Post by sannom on Mar 30, 2013 14:23:18 GMT -5
Having said that, I really, really dislike her character design. With the other characters, they made them look believably Viking. She... looks like someone crossbred an emo and a rocker. Not sure what the animators were aiming for, but her design makes her stick out worse than a Mary-Sue in Lord of the Rings.
I don't know if it was intentional from the authors, but Astrid's design made her come out as really girly and vain, at least for her culture. She wears brightly colored clothes, her hair is almost shiny and she's the only viking to prefer a headband to the traditional helmet. It sparked some theories on my part that she really likes to look good, but also made herself the best there is in her age group to avoid mocking and shunning, as taking care of one's looks does not seem to be a priority for the Berkians.
Of course, the dragons she bonds with comforted me in that interpretation : a Deadly Nadder, beautiful and vain, from the movie onward, and for a short time in Riders of Berk, a Monstrous Nightmare colored pink.
Plus, things seem to have slowed down since RoB started airing.
That's perhaps the main reason I wish that they had Astrid and Hiccup becoming best friends as opposed to a couple at the end of the movie. It makes some of their interactions in the series weird, and I think that the authors could make a better show of their friendship if there wasn't that whole romance thing from the movie. As of right now, they seem to have their hands tied because of the movies coming on.
There's also something that has been confusing to me. It's not really that big of a deal, but why is Astrid the only character without a helmet? Even Hiccup gets one halfway through the movie. And we can't say it's because she's a girl since Ruffnut has one.
I believe it's vanity. She likes showing off that shiny hair, so she shuns the traditional helmet and instead goes for the headband, which at least keep all of her hair from flying around in the head of battle. She's a girly girl by Viking standard, while Ruffnut is manlier than her brother.
I read a fanfiction where Astrid's parents were immigrants, so their status was lower than the other Berkians(?)...it's an interesting thought, but I'm not quite sure. Any theories?
Yeah, I've got one of those, which also involves Astrid and Camicazi being the same character. With the change of village (and another change probably brought about by tragedy) came a complete change in attitude, name and outlook.
Now about something I've remarked at the end of Riders of Berk : is it me or did Astrid start to become more of a prankster and excitable than before? She plays a joke on Fishlegs in Breakneck Bog, agrees with him when he says that it's 'all his fault' about the gems, is really excited when Hiccup tells her that he's got a map to the Isle of Night, etc.