Astrid

[Admin]

CJ, I think you hit my view of her pretty much on the nail there.

Yeah, a lot of female characters are hated JUST because they get the MC or because they're with a popular character. Like Yaone from Saiyuki, she gets hate because she's in love with Kougaiji and she's "a carbon copy of Hakkai's sister". Asuka from Evangelion has some fan hate for ending up with Shinji... or not LIKING that she ended up with him. It also happened with Ginny and Hermione in Harry Potter, Kairi in Kingdom Hearts, so on and so forth.

... You're right! I never noticed their resemblance before! That's really cool.

[Neoni245]

I like Astrid. Another female character that kicks ASS

She ain't one of those damsels in distress. Not at all. She fights her own fight
Reminds me of one little stitchpunk with a skull on her head X3

'Cept Astrid didn't get captured or anything...
'Cept the time she almost got sucked into the Red Death's mouth.

[CJ the Slightly Unhinged]

Astrid is an alternate universe reincarnation of 7. Of this I am absolutely certain. They're the same character. They both wear skulls, fight with pointy objects, yell a lot, question the hero's motives, suffer insecurities when they face something they can't handle alone, get frustrated when things are outside of their control, are uncertain with the ultimate method of ending their respective problems...

Heck, if I supported 9x7 at all, I could totally see this coming full circle. Hiccup is totally 9 in a furry vest. XD

[Admin]

XD Oh, you both just HAVE to make me think of MORE ways the two movies are alike!

I definitely had the "human and younger 7" vibe as well. But she's more of a... Uh... Hm... Hulk Hogan than a Chuck Norris? ... wow, that SUCKED.

[andyanamic]

My thoughts on Astrid.

As for the beginning, if you look closely when the others tease Hiccup and she looks at him for a second, her face shows pity.
When he joins the group for dragon training, look at her. She smiles. She propably thinks "Finally he gets his chance." Maybe it reminds her of herself being weak once. She also glares at Snotlout when he teases hiccup then and shakes her head.
After the first training she criticizes him quite hard, but when he sits down, she smiles at him in a way the others didn't. Like again knowing that he still has to get better like she once did. But her whole behaviour afterwards also shows that she was trained hardly herself before, that she got criticized and threatened brutally by her parents in order to get good and make them proud. So she also threatens Hiccup this way, escpecially when he gets into her way. And then this guy she had pity for suddenly gets better than her! "THIS guy who was a wimp, no who IS a wimp, not possible!" She trained YEARS to get where she is and now that loser suddenly is the king - where did that come from? What did she went through hell for?

Despite Astrid acting like a bitch then and being badass in general she got me convinced that she really fell for Hiccup. She was the only one interested in his person in the first time, plus:

-when she hits a dragon the first time you can see her look in shock for what she just did. Its just a second, but there's heart.

-Remember how much she got blasted away by the beauty of the sky when Toothless started the romantic part of the flight?
She's got a thing for beauty, she could only breathe. I even think she enjoys landscapes, flowers and more little things in life more than any other viking. I also think her first flight with Toothless reunited her with her inner child she had been locked away for years. It seemed to return to her personality cause ever since then her reactions and words were much more tender than before.


The hate on hiccup was hidden hate for herself. All that aggressive acting is fear inside. She wants to be strong and respected and someone worthy for Berk.
Her "Hiccup = Weak = useless" acting showed how little she allows herself to be weak.
Hiccup made her understand that she can also be "weak" while even stronger than anybody else inside.
Loving him also was an important step for her own self respect and -love.

It's kind of a whole new chapter of her life, of her thinking. Remember her words when Hiccup wonders about her sudden interest. She just says
"Because i want to remember what you say right now." And her gaze when he answers he could see himself in Toothless.
Talk about a deep thoughful and understanding girl here.
There's where he completed opening her eyes, I guess it was like waking up from the Matrix to her.
No wonder she developed deep feelings for him, her last kiss was like "Don't you EVER leave my life"...


I imagined a talk between Hiccup and Astrid after the movie which turned bigger and ultimately ended up as a little fanfic:
tabbyandy.deviantart.com/art/HTTYD-Of-closeness-a-c-Rated-G-160916289



Oh besides, ever heard the german voice of Astrid? She doesn't sound overcool in german, rather really struggling with her anger and fears, when she changes heart her voice even gets quite smooth sometimes. Plus Hiccup sounds more like a younger boy. See..um hear for yourself! Best of Astrid in german:
(WARNING! Spoilers!)
www.vimeo.com/10878849

[fez]

Apr 23, 2010 21:24:41 GMT -5 Admin said:

CJ, I think you hit my view of her pretty much on the nail there.

Yeah, a lot of female characters are hated JUST because they get the MC or because they're with a popular character. Like Yaone from Saiyuki, she gets hate because she's in love with Kougaiji and she's "a carbon copy of Hakkai's sister". Asuka from Evangelion has some fan hate for ending up with Shinji... or not LIKING that she ended up with him. It also happened with Ginny and Hermione in Harry Potter, Kairi in Kingdom Hearts, so on and so forth.

... You're right! I never noticed their resemblance before! That's really cool.

I always found this strange. It's like people believe that all movies characters are asexual, and when some boy or girl show any romantic feelings for each other it's like "OMG! She's such a bad character, how DARE she be a normal female who likes guys!". Because, ya know, it's unrealistic and stupid for females to have any romantic feelings. She's just supposed to be this kick-ass character. Feelings are cliche. She should be a one-dimensional character. Feelings are just take away from character. She is automatically the opposite of kick-ass now.

:l

[Alice]

I loved Astrid as a character. She got more development than anyone else and managed to maintain her badass status through all of it. She becomes as much a friend as a love interest to Hiccup, which is a really rare thing in movies lately.

As for the relation to 7 analogies... maybe 7's her reincarnation several hundred years down the road. ;D

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.

Dec 31, 2010 6:26:48 GMT -5 fez said:

Apr 23, 2010 21:24:41 GMT -5 Admin said:

CJ, I think you hit my view of her pretty much on the nail there.

Yeah, a lot of female characters are hated JUST because they get the MC or because they're with a popular character. Like Yaone from Saiyuki, she gets hate because she's in love with Kougaiji and she's "a carbon copy of Hakkai's sister". Asuka from Evangelion has some fan hate for ending up with Shinji... or not LIKING that she ended up with him. It also happened with Ginny and Hermione in Harry Potter, Kairi in Kingdom Hearts, so on and so forth.

... You're right! I never noticed their resemblance before! That's really cool.

I always found this strange. It's like people believe that all movies characters are asexual, and when some boy or girl show any romantic feelings for each other it's like "OMG! She's such a bad character, how DARE she be a normal female who likes guys!". Because, ya know, it's unrealistic and stupid for females to have any romantic feelings. She's just supposed to be this kick-ass character. Feelings are cliche. She should be a one-dimensional character. Feelings are just take away from character. She is automatically the opposite of kick-ass now.]

I don't have a problem with females growing into romantic interests. What I have a problem with is the romance suddenly eating the plot and detracting from both characters instead of adding to the story. Random 'just because' romances irritate the hell out of me, too, especially when they just pop up. (Ginny and Harry being my favorite example. Ginny lost most of her character development when she was tossed together with Harry.) The romance between Astrid and Hiccup was handled surprisingly well.

On a side note, fez, I love your siggy!

[dudelsackspieler]

Oh besides, ever heard the german voice of Astrid? She doesn't sound overcool in german, rather really struggling with her anger and fears, when she changes heart her voice even gets quite smooth sometimes. Plus Hiccup sounds more like a younger boy. See..um hear for yourself! Best of Astrid in german:
(WARNING! Spoilers!)
www.vimeo.com/10878849

That was awesome! I love her Deutsch voice. I also love the Deutsch voice for Coraline, have you heard it? I'm also sorry no onw's replied to your lengthy comment friend. but yeah, That's a very astute observation.

[dappie]

The more I watch the movie, the more the relationship between Astrid and Hiccup seems to click with me. As much as I liked her already the first time I saw it, at the time I thought it would have been more interesting if she became the antagonist. (mainly because it would have been completely unexpected for her character type, and it would have been Lolzy). But now it just shake my head in shame, because I realize how petty that would have been. If it had really gone that way, then I would have really hated her in the end.

Warning this is gonna be a long one, abandon hope all who come here.

I can not process why there is so much hate for Astrid. I have never seen a character that has elicited so much rage for almost no reason. (except maybe Terra from the animated TT show, but she's a ho.) What has she done to earn so much concentrated fury from this group of the fandom? Let's try to break this down.

Problem 1: Her personality
Gripe: She is such a she-doggy, and I'll never forgive her for how she treated Hiccup.
Why I disagree: She might have not been the nicest person, but compared to the other characters she was practically civil. I actually found her disregard for him refreshing for a female love interest character. I especially like the fact that she's not exclusively distant to Hiccup, she's like this to everybody(coughSnotloutcough) And that's another point, usually the main love interest is nice to the main character but dating the insensitive jerk cuz he's smexy hot! In this case Astrid just letting him breath her air. Now, she mostly gets flak for her outburst in the Nadder scene and her subsequent jealous rage (which culminates in the cove sequence which even makes me wince). Well, I think she was completely justified. Let's go with the Nadder scene first. People tend to forget this because this is generally a family friendly movie and it was mostly played for laughs, but they almost died in that scene. Remember, this is the second time someone had to save his ass from sure death in dragon training, not to mention the countless times before in the raids, and now he also put others into danger. It was about time somebody told him to get his act together. (or at least watch his surroundings) Compared to his instantaneous increase in talent(at least in their eyes) wouldn't you think there was some kind of foul play involved. His nonchalance and secretive behavior only makes her more suspicious, which makes her warrior instincts go on red alert. In my opinion, Astrid is the kind of person who needs substantial proof before she accepts something.
Conclusion: Astrid kicks ass, deal with it.

Problem 2: The Romance
Gripe: It's tacked on and unrealistic.
Why I disagree: Now I know where they are coming from in this complaint, but I believe it is mostly a problem of the time constraints animated movies in general have than the story itself. The one deleted scene with a shared moment between Hiccup and Astrid, would have helped in leaps and bounds. However, because this already was a second story concept for the movie and CG animation is time consuming and expensive, they had to make do with subtle hints which I'm sure have already been pointed out. With further consideration I find their romance a little more realistic than most are handled in movies. How, you ask? Let us compare it to Superman the movie. I mostly picked it because the falling in love montage is so similar. Our male lead is a wimpy pushover / pretending to be a wimpy pushover with an intriguing secret. Our female lead is a tough, no-nonsense Journalist / Viking who barely notices the male lead. One is a legendary love-story, the other has fans condemning the female for having hormones. Why do I find HttyD more realistic? For one, there is the history between the characters. It's easily overlooked, but since there only seem to be 6 teenagers on the entire village(Holy mortality rate, Batman!) they were bound to known each other their whole lives. Lois and Clark/Superman barely had a week. (sure there was the train scene, but that so doesn't count.....and it's creepy) Also, in Superman the whole flight of Romance was to woo a girl who already clearly had the hots for him. Hiccup and Astrid's flight of Romance was an accident. (I'll explain soon) So the greatest romance is based on dishonesty and showmanship, (Until he tells her, then makes her forget in the most contrived way possible. lol j/k) yet a relationship based on a shared history and rebuilt trust is somehow 'unrealistic'. Huh, I guess I have a lot to learn in the fine arts. Also, Toothless approves! In your face, you crazy Toothcupers, half of your ship sabotaged itself. Now as I'm quite sure you all are aware, Hiccup was not in control of Toothless when he took them for the fear inducing ride. What you might not have noticed, is that he still wasn't in control when he calmed down. I think if Hiccup would have had his way, he would have landed Astrid safely and then proceeded to win her to the cause by letting her slowly (and without an axe) approach Toothless and/ or bore her into submission with demonstrations of how friendly he is. The soothing aerial tour was all Toothless, which is evidenced by Hiccups surprised glee and said dragon's cheeky grin. Heck, when they save her from being sucked into the Red/Green Deaths maw, he gives his trademark goofy grin, which he usually reserves for his bro, Hiccup. If you don't believe me that their tight, then just watch the scene in Gift of the Night Fury a split second after she declares 'Happy Snogltog!' (you'll know the one). That scene alone sealed this theory for me.
Conclusion: HiccupxAstrid is approved by Toothless, therefore your argument is invalid.

Now these are the major complaints about our girl in question. There are two more minor ones that I can think of such as, 'Astrid is such a dumb-ass for throwing of Lout's concentration when he was hanging on the six-eyed abomination.' or 'Astrid is shallow because she only liked Hiccup after he became popular.' For the first one, I think Lout is the bigger dumb-ass for not getting his priorities straight. (Uhm, Hot girl complimented me vs I'm in an extremely dangerous situation. Yeah..) But I don't really fault him for it because that's just who he is. What I do fault is the bi-polar fans who were first complaining about Astrid being a self-centered overachiever, to whinging about her actually being a team player and saying something that wasn't criticism . To the second issue, I would like to point you in the direction of Ruffnut, who actually is guilty of said accusation. (but again, I don't fault her.)

For the moment I have ran out of things to say(thank God), so to sum it up for those of you who rightfully tl;dr, Astrid is a well-rounded, sympathetic character and I don't understand where all the hate comes from.

[Sunny]

Good points. all of them. Personally for me, I really like Astrids character. But im not a fan of HiccupxAstrid. Wierd, I know. Also, about the scene where she 'distracts' snotlout. I would have to agree with the negative side. I am not saying I dont like her giving support or that it was her fault. I agree that Snotlout was a little stupid in that scene. I just found the line OOC for her is all.

To sum up;

Astrid is awesome
I dont particularly like HiccupxAstrid all the time
She has her OOC moments. (But dont all characters {a plural cos of GoNF. But this can be forgiven})

[dappie]

Now, I can understand not liking the relationship particularly. Personally, I neither like it nor hate it. Just some of the backlash is ridiculous. I always assumed her OOC, moment came from her changing a bit after the previous experience.

[quazie89]

Jan 26, 2011 12:01:08 GMT -5 Alice said:

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 noticed that about her design, too actually, and it's the only thing about her that I don't like, but I did play her in an HTYD Rp on another forum awhile back, even though I wanted Hiccup, but he was already taken, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed playing her character. I think she's a good, strong-willed role-model for girls. I also think she would make a great wife for Hiccup although I didn't think so at the beginning because she just seemed so wrong for him, since she seemed to show no interest in him whatsoever and had a completely different personality from his, but I look at my parent's relationship together, and wonder how they ever stayed married to each other for so long, because they're two very different people. You never would've thought they'd been married together for over twenty years, so, occasionally, I think, sometimes, when people with totally different peronsilities get married stay together longer then when people with similar personilities get married, and now I think Astrid would be able to keep Hiccup tied down and out of trouble!

[saffieb]

I like Astrid - she has that no BS attitude that I sometimes wish I had. Her character development does seem a bit rushed, but, as dappie said, it's most likely due to the movie's time restraints.

Plus, things seem to have slowed down since RoB started airing. Case in point- "Animal House". When Hiccup and Astrid are trapped in the snow, and Toothless and Stormfly shed some light on the situation (very lame way to put it, I know) we find them hugging, and they quickly jump apart.

Then, as they are retelling the story of how the dragons saved them, Fishlegs' comment about sharing body heat causes the two scoot away from each other again. It's like that kiss at the end of the movie is taboo, it's never brought up. Their relationship seems to fluctuate a lot, and I think it's mostly due to the evolution of Astrid's character.

But for some reason, I'm not really a Hiccup/Astrid fan. I used to be, before I started reading HTTYD fanfiction (fanfiction seems to do something weird to my brain- my shippings always seem to change, then get stuck there...) Now I'm 100% Toothcup.

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 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?

[nowthatsaspitfire]

Perhaps you'd rather taste a punch in the face? Hmmmm, maybe my sister is more like her than I thought...

[toothlessdaydream7]

Admittedly my favorite character next to Toothless, however, I don't really know why. She's just awesome like that. lol