Father's Day

So, today seems to be a good day to do a really, really heart felt post in praise of Stoick. BUT, it will contain spoilers, so I'm gonna use a "read more". Click it if you've seen the second movie.

Well... wow. Where to start? It's hard to believe that the events of the second movie happened. To be completely honest, the evening of the thirteenth I spent a long, long, long time crying over the things that happened, but after that good log sob, I was able to pick the film back up and examine it to see what was really there, and the underlying themes are striking and utterly beautiful... beautiful enough to rival the themes in the first film, sure, but if you consider them as a continuation of the first movies messages, HTTYD2 takes on the glorious role of an utterly amazing sequel, the most amazing I have ever seen.

Stoick, in the first film. Is very grave, often cross with Hiccup, but in the little scenes where you see him alone, you soon see a fragility, a real human heart, and you realize that one of the reasons Stoick is so hard on Hiccup is because he is worried about him. Almost all of his actions are done in order to protect his son. Sure, he feels perhaps that Hiccup has let him down and isn't exactly the son he would have asked for, but he still loves him, and he loves him deeply. Then in the second film we see even more of this truth. Stoick, unlike everyone else in the village, was subliminally confident that one day, some how, some way, Hiccup would be a great man. What Valka said to Hiccup at the funeral concerning his being born so small, but his father's surety that he would grow into the strongest of them all shows how hopeful Stoick was in his son. It would have been hard for him to hold onto that hope through all the years, but I believe that he did, and even though he was so very often butting heads with his son, I think it was love and hope that drove him to do so (especially in the second film) as opposed to disappointment.

Another trait Stoick displayed was a truly forgiving heart. Imagine, imagine Stoick apologizing to Hiccup and then later to Toothless in the first film. After seeing the second one, we get a better insight into how deeply rooted his motivations would have been to hate the dragons. His wife had tried to speak out for them, and in the process she had been carried away shrieking from him. There was nothing he could have done, and as far as he or anyone else knew, she was eaten by them. So, even after all that, even after losing so much to the dragons, he is willing to say that he is sorry to Hiccup in the first film. BUT, with how beautiful that is, I do think we may have an even more incredible display of how forgiving his love can make him. Valka. Stoick had the right to be upset. Valka knew that when he returned. She had stayed away, and she actually did truly feel sorry about that, apologized to Hiccup sincerely for it. But there is an emotion that really can make people forget about themselves, forget that their rights have been jilted, and that is love. And when Stoick is completely unwilling to say anything against his wife, it is one of the most selfless displays of devotion I have seen portrayed in any film. 

And of course, Stoick lived his life to the end protecting the ones he loved... Even to the point of laying down his life for them. When Drago fights with Valka, I genuinely was nervous. Sure, she was a very skilled warrior, but he is a mountain of a man, and Valka is wielding the weapon, or should I say tool, of a pacifist. When Stoick swooped in, picked her up and the went for Drago in one on one combat, I was so impressed. To see him standing up against that terrifying warlord and not backing down an inch. His courage was nothing short of inspiring. But as a father he had more to protect than just his wife, he felt it was his duty to keep his entire family safe. Hiccup made the mistake of confronting Drago, and Stoick did not let his son pay the price. Stoick stood there and took the shot for his son, saving his life... and possibly even Toothless's life as well (can you imagine what that dragon would have done to himself if he realized he had murdered the other half of his soul?). Even in that darkest of moments, Stoick's courage and devotion blazed forth. He said from the beginning that he would protect what was his, and he did, and he died doing it. Stoick the Vast Haddock was and forever will be one of the greatest heroes of fiction, and that means all the more to me... because he reminds me often of my own dad.

Hiccup never got to tell Stoick why he was so afraid of "becoming him". Let's not do that with our own fathers. Seriously, if you have a father who loves you, let him know, give him the respect he deserves. It is easy to butt heads, but so often the reason we do that with our fathers is because they do care about us enough to confront us and make us think, even if it makes us uncomfortable. If I have come away from HTTYD2 with any resolutions, it is to give my dad as much respect and love as I can because I don't know how long he will be here, and I feel the same way about him as Hiccup did about his own father. Let them know what they mean to us.