Twins poster!

Well, well, well... We get a poster with both twins! That's good because it leaves us with one poster that is a mystery. Will it be Valka and Cloudjumper (I SO HOPE), Stoick and his dragon, or a completely unique poster? We'll have to wait and see!

The designs on the twins look fine. Very recognizably them! I think Tuff's dental work is even worse than before. I liked the description that was given of them in that it didn't make them sound like complete idiots, just reckless. DoB and RoB have sort of turned them into brainless characters, and though they were rough, silly, and often thoughtless in the first film, they were not quite as dumb as they've been made in the series for the sake of comedy. Anyway, the detail here is splendid! I guess Fishlegs does win the facial hair contest because Tuff doesn't look like he's got too much. He's got the most maniacal look on his face XD Totally a Viking there. Ruff looks a bit more devious, but that fits her personality (in the film she did seem to show a smidgin more of craftiness than her brother). Her helmet has gotten a complexity upgrade. Gah, this second movie is just mocking those of us who like to draw! So much complexity!

Now onto Barf and Belch, and I LOVE Barf and Belch! Look at the little red patches on the top of the head on the right! They stick up, and the they have individual bumps on the bulges! So nice looking! Their horns look reasonable polished, and the way they kind of fuse into the green flesh is nice. Also, I noticed Meatlug's Teeth were super worn, and that makes sense for a dragon eating boulders, but it's neat to see Barf and Belch having a little less grime on their needle like fangs. Less than Stromfly too, and I betcha Toothless has the least of all (retractable teeth, helps keep em' clean!). Also... just another detail note, Barf and Belch have a really interesting tongue texture! Toothless's is a lot smoother (at least in the first film) while this Zippleback is now sporting a much rougher, bumpy tongue! Wonder why...? It's just a neat little difference and it looks very real! Perhaps because Zipplebacks (being more snake like) actually move their tongues out into the air more often and thus need to have a bit of coarseness so as to keep it from getting injured. Then of course their eyes are beautifully expressive XD I love dragons like the Zippleback who can show such a wide range of expressions (sadly, the Nadder is a good example of a dragon that we have not seen be very expressive!). 

So many luscious details in these posters! Looking forward to the next one (It's gotta be Snotlout, right?). This movie really is doing a neat job with its advertising! I so hope it does well in the box office and lives up to our expectations! We've been waiting quite a while! The graphics alone are far superior to what I would have ever dreamed, so at least I'm a happy camper there!

Me, Book!Hiccup and Movie!Hiccup

During a long and somewhat scattered conversation with Inhonoredglory, we were trying to pin down why I liked Hiccup so much and how we both related to fictional characters differently. It was a fascinating topic, and in the end she asked me a question that I had never considered. "I know you don't quite relate as much to book!Hiccup, so why do you think that is?" 

So... I'd never even really thought of it! I like both or them, I think book!Hiccup is an amazing character and I am happy that the movie kept some of his similarities with his counterpart, but why do I relate SO MUCH to Movie!Hiccup and so little to book? It was neat to try and figure out. Now, please don't take this as me saying I don't like the books. I do. I love them. I'm very sad that they are almost over. I don't have to strongly relate to a character to appreciate them, but when I do strongly empathize with one (ahem, Movie!Hiccup), I usually stick with them for years and years.

Alright, onto the interesting question!!! Book!Hiccup and me? Wow… never thought this through, but I can see tons of reasons. I might just try and list them, but there are probably more.

1. His age. Book!Hiccup is eleven when we first meet him. I was fifteen when I read the book after seeing the film. Movie!Hiccup's life was at the same stage as mine, so I felt a lot more empathy for him. It was super easy to put myself into the shoes of a guy my age as opposed to a child.

2. I know Cressida in the first books ALWAYS pointed out how normal Hiccup looks, but in truth he is an absolutely extraordinary person. One thing would be his ability to speak to the dragons. I do LOVE that as a story element, but it quickly isolated me from Hiccup. It actually made Book!Hiccup feel almost superhuman… like he had this magical ability no one else had. Movie Hiccup was much less phenomenal. Sure, he was clever and had a knack for art and building things (two things I relate to. I just love it when I make something that works), but in the end he actually WAS just a normal guy who wound up changing the world through POWERFUL normal things that even I feel like I have (love, conviction), so it made movie Hiccup more relatable. Not that book Hiccup was not convicted, but at least when I met him in the first book, he didn't really compare with Movie!Hiccup. Now he does, now he shows conviction, but in book 1? He doesn't yell at Toothless and he tries to save his village. Honorable, yes. Convicted, yes… but just not to the "Kill Ring" degree.

3. Also, TOOTHLESS! Yeah, one reason I am so happy to relate to Movie!Hiccup is because I'd LOVE to have what he has. He's got movie!Toothless, and you already know how massively wonderful I think that dragon is. Book!Toothless… he's cute, but he's just NOT what Movie!Toothless is at all. So, the loyalty, power, love, fierceness, and friendship displayed by the Night Fury made me really want to be Movie!Hiccup. The common/garden dragon didn't really make me envy Book!Hiccup all that much.

4. Another thing would be that I met movie Hiccup first, fell in love with him, and then it was just weird to see him being so different in the books.

5. Though I love the story element of fate (and believe fully in God's providence XD), the fact that little Book!Hiccup is sort of destined for greatness makes him harder to relate to. He's more of a messianic figure in that way, especially with his whole stepping into the kingdom. Movie!Hiccup will eventually have to chose whether or not to take hold of the reigns and be chief, but his feels like so much more of a normal decision. Book!Hiccup hardly has a choice, he will follow in the footsteps of his ancestors. He's amazing, but he's a little too amazing. I can't think of a single time where Book!Hiccup was wrong, and because of that he's actually too ideal to be me.

6. I can actually see movie!Hiccup, as well as hear him, so that just makes him easier to want to be like! Book!Hiccup… well all we get to see are Cresseda's illustrations. 

7. Though there IS tension between father and son in the books, the way it was handled in the movie felt far more relatable because it was far more subtle. You didn't have people jeering at Hiccup that he would never be chief, you just had movie!Hiccup quietly feeling like he truly was a disappointment to everyone. The way movie Hiccup so badly wished to get his dad's approval really grabbed me. I know book!Hiccup wanted it as well, but I don't recall it being as big of an element in the first book at the very least.

8. Also, this goes with the age, but I've never really been bullied to the extent of book!Hiccup. I've never been picked on physically. The book Berk felt a lot more cruel when it came to people, while the movie Berk did not need to do that because there was a massive WAR going on. Now, I've TOTALLY felt the vibes that were given to Movie!Hiccup coming from other people, but I've never been around guys who would actually just flat out shove me over or anything like that. Just another reason I found movie!Hiccup more relatable.

9. The fact that movie!Hiccup was the first to see dragons as not evil was also more relatable. I've always loved reptiles, so I loved seeing a movie where the hero stepped up and said that the creatures were not the monsters that everyone assumed. Book!Hiccup just trained his in a better way, won its heart and its loyalty against all odds, but Movie!Hiccup was being different.

10.  And then again… I'd give almost anything for the kind of friendship Hiccup has with Toothless in the film. Just the uniqueness of it all, the way he found a friend he could truly trust after all that time of everyone else being distant and disappointed. That feeling of acceptance he got first from Toothless was magical in the movie, one of the strongest pulls I think (The Night Fury to scrawny, ordinary boy relationship is probably my favorite thing of all in the entire film), so since that wasn't really there at all in the book, it sort of left me hanging. Sure, book!Toothless would eventually "accept" Hiccup and prove his loyalty, but he's kind of a shrimp and a sissy of a dragon, so being accepted by him doesn't really compare to being accepted and loved by the Unholy Offspring of Lighting and Death Itself.

So, there you have it! Ten reasons I relate to movie!Hiccup more. I do LOVE book Hiccup, he's an amazing and well developed character who deserves a lot of thought, analysis, and love for himself, but he's just not quite as relatable!

Two Months of Peace

Alright! This is the next of the Dsplash Chronicles. This one has probably gotten more work than most, so hopefully the effort pays off! This is also the first Chronicle I have done an illustration for, BUT I plan to do more in the future. The reason this Chronicle took me a lot of time is that I am dealing with some events and discussions that really cause characters' (even the "good" characters) worldviews to really rub against each other... and all of them have legitimate points to make even if they do not necessarily agree. The image above probably happens near the end of the Chronicle, and it depicts Hiccup, Toothless, and the Doctor listening to what Link believes should be done about the Purpose.

So... I hope you will all enjoy this! Feel free to comment! I want to give a VERY big thanks to Inhonoredglory and Toothlesslove for their help with this Chronicle! I was given quite a lot of helpful pointers, encouragements, and questions from them, and some of this is actually almost direct quotations of what Glory suggested I put in (if it has better writing style and more vivid descriptions, it is probably strongly influenced by the suggested materials she sent!). Anyway, they gave a lot of their time to help, and because of that the Chronicle is much more carefully constructed and much better at keeping the characters in character! I really can't thank them enough.

Feel free to comment if you have questions, comments, or advice. Click the "read more" to actually view the Chronicle.

Some of my favorite character moments

Just a quick post about some moments in the story of HTTYD where characters really, really shined. These moments have got to be some of my all time favorites, and they grab me every time.

Ok, I'm not gonna go in depth on any of these because I suppose each one would deserve a massive post all to itself (especially this one and the last one!). This moment, this moment for Hiccup was absolutely incredible. The fact that he walked into that ring knowing that he would shock his tribe, possibly lose his life, and disappoint his father who he so desperately wants to please. He's pretty much giving up everything. He's already told Astrid to take care of Toothless if he dies. He's going to lose the massive amount of people who are impressed by him. He may very well lose his life to the jaws and fire of one of the most aggressive dragons in the archipelago, and he is going to throw away the chance to gain the respect of his father. I honestly wonder if the latter thing is not by far this most painful for him. And why does he do all of this? "To protect your pet dragon?" Yes, but there is more than that. He learned to love Toothless, found true friendship for the first time in that dragon, and he learned very clearly that his society was wrong, his whole world was wrong. If he wanted to just keep Toothless safe, though that was a part if it, because if he only wanted to protect his friend he could have run away. Instead he stays, he stays because he must do what is right. He has to try. And he will lose everything for the sake of trying to change his world for the better. I just can't say how much I admire him for this scene alone.

Alright, this next little analysis will be shorter, but I don't EVER give Astrid as much credit as she deserves. Hiccup is completely crushed in this scene, and he truly wonders if it would not have been better if he would have shut his conscience up and killed Toothless the first time he met the dragon. "It would have been better for everyone--" and he is right. Now ALL of them are sailing to their deaths, even Toothless, so what good were his actions? What was the point of his heroism if it only gives him heartbreak and destroys everyone he cares about? That is when Astrid steps in, and it is amazing that SHE still sees him as a hero. She doesn't believe it was all in vain, and she thinks there might just yet be a hero on the inside of this small freckly boy, who, though defeated, could rise again and save them all. She wants to remember what he says right now, she believes these events are incredibly important, and she is able to remind Hiccup what he was fighting for, remind him that Toothless is out there, that dragons are different, that maybe he has done something wonderful, and that now he needs to press back into the fight. Thank you Astrid Hofferson!

Ok, so I lied about the last one being shorter XD Maybe this one will be. It is utterly amazing to see Stoick, Hiccup, and Toothless together here. Amazing to see these two ancient foes brought together by the love of a single boy. Stoick and Toothless probably have the blood of hundreds on their hands, but the reconcile an age old fight because Hiccup has shown BOTH of them that their is more to their enemy than meets the eye. Toothless trusts Stoick enough to give Hiccup back even though the man captured him, tied him up, and dragged him away from the boy. And then Stoick thanks Toothless, thanks the dragon that at the beginning of the film had struck an angry and hot terror into him and the rest of the village. Stoick is a chief, he is not quick to change, not quick to reconcile, but after all that has happened he pretty much welcomes Toothless into his family, and it is beautiful.  

Last one. I was torn between Forbidden Friendship and the GotNF scene shown above. I just picked this one because I though I might could plow into it more easily. Toothless here makes the ultimate sacrifice, he really does. He destroys his means of freedom, and he destroys it because he wants to. Yes, he dove into the burning body of the Red Death so as to save Hiccup, but he did that so as to save the boys life. He gives up his freedom completely here to save Hiccup's friendship with him, to let the boy know that he will never leave him again. It may have seemed such a small thing, such a trivial worry that drove Toothless to do this when you compare it to the other sacrifices that he has made, but that is the beauty of it. I can't imagine that anything would matter more to him as a dragon than his ability to fly. One only has to watch him to see that he enjoys it tremendously. Plus, Toothless was probably a very independent creature before meeting Hiccup, and he still very much thinks and fends for himself. In the end he gives all of that, gives it up forever, and it is a promise signed in the snow that he will never leave Hiccup. The temptation of freedom would not draw him away from the boy, and he wanted Hiccup to be sure of his undying loyalty. Now he will live a much more restricted, confined, almost pathetic life for such a majestic creature, but he doesn't see it that way. He's sees Hiccup as being worth more than life and as being worth more than liberty. Beautiful...

Fishlegs Poster!

Haha, yay! Fishlegs as he will appear in the second film. Darn the texturing is good... as if these characters were not hard enough to draw already, now the movie directors have gone and made it harder! Love his timidness... it would stink if he lost it! Also funny that out of all the weapons he could wield, he's got a stumpy dagger! Hiccup's got a fire sword, Astrid has an axe (I assume. She has one on her saddle at least), and Fishlegs (though he is the only teen who has the physique to carry the massive hammers and maces of the adults) is using a knife! And... yeah, he's gotta beard. No comment. DOn't really like or dislike it, but I suppose it certainly helps to make them look older. Wow, everyone's growing up! I guess Fishlegs will be the only teen with a beard that is truly noticeable. Snotlout has a mustache in the trailer, and Hiccup's got a little scruff on his jaw line, but Fishlegs has a full blown beard. Soooo... unless Tuffnut has a go-tee or something, Fishlegs wins the facial hair contest! I wonder if Tuff will have any... We all just hope Ruff won't! Anyway, excited about this image, and Fishlegs isn't even my favorite character! Very cool. Looking forward to more of these.

Skari pencil art

Sorry I've not been posting as much recently! I've been sort of busy with stuff... school as well as some projects. I will say that I've got another Dsplash Chronicle almost completed. That's probably been the major time eater recently, but I've been getting help with it and I'm trying to be more careful about keeping characters in character (plus times in the story are getting darker and trickier to write). 

Anyway, onto this drawing! It's just a quick sketch I made, but I wanted to make at least one drawing of Skari after the battle with Sardilic (hence the burn marks wrapping around him). He'll carry those scars for the rest of the tale, but he's also under going a gradual (though still probably unrealistically quick XP) character transformation. Hope you like the line art. That top text is his name written in Gemnode script (a language which will translate in the eyes of any reader), and that triangular symbol represents the level of threat that he poses to the Gemnodes (in their own opinion). This is supposed to sort of be written from their perspective. Anyway, more posts coming soon!

How it should have ended?!?

I was sooooo stinking excited to discover that a certain cameo snuck its way into the how it should have ended videos.

Ok, so the Desolation of Smaug... HUGE fantasy movie, thousands and thousands of people going to watch it because there is one stinking MASSIVE dragon playing the most important role in the whole plot. Yeah, it's a big deal for dragon fans to get one done really well in a film. Funny thing is... every time I thought about the film it kind of tickled me. The whole point of the trailers was to "slay the dragon", and now I totally don't think of dragons that way. So... anyway, this thing got a bunch of dragon hype, even a "How it should have ended" video, but then to my absolute amazement, look who showed up!

I just sat there saying "No...."!!! I couldn't believe it! HOW COOL IS THIS!? Hiccup and Toothless weaseling their way into the world of the Hobbit, and then of course Hiccup's gonna say what I was already thinking before coming into the film. Hilarious! Seriously, this is just so cool to have a company that takes the biggest hit movies and makes little shorts out of the recognize Hiccup and Toothless first and foremost out of a list of characters who have trained dragons. I mean, they showed Hiccup before they showed the woman off of Game of Thrones. How cool... how perfectly cool to see these videos actually bring Hiccup and Toothless in and recognize them as recognizable movie entities in our culture. Hiccup represents dragons being misunderstood and trainable?! How cool is that!?

And then, Oh yes! The HTTYD parity continues! It's just so awesome that they assume that people who go to see this Hobbit film will be familiar enough with HTTYD to think this is funny. The whole last big scene of their video practically hangs on the fact that people have seen HTTYD and strongly affiliate it with the idea that not all dragons are evil. Of course there is the comical twist that Smaug is evil, but still! This was perfect! Forbidden Friendship parity! This was just dream come true! Seriously, I had thought up funny parities between this movie and HTTYD myself, and I know others had as well, and apparently we are not the only ones who think it would be hilarious to tie HTTYD into the Hobbit world! This was just so great to finally see Hiccup and Toothless in one of their videos, and they didn't even mock them! Awesome.