#HTTYD BOOKS

[arsonwizard]

"The thing is, we are all, in a sense, supper. Walking, talking, breathing suppers, that's what we are. Take you, for instance. YOU are about to be eaten by ME, so that makes you supper. That's obvious. But even a murderous carnivore like myself will be supper for worms one day. We're all snatching precious moments from the peaceful jaws of time, ... That's why it's so important for the supper to sing as beautifully as it can."

I've always wanted to redraw this illustration, so I let myself have fun while doing it! Sadly, tumblr made me compress it, and will likely crunch it more, so please feel free to click for better resolution ^o^/

[seashell-the-theater-kid]

this, just this.

Love stories where the characters are trapped within their tragedies. Stories where the characters are a little bit aware of their narrative prison. Stories where being an audience member makes you complicit in their torment. Stories where the characters hate you for witnessing their suffering. Stories where they’re trapped by the very nature of the tale’s existence. Stories where the only way to save them is to stop watching.

[wild-flowerhoney]

something about dragonese being considered a "nerd" thing and being banned outright and how it starts (as so many things do in the httyd books) as a childish joke that doesn't really mean much and develops as you read into yet another horrifying way in which vikings have enslaved dragons, taking away all respect and wonder and fear from them to make them into caricatures, poorly kept pets instead of the intelligent, sentient creatures that they are

[xxx-ang3l-w1th-a-sh0tgun-xxx]

I HATE THIS SO MUCH bring back the old covers PLEASE what is this GARBAGE

it was bad enough when they released new covers when the animated films came out but this is so much worse (the live action film doesn't need to exist and no one can change my mind)

and like - is this book 1 or ?? what even is this because it can't be a book-of-the-film kinda thing because it's written by cressida cowell and the sticker indicates that whatever this book contains came out before the films which don't even follow the story of the httyd books so WHY DOES THIS NEW COVER EXIST??????? YOU'RE FEATURING CHARACTERS ON THE COVER THAT AREN'T EVEN IN THE BOOK? TOOTHLESS DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THAT IN THE BOOKS HE A SILLY LITTLE GREEN PIECE OF SHIT DRAGON (and i love him)

also "the legend is real"??? where did that tagline even come from? it's so cheesy I can't even

to compare - these are some different versions of the older covers, which imo are SO much better and not as misleading as these new film versions. they're so colourful and the art is so cool

BRING THESE BACK NOW 😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠

[sentient-mawce]

Hiccups hatred for the somewhat lacking dragon training manual will always bring me joy. He’s such a hater of specifically that book. I swear he hated that book more than he hates Alvin.

[pine-dragon]

Thinking about how the httyd books take the often facetious objection to dragon rider stories of "hey if those are fully sentient creatures that you're subjugating and riding around as purely an extension of your own will. Isn't that kind of slavery?" An answers it with: "Yes, it absolutely is." The big twist of How to Train your Dragon is that dragon training is an act of horrid violence that is normalized and expected of young boys to consistently maintain. And that said violence is the livelihood and bedrock of an entire society that separates languages from its slaves and demands illiteracy from its citizens. Technically, this is all in the first book but that's all told from a child's perspective who's most coherent objection is that being mean doesn't come naturally to him. That's kind of the magic of it all. Not one reader I've known has read 'If you can't insult a fisherman so bad he cries then what kind of viking are you?' And expected the succeeding books to take themselves seriously about the psychological and political consequences of that mentality, but they eventually do.

Anyways, can't believe we fell for another trend-hopping YA dystopia series /j.

[jayfection]

finished that damn wip sorry for removing toothless hes too hard to draw 💔

[spxrw]

something something child soldiers something something

ok! give cousin back guys! not a drill guys! guys guys

guys

[just-an-enby-lemon]

I would do anything for an animated cartoon of the httyd books. I have dreamed about it for years. I even considered alternative names since the movies are their own thing.

Like maybe "how to became a hero (the hard way)" or just using other book tittles like "A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons" or "How To Twist a Dragon's Tale" .

I do love the movies and I do think changing it was a good idea cause the books do not translate well to movie form but they do translate well to animation and an animated series would be so good, you guys.

[calloff57]

[iamafule]

"But Astrid was blonde!" And Hiccup was ginger. Snotlout was ginger. Fishlegs was brunette. Astrid wasn't even Astrid, and the twins didn't exist. Who gives a shit??

[httydfirefly]

I’M BAAAAAAAACCCKKK AND IT’S FINISHED

I also posted it to TikTok and it’ll be on my YouTube pretty soon. I’m very happy with how this turned out - it started as just a quick little messy PMV/animatic but I ended up putting a lot more effort into it than I anticipated.

Tbh I have a whole animatic for the entire song in my head, but that’s a bit much at the moment. Maybe one day…

Furious and Hiccup II are so unfathomably important to me. Quite possibly my favourite tragic sibling story in any media. THEY DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER

[thestormfly]

Now I'm picturing baby Hiccup scurrying around and munching innocent dragon's eggs just for his little dragon book man autism really does destroy families huh 💔 (/j)

And a complimentary pic of all the eggs because they're really cool:

[just-kiro]

(!! Httyd book 11 spoiler !!)

Snotlout: ‘Why won't you hate me?? HATE ME!’

Hiccup: ‘Snotlout, I don’t hate you… and I forgive you for betraying me again… I understand why you keep doing it…’

Literally them:

God I'm such a sucker for this dynamic

[weaponizedducks]

one thing i love about the httyd books is that hiccup wasn't born with the ability to speak dragonese. it wasn't some 'chosen one' thing that caused hiccup to feel empathy for the dragons- it was hiccups genuine love and fascination towards them. he learned dragonese because he wanted to- because he wanted to be able to understand them. also the fact that dragonese is a learnable language for humans solidifies the fact that the dragons are not senseless animals or pets as they kind of are in the movies. they are of equal intelligence and sentience as humans- which calls into question the ethics of using them as hunting animals and modes of transport and basically glorified slaves. which was basically what the dragon rebellion was started over.

also from the stories and flashbacks about hiccup the first and hiccup the second we get the sense that dragonese was a common language for humans to know as well. havent read the books in a bit so correct me if im wrong but both hiccups and grimbeard knew dragonese, and dragons lived alongside humans as equals at that point in time (at least up until grimbeards reign.) the dragons started being mass enslaved by grimbeard because of a peaceful protest against the dragon enslavement that turned violent (btw it only got violent because grimbeard killed his fucking son. so.) so yeah the fact that the dragons were turned into glorified (forcefully enslaved!!) pets is actually horrific and they had every right to break free.

whats also horrific is that this abuse only ended with hiccup. hiccup was the first one to question this. he was the first person to see dragons as equal. the first to take the time to learn their language. he was the first to properly empathise with them. if he hadnt then the dragons would have continued to be enslaved until they either died out or eventually broke free (and even then their rebellion was triggered by the dragon furious, who hiccup freed)

also this shows how harmful learned abuse and weaponised incompetence can be. this tradition of dragon training and seeing them as less than was passed on and expected of young children who didnt know any better. and the hooligans (and most of the vikings tbh) whole thing was being proudly uneducated and not taking the time or having the capacity to see the harm they were causing. this kept going and going until hiccup. (also its very telling that the wanderers did not have this tradition of enslaving dragons. and were enslaved themselves)

so yeah the events of the series only happened because hiccup took the time to actually understand and communicate with the dragons instead of mindlessly yelling at them

rant partially inspired by @pine-dragon's wonderful post about httyd dragons