Counter-Dragon Team

So this is my submission for the httyd-fanarts Contest. One of the reasons why I love 'How to Train Your Dragon' are its powerful and thought-provoking themes of loving your enemy and its pacifist message of mutual understanding over violent confrontation. I always thought there was a great subtext (and I'm sure many film students would've written essays about this too) on the War on Terror and how people can be goaded by their leaders into hating the 'Other' without actually seeking to understand the reason behind their enemy's actions in the first place. Once both sides can find a common ground and are able to work together, they are able to defeat the ideological evil that is prejudice and hatred (which I guess was personified by the Red Death... or Green Death... at least, that's how I saw it).

Anyway, I thought it would be pretty awesome if the Viking kids were soldiers in modern-day times. I mean, think about it- the dragons are the enemy combatants (you can interpret this any way you want, from terrorists to guerilla armies); instead of swords, knives and armour, they use rifles, pistols and flak jackets. And Berk is basically a war-torn region (or island), and the Vikings send their kids for dragon-training (which raises the interesting question of whether they would qualify as 'child soldiers').

I meant to colour this in, but I'm going to see a friend this weekend on a last-minute trip, so I'm afraid I'll just have to submit this in B&W. If the contest deadline gets extended again, I might resubmit in colour, but otherwise, I'll return to it sometime in the future cos' I'm dying to try some Rio and Kung Fu Panda 2 fanart.

Yes, Hiccup's pose is inspired by Alex O'Loughlin as Steve McGarrett in a Hawaii-Five-0 poster. No, I haven't watched 'Reign of Fire', although I want to despite the bad reviews.

Rate, comment, and subscribe! And wish me luck for the contest!