As far as first parts go...

A View to a Skrill part 1 was just excellent! We got soooooo many good elements! I haven't gotten to see the second bit yet, but MAN. I am still trying to recover from the first half! The flight scenes and fight scenes were well handled (violent enough), and then the Skrill was a really cool antagonist! He's not quite as evil as he's been portrayed, but being hungry, confused, and angry makes him one incredibly dangerous creature! I actually really want to see him on the ground some more. For some reason that makes the peril feel a bit more physical, like if was trying to bite or claw rather than blast. Anyway, excellent episode! Toothless was even super ADORBS at parts, so I am totally happy! They gave the Skrill a TON of presence, respect, and even nuance, so they did exactly what I was hoping! I just wonder what the second episode will hold. I hope it lives up to the first one! Man, great stuff! Definitely up there with DoB3, and considering it has a second part, it could surpass it (wow that would be hard! I love Toothless-hunted angst just about more than anything, but I find the Skrill so fascinating and terrifying that it just might do it!).

Watching the episode.

This is amazing!

First off they just called the Skrill "it"

Then when it came out of the ice I went into some sort of trembling spasm.

And now they are saying that the Skrill is starving.

This is too good!

Ok, yep, this was well done! The Skrill is suitably sinister, that is for sure! Wow, he totally freaked me out at points, and considering Toothless's blast is plasma, the whole exploding lightning blast thing is actually remotely possible. Vey interesting. I got chills through that whole thing! Darn, I so want the next episode now!

Typical and cruel!

iTunes has ONLY released the first part of the Skrill episodes, so I am dying here! No! Agh! This is terrible! It is totally pay back for Worst In Show being released early! This is just cruel! I have this horrible feeling that I will be waiting WEEKS before they realize what's up and decide to release another volume. I am so upset. This episode wasn't meant to be a cliffhanger, but it is totally going to be! (I haven't watched it yet, so please no spoilers!)

The Skrill is coming

I am soooooo freaking out over this! December 5th, the Skrill will finally appear. Sadly, I will not get to see the episode until the sixth, but this is just so terrifyingly incredible! Finally! Wow, I do hate to think that Toothless and Hiccup might get taken down by this harrowing creature, but at least Toothless will finally get a decent rival! Whispering Deaths just don't compare! Open the image in a new window or tab if you want to see it bigger. Wow, I'm gonna have a hard time sleeping tonight! I'm having trouble breathing now!

Dimension Splash Concept Art

These are the multiple images I have made while thinking up the Dimension Splash story as well as one very special one from someone who made concept art for me after learning about the game. Now, I have it under a "read more" because one of these is a little unpleasant, so if you don't like angst, you probably shouldn't click this post. Nothing terrible but pretty unpleasant.

Labyrinth of Shard and Shadows Part III

Ok, last part of my three part Chronicle. Whovians (if any of you are them) should enjoy this because things get a bit weird! Yeah, this is probably one of my most complex plots, and it shoots all over the emotional board. There is a lot of tension, a good deal of danger, but then you get something rather ridiculous (and imo quite funny!), and then to end it all you get a really strange and terrible moral dilemma. It is pretty long, but I think this is one of my more enjoyable plots. Feel free to comment with questions, compliments, criticisms, or even suggestions. Ahem, again, be warned that things get weird fast, but all of it does make sense in the physics of this dimension.

Blackfish, Toothless's Intelligence, and Could You Really Trust a Night Fury?

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I rented and then purchased the documentary Blackfish. It deals with killer whales and the dangers of keeping them in captivity. The documentary is remarkably well done, and the critics all rate it as such. It was compelling and harrowing as it tells the story of an orca, Tilikum, who unlike any orca in the wild has taken the lives of three people. The documentary goes in depth on how intelligent these animals are, and I must confess that I was in absolute awe. I never dreamed that any creature could be that smart, could remind me of the dragons and Toothless in particular. The similarities were uncanny. They may look nothing alike, but when I was watching the orcas and seeing how they thought, my brain was just screaming Night Fury.

Toothless could totally exist. If a whale can be that smart, so could he. These orcas were doing things that were mind-blowing. Wild orcas, when a research scientist threw a snowball, broke off a large chunk of ice, fashioned it into a sphere, and began tossing it around in the water! They learn to imitate human mannerisms in the parks, and I saw tons of footage of them nodding when their trainers would nod and even sticking their tongues out when they wanted to be laughed at. Really charming. Then when it comes to hunting they are terrifyingly strategic, but what struck me most was how they would bond with a particular trainer and work together with them. Again, does this sound like dragons (especially Toothless) to anyone except me?

But after all that came the terrifying truth about what the orcas have done in captivity. There have been several deaths, and Tilikum has killed three people, two of whom were his trainers. The last attack was terrible, absolutely sickening how brutal he became, but he had bonded with that trainer. There are so many images of him and her together enjoying one another's company, her hugging him, and all sorts of stuff. So... what went wrong? The documentary feels that Tilikum has become psychotic, and I would agree to that. So, most times, he is fine, but if he has a bad moment or a growing frustration, he could vent it on someone, and that action could be fatal. They are so smart, they have so many layers of emotion and intelligence (reminds me of RoB4 with Gobber's description of dragons) that they can be completely unpredictable. You don't know what is going on in his head, and so it is incredibly dangerous to be around him even though he may have even bonded with you. Really sad and rather horrifying. 

So... where does that leave Toothless? I like to think of HTTYD as being very realistic, being a world that is so layered that you feel like you could walk into it. Watching stuff about orcas has made me really think that an animal like Toothless could exist and even that a friendship like what Hiccup and Toothless have could be possible. But then you have the dark side, the sudden unpredictable and vicious attacks, and if HTTYD is realistic, could Hiccup really trust Toothless? Would I trust Toothless? How comfortable could you be with a 2,500 lb carnivorous reptile sleeping in the same room as you? Toothless's instincts are that of a predator, and you have to realize that the dragons of HTTYD did eat people, and Toothless has clearly displayed that he has the ability and the willingness to kill (he nearly chomped and crushed Astrid and was about to incinerate Stoick without a moment's hesitation). So....what if he snaps, or worse, what if he's plotting? You cannot speak like the animal, their brains do not work the same way (Oh I had the most amazing conversation once with Toothlesslove on Tumblr concerning how Toothless would think and how it would probably be very different than the way people think. Things like an emotional drive rather than abstract though, things like instinct mixed with a form of logic that was not quite human. Really fascinating.), so in the end a Night Fury could act in a way that you think is friendly while truly being on the verge of an aggressive attack. Can Hiccup realistically trust Toothless? You cannot trust an orca that has shown love and bonded with you for ten years, so what about a Night Fury?

The answer is, YES, if I were Hiccup I would trust Toothless, and I don't say that without having first thought through it! Now, when Hiccup first met Toothless, was trusting the dragon a safe idea? No. It was really incredibly risky, but he took the risk. Honestly, I still wouldn't have felt comfortable around Toothless until the very end of the film when he dives into the flames to catch Hiccup. At that point it seems pretty clear that the dragon will give anything for the boy... or will he? What separates him from the orcas who seem to be incredibly loyal? Perhaps Toothless is just saving his recent source of food and his ability to fly. Without Hiccup, the dragon could easily believe that his survival would be jeopardized. How is he any different than the killer whales who work and train possibly for the simple reason that food and survival require them to do that?

Gift of the Night Fury! That is where Toothless shows that he is different! The orcas are held in captivity in an enclosure that is about 1% of their original habitat. They need their trainers in order to live, so they work and train and show love, and it really could all be because they want their next meal. They are crammed into an alien environment, and it is just a fatality waiting to happen as they become annoyed and stressed. Toothless cannot fly without Hiccup, and so you could make a very similar argument for him. He needs the boy, and perhaps that is why he shows love. If there ever comes a time where he is so angry, unhappy, and stressed that he snaps, Hiccup would be in great danger, right? Wrong. GotNF proved that wrong, and it showed that Toothless IS different. He was offered freedom, and for a while he took it, but he returned. Unlike the orca who must stay with their trainers and who are in captivity, Toothless was given the opportunity to leave Hiccup forever, to be free again. He turned that down, turned it down flat in one of the most beautiful scenes in HTTYD. That is why I'd trust him, and that is why Hiccup can as well. Toothless is not some steed, he's not some play thing, and he's certainly not captured. He was given freedom, but he turned around and handed it back because he does love Hiccup, and he loves him selflessly. He doesn't need him, he wants him. That is why Toothless is different, that is what sets him apart, and that is why Hiccup could, in all realism, trust him with his life.