#how to train your HUMAN

[dreams-in-daylight]

We played a game like this in my animal behavior class! I refer to it as How To Train Your Human lol

First: pick a person who will be trained and send them outside the lab. Class decides what one action they collectively want to be trained (pat head, rub tummy, left hand up, etc.)

Next: bring the trainee back into the lab room. NOW THE ONLY THING THE CLASS CAN DO FOR INSTRUCTION IS TO TELL THE TRAINEE “GOOD”

Trainee has to figure out what the class wants them to do by just doing whatever they can think to try and see if anyone tells them “good!” Very fun game, very effective.

Bonus: if the prof ever mentioned possibly extending deadlines at least one person in the class would respond with “good!” lol

I want to apologize to my friends and family who have children for low key treating their kids like dogs but the standard methods for training dogs are even more effective of them because they actually understand language and are better at reasoning.

Positive reinforcement is amazingly effective, like I saw my nephew poking their cat so I sternly told him no, he stopped and I immediately changed my demeanor and cheerfully told him thank you and how happy I was that he listened to me instead of staying angry at him and he got this strange “Oh…It actually does make a difference wether I’m naughty or not” and later my sister in law asked why he’s so polite around me.

That’s literally what works best on dogs. Let them know when you don’t like what they’re doing but also let them know when you’re happy with them even if that means changing your demeanor on a dime (and even if you’re still a bit mad at them for doing it in the first place).

Oh and little treats. I skipped the aunt phase and is already turning into a grandma who has candy in her pockets for the kiddos for good behavior.

[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

[mahoganyrust]

Part 7 of Blood on Bark (vamp&werewolf) AU. - The gang plus toof man. (He and Hiccup are fraternal twins in this AU btw)

Ask and ye shall receive @midoristeashop here’s the full Hiccup fit. XD

[httyd-art-requests]

Buddy is entirely unimpressed by the floating dorito

(Not canon to the Ad Astra AU)

[joanna13]

being in a small fandom is like being given a bone, chewing on it until you're done with it, burying it in your backyard, and then digging that same chewed up bone months later to continue chewing on it, and then the cycle just repeats.this is especially true for small fandoms that you know won't be getting any new content, so you just have to consume the content you've already consumed thousands of times before.

[countlessofvoids]

Hiccup was a runt, the most awkward, frailest guy around. He was created with the intent of being someone who's different from everyone else; both in his design and story. Someone who's weak around people who value strenght, someone who befriends dragons while others want to kill them. Hiccup makes up for his physical weakness with compassion and trying to bring peace to both sides.

Which is why in his every iteration after the first movie (+ ROB); Hiccup is a 6'1, modern beauty standart who can easily beat everyone in combat no matter how more build or/and experienced they are, unless the writers decide they need to higher the stakes, or they have other characters fight the enemy for him.

[bumblingbabooshka]

This description of Janeway in the pilot's script made me want to draw her and then I started thinking about hunting dogs

[Patreon | Commissions]

[saturnniidae]

I like to think Hiccup has whole 'conversations' with Toothless that are essentially incomprehensible to anyone but them (they consist of little human language–mostly draconic noises and body language as well as signals/cues specific to Hiccup and Toothless) the other riders are used to it at this point, but a lot of people are very much not and find it incredibly confusing.

Its started a lot of rumors of Hiccup being some 'dragon whisperer' that can actually speak to and command them and the other riders tease him about it relentlessly because he despises the rumors and always tries to correct them. Like every time they're brought up he'll say something along the lines of "No. If u actually pay attention to and connect with them, adapting to their way of communication isn't hard. I don't actually speak with them ur just not observant enough" and is constantly ignored

(This is kind of a follow-up to another post but I didn't want to tack it onto a rb)

[vixnarts]

First time in a long while since I’ve drawn human!Toothless. But this is also the first time I’ve done Stormfly as a human. I absolutely love how she turned out. I was mainly inspired for their designs from the History Channel show Vikings. But I do have some lore

Stormfly, I wanted her to be bigger than Toothless in size. She is originated in the Nadder Tribe, where they’re known for their excellent battle tactics. Toothless is from the Fury tribe and his kind is spread out hidden, Berkians don’t know where at all Toothless’s tribe is hiding (I hate the idea of Toothless being the last of his kind so I’m sprucing it up). How Stormfly met Toothless was of course through Hiccstrid (Viking Percabeth) and Stormfly and Toothless began spending more time together. Toothless and Stormfly started dating. Mainly because Toothless and Stormfly’s tribes never interacted before. Which made the Nadder tribe shocked.

Anyways, I absolutely adore Stormless because they’re so adorable and they make me think of not only Hiccup and Astrid (when I was a kid). But also Percy and Annabeth. Sorry if the lore is messy or confusing I tried explaining it in the best way I can.

[tanasha-not-yet]

can you draw a singetail ✨️

stole your boy . and your dragon .

[call-me-strega]

Frostcup (Jack Frost x Hiccup Horrendous Haddock) has come out of nowhere and consumed my mind. The brain worms are going crazy so please consider:

Human!Jack AU where Jack is a normal shepherd boy who lives on Berk. He's a little older than Hiccup, and even though he's not the most conventional Viking, he's still respected because he's lowkey Gothi's apprentice.

He's got latent magic that the village elder is teaching him to harness (bc I believe she'd be knowledgeable abt that, that old lady is magical, I swear). It's not super obvious, but it's in the ways he's never lost a sheep to a dragon (he's lowkey communing with them like how Valka did with Cloudjumper) or the way he brings stories to life when he's entertaining children in the great hall or the way his mischievous smile sends literal chills down people's spines. Jack is capable and relatively well-liked in the community, if regarded as a bit of an odd-ball.

I imagine he was a bit of an inspiration/role model to the will-be riders, but especially to Hiccup since Jack always defended him when he got picked on for being small and un-viking-like. I think part of the reason Hiccup would be desperate to prove himself bc he wants to impress people like Jack and Astrid, who he views as ideals. I also think he'd go to Jack and try to subtly dig for advice on how to potentially heal or help Toothless, which would make Jack suspicious. He'd investigate and find Hiccup and Toothless in the clearing, but unlike Astrid who confronts them in the movie, he'd pull Hiccup aside and tell him he knows later that night.

Hiccup would panic and ask him not to tell anyone, offering to take him on a ride to prove Toothless isn't dangerous. Jack calms him down enough to point out he hasn't told anyone yet and that he's willing to trust Hiccup on this, but he'll take Hiccup on that ride anyway. He even confesses the reason he's never lost a sheep is because he's never actually tried to fight a dragon, simply convince them to leave.

Later, when Hiccup introduces Jack and Toothless, they get along almost instantly. Toothless is wary at first but Jack approaches him carefully, guided by Hiccup. Once Toothless recognizes that there is magic inside Jack he instantly warms up and in the future Hiccup will complain that his dragon likes Jack more than him. They go for a flight and Jack is convinced. He tells Hiccup he'll support him no matter what happens.

Later on Hiccup is still caught by Astrid, and he repeats the flight tactic since it worked last time, though Toothless decidedly likes Astrid less than Jack. So she still goes with them and finds the nest just sans romantic vibes this time. When the get back he tells her Jack knows and the three of them end up talking about it.

Astrid asks Jack why he didn't say anything and Jack declares that he has faith in Hiccup and agrees dragons aren't all bad. Later, when the adults go looking for the nest Jack and Astrid convince him to do something (and since Jack doesn't have an official dragon yet he makes do with the Terrible Terror from the arena).

Blah Blah Blah stuff goes down, canon ending. Idk about stuff after that but at some point Jack gets a dragon, is asked out by Hiccup, and meets the Bewilderbeast that awakens his latent magic, giving him ice powers, a white streak in his hair, and one of his eyes turns blue. Not necessarily in that order.

Oh and just as an extra Stoick's attitude towards Jack is much like his canon one towards Astrid. He quite likes the boy bc he lowkey reminds him of Valka. At some point he tries to bond with Hiccup and awkwardly asks if he's interested in Astrid. When Hiccup denies this he follows up by asking if he's interested in Jack to which Hiccup promptly turns red. Stoick tells him he's got no reason to be ashamed even claiming that Jack reminds him of his mother, while wishes that the ground would just swallow him up bc he's not talking to his dad about his crush.

[itissadbutitsmy-artblog]

i think peps raised finn more than you think

[eat-your-milk]

Me: Trying to find a way to safely protect a Viggo from electrocution while riding a lightning dragon using my basic education, self-taught blacksmithing, fascination with engineering, and costume making knowledge

I feel very qualified for this. Lol seriously tho-

Anyone else have any ideas? Bc while I am going to post my idea on here in a bit (Once I release my next chapter of KTS, so probably sometime tonight or tomorrow) I would LOVE to hear what other people have thought about this problem. I don't want my boy to get fried by his own dragon.

I have done a ton of research, but trying to apply this to the rudimentary knowledge that Vikings had in this period along with their limited resources has been a NIGHTMARE.

[mahoganyrust]

Human Toothless ver for the werewolf&vamp au. Does it still count as a human ver if he’s a werewolf? Eh.

(I have pure thoughts. Biblical. Pure only. Also I’m a liar.)

[nightfury2001sartdump]

HTTYD 15th anniversary celebration thing - Day 26

I'm a little late but HAPPY 15TH ANNIVERSARY TO MY FAVORITE MOVIE AND THE BEST PLATONIC SOULMATES EVER 💚💚💚💚💚

I can't draw humans. Or backgrounds. Or saddles. And I had a time limit because I didn't want to post this too late....so please ignore the weird looking parts of this like Hiccup's hand or how Toothless seems a little too big lol

[minijenn]

Something something comfort characters something something sassy brown haired blorbos something something give me five more of these blonde bitches something something