King of Dragons from “Dragons: Race to the Edge”

Our son was overjoyed to find that the release of the sixth season of Dragons: Race to the Edge coincided with the Presidents Day long weekend.

And I always enjoy an opportunity to draw pointy teeth.

Toothless

Archer asked for a drawing of himself with Toothless.  My rendering of both of them, unfortunately, was not particularly successful.

Fortunately, Archer is more easy going than his brother when it comes to mediocre portraits by mom.  Ansel has recoiled in horror and refused to take nearly every napkin drawing I've done of him to school.  Archer kindly reassured me this morning that he would take the napkin even though the drawing of him wasn't very good.

Skullcrusher from "How To Train Your Dragon 2"

A belated Father's Day post featuring Hiccup's father, Stoick's dragon, "Skullcrusher."

Going to see "How to Train Your Dragon 2" on Sunday was probably not my husband's first choice for a personally gratifying Father's Day, but he was a good sport and even stayed awake for the entire movie.

The movie made the kids more or less ecstatic.  They were able to mostly ignore the tragic demise of Hiccup's father, just as they had been able to overlook his previous lack of a mother.

I'll admit to being amused by the not-at-all-traditionally-maternal behavior of Hiccup's mother Valka. Having done the Viking equivalent of going to the corner to get milk and cigarettes, she chose to live alone in the company of dragons for 20 years without ever going back home to check on her son.  She was  apparently still more or less in the neighborhood with plenty of available transportation, so it was not for lack of opportunity. It's much more cliche absentee Dad behavior to disappear for decades and then reappear wearing a cool mask to claim significant influence over one's offspring after all of the hard work of parenting has already been done by someone else.

When I jokingly mentioned the advantages of Valka's parenting style to my sons, the younger one asked me, seemingly worried, if I would consider leaving him for 20 years to help dragons.  I told him it was a bit late for that, and fortunately, dragons don't really exist.

Bewilderbeast From How To Train Your Dragon 2

The Bewilderbeast: another peculiarly noseless dragon from the HTTYD universe.

We spend a substantial amount of time each day bickering about when and with whom we are going to see the Dreamworks Dragons sequel.  Will one child be allowed to bring a friend if the other one cannot line one up?  Will we see it immediately with the raging throngs when it opens, or will we be able to hold off and go later when we will not have to wait in line. (a fate almost worse than death for one child).

As they say, the anticipation is killing me... Or at least my children's' anticipation is causing me grave discomfort. 

Cloud Jumper Dragon From How To Train Your Dragon 2

To say that the kids are looking forward to the Dreamworks Dragons sequel might be a bit of an understatement.

I found this new dragon in the HTTYD wiki last night, but this morning it was clear that Archer already knew all about it.  "Did you notice that the Cloud Jumper has four wings?" he asked.

Ansel may not have done quite so much advance research, but he is no less enthusiastic.

Robocop 2014, The Terminator and Hiccup

Macho robot guys with a lurking alternative character.

We finally watched the 2014 version of Robocop over the weekend.
Immediately afterwards, while the kids were bickering over who got to be which version of Robocop, suddenly the Arnold Schwarzenegger style Terminator seemed to be part of the game also.  The robot guys with big guns were saying things like "I'll be back," and "Hasta la vista, baby."

At this point, I feel compelled to mention that the boys have not seen any more than a few snippets of any of the Terminator movies.... Although, since they have now seen Robocop, this is clearly not a parenting accomplishment on my part.

At any rate, Robocop and the Terminator obviously scratch the same itch in the 7 or 11 year old male mind.  Our sons want to identify with them...Not for their troubled relationship to humanity of course,  but because they are remorselessly powerful guys in cool outfits with big guns. 

Interestingly enough, Robocop 2004 features Mr. Voice of Hiccup, Jay Baruchel, as a craven guy from marketing.  The boys found him pretty compelling despite the fact that he is the antithesis of the powerful robots- ie, entirely gun less.  I think he appealed mostly because he retains some of Hiccup's mannerisms and wimpy, snarky guy attitude despite being an amoral corporate man in a suit.  They found his line, "Hey don't shoot, I'm just a guy from marketing" to be worth repeating multiple times. 

While this does provide an alternative option to the macho robocarnage, I'm not sure it is entirely a good one.

"Vikings" Rollo with Dreamworks' Hiccup and Toothless

Perhaps Rollo and Hiccup are debating whose show is a more accurate depiction of Vikings.

The kids were very impressed with the shrink wrapped subway car devoted to the "Vikings" television show.  So impressed, in fact, that we had to wait ten minutes to ride in that particular car rather than in a regular car that did not have a large picture of a bare chested man on the outside and laminated photos of fur seats on the inside.

The "Vikings" train led to a discussion of which sort of Viking was more realistic- this particular show or Dreamworks' "Dragons: Defenders of Berk" 

No doubt Hiccup's hair, makeup and personal trainer budget is smaller.

The Vikings Train: since they insisted we wait for it, I insisted they pose with it.

Hiccup And Toothless With Snow Dragon

How to Make Your Snow Dragon: Hiccup works while Toothless models....or maybe just lurks.

Should we ever get a significant snowfall this winter, I may regret this drawing. Previous snowman attempts in years past (most notably, Captain Rex from the Clone Wars) have always ended badly, and I doubt we would be able to pull off a convincing snow dragon.

Skrill from "Dragons: Defenders of Berk"

The latest Dragon from the How To Train Your Dragon franchise, is able to store and then emit lightning... and to survive being frozen in a solid block of ice for decades. 

Our kids did not find this at all implausible.

Regular Show's Mordecai and Rigby on Toothless

"Dude! Watch out, we're going to fall off!"

Episodes of "Regular Show" usually take a turn for the weirdly implausible somewhere around the midpoint, so the idea of Mordecai and Rigby riding on a dragon is no more unreasonable than most of their adventures.

While our sons may not want to be the slackers from "Regular Show" as much as they would like to be Hiccup, Rigby and Mordecai's behavior is certainly influential.

Toothless and Hiccup Are Confused By Candy Corn

It's still "Post Halloween" at our house.

My kids requested an image of Hiccup being confused by candy corn.  They hypothesize that there is not probably not mass-produced candy in Berk.

Our older son has given some careful thought to the quality of Hiccup's life.  He told me that he thinks that Hiccup has it better:  He has a dragon, doesn't seem to go to school, and is pretty independent. I pointed out the likely lack of video games and refined sugar in Hiccup's environment. (I think the napkin request hails from this point in the conversation)  Archer offered that he would be willing to trade the iPad for a real dragon.  That seemed more or less reasonable, but I added that, at least in the Dreamworks version, Hiccup does not appear to have a mother.  Archer replied, "He seems to do well enough without one."  So there Mom.

Toothless With Werewolf Hiccup

Halloween & Dragons #6: WereHiccup:  No doubt, Toothless is hoping that is a mask.

I think I might have reached the end of this particular series.  Perhaps we will try something else Halloween themed for the last two days before the actual trick or treating.

Which is not to say that the kids have lost any enthusiasm for "How to Train Your Dragon" or for their Hiccup costumes....I have already stated that last minute costume switching will not be tolerated this year.  I set a horrible precedent a few years back when Archer changed his mind and I somehow managed to cobble together a homemade Captain Rex costume in 48 hours.  And Ansel has a history of boycotting his intended costume at the last moment and going as "A guy in dark clothing" or the like.

This year it is going to be Hiccup for both, with no last minute changes.  Really.... Only 48 hours to go....


Here's that Rex costume from 2009.  It's amazing what you can do with a sharpie, masking tape and a freshdirect box if you are insane....

Zombie Hiccup With Toothless

Halloween with Dragons #5:

No Halloween series could be complete without zombie representation.

I thought maybe a decomposing dragon might be a bit much for lunchtime, so I left Toothless among the living.  Perhaps I was just being lazy.  At any rate, given Toothless's unflagging devotion to Hiccup, no doubt he would remain loyal even if the boy were an ambulatory corpse.

Astrid, Toothless and Hiccup in Teen Titans Costumes

Halloween with Dragons #4:  Starfire and Robin with a Dragon wearing a Batman mask.

While the kids are much less fixated on Teen Titans Robin and Batman right now than they have been in the past (see all the Robin napkins, or the Batman napkins) I was pretty sure that Hiccup in a Robin costume was going to be an acceptable concept.

While Ansel chuckled when he looked at this, he did ask me what Toothless was wearing, so obviously I failed to sell the Batman mask.

Astrid, Toothless and Hiccup in Star Wars Costumes

Halloween with Dragons #3:  Today Leia and Luke pose with Yoda.

Our kids aren't all that interested in the original Star Wars movie lately, so I am pretty sure this one would not have gone to school today had Toothless not been wearing Yoda's ears.

I briefly considered dressing Hiccup as Han Solo because of the whole sibling thing... and there's the vest parallel...But despite all the online fan girl enthusiasm for him, Hiccup just didn't seem like he could pull off the dashing scoundrel look.

Let's just hope he isn't really Astrid's brother. 

Astrid And Hiccup Dress For Halloween

 

Continuing the "Dragons & Halloween" series:

My older son insisted that Hiccup should be regarding a set of fake fangs with dismay. I am not sure exactly why...perhaps because they don't have such things in Berk. 

He also argued that Astrid should be costumed as a chain-saw wielding serial killer. That seemed a bit harsh for the character...and for a first grade lunch at a Quaker School.

Hiccup and Toothless with Carved Halloween Pumpkins

Halloween anticipation is building around here.  I already dread the let down that will arrive on November 1st.

The kids' costumes for Hiccup before and after the foot amputation are almost done.  There are some unresolved issues about representing the metal prosthetic foot and the strings at the neckline of his tunic, but otherwise we have most of it pulled together.  And by "we" of course I mean me.  The kids have contributed a great deal of art direction by way of strategic nagging, but have yet to actually make anything.

Perhaps there will be some more Halloween themed napkins between now and the actual evening when the Hiccups go out to demand candy.  I'm not sure if I can come up with anything interesting... much less 8 days of Halloween imagery, but it seems the kids can barely think about anything else.

  

Hiccup Rides the Alpha Banshee from "Avatar"

Hiccup rides the alpha Banshee from "Avatar":

We managed to get the kids to sit through the second half of "Avatar" over the weekend.  (Being small boys, they found the movie too long, too talky, with not quite enough weaponry and fighting until the end...but they were quite interested in the lack of clothing on many of the characters.)

Afterwards, they told me that the Na'vi were a lot like the Vikings in the Dreamworks Dragons franchise...except the blue people don't wear as many clothes.

Screaming Death Dragon

The excessively toothed dragon from Dreamworks' "Dragons: Defenders of Berk":
Definitely too many teeth for me to render in a responsible fashion in one evening.

Jack Frost and Hiccup

 

Dreamworks boys with big eyes and tastefully tousled hair:

A classmate taught Archer how to draw "manga eyes" yesterday.  This seemed to mean enormous black eyes with two large white ovals on the iris.  Archer then taught Ansel, which led to my assignment for today's napkin to draw Dreamworks characters in manga style (as noseless bobbleheads) with enormous manga eyes.  

As you can tell, I pretty much ignored this assignment.  Unfortunately,  I did spend more than my allotted 5 minutes Googling while trying to determine whether there really is a defined stylistic convention for eyes in manga.

I narrowed the characters down to just the two boys that our boys find to be the coolest, and decided to draw them large enough to display their oversized eyes.

And speaking of Googling... When one searches for "Jack Frost and Hiccup," one encounters quite a bit of suggestive material.  This is an issue that is certainly not limited to these particular characters- apparently animated preteen characters provide fertile fodder for many peoples' erotic imaginations.  I have seen quite a few things while searching for napkin source material that I wish I could unsee.  My older son occasionally reads this blog, so I will just leave it at that and not provide any particularly memorable examples.

At any rate, I offer this observation to explain why I ended up drawing Hiccup and Jack not interacting in a blank space.  After scrolling through all the fan art images of them snuggling, I couldn't come up with anything that didn't seem peculiarly suggestive as well.  While I am certainly not against imagining of a romantic link between the two boys, I was pretty sure that was not what my son had in mind for lunch today

Of course, they would have to be touching to have their heads this close.