detdeldragons

[detdeldragons]

“Well,” boomed Alvin, clapping his hands together. “It sounds to me like you have some reasonable goals that don’t have to involve the killing of anyone. Honor doesn’t come from violence and war. Sure, I sent the Screaming Death to destroy Berk, but what did that get me? My favorite patch of cabbages was destroyed! And a man losing his cabbages just isn’t worth it.”

- 

One of my favorite HTTYD stories I’ve written. I thought I’d share a little excerpt. 

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To anyone questioning whether or not they should read the HTTYD books I present to you: this text I just sent my friend.

This series is literally pure chaos, comedy, and trauma thrown into a blender and as an aspiring author I want to know how Cressida Cowell achieved this level of… everything.

[detdeldragons]

Star Wars: Battlefront II: Inferno Squad

I recently reread Star Wars: Battlefront II: Inferno Squad, and wanted to share some of my thoughts. I remember enjoying it the first time around when it first came out, but I enjoyed it so much more now.

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Lessons From My Favorite Characters: When They Start Off A Bit... Evil

I love writing these short articles about lessons we can learn from my favorite fictional characters. In this one, I discuss Jinx from Arcane, Catra from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and Artemis Fowl from the book series of the same name.

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The world's most committed method actor

You know what we really needed after RTTE ended? A mini series from Johann’s perspective because wtf was he doing half the time. Like in rob when he was just floating on some driftwood until Hiccup found him. Was he just chillen there “passed out” for hours just waiting? Like, this is really important information I need to know.

One of the best plot twists ever but he so goofy for that.

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Writing Ruffnut and Tuffnut is always so much fun.

"You've all been doing such a great job around the village," Hiccup told the group one evening after a training session at the Academy. "Because of you all, Berk is doing a much better job accepting the dragons than I would have thought. I swear I even saw Mildew smile at Toothless the other day. Mildew! Imagine that."

"Sorry to break it to you, H, but uhh, Ruffnut and I may have been standing behind you at the time and..."Tuffnut paused, twirling his hands in the air as he searched for the words.

Ruffnut finished for him. "We were totally trying to set Snotlout on fire."

"Yep. Good ol' mildew was just excited to watch the Snot-Man burn."

"We all want to watch the Snot-Man burn."

Snotlout glared at the twins and snapped his fingers, possibly as a signal for Hookfang to attack, though as usual, Hookfang grabbed Snotlout by the ankles and held him high above the ground.

Okay, so there was still room for improvement. A LOT of room for improvement.

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Wisdom from Gobber The Belch

Finally, Gobber said, “I’m older than you, Valka. I’ve been in this fight for a long time. I taught Stoick how to face down a Gronckle, and I was there for him when his father was killed. I trained Hiccup and the dragon riders. Well, not to ride dragons, but you know what I mean. I’ve done a lot during my time here. And during that time, I’ve seen people and dragons alike do awful things.

“And I’m tired. I really am. I’m getting older, and my back aches and my foot hurts. Fighting over all these years has taken an arm and a leg, literally! I don’t move like I used to. I don’t have the same bright-eyed optimism that your boy and his friends have. Part of me wants to lie down and take a nap and never wake up. I don’t know if things will ever be perfect, or if we’ll ever defeat evil once and for all.

“But I’m not in this fight to defeat evil. I’m in this fight for my friends, for the people I love. Tired as I am, I’ll never stop fighting if it means I can keep the people and dragons around me safe even if it’s only for a moment longer. I’m not fighting to win; I’m fighting because it’s right. Though, if we happened to win, I certainly wouldn’t mind.”

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Snotlout stitching with his mom

"I thought I’d be a Viking that future generations of Berkians could be proud of. But I’m not. I’m just a muttonhead.”

Snotlout’s mom put down her needle and the fabric she was working on. Looking directly at her son, she said, “Aye, you can be that at times. But you know what else you are? Loyal. Kind. Spirited. You’d do anything for those friends of yours. And you have. Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, they’re all alive today because of you. They’ve saved you countless times, and you’ve also saved all of them.”

***

I love RTTE Snotlout. I wanted to write a scene with him and his mom bonding over their love of stitching. We see a lot of Spitelout in the show, and his relationship with Snotlout isn't the best, but we only ever hear about Snotlout's relationship with his mom. It sounds like she's a lot gentler than Spitelout and that Snotlout really cherishes learning how to stitch from her, so I thought I'd expand on that a bit.

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HTTYD Short Stories

Hiccup coughed. “Umm, Snotlout? That’s not how trade agreements historically work.”

“That’s because historically I haven’t been the one to make them.”

Gobber, who had replaced his hook with a gavel, hit the table. “Would anyone else like to represent Berk in our talks with the Uglithugs?”

“Gustav!”

“Anyone other than Gustav?”

***

Poor Gustav. I haven't written a story about him yet, and it's not likely I ever will. But he's still there in the background waiting for his time to shine.

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Lego Star Wars: Rebuild The Galaxy

Lego Star Wars has been amazing. If you're a Star Wars fan but haven't seen the Lego specials, I think they're worth checking out. They're so much fun.

The latest special, Rebuild The Galaxy, was a lovely story with some incredible characters and a fantastic message. I wrote about some of my thoughts here, but I'd love to hear what other people thought.

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Lavash At First Sight, by Taleen Voskuni - Review

I really loved this book! It is so funny and so heartwarming, and I loved reading about Nazeli embrace who she is and how she fits within her culture and family history while falling in love with another Armenian-American girl. I cried, I laughed, I took breaks to snack on some dolmades. It was a wonderful read.

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Jedi Master Kantam Sy

Wanted to share my latest post about lessons fictional characters have to teach us. This one is about Jedi Master Kantam Sy!

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When people call the Jedi Order baby stealers, I always wonder if they watched the episode series where Palpatine, the big bad Sith Lord, has Cad Bane break into the Jedi Temple to steal a holocron that contains a record of recently born Force-sensitive children and then use it to go kidnap those kids. And he successfully kidnaps two of them before the Jedi catch up at the third planet, where the mom is surprised that the Jedi, Cad in disguise, is back so soon for her child, as she was told that it would be some months to a year before the Jedi came to get her kid. Which shoots the whole baby stealing argument in the foot. The actual baby stealer is told that the people he is impersonating weren’t coming back as early as he was, and it’s only because Cad is exceptionally skilled at his job that he is able to convince the mom to give up her child. It can also be reasonably assumed that the Jedi act the same way in regards to every parent who has a Force-sensitive child, which make the only baby stealers in the galaxy the Sith, the bad guys, and anyone they employ to help them, who would also be bad guys.

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Finally finished Temptation of the Force, by Tessa Graton. There's so much that I enjoyed about it! I can't wait to see how we finish The High Republic era.

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My friend and I interviewed Kika Hatzopoulou, the author of "Threads That Bind"! If you like Greek Mythology, this book is for you!

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It's been months, but I finally got around to watching the live action adaptation of Avatar the Last Airbender (the Netflix version). I really enjoyed it! There's a lot of differences, and not all of them are great, but there's still so much that I enjoyed and thought added to this wonderful universe.