User blog comment:Megadracosaurus/STOP HATING STOICK!!!/@comment-352641-20140929140850

This isn't a problem unique with HTTYD - fans see some characters pick on their favorite, they go nuts.

Ashley Williams and Kaiden Alenko in Mass Effect? Because they're the only ones who have a vaguely realistic reaction to Shepard coming back from the dead and working with Cerberus (you know, the guys who huskified an entire human colony as an experiment and a whole host of other nasty shit in the first name), they're suddenly ungrateful assholes. The fact that its their only scene in ME2 doesn't help matters at all and the fact that its the only thing that happens since the game weakly cockblocks all of Shepard's attempts to contact them. Therefore, it's all their fault even though as far as they know Shepard left them in the dark to join a terrorist group. And in ME3 - when Bioware did a chat that should have happened years ago, people still bitch at them distrusting Shepard even though their dialogue can be summed up as "Shepard, are you sure Cerberus didn't install a Trojan Horse when they rebuilt you from scratch?"

Basically, they latch onto Stoick's (or Snotlout's) dick moments and use that to define the character. Now, was Stoick in the wrong sometimes? Absolutely. Is Snotlout a jerk? OH hell yes - I mean, he constantly insults Hiccup's handicap and even mocks Astrid's dead uncle (and her by extension). Hell, Snotlout almost got Astrid killed trying to show off. But Stoick isn't an abusive parent - neglectful, maybe, but he's not abusive and he does try to do right by Hiccup. Snotlout wouldn't try to kill Hiccup without circumstances changing a lot. You CAN have Snotlout try to kill Hiccup or Astrid intentionally, but as a story that takes some time to build up. You need to widen the rift between them. Of course, it doesn't help Snotlout at all that in the TV series he has one episode when he gets humanized, then the next episode he's back to being a cruel git. Case in point: Race to Fireworm Island shows he really cares for Hookfang even if he doesn't show it. Then in Flightmare he mocks Astrid's dead uncle and her family honor (you know, something that's a BIG FREAKING DEAL for Vikings to uphold - he's lucky Astrid missed with that thrown battleaxe).

So yeah. It's not unique to HTTYD - fandoms pick characters to just shit on, usually by blowing some element of a character out of proportion. Ashley Williams and her racism? In canon, it is summed up as being blunt and operational security for a STATE OF THE ART WARSHIP. In fanon, she makes Cerberus look tame. Stoick? In canon, frustrated with Hiccup because he knows he has to prepare the kid to be chief but Hiccup doesn't make it easy (FFS, he outright says "Don't you think we need a little less feeding?" after a granary gets destroyed when they're already low on food supplies for winter). And heck, he might of been seeing a new Drago in the making in the arena which got Stoick going "oshit". Fanon? As you said earlier.