So this official poster has been released for How To Train Your Dragon 3 and it has left me with… opinions.
My first initial reaction was excitement! Oh hell yeah HTTYD 3 is coming out! I adored the first two! But then i saw…
SIIIIIGGGGGGGHHHHHHH I knew immediately that this was most likely a female night fury and fuck yeah shit fuck it is which is so disappointing. I could write a huge essay on how female characters are portrayed in media. I could write a massive blog about smurfette syndrome and how female characters are always just a pink, soft version of their male counterparts, or how female animal or anthro characters still have to fall into society’s beauty standards so we do crazy things like give ducks tits or large eyelashes.
I COULD talk about why these things occur, and how this is a worrying reflection of how society views human females, that males are the default and females are the other… but I’m not going to do that TODAY.
Hi my name is India and not only do I have an animation degree, but I also have a degree in animal and veterinary science.
This design doesn’t just insult me as an animator. This design insults me as a scientist.
Unless she has a version of albinism, then it really doesn’t make sense for a female critter to be a completely different color. Yeah, it is eye-roll inducing for sure.
I’m sure the movie will still be good though because httyd!!! But it does make me cringe a little to see her design.
Are you sure?
I phrased that wrong, but funny enough those colorful ones are males lol. Their colors are vastly different as well, because it’s how they attract mates! It doesn’t really make sense for such a simple (and yet stark) color difference between the two dragons, and I can’t think of anything in nature that would be as such… It just seems like the “let’s make her OBVIOUSLY effeminate!” grab to me and many others.
And no one should take what I am saying as meaning that I’m going to hate this movie, I’m pumped! I just can’t help but cringe when this happens SO often in media. I suppose it would be one thing if this were in the books (no idea, haven’t read them), as DW would have to follow it.
Well smaller less bulky features is characteristic of many sexually reproducing organisms, in males and females depending on species. Take lions. Males are in general larger, more darkly colored, and have larger features in ratio with their bodies. Females have smaller ears, are lighter colored, and far more slender. It’s called effeminate for a reason, because it’s characteristic of females, mostly in our own species but possible and occurring in others as well. Another good example are salamanders. Due to the ease of mutation, lighter colored and more slender specimens are often found in caves, while the same species outside of the cave is darker and larger.
You can be annoyed without attempting to use biology.
Maybe Toothless’s big ear flaps are a secondary sexual characteristic used to attract mates, hence Light Fury’s are smaller and less prominent.
I also think the salamander comparison is fitting, since Night Furies do seem to be vaguely shaped like salamanders and have smooth scales that are pretty close to a salamander’s smooth skin (unlike a more ‘traditional’ dragon having rough, armor-like scales). And the poster does appear to be set from the inside of a cave, so it’s not unreasonable to think Light Fury here is simply a mutated example who simply thrives well in her environment.
So to everyone saying this goes against biology: it doesn’t.
Also, DRAGONS ARENT REAL, so they can have whatever biology you want them to.
“As a scientist this insults me” sorry WHAT? Were you legit expecting realism from a movie about freaking dragons? How tragic.
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