History FanFic / TheLongRoad2015

* MayflyDecemberRomance: The primary romantic focus of the story is between Hiccup, a 15-year-old human teenager, and Jack, the immortal personification of Winter merriment. Said personification is over three hundred years old [[spoiler:(or, minimum, several dozen millenia old, depending on if this story chooses to include that he was once Nightlight)]]. If they maintain any kind of stable, long-term romantic relationship without a significant change in circumstances, this will inevitably occur--not to mention people will eventually notice, given that Jack doesn't age.
** Actually, the aging part may not be a big deal. According to [[WordOfGod William Joyce, author of the Guardians of Child series]], Jack gained several new abilities after becoming a Guardian, one of which was the ability to alter his physical age at will.

* AGodIAmNot: Jack knows he's a spirit and a guardian, of course, but he can't mentally accept the idea that anyone would consider ''him'' a god, so [[AGodIAmNot he dismisses the label right off the bat]], and the rest of the gang, especially Hiccup, keep trying to guess at what kind of being Jack is and how he fits in with their mythology. Which briefly touches on an interesting question: what is a god in this story? To be honest, despite what Jack thinks, as a personification of winter itself, he's basically a god from the perspective of humans. By intervening to act against their enemies, he's even acting in the capacity of a protective deity to the people of Berk.
** Perun, Slavic god of war and storms, is mentioned as a fellow spirit, so obviously 'god' is just a label humans sometimes give to powerful spirits they come into contact with. In which case, yeah, Jack is just as qualified for godhood as Perun is, despite his discomfort with the idea.

* CoolMask: Literally. Jack's Frost Giant mask is made of red wood at its base, but covered with layers of sharply patterned mostly-opaque ice, making his face look like a dark and featureless oval or, under a bright light, a purple one, atop an otherwise white, sharply crystaline body. WordOfGod says it was inspired by the mask of the ''Mononoke-hime'' (known to English speakers as ''Anime/PrincessMononoke''), a ShoutOut that is fitting for Jack, considering his book-canon title, the King of Wild Things.

* CoolMask: Literally. Jack's Frost Giant mask is made of red wood at its base, but covered with layers of sharply patterned mostly-opaque ice, making his face look like a dark and featureless oval or, under a bright light, a purple one, atop an otherwise white, sharply crystaline body. WordOfGod says it was inspired by the mask of the ''Mononoke-hime'' (known to English speakers as ''Anime/PrincessMononoke,'' a ShoutOut that is fitting for Jack, considering his book-canon title, the King of Wild Things.

* CoolMask: Literally. Jack's Frost Giant mask is made of red wood at its base, but covered with layers of sharply patterned mostly-opaque ice, making his face look like a dark and featureless oval or, under a bright light, a purple one, atop an otherwise white, sharply crystaline body. WordOfGod says it was inspired by the mask of the ''Mononoke-hime'' (known to English speakers as "Princess Mononoke"), a ShoutOut that is fitting for Jack, considering his book-canon title, the King of Wild Things.

* ConvenientlyPreciseTranslation: Averted. Though Jack has the ability to understand all forms of language, words with implied, rather than direct, connotations don't translate well (for example, "Seiðmaðr" ''can'' be translated as "sorcerer," but the very idea of a man practicing magic is so heavily negatively gender-coded that it doesn't translate because "Seiðmaðr" and "sorcerer" communicate very different cultural attitudes, despite referring to the same literal thing). Also, nonhuman entities frequently communicate in other mediums that don't translate well into human speech, like the quasi-empathic mode of communication the Sandman and Flee the Moonbeam seem to have, or the scent-movement-sound hybrid language the dragons use. These communications of nonhuman mediums are rendered as sentence fragments in-story, making it difficult to tell the extent of Jack's abilities - but, his abilities ''do'' seem limited to the language medium that the individual he's talking to uses (for example, there's no indication that he'd able to start speaking Atlantian around Hiccup and his friends, because despite his ability to understand and communicate seemlessly, a point is made in chapter 1 about how he can't actually speak Atlantian). These communication issues also show up in how Jack is referred to throughout the story: Jack is called "Icicle" by dragons because, since he can't often register the differences between the languages, he doesn't realize his name is a pun on the word Icicle in Norse.

** The pst-2019 edit subtly adds more book-canon details to Jack's character, such as his staff being named Twinetender (and referred to by Jack's nickname for it, "Twiner").

** The pst-2019 edit subtly adds more book-canon details to Jack's character, such as his staff being called Twiner.

* TheGenerationGap: The children and teens of Hiccup's generation seem to be developing a completely different set of beliefs and values from those of their parents', judging by their lack of faith in many of the adults' social and cultural mores. While rebellion is a bit more expected with Hiccup's age group, even Hiccup is surprised at how okay the younger kids are with deceiving their own parents. Seemingly every young child we see find out about Jack instantly (and ''independently'') both accepts Jack for who he is and concludes that the adults cannot be trusted with such knowledge. It's not a good sign for the parents' relationships with their children that no one needed to tell them to keep their mouths shut.

The status of the story is in question, as while it quietly underwent significant editing in 2019, there hasn't been an actual new chapter since 2016.

''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11008800/1/The-Long-Road The Long Road,]]'' by fanfiction.net author Dire Kumori, is a ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'' and ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' crossover first published in January of 2015 and not to be confused with [[NamesTheSame Drakthul's]] [[Fanfic/TheLongRoad Dragon Ball fanfic]] of the same name.

Can also be found [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/3276788/chapters/7147559 here]] on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. The status of the story is in question, as while it quietly underwent significant editing in 2019, there hasn't been an actual new chapter since 2016.

Can also be found [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/3276788/chapters/7147559 here]] on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, but unfortunately there wasn't any new chapter since 2016.

* BiTheWay: Hiccup is described in no ambiguous terms as having been, at different points in his life, sexually interested in both Astrid and Jack. It could be a case of IfItsYouItsOkay, but considering how distinctly ''[[InternalizedCategorism not]]'' okay Hiccup is with it...

* {{Gayngst}}: Hiccup is likely BiTheWay and, due to being a product of his culture and environment, occasionally crosses into TroubledSympatheticBigot territory--[[InternalizedCategorism this was pretty much inevitable]].

** Besides showing Hiccup, the time machine plays scenes from ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}},'' ''Disney/{{Frozen}},'' and ''Disney/{{Tangled}}.'' Later, an old woman heavily implied to be [[WesternAnimation/{{Brave}} the Bear Witch]] shows up to deliver a magic compass.

* ParentsAsPeople: Just as in the series, Stoick has difficulty understanding his son and his decisions but acknowledges his own flaws and struggles to make up for this. Stoick doesn't take action against Jack's display of clearly supernatural language prowess, for example, due to fearing a repeat of his mistakes with Hiccup and ostracizing another well-intentioned, if unusual, child. Confusing the mess more is the fact that [[BirdsOfAFeather Jack's personality and habitual quirks strongly remind Stoick of Valka]], making it sometimes emotionally difficult for him to interact with the boy despite clearly caring about him.

* MayflyDecemberRomance: The primary romantic focus of the story is between Hiccup, a 15-year-old human teenager, and Jack, the immortal personification of Winter merriment. Said personification is over three hundred years old (or, minimum, several dozen millenia old, depending on if this story chooses to include that he was somehow once Nightlight). If they maintain any kind of stable, long-term romantic relationship without a significant change in circumstances, this will inevitably occur--not to mention people will eventually notice, given that Jack doesn't age.

** It's implied that part of the reason Hiccup so strongly advocates for secrecy is because, despite deeply loving and respecting his father, he still has trust issues over Stoick's initial reaction to Toothless, and doesn't want to chance something happening that can't be taken back. Hiccup's shown to have a number of learned behavioral scars from his long mistreatment at the hands of the tribe, chief among them being a tendency for secrecy. He's explicitly stated that he fears the tribe will hunt Jack if they know.

** And he backslides briefly again in Chapter 13, where he insists he should go off alone to search for Trader Johann and wasn't intending on telling the others he was leaving. Astrid calls him out on the hypocrisy, directly mentioning Hiccup's frustration with Jack leaving without him for Glacier Island, although she seems to be criticizing both Hiccup and Jack in this instance (which doesn't make sense, again, due to the Glacier Island confusion not being Jack's fault).

* [[CrazyJealousGuy Clingy Jealous Guy]]: Downplayed, as they're not frequent or acted on, but Hiccup has some hilariously catty thoughts while unaware of his developing crush, becoming subtly annoyed when others receive Jack's attention and affection and internally preening with "smug pride" when he notices that Jack is more vulnerable and trusting with him than with the others. Later, when trying to suppress his crush by avoiding Jack backfires, Hiccup gets in the habit of going out of his way to spend as much time with Jack as possible out of paranoia that Jack will disappear again, including unnecessarily flying him everywhere. It's implied Hiccup isn't as taken with Heather as he was when she was introduced in canon because the close interactions she has with Jack get on his nerves.

** The ambiguousness became much more important after it was revealed that Book!Jack is [[spoiler:an amnesiac [[TheOlderImmortal Nightlight]]]]. Somehow. Again, how much of this will be incorporated into ''The Long Road'' is unknown, but it's worth noting that Hiccup's reaction to learning Jack is also a Guardian is to immediately and directly ask if Jack is Nightlight (Jack says no, but then, [[spoiler:confirmed former Nightlight Book!Jack doesn't know about having once been Nightlight either, so it could go either way]]).

!Tropes Appearing in ''The Long Road'':

* LoveDodecahedron: Subtle but starting to shape up. Snotlout (and Camicazi) frequently hit on Astrid, who likely has feelings for Hiccup, who used to reciprocate [[MuggleVsMagicalLoveInterests but now likes Jack]], who himself is creeped out by the fact that Ruffnut keeps hitting on him and has some ambiguous moments with Heather. Interestingly, in one of the first meaningful diversions from the show's canon, Heather and Hiccup actually ''don't'' have much chemistry, largely because Hiccup is too busy being obliviously jealous over Heather's interactions with Jack. And we haven't even gotten to the events with all the infamous FoeYay between Dagur and Hiccup.

* InvisibleToNormals: Discussed and notably averted. Despite Jack's struggles to be seen in the modern era, he's yet to come across a person who ''can't'' see him in the Viking era. This is especially interesting considering the Fearlings ''were'' invisible until Jack told people about them, meaning Jack being visible is an exception, not a norm. Why that is has yet to be explained, but it's implied it may be because Jack's existence fits far better into their preexisting beliefs of Berk than Fearlings; Hiccup himself, for example, never questions ''how'' Jack exists, but rather frequently tries to contextualize him within the Norse worldview (Jack's varyingly been mistaken for a Seiðmaðr, frost giant, god, and elf. The latter is Hiccup and Gothi's current theory, and probably the closest, considering the film's official materials actually ''do'' describe Jack as an "ice elf").

* InvisibleToNormals: Discussed and notably averted. Despite Jack's struggles to be seen in the modern era, he's yet to come across a person who ''can't'' see him in the Viking era. This is especially interesting considering the Fearlings ''were'' invisible until Jack told people about them, meaning Jack being visible is an exception, not a norm. Why that is has yet to be explained, but it's possibly because Jack's existence fits far better into their preexisting beliefs of Berk than Fearlings; Hiccup himself, for example, never questions ''how'' Jack exists, but rather frequently tries to contextualize him within the Norse worldview (Jack's varyingly been mistaken for a Seiðmaðr, frost giant, god, and elf. The latter is Hiccup and Gothi's current theory, and probably the closest, considering the film's official materials actually ''do'' describe Jack as an "ice elf").