My imagine vs reality

@jadewolf-writes it’s so true! Your work is some of the best fic I’ve read, hands down. 

I REALLY hope the Moana series goes into this. Lalotai would look so cool if it was done in the same style as the Tangled series...

Ok. So I’m not a fan of Disney’s trend of Making Villains Sympathetic and Relatable™️

But when are we gonna get Tamatoa’s side of the story?

this is dumb

LOVE THIS

More crabby scribbles

Not going to lie, it’s genuinely upsetting to think about the new “fans” who are going to judge Legend of Korra, without knowing about all of the horrible things that Nickelodeon did to Bryke.

Greasy Charm

I went ahead and finished one of those sketches from the other day!  The “Greasy Charm” title is a nod to how @raptor-moon described Tamatoa in one of her fics. ;)

Uhoh…

Dunno what’s got Tamatoa spooked, but it can’t be anything good!

“Justice, Justice, You Shall Pursue”

A bit of Jewish meta on the HTTYD trilogy, especially the ending.

צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף

That’s the Hebrew for the quote I used as a header for this post. “Justice, Justice, you shall pursue”

Because here’s the thing about justice.  Or equality.  Or decency.  Or morals.  It’s not an achievement that is reached and then forever accomplished.  It is something that requires active upkeep, active commitment, active pursuit.  

And really, that’s my biggest problem with the end message of HTTYD 3, in many ways, because it treats the concept of “a human society that is welcoming and accepting” as a singular event; once we reach that, the ending monologue from Hiccup assures us, the dragons will return.  

That’s great.  What an event to look forward to!

Then what?

What happens in the generation after that?  If the people who achieved that welcoming, accepting society failed to teach their own children and they backslide to the point that xenophobia and bigotry rise again, do the dragons flee again?  

Because a society is not a sculpture, to be carved and polished and set aside as a thing of perfect beauty but requiring no maintenance.  

No, a society is a performance, were you have to teach the newcomers their place in the ongoing act, and hope that, once you are gone from the stage, they will continue to play their parts.  

It is a pursuit, and one that never ends, because not only will you never reach perfection, you cannot grow complacent either as the generations pass.  Justice, or kindness, or acceptance, are not merely achievements, they are active commitments.  You don’t just make a decent society–you have to work at it, generation after generation.

And that’s where I personally take issue with the ending of HTTYD 3 in many ways.  

They abandon the work.

They give up.  The dragons leave.  The example they set vanishes into legend and myth.  

They give up the pursuit and instead leave it to others to try to stumble towards, as if justice and acceptance and peace will somehow just appear without the pursuit of it.  

And then the next generation are taught acceptance… but not to spread it or teach it or engage in the pursuit of it.  

So for all of the stellar emotional impact, of the reverse hand-touch, of the parting and coming back together, of Hiccup standing on his own… 

I have to register my disappointment too, for the story ending on the note of “justice, peace and acceptance are too hard to achieve.”

Because you have to pursue them, not just hope that it’ll happen.  

I haven’t drawn the boi in awhile...

The Prince of Egypt (1998), dir. Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells

"Not only is the friendship beneficial for both of them (they were each alone and they fulfilled themselves in each other), it was beneficial for the entire world. If anything, they owe it to the archipelago and the future of dragons and humans to stay together." I loved this! did you mean it?! could you elaborate on it pleeease? thanks!

So this is in response to this post and the reply by @kingofthewilderwest, referencing why Hiccup and Toothless had to separate and the implied selfishness on the part of Hiccup for hanging onto the friendship. Specifically, this is in response to a quote from Haddock’s reply:

“Can we actually call Hiccup’s relationship to Toothless through the years a selfish holding on? When so much of Hicctooth’s relationship has been sacrifice for one another, through and through and through?”

Hiccup and Toothless’ friendship is such a deep one precisely because it made both of them stronger and braver and better than they were before: Hiccup found his place in the world, found his confidence, found love and respect among his friends and family, found his identity and his mission in the world. Hiccup became brave and selfless enough to lose the love of his father in order to prove that dragons were not killers. He became a warrior in order to save his dragon and his tribe and father.

Toothless, through Hiccup’s confidence in him, found courage to fight the tyrant that had kept his fellow dragons under control. He saved his dragonkind, not only by doing this, but by proving that dragons are the loyal, wonderful creatures Hiccup believed them to be. Toothless became selfless enough not to look out for his own self-preservation, but to put himself in harm’s way in order to save Hiccup from the Kill Ring. His saving Hiccup from the fire proved to Stoick that dragons can love, and indeed, love deeply.

And it was these, the acts of both Hiccup and Toothless, that brought peace to the 300-year-war that raged on Berk against dragons. Thousands of lives, dragon and human, were saved by the simple but powerful expression of love between two individuals. (And when you think about it, that’s a really remarkable achievement.)

In the second film, we get the same theme: Hiccup and Toothless have created a world where humans and dragons live together. Drago believes that dragons can simply be controlled by wielding power over them and by taking command of the dragon alpha. It’s a pragmatic equation built on the belief that dragons have no love and no loyalty in them. He’s out to make a dragon army and to decimate tribes across the archipelago, using dragons as his henchmen. But what stops him? What stops this tyrant from destroying the world? The fact that Toothless is independent of the Alpha, he has free will, he has loyalty, he has choice. He is not beholden to the will of the Alpha, or by extension, Drago. Dragons cannot be used, they cannot be forced to do that which they hate.

Granted, it was hard for Toothless to evade the control of the Alpha, which shows how strong the biological drive is to listen to the Alpha’s command. But because Toothless’ love for Hiccup is so strong, it can and will overpower his other, deep biological instincts. In the final battle of the second film, it is again Toothless’ absolute trust in Hiccup that allows him to evade the Alpha’s hive mind, and his absolute ferocity in having Hiccup hurt again under his watch that empowered him to take on the Alpha and upturn the natural order of the species. It was Toothless’ command of the dragons that allowed them all the strength to fight the Bewilderbeast and protect not only their own free will but the lives of the Berkians (and by extension, all the peoples under threat by Drago).

In both films and in the series, we see again and again how association and comradeship with dragons makes for a better world: from the Riders (the next generation who will live loving dragons for who they are and what they can do), to Eret (changing his worldview entirely), to Mala (who gives dragons the respect they deserve as incredible, powerful beings), to the Wingmaidens (who have a symbiotic relationship to their dragons and their wellbeing). Hiccup’s message of how humans and dragons should work together has never created a worse world.

Even in the third film, it is Hiccup and Toothless’ absolute and undying love for one another that takes down the enemy that symbolizes the world: Hiccup, because of his love for Toothless, sacrificed himself to kill Grimmel, to save Toothless. Hiccup and the other riders continually saved dragons from trapper cages because they worked together with their dragons to fight them. The riders take down the enemy armada by joining forces with dragons. It is Hiccup’s association with Toothless and with dragons that allows Hiccup to innovate creatively to create a world that tries to accommodate both species––an unheard of notion among Vikings that is relevant to the very core of what tolerance means.

Hiccup and Toothless have only ever made each other’s lives better. They have both only ever made the world a better place. They have symbolized peace and equality to people everywhere, they have fought as one to defeat foes who believed only subordination or murder was possible between the species.

Hiccup, as a mediator between the human and dragon species, is in the perfect position to negotiate between the species, to understand what humans need to understand about dragons, and what dragons need to ally with humans. Hiccup is capable of talking to leaders and chiefs on the archipelago, showing them the power and splendor of the dragons by his side. Toothless is the leader capable of defending and leading dragonkind away from control by a dominating foe or a challenger Alpha. Because their enemies underestimate the bond between two individuals and the two species, Hiccup and Toothless have the advantage of them and have continually taken victory from them through the sheer expression of their love and belief in one another.

What makes Hiccup and Toothless special in the history of the world is how they are the individual representation of a larger goal. It’s a psychological fact that tolerance for foreign groups and immigrants increases by the sheer presence of those groups. Keeping dragons and humans together in some form keeps that existence alive in the world, allowing Hiccup and Toothless to develop their joint leadership into something that guides the entire world into peace and understanding. By putting a halt to that association, by giving in to the divide of the species believed by the world, Hiccup is essentially formalizing the idea that his efforts at peace are not enough, that his and Toothless’ association cannot help create a better world anymore. And while this is an admirable, humble realization (and one I would have loved to see better developed in THW), it really doesn’t come across that way in the HTTYD narrative. In the narrative, we see how much their friendship helps defeat vast armies and tyrannical foes, and how their bond has created a utopia where both species live (albeit somewhat uncomfortably, but really.. not irrecoverably).

So, I guess what I’m saying is that the love between Hiccup and Toothless has only ever been selfless and giving. And more than that, it has continually shown to be the catalyst of major societal and political change in their world. By their both becoming leaders to their respective groups, they are in the perfect position to further enact real change in the larger world, by preaching tolerance by example and demonstrating that a mutually-beneficial dragon-human alliance is more powerful than humans or dragons alone.

I’d like to note that in the books, Hiccup and the dragons remained together and at peace for most of Hiccup’s life because the dragons trusted Hiccup to be a friend of dragons, and to lead the archipelago in that friendly alliance. The separation happened towards the end of Hiccup’s life because, while dragons could trust Hiccup to lead the humans in friendship with dragons, they could not always trust who came after Hiccup. That is the difference in thematic I think is missing from the narrative in THW: that, yes, there are humans who will always be evil towards dragons, but it is Hiccup and his tribe who can be forces for change in their world right now, before they pass on to the next generation.

I MOVED ON SUNDAY

AND I SAW TWO PEACOCKS TODAY 

JUST HANGING OUT

This is a normal thing here??! 

Team Avatar enjoys a moment together in Republic City, from The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars library edition.

lmao..the ocean sets Moana down so gracefully 

and Maui’s like PLOPP  

Agree with all of this. So much. Ugh. 

Cinemasins becomes valid for the first time in its entire existance

Cabin Pressure S01E01: Abu Dhabi

Carolyn: Martin, you’re a berk.

Martin: I’m not a berk, Carolyn, I’m an airline captain!

Carolyn: Wrong on both counts. You’re a colossal berk and you’re not an airline captain. I don’t have an airline, I have one jet. You cannot put one jet in a line. If MJN is anything, it is an air dot.