole new level, for they are willing to go out of the water for extended periods of time just to attack humans.

These eels have other really interesting features. They are seen slithering on rocks above the ocean surface and back down again. To move quickly and shoot across the rocks, they will bunch up their lower body and then use it as a spring to launch forward. This makes these eels able to move incredibly fast, which would help them in their prey-hunting attacks. They also have really big, noticeable, serrated teeth.

The final species of eel we see is the electric eel. This is the one and only eel we see actually zap someone. Its electric shock is powerful enough to lead to seizing.

But look at the coloration on this eel. It is exactly the same as the ones Hiccup and Fishlegs are handling in Riders of Berk. They seem to be rather safe holding the eel up in Riders of Berk, so it is incredibly interesting that Snotlout’s was so riled up it was sparking visible electricity from the moment he opened its basket.

Dragons and Eels

It is well-known that dragons are afraid of eels. This is an instinctive reaction to prevent them from harm. Some sort of chemical within eels must be dangerous to dragons, affecting the organ inside their body which stores and spews fire. This is what makes eels so dangerous for dragons to eat. As seen in “The Eel Effect,” some sort of chemical reaction has occurred in Toothless’ body which turns his usual purple plasma blast light into bright redness.

It also makes this plasma more reactive. Dragons have a limited number of shots they can take before they run out of firepower. The chemicals in the eel must make dragons’ bodies create more and more of their fire inside, thus making them “overflow” their number of shots and not even control when those shots are fired.

In addition to how his fire breathing is affected, Toothless also suffers from extreme distorted vision from eating an eel. This is pretty serious stuff. Hiccup says that Toothless is going through Eel Pox just like humans in Defenders of Berk. Both humans and dragons seem to be reacting to the same toxic chemical in eels… but that chemical does different things to different species.

So eels are dangerous. And dragons are afraid of eels for adaptive reasons; it helps keep them safe and prevent them from eating eels along with other fishes.

This is, with the exception, of the Typhoomerang. These dragons are Stoker class dragons with immense firepower, yet they eat eels and seem immune to their effects. There could be some sort of extra digestive enzyme within Typhoomerangs to break down an eel’s dangerous chemicals, or there could be other physical adaptations within the dragon that makes eating eels safe. I imagine their fire-creating organs are basically the same as other Stoker class dragons, but that their immune system is different and protects them from otherwise harmful eel chemicals.

What is interesting is that other types of dragons are assumed to have different levels of fear to eels. Fishlegs has developed an “Eel Reaction Test,” and this would only happen if dragons have different ways of responding to eels. I imagine that the eel reaction test looks to see how fearfully a dragon responds to eels.

So I suppose these are my observations on eels in HTTYD.

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crazykillercanine · 3 days ago

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It appears your doing ship requests

May I ask for some shrimptea plz if you're able?

Thank you very much!

eyyy Shrimptea! here ya go brotha or sistah!!

(i hc them like son and mom,but this ship is absolutely cute!)

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crazykillercanine · 3 days ago

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realistically , AM would win , but we can ‘ t take away how painful the rage is for shrimpo .

for shrimpo , it feels like his skull is splitting , like he has to claw all his skin off to escape it , and it won ‘ t go away until he breaks a bone or concusses himself , or something similar .

for AM , he doesn ‘ t process the pain . He is made out of hatred , the all - consuming type for those who brought him into the world just to be eternally bound ; to feed him war & death & torture until he thinks nothing else , and then blames him , eternally , for his actions .

Shrimpo is Rage . AM is Hate .

Two fundamentally different but typically co - morbid feelings .

Who is winning this hate off?!