#heather berserker

[artist-issues]

Birds do it, bees do it, educated fleas do it,

let’s do it, let’s 

REMAKE THE LIGHT FURY

Toothless used to be a realistic creature, designed to balance on the visual knife blade’s edge between appealing and terrifying. He borrowed his coloration from panthers and manta rays and his movement from cats because they are real animals that master that cute-fierce combo, too. He could look menacing and then loveable at the drop of a hat. 

Then in HTTYD 2 somebody hit him with the Puppy Stick. I haven’t seen any better explanation of the visual problems with Toothless from HTTYD 1 to HTTYD 3 other than this Reddit user’s, so we’re just going to skip trying. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/httyd/comments/qasmwo/toothless_head_comparison_by_durkishdragon/

Read that. Anyway. Let’s move on to the Light Fury.  Everyone’s talked over and over the problems with the Light Fury’s design. So I don’t think I need to go into depth with that, either. Suffice to say, I believe that the way a character is designed should reflect their purpose in the story. She was never meant to be a species that was exciting to learn more about, unlike the Bewilderbeast or the Night Fury. She was just meant for cute interactions with Toothless. I think her design, sad as it is, reflects that lazy story direction. 

BUT NOT OUR REDESIGNS. And mine is no exception! If I’m going to change the story structure of HTTYD 3 (and I am) then the Light Fury has to change, big time. 

First we’ll talk about the species. 

We all know there are more than one Light Fury visible in the third film, and that’s the idea I hinged my little “fix it” re-write of HTTYD3 on in this post. I’m not going to restate it, but a lot of it focuses on Hiccup and Toothless discovering a whole Fury Flock who has migrated out of distant, hostile lands and is resting near Berk on their way to the Hidden World.

This way, instead of the Love Interest Fury just serving as Catnip that makes Toothless act dippy and cuddly, they actually have a purpose—because they’re tied to a mystery. They’re the whole plot. This way, instead of Toothless waking through the woods and happening upon a single personality-bland version of himself with no build-up, the Light Furies are a whole community and species that the story spends as much time on as they did the Night Fury in the first film.  Anyway. So while our heroes are uncovering all the interesting quirks and hierarchy of the Fury Flock, we’ll do the same!

So without further ado—bum-ba-da-dum, let me introduce you to—

The Sky Fury! 

(Click for better view)

Yeah, okay, I know it’s a different name and not too terribly different a design, but hear me out below the cut

I don’t think that just because Toothless, is straight black with faintly darker markings (basically only visible in the first movie) that means every other Fury has to be one solid color either. And why should it be white? Most white animals in the wild who don’t live in snowy environments straight up die because of their lack of pigmentation. It makes them a target and it lets reptiles get sunburnt.

But we all know that white contrasted with Toothless’ black has a certain appeal. It’s more visually interesting than a samey-same color pairing between him and any would-be Love Interest. So I kept the white, like most re-designers do.

And then I thought, well, why would Furies have to worry about being spotted by enemies—they’re up in the sky all the time anyway. So instead of having the Furies be completely black and only able to blend in with shadows and the night sky, our Furies will be mottled.

Their markings will be more visible to let them camouflage against cloudscapes in the daytime—and just like black panthers are simply leopards with overwhelming black in their coats, Sky Furies are kind of like what Night Furies might look like if you could fade back some of that intense black and see the patterns underneath. 

 So our Sky Furies are mostly white, but with hints of blue and stormy gray underneath. The youngest Sky Furies are sky-blue around their horns—which, yes, they have horns and spiny spikes, not just smooth aquatic ridges.  I basically leaned into what the original design for the Light Fury was supposed to be; rougher like an axolotl, with influences from a naturally-pale master of camouflage in the wild like the Snow Leopard or Clouded Leopard. We keep all the potential for cuteness without losing the fierceness.

Because you can’t tell me this:

Is nailing the fierce-end of the spectrum as perfectly as THIS DID: 

So the Sky Furies are called Sky Furies because one, Light Fury is a dumb name. It sounds super made-up. Like they were really just trying to rhyme with “Night.” But “Sky” Fury indicates that there’s more to know about this type of Fury besides the fact that they’re associated with Toothless. 

A few things about the Sky Fury Species:

- Only their two largest ear-flaps can move.

- They are better swimmers than Night Furies.

- They can camouflage, but they can’t echolocate.

- They communicate by clicking more often than roaring or other vocalizations. This is why their Old Night Fury leader calls to them by clicking his back spines together, open and shut.

- They have a complex social hierarchy. In one Flock, the leader’s rule is always obeyed; unlike other Dragon species, Furies aren’t susceptible to being “controlled” by an alpha. (This explains why Toothless was able to block out the Bewilderbeast in HTTYD 2. And we can just say he just needed some practice doing it, since he didn’t grow up with his own kind.) They just obey the leader in charge.

- Sky Furies must migrate from the Hidden World to Grimmel’s Land every thirty years. It is an instinctual urge, like Sea Turtles going on land to give birth or Manta Rays migrating. Theory has it their first nesting grounds were on the land Grimmel’s people built their village on top of. Ever since then, Sky Furies and Grimmel’s Tribe have been at intense war. This leaves them with no tolerance at all for humans—in fact, they’ve begun viewing people as a particularly impressive part of their food chain.

- Sky Furies are strategic, team hunters. Rarely do they set out to hunt alone. Part of their social hierarchy is that the first Fury to strike prey (being the fastest) is generally the first to eat. If a Fury is eating alone, it is because that Fury is being punished or outcasted by the others. 

- Sky Furies have almost always been led by Night Furies, because Night Furies can echolocate and sense the underground routes to the Hidden World. In return for this, Sky Furies often hunt for their leader during the daytime hours, the same way lionesses hunt while male lions protects the group.  - Sky Furies sing! This is the only way they use their vocalization abilities, and they only do it when they feel safe. That’s all I’ve got for now. More art to come—more on the specific Love Interest Fury, too.

[howtodrawyourdragon]

Thinking of how Hiccup is just getting adopted left and right in Race to the Edge.

He's already Toothless' soulmate, but then the twins want to make him an honorary Thorston/suggest becoming an honorary Haddock, Tuffnut tries to give his position as Ruffnut's twin brother to him, Dagur continues to call him his brother, and the dynamic between him, Hiccup, and Heather is definitely sibling-like.

It's just sweet to see Hiccup, an only child, find so many friends who want to double as siblings.

[violet-moonstone]

Heather 😍

Heather asserting dominance

[sarnai4]

Adrift

(Spoilers for RTTE) It frustrated me how there was never a canon explanation for why Dagur sent Heather adrift as kids. I don't think it was done with malicious intent. My reason for this is how much Dagur holds grudges. If he had hated her, then he probably would have continued to hate her up until turning good; however, as soon as he found out who she was, he didn't care that the reason she was even there to begin with was literally to kill him. He just wanted her back in his life. Something I also thought was interesting was how he was shown to be able to love others even before becoming a better person. As a villain, he could've viewed Heather as a pawn or a lackey, but he was extremely protective of her and brought her in on his actual plan for the Grimborns. So, no, I don't think he disliked her as a child. That leads me to thinking it's one of two reasons for why he did what he did.

The first is that it was an accident. I don't think Dagur's much older than Heather, so it could have been an instance of two children being left unsupervised and it not going well. Maybe he thought they would have fun on a little boat and then a big wave separated them. Maybe he assumed that she would enjoy getting some time alone to sail. An important part of this too in my opinion is how Dagur doesn't process things like most Vikings, so it could have made sense to him at the time and actually been very dangerous.

The second option is that he did want to send her away, but it was to protect her. This could have been from raiding Vikings or even their own Berserkers like Ansson. If Dagur knew he wasn't a strong enough fighter at the time to beat the older redhead, maybe he thought sending Heather away would keep her from getting hurt as well. Another option is if there was an illness on Berserker Island. Then, sending her odd could have prevented her from contracting it.

I've played around with a lot of these ideas in different stories, but I can never really settle on one. What do you all think?

[000marie198]

Dagur: "And you carry-! A shield?"

Hiccup: "Yeah yeah. Just a shield. Just a plain old shield."

Dagur: "Very... ornate. My sister had one just like that."

In RTTE, when Heather is reminiscing about what she remembers of her birth father, she mentions about the shield, saying something along the lines of, "He would sometimes let me play with his shield".

And during her flashback, we see her playing with said shield and Dagur running around being his deranged self in the background.

I find it endearing how that shield is the one thing both siblings recall vividly from when they weren't yet separated.

[wickedcriminal]

What do you think Hiccup the younger's relationship is like with his niece and nephew, Zephyr and Nuffink? He lowkey looks like one of those fun uncle who lets the kids get away with alot of things. Also Zeph and Nuff are going to be so confused that their dad and uncle share the same first name lol 😂

Younger ADORES those kids. And he comes in a package of three, so Elder's kids not only get Uncle Hiccup, they also get Uncle Fish and Aunt Cami <3

They spoil those kids. Little Fish loves to take them on walks and naps and the kids pick up the bad habit of ankle-biting from their dear aunt Camicazi <3 And Minicup definitely lets them get away with a lot of things, using the royalty card to justify it, of course

He'll teach them dragonese, too, because these kids get to grow up around dragons!

The kids are certainly confused as to why Hiccup and Hiccup share the same name, but they call Elder "dad" anyway so it's not too life changing, lmao. If anything they're going to be mixing up the Fishlegses names! Probably have to call one "uncle Fish" and the other "uncle Legs", lmao!

[otwdfanfic]

Tryggir Vandillson in Once There Were Dragons: Into the Polar Night

[doofus-and-dragons]

As stated in my last post, I've been having sibling thoughts about Dagur, Heather, and Hiccup. My last post was about cannon. This one is about an au where everything is the same, but Hiccup grew up on Berserker Island as Dagur's baby brother (this is purely self-indulgent so please don't come at me).

The events of the first movie are largely the same (Dagur doesnt get a dragin because he wants a rare and ferocious one like his brother), with a few exceptions.

Instead of being bullied by his Berserker peers, Hiccup is largely ignored (this is due less to the fact that he's the chief's son, and more because Dagur is over protective of his little brother).

Hiccup is, however, bullied by the kids of Berk when his family goes to sign the treaty. Dagur is the heir, so he learns how to be diplomatic. During these times is when the others (mostly Snotlout and maybe the twins) strike.

If Dagur isn't with their Dad, the twins try to find a way to separate them so they can torment Hiccup.

After the first movie, their Dad goes missing and Dagur takes the title of chief. He tells people he killed his father, and begs Hoccup not to say anything. Hiccup agrees, but watches as chiefdom makes his brother,well, more deranged. He tries to stay and help his brother, but he also has things to do for dragons.

Hiccup goes to Berk (being their main allies, although shakey) and helps them learn to live at peace with the dragons as well. Stoick gives him the academy and Hiccup goes back and forth from Berk and Berserker Island.

When he's home, he spends as much time with his brother as he can. But his brother's deteriorating mental state is taking a toll on him as well.

When Dagur is locked up, Hiccup stays on Berk.

The events of rtte happen much the same as they do in cannon, with the addition of angst because Dagur was at one time Hiccup's hero. Now he's fighting against him.

When he finds out who Heather is, the reunion happens with a little more emotion.

Heather thought Hiccup was Stoick's son, so that also adds a layer.

"Stoick the Vast gave this horn to Oswald the agreeable when his newborn daughter was born. Heather, you were that daughter. Heather, you're our sister."

"W-what do you mean our?"

"Oh? Did you neglect to tell her that, brother?"

"...I'm not Stoick's son. Im Dagur's little brother. I was born after you were lost."

Dagur wants her to choose a brother.

For plot reasons (mainly to take down whatever operation Dagur is running with the Hunters), Heather joins Dagur. This hurts Hiccup, but he pushes it to the wayside (typical hiccup).

Pretty much the events of rtte happen the exact same way but with added layers.

Heather still joins the riders, but Hiccup has to spend a little more time earning her trust since he never told her he was related to Dagur.

The whole "Heather spends most of Dagur's redemption arch wanting to kill Dagur" still happens because I love Hiccup holding her back from committing murder.

Also, with Hiccup being the youngest in the family, he's free to pursue his intrest in dragons! He doesn't have the weight of chiefdom hanging over his head!

I'm not going to go through the whole show because that's 6 seasons of dagur-hiccup-heather content I have to sift through and I don't have the energy to do so. But you see where I'm coming from. I think it's a cute idea. I might do something with this later but for now I'm tired.

[howtowhumpyourhiccup]

The Trapper's Trap - Chapter 3

The Happy Roommates

Summary: Originally written for The Butcher Bingo.

Set in a Modern AU. Once upon a time, Hiccup gave Dagur a chance after everything he'd done to him growing up. Only 19 years old, his life is turned upside down all over again and Hiccup wonders if he'll ever truly escape him.

Warnings: Psychological and emotional abuse, Pregnancy, mentions of suicide

Rating: Mature

Words: 5 176

Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon

Characters: Hiccup, Toothless, Dagur, Astrid, Heather, Stormfly, Windshear

Pairing: Dagcup, Hiccstrid

Author's Notes: I could write so many whumpy one-shots about the things Dagur has done to Hiccup and Heather (and others) prior to this fic.

Enjoy!

[misterrttegrimborn]

(my edit)

[galaxyregent]

So when I started writing Berserker's Bride, Dagur mentioned having a sister but not identifying who it is was. So I wrote Dagur having an older sister, Brenna, a wife of a another tribe's chief. She was a lot like Dagur but a bit more subtle and controlled. I don't know, I get major little brother energy from Dagur. When the Heather reveal happened I was like, well nothing says he can't have 2 sisters. So the series of event went as such.

Dagur's mother, Iona, died in a dragon battle when he was still pretty young. His father Oswald drowned his sorrow in mead and the attentions of slave in the Mead Hall. The southern born Sara, becomes pregnant. That in itself wouldn't have been a big deal but..... The timing of her pregnancy was a bit inappropriate considering the man's wife JUST died. Not to mention, Iona came from an influential family in the tribe and had many insulted on her behalf. Regardless, Oswald brings her into the household, but does not free or marry her; and makes it clear he intends to acknowledge the child. Dagur's older sister Brenna sympathizes with her maternal relative's outage and sees Sara as an interloper trying to take her mother's place. Dagur, however, was still very young, and looks to Sara as a mother figure. He becomes fond of her and likes the idea of being a big brother.

Sara gives birth, and in the words of Iona's family, has the decency to die from complications. Oswald organizes a proper naming ceremony for Heather treating her no different from a legitimate daughter. Now dont quote me on this, but what research I did on Pagan Era Norse culture, Bastards were not as ill-regarded as they were after Christian conversion. They had less rights and inheritance than their legitimate siblings, but they could raise to importance in the tribes. The only issue was really the outrage of Iona's relatives. A few months after her naming Oswald decides Heather would only suffer in the tribe and entrusts her to a childless couple on another island, where dragon attacks are rare, wanting her to grow and be happy.\

The tribe knows for the most part and are satisfied, but he tells Brenna and Dagur she died, intending to tell them the truth when they were older and maybe bring Heather back into the fold once the outrage dissipated.

Dagur was distraught because he loved his little sister, but Oswald tries to get Dagur to see Hiccup, who was born a few months after Heather was set away, as a replacement; hoping to plant seeds for them to marry in the future.

When Heather and everyone finds out she's Dagur's sister, she's welcomed back into the tribe. The attitude towards her is chilly, but Hiccup and Dagur welcome her home. Brenna, however, is less than thrilled when she finds out. The hurt of her father "moving on" when she was mourning her mother never really healed and it causes drama.

[the-night-and-the-fury]

Heather: Given the circumstances, I will let you hug me for four to five seconds. Dagur: Forty five seconds?!? Heather: No! I said four TO five seconds. Dagur, hugging Heather: Too late.

---------------------------------------------

I just love my berserkers siblings

[howtodrawyourdragon]

I think Hiccup is more like Dagur and Heather than we give him credit for, simply because he does tend to become obsessed with certain things, too.

Dagur has obvious obsessive traits. He starts a whole war just to get to Hiccup because he betrayed him and then spends a whole three years after that war thinking about getting back at him. All because of a personal slight.

Heather also has this trait and it shows itself when she's obsessed with her quest for vengeance. And I do mean the word "obsessed" because at some point, she puts her life as well as Windshear's life in danger in a mission to kill Dagur, a mission in which she saw ahead of time she was outnumbered, Hiccup told her she was outnumbered, and she still decided to take the risk. Which ended in Heather immediately being overwhelmed. And despite her recklessness almost costing her Windshear and her life, Heather still asked the Dragon Riders for help behind Hiccup's back. She probably wouldn't have even been there to go behind his back if it wasn't for Hiccup saving her life.

And then, after all of that, she would even infiltrate the Hunters by pretending to be their ally just to get close to Dagur.

Not to mention that Heather came into RttE sinking ships (not caring who they belonged to) and even hurting the Dragon Riders to avoid being seen only to later capture and hurt them again (Astrid especially when she and Dagur infamously keep her awake, which is an actual real life torture method) all in the name of keeping her cover.

So you may be thinking... Okay, but how is Hiccup, of all people, similar to them?

Well, the most obvious example is when Hiccup grows obsessed with dragons. He does it to the point that he can neglect other people and things in his life.

And then he obsesses again in RttE when Viggo shows up, to the point that Astrid and Fishlegs had to bargain for one single day off and the dragons getting infected by a grimoras was mistaken for a rebellion caused by Hiccup's actions. Even Dagur noticed Hiccup nursing the seed of revenge and warned him not to let him consume him.

So yeah... Berserker siblings indeed.

[bunnyypop]

Vs. Powerpunks (Heathers Mod from bbpanzu)

[sarnai4]

Competence

I really think the brother-sister bond that Dagur and Heather form is cute/interesting/all good things. So, it makes me enjoy writing them together, but that doesn't change that I have a fundamental issue with Heather. I've spoken with a few people about this, but I want to see what the general consensus is. My issue is that I feel like she's all talk. Heather really isn't a very competent character. She's fine while working with the others as one of their teammates, but as soon as she does anything on her own...boom. Problems. Yet, the show doesn't see it this way.

I don't even think it's a problem she had in RoB. Although Astrid saw through her, the (unknown at the time) Berserker was good at getting the job done. The other Riders liked and trusted her; however, in RTTE, her skills begin lacking. When we're shown her, we're led to believe she's hardcore now and an awesome warrior. Even Astrid is impressed with her. Okay fine...but are we supposed to forget that her skills with attacking ships were because they weren't fighting back? She was searching for Dagur and attacking Berkian ships in the process. When she actually found his armada, she was taken down. Somehow, the show forgot about that as soon as it happened because she goes back to the Edge and says how no one can stop her and Windshear. Um, Heather sweetie, you JUST were about to get killed. Hiccup saved you and your dragon from the Berserkers, so let's not be arrogant. She wins against Dagur next time since she's not alone.

If this had been a one and done thing, I wouldn't have minded. Everyone makes mistakes, but she keeps making them! It drives me nuts! She joins the Hunters and Viggo takes one look at her before he goes, "Traitor!" Ryker is suspicious of her too. The only one who believed she was on their side was Dagur because he had on rose-colored glasses since she's his sister. Also, I don't buy the idea that "Of course Viggo knew. He's brilliant." Viggo didn't know Dagur was also a traitor. Objectively speaking, Dagur was a greater threat. Heather was planning to take the Dragon Eye. Dagur was planning to take the Dragon Eye and kill everyone there. So, the danger radar should've been going off with him, but it didn't. Heather was a way smaller threat, but the brothers still knew she wasn't on their side because she was trying so hard to seem mean that it was obvious.

This spirals since she gets tricked by Viggo, loses to him in a fight (which extra annoys me. Not that Viggo has to be a bad fighter, but how did he somehow get the drop on Heather AND Astrid? This man is not the fighter in his family. Come on, girlies, but I digress). Heather then got away which was good and would've been better if it had lasted. I actually laughed when she literally flew straight into a net. Just wow. It was unbelievably ridiculous. Heather would've died that night if Dagur hadn't freed her.

And this still isn't even it! There's just a big space because she's not onscreen for a while after this, then she joins back up with the Riders. I can't get over how she gets outmaneuvered on Windshear by Dagur and Shattermaster (who'd been together for one day prior to that point) when they were trying to get to the shipyard.

After this, she's with Dagur and he's clearly shown protecting her during their search for Oswald (flying behind her to make sure that nothing falls on her head). As soon as she goes off on her own, she's in danger again. She walks right into a trap that gets Windshear caught and eventually makes the worst deal I've seen made in the entire show. A Dragon Eye lens for a key. A key?? No. Trade the lens for Krogan to unlock the cage. There's no way to check that the key is the right one and guess what? It wasn't. Windshear's cage is knocked into the sea and Heather jumps in, only to find out that the key doesn't work. So, she is about to die again, but Dagur gets there and saves her in time.

Again, I love her relationship with Dagur. So, by extension, I love writing her in stuff, but I don't think she's a character who can exist on her own. Heck, she literally isn't because she keeps almost dying as soon as the camera shows her doing anything risky when someone else isn't around her. This really bugs me because I feel like she could've been cool. She could have shown how warriors can have softer sides than what we normally see from Astrid. She could have been really clever (almost to a devious degree) that would've complemented Dagur's cleverness well and seemed like a family trait. Yet, we're just told time and time again that she's awesome and shown time and time again that she can't hold her own. So, I wonder if other people noticed this too. Am I being too harsh on her or is she all talk?

[krattgirl124]

Okay so Fishlegs and Heather’s youngest child might be a bit unhinged, or in need of a lot of therapy-