I swear it will all make sense by the end…
A few weeks ago I read this article…
It got a lot of comments and enough traction to appear on Jezebel.com which is often a crap shoot for actual feminist writing but mostly a bunch of postgrads who want to show off the shnazzy feminatzi buzzwords they learned at their Seven Sisters college.
It talked about how movies are getting better at making strong female characters but then they do jack shit with them. After bitching for a while the article does go on to frame a nice outline for writers/directors etc. to use in the future to have their strong female characters actually “DO” something other than be a trope. Unfortunately no writers or directors are going to read that part because it comes after a great deal of whining on the part of the author. Some of the article focused on How To Train Your Dragon 2 which I was really looking forward to watching with my kids. My daughter is obsessed and has been gobbling up the books non stop for months and sleeps with a stuffed Toothless toy.
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| doesn't he look all soft and cuddly |
Once I read the article I was really bummed. It talks about how they introduce Hiccup’s (the young male protagonist) mother Valka - A strong complex and pretty badass female character.
The article then complains about how she doesn’t do anything once the male characters are done using her to further their own plot lines. This made me sad and uninterested in seeing the film.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Well, we just saw it.
It was fantastic.
Fantastic in a way that sequels rarely manage.
Whats more is that Valka was fucking awesome. She is strong, smart, independent, and has been living as a lone human among a hoard of friendly dragons including a behemoth Alpha dragon, for 20 years. Learning about them and protecting them.
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| Valka in her intimidating kickass homemade armor riding her gigantic fucking dragon. Honestly when we meet her in this getup she is scarier than the movie's real villain. |
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| Valka having a tender moment and connecting with her son Hiccup |
Do strong female characters often exist to further the plot lines of the male protagonist? - Yes. Do some women with overly strong senses of self righteousness and a deep misunderstanding of “feminism” get their panties in a bunch over nothing? - Yes
Newsflash - This wasn’t Valka’s story! She did, like every one else in the story male, female and dragon alike, serve to further the main character’s story.
Part of Hiccup’s story has always been his belief that he couldn’t live up to the expectations of his large gregarious beloved clan chief father. He felt he didn’t fit in with his clan. Without those beliefs he wouldn’t have set out onto the path that led him to become the person he never thought he’d be. In How To Train Your Dragon 2 Hiccup meets his mother who is basically the dragon whisperer. It fills in all the back story of where she's been - living with dragons, why she left - because she disdained her tribe’s ongoing war with dragons and fought to protect them which allowed infant Hiccup to nearly accidentally be injured and so she stayed away to protect him as well. It makes Hiccup whole to find out that he is not a freak, that his desire for peace and his rapport with dragons are not a fluke. They are traits he inherited from his mother and I say again - she is awesome. She doesn’t wallow in guilt over the life she could have had. She is (re)wooed by her husband and plans to return to Berk (their island home) with him and be a family again. The femi-nazis complain that she gave up what is essentially her “career” and all the things that made her awesome to go be a lowly wife and mother and they call it misogyny. How do they not see that by viewing her choice to be a wife and mother (AS WELL AS A FUCKING DRAGON TAMER ) as being beneath what she was THEY ARE THE ONES BEING MISOGYNISTS! The WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF FEMINISM IS CHOICE!
Then Then - oh then, when I went to look up the original article I sited above I came across a few others written about how HTTYD2’s box office earnings were very disappointing and how they believe it is because parents are upset by the movie. Why are parents upset by the movie? Its making their poor tender little flowers cry.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Hiccup's father, Stoic, dies protecting Hiccup at the hand (er…electric fireball) of Hiccup’s dragon, Toothless, who is under some kind of dragon mind control.
Just like so many ridiculous things we are raising our kids with that are basically pussifying them like trophies for everyone, not keep score, etc. Having hero’s journey stories without the hero actually having to sacrifice anything are completely pointless. But thats how we like it in America isn’t it? Reward without sacrifice. Hell, reward without any work or thought at all.
Anyway, it wasn’t Toothless’s fault. It even takes Hiccup a little while to remember that. His mother quickly and gently reminds him of that even as she is mourning the loss of her husband…who she just got back after 20 years.
The loss of his father is what FINALLY propels Hiccup into adulthood and accepting the weight of chieftain.
Now maybe the company responsible for marketing this movie made the mistake. The characters are 5 years older than they were in the original, they’re around 20. It is not a little kid’s story the way the first one was. It is a coming of age story.
How many stories and movies have we all experienced where a parent, companion, or guide dies thus creating the path the protagonist takes. There is so much psychology and Joseph Campbell stuff here but I’m not writing about it go look it up. Point being - we’re all fine! Better than fine. Who would we be if we never reached the age of becoming disenchanted with our parents/guides/teachers? That point at which we realized they too are human and flawed but still wonderful. Kids don’t have that language. Their developmental equivalent is Bambi’s mom dying! That is what they understand. If you survived Artax and Mufasa your kid can deal with this.
Why do people think that preventing their children from ever being upset is a good thing? Is being a good parent? How do you expect to grow as a person unless you come up against challenges and upsetting things and then learn to overcome or move past them? It makes no sense for a character and it makes no sense for your child. No one would listen to a story like that. Your children are stronger and more resilient than you think.
Thats Atreyu crying because your kid's life is so dull.
