I’m Imagining Dragons

FINALS WEEK IS OVER. I’M FREEEEE!!!!!!!

I did indeed skip another week, and I’m late posting this one, because I was suffering. I was truly in the thicket. Finals were… fine. I mean, they were awful and ruined my life, but they were fine. Three out of four of them have come back okay. I’m still awaiting that fourth one, but I’m not worried. Even if I should be, I just am not. It is so old news. Like, whatever at this point, y’know?

One of my finals consisted of a presentation plus 1000-word summary combo, and oh buddy. That presentation? I understand teachers now. How am I supposed to know if anything is making sense to these people? All my effort was wasted on a body of lameos. I could get into it, but once again, at this point? Who cares? People don’t get me, I don’t get people, blah blah blah. C’est la vie.

I’m so happy to be over with this quarter. I think the classes I took were necessary, not just in course requirement terms, but also in terms of my life. They were all about identity in some shape or way, and as you may recall from past posts, I have been going through somewhat of a crisis concerning my own. These classes simultaneously worsened and eased the crisis. It would seem that the only way out is through and baby, I am going through it!

But I need a break. Oh my god, do I need a break. From school, and people, and thinking. So thank goodness gracious for winter break! Woo hoo! And my classes next quarter shouldn’t be as intense as these were, except maybe one, but one intense class is nothing compared to four, so I’ll take it.

Real quick, I know the last post was kind of heavy, so I want to keep this light, but I do want to say that I feel as if I’m living in the evil version of the time vortex between Christmas and New Year’s. I’m awaiting the Big One (evil) instead of the Big One (fun!), except I don’t even know what this Big One is. My therapist suggested that it might be Inauguration Day, which I suppose is likely, but yeesh. Yeesh! This sucks! I will persist nevertheless.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, if I see one more announcement for another goddamn live action remake of a beloved animated film, I will flip this table, I’m not joking. Who the hell was asking for a live action remake of How to Train Your Dragon (2010)? WHO?!

I just rewatched HTTYD (How to Train Your Dragon) with my brother yesterday, and it’s confirmed. It’s one of my favorite movies ever. John Powell created magic with that score. It is so beautiful and powerful, and it perfectly fits with the story. Honestly, it does half of the storytelling in my opinion. “Test Drive” is truly one of the all time best songs from a movie soundtrack. At least it’s definitely one of my favorites. It brings me to tears every time, I swear. It just perfectly encapsulates the story. Sideways has a really good YouTube video about the music in this movie, specifically how the beginning sets up the movie for success, but he basically says that “Test Drive” is the combination of Hiccup’s and Toothless’ themes. AAAHH I could scream. Can we get into that? Let’s get into that.

Hiccup and Toothless are the same. They’re the same. They’re both outsiders, with Hiccup being a social outcast and Toothless seemingly being the last of his kind. They’re both dangerous. This is one of my major complaints about that HTTYD live action trailer. Why does Hiccup say, “I won’t hurt you,” when untying Toothless? He already did. Hiccup shoots down Toothless and intends to kill him, but something in him stops him from doing so. Something in him, not in Toothless! Although, if you want to say it was Toothless’ doing, I guess you could argue that it was his acceptance of death that made Hiccup stop, not his big, puppy-dog eyes! Toothless is in attack mode when he first meets Hiccup, though he is tied up, so he can’t actually attack. Still, his eyes remain in slits to show his beasthood. As soon as Toothless is released, he pounces on Hiccup as if to kill him instead. But he doesn’t. Whether it’s because something in him told him not to or he wanted to repay Hiccup’s mercy, Toothless also doesn’t kill him when he has the chance. Hiccup and Toothless are both willing to learn. Hiccup attempts to train Toothless by observing his manners and trying new tactics, and Toothless lets him. Then, “Test Drive” comes and they are literally one.

Toothless can’t fly without Hiccup. Is anyone hearing me? Toothless cannot fly without Hiccup. And obviously, neither can Hiccup. They need each other. They want each other. Together, they can fly. The music fanfares. It’s all so incredible. Together, they find acceptance, joy, love, family—not just in one another, but with the outside world as well. How could you not cry at that?

And then Hiccup loses his leg, and it’s the same side of which Toothless lost his tail wing. They. Are. The. SAME!

The sequel has more evidence of this with them being the same age and Hiccup becoming the chief while Toothless becomes the alpha. It also gives Toothless more autonomy, so he’s not completely unable to fly without Hiccup, and neither is Hiccup with his little wing-suit, but you know, is it flying or falling with style as Woody the Cowboy would say? Regardless, they still need each other to fully fly.

I haven’t seen the third one, but I’m pretty certain that (SPOILERS! that are honestly kind of obvious) Toothless somehow regains the full ability to fly without Hiccup, and that the two separate at the end. While my heart hates this ending, my brain can accept it. I think. Some relationships change your life, and then end. Well, I guess they all do, if you include death as an end. I don’t know how/why Toothless regains his solo-flight ability nor why he leaves Hiccup, but I can accept that sometimes separation is the natural way of things. Frankly, I would’ve enjoyed the death ending way more. Let those two platonic soulmates stay together forever and ever until one of them croaks! 

I’m pretty sure (MORE SPOILERS! but you most likely do not care) that there’s an epilogue where time has passed, Hiccup and Toothless both have families, and they reunite?! So like… what was the reason for splitting them up in the first place? In my mind that never happens because the third movie doesn’t exist. As far as I’m concerned, Hiccup and Toothless are cheif-ing/alpha-ing up a storm in Berk. The divas are diva-ing. Even if/when I watch the third movie, I can’t guarantee that I will accept it as canon. I did it with Toy Story 4 (2019) (TWENTY NINETEEN?!!?) watch me do it with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) (ALSO TWENTY NINETEEN?!?!? How are these movies five years old already? I thought they came out, like, last month).

I want to ride a dragon, man. It’d be so cool. My brother informed me that Universal Studios is currently making a themed land based on HTTYD in their new amusement park. It looks awesome. I will be going, but there’s no “fly a dragon” ride! There’s a roller coaster, one of those spinning, flying carnival rides, a water ride similar to the pirates one at Six Flags, and a show. What a massive missed opportunity to have a simulator ride where you ride a dragon! I’m thinking something akin to Disney’s Flight of Passage in their Avatar (2009) themed land in Animal Kingdom, though I’ve never ridden it, so I can’t say if that’s good inspo to have. Make it feel like Disney’s Soarin’ Around the World in EPCOT. That shiz is fun as hell. I appreciate the commitment to having diverse rides that aren’t utterly reliant on screens, but just this one would make sense! Honestly, make it like Universal’s ET Adventure if you want practical effects! The dragon-flying ride would need to be more exciting, but ET’s a good starting point!

Speaking of practical effects, I AM SO FUCKING HAPPY THEY’RE BRINGING “The Untrainable Dragon” TO THE US!!!!!! This show has been in the Universal Beijing Resort, I believe, and everything I have seen of it is absolutely breathtaking. They use puppets or animatronics (not sure which… could be both) for the dragons and they are so beautiful! They’re big and cartoony, but not uncannily so or even, somehow, unrealistically so. Watching the actors interact with them makes me believe that they are real life creatures. GAH! I LOVE PRACTICAL EFFECTS!!!! Another thing I hate about the live action remake of HTTYD: Why make it live action if you’re just going to animate half of it? Might as well make the whole thing animated. Oh wait, you already did.

Was anyone ever into Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons? It was a crossover fandom consisting of Rise of the Guardians (2012), Brave (2012), Tangled (2010), and HTTYD. Izzzyzzz has a great video on it. Thank you Izzzyzzz for being the perfect internet historian for my niches. Well, I was never actually completely into RBTD (Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons), but I did watch the occasional YouTube edit. I was mostly into uh… Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons? This name is too long. Anyways, I watched a couple ship edits of Jack Frost and Elsa. I was never a huge shipper, but I thought it was cool (no pun intended) that they both had ice powers, and I was amazed by the edits. Honestly, the ones I watched were pretty good for the time. I should try to find them again to see if they still hold up.

RBTD is such a silly concept. It’s so early 2010s Tumblr. Let it be known that I am not hating. In fact, I support… ish. It’s mostly harmless fun about attractive animated teenage characters from popular and good (some better than others) movies. It’s cringe and stupid, but since when was that illegal? If it is, they’re gonna have to lock me up. Fast.

I think I could write a fanfic about RBTD, unfortunately. Will I? Only time will tell. I fear that writing my first fanfic will open the floodgates. (To the tune of “The World Was Wide Enough) What if this Twilight AU is my Pandora’s Box? Wait, I don’t even need to change that last lyric—what if this Twilight AU is my legacy? What if this is the only fanfic I will ever write? Debatable if that would be a tragedy or a triumph.

F1 TIME BABY!!!! I stayed up until 2 AM Saturday night to watch the Las Vegas GP. Was it a mistake? Yes. My sleep schedule is forever ruined, I fear. But I got to watch Max Verstappen win his fourth World Drivers Championship titles, so that was a nice treat. He’s the second only driver to win four WDC in a row, alongside Sebastian Vettel, who also won his with Red Bull. What a fun coincidence. I’m sure Red Bull will stroke their ego with it. There’s two more races, which I’m going to try to watch live (emphasis on try for Abu Dhabi, that thing is at 7 AM, oh brother), but frankly, this race felt quite Season Finale. The whole thing is very convoluted and drawn out, but let me try to give you the cliffsnotes. 

Max won his fourth WDC, finally putting an end to the Max Verstappen/Lando Norris title fight narrative that’s been going on this season, especially in recent races. The commentators’ annoying asses were saying this near the end of the race, when it was clear Max was going to win, “Lando Norris will return next year for the title fight.” What in the MCU end card… This sport is so unserious. And yet deadly. What? Anyways, boom, finale for that storyline.

Before this race, Mercedes F1 team CEO and Team Principal Toto Wolff said something like the following about long-time Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, “It’s a good thing he’s leaving to Ferrari next year, or else I would’ve probably fire him. Everyone has a shelf life, and he seems to be nearing the end of his.” In the race, Lewis managed to get P2 after starting in P10. Mhm, yeah okay, Toto. Lewis also basically said, “Notice how Ferrari is faster than us here. That’s going to be me next year,” in driver tongue, so good for him. Carlos Sainz, the Ferrari driver Lewis will be replacing, got P3, so in post-race stuff it was funny and slightly awkward seeing them with each other. Boom, finale for this storyline.

Speaking of Carlos, he had an interesting race to say the least. He was screwed over by terrible Ferrari strategy once again, and had to become his own strategist once again to make sure he didn’t completely bail out of the race. But in doing so, he screwed over his teammate Charles Leclerc. Oooooo, dramaaaaa! I believe what happened was that Carlos pitted before Charles, which was not the plan. Earlier in the race, Charles also had to let Carlos overtake him for whatever reason, so I’m sure Charles was pissed that he followed orders to help Carlos while Carlos didn’t do the same for him. Once the race was finished, Charles SNAPPED! He had a “No more Mr. Nice Guy” moment and I LIVE! While driving post-race, he had a little rant about how he is always nice and follows orders, but it never gets him anywhere so… Then, he was cut off by his engineer, leading him to saying something like, “And the radio’s on. Great.” Mmmmhm I don’t know if I buy it. Either he was just ranting to himself and accidentally turned on the radio (what lets their engineer and audience hear them during the race), or he intentionally left it on and pretended it was an accident to save face. Which way, I live. So, finale for Charlos’ relationship, but pilot for Charles’ villain arc? You love to see it.

There were other bits that made this race feel as finale-ish as it did, such as Yuki Tsunoda being the second highest Red Bull driver, Franco Colapinto crashing in Quali, and Pierre Gasly going, “I have no power!” To which his engineer replied, “Nah, you’re good, keep going.” Only for him to yell, “I HAVE NO POWER!” And his engine immediately exploding(?) afterwards. Oh, Alpine. They could never make me love you. Anywho, this stuff are more like side plots to me, and they aren’t exactly conclusions to their respective storylines, but I still think they leave their stories in good spots. They’re like cliffhangers. Who’s going to be in that second Red Bull seat? Will Franco Colapinto make it on the grid or is he just another failed Williams experiment? Will Alpine ever get good? Find out next year in the F1 2025 season!

If none of this made sense to you, I don’t blame you. I didn’t do my best dumbing down this time around. But do not fret, one of my video ideas for winter break is THE F1 video. I plan on explaining our characters, important backstories, highlights from the season, predictions for next season, and my opinions about certain aspects (namely the drivers). If there’s one thing I’m gonna do, it’s shove F1 down your throats whether you like it or not.