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An HTTYD Fic

Discussion in 'Fanfic Discussion' started by Invictus, Sep 9, 2013.

  1. Invictus

    Invictus Master of Death

    Joined:
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    3,882
    I've been reading How To Train Your Dragon fics in the past few days, and well they range from utter shit, to cliche and repetitive. There were two or three that had potential to be good, but never grew a beard and became good. As that frustrated me to no end, such q good movie deserves good fics, and well, I can at least try to give one to it. So I decided to write my first story, a HTTYD fic.

    Since English is my second language, and this is my first story, I know I will make a lot of mistakes. So I need a patient beta, and fine with him/her making comments and his/her opinion about the story.

    Here is the Outline of the Fic: Hiccup is never discovered by Astrid, he is chosen to kill a dragon, and panics. Before his father comes back, he flees, simply disappearing(?, needs panics), and so begins his journey.

    The idea is making a legendary smith, making both weapons and armours. He will adopt the name Völundr/Wayland, and that's where that legend begins. He will learns "slowly", slowly for fiction but very quick for real life. I won't make him a fighter, I don't know if I make him just decent enough to survive against professional warriors, or at the level of a untrained peasant, mostly helpless without Toothless. But I will not make him a warrior or fighter. He will stay an inventor, and with the works of Hero and Archimedes, the possibilities are huge.

    The fic would pass in what is something very similar to our world. With Berk located in modern day Shetlands, called North Archipelago, with other islands from the books/tv series there or in the South Archipelago, Orkneys

    The fic will begin around 1012-5. He will go to norse Dublin, then England, from there to the land of the Rus, Kiev to be specific, from there to Constantinople, he will go to Damascus, and from there to Denmark, and finally, to where he will mount his workshop, Sválbard.

    He will meet historical figures, like Knut the Great, Thorkell the tall and the historical(they will be important, specially Thorkell), Basil II the Bulgarslayer, Yaroslav the wise and others. This time is ideal because in there we have the Golden Age of the Rus, the North Empire under Knut that ruled Denmark, Norway, England and some of Sweden, the Fatimid Caliphate also in it's golden age and the Byzantine Empire under Basil II the best emperor since Heracles and Justinianus. And the recently formed Varangian Guard! More importantly, this is the Apex of the Viking age, where they are not raiders or pirates, they lead now huge empires.

    And of course, there is also the supernatural. Selkies, mermaids, dragons (duh), seaserpents and other mythical creatures. The Celtic Irish Pantheon and the Norse will appear heavily and personally. Valkyries and Ice Giants are a personal favorite. There is also the Christianity issue, with the norse gods now adored by a minority, the Celtic gods all but forgotten, the great leaders are now devote christians. We also will see the birth of the Drusi religion.

    Then there is the smithing. Damascus steel, plate amours, dragonleather, all invented or improved by Hiccup, and others too. Inventions, like remaking a steam engine inspired by Hero's invention, heater and windmills, also remade. Really, if Hiccup didn't invent a very good heater remaking would be out.

    Now the characters. The focus on this fic will be Hiccup, who will use different names because it's hard to take someone called Hiccup outside Berk (but I will always call him Hiccup). Toothless will be very important, and Hiccup's support and friend.but he will not be Hiccup's equal, they won't have proper dialogues, and Toothless won't have human-like behavior. He is a very smart semi-sentient being, with instincts being the biggest part of his behavior.

    Hiccup will be the same in the begining, but after meeting so many great men, some bloodthirsty warriors like the Joms, great strategist and generals like Basil, charismatic and religious, ruthless, saint men and amoral sadistic monsters, fanatics and scholars. He will meet all of them, see them live and die, he will see what is real justice, cynism will always be very close, but Hiccup won't be it's prey. Snarky and sarcastic? Yes, cynic? Never. Hiccup is an idealist. But naivety doesn't survive in the real world. I want to make him a mix between a humble genius, a very gentle and kind Übersmench, a snarky deadpan and a Guile Hero.

    Pretty ambitious, but I had 3 months to think of this and do some research, just for the outline!
     
  2. Solomon

    Solomon Heir

    Joined:
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    Serious question here: why on earth would you read fanfiction for How to Train Your Dragon? It's an extremely high quality film, I can't imagine being willing to sully my/your perspective on it by being exposed to its fanfiction. Hell, I'm terrified that HTTYD2 is going to suck, and Dreamworks made the original. So...why?
     
  3. Perspicacity

    Perspicacity Destroyer of Worlds ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I've read a bit of this fandom. If you haven't read it, Hitchups by The Arctic Repartee and its side stories are pretty much the best the fandom has to offer. Aside from the ability to communicate with Toothless, your story of a Hiccup who traipses about picking up skills and experiences sounds similar to hers. Because the fandom is small, your story will undoubtedly be compared to hers.

    Incidentally, I did a HTTYD story once, wondering whether I could pull off an antihero Hiccup (Stoick shackles him up so he can't rescue Toothless or the village from the Green Death; in the smouldering aftermath, he's ostracized). This thread reminds me that I have a few more chapters that I should get around to posting sometime.
     
  4. Nuit

    Nuit Dark Lord

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    I like it, looking forward to seeing more when you get around to it.

    Edit: Just noticed this is post 911, too bad it was a bit too early. D:
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2013
  5. Invictus

    Invictus Master of Death

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2013
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    3,882
    Simply put, the characters are awesome, and the Viking world is fascinating! I've chosen this era specially because of what's happening, the vikings rule half of the western world. And their mythology is amazing. A histoy nut like me dreams of the possibilities.

    Knut, Basil and Yarolasv are unique men who shaped their world, and steampunk is always awesome to write about.

    And there is the challenge to write a story about a hero tpin this violent era that can't/won't use physical violence to achieve his objectives. I wnat to transport this coming of age history of him to a much wider and violent world. Th real world, with sex, violence, more gritness that you can't have in a children story.


    Read it already. It started well, but soon I got tired of the other characters, and her characterization of Toothless really annoyed me. Also, she didn't explore at all the historical events that were happening around, what did she show about the Varangian guard? Almost nothing, nothing on the rus, nothing on the irish vikings. And even with all that things about the Norse Gods, they didn't show up physically. And what's the fun in that?

    But I'm okay with comparisons. I won't give him a +1 infinite bow either, I want a legendary smith and inventor. In a era where a chainmil is the better armour avaible by far, and very very expensive, imagine him coming up with a Full Plate Armour?

    Also, I'm going to read your story now, but I'm sure I will like it, I'm a fanboy.
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2013