User blog:DreamingOfDragons72x2/Helven Cousins Of HTTYD Movie Dragons

It's interesting, but all of the dragons to show their scaly faces in the original How To Train Your Dragon movie could theoretically be purebred dragons on Helven. Some of them would require rare genetic mutations to match up properly, but otherwise it's pretty standard. Because it has been so long since I've posted a blog, I'll do all six of the main ones here (the Red Death doesn't count: only the one example has ever been seen, it is now dead, and I don't know what dragon type it could possibly be anyway). First up are the three that require the least transition between the Dreamworks model and the Helven model, starting with the unholy offspring itself...

The Night Fury
This one's probably the easiest to figure out. With wings like that, beautifully proportioned and so much bigger than its legs (which are even shaped right, thank Odin!), and with such big eyes and tall "ears," it can only be of the elemental class known as dig-weak. Not necessarily the best and fastest in the air, but it can soar and dive with the best of them. Having an elemental weakness means that it also has an arsenal/armory strength; this would have to be volcanic, since vulkan-strong dragons rarely leave the lava pools that make their homes and that would adequately explain why we've never seen another Night Fury. The only problem with being vulkan-strong is that it brings the breath-shot count down to four, from the official stat page's six; since all Helven dragons have four types of shots counting the breath, this isn't a huge problem. In fact, the Night Fury could be cunning enough to combine some of its other shots with its fire to stretch its "plasma bursts" out to eight shots; that would also explain the explosive property, as it would specifically be using dragon silk and little stones kind of like pearls to make bags for the fire. Oh, there's one other tiny problem: the "toothless" appearance would have to be because of a mutation. None of the purebred elemental-weakness dragons could ever have the stats lined up to be called "toothless" without some genetic defect.

The Terrible Terror
Definitely a Draconis minimus, as opposed to a D. maximus like the Night Fury and most of the others. Now, the Night Fury's cousin was able to cheat on the matter of teeth by virtue of the original actually having teeth and a long tail (important for tail spikes, which 11 of 12 Helven dragons have), the Terrible Terror officially has no teeth. If it did, Tuffnut would have lost his nose when he first met one. Therefore, the Helven version of this dragon is truly toothless, blade-weak. This, again, brings the firebreath shot count down (from ten to six), and unlike the Night Fury it probably isn't smart enough to think of combining its other shots to expand its shooting capability. As for the other half...hm, that's a little tricky. Wait, no it's not - the Helven TT is a light-strong. It favors drawn-out sounds to short little barks, "And when training a Terror, start with a very shiny object." Being a combination of light-strong and blade-weak gives it an interesting power that the Dreamworks Terror doesn't have, but it's just as comedic: its tail lights up, allowing it to "moon" bigger creatures and each other.

The Gronkle
This Helven cousin pretty much has to be dig-strong; of the twelve elemental combinations, that's one of two with small wings, and the other one is flightless. When I was first thinking about the Helven Gronkle, I thought it would be venom-weak; when I thought it over again, I realized that its hindquarters were the wrong shape (too short, too chunky). Looking more carefully at the design, I settled on pearl-weak; Helven pearl-weaks have smaller upper jaws than lower, and their tails are narrower underneath than on top. This one actually has six firebreath shots, and their venom is heavy like lava but isn't all that hot (50 degrees C). It also has "six" shots for tailspikes (count the spikes themselves and you get sixty), and six shots or "skeins" of dragon silk. The only thing it doesn't have is the ability to make pearlstones, so it eats dirt to manufacture a kind of clay. Ironically, the Helven Gronkle doesn't eat rock: its jaws simply aren't tough enough. So much for Boulder Class.

The Hideous Zippleback
My original thought about this one was that it wouldn't have a Helven counterpart: it bothered me greatly that there would be an entire species of multi-headed dragons. Ideas mocked me, however, for how such a dragon could exist, and I finally settled for a Siamese-twin birth defect that rarely and randomly struck all breeds of dragon with no discrimination. The stats themselves made it impossible for such a dragon to survive except by luck of the draw: since a Helven Zippleback is two dragons, the stats are all doubled, but because they share a body, none of their shot counts could combine to break ten. That immediately eliminates all six of the armory/arsenal-weaks, and all but two of the armory/arsenal-strongs: a Helven Zippleback could only survive if it was either vulkan-strong (in which case no one would ever see one because it would stay in its volcano) or winter-strong. Interestingly enough, because of the stat doubling, that raises its shot count: instead of six, a Helven Zippleback has eight of its firebreath shots. The elemental weaknesses wouldn't have very much contribution to a Helven Zippleback's survival, although a flightless one would have less to worry about; Barf and Belch wouldn't be flight-weak, though. Let's see...they can fly, they can successfully light their venom clouds, their legs are rather short and stumpy...I'd say if Barf and Belch existed in the Helven Chronicles, they would be winter-strong and dig-weak.

The Monstrous Nightmare
The Helven version of this one has a rather simple mutation: instead of having four legs and four wings like a normal dragon of the Helven universe, its legs and wings are fused in two sets of two to give it four "leg-wings." Given the size and shape of its head and neck, I would say a Helven cousin to the Monstrous Nightmare would be venom-strong (making it the second dragon to have the same number of fire shots in both Dreamworks and Helven). As for its elemental weakness...hm. Not light or fire, since it needs both to ignite its venom. Not flight (since it obviously has the capability), not swimming (since it can do that too), and not digging (to keep its venom heavy). That makes it dark-weak, which works out because dark-weaks are huge anyway.

The Deadly Nadder
Another mutant: this one has its four wings fused into two, and ditto with its four legs. The only way a Helven-bred Deadly Nadder can have the "hottest fire in the dragon world," and still be as common as it seems to be, is for it to be winter-weak. This lets it keep its firebreath shot count of six and gives it sixty tailspikes, so that works out. As for its elemental strength, it can't be flight-strong or dig-strong because its wings and legs are so close to the same relative size; can't be swim-strong either because its feet aren't webbed enough and its wings aren't bulky enough. Can't be dark-strong, because the Nadder looks to be one of the bigger dragons in general and dark-strongs are the smallest purebreds; in the Helven Chronicles, Stormfly would be smaller than Toothless if she were dark-strong. That leaves light-strong or fire-strong; either would make a Helven-Chronicled Nadder colorful.



Next week, Helven cousins for the seven dragons introduced in Riders Of Berk!