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eaterofdust · 1 month ago

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Hookfang: comparison and art study

To start simply, one of the more bigger picture differences between these Hookfang's is that of grandeur. The Animated Hookfang has long tendrils, massive wings and very teeth, things that all serve to make Hookfang look scary despite his large, human-like eyes. The Live Arena Spectacular (Arena) doesn't seem to get the memo for this, instead choosing smaller wings in favour of front legs and a four-legged stance rather than being a wyvern. The Live Action (Action) seems to be a blend of both: shorter spikes, no curving spines, more spikes.

This specific set of images, alongside being a reference for the art used here, also displays one other thing: the colour difference between them! The Animated Hookfang has more orange to his design, with a more vibrant red-orange palette compared to the live action which is redder but keeps the orange underbelly despite forgoing the orange face/wings. Again, the Arena Hookfang is the outlier here, with a red pallet and yellow underbelly, as well as lighter horns and spikes.

The biggest difference overall between all these designs is the face. The Animated Hookfang has his unique eye-bulbs, while both the Arena and the Action prefer to simply exaggerate his brows. Both the Action and the Arena designs also add more of a "crown" to the back of his head, making it easier to see where the horns originate from whereas the Animated lets it be slightly ambiguous by hiding the exact spot, no doubt helping mask the fast that Hookfang's horns are flexible (see shows).

Interestingly, both the Arena and the Action as a slope to Hookfang's snout while in the animated, Hookfang's snout starts at a slight dip. Alternatively, both the Animated and Arena keep the small spikes on Hookfang's snout, while the Action smooths them out significantly.

As pointed out, Animated Hookfang is primarily diamond shapes, the Action is made of more curves, and the Arena is a mass of wrinkles. This makes the animated feel a bit more "dangerous" to the others, who use softer shape language. They manage to win the point back by having smaller eyes, though such progress is undone by teeth: Animated Hookfang has long tusks that cannot fit into his mouth, peeking over his snout from the other side. Action Hookfang's teeth has more thorn-like teeth that hide behind lips. This, while technically being more realistic in that teeth exposed usually sustain damage, also significantly reduces the fear factor- thing a saber-tooth tiger compared to other big cats. The Arena Hookfang has a zig zap pattern with his smaller teeth, the fact they remain exposed also beating the live action; as the indoraptor's (Jurassic World) appearance divulges, this is simply more threatening upon first glance than of bare lips.

The Action Hookfang also fails to present a threat when someone knows their reptile biology. A thin jaw is almost always reserved for aquatic hunters which results in a very weak jaw- one of the main reasons Dilophosaurus is debated to be a scavenger or apex predator, but I digress. Though I struggled to find a picture of Arena's jaws, they also seem to be thicker but the Animated trumps both with how Snotlout is able to almost entirely fit inside of them. Even without the biological aspect, the fact that the Animated's jaws are so much larger are enough to give off more a threatening energy.

Speaking of shapes, let's take a break from the almost argument happening there in favour of posture! The Arena is the most divergent, how could it not be? It goes for a typical dinosaur stance, with a thick body, neck and tail, much shorter compared to the others.

The Action and the Animated are similar generally, though the Animated Hookfang has his legs further on his body (which is still slightly longer due to his tail), and a thinner neck.

The Arena has it's smaller wings- which have a more traditional shape in perspective of other dragons- between its front and back legs rather than at the shoulder joint. The Action's wings are, again, a blend of both, and the Animated's wings have a shorter primary wing-finger that causes the general shape to arch out before returning.

The Arena's flaws begin to reveal themselves here: they are but that of the most basic dragon, none of the spikes that at least make the other two Hookfang designs the most iconic. When one looks to the Monstrous Nightmare, the first sights are that of the face and the wings. There are four wing-fingers, each ending with a tiny claw.

The Action's wings have more flair to them, with shoulder-pad like scales, and tiny spikes running long the top of the fore-arm scales. They also follow the claws on the tips as the Arena, with eight wing-fingers as well as the two claws acting as feet resulting in a total of ten digits per arm. There's not much else to say about the wings as their shape is also rather typical of other dragons.

The most unique is definitely the Animated, as instead of a typical dip between each finger, there is a tendril. Though this is probably not very efficient for flight considering that there's not any bats that have something similar, it makes for a unique wing shape unlike other dragon. Interestingly, there is only eight wing-fingers, with the two claws and five spurs (? - Spikes? A wing spur is the spike the Arena has but I know not of what to classify these as) making a total of fifteen digits per arms.

Interestingly enough, all designs have skin connecting the upper arm to the forearm.

The Animated Hookfang's legs appear to be a mixture of digitigrade and plantigrade, and depending on his pose one could argue either, though digitigrade seems to be the more likely answer. He has a thin knee with larger thighs and ankles, spikes on the lower half of his leg that the other two Hookfang's seem to lack, and much larger, hooked claws than the others.

The Action's legs have spikes along the front, with a larger toe to claw ratio than the Animated Hookfang and smaller than the Arena Hookfang's. It is obviously digitigrade with a bird-of-prey inspiration just as obvious.

The Arena is different as it is plantigrade, has thicker legs and toes, small talons that do not protrude from the foot near as far at the others. It has spikes similar to the like, and its front legs (though not depicted here) have the spikes from the Animated Hookfang as well.

The Arena Hookfang's spikes are the furthest from the others, simple short spikes that are a tan-black colour. They are not special, and unlike the other two Hookfang's seem to sprout from smaller scales rather than larger back plates and are only in one row rather than the duality of the other designs.

The Action Hookfang has spikes that flare out near the tips, with thin plate-like scales that blend into the shoulders. Though they are much longer than the Arena's spikes, they are shorter than the sail of the Animated Hookfang.

Speaking of the Animated Hookfang, I was expecting the long, curled tendrils (they are one of his most iconic traits to me) but what I had not expected to find was that each plated scale on his back was lined with tiny spikes! This is not in the other designs, including that of the other movies, interestingly enough.

Now, to quote the rant I sent my friends upon the release of the teens in training: [Action] Snotlout is the unholy offspring of HTTYD1 Snotlout and RTTE Snotlout. I said this mostly as a joke about how features of RTTE appeared- his boots, shirt and the studs on both bracers and his belt being sired by the design- but HTTYD1 is far less in what it provides despite being the adaptation.

Sure, he has his vest, but it has the dark scale patterns of RTTE's armour. His pants are shared between both alongside his helmet. But people prefer RTTE's design anyway, right? Well, typically, but if you compare RTTE's design to all the other iterations of Snotlout, it's different. Though I'm probably looking into this too far, I always saw this as not only logical (the Edge is far warmer than Berk) but as a sort of sign of him pulling away from his father and allowing himself to dress as he wants to rather than what holds his status.

There is less logic to his Action design: the fur of his bracers and (presumably) on the insides of his boots will help with chafing, but why the random ring of fur on his boots? It offers nothing but a mess for the boy who rolls in literal yak crap. Alternatively, his fur vest fails to make him look either bold or obnoxious: the orange fur is no more than an eyesore at times, and the brighter colour that- again, assumed- lines the inside is not near as efficient as the dark colour of his original vest: black absorbs heat easier.

Animated Snotlout only wore armour that nearly everyone else did (bracers, a helmet which society demands he don, a belt which only theoretically counts as armour) and left most his skin exposed- this gave off the vibe of the "real man" type, showing off that he feels neither the cold nor that he fears being mauled by dragons.

Action Snotlout's more fortified vest and bracers get rid of such an illusion: he fears death, and he will remain protected to be safe. This is technically not out of character; Snotlout is the "logical" one, and one of the first to look out for danger ("Aren't you going to teach us first?!"/"I don't need that to know where it's going... It's coming!") but such is for RTTE.

Action (and, by extension, RTTE) Snotlout is one of logic and safety, making sure he remains safe to live another day. Animated Snotlout is a bold creature that likely gains many scars in his attempt to mimic his father.

Interestingly, the necklace Action Snotlout wears closely resembles that of Tuffnut's, seeming to continue the newer trend of making Snotlout and Tuff partners in the group. (Think the whole couple scenes thing vs. the first movie, where Snotlout and Fishlegs lifted Hiccup together at the end and Fishlegs would lean on Snotlout when he hunched over while catching his breath.)

But what of Arena Snotlout, you scream?

...He seems to be closer to Snotface. Still, he has his dark fur vest, his helmet, his bracers. Despite it all, I had to reread the wiki description to make sure that it was Snotlout. If I had to guess why, I would assume the beard and long-sleeved shirt to be the culprit; it provides him a "maturity" that simply cannot fit with Snotlout. Snotlout is to be immature, to be clueless and confused and yet still capable of caring for himself anyway. Where Action Snotlout pushes the inward aspects of Snotlout too far, Arena pushes his outward aspects too far, though it's slanderous to say that the Animated design doesn't leave a viewer wanting for more sometimes.

In summary:

Animated: Fearsome, hideous to look at and yet deserving of affection.

Arena: The set designers had fun, returning to what works and yet being unique still, even if the designs stray a bit too far from the movies.

Action: A weaker version, and yet still recognisable to a degree: once you've already been told and when they are in the context of their scenes. For Hookfang, I only knew it to be him because of him being a trailer poster child, and I only realised Snotlout wasn't Hiccup because of the fact several people were spamming his name with his original photo.

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