#Movie: HTTYD

[antennatoheaven]

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Hot take

Night furies are actually perfectly evolved for hunting and killing other dragons and the only reason they aren't a dragon-hunting species like the death song or deathgrippers are is because DreamWorks couldn't have their adorable main character dragon be a "cannibal"

(below I'm gonna try to summarize what we've figured out in a convo with friends on discord)

(also tw animal death via predator)

First of all yes I'm aware that pretty much every decision made about their design was with consideration of the effect it would make on human audiences but hear me out

Night furies are most iconically known as dive-bombers. They are built for speed, high maneuverability, night-time camouflage and for striking targets from above. If we remove human settlements out of the equation (which would not have existed long enough to actually influence night fury evolution, come on), what does that leave us with?

They aren't built for catching fish for sure, they aren't very hydrodynamic and their head is round, wide, and their teeth are dull. Honestly, the monstrous nightmare is much better suited for catching fish, with its long neck, almost pelican-like jaw and rhamphorhynchus teeth

Compare to

Yeah the jaws look kinda like a porpoise of some sort but for that the whole body would have to be a lot more aquatic imo. The light fury looks a lot closer to an aquatic diver, it has a sleeker body, rounded fins instead of spikes, and a long neck.

I don't really see them hunting land animals either, they just don't look like they're adapted for that minus the resemblance with large felines and even then, they're too large to effectively hunt in forests.

The one thing I can kinda imagine them hunting is large mainland megafauna, but we're working with a setting that takes place pretty much exclusively on islands. And overall, dragons are the only abundant species there with the exception of fish and human-bred sheep and chickens.

In general, night furies have duller teeth, smaller claws and are smaller than most dragons. Disregarding the movies making Toothless weirdly OP, a night fury would be disadvantaged against most dragons in a 1v1 fight and besides, it has four huge weak spots that would highly discourage it from a direct physical fight - the primary and secondary tail fins. One unlucky rip in the membrane and the night fury is fucked.

The night fury however noticeably resembles falcons, given their dive-bombing ability and high maneuverability.

Falcons too have smaller beaks and weaker claws compared to most birds of prey, and for that they compensate by simply picking up speed, balling up their talons and Punching. Really. Hard.

And they use that ability to kill other birds, even much larger ones, by knocking them right from the sky.

Here, the night fury's plasma blast works the same way as a falcon's punch. Dragons are fire-resistant, so what the plasma blast does is really just a densely packed bolt of energy that has the effect of either stunning or outright killing prey by damaging its spine. And what the plasma bolt doesn't do, rapid contact with the ground would finish. And if even that doesn't do it, the night fury's wide jaws and dull teeth are just fine for simply clamping around the unlucky dragon's neck and strangling it, like a lion or a pitbull.

The night-time camouflage allows the night fury to soar for extended periods of time perfectly unnoticed in the night sky, and by the time it strikes, the dragon wouldn't even know what's coming.

Unless

Say the hunting night fury is aware of other dragons sleeping under the trees, as most dragons probably would at night (village raids aside, most dragons seem to be diurnal), so how does the night fury get them in position where it can use its signature attack? Well, there's That Iconic Screech Of Death. Since in the movies it tends to appear not just during dive-bombings but also when charging up a blast, I imagine it's something the night fury is able to control to some degree. So by simply fake-diving in close proximity to sleeping dragons, it can effectively terrify them into leaving their hideout and fly out into the open where it can easily take them out.

I dunno, the possibility of night furies as predators to other dragons just makes so much sense to me, I really don't know what other reasons there would be for them to evolve these particular adaptations.

And one more little headcanon to add to this whole rant - since night furies are significantly smaller and less equipped for dragon vs dragon fights and are primarily speed-based predators, I imagine there is this very likely scenario:

There is one dragon who resembles a hyena, a lil bit

Ok, rant over

[howtodrawyourdragon]

Rewatched the Test Drive scene and thought about how Toothless probably must've resigned himself to the possibility that he'll never fly like he used to, especially when there's a human boy on his back who needs a cheat sheet in order to slowly work his tailfin. He'll never be fast again, he'll always have to wait on Hiccup to figure out which is the right tail position, he has to be careful.

And then they fly through that maze of sea stacks and find out that flying is as natural to Hiccup as breathing, apparently.

[raineyraven]

canon tidbits i think people who've only seen the httyd movies should know that are confirmed in the shows:

tuffnut and snotlout are canonically talented seamsters

we see the prototype versions of hiccup's flaming sword and the flightsuit in race to the edge

hiccstrid's first kiss is in rtte and its perfect

VIGGO GRIMBORN aka the best httyd villain and the "hiccup's evil mirror" concept actually done right

there are multiple societies dedicated to protecting dragons other than berk

snotlout's assholish disposition is a consequence of his deeply held insecurities that if he can't be the best he's the worst, which is encouraged by his father

the other riders (namely snoutlout) have used the ship name hiccstrid to refer to hiccup and astrid

hiccup redeems so many villains in the shows (alvin, dagur, viggo - one of them later performing a heroic sacrifice to save him) that it's completely unsurprising he thought he could change drago's mind

hiccup punched snotlout in the face and knocked him out cold

the shows let the twins be smarter, snotlout be more thoughtful, and astrid more deranged

snotlout's middle name is gary

[bluetodraw]

Dragon rider

Messing around with different pencil brushes for this one. Really like how it looks, especially how it gives the texture of the scales and leather.

This piece is up on my redbubble as prints, stickers and more. Search bluetodraw on redbubble to find my shop!

[dotcircledot]

i miss them

[midoristeashop]

(Late) httyd anniversary screencap study pt. 2 <3 + process video! (I never show mine cuz they’re full of chem equations and jumpscares but this one is ok <3)

Also random toof

I’ll ever stop thinking about them ok BYEE

[manny-jacinto]

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010) dir. Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders

[thereweredragonshere]

I LOVEEE your httyd drawings sm omg!!! Can I maybe ask for some more Hiccup and Toothless drawings pleaseee?

Always extremely happy to draw these two idiots

[yourl0calrayy]

Toothless with his markings💘

[malice-kingdom]

A lil commission from July that I really enjoyed drawing

[1000dactyls]

httyd sketches I’ve compiled from the past couple of days v_v;;) I’ve been learning to draw the dragons and am studying a lot of nico marlet’s art for it…… barf& belch hold a special place in my heart so of course i also had to draw their silly humans. And their silly humans’ fave too. but no one told me the real struggle wld be drawing stoick the vast in all his glory. Omfg. His beard is awesome it’s shaped like a star.

and modern au………..!!!! have been debating this with a friend. toothless is a cat until he is a service dog. do you feel me? and hiccup wears his fishinf get up to his classes after getting up at 4am to help his dad draw in the fish that morning.snug little cozy coastal town that has more secrets than it should. Do you feel me?

[000marie198]

The fact that the Httyd gang knows about the effect of dragon nip but they are never seen using it on any dragons throughout the franchise unless it's like a last resort or an emergency to stop extremely out of control, hostile dragons. They know that grass is like a drug for the dragons so they never use it against them even to try and train them. As if it is against their moral code to try the easiest way to tame any dragon.

Like, these kids know all these little perks about dragons that Hiccup learned in the first movie. The dragon nip, eels, moving spot of light, specific disabling scratch spots etc. And none of them uses these to befriend or train any dragons throughout the course of the franchise! Dragon nip is an emergency last resort for when they encounter a super aggressive dragon, eels are an absolute no, nobody used shiny laser light spot on any dragons post Httyd 1.

No, they befriend the dragons with trust. They'll only give a dragon scratches after asking permission that is telegraphed in their body language.

The riders respect dragons and there are so many little subtle things which show how they never treat these incredible amazing beings as if they are animals, they always treat them as individuals. As equals.

I love Httyd so much like you have no idea.

[howtodrawyourdragon]

Hiccup still gets a lot of criticism for his decisions in Httyd 2, but I feel like they make sense and it's because of the tv-shows.

He doesn't want to be chief?

Well, he just spent a whole year mapping the world outside of the Archipelago, that's a lot of freedom. So of course, he doesn't know who he is now and doesn't think his father's lifestyle fits with him.

And in that year, he almost did become chief when Stoick almost died. In that scene when Spitelout is sent out specifically to bring Hiccup home to succeed his dying father, they already call him chief! This, despite Hiccup's plea towards Spitelout to not say it.

Chiefdom for Hiccup means losing his father. (Which is exactly how he ended up becoming chief, too)

He thinks he can change Drago's Mind?

Of course, he does! Alvin switched sides, Dagur switched sides, Viggo saw dragons as something more. And let's not forget Stoick and his entire village, including Astrid and his friends.

In a way, he changed Mala's mind, too.

In a way, he changed the minds of the dragons about humans.

He tries to end a war by talking to a warmonger?

Again, of course, he does. He ended their war with the dragons, fought in a war with the Outcasts, then the Berserker, then the Hunters, then the Flyers.

Of course, he thinks he's just as capable of making the most responsible calls in war when he has fought in several ever since he was 15. This, although Stoick has decades more experience and actually met Drago before.

Not to mention that all of the bloodshed was on the side of the enemy, and RttE confirms this. Hunters and Flyers are dying in those battles.

If anything, Hiccup talking to Drago first is him giving Drago a chance to save himself and his men. Something Astrid pretty much confirms when she threatens Drago that he better not lay a hand on them or Hiccup and Toothless will blow his fleet to splinters.

Which, in the tv-shows, they do. And then Drago did end up dead at the end of the movie.

[animations-daily]

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010) dir. Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders